Emma Greene of East Spencer long ago shared a letter with the Post from a Stanly County man anticipating his execution for desertion during the Civil War.
I came across the letter while digging through Post files for local Civil War connections, and it grabbed me.
“I don’t want you to grieve for me for I feel like I am going home to die no more,” Joseph Huneycutt writes to wife Nancy. He leaves parting words for his four living children and talks of being reunited with two others in heaven.
The letter was first published in the Albemarle Chronicle in 1913 and reprinted in the Post several decades later, prompted by Mrs. Green. This year’s 150th anniversary of the war’s beginning spurs me to print it again.
Desertion was a common occurence among Confederate troops as the war wore on. Men worried about their families back home, struggling to maintain farms and homes without them.
Here’s his letter, written in three parts:
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March 3rd, 1865
My Dear Wife:
I have to state to you the sad news that tomorrow at 12 o’clock that I have to die. I have to be shot to death for starting home to see my wife and dear children and was arrested and brought back and court-martialed and am to be shot at 12 o’clock. Me and D.M. Furr have to die. But thanks be to God I am not afraid to die. I think when I leave this world I shall be where Mary and Martha are. Dear wife, don’t grieve for me. Try and not. I drempt last night of seeing you but I shall never. You shall see your hubby no more. I want you to raise my children in the way that they should go. My dear son Julius, this is my last order to you. I want you to be a good boy and try to serve God and be a good man. Farewell, Julius. I must leave this world. And my son Ephriam, try and be a good man and serve God. My dear daughter Rebecca Heseltine, I bid farewell to you. Be a good girl and go to preaching. Farewell my dear son Joel, you have no daddy now. Be a smart boy and mind your mother. My dear wife Nancy, I have to bid farewell to you. I want you to keep what things you have and pay my debts. I want Julius and Ephriam to have my shop tools and I want them to take good care of them and remember me. I have a little looking glass that I want to send to Rebecca. I want her to remember me. I have a good blanket I will get and send home. Will send my things with — Lefler, and try and get him to send them home if he will, and I have 25 or 30 dollars and I will spend $5 of that in the morning before I suffer. Dear wife, that is four months service. I can’t write like if I was not in trouble. I don’t mind death like I do to leave my family for I have to suffer so much here that I don’t fear. I don’t want you to grieve for me for I feel like I am going home to die no more. I hope I shall be with shining angels and be out of trouble. I have got a little book I want Joel to have and remember me. It has some pretty lines. I want you to send them children to school, and son Julius, I can’t hear from you anymore. I sent him a letter but got no answer. I pity poor Julius for he has had no chance. I have got no chance to write so I must close my letter.
March 4th, 1865
A few lines to Daniel Lefler and Jane Lefler. I bid farewell to you and my dear mother; I bid farewell to you and father and brothers and sisters. I must leave this world. Farewell Julius, my dear son. I want you all to meet me in heaven.
Joseph Huneycutt
To Nancy Huneycutt, farewell, farewell.
P.S. — I want you to have funeral preached at Pleasant Grove. I want Columbus Foreman to preach it, and sing “I Am Going Home to Die No More.” This is the 4th day of March at 9 o’clock. I must soon be in eternity. I don’t desire this but I am not afraid to die. I want you to get all of the children’s funerals preached that are dead. Nancy, I want to see you one more time if I could but we can’t meet any more. I want you and all the children to meet me in heaven.
Joseph Huneycutt
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The war was drawing to a close at the time Huneycutt tried to go home. If he had waited a little longer — Lee surrendered at Appomattox five weekd later — he would have been free to go.
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Elizabeth Cook is editor of the Salisbury Post. Contact her at ecook@salisburypost.com or 704-797-4244.