They are expecting a great battle
It is trouble, trouble, all trouble
Jake's capture by the rebels
Trouble from drunken soldiers
A move forward by General Grant
Homeward with whole scalps
Before this great curse shall be lifted
The time of teeth chattering is coming
Rosie is after him teeth and toenails
The Topeka boys fought like tigers
We think Father Abraham is safe
Should the door open, I feel like stepping in
Terrible hard scratching to make ends meet
Duties I owe my family as well as the church
A few acres of land near the college
I am sick of seeing battlefields
The President is dead

Webmaster: griffing@fnal.gov

Civil War Years

        Patriotic envelope mailed by Mary Ann Goodrich in 1861

During the Civil War years, Rev. James Griffing served appointments in Auburn and Burlingame, Tecumseh and Clinton, and Seneca. During this last appointment, James and Augusta rented their homestead in Shawnee County to Jesse Hannum and took up temporary quarters in the small -- and now extinct-- town of Lincoln, in Nemaha County.

Although Missouri did not secede from the Union, many Kansans feared traveling across the State of Missouri due to the armed guerilla bands who held the State hostage. By the summer of 1864, however, a Cheyenne uprising on the plains of central Kansas gave settlers in Washington and Nemaha Counties reason to overcome their travel fears. While Augusta and her three children traveled East to visit her relatives in late 1864, James wrote of his experiences while serving with the Nemaha Home Guards in defending their homes against Indians and Rebels. 

An 1861 letter from Owego, New York addressed to Mrs. James S. Griffing