TO MRS. CAROLINE PETIGRU CARSON

Charleston, 16 December, 1862.

My dear Caroline

     It grieves me to witness your grief portrayed in those letters which I read with avidity, and deplore my inability to remove the causes of your unhappiness. Let it be your consolation as it is mine that these things have happened, by no fault nor negligence of ours. We can not control events and I am fain to be thankful that we can control James so far as to prevent him from running headlong into the bloody fray. He bends a listening ear to my precept that in a civil war no man's honor can be reproached for refusing to draw his sword. I am inquiring at Athens, Georgia, and Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and will send him to one of those colleges, making choice of that which promises most security against conscription. The South Carolina College is converted into a hospital, and offers no encouragement for the education of any but those under 18. Nor would the Charleston College favor our purposes, for if there was fighting for the town, Jim would undoubtedly take a hand with his townsmen. It would be hard for him to do that which you most earnestly desire and which would give me most pleasure; but in the present condition of his feelings I do not think his presence would be any comfort to you.

     As to your Mama she is certainly no worse, tho' she keeps her bed 2 days out of 3. She is a good deal scandalized by your partiality for the North; so different from her feelings which are thoroughly Southern.

     I come to town 2 or 3 times a week and attend to such little business as I have to do. I have not moved my library from the Alley, and am very unwilling to do so. All the danger would be, as I verily believe, in the shells that might be thrown into the town; for tho' our hotheaded townsmen threaten to apply the torch themselves if they can not save the town, I do not believe them. But in truth I do not think the U. S. will make an assault on this place; at least not until they have gained entire possession of the Mississippi, and secured a permanent foot-hold in the West. And I think so because it is their evident policy. If any one of the States now in sedition should give way, the example would prove contagious. But the defection is not likely to begin here where the men are all full of fight, particularly the parsons; and the women exceed them in violence.

     James Lowndes and Jo Blythe Allston are captains in the army at Pocotaligo. Jo was wounded at the battle of Pocotaligo, but it was only a flesh wound, and scarcely laid him up. None of those who suffered were connected with us. Ben Allston is at his father's on parole. His wound is not spoken of as dangerous. He was captured twice and wounded the last time at Harrodsburg in Kentucky. He did not come through Charleston and I have not seen him. Philip Porcher is a Lieutenant on board the Palmetto State; Charley is with Hampton's legion, has been in a dozen battles or more and never had a scratch. Johnston was at Petersburg when I heard of him last. Miles is in Richmond. As chairman of the Military Committee he is a person of importance. Peter Gourdin is, as far as I know, snug on Back River. I suppose he is excused from conscription to take care of the negroes, where white men are so few. There is no Gen. Rhett. Two of the family have fallen in battle, Grimke Rhett, son of Ben, and Robert Rhett, son of Barnwell; they were both Lieutenants. Burnett Rhett was married to Henrietta in October. Ellen King was married to Frank Campbell on the 5 November, and her father died on the 12th. Our sweet cousin in Henderson is well; some of her boys are in camp, and the rest at home. Amelia is strong, in will at least, and in affection too, and is on her plantation near the Bridge. I saw Mattie last Saturday. Her zeal boils over against the Yankees in downright imprecations. My dear child, it would be painful for you to come here, and serve no good purpose. Even Louise Porcher, your aunt, is too great a politician for us to converse on terms of confidence. Those who said I had changed my views of secession are wonderfully mistaken. Every day convinces me more and more of the soundness of the opinions which I expressed at the time and have ever since avowed. Of the result it is true that my opinion has been shaken for at the beginning I scarcely doubted that the seceding States would make good their independence. Of that conclusion I am now much more diffident, tho' I still think it probable that Alabama, Georgia, Florida, the Carolinas and eastern Virginia will be ultimately reorganized by the U. S. as foreign and independent States. There will be a great deal of blood shed before the armies that are now arrayed on the Rappahannock separate. Kings were formerly accused with sporting with the lives of their subjects. But experience shows that Demos is as fond of that sport as the veriest tyrant that ever trampled on the rights of human nature. I have forgot Mrs. Jack; I saw her in September at Greenville, looking well and speaking of you with effusion. Mr. Alfred [Huger] is really dejected by the loss of his house, which was an instrument of hospitality which he will forever regret. Nothing gives me more content than to be assured that Trescott's books are not sold. My paper is out, and I am expecting Mr. Didier every moment. Adieu.