September 1st, 1863.—The children have not been well at Bath, so Brother Amos is bringing his family home next week. The War Department will not accept his services, so he is going direct to his plantation on Lake Jackson and try to make lots of syrup, sugar and meat for the armies in the field; such as this is certainly needed.
We are busy spinning, weaving, sewing and knitting, trying to get together clothing to keep our dear soldiers warm this winter. Brother Junius writes that he has worn all his under garments to shreds and wants to know if it would be possible to get some flannel, or some kind of wool goods to make him some new ones? We have tried but none can be had, so I am spinning some wool into knitting yarn and with some big wooden needles I have I am going to knit both drawers and shirts for him. I am so impatient to get to work on them and see if my plan is feasible, that I spend all the time I can at the spinning wheel. I know the shirts can be knit, for I made some for father last winter which he found quite comfortable but I am somewhat doubtful as to the drawers. After awhile we will learn how to supply most of our needs.
Cousin Rob did not have a hat when he was getting ready for school, which opens today, so I plaited palmetto and sewed it into shape and Aunt Robinson, who knows everything, pressed it on a block and then I sewed a ribbon around it and there it was, a sure enough hat and very becoming. He sat near and admired the braid all the time I was making it. I had no shoes except some terribly rough ones that old Mr. McDermid made and Cousin Rob tanned some squirrel skins and made me a pair of really beautiful shoes, nice enough to wear with my one and only silk dress. This dress, you must know, is “made of Mammy’s old one” like Jim Crack Corn’s coat—Little Diary, I am afraid you do not know very much of Mother Goose.
Susan Bradford is 17 years old when this entry was made.