Belles, beaux and brains of the 60's

A:"' >:.£

C DELEON

THE LIBR ARY

OF

THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA

GIFT OF

Mrs. Arlthur Jory

BELLES

BEAUX AND BRAINS
OF THE 60's

By T. C. DE LEON

In the land where we were dreaming.

DANIEL LUCAS

. ... And with them Time
Slept, as he sleeps upon the silent face
Of a dark dial in a sunless place.

THOMAS HOOD

Illustrated with One Hundred and Sixty-six Portraits

G. W. DILLINGHAM COMPANY

PUBLISHERS NEW YORK

Copyright 1907 by
T. C. DeLEON

Copyright 1909 by
G. W. DILLINGHAM COMPANY

Belles Beaux

and Brains of the 60's.

TO HIS

COUNTRYWOMEN
ON BOTH SIDES OF THE MYTHIC "LINE/'

WHO, IN TIME OF NEED, HAVE EVER PROVED THEMSELVES

WORTHY DAUGHTERS OF BRAVE SIRES,

THIS BOOK IS INSCRIBED BY

THE AUTHOR

478

IN PLACE OF PREFACE

My publishers ask for my preface. What readers I reach
will thank me for having forgotten it.

It has been said that ua book without a preface is a salad
without salt." Possibly: but a salad that carried with each
plate a recipe for its every ingredient and condiment,
might fail of digestion. The literary kitchen is not always
appetizing, however dainty its perfected products may
appear.

The preface is that defunct bore of Greek drama Chorus
exhumed to interrupt the action. The book that needs
that is apt to prove a pretty bad one; for the preface
tells why a book is written and at what it aims. The
latter is indubitably to instruct or entertain, and to sell.
Should these motors be reversed?

The volume that does neither of these, without its own
advice, will needs gather dust upon the trade shelves.

Decades ago when I wrote what James R. Randall named
"the prose epic of the bloody Confederate drama" (Four
Years in Rebel Capitals), Mr. E. L. Godkin began his
Nation review of it with the words: "A participant's views
are always the most interesting." Now I am hoping that he
wore Cassandra's headgear.

In that book's preparation, thousands of names, incidents
and deductions came up, which were not wholly consonant
to its plan and scope. These, I have always felt, would
group themselves some day; and most of my time for five
years past has been given to arranging them into proper
sequence and in boring thousands of old friends, for facts,
dates, names — and especially for portraits, miniatures, photo
graphs and tintypes of the blockaded-art epoch.

IN PLACE OF PREFACE

To these friends, one and all, a cordial acknowledgment
is due for the invaluable aid given me. To list one tithe
of them would be to print another volume. Suffice it to
say that the faces and the facts are theirs. The comments,
the statement and deductions, all my own.

Did I write a volume of preface, it would condense itself
thus : I have written honestly and without fear, or favor, of
people and events: and with as little of prejudice as is given
to humanity.

Death and his precursor, Hymen, have been busy in very
recent days, among notable people and dear old friends;
causing halt for recasting many pages already typed.

"If this be treason, make the most of it!" If it be
preface, forgive the solecism.

T. C. De LEON
Mobile, May 1st, 1909.

ILLUSTRATIONS

THE AUTHOR Frontispiece

Page

Lieut.-Col. R. E. Lee, U. S. A. 1852 10

Mrs W. H. Caskie (Mary Ambler) 11

Colonel John S. Mosby 12

Page McCarty 13

Hon. James M. Mason 17

Secretary George W. Randolph 21

Mrs. Evelyn Cabell Robinson, of Colleton 24

Captain Philip Haxall 25

Mrs Alfred L. Rives, of Castle Hill : 29

Misses Mathilde and Rosine Slidell 54

T. C. De Leon and Col. J. S. Saunders 37

Colonel John Forsyth 40

Colonel W. R. Smedberg, U. S. A 44

Jefferson Davis 47

Mrs. Emmet Siebels (Anne Goldthwaite) 51

Mrs. Jos. Hodgson (Florence Holt) -. 52

Mrs. E. A. Banks (Eliza Pickett) 53

Mrs. S. S. Marks (Laura Snodgrass) 54

Gen. P. G. T. Beauregard 57

White House at Richmond 58

Captain I. L. Lyons, 10th La. Reg't 61

Gen. Fitz Lee 63

Mrs. Jefferson Davis 66

Mde. M. De W. Stoess (Margaret Howell) 68

Chevalier C. De W. Stoess 70

Jefferson Davis, Jr 71

"Winnie" (Varina Anne) Davis 72

Mrs J. A. Hayes 73

Jefferson Davis (In clothes worn when captured) 75

Hon. S. R. Mallory (Sec. C. S. Navy) 85

Mrs. T. S. Kennedy (Ruby Mallory) 87

Hon. J. P. Benjamin (Sec. of State).... 92

Gov. T. H. Watts (Attorney-General) 94

Alexander H. Stephens 100

Miss Mattie Quid 103

Judge J. A. Campbell 107

Mrs. Samuel Cooper 109

Mrs. Nicholas Dawson (Jennie Cooper) 110

Mrs. T. J. Semmes (From a portrait by Healy) 113

Col. Joseph C. Ives 117

Cora Semmes Ives 118

Mrs. Clara Semmes Fitz-Gerald (From a portrait by Sully) ... .119

vii

ILLUSTRATIONS

Page

Mrs. Wilcox Brown (Turner Macfarland) 124

Mrs. David Gregg Mclntosh (Jennie Pegram) 126

Mrs. Robert E. Lee, Jr. (Charlotte Haxall) 128

Mrs. Dabney J. Carr (Anna Mead Deane) 131

Mrs. Thomas R. Price (Lizzie Triplett) 138

Mrs. William M. Farrington (Florence Topp) 142

Mrs. John W. Rutherford (Betty Vance) 143

Mrs. James Fontaine Heustis (Rachel Lyons) 144

Mrs. Albert Ritchie (Lizzie Cabell) 146

Mrs. Phil Haxall (Mary Triplett) 148

Mrs. Caskie Cabell (Nannie Enders) and Lillie Bailey 150

Mrs. Howard Crittenden (Lou Fisher) 154

Mrs. Robert Camp (Anne Fisher) 155

Col. Robert Alston, Adjt.-Gen. Morgan's Cavalry 157

General Wade Hampton 161

Mrs. Charles Thompson Haskell 162

Captain William Thompson Haskell 163

Captain Joseph Cheves Haskell i64

Mrs. Edwin S. Gaillard (Mary Gibson) 167

Mrs. John Pegram (Hetty Gary) 168

Captain Henry Robinson 174

Mrs. Philip Phillips 176

Mrs. Charles A. Larendon (Laure V. Beauregard) 179

Mrs. Henry Strachey LeVert and daughter "Diddie" 183

Admiral Franklin Buchanan (Commander of the Mcrrimac ) ..184

Mrs. William Becker (Mrs. Laura Forsyth) 185

Mrs. Mary Ketchum Irwin (From an amateur play) 189

Gen. John Chesnut 193

Mrs. James W. Conner (Sallie Enders) 195

Lt.-Col. John Cheves Haskell 196

Commodore Barron, C. S. N 199

Mrs. W. B. Meyers (Mattie Paul) 202

John R. Thompson 204

Mrs. John Cabell Early (Mary Washington Cabell) 207

Mrs. Edward L. Coffey (Lucy Haxall) 209

Mrs. Otho G. Kean (Sallie Grattan) 211

Mrs. Robert F. Jennings (Lillie Booker) 214

Mrs. Charles T. Palmer (Alice Winslow Cabell) 216

Robert A. Dobbin 220

Mrs. Leigh R. Page (Page Waller) 222

John Randolph (Sir Anthony Absolute) 225

Captain L. M. Tucker (Jack Absolute) 226

Mrs. Thomas Pember (Phoebe Levy) 229

Mrs. John Moncure Robinson (Champe Comvay) 231

Mrs. Samuel Robinson (Lizzie Peyton Giles) 233

Hon. Beverley Tucker ("The Suspect") 235

John Randolph Tucker (Jurist Teacher & Wit) 238

Mrs. John Lee Logan (Gertrude Tucker) 239

Mrs. Anna Logan 240

Col. George Wythe Munford (Sec. of Commonwealth) 242

Col. Frederick G. Skinner (1st Virginia) 247

Col. Skinner (Miniature owned by Lafayette) 249

Mrs. Isobel Greene Peckham (London Exhibition Portrait) ..250
Mrs. T. Tileston Greene (Elise Skinner) 251

ILLUSTRATIONS

Page

Major Livingston Mims 255

Captain Innes Randolph 259

Major Wm. B. Myers 263

Major William Caskie ..267

Major J. W. Pegram 270

Virginia Mourning Her Dead (Sir Moses Ezekiel) 275

Chevalier Moses Ezekiel 281

The Burial of Latane

Misses Page Waller, Virginia Pegram, Mattie Paul. Lizzie
Giles. Mattie Waller, Annie Gibson and Imogene Warwick. 284

Page McCarty, William D. Washington, Wm. B. Myers 291

Mrs. G. T. Beauregard (Laure Villere) 293

Gen. G. T. Beauregard 296

Hilary Cenas 298

Laure Beauregard Larendon 300

George Mason of Gunston Hall 301

Mrs. Sydney Smith Lee (Anna Maria Mason) 303

Henry A. Wise 306

Mrs. William C. Mayo (Margaretta Wise) 307

Captain John S. Wise 308

Mrs. Henry A. Wise. Jr. (Hallie Haxall) 312

Thomas W. Symington 318

Charles S. Hill, G. Thomas Cox and E. H. Cummins 321

Gen. J. C. Breckinridge 324

Gen. Sterling Price 325

Col. Heros Von Borcke (Stuart's Chief of Staff) 332

Col. Jos. Adolph Chalaron (Louisiana Artillery) 336

Major-General John B. Gordon 340

Colonel Edward Owen (New York Camp U. C. V.) 343

Admiral Raphael Semmes (Taken in 1873) 345

Mrs. Charles R. Palmer (Kathrina Wright) 347

Jefferson Davis Howell (Youngest brother of Mrs. Davis) ....349

Lieut. Samuel Barron 350

Daniel Decatur Emmett 356

Capt. R. T. ("Trav") Daniel "360

James R. Randall (Author of "My Maryland") 363

Lieut. Sydney Smith Lee, Jr., C. S. N 367

Rt. Rev. Richard Hooker Wilmer (War Bishop of Mobile) ... .374

J. Henley Smith (of Mosby's Cavalry) 377

Mrs. Fannie A. Beers 383'

Mrs. Arthur F. Hopkins 385

Emily Virginia Mason in her 92nd year 388

Mrs. L. M. Wilson (Augusta Evans in 1867) 392

Lieut. H. H. Marmaduke, C. S. N 397

Captain James Frazer 403

Madam Von Rorque (Carrie Holbrook) 409

Hon. Edwin De Leon (C. S. Commissioner abroad) 411

Mrs. George H. Butler (Josephine Chestney) 414

Gen. Robert E. Lee 418

Mildred Lee (Youngest daughter of Gen. Lee) 419

Maj.-Gen. W. H. F. ("Rooney") Lee 421

Mrs. Robert E. Lee (Mary Randolph Custis) 423

Agnes Lee (Third daughter of Gen. Lee) 426

Gens. R. E. and G. W. C. Lee 428

ILLUSTRATIONS

Page

The Recumbent Lee at Lexington (By Valentine) 429

Admiral Sydney Smith Lee (Son of "Light Horse Harry") ....431

Captain R. E. Lee, Jr. (Youngest son of Gen. R. E. Lee) 432

Anne Carter Lee and Mary Custis Lee (Only granddaughters

of Gen. Lee) 433

Robert Carter Lee (Youngest son of Admiral Lee) 434

Mrs. W. H. F. Lee (Mary Tabb Boiling), R. E. Lee, Jr., Dr.

Boiling Lee 436

Captain Henry Carter Lee, C. S. Cavalry (4th son of Admiral

Lee) 438

Captain Daniel Murray Lee (5th son of Admiral Lee) 439

Mrs. Daniel Murray Lee (Nannie Ficklen) 440

General Scott Shipp, V. M. 1 442

Captain Collier H. Minge (Commanding Battery) 443

Gaylord B. Clark (Cadet at New Market) 445

Rt. Rev. Thomas Frank Gailor (Bishop of Tennessee) 449

Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith (Commander Trans-Mississippi

Department 451

Lieut. Gen. Joseph Wheeler 455

Lieut. Wilton Randolph 459

Lieut. S. S. Lee, 3d (U. S. Marine Corps) 462

CONTENTS

CHAP. I. IN OLD VIRGINIA

The ante bcllum exclusive — "Befo' th' wah." Like
ness to Carolinians — Southern pride and its origin
— Colonial cousins and wives — The Code Duello —
Chivalry's lessons — Two-bottle men and New
England tippling — Herital gentry: no "middle
class." Slave owners and their methods — Loyal to
the "pa-aty." Old leaders vs. new — Covenanters
and Cavalier — Real origin of Civil War — Prejudice
and principle — The amalgamate American.

II. LORDS OF THE SOIL AND ITS LADIES . . 20

Old-time entertaining on great estates — Large
families — Matchmaking and a web of consanguin
ity — The early Randolphs — Family seats and
country life — Hunting and the first American Fox-
club — Racing stables — The Custis family and early
Arlington — Mt. Vernon and its owners — Fitzhughs
of Chatham — Sir John Page's line — Richmond and
the Byrds — The Blands — Then woman ruled the
time — How heredity rode to war — Education and
womanhood — Mothers of a line of gentlemen —
What their daughters did later.

CHAP. III. AT THE "OLD WRECK" 33

Washington yesterday and today — Social changes
greater than the civic — Leaders in Senate and
Salon — Southern dominance — The Pnghs, Marcys,
Casses-^Mrs. John R. Thompscn — The ante
bellum winter-*The belles we left — Home and
visiting sets — Mesdames Crittenden and Clay —
Resident society leaders — Rumors of wars — The
Lobby and the hotel folk — Entertaining in the
storm — The Buchanan nap broken — Peace Con
gress fiasco — Gen. Scott and Lincoln — The Inau
guration — Off for Dixie — Leavetaking and proph
ecies.

CHAP. IV. A NEW NATION'S NURSERY ....

Off for Montgomery — Excited ignorance — How
"the Cradle" rocked— Replica of Washington's
•worst — Davis interested in Lincoln — How he
stood with the people— The rush for place-
Congress,. Cabinet and Lobby — Society and gov-
ernment-^A bevy of old-time belles— Old families
xi

CONTENTS

CHAP. IV. — Continued

and weddings — Gambling and drinking — Status for
leaders — The fall of Sumter — Action replaces sus
pense — Virginia secedes — The capital to move —
Pensacola review — Beauregard or Bragg?

CHAP. V. THE FIRST "ON TO RICHMOND" ... 58

From Chimborazo to Hollywood — Society's ague
at the advent — Peeping through barred blinds —
Best blood in the ranks — Hospitality melt? reti
cence-brilliant women and brainy men — Gay and
"quiet old" sets — Charity's varieties — The White
House and early frost-^-Mrs. Davis melts it — Mr.
Davis at home — "The dweller on the threshold."

CHAP. VI. WHITE HOUSE FOLK 66

Social Frost clears — White House sociality —
Levees and their uses — The President's "home
hour." — Mrs. Davis' tact and methods — The
Kemp-Howell family — Miss Maggie Howell — The
Davis children — Winnie and her living memory —
The next generation — Mr. Davis as Richmond
saw him — His ease of access — Rare conversa
tionalist — In the bitter aftermath — A silly slander
— Southern feeling then and now — The Davis
descent and branches — The family today — The
chief's rise.

CHAP. VII. CABINET TIMBER 83

Its fiber — Toombs and his successors — The S. R.
Mallory household — Mother and Daughter —
Brilliant career of "Little Ruby" — Mrs. Bishop and
Andy Johnson — The Bedouin cabinet — War De
partment kaleidoscope — Seddon. Randolph, Bragg,
Campbell — Breckinridge comes to stay — The
money men — "Cheap money" in 1862 — The post-
office — The Randolph household — Benjamin, the
Pooh Bah — His chameleon "foreign policy" — His
family — Attorney-Generals Thos. H. Watts and
George Davis.

CHAP. VIII. SOME VICE-REGENCIES 99

Society and officials — Alex. Hamilton Stephens —
South Carolina and the presidency — The "Hamp
ton Roads conference" with Lincoln — Reticence
and deaths — Judge Robert Quid's family — Mattie
Quid's beauty and wit — Judge John A. Campbell —
Descent and education — "Union men" — Mrs.
Campbell and her brilliant daughters — Adjutant-
General Cooper — The Mason blood — Frank
Wheaton's wedding: his descendants — Miss Jennie
Cooper: her children of the fourth generation.

CONTENTS

CHAP. IX. THE SUB-CABINET

The "Tom" Semmes ' household — How he was
elected Senator — Admiral Semmes at that day —
Maggie Mitchell and "the Old Rag" — A notable
Mess — Pierre Soule and the Spanish duel — Mrs.
Semmes' own family — The Dimitris — Its famous
head — Notable descent — The young folks in Rich
mond- — The Ives household — Old Washington
toasts — A peer's gracious tribute — Mrs. Clara Fitz
gerald — The family today — The A. C. Myers
family — The uniform chosen — The beautiful
mother and daughters — The Twiggs sword.

112

CHAP. X. IN RICHMOND'S FOURTH CENTURY . . . 123

The old elect — Young Richmond — The Macfarland
home and its bevy — The Pegram household — Its
descendants today — The Haxalls of biblical num
ber — The four brothers and their children —
Memories of a private hospital — The James Lyons
home at "Laburnum." Peter Lyons and the Deane
sisters — The Allen homes — The patron of Edgar
Poe — Claremont and its owner — Others of the old
set.

CHAP. XI. THE TYRANNY OF THE TEENS . . ,136

Old-fashioned chaperonage — In Richmond: Virgo
victrix! Washington retrospect — Unmated tyrants
— One bride's views — Changed social conditions
-"The prettiest woman in the world!" — Two
Tennessee beauties — A South Carolina rival —
Their representatives of the present.

CHAP. XII. A BOUQUET OF BUDS

The "three Graces junior" — Misses Triplett,
Cabell and Conway — A famous duel — The Triplett-
Ross alliance — The Enders' home in Richmond —
The mother of the motherless — A pair of camp
angels — Miss Lizzie Peyton Giles and Miss Jose
phine Chestney come to Dixie — The Richmond
Giles sisters — The Freelands and Lewises — The
Wigfall family— "The Three Fishers": Lucy, Mary
and Anne.

146

CHAP. XIII. SOME AT THE BRIDAL AND SOME AT-

Transitions from joy to woe — The Miles-Bierne
wedding — A shortened honeymoon — Pearls and
crape at St. Pauls — The Porcher Miles family —
Miss Macfarland's fate and following — Some

157

CONTENTS

CHAP. XIII. — Continued

Carolinians — Hampton and his boys — A Roman
Matron — The seven spears of the Haskells —
Gaillard and Gibson families — Miss Hettie Gary —
The gallant Pegrams — Orange blossoms and yew.

CHAP. XIV. THE AMERICAN SALON 170

Imitations of French models — Washington refuses
the fad — New York in Cooper-Barlow-Sherwood
days — Mrs. Frank Leslie's attempts — Quaker
Citydom — The Boker-Schaumberg regime — Bos
ton dodges contagion — Busy Chicago's material —
The Palmer-Stone-Chetlain-Smith set — Cincinnati
in society and literature — The Saturday Night
Club — The middle West non-salonic — Baltimore
too cosy to imitate — Washington in the Blair-
Sartiges-Dahlgren days — The Slidells — The girls
and the Wilkes incident — Mrs. Phillips and Ben
Butler — Washington receptions — Her ben mots —
The Phillips family, then and now.

CHAP. XV. IN FAR MOBILE 181

Deshas and Murray Smiths — Vanderbilt-Marl-
borough — Madame Le Vert' salon — Notables and
freaks — Wives of John T. Raymond and Theodore
Hamilton — One Mr. Lillian Russell — Kossuth —
Admiral Buchanan — John Forsyth and General
Forrest — Novel love lay — Queer Harry Maury—
The mondaine's sunset — The Huger family — The
Fearns and Walkers — The beautiful carnival
queen — The Nortons and Buckners — De Vendel
Chauldrons — The noted Ketchums — Tennessee's
Erwin sisters — Two fair young matrons — The
Ledyards.

CHAP. XVI. IN THE TWIN STATES 193

Charleston, the sedate — A city of history and
precedent — Moultrie to Sumter — Beauregard's
beaux in silk hats and sashes — The Sumter hurrah-
Mrs. Sue King's salon failure — Mrs. Daisy Breaux
Gummere — A "little brown Crum, Mr. Roosevelt"!
— Richmond's realities — The Semmes, Pegrams,
Lyons and other homes — The Levee a la "Old
Wreck" — Beauties, plain folk and place-hunters —
Mrs. Robert Stanard's receptions — Soule. Barren.
Lamar, Preston and the rest — The Le Vert par
allel deflected.

CHAP. XVII. THE MOSAIC CLUB 201

The "quiet set" — The Mosaic's sponsors— The
Grattans, Gays, Wallers and their "boys" — Organi
zation? — A specimen programme — Misses Eva
Cabell and Mattie Paul in music— The Myers-Paul

CONTENTS

CHAP. XVII.— Continued

marriage — Descendants in Boston and Brooklyn
— Rare Ran Tucker — John R. Thompson, Esten
Cook and Jeb Stuart — Miss Cabell's marriage — The
Cabell seats — The ''little Cabell girls" and their
families — John Pegram, Washington and Myers
as whistlers — The "Grasshopper" and the "Good
old Rebel" — Miss Lucy Haxall yesterday and
today — An epigram.

CHAP. XVIII. WITH SOCK AND BUSKIN .... 213

How women worked — Not in the Village of
Dumdrudge — Mesdames Semmes, Randolph and
other "managers" — Notable audiences — The great
charades — All society in the cast — The Macmurdo
sisters — The "men creatures" — Mrs. Semmes en
artiste — "One touch of nature" — Jeb Stuart's
s\vOrd on the Altar — Spectacular pilgrimage —
Beantiful Lelia Powers and Sam Shannon at
"Lammermoor" — Burton Harrison woos Rebecca
at the well — This writer in chains — Vicarious
larder.

CHAP. XIX. "RIVALS" AND FOLLOWERS .... 224

Imitation's flattery — New nets for Charity's dollar
—Mrs. Ives' great play — Hood's automatic
epigram — Randolph as Sir Anthony, Tucker as
Jack Ward's Bob Acres — Mrs. Clay and Miss
Cary— "Bombastes Furioso" — Mrs. Ives as Dis-
taffina — Mrs. Randolph's charades — Miss Chestney
and Mrs. Pember in double hit — Fitz Lee as
Uncle Toby — A wondrous picture gallery — Mrs.
Fanny Giles Towne's "Artist's Studio" — Mrs.
Tardy shows "Paradise and the Peri" — Beautiful
Addie Deane.

CHAP. XX. PICTURESQUE PEOPLE 234

The old Tucker name — Immense connection —
"Bev," of Washington days — The Randolph-
Tucker descent — The Tuckers of the '60's —
Xotable trio of brothers — The Lincoln murder
charge — Bev . Tucker spits Andy Johnson — The
Arab family — John Randolph Tucker and his
family — The Logan line, old and new — The Mun-
fords in war and peace.

CHAP. XXI. MORE of THE PICTURESQUE .... 244

The Cary-Fairfax families — Saxon strain of the
"Fair Hair" — Virginian and Maryland branches
—The Vaucluse — Fairfaxes — Miss Constance Cary
and Clarence: sailor, scholar and lawyer — The
Burton Harrisons — The Maryland Carys — John

CONTENTS

CHAP. XXL— Continued

Bonne and his many — The ward of Lafayette
takes the sword — Lineage of the Skinners — A de
voted daughter and her children — Last woman
who saw Wilkes Booth — The Spotswood-Eastin-
Gayle families — Livingston Mims, wit and vivucr
— Major Banks and his comrade — Mrs. Em. Mims
Thompson's personality.

CHAP. XXII. WITH LAUGH AND SONG AND SATIRE . 257

How they starved and sang — By Campfire and
Hospital and from Prison — Innes Randolph, facile
princeps — His line and descendants — Gen. Felix
Agnus and the Canteen story — The Lathams,
Gray and Woodie — Page McCarthy's lemon-
flavored wit — Will Myers, epigramatist — A Beau-
regard "poem" — Governor "Zeb" Vance.

CHAP. XXIII. MORE WITS AND WAGS .... 260

Tom August's quips — Hippo and the chondria- —
Willie Caskie in pun and poem — Wm. M. Burwell,
of "De Bow's" as satirist — George Bagby and
"Confederate Mother Goose" — Jimmy Pegram in
"silence and fun" — From camp, hospital and
prison pen — Forts Delaware and Warren send
shots — Tom Roche's "Egypt Dying" — Teackle
Wallis and "The War Christian" — Guffaws from
"Solitary John" — Even in Vicksburg — "The kernel
and the shell" — The mule menu.

CHAP. XXIV. ART AND ARTISTS IN DIXIE . . . 275

War as an art-promotor — No method in conser
vation — Incident pictures — Washington's work —
Vivid Jack Elder and his best art — "Scout's
prize." the "Crater," etc. — John R. Key in later
expositions — Chapman at Charleston — Gait's work
and death — Ezekiel's rise and recent work —
"Homer" and "Virginia Mourning Her Dead" — .
Willie Caskie's great little men — WTill Myers in
art — Famine of art supplies — An artistic substitute
law.

CHAP. XXV. A VANISHING PICTURE 285

The Romance of its origin — The artist as he was
— Stuart's Pamunkey raid — Latane's death — The
Brockenborough and Newton families — The
Negro question — Before meddled with — The burial
by women — Poetry and painting embalm the
story — How the canvas disappeared — Why Wash
ington began to paint — His notable models — Pub
lic reception of the work — The artist's secretive-

CONTENTS

CHAP. XXVI. SOME HISTORY BUILDERS .... 293

A Louisiana epitaph — Origin of the Toutant-
Beauregards — Wales and the Crusades — Descent
on both sides — The Dukes de Reggio — Education
and graduation — The first marriage — The Villere-
Olivier family — The Deslondes marriage — The
four famed sisters — The first wife and her children
—The Beauregards today — The "Doucettes" — A
recognition of Lee — The endless Mason line —
George, of Gunston Hall and his kith and kin —
John Thompson Mason and descendants — Armi-
stead and his line — Miss Emily and her sisters —
James M. Mason, John Y. Mason and the Roy
Masons — Mrs. Webb and the others — General
Hartley's fears.

CHAP. XXVII. MORE HISTORIC HOUSES .... 305

The Wise folk — Many a John and more descend
ants — The later branches — Henry A. Wise in four
generations — Tully R. Wise branch — The individ
uality of the Wises — The Craney Island branch —
Virginia and New England — The Dabney clan —
Colonel "Tom" and Augustin's great descent —
Rare "V" Dabney — His high life and what it left —
His brothers and sisters — The Chamberlayne
branch — The Bagby family of then and now.

CHAP. XXVIII. OUR FOREIGN RELATIONS ... 317

Peculiar "Foreigners" — Help from outside the
Chinese Wall— The border states — Maryland
regulars — "Old Brad" Johnson, Elzey, Snowden
Andrews, Winder and the rest — The Symingtons,
Brogdens, Howards and others — The first com
mission — Washington's soldiers — The National
Rifles — Smedberg, Hill and Cummins — Tom Cox
— Kyd Douglas, the link — Albert Sidney John
ston Breckinridge and the Kentucky elite.
Buckner. Morgan, Duke and their "boys"— Ster
ling Price and Cockrell— Captain A. C. Danner—
The Marmadukes and Kennerleys — Missouri's
fighting phalanx — Riding with teeth.

CHAP. XXIX. FROM OVER SEAS 329

Franco-Latin Americans — Le vrai Creole — Cop-
pens brothers and their Zouaves — A reckless
fighting lot— Bob Wheat and the Tigers—
Chasseur s-a-pied — Henri St. Paul and his ways —
Count Camille de Polignac— Baron Herns von
Borcke — His desperate wound — British volunteers

CONTENTS

CHAP. XXIX.— Continued

— Frank Dawson, stowaway — Hon. Francis Law-
ley — Vizitelly — "Lord" Cavendish and Colonel
Gordon — The consuls — Col. Chalaron and his
brothers.

CHAP. XXX. BY LAND AND SEA 339

Gordon and the ''Raccoon Roughs" — The man of
Sharpsburg — His later career — The Owen broth
ers, of the W. A. — Their Northern descent and
their work — ''The Viking of the South" — His
kinfolk. 'fore and after — Soldiers, jurists and
great women — Old Zach's grandson — Mrs. Davis'
naval brothers — A noble death — Barrens, father
and son — The Brooke gun and its results — Frank
lin Buchanan: Hampton Roads and Mobile Bay.

CHAP. XXXI. "DIXIE" AND HER NEXT OF KIN . 354

The moot as to national songs — "Dixie's" origin
long uncertain — "Bonnie Blue Flag" in no doubt
— Claimants and Myths — Mr. Tannenbaurn
testifies — General Alexander's views on "Dixie"-
Date and author of the song proved by Col. T. A.
Brown — Daniel's wartime doubt — "My Maryland"
as poem and anthem — How Randall wrote it — A
glance at the Confederate poet — His career and
death — The memorial to him.

CHAP. XXXII. THE Pious AND THE SPORTY . . 366

Greed and Creed — Sir Walter Raleigh — Religious
zeal in the Colony — The moral plane in war
Richmond — Compared with Paris — Gambling and
drinking — The "sports" of yesterday — Sunny
Johnny Worsham — Temptations and the tempted
— Why no greater excess — How piety tempered
sport — Churches and pastors of Richmond — War
Bishop McGill — The preachers and their pulpits —
Bishop Wilmer and "Pap" Thomas at Mobile —
First severance of Church and State — An inchoate
bishop — Thomas Underwood Dudley — His life-
work and descendants — The Jewish rabbis and
their people in the war.

CHAP. XXXIII. HOSPITALS AND WOMEN'S WORK . 380

The highest religion — Canonization per se — Hos
pital inception and growth — Grandam and gay
girl— Fanny A. Beers — "Soldiers' Rest" and its
nurses — Mrs. Caroline Mayo — Chimborazo. Rob
inson's, and state hospitals — Mrs. Arthur F.
Hopkins — A soldier and altruist — Anne Toulmin
Hunter and her work — Mrs. Martha Flournoy

CONTENTS
XXXIII. -Continued

Carter and her monument — Her descendants —
Kmily Virginia Mason — "Aunt Sally" Tompkins —
Mrs. Henri Weber and Andy Johnson — Augusta
Kvans Wilson — Few out of many.

(1iiM>. XXXIV. TIN-: ('HUSH OK TIN-: " TONDA" . WM

What whipped the South? — Our leaders seemed
to know — Needs grow dire Starvation parties
and the toilettes— "Dancing on the grave's edge!"
— What the boys wanted — The Marmadukes —
Penury at the capital and plenty at the ports -
Jimmy Clark goes to breakfast — Jo. Johnston's
tribute to Lee — The Refugee days — La Grange
and its notables — A duel and a ring — Where they
are today.

CHAP. XXXV. ROMANCE AND PKRIL OF "Tin-: Bun1." 407

^•Mrs. Greenhow and her tragedy — Frank l)u Harry
and his burial at sca-^Mrs. May brick as a babe —
The remains of the family — The crush tightens
— "Runners" decrease — My last order to Wil
mington — Scaling up the rivers — Perilous "run in"
at New Orleans — The 'Conda coils inland —
Women blockade breakers — The "Potomac
Ferry" — The noted Cary cousins-*Miss Josephine
Chestney — Her ride with Henley Smith The
hitter's recent death Destroying the small
ironclads-^Miss llowell to Mr. Mallory —
Changed times explained to General Lee.

CHAP. XXXVI. IN FAMK'S OWN HALL .... 4lS

The great by birth— Typical American — Trans
ferred poem — Young people and Robert Lee — Of
many sides— In Washington as a witness — The
bronze and the centennial — Marse Robert and
his boys — Richelieu's secret — Lee's talisman — As a
Union man — His unique personality — After
Appomattox — The fruit of struggle — Again a
private citi/en -Great foreign offers — "Men who
saved the Union."

(•HAP. XXXVII. FROM KNIGHTHOOD'S PALMY DAYS 430

Before the Conquest — Lees in the Crusades —
Launcclot of Hastings and Lionel with the Lion-
hearted. Richard Lee of Shropshire — Honors to
the Colonial line — Six sons all famed — Rill of
Rights and Signers—Henry Lee, of Westmore
land — Light Horse Harry and his sons — Robert's
youth and training — In war and peace — The

CONTENTS

CHAP. XXXVII.— Continued

General's children — Nine sons and nephews in the
war — The elder son of Light Horse Harry — Gen
eral Custis Lee — The second Maria Mason —
Fitz Lee and his five brothers — The families of
this day.

CHAP. XXXVIII. YOUNG VETERANS AND OLD BOYS 441

The "Cornseed battle of the war" — Cadets of the
V. M. I. trounce out Sigel — A gallant fight and fun
after it — Eight left dead — Wounded boys and
stripling heroes — Minge, Wise and Gaylord Clark
—What the senior captain wrote — Fun under fire
— Henry Grady's "New South" — Embalming
memories — The U. C. V. — Its origin and work — Is
the war over?-£Daughters of the Confederacy —
What they are and how they do — The Sons of
Veterans — A stalwart Tennessee Prelate — Spon
sors and reunions — How some old boys see them
— The Kirby Smith family — Record and descent.

CHAP. XXXIX. AFTERMATH 454

Over one's shoulder — Memories that will not (and
should not) die — Resurrection of dead issues —
Why we failed — Had Lincoln lived — Reconstruc
tion's folly and her legacies — What Booth really
"killed" — Carpet Baggers, Ku Klux and their
spawn — The "unsent message" — The legacy letter
—True sentiment in both sections today — How the
talkers and writers "mix up" — The colored
brother's philosophy — Mr. Champ Clark and the
timec — Few omissions — The real coming together
—"Taps!"

Belles, Beaux and Brains
of the Sixties

CHAPTER I

IN OLD VIRGINIA

"V/^OUR ante-bellum Virginian was a rare old exclusive.
Jl His home was his altar and his family his fetich. He
scarcely would have challenged the country postmaster,
who refused him credit for a postage stamp, the latter not
being his social equal, but he doubtless would have chastised
him.

Before he was leavened by war and contact with the greater
world the old Virginian may have been a trifle narrow.
Friction against his fellows broadened him rarely, but at a
cost that lost the world a type.

In his earliest form he was much like his contemporaneous
South Carolinian, whom he " cottoned to'7 more cordially
than to his other neighbors. Each, it was claimed by the en
vious, thought the sun rose behind his own proper east and
set behind his western boundary line.

At this day, thanks to education away from home, travel
and observation, both 'are citizens of a common country, -
properly prideful of the past, though really living in the
present.

The strong red " Island Mastiff" blood of primogeniture
still flows in the veins of both, but the planter's or professional
life has left it perhaps less bubbling than when its ancestors
came to these shores.

There was at one«time much popular clamor, rather needless

10 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

perhaps, about the overweening pride of the old Southerners.

It was based on manner, in the main; the manner had reason
able origin.

The pride of the South
had excuse in her record from
Time. The Virginian and Caro
linian especially were of direct
descent from the " rufflers " of
Hastings and Templestowe,of
AgincourtandRochelle. They
were kindred, too, in more
than pride and sentiment,
for the same English strain
flowed in the veins of both,
separating them from the
Puritan English of the
North, and warmed with
the Huguenot flush and the
dash of the Hibernian.
The Washingtons, Lees,
Taylors and Prestons. the

LIEUT. COL. R. E. LEE, U.S.A., 1852. J

Elands, Lewises, Byrds,

Fairfaxes, Balls, Carters and Carys ("No mongrels, boy!" said
Richelieu), had wedded " across the border/' and both States
had equal pride in their progress. Changed little by travel an I
new surroundings the Maryes, Maurys, Flournoys and Bondu-
rants, the Micous, Latanes, Moncures and Maupins, were still
French. They were as earnest in endeavor for the new land
as later were the d'Iberville, de Bienville and Boisbriant
planters of the Lilies in La Louisiane. The Egglestons,
McGuires, Archers and Mayos proved fealty to new adherence
on young soil, as had the knight of the Shamrock in the
Crusades in France and in the Papal Guard. One and all,
with the Cabells, Burwells, Amblers, and others living in

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

11

history and song, later proved their loyalty to Virginia, as to
the king they served so well across the seas.

"All Virginians are cousins/' say outsiders. Marriages,
cross marriages, intermarriages, mesh State pride in a tangle
of consanguinity that no " Heraldry Harvey" might read.
But every drop of that blood, English, Irish or French, throbs
but for one spot of earth — Virginia. From the days of
Smith and Jamestown, through those of Williamsburg as
colony capital and seat of the oldest university, through
the war that made the Colony a State and flooded her best
names with a noonshine of glory, through the war that made
her Richmond capital the goal of ambitious hate — through
each and all the Old Dominion has been true to duty and to
country. But blood is thicker than water, and she has been
true to herself.

The ante-bellum Virginian
was a great horseman. He
rode to hounds as a matter
of religion and was knight
and courtier under gleam of
my ladye's eyes. He was
even more at home in the
saddle than in the ballroom,
and his love of horse aided
other traits and circumstance
to evolve later those terri
fying " Black Horse" squad
rons which made the names
of Stuart, two Lees, Turner ,?v

Ashby, John Mosby and their MRS. w. H. CASKIE (MAKY AMBLER)
like as famous and feared as
was that of the Black Douglas on the Scottish border.

The Virginian was proud, but not arrogant; genial, but
quick to offense. So he would pop over an antagonist from

12 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

a sense of duty much as he did a turkey, or a "pa-at ridge, "
from a sense of pleasure.

Much has been written as to his duelling habit in old times.

The Virginian was no more
addicted to that popular pas
time than were his brethren of
the South. From the Revo
lution to and through the Civil
l» War personal honor was the

religion of the Southern gentle
man and the " Code " his creed.
This was herital. The Eng
lish, French and Spanish who
sired the incoming populations
of all the colonies wore swords
for other purposes than orna
ment. Often they had carved
their fortunes with them and,
COLONEL JOHN s. MOSEY on occasion, had found them

handy to carve each other.

The courts were in their infancy in most sections and were
wholly adult in few. Custom, too, had made a man what
stern old Cedric the Saxon called "niddering," had he taken
judical court-plaster for his bruised reputation: accepted
money valuation for his wounded honor. The hand of a
man affronted went naturally to his left hip for the hilt that
hung ready for it. So, the duello of form, legalized by custom
into more than written law, passed from the " meeting" of
etiquette for a trodden foot or a chance brusquerie to the
combat to the death for a grave and real wrong.

Just how distinct those gradations were would take much
time to tell, nor would they interest those who persist that
duels are a relic of barbarism. Yet they are a relic of chivalry
as well.

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 13

He who would go about the world today with a metal pot
upon his head, his family tree painted on his plate-covered
breast and, with a pointed pole in his hand, "To ride abroad
redressing human wrong/' would be regarded as worse than
a mild lunatic. Yet men and women still flush over the
sentiment that made Launcelot and the Lion's Heart, Sydney
and Alexander Hamilton, immortal. Tempora mutantur!

A wild outcry echoed through the land when one gallant
youth fell dead in his tracks and another, maimed for his
miserable remnant of life in that Richmond duel that ushered
in a new era and made even a challenge a felony in Virginia.

Duelling was born in the McCarty blood. One of that
poor boy's forebears had killed his own first cousin (a Mason)
"in fair and honorable combat." But the duel personal
was a child of the first
trial by jury. We are all
things of heredity .

As in duelling so have
there been gross exaggera
tions of the old Virginian's
thirst. Great are the mis
comprehensions of the
1 ' gentlemanly dissipations ' '
of those days. The "two-
bottle man" of a century
syne was probably not
more thirsty than the famil
iar bibber of this day. He
drank differently, how
ever, and with far differ-

PAGE MCCARTY

ent surroundings. He

made the glass the excuse for and the promoter of hospitality,
sociality and good-fellowship. He never took a public pledge
for its infraction in private, and he bade his fellow to stretch

14 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF TEE SIXTIES

his legs beneath his private mahogany and sip Burgundy and
rare Madeira, instead of leading him into the vulgar public
bar to "hist in" doctored poison at "two for twenty-five.'1

Though the two-bottler sometimes succumbed, and slid
gradually from his chair under the table, he may still have been
"as good a man" as any millionaire clubman of the present
who lurches from his club to his Brougham in the small hours
of any metropolis today.

The South has never cavilled at the taste of her New
England cousins, who drank and relished " Rumblullion,"
or "Will Devil," donated to the main land from the British
sailors' "Rumbowling." This the traveler Josselyn calls
in his writings: "That cursed liquor, Rhum, Rumbullion, or
the Devil!"

This favorite drink of old time tavern and post house, is
fully described in local chronicle, and embalmed in Miss Alice
Earle's "Stage and Tavern Days." She states that this word
did not signify Rum, but was the Gipsy adjective, "strong,
or strenuous." Its components were rum or strong liquor;
ale, or wine, egg and sugar, and this was the great New
England tipple of Colonial days.

"Rumfstian" was another brain food made from 1| pints
of gin, yelks of 12 eggs, orange peel, nutmeg, spices and
sugar. To these was added a quart of strong beer, and a
pint of sherry, or other wine!!

And yet the Southerner was called a "two-bottle man!"

It has not been plainly demonstrated that polo, pinochle
and draw poker have generated truer-hearted and more con
servative men than did the tournaments for Love and Beauty,
or the games of brag for "a bale ante and a nigger better."

Doubtless much fustian has been written about "the good
old times/' and still no proof is shown that the so-called
progress of today has bettered them in all regards — if
any. Methods and manners change with invention and snr-

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 15

rounding, but the men and women they are used by are
constant quantities. Only he whom Victor Hugo dared call
"Vieux Philosophe" can truly differentiate the result of
custom upon character.

In common with her sister planting states of the South
the Old Dominion had no real middle class or even the sub
stitute for it. Her planter, especially when he boasted direct
colonial descent, was a closer counterpart of the landed
gentry of the motherland than any other American. He
was veritable lord of the soil: its judge, governor and dictator
as well as its owner. The great "Virginia Plantations"
of Elizabethan days had been subdivided into many and minor
ones, all held literally, no less than legally, by these herital
''English gentry."

The only other actual class was that of the hewers of wood
and drawers of water, holding scarce closer relation to their
masters, in any social or moral regard, than did those assis
tants in Scriptural days. His negro slaves the country
gentleman held as

"Something better than his dog, a little dearer than his horse"

They were regarded more tenderly than his beasts of toil or
pleasure, but as impossible of even hinted future equality.

The Southern owner of a blood-horse, or a bench pointer
would scarcely cut off the feed, or scar and disfigure either
by cruel or even careless treatment. The black chattel was
merely a valuable asset. Never noted as a shrewd dealer,
the Southern plantation owner was not so blind an idiot as
to depreciate the worth of probably his most valuable pos
session. It were as logical to suppose that he might upon
occasion have sown his cotton or tobacco fields with rock
salt or burned his fences for winter fuel.

Thus only dementia or inborn ferocity could have caused
modes of procedure ascribed to them by some too swift

16 3ELLES, BEAUX AND BEAMS OF THE SIXTIES

delineators of what they did not comprehend when seen
or what more generally they "saw" from hearsay.

Fact often failed the purpose and fancy was drawn on to
aid it. A twice told tale in point is that when Mrs. Stowe
made her revision of her book she generalized her description
of Southern cruelty and merely detailed it in but one character
of her " Uncle Tom's Cabin." That detailed brutality was
all committed by her Yankee overseer.

As lords of the soil the old Virginians lorded it easily,
holding high their heads but never hardening their hearts.
They were the gentry; below them a gap hard to measure
in these days. Therein drudged the petty traders, the few
white mechanics and laborers. The shopkeeper class, as I
have noted, was an unknown quantity in the Virginian
human equation.

In politics, then, as later in the war, the Virginian was an
ultra. Whatever the "pa-aty" did was right, or at least
right enough to uphold. This trait made him perhaps quite
as useful a citizen in the main as had he wasted time and effort
in trying to think for himself.

"There were giants in those days" nursing by the Mother
of Presidents for their probable successors. These had
brought the state to the fore in the teething struggles of the
hobbledehoy nation; the men who "yaller dogged" at their
heels were safe from being traded in droves, or from being
sold at a cut price on the hoof. Men as well as measures
were different in those days.

The soil that had given the first "Rebel" president, and
three more in succession, had ever nurtured men who stood
forth first for right through all the troublous councils of the
Burgesses, the Revolution and the Union. The Hunters,
Marshalls, Masons, Bococks, had stood side by side with
Calhoun, McDuffie, Hampton, of the neighbor State, and Troup,
Lamar, Yancy, Soule," Davis and the men who made Secessia.

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAIhS OF THE SIXTIES

17

'

The Virginian was the cavalier class as compared with the
colder Covenanter types of the Puritan and the Knicker
bocker. There can be no question that the supposititious
line of Mason and Dixon separated two people as dissimilar
in thought and feeling, in habit and in need, as were the
Saxons and the knights of
the descent of Rollo the
Norman.

Sift the innumerable
theories of the cause of the
war between the states and
the whole residuum is the one
of race. The Dred Scott de
cision, the crusades of the
abolitionists, the contention
of territorial slavery that
killed Douglas and made Lin
coln, these, one and all, were
integers.

That much abused pos
sibility, "the future Macau-
lay/' will doubtless deduce

that, had slavery not existed — and been transferred by
rigor of climate alone from New England to the
South — there still would have been division between
the two wholly differing people that held the Union together
by a tenuous thread of sentimental obligation, frayed and
weakening each year. Absolute diversity of character and
of habits of life, inborn sentiments and sectional prejudices
growing more bitter each decade, simply from want of mutual
comprehension, must have resulted in separation. The
forcible separation of atoms means heat which in the human
ones means blood-letting.

The vibration of preponderant power alone might have

HON. JAMES M. MASON

18 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

stayed the torrent a while. Nullification on the one hand
and the secession of Massachusetts on the other were symp
toms of the body politic that showed fever.

However variant in tastes, habits and interests, Louisiana
and South Carolina might have legislated for Maine and
Michigan, Texas and Virginia for Pennsylvania and Wiscon
sin, had either understood the other. There was the rub.

The aristocratic Southerner looked down upon the crude
young Westerner. He despised the keen, money-getting
Yankee. He had the same contempt for the personality
of these men as he had for their vocations. In return the
Massachusetts man and the middle Western pioneer had
equal contempt for the trans-Potomac upstart he pictured
to himself. Prejudice in each did the grossest injustice
to the other, and the masses on either side, mimetic as
the monkey, took their tone from molders of opinion. It
was mutual ignorance, converting into mutual hatred. Thus,
to borrow from our axiomatic statesman, a condition, not a
theory, confronted every effort of the thinkers to adjust a
balance that had no standard for its scale.

No Southern thinker really believed that the South At
lantic aristocrat, or the blue blood Creole of the Gulf, was
practically a better man than the earnest, if eager, denizen
of the Eastern mart states, or of the prairie lands of the new
West. No Northern politician, not a fanatic or a trickster, be
lieved that men descended from the highest grades of almost
identical stock were the slave-driving tyrants or the weak-
kneed dawdlers popularly caricatured.

Yet all history proves that indurated error is quite as
strong, while far more obdurate, as principle. There was but
one way out of this centuried error; it was by the arbitrament
of blood.

The war had to come. The North and South had to seek
homogeneity, and they could be taught thorough under-

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 19

standing of each other only in the hideous clash that both
felt was but deferred.

It was well that it came when it did, and for double reason.
Delayed, it had been only a bloodier and costlier tug. Re
sulting sanity and mutual respect had brought interdepen
dence at greater delay to that only foundation for the sturdy
and respected nationalism of today — amalgamated Amer
icanism.

But this is a social record-, not a tract on politico-economics.
The facts were there; their results are seen of all men. His
tory, as ever, has repeated itself, and, as the wars of the Roses
left the Saxon and the Norman only Englishmen, the Creole
and the Yankee, the Carolinian and the Hoosier hold today
one Nation, with one aim, one flag and one pride. Each
has its memories and its glories; each feels the other's useful
ness and respects him for it. Common interest is the one
cement that holds the late dissevered parts in a concreted
whole. So, disguised with hate and baptized with blood
as it was, the war has proved itself a blessing. The cost
was infinite; so are the results it purchased.

CHAPTER II

LORDS OF THE SOIL AND ITS LADIES

THAT pleasantry of courtesy, "This house and all it con
tains is yours/' came nearer realization in Old Virginia than
anywhere on the globe.

Her lords of the soil lorded it with expansive bonhomie and
generous hand. Their broad acres and fat larders were shared
with friends and strangers, and each was made to feel that
he was a donor rather than a recipient.

The acme of entertainment is when the host sets forth for
his guest the very best he has and then honestly enjoys it
with him. Hospitality is like mercy as described by Portia:

"It blesses him that gives and him that takes."

And this the host of the rare Old Dominion knew and prac
ticed.

To marriage and the church, in convertible ratio, their
owners also devoted themselves. In almost every family
we read of vestrymen who were made quite as useful as orna
mental. They gave their time, means and enthusiasm to
the advancement of the church and seemingly were as eager
to be in the vestry as in the house of burgesses. There
were members of almost all the notable families in the minis
try, and, unlike the mother country, the selections were not
always from the younger sons, but often from the heads of
houses, who gave a living, instead of trying to make one.
Bishop Meade's book is practically a roster of the well-
descended who worked in and for the transplanted church,
and his list includes almost every name that was, or now is,
noted in Virginia.

20

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 21

Connubiality seems to have walked hand in hand with
piety in the early colony. The sons and daughters of the
great landed proprietors married early and devoted most of
their time and all of their care to the direction of their own
families' education, to their making suitable alliances and
arranging proper settlements.

And these great family
connections ramified into a
meshed and interwoven con
sanguinity that held the in
terest of neighborhoods, and
through them of all the Do
minion, bound to common
aspiration and to common
interest. The unification of
newer and less directly de
scended states has been a
political or material advance;
that of the Mother Virginia
has been, time out of mind,
one of pride and heredita
ment. Kentucky, Alabama,

the later states owe their

SECRETARY GEORGE W. RANDOLPH

many

of

Tennessee and
best blood to the colonial families of the James
town era. The Taylors, Raouls, Breckinridges, Maurys
and Tylers, noted and useful in the upbuilding and pub-
licism of the younger federated sisters, sprang from the
lords of "the sacred soil."

It is hard to overestimate the influence of a great and
strongly seated family connected with a dozen similar ones
and all holding one common point of view and action. Take,
as instance, the Randolphs. Their influence in their state
has been direct and collateral.

William Randolph came over in 1674 and settled on vast

22 BELLES, BEAUX AND BE AIMS OF THE SIXTIES

estates for which he had obtained patents, those on Turkey
Island alone, where he made the family seat, reaching some
75,000 acres. He married Mary, daughter of Henry and
Catherine Isham, of Bermuda Hundred, just across the
James. Their seven sons and three daughters married into
most of the families then founding social dynasties. William,
of Turkey Island, married Miss Beverly, of Gloucester;
Thomas, of Tuckahoe, Miss Flemming; Isham, of Dungeness,
Miss Rojers, an English heiress; Richard, of Curls', Miss
Boiling, a direct descendant of Pocahontas; and Sir John
Randolph, the sixth son, Miss Beverly, the sister of William's
wife; the last brother, Edward, wedding another English
heiress. Two of the three sisters chose Reverend Yates's
brothers, the third marrying William Stith. She became
the mother of Reverend Dr. Stith who was the his
torian of Virginia and later president of William and Mary
College. He married Miss Judith Randolph, of Tuckahoe,
and his sister became the wife of Commissary Dawson.
Another Stith sister married Rev. Mr. Keith, of Fauquier and
was the ancestor of the famous John Marshall, Chief Justice.
Still another sister married Anthony Walke, of Norfolk,
and was mother of the Rev. Anthony Walke. Thus it will
be seen that the family connection was as strong in the church
as in the state. There was a Bishop Randolph in the close
of the eighteenth century who was archdeacon of Jersey,
then Bishop of Oxford and later of London. Thomas Ran
dolph, the poet of England, was own uncle to Randolph of
Turkey Island, and the colonist head of the great family
himself had the poetic vein. All of the latter's sons, as noted
above, made themselves name and position. William, the
elder, was member of the council and treasurer of the colony ;
Isham was member of the house of burgesses, in 1740, from
Goochland, and adjutant-general of the colony. Richard
was, in the same year as •his brother, member of burgesses,

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF TEE SIXTIES 23

from Henrico; and succeeded him as treasurer. Sir John
was speaker of burgesses and attorney-general.

A grandson, William, was clerk of the burgesses and suc
ceeded his uncle as attorney-general. Peyton Randolph,
son of Sir John, was speaker of the burgesses and became
president of the first congress, held at Philadelphia.

The holding of high trusts descended steadily. Thomas
Mann Randolph was a member of the Virginia convention of
1776 from Goochland; Beverly was a member of the assembly
from Cumberland during the Revolution, and later governor
of that state. Robert, son of Peter; Richard, grandson of
Peter, and David Meade Randolph, grandson of the second
Richard, of Curls', were all noted cavalry officers of the
Revolution; David Meade was marshal of Virginia; and the
famous congressman, John Randolph, of Roanoke, grandson
of the first Richard, was also minister to Russia. His father
was John Randolph, of Roanoke, who married the beauty,
Frances Bland, daughter of Theodoric Bland, and thus a
granddaughter of the Boilings. Her second husband was
the first St. George Tucker; and thus she became the mother
of another famous line.

Later members of the family were Edmund Randolph,
secretary of state of the United States and governor of
Virginia, and Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr., member of con
gress, of the legislature of Virginia, and governor of the state.

Nowhere does history show a more noted descent nor one
that better upheld its traditions or better proved the training
bestowed upon the early families. This one held seats that
were household words and of which some names still exist,
the owners, from their numbers, being distinguished by their
home affixes. On the James river stood Tuckahoe, Dunge-
ness, Chattsworth, Wilton, Varina, Curls', Bremo, Turkey
Island. As the race descended, so did the fame of the succeed
ing seats, as those of the Blands of Westover, the Harrisons

24 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

of the James, the Cabells of Buckingham and Nelson, and
others still existent or renewed as family memorials.

Next to entertaining his guest the old-timer took to sport
with keenest zest. Fox hunting came first in the love of all,
and every manor home had its stud and its pack, blood stock

of the best the old country
could produce and hounds
of lineage and high degree.
The youth — and for the mat-

• ter of that, the maid — who

could not ride "anything
that jumped" was recreant
to race and custom, as was
the knight who declined the
tilt or the lady of the lists
who wrore no colors.

It is odd, therefore, that
the first fox-hunting clubs
were not formed at the South.
The Glouster Hunt Club, of

MRS. EVEL™ CABELL ROBINSON, Pennsylvania, was doubtless

OF COLLETON the parent one of the Union.

