Family and Friends

Dearest gentle readers,

I thought that perhaps I might share with you the likenesses of those people who are so dear to me, and say a few words on them.

Margaret-Ellen Hamilton Copeland is my best beloved childhood friend. We spent many a sunny summer together in Winchester. However, it soon came time for me to go to the Columbia Athenaeum, and Maggie was called away to work on the family farm. We still write to each other frequently, and it is always a joyous occasion when my father, brother, and I travel back to Winchester so that I may visit Maggie and her father and brothers in Hillsborough. Maggie has the voice of an angel and can spin finer than Arachne.

Timothy Edward Ridenour is my older brother. He is ever protective of his little sister, as any good brother would be. We had a very happy childhood and got on well, playing all sorts of games with each other. Timothy has quite a bit to say about the war, the Yankees, and Mr. Lincoln. If my father let him, I have no doubt Timothy would enlist this very moment. But he would not act against my father's wishes. That doesn't prevent him from stomping around the house in his riding boots and polishing his pistol nightly.