In 1861, Sullivan Ballou answered President Abraham Lincoln’s call for volunteers and enlisted in the 2nd Rhode Island Infantry where he was elected a Major. Just before the First Battle of Manassas, feeling, perhaps, a premonition that he would not survive the upcoming battle, he penned a letter to his wife, Sarah. His letter is, perhaps, one of the most famous and most eloquent of all of the letters penned during that great conflict known as the Civil War. Here is an excerpt:
“Sarah, my love for you is deathless. It seems to bind me with mighty cables, that nothing but Omnipotence can break; and yet, my love of Country comes over me like a strong wind, and bears me irresistibly on with all those chains, to the battlefield. The memories of all the blissful moments I have spent with you come crowding over me, and I feel most deeply grateful to God and you, that I have enjoyed them so long. And how hard it is for me to give them up, and burn to ashes the hopes of future years, when, God willing, we might still have lived and loved together, and seen our boys grow up to honorable manhood around us.
“I know I have but few claims upon Divine Providence, but something whispers to me, perhaps it is the wafted prayer of my little Edgar, that I shall return to my loved ones unharmed. If I do not, my dear Sarah, never forget how much I love you, nor that, when my last breath escapes me on the battle-field, it will whisper your name.”
Sullivan Ballou’s premonition came true. He died one week later on Matthews Hill at Manassas.
Listen to the entire letter as it was read by Paul Roebling for Ken Burns’ 1990 documentary, “The Civil War”