It was founded in 1776, a

great and social affair, for the chase and entertaining. Others
may have arisen, but the second notable club was the Baltimore
Hounds, founded in 1818; the parent of later organizations in
Maryland and the District of Columbia. Among these, today,
are the Elkridge Fox Club, with Mr. E. A. Jackson as president,
and W. Ross Whistler, secretary, and two hundred and forty
members; the Green Spring Valley, seated in the most pictur
esque and fashionable of Baltimore outlyings, eighteen years
ago, to hunt the wild fox exclusively, with its two hundred mem
bers. The present vigorous heir of former attempt in the dis
trict is the Chevy Chase Hunt, founded on Thanksgiving day of

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES ' 25

twenty years syne. Its leading spirits are Messrs Clarence
Moore, M.F.H., and Gist Blair, and its suburban club house
is perhaps the seat of most diverse hospitality in the land.
Virginia now has four admirably organized and equipped
clubs: the Deep Run, of Richmond, the Warrenton, the
Cheswick (near Charlottesville) and the Piedmont, of Lynch-
burg. The Deep Run was
organized just seventeen
years ago, by Mr. S. H. Han
cock and his sister-in-law,
Miss Maude Blacker. They
are English folk: and the
lady one of the best riders
and thorough horsewomen
in the country. Her father,
when he had reached eighty-
six, rode as straight to
hounds as a youth and never
missed a meet. Organized
with only twenty-three mem
bers, it now has over two
hundred and fifty. Notable
men and some of the most
charming women of the whole
state follow its hounds:
among its presidents and offi
cers having been Philip Hax-
all, Joseph Bryan, Major
Otway S. Allen, P. S. A.

Brine, and Dr. Jos. A. White, its longtime president and
leading spirit. Among the ladies I recall Mrs. Thos. Nel
son Carter, Mrs. Allen Potts (who was Gertrude Rives and
had no cross-country superior), Mrs. Andrew Christian,
Misses Skelton, Palmer, Sophie White, and the famous and

CAPTAIN PHILIP HAXALL

26 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

beautiful Langhorne sisters, who seem to have been born to
the saddle.

Shooting followed close in sport, for game was everywhere
in those early clearings, big game and little. Crack shots
laid the foundation of the marksmanship that won the colony
wars, the Revolution and the War of 1812. Racing, too,
was legitimate descendant of the hunt. The turf of the old
days was led by Virginia stables and took its tone from Vir
ginia gentlemen, the Randolphs, Doswells, Johnstons and
many more familiar to younger ears.

Most familiar to them, likewise, are two ancient seats inter
woven with the history and the courtliness of all our country,
Arlington and Mount Vernon, literally household words today.

The first Custis we note is John, in 1640. He had six sons
and one daughter. She married Colonel Argal Yeardley, son
of Governor Yeardley. Her brothers in Virginia were John,
William and Joseph; Thomas, in Baltimore (Ireland); Robert,
in Rotterdam, and Edmund, in London. John, the eldest,
took the family lead. He was what this day would have
called a " hustler," a great salt maker, a trader, a churchman
and a vestryman. In 1676, during Bacon's rebellion, he
was appointed major-general. He was a favorite of Lord
Arlington in Charles the Second's time, and after him was
named the estate he received with his first wife. His second
wife was Miss Scarborough, who bore him one son, named
for him. The descendants of that son and of his uncle,
William Custis, peopled the Eastern Shore with the Custis
family and made the historical possibility of Washington's
marriage. His son John, the fourth so named, returned from
education in England, received from his grandfather the Ar
lington estate and married the daughter of Colonel Daniel
Parke. It was the latter's son whose widow married George
Washington. Daniel Parke's wife was a Miss Evelyn; their
daughter married John.Custis, of Arlington, who was the first

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 27

noted Virginia ancestor of George Washington Parke Custis,
whose grandmother was Mrs. Washington. The wife of Wash
ington Custis was the daughter of William Fitzhugh, of Chat
ham ; and his sister married Colonel Overton, of Westmoreland.
These bits of brief biography antedate the later Arlington
and the beautiful capital to which it is adjunct.

The owner of Mount Vernon was Lawrence Washington,
elder brother to the general. He married the second daughter
of William Fairfax, of Belvoir near Mount Vernon, whose
mother was a Gary. This was the first of the five marriages
between those notable families, which occurred within the
course of a few years. The Carys, of Maryland, Virginia and
Florida, all descend from that stock.

The Fairfax family dates back to the coming of the Con
queror, it being of Saxon stock and the name meaning "Fair
Hair." The Herberts of both states also intermarried with
the Carys and Fairfaxes.

Thomas was the first Lord Fairfax. His son Ferdinand
was famed in the Parliamentary army, and his son Thomas
was the celebrated Lord Fairfax who resigned the command
of the army to Cromwell. William Fairfax had a fine seat
at Belvoir, near Mount Vernon, and was father of the Rev.
Brian Fairfax, as well as of Mrs. Washington. The second
had two sons, Brian, a noted scholar and poet; his brother
Henry was the fourth Lord Fairfax. Thomas, the son of
this Lord Fairfax, succeeded to the title and married the
daughter of Lord Colepepper. Their son Thomas was the
first American Lord Fairfax. The Rev. Brian Fairfax, of the
Episcopal church at Alexandria, was the first native lord
of the name. The present Lord Fairfax is of Maryland birth
and is first cousin to the Carys, who will figure later in this
record.

The Fitzhughs, interesting in themselves and closely
allied to the Washingtons, Lees and Herberts, were lords of

28 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

fine manors. William Fitzhugh, of Chatham, divided 60,000
acres between his five sons. His wife was a Miss Tucker and
his sons owned Eagle Nest and Ford, in King George, and
Belleaire and Boscobel, in Stafford. They married also into
the Mason and McCarty families. They were the parent stock
of the widespread Fitzhughs, of Maryland, New York, Virginia
and the newer states.

Another noted name is that of the Pages. The progeni
tor was Sir John, of Williamsburg. His son Matthew wedded
Mary Mann, of Timber Neck Bay, and left an immense estate
to his son Mann, who built beautiful Rosewell. His son Mann
married Judith Wormley, and later Judith Carter. The sole
daughter of the first marriage wedded Thomas Mann Ran
dolph, of Tuckahoe. Three sons came of the Carter alliance:
Mann Page, of Rosewell, who married Alice Grymes, of Middle
sex ; John Page, of North End, who married Jane Byrd, of West-
over, and Robert, of Hanover, who married Miss Sarah Walker.

The descendants of these brothers were great in number —
some of the families reaching-the u baker's dozen," and they
in turn intermarried with the Carters, Burwells, Nelsons,
McCartys and Byrds.

This last is a family connected with the most interesting
growth of the state. To the second of the three noted in
t-he records is due the foundation of the "leaguered capital"
of our day. He inherited great tracts about Richmond and
surrounding his princely home of Westover. Colonel Byrd,
of Westover, was the author of the " Westover Papers" and
prominent in all public affairs. The third, and the last of
the name who owned Westover, was prominent in the Revo
lution and on Washington's staff when he encamped at Win
chester in the early Indian wars. The descendants of this
family run in and out through the tangled skein of all early
Virginian intermarriage. To attempt enumeration would
produce a biographical dictionary. Even at that risk, there

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 29

is one more of the old liners peremptorily demanding notice
because of the prominence in its impress upon its time.

Theodoric Bland settled at Westover in Charles City in
1654. His death seventeen years later left three sons, The
odoric, Richard and John. Richard, of Berkeley, married
Miss Swann, and at her death married Elizabeth, daughter
of William Randolph, of Turkey Island. He had three
daughters who married Henry Lee, William Beverly and
Robert Montford. His sons, Richard and Theodoric, lived
at Jordon's, Prince George and Causon's, City Point. The
elder married Miss Poythress and left the popular twelve
children; the junior married Miss Boiling, of Pocahontas,
and left one son, Theodoric, and five daughters. They
married into the Bannister, Ruffin, Eaton, Haynes and
Randolph of Roanoke families. This Mrs. Randolph is the
one who later married St. George Tucker. Her brother,
Theodoric, 2d, was lieutenant of the county and clerk of the
house of burgesses, and the
third Theodoric was a doctor
in England. He returned,
however, distinguished him
self in the Revolution and
became an intimate and fa
vorite of Washington. Im
portant in the family was also
Giles Bland, gallant victor
of Bacon's rebellion.

All memory of these stately
old homes and of the men who MRS. ALFRED L. RIVES OF CASTLE HILL
made them gleams soft, but

warm, with the comeliness and courtliness of their dainty
women.

Much of all that life has been reflected down the later
years, through the ante-bellum country seats of wealthier

30 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

planters on the James and the Rappahannock, Westover,
Brandon, Castle Hill and others, known to the borders of
the Union.

At these were entertained many distinguished guests from
abroad as well as from our own side of the water. Their
house parties at shooting season and Christmas, their rare
welcome, rarer wines and rarest hospitality, have gone sound
ing down the aisles of sociality and gastronomy. Today
many of the old homes have fallen into memories only.

Their home seats were replicas of those of the burgess
days, where not the very houses — often scarce modernized
out of that old-time grandeur and elegance that shone un
impaired up to the days when the sons of Light Horse Harry,
of the Montfords, Latanes — changed pumps for riding-
boots and threw their swords into the number-tipped scales
of war, for country and for name.

It was heredity that spurred the Ashbys and Peytons and
the Carters and Harrisons to the Potomac, marched the Val
ley meteor-like and held the Rappahannock, by the side of
Lee and Johnston and Stonewall Jackson.

As with the men, so with the women, mothers of a line of
gentlemen.

Who saw the women of the '60's at court, in camp or toiling
in unaccustomed kitchen or fetid hospital, who sees them
today "the favored guests at every bright and brilliant
throng/' and fails to see across the mists of time the forms
and faces of those who presided at bounteous board, walked
the minuet or romped in real Virginia reel, in those old manor
houses of yore?

Every mention of Arlington conjures up the fair widow
who wedded young Washington, walking a courtly measure
in "baby waist and train"; or pretty Nellie Custis queening
it merrily over congressional quadrilles at Philadelphia.

When the dashing Rives sisters, the Langhorne girls, the

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 31

Johnstons and the rest, witch the hunting world with peerless
'cross country riding, and doff habit for toilette to witch
again the city rout or watering-place german, we recall that
the Riveses were beautiful women ever since William, the
grandfather of Minister William C. Rives, built Castle Hill;
we recall that Mirador is no new seat, but of "the old Vir
ginia way/' which brings back the women of that Langhorne
line who "danced with Washington."

One of the gravest of all the many errors cherished by the
North as truth about the South, is that regarding the home
education of its women. Differing as they do, in theory and
practice of social life, from their more progressive — might I
write aggressive? — sisters of the North, they have never
been at all the pretty puppets described by overswift ig
norance.

It has been accepted that the Southern girl, from pinafore
to orange blossoms, was educated for a bride, but not for a
wife. The theory of the uninformed has indurated by repe
tition that she was l: incased in cedar and shut in a sacred
gloom "; that she was held by her male kith and kin as "a
toy too tender for the winds of heaven to visit too roughly,"
and that embroidery, twanging the guitar, plus a possible
French novel and a bonbonniere, were her portion and Ultima
Thule of educational variety.

The thoughtless forget in this picture the primal fact that
most of these women, especially in Virginia and the Caro-
linas, were English in blood and bone. Their grandams
were British born; themselves often colonists. They were
almost invairably of high degree and of liberal education,
scholastic and domestic. So, these women of colonial and
Revolutionary days educated not only their daughters, but
frequently large families of sons until they were of an age
for the great university at Williamsburg. No person can
really believe that the daughters of such mothers could be

32 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

the dolls and playthings described by the myopic or the
mendacious.

An hour spent in a library over the chronicles of the colony
or in cursory reading of " Women of the Revolution" would
preclude a folly which reflects only upon the intelligence of
its believers.

The institution of slavery may have influenced the habits
of the wealthier class of the Southerner in some sort, par
ticularly in its plantation life, by excess of service. The
little " nigger maid" was the appendage of every planter's
daughter from the pinafore and candy stick age, and the
white need never have tied her own slipper had she so willed.
But the Southern girl then, as a rule, rode better and shot
better than her Northern neighbor. And perhaps she danced
better as well, but the taper hand that restrains the restive
colt or drops the woodcock is not the one that belongs to the
helpless woman.

The "Island Mastiff" strain ran in the veins of both sexes.
What their early mothers had been in the colony, what their
daughters were in the Revolution, that and more were the
tenderest reared and most reticent women of the South,
matrons and maidens, in that later struggle of the men of
the same race.

Later in these pages I shall show that, as the flower of
Southern youth threw down quill pen and billiard cue to take
the sword, so their mothers and little sisters wrought in
kitchen, sewing room and in the hideous hospital as only
woman at her full stature and in her highest pride has ever
wrought at trial.

CHAPTER III

AT

Washington is today confessedly the show city of this
continent and is one of the most picturesque in the world.
All Americans — whatever their habitat or their sympathies-
are proud of the national capital.

The Washingtonian of a half century ago recalls a wholly
different place, and the returning parole bearer, who rubbed
the smoke of a four-year battle from his eyes as he recrossed
the Potomac, beheld with wonder and amaze the changes
wrought by the Federal Aladdin. What was brought about
in the brief space of the war had been solidified, broadened and
burnished in as many intervening decades.

Yet, great as is the superficial transformation of a pro
vincial village into a cosmopolitan center, it dwindles when
compared with the change in the social confirmation of this
literally central city.

Ante-bellum Washington was a mixture of Arlington
grandeur, Jeffersonian simplicity, Dolly-Madisonism, Fill-
more primness and the gracious chill of Miss Harriet Lane.
Its society was a mosaic of elegance and pomp, of recklessness
and parity, of culture and crudity. Its West End arrogated—
and with some show of right divine — the noblesse oblige tone
of the Faubourg St. Germain, but that outlying East, from
the Treasury past Duddington, to the Navy Yard, had a
decided smatter of the Latin Quarter.

It was a charming society and one much sought, that of
Washington of the mi-regime. It ate its terrapin, not always

33

34

BELLES, BEAUX AND BBAINS OF THE SIXTIES

with a gold spoon, but with true gusto, and lacking red devils
and electrics, it sought in cab, and even horse-car, balls as
truly elegant and germans as delightful and as beauty-
crowned as any of the present.

Those were the days of great leadership in both political

parties, and sectional es
trangement had not spread
from the corridors of the Cap
itol into the salons of
society. This came later,
with the swirl and heat of a
consuming fire; but even one
year previous to Beaure-
gard's salute to "Old Bob'7
Anderson at Sumter, the
mightiest men of the North
sought eagerly the dark-eyed
matrons and belles of the
Southern coterie, while the
Soules, Slidells, Orrs, Breck-
inridges and Tuckers of
coming war fame, danced
stately measures with the
ladies of the Hales, Sewards, Pendletons and Pughs.
Then, too, the gilded youth in pumps, the personal pride of
german-dancing, were most often of the Southern sort.

In toning the society of the Ws, the South had the pas.
This was doubtless due to the natural sociability and pleasure
love of her daughters, but in part it was because the families
of congressmen and government officials could not live in
their plantation homes in summer, and, having once sipped
Potomac water, would not in winter.

The leaders of society were largely Southerners. Cultured,
gracious, or brilliant women there were from North, East and

MISSES MATHILDE AND ROSINE SLIDELL

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 35

West. Beautiful, attractive and quite progressive girls
there were who rolled their "r's" roundly, and did a few
other things that their Southern sisters had perhaps shied at.
But these people all belonged to the caravan. They came
in December when the congressional worry began; they left
for distant homes after March 4, or for watering place and
seaside in the swelter of the long session. They were in the
society, and of it to a certain extent, but they were not it.

So this Southern resident put his impress upon the un
written laws, and ruled with the little iron hand in the No 5
gant Suede.

We of that day remember beautiful Mrs. Pugh, wife of the
Ohio senator. Double-gilded youth from everywhere flut
tered about her as eagerly as about her handsome and popular
sister, Miss Ada Chalfant. Miss Hale, daughter of New
Hampshire's senator, was a favorite with old and young,
and gay, graceful and audacious Mrs. John R. Thompson,
"the senior senator from New Jersey," as Mrs. Phillips dubbed
her, merely shifted her regnant belleship from Princeton
juniors and Dons in the autumn to Washington solons in the
winter. Stately Miss Marcy was ever sought and retained
the friendship of all, and the Ledyard ladies of the Lewis
Cass family were as geniune and hospitable as any in the set.

These are samples from great names; there were scores of
others, but they were all birds of passage, nesting elsewhere
and flying South only for the season. The home people were
of another type and, nursing the society in the interregnum,
they kept it warm with Southern temperaments and methods.

The winter before Sumter was the most lavish and brilliant
that Washington had ever known. It was also the giddiest
and most feverish. That was before the day of multi-million
aires and men were naught if not dollar stamped; before
heiresses captured fledgling and penniless young army and
navy men to build them cages on the Avenue. Women and

36 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

men themselves counted for everything even in the maziest
whirl of dinner and german.

I have said there were giants. So were there beautiful
" princesses" whose fairy godmothers, Birth and Breeding,
had dowered them in the cradle.

What shaky old relic of that time, holding up memory's
looking-glass, but fails to see Juno-like Miss Adele Cutts,
then not yet the wife of the " Little Giant," Stephen A. Doug
las, or petite and graceful Henrietta Magruder, Miss Marion
Ramsay, later Mrs. " Brock" Cutting, of New York, with her
lovely childish face and baby waist1, hiding that infinity of
tact that made simplicity an art? Ah! Temptation to cata
logue that time-reflected picture gallery is hard to withstand.

I have said that there were two distinct societies in the
Washington of yesterday, nowise parallel, yet not always
tangent. The general set included strangers in town of all
shades and degrees, the congressional people and some in
the departments. The resident set, salted with the diplo
matic, met these on the neutral ground of card exchanging
and crush receptions. But each had its own intimate and en
joyed circle, a closed one, in the main, on the part of the home
set. Each naturally had its leaders and ambitions. Of one
"Lady Ashley," as the flippants of the day styled Mrs. John
J. Crittenden, was one-time queen; again Mrs. Clem Clay, of
Alabama, mounted to the box and tooled a society coach that
was full loaded with pretty and ancient-named Southern belles.

Of the resident homes remembered across the years are the
Freemans, Clem Hills, William T. Carrolls, Countess Ester-
hazys, Emorys, Jesups, Aulicks, Gwins, Sliddels, and

" Each one bears a glass, to show me many more!"

Not too eclectic, "Us youth" who frequented the functions
of both sets included young and promising army and navy
men, many later major-generals and admirals like Captain

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 37

George B. McClellan, Ambrose E. Burnsicb, Lieutenant
Gouverneur K. Warren, Fitzhugh Lee, John S. Saunders and
such heel-celebrants as Renwick Smedberg and Alan Ram
say. Few of these dreamed then that four clicks of Time's
watch would see them with stars on their straps, less legs
than the average, or a memory gilded with a great deed.
Civilians, later famous, were there too: George Eustis, who
married philanthropist Corcoran's only child ; William Porcher
Miles, the bachelor of the Lower House who designed the
first Confederate flag and, better, married the charming Miss
Bettie Bierne, and many
another, not unloved even
when unhonored and unsung.
Such were the components
of Capital society in the win
ter of 1860-61, when dull
clouds of doubt and suspense
began to press low on the
horizon. From East and
West and North heavy,
grumbling thunder rolled dis
tant, but distinct. Through
cumuli, black and threat
ening, red flashes threatened

an early storm. Washington ^^^HB^^^E*f^0
looked at the skies to the
North, paused, hesitated;
then went on waltzing and

lobbying again. In society, T- c- DE LEON AND COL- J- s-
it whirled around in the german; at the Capitol in Bun
combe and jobs; in both, with a speed dizzier than ever
before. Still the horizon darkened and a few, timid or
shrewd, began to take in sail and peer ahead for a port. Even
the more reckless began to look from the horizon

38 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF TEE SIXTIES

to each other's faces with unrest and suspicion.

But two classes seemed ignorant of the signs: the people
who came to spend money and the sharper ones who came
to make it. The former had grasped at the outer circle,
and having secured an insecure grip upon its rim away they
went with a fizz and a spin, giddy, delighted, devil may care.
The other class held those thousand who annually came to
roll logs, pull wires and juggle through bills, in congenial and
paying traffic, stuffed with terrapin and washed down with
dry champagne. Who shall dive into and write the secrets
of that marvelous committee of ways but no means and of
its impartial preying upon government and client? This
Caliban of governmental spawning was holding a very witches'
Sabbath in the closing days of 1860.

On with the rush! Dinners, balls, suppers followed each
other as unchecked as John Gilpin. Dress, jewels and equi
page cost sums undreamed of heretofore. "This may be the
last of it," was the answer unspoken, but acted out to the
threat of the coming storm. Madame would not fold away
her Worth gown and parure of diamonds, perchance bought
with somebody else's money; madamoiselle must make one
more exhibit of her velvety shoulders and of killing pace in
the german and time for galoshes and umbrellas were com
ing fast. It would never do to miss opportunities now, for
this might be "the end of the Old Wreck," as slang began to
call the capital.

So the mad stream rushed on, and the old wheels, some
what rusted, but unoiled, revolved as creakingly as ever.
All the while that huge engine, the Lobby, pumped steadily
on in the political basement.

Suddenly, a dull silence. A sullen reverberation across
the Potomac. The long threatened deed had crystallized
into fact. South Carolina had seceded and the first link
had been rudely struck from the chain of states.

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 39

There was a little start; that was all. As for the Lobby
pump, its piston grows white hot and all its valves fly wide
open with the work it does.

Presently faces that were never long before lengthened
visibly and thoughtful men wagged solemn heads as they
passed one another, or paused to take important personages
by the buttonhole. More frequent knots and earnest ones
now discuss the status in hotel lobbies and the corridors of the
departments. Prudent non-partisans with thick slices to
butter on either side keep their lips tightly closed, and hot
talk, pro or con, sometimes overrides the intended whisper.

At last the sleepy administration opened its eyes. Finding
that effort too late, and not liking the looks of things, it shut
them again. A little later came windy declarations and some
feeble attempts at temporizing; but every sane man knew that
the crisis had come and that nothing could avert it.

The earthquake that had so long rumbled in premonitory
throes yawned in an ugly chasm that swallowed up the petty
differences on both of its sides. North and South were at
last openly aligned against each other.

One throb, and the little lines of party were roughly obliter
ated, while across the gulf that gaped between them men
glared at each other with but one meaning in their eyes.

That solemn mummery, the Peace Congress, might have
stayed temporarily the tide it was wholly powerless to dam,
but the arch-seceder, Massachusetts, manipulated even that
flim-flam of compromise. The weaker elements in that
body were no match for the peaceful Puritan whom war
might profit but could not injure. Peace was pelted from
under her olive with splinters of Plymouth Rock, and New
England poured upon the troubled waters oil — of vitriol.

When the Peace Commissioners from the Southern con
gress at Montgomery came to Washington all felt their
presence only a mockery — however respectable a one, with

40

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

such names as John Forsyth, M. J. Crawford and A. B. Roman.
It was another verdict of that fatal "too late!" They came
only to demand what the government had then no power
to concede, even had the will not been lacking. Every line
they wrote to foes and friends was waste of ink, every word
they spoke a waste of breath.

Southern senators, representatives and even minor of
ficials were leaving their long
time seats by every train,
families of years' residence
were pulling down their
household gods and starting
on a pilgrimage to set them
up — where they knew not,
save that it must be in the
South. Even old friends
looked doubtfully at each
other and rumors were rife
of incursions across the Po
tomac by wild-haired riders
from Virginia. Even the
fungi of departmental desks
seemed suddenly imbued
with life, rose and threw
away their quills — and with
them the very bread for
their families— to "go South!"
It was the passage out of
Egypt in modern dress.
A dull, vague unrest brooded over Washington, as though
the city lay in the shadow of a great pall or was threatened
with a plague. Then, again, when it was too late, General
Scott virtually went into the cabinet.

"The General," as' he was familiarly known, practically

COLONEL JOHN FORSYTH

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 41

filled the chair that Jefferson Davis had once held. Saga
cious men foresaw no result from this, and all felt that the
time had arrived when they must range themselves on one
side or the other. The South had spoken and she
seemed to mean what she said. All Washington was at
last convinced that there might be war, that there must be
separation.

Into this dull, leaden suspense, that a breath might lash
into a seething maelstrom of passion, suddenly dropped
Abraham Lincoln, unexpectedly and alone, in a Scotch cap
and a long cloak.

The new president was a man of iron. His coming thus
was not the escapade it has been dreamed by some. Far
less was it the result of fear for himself. He had played a
great game boldly for a great stake, and he was not disposed to
risk his winnings, and perhaps his life, on some chance throw
of a fanatic or a madman. Could any vague forecast of the
doom hovering above him have whispered its half-heard
warning : ' ' Prudence ! ' '

Certain it is that he was soon in conference with General
Scott and the nominal secretary, -Holt. Then unheard-of
precautions were taken to safeguard the inauguration while
seemingly devised to heighten its pomp and military
glitter.

The night before that inauguration was a trying one
to all Washington. The nervous heard a signal for bloody
outbreak in every unfamiliar sound; thoughtful ones peered
beyond the .mists and saw the boiling of the mad breakers,
where the surge of eight incensed and uncontrolled millions
hurled against the granite foundations of the established
government. Selfish heads tossed upon hot pillows, for
the dawn would usher in a change boding ruin to many
prospects, monetary or political. Even the butterflies of
fashion felt an impending something, not defined, but sug-

42 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

gestive of work instead of pleasure. So Washington arose,
red-eyed, unrefreshed, expectant, on that famous fourth
of March, 1861.

The ceremonial was planned to be grand and imposing
beyond precedent. Visiting militia and civic organizations
from every corner of North, East and West had been collect
ing for days, meeting loud receptions rather labored than
spontaneous. The best bands were present in force and all
available cavalry and artillery of the regular army had been
hastily mobilized for the double purposes of spectacle and
security. Notwithstanding, the public pulse was uncertain
and fluttering and the military commanders were like unto
it.

All night orderlies and cavalry platoons had dashed
through the streets and guard detail had marched to all
points of possible danger. Day dawn saw a light battery
drawn up on G street, commanding New York avenue and
the Treasury; others, with guns unlimbered and ready for
action, were stationed at various points of " strategic"
Washington, and infantry was massed at the Long Bridge,
then the only approach from Virginia. All preparation looked
to quick concentration should symptoms of a riot show head.
All preparations seemed more fitting for the capital of Mexico
than that of these United States. An augury were they for
the peace and suasion of the administration thus ushered in.
Happily, they were all needless.

In quiet that touched dismalness the day wore away.
Studious precaution had drawn all the sweets from the elabo
rate feast prepared to catch the national taste. A dull veil
seemed drawn over all glamour by the certainties of the
close impending future. Street crowds wore an anxious air,
all hilarity seeming forced, even from the young and thought
less.

Many a lowering face looked down upon the procession to

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 43

the Capitol from windows, balconies and housetops, and some
of the residences along the route had shutters closed.

It was over at last. The new man had begun the new era
and I was ready for my start to Dixie. South Carolina's
secession had decided me to "go with my people."

Not all who did this were really convinced that leaving
the Union was surest accomplishment of claims made for
states' rights and Southern rights, under the Constitution.
Few of them, however, regarded the time-honored federation
as "the Old Wreck," as named by the hotheads and thought
less. Yet almost every man of Southern birth — even when
reared and educated away from his state, as I had been —
felt a tug of sympathy and brotherhood at his heart-strings
that was resistless by reason or experience. If these two
moved him mentally, morally, it still was: "Right or wrong,
my country!"

I had waited to leave for days, despite curiosity to see the
end of the familiar old regime and the advent of the new man,
under i equest from the Peace Commission that I should carry
to Mr. Davis, at Montgomery, their report of the inaugura
tion and its effect. Their despatch was to be ready for the
Aquia Creek mail boat that night. So I went to dinner at
Wormley's, with Wade Hampton, Jr., and a few others, to
say at least au revoir and to pick up the last news and gossip
for verbal despatch to the new " capital."

"Jim," as we then called that later imposing mulatto who
became the famous war-time caterer, had promised us a
dinner to remember en route, and a substantial lunch to
solidify memory. Toward the end of the former, Wormley
looked in with a face unusually grave and asked:

"Really going, gents? It's all jes' awful, an' no mistake!
The General's dining in the other room now an' he looks
worrit in his mind. He don't talk as usual, but he
eats, does 'the General' — he eats powerful!" Those

44

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

who remember General Scott will see the snap shot.
Soon we were in one of the night-liner hacks of the period;
whose dusky Jehus knew Washington youth better than
the directory. Jim bestowed the precious lunch tenderly
upon the front seat and held the rickety cab door wide

with the air of the Lord of
the Ante-chamber. Several
• of the old set ran out for fare
wells, among them, of course,
the three remaining members
of what gay society knew as
"the quartet," Renwick
Smedberg, Frank Du Barry
and Walter H. S. Taylor.
The last was killed by a sharp
shooter while on engineer
duty on the north side of
the Potomac. Du Barry was
buried at sea, in his gray
uniform, as I may tell later,

ftn(J « Qld Smcd " IS nOW a

one-legged, bald old jollity of San Francisco, with a new
generation or two around his board, and his bluecoat com
rades giving him their highest honors in Legion and G.A.R.

"So you're really going? Sorry, but guess you had to!"
"Never mind, old man, you'll be back in three months !"
"Better not try it; you'll starve down there!" "Hope we
won't meet, if it comes to a pinch, old boy!" were a few of the
Parthian arrows flung at us as obbligato to cordial hand grip.

Then we were off. The wide level of the avenue was al
most deserted under the dismal drizzle that had set in. The
dim lamps of that day reflected on the wet pavement, making
the gloom more dim. The inauguration ball was about to
begin and a 'bus passed us, gay with the red uniforms of the

COLONEL W. B. SMEDBERG, U. 8. A.

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 45

Marine Band, under Louis Weber. Were we going where a
sudden turn might bring us face to face with old and dear
friends, where the hiss of the Minie would sing accompani
ment instead of the latest galop that Louis had composed?

Beyond, a U. S. light battery was wending arsenalward
at slow trot. As our hack passed a better lighted corner
its officer drew rein to speak. He was Lieutenant John S.
Saunders, who had led the section at the Treasury corner
that day. He spoke anything but cheerily:

"So you fellows are off! Wish I were you. But today
settled it, and my resignation goes in tonight. I shan't wait
for Virginia. If I have to shoot at Americans, I'll do it from
the other side of the Potomac! Tell the boys down there
ril be along soon. Good luck!"

He was down soon and did good enough work to embroider
two stars on his red collar. From him we verified the reports
that had already oozed through war office secrecy: that
the cannon in the day's pageant of Peace had been shotted
with canister; that the foot escort of the president, going
to take his oath of office, had ball cartridge in every musket;
that detectives in citizens' clothes were in every group on
the pavements.

Merely needed precautions? Possibly. But so far, there
had been not one overt act; the government was treating
still with the "new concern" at Montgomery; the peace
commissioners were still wasting breath at Washington.

CHAPTER IV

A NEW NATION'S NURSERY

THE passage through Virginia was by night. The state
was apparently in deep sleep and so she remained until that
memorable seventeenth of April when her convention de
clared that the oldest, largest and most influential of the
Southern sisterhood would cast her lot with the rest.

In the Carolinas and Georgia the hubbub began with the
dawn and lasted continuously until our journey's end. The
entire countryside was awake. At every station were aimless
crowds, chewing tobacco, lounging in the sunshine and whit
tling sticks; some dull and listless, others wildly excited over
some cause they did not understand. All wanted the latest
news, and all were seemingly settled on one point: "Ther'll
be wah, sholy!"

Plan, direction or information as to cause and conditions,
there seemed to be none. That was all left to the leaders
who carried the states out of the Union, and the limit of
public knowledge seemed to be that something was about
to happen.

The impression left was that the South was ready to fight,
also that she was unprepared for it. This was ray conclusion
long before reaching the " Cradle of the Confederacy," as the
Alabama capital had modestly rebaptized herself, and
early information there more than confirmed it.

Though severed abruptly from her hope of becoming a
Rome, the " Cradle" has a picturesque perch upon at least

46

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF TEE SIXTIES

47

seven hills. As in most inland towns, "Main street/' the
artery of trade and activity, runs from river bluff "up town."
This, in the present instance, is a high hill a full mile from the
water. Here perched the Capitol, not a particularly imposing
pile, either in size or architecture, yet it dominates tHe lesser
structures as it stares down the sandy street with quite a
Roman rigor.

The staff upon its dome bore the flag of the New Nation,
run up there shortly after the congress met, by the hands of
a noted daughter of Virginia. Miss Letitia Tyler was not
only a representative of proud Old Dominion blood, but was
also granddaughter of an ex-president of the United States,
whose eldest son, Robert Tyler, lived at the new capi
tal. And that flag had
been designed by Hon. Wil
liam Porcher Miles, one of
the brainiest of the younger
statesmen of South Caro
lina.

All Montgomery and her '
crowding visitors had flocked
to Capitol Hill in gala attire,
bells were rung and cannon
boomed and the throng, head
ed by Jefferson Davis and all
members of the government,
stood bareheaded as the fair
Virginian loosed its folds to
the breeze. Then a poet-
priest, who later added the sword to the crozier, spoke a sol
emn benediction to the people, the cause and the flag. The
shout that answered him from every throat told that they
meant to honor and to strive for it; if need come, to die for it.

Equidistant between river and Capitol and from each other

JEFFER60N DAVIS

48 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

stood the two hotels of which the capital could boast.
Montgomery Hall, of bitter memory and like the much-sung
" Raven of Zurich/' noted for uncleanliness of nest and length
of bill, had been the resort of country merchants, horse and
cattle men, but now the Solons of the hour dwelt therein
with the possible heroes of many a field. The Exchange,
with rather more pretension and decidedly more comfort,
was then in the hands of a Northern firm. Political and
military headquarters were there. The president and the
cabinet resided there.

Montgomery seemed Washington over again, but on a
smaller scale, and with the avidity and agility in pursuit of
the spoils somewhat enhanced by freshness of scent.

Mr. Davis and his family would enter the long dining-
room and take seats with only a stare of respectful curiosity
from more recent arrivals. Even in the few weeks since I
had seen him in Washington a great change had come over
him. He looked worn and thinner, and the set expression
on his somewhat stern face gave a grim hardness not natural
to it.

On the night of my arrival, after an absent but not dis
courteous recognition of the general's salutation, he sat
down to an untouched supper and was at once absorbed in
conversation with General Samuel Cooper. This veteran
had recently resigned the adjutant-generalship of the United
States army and accepted a similar post and a brigadier's
commission from the Confederacy.

A card to announce my presence brought an after-dinner
interview with the president, to present the "very important
documents" from one of the Peace Commission martyrs at
Washington. They proved, seemingly, only a prolix report
of the inauguration. Mr. Davis soon threw them aside to
hear my verbal account; cross-examining me upon each
minor detail of the effect of the show upon the populace.

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 49

He seemed especially interested in Mr. Lincoln's personal
portrait and repeatedly asked if he showed any anxiety or
uneasiness.

At this time the Southern chief was fifty-two years old,
seemingly taller than he really was by reason of his thinness
now worn to almost emaciation by mental arid physical
strain. The thin lips had a straight er line and a closer com
pression, the lower jaw, always firm and prominent in slope,
set harder to its fellow. He had lost the sight of one eye
many months previous, though that member scarcely showed
the imperfection; but in the other burned a deep, steady glow.
In conversation he had the habit of listening with eyes shaded
by the lids, then suddenly shooting at the speaker a gleam
from the stone-gray pupil which might have read his inner
most thought.

Little form or ceremony hedged the incubating govern
ment and perfect simplicity marked every detail of its head.
To all Mr. Davis's manner was unvarying in its quiet courtesy,
drawing out all one had to tell and indicating by brief answer
or criticism that he had extracted the pith from what was
said. At that moment he was a very idol with the people;
the grand embodiment of their grand cause. They were
ready to applaud any move he might make. This was the
morning; how the evening differed from it we shall see.

Closer acquaintance with the new capital impressed one
still more with its likeness to Washington toward the close
of a short session. Many features of that likeness were salient
ones that had marred and debased the aspect of the older
city. Endless posts of profit and honor were to be filled,
and for each and every one was a rush of almost rabid claim-
mants. The skeleton of the regular army had just been
articulated by congress, but its bare bones would soon have
reached hyper-Falstaffian proportions had one in every score
of ardent aspirants been applied as muscle and matter.

50 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

The first " Gazette" was watched with straining eyes, but
naturally left aching hearts ; and disappointment here first
sowed the dragon's teeth that were to spring into armed op
ponents of the unappreciative appointing power.

The entire nation was new. Everything had to be done,
and who so capable — they being the referees— as that swarm
of worn out lobbyists and " subterraneans " who, having
thoroughly exploited "the Old Wreck," now gathered to
gorge upon the new " concern." By the hundreds flocked in
those unclean birds, blinking bleared eyes at any chance
bit, whetting foul bills to peck at carrion from the depart
mental sewer.

Nightly the corridor of the Exchange Hotel was a pande
monium ; its every flagstone a rostrum. Slowness of organiza
tion, the weakness of congress, secession of the border states
personnel of the cabinet, and especially the latest army
appointments, were canvassed with heat, equalled only by
ignorance. Most incomprehensible of all was the diametric
opposition of men from the same neighborhoods, in their
views of any subject. Often this would be a vital one of
policy or of doctrine, yet these neighbors would quarrel more
bitterly than would men from opposite borders of the con
federation.

Two ideas, however, seemed to pervade all classes. One
was that keystone dogma of secession, " Cotton is king,"
the other that the war — did one come — could not last
over three months. The man who ventured dissent from
either idea, back it by what logic he might, was looked upon
as an idiot if his disloyalty was not broadly hinted at.

I could comprehend these beliefs in the local mind of the
South; but that the citizens of the world now congregated
at Montgomery should hold them, puzzled those who paused
to query if they really meant what they said.

Socially, as removed from this seething influx, Mont-

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 51

gomery was a delightful city. Her leading families were
those cotton planters and merchants, a few capitalists, and
many noted professional men and a large class of railroad
and steamboat managers. There was a trifle too much
superiority in quarters directly connected with the state
government; but that was now merged in the larger idea of
nursing the national one. There had ever been much culture,
more hospitality and still more ambition, both social and
civic. Still, there was very much lacking of what the world
ling expects of a metropolis. So it was natural that the choice
as a capital should turn the whole social system somewhat
topsy turvy. At the same
time and possibly as a sort
of escape valve for new sen
sations, the townspeople
grumbled loudly and long.
But the society proper
plumed itself afresh and put
on its best smile to greet
the select of the newly ar
rived.

Very notable in Alabama
history is the Goldthwaite
family. Miss Anne, daugh
ter of Judge George Gold
thwaite, was one of
Montgomery's most brilliant MRS EMMET SIEBELS

women. She married Em- (ANNE GOLDTHWAITE)

met Siebels, of the South Carolina line, and is still a sprightly
and vivacious woman. Her sister Mary married Judge
Tom Arlington. Mrs. Charles B. Ball was the beautiful
Mary Siebels, what the advance of today has called "a
raging, howling belle."
The fresh, frank and fun-loving girls of the young set were

52 RKLLE8, BKAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

certainly creatures of beauty. They were well educated, too,
those inland and rather unripe belles of the early '60's, whether
home taught or from Hamner Hill. There was a spontaneity

about them that was re
freshing to the taste satiated
with conventionality.

Reversing Time's opera-
glass upon that memory
etching, many an old fellow
still recalls "the girl I left
behind me," at the first
capital, and many another
recollection survived the so
ciety campaigns of Rich
mond, Charleston and the
West. The "Ida Rice" co-
lumbiad spoke for one
Montgomery beauty to the
ironclads in Charleston har-

MRS. JOS. HODGSON (FLORENCE HOLT) i 11 111

bor; gallant and reckless

Ciilhoun Smith of Charleston, having so christened the
gun after the well-remembered beauty who later married
Henry Bethea. In a snow-thatched shebang at Munson's
Hill 1 heard reminder that the war gave no more lovely a
bride than when Miss Knoxie Buford wore orange blossoms
for Frank Lynch, of the famed old naval stock. When Miss
Alice Vivian came down from her country home she queened
it with the triple royalty of Venus, Juno and Minerva. Later
she married (leneral Quarles, whose social record proved
him a judge of beauty. Who does not recall the hand
some and vivacious Holt sisters? Miss Florence, as Mrs.
Joseph Hodgson, is now one of the most popular of Mobile
matrons whose equally popular daughter has just become
Mrs. Julian Walters, of that city. Mrs. L. C. Jurey, of New

BKLLR8, HKAUX ANJ) BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 511

Orleans, was Miss Mary Holt and her daughter is Mrs. Richard
Weight/man, so sought in the cultured circle of Washington.
Miss Laura married William R. Pickett, grandson of the
famed historian, and was as young, almost, at Miss Hodg
son's wedding as her granddaughter, who was maid of honor,
"pretty Florence" Davidson. Miss Kliza W. Pickett married
Major Edwin A. Hanks, and her daughter May married Frank
H. ("lark, of Mobile. Their children are now rising in the
affairs and the "cloth" of their state. Mary (lindral Piekett
married Samuel S. Harris, later bishop of Michigan; her sister
Martha married Major Mike L. Woods, the veteran writer
and scholar of Montgomery. Corinne Pickett became Mrs. Kd-
ward Randolph, and Sallie, known to war bclleship as
"Tookic," married Carter
Randolph.

Tradition tells the wide
difference wrought by war,
in these two Randolph wed
dings. At the first, the
feminine interest was largely
subordinated by the men.
The war and its heroes were
fresh and the uniforms were
new. At the second cere
monial, the interior South was
literally stripped of men at
all suggestive of that name.
At the church, attendants,
ushers uiul .'ill worn girls; MUM ,, A ,,ANKM (1,,,1/A ,,,„,,,,
the groom and the aged

father of the bride being the only males present, save;
the officiating priest.

A very popular girl of those days, Miss Rebecca Hails,
married " Vinee" Ulmore; and Miss Mary Klmore became

54 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

Mrs. Warren Reese. Then there was Miss Laura Snodgrass,
later Mrs. Spencer C. Marks. The Snodgrass sisters were
great belles and beauties, as any old vet of today will testify.
Miss Mary married William D. Tullis, of New Orleans. Miss
Clara Pollard, daughter of the railroad magnate, became

Mrs. William R. C. Cocke,
her sister, Bettie, marrying
Dr. Paul Lee.

And the rest? Alas! This
list is not Leporello's.

She of the hundred
tongues has used them all
too freely in reporting the
wild dissipations of Mont-
jjsT" gomery in the nursery

/ days. Drinking there was

general and sometimes deep,
but somehow the constant
excitement of the new life
proved antidote for its
j bane. I recall the rare

MRS. S.C.MARKS (LAURA SNODGRASS) CaS6S When the ^bit PK)-

duced any blameworthy con
duct. The stories of gambling, however, are almost wholly
groundless. All the South, and especially her westerly section,
has been credited with love of reckless risks on the turf and at
the card table. Yet we never gambled to the million limit, un
til our Northern brethren set the example, though we did play
rather recklessly. I am quite ready to admit that any man
who loses a five, by too much confidence in the virtue of three
queens, is a gambler and should be haled from his club and
punished by law — moral and statute. I know, too, that the
other fellow, who wins three millions on the rise of cotton
which was never planted, or pork which was never pigged, is

BELLES, BEAUX AND BKAINS OF THE SIXTIES 55

a Christian gentleman, and should have his deserved and
well won villa, wife and automobile.

These Southern scamps in the Ws gambled as they fought,
man to man, and with what they had in their hands. I
fear I must admit that they did it often and recklessly.
But that they gambled constantly at Montgomery is not
founded on fact. I speak ex cathedra. I was there and
chanced to be thrown in with the fastest of the fast set. There
was, as I say, much drinking and much jockeying for place
and favor, but the constant activity of the brain, the sus
pense, the keen contest and watch upon the foe crowding
down to border and port, left no room for the real gambler.
It was different at Richmond, with her larger and more
mixed population, but whatever their other sins, the suckling
paladins and statesmen at "the Nursery" had higher stakes
to play for than those they found about the green cloth.

It was easy to distinguish the politician-by-trade from the
rosy and uncomfortable novices. Secession was supposed
to have been the result of aggressions and corruptions, which
most of these legislators would have been utterly powerless to
prevent, even had they not been active participants in them.
Yet wornout politicians, who had years before been promoted
from servants to " sovereigns, " floated high upon the present
surge and rank old Washington leaven threatened to per
meate every pore of the new government.

Small wonder, then, that the action of such a congress
was inadequate to the crisis.

If the time demanded anything, it was the prompt organ
ization of an army, with an immediate basis of foreign credit
to arm, equip and clothe it. Next to this was urgent need for a
simple and readily managed machinery in the different de
partments of the government. Neither of these desiderata
could be secured by their few earnest promoters, from those
with whom the popular will of the new nation, or the want of

56 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

that, had diluted her councils. Few indeed of the congress
men dared look the realities of the issue in the face and that
minority was powerless to accomplish anything practical.

This was the Provisional Government, framed closely on
the Washington model, with Jefferson Davis as President,
Alexander H. Stephens, Vice-President, and this Cabinet:
Secretary of State, Robert Toombs, of Georgia; Leroy Pope
Walker of War; S. R. Mallory, of Florida, of the Navy;
Charles G. Memminger, of South Carolina, of the Treasury;
Judah P. Benjamin, of Louisiana, Attorney-General; John
H. Reagan, of Texas, Postmaster-General. The public
seemed content with the selections, in the main. The post-
office and the department of justice looked to them nearly
as useful as the state portfolio, at that junction; but to the
war office every eye was turned and glanced askance at the
man there. General Leroy Pope Walker was not widely
known outside of Alabama, but those who did know him
prophesied that he would soon stagger under the responsi
bilities that would weigh upon him in the event of war.
Many declared that he was only a man of straw, set up by
Mr. Davis simply that he might exercise his own well-known
love for military matters.

Want of public trust in this vital branch was not strength
ened by Mr. Walker's speech after the raising of the new flag.
From the balcony of the Exchange Hotel I heard him pledge
the excited crowd that he would raise it over "Faneuil Hall
in the city of Boston!''

Such, briefly touched upon, were conditions at Mont
gomery when in early April, 1861, Governor Pickens, of
South Carolina, wired that the Washington government had
telegraphed the decision to resupply Fort Sumter " Peaceably
if we can — forcibly, if we must!"

Deep and intense excitement held Montgomery in its grasp
during those succeeding" days, when news came that Beau-

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

57

regard had fired on the fort, on April 12. Business was sus
pended, all stores were closed and the people collected in
groups in the streets and before the newspaper and govern
ment offices. Various and
strange were the specula
tions as to the issue of the
fight and its consequences;
but the conviction came like
a thunder clap, even to those
most skeptical, that there
was to be war!

Then, with rapid step,
action distanced suspense.
The swift following fall of
Sumter solidified the South
into a nation. Then came
the adhesion of Virginia, the
decision to accept her invi
tation to make her soil the
battle ground and her capital the South's.

There was a grand parade and review of all the troops at
Pensacola, by the President, aided by Generals Bragg and
Beauregard. It left the country guessing as to which of the
two would be commander-in-chief .

Immediately after it Mr. Davis moved his headquarters
to Richmond: the government was boxed up and followed
him, and the nursery of the New Nation was noiselessly de
serted by its now growing occupant.

GENERAL P. G. T. BEAUREGARD

CHAPTER V

. THE FIRST "ON TO RICHMOND!"

THE new capital of the Confederacy presented a very
different appearance from Montgomery. The approach to
the city of new hope was promising in its picturesqueness.

Threading the narrow span
of high trestles, perched spin
dle-legged above the James,
Richmond spread in pretty
panorama. Green and tree-
bordered, the May sun gild
ing white homes and tall
spires, it receded to high red
hills beyond the later famous
heights of Chimborazo to the
right and that historic City
of the Silent, Hollywood,

far away to left. Central gleamed the venerable seat of
lawmaking.

Where looms the Capitol, antique and pure,

The great "First Rebel" points the storied past.
Around him grouped Virginia's great of yore,

With Ston&waWs statue, greatest and the last —
had not then slipped from my pen. The statue of John
Marshall, long delayed and missed, had not been placed to
inspire Randolph's quaintly vigorous lines, beginning:

58

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 59

" We're glad to see you, John Marshall, my boy,
Along with the other old codgers"

Social Richmond was desiccated Virginia selectness, and
only enforced acceptance of the war incursion could have
rubbed the down from the peach. But for that, the lovely
" village on the Jeems" had been of far slower growth into
the cosmopolitan city of today.

At that day family first, with the concomitants of polish,
education and "manner," were the sole "open sesame" to
which the doors of the good old city would swing wide.

The learned professions were about the sole exceptions.
"Law, physic, the church," and, as heretofore seen, the last
especially, were permitted to condone the "new families."

Trade, progressive spirit and self-made personality were
excluded from the plane of the elect, as though germiniferous.
The "sacred soil" and the sacred social circle were paralleled
in the minds of their possessors.

As his first introduction has shown, the Virginian of yester
day, particularly when he boasted high colonial descent, was
still the nearest counterpart to the landed gentry of the
motherland of any American soever. He combined many
noble traits with the same old pride that so dominated them all.

In the country districts habit and condescension often
overrode class barriers, but in the city, where class some
times jostled privilege, the line of demarcation was so strongly
drawn that its overstepping was dangerous.

When the news came that patriotism dictated the aban
donment of inland Montgomery for border Richmond, a
surprise that was not all pleasurable thrilled to the finger-tips
of Richmond society. Its exponents felt much as the Ro
man patricians might have felt at impending advent of the
leading families of the Goths. Her sacred fanes might pos-

GO BELLES, BE AUK AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

sibly be desecrated by profane touch, her Vestal Virgins
viewed by vulgar eyes.

At first blush of the new invasion it is assumable that older
Richmond was ready to bolt the front door and lock the shut
ters. Younger Richmond perhaps was curious enough to
peep between them. But the Commonwealth was heart and
soul in the cause and the newcomers were of it. So, grad
ually, the first repulsion grew to sufferance, then that gave
place to cordiality. There was still a lingering reserve in
some quarters and a sense of an undefined something that
might happen at any moment. But on the surface were
urbanity and ease that are innate to the better Virginian.
This was vindicated in most instances by the real worth and,
frequently, the high grade of the social leaders of the influx.

It must be recalled that the very best elements of the old
South began the war and went first to the front. In the
army and, in degree, in every branch of the government were
men of birth and breeding, women of culture, grace and so
cial prestige. These soon segregated themselves from the
dross of the incoming tide, and to them the jealous doors
swung on spontaneous hinges. Later a common cause,
common ambition and common sorrow drew all classes into
a sympathy and contact that showed the best in each and all.

In the coarse butternut of the private soldier moved men
of lineage as high, of attainment as fine, of social habit as
elegant, as that under society's behest. Officer and man met
on terms of perfect equality, off duty. The private of today
might be the general of tomorrow, and the younger leaders
in Richmond realized the fact, and early learned to judge
their new beaux rather for themselves than for their rank marks.

All Virginia had long been noted throughout the South for
a hospitality equal to her pride and for its lavish expression:
and Richmond was concentrated Virginia.

This went out to all, -only slightly differentiating, perhaps,

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

61

those veritable corps d' elites from distant states: as the
Louisianians.

These picked companies of peace comprised the "dearest
and the best/7 the very flower of the highbred, or wealthy
youth. Company F of Richmond, was one example, the
Mobile Cadets another, in which many a man had refused
proffered commission to "stay with the fellows," until merit
and the demands of the service literally forced him upward.
For such men as these the brightest eyes in all the land grew
brighter, but Louisiana held her own.

In these early days of the war no section of the South had
yet felt the strain upon its resources, and the entertain
ments at the new capital of
the Confederacy were as ele
gant and as lavish as ever
before. Later the gradual
pressure upon pocket, as well
as upon brain and heart,
told first on the leaguered
capital, but that wore away
only the surface, leaving the
social gold with all its pris
tine polish. Even when the
" starvation parties" had re
placed the lavish balls of
gone yesterdays, as courtly
nothings were spoken, and as
cordial healths pledged in
the substituted green tum
bler of yellow "Jeems" river water, as had ever bub
bled on the lip with congenial champagne. For these
indeed were descendants of the Golden Horseshoe
Knights; of the Huguenots of the Carolinas; of the
Bienville-led Creoles; often of the oriole-crested followers of

CAPTAIN I. L. LYONS, 10TH LA. REG'T.

62 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

Lord Baltimore. And they proved in later days -

" The kindliest of the kindly band
Who rarely hated ease'"

Later, when the crucial test had come, they proved them
selves

" Those sons of noble sires,
Whose foes had found enchanted ground
But not one knight asleep!"

And the fair women whom they toasted, fought for and
loved proved themselves worthy of all three. So, while the
fortunes and the larders lasted, the entertainments in Rich
mond were generous; when the direst constriction of the
blockade crushed, the elegance remained, over the crust and
the yellow water.

The thought of no habitue of Richmond society of that
day can recur to it without being peopled with bright memories
of men and women, since famous in the history and society
of the Union. Whatever his tastes, business shadowed or
pleasure tinted, they doubtless bear borrowed coloring from
an era of storm and stress that left its impress deep on all
natures, at a moment when most receptive by absorption in
a common effort to one great end. The fate of a nation hung
in the balance, but the hearts of its integers were hopeful,
buoyant and sometimes giddy.

Dinners, dances, receptions and constant visiting followed
the earlier arrival of the new government and its Joseph-
coated following. There were drives and picnics for the
young and, for aught I know to the contrary, much flirtation.
The dizzy whirled in recurrent germans, and the buzz of the
society bee was heard by the pinkest-tinted ears.

But besides the regular society routine at the capital,
much like that in many another city, there was other so
ciality, quieter, but nowise less attractive to the incoming.

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 63

There were sewing circles, at which the assistants enjoyed
the talk of brainy and refined women and cultured men;
there music, improvisation and even dancing filled intervals
of busy work.

As Dickens made his Madame Defarge "knit shrouds,"
before the greedy knife of the Terror, the sewing circles of
Richmond stitched love and hope and sentiment into the
rough seams and hems of nondescript garments they sent to
the camps by bales. No lint was scraped for wounds to come
that was not saturated with pity and tenderness; and the
amateur cooks kneaded their hearts into the short piecrust
and not always heavy biscuits for " those dear boys."

There were many, and
some really excellent ama
teur concerts, charades and
tableaux, by the most mod
est and sometimes most
ambitious amateurs, all for
the same good end. And
through all of them passed
the procession of stately
forms and bright faces. On
the joggling board of im
provised stage, voices that
had rung sonorous in the
van of battle lisped the sug- r
ared nothings of society
comedy to Chloes, who later GENERAL FITZ LEE

gave the key to society in (IN 1863)

many a post-bellum city. Comic recitations were made by
men who have since held listening senates, and verses were
penned by women who have now impressed their names on
the literature of a time.

Most of this was naturally in the entr'acte of war's red

64 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

drama, in the days of winter's enforced truce, from roads
belt-deep in mire or frozen impassable. There were nights
when hard-riding Fitz Lee was pressed to pose in a tableaux,
or dashing " Jeb" Stuart took minor part in a small comedy,
to brighten the eyes nearest but not the dearest, for that
cause alone.

