Epilogue

Jan. 29, 1865

…Look for me when you see me.  I will come as soon as I can.
Kiss my dear Children + let them kiss you for me.

Pray for me + believe me only your
Alex.

As Ulysses S. Grant pursued Robert E. Lee in Virginia, on February 19, 1865 Sherman captured Columbia, South Carolina, then turned north.  Alex Morgan, now with Harrison’s Brigade, joined Gen. Joseph E. Johnston’s Army of Tennessee in an attempt to slow Sherman’s Carolinas Campaign.  The last full scale action of the Civil War took place at Bentonville N.C. on March 19-21.  After that battle, the Confederate army withdrew to Greensboro. Hearing of Lee’s surrender on April 9, Johnston realized the futility of further combat. On April 18th an armistice was signed, and on April 26th Alex Morgan and all the Confederate forces in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida surrendered at Bennett Place.

Alex went home to Mansfield, Louisiana where he and Fanny were at last reunited. Four more children were added to the family, and by 1870 the Morgans returned to Texas and were living in McLennan County.  Their daughter Pet (Pet Morgan Scott) died in 1888. She was only thirty years old. Alex and Fanny would help raise her youngest children.

Alex Morgan died on March 14, 1907 and was buried in Oakwood Cemetery, in Fort Worth, Texas. After his death, Fanny moved in with Pet’s daughter, Maggie, and her husband T.J. Logue.  Fanny Morgan died on December 10, 1917 and was buried in the Patrick Cemetery just outside Waco.

Despite the years of separation and the great hardships each endured, Alex and Fanny maintained and even nurtured their marriage with their honest, open, and affectionate writing.  Their strength of character and sense of duty to one another and to their children helped to sustain them during the war and in the years that followed.  Through their descendants, the story of Alex and Fanny’s love and faithfulness has been preserved and celebrated for 150 years.  We are pleased to be able to share their story with you and we hope you have enjoyed reading their letters.

4 thoughts on “Epilogue

  1. Thank you for digitizing, transcribing, adding note/links, and making this Civil War love story come alive. I’m especially grateful to the Morgans’ descendants for sharing their beautiful family legacy with Baylor’s Texas Collection and thus with all of us. I’m going to miss hearing from Alex in the weeks ahead.

  2. I hate to come to the end of such a wonderful love story this way. But that is real
    life at its finest. No happy thereafter ! Thanks to all who made this possible.

  3. An exceptional project!! Thanks to the family for sharing the letters and to the TX Collection for this online exhibit!! I’ll miss the posts… Wondering why they where not buried together? May we look forward to other online exhibits?

  4. We don’t know the circumstances of their burials; however, we know that Alex’s death predated Fanny’s by ten years, and they were each buried near the location where they were living at their time of death.

    We’re looking forward to future online exhibits too! Just keep an eye on The Texas Collection website: http://www.baylor.edu/lib/texas/

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