1535944

Born - Darlington County, South Carolina
Died - Drewry's Bluff,Chesterfield Co., VA
Lt. John Lide Hart served with Co B. 21st SCVI

Jacksons Spring Academy Oct14th, 1841

Dear Sis,
I have now embraced the opportunity of answering your truly welcome letter which I received the 7th ult. And to let you know something of situation and health. I (am) tolerable well at this time and have been so ever since I have been at this place, and hope this may reach you and your family enjoying the same blessing.
I can say moreover that I am very well pleased with this place and school, much better than I expected to be. I thing Mr. McLaurin is about the best teacher I (ever )went to since I have been going to school. The academy is a very commodious building situated in a very beautiful place, the spring is a very great curiosity to any person who never saw one of the ...it is a very bold stream boiling up through a large rock... water is very cool and tastes very strong of minerals. I think as much as the one in Darlington.
The school has not been very full this session we have 23 students five of whom are from So. Ca. One Mr. Woods from Sumter who just arrived a few days ago. We are all boarding together with a man by the name of Rush. He is a very fine man and keeps... very good. We have to pay him 5.50 (dls/cts) a month, he has two very comfortable houses about 3 hundred yards apart one of which we occupy. We have every accomodation that a student can wish for who wishes to study. I see no obstacle in the way to hinder any student from studying who will apply himself to the studies. The people in this neighborhood are all very poor and it is something astonishing to me that they all live as well as they do, for I thing I never was in a much poorer part of the country in my life.
It is very healthy in this part of the country. I have not heard of any cases of the fever since I have been here, it is very well cool here now, there frost here on the 4th ult.
I was extremely happy to hear of the great revival of religion in that section of the country. I hope it may not cease but then there may be ( as it were) perpetual spring time. I was greatly rejoiced to hear that Bro. James had turned out to seek the salvation of soul and God forbid that he may never turn back to the sins of this world but that he may have grace to persevere unto the end.
The people in this neighborhood seem to be very careful about religion which is about the objection I have to the place. I must now come to a close. Present my best respects to Sister and little Tom and receive them to yourself also. I hope you will not be ceremonious about writing to me hereafter but whenever you have nothing to do just sit down and give me a short sketch of the time for I assure you nothing can be more gratifying than to receive a letter from some absent friend.

I remain truly yours. John L. Hart

The death of Lieutenant John Lide Hart

is an event which has carried sadness to many hearts, & cast a fresh gloom over the community with which he was identified as a public spirited, patriotic useful citizen. From his youth a zealous advocate of resistance to tyranny, his patriotic ardor led him to and early period of this stupendous struggle for liberty, to postpone the interests of a large & growing family & enlist as a soldier in defence of his imperilled country. His service was chiefly rendered as Lieut. In the 21st Regt' SC Vol. On James Island where he greatly endeared himself to his compatriots by his devotion to duty & his pious concern for the souls of his fellow soldiers. Though always zealously affected at home in the cause of Christ, his devotion was intensified in the army to such a degree as to make him abound in the work of the Lord. As a church, we must long remember with gratitude to God, his agency in the late glorious revival with which our church & community have been blessed. In the spring of the present year, he was actively engaged in a series of meetings on James Island which resulted in the hopeful conversion of one hundred soldiers.
During the progress of these meetings conducted mainly by Rev. G.J. Bagby Army Missionary from Va. Our lamented brother addressed a letter to our church full of earnest affectionate exhortation & entreaties to us to lay aside the garments of sloth & to awake to our duties & privileges. This appeal brought tears to many eyes. It was not lost upon us. He at this same time proposed that bro Bagby be invited to hold a series of meetings with us, which was unanimously agreed to. A meeting of two weeks was accordingly held, the precious fruits os which are all around us. For a few days he was permitted to mingle his progress & labors with ours, to witness the stately steppings of our God in his sanctuary, & to rejoice over the conversion of another of his own children. How little do we understand the dealings of God with His people! We deeply felt the absence of this brother from our prayer & conference meetings - from the active duties of the Deaconship & from his position of the Superintendent of the colored Sunday school where he delighted to labor :-while the Lord was using him, for the advancement of His glory in the Army, & for the awakening & conversion of multitudes at home. Blessed be God for such fruits! Soon after the 21st & several other S.C. Regiments were ordered to Va. A series of terrible conflicts ensued near Peterburg, in one of which, on the 16th May fell a martyr to liberty. His immortal remains now rest in the bosom of the Old Dominion. "Asleep in Jesus! Far from Thee Thy Kindred & their graves may be; But thine is still a blessed sleep, from which none ever wakes to weep."
To his aged mother the loss of such a son is a terrible blow! But especially to this afflicted widow & fatherless children the loss of a husband & father so tender & devoted is truly insufferable. May God temper the wind to these stricken & shorn lamb! As a church we cannot but weep tears of anguish over the fall or our beloved brother thus cut off in the prime of life, & in the midst of so many scenes calculated to make life desirable. But we in common with his family & Kindred, may rejoice in, & bless God for the consoling assurance that his ransomed spirit is now beyond the reach of mortal strife in that blessful abode, "where the wicked cease from troubling, & the weary are at rest."

Transcribed from 1st Baptist Church of Darlington minutes...1864 by Ken Taylor