January 11, 1863 (Sunday): A Gift Appreciated

General Sterling Price

HEADQUARTERS SECOND CORPS, Grenada, January 11, 1863. To the LITTLE GIRLS OF PORT GIBSON:
    I have received with much pride the donation of socks sent by you to my soldiers and to me. They will add much to our comfort and have already given us great pleasure by causing us to think cheerfully of our dear little girls in their far-off homes. They will remember your kindness to us when we shall have passed away, and I trust that it may be so repaid to you that you will ever bless the generosity which you have shown us. We will endeavor to repay you in part now by striving earnestly to protect your homes from the enemy and to drive him so far away that your fathers and brothers may return to you in peace and safety. Little girls of Port Gibson, you have the soldiers' prayers. Continue in your good actions that your youth may weave a chaplet of virtue to adorn your old age on earth and make you blessed in eternity.


     STERLING PRICE.

Official Records, Series I., Vol. 52, Part 2, Page 406.

Both armies derived aid and comfort from donations and well wishes from the civilian population.  Here Sterling Price thanks children in Port Gibson, Mississippi for knitting socks for his troops.  Price would be a major figure in the war in Missouri and led a major raid in 1864.  At war's end he refused to surrender and headed to Mexico where he led a community of ex-Confederates.  He returned to Missouri in 1866 but contracted typhoid fever and eventually died from intestinal ailments in 1867.  His flight to Mexico was the inspiration for the John Wayne, Rock Hudson movie "The Undefeated."