Dear James --

Thank you for writing. Am interested to know something more about the book COLD MOUNTAIN and will plan to read it. Also, though I haven't yet looked at the report on the Shelton Laurel Massacre, I'm looking forward to it.

By the way, I have never heard the term 'Southern Unionist', but it sounds quite appropriate. Therefore, that's what I shall be henceforward. (Though I am sure that's not a very good thing to be as far as Southerners are concerned!) One of the stories my father used to tell me was that when the War was over, one of my ancestors was walking back home to Preston County, "West" Virginia. As he was walking through farm country in Virginia, he stopped at a house and bought a fresh-baked pie from the farmwife. It turned out that she had, knowing he had fought on the Northern side, poisoned the pie. He died in a few hours, and so of course and never made it back home. It must not have been a bitter family story, since my father always laughed when he told it.

Thanks again for writing.

Christiana Reed