Alas, these letters are all that is left of the two noble sons and brothers, for George (right) was killed at the battle of “Seven Pines” while Walter (left) died from exposure after that terrible battle he so vividly describes in one of his letters.1, 2 “Requiescat in pace” to all who fell in those days in that cruel war.
“All quiet along the Potomac,” they say,
Except now and then a stray picket
Is shot as he walks on his beat, to and fro,
By a rifleman hid in the thicket;
‘Tis nothing, a private or two, now and then,
Will not count in the news of the battle,
Not as officers lost – only one of the men
Moaning out, all alone the death rattle.”
– ETHEL LYNN BEERS
“What are we set on earth for? Say, to toil –
Nor seek to leave thy tending of the vines,
For all the heat o’ the day, till it declines,
And Death’s mild curfew shall from work assoil.
God did anoint thee with His odorous oil,
To wrestle, not to reign; and He assigns
All thy tears over, like pure crystallines,
For younger fellow-workers of the soil
To wear for amulets. So others shall
Take patience, labor, to their heart and hand,
From thy hand and thy heart, and thy brave cheer,
And God’s grace fructify through thee to all.
The least flower with a brimming cup, may stand
And share its dew-drop with another near.”
– ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING.
Letters from two brothers who served in the 4th North Carolina Infantry during the Civil War are available in a number of sources online. Unfortunately, the brothers are misidentified in some places as Walter Lee and George Lee when their names were actually Walter Battle and George Battle. See The Battle Brothers for more information on the misidentification.
The death of Walter Raleigh Battle from exposure after a battle is a fiction created by Laura Elizabeth Lee Battle in her book, Forget-me-nots of the Civil War: A romance, containing reminiscences and original letters of two Confederate Soldiers. Walter actually died a month before his 30th birthday in Wilson County, North Carolina. Laura Battle essentially plagiarized the letters of her brothers-in-law by identifying them as her half-brothers. See The Battle Brothers for more information on Laura Elizabeth Lee Battle misappropriation of the two soldiers for her book.- Editor Sharlene Baker fails to correct the fiction in As you may never see us again: The Civil War Letters of George and Walter Battle on page 95 where she included all but the Browning poem (above, in the body of post) from Laura Battle’s book.