Here is a transcript of a letter sent by a Wofford freshman in 1862. The original letter is below.
Wofford
College Oct the 20th, 1862
Dear Sister,
For the
first time since my arrival in Spartanburg, have I the opportunity of writing
to you: I never was kept so busy in my life as I
am with the duties required in the College, and it is very hard for anyone,
after playing as long as I have to go to real, hard studying; nevertheless I do it cheerfully, as I know is all
for my good. I will [not legible] of the
Freshman Class to you, so that you may know what I have to do; they are as follows: Homer's Iliad,
Arnold’s Greek Prose Composition, Sophocles’
Greek Grammar, Folsom's Livy, & Andrews Latin Grammar; these we recite in the forenoon, afternoon we only
say one lesson in the Algebra, which takes up the whole time; on Latin days we take up the morning in debating; Sundays the morning at church, evening in going to Sabbath school & reciting 2
or 3 chapters in the Bible, and explaining them, and on every evening in the
week some one of the boys declaim, this is done though alphabetically, so that
it does not come very often; but, too often for me, even, at that rate: so you see, we must be kept pretty
busy, in getting these lessons so as to make good recitations. Well Tooter, I
am very well pleased up here, but nothing like at home: how true the old maxim,
"that where thy treasure is, there wilt thine heart be also;" we are boarding with truly, a very
nice lady, she does all in her power to please
us, in every respect; she tells us to just feel & make ourselves perfectly
at home, that she likes to see us do so, I never
felt more at home in a strangers house
in my life than I do here.
I was
very sorry indeed to learn from one of Uncle John's
letters to Junior, that poor Billy was actually killed, (I had began thinking
it a mistake before that, as I had seen nor heard nothing more of it in the
papers), also to hear that Larry Flagler poor fellow, he & Sid, Chandler
were wounded, & Sid taken prisoner; oh what a great pity; I hope though
that they may not be badly hurt, and that poor
Sid may soon recover from his wound, and be able to return home, on parole or
by exchange. I suppose you have heard of our last
great victory, in the West; o, we did give the Yank's soot there if report is
correct, which I hope is, for I glory in hearing of them being cut up in that
away.
Well Sister, I suppose this much of my nonsense
will tire your patience, so I will stop for the present. Remind me to all
inquiring friends, and believe me to be, your affectionate brother, J. A.
McCrea
P. S.
Write soon, & direct your letters; as I neglected to state to Mother, to
Spartanburg SC. Box 123, which is the box of the lady that
I board with, she gave me permission to have them directed there; by so doing I
will get them with much less trouble.
J. A. McCrea
This is a family letter donated to the Wofford College Archives by Donna J. McCrea
J. A. McCrea is something of a mystery, as he does not appear in the college's records. However, the records were not carefully kept during the middle of the Civil War. We do know that the college barely remained open after 1863, as most college-age students left to join the Confederate army. Only the preparatory department remained open. I have no doubt, however, that he was enrolled, as the curriculum he describes matches what students studied in those early years, and they all boarded, as he describes, with families in the village.
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