Eph. has gone to Amesville to look after matters there. The telegraphic reports from M'Dowell's column at Manassas Junction today are very disheartening. We hope that they are not true. It is said that our troops are driven back in great disorder and their artillery fallen into the hands of the rebels. The fire Zouaves of New York cut to pieces, Col. Farnham and Lt. Col. killed. Also 69' Regiment from New York suffered greatly. Though cast down, I am not dismayed. I still believe God is for us. He it is that shall tread down our enemies. He is teaching us not to put our trust in an arm of flesh, but to look upward to the hills whence our help cometh. It cannot be that God by his almighty power will uphold the slave power, that "sum of all villainies". His truth and honor it seems to me are engaged to save "the right". "Though he slay me yet will I trust in Him".
A letter from Clara. How my heart aches for her. She mourns for her darling Lucy as mothers only mourn, yet with Christian submission. There are four letters from William today. He longs to be at home again.
Prof. E. B. Andrews came here to tea. We all attended his lecture on the military movements of Gen. M'Clellan at Rich Mountain, Laurel Hill &c., and were very much interested, 40 or so soldiers were present, house well filled.
The train loads of returned soldiers passed up during the evening, said to be the Ohio 15" Col. G. W. Andrews. Their time is out.
Peggy's comments:
Throughout history, various groups have believed God was on their side in war. Julia seems to be struggling with the news of the Union army's losses at Bull Run and her conviction that the God she believed in could not possibly be on the side of slavery. In writing that slavery is "the sum of all villainies", Julia quotes the founder of the Methodist Church, Englishman John Wesley. Wesley had traveled to the colony of Georgia in 1735 to bring Christianity to the Indians. He was not very successful in that pursuit, but while in Georgia he witnessed brutality to slaves. In 1775, he published his reasoned discussion "Thoughts on Slavery" and continued to write and speak against slavery all of his life. His last letter was to John Wilberforce a member of Parliament, in which he refers to slavery as "execrable villainy which is the scandal of religion, of England, and of human nature." In 1807, England banned slave trade. Wesley's tracts were widely read and quoted.
Clara is Julia's younger sister whose only daughter Lucy had died the previous month at the age of 4. William, Julia's brother, is in D.C. serving in Congress.
The soldiers whose "time is out" were some of the early volunteers who signed up for three months of service.
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