Of course the storm center of general society was about the
presidential household and its actions.

In that dwelling the most weighty and eventful matters
of the government had birth and were matured, and there
the tireless worker, to himself the Confederacy incarnate,
devoted all the days and most of the midnights, planning,
considering, changing. The executive officers were else
where, but at that day Mr. Davis carried the government in
his own brain, and that never slept.

His wildest admirer has never claimed that Jefferson
Davis was a saint; his vilest vituperator has never proved
him a devil. History shows no man who has faced such
fierce and sweeping blasts of indictment, calumny and malice
and so long stood erect: a mark inviting scrutiny, but not
shrinking beneath it. It is simple truth that his name is
today mentioned with respect, or praise, in the capital of
every civilized country on the globe, save one, and there the
cause of silence or of old-time iteration is more political than
judical.

I am not planting seed for the future Macaulay, but it
may be noted here that this absolute self-reliance was one
cause of failure; he failed because he could not make the
Confederacy Jefferson Davis. The non sequitur is often more
logical than the epigram. When Sir Boyle Roche said:
"No man can be in two places at once, barrin' he's a bird!"
he was probably ignorant that he was double-barreled-
talking nonsense and philosophy. He did not know that he
was laying down a rule of procedure which, persistently

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 65

deviated from, must result in disaster. That disaster fol
lowed was not Mr. Davis's fault. In an article of the North
American Review, a dozen years ago, I showed that he was
not only the president, but that he shouldered the respon
sibility for every member of his cabinet. He was the head
almost of every distinct bureau, in each department of the
government.

A tremendous national convulsion demanded that the
executive should plan, distribute and order done the work
in the various departments. Mr. Davis did this. He did
not stop there; he attempted to do the work.

But it was not on governmental grounds that social Rich
mond felt uneasy as to the Davis family in these early days.
There was no tinge of personality toward the inmates of
the White House; only a nervousness as to that nebulous
dweller on the threshold of legislative necessity. There was
an undefined dread that the official head would be followed
by a nameless, yet most distasteful, surrounding of politics
and place seekers.

CHAPTER VI

WHITE HOUSE FOLK

FORTUNATELY, it chanced that Mrs. Varina Howell Davis
was a woman of too much sound sense, tact and experience
in great social affairs not to smile to herself at this rather

provincial iciness.

She put her native wit and
all her fund of diplomatic
resource to work; social cold
storage rapidly raised its tem
perature and soon all about
the Executive Mansion was
broad sunshine, in which even
the ultra exclusives early be
gan to uncoil.

In her proper person, and
not as the president's wife,
Mrs. Davis was at home — in
formally and to everybody
who chose to call — on all even
ings of the week. On these
occasions only tea and talk were proffered to her guests ; but the
latter seemed to evolve a finer aroma than the former, even
before the blockade proclaimed its "substitute law."

It was her husband's invariable custom to give one hour
of each day to unbending from the strain of public duty in
the midst of his family circle. At these informal evenings

v

MRS. JEFFERSON DAVIS

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 67

the early caller was almost sure to meet the man of the hour;
to shake his courteously proffered hand; to hear the voice
upon the vibrations of which hung the fate of The Cause.

State dinners, save in very rare necessities as in case of
some important foreign visitors, were not given, and the only
other function was the fortnightly levee, after the Washington
model. To these flocked "the world and his wife," in what
holiday attire they possessed, in the earlier days marked by
the dainty toilettes of really elegant women, the butternut
of the private soldier, and the stars and yellow sashes of many
a general, already world-famous.

The levee was social jambalaya, but it was also novelty.
It proved appetizing enough to tickle the dieted palate of
Richmond's exclusiveness.

Besides their novelty, these levees had their uses as an
amalgamating medium, a social 'Change whereon the pro
vincial bear met the city bull, nor found him deadly of horn.
Most of all, they proved the ease with which the wife of the
president of the Confederacy could hold her title of "The
First Lady in the Land." She was politician and diplo
matist in one, where necessity demanded, but long personal
knowledge of her had already convinced the writer that
Varina Howell Davis preferred the straight road to the tor
tuous bypath. She was naturally a frank though not a.
blunt woman, and her bent was to kindliness and charity.
Sharp tongue she had, when set that way and the need came
to use it ; and her wide knowledge of people and things some
times made that use dangerous to offenders. Mrs. Davis
had a sense of humor painfully acute, and the unfitness of
things provoked laughter with her rather than rage. That
the silly tales of her sowing dissension in the cabinet and
being behind the too frequent changes in the heads of the
government are false, there seems small reason to doubt.

Surely, in social matters she moved steadily and not slowly,

68

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

from at least coolness to the warm friendship of the best
women of conservative Richmond and to the respect and
admiration of all.

The Kemp-Howell family was of British stock: Scotch,
Irish, English, Welch and Quaker in descent. Mrs. Davis's

father was William Burr
Howell, a native of Trenton,
N. J. He was son of Gov
ernor Richard Howell of
that state; an ex-naval officer
who had distinguished him
self in the War of 1812.

Mrs. Davis's mother was
Margaret Louise Kemp, a Vir
ginian, born on her father's
broad acres, over which the
decisive charges of Bull Run
were later made. The grand
father Kemp was a Dublin
Irishman of means, a gradu
ate of Trinity College and a
close friend of Robert Emmett. This brought him into polit
ical trouble and he was banished for alleged treason
that seems never to have passed the stage of intent.
The refugee sat down in Virginia, farming near Manassas,
but later removing to Natchez, Miss., after a duel with
a Virginian, which was fatal to the latter; although, at
that day and date, such trivialities were merely post
and not propter hoc. Margaret Louise Kemp was a
small child, at the date of this migration. Later, the New
Jersey Howell, touring in the South, met and won her, and
himself became a Mississippian.

This pair became the parents of six children, all rioted in
the Ws. 'These were Varina, later Mrs. Davis; Margaret

MRS. M. DE W. STOESS
(MARGARET HOWELL)

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 69

Graham Howell, Jane Kemp Howell, and three brothers,
Beckett, William Francis and Jefferson Davis Howell.

The third sister married William G. Waller, of Lynchburg,
during the war, at St. Paul's Church, Richmond. She left
a son and a daughter; the former dead, but the latter, Miss
Elizabeth Tyler Waller, still residing in Savannah, Ga. Of
the brothers, only one married. William Francis wedded
the daughter of Rev. Dr. Leacock of Christ Church, New
Orleans. This couple left three daughters, still living in the
Cresent City, and two now married. These were the " little
Howell girls/' sometimes confounded in errant chronicle with
Miss Maggie Howell and her sister, Jane Kemp, who was not
very much in Richmond.

With Mrs. Davis, in matters social, moved her sister. Miss
Margaret Howell was scarcely more than a debutante, but
her adaptability replaced experience and she knew human
nature by what surgery calls "the first intention." Her
sense of humor was quite as keen and even more dominant
than her elder's. Less restrained, she bubbled into ban mot
and epigram that went from court to camp. Sometimes these
were caustic enough to sting momentarily, but their aptitude
and humor salved the prick of their point. It was stated
that her comment did more to calm the tumult of " Pawnee
Sunday" than all else. I am not posing as Miss Maggie
Howell's Boswell, even in recalling the pleasant hours when
we were "out together"; but the memory of all Richmond
would indorse her naming as quite the most original and one
of the most brilliant women in that bright and unique society.
I recall that mention of her sallies one evening at Gustavus
Myers's dinner table caused Mr. Benjamin to remark:

"Were this yesterday and did we live in Paris, she would be
adeStael!"

The young lady will be met again in these pages, and
probably with the same spice of pleasure she gave in sudden

70

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

rencontres in those days. That she will do this unwittingly
is proved by her recent epigrammatic statement to the writer:
"Had I known that my biscuits would be vended in public,
— - -^ I should have kept my yeast

in the pantry!"

Miss HowelFs friends of
yore will read with pleasure
that she is still living. After
the war she went abroad and
married, in England, the Chev
alier Charles William de
Wechmar Stoess, then Bava
rian consul at Liverpool.
Her husband died some
years ago, leaving her with
a son and daughter nearly
grown. These are the whole
of life to the widow and
the trio made one of the happiest and most united families
in Victoria, B. C. For a time they lived in Spokane, after
Mr. Stoess' death. The son, Philip, is a mining engineer in
Seattle, and his sister, Christine, paints well, and plays the
violin.

Apart from distinction of parentage the little children of
the White House had individuality of their own which made
them notable to its habitues. They were three only when
the move from Montgomery was made. One was killed in
Richmond, and two others, the " Children of the Confederacy,"
were born at the new capital.

Mr. Davis, as noted, had been married twice. The second
marriage was childless for years. Then, just as the father
was called to the secretaryship of war by President Pierce,
a son was born. Samuel Emory Davis survived but three
years. He died in 1854!

CHEVALIER C. DE W. STOESS

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF TEE SIXTIES

71

A daughter came next, Margaret Howell Davis, named for
her grandmother, and now the sole survivor of the family of
six.

Jefferson Davis, Jr., was born in Jaunary, 1858, being
the only son who reached adult age. He died of yellow fever
at Memphis, in 1878, when within three months of his ma
jority.

Joseph Evan Davis, the next son, was born in April, 1859,
His was the tragedy that shadowed the White House beyond
all else that brought sorrow through its portals. This second
boy, gentle and lovable, fell from the balusters into the back
court of the home and was almost instantly killed. The heart
of a whole people went out to the stricken parents, and the
sorrowing sympathy of Richmond was as real as universal;
the little people had become familiar pets. But, as in the
case of the first-born, the emp- — ^

ty cradle was filled.

William Howell Davis was
born in the White House in
the first year of its occu
pancy. But three years old
when his elder brother was
killed, he lived to reach
nearer to manhood than any
of the boys save Jeff. He
had perhaps the gentlest
ways of any of the children;
and they centered in him, as
he gained in years, the love
of mother and sisters that
was beyond words. But JEFFERSON DAVIS, JR.

"BillieV death was almost as sudden as Joe's had
been years before. He was seized with diphtheria at Nat
chez and died there in October, 1874. He was the

72

BELLES, BEAUX AND tiKAINS OF THE SIXTIES

elder of the " Children of the Confederacy." The cradle of lit
tle Joe had been filled by the other and more widely known one.
"Winnie" (Varina Anne) Davis was born on the 27th of

June, 1864, and her coming
was accepted by the hopeful
as a bright augury amid the
gloom that shadowed her
father's fortunes. Too famil
iar to the later generation
to demand word of descrip
tion, "The Daughter of the
Confederacy," formally so
named and adopted by the
united camps of the Veterans,
ended her promising career by
sudden illness at Narragansett
Pier, September 18, 1898.

In their latest trial it was
not the heart of a section,
but of a re-united nation,
that went out to the aged widow and the stricken
sister. Time had softened war-born asperities, and only
the weakest and most brutal cherished the misbegotten
falsities they bred. Men who had howled to "Hang Jeff
Davis!" through the North had mellowed under second
thought. It was genuine and heart-born warmth from every
quarter that met the bereaved.

Again Time has worked his miracle. Today "Winnie"
Davis lives again in the universal love of the South and the
tender respect of the North.

She, like her brothers, had inherent traits, and strong ones.
In her they had longer to develop into visible result. But
the little fellows showed them early, and in "Billie" they
were of sweet and tender promise. In Jeff they took ex-

'WINNIE77 DAVIS

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 73

pression and told strong truths at an age when those of most
children are dumb.

Early in her Richmond life Mrs. Davis selected as teacher
for her children the eldest of the daughters of Judge Raleigh
T. Daniel, Misses Augusta, Lizzie and Charlotte. Highly
educated and of studious bent, yet genial and popular socially,
this lady became as devoted to her charge as she was fitted for
it. After the lapse of years her memory of the Davis house
hold, great and small, is as reminiscent as it is loyal and tender.

Margaret Howell Davis was her grandmother's namesake.
She was more like her father than her mother.

In 1876 " Little Maggie," married Joel Addison Hayes, now
of Colorado Springs. There she is refusing to grow old, al
though surrounded by a grown family and grandchildren.

The eldest son, named for his grandfather, died in infancy.
Varina Howell Davis Hayes is
now the wife of Dr. Gerald
Bertram Webb. The second
daughter, Lucy White, is two
years younger. The eldest
son of this family is Jefferson
Hayes Davis, having taken
his grandfather's surname.

The youngest child is " Bil
ly" — William Davis Hayes.

" Little Maggie's" family
have given two to the fourth
generation of the living Davis
descendants. Mrs. Varina
Hayes Webb has a three-

! , , , , , , MRS. J. A. HAYES

year-old daughter, who bears

the name of Margaret Varina Hayes. Her boy, whom Mrs.

Davis never saw, was born on December 17, 1906.

Mrs. Davis's brothers were rarely in Richmond. Beckett

74 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAMS OF THE SIXTIES

and Jeff Davis Howell were both in the navy. Both died
years ago and both will recur in these pages.

Such, in brief and imperfect retrospect, was the family
about which most interest centered in the new Richmond.
The greater portion of it was about Mr. Davis personally.
Knowing him since my boyhood, intimate in his household
then and in his office later, Senator and Secretary Davis ever
seemed to me the grave, self-contained worker, rarely asking
aid and never advice. His memory was marvelous,
especially for names and faces. His grasp on a subject was
as rapid as his decision was tenacious. He was of a
nature slow to admire, but as loyal to friendship as he was
inveterate on occasion. Being human, he was liable to error
in either regard.

In private life, and notably in his own home, Mr.
Davis was polished, affable and often cordial. He was easy of
approach and patient to the woes of constituents and sub
ordinates. He was a thoughtful, sound, and at times a free
talker, and, strangely enough, he permitted others to express
as well as to hold, their opinions. Thus Jefferson Davis
appeared to the thinker in Richmond, thus he appears to
this writer today. Such he is likely to appear to the future
Macaulay.

This is no place to discuss the actions of the publicist or
the motives whence they sprang. Neither does the time
of which I write warrant introduction of the freshly mooted
matter of his treatment after capture.

Philosophy, when she really comes to teach by example,
will settle these for all time. So will she prick that poor in
vention of malicious mendacity that makes the simple capture
of a great fugitive a farce incredible.

I truly believe that no man who is competent to compre
hend the character of the Confederate chief, judged solely
by its visible results, credits that silly figment of imagination.

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 75

No man who knows aught of human nature could believe
Jefferson Davis capable of attempting denial of a fact, by a
subsequent masquerade. Yet the portrait of him, in the
clothes in which he was cap
tured, is a certified and
proved reproduction in every
detail. That, without speech,
confounds the patient and
persistent liars.

The South resented the
treatment of her most rep
resentative man just after
the war, but it is doubtful
whether much tenderness
mingled with her wrath.

Gradually respect for the
dead chiefs great traits
passes into mellowed feeling,
and the sentiment of the vast
majority of Southerners is
doubtless voiced by an un
known poet's Suggestion for JEFFERSON DAVIS IN SUIT HE WORE AT
his statue : THE TIME OF CAPTURE

Write on its base: " We loved him!" All these years,
Since that torn flag was folded, we've been true;

The love that bound us now revealed in tearsf
Like webs, unseen till heavy with the dew.

It is so singular a fact that almost universal ignorance
exists as to the lineage of the Confederate president. I have
never been able to find an accurate published statement of
either; and have at great pains, been able to present this
brief summary:

Jefferson Davis, youngest of the ten children of Samuel

76 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

Davis and Jane Cook, was born in Christian county, Ky., on
June 3rd, 1808. His ancestors were colonial and revolu
tionary; of sterling Welsh stock and "good people in the
colony/' though nowise of the gentry, or notable in its pre-
revolutionary events. Their famous descendant had a con
tempt for genealogy; even his wife's biography of him giving
but most meagre mention.

In earlier half of the eighteenth century, three Welsh
brothers started for Pennsylvania, as settlers. One is be
lieved to have been drowned on the voyage. At all events,
he never reappears in anything I have been able to trace.
The other two, Samuel and Evan, the youngest, settled near
Philadelphia, presumably to farm, as they took up lands.
Samuel is said to have removed to Virginia, but trace of him
is lost, save in some old land transfer records. Evan Davis,
grandfather of the President, drifted to Georgia, and there
married a widow Williams, whose maiden name had been
Emory. One son came to this couple, who was named
Samuel, and was a youth in his teens at the outbreak of the
Revolution. His half brothers, Williams, were in the rebel
army, and the mother sent Samuel to their camp with cloth
ing and home comforts. He caught the war fever, ran away,
fought well and later raised a company and went to assist in
lifting the seige of Savannah. Soon after the war, he married
Miss Jane Cook, of Georgia; presumably his distant kins
woman, and doubtless connected with the later noted Hardins,
of Kentucky. When he already had a grown family, he
moved to Kentucky and established himself on a tobacco
farm.

The eldest child of Samuel Davis and Jane Cook, was
Joseph Emory Davis, born in Georgia but a lawyer and
planter, residing at the "Hurricane" Plantation. Warren
county, Mississippi. He married Miss Eliza van Benthysen.
He was a great stay and aid to his father and, after his death,

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 77

became its head and parent, rather than guardian, of the
younger children. Little Jeff was devoted to him, and the
later statesman never forgot to express his love and admira
tion of his elder. Joseph Davis rose to great influence and
regard in his state and section; and acquired wealth.

Joseph Davis had a family of nine children, of whom six
were daughters. These all died childless, except Mary, though
Florida and Caroline also married. Mary married Dr.
Mitchell and left one son and one daughter. The son, Cap
tain Joseph Davis Mitchell, never married. His sister, Mary
Elizabeth, married W. D. Earner and has two children, Wil
liam D. and Mary Lucy, now Mrs. J. G. Kelly.

The next brother was a doctor and planter: Dr. Benjamin
Davis, of St. Francisville, La. He married Miss Aurelia
Smith of that parish and died at an advanced age, after a
quiet, respected and useful life. This couple died childless.

Samuel Davis, Jr. was the next in age. He was a planter
and resided near Vicksburg, Miss. His wife was Miss Lucy
Throckmorton and their only living child is Mrs. Helen Keary
of Rapides Parish, La. There were four sons: Benjamin,
Joseph, Samuel and Robert; the eldest of whom left six
children at Boise City, Idaho. Robert, Samuel, Pauline and
Ellen still live there.

Isaac Davis, the fourth son, was also a planter and resided'
at Canton, Miss. He married Miss Susan Guertly, and left
one son, General Joseph E. Davis, of the Confederate army;
and two granddaughters.

The fifth brother and youngest child was Jefferson Davis,
the president.

Anna Davis, the eldest daughter, married Luther Smith
of West Feliciana, and had a family of six, two of whom were
daughters: Joseph, Luther, Gordon, Jedediah, Lucy and
Amanda. She married Mr. Robert Smith and left one daugh
ter, Anna Davis Smith.

78 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

Amanda, her next sister, married Mr. Bradford, of Madison
Parish, La. Her living children are Jeff Davis Bradford, an
engineer now stationed at Fort Moultrie in Charleston Harbor;
Elizabeth Bradford White, widowed and residing at New
Orleans in winter and Kentucky in summer, and Mrs. Lucy
Bradford Mitchell, widow of Dr. C. R. Mitchell, of Vicksburg,
Miss. Seven of this family died: David, Benjamin, Mary,
Sarah, Anna, Laura, and a second David, born after the
the death of his brother so named.

Lucinda Davis, the next sister, married Mr. William Stamps,
of Woodville, Miss. Her three sons and two daughters all
died and her grandchildren are Mrs. Edgar Farrar and Mrs.
Mary Bateson, of New York, and Mrs. William Anderson;
Hugh, Richard and Isaac Alexander, and one great grand
child, Miss Josie Alexander.

Matilda, the fourth sister, died in childhood; and the
youngest and next in age to the later president, was his boy
hood's companion and delight, "Little Polly.'' She was
Mary Ellen Davis, who married — without changing her name
—Robert Davis of South Carolina; and left one daughter still
living: Mrs. Mary Ellen Davis Anderson, of Ocean Springs,
Miss.

It is another coincidence in the parallels of the lives of the
two great leaders in the Civil War, that the Christian county
birthplace of Jefferson Davis was in the adjoining one to
Hardin county, in which Abraham Lincoln saw the light:
a few miles only separating the spots and only eight months
the arrival of those famous stars in the great dramas of poli
tics and war. Strange it is, too, that the two young men saw
their first glimpses of war in the Black Hawk War; Davis as a
lieutenant in the United States army, and Lincoln as the cap
tain of a company of volunteers he had raised and proffered,
but which was never in actual conflict.

It might be an odd study for the psychologist to query

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 79

whether some innate characteristics of both men, acting upon
circumstance — or acted upon by it — may not have led to
similar aspirations : and whether they were not shadowed out
in the strange, yet unmistakable, likeness in their faces.
Looking at their portraits in manhood's prime, it needs no
Lavater to read that similar early surroundings, education
and pursuits might have softened the coarser lines of the one
or hardened the more delicate tone of the other, into absolute
similarity. And it is not least curious that the same causes
drove the parents of one to the North and of the other to the
South from similar points and at no long interval.

In 1811, when his youngest born was but three years old,
Samuel Davis decided that Kentucky was not yielding him
the returns hoped for when he left Georgia. He proposed
to locate in Louisiana; but, finding the climate unhealthful
for a young family, he decided upon Mississippi, and bought
there his final family home. This was named " Poplar Grove "
—from its splendid growth of those stately trees — was a pic
turesque and extensive site about a mile and a half from
Woodville, in Wilkinson county, Miss. There most of the
younger family were reared, the daughters were married and
some of their children reared by their venerable grandmother,
Mrs. Jane Cook Davis. Of these, was Ellen Mary, who never
changed her name; and her early orphaned child and name
sake, Mrs. Anderson, today recalls the delight of her life at
the " Poplars."

It was with this sister " Polly," that the five-year-old
Jefferson first went to school, at a log house a half mile away.
Two years later, when not seven years old (in 1815) he was
sent on a ride through virgin forests of nearly 900 miles, to
attend the St. Thomas Academy at Washington Co., Ky.
In three jears more he was at Jefferson College, Adams county,
Miss.; and in 1821, when but thirteen years old, was sent to
Transylvania College, Lexington, Ky. He was an earnest

80 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

and intelligent pupil ; but gave little promise of the brilliance,
acumen and erudition that illustrated his later career.

After their father's death, his brother, Joseph Davis, be
came the real head of the family; and it was he who gave
special attention to the rearing of the youngest, and who
directed his education. And by that time, Joseph Emory
Davis had become a power in the law and politics of his sec
tion. So, in 1824, he obtained through Congressman Rankin,
a West Point cadetship for his 16-year-old brother.

At the academy, the youth was esteemed as a careful,
studious and dignified cadet, rather than an ambitious and
dashing one; yet he missed no branch of useful acquirement
and came out a fine rider, swordsman and tactician, as well
as a courteous and dignified officer. He graduated 25 in a class
of 33; going into the brevet lieutenancy in the Twenty-first
Infantry, then under Colonel Zachary Taylor: afterwards
general and president.

This was in 1828, and before his majority. At the Point,
his intimates were Joseph E. Johnston, Robert E. Lee, Prof.
Alex. Dallas Bache, Albert Sydney Johnston and others,
with whom he held lifelong friendships, or — in rare cases —
undying enmities.

Lieutenant Davis served with credit at Fort Crawford, in
what is now Illinois; then at the lead mines near Galena, and
at Fort Winnebago, in Wisconsin. He made his first cam
paign against the Indians in the closing of the Black Hawk
War, in 1831-33.

Then, when service needs created more cavalry, the First
Dragoons was organized and its adjutant was Jefferson Davis,
now promoted to first lieutenant, in 1834. But he held the
post only a few months; resigning in June of the next year.

For some reason, never explained, "Old Zach" Taylor had
taken a strong dislike to his subaltern; but the latter was
deeply and seriously in- love with the fair young daughter

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF TEE SIXTIES 81

of his chief, Miss Knox Taylor. To the surprise of every
one — and none more than her sire — Miss Taylor married the
young soldier almost immediately on his resignation. Her
father never forgave her; and he never saw her again. She
went as a bride to the home of her sister-in-law, Mrs. Anna
Davis at West Feliciana, La. Three months later, she was
buried there, after a brief illness, and the shock broke down
completely the health of the young husband, already under
mined by hard frontier service.

On his recovery, Mr. Davis made a tour of the West Indies ;
thence paid a long visit to his old friends in Washington and
made many new and useful ones, who were loyal to him until
the end. Then he settled in Mississippi; by his brother's
advice becoming a planter in Warren county, but devoting
really more attention to reading law and managing local
politics. The latter proved the more congenial and success
ful. He was elected to the legislature in 1842; was elector
for Polk and Dallas, two years later; and gained high repute
as a debater, in a tilt with the famous Sergeant S. Prentiss.
In February, 1845, he married Miss Varina Banks Howell.

In the autumn after his marriage, Mr. Davis was elected
to congress by a handsome majority; promptly taking a
prominent stand and gaining quick recognition for vigor and
eloquence in championing the ultra pro-slavery and states'
rights wing of the Democracy. Hearing his maiden speech
in the house, John C. Calhoun said:

" Keep a watch on that young man : he will be heard from ! "

In 1846, the Mexican War caused his resignation, to accept
command of the regiment of Mississippi Rifles, soon attached
to General Taylor's Army of the Rio Grande. There it gave
such good account of itself and its commander as to warrant
special mention in orders, for Monterey ; and Davis' splendid
charge at Buena Vista — in which he was severely wounded—
brought another flattering report to Washington, whether,

82 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

or not, his first father-in-law's personal feelings had changed.
In the session of 1847, Mr. Davis first took his seat as
senator of the United States; having been appointed by Gov.
Albert Gallatin Brown to succeed Hon. Jesse Speight, who
died that year. The next session of the legislature elected
him to fill the unexpired term. In 1851, he resigned to accept
the nomination for governor of Mississippi, when he was de
feated by that arch-manipulator, Henry S. Foote, who ran
on the Union ticket. But he remained a power in politics
and was especially active in the election of President Pierce,
who made him secretary of war, in March, 1853. At the close
of his term in the cabinet, he was again elected to the senate
and again became the leader of the ultra Southern party.
It was at this time that he made his famous Faneuil Hall
speech on the rights of the states and the powers of the central
government. Then, in January of 1861, Jefferson Davis
made his farewell speech in the senate, withdrew from that
body and went to Mississippi to carry his home people into
the incubating Confederacy.

CHAPTER VII

CABINET TIMBER

THE head of the cabinet was, in constructive sense, Secre
tary of State Robert Toombs, of Georgia, but popular belief
said it was really Mr. Benjamin, voicing Mr. Davis's views.
Burly, rough, emphatic in his own opinions as his chief him
self, the Georgian was a brainy and experienced politician
and a born disputant. What he was not in remotest degree
was a diplomat, and the early wonder grew why Mr. Davis
had selected an ingrained aggressor, one whose method was
to force a point rather than go around it, for the most delicate
and possibly the most vital of all cabinet procedure. Mr.
Toombs was, moreover, very strong in his prejudices, and
they doubtless swayed his judgment, so it was asserted that
he was unstable of tenet. Disputatious as Sydney Smith's
missionary, who " disagreed with the cannibal that ate him,"
the secretary was not always of the same mind. A govern
mental wag once said: "Bob Toombs disagrees with himself
between meals!"

Vigorous, able and well posted he certainly was, but per
haps his weakest point as a minister was his hyper-Southern
under judging of the men opposed to him in the North, men
with whom he should have been familiar from long and close
contact in the public service. At the moment of his selection
the foreign policy of the Confederacy was unborn. The
busy bureaux were those of war, finance and subsistence.
Mr. Toombs had nothing to do but talk politics, tell stories

83

84 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

and say some very clever things. Profane enough to have
delighted Sterne's "Army in Flanders/' he larded his jokes
with things not in the church service, but they were usually
to the point. In Montgomery I recall one retort, not new,
but too characteristic to omit. A man of influence and
loaded with recommendations applied to him on the street
for a clerkship in his department. The secretary demurred;
the man of influence insisted. Jerking off his well-worn
Washington hat, the official held it up; pointed into it as he
roared :

"Blankety blank, sir! There is the State Department of
the Confederacy, by blankety blank! Jump in, sir!"

When the secretary resigned, avowedly to take a brigade
in the field, there was little surprise among the initiated.
There were however, varied rumors of ruptures between him
and the President and other of his associates in council.
None of these were probable, for General Toombs was rest
less under thwart of impracticable views, and he was doubt
less sincere in preference for active service.

Secretary Toombs was succeeded, in July, 1861, by Robert
Mercer Taliaferro Hunter. No Virginian of the older activ
ities had been more prominent than he, and his experience
bad been earned in service as state legislator, congressman
and United States senator. His unfinished term in the
upper house would have ended, had he retained it, about
the time when General Grant was arranging to accept the
parole of Robert Lee. Mr. Hunter held the portfolio of
state but a few months, resigning to take up the more con
genial duties of Confederate senator from Virginia. In Feb
ruary, 1862, his place was temporarily filled by Mr. Benjamin,
who was already becoming the Pooh-Bah of the cabinet.

The social side of the cabinet was scarcely affected by
Mr. Toombs's withdrawal. His only daughter, Miss Sallie
Toombs, had long before married Dudley M. Du Bose, and

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

85

had given up Washington belleship for domesticity. She
died shortly after the war, in Virginia, leaving a son and
daughter, Toombs Du Bose, of Athens, Ga., and Camille,
Mrs. Henry Galley of Washington, Ga. An older daughter,
Lula, had married Felix Alexander, but had died in 1855,
leaving no children.

The Mallory household was an interesting one to all sorts
of people, and from many aspects. General curiosity pre
vailed as to the naval future of the Confederacy, and that
centered in the man who was to control at least its details.

Mr. Mallory was known to all as a tried publicist, who had
headed the then infant effort
of floating the starry flag tri
umphantly in long service as
senator. Personally, he was
little known on his arrival in
Richmond ; but his quick per
ception, decided cultivation,
and especially his wit, ge
nial nature and frank court
esy, soon placed him high in
the estimate of even the sever
est critics of men in position.

In two things Mr. Mallory
took genuine pleasure: good
cheer and a good joke. He
was gourmet, while no whit
gourmand, and one had but
to note the twinkle in his eye and the placid curve of
his full lips to know that the Irish blood in him had
taken no yellow tinge from American rush. The color
of his humor was not scarlet, but his quaint turning of
an idea was often more effective than an epigram had been.
The two salient sides of character noted were concreted in

STEPHEN R. MALLORY

(SECRETARY OF THE NAVY)

86 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

a brief love song he dedicated to "Gumbo File," the ambrosia
of the Creole and the dietetic delight of the earnest Northern
pilgrim. Brief, with a touch of genuine poetry, and as full
flavored with humor as its delicate godmother potage with
the bay leaf, the poem took at once. The press reprinted it;
young ladies clipped it — often with but part conception of
its quality— and it was sung frequently, and notably by Mrs.
Mallory's brothers, Stephen and James Moreno. We may
meet Mr. Mallory later, in his aspect as maker and manager of
a navy on which opinions varied, as they did on all things
governmental. But as a host there were no two views of
the jovial secretary.

The Mallory home was not a very gay one, and there were
no grown children to add the whirligig to its quiet, hospitable
round. But the instincts of both husband and wife — for
Mrs. Mallory's descent was pure Spanish — combined to make
the crosser of their threshold at home immediately. There
were rounds of informal droppings-in, where the intellect,
wit and cultivation of the nervous and varied population
could be found. Mr. Mallory brewed a punch as good as his
stories and mots, and Mrs. Mallory knew tricks of Southern
salads and of daube a la Creole that made many Northern eyes
wink and mouths water. And almost always the little daugh
ter of the house was allowed to sit out the stay of guests and
often to aid in their entertainment.

Mrs. Mallory's long Washington experience as a senator's
wife had quite Americanized her manner, but her pure Spanish
taste lingered in the lady who had been Senorita Angela Sil-
veria Moreno. Her family has many and influential rami
fications in the Creole South, and notable members of it will
be encountered by the patient one who follows these pages.
The most familiar descendant was the late Senator S. R. Mal
lory, who filled his father's old chair in representing Florida
until his death in 1907. "

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF TEE SIXTIES 87

Little Ruby Mallory was about seven years old when the
move to Richmond was made. She was one of the most in
telligent and precocious children I ever knew, but there was
nothing uncanny or irritant in her exceptional outstripping
of her years. The darling of parents so informed, so careful,
she absorbed and understood unusual things, and her mag
netism was wonderful even at that age. Her natural elocution
was the talk of Richmond and prophecies were freely haz
arded that she would surely
be a great actress some day.
What she really did become,
while still in her teens, was the
facile queen of young society,
in her native Pensacola, and her
belleship continued until her
marriage with Dr. T. S. Ken
nedy, of New Orleans. There
the young wife had wider field
for her tact, cleverness and
inborn power to lead, all tem
pered and fused into general
popularity by the warmth of
a true woman's heart. She
was long at the head of a gay
and brilliant circle, but it is
not of record that she ever wil
fully misused her power or hurt
the pride or the feelings of an
associate, though she was
absolutely fearless, a consist
ent hater of shams and prompt to spur to the rescue of a
friend in distress.

With examples of this trait New Orleans drawing-rooms
were rife. One of them I recall. Miss Lee was visiting the

MRS. T. S. KENNEDY

(RUBY MALLORY)

88 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

city about carnival time. There was one especially fine
function among the many in honor of the great General's
daughter. When its main motif was satisfied the ladies sat
over coffee and — I had almost written cigarettes for — salted
almonds! Miss Lee drew off a quaint old ring, an heirloom
from the centuries, and probably worn by Martha Washing
ton. It was eagerly seized and passed around, amid cho
rused "How sweet!" and "Lovely!" and "So nice!'7 Then
family pride flared up, and one mondaine showed a ring left
by a triply great-ed grandmother, who had flirted with Bien-
ville. Another trumped that centuried trick with the Court
of Charles the Bold, another still, straight from the Crusades.
Miss Lee sat smiling but slightly flushed. Mrs. Kennedy noted
the awkward situation of discounting the guest's social ad
vance. Slowly drawing off a magnificent but most palpably
latest style ring, she said demurely.

"Here is a trifle of mine, ladies. That ring was presented
by Solomon to the Queen of Sheba!"

Then family pride went to roost again.

Mr. Mallory's eldest daughter, Margaret, had married early
in life Mr. Bishop, of Bridgeport, Conn., and her quieter life
left her less in public view than her little sister. This, and the
early maturity of the latter constantly made an absurd
" Buttercupping " of the two, and many bright sayirfgs of
the younger were ascribed to the senior. Some grave actions
of the latter have been ascribed to Mrs. Kennedy while still a
child. Mrs. Bishop called on Andrew Johnson to protest
against her father' s unjust imprisonment and demand his
release. Later I heard the statement, which has apparently
misguided some, that this visit was made the president "by
little Ruby Mallory!" At the date of its making she was
just twelve years old.

In 1901 a lecture engagement called me to New Orleans.
Looking to her for much* of the pleasure of the visit, I wrote

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 89

her. The letter arrived just as the fiat incomprehensible had
gone forth, and I met a sorrow, deep and universal, for her
untimely death. Very vividly came back memories of that
delightful, if not gay, Richmond home in which the Reaper
had meantime been so busy.

The pleasantest houses of the " official set" were not always
those of the cabinet. That body is somewhat Arabian. A
secretary would fold his official tent, and steal away sandal-
shod and in silence; sometimes, as one wag put it, " Ungloved,
unborrowed and — unhung." But even were these changes
explicable to the tyro in cabinet-making, this is not the
proper place to seek their cause or their results. The retiring
officials were rarely beaux or their families belles .

The most kaleidoscopic department was the war office.
The first and provisional secretary was promptly replaced,
on the regular formation of the government, but not before
that Montgomery speech, in which he pledged to carry the
new flag to Boston and plant it on Faneuil Hall. Leroy Pope
Walker was scarcely permitted to "tote" it to the James.
He was at that day the most prominent of four well-known
Alabama brothers of whom the two least noted were the
most popular. Hon. Percy Walker was perhaps the least
so. A speech made to him by the learned and eccentric
Judge Edmund Dargan was long-lived in the Gulf State..
Returning with him from the convention in Montgomery,
the old jurist noted that his junior was gloomy and wroth.
Asked the cause, Walker cried:

"Why, judge, they threatened to hang me in effigy!"

The old man shifted his invariable quid, solemnly peered
over his glasses and drawled: "Which party did, Percy?"

John J. Walker and " Billy" were not publicists, but stead
fast comrades and good soldiers. The latter was a "high
roller, of the strictest sect."

Several successive shakes of the kaleidoscope, and the

90 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

peephole showed the " rearrangement" of Hon. James A.
Seddon, with his thin, grave face and monkish skull-cap;
General George Wythe Randolph, self-contained, decisive
and ordained not to stay; General Braxton Bragg and Judge
John A. Campbell, both as ad interim time-fillers; Mr. Ben
jamin temporarily acting as a "stop-gap," and General John
C. Breckinridge finally withdrawn from more congenial field
service to aid Mr. Davis's real control of that most vital de
partment of the government.

Next in importance if not actual twin with the war office
was the Confederate treasury. This was given into the trust
of the Mother of Secession, its conduct being reposed in the
hands of Hon. C. G. Memminger and George A. Trenholm,
of South Carolina. This is not the place to consider its re
sults. Later I may show what was claimed as the crucial
error of Confederate finance, and how the non-acceptance of
some foreign concessions and proffers left the South the first
essayist in a "cheap" money experiment, and "demonetized"
the true and potent "white money" — cotton. These may
come under review later. Here it need only be noted that
neither of these officials added much to the general social
aspects of the capital. Courtly and cultured families in
Richmond needed houses and chefs to make them notable.

Grim, grave and steadfast General John H. Reagan held
the post-office portfolio with the same tenacity and quite
the same satisfaction to his chief as did Mr. Mallory his secre
taryship. Loyal, blunt and outspoken, he was the tried
friend of Mr. Davis through good report and ill, and the latter
trusted in his honesty even as he possibly overrated his
judgment. To his recent death, which swept away the one
remaining vestige of the Richmond cabinet, General Reagan
was the quick and ardent champion of his dead chief, against
every assault on plan or performance. Neither was the
department of letters -conducive to added sociality; but the

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 91

head and family of the assistant postmaster-general were
so in large measure, as will be seen.

Good men and true, doubtless, were all of these, but they
scarcely counted in the sociality of the war, save one. Gen
eral Randolph was a charming host, hospitable, frank and
cultured. His wife was one of the most charming women of
her day, graces of person, mind and heart blending in her to
form a resistless personality. She had been Miss Mary Eliza
beth Adams, of Mississippi, and had first married Mr. Pope,
of Mobile. When still a brilliant young widow she married
the noted Virginian. She was the soul of hospitality and an
accomplished entertainer, so hers early became the most
popular of official homes. She had the knack of making
young and old, simple and high-placed alike, feel ownership.
Mrs. Randolph was assisted by her niece, Miss Jennie Pollard;
and the philosophic youth of war-time, knowing a good thing
when they saw it, flocked to Mrs. Randolph's house as it had
been a shrine curative of the blue devils. There reception,
dance and theatricals followed in quick succession. In the
last named the hostess promoted this writer to a post that
has enabled him to rebuild from the debris of recollection a
gilded structure, if it have some resemblance to the sand-
projected palaces of Soliman the Magnificent.

One ubiquitous and most acceptable social factor of the
official circle \vas that polished and smooth brevet bachelor;
Hon. Judah P. Benjamin, attorney-general with the plus
sign. There was no circle, official or otherwise, that missed
his soft, purring presence, or had not regretted so doing. He
was always expected, almost always found time to respond,
and was invariably compensating. He moved into and
through the most elegant or the simplest assemblage on natural
rubber tires and well-oiled bearings, a smile of recognition
for the mere acquaintance, a reminiscent word for the inti
mate, and a general diffusion of placid bonhomie. A Hebrew

BELLES, BEAUX AND BE AINU OF THE SIXTIES

of Hebrews, for the map of the Holy City* was traced all
over his small, refined face, the attorney-general was of the
highest type of his race. Small and rotund, he was yet of
easy grace in manner ; and his soft voice was not only pleasant
of sound, but always carried something worth hearing. That

he was a great and success
ful lawyer all knew, and that
he was an omnivorous de-
vourer of books and of
wonderful assimilative ca
pacity. Astute and best
informed, he was greatly
regarded by Mr. Davis as an
adviser. With his conduct
of foreign affairs we may
differ later, perhaps. He
may have missed silver-lined
opportunities in the over
reach for impossible, golden
ones. He may have de
ceived himself and the peo-

JUDAH P. BENJAMIN ^ ^ ^^ ^ ^ optimistic

utterances as to intervention by the Powers, and he may
have played the Confederates' pawn abroad in a fool's
"gambit." But socially the man was delightful and many-
sided, and as popular with the young as with the older set
about him. After the war Mr. Benjamin repeated the tri
umph of Disraeli, and by the same force of personality and
brain. He achieved, alone and as the best known represent
ative of a lost and a disaster-strewn Cause, the quickest
advance to a barrister ever known to the most conservative
legal system of the planet.

Hebrew in blood, English in tenacity of grasp and purpose,
*The Arabs call Jerusalem "El Khuds" (the Holy City).

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 93

Mr. Benjamin was French in taste, jusque au bout des angles.
So were his family, and they never visited Richmond. In
deed, in a knowledge of him extending to a decade before the
war I recall but one visit made by them to this side of the
water. Mrs. Benjamin had been Mile, de St. Martin and
she lived with her two grown daughters, permanently in Paris
where the girls married. But the secretary's brother-in-law,
Jules cle St. Martin, was awhile in Richmond and later quite
a toast in Baltimore society. Very small, faultlessly groomed
and well equipped by travel and association, this gentleman
was very much of a man. He was suave and decided and an
expert in the code, as I chanced to learn.

The second Confederate attorney-general was a noted
Alabamian, though of Virginia-Georgia descent. His father,
Thomas Hughes Watts, of Fauquier county, Va., married in
1818, Miss Prudence Hill, of Clarke county, Ga., and immedi
ately moved to Butler county, Ala., then the wild and lonely
home of the Creek Indians. There in the next year, was
born his son, Thomas Hill Watts.

In a log-hut school house with a puncheon floor, that re
ceived light and air through crevices of its sides and roof, the
youth got its first education. Thence, at fifteen years he
went to Airy Mount, in Dallas, and equipped for the Uni
versity of Virginia, where he graduated with distinction in-
1840. The next year he began practice of law in his home,
and in 1847 removed from Greenville to Montgomery.

Prior to the war he was an extensive plantation and slave
owner, and he was a staunch supporter of Harrison against
Van Buren, when a mere youth. Then, for three terms he
was in the legislature. In later years, he was both repre
sentative and senator from the Montgomery districts. In
1848, he was a Taylor elector at large; and eight years later
Know Nothing candidate for congress, but was defeated by
a narrow margin.

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

In the hot triangle of 1860, he labored for the Bell-Everett
success. Vigorous in opposition, the election of Lincoln
determined him to "go with his people."

With William L. Yancey, he represented Montgomery
county in the Secession convention of January 7th, 1861;

and, as chairman of its ju
diciary committee, did much
toward taking his state out
of the Union.

Showing his faith, as did
many an "original Union
man" the lawyer changed
Chitty for Hardee, raised the
17th Alabama Infantry and
became its colonel. While
commanding it at Corinth,
Mr. Davis chose Colonel
Watts to succeed Mr. Ben
jamin as law chief of the
permanent cabinet. He pre
ferred the field to the office,
but he accepted the duty
offered. In the following year, against his earnest protest, he
was chosen governor of Alabama and held the office from
1863 to 1865 — the most trying epoch of the war.

Post-bellum, Governor Watts returned to law practice; but,
largely through assisting friends, soon found himself in debt
for over $100,000. Of white integrity and indomitable cour
age he bent every energy and every mastery of his profession
to lifting the load; paying the debt in full before he died in 1892.
Governor Watts was twice married: first, in 1842, to Miss
Eliza B. Allen, who died in 1873, leaving six children. The
second marriage was to the widow of J. F. Jackson, after two
years of widowerhood; and she died in 1887,

GOV. THOMAS II. WATTS

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 95

The six children of Thos. Hill Watts and Eliza B. Allen
were: Florence S., Kate P., John W., Thomas H., Jr., Alice
and Minnie G. Watts.

The first married Col. Daniel S. Troy and left this family of
five: Thos. W. Troy, married at Macon, Ga., and now resident
in Honduras, C. A.; Florence Troy married Charles E. Hails,
residing at Montgomery; Mary Troy, unmarried and residing
at Philadelphia; Daniel W. Troy married Janie B. Watts and
resides at Montgomery. Robert E. Troy married a Cuban
lady named Trigi and lives at Honduras, C. A.

Kate P. Watts, the second daughter of the governor, mar
ried Robert M. Collins and left a family of six children:
Robert M. Collins, a bachelor, of Montgomery; Lida B. Col
lins, living unmarried at Washington City; William H. Collins,
of Montgomery, unmarried; James Collins, single, of Wash
ington, D. C.; Florence Collins married Albert J. Pickett,
and residing at Montgomery; as does her sister, Miss Catherine
Collins.

Hon. John W. Watts, is today a leading member of the
Montgomery bar and has a family of seven living children:
Miss Gabriella Watts and Marion A. Watts, residing at Mont
gomery; Marghereta, who married Gaston Scott, also resides
there, as do Sophia W., Annie Campbell and Flournoy S., all
single and residing in Montgomery. John W. Watts, Jr.,
lives in Jacksonville, Fla., and is a bachelor.

Mrs. Johnness B. Watts (widow of Thos. Hill Watts, Jr.)
has five children: John W. Watts, who married Miss Reid
and lives in Birmingham; Ed. S. Watts, who married Miss
Norwood and lives in Montgomery, as does his brother,
Hugh K., who married Miss Pitcher; Troy Watts, a bachelor,
and Janie B. Troy, wife of Daniel W. Troy.

The youngest sister, Alice B. Watts, married Hon. Alex
ander Troy, . resides in Montgomery with her son, Gaston;
Alexander Troy having married Miss Thames, of New York.

06 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

Even the most intense Virginian monopolizer will not hold
that there are not families of Scriptural length in other states.

The third and last attorney-general of the Confederacy—
the one who was the last of the cabinet to leave the flying
president, in Georgia; and who survived him and the Cause
until 1896 — was another example of the force of Welsh blood
in the arteries of the short-lived young government. In
common with Jefferson Davis, G. T. Beauregard, and the
President's brother-in-law, Robert Davis, the attorney-
general was of good Welsh stock in paternal descent. On
his mother's side he was English.

George Davis was born at Wilmington, N. C., his father
being Thomas F. Davis, a well-respected citizen of that old
city.

The young man was educated carefully and graduated,
entering on the practice of law in his native town, when only
twenty-one. He promptly made his way both in his pro
fession and in politics, as an old-line Whig; gaining the con
fidence of all classes, and the respect of his political opponents.
Yet, in a long life, he never sought a political office. He was
a prominent member of the convention that took his state
out of the Union, in 1861 and was elected senator from North
Carolina to the provisional congress. Re-elected in 1862,
he was serving his term when selected by the President to
fill the seat in his cabinet, vacated by the election of Gov
ernor Watts to the head of Alabama's affairs. Conscientious,
prudent and an excellent lawyer, he held the confidence of his
chief until the very last gasp of the moribund government;
accompanying the cabinet party in the evacuation of Rich
mond, with Breckinridge, Mallory, Benjamin and Clement
C. Clay.

It was on his advice that the President acceded to the re
quest of General Breckinridge, that the silver -bullion should
be saved capture by pro rata distribution among the soldiers

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 07

of the escort. And, parenthetically, there was no wilder one
of all the wild "yarns" of that rumoriferous moment, than
that which placed the "Confederate treasure" high up in
the millions. Including the security fund deposited in the
treasury by the Richmond bank — and later returned to them
by the government as private property — the gross amount
of the bullion brought from Richmond by Treasurer Tren-
holm was not the quarter of a million. After the distribution
to the soldiers and when the pressure of pursuit forced dis
persion of the presidential party, Attorney-General Davis
and the treasurer became custodians of the "treasure wagon,"
moving it toward Augusta.

Nominally for this participancy, but really in punishment
for steadfast adherence to his cause, Mr. George Davis was
later arrested as a "state prisoner" and held in durance at
Fort Hamilton, New York.

After his release (on parole not to leave the State of North
Carolina), the ex-official resumed the practice of his profes
sion; prospering in it and regaining in part the losses from his
adherence to public duty. He was general counsel for the
several lines that consolidated in the Atlantic Coast Line;
and then for that system. Then, in 1878, he was offered the
chief-justiceship of his state, but was forced to decline for
business reasons. His death, in his native city, in 1896',
brought regret and sorrow to his whole state and section.

Judge Davis was twice married: first to Miss Adelaide
Polk, of Holly Springs, Miss. Of this union came six children,
of whom only two survive, the eldest Hon. Junius Davis, of
Wilmington, and Meeta Alexander, who is now Mrs. George
Rountree, of Wilmington, and has a family of four.

Junius Davis has himself illustrated the old Welsh name
and "has done the state some service." He is a prominent
citizen and lawyer, with a fine practice, in which he has his
son as partner, and he finds leisure for literature and general

98 BELLES, BE AUK AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

study, being president of the State Historical and Literary
Society. He has, like his father, been twice married: first,
to Miss Mary Orme Walker, who died leaving eight children.
His present wife is Mary W. Cowan, and they have three
children.

The children of George Davis who died were Mary Eliza,
Isabel Eagles, Emily Polk and Louis Poisson. The second
Isabel, became Mrs. Spencer P. Shotter, now of Savannah,
and has one child living. Emily Polk, the next sister, married
John E. Crow, of Petersburg, Va., and left five childern to her
husband, now of Wilmington.

The second wife of Hon. George Davis was of historic
Virginia family, Miss Monimia Fairfax, of Richmond. Her
two daughters are Mary Fairfax (now Mrs. M. F. H. Gouver-
neur, of Wilmington, and the mother of three children) ; and
Cary Monimia (now Mrs. Donald Mac Rae, of Wilmington,
and also the mother of three children).

These Davises have never seemed a self-illustrative family,
but they have plainly borne their parts in the private and
public life of their Southland.

CHAPTER VIII

SOME VICE-REGENCIES

THE homely saying that "it takes all sorts of people to
make a world" finds especial verity at most national capitals.
Naturally, its greater proof might be sought in the central
city of a nascent republic, striving for life amidst the scat
tered members of an old one, and that one hated where not
despised, by most members of its successor.

The flotsam and jetsam that had washed from Washington
to Montgomery followed the hegira to Richmond. Echo
from the "Cradle of the Confederacy" had penetrated to the
banks of the James and, as has been stated, sent cold chills
of apprehension down the sensitive Virginian spine. These
soon wore away, but they early differentiated the personality
of the leaders as the "official set."

The sobriquet included one and all engaged in making, or
marring the young government. Early and better elements
of this hodge-podge came to the top, by reason of better
mind and better manners. The fittest not only survived the
governmental evolution, but were so appreciated as to be
much sought by the best home element, indeed to become an
integral part of it.

Little may this change or its suddenness be wondered at
on even casual glance at some components of the "official
set."

Next to the actual and active head of the Confederacy

99

100

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

and his household, the vice-president ranked by virtue of
his office. He had done so by other virtues, inherent and
confessed.

Hon. Alexander H. Stephens was a tried and respected
politician, far and away from both sides of the not then

clearly-marked line of Messrs.
Mason and Dixon. He was
idolized in the Cracker State,
and the repeated expressions
of her faith that had sent
him to congress had begotten
trust in the South and some
fear in the North. Had the
small South Carolina clique
at Montgomery, headed by
Lawrence M. Keitt, William
W. Boyce and others, de
feated the selection of Jeffer
son Davis for the presidency,
their choice had probably
been Hon. Ho well Cobb, of
Georgia. Possibly the North
would have welcomed this
substitution and been saved a tough fighter by it. Later,
had Colonel Louis T. Wigf all's reported comment to Gen
eral Chesnut that "Jeff Davis ought to be hung in Rich
mond," resulted in a real and premature appletree, the
North would have relished the vice-presidential succession
very little.

Naturally, both suggestions were of "the stuff that dreams
are made of." There was never more reality in the Mont
gomery than in the Richmond proposition, but they are noted
to record the Northern view of the Sage of Liberty Hall. As
in the South, Mr. Stephens was regarded as a keen, incisive

ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 101

thinker, and essentially as a conservative. The North pre
ferred Mr. Davis, not understanding him remotely. It re
garded him as a "fire-eater," denied him statesmanship or
even judgment, and asserted that he would overleap himself
in his mad and blind rushes.

At the outset both sides to the war had an indurated belief,
in popular circles, in its brevity. Each side believed it would
whip the other in ninety days.

Having no family, Mr. Stephens did not keep house in
Richmond, but lived with those congenial friends, Judge and
Mrs. Semmes. Nowise fond of general society, from which
ill-health would have debarred him, he was ever a delightful
addition to any circle. Quick to grasp, thoroughly informed
and with quaint sub-acid in his dry humor, his talk was
equally educating and entertaining. Not so quick and bitter
—less " rifled," so to speak — he continually reminded me of
Randolph of Roanoke. After the war he retired to Liberty
Hall and preserved a reticence truly remarkable for such a
magazine of important facts There he wrote his able and not
divulgent book, contenting himself with doctoring and dis
cussion, rather than directly stating new and important facts.
One most mooted point, of equal interest, North and South, he
did not settle, as he alone could have done. This was the
alleged remark of Mr. Lincoln when the Hampton Roads
conference broke up. The President, it was stated — and
without official denial at the time — pushed a sheet of blank
foolscap toward the Confederate vice-president arid cried:

" Stephens, let me write ' Union' at the head of that paper,
and you may write anything you please under it!"

Later this statement was denied; but neither by Mr.
Stephens or Judge Campbell, the only direct witnesses pos
sible. Both asserted that they had no option; that Mr.
Davis's ultimatum was, and naturally, independence, be the
other terms what they might. Lincoln's word "Union"

102 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

could never have headed that. Looking at the characters
and at the hardened principles of the two presidents, the
Hampton Roads conference may have been the grandstand
play to the nations that some writers declare it ; but it is still
a pity that all who could really settle that point of it went
to their graves with sealed lips. Mr. Stephens, like Judge
Campbell, probably believed honestly, at that time, that the
Confederacy had "died a-borning." He was indubitably
ready to save further loss, strain and bloodshed, but he was
powerless under that ultimatum. The speech of Mr. Lincoln
is probable and I have no doubt that he made, and thought
he meant it. Carrying it out had been another matter,
especially in view of the mad Booth's pistol, but I know that
it was reiterated in Mr. Stephens's presence, without
denial.

Mr. Stephens died at Atlanta, in 1883, and was buried at
Liberty Hall. His only surviving relatives are grandneph-
ews and nieces; a notable one being Alex. W. Stephens of
the Atlanta bar.

One department not officially nominated in the cabinet
was of such importance and far-reaching influence on the
strength of the army as to be classed with the regular port
folios. This was the commission for exchange of prison
ers, under General Robert Ould. It demanded a man of
mixed firmness and bonhomie, with widely extended acquaint
ance and tried knowledge of human nature. All these centered
in "Bob" Ould, and he was probably as near "the right man
in the right place" as it is given appointees to be.

