One of my ghosts.

So, another day, another dollah.

I had to share a snippet from a letter I'm metadata-ing this afternoon. It's from a woman named Eliza Ford, who has been "exiled" to Texas, apparently with some family members. She's trying to renew some of her friendships back in Springfield, Missouri, and this is her first letter [dated in August of 1866] attempting to make amends with one of her friends in Springfield, Eliza Campbell:

"[I]t has been almost five years since I left MO. and whilst I am well pleased with the people of the South, I have not forgotten the dearer ties of home. Dear Old Missouri; thy fertile fields and sunny hills live in my memory as the fairest habitation that we were ever blessed in the possession of. But change, dire and sad is written on all things and has visited you as well as I. In the five memorable years that have intervened since we last met many hearts are desolate whose home circle was complete when I left you. Alas: that war with its destruction of all that is fair and bright should visit a clime so rich in verdure and beauty, and gather in the sad havoc the smile from loved faces, and chill in death the warm hearts of dear loved friends."

Seriously, I love these old letters. Nobody writes like that nowadays. I mean, it's kind of sappy, yes. But you can feel how sad she is. She goes on later to describe the problems with her town in Texas and how there was a big flood earlier in the year and now there is disease everywhere and children are dying all over the place, etc. So, perhaps she is glorifying Missouri simply because she's really in a terrible situation in Texas. But, the 'fertile fields and sunny hills' part struck me because that's what I kept remembering when I was living in the middle of brown grass central in Waco. I totally understand this woman's feelings. Poor lady. One of the problems with this job is that I sometimes only get one letter from someone (like this) and then I wonder what happened to her later. Did Eliza Campbell write back? Did they become friends again? Did Eliza Ford ever get out of Texas or did she get sick and die there? So many questions.

I get really caught up in these people's lives and I start to care a lot about them. They're like my little Civil War ghosts and I'm trying hard to get their stories to be read on the internet, but I also want to learn as much about them as I can just to satisfy my own curiosity. I may be the only person on Earth who will read all of these letters, but let it be known: there's some really fantastic stuff in these collections! I will put a link in here when it's accessible on the interwebs, but for now, you just gotta trust me on that one.

Oh, also: if you are on google+ or want to be and aren't yet due to the invitation issues, feel free to use/share mine. I have more invitations than I will ever find people to use. So, here. Have at it:

https://plus.google.com/_/notifications/ngemlink?path=%2F%3Fgpinv%3DelzfqB53WeM%3ApgsmJoEUXgo