Bill Hillman's

Weekly Online Fanzine
Issue 943
Presents

From Tarzana, California Memories from the  Danton Burroughs Family Archive  angelfire.com/trek/danton

Major Burroughs' Civil War exploits truly come to life through the memoirs of his wife,
Mary Evaline Burroughs: Memoirs of a War Bride.
https://www.angelfire.com/trek/jcb/erbz920.html
and through his own words as evidence in the following letter from the Danton Burroughs Archive.
NOTE: The letter is very old and hard to read (see excerpt below).
Indecipherable words are replaced by blank underlines.
Words of questionable translation are put into italics.

---

Headquarters 71st Regt. NYSM
Navy Yard, Washington D.C.  June 27 1861

Dear Friends

Your very beautiful & highly appreciated favor of the 17th was duly recd & read with increasing interest, as each succeding page revealed more & more clearly the sentiments of true, uncompromising loyalty. I trust you will pardon me for allowing others, my friends, to read your letter. We are soldiers together & a letter like yours is read with a common interest, not for flattery, but as a simple act of justice, I cannot refrain from telling you that all who read it passed the highest _____ upon it. My neighbor, an old New York School teacher said "That is first rate, such a letter is worth receiving." My 2nd Lieut. - a handsome talented New Yorker told me, that I ought to get it published &c. I think you need no further evidence that kind & sympathysing words in war are welcome in the Soldier's Camp & need no appology.

The waits the past few months have tended __ to gather more firmly the hearts of patriots, whereon they may be formed. None are strangers now in the true and loyal North. Nobly did old Massachusetts respond to the call of the nation in her hour of danger & tho' her sister states of the North were not slow in following her example.  As one of her most loyal sons I feel a just pride that she was first, giving good evidence that tho' slumbering, the old Revolutionary Spirit of the Fathers is not dead in their sons, tho occasionally was needed to call out their dormant images.  I am not prepared to say that the Ladies have not manifested as much spirit & enthusiasm in the matter as the men. Most generously have they come forward & contributed by their labor in the manufacture of clothing & other articles necessary for the comfort & health of the Soldiers. Mothers gave up their sons, wives their husbands, sisters their brothers, that the old world-honored flag might not loose any of its glory or be torn from its high eminence by the hand of traitors.

I almost feel like thanking God for this very war. I know not but that the earlier impressions of some of you may have been not beneath the shadow of the "Peculiar Institution" of the "Sunny South," the land of the Ralmittan & the Palm, I would not give offence, but freely as I would tell my sisters, I must say that I feel thankful for this war because I believe that this Institution of human Slavery will now receive its death blow. Morally I believe slavery to be wrong. God made all the nations of the earth of one blood & he did not intend that the stronger should tyrannize over the weaker, the White over the Black -- for the last thirty five years it has been the prime cause of all the National troubles. Socially its tendency is to exalt one man over another, it makes its perpetrator haughty, arrogant, lazy. Not by his own honest toil does he obtain his support but through the wrongs of a made oppressed race. It curses all with whom it comes in contact, while in __  __  __. I could but notice the deplorable ignorance of the poor white people, they are absolutely more to be pittied than the slaves. One man told me that he had never been in Washington in his life (a distance of fifteen miles) that he "reckoned" _____ would be better off if she was free, that his boys had never had any schooling worth mentioning, they did not know enough to learn a trade & therefore all mechanical labor done in his section of the country was done by men who came from the North. That the rich man's sons were educated for it & so received an office as soon as they were old enough. Do not these facts speak volumes?

I trust I may live to see this land free in reality, as in now in name. The oppressed of all nations have looked towards America as the asylum from all these wrongs and oppressions. Great as this Nation has already become, let her rid herself of this blighting evil & her possiblities are unlimited. Owing to the peculiarities of our Constitution, which permits slavery in States, I would not meddle with it then, but on that soil where the fool of a slave man yet trade, consecrated by God to freedom for ever I would gladly give my life to save it -- from the blighting effects of slavery. Allow me to thank you for so kindly mentioning the 71st. They have ever been willing to do their duty, at all times, since they came here. While a few like Napoleon believe that "God is on the side of the heaviest -- artillery" we have many good praying Christians here who if called into battle would trustingly commend themselves to God's care & keeping & I truly think such men make the best fighters. Real courage is steel which  prompts a man who knows & realizes the danger, boldly to face it --who can do it better than the man who feels that his peace is made with his Maker & to live or die is gain? If he lives, he wins a Crown Immortal.

There is no more news to write, everything is quiet here & will doubtless remain thus until after the meeting of the extra Congress next month when the powers will probably be given the President to prosecute this plan vigorously. I think he will do it.  Thanking you for your kind wishes expressed in your letter, I would commend you since who controls the destinies of man and nations. That -- He may keep you & bless is the prayer of your "Stranger" friend.
Geo T. Burroughs

To Ulyses
India Cutter. Clara Conart. Mary Parkhurst. Ada Lanworthy