Apparently the Federal officials did not wholly believe
those wild "yarns" of the terror of Anderson ville, the Libby
and other prisons, upon which they fed full the horror-hungry
maw of their public. Did they so believe they stand con
victed of negligence and heartlessness in refusing urgent and
continued appeals for regular and prompt exchanges.

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 103

For years Robert Ould had been one of the best known
attorneys in Washington, popular in every club, cloak-room
and cafe and influential by some occult process known only
to the denizen in shadow of the dome.

In early life he married Miss Sarah Turpin, of a family
noted for its handsome women, herself said to be the " beauty
of the state in her time." The pair were popular in Wash
ington circles, and regret was general when they "went
South." They brought to Richmond with them a little
daughter, who upheld the repute of her mother's side
in the new generation.

Miss Mattie Ould did not
enter her teens until the war
was a year old. At its close
and shortly thereafter she had
made perhaps a wider reach
ing fame than any belle of
the '60's. Forced into society
when but a child, her strik
ing and peculiar beauty had
added to it a resistless manner
and a wit that literally startled
by its audacity and point.
Men raved about her and
women praised, although she
was the cause of many a

MISS MATTIE OULD

knight's recreancy. But
dazzling as was her beauty, i
it was probably her mental
originality and her indescribable magnetism that made this
mere girl a marked figure among the noted women about
her. But her early triumphs were not presage of a bright or
happy future. She did not live to reach their full fruition.
Soon after the war and while still in her teens, she sur-

104 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

prised her friends and set busybodies wondering by marry
ing Oliver Schoolcraft.

Almost without a honeymoon the gifted and beautiful
young girl died. But young as she was, her beauty stands
clear today on the memory of all who knew her, and Rich
mond men and women are still repeating her epigrams. Miss
Sallie Ould, the second sister, married Mr. George Donaldson
and resides at Charleston, W. Va., when not traveling abroad.
The only brother, Jesse Bright Quid, named for the
burly old senator from Indiana — now resides with his family
at Unicoi, Tenn. The traditional beauty of the family is
still evidenced at Mobile, in Mrs. J. Howard Wilson who
was Miss Sallie Turpin, a first cousin.

Late in life General Ould made a second marriage, the
lady being the well-known Widow Handy. The beauty and
society fame of her daughter, Miss May Handy, had carried
the name to the bounds of the Union ere the lady made a
tardy choice and became the second wife of James Brown
Potter, of New York.

It is a singular coincidence that the two most noted beau
ties of the Richmond of the recent past should have come
from the same household.

In common with all who leave repute for wit, Miss Mattie
Ould had had many things attributed to her which she not
only did not say, but could not have said. Perhaps the most
traveled one of these is that when found once with her head
upon General Pierce M. B. Young's lapel, she only remarked
coolly:

" There's nothing odd about it; it is only an old head upon
Young shoulders!" The thing is not like Miss Ould in either
of its aspects. Audacious as she was beautiful, the girl was
no fool ever, and only such publish little affairs, if they have
them. Moreover, Young himself, on the last meeting we
had previous to his death, told me that there was not the

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 105

least foundation for the story. He added in his blunt way,
" I never knew Miss Quid very well and never had such luck
as that!"

Young was reckless and essentially a "flirt," as the slang
goes, but in a close intimacy covering years I never knew him
to lie, and I do know of more than one case in which he went
out of his way to see that justice was done to a woman's repu
tation.

Two examples of Miss Quid's quickness I can personally
vouch for. Shortly before her marriage she was at a dinner in
Richmond with several lawyers, one of whom was a noted
Munchaiisen; he was also a desperate drinker and held long
sessions. He was boasting of one case in which he had earned
a $30,000 fee, and then spent it in a single spree. Her table
neighbor asked Miss Ould if she credited the story. Her
answer was prompt:

"I might doubt the storied earn, but he's all right for
that animated bust!"

A bumptious young lady-slayer was insisting that the
brilliant girl had been giving him some confessions. Someone
cried: "He your father confessor!"

"Scarcely," she laughed. "He is only a gosling, and I
am no such goose as to confess, except to the proper gander!"

Two homes directly opposite the White House were notable
ones in the social as well as the official life of Richmond.
These were occupied by the families of Senator Thomas J.
Semmes, of Louisiana, and of Judge John Archibald Camp
bell, of the same state, assistant secretary of war. In the
old government, no less than the new, this jurist had been a
noted and potent factor. A native Georgian, he had moved
to New Orleans in early professional life. There he made
reputation so rapidly as to become head of a bar noteworthy
for such advocates and orators as Semmes, Benjamin,
Soule and their peers.

106 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

Judge Campbell was the son of Duncan Greene Campbell
and Mary Lawrence Williamson, and was born on the ances
tral plantation in Wilkes county in 1811. Appointed to
West Point by War Secretary John C. Calhoun, young Camp
bell was called home before graduation by the death of his
father. This possibly lost the world a good soldier, but gave
it a great jurist. He early moved to Alabama, and while
scarce more than a youth married Anne Esther Goldthwaite.
She was of English parentage and her brothers and cousins of
Goldth\vaite name have made the family notable in the sub
sequent professional life and in social matters in the Gulf
State.

By this union there were six children, only one being a son,
who was named for his grandfather. The five daughters have
all helped to make social history in two capitals and many
another city. Henrietta Goldthwaite, Katharine Rebecca,
Mary Ellen, Anna and Clara.

Duncan Greene, the son, married Ella, daughter of Charles
B. Calvert, of Riverdale, Md. He survived this wife, dying
in 1888 and leaving four children to the care of his father and
sisters.

Henrietta, the eldest sister, was a most popular and ad
mired member of Washington society prior to the war, and
esteemed as one of the most delightful women in its Richmond
^replica. She had married Captain George William Lay,
later aide-de-camp and confidential secretary to General
Winfield Scott. This high post, with his rank of colonel,
Lay resigned, taking the same grade in the Confederate ser
vice, as Beauregard's inspector-general, in Virginia. Inva
lided after the Seven Days' fights, he was placed at the head
of a special bureau of conscription with General John S. Pres
ton, of South Carolina. A good soldier and true man, he
died at New Orleans in 1867.

The second Campbell sister, Katherine, married General

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 107

V. D. Groner, of Norfolk, and the third, Mary Ellen, gallant
and well-loved Arthur Pendleton Mason. The fourth is still
Miss Anna Campbell and resides with her widowed sister,
Mrs. Lay, in the Baltimore home left by their father. The
fifth sister, the "baby of the family/' was Clara, now the wife
of Fred M. Colston, a prosperous and much esteemed banker
of the Monumental City. But the Mason pair, young, gifted
and with all to live for, passed away in New Orleans soon
after peace was declared.

In war-time the Campbell home was much sought by the
best of young and old in the new "capital." Mrs. Campbell
was a gentle and delightful hostess and the attractiveness of
her grown daughters — and of the exceptional men of her
household — was a magnet for the grave as well as the gay.
There were no strained rela
tions between that family
and others of the government
to which its head had made
allegiance.

Judge Campbell, like Gen
eral Lee and scores of great
Confederates, was an "origi
nal Union man." He had
practiced much in the supreme
court at Washington, had
been promoted to be one of
its j ustices by President Pierce
and was, naturally, saturated
with national ideas. In the

disruption of these he foresaw only suicide for Southern
Rights, and he was outspoken of belief at the time of that
so-called "Peace Commission," which the tergiversations of
Mr. Buchanan made not only useless, but ridiculous.

When New Orleans became impossible as a field for his pro-

108 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

fession and Judge Campbell first moved his family to Rich
mond, he was offered several positions of importance. Dif
fering from Mr. Davis as he did, the latter still respected his
gifts and his loyalty. But the jurist declined, although when
he had found "blood thicker than water" and had come to
his people, it was for better or worse. At first he refused all
proffers, but when his personal friend, George W. Randolph,
importuned his assistance in the war department, the old
jurist accepted the post and held it under all changes until
the evacuation.

After the war he moved his family back to New Orleans,
later devoted himself wholly to supreme court practice and
returned to Washington. Changed conditions made that city
no congenial home for the family and they went to Baltimore,
where all the survivors reside, except Mrs. Groner, who lived
in Virginia.

In the early war the Southern sentiment toward the so-
called " Union men," however earnest and useful in the cause
they had adopted on principle, "my country, right or wrong,"
was much that of the North toward "copperheads."
Thoughtlessness, that could not differentiate free thought
from grand action, overlooked the fact that Robert Edward
Lee, Alexander Hamilton Stephens and their peers, if they
had any, were, like John Archibald Campbell, "original
Union men."

Of vital import at all times of war — and most of all in
a young country just forming its army — is the adjutant-
general. The secretary of war was helpless without a just,
experienced and reliable guide to the fitness and records of
new appointees.

The Confederacy was peculiarly fortunate in this regard.
General Samuel Cooper was a veteran of two wars, thoroughly
familiar with the personnel of both armies; clear-headed and
without prejudice. A West Pointer of the class of 1815, he

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 109

had served with Harney in Florida and on both the Scott and
Taylor lines in Mexico. When he succeeded General Roger
Jones as adjutant-general of the United States Army, he
had already learned the men whom he was to handle later
and those whom they were to meet, two points invaluable in
assignments and field of duty. He resigned and was among
the earliest to tender service at Montgomery, and there and
in Richmond was a trusted and capable adviser to his chief
to the bitter ending. General Cooper was a Northern man,
having been born at Hackensack, N. J., June 12, 1798. He
was the son of Samuel Cooper and Mary Horton, sterling
people of the little state. In the early '30's he married Miss
Sarah Maria Mason, grand
daughter of George Mason,
of Gunston Hall. Naturally,
when promoted to adjutant-
general of the old army, the
family removed to the na
tional capital.

Mrs. Cooper was the daugh
ter of a race noted for the
strength, helpfulness and
gentleness of its women.
Prior to the war her quiet
home in Washington had
been a favorite resort of the
best of official and society
people, drawn thither by the
beauties of person and char
acter of her young lady daughter, Maria. One of the prettiest
and best remembered weddings of the capital was when this
universally loved girl married dashing Lieutenant Frank
Wheaton, and Fitzhugh Lee, then of the slender rank, was
best man.

MRS. SAMUEL COOPER

110 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF TEE SIXTIES

Eheu fugaces! The bride has been dead decades, but lives
still in the memory of loyal friends and in her charming and
tried daughter and her children. His native state, Rhode
Island, has only lately reared a stately monument to Major-
General Frank Wheaton and later still paeans and sobs

mingled about the bier of his
lifelong friend, Fitz Lee. The
only child of General Wheaton
and his beautiful and univer
sally lamented wife was a
daughter, named for her moth
er. She married a young
army officer, who gave his life
for the old Flag at San
Juan Hill — Captain Ho well.
His widow survives him,
with a lovely family: Frank
Ashley, Charles and Maria.

In Richmond the young
lady of the house was Miss
Jennie Cooper, a sunny-na-
tured woman, bright, frank and of strong character.
Never having had the society craze, she did not topple
her home "into the swim," but free and genial hos
pitality met all who crossed its threshold and their name was
legion. Captain Samuel Cooper was the only son, a quiet,
easy-going fellow, always ready to do his duty, but not find
ing it, as a general thing, in the social rush of the early Ws.
He and his sister were the sole survivors of the family. He
never married and lived with her at "Cameron," where he
died two years ago.

Popular with both sexes, Miss Cooper probably had more
"reports" about her in war days and close thereafter than
most women; many of them doubtless, with a basis. She

MRS. NICHOLAS DAWSON
(JENNIE COOPER)

BELLES, BEAUX AND BKAINS OF THE SIXTIES 111

married Nicholas Dawson, a merchant of Baltimore, but
citizen of Virginia. The old family seat, " Cameron," near
Alexandria, has been their home, the three children making
the fourth generation its venerable walls have sheltered.
Mrs. Dawson still resides there with her second son, Philip,
of the Riggs National Bank, Washington. Cooper, the eldest
child, recently married Miss Edna Horner, daughter of Major
Horner, of the Confederate army. He has built a new home
on the Cameron domain, to be near his mother; going into
Alexandria for his business. The only daughter, Miss Maria
Mason Dawson, still more recently married Rev. William
Gibson Pendleton, grandnephew of General Pendleton of
Confederate artillery fame. His father is Colonel William
Nelson Pendleton, of the old and noted line.

So, in the midst of her children, the widow finds solace in
their happiness.

CHAPTER IX

THE SUB-CABINET

NEXT door to the Campbell residence, and differing from
it in details of attractiveness, was another much sought and
ever delightful home. Senator Thomas Joseph Semmcs was
the diametric opposite of his learned brother next door, in his
secession views. He was an original of the advanced rank;
had been a member of the convention that took Louisiana
out of the Union, and his eloquence and ire in that body sent
him to the Confederate upper house. A lawyer of high
repute, Mr. Semmes had moved up the path to the head of
the New Orleans bar steadily with Judge Campbell, but he
believed that the South was safer out of the Union than in it.

In a delightful mention from his sister, Mrs. Ives, she tells
that she was his guest in New Orleans when the fires of seces
sion were being fast fanned into the lambent ones of war.
Admiral Raphael Semmes, their cousin, chanced to be a guest
under the same roof. He was fitting out the little Sumter,
predecessor of the famous Alabama, and was deeply impressed
with the spirit of the masses. Mrs. Ives tells graphically
of the wild ardor of the torch-lit and yelling throng that came
to tell her brother of his selection and to escort him to the con
vention hall. She also pictures the scene when the "Lone
Star Flag," the Texan banner, sung by the minstrel Harry
Macarthy, was first unfurled in the opera house.

The flag enthusiasm of that hour was epidemic. Maggie

112

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 113

Mitchell was at the Montgomery Theatre when I arrived and
of course playing "Fanchon." The Texas flag reached the
capital. That night, the canny little actress waved it, sang
the refrain and danced a flag-dance, trampling the Stars and
Stripes beneath her nimble feet, while the audience yelled
itself speechless at her timely antics. The next time I met
Miss Maggie was in Bulfinch street, Boston, but the war was
over then, and she had quite "forgotten" her Montgomery
engagement.

Mrs. Semmes was a queen among hostesses ante-bellum.
As Miss Myra Eulalie Knox,
of Montgomery, she had
queened the bellehood of her
own and other cities. When
she married the rising and
brilliant lawyer she held her
conquests in New Orleans,
the watering-places and in
the capitals of the old and
new federations. Gracious,
quick-witted and diplomatic,
she had been educated in the
more solid as well as the
showier accomplishments.
She was a born actress and
an admirable musician, play
ing the harp with especial
grace and excellence. These

gifts quickly and easily Car- (FROM A PORTRAIT BY HEALY)

ried her to social leadership in Richmond, and there her
house was a center for the most distinguished of the men of
the hour, and no less for that young set whom she enter
tained to their hearts' content, and used to that of her own.
In addition to the traits named, this matron had another

MRS. T. J. SEMMES

114 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

and a better one. She was a real and unaffected altruist
long ere that word grew to be a fad. So there was no more
open house than the one opposite the executive residence
and it held a singularly notable "mess": Vice-President
Stephens, her husband's colleagues, Senator Sparrow and
Senator Garland, of Arkansas. Another habitue of the
Semmes household and almost a member of it was Hon.
Pierre Soule, of their state, former senator and minister to
Spain. This statesman, advocate and orator had a handsome
face, introspective and rather priestly, that suggested little
of the hot blood that would have spitted the Marquis de
Tourgot, French ambassador to Spain, because the young
Duke of Alva let a too glib tongue suggest an unpleasant
likeness to Madame Soule. The cause celebre of that challenge
and of the resulting and harmless duel of young Neville
Soule with the Duke of Alva was laughed out of becoming an
international complication. Great lawyer for the French,
too, was Pierre Soule, the fervor of his speech swaying the
courts formerly conducted in that tongue at New Orleans.
He was a widower in Richmond days, the gentle, motherly
woman I recall so well in Washington having passed away.
His son, I think, married a Mexican lady, daughter of a
Revolutionary leader who, the legend runs, was captured and
boiled in oil!

Full freighted with friendships and pleasant memories of
Richmond, Mrs. Semmes returned to New Orleans after the
war, her husband returning to the bar and rising to its head
before his death. There, at advanced age, she relives her
life of good works, busied in church and general charities
and seeing her youth again in her numerous grandchildren.

Her children are now Mrs. Sylvester P. Walmsley, Mrs.
Albert Sidney Ranlett, Thomas J. Semmes, Francis Joseph
Semmes and Charles Louis Semmes.

Mrs. Semmes's daughters have many children. On one

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 115

occasion a waggish old friend visited her city and the proud
grandmother told him that one of them had eleven and the
other seven. He replied promptly:

"The youngest of each set should be named 'Craps/ of
course." And when asked what he meant, repiled: "They
'come seven/ and 'come eleven!"

Professor Alexander Dimitry was one of the most original
and learned men ever put under the use of either govern
ment. Greek by descent he was a native Louisianian, being
the son of Andrea Dimitry and Celeste Dracos, of New Or
leans. He was born in that city in 1805 and died there in
1883. A natural student and devourer of languages, he was
accredited with knowledge of no less than forty-one tongues
and dialects. He graduated early at Georgetown College,
returned to New Orleans and became the first English editor
of L'Abeille, of that city. He was also professor or principal
of several private schools, later at the head of more than one
college in Mississippi and Louisiana, and under Buchanan
became chief of the translators of the department of state.
In 1859 President Buchanan made him minister to Nicaragua
and Costa Rica, which position he resigned when his state
seceded from the Union. Incidentally it is interesting to
note that he succeeded in this post another notable scientist,
Hon. E. George Squier, who followed Stevens's explorations
into Central American antiquities and was also the first hus
band of the present Mrs. Frank Leslie.

Arriving in Richmond, Professor Dimitry was made as
sistant to General Reagan and the chief of the finance
bureau of the post-office. The family was a noted one.

Mrs. Mary Powell Mills Dimitry was daughter of Robert
Mills, of Charleston, her mother being daughter of General
John Smith, of Hackwood, Frederick county, Va., where he
was colonel in the army and county lieutenant during the
Revolution, and later for sixteen terms member of the United

116 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

States congress. Robert Mills was grandson of the colonial
governor of Carolina and cousin of General Monk, Duke of
Albemarle, who restored Charles II after Cromwell's death.
Robert Mills was an architect and civil engineer and was in
the office of Benjamin H. Latrobe in Philadelphia. He was
the first United States architect, appointed by Andrew Jack
son and in thirty years' service built scores of public struc
tures in all parts of the country, the Patent Office, Washing
ton Monument and Treasury colonnade being among them,
and he was all the while "capitol architect." The Washing
ton Monument in Baltimore, Memorial church in Richmond,
parts of the University of Virginia and Charleston Custom
House are also credited to him.

The Dimitry family in Richmond included the Misses
Eliza Virginia Dimitry (later Mrs. E. F. Ruth, deceased),
Elizabeth Linn Dimitry (Mrs. C. M. Selph), deceased, Ma
tilda T. Dimitry (Mrs. W. T. Miller), and five sons, John Bull
Smith, Charles Patton and Alexander, were all in the army
as privates, John being dangerously wounded in a charge at
Shiloh. Robert, Andrea and Thomas Dabney were under
possible fighting age. All these bright girls and gallant
educated youths, who did so much to aid the higher inter
course of the younger set, are now across the shadowy border,
except Charles Patton. Mrs. Miller died only two years since;
leaving a son, Mr. Mills Miller, in New York. Charles
Dimitry, after a brilliant and scholarly life in literature and
journalism, is now the blind historian of Louisiana.

The capital held no household more thoroughly charming
than that of Colonel and Mrs. Joseph C. Ives, of the presi
dent's staff. For a few years preceding the war they had been
noted as the handsomest pair in Washington society. This
was at a day when Burnside, McClellan, Crosby and Michler
were young beaux and regnant beauties vied for the apple
at every levee.

BELLES, BEAUX AND BE AINU OF THE SIXTIES 117

Young Ives graduated with distinction from West Point
during General Lee's superintendence of that institution;
went into the Engineer Corps and was early sent on the ex
ploration of the Colorado river. On that expedition his
work was so commended that he was ordered to Washington
for duty under the chief engineer of the army. About that
time he met the beauty of the Semmes family, of George
town, famed for its pretty women and noted men. Of course
the handsome young soldier loved her — most men did. They
were married but a short while when wedding chimes changed
to war's alarums. Ives was of Northern family, but asso
ciation made him Southern in sentiment, and he took his
wife and young children to
Richmond. There he was
hailed as an acquisition and
given position as chief en
gineer on General Lee's staff.
This he held with credit
until he was transferred, at
the President's personal re
quest, to his own staff as
engineer aide-de-camp. Mr.
Davis had known the Ives
couple in Washington and
assigned the husband to
double duty, of which part
devolved upon his wife. Be
sides discussing engineering COLONEL JOSEPH c.
problems and the defenses,

Mr. Davis found the elegance of this couple such that he turned
over to thorn the entertainment and care of distinguished
foreigners whom interest or curiosity brought into the steel-
walled capital. The soldiers of fortune, those of sympathy
and the correspondents of the foreign press were met in Mrs.

118 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

Ives's home. That it was not classed as a salon was prob
ably due to its official character as a detached segment of the
White House.

When the Marquis of Hartington, accompanied by Lord
Edward St. Maur, made that semi-official visit to Richmond

which so disquieted the North
for a space, the noblemen
were placed in entire charge
of Colonel and Mrs. Ives.
That they were well content
with the result is plain.
WThen Mrs. Ives visited Lon
don, post-bellum, Hartington,
then Duke of Devonshire,
promptly found her out and
offered her the courtesies
of the peers' gallery of the
House of Lords.

The Ives home was an open
and much sought one, young
and old alike admiring the
handsome pair and their love
ly sister, Mrs. Clara Semmes Fitzgerald. This charming elder
sister had married Lieutenant William B. Fitzgerald, of the
old navy. He promptly resigned, was made colonel in -the
army and given defense of the furthest advanced post on
the Potomac. The exposure broke him down and early
widowed his devoted wife. Both these ladies were convent
reared, the elder being a splendid musician and one of the
most delightful harpists I recall. It is a coincidence that the
wife of her brother, Senator Thomas J. Semmes, was the only
other very noted performer upon Sappho's instrument in
Richmond society of that day.

But besides her gifts as an entertainer Mrs. Ives was one

CORA SEMMES IVES

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 119

of the most industrious and resourceful workers for the sol
diers and for the poor among that noble band of Richmond
women. She practiced what the flowery Oriental preaches,
and her house and all it contained was at the disposal of the
needy. There had been no let or stay to this in the beautiful
evening of her life. The two widowed sisters lived together,
Mrs. Fitzgerald broken in health and Mrs. Ives tending her
with the faithful gentleness of mother and sister combined.
The latter days of both passed in that deep content that only
love and religion can bring. Those of the younger sister have
been brightened by the fine maturity of three sons, but deeply
shadowed later by the loss of two. Captain Edward B. Ives,
chief of the Electrical Bureau, United States Army Signal
Corps, was laid at rest at
Arlington in the fulness of
a brilliant and useful career.
Major Frank J. Ives, who
was surgeon on Chaffee's staff
in China, was later in the
Philippines. He was men
tioned in General Bates's ;
report of the Cuban cam
paign; and years ago in
Indian wars won the title of
the " righting doctor." Only
in November last, he was
laid to rest beside his elder
brother, at Arlington. The

MRS. CLARA SEMMES FITZ-GERALD
yOUngeSt SOn, a lawyer, llVeS (FROM A PORTRAIT BY SULLY)

in Arizona. And so, amid soft lights and gentle shadows,
sunset was awaited by the tender twain.

It came first to the elder sister. Mrs. Clara Semmes Fitz
gerald died at the Ives home, in Saratoga Springs, on Sep
tember 7, 1906. In the supreme calm of her great faith her

120 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

sister now awaits the new meeting with the loved ones gone
before.

In all the mad rush of that pre-bellum winter in Washing
ton, 1860-61, when grave heads shook ominously and light
heels danced over a powder magazine and recked little when
the fuse might reach, one handsome woman was constantly
in evidence. Colonel A. C. Myers, of the quartermaster-
general's department, had married the brilliant and pictur
esque daughter of old General David E. Twiggs, of Mexican
War fame. Grave and reticent as he was polished and ac
complished, the husband was much older than his wife.
Moreover, he had as perfect a contempt for what he called
society as his wife held delight in it. No Othello in character,
Colonel Myers was willing to let the young beauty dance and
fritter the hours away at will. For several seasons prior to
the war she had been the reigning queen of Willard's and a
favored guest in every fashionable house. Her dancing was
perfect, her tact equal to it and her beauty even more ex
ceptional. Two pretty little girls were not too much in
evidence, and the youthful mother enjoyed her freedom to
the full. So when the news floated through the snuffy cor
ridors of the war department a little later that Myers had
resigned, the junior warriors doubtless felt vicarious regret
for the absence of his wife.

The colonel was an able and experienced soldier well
known to Mr. Davis and General Cooper, and was promptly
appointed quartermaster-general on reaching Montgomery.
Very valuable service he rendered, too, and the regular uni
form adopted by the war department was, in larger part, of his
design. Toward the end, as was foreshadowed in that Mont
gomery board, the uniform was what any poor fellow could
get. At first however, the companies, battalions and some
times whole regiments, poured in with nondescript clothing
that suggested ancient Joseph as their military tailor. Some-

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 121

times one company was frogged and laced in parade dress and
the next in homespun and home-made butternut. The
heads saw that for service as well as appearance there must
be uniformity so far as practicable.

A board was ordered to pass upon the preliminary design
for a service uniform. It consisted of Colonel Myers as pres
ident, Colonel George Deas, of the .adjutant-general's de
partment, my brother, Surgeon D. C. De Leon, acting sur
geon-general, Colonel Tom Taylor, of Kentucky, another
volunteer, with Pierce M. B. Young, then fresh from West
Point and three years later a major-general, as recorder.
The French model for Chasseur s-a-pied was adopted and,
slightly changed, was used thereafter. There are as many
claimants for the Confederate uniform as there are for the
flag or the authorship of " Along the Potomac/' or " Lines
on a Confederate Note." The above are the facts, four of
the board having been my mess-mates, and talked uniform
ad nauseam.

Mrs. Meyers was not permanently in Richmond, going
abroad, I think, to educate her children. When she was
there, however, her grace and beauty made the same im
pression as they had done in the older capital.

The two bright and pretty little girls of the Washington
days grew to pretty and popular society women, and both,
have long been matrons. Miss Elizabeth Twiggs Myers
first married Algernon C. Chalmers, of Halifax county, Va.
There are three Chalmers children, Algernon C., Marion
Twiggs, now the wife of William Bryant, son of Captain
John Carlyle Herbert Bryant, of the Confederate army, of
Alexandria, and David Twiggs Chalmers. When widowed,
their mother married William C. Fendall, son of Townshend
Dade Fendall, of Alexandria, where the family now
resides.

Miss Marion Isabelle Myers first married Frederick Payne,

122 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

of the United States Navy, and later William Twombly, of
the Paris-American colony, but now living in Florence.

There are two brothers, also; William Hey ward Myers is
now general superintendent of the Northern Central Railway,
and the Philadelphia and Erie of the Pennsylvania system,
and the younger is Major John Twiggs Myers, United States
Marine Corps.

There is a little war reminiscence added to this historic
family since the advent of peace. Three swords had been
presented to General Twiggs at different times, for service in
defence of the old flag. One was by resolution of congress,
another by his native state of Georgia, and the third by the
city of Augusta. These trophies were taken from the resi
dence in New Orleans by General Butler. They were re
turned to the family after a suit in the supreme court of the
United States, conducted by Hon. John Randolph Tucker.

Eighteen years ago General Myers died at Washington, and
four years later, at Alexandria, his wife followed him.

CHAPTER X

IN RICHMOND'S FOURTH CENTURY

IN most cities of the "Old South," especially those that
boasted colonial origin, as Creole Louisiana, Huguenot Caro
lina, or the " Virginia Plantations," society trended to a
"four hundred." In the last, even from earliest days,
as has here been shown, the landed gentry and learned
professions held social vantage. The encroachments of the
moneyed element were slower there than in the busier North.

Sometimes in Richmond the oldest families held aloof
from the social swim, thereby abrogating no right to plunge
into it at will. These formed a social reserve to the advance
guard of gaiety and hospitality, but at the advent of the
government the latter were marked enough, both in quality
and quantity, to make that city a noted leader in Southern
matters social.

One of the gayest of the Richmond homes, and one of
the most elegant and luxurious, was the Macfarlands'. Pre-
bellum it had been both, but with just a suspicion of frost
in the atmosphere.

Mr. Macfarland was a gentleman of the old school, prim
and with fixed ideas. In a land and era of reckless dressing,
he was notable by his perfect grooming. Regularly as
clockwork he passed to and from his mansion and the bank
of which he had long been the head clad in immaculate
broadcloth, gloves and silk hat, which no rigor of blockade

124 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

seemed potent to avert. This produced something akin
to awe in the verdant soldier, and did not always escape
the flippant jokers of that day.

Mrs. Nancy Macfarland, a gentle and gracious matron
of the old school, had ever been loved as much as respected
by all who knew her. So, despite the flippant and perhaps
the envious unbidden to it, the home was one of the most
typical and much sought in Richmond at all times. During

1 the early war days it was
gladdened by as fair and
charming a bevy of maidens
as ever graced an old South
ern home.

Miss Turner Macfarland
was a debutante, bright,
blooming and budlike enough
to have almost justified the
impertinence of Page McCar-
ty's versed statement that
/ "A saint his lips would

smack

On taking in the rosy charm
of tender Turner Mac!"

MRS. WILCOX BROWN

(TURNER MACFARLAND) Genuine, frank and wom-

anly, this sole daughter of the house and heart of the
old banker was permitted to fling wide the curtains
and let the warmest sunshine of society and joyousness
into the staid parlors. Popular and most attractive
herself, she had ablest coadjutors in four sparkling and
petite cousins, the Misses Bettie and Susie Bierne, Bierne
Turner and Mrs. Breckinridge Parkman. All these were
charming women. The Bierne sisters were heiresses of the
famous Old Sweet Springs lands, and their conquest of
belleship had been easy in Northern cities, at New Orleans

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 125

carnival seasons and at the seaside resorts and the then peer
less White Sulphur. So the once grave mansion bloomed
as a social conservatory during some dark hours of the great
struggle. But the dull shadow came there, too, as will be
seen.

Brilliant and beautiful women graced all branches of two
old families historic in Virginia. No parlors of the capital
were sought more eagerly than those of Mrs. James West Pe
gram, who had been Miss Virginia Johnston, daughter of
the famous "Turf King."

Her elder daughter was highly accomplished, a stately
yet affable woman and the most noted conversationalist
of her day. She was an experienced and loved teacher of
girls, many a belle of the '60 's owing much of her attraction
to "Miss Mary's school." Admirable exponent of a school
fast dying out, she inherited the courtly graces of the gentlest
of mothers. The Pegram home was as much sought by
the more mature society as by the best gilded of the youth,
and it was especially popular with the foreign officers who
had offered their swords to Lee.

One and all, these found double attraction in the bright
and gracious younger members of the family. Miss Jennie
Pegram, the younger sister, was a belle whose unsought
reign had scarcely a compeer in war days. Dignified, gentle
and quiet, she was never disparaged as a coquette, but there
were rumors unceasing of serious beaux rising disconsolate
from her feet. And in those happy parlors were cousins
with the family traits, petite Miss Fanny and laughing Miss
Mary Truxton Johnston — "Truxie" to half of the state;
pretty and musical Miss Mattie Paul, and many another
came and went — and conquered?

After the war Miss Pegram became the wife of General
Joseph R. Anderson, whose Tredegar Works made the Hamp
ton Roads tug of Monitor and Merrimac a possibility and

126 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

aided in the long life of the struggling Confederacy. Now
widowed, after ten years of happy married life, Mrs. Ander
son resides in the elegant Richmond home, where she dispenses
old-time hospitality.

Miss Jennie also surrendered and to another good old Reb
el. She married Colonel David Gregg Mclntosh, of South
Carolina, who from Sumter to Appomattox illustrated his
state's high traits on red fields that brought his well-earned

promotion. In her long
time Baltimore home she
repeats the gentle tri
umphs of her youth over
the hearts of both sexes.
No one would suspect her
of being a grandmother.
Her first daughter, named
• for and very like her,

died unmarried. The sec
ond, Margaret, is the wife
of William Waller Morton,
of Richmond, and has
hosts of friends there and
in Baltimore. This mar
riage gives Mrs. Mclntosh

MRS. DAVID GREGG M'iNTosH her double claim to play

the venerable: her only

son and youngest child recently married the popular Miss
Charlotte Lowe Rieman, also of Baltimore.

Miss Fannie Johnston married an artist, Mr. Britton,
and died after a brief married life. Her children reside in
South Orange, N. J., and her sister, Miss Truxton, is with
them. She has spent much of her later life abroad and is
still unmarried.
One of the most noted families in recent Richmond, and

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 127

one that took on quite biblical proportions, was the Haxalls.
All four of the pairs that headed it, save one, had many de
scendants and these married and intermarried into such
other notable houses as the Wises, Masons, Tuckers and
Tripletts, the Gordons and the Lees.

William H. Haxall, the exception in the family, had no
children, living with his wife in the main street home so
popular with their old-time friends.

Boiling Walker Haxall married Miss Anne Triplett, sister
of William S. of that name, whose daughters, Misses Lizzie
and Mary, were so noted in the younger war society. The
eldest of this branch of the Haxalls was Miss Louisa Triplett,
now Mrs. Charles K. Harrison, of Baltimore, lately widowed;
whose family of nine sons and three daughters are her pride
and solace and with good reason. The daughters are all
married, but none of their brothers has yet followed that
good example. Mrs. Harrison herself was one of the buds
of Richmond society just before General Grant meddled
seriously with it. She was a lovely girl, but always of rather
an earnest turn, a result of surroundings, largely. In a recent
letter she reminds me :

"In our house, as in many in Richmond, one large room
was devoted to the sick and wounded soldiers. The cots
were arranged as in a hospital, and filled again as soon .as
emptied. My father never bought one dollar in gold until
the last week of the Confederacy; did not think it patriotic,
and did not allow me to be dressed in anything brought
through the blockade for the same reason. We sold our
carriage to buy food when the Yankees took possession,
having no United States money.

"My mother, as did many ladies, baked bread regularly
twice a week for the Robinson Hospital, directly behind
our house."

Thus it will be noted that this mother was one of those

128 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

bees who gave honeyed charity and love to the needy, and
that Boiling Haxall was loyal in the Covenanters' fashion.
The only daughter of his house was young in the trying days,
but took the color of her life from its sacrifices. Her three
brothers were still younger. William, the eldest boy, is
now a farmer and much of a town magnate at Bartonsville,
Orange county, Va. The next brother, Boiling W., also
makes the " sacred soil" yield him bread, farming in Loudon

county. John Triplett Hax
all, born during the war,
now resides in Baltimore.
He married the youngest
daughter of Douglas Gordon,
of Fredericksburg. They
have three daughters and
one son, Triplett, Jr. The
second brother, Boiling, mar
ried Miss Noland and has a
family of four, three of them
being girls.

The Barton Haxalls were
more in the social whirl,
there having been several
young ladies of that family,
and popular ones: Clara,
Lucy, Agnes, Hallie ; May and
Charlotte having been only young girls at the war's close.
The last, Mrs. Robert E. Lee, Jr., is dead; as is Fannie,
another sister who grew up after the war and never married.
Rosalie, the youngest, is now Mrs. C. Powell Noland, the
mother of three daughters and four sons. Of them, Lloyd, Bar
ton, Powell, Jr., Philip and Charlotte are all grown and are
lately described as " splendid young people, self-supporting,
all of them, including the" daughter. "

MRS. ROBERT E. LEE, JR.
(CHARLOTTE HAXALL)

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEA1NS OF THE SIXTIES 129

The eldest sister, Clara (Mrs. Grundy), was very popular
in Richmond. She had two daughters, Mrs. Pue, now living
in Baltimore county, Md., and Mrs. Leake, residing in Rich
mond. Barton Grundy married Miss Branch and also lives
there.

Miss Lucy Haxall is now Mrs. Edward Lees Coffey, of
New York City. She has a son, Barton, lately married, and
a daughter, Lucy, who married Charles DeKay. They have
several children.

The third of these sisters, Agnes, wedded one of the best
loved and most courtly gentlemen of his day, Warrington
Carter. She left one son, Shirley, who lives in Virginia.

Hallie Haxall, the next, married Henry A. Wise, Jr., a
minister. They had numerous progeny who died young,
and one married son; but his line is now extinct, except one
female grandchild.

Mrs. Alexander Cameron, of Richmond (Mary Parke),
is the mother of twelve sons and daughters. All of them
live in the home city except one daughter who married in
Harrisburg, Pa., and one son, a rising business man of that
city.

Dr. Robert Haxall, the other of the senior four, died years
ago. His widow removed from the old Grace street home
they had built, to Washington. There she lived until her
death, eight years since. And today there is but one of
the old name still in Richmond, the junior Barton Haxall,
whose brother Phil is now a bright memory only of days
gone.

There are a number of fast vanishing pictures that stand
out clearly against the misty background of memory. None
of these better illustrates the good old times than the house
hold of Colonel James Lyons. Seated about a mile from
Richmond, Laburnum was a typical home of the gentry,
having the English exclusiveness in delightful amalgam with

130 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

genuine American hospitality. There young and old of
the home set delighted to respond to frequent bidding,
and the number and the warmth of these increased with
the influx of accredited strangers.

At the outbreak of the war Mr. Lyons was a widower
with a grown family. About that time he married a beauti
ful Louisianian who had been educated in Richmond. Miss
Imogene Penn was regarded as one of the best posed, as
well as prettiest belles of the incoming decade, and her
gentleness, grace and thorough tact made her popular and
hold her in living remembrance. She had two younger
sisters, Misses Norma and Bertha Penn, just finishing their
education in Richmond when the war came; but they fled
southward and escaped the gods of war and love alike. Mrs.
Lyons died young and without children. Her husband
survived her some years, but the cloud over Laburnum that
her passing left was never lifted until its occupancy by
another noted Virginian, who died there lately, lamented by
all — Joseph Bryan.

During Mrs. Lyon's reign the very cream of war society
was found there, and today no habitue writes or speaks
of the giddy and long-guarded capital without mention of
the Lyons home.

The Misses Penn did not permanently escape by flight
from Richmond. Miss Bertha became Mrs. Krumbhaar,
of New Orleans, and is now the mother of six children, some
of whom are notable in all social functions. Miss Norma
married Mr. Conrad, and is now a childless widow residing
with her sister at the Penn Flats in that city.

Mr. Lyons was not only prominent in social matters, but
also in the graver one of the law. He was long a leading
member of the Richmond bar and a trusted and clear-headed
adviser in all affairs of private and public moment. Ur
bane as strong, dignified yet suave, he carried into serious

BELLES, BEAUX AND BKA1NS OF THE SIXTIES 131

actions of life the same high methods that made him as much
respected as liked in the pleasanter, if quite as difficult,
field of social success. In his passing away another link
was stricken from the shortening chain that holds the old
school to the new.

Peter Lyons, his son by the first marriage, was heir to
many of the traits that had made his father's popularity.
He married in early life, and while the war was still in progress,
the beautiful Miss Addie
Abbott Deane, one of the
pair of graceful and bright
sisters who made the home
of Dr. Francis H. and Mrs.
Elizabeth Drew Deane so
haunted by the best of the
time's gilded youth. The
three daughters of this union
were the pride and solace of
the lovely widow's heart.
They had grown to woman
hood and were all happily
married: the eldest, Eliza
beth Deane Lyons having L
wedded Hon. Claude H.
Swansori, the noted and
popular governor of Virginia, in the outset of his successful
career. Addie Heimingham became Mrs. Henry Bohmer.
Lucy Lyons married Cunningham Hall.

It was just three years ago, that in the flush of health
and happiness, Mrs. Lyons was suddenly taken from her
sister and her children. On the very night of her son-in-
law's nomination to the first office in the gift of his state,
she dropped dead. So sudden was her taking that the blow
stunned family and friends; and Mrs. Swanson recently

MRS. DABNEY J. CARR

(ANNA MEAD DEANE)

132 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

wrote that she found an unfinished letter to me on her
mother's desk, after her death.

The other sister, Anna Mead Deane, married Mr. Dabney
Jefferson Carr and still resides in Richmond, surrounded
by a family of five, and the friends and bright memories
of happy youth. The Carr children are Dabney Jefferson,
Wilson Gary Nicholas, Wallace Deane, Anna Deane and
Gary Peyton Carr; all unmarried. In the third generation
there is but one: Douglas Deane, the three-year-old son of
Mrs. Cunningham Hall.

Another name that then sat pleasantly on every lip and
has since lived in the kindliest memory of all who knew them,
was that of the Allans: differentiated as the " Scotch" and
" Irish" Aliens.

Mrs. John Allen, in her picturesque old home, was
the soul of gentle and genuine hospitality. Hers was
the family that had befriended the erratic and immortal
Poe.

Captain Willie Allen, the son of this lady, was deservedly
one of the best loved and most respected of the younger
set. Frank, generous and brave, he was as true as Mr.
Hay's Jim Bludso, for seeing his duty,

"He went for it thar an' then!"

Not essentially a society man in the finesse of the carpet
knight, his truth and gentleness of personality won to him
the reckless and the brilliant alike. Recently one of the
greatest, yet most unspoiled, belles of that pleasant past
wrote :

"One thing I do remember is that I danced my
first german with you in Mrs. Enders' great parlor. My
second I danced with Willie Allen. He did most of
it on my insteps. Oh, he was a noble gentleman, but a cruel
dancer!"

But there was not a girl in all Richmond who had not wet

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 133

with hot tears the lint she scraped, had that bad dancer
stopped a live Minie ball.

William Allen, of Claremont— "Buck" Allen, or Willie
" Irish" Allen, as known to his intimates, or to distinguish
him from the " Scotch" Aliens — did not actually belong to that
family at all. He was a dashing young Irishman — indis
putably of good blood and rearing, named William Orgain.
Of superb physique, generous impulses and broad handed
generosity and a constitution his entire life proved a marvel
ous one, he was universally popular with men and
women.

Old William Allen, owner of the magnificent estates of
Claremont, on the James, in Surry county, was a bachelor.
He offered to leave them to young Orgain, if he would change
his name, a proposition naturally accepted. The new mas
ter soon became as popular as his namesake; his genial hos
pitality and princely entertainments making his repute as a
host a national one. He was a great horseman, hunter
and sailor; had a craze for rare stock and pits, was
unhappily overindulgent to his own tastes for the best
of solids and fluids. He made money flow like water, and
all bibulants flow like the money; and in the early days
of the war his presence in Richmond with his yacht,
"The Breeze," was ever an event for the home and visiting
youth.

Allen married the beautiful Miss Catherine Jessup, of
Canada; a high bred and gracious woman, whose native
gentleness and courtesy made her a swift coadjutor in his
hospitality. She was ever as helpful, with hand as well as
purse, in the work of her less wealthy sisters in Richmond, as
though she had been native there. After a time, the shadows
came to her forehead and her clear eyes; but no other ex
pression was ever given to any needs in her for sympathy
or assistance, in her domestic life. The memories of the

134 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

war-time are broidered with bright details of her pretty en
tertaining of young and old.

None of the original Allen name are now living, save in
those pleasant traditions, out of which histories are builded.
But the Orgain Aliens had one son, Willie Allen, now a lawyer
and referee in New York. He married the beautiful Miss
Minnie Anderson, daughter of the noted Confederate general,
and later mayor, of Savannah. They live in handsome
style in the big city and have no children; but Mrs. Allen
gained some vogue in literature, by her "Love Letters of a
Liar," printed in "Town Topics," and later in book form.
This couple never occupied Claremont.

William Allen, after the war, lived at Curls' or Claremont,
in the old way; but his death was a pitiable one: alone, on
the James, in his little sailboat.

There were a number of others, among the society cen
turions, well worthy of ampler note than space permits.
Temptation is strong to linger among them, passing from
door to door and rendering its meed to each.

There were the Warwicks, a popular household, shadowed
by the early death in battle of its sons Bradfoote and Barks-
dale Warwick, loved by all who came within their contact.
The then young lady of the name is now the widow of Captain
Dick Poor, of Baltimore, but the little one, Imogen, who
had posed for Washington's "Latane" died years ago.

Cheery and ubiquitous Judge and Mrs. Crump were always
agreeable and always helpful. They passed the boundary
years ago, but left a family of four, the two daughters of
which are now Mrs. Lightfoot and Mrs. Tucker. Others, as
the Enders, Cabells, Freelands and more, we shall meet
elsewhere.

Ex uno disce omnes. It is given to no pen, however truth
fully it try, to write all the truth. Where is the old-timer-
facing the sunset, and watching his own shadow lengthen

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 135

and loom gigantesque — who does not feel, as he glances over
his shoulder, that—

" The mossy marbles rest
On lips that he has prest

In their bloom;

And the names he loved to hear
Have been carved for many a year
On the tomb."

CHAPTER XI

ONE time-honored custom, theretofore considered all es
sential, that the war almost wholly abrogated, was the de
mand for chaperonage.

In the good old times in the South and in Washington and
Baltimore, which best voiced the proprieties of the South,
the 'teens were dormant, if yet tyrannous. A young girl
would as soon have thought of wearing a modern bathing
costume or sporting divided skirts as of going alone to a ball,
even with her very best young man. This was due, in Wash
ington, to its early tinge of the cosmopolitan and to its whirl
of gaiety and great admixture. For the Washington of the
Fillmores and of Miss Lane was, on a miniature scale, as Jo
seph-coated and as polyglot as in the millionaire Mecca of
today.

In the South the custom was lawful progeny of home edu
cation. There woman was regarded with a tender venera
tion that was a heritage from the days when the gentlemen
donned metallic suits and mounted plated steeds to ride around
the world at windmills, armed with a sharp stick and a dull
sense of the difference betwixt meum and tuum. Young
girls of the sunny section were reared so tenderly that the
winds of heaven might not visit them too roughly, and they
were ever chary of contact with the other sex, nor prod
igal enough to do any unveiling to the man in the moon.

136

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 137

Neither were they made self -helpful in the necessity -born
methods of today. They were, generally in the towns and
invariably in the slave-crowded plantations, scarcely per
mitted to lace their own slippers or stays. That they were
capable, however, was proved by the first and lasting response
they all gave to the real demand the war made upon them.
At its call these cherished darlings of Southern homes de
scended, as one woman, from the pedestals upon which the
Quixotic chivalry had elevated them, and wrought to the
bitter ending, and after it, in wholly unused methods and
places, as though born to effort and to success. They sewed
rough fabrics for rough men with their delicate hands, cooked
wonderful messes for camp and hospital out of slenderly
stocked pantries; they dressed wounds with never a tremor
or a flush of false modesty.

Small wonder then that the true men of the South fought
as well and as long as they did; it was for their true women.

But the belles of ante-bellum days were reticent with their
beaux. Those were the days when the soda-fountain, the
ice-cream saloon and the post opera restaurant were not the
prime media of inter-communication between the young of
the two sexes.

Then, to take Washington once more as exemplar, the
chaperone was a constant if not always wakeful factor. And
those old mothers were Trojan in their fear of the most Gre
cian of gift-bearing youth. A stiff bouquet, with a prim
laced paper collar, or a very proper book was admissible; a
too expansive use of confections was viewed askant, and
gloves were tabooed. As for a buggy alone, perish the thought !
Nor was it considered at all the thing for the escort to furnish
the conveyance to a ball. If the family coach was non
existent, the harmless, necessary hack was provided by the
mother of his belle, while he sought her shrine on foot, or in
the horse-car of the period.

138 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

Richmond had early yielded her social queenship to the
tyranny of the 'teens. Many a stranger worldling wondered
at the absolute dominance of her unmarried element. There
was no city that had boasted more charming married women,
stately heads of handsome homes often, and many both

^_ ' __^ young and beautiful. These

were met at dinners and all
gustatory functions, but they
rarely attended the balls
and still more rarely
danced. The plain gold ring
seemed the badge of social
servitude to home and
nursery, as inexorable as the
welded collar of the feudal
serf.

Most of these fair young
tyrants are now grand
mothers, where they have
not crossed the boundary
into the misty beyond. And
those then unmated charm
ers, bright-eyed and daring in dance and flirtation, tender of
heart while firm of hand in hospital and sick-camp — alas!
some of them are grandmothers, too. Time whets the re
lentless scythe for Beauty no less than the Beast.
" Where, where are the Anns and Elizas,

Loving and lovely, of yore?
Look in the columns of old advertisers —

Married and dead by the score!"

Few society men from abroad failed to note this undisputed
supremacy of the unmated in all the gayer functions of Rich
mond. To me it constantly seemed that the young people
had seized society while their elders' heads were turned, and

MRS. THOMAS R. PRICE
(LIZZIE TRIPLETT)

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 139

had run away to play with it for a time, so I always looked to
see some older ones come in, with reproof upon their brows,
and take charge of it again. But I looked in vain, and one
night at a dinner I remarked this to my neighbor, suggesting
that it was only because of the war. She was one of the most
charming women society could boast, scarcely out of her
honeymoon, beautiful, accomplished and very gay.

" Visitors always remark that," she answered. "But it
is not the result of the war or of the influx of strangers. Since
I can remember, only unmarried people have been allowed to
go to parties by the tyrants of seventeen, of whom I was one.
We married folks do the requisite amount of visiting and tea-
ing out. Sometimes we even rise in our wrath and come out
to dinner. But a dance or a ball? No, as soon as a girl
marries, she must make up her mind to pay her bridal visits,
dance a few square dances upon sufferance, and then fold up
her party dresses. However young, pleasant or pretty she
may be, the Nemesis pursues her and she must succumb.
The pleasant Indian idea of taking old people to the river-
bank and leaving them for the crocodiles to eat is over-
strictly carried out by our celibate Brahmins. Marriage is
our Ganges. Don't you wonder how we ever dare the croco
diles?"

Who had not wondered? Though the French system of
excluding mademoiselle from social intercourse and giving
the patent of society to madame may be productive of more
harm than good, its reverse seems equally dangerous.

Richmond may have been an exception to the rule. In
those four unprecedented years she was to most rules.

In the South women marry much younger than in the colder
states. So it haps often that the best and most attractive
points of character do not mature until after the girl has
gotten her establishment. The Southerner, more languid
and emotional than her Northern sister and less self-dependent

UO BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF TEE SIXTIES

even when equally accomplished, is not apt to shine most at
an early stage of her social career. Firmer foothold and
more intimate knowledge of their intricacies are needful to
her on the busy byways of fashion. Hence, many wondered
that the better matured of its flowers should be so entirely
superseded in the Richmond bouquet by the half-opened buds.
The latter doubtless gave a charming promise of bloom and
fragrance at their full, but too early they left an uneasy sense
of crudity and unripeness with the unaccustomed visitor.

All the same, Richmond had inscribed over the portals of
its dancing set: "Who enters here, no spouse must leave
behind!" And that law was of the Medes and Persians so
far as women were concerned.

The male element at all functions ranged from the passe
beau to the boy with the down still on his cheek; ancient
husbands and young bachelors alike had the open sesame!
But if a married woman, however young in years of wifehood,
passed the forbidden limits by intent or chance, vce victis!
She was promptly and severely made to feel that the sphere
of the mated was pantry or nursery, not the ballroom.

To the stranger dames, if young and lively, justice a little
less stern was meted, but even they, after a few concessions,
were shown how hard was the way of the transgressor.

But indubitably it spoke volumes for the pure and simple
society that had gone on thus for years and that no chaperori-
age had ever seemed needful. But now the case was different.
A large promiscuous element was injected into society and
all felt that the primitive should give place to the conserva
tive. The "Jeannette and Jeannot" stage was pretty. It
told convincingly the whole story of truth and purity in men
and women. But with the sudden influx, when the stray wolf
might so readily borrow the skin of a lamb, a hedge of form
need not in any manner have intimated a necessity for its
erection.

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 141

Even in the youngest and giddiest assemblies the pilgrim
to social Richmond found many people worth meeting as
well as looking at. The most juvenile german was fringed
often by those who would have danced and queened it in any
other town, and the potent supposed-to-be grave and rever
end molders of laws and makers of campaigns came to rest
their eyes and brush the cobwebs from duty-dusted brains.
Nor can I recall any assemblages of the last half-century
where those desiderata could have been more comprehended.
"The prettiest woman in the world!" is a fashion of speech
so trite as to have lost all meaning. In Richmond, in the
mid-war, it had taken on the simplicity of a dictum and the
clearness of truism. Early in the novel social conditions, as
I have tried to explain, the older and more dignified repre
sentatives of both home and visiting society did and accepted
the entertaining.

This lasted only a little while. Then Richmond went
back to the inexorable tyranny of the 'teens. As duties
accumulated without their homes, as the problem of bare
living became a producer of deep thought and, more still,
as the suspense and strain, personal and patriotic alike, grew
more dire on the older people, they gradually let the more
emphasized of the gaiety slip back into the hands of the young
and thoughtless. But in those starvation parties of the late
war there were as beautiful young women to be seen as I have
ever looked upon in any assemblages in any city, under any
adventitious aid of costuming and lighting.

When the Grand Duke Alexis made that tour of America
just after the war — the entourage of which was possibly
more Oriental than Muscovite — I heard him say with seeming
sincerity :

"The most beautiful woman in the world? Oh, I have
seen her in your country." From the devotion of the Russian
to at least two noted and rival belles from the East and West,

142 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

he may have believed what he said. But had he happened
in on starvation at Richmond a few years earlier, he might
have been taken au pied de la lettre, with none to dissent.

• -^'-mtf^uitmm ^e OI^y Difficulty, prob

ably, had been to decide
which one of the goddesses
on that Virginian Olympus
was entitled to the apple.
In a society where Misses
Hetty Gary, Mattie Paul,
Leila Powers, Virginia Peg-
ram, Evelyn Cabell and their
peers were already assured
belles, and herein were
dropping each month new
and startling beauties, judg
ment grew dazed and the
critical were dumb. Nor
were they all Richmond
girls or even Virginian.
Naturally the old city and
state sent their best and prettiest to the meet of beauty,
but the South and middle West and the far shore of
the dividing river all had representation fully satisfying to
pride.

In the early days of the war a sensation was made
even in Richmond by the exceptional beauty of Miss Florence
Topp. This Tennessee girl, only in her mid-teens, spelled
young and old by her face and form and held them by her
witchery of manner. Hers was a familiar face at the Stan-
ards', Andersons', Lyons', and among her schoolmates were
Misses Cornelia Rives, Evelyn Cabell, Ella Wimbish and Annis
Alexander. She was the daughter of Robertson Topp and
Elizabeth Little Vance, her grandsire being Roger Topp, who

MRS. WILLIAM M. FARRINGTON

(FLORENCE TOPP)
(FROM A STATUE OF HER)

BELLES, BE AUK AND BKAINS OF THE SIXTIES 143

aided in founding Memphis and was a pioneer in Tennessee.

Returning to her home, Miss Topp was soon the undis
puted belle of her section; leaders of the Southern armies,
and later a Federal admiral seeking her hand, while the
famous Albert Pike wrote poems at length in her praise.

