Scope and Contents Left Willamsburg twelve days before after being ordered by General Wise to report to Richmond; still subject to conscription as he is not yet forty years old; was upset to leave his "dependent family in the hands of the Yankees... and at this particular time with dear Sue expected daily to be confined, and not a physician in the place"; his family and Ma [Henley]'s are dependent on his efforts to find something to keep them all from starving as the Yankees forbade the citizens from going to the mill for some weeks; describes the Yankees as "stringent" and "diabolical"; informs her that if the Yankees relinquish the Lunatic Asylum there is a need for officers there, and as he has secured a clerkship there he is exempt from military service; describes the shelling of Williamsburg; escaped injury from the shells even though they fell quite close to his house; will sell Mac for her as horses are high in price; advises that her hands Edmund and John should be sold as they will sell for $4,000 and the family has nothing to live on now.