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Esther Herndon's Letter to her surviving sons D.B. and William Herndon, June 23, 1864

Esther Herndon is my great-great-great maternal grandmother.  My grandmother Mamie Sonora Herndon Knott had the letters in her desk for years.  George, Daniel Boone and William  Herndon were her great-uncles. George was killed May 16, 1864 at the battle of Drewry's Bluff, he was 20 years old.  In the letter she talks about crop problems and the death of George.  It is a poignant letter, about a mother losing a young son.  Esther had to manage the farm with only her 14 year old son Nathaniel to help her.  She had been widowed since the 1850's.  For a text translation click here.  To view George's letters to his mother, click here.

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