At twenty-two the young lady surrendered to the seige,
marrying William M. Farrington, a well-poised and wealthy
bachelor of her city. There the pair still reside in the old
homestead and with them two children. Miss Valerie Far
rington adds to society charm a thorough knowledge of music
and a magnificent voice, and William M. Farrington, Jr.,
has been a member of the Memphis bar for twelve years.
The family has strong literary bent, Miss Farrington having
written much for the current journals and having taken
prizes for fiction.

Miss Florence Topp's only
real rival for beauty and
belleship of the West
chanced to be her brilliant
and famous cousin, Miss
Betty Vance, daughter of
William Little Vance and
Letitia Hart Thompson, of
Harrodsburg, Ky. There,
in 1847, was born the beauty
of the West, best known to
Eastern society and resorts.
Miss Vance queened it roy
ally for a time, having been
specially honored by the MRS. JOHN w. RUTHERFORD

Grand Duke Alexis, whose

guest of honor she was when he visited New Orleans by river
boat. After a phenomenal career Miss Vance followed her
cousin-rival out of the lists. In 1874 she married John

144 BELLES, 3EATJX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

W. Rutherford, of Scotland. She is still a young widow,
residing in California, her daughter Marguerite remaining
single, while Vance Rutherford married.

Four of Miss Vance's brothers are living: Messrs. George,
William, Guy and Otey. One sister, Mrs. Thomas Martin,
resides in Chicago, another, Mrs. De Pauer, resides at Mount
Alberry, Md. Susan Shelby Vance married Dr. Vance, of

South Carolina, dying soon
thereafter.

Another marked type of
Southern beauty was that of
Miss Rachel Lyons, of South
Carolina, who visited Rich
mond after the Seven Days'
fights. She and her father
were in search of a missing
brother, Captain I. L.
Lyons, of the Tenth Louisi
ana, who was reported
captured and unhurt. Miss
Lyons had already been a
marked woman in Columbia
society and her quick wit and
sinuous grace at once attract
ed attention at the capi-

She made many and enduring friends, but her
stay was brief and was not repeated. Later she visited
Mobile as the guest of her lifelong friend, Miss Augusta
Evans, already noted as a novelist. On this visit Miss
Lyons met a prominent young surgeon of Bragg' s army,
Dr. James Fontaine Heustis. He surrendered, and the
pair married and settled in Mobile in the closing days of
the war. Ever since, the Heustis family has been one of
the most notable on the Gulfside, equally for the beauty,

MRS. JAMES FONTAINE HEUSTIS
(RACHEL LYONS)

tal.

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 145

brilliance and the belleship of its women. The mother has
ever been a remarkable conversationalist and her hospitality
has been perennial. The eldest daughter, Miss Louise,
studied art at home and abroad and several of her canvases
have been in latter year exhibits. The second, Miss Mabel,
had natural gifts in music and she is well appreciated in her
own and other cities for her delicious alto voice. These
two remain unmarried. The next, Rosalie, was one of
Mobile's most noted belles, until she became Mrs. George
Huntington Clarke, of Birmingham.

Mr. Listen Heustis, the only brother, is a prosperous
banker of Belize, where he resides with a pretty young wife
and very cherished baby.

Mesdames William Patterson and Joseph McPhillips, were
until quite recently belles of the younger set of Mobile.
Their mother is still a much-sought matron and the friend
ship between Mrs. E. A. Wilson and her is as fresh and
strong as when it began in girlhood.

CHAPTER XII

A BOUQUET OF BUDS

THE " Three Graces, Junior," as Will Myers promptly
named them, made entree into real society later in the war.
If a prettier and more attractive trio ever turned the heads

of male youth, I surely
never beheld them. Misses
Mary Triplett, Champe Con-
way and Lizzie Cabell were,
speaking coldly and after
the lapse of four decades, as
pretty women as ever I saw.
Differing in face, figure and
expression, each foiled the
other.

In mentality and charac
ter they differed as much as
in looks, and the attractive
ness of the trio may have been
enhanced by this variety.

Miss Cabell was of the gen
tlest and most dainty type of
womanhood, conquering by simplicity combined with beauty.
She reigned in the later days of the war, her subjects being
her own sex as well as the opposite, but she never made the
same resounding echoes as either of her girlhood's friends.

146

MRS. ALBERT RITCHIE
(LIZZIE CABELL)

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 147

She is now a fair and placid reminiscence of that former time,
as the well-preserved Mrs. Albert Ritchie, of Baltimore.
Another of that trio, strangely enough, made her home in
the Monumental City; Miss Champe Conway married Captain
John Moncure Robinson, a Philadelphian, who served on
Breckinridge's staff. Her children are familiar figures there
and her own life has become part of the social history of the
town. She died several years ago.

Miss Triplett' s career was the most meteoric of the three.
She was a veritable daughter of the gods, divinely fair and
most divinely tall; a perfect blonde, classic-featured and
wtith wondrous, expressive eyes. She was lithe and sinuous
of motion and infinitely graceful. Mentally, she was recep
tive and brilliant, her natural wit running to repartee that
stung sometimes beyond intent, and went abroad with wide
reaching glare of the searchlight. Hers was a graceful
audacity that ever stood her in good stead and bore her safely
over many of society's quicksands, that might have en
gulfed a heavier natured woman. She was a belle from
early girlhood, always sought and often feared by most ar
dent seekers. Less reticent than her rival beauties in "the
Graces, Junior," she early began a series of conquests that
gained celebrity, largely from the wondrous beauty of the
girl, more, perhaps, because she was of clay too fine for com
mon comprehension.

Indubitably without her intent and assuredly without her
knowledge, that duel was fought that made most sensation
in the last half- century and probably drove the code out of
use in Virginia. It sent one respected and brilliant young
man to speedy death, another, more brilliant still, to his end
through a long and agonizing trail of the descensus Averni.
Richmond lost no regard for the fair woman wronged by this
wrangle. Years after, while still a brilliant and young fa
vorite, she married an old-time friend and one of the best

148 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

loved men in his state, Philip Haxall. Her beauty perhaps
gained as she grew older and more poised. She mellowed
and love crept into the beautiful face, but her married life
had none of the thrill of her earlier days. Previous to her
marriage, Miss Triplett visited, the staid little city of Mobile.
Her brother John had won a fair and gentle debutante of the
previous season, daughter of an old and honored family of
Alabama. Miss Sallie Ross was so popular as to make the
jeunesse doree feel the advent of the tasteful Virginian a per
sonal grievance, but they de
cided to solace themselves
with his dazzling sister. Miss
Triplett, perhaps, was a trifle
blasee. She hated boys in
dress coats and was at .no
pains to conceal her views.
But despite her carelessness
to please, her beauty and her
wit conquered and the fame
of both echoed for years after
the present nieces were born.
Of the last, two are now
gracious young matrons of Mobile, two charming buds of
its society; Mrs. Dargan Ledyard and Mrs. Charles Hall, and
Misses Nannie and Helen Triplett.

The home of Mrs John Enders was perhaps the pivotal
point of gay and happy times for the younger set. Spacious,
liberally kept up, and with doors that swung wide at a touch
the chief attraction was the lady at its head. Mrs. Enders
was the friend of every boy who wore the gray and the con
fessor and adviser of about one-half of the Virginian army.
No fellow quarreled with his sweetheart or got in trouble
with his officer but he tramped to Richmond to tell this
trusted friend. Rarely did he come in vain, for her goodness

MRS. PHIL HAXALL

(MARY TRIPLETT)

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 149

and judgment were equal. The eldest daughter, Miss Sallie,
was already in society when Beauregard saluted Anderson.
The next sister, Miss Nannie, was not allowed to do more
than take a peep. But she was pretty, jolly and bright, as
natural as a fawn, though not so shy, and she said piquant
things with a naivete that tickled as it touched. The young
est, "Pidge" Enders, was quite a child when the war began,
but one of its wonders was the quick maturity of young
people. So, with warm welcome, good company and certain
rations, the youth of war swarmed bee-like into the Enders
home and found there honey galore. Saunders, Jim Fraser,
Ridgley Goodwin, scores of gallant Maryland men, and the
whole of the home youth, of course, felt that house their
headquarters. There were more impromptu dances, picnics,
'rides and camp-parties at the Enders' than any house in
town and — this in a whisper — more well-meant vows were
there pledged and there re-cemented when cracked. But
the daughters of the home held off siege and sortie alike until
the war waned. It was only after General James Conner
had a leg shot off that Miss Enders changed from flirtation
and charades to a somewhat vivid Charleston matron. Miss
Nannie was having too good a time to stop and think of
marrying. If there was ever a popular woman, she broke
that record. Loyal, original and great-hearted, the girls-
loved her, too. A rollicking trio were Misses Nannie Enders,
Lillie Bailey and Truxie Johnston. They led every sport,
from a fox-chase to a flirtation, and the old boys of that un-
forgotten yesterday find them ever in the first flush. When
those girls rode or drove into a nearby camp, followed by a
score of both sexes, there was more excitement than a raid
had caused. They never came empty-handed, and unless
discipline was drawn very tight, they rarely returned with
out fresh captures. Miss Baily has been dead many years,
Miss Johnston lives far from her old state, and the jolly

150 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

little " peeper " of the first war days has long admired the
white beard of that good and persistent fellow who won her
at last, Major Caskie Cabell, of Richmond.

Remembered members of the household are Winston,
black butler, and Dan and Pinkey, who amused visitors

with recitations and dances.
When Miss Lizzie Peyton
Giles appeared suddenly in
Richmond on July 4, 1863,
there was a genuine sensa
tion. It was quite doubled
by the simultaneous arrival
of another woman, equally
beautiful and brilliant, Miss
Josephine Chestney, of Wash
ington City. Of both belles
more will be seen, but it
may be noted that the ex
citement was tripled by the
array of seven trunks which
Miss Giles had transferred to
our exchange boat. With
her mother Miss Giles had
just returned from a trip
abroad and, on dit, she had
selected her rare trousseau.
Circumstantial evidence was the abnormality of war
luggage and the nervous impatience of a noted, if
not particularly handsome, brigade commander from the
trans-Mississippi. General Quarles did not remain at the
capital the full extent of his leave, nor was there any
immediate wedding. After a time Miss Giles tired of society
and conquests, but for the moment both she and Miss Chest
ney "just swung Richmond." General Quarles later married

MRS. CASKIE CABELL (NANNIE
ENDERS) AND LILLIE BAILEY

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF TEE SIXTIES 151

Miss Alice Vivian, the world-famed beauty of Alabama,
making another match after her death. Miss Giles is now
the widow of a gallant and good fellow from Georgetown,
Captain Sam Robinson, and Mrs. Butler, nee Chestney, also
lives at the capital.

The two other Giles girls with whom the beauty lived
were of quieter tastes, but well known and popular. Miss
Nannie did not marry and died young; and Miss Fannie
became Mrs. Townes and was active in all social work for
charity.

Dr. Herndon, C.S.N., had two pretty and gentle daughters
in society, Misses Lucy and Molly. They were much in the
Enders set and intimate with Miss Chestney. I remember
calling with her when one of the sisters wore caps as a typhoid
convalescent. She described the many things done for her,
and how one lady bade her dress "her hair."

" Child!7' retorted Miss Chestney solemnly, "you should
read Mrs. Glass, and get your hare before you dress it."

Three charming girls in the younger circle were the Free-
land sisters, Rosalie, Carter and Maria. Their home was a
quietly elegant one and the trio had chic] talked and dressed
well, and were admirable dancers; a necessity for any girl
who had half an eye fixed on belleship. So the Freelands
were a success with the inexorable autocrats of the german
and at the later starvation parties of hungry memory. Miss
Rosalie married Dr. Randolph Harrison and both are dead,
leaving no issue. Miss Maria married Col. John R. C. Lewis;
and their children were Maria Freeland and Lawrence. The
latter married Miss Nicholas of Baltimore. Miss Carter Free-
land married her brother-in-law, Daingerfield Lewis; and
their family was large.

The Lewises were direct in descent from Fielding Lewis
who married General Washington's favorite sister, Betty.
"Daingy" Lewis was a splendid looking fellow and was on

152 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF TEE SIXTIES

General Lee's staff. He was much in evidence in Richmond
in the later war; and was a great favorite with men and
women. His brother John resigned from the United States
Navy to come South. Another brother, Ned Lewis, married
the widow of Colonel Muscoe Russell Hunter Garnett. She
had been Mary Stevens, daughter of Mr. Stevens, of Castle
Point. She was South with her husband, and was a marked
figure in society.

John Freeland, very soon after the peace, met and married
Miss Mary Goldthwaite, of Mobile. The wedding was notable,
the bride's family being one of the oldest and most loved of
the South and her personality winning her legions of friends.
It was a grevious disappointment to these, and to the many
new ones she won in her new home, that her married life was
neither long nor happy. Clouds arose to shut out the honey
moon, but the sympathy and respect her brief Richmond life
won her, followed to her grave and linger lovingly about
her memory.

There was probably no more widely known personality
in all the Southland — and surely not more distinct against
the background of mental and bodily activities — than that
of Louis Trezevant Wigfall.

He had been successively state and United States senator
from Texas; then her Confederate senator, though born
on his father's plantation, near Edgefield, S. C., in 1816.
He was also signer of the Confederate Constitution and com
manded the First Texas brigade, as its general, in the field.

A man of brains, resource and untiring, restless energy,
he was headstrong and dominant, and his opinion, once
formed and firmly held to, was ever vigorously outspoken.

This possibly prevented his being entrusted with higher
governmental posts, for his ability was conceded. From his
early mission, through a porthole, to prevent Major Ander
son's fire-suicide at Sufnter, down to the hegira of the govern-

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 153

ment into the North Carolina finale, Wigfall was a conspicuous
figure on the political stage. Naturally, he had some enemies
and many friends, at the capital, where his representative
duties held him and his family. But that family, which
was one of the most pleasant of war-time Richmond, made
only friends. Mrs. Wigfall had been Miss Charlotte Maria
Cross, daughter of George Warren Cross, of Charleston,
and was a congenial helpmate to her husband. Her Rich
mond home was made attractive to all by the presence in
it of her two young daughters, Misses Louise Sophie and
Mary Frances Wigfall; and, when his army duty permitted,
of her son, Major Francis Halsey Wigfall. High mentality
was a marked characteristic of the whole family, and so was
exceptional frankness of its expression, both on public and
social affairs. So the Wigfall sisters were attractive and
sought in the Richmond whirl. Miss Mary Frances mar
ried Benjamin Jones Taylor, of Worcester county, Md.,
and is now a widow, residing in Baltimore. Miss Louise
remained single until 1871, when she married a brilliant
young Baltimore lawyer. Daniel Giraud Wright had en
listed as a private in the Confederate Army, was promoted
to a lieutenancy in the Irish battalion, and served later with
Mosby's corps. He is now associate judge of the supreme
court of Maryland, and a popular and widely esteemed
citizen of Baltimore.

In her life in that city Mrs. Wright has won hosts of friends
in both the elder and younger strata of its sociality. Her
Wigfall habit of thinking for herself, and the other of fluent
and graceful diction, have lately combined in one of the
pleasantest books upon the social South.

Judge and Mrs. Wright are the proud grandparents of
De Courcy Eyre Wright, the son of their only child, W. H.
De Courcy Wright, who married Miss Mary Eyre, daughter
of that well-known Virginian, Severn Eyre.

154 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

Kingsley's great song has had innumerable settings, but

there was never a more attractive version of "Three Fishers"

than that pretty and popular trio: Misses Lucy, Mary and

^^^^^^^^^^^^ Anne Fisher. The first two

were sisters; daughters of

^^^^ Charles Fenton Mercer Fish-

j£& er, of Richmond, and Anne

IJB Eskridge, of Mississippi.

BL '* Young, graceful and vi

vacious, both were sought
and admired by the choice
fellows of the best set; but
neither hauled down her
particular flag of independ
ence, until the more gen
eral surrender.

Then "Lou" Fisher took
his parole from a capture
from over the border. She
married Howard Crittenden,
a native of Kentucky but

MRS. HOWARD CRITTENDEN residing in California. Thev

(LOU FISHER) °

went to lexas and, scarcely

a year after her marriage, the Richmond belle was run
over at Galveston, by some vehicle, and died almost
immediately. The fact of her death was unknown to most
of her old friends, and it is doubtful if any of them know the
details. The pressure of those times scattered the mole
cules of "the old set/' and almost every one was absorbed
in individual cares.

"Molly," as Miss Mary Fisher was ever known, was as
much admired and widely popular as her sister Lucy. Very
lately, an old time beau of hers wrote me, out of his multi
tudinous grandfatherhood: "She had little ways of her own,

LLKS, HKAIJX AND HRAIXR OV THE ,S7A77/i'tf

155

and wa,s the host naturcd girl in all Virginia!" She married
Mark Valentine, of Louisiana; the pair moved to Little Rock,
Ark., and there resided long, with their one son, Mark Valen
tine, Jr.

The memories of these fair and gentle girls is still green;
as is that of their beautiful cousin.

But second to none — not oven to her cousins — in the race
for the golden apple, was Miss Anne Fisher. She was the
daughter of George Daniel Fisher, of Richmond, and Kliza-
both (Janigues Higginbotham, of Albemarle. Mr. Fisher
wrote the book on "the Descendants of Jacquelin Ambler."
This pair had two sons and two daughters: Robert, Edward,
Anne arid Mary. The; last is the sole survivor and is the
widow of Col. Peyton Randolph, residing at Arnhcrst, Va.

Miss Anno Fisher married
after the war Mr. Robert
Camp, of Norfolk. Of this
union came a boy arid :»,
girl, the latter named for
her mother. She is now
Mrs. John Cannon Hobson,
of IVrnborton, Va., having
married the son of Captain
Hobson, of Wise's brigade,
whose wife was Miss Kitty
Selden, of Westover. He is
thus a nephew of Captain
Plummer Hobson, who mar
ried Miss Annie Wise.

The Cannon Ifobsons
have two children: Bland
Selden and Robert Camp Hobson.

Mrs. Anne Fisher Camp resided with
is said to resemble her mother strongly

MKH. KOIIKKT CAMP
(ANNE FIHIIKH)

Mrs. Hobson — who
(luring her widow-

156 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

hood; and died only in 1904. I recall her as an exceptionally
beautiful woman; and a friend wrote of her, at time of her
death: "I think I can safely say of her, that she \vas one of
the prettiest old ladies in Virginia."

CHAPTER XIII

" SOME AT THE BRIDAL AND SOME "

SUNSHINE and shadow chased one another across the
entire panorama of the war, as the cloud-scuds from moun
tain to crest mottle the bright valley beneath when they

sail above it.

Hope ever seemed to tread
the lighter just before the
dull footfall of Despair
numbed the heart upon
which it fell.

Mrs. Chesnut tells the
story of Hon. William Porch-
er Miles, confiding to her
his real engagement to Miss
Bettie Bierne. In those
days confidences were cullen
ders, and next day burly
and jovial Colonel George
Deas and Bob Alston were
sending the interesting
gossip to society's four
winds. Alston was no end of a talker. When captured
with John Morgan, whose adjutant-general he was, the
gallant little Georgian went to Richmond on parole to try
and arrange the exchange of the raiders. We told him that

157

COLONEL ROBERT ALSTON
ADJT.-GENERAL MORGAN'S CAVALRY

158 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

the jailers had released him to have a much needed rest.
By the way, he brought through the lines the first copy of
General Lytle's " Antony and Cleopatra." Alston was
a noble fellow and popular with all. His tragic murder,
in his treasurer's office, shortly after the war was widely
mourned.

The Miles-Bierne wedding at fashionable St. Paul's was
the social event of the autumn of 1862, albeit one of the
most limited in numbers, from recent mourning in the fam
ily. Scarcely over a score were present, the Davis, Preston,
and A. C. Myers families and that of the bride only being
admitted with the bridal party. There was an indefinable
feeling of gloom thrown over a most auspicious event when
the bride's youngest sister glided through a side door just
before the processional.

Clad in deepest weeds, Mrs. Nannie Parkman tottered to
a chancel pew, and threw herself prone upon the cushions,
her slight frame racked with sobs.

Scarcely a year before, the wedding march had been played
for her and a joyous throng saw her wedded to gallant Breck
Parkman. Before another twelvemonth rolled around the
groom was killed at the front. The bride, little recking
that the guns that boomed diapason to her wedding march
were ominous of personal woe, was one of the gayest and
most attractive of society's war brides. She was as grace
ful as beautiful, and a much sought partner. One night
I led a german with her, Willie Myers and I escorting the
sisters home. At the Macfarlands' we spoke of the next
night's dance; as we turned away, Myers said gravely: " May
be Mr. Yank may keep some of us away from that, old man!"
Was it telepathy? Before it came around the fatal summons
had been bullet-sped to the young husband of scarce a year,
and the joyous bride sat in the cold ashes of her desolation.

The same elegant wedding dress she had worn was used

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 159

by Mrs. Miles; and Mrs. Myers, with a thrill of superstition—
or was that telepathy likewise? — whispered to Mrs. Chesnut:
"It was an evil omen. Those point d'Alencon laces make
me shudder!"

The second of the Bierne sisters, Miss Susie, yielded to
handsome and gentle-natured Captain Henry Robinson,
a Georgetown man, who had been popular in recent days
in the national capital's society. But she, too, held out
against Love's siege until the word "Surrender!" had begun
to grow familiar to Southern ears.

All these four have long since passed to the land that
knows neither marriage nor sorrow, but children of the beau
tiful and magnetic little belle of war-time Richmond and
her Carolina husband are still among the well-known and
honored Louisianians and Carolinians of today.

None of them live in Virginia, though both parents sleep
in the little cemetery at Union, Monroe county, where the
happy early days of their married life were spent. There
are five of the Miles sisters, of whom two are married, and
one brother, Dr. William Porcher Miles, who resides at the
Houmas, the family estates at Burnside, La., which he man
ages. The eldest sister, Miss Sarah Bierne Miles, resides
there also most of the year. The second, Bettie Bierne
Miles, divides her time between there and Carolina. The
third sister, Miss Nannie, married William Gregg Chisholm;
was widowed and is now Mrs. E. W. Durant, Jr., and still
resides at Charleston. Miss Susan Warley Miles, the fourth
sister, resides in New York with the youngest sister, Mar
garet Melinda, now Mrs. Fred Pierson, Jr.

Mrs. Nannie Parkman went abroad after the war, and
there married a German nobleman, Baron von Ahlefeldt.
Again widowed, she spends most of her time in this country,
at the old homeseat, Union, W. Va.

Miss Turner Macfarland married Colonel Wilcox Brown,

160 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

i

of Baltimore, a true soldier and cultured gentleman, who
was in charge of the artillery defenses of Richmond at the
close of the war. Their eldest daughter is Mrs. John M.
Glenn, both husband and wife being noted in the Monumental
City for philanthropic work. The second daughter married
H. Guy Corbett, an English gentleman who settled in Albe-
marle county, Va., a fruit-grower on a large scale and a
perennial raiser of good words from his neighbors and his
mother-in-law. Mrs. Brown passes much of her time with
this pair, her only grandchildren being the two little Corbetts.

There is a third daughter of the Brown household, a charm
ing girl of nineteen, still at school. But Elsham, at Afton,
Va., does not monopolize all the time of the Richmond
toast of yore, for a large circle of warm and admiring friends
in the city attest that she is still very much alive.

John S. Saunders — the grave but sterling young Virginian
lieutenant I have noted at Lincoln's inauguration, rose to
a lieutenant-colonelcy. Then he found better promotion,
for Miss Bierne Turner — the last of the quintet of cousins —
married him in 1863. Their post-bellum home in Baltimore
was an elegant and favorite resort of "the old set," for
many a year; the husband last commanding the crack corps
of National Guards, the Fifth Maryland. Three years ago
he answered the last roll-call, and his wife is also dead.

The South Carolinians were notable during all the war,
in the field, the council and in society. Tall elegant Jim
Fraser and classic Sam Shannon divided the vote feminine
for "the handsomest man in the army"; and cultured Frank
Parker — adjutant-general to that unfortunate commander,
Braxton Bragg — was no bad second. At dances and theatri
cals, as in the red sport of war, all three were in the front
rank. All have passed across the border, the first two years
ago, and Shannon is wasting intellect and elegance in a new
home in the far West. Parker settled in Mobile, married

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 161

Miss Troost, of the old Battle family, and has grown children.
One year ago all representative classes of his adopted city
followed the bier of this true old cavalier.

It was Bernard Bee who christened Stonewall on Man-
assas field, just before his brave spirit went upward "in the
arms of the white- winged Angels of Glory." And Wade
Hampton? Wounded at Bull Run, and again severely
on the retreat from Gettysburg, he was the same high-natured
patriot in war and peace.
One battle sadly proved the
mettle of that race. Both
of the general's boys were
in his legion. Wade, his
first-born, and handsome,
sunny-hearted Preston, his
very Benjamin. The latter
rushed recklessly into the
hottest of the charge, far in
advance of the line. The
father called to Wade:
11 Bring the boy back!"
The elder brother spurred
to front, saw the other
reel in saddle and caught GENERAL WADE HAMPTON

him as he fell, mortally wounded. At the moment a bullet
tore through his shoulder, and the father rode up to find one
son dead and his bleeding brother supporting him.

The general took the body tenderly in his arms, kissed
the white face, and handed it to Tom Taylor.

"Care for Wade's wound," he called. "Forward, men!"
All through that long and bitter day the soldier fought with lead
whirring by his ears and lead in his heart. It was not until
the doubtful fight was ended that he knew that the other son
still lived. Brutus of old was no more true than Hampton.

162 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

The women of the Prestons
other Carolina family, proved
One gentle old Carolina lady,

, the Chesnuts, and many an-
the truth of good old blood,
calm and tender of heart, was
as heroic as Hampton. A
veritable " mother in Israel/'
she was as Roman as he.
What one in Judea or the
seven-hilled city sent seven
spears to victory for Joshua
or David — for Scipio or Cse-
sar? Yet, this Christian
mother of the South heard
the thunder of hostile guns
without one tremor, nursed
her children, torn by their
shells, without repining,
but with perfect trust in
the hand of the One Dis
penser.

Mrs. Charles Thompson Haskell (Sophia Langdon Cheves,
daughter of Colonel Langdon Cheves) had seven sons in the
army around Richmond when I met her at Mrs. Stanard's,
in one of the several visits she made to tend their wounds.
All of them had been privates in the army before the firing
on Sumter. She was ever quiet, but genial; hiding what
suspense and anguish held her; making unknowing, great
history for her state and for all time.

The eldest son was Langdon Cheves Haskell, who served
first on the staff of General Maxcy Gregg, later on that of
General A. P. Hill, and surrendered at Appomattox as cap
tain on the staff of "Fighting Dick" Anderson, of his own
state. He married Miss Ella Wardlaw, of Abbeville, dying
in 1886 and leaving three sons and one daughter, all adults.
Charles Thompson Haskell was the second son, a captain

MRS. CHARLES THOMPSON HASKELL

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 163

in the First Carolina Regulars, and was killed on Morris
Island when Gilmore landed to attack Charleston, in July,
1863. He, happily, left no widow.

The next was William Thompson Haskell. He was cap
tain of Company H, First South Carolina Volunteers, and
died at the charge of that corps at Gettysburg, while command
ing a battalion of sharp-shooters under A. P. Hill.

Alexander Cheves Haskell lived through the day of Appo-
mattox. He was colonel of the Seventh South Carolina
Cavalry, of ruddy record, and still lives at Columbia. His
first marriage was one of the most touching romances of the
war. Miss Rebecca Singleton was a dainty and lovely,
but high-spirited, daughter of that famed old name. In
the still hopeful June of 1861
Mrs. Singleton and her daugh
ter were at the hospital at
Charlottesville, crowded so
that Mrs. Chesnut (as her
diary tells) took the young
girl for her roommate. ' ' She
was the worst in love girl I
ever saw," that free chron
icler records. Miss Singleton
and Captain Haskell were
engaged, and he wrote urgent
ly for her consent to marry
him at once. All was so
uncertain in war, and he
wished to have her all his
own while he lived. He
got leave, came up to the
hospital, and the wedding took place amid bright an
ticipations and showers of April tears. There was no
single vacant space in the house, so Mrs. Chesnut gave up

CAPTAIN WILLIAM THOMPSON
HASKELL

164 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

her room to the bridal pair. Duty called; the groom hurried
back to it the day after the wedding. That day one year
later the husband was a widower, with only the news from his
far-away baby girl to solace the solitude of his tent. After
the war Colonel Haskell married Miss Alice Alexander, sister
of General E. P. Alexander. She died after becoming the
mother of ten children, six of whom are daughters.
A very marked favorite in society, and a gallant officer,

was John Cheves Haskell,
lieutenant-colonel of light
artillery, when he surren
dered with Lee. He married
Miss Sallie Hampton, who
died two decades ago, leav
ing one daughter and three
sons, all now grown up.
About seven yeai;s ago
Colonel Haskell married Miss
Lucy Hampton, daughter
of Colonel Frank Hampton,
who was killed at Brandy
Station. They now live in
Columbia.

Very much alive is the
sixth brother, Joseph Cheves

CAPTAIN JOSEPH CHEVES HASKELL .

Haskell, now a resident of

busy Atlanta and popular in his new home. When he gave
up his sword at Appomattox he was captain and adjutant-
general of the First Artillery Corps, on the staff of Gen
eral E. P. Alexander. He married Miss Mary Elizabeth
Cheves, and the pair have a grown family of three sons and
a daughter.

Last in this remarkable family roster comes Lewis Ward-
law Haskell. He was but a youth when paroled with the

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 165

remnant of the Army of Northern Virginia, having already
served one year as a lieutenant of reserves on the South
Carolina coast. This he gave up to go to the front and serve
first as a private soldier and later as a courier to Colonel
John C. Haskell.

Such were the exceptional septet of brothers, whose noble
mother sent them to the field and hid her parting tears.
The good old blood of the noted strains that course through
the veins of all of her name made them stalwart, loyal and
leal, and ready when duty called. They had but one sister,
her mother's namesake. She is now Mrs. Langdon Cheves,
of Charleston.

No home in Richmond welcomed its guests with more
genuine and genial hospitality than that of the Gibsons.
The noted and tireless chief of the historic Officers' Hospital
was Dr. Charles Bell Gibson. He was a Marylander by
birth, and son of Dr. William Gibson, who founded the
Maryland University of Medicine, and was later dean of the
University of Pennsylvania. The son, on early and high
graduation, made his home in Richmond, rapidly acquiring
reputation, popularity and a great practice, especially in
surgery. When war came he was promptly used by the
state and Confederate governments, and become head
of the most important hospital, with Mrs. Lucy Mason
Webb as his matron. In early life Dr. Gibson had married
Miss Ellen Eyre, of Philadelphia. She swayed the war-time
household with

The new school graces, grafted on those old
That need no gilding, since they're purest gold.
Able assistant in all social matters was her elder daughter,
Miss Mary Elizabeth. This young lady, never seeking
the rush and swirl of the giddier society became one of the
most popular and most quoted of Richmond's women.
Some of the cleverest mots that amused society originated

166 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

with her; the keenest thrusts were so quickly and deftly
given as rarely to cause pain.

At one german I chanced to be Miss Gibson's partner.
A very swell staff officer had come in full uniform, including
a pair of blind spurs. The lady, a graceful and tireless
dancer, had evolved a stunning costume of mosquito netting,
and it entangled with the cavalry insignia on the captain's
boots. Stopping in mid-whirl, she tapped him on the shoulder
and said sweetly: "May I trouble you to dismount, sir?"

After a bloody battle a boastful youth, who had been very
slightly wounded, called on Miss Gibson. He spoke of the
fight, when she demurely said, "Of course, you heard of
General Lee's despatch to the President?" Then, while he
wondered, she added, "He wrote, 'It was a glorious, victory,
but Lieutenant Blank was wounded.' ' And, five minutes
later, he was at the corner, telling every man he met of the
honor the great chief had done him.

Little Annie of those days was the youngest of the family.
She was a bright, pretty and graceful child, and Washington
selected her as model for one of the children strewing flowers
on the bier, in his Latane picture. She never married,
and today resides in New York as the companion of her
sister and the pet of her stalwart nephews.

Between the two sisters came four brothers, three in the
army, though very young. William Eyre Gibson was in
the artillery, and served in Texas. Beverly Tucker Gibson
was on General Young's staff at fifteen years of age. All
the boys have long since died.

Miss Gibson married, near the close of the war, Dr. Edwin
S. Gaillard, a prominent surgeon. Of the old Carolina
family, he had honored the name by duty nobly done, losing
an arm on the firing line. After the war the pair moved
to New York. Gaillard's Medical Journal was launched,
and quickly became the leading one of the city. When the

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEA1NS OF THE SIXTIES 167

doctor died, his wife, with a large and young family to rear,
took prompt and full charge, held its old correspondents,
gained new ones by the score ; and the only medical magazine
in America edited by a woman was easily kept in the lead
for twelve years by this modest and resourceful Richmond
girl. Then, when her idolized boys were educated and well
placed, she took to her ease and to bridge.

There is object-lesson in this for swift decriers of Southern
women's false education.

Even in her busiest days
Mrs. Gaillard found time
for altruistic work. She was
the founder and first presi
dent of the New York
Chapter of the Daughters of
the Confederacy. She had
the companionship of her
gentle mother, as a member
of her household, until her
death at the age of seventy-
two.

The eldest of the Gaillard
children is a daughter, Ellen,
named for her grandmother.
She married Dr. W. W. Ash-
hurst, of Philadelphia; but an alluring professional offer
carried the pair to Chihuahua in Mexico. There the mother
went and resided with them a year or two. She has now
three granddaughters in the Ashhurst family.

There are five Gaillard brothers, of whom Edwin White
Gaillard is the eldest. He is librarian and treasurer of the
State Library Association and president of the City Library
Club, of New York. He married Miss Clara Humphrey
Sackett, of the same city. The second, Charles Bell Gail-

MRS. EDWIN S. GAILLARD
(MARY GIBSON)

168 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

lard, is an underwriter in the Washington Assurance Company
and he married Adele, daughter of Rear- Admiral Erben.
William Eyre Gibson Gaillard is vice-president of the Em
pire Trust Company of New York, and of the McVickar-
Gaillard Realty Company. Only a year ago he married Mary
Stamps, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Edward Bateson,
of West Fifty-eighth street. This lady is the great-niece of
Jefferson Davis, and granddaughter of Governor Humphreys,
• whose daughter Mary married

Isaac Stamps.
_^ The only unmarried broth-

'"'"•£ «>^fck er *s ^e fourth, Marion

' V^JB Hollingsworth, who is in the

VN? f^^I Trust Company with his

'^ brother. The youngest,

Frank Paschal Gaillard, is
in the Fifth avenue office,
and recently married Miss
Sara Stevenson Bradner, of
New York.

Closely interlinked in the
love and interests for the
Pegrams was one of the
most beautiful and most
notable of all war belles,
Miss Hetty Gary, of Baltimore.

Lee's Army knew no better soldiers, no truer gentlemen,
than the three Pegram brothers. John, the eldest, had given
his old army sword to his state, had risen through merit
to his brigade and was recommended for promotion. He
was rarely in Richmond— was "too busy with fighting for
fooling," as reckless General Pierce Young phrased it— but
he had met Miss Gary at his mother's home and later at
the camps of Stuart and Fitz Lee. Like most other men,

MRS. JOHN PEGRAM
(HETTY GARY)

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 169

he loved her; like none other, he met return and they became
engaged.

Ever at the front, the Pegrams seemed to bear charmed
life. Willie, the second, was a cool but dashing artillerist
with two stars on his collar at an age when most men were
content with two bars. " Jimmy, " the youngest — later
noted as a wit and clever man of business, from New York
down "t' Orleans" — had ridden scathless as the adjutant
of " fighting old Dick" Ewell Mother and sisters at home
began almost to trust in the luck of the Pegrams.

One bright spring afternoon near the end of the war as
General Pegram felt it to be, he married Miss Gary at St.
Paul's Church. Another Thursday, only two weeks later,
the same throng stood in the same church as grief-crushed
comrades bore up the aisle the flag-palled coffin that held
the late bridegroom, stricken down at Hatches Run.

The happy spell was broken. In the next fight Willie
Pegram also fell at the front.

CHAPTER XIV

THE AMERICAN " SALON"

MISUSED name! Society's Via Sacra is marginated with
the graves of thy counterfeits.

Mimetic America has always coveted the salon on the
French model. Since the famous home of Mistress Dolly
Madison, on H street and President Square, many elegant
drawing-rooms have so misnamed themselves, despite the
fact that hers was no more one than their own. No one of
the older cities of this Union, save, perhaps self-satisfied
and conservative Boston, has failed its essay. Ante-bellum
New York — like Beau BrummeFs valet with his white cra
vats — might say: "We have had our failures!" Her better
sociality, later, recalls the notable Sunday evenings of Mes-
dames Edward Cooper, John Sherwood, S. L. M. Barlow and
others before its coaching by that strictly American imita
tion, Mr. Ward McAllister. Still a little later Mrs. Frank
Leslie, that energy-saturated widow of two differently re
markable men, built a composite social structure on the debris
of Madame Roland and Mrs. Leo Hunter. Mrs. Leslie,
originally Minnie Follen, a New Orleans beauty was French
in her instincts and education. Equally ambitious and lavish,
she compounded an olla podrida and called it a pate.

The society of Quaker Citydom had something near a
salon in the parlors of a gifted and brilliant woman with a
gifted and noted husband, in the days when Mrs. George

170

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 171

H. Boker queened it. Then Miss Emily Schomberg was its
" immortelle " of bellehood; a truly wonderful woman who
came out with every set of buds and seemed fresher than
each.

Quite late in her reign Miss Emily Schomberg married
Colonel Hughes-Hallett, of the English Army. She was
his second wife, the first having been the daughter of Lord
Selwyn. The union was less ideal than some inter-con
tinental ones. The husband was forced out of the British
parliament by some scandals. The American wife obtained
separation and, childless and alone, spends the sunset of her
days between Paris and Dinard.

If hurtling, whirling Chicago has ever attempted a similar
imitation, it has died young enough to escape baptism.
Possibly she has been too busied in " getting her growth";
and probably would not have liked it had she tried. Yet
ample material would not seem lacking to any who recall the
social swim of Mrs Potter Palmer — and the other of the hand
some and accomplished Honore sisters, Mrs. Frederick Dent
Grant — there and in other cities. There is Mrs. Stone, too,
who might have led the van in such an attempt, and the
Chetlains, with others equally known.

One salon peculiar to itself was held at Smith's Inn, No.
65 Sibley street, at regular intervals, by that veteran soldier,-
mason and traveler, General John Corson Smith. Under his
roof the most noted minds and brightest intelligence of old
veterans in the three cults named, made new history, while
his gentle and genial daughter, Miss Ruth Smith, was his
efficient adjutant and comrade.

In her pre-bellum days Cincinnati held great pride in the
birth, culture and elegance of her better class. She had a
veritable old-school set of gracious women and men — as her
own novelist has written — "who could put a dash of color
even into evening dress!" And there was foundation in

172 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

the pride in that old regime which made its impress at home
and on any distant society it entered. For who there wanders
about old residence streets and does not recall Mr. and Mrs.
Charles Stetson, who held headquarters for all the literary;
entertaining Emerson and Alcott and their peers. There
reigned the beautiful and stately Miss Therese Chalfant, later
so noted in Washington as the wife of Senator Pugh; and her
handsome sister, Miss Ada. Then, those charming daughters
of Dr. Rives, of Virginia, Mrs. Joseph Longworth and Mrs.
Rufus King. The latter, a brilliant musician herself, made
her home the centre for all of artistic taste. No old-timer
but recalls Mrs. E. S. Haines, a potent leader in society and
the aunt of General William H. Lytle, who wrote, "I am
dying, Egypt — dying!" In Mrs. Alice Pendleton — daughter
of Francis Scott Key — society had a brilliant and magnificent
woman to represent it abroad, and her husband a help
mate and counsellor of value inestimable. Another who
dazzled official circles, when her father was in congress, was
Miss Olivia Groesbeck, afterward the wife of General Joseph
Hooker, " Fighting Joe." An attractive and brilliant head
of an old and typical Cincinnati house, still regnant in things
social, was Mrs. Nicholas Anderson. Elegant entertainers
in an elegant home, were Mrs. Robert W. Burnet and her
two daughters, Miss Laura Wiggins and her sister, Mrs.
Skinner, who were always as much sought in social functions
for their personal charm, as in church and charity work for
its even better expression. Queenly Mrs. John W. Coleman
was also the centre of an admiring circle, and distinguished
visitors from afar ever sought her society.

The city has nurtured not a few literati and journalists
and some poets whose names are national. Witness Don
Piatt and his brilliant wife and poetic brother; Murat Hal-
stead, "Wash" McLean, and many a younger pen-driver
who has forced a way in the East.

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 173

It is a grave error to suppose that trade absorbs all the in
terest of the new city. Her " Saturday Night Club" is a
weekly congress of as bright and variously minded men as one
might hope to meet anywhere. I recall vividly nights at
that clubhouse when jest and educating talk went flashing
across the little tables, and when unrepentant Johnny Reb
met his whilom victor, and was permitted to laugh at him
from the improvised rostrum. Those, indeed, were veri
tably Nodes Ambrosiance. And yet the prideful city of
Ohio has no record of attempt at the French free-and-easy.

Indeed, nowhere in the Middle West has one seed of the
French exotic wafted that lived long enough to shoot one
noticeable sprout. St. Louis — with her Louisiana French
contingent of population; Memphis, Louisville and Nashville,
have all been noted for culture in their societies, famed for
the beauty and charm of their women ; for the gallantry and
often the culture of their men.

Some of the former have been the regnant belles of exigent
fashion on both sides of the ocean, as the names of the Gatys,
Francises and Haywoods, the Vances and Johnsons, the
fame of "Di Bullitt" and Mrs. Sallie Ward Hunt, the Bruces,
Yandells and Craiks attest. Many of the latter have shone
in legislation, affairs and war for all these years, but for all that
none of the cities have followed the fad that has flourished
but briefly along the Atlantic line. There may be some reason
for this in climate and in hurry of life, or is it that the heads
of some sections are harder and more " level" than the rest?

Baltimore, ever refined, eminently social, and with dazzling
integers like Miss Lemmon, Mmes. Tiffany, Reed, Thomas
and the rest, and wits like Teackle Wallis, and Tom Morris,
never essayed the salon fad. Her nearest approach to it
was the "view," or the soiree, of the Alston Club — not to be
read, "the Maryland!" Probably Baltimore was too com
fortable to copy anything.

174 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

Naturally, one might have looked to cosmopolitan Wash
ington — with the brainy and handsome — to possess equally
the elements and the need for such a foundation. But
the capital — after the Madison regime, perhaps — was as
reticent of essay as her Monumental neighbor; contenting
herself with the East Room levee, as a social zoo; and ab
sorbed in the struggle for the most elaborate dinners, the
most crowded balls, and the smartest germans. Perhaps

the society was too large and

varied in taste, to an extent
that forgot menticulture after
once tasting it. Probably
Washington of that day
was too light-heeled — and
headed.

The ante-bellum receptions,
like those of Mrs. Slidell and
, Madame deSartiges, of Mmes.
Montgomery-Blair or Dahl-
gren, were nearer approaches
i to those of Roland and
Adam than the country had
i yet seen. But that was,
perhaps, because they neither

CAPTAIN HENRY ROBINSON •, ,

attempted nor announced

imitation. They bade clever, cultured and original people
come and entertain themselves and each other. These are
the alpha and omega of the true salon, not a political club
or a conspiracy in fine linen and silken hosiery.

This basic fact the promoters of all American failures have
forgotten. In the pronounced personalism and newness of
our social superstructure on the lately dead century, in its
crudity and rivalries— and most of all in its dollar domina
tion — conversation became a lost art, replaced by the mono-

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 175

logue; mentality and accomplishment being represented
byX.

That elegance, culture and taste have — and ever have had
—place in most American cities, is a self-demonstrated prop
osition. That they have been .millionaired to the rear is
another quite as plain.

Probably the most cogent reason of all for the non-ex
istence of the salon has been the lack of need for its mask
and dark- lantern in our national system. The political
battles of the Union have usually been fought in the open,
or in the — prize ring. The official guillotine being the only
one to dread, the stealthy tread, the veiled epigram, and the
sugar-plummed conspiracy of the Quartier St. Germain
found neither paternity nor cradle in cis-Atlantic society.
A conglomerate people, the methods of the one race were
antipathetic to the rest. Hence it happened that what was
nearest approach to the Paris salon found birth and nurture
more often in the South.

Madame de Sartiges, wife of the French minister to Miss
Lane's court, was herself an American; one of the two Thorn-
dike sisters from the ancient New England town Oliver
Wendell Holmes called "Beverly-by-the-Depot." The Cape
Cod poet once sang it as "Beautiful, baked-bean-loving
Beverly!"

The second Miss Thorndike married Sefior Banuelos, a
pleasant and popular secretary of legation of long ago.

The real Parisian etiquette, however, prevailed at the
Sartiges' Saturday evenings, on Georgetown Heights, and
they were popular with all. There we met the creme de
legation pleasantly diluted with the best of native sociality.
There were no introductions. People who chose talked and
danced together, and the refreshments never gave a head
ache. But the brightest people, as well as the best, went to
these easy functions, sure of finding kindred spirits.

176 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

The wife of Senator Slidell (Mile. Deslondes, of Louisiana)
was Creole au bout des ongles. She had been educated and
traveled much abroad, and brought the Parisian ideals to
her Washington life. Her two pretty daughters, Mathilde
and Rosine, were younger than the permissible age for " taking
a peep" by the French girl. Still the two ventured an oc
casional one at these functions, much to the delectation of

polyglot youth, for they
were naive and sprightly.

Later, these girls became
historic, when their whilom
neighbor, Admiral Wilkes,
reft Mason and Slidell from
the protecting paws of the
British Lion.

An all-around casus belli
was barely escaped. The
animated objection of the
pretty young twain to return
beneath the Old Flag was
the sensation of the hour
on both sides of the water.
Later, Mile. Mathilde mar
ried Baron Earlanger, the

French banker, so familiar to still later American finance.
Miss Rosine, caring less for money, married blood in the
Quartier St. Germain.

Mrs. Eugenia Phillips, wife of the Alabama Congressman,
came very near holding a salon, and quite without intent.
This handsome and brilliant Southern woman had a national
reputation long before General Ben Butler, of New Orleans
and Bermuda Hundreds, gave her an international one.

Her arrest for alleged treason in laughing and chatting on
her own porch while a military funeral passed, need not b€

MRS. PHILIP PHILLIPS

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 177

rehearsed here. Time, and decency have passed upon it.
That was excuse for that inexplicable and unsoldierly " Order
28," which wrung from the impassive British premier the
epithet " Infamous!" and sent the hero down the aisles of
history ticketed with an unsavory sobriquet.

But in truth it was Mrs. Phillips's contempt of the general
and her cool sarcasm that caused her imprisonment. Haled
before him, she laughed equally at the charge and at his
authority to war on women. When told that she would be
sent to Ship Island, she blandly replied:

"It has one advantage over the city, sir; you will not be
there!"

When told that it was a yellow fever station, she laughed :

"It is fortunate that neither the fever nor General Butler
is contagious."

Robert Wood, younger brother of John Taylor, was like
wise a born fighter — about their only common heritage. He
was a reckless, sharp-tongued member of the young society,
but his pride of descent from General Taylor was such that
his actions paraphrased: "Je n'y suis ni rot, ni prince: je
suis Taylor!"

At one of her receptions I heard him ask Mrs. Phillips:
"Tell these ladies the best thing you know relating to me."

In a flash Ben Butler's later vanquisher — and his unin
tentional sponsor in sobriquet— responded :

"Your grandfather, Bob!"

Both the Wood brothers — sons of the elder sister of the
first Mrs. Jefferson Davis — are dead. Robert, distinguished
as a cavalry colonel in Wirt Adams's brigade, pursued various
avocations in New Orleans, leaving a widow and family there.
John Taylor, the elder, we shall see more of later.

Mrs. Phillips was not only one of the most picturesque per
sonages in Confederate history, but a most potent and popular
one in Washington society. With a strange infusion of sub-

178 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

acid, she had great goodness of heart, and was ever loyal in
her friendships. These included some of the most notable
women, on both sides of then acrimonious thought, taking
Mrs. Jefferson Davis and Mrs, William H. Emory as examples.
She was Eugenia, the eldest of three handsome and brilliant
daughters of Jacob Clavius Levy and Fanny Yates, of Charles
ton ; the latter an Englishwoman, who was a marvel of spright-
liness when I knew her in Washington, close ante-bellum,
when she was in her late eighties.

The second sister, Phoebe, now the widow of Thomas
Pember, of Boston, we shall meet frequently in these pages.
Miss Martha, a gifted and popular woman, survived the war
and died unmarried. The fourth of the sisters, Emma, mar
ried Prioleau Hamilton, of South Carolina.

The three Phillips girls were heritors of their mother's
beauty and graces, but not of her satiric turn. As they came
"out" successively, Misses Fannie, Caroline and Emma be
came and remained popular belles in the home and foreign
sets, and were all conceded beauties in a society where plain
women were exceptional. Miss Fannie had a long and ro
mantic engagement with dashing Charley Hill, nephew of
the millionaire banker, W. W. Corcoran. Hill went South,
and will be seen again, and when he came home and entered
the state department, after winning his majority for gallantry
on General Forrest's staff, the pair were married. The widow
is still a remarkably preserved woman, residing in Pittsburg
with three grown sons and the wife of the eldest — Charles
Philip Hill — who was the popular Miss Catherine Montague,
of Baltimore. Yet, this " pretty young woman" as some
one lately wrote me of her, is four times a grandmother. Her
handsome daughter, Mrs. Benney, who lives only one block
away, has four children.

Miss "Lina," the next sister, is now Mrs. Frederick Meyers,
of Savannah; head of a family, but retaining the delicate

BELLES, BEAUX AND BSAINS OF THE SIXTIES 179

beauty of feature which made artistic Walter Taylor name
her "the Cameo." Miss Emma Phillips married Walter
Carrington, of Virginia, and also boasts a grown son and
daughter at her Long Island home.

The boys of the family were notable, too, for manly beauty
and traits; and two of them — Clavius and John Walker
Phillips — were in the army.
The former married Miss
Georgina Cohen,of Savannah ;
the latter Miss Nellie Jonas,
of New Orleans. The only
other living son is P. Lee
Phillips, of the Congressional
Library, who — with an ex
ceptionally beautiful young
wife — resides in Washington.
Eugene, an elder brother
who served in the Confeder
ate navy, and Willie, the
youngest, are dead.

The Phillips family were
little in Richmond during
the war, but sometime "ref-
ugeed" at La Grange. In
both, the brilliance of the
mother and the marked beauty of her daughters made
them even more noticeable than did the Butler episode.

All of these were not the real salon. Its first planting on
American soil was almost coeval with that of the Lilies in La
Louisiane; and it flourished — somewhat with the luxuriance
of a wild growth — in the Law-built second capital on the
Mississippi. Then the exclusiveness of the Creole regime
—the Villeres, Lallandes, Zacharies and the rest — cloistered
itself behind the portes cocheres of old French Town; leav-

MRS. CHARLES A. LARENDON

(LAURE v. BEAUREGARD)

180 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

ing New Orleans to barter, building and growth. Today
the unique and rapidly merging society of the Crescent City
has known no salon. It finds ample occupation in the
usual home routine, its Opera and races and its pre-eminent
carnival functions.

CHAPTER XV

WHEN old General Desha moved with his second wife
from North Alabama to Cottage Hill, near Mobile, he brought
the three daughters of his first marriage — Misses Phoebe Ann,
Caroline and Julia Desha. The eldest married Murray
Smith, a young Virginian who had drifted to the city by the
Gulf, little dreaming that Fate had marked him for grand-
father-in-law of a Duke of Marlborough. The second sister,
Carrie, married Mr. Barney, and, when widowed, Lloyd
Abbott, of lower Fifth avenue, then the most fashionable
residential quarter of New York. She was fond of society,
but had a veritable craze for private theatricals. This
culminated in two disasters: it put her protegee, Miss Cora
Urquhart, of New Orleans, at large upon the real stage
as Mrs. James Brown Potter and it sent Mrs. Abbott into
the same profession. New York has not forgotten her
unfortunate debut at Daly's theatre in "The Duchess,"
and her death followed soon after that ill-advised experiment.
Miss Julia Desha, handsome, clever and ambitious, married
in France and did not return.

Mrs. Murray Smith was socially ambitious beyond the
family limit, and very lavish of means to attain the desired
result. She took a handsome city residence, issued invita
tions for unremitting entertainments, and served the guests
with all that market and chef could produce. Somehow,

181

182 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF TEE SIXTIES

these could not command success, however they may have
deserved it. The functions were costly, but not popular;
the social usufruct did not come, and Mrs. Smith found
Mobile too rooted in old ways to comprehend a salon after
the mode of the one she longed to sway.

This ambitious lady had four daughters: Misses Armide,
Alva, Virginia, and Mimi. She planned a final and still
more elaborate function; larger, more costly and all-embrac
ing. She certainly studied the injunction to Sempronius,
but success again refused to crown deserving persistence.
Some people ate Mrs. Smith's suppers; many did not. There
was needless and ungracious comment, and one swift writer
pasquinaded her social ambitions in a pamphlet for " private"
circulation. Then the lady concluded that Mobile was as
unripe for conquest as for introduction of the salon. She
carried her daughters and her advanced tastes to New York,
where the field was broader for deserving effort; including
Mr. Smith's business ones. Results, in one sense at least,
justified the move. She lived, despite failing health, in a
whirl of society, and died in it.

Her second daughter, Alva, married W. K. Vanderbilt,
and after divorce O. H. P. Belmont; and her granddaughter
was the mistress of Blenheim.

Miss Virginia married Fernando Yznaga, brother of the
dowager Duchess of Manchester, the first Consuelo; and,
on legal separation from him, became Mrs. William G. Tif
fany. Miss Armide never married. She seemed to inherit
none of the family taste for smart society, and devoted her
self to charitable works for her sex. She died in New York
in April of last year. Miss Mimi, I believe, followed her
aunt Julia's example of marrying and dying abroad.

Mrs. Octavia Walton Le Vert was the daughter of Colonel
John B. Walton — so well known to the clubs of Washington,
New York and a dozen other cities — and the wife of a well-

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 183

known doctor of Mobile. She was a pretty and plump
blonde, and fond of society and dress. In her husband's
easy circumstances, the eager little lady gave full rein to
her natural tastes; went abroad, came back, and tried to
entertain in quite foreign and all-embracing fashion.

"M. D.," as Mrs. Le Vert was wont to call her spouse,
in place of his baptismal Henry Strachey, was not a devotee
of society by any means, but a skillful and popular surgeon
and cultured gentleman.
His profession gave him
ample means, and he was
complaisant enough not to
balk his wife's desire to en
tertain all of society,
including the most pro
nounced freaks that clung to
its periphery. To be a nov
elty in fact or reputed, was
sufficient to secure entree into
the salon of this mondaine.
Her house was large and her
heart larger; and no end of
good things that she did
still stand to her credit on the
Great Ledger.

