lelliott19
Brigadier General
★ Moderator
* OFFICIAL *
CWT PRESENTER
CWT PRESENTER
Forum Host
Silver Patron
Regtl. Staff Chickamauga 2018
- Joined
- Mar 15, 2013
Letter from Surgeon Benjamin F Stevenson, 22nd Kentucky Infantry near Cumberland Gap, Kentucky with enclosure:
Pogues Post Office, Knox County, Kentucky
June 21, 1862
Dear Wife,
I am here twenty miles north of the Gap....I give you a copy of a will made by a rebel surgeon and found by Sumner in one of the abandoned tents of the enemy on the evening of the 18th.....Love to all with kisses for the children.
Yours truly.
B F Stevenson
For a Yankee Surgeon
My Last Will and Testament
Whereas, in the fortunes of war it may soon be necessary for me to bid adieu to the climate, scenery, and crystal fountains of Cumberland Gap: Therefore, to the first Yankee Surgeon who plants his foot on the threshold of my deserted quarters I will, devise and bequeath:
Item Ist. All my interests and rights to said premises, together with all and singular the tenaments, hereditaments, and appurtenances, therunto belonging.
Item IId. I furthermore desire and direct that the said Yankee Surgeon shall have free and unmolested control and use of all old clothes, bottles, blankets, and medicines, left on the aforesaid premises.
Item IIId. Knowing that the above mentioned Yankee Surgeon has for some time past subsisted on half rations, badly prepared, I further desire and direct that he may have unrestrained control and be sole proprietor of a small cooking stove a few paces hence on the hill side, where the testator has often eaten and enjoyed well cooked biscuit, beef, bacon, mutton, tarts, &c., regretting, however, that the usages of war will not permit me to leave him a supply of these articles.
Item IVth. I hereby revoke all previous testaments. In witness whereof, I hereunto set my hand and affix my seal.
R. B. Gardner [Robert Beall Gardner, later Surgeon Maj 37th Georgia Infantry]
Asst. Surgeon 3d Georgia Battalion
[Witnessed by] W. J. Carmichael and Henry J. Burton
https://archive.org/stream/lettersfromarmy00stev_0#page/88/mode/2up - page 88
Pogues Post Office, Knox County, Kentucky
June 21, 1862
Dear Wife,
I am here twenty miles north of the Gap....I give you a copy of a will made by a rebel surgeon and found by Sumner in one of the abandoned tents of the enemy on the evening of the 18th.....Love to all with kisses for the children.
Yours truly.
B F Stevenson
For a Yankee Surgeon
My Last Will and Testament
Whereas, in the fortunes of war it may soon be necessary for me to bid adieu to the climate, scenery, and crystal fountains of Cumberland Gap: Therefore, to the first Yankee Surgeon who plants his foot on the threshold of my deserted quarters I will, devise and bequeath:
Item Ist. All my interests and rights to said premises, together with all and singular the tenaments, hereditaments, and appurtenances, therunto belonging.
Item IId. I furthermore desire and direct that the said Yankee Surgeon shall have free and unmolested control and use of all old clothes, bottles, blankets, and medicines, left on the aforesaid premises.
Item IIId. Knowing that the above mentioned Yankee Surgeon has for some time past subsisted on half rations, badly prepared, I further desire and direct that he may have unrestrained control and be sole proprietor of a small cooking stove a few paces hence on the hill side, where the testator has often eaten and enjoyed well cooked biscuit, beef, bacon, mutton, tarts, &c., regretting, however, that the usages of war will not permit me to leave him a supply of these articles.
Item IVth. I hereby revoke all previous testaments. In witness whereof, I hereunto set my hand and affix my seal.
R. B. Gardner [Robert Beall Gardner, later Surgeon Maj 37th Georgia Infantry]
Asst. Surgeon 3d Georgia Battalion
[Witnessed by] W. J. Carmichael and Henry J. Burton
https://archive.org/stream/lettersfromarmy00stev_0#page/88/mode/2up - page 88