- Home ›
- Barrier Family Letters›
- Letter. Rufus A. Barrier, Camp, James Island, near... ›
Letter. Rufus A. Barrier, Camp, James Island, near Charleston, South Carolina, to Mathias Barrier, Mt. Pleasant, North Carolina
Barrier has learned that his father has apparently not received the last several letters Barrier sent him; he writes that, contrary to the rumors his father has heard, his health is fine. He is, however, in want of some good food, and requests that his family make arrangements to send flour his way so that he might make biscuits: "I have not tasted a biscuit in six weeks and have been living on the roughest corn meal you ever saw. I never had such meal for my horses to eat as we have to live on since we came to this miserable hole you call South Carolina. If there is a spot in creation unfinished, South Carolina is that place." He reports receiving a letter from his brother, William Lafayette. He shares his thoughts on those who have had others sent to war in their place: "I think if some of those men who are paying such fabulous prices for substitutes would give their money to feed the wives and children of the soldiers who are in the field and then shoulder their muskets and fight their own battles they would be showing the true patriot more than they do." Barrier states that while there is relative calm at present, he expects to hear news of action soon.