Letter from Luther Bruen, Washington, DC to Sarah "Sella" Bruen, 1861-03-07
Washington, March 7, 1861
My dear little daughter:
It is long distance from Dayton to Washington. When I left home, after kissing you and Frank and Robby, I got into the omnibus + went down to the place where the cars stop for us to get in. As soon as they came I stept into what is called a sleeping car, where people can lie down and sleep and all the time be riding just as fast as if they were wide awake. But I did not sleep much, the cars rattled and jolted so that I could not sleep much; it was very different, I tell you, from lying down to sleep in a quiet room with nothing to disturb but Sella Bruen's snoring!
When I got up, I found that we were in a town, called Janesville, where I got my breakfast. If you want to know why it is called by that name, you must ask your grandfather, for I think he knows. After we got breakfast, we got into the car again and away we went, and after awhile we came to Bellaire. There we got into a steamboat and crossed the Ohio River and into the state of Virginia. Then we got into the cars again and rode all day and all night and next morning I reached Washington. Sometimes we went through long holes in the ground - one of them was about as long as from our house to your uncle Jerry's, and another was about one half as long. In those holes which we called tunnels, it is so dark that you cannot see anything, not even your hand when you put it close to your eyes. Sometimes, we were on the side of a high mountain and we could look down ever so far, and sometimes we were riding between high rocks, so high that you could not see the top from the car, and the rocks looked like they might fall down on at any moment as we were passing along. A man with a white flag stood by the road side every mile or two to tell us if there was any danger. We got here safely and I stopped at the house where your uncle Robert was staying. We are all anxious to get home and I think we shall start pretty soon.
When I do come home I hope your mother will be able to tell me that you have been a very good girl. So goodby my dear little daughter.
Your loving father
Luther B. Bruen
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March 7, 1861
Bruen, Luther Barnett
Washington, DC
3 pages
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865
Bruen, Luther Barnett -- Correspondence
Catharine Mitchill '31 Collection of Family Letters, Wellesley College Library, Special Collections
MSS.6.133
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http://repository.wellesley.edu/mitchill/133
