Letter/Poem, June 6, 1863
from John Wesley Dean to his wife Lucinda
Camp Price, near Little Rock
Company F, 35th Arkansas Infantry.
(Letter/poem written on City Meat Market stationary, 190_, Grand Saline, Texas, where John Wesley lived and died. Questions we may never know: Did he write it out himself as a copy for someone? Did someone copy this for him? Was "Ellen Lowthorp" the person for whom he wrote it, or who wrote it for him?)
Note that John created an acrostic for Lucinda.
Acrostic
Lovely wife so dear to me.
O how can I contented be.
Under arms away from home.
Can you pray while I do roam.
I ask many a prayer from you.
None but God can bring us through.
Divine he is and power to save.
And raise us high beyond the grave.
Dear wife you must not grieve for me.
Each day to God I'll bow the knee.
And there pour out my soul in prayer.
None can perish who ventures there.
J.W. Dean
Ellen Lowthorp
Written to Lucinda Dean
by her husband, J.W. Dean
Camp Price, June 6, 1863