My friends - In looking through some older files a few days ago,I came across a copy of a letter written by a physician, Dr. Livingston Lindsey, who served in the Confederate Army in the War Between the States. The letter was written to his sister just a few months after Lee's surrender. Although written in Clarksville, TN, the Lindsey family was related to the Curd family(and a few others)of Calloway County through the Bailey family, into which two Curd brothers married(the brothers married Bailey sisters). Some of the family escaped north into Calloway County from Tennessee during the War and stayed at the home of one of the Curd brothers in Calloway County. Given the intensity of emotion in this letter, and the familial connection to the Curd/Bailey family, I think it is worthy of reproduction here. It reminds us of how attitudes were at the close of the War, especially on the Confederate side. -B ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Letter from Dr. Livingston Lindsey to his sister: Clarksville, Tn. July 16, 1865 "Dear Bettsi: I arrived at home a short time since. I saw your letter to Sallie Bailey in which you requested me to write you. I assure you that I feel very little like writing to anyone. When I think of myself as a constituent part of the Southern people, I feel that I am the most degraded, contemptible being that the world ever saw. We were enaged in the purest, the holiest, the best cause in which human blood was ever shed, and from sheer cowardice, or rather want of endurance and tenacity of purpose, failed in sustaining ourselves. I feel that we deserve the scorn and contempt of every high minded, honorable people. Wehad it within our power to be free, wished to be free, but were unwilling to pay the price of liberty. On the other hand, when I think of myself as an individual and in connection with that noble little band that stood by their colonies to the last, I feel a conscious pride in having done my duty - my whole duty. The last four years of my life have been useless, oh, worse than useless,and yet I do not rgret having spent it in the manner I have. I have acted as my conscience dictated and consequently do not feel disposed to ask for pardon. I have no favors to ask and seek for nothing that is to be won by kneeling. I expect to remain peaceably and quietly in the United States, because I have no means of leaving it; if I had I would not remain here a month, for I would rather live anywhere else than in the United States. I can never have any love for the U.S. government or these yankee notions, and I would think very poorly of myself if I did, after having seen and known as much as I do of their meanness, their duplicity and cruelty to men, women and children. I have not yet got to work, but will in the course of the next ten days. I am going to settle at Fort Royal in this county to practice medicine and expect to confine myself strictly to it and it alone. I would like very much to see you and all my father's family, but it will be impossible to come and see you. I am entirely out of money and must go to work to make a support for my family. I would like very much indeed to see Father and Mother, but it is out of my power to go to see them. I will be glad to hear from you soon and often and to see you at my house as soon as I have one to invite you to, which I hope will not be very long." Yours affectionately, L.Lindsey ~~~~~~~~~~ Note by BU: The niece of Dr. Lindsey wrote later that he lost his bitterness about the War within a few years and came to be much beloved by all those who knew him.