© Copyright 2000 James David Pearce
Beaufort
January 30, 1864
To: Abigail Pierce, Petty Shore, Chowan River:
Dear sister Abigail:
We're here by the sea, and this is a beautiful place.
But that is not the big news. The good Lord just keeps heaping His blessings down on us until I am not sure any more that we are all that deserving. He has sent another miracle. Cincinnatus was already here in Beaufort when me and Isaac marched in. We were waving our Stars and Stripes and the beautiful little town was waving theirs, and there was Cit right in the middle of the welcoming crowd. You might find all this hard to believe. I know I do, because things are happening now like the good Lord is just sitting up there writing a play for us to act in, and He has taken to smiling on characters like us.
Cit has been here since before Thanksgiving. And he has been in the 2nd NC Infty US ever since then. He beat me and Isaac both in getting to wear a blue jacket. That's how he got word to Milly, through New Bern and Plymouth, and that's why she was so sure they would be all right if they left Petty Shore. He is in Company C, too, with me and Isaac. Ain't that another peck of peas? All three of us marching side by side, and on the right side! Isaac outrates Cit, though. Cit is still a private, like me.
Milly and the younguns are not here yet, but Cit says he's not bothered about that. He says he's been told that they are not going to have to come here by wagon train, that they are going to get a boat ride all the way from Elizabeth City, where he said they were taken from Plymouth. That is the greatest news, because even if the winds are cold on the water, the younguns will be better off even on the open deck than they would be rattling around in a wagon. I know the US Navy will keep them fed and wrapped to the nines. And they won't have any worries about running across any Rebs or bushwhackers. The CSA does not have one single boat. I have to keep thanking the good Lord up above because it seems like He is putting an end to just about all our big worries. Cit has a place all fixed up for them when they get here. He has rented a little croppers' house just out of town on the North River road, with a big place for planting vegetables and the like come spring. The younguns are going to be so happy here, because this place is so much like Petty Shore, except there is less swamp and there is a whole lot more open water. It is a purely beautiful place.
We couldn't get here by railroad, so I still am looking forward to my first train ride. I've had a big boat ride, and I was hoping for a ride on a train. Me and Isaac saw some train cars and locomotives at the yards in New Bern, but we never did get close enough to check any of them out. The reason we couldn't ride the train down here was that the Rebs got their backs up this month and tried to hit New Bern from three or four directions. They didn't have much luck around to the west and north, but they did put up a right stiff thumping from the southwest, and there was a lot of bad fighting around a USA place called Newport Barracks, near the railroad that goes from New Bern to Carolina City – that the folks around here are calling Morehead.
That little scrape kept us off the railroad tracks and sent some of our companies back toward Beaufort hospital, hurting bad, but it's all over now and from the licking they finally took, we don't think the CSA will be messing around this way much any more.
The way we finally got here was a mixture of boat ride and walking. We loaded on big boats at New Bern and floated down the mighty Noose, oh, I guess, around 25 miles or so. The Noose out of New Bern is a whole lot like the Chowan down around Colerain. It is ever more big. We boated past a big curve at a place called Great Neck Point, and then went up Adams Rock Creek – wider and straighter than the Wiccacon – for five miles or so and then we hit the docks. From there we marched in formation down the North River Road and came up on Beaufort from the north. I still am not carrying a gun. I guess that little hike was about 10 or 12 miles. Anyway, we're here now, and I don't think we are going to get many more of those long walks any time soon. This place is full of boats, and it looks to me now like most of our travel from now on, if we do any, will be on the water.
I wish you could see this little town. The main street goes right by the water. The land around here is high enough not to get your feet wet all the time, but it's not like Petty Shore. They don't have any bluffs down here against the water. The land is flat and the open water is everywhere around. The water is not the same as home, though, it's got the taste and smell of salt. I like it. A lot of the officers and sergeants are living in the town in houses, but troops like me are sleeping in tents at the camp. I don't know how Cit manages to get everything in line. I guess having a wife and a lot of kids teaches you how to wiggle through, and also I guess people are more likely to look with favor on a man that's taking care of his own. I hope it is not going to be too much longer before things happen for me like that. I would like to have a wife and younguns, and live in my own house.
I hope things are going OK at Petty Shore, and I sure hope the seceshes are still staying away. I pray that you and mama and Job are making it all right. There is one more thing I would like if the good Lord would see fit to bless me some more. I want some watermelon-rind pickle. Some of that that you all put up last summer. Have you got any to spare, and if you do, do you think you might send me a jar or two through Plymouth? I doubt it would ever get here, though, if the boys in the ranks got wind of how good it tasted. Well, the blessings of the Lord for you, and I'm thanking him every minute for the good days and the good life that he has laid out for me.
Affectionately,
Your brother James
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