Mrs. Le Vert's evenings
were eagerly sought by all classes in the amusement
hungry city. They were wholly unceremonious, the ex-
clusives herding together and the others intermingling
as best they could. Everybody was welcome. A sort of
staff collected around the entertainer, its chief being
gallant and reckless Major Harry Maury. This stalwart
and witty cousin of the little but able General Dabney H.
Maury, some time in command at Mobile, was an original

MRS. HENRY STRACHEY LE VERT
AND DAUGHTER "DIDDIE"

184 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

in all regards. It was he who asked that famous " Lazarus
conundrum/' repetition of which by Bishop Wilmer; in
New York, set the sensitive North agog.

Maury was a privileged
character in Mobile, and espe
cially at Mrs. Le Vert's. It
was there, as reported, that he
vented the now ancient rea
son for declining egg-nogg.
Coming in one night, when
already laved internally, the
hostess proffered the foaming
yellow mixture. Maury said:
" Thank you, none for me.
I prefer my eggs poached; I
take my milk and sugar in my
coffee, and I'm man enough to
take my whiskey straight!"

With diametrically opposite
intent, Mrs. Le Vert was
alert as any spider with in
vitations into her parlor. No
stranger with name or record could escape. When Kossuth
came to this country, she seized and exhibited him, making
more ado over him than over the sturdy old commodore,
Duncan N. Ingraham, who had rescued the Hungarian under
the guns of the Austrian frigate Hussar. At her house were
met the generals of the armies within reach of Mobile,
whenever they had duty in the city. There also came Admi
ral Franklin Buchanan, naval chief of the station, and with
him his daughter, Mrs. Scriven, of Georgia, one of the love
ly twin sisters who had been such belles at the Washington
Navy Yard, and then in her early married life.

Randall, of " Mary land," was an habitue, and on rare

ADMIRAL FRANKLIN BUCHANAN
(COMMANDER OF THE MERRIMAC)

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 185

occasions the pale, worn face of Henry Timrod was seen
in their quieter corners. Poor Timrod! Oversensitive,
unarmored for the melee of life's tourney, he died for sheer
want of bread, and, all too late, his state gave him a stone.
Dashing Tom Ochiltree, the arch romancer of the war:
Nathan Bedford Forrest — ready to run away from the
battery of bright, admiring eyes — all sensational fish, big
and little, came to Mrs. Le Vert's net and made a social
jambalaya not possible to match in all Dixie. There, too,
were musical and dramatic people galore, for the fair hostess
was patron of art, no less than leader of the mode. John
T, Raymond was then at the Mobile Theatre, a tyro player
who did not dream " There's millions in it!" Burly, big-
voiced Theodore Hamilton,
who sometimes did actor
stunts at the soirees which
perhaps helped him to some
reputation thereafter. There
was an old auctioneer in
Mobile who had several pret
ty daughters. One of these
Phillips girls married Ham
ilton and went on the stage
until invalided. A second
was a royal beauty. As
Marie Gordon she became
Raymond's first wife. She
won repute for good acting,
especially as blind Bertha
to her husband, Jefferson,
and John Owens, as Caleb
Plummer. But it was not altogether by her acting that
she dazzled all of one continent and parts of another.

" Johnny" Chatterton — later Signer Perugini and one

MRS. WILLIAM BECKER
(MRS. LAURA FORSYTH)

186 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

of the numerous husbands of Lillian Russell — was a pupil
of Madame Kowalewski-Portz, and sang at her Christ church
choir and at Mrs. Le Vert's.

The women met at Mrs. Le Vert's are tempting, but dan
gerous themes to touch. There were the dashing Oliver
sisters, known to every camp; the beautiful bride, Mrs.
Laura Forsyth, already famed in the A. N. V. She is now
Mrs. William Becker, of Milwaukee, and the last direct
descendant of Jackson's secretary of state and grandson
of the great editor is her son, Charles Forsyth. He also
lives there.

Fascinating Mrs. Dan E. Huger was another of Mrs. Le
Vert's war brides. As Miss Hattie Withers she had won
triumphs in a Washington winter. She left two charming
daughters, Mrs. Cleland Smith, of Memphis, and Mrs. Robert
Wilkie, of New Orleans. Their daughters, in turn, won
dered to the day of her recent and lamented death, whether
that young and sprightly lady was really their mama's
mother.

Mrs. Le Vert has gone, long years. "M. D.," her husband,
went before. Gone too, are her daughters, Octavia, and
Henrietta. The former, whom intimate friends knew as
"Diddie, " was the aide-de-camp of her mother's lavish
social days, the stay of her less happy ones, when the declin
ing sun was no longer worshipped by inconstant devotees.

One drawing-room of ante-bellum Mobile — much sought
and ever compensating — was that of Mrs. Fearn, wife of
Dr. Richard Lee Fearn, a very noted surgeon who died in
the late '60's. Mrs. Fearn had been Miss Mary Walker,
sister of the four brothers of that name elsewhere noted.

There were met such notables as Governor John Anthony
Winston, full of acumen and satire; Dr. Claude H. Mastin,
the noted surgeon; .with his keen wit and blunt speech,
but using sub-acid where his brilliant son now applies the

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 187

triple oil of gracious courtesy; brilliant young Theodore
O'Hara, who wrote "The Bivouac of the Dead/' and scores
of other home people then and later in national repute.
Distinguished visitors from abroad were ever introduced at
Mrs. Fearn's, and though the maltreated French word was
not whispered of her receptions, they held its sponsorial
essence.

Dr. and Mrs. Fearn had one son, Walker Fearn, already
a courtly, gifted and accomplished man, who gave earnest
of that later high acquirement which made him a marked
type of the Southern gentleman and diplomatist. He died
a decade ago. Walker Fearn married Miss Fannie Hewitt,
of New Orleans, in the early flush of her belleship after she
had been the first queen of the carnival. He went to that
city to practice law, but was sent as secretary of legation
to Spain in Buchanan's time. When the war came he returned
to enter the army, but was ordered to Paris as secretary to
the Mason-Slidell embassy to the sentiment of the unsenti
mental powers, who heeded not the wooing of Mr. Benjamin,
as there lisped by his chosen messengers. After the war,
Mr. Fearn returned to the Crescent City and resumed his
practice in partnership with Captain Edward M. Hudson,
a cultivated Virginian who had returned from his Ger
man university to serve on General Elzey's staff; and who-
still resides there with his accomplished wife, formerly Miss
Fannie Ledyard. But Mr. Fearn's diplomatic taste and
experience again carried him abroad as minister to Greece,
under Mr. Cleveland. Later he was named as American
judge of the international court established by the Khedive
in Cairo. On his return to America, he was chief of foreign
installation at the Chicago World's Fair. He died soon
after, leaving a widow and one daughter, now Mrs. Seth
Barton French, of New York. There was another girl,
Clarisse, who died abroad, and one son, Hewitt, also dead.

188 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

Percy Leroy Fearn married Eva Onderdonk and the family
live on Long Island. Mrs. Walker Fearn now resides
with Mrs. French, devoting her energy and experience to
lecturing in aid of the blind. She frequently visits her old New
Orleans home, where her cousins and she made a brilliant
trio in years gone, and where they still remain. They were
Minnie and Clara Norton, now Mrs. Newton Buckner and
Mrs. Arthur Lee Stuart. Mrs. Stuart's elder daughter is
wife of the Rev. Norman Guthrie, priest and poet, and the
piquante Miss Minnie is yet with her mother.

The four handsome and brilliant daughters of Mrs. Newton
Buckner are Katie, Mrs.Daniel Asery; Minnie (who was Mrs.
William Barkley, and died only last year) ; Edith, Mrs. Harry
Howard; and Frances, Mrs. James Bush. As girls this quar
tette were popular and much quoted and their marrying has
not changed those conditions. Norton Buckner, their brother,
is married and lives in New York.

After the death of Walker Fearn's mother, Dr. Lee Fearn
married Miss Elizabeth Spear, of Mobile. There are three
children of the second family: R. Lee Fearn, Jr., chief of
the Tribune bureau at Washington, and almost as widely
known as secretary and president of the irrepressible Gridiron
Club. He married Miss Egerton, of Baltimore, and resides
at the capital with their young son and daughter, Miss
Mildred who has just made her entree in Washington society.
Miss Sallie Fearn was one of the sweetest and most lovable
girls that Mobile has relinquished to a distant state. She
is now Mrs. H. M. Manley, of New Jersey, and the mother
of a family of three. Dr. Thomas S. Fearn, the youngest,
never married.

In the Fearn home often was met a representative of the
old French family of de Vendel de Genance, noted in the
first French revolution and before. Madame Adelaide de
Vendel Chaudron, however, carried her own patent of mental

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 189

nobility. She was the wife of Paul Simon Leopold Chaud-
ron; and during her half-century life in Mobile was leader
in the twin arts of literature and music. She was a great
linguist, a close student and an omnivorous reader. It
was she who translated the Louise Muhlbach stories of royalty,
and many other works.
The only extant copy, of
which I know, is kept un
der glass by her son, Louis
de Vendel Chaudron, who
still resides in Mobile.

Madame Chaudron died a
decade since, at the age of
eighty-one.

There were four de Vendel
sisters besides Madame
Chaudron. Louise never mar
ried and died years ago.
Angele married Henry Hull
and both are dead, and their
son, Edgar Hull — who lost a
leg in the Civil War — died
very recently at Pascagoula,
Miss. The next sister, Jo
sephine, is the widow of
Augustus Sellers, and resides
in New York; and the last,
Pauline, is the widow of
George J. White and lives in Mobile.

Here came Dr. George A. Ketchum and his then young
bride, Sue Burton, of Quaker Philadelphia, who celebrated
their golden wedding a decade ere they both passed away,
leaving but one child, Mrs. Georgia Ketchum Stratton
of Mobile. The last, not then born, has later proved' one of

MRS. MARY KETCHUM IRWIN
(FROM AN AMATEUR PLAY)

190 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

the most popular and gracious of hostesses; and her friends
are found in many a city far away from the noted old home
stead she still graces. She is also one of the most versatile
and " fetching" of society amateurs. This gift she has in
common with her cousin, Mary Ketchum, the then girlish
daughter of Col. Charles Ketchum. One of the most beauti
ful and gifted women of her day, she sometimes joined her
uncle and aunt at Mrs. Fearn's. She married the elder of
the gallant Irwin brothers; was the acknowledged beauty of
her set and an accomplished woman in many ways; notably
in high comedy. Only three years ago she died, universally
regretted; and her home at picturesque "Oakleigh," is pre
sided over by her only daughter, Mrs. Daisy Irwin Clisby with
her three "boys": her stately old father and her own sons.
There, were seen the Clark brothers, Francis B. and Willis
Gaylord; the former the first president of directors of the
Mobile & Ohio Railroad when only twenty-six years old,
and now a well-preserved resident of Birmingham, at nearly
ninety years of age. Willis Gaylord Clark died ten years
ago, leaving no children.

At Mrs. Fearn's Mr. and Mrs. Henry A. Schroeder, pre
cise but suave; Jurist Peter Hamilton and his cordial wife,
and the Ledyard family were frequent guests.

Mrs. William J. Ledyard was the eldest of those six
brilliant Erwin sisters, whose culture and force did for Ten
nessee what the "Wicklyffes" did for Kentucky. She was
Laura Erwin, a woman of golden heart and mind. Much
of her nature showed in her children, the eldest of whom
has just been mentioned, Mrs. E. M. Hudson; William Led
yard, who fell before Richmond; Erwin, who carried the
colors at Malvern Hill and bore to his still green grave the
scars for it; and gentle Miss Leila, now also passed away.

Jane Erwin, later Mrs. Goff, was the second sister; and
Amelia, Mrs. Yeatman, and Mrs. Hillman, Marie Louise,

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 191

all of Nashville, were the third and fifth. All are dead,
as is the beautiful and gentle Caroline, "the baby sister,"
who married Willis Clark. It was her son by her first marriage,
Ledyard Scott, who was the second husband of the author
ess, the present Mrs. Fenellosa.

The only living sister of the Erwin name is Ellen, Mrs.
George A. Hay ward, of St. Louis. For years hers has been
a familiar name in society and literature in the river metrop
olis. She has had in later years the aid of three popular
daughters. The eldest of these, Miss Florence Hayward,
has made her own name notable on both sides of the water.
She was the woman commissioner of the Louisiana Pur
chase Exposition, whose work in London and Rome did so
much for the foreign exhibit; and to whom especial credit
is due for its famous history section. Foreign recognition
of her work has been exceptional. The French Academy
made her an honorary associate, she being the only Ameri
can woman so named and one of the only five or six in
the world. The exposition authorities gave her the only
special gold medal for service rendered, presented to any
officer. Her next sister, Miss Fanita Hayward, married
George Niedringhaus. She was an ever popular girl at
home and in the distant cities she constantly visited. The
youngest sister, Erwin, was a bright and regal type of
woman, with a fad that she would not marry : so she is now —
Mrs. Higginbotham, of Canada. The Hayward boys, both
married, but not before St. Louis society had made them
enfans gates for a number of years.

The Ledyard-Erwin-Hayward connection is too Virginian
in extent for detailing here. William Ledyard's brother
had a large family; one of the daughters, Anne Ledyard,
being one of the most popular women in the South. She
married Fulwar Skipwith, of Clarkesville, Va., grandson of
Sir Grey Skipwith. Her sister Laura was one of the most

192 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

beautiful women of her day, and brilliant too. She became
Mrs. Marion Vaughan, of Columbus, Miss. William Ledyard
married Miss Adelaide Dargan, daughter of the great lawyer,
Edmund Dargan; and it is their son who married the daughter
of John Triplett, as before noted.

Mrs. Fanny Ledyard Hudson's three sons have families
in Louisiana. William Alexander, the eldest, married
Miss Anna Dontey, of Rapides Parish, and early died a
hero's death, to save the lives of passengers on his railway
train. Wallace and Leigh married sisters, Misses Luckett,
of Rapides. So the old stock will not be forgotten in the
old South or the young West.

CHAPTER XVI

IN THE TWIN STATES

HIGH-HEADED, refined and historic Charleston ha's not
been without her sensations. She has been the seat of one
great seismic convulsion and of several political ones. She
was the cradle of nullifica
tion and of Civil War.
There was held the conven
tion that sent the triple
Democratic Horatii to hold
the bridge against Lincoln,
and laid them, slaughtered,
at his feet. There was the
glory of the palmetto-logged
Moultrie, the theatrical one
of Sumter, when gallant men
with silk hats, and red sash
es binding swords to their
frock coats, marched away
from weeping wives, to dress
on Beauregard. Not a few
of these must have smiled,
in quick-succeeding scenes of

GENERAL JOHN CHESNUT

field and hospital, at the

dramatic terrors of that undress rehearsal: "Mr. Chesnut

somewhere on that black harbor in an open boat!" — a noble

193

194 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

old dame wiring her blessing to her grandson for shooting
away the flagstaff, and Wigfall crawling through a rear
porthole and praying grim old Robert Anderson, in the name
of humanity, not to commit fiery felo de se.

Charleston and the whole state of South Carolina have
given famous men and noble women to the councils and
the wars — to the matronage and the society — of the Union
ever since the Rattlesnake flag.

Rarely an imitator, she transplanted the indigenous Bos
ton fad and fostered it into secession. She has had her
social sensations, indubitably, while never vaunting them,
but Charleston never took the salon infection. Her one
case was mild and sporadic.

James L. Pettigrew was the most noted lawyer and the
most quoted wit of his day in the city of the battery. He
had two daughters, Mrs. King and Mrs. Carson. " Sue King, "
as her intimates called the elder, was audacious and original.
At odds with society, she attempted a salon in the hope
of getting even with the feminine contingent. Scarcely
any woman could have made one popular, with all its needful
unconventionality. Mrs. King assuredly did not. Her
evenings were conspicuous for masculine crowds and feminine
absences. She dropped them, as soon as the men stopped
attending. "Busy Moments of an Idle Woman," which
was largely read in the boudoir and boarding-school, came
from the pen of Mrs. King, who was as quick-witted and
as pointed in epigram as Mrs. Andrew Simonds — the second
of that noted name — who recently married Barker Gummere,
Mrs. Simonds was Miss Daisy Breaux. She came to New
Orleans from Georgetown's Visitation convent, and short
ly after acted in Atlanta as the bridesmaid of Miss Emma
Minis. As Mrs. Simonds she founded the " Villa Margher-
ita " in Charleston. It is to her that a clever retort to President
Roosevelt is credited. "She had entertained him in Charles-

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 195

ton at the time of the Exposition. Later, at Washington,
when the appointment of a negro postmaster was agitating
the city, it is said that Mr. Roosevelt asked Mrs. Simonds:

"Tell me frankly what your people think of me now."

"We think we have cast our bread upon the waters, and
after a few days it has come back in a little brown Crum!"

One of Mrs. King's best remembered witticisms was the
introduction of the two
elegant Rhett brothers,
Alfred and Edmund, in the
oft plagiarized words:

"The Lilies! They toil
not, neither do they spin;
yet Solomon in all his
glory is not so arrayed!"

Yet, Charleston never had
her salon, despite her having
Mmes. King and Simonds and
James Conner, whom she
borrowed from her twin
state.

With its many comings
and goings, Richmond offered MRS- JAMES w- CONNER

. . (SALLIE ENDERS)

opportunity for American

imitation of a salon, but the social leaders were not so
inclined. The receptions at the White House, at Mrs.
Robert Stanard's, Mrs. Semmes's, Mrs. Macfarland's, Mrs.
Ives's and, in their quieter way, at Mrs. Virginia
Pegram's, were the perfect mixture of easy elegance and
brains in evening dress. But, at the executive mansion,
the "every evenings" of Mrs. Davis took on this likeness
rather than those public — and necessarily mixed levees
which contemporaneous error insisted upon misnaming
her salon. They are well worthy of a passing retrospect,

196 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

for they were the most remarkable aggregations of distinction
and commonplace.

Gradually, as she melted the social frost about her, Mrs.
Davis collected trie more important of Richmond's society
leaders, making of them, unawares, a sort of informal staff.
These were always present, after the first few "Washington
imitations" — as the bi-monthlies were at first called. They
proved very attractive to the better posed and more distin
guished visitors, and were
most useful in letting the
President and his wife devote
more attention to the plainer
people.

A military band was always
in attendance, generally dis
pensing popular music, but
4'i'frtp sometimes classic. Cabinet

ministers, congressmen,
heads of bureaus and de
partments, new generals and
o 1 d admirals, fresh-faced
young recruits and distinc
tively foreign types from the
coast South, all mingled to
gether. There was more variety than in the East Room
levee at Washington, and more action and eagerness. We
were then not making history very rapidly, but many of those
present later filled whole pages.

Here was seen the red beard of Ambrose P. Hill; Beaure-
gard would sometimes glide through the rooms with his
staff. Dashing Pierce Young attended and gallants from
Maryland, soft-voiced Carolinians and sturdy estrays from
Kentucky and Missouri, mingled with the home set and the
dainty debutantes and belles.

LT.-COL. JOHN CHEVES HASKELL

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 197

These assemblages were great amalgamaters, and brought
together people who had never met elsewhere. No doubt
many moves in politics — not always friendly to the head
of the house — were begun or discussed there; and that cam
paigns of a tenderer nature were also carried on, goes without
saying.

Mrs. Davis received every comer with pleasant, if not
wholly genial, welcome. She never differentiated, and all
were made to feel that they were present by right and not
on sufferance. Here, as in all social matters, Mrs. Davis
found able assistance in her young sister, Miss Howell, a
great favorite with the official set, and she relieved the dul-
ness of many a group.

The President himself unbent more at these levees—
though they assuredly bored him — than anywhere else. He
had that marvelous memory which locates instantly a man
not seen for years, and his familiar inquiries so pleased the
visitors that they were not aware that the handshake was
none too warm and that he was gently but speedily passed
along. Miss Howell said he " helped them as though they
were sandwiches at a charity picnic. "

Years ago, writing to me of something I had said of these
receptions, sturdy, brave General Brad Johnson said:

"The photograph you give of Mrs. Davis's drawing-room
is exquisite. I never was the*re but once, just after second
Manassas, when I marched in — booted and dirty and straight
from the train — with a letter from Jackson to the President.
I never quite knew whether he liked my soldierly uncon-
ventionality, for he may have thought I should have pre
sented myself in better guise to the commander-in-chief.
But I had been trained to believe that promptness was the
highest military virtue, so I lost no moment in doing what
I was sent to do. There was no doubt to the battle-stained
soldier as to what she thought and felt. She was glad to

198 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

see me, and I believe that night I promised to capture a
Yankee flag for her; and she then and there captured my
heart. I sent her the flag in '64, as she records in her
memoirs.

"Your obliged comrade,

"BRADLEY T. JOHNSON."

What came nearest to a salon in Richmond — and, as
far as I know in all America — was held at Mrs. Robert C.
Stanard's. Her home early became noted for hospitality
as lavish as it was elegant. She was a widow of ample means,
and had been Miss Martha Pierce, of Louisville. She courted
social success, had traveled extensively, and made many
and distinguisned friends.

When stress of war mobilized an army of these in Rich
mond, Mrs. Stanard's doors swung wide and early for their
reception and refection. She was one of the very first to
break that thin layer of ice over the home society which
formed at first hint of the white frost of social invasion,
and for a moment threatened to chill the dreaded unknown.

It has been shown how the natural warmth of Virginian
hospitality soon dissipated this premature film; and how
the natural sunniness of Richmond nature returned and
rose to higher degree than normal. This disideratum was due
to practical people like Mrs. Stanard, who had known some
of the incoming and were ready to take the whole crop,
as the cotton buyer does, "by sample. " Those who met
the best of the influx at such houses, early "went in and
bulled the foreign market."

At her frequent dinners, receptions and evenings, Mrs.
Stanard collected most that was brilliant and brainiest
in government, army, congress and the few families who
followed either, apparently because they could afford to.

There, one met statesmen like Lamar, Benjamin, Soule

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF TEE SIXTIES 199

and their peers; jurists like John A. Campbell and Thomas
J. Semmes; fighters like Johnson, Hampton and Gordon;
and the most polished and promising of the youth of war,
as gallant and classic Kyd Douglas, handsome John B.
Castleman, Lord King and a host more, not to name all of
whom seems invidious. And with these came the best
of her own sex that the tact and experience of the hostess
could select.

Bref, at Mrs. Stanard's one
met people already noted
for something — or were sure
to be ere long. Her house
was one unremittent salon,
in the regard of variety;
and with the difference that
the comers were entertained
as well as entertaining.

A statement has recently
found it way into print —
doubtless unintentionally —
that she boasted "that she
never read a book." If she
made the boast, in jest, it
is certain that she read men
and women, and that very
thoroughly. Her personality
outside of her role as entertainer, was delightful and
magnetic; and she attracted and held to her such strong
men as Alexander H. Stephens, Pierre Soule and grand
and gentle Commodore Samuel Barren, Charles L. Scott—

'49-er," congressman and diplomatist. She was a " wo
man's woman," too, her most ardent admirers being of her
own sex and the regret for her untimely death lingering
sweetly with them still. Her motherhood was deep, tender

COMMODORE BARRON, C. S. N.

200 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

and unadvertised. Her only son, Hugh L. Stanard, was
her idol, and his early death left a shadow that never lifted
from her life.

Mrs. Stanard has been called " Madame Le Vert of Rich
mond. " The misnomer must be patent to all who have seen
the receptions of both. They were diametric opposites in
almost all regards; hospitality seeming their only common
trait. The Mobilienne threw wide her doors and bade all
enter, with the prodigal hospitality of the scriptural wedding.
The Virginian chose her guests studiously for what was in
them; and quite as much for their adaptability to each
other. Hence the two noted houses of war sociality were
equally wide apart in theory and, in practice. If the two
go down in history as parallels, it must be because they are
tangent at no point.

CHAPTER XVII

THE MOSAIC CLUB

WHAT was known as the " Quiet Set" to the giddier ones
was possibly the best and most compensating portion of
Richmond society. It gravitated sedately around such
households as the Daniels, Grattans, Munfords, Brookeses,
Gays, Wallers and a dozen more. These made small pre
tense of entertaining in the lavish old way, but Hospitality
sat on their front steps and invited the proper passer within.
Their quiet homelike little dinners and those unspeakable
little teas of later and more trying days — ah! but these last
are ever green in the memory of us ancients, veritable oases
in the desert of privation.

If some good housekeeper fell heir to a large jug of sor
ghum, had a present of some real flour or acquired a tiny
sack of " true-and-true " coffee, then and there went forth
the summons. And it came to "the boys from camp,"
refreshing as the dew on Hermon. Then, with the gloam
ing, came that crown of patient but earnest anticipation,
a home supper; what Page McCarty was wont to call "a
muffin match," or Eugene Baylor baptized "a waffle worry."

It was in these unique evenings that was found the origin
and home of the famous Mosaic Club — as it came to be called,
sans godfather or sponsor.

This club was like none other before or since; legitimate
progeny of abnormal social conditions. It had no descend-

201

202 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

ants. Neither had it any officers, rules or specified objects,
and especially had it no treasurer. It might have taken
for motto elevere antiquum Henricum, but it needed none.
It was simply the clashing of bright minds in hospitable
and cultured homes under stimulus of rare good cheer and
rarer good coffee.

Such pianists as Miss Mattie Paul performed the works of
the masters or accompanied the not always tuneful wandering

minstrels from camp. Miss
Paul was an accomplished
player and was perhaps the
moving center of things mu
sical in Richmond . Literally
she was the enfan gate of
the Mosaic, as popular with
women as with men. Mrs.
Gustavus Myers might well
have quoted, when her son
married :

"No sweeter woman e'er

drew breath
Than my son's wife."

Probably no war-time

MRS. W. B. MEYERS , ,.

(MATTIE PAUL) wedding was prettier or more

picturesque — s urely none

more " showered" with golden wishes — than that of Miss Paul
to the popular Willie Myers, Breckinridge's adjutant-gen
eral.

Myers survived the war but a few years. In her Virginia
home his widow has seen the youth she seems never to have
lost, renewed in daughters as fair as she was in war-time.
Lelia, the elder, is wife of John Hill Morgan, a member of the
New York bar, residing in Brooklyn. The other, Adela,

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 203

is now the wife of Dr. Richard Frothingham O'Neil, of Boston,
a son of the admiral of that name. She is the mother of one
child.

At these informal Mosaic Club evenings rare "Ran" Tucker
forgot dusty tomes and legal lore to tell his inimitable
stories.

The poets and authors were familiar at the Mosaic. John
R. Thompson — already famous as longtime editor of the
Southern Literary Messenger and accepted as the best poet
of the war — was an earnest member, and more than one of his
immortal poems was there read first and discussed with a
frankness that sometimes made the hypersensitive little poet
stare. The current and coming features of the only Con
federate magazine were there frankly discussed and antici
pated, and if memory does not trick me, the beautiful poem,
"The Battle Rainbow," was first read to the "old Mosaics."
Poor Thompson! tender and too true — victim of his own
sensitiveness and of a time of stress it might not withstand—
died in the mid-rush of post-bellum New York. His mission
took him to London to edit that useless organ of Confederate
thought, the Index, to a people that did not take the trouble
to think of us at all. This paper — and along with it the
entire system of Confederate diplomacy abroad — was one of
the direst mistakes made in the whole management of the
great effort. Returning broken in health and fortune,
Thompson met sympathetic friends in New York. Richard
Henry Stoddard and his wife, and especially William Cullen
Bryant, whom his true poetic temperament had long attracted,
befriended him. On the latter 's Evening Post he found work
that was congenial; work that was rather made for him than
useful to the paper. We lodged at the same substitute for
a home, and I saw that disappointment and uncongenial
surroundings were killing the tender poet. He did not die
precisely as poor Henry Timrod did, but his ambition none

204 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

the less starved him to death as literally as pride and poverty
starved his Carolina brother. But now he sleeps in native
soil. In his own words:

"Gently fall, ye Summer showers.
Birds and bees, among the flowers,
Make the gloom seem gay!"

John Esten Cooke, poet, romancer and the Walter Scott of
our Southern " Tales of the Border/' dropped in on the Mo-

_ saics when the activity of

Stuart, whose aide he was,
permitted flying visits to
Richmond, even in winter.
Cooke was rarely reticent as
to his literary ventures, im
parting portions of them to
any chance listeners. Some
times he was accompanied
by his brilliant and boy-
hearted chief, and those
were indeed memorable
nights when a Richmond
soiree heard his manly
voice troll out — merrily, if
none too correctly — the
camp ditty linked with his
name, as to "Jining the
cavalry" and the warmest
of abodes:

JOHN R. THOMPSON

" If you want to catch the Devil, just (jine the cavalry. ' '

It was not unfrequently that one met lights of cabinet and
congress, or those of science and law, at these informal
gatherings. The burly form of famous Professor A. T, Bled-

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 205

soe rolled in more than once, and his sledge-hammer disputa
tion contrasted humorously with the quaint, easy argument
of Judge Raleigh Travers Daniel. Wide indeed was the range
of subjects that came up spontaneously at the informal meets
of the Mosaics. Wild, too, sometimes, were the vagaries
into which its members lapsed under the stimulus of contact
and unwonted rations. Some of these are tradition, yet
probably unfamiliar to most of my readers.

At one time a hat was passed around containing the most
absurd questions and another with unusual words. The
members drawing both were to link them in a speech, poem,
brief tale or song, in some sort of logical sequence. As ex
ample, that facile wit, Innes Randolph, once drew the ques
tion: " What sort of shoe was made on the last of the Mo
hicans?" and with it the word, "Daddy Longlegs." Naturally
there was jubilation, for the aim of all his friends — and one
never attained — was to pose this wag. Almost immediately
he wrote and recited this glib impromptu:

"Old Daddy Longlegs was a sinner hoary,
And was punished for his wickedness, according to the

story.
Between him and the Indian shoe this difference doth

come in —
One made a mock oj virtue and one a moccasin."

The applause had not ceased when the poet interrupted it
with:

"Corollary One: Because the old sinner stole the Indian
shoe to keep his foot warm, was no reason he should steal
his house to keeep his wig warm!"

In mid laughter and wonder at this addendum, Randolph
raised his hand and cried:

"Corollary Second: Because the Indian's shoe wouldn't
fit ary Mohawk is no reason that it wouldn't fit Nary-gansett ! "

206 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

And so he ran on for a dozen ready quips that brought
roars.

Music, as has been noted, was a strong factor in the cohesion
of the Mosaic Club. No mention of it must omit Miss Evelyn
Cabell, now Mrs. Russell Robinson, of Colleton, the ancient
Cabell seat, in Nelson county. A schoolgirl at Miss Pegram's
when war began, this beautiful and gifted girl became a popu
lar belle. She was the daughter of Dr. Clifford Cabell, of
Fernley, in Buckingham, coming of that good old-country
stock, that manor house life, that to foreigners suggested
country gentry and republican simplicity combined. With
assured position and the numberless cousins, that are ever
herital appurtenances of the well-born Virginia girl, Miss
Cabell had a personality that left its impress on all she met.

After an all too short reign Miss Cabell threw away her
sceptre, and one of the best remembered of all war receptions
was that at the residence of Mrs. Wirt Robinson, when her
son Russell brought the belle as his bride from the Fernley
seat. In her new realm she has queened it ever since. Today,
although widowed and several times a grandmother, she is
young in spirits and as popular as ever in society, in and be
yond Virginia. She is active in the best of women's asso
ciations and is honorary life regent of the Colonial Dames.

Colleton, the first of the six colonial seats of the Cabell
family, has passed into her hands, and with her there, in her
new widowhood, resides her second son and her granddaughter
and namesake. Cabell Robinson is far over six feet tall, an
engineer by profession and a widower, residing with his
mother. His elder brother, Major Wirt Robinson, is a noted
artillery officer of the regular army. He is an accomplished
linguist and inherits his mother's gift as a vocalist. He
married Miss Alice Henderson and has two children.

Two sisters followed pretty Eva Cabell into Richmond
society, but later in the war when depletion and suspense

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 207

had changed it greatly. Misses Mary and Alice Cabell were
gifted and attractive girls, and gained a popularity that their
maturity has broadened and deepened. The elder is now
Mrs. John Cabell Early of Lynchburg, and is the mother of
two soldier sons. Clifton Cabell Early was a feature of the
West Point riding school, one of his feats being to ride two
horses, with one foot upon the bare back of each. The
younger son, Jubal A. Early,
was the Annapolis midship
man whose appearance in
the inaugural parade of Pres
ident Roosevelt, with another
descended from the Toutant-
Beauregards, made pleasant
comment in the Northern
press. Both brothers are
now lieutenants in the
2oth U. S. Infantry. Mrs.
Early also has two daugh
ters, Evelyn Russell and
Henrian. The elder has
traveled much abroad with

her godmother and aunt. , MRS. JOHN CABELL EARLY

(MARY WASHINGTON CABELL)
Miss Alice Cabell, the last

sister to exchange Miss Pegram's school for war-time belle-
ship, has long been a matron and head of the Richmond home
of Charles Turner Palmer. Only one of her three lovely
daughters is now left to her.

These three sisters are linked with memories of the Mosaics,
as is the family name with all the most pleasant sociality of
Richmond, as elsewhere shown. They were cousins of
Colonel Coalter Cabell, of the artillery, who married Miss
Alston. The belle and heiress was also a famous beauty,
and her social triumphs are deeply impressed upon that day.

208 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

So are those of another cousin's wife, Miss Crittenden, of
Kentucky, who married Colonel Carrington Cabell. Still
other cousins, if not so near, were the beautiful Miss Lizzie
Cabell and her gallant and popular brother, Caskie Cabell,
who made his best siege and happiest capture when he sur
rendered to Miss Nannie Enders, post-bellum.

The Mosaic boasted instrumental and vocal experts whose
performance had taken rank in the amateur circles of any
city. All of these lent their gifts freely to the charities, but
while the make-believe actors essayed ambitious comedies,
no attempt at opera is recalled. Among the favorites were
Madame Ruhl, a noted soprano singer and teacher, who was
also in the choir of St. Paul's church.

Miss Nannie Robinson, who married her cousin, Ed. Robin
son, later, was a finished and obliging pianiste. Her aid is
recorded in many of the plays and charades that made ama
teur art notable. Misses Nannie Brooke, Alcinda Morgan
and Annie Palmer were able aids to musical successes, and
lent their gifts from time to time to the club symposia. Mrs.
Thomas J. Semmes and Mrs. Clara Fitzgerald have already
been noted at length, their favorite instrument being the
harp. Washington, the artist, had a pretty taste and a
sweet, light tenor, well used in German ballads and college
songs. He whistled admirably, too, as did Willie Myers,
and their duets ranged from " Peanuts " to " Norma." General
John Pegram, though not an educated musician, or performer
on any instrument, was a delightful and artistic whistler.
The rare occasions when devotion to duty let him leave camp
were pleasant ones to the Mosaics, many of them being his
lifelong friends.

The comic singers par excellence were Innes and John
Randolph — the latter with his undying " Grasshopper " and
his saucy "Good Old Rebel" ditties— and "Ran" Tucker, of
" Noble Skewball" and "Mr. Johnsing" recitative. Wonder-

BELLES BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 209

ful was that refrain — and the action that accompanied it —
when the great jurist sang of the immortal racehorse! Gray
Latham trolled his " Eveline" with great effect, but his hearers
could not readily accommodate themselves to the ingrain
wag's dropping into sentiment, as Mr. Wegg was wont to do
into poetry.

The pretty and gracious
Macmurdo sisters, Saidie and
Hennie, lent their good so
prano and alto to music of
that day, and Hector Eaches
—the gifted young painter
with the sunshine face —
would sometimes run up
from camp in his private's
jacket, a new sketch in his
pocket, an old song in his
clear, strong throat and a
huge appetite a few inches
below it.

The gayest of the Haxall
homes of that day was that of
the Barton Haxalls. Its
daughter, Miss Lucy, was
among the most sought

of the younger set of society women. Handsome,
stylish and with mingled geniality and savoir faire, she
made friends and held them. Not a prominent musi
cian herself, Miss Haxall loved music and was promoter of
many concerts and other affairs combining music and charity.
It was at her house that the "Musical Club" met most fre
quently. This grew out of the self-collected material of the
Mosaic. Washington, Myers and Randolph were its origina
tors, and it grew rapidly. It was an equally original club,

MRS. EDWARD L. COFFEY
(LUCY HAXALL)

210 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

and if memory serves me, was likewise without organization,
and had no officers. It collected the best musical material,
quite in the same fashion that the Mosaic did the mental and
the humorous. Yet, some of its most useful members were
not Mosaics. One instance was Professor Thilow, a fine
performer on the violoncello; another, James Grant, whose
virile basso was a real feature, until the act of his own hand
put him beyond the pale.

This club was the origin of many an improvised orchestra
for charity functions. Its real object was to furnish mutual
entertainment and education to its own coterie, but it searched
out musical merit and removed any secreting bushel from its
light. Possibly exclusiveness crept in, to the sometime detri
ment of good result. I recall one occasion when a new soprano
—not even on the boundaries of "the set" — was discovered
by an ardent male seeker. He waxed enthusiastic over her
voice, and urged her prompt introduction into this sacred
circle of Calliope. But that shook haughty head and mur
mured, "Nay! Nay!"

One stately and gifted girl was the most emphatic dis
senter. Shortly after, she was led to the piano, she cast one
glance at the music rack and turned red to the furrows at the
sight she beheld. Some graceless wag had placed upon the
music a large card, upon which were plainly written some
verses. Needless to say, the "Mrs. Grundy" referred to in
them, was the pseudo-type for society gossip, not the charm
ing and popular Richmond lady of that name, who had been
Miss Haxall before changing her title.

The disturbing lines ran:

"In the old days of faith, with a beauteous accord,
The people united with hearts that were one;

And mingling meekly, accepted the Word
And sat at the feet of the Carpenter's Son.

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 211

"But it much exercises the monde of today

To know — if defiant of custom — they ought to
Neglect the sharp things 'Mrs. Grundy' would say,
And admit to their music — the carpenter's daughter!''

No record of this unique "club" can approach completeness
that omits Misses Sally and Lucy Grattan. They were
the closest friends of the Daniel sisters early named; and
from those two hospitable
homes, warmest and most
frequent welcome went out to
the " members/' Brainy
women were all of them;
and as womanly and genial
as they were brilliant.

Miss Sally Grattan mar
ried Otho G. Kean, a
prominent young lawyer of
Richmond, who left her wid
owed long before the fullest
ripening of his life. He left
besides the precious heritage
of a name never spoken,
even at this day, without the MRS. OTHO G.

v c j (SALLIE GRATTAN)

mingling or regret and praise.

She still resides in Richmond and has one son, William
Grattan Kean.

Miss Lucy Grattan married Major W. F. Alexander, of
Washington, Ga. He died but two years ago. Their daugh
ter, Elvira, is now the wife of Edmund Byrd Baxter, of
Augusta.

The Grattans of war-time were children of Peachy Ridg-
way Grattan and Jane Elwin; the husband having been re
porter of the court of appeals for over thirty years. Of

212 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

his eleven children, only Mrs. Kean and her sister Elizabeth
survive. George Grattan was killed at Gettysburg.

Rare, dry " Trav " Daniel; clever and comic " Jimmie "
Pegram — who won gentle Lizzie Daniel for wife, only to
lose her next year; Olivera Andrews and .

Great the temptation — even though all the Mosaics were
not Solomons — to exclaim with her of Sheba: "And behold,
the one half of the greatness of thy wisdom was not told me."
But even memory must draw reins, though spurred by thought
of men and women who represented the Brain of Dixie, while
yet its beaux and belles.

CHAPTER XVIII

WITH SOCK AND BUSKIN

"All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players"

is a never-trite truism of Shakespeare.

The whole South was one great stage. From opening
overture at Sumter to final curtain at Appomattox, the men
and women played in endless tragedy of battlefield and hos
pital, or in comedies of statecraft, intrigue and love-making.
And there were plays within plays. Richmond was to the
rest of the South what the Comedie Francaise was to the
world of art.

Never before — not when the maidens gave their hair for
bowstrings — had womanhood been so unanimous to fulfil the
mandate of the poet:

"Fold away all your bright tinted dresses,

Turn the key on your jewels today
And the wealth of your tendril-like tresses

Braid back in a serious way.
No more delicate gowns — no more laces',

No more loit'ring in boudoir or bower;
But come — with your souls in your faces —

To meet the stern needs of the hour"

But it was not alone in a serious way that the women at the

213

214 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

Southern capital won the necessary dollars to aid their
rougher work. All the labor of love was not in the Village
of Dumdrudge, and those who had gifts of beauty and brain
and silvery tongue turned them to vantage —

11 To do for those dear ones what woman
Alone in her pity might do."

Not one old boy who even peeped into Richmond society,
will fail to recall the piquant face and gentle manner that

combined in the charm that
made Lillie Booker two
household words, "at camp
and court." With never
one visible effort at capture,
she perhaps had more scalps
to dangle at her girdle than
any girl of her set; but she
hid them under the meek
ness of the real ingenue.
This may have been inborn
pity, it may have been the
tact that told her that tro
phies are also a warning.
Her triumphs were lasting
ones, too; and very lately

MRS. ROBERT. F JENNINGS aR O]J feHOW WTOtC 1116

(LILLIE BOOKER)

from the farthest West,

that her photograph was the prized decoration of his
snowed-in cabin.

Elizabeth Taylor Booker was the daughter of George
Tabb Booker and Caroline Richardson; and was one of six
children, of whom the only survivors are Thomas Booker,
of Richmond, and Mrs. R. D. Roller, of Charleston, W. Va.

At the close of the war, Lillie Booker married Robert

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 215

Frank Jennings, son of Robert Garland Jennings and Eliza
beth Edmunds, of Halifax county. After a long life devoted
to her children's rearing — first in Halifax and later in Dan
ville, she died in 1891, leaving a son and two daughters.

George Booker Jennings married Miss Eva Lawson, of
Danville, and now resides in Richmond with two daughters.
With him lives the unmarried sister, Lillie Taylor Jennings.
Ellen also resides in Richmond: being the wife of William
Freeman Dance, formerly of Powhatan county. They have
two sons and two daughters; so the old friends of the war
belle may be assured that her memory is kept green in the
field of her old triumphs.

Fresh from the sickening and heartrending scenes at fever
cot and operating room, the stately dames of a dozen states
came gravely in nurse's dress or simplest of attire, and presto! j
an hour later the charity grub had fluttered into the society
butterfly. But these were nowise Hydaspean; not

"Born to live one brief and brilliant day, and die,"

as on the Indian stream. These live sempiternal in the hearts
of gallant men they flirted with, lived for — aye, died for.

Clad anew in the best bravery of the past — in the rummage
of trunk and closet since days when grandma danced with
Mister Washington — they strode behind the tallow dip foot
lights, and the Polonius of Venus's court mumbled: "My
lord, the players have come!" Never, perhaps, was drama
more earnestly done or had actors won more genuine and
often merited bravas! Nowhere have I seen results more
conscientious, more satisfying, in view of scanty resources
and amid such strain on brain and heart and body.

Behind that Chinese wall of floating fortresses and bayonet-
bristling border, from first to last, even when the wolf was at
the door of the rich and the diapason of near cannon was the
dread bass to improvised orchestra, there were musicales,

216 BELLES, BE AUK AND BEA1NS OF THE SIXTIES

charades, tableaux and even dramas that had been applauded
in the perfumed capitals of plenty.

The male actors in most of these shows, and invariably in
the impromptu ones, were mere "supers" to the woman-
interest. They were — like the husband prayed for by the
rural spinster — "Any, good Lord!" They were conscripted
by the provost-managers out of the " males of any condition/'
who happed at hand. Often they were as " physically

impaired" or as " mentally
incapable "as the results ot
another and sterner conscrip
tion. When a play was to
the fore, and Mrs. Semmes,
Miss Gary, or another, needed
a cast, any man in Richmond
for a night was impressed.
Generals, privates — at least
once a chaplain — did a turn
at the word of "She who
must be obeyed." As will
be seen, extempore art was
no respecter of persons, and
it is possible that in dire
strait Mr. Davis himself
might have been asked to do
a stunt. The audiences, too,
were as conglomerate as the casts. Highest and lowest
sat side by side before the extemporized stages, erected in
the best mansions in the capital.

Mrs. Davis and the members of her household were almost
always present, for the Cause and for example. The broad,
quizzical face of Mr. Mallory and the smiling placidity of
Mr. Benjamin, or the flutter of Mrs. Stanard, the dignified
port of Mrs. Preston, or the fresh beauty of some budding

MRS. CHARLES T. PALMER
(ALICE WINSLOW CABELL)

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 217

belle like Alice Cabell varied the view from the stage.

Often elegant old Colonel George Deas — society man by
instinct and viveur by habit of half a century — would escort
a debutante, or John R. Thompson, the editor-poet, might
flutter from bud to mature bloom, contemplating a stanza
in every glance. So, the auditorium was as interesting as
the performance it came to applaud.

Almost always there was sympathetic, helpful, intent
Mrs. James Chesnut. And ever by her side was her true
knight, her energetic and many-sided lover-husband — re
calling gone days of another rebellious congress, at Phila
delphia, when his sire made laws and made wild love to pretty
Nellie Custis at the same time.

As already noted, there had been desultory movements to
raise funds for soldiers' relief through musicales, tackey par
ties, sewing bees and minor methods. In the winter of
1862-63 the twin wolves, War and Want, showed their ugly
fangs closer to camp and court; and that year some more
elaborate and attractive entertainments were devised by
energetic and capable householders for the good work of
raising money.

The first of these was the charade reception at the hos
pitable home of the wife of Senator Semmes, opposite the
White House. It was one which has lived long in the memo--
ries of spectators and participants, for it comprehended all
that was prettiest, most cultured and distinguished in the
capital's sociality.

Four charades were given, each demanding a complete
scene for each syllable, and another for the whole word. The
acting was in pantomime, a tactful resource that prevented
stage fright of untried players and reduced the labors of the
stage manager. Those labors rested mainly in the practiced
hands of Mrs. Semmes, even if recently she had made futile
though generous effort to shift most of the credit to the un-

218 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

deserving shoulders of this narrator. She wrote me, with a
wonderful store of facts and details:

" Your lovely sister, Agnes De Leon, had recently returned
from the East and loaned me her experience and her Oriental
trinkets and scarfs. Mrs. Davis turned over the entire
wardrobe of her household, and you were my trusted ad
jutant and actor."

The latter was my only claim to notice, and that because
my scenes were with Mrs. Semmes — one of the very best
amateurs I ever saw. Her resource was exhaustless, and
her quickness in emergency simply marvelous. Both — in
addition to her easy grace as a hostess — she proved that
evening to an audience as large and as brilliantly repre
sentative as ever assembled, for any cause, in those four years
of "fighting and fooling."

The well-arranged stage, at the end of the great parlors,
first revealed its attractions in the charade word " Indus
trial." The first syllable was a simple tavern, at the moment
of the stage arriving : guests bustling, and horse-boy (Captain
Page McCarty) and boots (Captain Salle Watkins) stumbling
over their own elbows. The house bore the sign: " Enter
tainment for Man and— -"; the missing final word replaced
by a capital likeness of the obliquity who had recently cap
tured New Orleans and Mrs. Phillips. This, I am reminded,
was the handiwork of Major Willie Caskie. Si non evero, it
bore his hall-mark, though unsigned. The guests were the
beaux and statesmen best known in town; and the hostess
and assistant housekeeper drowned the applause that greeted
each new arrival. That popular pair were Mrs. Lucy Mason
Webb and Miss Saidie Macmurdo. Mrs Webb, as pretty Lucy
Mason, had captured hosts of friends who clung to her through
life, warming its desolation when she dedicated her widow
hood to the care of the suffering, in charge of the Officers'
Hospital. Miss Macmurdo, now Mrs. Alfred L. Rives, of

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 219

Castle Hill, was one of the most deservedly popular of Rich
mond beauties. She and her sister Helen were noted as singers
in war-time concerts, and both have carried through their
married lives the gentle graces that won for them the love of
old and young. Miss Helen is now the wife of that typical
Virginian of yesterday, Colonel Walter Harrison. Mrs.
Rives has reared three daughters who have been as widely
known as any ever born in the bounds of the Old Dominion,
Amelie, Princess Troubetzkoy, the authoress; Gertrude, now
Mrs. Allen Potts, confessedly the best 'cross-country rider
in Virginia; and Landon, now Miss Rives, who has defied
all comers of the frequently softer sex.

The second syllable of " Industrial" revealed a bevy of
pretty young girls, each with a feather broom, or mop, and
apron, the latter to hide, perchance, the scalps each had
hanging at her girdle. Misses Hetty and Constance Gary,
Mattie Paul, Sallie and Nannie Enders (now Mesdames James
W. Conner, of Charleston, and Caskie Cabell, of Richmond) ;
Lou Fisher and Hennie Hill, daughter of the great Georgian;
Evelyn Cabell, Bettie Brander (as popular in her widowhood
as Mrs. Edward Mayo as she then was) — these and possibly
others whom I do not recall mopped, brushed and blew, as
though dust were more dangerous than the blue foe at the
gate.

Then came the trial scene, with it the first demand for
acting, and it was answered in well- won applause. The
stage was transformed into a court, with judge (General
Robert Ould, Commissioner of Exchange of Prisoners),
sheriff, jurors and crier. In a recent letter Mrs. Semmes
writes :

''You were the prisoner, my husband, on trial for some
great crime and in the dock, loaded down with cable chains
(not very ethical, yet perhaps realistic). I rushed in, just
as sentence was pronounced; threw myself at the judge's

220 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

feet, and tried to scream in gesture: 'Mercy! Mercy!' Then
I swooned in pantomime, exactly how I do not recall. But
I do recall the kindly applause; and I must have done some
acting, for my little adopted daughter had to be brought into
the dressing-room, dissolved in tears, before she could be
convinced that I was not dead."

The whole word showed a parlor, the same bevy of pretty
girls — I think reinforced — all doing something useful, looking

in mirrors, sewing, kneading
dough, scraping lint or in
dulging in animated flirtation
with such good-looking fel
lows as Shirley Carter,
Stewart Symington, Tom
Price, Tom Ferguson and

J their partners in that fine

k^ art. A veracious chronicler

J? reminds me that the word

was riot guessed, but had to
be announced — of course the
fault of audience, not of
actors.

" Harum-scarum," thesec-

ROBERT A. DOBBIN Qnft word, changed to lush

Orientalism. Its first scene showed Miss Enders as a gor
geous Sultana. Around her grouped the recent dusters,
transformed to odalisques, their recent swains still hand
somer in turbans and bags. Irrepressible Miss " Buck"
Preston tried to look demure severity as the duenna, and
maidens and slaves played the zither or danced in Jenness-
Miller integuments before their mistress.

The second word touched on horrors, a weird and sheet-
clad spectre (General_P. M. B. Young) affrighting lasses and
laddies as he stalks "unrevcnged among us." The whole

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF TEE SIXTIES 221

word, guessed by several "in front/' showed romping girls
and giddy youths, all in the fullest enjoyment of tricks upon
one another, skipping rope and indulging in similar innocent
recklessness.

Presto! The stage has changed to a street. Mrs. Ives, as
a thin woman, and Robert Dobbin, as a fat man, meet a
quack. His pills, per placard, cure fat and make the lean
obese. Purchase is made, and the next scene shows the
reduced Dobbin prancing airily and Mrs. Ives puffing under
great access of flesh.

The same street suffices for second syllable. Here a rich
and acrid Gradgrind is importuned by a wretched woman.
Her pantomime tells clearly that she is starving; she points
piteously to the little boy, tugging for release from her firm
grip, his real tears running down his face. But the rich man
frowns, glowers and strides away, the woman eloquently
beseeching the boy not to weep. The beggar (Mrs. Semmes),
called to the scene, saw little Frank Ives at the entrance.
Sudden inspiration of effect! She seized and rushed him on,
all unrehearsed; and his weeping brought down the house.

For the last syllable John Anderson (Captain Ed. M. Al-
friend, with cotton wig and his fierce mustache chalked)
listens to "the auld, auld story/' from the auld, auld wife, to
low strains of the song.

Rittenhouse's orchestra, which, hidden behind a covert of
palms and potted plants, had discoursed entr'acte music
throughout the evening, in this scene played softly the air of
the undying old ditty.

Then came the whole word: a magnificent picture. The
stage became a shrine, draped and flower strewn, the .Cross
surmounting it. Toward it slowly moved pilgrims from every
age and clime, entering from opposite sides and walking in
pairs. Peasant, priest, knight, Imaun, beggar and emperor,
all approached, kneeling to lay their offerings upon the Cross.

222 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

Then they separated once more, grouping on either side in
brilliant contrast. A little pause. The band struck up
"See! the conquering hero comes." Forth strode grand
"Jeb" Stuart, in full uniform, his stainless sword unsheathed,
his noble face luminous with inward fire. Ignoring the au
dience and its welcome, he advanced, his eyes fixed on the
shrine until he laid the blade, so famous, upon it. Then
he moved to a group, and never raised his eyes from the

floor as he stood with folded
arms.

Next came Mrs. Ives and
Mrs. Leigh Page garbed as
nuns, passing to the shrine
to bless the sword laid there
as votive offering to country :
no breath now breaking the
hush upon the audience.
Last, handsome Tom Syming
ton, of Baltimore, and myself,
in green turbans and robes
of the Mecca pilgrims, en
tered, salaaming to each
other, then to the shrine as

MRS. LEIGH R. PAGE we approached it. There

we two touched the sword,
prostrating ourselves before the shrine.

The music had softened to a sweet pianissimo as the sword
was laid upon the altar. Now it swelled out into a solemn
strain, and the Franciscans, the Paulists, the Capuchins and
the nuns in the pilgrimages stood forth and chanted the
11 Miserere," as the refrain softly closed.

A wedding in the halls of Lammermoor to sign the bridal
contract was the first syllable of the next word. "Lucy
Ashton," represented by Miss Lelia Powers, holds the pen,

BELLES, BEAUX AND BBAINS OF THE SIXTIES 223

only to dash it down on the appearance of the " Master of
Ravenswood" (Captain Sam Shannon, of Carolina). " Henry/'
her irate brother (Page McCarty), rushes on the intruder with
drawn sword, only restrained by the " Priest" (W. D. Wash
ington) and the " Laird of Bucklaw" (James Denegre). The
scene was effective in pantomime and costume.

In the second syllable an older and happier courtship
showed. Mrs. Semmes, magnificently dressed as "Rebecca,"
stood by the well and heard the tender words of "Isaac,"
proxied by Eleazer (Burton Norvell Harrison, secretary to
Mr. Davis). The pair were admirable in their pantomime,
and the hostess radiant in the Eastern silks and gems, in
which she later received her guests.

In the final scene of that final word this writer once more
disported his congenial chains in a cell of Bridewell Prison,
and doubtless all present thought his acting well merited the
situation. Then came the social part, of which Mrs. Semmes
writes me:

"I never saw my supper-table until I went in with my
guests. Mrs. Campbell, Mrs. Crump, Mrs. Lucy Webb, Mrs.
Grant and Mrs. Cane prepared it for me. Although the ice
cream was sweetened with brown sugar, it was good; and
everything the markets of Richmond then supplied, from the
farms around, was fine and fresh. I can never forget those
friends in need."

CHAPTER XIX

THE success of this entertainment urged the willing workers
to fresh effort and the actors to new laurel-reaping.

