Cassandra Morris Small Blair

1828 to 1891

Cassandra worked in the Sunday School of Westminster Presbyterian Church. The experience prompted her to write three letters to her cousin Lissie Latimer in Wilmington, DE. The letters were found in the Latimer attic by Cassandra Morris Small (Franklin) and were later published as Letters of “63”. The correspondence gives a vivid account of those days.  “Can it be true that our quiet town has been in possession of the Rebels, and that for the last two days we have all been prisoners of War! … Sunday morning Mother, Mary and I, dressed for church; all the rest expected to stay home. Just as the bells rang, the cry was heard. They are coming! Oh Lissy, what did we feel like? Humiliated! Disgraced! Men, who don’t often weep, wept then. They came with loud music, flags flying. First we saw a picket in front of our door. Where he came from or how he got there, no one knew, he came so suddenly and quietly…”