This letter was written by 42 year-old Harrison Haynes (1822-1895), the son of John Sheriff Haynes (1795-1848) and Mary (“Polly”) Tatus of Pickens County, South Carolina. Harrison was a blacksmith by profession and enlisted in Co. F, 1st South Carolina Cavalry during the Civil War.
Harrison was married in Lumpkin, Georgia, to Mary Elizabeth Tate (1822-1889) in 1845 and had at least seven children by the time he went into the Confederate Service.
TRANSCRIPTION
Camp near Columbia [South Carolina]
May 3d 1864
Mr. Haywood
Dear Sir,
I endeavor to write you a few lines to let your know that I am well and hope these these few lines come to hand, will find you well. I have no news to interest you. I am living fine. The ladies of Columbia give a picnic every two or three days. It is rumored here now that we will come up near Walhalla very soon. Col. [John Logan] Black ¹ started this morning to Walhalla to look at the situation.
I don’t want you to recommend me as a good smith to anyone to go to Savannah. Some man has recommended me as a good smith to go there and I don’t wish to go there at this season if I can get to come up the country and Colonel Black told ____ Jim that we would be sent up the country about Walhalla.
So no more at present. Yours truly, — Harrison Haynes
¹ The 1st South Carolina Cavalry Regiment was commanded by Colonel John Logan Black (18301902), a native of York County, South Carolina, who had attended the United States Military Academy–but who left the institution without having completed the four years of study required for graduation. On August 31, 1861, he entered the Provisional Army of the Confederate States of America and was assigned to the 1st South Carolina Cavalry Regiment, a unit that evolved when the 1st Battalion S. C. Cavalry was expanded. Black was promoted to colonel June 25, 1862. Field officers of the regiment were Major Niles Nesbitt, Major Moses T. Owens, Lieutenant Colonel John D. Twiggs and Lieutenant Colonel William A. Walker.
Spared & Shared 9 