LETTER: July 6, 1865 - 31 Cheapside, Box 1193, Baltimore, Maryland, USA: "My dear Brother, you will doubtless think it strange that I have not written to you since my brief note after the fall of Richmond. The fact is I have been so unsettled since that time and not knowing where I should make a permanent location, that I deferred writing. The business portion of the city having been burnt, the chance of getting a suitable place was small. Under these circumstances, I had serious thoughts of returning to Ireland and could I have heard from you at that time I believe I should have gone - much as I disliked going back no better than when I started; though throughout all I did manage to save enough to take me there. About the same time a friend in Baltimore wrote me that if I were to go there immediately I could get a situation. Baltimore is much larger than any place I have lived in and is a city of considerable commercial importance. Its trade was chiefly from the Southern States and consequently since the war began it has been very much curtailed. With the dawn of peace - that great blessing - it is expected the old trade will be resumed and the merchants are looking hopefully forward. The State of Maryland was originally settled by Catholics and Baltimore is pre-eminently a Catholic city. There are at least twenty regular Churches and almost as many religious seminaries and institutions - the whole presided over by an Archbishop - Rt. Rev M. J. SPALDING - a man of great erudition. An advertisement for a bookkeeper appeared in one of the morning papers, and upon an examination of my letters of recommendation, (I was) engaged with the firm at a rate of $1,000 a year, to be increased next fall,should their business anticipations be realized It is a first class house, old and well established. I am now in it over two weeks and find it pleasant in every respect. Trade is slack at present, but a heavy business is expected in the autumn. I enclose a business card. I thought of writing you a brief sketch of the events of the past four years; but when events which succeed each other so rapidly as they have done here pass away, the interest they excite pass with them. The fall of Richmond - the surrender of General LEE and his army, and the subsequent surrender of all the armies of the Confederacy; the capture of Jeff DAVIS and other rebel leaders, the assassination of President LINCOLN in the hour of triumph, the capture and death of his assassin, are matters of history, which you have doubtless read in the newspapers long since. My own connection with the confederacy was more accidental than otherwise. In October 1861, I was offered a situation as clerk in the Adjutant and Inspector General's Office in the War Department. As SHERWOOD and YOUNG closed business early in April in order to join the army, and as the position was at that time considered a respectable one, I accepted it and retained it until Richmond was evacuated. I was very soon promoted to be chief clerk in the office and was treated with great consideration and kindness by the officers My duties were of a high order; I had to superintend the other clerks of the office and was charged with the primary examination of all papers coming to the office; their proper reference and action, either by endorsing or otherwise - the Adjutant-General or his assistant merely signing the answer after it was prepared. In fact, I was performing all the duties of an Assistant Adjutant-General who usually ranked as Colonel - without the rank or emoluments. Of course, the position screened me from conscription and consequently from the army and therefore I was compelled to remain, though I could have done much better out of the office, if permitted. I was also favoured in not being asked to join any military organisation; all the other clerks had to form themselves into a local defence corps, which was called up for duty whenever the enemy made a 'raid' near Richmond, and were often kept in the trenches for three to four weeks at a time. The approach of the enemy or rather the 'raid,' as it was generally termed, was announced by the ringing of the bells of the city - often at midnight. This was the signal for all capable of bearing arms - which meant all able to carry a musket, no matter what his age or condition - to turn out en-masse to meet the foe. Guards were then placed on every corner, and no person allowed to escape unless he could show some special exemption signed by half a dozen generals. It was ludicrous to see the heterogeneous crowd collected together in this way and still more so to think that soldiers could be made of such material. Of course this was independent of the inevitable conscription, which took all between the ages of 17 and 50, it was sifting the chaff after the corn had been taken away. Towards the last, my salary in the War Department was $500 a month, and I made $300 outside of the office, in keeping books - this you will say was doing well and so it was, in figures, but it took it all to live - to buy the necessaries of life - the luxuries were not thought of. A few specimens of the ruling up races at that time may not be uninteresting: a cloth coat $1,200 to $1,500, pantaloons $300 to $800, boots $300 to $800, flour $1,500 per barrel of 200 lbs, bacon $25, butter $20, sugar $25, tea $150 and coffee $50 per pound. Eighty dollars in Confederate currency was only equal to one dollar in gold. I know not to which side your sympathies leaned during the unhappy contest, for my own part I was opposed to secession from the commencement. I pity the South, her people are brave and generous and they have suffered severely. They not only lose their primary cause of the war - their slaves - but nearly everything possessed by them that has been swept away by the ravages of war. They are now accepting the arbitrament of battle and settling down to their usual avocations as gracefully as circumstances will admit - wiser, if not richer men. What real benefit will accrue to the slave from his freedom is yet to be tested. The generally accepted opinion is that, like the Indian, they will be gradually exterminated as they must give way to the labouring whiteman whenever they come in competition. This will give a new impetus to emigration, for already they are endeavoring to procure white labourers to the exclusion of the blacks - not caring to pay their own slaves, who are often insolent now that they are emancipated. I hope you will be able to read this letter; it is written under disadvantages arising from constant interruption. The weather, too, is intensely hot,and perspiration threatens to obliterate the words as they are written. My kind love to all, Your affectionate brother Michael." -- The original handwritten letter from 1865 was passed down to Peggy O'KELLY (age 85 in 1994), granddaughter of Stephen KELLY of Dundalk (Louth) to whom the letter was written. Full of history, this Baltimore letter was subsequently sent to Cork's "Irish Roots" magazine by Mrs. Paula KELLY, Secretary of Raheny Heritage Society, Dublin, and was edited and appeared in the 1994 #4 issue.