Mrs. Ives offered her handsome home and her abilities to
another ambitious attempt at fund-raising, with Sheridan's
famous comedy, "The Rivals." Of this occasion, Mrs.
Chesnut tells a good story in her diary :

Big, blond-bearded and gentle-hearted Hood was present
when the prince of comedians, Frank Ward, played Bob
Acres. So true to life was the terror of the country gentle
man, in his "very pretty quarrel" with Sir Lucius, that
Hood, fidgeting in his chair awhile, at length blurted out:
"I do believe that fellow Acres is a coward!"

Catching Mrs. Chesnut's attention, General Breckinridge
whispered :

"Hood is better than the play and that is all .good from
Sir Anthony to Fag!" And, omitting the small grain of
critical salt, the great Kentuckian was right.

The cast was made from the best talent of the town; the
costumes put all society's wardrobe under contribution, and
the spacious drawing-rooms, crowded with the beauty and
culture of the capital, made an auditorium that would defy
competition in metropolitan peace times.

Sir Anthony Absolute was played by John Randolph, one of
the three exceptional brothers of that family, a clever actor,

224

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 225

a humorist and a musician, and he had used his gifts un-
stintingly for his co-actors at rehearsals. He played the
trying role with discretion and original conception, in thorough
sympathy with the author. But nowise second to him was
Paymaster L. M. Tucker, C.S.N., in the cleverly played role
of Jack Absolute. This was a clear-cut and manly perfor
mance, full of quiet humor and overdone in no detail of stage
business. Mr. Tucker was a popular member of war's gilded
youth, a reader and a writer
of neat prose .and verse.
The eldest of three hand
some Mississippi brothers,
also in the army, he was
the only one who did not
later go into the church.
The late Dr. Louis J. Tucker,
of Baton Rouge, La., and
Dean Gardiner C. Tucker, of
St. John's, Mobile, being the
others. Their sans have, in
turn, followed parental ex
ample. Indeed, the time when
there has not been a Tucker

writing poetry and reading JOHN RANDOLPH

divinity at the Seminary of St. <SIR ANTHON Y ABSOLUTE)

Luke, Sewanee, runneth not to the contrary in man's memory.
Louis, Jr., Gardiner and Royal, are today proof spirits of the
fact, from as many Louisiana pulpits. But the sailor-actor
and eldest brother proved the family • rule by exception.
When the last Confederate ship went up in home-made flame,
Lee M. Tucker changed his Confederate bonds for a gold
dollar, and took to assuring lives that were merely mortal.
He became the leading insurance manager of Mississippi;
found the field too small arid moved to Atlanta. There he

226 BELLES, BEAUX AND BKAINS OF THE SIXTIES

throve until ill health and partial blindness forced him to
change. He is now in California.

Fag was very unctuously played that night. No one who
met Clarence Gary at the Bar Association in New York,
or is permitted to read his study-born translations of the
great Latin poets, would have suspected the early comic
instinct that brought roars when he played Jack Absolute's

valet.

David and Coachman, re
spectively, fell into the
hands — and right capable
ones they proved — of George
Robinson, of the artillery,
and Robert A. Dobbin, of
Baltimore, now "most po
tent, grave and reverend
'senior' " of the Monumental
bar. He is that also of an
adult family, whose homes
are so close about him that
grandchildren clamber all
over him at will. The ex
ception is his daughter,

TACK ABSOL'UT™ Ellen Swan D°bbin> wh° ™»

made an especial paragraph of

by the leading young journalist, Frederick Hoppin Howland,
of Providence Journal, and is now a popular young matron of
that town. When he retired from the stage Mr. Dobbin played
the lover's part so successfully as to bring him very close to the
" old flag, " and with no desire to rebel forevermore. He mar
ried Miss Lizzie Key, the fair and lovable daughter of Philip
Barton Key, the handsome, popular and lamented district
attorney of older Washington days, and his father was Fran
cis Scott Key, who wrote "The Star Spangled Banner. " Mrs.

BELLES, BEAUX AND BE A INS OF THE SIXTIES 227

Dobbin was doubtless proud of that anthem; but she had
even better reason to be proud of the praiseful prose she
heard of her sons the elder, Dr. George W. Dobbin, being at
the head of his surgical branch in Baltimore; and his brother
Robert winning golden opinions as secretary of that city's
United Sureties. But, at the closing of the last year, pride
was replaced by mourning in all these homes; the tender,
helpful mother having been called from them; leaving her
husband lone and desolate.

I am chatting of "The Rivals" with the glibness of senility,
but it was one of the greatest social successes of its time,
and a dramatic one, in real view. Some of the characters
must needs be touched upon more briefly, in view of recent
and detailed description by a pen too trained and facile for
mine to cross. And when its keenness of Saladin's scimitar
is wielded by one of the players herself the mace of any
would-be Richard must make dullest thud indeed.

Mrs. Malaprop in the mouth of Mrs. Clem Clay, now the
brilliant and still young-hearted widow of Judge David
Clopton, could have evoked but one comment. I only dare
to add that it was as congenial and as true to her conception
of it as was her other congenial one, when I saw her as Mrs.
Partington, at the Gwin costume ball, at Washington. She
has herself written minutiae of the great and star-sought
role, which were impossible to any other not so intimate
with them. Mrs. Clopton has told us, too, of the rollicking
and funny part Major R. W. Brown, a gallant North Carolinian
on General Winder's staff, made of Sir Lucius 0' Trigger,
the role that stands as unmossed epitaph for Sothern, rare
John Brougham and "Dolly" Davenport. And "tenderer
far to tell," she has recorded the real triumph of that then
conquering belle arid perennial many-sided mondaine, Miss
Constance Gary.

Dainty, pretty and piquante were the minor parts of

228 BELLES, BEAUX AND BKAINS OF THE SIXTIES

saucy Lucy and sentiment sought Julia, intrusted to Mrs.
Lawson Clay and Miss Lucy Herndon; one as much sought
in her new wedded life as when pretty Lestia Comer; the
other, one of the two popular and modest daughters of Dr.
Herndon, of the navy.

Major Frank X. Ward scarcely played the great part of
this great play: he realized it. In a make-believe manage
rial experience from college days and later vented on half
a dozen helpless cities, I recall no better acting by a non-
professional.

The war over, Ward returned, was admitted to the Balti
more bar, and practiced there awhile. Later he married
Miss Topham Evans. Subsequently he removed to Ger-
mantown, Pa., where two of his sons, Frank and Topham,
were engaged in electrical work. His only daughter, Miss
Nora, was also married there.

The eldest son, Johnson, went to the Cuban war, and was
the only Democrat from Maryland who received one of the
regular army commissions. He is now in the Philippines,
but with all the rest of his family about him, the veteran
"star" now, like Cawdor, "lives a prosperous gentleman."

A delightful addition to the plays was the entr'acte music.
Mrs. Fitzgerald played rare selections on the harp rarely
well, and Miss Nannie Robinson, always reliable and facile
excelled herself in the accompaniment.

"Bombastes Furioso" Rhodes' classic burlesque of "Or
lando" was the afterpiece of the evening. John Randolph
was Bombastes, singing and acting the part in his family
style. Mr. Robinson, who had so cleverly done David in
"The Rivals," was intrusted the harder role of King Artax-
aminous of Utopia, and scored a great hit. So did Mr. Dob
bin, promoted from Coachman to play Fusbus, the statesman,
As captain of the army, Captain Frank Ward was inimitably
droll. "He was ineffably funny," says Mrs. Ives, "in mar-

BELLES, BEAUX AND BBAINS OF THE SIXTIES 229

shaling his troops, consisting of a half-dozen lame, blind
and wretched ragamuffins, I can recall nothing more droll,
and he brought roars of laughter, as did Mr. Randolph, in
his scenes with me, and his admirable comedy in singing."

And of that lady herself too much cannot be said. She
lent the fairest of forms and faces to the part of Distaffina,
"bought from Bombastes's love, for half a crown," and she
added the seriousness of Lady Macbeth, a point too frequently
missed in make-believe playing. Non-comparable as are the
two, the burlesque was probably quite as well played as was
the ambitious comedy, and assuredly it brought more laugh
ter and applause than any bit of amateur work done in Rich
mond, "eenjurin' ov de wah. "

"The sincerest flattery" followed these two successes.
Practical welldoers had found what society wanted, and gave
it to her freely. Until the fangs of the wolf and the cry of
Rachel took away the men and the means, sock and buskin
were the only wear for Charity. To list even one tithe
of the shows would demand a volume, but a few brilliant
ones show clear against their background of gloom.

During that winter Mrs. George W. Randolph gave a
charade reception with added picture gallery. One of the
words acted was Penitent. In its first syllable Miss Jo
sephine Chestney, of Washington, was a far too pretty, but
extremely clever Fanny Squeers, perched on a high stool,
and sharpening quills viciously for the master of Dotheboys
Hall — Captain W. Gordon McCabe.

Laurence Sterne's daintiest and most cunning conception
furnished the second syllable. In a cozy room cute Widow
Wadman and my Uncle Toby enacted the searching scene
from "Tristram Shandy" with great effect. The act itself
was cleverly done, but the importance of the players out
weighed all else with the beholders. The widow was Mrs.
Phoebe Pember, sister of Mrs. Phillips, and quite as brilliant

230 BELLES, BEAUX AND BE A INS OF THE SIXTIES

a woman in a different way. A belle and early a widow,
she made herself loved in the army camps by that good
work of her Chimborazo Hospital, at which a later glance
will be taken. And past the recent cypress we see the then
young major-general, dashing, reckless and jovial, the
____. _,._.. man °f reliance in an inter
national crisis, later the
choice of an opposing party,
to command his own old foes
in the re-cemented Union —
Fitzhugh Lee.

The last of the word was
an al fresco scene in the Ori
ent realizing one in Byron's
" Corsair."

Miss Evelyn Cabell en
hanced the perfect fitness
of her beauty by a rich and
correct costume, again ter
minating in divided skirts of

MRS. THOMAS PEMBER shrimpest pink satin. About

(PHOEBE LEVY) . . .

her grouped a most enticing

array of harem beauties, the strict adherence to Eastern
ethics inhibiting the presence of man, even when clad like
wise in bags.

Over the whirr of great peacock fans, the coiled pipe-tubes
and the graceful dancing-girls and coffee-bearers, spread
the folds of a great tent; a pretty picture and easily guessed.
Then, for the whole word, Miss Lizzie Giles veiled some
of her beauties under the severe dress of the novice; most
of her other — and perhaps more dangerous attraction, be
neath a demure and devotional cast of face that was irresist
ible.

There were other charades, but there is a trifle of sameness

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 231

even in too much of the beautiful. One, however, was acted
by Mrs. Pember alone and in one scene that meant the four
separated syllables and the whole word. Clad entirely in
the beloved gray of "her boys/' with gloves, bonnet and
shoes of same, she put her graceful head through the port
ieres of an empty room, then opened them, stepped nimbly
in and closed them behind her as she advanced; looked
triumphantly around and gave a sigh of content. Then she
produced from one pocket an army hardtack, from the other
a piece of camp bacon and began eating them ravenously.
Rushing out she reappeared, eating more hungrily than
before. This she repeated three times; the announce
ments showing: "First sylla
ble"— "Second"— "Third"-
"Fourth"— and "Whole
word!" The charade was not
guessed and had to be an
nounced: "Ingratiate!"

Then, when all the cha
rades were done, really beau
tiful pictures were shown,
the special effort to se
cure beauitful women being
voted the success of the
evening. Miss Hettie Gary
was a perfect "Simplicity,"
decked with that seductive
grain in realization of " Comin '
thro' the Rye. ' ' That there was
no "laddie" in the scene made sundry gallant fellows wretch
ed. Miss Mattie Paul was a Guido-like "Venetian Lady,"
in rich costume to which she lent charm. Genial Salle Wat-
kins and that jolly tar, Lieutenant Walter Butt, with pow
dered arms and paper wings realized Raphael's "Cherubs."

MRS. JOHN MONCUKE KOHINSON
(CHAMPE COXWAY)

232 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

Then Miss Champe Conway posed as the "Mignon" of Goe
the, later linked to pretty music by Thomas; and Miss Jo
sephine Chestney, as a " Syrian Girl/' gazed with unwonted
pensiveness from her high lattice upon her lover below,
who twanged a zither. That enviable serenader was Cap
tain " Jimmy" Denegre.

Next comedy came: "The Flower of the Family," shown
as an empty flour barrel. The laughter that greeted this
was dry with reminiscence, until it quickly changed to af
firming applause as the pretty, plump shoulders and laughing
lips and eyes of popular Miss Bettie Brander emerged from it.

A long-remembered picture was Miss Constance Gary as
the Hermione of "The Winter's Tale," in profile statue.
Perhaps, however, the most entertaining feature of this
show was the descriptive program, written in dainty and
humorous verse by John R. Thompson and recited by Miss
Mary Preston in the graceful drapery of the Muse of Poetry.
Mrs. Randolph bade me act as her prompter, call-boy
and utility man on this occasion, and the onerous duties
were shared by her charming niece, Miss Jennie Pollard,
youngest sister of that family. She married Dr. Wm.
Nichols. Her sisters, Mdes. Smith (Ellen) and Edward Swain
(Mary) live in San Francisco and New York.

There were many and notable offerings for charity and
amusement in that last of the gay winters in Richmond.
Even were there general features not too similar to detail,,
their dramatis personce were too nearly the same to make
report a special novelty. Among them may be noted the
palpable hit of tasteful Mrs. Fanny Townes, nee Giles, in
"An Artist's Studio Party." There were three lovely
pictures in frames: Murillo's "Madonna," by Miss Lizzie
Giles, "Mary Stuart," Miss Mattie Paul, and "Beatrice
Cenci," Miss Champe Conway. As offset to the color, stat
uary showed "Hermione," by Miss Constance Gary; bust,

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF TEE SIXTIES 233

"Spring," Fannie Giles; the "Magdelen Lectans," Miss
Nannie Giles, and "The Maid of Saragossa, " Miss Lizzie
Giles.

In the same season, Mrs. Tardy had a novelty in the shape
of a tableau reception, where "Paradise and the Peri" was
illustrated by the prettiest of the younger set of girls. As
piring male youth naturally was excluded from this Eden.
Miss Addie Deane, later Mrs. Peter Lyons, was the Peri
and among the angels were Misses Nannie Enders, Mary
Cab ell, Champe Con way,
Lizzie Cabell, Lelia and
Rosalie Bell and many
another. As the scene
succeeded, brave, eloquent
and inveterate John Mitchell,
the Irish patriot, read the
poem.

Such, in insufficient glance,
was the dramatic side of
Richmond's society charities:
a side that lights the leaden
gloom that slowly began to
weigh upon the spirits of
even the most hopeful : that
lightened the labors of hos
pital and diet-kitchen drudg
ery, that made the furlough
red-lettered with memories

of bright faces, sweet voices and airy forms that had made
its holder long for the next bullet, had he been a believer
in the Koran.

MRS. SAMUEL ROBINSON
(LIZZIE PEYTON GILES)

CHAPTER XX

PICTURESQUE PEOPLE

TEARING down an old established government and up-
rearing a new one upon its ruins necessarily brought into
the South all sorts and conditions of men— and women.

In all Virginian history the Tucker family has borne
its part, and borne it well. Coming from colonial stock
in days when men hewed their fortunes with their swords
or molded them with their brains, when women ruled by
graces of heart and head, which they bequeathed to their
daughters, this family stands picturesque in the annals
of its state.

Colonel Beverley Tucker was early a conspicuous figure
at Richmond, as he had long been in the social and political
life of Washington.

With massive frame, keen eye and a prodigality of tawny
beard, he had a stomach as strong as his brain. Mr. Davis
and all other members of the government knew him well,
and often called upon his varied experience of men and events.

In 1771, young St. George Tucker came from the island
of Bermuda to Williamsburg to finish his education at Wil
liam and Mary He went home, but was so impressed with
the colony that he returned and settled in Williamsburg
to practice law. There he married the beautiful Widow
Randolph, who had been Miss Frances Bland; prospered,
and became noted in the land of his adoption. The fair

234

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 235

widow, as heretofore noted, had two children, Richard and
John, the later famous Randolph of Roanoke. Her mar
riage with St. George Tucker brought two other sons, Henry
St. George and Beverley. It is with the former that this
narration has most to do.

Henry St. George Tucker married Evelyna Hunter, and
their family numbered thirteen children; eight reached adult
age. Eldest of these, Dr. David Tucker, was long a popular
and respected physician in
Richmond, but was too old
and feeble at the outbreak
of the war to take any active
part in it. He married Miss
Lizzie Dallas, niece of the
vice-president and minister to
England.

Beverley was next adult
brother. He was educated
as civil engineer, and was a
while a merchant. He es
tablished the Sentinel news
paper at the capital in 1853,
where he had already laid the
basis for that phenomenal

acquaintance he had with HON- BEVERLEY TUCKER

n xu u TT ( "THE SUSPECT" )

men all over the world. He

certainly aided greatly in the election of President Pierce,
and was made printer to the senate and in the same year,
consul to Manchester.

At that time Roger A. Pry or, member of congress from
Virginia, later Confederate brigadier and now retired judge
of the New York supreme court, was rival editor to my bro
ther and guardian, Hon. Edwin De Leon, who had been called
from his Columbia paper, The Telegraph, to establish the

236 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF' THE SIXTIES

Washington organ of the Southern Senators, The Southern
Press, in conjunction with El wood Fisher. Activity in the
Pierce campaign sent him to Egypt as consul-general and
diplomatic agent.

When the Democracy committed harikari at Charleston
in I860, and Abraham Lincoln took charge of the tripartite
corpse, both men tendered him their resignations. By
strange coincidence, both were kept abroad by Mr. Davis
as commissioners to the press and public opinion of Europe;
a mission wholly different from the " diplomatic" one of
Messrs. Mason and Slidell. It was equally — well, to put
it politely, unsuccessful.

In 1864 he was sent to Canada on a secret business mission
entirely different from the nature ascribed to it by the terror,
or worse, of the Great President's successor.

Mr. Tucker was in Canada when Wilkes Booth fired the
fatal bullet that made a great martyr of a great statesman
and echoed as Hope's death knell in the heart of every South
ern thinker. But Andrew Johnson proclaimed jovial,
chivalrous Bev Tucker as an accomplice of the crazed as
sassin, after Boston Corbett's too ready bullet had closed
the only lips that could have spoken the truth, and set a
price upon his head.

With Tucker the charge coupled George N. Sanders, an
old Washington lobbyist and also a Canadian supply agent
of the Confederacy. Both men promptly offered themselves
up for trial by jury, but the offer was refused and the crazed
press of the moment continued to hold them up to a world's
obloquy. Then Mr. Tucker tried his presidential accuser
before the world's bar. That promptly acquitted him,
whether or not it convicted his culprit.

His denunciation of Johnson, broadsheeted to the world
and still extant, is terribly lively reading, even after this
lapse of time. Rem acu tetigit. He broached the president

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 237

upon his once congenial weapon, but he made it a darning
needle and its point was Damascene.

Acquitted without the world's jury leaving the box, Mr.
Tucker went to England in search of work. He was accom
panied by that lovely and devoted wife, ever at his side
in the trials of a varied life and by his gentle and charming
daughter, Margaret. Some of the soldier sons were delving
at breadwinning in Virginia and two of the younger at school
in Canada.

In England an offer came to go to Mexico for lucrative
control of an immense ranch property, the details of which
in Mrs. Tucker's letters read like a fairy-tale. The Max
imilian failure there forced the errant seeker to a new home
in Canada once more, and he took a hotel at St. Catherine's
Wells, which his great hospitality kept so full of old friends
and comrades as to leave no room for paying guests. The
home was a delight, but the business side was a failure, and
in his age and in failing health the great-hearted Virginia
gentleman laid him down to die, his face still to the foe — pov
erty. All that remains is a stainless and picturesque
record and a love undying in the hearts of his descendants
and of a host of friends.

In the January of 1841 Beverley Tucker had married Miss
Jane Shelton Ellis, of that notable Virginia family, and their
children were Miss Margaret, who never married and resides
still in Richmond; James Ellis, the next adult, was color-
bearer of the Second Virginia Cavalry, married, has two
sons and lives in California; Beverley D. was a private in
the Otey battery, enlisted in the church post-bellum and is
now coadjutor bishop of Southern Virginia. He married
Mis,s Maria Washington, of Mt. Vernon, and their family
numbers thirteen. Henry St. George, their first-born, is
president of St. John's College, Tokio, Japan. Eleanor S.
came next, and Jane B. married Rev. Luke White. Lila,

238 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

Maria W. and Augustine W. are medical missionaries at
Shanghai. The others are John Randolph, Richard B.,
Herbert M., Laurence F., Ellis M., and Francis Bland.

The next son of Beverley
Tucker, John Randolph, mar
ried Miss Crump and died in
1880, leaving two sons,
Beverley Randolph and Wil
liam Crump Tucker.

Charles Ellis Tucker married
Mabelle Morrison, of Mem
phis, the eldest of their three
children, Margaret T., being
the wife of William Carroll,
of that city, and the other
two being William Morrison
and Elizabeth M. Tucker.

The children of Dr. David
Tucker and Elizabeth Dallas
were six: Henry St. George
died in the army; Virginia B. never married; Dallas is an
Episcopal minister who has one daughter; John Randolph,
a lawyer and unmarried; Cassie B. married Thompson
Brown and has six children — four sons and two daughters;
and Emma Beverley married Forrest Brown and has one son.
John Randolph Tucker, fifth son of St. George Tucker
and Evelyna Hunter, has been met elsewhere in this causerie.
Scholar, poet, wit and attorney-general of Virginia, he was
also congressman for twelve years and law professor at her
university schools. He married Miss Laura Powell and
laid down his useful life, at Winchester in 1873. Of their
children, Evelyna H. married William Shields, of Natchez,
Miss.; died and left two sons: John Randolph and Benoit
Shields.

JOHN RANDOLPH TUCKER
(JURIST, TEACHER AND WIT)

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 239

Nannie Tucker, her sister, married Dr. William McGuire,
of Winchester, and they have six children. The third sister,
Virginia Tucker, married William Carmichael and is the
mother of four children.

The youngest sister is Mrs. Morgan Pendleton, of Lexing
ton, and has several children.

Their brother is Hon. Harry St. George Tucker, for
merly member of congress and later president of the James
town tercentenary. He married Hennie, daughter of Colonel
William Preston Johnston, who died leaving six children.
His present wife was Miss Martha Sharpe, of Pennsylvania.

The great jurist's fourth daughter, Gertrude, was the
gentle light of his age in his Lexington home, and was ex
ceptionally popular with townspeople and students, as well
as family connections. She
married John Lee Logan;
thus intermeshing another
notable family with the great
connection. Since her wid
owhood, in 1900, she has
remained a marked figure
before the eye of society.

John Lee Logan was the
second son and fifth of the
thirteen children of James W.
Logan, of "Dungeness,"
Goochland county, Va., and
Sarah Strother, of Culpepper
county. Mr. Logan was son
of Rev. Joseph D. Logan and
Jean Butler Dandridge. Her
father, William Dandridge, married Anne Boiling and he was
grandson of Governor Alexander Spottswood and fifth in
descent from Pocahontas. This makes the Logans of the

MRS. JOHN LEE LOGAN
(GERTRUDE TUCKER)

240 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

present generation sixth in line from Governor Spottswood
and eighth from the Indian bride of John Rolfe.

James W. Logan, of "Dungeness," was born in Goochland,
but adopted by his great aunt, Mrs. George Woodson Payne;
and from her he inherited the estate, formerly owned by
Thomas Isham Randolph. There the planter reared his
family of thirteen; but after the war they moved to Salem,
Va.,for the cultivation of the younger branches of the spread
ing family tree. There the parents died, leaving as the actual
head of the family Mrs. Anna Clayton Logan. She was now
the eldest, Mary Louise having
died in 1862. In 1871 Anna
Clayton married her cousin,
Colonel Robert H. Logan,
who had left West Point when
Virginia seceded and made a
fine war record. After peace,
he studied and practiced law;
leaving his widow with five
children. Of them the three
daughters are living; the bril
liant son, John Lee (2nd),
died in Norfolk, in 1906, just
at the threshold of a promis
ing career. His sisters are Mary
Louise, who married Prof. W.
Paul C. Nugent, of New Orleans, now in the civil engineering
chair of Syracuse University, New York. They have two
children. Elsie Addison married her cousin, Joseph Clayton
Logan, a Columbia A.M. and LL.B., now secretary of Asso
ciated charities, of Atlanta. The third, Sarah Strother,
married Dr. Stephen Russell Mallory Kennedy, of Pensacola,
son of the brilliant and beautiful Mrs. Ruby Mallory Kennedy,
already met in these pages. They have one son.

MRS. ANNA LOGAN

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 241

Mrs. Anna Logan divides her time with her daughters in
their northern and southern homes.

Of the thirteen children of James W. Logan and Sarah
Strother, seven are still living. George Woodson, the eldest
brother, and fourth child, is a planter, at Salem, Va.
He has married twice: first to Miss Grant, of Atlanta, and
later Miss Kate Burks, of Bedford county, Va., a daughter
of Colonel Jesse Burks of C. S. A. They* ''-had ten children.

Joseph D. Logan married Miss Georgine Willis, a niece of
Catherine Murat. They have seven children; and Mr. Logan
is a practising lawyer.

The next brother is Dr. Mercer Patton Logan, rector of
St. Ann's Episcopal Church, at Nashville. He married Miss
Elizabeth Kent Caldwell, of Wytheville, Va., and they
have a family of six, all grown. Elizabeth Kent, who mar
ried John Reeves Jackson, of Nashville, Tenn; Ellen Claire,
Josephine Dandridge, Sydney Strother, Anne Gordon and
Dorothea Spottswood.

A sister, Edith Erskine, married Thomas L. Hart, of
Nottoway county, and their family is of three children.

Of the brothers of this immediate family who died, all
gave great promise or had done good work. John Lee Logan,
taught school with Virginius Dabney and, at the same time
studied law with John Randolph Tucker. He went to New
York, wrhere he entered the law office of Pryor, Lord, Day
and Lord, at request of Judge Roger A. Pryor. He was
getting a good practice, a little later, when his health broke
down and he was ordered to Idaho. Cleveland made him
associate justice; but he died there in 1900. He and his
elder brother were both in the army with Fitz Lee's cavalry.
George Woodson was at Point Lookout as a prisoner, but was
exchanged and went in for the rest of the war. John Lee was
with Colonel R. V. Boston, but was so young he saw but
eight months' service. Both boys went in at seventeen.

242 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAItfS OF THE SIXTIES

The youngest brother, Sydney Strother, was a brilliant
member of the Journal of Commerce staff, and an all-
round journalist. He died in New York when only thirty-
one.

Next of kin in blood to the Tuckers of the Ellis stock — and

even nearer in the mutual love of a generation — are the noted

Munford family, straight descended from the Huguenot

^ colonist Montforts of my

second chapter. Colonel

.*£%%,*,. George Wythe Munford, of

jp? Richmond, secretary of the

Commonwealth, married
Miss Elizabeth Thorough-
good Ellis, whose sister was
wife of Beverley Tucker.
All the men of the name were
noted in the war, one son,
Charles Ellis Munford, giving
his life for his state at
Malvern Hill. General
Thomas T. Munford com
manded a cavalry brig
ade with distinguished
dash and credit all through
the war. He is still living
in Lynchburg. He married Etta, daughter of George P.
Tayloe, of Roanoke. They had four children and a Vir
ginian wealth of third generation. These were George
T., with several children; Emma, who married William
Boyd and has three children; William, unmarried excep
tion and living in Alabama, and Wythe, married and the
father of several children. By his second marriage with
Miss Emma Tayloe, of Richmond, there are three sons,
all unmarried.

COL. GEORGE WYTHE MUNFORD
( SECRETARY OF COMMONWEALTH)

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 243

Colonel William Munford commanded the First Virginia, as
stated heretofore. After the war he married and went into
the Episcopal ministry in Mississippi and the West. He
was a magnificently handsome man and a gifted one, and
died only five years ago. A much younger brother, Robert,
married and lives in Macon, Ga. There were nine Munford
sisters of the secretary's household, but the younger mem
bers were not all very active society belles in the war-time.

One of its brightest and most charming women was Miss
Sallie R. Munford, now Mrs. Charles H. Talbot, and the
mother of four children. The other sisters are Margaret N,.
Lizzie E., Jane Beverley, Lucy T., Fannie E., Caroline F.,
Etta and Annie B., who married William S. Robertson,
and lives in Richmond as do all the others.

CHAPTER XXI

MORE OF THE PICTURESQUE

ONE name recurs often in these pages, a name broidered
deep through the joy and sorrow, the sweet and the bitter
that make up the Lost Cause. The Gary name is not only
one of the oldest, but the worth of its men and the character
and beauty of its women have made it integral with American
history.

I have shown that the Fairfaxes date beyond the Norman
conquest of their Saxon forbears of "Fair Hair," and trend
westward would seem to have left no laggards of their blood.
Of that blood are the Carys by intermarriage in early colonial
days.

Two Maryland branches of the Gary family were active in
the war. What they did has been touched upon briefly;
who they are can be told.

Archibald Gary, of Carysbrook, Fluvanna county, married
Monimia Fairfax, daughter of Thomas, ninth Lord Fairfax,
Baron of Cameron, in the Scotch peerage, and of Vaucluse, in
Fairfax county. There were three children of this union,
Constance, Clarence and Falkland. The last died in 1857,
while in his teens, but the other son and the daughter passed
the hurly-burly of war and became notable residents of
New York.

Miss Constance Gary, already familiar to my readers as a
beautiful and gifted war belle, and to readers of two conti-

244

BELLES, BEAUX AND BHAINS OF THE SIXTIES 245.

nents as prominent in later literature, married Colonel Burton
Norvell Harrison, a young Mississipian who was Mr. Davis's
secretary from the Richmond advent to the collapse of the
Confederacy. He was professor of a university of his state,
when Colonel L. Q. C. Lamar urged Mr. Davis to appoint him
to the responsible post of confidential assistant. Harrison
yielded his desire to enter the army, accepted and served
with infinite credit to himself and advantage to his chief.
After the war he moved to New York, practicing law in con
nection with his brother-in-law, Clarence Gary, while his
wife rapidly won fame with her pen. Five years ago, while
in Washington on legal business, he died suddenly, in full
fruition of his early promise. He was a grave, dignified,
man, but of high nature.

There were four children of this marriage : Fairfax, Francis
Burton, Archibald Gary and Ethel. The daughter died in
infancy. The eldest son married his cousin Hetty, daughter
of John Bonne Gary, of Baltimore. He is assistant to the
president, and solicitor of the Southern Railway.

The second son, Hon. Francis Burton Harrison, M. C., has
made too recent a mark in politics and social life to need
recital. He married Mary, daughter of the noted Mr. Crocker,
of San Francisco. The later romance of his life has no con
nection with belles so remote as mine. By some strange
mistake of the Denver Democratic Convention, Mr. Harrison
was saved the enactment of Aaron to the Moses of Colonel
W. J. Bryan.

Archibald Gary Harrison married Helena Walley, and
all the brothers make the metropolis their home when not
abroad with their mother.

Since the sudden and stunning shock of her widowhood
Mrs. Harrison has been much abroad and her facile pen has
been at rest, but she has returned, and her work, it is to be
hoped, will be resumed regularly.

246 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

Clarence, former midshipman, C. S. N., married Eliza
beth, daughter of the late Howard Potter, of Brown Brothers
& Co., and niece of Bishop Potter. Their sons were Guy
Fairfax Gary, who became a member of the New York bar
four years ago, and Howard, then a senior at Harvard.

Clarence Gary himself did some very clever acting during
the war on the amateur stage and on the naval war boards.
In his sailor role he served on the blockade runner, Nashville,
on the Palmetto State ironclad, off the Carolina coast and
on the James river fleet, proving himself a good officer.
After the war he studied law and practiced in New York,
where he has since resided and found leisure for extended
Oriental and other travel, and to make some admirable
translations of the classic poets, especially Horace. His
cousins are the Baltimore Carys.

Wilson Miles Gary, head of that branch, was brother to
Archibald Gary and closely related to the Fairfax family
by intermarriages in early years. He married Jane Mar
garet Carr, daughter of Dabney Carr and Hetty Smith,
moving to Baltimore where he reared a family of six—
Hetty, already noted here, Jenny, Mrs. J. Howard McHenry,
John Bonne, Wilson Mildes and Sidney C. Gary.

Mrs. Hetty Pegvam married Henry Newell Martin, dying
in 1892, when her husband returned to England and sur
vived her several years.

Wilson Gary never married. He has long been a member
of the Baltimore bar, but an expert and enthusiast in gen
ealogy. He is now in London with Miss Gary and is pur
suing his loved work there. -

John Bonne Gary, the popular young soldier at Richmond
and equally popular Baltimore business man of today,
married Miss Frances E. Daniel. They have a family
of six, all adults, with eleven grandchildren. Four of the
five sisters married and the only son, Wilson M. Gary, Jr.,

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 247

married Miss Helen Snowden Lanahan and has two children.
One of the daughters married Fairfax Harrison, son of Bur
ton N. Harrison and Constance Gary. This was Miss Hetty
Gary, godchild of her beautiful aunt.

John Gary's twelfth grandchild is a "Philipino, " born
at Manila to his daughter who married 0. K. Oilman, a
Johns Hopkins man, now professor in the U. S. Medical
School, at that Province.

The Carys are not quite
so numerous a family as
some in Virginia history,
yet they have enough to
give their genealogical mem
ber something to think about.

A figure that attracted
swift attention whenever
duty brought him to Rich
mond, was Frederick Gusta-
vus Skinner, colonel of that
fine regiment, the First
Virginia, which August, Mun-
ford and Williams had before
commanded. Immensely
tall, great-boned and of
tremendous strength, his grave, intellectual face swept by a
drooping gray mustache, this soldier was a marked man in
any throng. Cadet of an old Virginia family, he was still
a thorough Frenchman in many regards. His father, John
S. Skinner, was a prominent man and a noted writer on
agricultural and sporting subjects. He started the first farm
paper ever printed in the Union, The Plow, Loom and
Anvil. Later he owned and edited the Country Gentle
man magazine. He was once acting postmaster-general
of the United States and held the Baltimore post-office

COL. FREDERICK G. SKINNER

(1ST. VIRGINIA)

248 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

at the time of his death. He was with Francis Scott Key
on the schooner when he wrote "The Star Spangled
Banner." He married Elizabeth Glenn Davies of the old
Baltimore family.

John Skinner was a warm and lifelong friend of the Mar
quis de Lafayette, and that hero took his son to Paris, educat
ing him in his own family and at the famous military school
of St. Cyr. He remained there ten years, and when the
revolution came and Lafayette went to the palace to save
the king from the mob, he found that young Skinner — who
had escaped from school by a window — was at his side in
the thick of the fray. After Paris, the youth passed through
West Point and very soon was sent as attache to the court
of Louis Philippe.

In command of his regiment Colonel Skinner was distin
guished for gallantry, and bore to his grave its guerdon in
the shape of a hideous and unhealed shell wound. Of this
his daughter wrote me:

"The hand-to-hand fight you describe in 'Crag Nest, 'as
Ravanel's, was very like father's charge at Manassas, where
he killed three men with his sword, after receiving the bullet
of each. He was so magnanimous that one night when I
thought him dying, and I was feeling such bitter resentment,
as though in response to my thoughts he opened his eyes
and said: 'I hated to kill those brave men. How splendidly
they stood by their guns.' '

Strange combination of reckless courage, of bluntness
and urbanity, Skinner was. French in his tastes, universal
in his acquaintance — and a gourmet by instinct and educa
tion, he was true Virginian, too. He chewed tobacco like
a sailor in his camp; in the salon approached a lady like a
prince, and never did man describe with such unction and
such rolled, fat R's, filet de truite a la sauce Tartare.

Later, when I tried to make the old Valley homestead

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 249

the real hero of my romance of Sheridan's ride, the strong
personality of this veteran — and that huge sword no other
arm could sweep from scabbard — dominated "Crag Nest,"
and made him the centre of interest. Charles King, that
fairest weigher of Blue and Gray equally, wrote me: "You
have pictured the grandest old lion of all Rebeldom, in your
Virginian Colonel Newcome."

Colonel Skinner's wife was of notable descent, direct from
Mildred, daughter of Col
onel Francis Thorton, who
married Colonel Charles
Washington, younger broth
er of George Washington
She was Miss Martha
Stuart Thorton, of Mont-
pelier, Rappahannock
county.

Of this marriage there
came to the young couple
a son, Thorton, and a
daughter, Elise. Constant

to the old soldier as his COLONEL SKINNER AT 16

Shadow Was this girl, Who (MINIATURE OWNED BY LAFAYETTE)

made even strangers friends by the frank and sunny nature that
combined daughter, nurse and comrade in one. When he was
stricken down this grand girl took him from the field,
watched every fluttering phase of the long struggle 'twixt
life and death, and literally brought him back from the
border. Hear her own*words:

"I cannot understand how you got such a likeness. Had
you ever heard of our terrible ride, when we were taking
him from the battlefield and were more afraid of a hem
orrhage from the artery than of the Yankees, who were
going from house to house, near Manassas, making prisoners

250 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

of wounded officers? 'From that we were fleeing.'

When partial peace came and with it partial recovery
for the father, the daughter married a young Alabama soldier,

Thomas Tileston Greene.
She had two children and
removed to New York,
where she educated them
and a number of young
ladies now notable in the
great city's society. At this
period Colonel Skinner lived
with his daughter, having
gone into journalism in his
father's way. He was writ
ing agricultural and sporting
notes for the press when he
died. Popular and beloved
by old and young, the
press published a memoir of
him, and N. P. Willis wrote
in the Home Journal the
story of his Paris life at
the court of Louis Philippe.

Mrs. Greene had good cause to be proud of her two chil
dren. The son, Frederick Stuart Greene, is a graduate of
the V. M. I., and is now a civil engineer in New York.
The daughter, Isobel, was a noted beauty, even in the
metropolis, her popularity being gained not by her face
alone. Before her mother's death she married Frederick
Peckham. They now reside in London, and the fame
of the American girl's beauty has crossed the ocean
with her. The Peckhams have friends in the most fash
ionable circles of the world's metropolis. Mrs. Peckham
has been presented at Court and made the staid dowagers

MRS. ISOBEL GREENE PECKHAM
(LONDON EXHIBITION PORTRAIT)

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 251

stare, and her miniature is exhibited at the Academy views.

Only within a few years Mrs. Greene laid down her useful
and eventful life, leaving genuine sorrow in a large circle
of friends and a memory that will live. She went through
many trying and strange adventures, the least of them
being that she was the last person who spoke to Wilkes
Booth, before Boston Corbett's silly bullet sealed his mystery
forever. Miss Skinner was visiting her cousin, Dr. Richard
Stuart, on the lower Potomac. None on the place knew
that Lincoln had been assassinated, but about eight in the
evening the doctor was summoned to attend a man who
had sprained his ankle. Later the man hobbled into the
dining-room, using a boat oar for a crutch. Dr. Stuart
dressed the limb hastily while Miss Skinner got food for the
half-famished patient, the servants having deen dismissed
for the night. Within a few
hours the man met his death
and only then they learned
that he was the assassin of
Abraham Lincoln.

A very notable personality
of the Richmond war-time,
and later for many years on
the streets of Mobile, was that
of William Washington Augus-
tin Spottswood, once sur
geon-general, C. S. Navy.
Towering high above average
men, with muscular and vig
orous frame, he walked with MRS. T. TILESTON GREENE
the roll of the veteran sailor; (ELISE SKINNER)
his long white beard bannered to the breeze. He was
archetype of the days ere "the men behind the guns"
changed to the scientists in the conning tower. He was

252 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

in the eldest line of the fifth descent from that famed
Governor Spottswood, whose self and descendants are inter
woven in all the wars and policies of colonial, Revolutionary
and "Rebel" Virginia. The family was Saxon in origin
and the name was Spottiswode; and its blood is allied to
that flowing from the veins of Rolfe and his Indian princess
wife. Today, its branches have rooted in every state that
Virginia has foster-mothered.

In the early '40's Young Surgeon Spotswood wedded the
beautiful and much sought Miss Mary Eastin, daughter of
Mr. Thomas Eastin of Mount Vernon, Ala. This was one
of the four weddings within as many years, that added to
the fame of the great and hospitable mansion on the Mobile
river; and it connected two families equally notable in
Virginia and the Carolinas. The other weddings were
those of three of Mrs. Spotswood's sisters: Matilda to Cap
tain Alex. Montgomery, Lucinda Gayle to Dr. W. T. Rossell,
and Fannie to Lieut. W. H. Tyler, all of the U. S. Army.
The fifth daughter preferred civil to military life: marrying
Col. R. P. Pulliam, of Fort Smith, Ark., an eminent lawyer.

The Eastins were likewise distinguished and well-descend
ed. Lucinda Gayle, mother of Mrs. Dr. Spotswood, was a
daughter of Matthew Gayle of Charleston, South Carolina,
and was born there in 1798; developing into one of the most
brilliant and great-brained women of the South. The head
of the family was English and came over to the Virginia
Plantations in the early days of the 17th century, with John
Smith's expedition. His son, Matthew Gayle, migrated to
South Carolina prior to the Revolution, where he married
Mary Reese, a planter's daughter, on the "High Hills of
Santee. " His family went to Alabama, where Miss Lu
cinda was an ornament of the executive mansion of her
brother, Governor John Gayle. The Gayle family fled to
Mobile during the Indian wars and there Thomas Eastin

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 253

met and won his noted wife. In 1823 they were married,
and until her death at Mobile in 1872, she was one of the
most virile thinkers, and most outspoken women of her
day. Like many another strong-brained Southerner, she was
opposed to secession from the first. She pointed out the
hopelessness of a decision by the sword and warned of the
future with the foresight of Cassandra. Later, however,
when her prophecies had been verified, she was the bitter foe
of reconstruction and lashed its creators and abettors merci
lessly, with tongue and pen.

Of their nine children, only two are living, Mrs. Pulliam,
of Eureka, Ark., and Mrs. Fannie Wait, of Little Rock.

Thomas Eastin, father of Mrs. Spottswood, was born at
Lexington, Ky., in 1788, and youngest of a very large family,
he was self educated. He moved to Tennessee and became
known to Andrew Jackson: a close friendship springing up.
He was colonel and quartermaster on General Jackson's
staff, in the Seminole and Creek wars of 1812-17.

Then, camping with, the general on the fine U. S. reser
vation, at Mount Vernon, Eastin was so delighted with its
site that he later built there the famous home, burned in
1859. Singular coincidence it was that his grandson,
Dr. Dillon J. Spotswood, of Mobile, saw his first service under
the U. S. at the same spot, where his ancestor camped, with.
Jackson in the Indian wars.

Thos. Eastin was the pioneer printer and publisher of
Alabama. He issued the " Halcyon" at St Stephens. Un
fortunately, all its files and early records were lost in the
burning of his Mount Vernon home. He died at the resi
dence of his daughter, Mrs. Mary Eastin Spotswood, Monroe
county, in 1865.

The living children of Doctor and Mrs. Spotswood are
Thomas Eastin, Montgomery B., William Chase and Dillon
J. Spotswood. George and Eastin were in the Confederate

254 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

Army, entering at eighteen and fifteen years respectively.
Both won praise as gooa soldiers; and the younger was in
prison at Camp Chase. He was married to Miss Caroline
Mann, who left three children: Leo Dandridge, Curran Lamar
and Manning W. Spottswood. The second wife, Miss Ella
Hermann, has four children: T. Eastin, Jr., Ella Marion and
Robert Lee.

George Washington, the eldest of these brothers, died at
Mobile at the age of sixty-six, only while this page was going
to press. The brother next him in age, Gayle Spotswood,
died years ago, both he and George being bachelors.

Montgomery Barclay married Miss Josephine Otteson,
of New Orleans, and is a timber merchant of Biloxi. This
family is Malcolm Barclay, Winona L., Anita, Julian and
Audrey.

Chase Spotswood married thrice. His first wife, Anna
Thornton, left these: Anna Mary, Wm. Chase, Jr., and Harry
Ingraham (recently dead). The first of these is now Mrs.
Benjamin Toomer. The second wife, Adelaide Demouy,
left two children: Marie Adelaide and Demouy. Of the
present marriage to Miss Claudia Shields, there is one son,
James Ellis.

Dr. Dillon J. Spotswood, following the example of his
eldest brother, is a bachelor and practices in Mobile.

A very notable and equally picturesque factor of those
days was Major Livingston Minis, of Georgia. Young,
handsome and of elegant address, he was unique in an era
of bustle and strenuous rush. He affected, even then,
somewhat of the euphemism of the gallants of good Queen
Bess' court.

I recall him as a young and well groomed captain on
Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's staff. Not a generally popular
man, at first touch, he was one that grew on better knowing.
His comrade on the same staff, Major A. D. Banks, held

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 255

that attribute in common with him; and both were notable
men, in and out of military life. Minis was on quarter
master duty and Banks in the commissary. Banks was a
popular fellow with his comrades and in later life was promi
nent in politics and made many warm and lasting friends.
It is coincidental that Banks' wife — who was great grand
daughter of Patrick Henry
—was the school friend and
roommate of Emma Mims'
own mother.

Mims got deserved pro
motion on Gen. J. E. John
ston's staff, and the typical
figure of latter-day Atlanta
was "the Major," who was
at one time its mayor, at
most times president of its
elegant Capital City Club
and for many years doyen
of its life insurance guild.

Rotund, always urbane,
courtly and careful of the
comforts and feelings of all,
Mims was more regretted at
his death than many a
more famous publicist had
been. He passed away

three years ago, well in his 80's, but never confessing
any age. Had he lived in their day, the Major would have
ranged with Mr. Brummell and Mr. Nash, their equal in chic
and lacking their pettiness. He had brains and knowledge
of men, was a reader of books as well, and what he himself
called a " compensating" companion. Withal, he was ele
gantly profane enough to have served with "our army in

MAJOR LIVINGSTON MIMS

256 BELLES, BEAUX AND BBAINS OF THE SIXTIES

Flanders/' but it was with a grace and deep feeling that lent
the unction of knighthood to an oath.

He married a beautiful woman, who was gracious and pleas
ant in general society, of which the couple seemed equally
fond. As wealth grew, they moved to the later well-known
residence near Ponce de Leon circle. Then, and especially
after the debut of their daughter, Mrs. Mims entertained
home people and strangers, but she suddenly dropped society
as though it had been red-hot, and took to science — Christian
of that ilk. She has gone to the length of the ism, has preached
at home and abroad and been one of the most active and ad
vanced agents of the much-berated sect. Her daughter—
the magnificent, stately and universally known "Em" Mims,
had never taken to the fad and, certes, my cheery and chival
rous old friend, her father, was seemingly no more scientific
than religious. Yet his death left a great gap in Atlanta
society and clubdom.

After leaving Georgetown Visitation convent, Miss Emma
Mims entered society with verve ; winning friends easily by her
fund of grace and quickness, losing them sometimes by too
much sauce Tartare upon her tongue.

Her wedding to Colonel Joseph Thompson collected society
girls of her convent classmates from several cities, among
them Misses Margaret Demoville, of Nashville, now Mrs.
Herman Justi of Chicago; Daisy Irwin, of Mobile, now Mrs.
Clisby, and Daisy Breaux, of New Orleans, elsewhere noted
as the brilliant Mrs. Andrew Simonds, of Charleston, and now
the wife of Barker Gummere, of Trenton, N. J. Her life since
has been known to all society; and her leaving it — suddenly,
if not wholly unexpectedly — has renewed memory of her
better traits. She has left one child only, the pride of her
life, Livingston Mims Thompson, of New York.

CHAPTER XXII

WITH LAUGH AND SONG AND SATIRE

"AND there is a time to laugh/7 was the dictum of the
wisest king in sacred history. Yet he also said there is a
time to weep.

There was no home-leaving of Southern youth for the front,
no whitewashed wall in the roughest hospital, no blackened
smolder of barn and mill and home but wrote its epic of hero
ism and self-forgetfulness.

When the half-starved and march-worn shivered around
smoky brush fires the moisture in their eyes too often had
other cause. When Famine kept them grim companionship
by the camp fireside and Fever stalked noisome and gaunt
through their best defended lines; when news came from out
raged homes far away, the men of the South dipped their pens
in their hearts and wrote.

When the battle-flag forged to the front in fight or flaunted
gaily in pursuit, their rifles rang in songs of hope and triumph
as they laughed in the "Rebel yell." And ever and anon,
through darkest midnight of their cause, from hospital and
prison camp and high over the charging victory, rang out
the broad guffaw or the cheery laughter of natural ring and
wonderful digestion.

Yet the facile prince of war wits was Innes Randolph,
engineer captain on the staff of that brilliant trooper, who
himself laughed as he charged fiercest and sang as he rode

257

258 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

back victorious, not a psean of joy, but a rollicking soldier
ditty— "Jeb" Stuart.

There were three of the Randolph brothers, of this branch
of the name, in the Army of Northern Virginia — Innes, the
oldest; John, captain of infantry, and Wilton, the youngest,
and post-bellum secretary of the Southern Society of New
York. All three had a peculiar strain of humor and a natural
gift for music and poetry.

When the black days of '63 were upon us, and Mr. Davis
issued a Thanksgiving Day proclamation, he set forth the
best side of the dark theme. Promptly Innes Randolph put
the state paper into burlesque rhyme, detailing point by
point. I recall but one complete verse, that on Bragg's
defeat :

" And Bragg did well, for who can tell—

What merely human mind could augur —
That they would run from Lookout Mount,
Who fought so well at Chickamauga?"

Randolph's serious poetry, while less known, was superior
to his comic work. It had strength and delicacy welded, arid
his "Torchwork: A Tale of the Shenandoah," written at my
request when I essayed the Cosmopolite magazine, of fleet
memory, at Baltimore in 1866, is the best tale in verse of all
the war-time.

One story of this wag cannot be omitted. On a "wild
night" — in both senses — a rollicking party was led by him in
a " round" that defied patrol and provost guard. Doorplates
and signs were interchanged; and jumping at one of the latter,
the joker's hand caught in the iron brace, hanging him sus
pended and in great pain. He called lustily, but cheerily for
help: "Take me down! Quick! A wicked and a stiff-necked
generation, searching after a sign!"

What this multi-sided genius did in art is elsewhere told.

BELLES, BEAUX AND BKAINS OF THE SIXTIES 259

What he did not do, and do well, is not recorded on memory's
tablet.

He was eldest son of John Innes Randolph, of Virginia, who
moved to Washington and was long a well-known resident of
that city and Georgetown. Innes married Miss Anna King
of the latter city, who survives and resides in Baltimore.
They had four children, all inheriting much of the paternal
gifts. But the eldest son died childless. Harold, the second,
lives in Baltimore, being a
skilled and popular mu
sician and composer and
long the musical director
of the Peabody . The eldest
daughter, Clare, married
Thomas, son of Major
Stuart Symington, and
they have two children,
Thomas and Catharine.
These are the only direct
descendants of the poet- wit.
The other daughter, Miss
Maude Randolph, is un
married and lives with her
mother in Baltimore. CAPTAIN INNES RANDOLPH

Very lately a story has gone the rounds of the press, which
a la Buttercup, "has mixed them children up." It stated
that General Felix Agnus, of the Baltimore American, when
a dashing captain of volunteers, was desperately wounded in
the Seven Days battles before Richmond. Waking from his
faint, he felt something heavy lying on him, which proved to
be a badly wounded Confederate, moaning for water. Agnus
recalled a canteen of cold coffee, reached for it and handed
it to the man on him. The latter drank thirstily, sighed and
returned it with the words : "Thank you, Yank — damn you !"

260 BELLAS, BEAUX AND BEAINS OT THE SIXTIES

Years later, the story goes, General Agnus was telling the
facts at a press convention in Philadelphia, when a fine look
ing delegate stepped forward and said he was the Confederate
and his name was Major Innes Randolph. The story is a
good one; would be great, indeed, were it correct. In truth,
Innes Randolph was never a major, never was on Jackson's
staff and never was wounded before Richmond. He was a
captain on engineer duty under Stuart. John Randolph
was in the battles of the Seven Days, and was badly wounded
in the thigh at Cold Harbor, though no one recalls his having
related the story, which such a joker would have done in
convalescence or later.

In a late letter to me^ General Agnus vouches for the facts
of the story, but Innes Randolph's family confirm my view
that it must have been John Randolph, his next brother, as
the latter only was shot before Richmond. Further con
firmation of this odd mix-up comes from Mrs. Clem Clay
Clopton. Her book quotes letters from her brother, Colonel
H. L. Clay, and his wife (Celestia Comer), written just after
the fights. Colonel Clay writes:

"Mr. Randolph, the Sir Anthony Absolute of your play,
was wounded yesterday in the shoulder and thigh, and will
lose the limb today."

He did not, however; but he was wounded only in the
thigh — another proof of the way history was making
itself.

John Randolph the second of the brothers, left two sons
and a daughter. Wilton, who was the baby-soldier brother
in Richmond days, left two sons and two daughters. The
eldest boy died in Cuba, fighting to uphold the flag his father
had fought against.

After the war Innes Randolph went into journalism,
winning high praise for critical and editorial work on the
Richmond Examiner. This secured him a position on the

BELLES, BEAUX AND BBAINS OF THE SIXTIES 261

Baltimore American, which he held with credit until his last
illness.

Fighting, fun and fancy, in equal potencies, chemically
compounded jolly and gallant Gray Latham, of the famed
" Latham's Battery" in the A. N. V. He was wit, wag and
poet, no danger of joke being too serious for him to laugh at
and half the stories that went the round of court and camp
began: "As Gray says." He sang sweetly, as " Eveline"
proved; and his own " Castles in the Air" had dainty thought
and neat verse, rounded with a chuckle, in none too restrained
form. The non sequitur was his force, a dry ness of absurdity
unequalled save perhaps by Tom August and Ham Chamber-
layne, but he lacked the acidity of both. One of his oddest
pranks was when a party of officers, without leave of ab
sence, "took the town" one night. The provost guard halted
them. There were quick, steady-witted men in the crowd,
but none had retort when the green provost asked for papers.
But, with lordly sweep of his big arm, the artillerist answered
suavely :

"Papers, sir! Why, we are all left-handed men!" and we
passed the open-mouth guardian of discipline without let.
And it was he who defined the duties of a quartermaster, to
a lady seeking information:

"The quartermaster, madame, has three duties, all per
formed regularly. The first is to make himself comfortable;
the second, to make everybody else uncomfortable; the
third, to make himself blamed comfortable!"

To him, justly or not, were ascribed two stories on Mr.
Macfarland's crisp dignity and perfect elegance of dress and
manner. Non e vero, doubtless both, but who shall deny the
ben trovato?

When Magruder's army fell back from the Peninsula on
Lee's new base at Richmond it passed a line of gaunt, be
grimed and wretched-looking men, hobbling and half-starved

262 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

up Main street from Rockett's. The men eyed the smart
banker curiously, as he stood on the bank's low porch, genuine
pity in his face, but with no word that could aid them, en
masse. Suddenly one "hero without a name" side-stepped
to the pavement, halted and came to a "carry" as he whined:

" Sa-a-ay, mistur, kin we 'uns sleep in Reechmon' ternight? "

The other application was equally apocryphal.

