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Steadman, Mary C, fl. 1861 A mother to her soldier son

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC03742.01 Author/Creator: Steadman, Mary C, fl. 1861 Place Written: Newton, Massachusetts Type: Autograph letter signed Date: October 1861 Pagination: 2 p. : Height: 20 cm, Width: 12.6 cm Order a Copy

Poem sent to Union solider Asa Smith. This poem was written by Mary C. Stedman, a family friend of the Smiths who wrote the poem at the request of Asa Smith's mother. She references the request in GLC03742.02. In that letter she says: "When you left home I asked Mary Stedman to write a piece of poetry for me to send you, and she has in the enclosed lines described my feelings better than I expected." 4 stanzas on a mother contemplating the death of her son in battle. Begins: "Thou art gone, my son, and a shadow falls / O'er the home of thy childhood joy / And at morn and even a prayer goes up / To God, for my absent boy." Written from the town of Newton, but no state was provided. Ink is faded.

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