From Thomas Everett Personal Journal
Near Hall’s Hill, Virginia
March 3, 1862
Today a letter from Charles was placed in my hands, and having read it, I almost wish it had not come.
Though my heart rejoices to learn he yet lives, the temper of his words wounds me deeply. It has thus become apparent, on either side of this conflict men have begun to reckon the other as heathen.
Others thus speak; yet that my own brother should, I never expected. It stands against all that Father taught us, and against the Gospel of our Lord, who bids us love our neighbor.
Yet I must remember how hard it is to comprehend what the eyes behold amid smoke and blood. In boyhood Charles possessed a merry talent for enlargement: a modest catch became, in his telling, a river monstrosity.
I do not doubt he has seen frightful things, but I suspect the monsters he names be smaller than terror and confusion made it seem.
I would not wish horrors, great or small, upon any man—least of all upon my brother—yet I know how the eye, overborne with fear, may mislead the heart upon the field.
O Lord, grant that this war may soon find its end, and that my dear brother’s heart may be softened again.-
to be continued…
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