August 27, 1862: Henry and Mary Warner to John Warner

Henry and Mary Warner lived in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, now part of Pittsburgh. They are the great-grandparents of poet Marianne Moore.  By the 1860s they had three surviving children:  John, Henry, and Anne. Their letters to John, a Presbyterian minister living in Gettysburg, are preserved as part of Marianne Moore’s family papers.

Transcript:

Allegheny City Wednesday August 27^th 1862—

Our Dear Children

Your welcome letter reached us on last Saturday for which we are grateful—at the same time we got one from Henry from Harrisburgh, it has been a very lonely & sorry week with us. Mother regrets much that she did not get away on friday morning, as she could have hindered him from enlisting, as he did not enlist until Saturday night, You speak of your Mary being a precious treasure, if she was a boy would you wish to see her going to war, I answer, indeed you would not, all we can do now, is, pray that God would cast the skirt of his garment around him, He has left us very lonely & heart broken—He was to leave Harrisburgh last Monday, and we can give you no further information about him, until we receive a letter from him—Robert & the children are well Anne is just a poor walking ghost, The children were very much pleased with the presents, and she desires to return her sincere thanks for them, and all other presents you have given them

Taylor acted like a gentleman in the affair of Uncle Hughs death—His children were telegraph’d to Ravenna, they all came on, were at the funeral, and defrayed every expense attending it, to the last cent, Taylor is one of the best men we ever knew—Aunt Betty was here near a week, we thought she would have died here, is none better, & is with her daughter—kind remembrance to Jennie

Your affectionate father & mother

Henry & Mary Warner

Henry is in the Heavy Artillery service—not an engineer

Citation: Henry and Mary Warner, autograph letter signed to John Riddle Warner. Allegheny City [Pittsburgh], 27 August 1862. Moore VI:05:09