Julia A. Wilbur ALS to [Anna M. C.] Barnes, December 22 - December 24, 1862

Alexandria Va. Dec. 22d. 1862

My dear Mrs. Barnes

After writing thee all about the particulars
here, I always feel relieved, & every time I write thee I think, I've
told thee all & I shall not have occasion to write very soon again.
I wrote thee on the 15th. inst. & now there is ever so much more
I want to tell thee, & I am sure thee will excuse my long letter,
when I tell thee there is not a woman in Alex. now who sympa
thizes with me in my work. I meet with some who do not oppose
it, with others who are indifferent, & others still who hate & despise
the whole subject. - Mrs. Winsor went to Falmouth last
week, & she may stay there with her husband. Perhaps she will
come here & stay. I have missed her very much since she has been
away. - I wish I cd. tell thee just how things are in Alex.
But it wd. require an abler pen than mine to do it.

But in my particular sphere affairs are becoming complicated.
The plot thickens. I have seen a new feature of life in Alex. since
I wrote thee last. I saw on Friday a man brought into the hospi
tal whose who was riddled with bullets, & when I remarked that he
looked very good natured he said "he might as well laugh as cry
about it." But poor man, he had some reason to laugh, for he had
not been in a house before since last spring, & now he was in a
good house & laid upon a nice clean bed. I mean to profit by his
example, & certainly I am very far from being discouraged;
(Becky has just come in to read a lesson. She is a full grown Top
sy. She is 15, & was freed in the Dist. by the Eman. Bill. Mr. K. pays her
12 / a week. She is a very desirable girl for a servnt.)

I think I told thee in my last that we had got a good room
for our things. Well another room had been cleaned for