Letter from Delphina E. Mendenhall to John L. Ham, February 1, 1879. Delphina wrote to John Ham as an attempt to rekindle an old friendship made during the bitterest months of the war when he was released with a few other prisoners from the Salisbury, North Carolina prison camp around the time General Sherman made his march through there.Due to the state of affairs both before and during the war she and her husband were one of the few slave owners that attempted to emancipate their slaves before the war, and she mentioned that of those former slaves several went on to become very successful. She also relates the state of affairs at her household since that time during the war and some of her sad misfortunes, yet she remarked how fortunate she was to help him and the other prisoners.
Taken from the Paul W. Bean Collection, Box no. 279, f.63https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/paul_bean_papers/1053/thumbnail.jp
