I am sorry to inform you, that the Yankeys have possession of my home, and property, and I
am now an exile in my one cuntry and the Lord nose when I will abel to pay you fo the
horse I got of you which the Yankey have by this time, they have caried all the cotton of
and the Negros I suppose they will carry to South America,
they have distroyed a great many dewelings, we wiped them on New Year’s Day,
one thousand, to five of thems, they ar trying to take Savana, G. & we have twenty
thousan troops there, I think they will be wiped there, Hopeing this will will find you
and family well.
your serv Jas T.E. Fripp
***I
would like to thank Jane & Scott Dudgeon for allowing me to copy & transcribe this
letter for my historical research. I am deeply
grateful.
Below
is a more readable version.
February
18, 1862
Greenspond
Station, Fort
Charleston
Railroad, South Carolina
Dear
Sir:
I am sorry to inform you that the Yankees have possession of my
home and property and I am now in exile in my own country, and the Lord knows when I will
be able to pay you for the horse I got of you - which the Yankees have by this time. They have carried all the cotton off and the
Negroes, I suppose, they will carry to South America.
They have destroyed a great many dwellings.
We whipped them on New Year’s Day; one thousand to five (thousand) of them.
They are trying to take Savannah, Georgia and we have twenty thousand troops
there. I think they will be whipped there.
Hoping this will find you and family well.
Your servant, James T.E. Fripp
***
The Fripp family owned a great deal of property in South Carolina. The home that the author of this letter is talking
about is most likely the one named Tidalholm. According
to travel brochures for the area, “Edgar Fripp reportedly built this house to use as
his summer home when the heat and mosquitoes made life at his plantation home on St.
Helena Island intolerable. He sold it later to
his brother James. (Hence,
the James T.E. Fripp) During the Civil War, the house served as Union Hospital
#7. Set high off the ground in the center of
an oak shaded lot, the house is almost encircled by the Beaufort River.”
Tidalholm was built by Edgar Fripp in
1856, but it was his brother James who owned the home during the Civil War. The return address he used in his letter states
“Greenspond” and there is reference to this on Wikipedia where it states
“some of the fleeing Confederates rode to the nearby village of Greenspond to sound
the alarm.” It also states that “In
November 1861, Union Navy and Army troops invaded Port Royal, south of Charleston and near
the town of Beaufort. Most of Beaufort County
subsequently was occupied by Union forces. Owners
and overseers fled area plantations in the wake of the oncoming Union troops, and
thousands of slaves were then free.” This
would dovetail perfectly with the letter Fripp wrote Josiah.
As mentioned before, the Fripp family
was obviously very wealthy. Some of the Fripp
plantations on St. Helena Island that were mentioned in records during the Civil War
included Oliver Fripp’s plantation, Thomas Fripp’s plantation. Hamilton
Fripp’s plantation, and John Fripp’s plantation named “Big House”. The plantation named Tidalholm was restored and is
part of historic sightseeing tours. It even
became famous as a location for the popular films like “The Big Chill”, The
Great Santini” and “The Prince of Tides” based on novels by Beaufort
native, Pat Conroy.” In addition to the
antebellum home, today there is an entire area near historic Beaufort named Fripp Island. It is a private, 3,000-acre, first-class,
oceanfront community, located on the South Carolina coast.
It is just a short distance from Charleston and Savannah.
***
Placement of family photographs and visual graphics accompanying this piece are the fine
work of John Reagan who has been an invaluable help in setting up a website for me
entitled Ware Genealogy at
www.waregenealogy.com. I will forever be grateful for his expertise and
kindness.