In mid-war, a blockade dinner was tendered some impor
tant strangers. The host's trusted butler fell ill suddenly,
but the best restaurateur in town supplied his place. All went
well with the much-recommended substitute, save a rather
unusual flourish, until the meats came on. One of these was
a ham of princely size, wine dressed and flanked by a rare
salad. These were to be helped from a side table.

Conversation in polite murmur was punctuating mastica
tion. Suddenly clashed into it the wild click of steel on
knife, that mocked a hand-to-hand fight with sabres. Then
came the stentorian and repeated yell:

uHa-a-ammm! an' sallud on th' side table! Gents, pass up
yer plates fer ha-a-ammm an' sallud!"

Captain Woodie Latham, handsome, brave and true, had
a wit of his own, but it withered in the light of his elder broth
er's. Both men are gone. After life's fitful fever they sleep
well ; while it lasted they did most things well.

Brilliant, misdirected Page McCarty was a veritable wit,
in those sunny days of the early war, before the piquant sub-
acid in him fermented into gall. Later, his X-ray showed
clear through tissue; but it blistered.

McCarty, Will Myers, Innes Randolph and I had a habit of
occasional letters in jingle, when at separate points, which
gave the town topics of that day. They passed from one re
cipient to the next nearest, a sort of endless chain of mild
gossip. One of Page's headings, yellow and smoke-stained,
I found only a few years ago. It was written from near

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

263

Mason's Hill, when he and Hampden Chamberlayne were
"blanketing together" in outdoor winter, and its caption
read: "Off Chamberlayne's Cape (also his overcoat)."

It is sad to recall the promise of McCarty's young career,
for he was brave, joyous and loyal to friends, and compare it
with his after years, as he hobbled along to a neglected grave,
with Remorse and Defiance on either side. And the change
was wholly wrought by his
own hand.

Will Myers was witty
and full of quaint satire,
but rarely bitter. On one
occasion he described to
General Breckinridge the
details of a fight, in which
the brigade of a rather slow
commander had crumbled
before the enemy. He
ended his report: "And
there tottered old . . .
like a mud wall."

Thereafter, in that army,
he was ever known as
"OldMudwall."

Myers saw a judge-
advocate, who was a fa
mous romancer, lead the
other members of his court to a bar-room and tell them wild
yarns. He told me: "He lied like a warrior taking his rest
with his court-martial around him!"

Some crude rhymester whose swift zeal gave him corns on
his prosodical feet, indited an ode to the great French general
of the A. N. V. This Myers sent me, with his amended ver
sion, four decades having obliterated all save this;

MAJOR WM. B. MYERS

264 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

"Oh! the North was evil-starred, when she met thee, Beau-
regard !

For you fought her very hard with cannon and petard, Beau-
regard !

Beau canon, Beauregard! Beau soldat, Beauregard!

Beau sabreur! beau frappeur! Beauregard! Beauregard!"

That was the "poet". Myers wrote it thus:

"Yes ! the North was scarred and barred, and she took it very

hard

When we trumped her winning card, Beauregard !
Beau blagueur, Beauregard! Beau blesseur, Beauregard!
'Beau Brummell, Beau Nash, Beau Hickman! Beauregard !"

A good and reliable soldier, as proved by his advancement
under the immediate ken of a leader like Breckinridge, Will
Myers was a man of delicate and refined culture and of innate
critical tact. His sense of humor spurred but never dominated
his judgment of men and affairs; and his broad, sunshiny
nature made men love him as well as many women thought
they did, and one noble one proved. He was the idol of a
cultured father and mother and in his visits to Richmond
added much to the bright society of their elegant and hos
pitable home.

A noted joker of that and of later time was General Zeb-
ulon B. Vance, of North Carolina. By turns congressman,
Confederate brigadier, senator and governor of his state
"Zeb" Vance's jests and epigrams were so quoted as to have
almost a "chest nutty" flavor, yet like that abused favorite,
they held their own peculiar aroma. The most repeated of them
allowing possibly to its place of birth, but more to its touch
of nature, was his address to the buck rabbit. His brigade
lay in the woods at Malvern Hill, the well-timed shells show
ering branches and twigs upon them from treetops overhead.
Dead stillness awaited the expected order to go in.( Suddenly

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OP THE SIXTIES 265

a great white rabbit broke down the woods trail, at top speed
toward the rear. From the tree that screened him General
Vance yelled cheerily after him:

"Go it, stumptail! If I followed my impulse, I'd be with

you!"

But wit was only the condiment that seasoned the strong
meat of the North Carolinian's character and men
tality.

CHAPTER XXIII

MORE WITS AND WAGS

ALL the colonels of the great First Virginia were noteworthy
men, but none was more widely known than Thomas P.
August. He was a wag and a punster by nature and he
talked in quips as naturally as though all men expected them.
They went far and wide in repetition until he was really,
as McCarty expressed it, "the most traveled by-tongue fel
low in the army!" He was the real father of the over famil
iar retort, chestnutted by frequent misapplication. When
the convention that carried Virginia out of the Union was
debating that vital point someone said to August: "Well,
colonel, I suppose your voice is still for war?"

"Yes, damn still!" was the quick reply that ended this
conversation.

Just before the final evacuation of Richmond, rumors
of that move were rife and every act of the departments
was watched and reported. Colonel August was hobbling
downtown on his crutches, when a friend called across:
"Tom, the surgeon-general is removing all the medical
stores!77

"Glad of it," he called back. "We'll get rid of all this
blue mass!"

One very early morning, while on sick furlough, the officer
limped into Ed Robinson's popular drug-store for needed
seltzer water. Taking him for the proprietor, a mild old
lady asked: "Can I buy a little hippo?"

266

BELLES, BEAUX AND BBAINS OF THE SIXTIES 267

"No, madame," the joker replied; "we give it away to
cure the general chondria."

Major Willie Caskie, the quaint artist and joker of Mosaic
memory, had a close kinsman who was so badly crippled
by rheumatism that he could walk only with assistance
from his negro body servant. Answering a comment on the
fact, Willie Caskie said:
"Yes, he reverses Noah of
old" ; adding in explanation:
"Noah was an upright man
and walked with God: Jim
is downright crooked and
walks with Ham!"

The inveterate major mar
ried pretty and gentle Miss
Mary Ambler, of the old
Huguenot colonials, who sur
vives him.

He was equally apt as wit
and draughtsman as he was
as fighter. In capping verse
and parody, he was as quick
as Randolph. It was he who
twisted the stirring lines "You can never win them back, Nev
er, never!" from their patriotic to their Pharoaic sense, thus:

You can never win them back,

Never, never!
And you'd better quit the track,

Now, forever!

Though you cut and deal the pack
And copper every Jack,

You'll lose stack after stack,

Till you sever!

MAJOR WILLIAM CASKIE

268 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

A strong mentality and vast store of information was
the asset of Colonel William M. Burwell, editor of De Bow's
Review. As social interest, he extended lavishly the small
coin of humor, minted at will. An able disputant and
vigorous essayist, he dropped puns and epigrams like the
fabled maid who scattered pearls with speech. Someone
spoke of Mr. Davis's habitual gravity, when the editor retorted :

"Yet he is devoted to Benjamin, who is surely a Jew
d'esprit!"

It was he who commented on the secretary of state's
disputatious habit:

"All the cabinet expects Toombs to disagree with himself
between meals!" Nor was it a surprise when his name was
pinned to the cleverest, perhaps, of all the "Confederate
Mother Goose."

That rollicking but most indicative string of satires had
accidental birth. George Bagby's simple sanctum, with
its "cartridge-paper tablecloth," was the "Wills' coffee
house" of the war wits, lacking the coffee, but replacing it
with frequent pipes and unhappily infrequent "nips,"
when appreciation sent a bottle their way. One night,
during what Bagby called the "mire truce" of winter,
Randolph, Myers, McCarty, Colonel Burwell, Will Wash
ington, myself and a few others dropped into the den edito
rial. Soon the room was cloudy with smoke, but sunny with
speech. Someone picked up the short but inspiring stub
of George Bagby's editorial pencilholder and scribbled a
verse on the paper tablecloth. Another read it, laughed,
took the stub and scribbled in turn. The first one read was
on that bold invader who dated despatches from "Head
quarters in the saddle." It ran:

Little Be-Pope, he lost his hope,
Jackson, the Rebel, to find him;

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 269

But he found him at last, and he ran very fast,
With his bully invaders behind him!

The second took theme from that general most respected
by his Southern opponents as a tactician and a man :

Little McClellan sat eating a mellon,

The Chickahominy by.

He stuck in a spade; and a long time delayed,

Then cried: " What a great general am I!"

Next, the arch-enemy of all woman-respecting men had
his turn:

Hey! diddle Sutler, the dastard Ben Butler,

Fought women, morn, evening and noon;

And old Satan laughed, as hot brimstone he quaffed,

When the Beast ran away with the Spoon!

The next was reminiscence of Barton Key's murder at
Washington some years before:

Yankee Sickles came to fight, and Dan was just a Dandy;
Quite quick to shoot when 'tother man had nary pistol
handy/

The "Cspsar of the Peninsula/' as Lord King named
McClellan, got this:

Henceforth, when a fellow is kicked out of doors,

He need never resent the disgrace,
But exclaim: "My dear sir, I'm eternally yours,

For assisting in changing my base!"

"Fighting Joe" Hooker had taught us to respect him,
but he was hit too :

Joe Hooker had a nice tin sword;

Jack bent it up one day.
When Halleck heard, at Washington,
He wrote: "Come home and stay!"

270 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

Others on Pope and Butler ran thus:

Trickery, dickery, slickery Ben-
Eluding and dodging the fighting men-
Was never afraid of a matron or maid,
But cent for no cotton, or silver, he paid!

And, finally:

John Pope came down to
Dixie town, and thought
it very wise

To sit down in a 'skeeter
swamp and start at telling

But when he found his lies

were out, with all his might

and main,
He changed his base to another

place, and began to — lie

again!

Probably the most sur-

MAJOR j. w. PEGRAM prised men of all who heard,

were the writers of these

skits when they were read from print, at a subsequent
meeting of the Mosaic Club. The authors had forgotten
them in intervening rush of. graver matters and someone,
most probably Bagby, had joked the jokers by tacking the
name to each of the squibs.

One irrepressible wag, who never wrote a line or even
knew he was a wit, won a later width of fame as great as
any of his elders. " Jimmie" was the youngest of the three
gallant Pegram brothers and the only one who survived the
war, though he followed through it as grim and foremost
a fighter as Gen. R. S. Ewell. Pegram rose to major's rank,

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 271

despite his youth, as Ewell's adjutant-general. In camp,
in society — at the sick-bedside, the retreat, or the hot pur
suit he was full of original humor that had infection in it.
A born mimic, he was a raconteur equal to Ran Tucker;
a gift that gained him representation of a New York
house, post-bellum; and aided his genial, manly nature to
make him one of the most popular men — in society,
trade and the clubs — that ever was sent "on the road"
by the war. He lost his lovely wife, as noted before,
after brief married life and never married again. But girls,
as well as matrons and men, loved "Major Jimmie"; re
told his jokes and spoiled his stories in a dozen states;
while they later mourned his untimely death. He was a
loyal friend, with all the courage of his race and the cour
tesy of the Old Virginia gentleman.

But it was not only in stirring if trying scenes, or in the
cheery ones of the "mire truce, " not only in the free or freez
ing air, that Rebel humor asserted supremacy. Even the
half-spectres of hospital recuperation laughed over what
they called their "lush." In one sick mess of the trying
days, toward the end, a long, skinny Georgian was charging
on a piece of stubbornly resisting neckbeef. His yellow
face wrinkled in a grin as he drawled: "Say, fellers, didn't
them fellers ez died las' spring jest git ther commissary,
though?"

And even in the fetid starvation pens of prison camps,
the unexchanged martyrs drowned the sigh of hope deferred
in the jest at their own misery. One familiar example was
the clever versed letter, sent from the grim walls on "Fort
Delaware, Del.," as the prisoners' song called it. That
was written by Thomas F. Roche, of Baltimore, to his mother,
in close imitation of General Lytle's "I am Dying, Egypt,
Dying"; and was a mock heroic plaint for a check to be sent
the prison sutler. Too long to quote, its opening and

272 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

final pica will show its humor under trying conditions:

"7 am busted, Mother — busted:
Gone tti last unhappy check;
And iti infernal sutler's prices
Leave my pocketbook a wreck!"

And it ended with this human paraphrase:

"Ah, once more, among the lucky,

Let thy hopeful buy and swell:
Bankers and rich brokers aid thee —

Shell, gentle mother mine — oh, shell!"

Another satire, though grimmer, while of higher grade than
Roche's, slipped through the portholes of Fort Warren.
There Severn Teackle Wallis, the polished acidity of the
Baltimore bar of yesterday, was long a political prisoner. On
one Thanksgiving Day, when the " loyal" pulpits of Baltimore
were expected to flame with patriotic fire over several Feder
al victories, a printed note sheet was mysteriously found
in the prayer-seats of fashion. It had come, " underground, "
from Wallis's cell, at Warren. Only its opening and a few
sample lines can find room here:

"0 God of Battles, once again, with banner, trump and drum,
And garments in Thy wine press dyed, to give Thee thanks

we come!

No goats nor bullocks garlanded to Thine red altars go:
With brothers' blood, by brothers shed, our glad libations flow!

We give Thee praise that Thou hast lit the torch and fanned

the flame —
That Lust and Rapine hunt their prey, kind Father, in Thy

name!

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 273

Where'er we tread may deserts spread, 'till none are left to

slay;
And, when the last red drop is shed, we'll kneel again and—

pray!"

An irrepressible war wag was that correspondent from
the Atlantic lines who hid his light under the pen-name of
" Solitary John." The real one I have never been able to
find, but his quaint letters helped to make the starving
fighters "laugh and grow fat. " One of them began:

"Old Sherman, like Old John Brown's soul, 'is a marching
on/ and double-quicking. When Tecumseh was born,
his dad said to the nurse: 'This is a nipping and an eager
heir/ and proved himself prophet, to our loss. Billy is
making Johnny as mad as a March hare by marching here
and there. Yesterday we were ordered to cook, and eat,
ten days' rations immediately; and for the next ten, nothing
could be heard but

The rhyming and the chiming of the rammer and

the hammer,
Keeping time, time, time, in a hungry sort of rhyme."

This "Johnny" laughed off suspense and starvation in
the free air and with broad sunshine about him. But even
in the smoke-thickened atmosphere of Vicksburg, with
ceaseless burst of shells, dwindling ranks and absolute star
vation wasting the men who burrowed like rats to catch rare
sleep: there in that worse than Valley Forge of later war
for opinion's sake, joke and jest leavened the heavy strain.
Endless stories of the "pounded city" are sworn to.

One stifling noon a Mexican veteran colonel crept out of
the guard casemate to hunt a scarce possible bottle. A
whoo and a whiz, then a small earthquake, as a ten-inch
shell dropped just before him. A wild yell and a clatter
of swift-running boots brought the query: "What's that?"

274 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

r

Peering from the earth-thatched casemate, Major Tom
Reed answered: "Nothing but the kernel breaking from the
shell !"

When the bombardment grew hot and more accurate,
a wooden house on a hill was deserted. Some wag charcoaled
on it: "For Rent: Inquire of Davis & Pemberton." That
night a mortar shell tore a great hole through the building
and soon the crayon had marked out the spared sign and im
proved it: "Rented, by Grant and McPherson!"

When the torn and splintered city was surrendered after
sufferings and horrors unparalleled, a scrawled card was
found pinned to the posts supporting a subterranean mess
room. It was a menu showing the varied modes of mule
cooking, dated from the "Hotel de Vicksburg, Jeff Davis
Co., proprietors." Broadly humorous, it listed: "Soup:
Mule tail. Boiled: Mule bacon, with Polk greens. Roast:
Saddle of Mule a la teamster. Entrees: Mule head stuffed,
Reb fashion; Mule beef, jerke a la Yankee; Mule liver, hash
ed a r explosion. Dessert: Cotton-berry pie, en Ironclad,
China-berry tart. Liquors: Mississippi water, vintage 1492,
very inferior, S3. Limestone water, late importation, very
fine. Extra (black seal) Vicksburg bottled-up — $4. Meals
at Few Hours, Gentlemen to wait upon themselves. Any
inattention in service to be promptly reported at the office.
Jeff & Comp., Props."

This was only one more proof that strong arms and strong
stomachs went to aid the barefoot boys to make their strong
arms uphold so long the tottered fabric, built upon their
hopes and painted with their blood, still standing in its ruins
as their monument.

CHAPTER XXIV

ART AND ARTISTS IN DIXIE

WHILE the art of war was the consuming study in the
capital, with old and young, man and woman, the gentler
arts were not allowed to fall
wholly into disuse. The senti
ments and the scenes of the
day were suggestive ones,
and souls that had once
been touched by the sacred
fire were wont to glow afresh
and sometimes spring ablaze.

Men had busier and more
needed avocations, it is true;
materials were hard to get at
first and later were impos
sible to obtain. But the
painted record of the war
was so valuable a one and
was made under such trial and
discouragements that it is the
more remarkable that its con
servation was not more looked
to and that examples extant VIRGINIA MOURNING HER DEAD.

(SIR MOSES EZEKIEL.)

are so rare and hard to find.
Most pictures that won note, and probably all that remain

275

276 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

today, were what may be classed as incident pictures. They
were conceived in the very throes of action of some great
event, perfected in discouragement and often danger.

There were a number of pictures produced in Richmond
during the war, and probably in other sections of the South,
that were good artistically, and some that had real intrinsic
art-value wholly dissevered from historic use.

Nearly equal to Washington in the number of his paint
ings, and quite his equal in popularity, was John A. Elder.
This gifted and manly painter was the son of a Fredericks-
burg bootmaker, and with common school education. He
had, however, real genius and great ambition and with them
he coupled industry and genial nature. While a soldier in
the ranks he proved a rapid and faithful reproducer of the
men and movements around him. Old John Miner of his
native town, took deep interest in the youth and proposed
to send him to Europe, and this was done by several gentle
men advancing fifty dollars each. This, Elder only took
on agreement to pay it back — a pledge he later fulfilled to
the last dollar.

His first success was "The Scout's Prize." A medium
canvas shows two horses at top speed through a wintry
Virginia forest. One, ridden by the ill-clad "Reb, " with
slouch hat drawn down upon his speed-lowered head, was
bony, sorry and jaded; his rough coat flecked with the foam
of plucky effort and his red-veined eyes walled backward
to the unceasing thud of close-pursuing feet. These were
from hoofs of a splendid troop-horse, accoutred for a gener
al's mount, his sleek coat and high head telling the tale of
provender-bred mettle.

Admirable in drawing, artistic in contrast and with Meis-
sonier-like fidelity to detail, the brutes told the story of
plenty and privation that opposed each other through four
long years. And the constancy that drew out their weary

BELLES, BEAUX AND BKAINS OF THE SIXTIES 277

length, that made each capture an era rather than an episode,
was seen in the gleam that lit the half-shadowed face bent
above the neck of the ridden horse, as the trooper tugged
at the resisted bit of the led one.

"The Crater" told the details of that hand-to-hand slaugh
ter before Petersburg when the Federal mine under the
near-lying Confederate centre was countermined and explo
ded. Its scene was in mid-fight. Under dense, low-hung
masses of smoke, lurid jets of flame shot high, and on them
rose the torn limbs and trunkless heads of the victims of
War's devilish delight. Writhing, or stark upon what
ground was visible, stretched the forms in blue and gray,
mixed in " dizziest dance of death." This picture was sold
for a good price just after the war to a British member of
parliament. Elder reproduced it, somewhat enlarged, and
the copy was purchased by General Mahone. His widow
sold it to the Westmoreland Club of Richmond, where it
now hangs. " Appomattox, " the most suggestive and
reminiscent of Elder's works, was the valued possession
of Joseph Bryan, at his beautiful and historic home, Labur
num. The conception and figure-drawing, are admirable.
Of his pictures, Mr. Bryan wrote me in a personal letter,'
which I make bold to quote, that he saw the canvas in the
window at Tyler's, shortly after the war:

"I was struck by the picture, and went in to ask
the price, which was only $50; but that was a large
sum to me then and I took time to consider. I did, how
ever, after a day, buy the picture at the price. I was
gratified to learn that its removal from the window caused
many inquiries. It had attracted much attention, but the
population were not able to gratify their appreciation by
even inquiring the price. ... As to 'The Scout's
Prize/ to which you refer, I have a copy of that which I
particularly prize, because I had almost that identical ex-

278 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

perience myself, while with Colonel Mosby, in the winter of '65. "

What became of Elder later I am not sure, but I think
he died before his early promise, amid discouraging sur
roundings, fruited fully into the success it seemed to war
rant.

Another artist, one who seemed to find a specialty in
sea views, was Lieutenant John R. Key, of the engineer
corps. Tall, boyish-looking, bright- witted and a trifle
eccentric, he was "the grandson of The Star Spangled Ban
ner," as Myers put it. Sumter seemed to grow chronic
with him, for, with really excellent taste for landscape and
a perseverance and pluck . that overcame difficulties, he
spent all his spare time and more than all his spare change,
on the crude but costly materials for his bombardment
stretches of sea view, punctuated by puffy cannon smoke.

But the pictures won attention* and commendation, for
they were faithful to their not exciting theme. Persever
ance, however, found material reward in several post-bellum
sales of the Sumter canvases, but he did better work then.

We went together, the summer succeeding the surrender,
to spend months along the slopes of Cheat Mountain and
fish in the river of that name, he sketching and I scribbling
on the pioneer volume of Southern song. Some very clever
bits he did then of mountain scenery, and later of that in
California and its coast, found ready sale. Some of them
were the pioneer of picturesque railroad advertising and
specimens were in the old Corcoran Gallery and other col
lections. But Key was practical beyond the wont of artists.
He exhibited four of his Sumter canvases in Washington
and New York, selling two of them later to Admiral Dahl-
gren, and the others to a London M. P.

In 1869 Key made studies through California, and in
the next year went to Paris and there painted "The Golden
Gate." This he sent to the Centennial at Philadelphia,

BELLES, BEAUX AND BSAINS OF THE SIXTIES 279

and it received the first-class medal. His most important
later work was illustration of the World's Fair at Chicago.
Of that he painted four large pictures (10x20 feet). These
were taken by the state of Illinois and were made impor
tant parts of its exhibit at the first Omaha Exposition; a
separate gallery being built for them. At the second Omaha,
Key was made art director. Since, he has produced many
pictures of the Buffalo and St. Louis Expositions; fourteen
of the former now being the property of the Buffalo Histor
ical Society.

Recently he returned to the home of his youth and took
a studio in the Corcoran Gallery. There he is busy making
studies for an elaborate suite of Washington views, wnich
are to form, on completion, the scenic history of the capital.
A gifted young Virginian also painted in Charleston har
bor. Conrad Wise Chapman (named for David H. Conrad
and Governor Wise) was son of John G. Chapman who paint
ed "The Marriage of Pocahontas, " for the rotunda at Wash
ington. He had been a V. M. I. cadet but was in Rome
with his father; ran the blockade and joined a Kentucky
regiment and was badly wounded at Shiloh. General Wise
had the youth transferred to his brigade as ordnance officer
to Tabb's 59th Virginia, where he won fame in the attack
on Williamsburg. Later, at Charleston, Beauregard -de
tailed him for engineer work. In 1864 he was secretary to
Bishop Lynch, on his noted mission to Rome; and was en
route home when he read of Appomattox. He fled to Mexico,
thence back to Italy, and lost his mind temporarily. He
had painted many and varied sketches of battle scenes,
mainly of Kentucky troops in action; and his father etched
them at Rome and gained them much favor. The artist
recovered his mind, married in Mexico; and now resides
in New York in hermit like fashion.
William Ludwell Sheppard was another Richmond boy

280 BELLES, BEAUX AND BJKAINS OF THE SIXTIES

whose work even then gave decided promise. He essayed
nothing very pretentious and his later results have been made
popular in Harper's and other New York magazines and
journals. In 1861 he was at the Academy of Design, New
York, but promptly came South and volunteered in the
Richmond Howitzers, serving all the war and winning his
lieutenancy. Post-bellum he painted one work which became
notable — " Virginia in 1864," an artillery duel. This was
much copied and is still very popular with the "boys."
He also did some clever and effective sculpture, especially
" Johnny Reb," a statuette of the Rogers school. Equally
effective were his typical Confederates, representing in
fantryman, artillerist and trooper. He also did the Soldiers'
and Sailors' monument, that for the Howitzers', and for
General A. P. Hill. He has drawn considerably for New
York publications and still resides in Richmond.

Innes Randolph, that Briareus in accomplishments, sketch
ed almost as cleverly as he wrote, improvised and sang. He
was a lightning illustrator and ever in demand for the un
ceasing " shows" of those dear women who never wearied
in well-doing. Sometimes Randolph's programs in poetry
and picture were better worth the entrance fee than the
entertainment they explained. Unhappily, not one of them
is now in existence or at least traceable by diligent search.
He was a natural but untaught sculptor; several death
masks and a bust of himself being especially fine.

In some important instances the chisel replaced the
brush in Richmond. Alexander M. Gait was a notable
example. This Norfolk man showed early promise that
had already given result in fine and classic marbles of
Thomas Jefferson, President Davis and General Jackson.
Then, while arranging for new works in every hour to
be spared in those trying days, his career was cut short
abruptly. Gait was seized with smallpox in Richmond,

BELLES, BEAUX. AND BRAINS OF TEE SIXTIES 281

and despite skill and care of loving friends, died there in 1863.

Sir Moses Ezekiel was another Richmond boy who turned
to art in early life. He was a student of the V. M. I.; at New
market. Later, he went abroad, perfected himself in sculpture
and has been a facile and industrious worker. He designed
a handsome allegorical fountain for Cincinnati, and the fine
figure of " Virginia Mourning Her Dead" in the campus at
Lexington, at the entrance of Jackson Memorial Hall, was
donated by him, in 1903, to
his alma mater. Years ago he
was made a Chevalier by the
Italian government, and he
now resides at Acme, in the
land of flowers, art and spa
ghetti.

In the June of 1907, there
were pleasant observances at
the University of Virginia, to
receive another great work of
Chevalier Ezekiel. This is a
fine Homeric group, in heroic
bronze, donated by Mr. J. W.
Simpson, of New York, and

the sculptor. Hon. Robt. L. CHEVALIER MOSES EZEKIEL

Harrison, of New York, and

Dr. Edward N. Calisch, of Richmond, presented it for
the donors. It was received by President Alderman;
and Dr. Thomas Nelson Page spoke of the sculptor and his
growth in art, as well as of his patriotism.

The Homeric group presents the blind Homer, resting
on a stone by the wayside; the graceful young Egyptian
guide recumbent at his knee.

Coincident with his work upon the Homer, Ezekiel, made
the heroic Jefferson, for the city of Louisville, in commem-

282 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

oration of the great founder of the University of Virginia.
He is now perfecting, at his studio in the Baths of Dioclesian,
a new heroic statue of Stonewall Jackson.

Some unique contributions to art emanated from Major
William H. Caskie, of the artillery. A born joker, he was as
reckless in his fun as he was in his fighting and other trifles of
life — and death. His bump of veneration was never visible
to the amateur phrenologist. Like Randolph, his sketches
were often the extreme of caricature and took original ex
pression. He would catch an admirable likeness of some
civil, military or religious notability, but always with a
twist of face and form. These heads topped figures cut from
the proper cloth and decorated with rank insignia or other
hall-mark. These pasquinades were always recognized and
appreciated. The completed result was always a joy to the
sinner, but anything rather than contentment to the subject.
Caskie's little men were great prizes in society and in the
distant camps to which they traveled, until illegible from
dingy thumb marks.

Last, but nowise least, Willie Myers comes up dainty
and correct in his drawing and painting, as he was in
every regard of life. He had seen much good painting
and was a fair enough critic to be merciless to the bad, even
when that of a near friend. A neat executant himself, he
had no patience with sloppiness in any department of art.
So his judgment was much sought, though known to be
flattering in rare instances.

Myers left a number of clever sketches and a few things
more important. These, if they have withstood the touch
of time, have a better value than that of mere reminiscence.

It is pleasant to recall that my first essay in the novel,
" Cross Purposes," was illustrated by him in 1865.

The art photographic, if not precisely in its infancy in
war-times, was scarcely out of skirts. Alas the day! Ko-

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 283

dak and pocket camera, now so fiendish and universal, had
then been the boon of boons.

The horrors of Daguerre, the ambrotype — and more often
the tin-type — seized on the beauties and the brave, to hand
them down to posterity in something a la Caskie.

Canvas had early been replaced by burlaps, domestic,
or even tent cloth. Key painted Sumter on the first two
and Washington used the last for "Latane." Tubes,
brushes and all tools, as well as decent vehicles, were pro
curable only through the blockade. In the later days of
the war I saw white drugs and castor oil used to prime a large
canvas.

All this combined to make most pictures destructible
and the lacking camera let them slide,

"Like the tenants that leave without warning
Down the back entry of time."

Photos there were, but the secret of lifelikeness, and
especially that of indestructibility, had not been whispered
to expectancy. Had it been, what different idea had these
pages been able to give of some who are missed altogether;
of more who are done scant justice, even in the most skilful
of modern reproduction.

284 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

M P

MSI ^ *

: i

o H 2

CHAPTER XXV

A VANISHING PICTURE

So important in history and in sentiment is the "Burial
of Latane," so personal its interest and so singular its dis
appearance, that it demands a special history.

Washington was a Virginian by birth, claiming descent
from the eldest stock of his name. He was a reticent fellow,
of intensely nervous temperament, as is frequent with the
art-instinct. In his case this was heightened by a lameness,
apparently congenital, that slightly disfigured but in no
sort disabled him. Those who knew him best in ante-bellum
days at Washington never heard him allude to his lameness
or its cause, nor did he seem to have closer relatives, al
though we understood that his mother was of the Dandridge
family.

He had taste and facility, but was an erratic worker.
Dusseldorf had been his alma mater and Leutze claimed him
as an old pupil. He went to Richmond early in the war,
after leaving several pictures at the capital, in the galleries
of W. W. Corcoran, Mr. James McGuire and others. Well
educated, polished and traveled, with refined tastes, fair
tenor voice and fine address, despite his recurrent moodiness,
Washington soon made foothold in the best Richmond
society. Affable ordinarily, he made no close intimates,
painting in West Virginia, about the Gauley section, and
sometimes near the Potomac.

285

286 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

Then came the retreat from the Peninsula, the meteor
campaign of the Valley, Seven Pines and the Seven Days'
Fights. Between the last two came the inspiration for
Washington's great picture.

The armies of Lee and McClellan lay before Richmond,
like bloodhounds in leash, ready to spring at each other's
throat. Only the tension of discipline kept apart the grap
ple, in which the tug-winning meant so much to the Blue —
and all to the Gray.

McClellan waited, with his usual over-prudence, "for
a more propitious moment to strike"; Lee, as his wont,
waiting for McClellan.

Inaction, pregnant with wounds and horror and bloody
death, lay supine between the armies. The sickly sun of
early summer basked on the feverish hosts, eager to move
but shackled by strategy. And in this siesta "Jeb" Stuart,
chafing himself and feeling need of movement for his men
and mounts, proposed to General Lee a circuit around the
rear of the enemy.

The reconnaissance was to be in some force; was to gather
information of outlying rear positions of the Federal and to
round up such stock and supplies as went on hoof. The
command was intrusted to Fitz Lee, with his own and Rooney
(W. H. F.) Lee's brigades and with Captain William
Latane, of the former, commanding the advance guard.
The affair was successful in all regards. Quantities of stock
were driven from the Federal herders, and only the mere
show of opposition was made until the second morning.
Then a hot skirmish in force took place; the Federals were
driven back and the Confederates lost one man, Captain
Latane. His younger brother, James, a preacher, and
later bishop, took charge of the body and waited at the
roadside while the ruck of pursuit of the bluecoats swept
by. Then a corn cart loaded with sacks passed on its way

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 287

to mill — the long inaction making the Hanover county folks
almost forget that they were in flagrant war.

The cart belonged to West wood, the family seat of Mrs.
Catherine Brockenborough, that lay a few miles away on
the main road of the Peninsula. It was speedily emptied
and the sacks hidden in the brush. The body of the gallant
young trooper was tenderly laid in the improvised hearse
and the mourning brother and the faithful negro walked by
it to the plantation. There the lady of the mansion was
absolutely alone, save for the presence of a few trusted
slaves.

The Peninsula, a narrow slip of land embraced by the Pa-
munkey and Chickahominy rivers, was the theatre of much stir
ring action during the war. It had just been made memorable
by the retreat on Lee's army before Richmond, of John
Bankhead Magruder's small corps, with which he had so
brilliantly held off McClellan's overwhelming force at York-
town, and in the slow and rear-guarded retreat. It was to
live anew in picture and poetry and go in classics down the
ages in the light of this "Pamunkey Raid" to the White
House on that stream.

A fertile and beautiful tract, it was the seat of several
important families; notable among its homesteads being
those of Mrs. Brockenborough and her sister, Mrs. Willough-
by Newton, mother of the former Bishop Newton, of Vir
ginia. The latter, Summer Hill, lay on the main road, di
rectly opposite Westwood. At the former place Mrs. Newton
was entertaining her refugee nieces, the Misses Dabney,
and her daughter-in-law, Mrs. William Newton. Two
little children of the latter, Catherine and Lucy Newton,
were there also, but there was no other white person on the
place and the only men were old Uncle Aaron and a few faith
ful slaves.

Mrs. Brockenborough was the only white at Westwood.

288 BELLES, BEAUX ANP BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

Busied about her kitchen when the cart drove up, she sped
to find the cause of its premature return. Young Latane
told her the sad story and that he, perforce, must rejoin
his command. He had given his horse to a wounded comrade
and there was none to replace it. Roman as many Con
federate matrons had proved themselves, the lady of West-
wood recalled a steed hidden at a distant farm. She spared
one of her men as a guide, comforted the stricken soldier
with promise of proper burial for his dead, and sent him on
to fight again for the Cause she loved.

This duty to the living done, she addressed herself to the
sadder one before her. The slain man was prepared for
burial, a simple coffin fashioned at the plantation carpenter-
shop and the return of the messenger waited for. The
negro came at last, but had been unable to reach the minister
he had been bidden to summon beyond the Federal lines.

All day Mrs. Brockenborough waited; going at sunset
to her sister and nieces across at Summer Hill. Next day
still no parson came, only the rumor that he had been refused
passage by the pickets.

Then, at sunset, the weeping women collected about the
grave Old Aaron had dug, and Mrs. Newton, standing at
its head, sent him to his eternal rest with the solemn ritual
of the Episcopal Church. Never, perhaps, had its words
seemed more solemn or more meaningful. The poet and
the painter made equally vivid use of this scene. Thomp
son's verse has as much color as Washington's pigment:

"For woman's voice, in accents soft and low,

Trembling with pity, touched with pathos, read
Over his hallowed dust the ritual for the dead:

" 'Tis sown in weakness, it is raised in power' -
Softly the promise floated on the air,
While the low breathings of the sunset hour

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF TSE SIXTIES 289

Came back responsive to the mourner's prayer.
Gently they laid him underneath the sod
And left him with his fame, his country, and his God!"

As a gentle woman's voice spoke the Promise, Mrs. Brock-
enborough and the two others acted as mourners, the pretty
little children strewing flowers over the cavalry overcoat that
palled the rough bier.

An old tree, a sapling then, marks the spot in the family
burial ground at Summer Hill, where Latane, the sole
victim of the raid around McClellan, was laid to rest. When
the bloody tide of battle rolled the Northern Army back
to its base, for seven consecutive and horrid days Summer
Hill was seized for a Federal hospital. The ladies were re
legated to the upper floor, and the field operating tables
were set up on the lawn beneath the windows. Pitiful as
grewsome it must have been to them to hear the groans of
the wounded; the quick, stern order for removal of those
who died beneath the knife.

Grim old Sherman had not then stamped it as an epi
gram, but those tried women felt in their hearts the ugly
truth that "War is Hell!"

Among those present Mrs. Brockenborough lived until
two years ago; an inmate of the Presbyterian Home for old
ladies, at Richmond. She was far advanced in years, and
had lost her sight entirely forty-one years ago. The two
little girls, Catherine and Lucy Newton, are now Mrs. Wal
ter Christian, of Richmond, and Mrs. St. Clair Brookes,
of Washington.

John R. Thompson and William D. Washington almost
simultaneously took up the theme, to its immortalizing and
their own. "The Burial of Latane" was to live in poetry
and in color. The poet wrote what Tennyson pronounced
"the most classic poem of the Civil War." The painter

290 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

f

limned a picture which, under less clouded skies and in more
happy conditions of commercial art, had won him fame
and fortune.

Singularly enough, this picture disappeared and no trace
of it remains. At the peace, Washington took the canvas
to England, hoping for a better price from some wealthy
sympathizer there. Falling into financial straits before
this was possible, he sold it to L. P. Bayne, a Southern
banker and broker, of Washington and New York. Re
liable Confederates saw the Latane in 1874.

Mr. Bayne died, and the picture disappeared. No trust
worthy trace of it has since been made. Report was com
monly accepted that it was later bought by a rich New
Yorker, resold in Chicago and was destroyed in the great
fire. The cow of Mrs. O'Leary kicked the bucket on Oc
tober 8, 1871.

No one thing in my researches for these pages has caused
the bootless correspondence and query of its disappearance,
and I have been unable to find one fact later than 1874.
Ten or twelve prints were made from the best negative
procurable. The portraits were changed, and the photo
graphs were destined to prove mementos of the artist's
gratitude to his models. With his usual procrastination,
he held them for some reason. One I secured, the others
disappeared, but no one of the ladies ever received her copy.
Mine was lost in some way, and no efforts of art dealers
or of curio stores have later been able to recover a copy,
even with the bait of considerable cash. The Nemesis of
mystery seems to have followed all things in the later history
of this fine and historic work. A steel engraving was made
in 1868, and other copies later, I believe.

It was in the Pegram home that his final decision to paint
it was reached and Miss Virginia Pegram volunteered to
find the needed models. Their first meeting; was beneath

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 291

her roof. Ardent as earnest, these society girls entered heart
and soul into the theme, lending their fair faces and forms
to long and tedious posing during the heat of Southern sum
mer, and trudging back and forth to his not too elegant
studio through sun and storm.

The men, from time to time, " played many parts" and
smoked many pipes. Myers, Randolph, McCarty and the
writer were variously the negro, the corpse on the bier and
occasionally the critics. The
second role was less comfort
able than the last. To lie
prone for forty minutes un
der a heavy cavalry over
coat, on a rough cot and
beneath a sun-heated tin roof
was not inspiring, save with
changed first syllable.

But at last the painting
was done; was exhibited on
Main street and created
quite a furor.

Indeed, had Confederate
pockets been fitted to the
appreciation of the moment,
the artist had grown sud
denly rich at the hands of
some early purchaser. Some
of this was perhaps due to
the beauty and popularity of

the models. Mrs. Newton was represented by Mrs. Leigh
Page, eldest of the Waller sisters, and now the widow of a
well-known lawyer and soldier. Miss Jennie Pegram, now Mrs.
David Mclntosh, of Baltimore (the figure in mourning), posed
for Mrs. Brockenborough, the one nearest to the rapt reader

PAGE MC CARTY WILLIAM B. MYERS
WILLIAM D. WASHINGTON

292 BELLES, BEAUX AND BBAINS OF THE SIXTIES

of the ritual. One of the models corroborates my memory
thus: "At the foot of the grave is Mattie Waller (Mrs. Ralph
Cross Johnson, of Washington), Lizzie Giles (now Mrs. Sam
Robinson, of Washington) leans on her shoulder, weeping.
Between Jennie Pegram and Page is the demure figure of
Mattie Paul, the only likeness in the group, I think." The
little Newton girls of the original scene were substituted
by little Imogen Warwick and Miss Annie Gibson, now living
in New York.

For the reason that Southern men of means were using them
for grim facts, rather than for sentiment, at that moment,
the much praised picture found no purchaser. Gradually
the incident became absorbed in newer and as striking ones
and the painting became an old story. Washington painted
many others possibly as good artistically. Of them the
most important is " Jackson at Winchester/' now owned
by John Murphy, of Richmond. There is action and fine
color in this, the likeness of the general being claimed as
the best extant. There are many minor works of similar
class and a number of portraits of noted men connected
with the army and at Lexington and other points of his
state.

After the war Washington disappeared from Richmond
into a nowhere of his own, carrying the Latane with him.
That he was in Europe is sure and there, as stated, it was
sold. When he reappeared later and took the chair of fine
arts at Lexington — founded there presumably for him by
the banker, W. W. Corcoran, of Washington — the painter
was reticent on all matters, and especially about this work.
The mystery may never be solved, for Washington died at
the school, and I have failed of all information thence as
elsewhere.

CHAPTER XXVI

SOME HISTORY BUILDERS

ICI REPOSE M. A. LAURE VILLERE, epouse du major
G T. Beauregard, NEE LE 22 MAI, 1823, DECEDEE LE 21 MARS,
1850.

Esprit descendu du del, tu y es remonte:
dors en paix, fille, epouse et mere cherie.

IN the old country graveyard at Florissant, the plantation
home of the Beauregard family in St. Bernard Parish, Louis
iana, one may read this ten
der inscription on the stone
that covers the grave of the
beautiful daughter of a great
colonial family, who was in
this life the wife of a great
Confederate general. Trans
lated it reads: ''Spirit from
Heaven, thou hast returned;
there sleep in peace, beloved
daughter, wife and moth
er."

This sequestered grave re
calls the union of two great
Creole families, the Villeres,
Of the Old Magjiolia
plantations, and the Toutant

293

MRS. G. T. BEAUREGARD
(LAURE VILLERE)

de Beauregard, of

294 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

which the maternal strain was the famous de Reggio.

How far back the Welsh Toutant family dates there is
no record, though iis position and leadership in Wales in
dicate a long line of its chiefs; the first of whom I find accurate
historic detail is Tider the Young, who headed the last
rebellion of Wales, before Edward First brought that prov
ince under the English crown 1281 A. D. Defeated and
captured, Tider escaped and fled to France with a price
upon his head. Still a youth in his teens, his prowess and
fine person gained him service under Philip IV (the Fair).
They gained him moreover, as wife, Mile, de Lafayette,
who was in the suite of the princess, the king's sister.
Friction was hot between the two nations and Henry sum
moned Edward to France to acknowledge his suzerainty
of the fortresses in Guienne. War was imminent, but was
averted by Edward's proposal to marry Marguerite, which
delayed alliance was consummated only in 1299. Tider
went to England with his wife in the new queen's suite,
but the king objected to his presence, as a tainted rebel;
and the queen induced his sending to a charge in the con
tinental possessions of England. There he prospered, as
did his son, Marc. After the latter recovered his father's
property at Saint Ange, influence got him a position under
the English crown. The name of Tider was still odious
to British ears, and Marc changed it to Toutant — from
the old Gaelic — and that surname held for the Beauregard
ancestors for three centuries. At the end of the sixteenth
century the last male of the Toutant name died. His only
daughter married Sieur de Beauregard, whence the family
name of the American branch. When the "de" was dropped
and replaced by a hyphen is not recorded; but the general
used neither.

Jacques Toutant-Beauregard was the first to reach La
Louisiane bringing a flotilla with supplies in de Bienville's

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 295

governorship, and carrying back American timber. His
success won him the cross of St. Louis from the grand mon-
arque. He returned to Louisiana and married Magdalen
Cartier. Of his three sons, Louis Toutant Beauregard
married Victorine Ducros, daughter of a wealthy planter,
of St. Bernard Parish. Of their three sons, the youngest,
Jacques Toutant-Beauregard, married Helene Judith de
Reggio in 1798. Of their seven children, the third was
Pierre Gustave Toutant-Beauregard, of Confederate fame.

Old as is his paternal ancestry, that of his mother is even
more illustrious. He is of direct descent from the Dukes
de Reggio. His great-grandfather, Chevalier Francois
Marie de Reggio, cousin to the reigning Duke, had distin
guished himself under his friend, Due de Richelieu, at the
siege of Bergen-apzoom ; was given a commission and sent
to Louisiana with his command by Louis XV. When the
province went under Spanish rule this chevalier was made
royal standard bearer, with other offices. He was close
kinsman also to Marquis de Vaudureil, another colonial
governor of Louisiana. Of his marriage to Mile. Fleurian
two sons were born, of whom the younger, Chevalier Louis
Emanuel de Reggio, married Mile. Judith Olivier de Vezin.
Her daughter, Helene Judith, was the mother of our gen
eral.

When eleven years old young P. G. T. Beauregard was
taken to New York and placed under the charge of two
veteran officers of Napoleon's army, Messieurs Peugnet.
At sixteen years he entered West Point, graduating second
in the class of '38, among forty-five members, and becom
ing lieutenant of engineers before he was of age.

At the academy he was quiet and studious, but watchful
of his rights, courteous but determined in their maintaining
and was quick-witted and a leader in sports and the riding
school. He is credited with having kicked a football beyond

296 BELLES, BEAUX AND BKAINS OF THE SIXTIES

HBBB

••••••••••I

cadet limits for the only time on record ; and a much assigned
witticism is pretty well conceded to him. The professor
of engineering, quizzing the class, shot out at him the query :
"Cadet Beauregard, should the trench cavalier escape,
what would you do?"

"Well, sir/' was the instant reply, "I should vault on the

cheval defrise and put off af
ter him!"

In 1847, Lieutenant
Beauregard was in charge of
engineer works at Tampico,
having been with General
Scott throughout the war
and been twice wounded.
Later he had other responsi
ble posts; as from 1853 to
I860, when he was in
charge of lake defenses of
Louisiana and at the same
time superintended the
building of the custom
house at New Orleans. On
November twentieth of that
year he was appointed
superintendent of the West Point Academy and resigned
his commission in the February of the next year. By
the first of March he was in command of the Confederate
army then organizing and was more spoken of for perman
ent commander-in-chief than anyone save General Braxton
Bragg. He was later made one of the six full generals,
and fought in the first and last battles of the war.

What this high-natured gentleman and true soldier did
in war is familiar history. He and his young sons went
earliest to the front, and from Sumter to surrender there

GENERAL G. T. BEAUREGARD

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 297

was no important movement in which their name does not
appear. The old name took on a new splendor that shone
across seas. Two years after our war, another was imminent
between the Danubian principalities and Roumania, and
chief command of the latter's armies was offered Beaure-
gard. That — and a similar one made two years later by
the khedive of Egypt — he declined, to remain with his own
people. He built two of her railroads; designed the great
street railway system of New Orleans; and later, with Gen
eral Early, supervised the Louisiana lottery.

The general was twice married; his first wife having been
the woman acknowledged the most beautiful and the most
charming of the belles of her day.

In widowerhood, years later, he wedded Mile. Caroline
Deslondes, one of the four beautiful and brilliant sisters
of that great old Creole family. They were Henriette, Mrs.
Adams; Mathilda, Mrs. Slidell; and Juliette, Mrs. Seixas.
The second union was childless, Madame Caroline Beauregard
having died while her husband was winning laurels on
fresh fields after Bull Run. The name is all of descent from
the Villere line — the first alliance.

Marie Laure Villere was a' most typical Creole, of the
early regime. She was daughter of Jules Villere of the
Magnolia plantations, and Perle Olivier, daughter of Col7
onel Charles Olivier. This Villere family sent a represent
ative to America with Iberville and de Bienville, in 1699:
Etienne Roy de Villere. His direct descendant was Gov
ernor J. Philip Villere, who succeeded Governor Claiborne,
in 1817.

This first marriage of General Beauregard left three chil
dren, two sons, and a daughter. The eldest, Rene Toutant
Beauregard, was a mere boy when the war began, but went
to the front as lieutenant of artillery, commanded his
battery in the relief of Vicksburg, and surrendered as major

298 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

in Johnston's army after serving from Nashville to At
lanta in every previous battle. Now a judge in his native
state, he is the father of one son, named for his grandsire,
and in his father's profession. Major Beauregard married
Miss Alice Cenas: fourth daughter of M. Hilary Briton Cenas
and Miss Margaret Octavia Pierce, of Baltimore. Besides
the son, five daughters blessed the Beauregard-Cenas union:
Misses Marguerite, Laure, Alba (who is now Mrs. Henry

Leverich Richardson), Alice
and Hilda, the last two not
having entered society.

Madame Beauregard's f am-
ily is one that has been high
placed and popular in the
social history of New
Orleans and Baltimore. The
children of Mr. Hilary Cenas
were seven sons, of whom
only one survives, and six
daughters: Heloise, Clarisse,
Anna Maria (now widow
of Mr. John Poitevent),
Alice (Mrs. Beauregard) and
Frances. The only living
brother is Mr. Louis Eugene

Cenas, who married Miss Lionide May, daughter of Cap
tain Eugene May, of war fame.

Hilary Cenas, one of the elder brothers, was my boyhood
friend. He was sent to Georgetown College by his father,
in charge of Hon. Charles M. Conrad, Pierce's secretary of
the navy. He, the two young Conrads, Louis and Charlie,
were my neighbors and great chums. The tragic fate of
one of the last still sends a shiver through society, when
mentioned. Cenas, too, met a sad death, but one born out

HILARY CENAS

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 299

of man's duty, well performed. He went into the Confeder
ate Navy; and, as I have said elsewhere, was a favorite with
men and women alike in Richmond. After the war, he
returned to New Orleans, being then the head of his family.
Ardent, fearless, and chivalrous, he was a foremost leader
of his race against attempted carpet-bag domination. In
the Jackson Square emeute he was shot in the foot; a wound
that never healed and resulted in his widely lamented death
in the spring of 1877. No truer type of Southern manhood
was a sacrifice to the misnamed "peace."

The second brother, Henri Toutant Beauregard, was a
young cadet at the South Carolina military academy and
was detailed with his corps to guard the old fort. Growing
to manhood after the war, he married Miss Antoinette Har-
ney, of St. Louis, granddaughter of the famous old general,
William S. Harney, of Florida fame. They have no chil
dren.

The general's only daughter, Laure Villere Beauregard,
reached womanhood while he was still in the zenith of his
fame and in the vigor of green old age. Around her clus
tered the time-softened memories of the mother who had
given her life for the girl's, and the deep love for the gentle
and lovable nature that was wrapped up in him. So "Dou-
cette, " as he pet-named her, became his constant companion
and idol, and the love he gave her was returned with in
terest. When, after refusing other offers, she married Col
onel Charles A. Larendon, of South Carolina, in the early
'80's father and daughter would not be separated. In
the former's absence in active duty the infant had been
taken by Madame Villere, her grandmother, and partly
reared at the old Magnolia plantation home.

The Nemesis of coincidence followed the last marriage,
Mrs. Larendon gave her own life to bring her second daughter
into the world, the first girl having died while very young.

300 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

The second was now to replace the lost ones of the past, and
the whole hearts of her grandfather and father wrapped
themselves in her. Happily the third Laure Beauregard—

who inevitably became " Dou-
cette" also — was spared to
their great love. Later Miss
Larendon went to Paris,
completing higher studies,
and is now again at her
father's home in New Orleans.
How the memory of
Beauregard is conserved in
the hearts of his compa
triots may be indicated by
a not new story. A group
of Creoles were viewing the
then new Lee statue, in
New Orleans. One of them
blew out a cloud of cigarette
smoke, with the query:
"Lee? Who then ees this Lee?"
Another turned on him thoughtfully:
"Lee? Ah! yes, I know; I hear Beau'gar' speek well o'
heem!"

No name has worked deeper into the broidery of history
than Mason. Threads from it ramify through woof and
warp — varying a bit in family color and twist — but in no
tittle of rich and indurant family pride. There are at least
three tall and sturdy trunks to the Mason family tree that reach
far branches. ' These so intertwine as to puzzle all inexperts,
and, to a degree, the families themselves. One of the oldest
— and most prideful — of the living Masons wrote me a
year ago: "In vain will the genealogist attempt to dispose
traditions in any clear and comprehensible manner!"

LAURE BEAUREGARD LARENDON

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 301

Each branch claims to be "The Masons"; and so they are,
for good blood and good wine lose nought by the dust of
centuries and a few cobwebs ; and gourmets have long wrangled
as to whether the " crust" bettered, or weakened, the wine.

This gossip not being a biographical essay, nor yet a "Brett"
only a few members of each noted family can find place in
it, they, naturally, being the ones the writer recalls "for
cause."

Colonel George Mason was an English officer and states
man of importance in the reign of the two kings Charles.
After defeat in 1651 he embarked for America and set
tled in Virginia on a grant of land in Stafford, now Fairfax,
county .

George Mason, of Gunston
Hall, Stafford, was his direct
descendant. He it was who
wrote the Bill of Rights and
the Constitution of Virginia,
in 1776, and was in the
assembly. In the next year
he was elected to the conti

nental congress, and had al
ready gained the fame of one
of the ablest debaters ever
known in that state of
orators. He was a member
of the national convention
that framed the United States
Constitution, but he refused
to sign that document and
opposed it strongly and
bitterly in the Virginia assembly. He declared and main
tained that it "tended towards monarchy!" This orig
inal Mason was warmly admired and eulogized by

GEORGE MASON, OF GUNSTON HALL

302 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

Jefferson, and the feeling between the two was real and
mutual. George Mason, of Gunston, died in 1792. He
left only one brother, Thomson Mason, of Raspberry Plan
tation, Loudon county. He had three notable sons, Stev
ens, John and Armistead, all having the Thomson name
additional. Armistead was born in 1787, was Democratic
senator from Virginia in 1815 and, four years later, was
killed in a duel by his cousin, J. N. McCarty.

John Thomson Mason married Elizabeth Moir, and about
1812 moved to Lexington, Ky. He was the father of a great
progeny that claim to be "the" Masons.

Of thirteen who reached adult age two lately survived.
Miss Emily Virginia Mason, was living, past her fourscore
and ten, at Washington; and Mrs. Laura Anne Chilton,
widow of General Robert Chilton, still resides with her
widowed daughter, Mrs. Peyton Wise, at Richmond. Only
when this page had been put in type, Miss Emily passed
away peacefully, in her ninety-fourth year. At the capital
and through Virginia, the sorrow for her loss was genuine
and universal; and it was echoed back from many a re
mote section where her strong, calm face had never been
seen, but where her name was a household word. Others
of this noted branch are seen elsewhere in passage through
these pages.

James Murray Mason, a cousin of the Gunston Masons,
was born in Fairfax county, in 1798. He was Delected to
congress in 1837 and was senator from 1847 and served
fourteen years, during which he invented the " Fugitive
Slave Law." He was an ultra for states' rights, a thorough
Virginian in sentiment and habit, but blunt and outspoken
in his public and private utterance, while nowise diplomatic.
His selection, with John Slidell, to represent the Confederate
cause at the most essential courts of Europe caused no small
wonderment as to Mr. Davis's real belief in the possibility

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 303

of recognition — not to speak of offensive and defensive al
liance. Financial mismanagement was nowise condoned
by diplomatic result; and the commander of the army was
left to play "a lone hand," without drawing from the
cards of his alleged " assisting" partners. Mr. Mason was
essentially an old-timer, without experience in the modern
chicane of diplomacy, and wholly wanting in that wily some
thing that substituted for it in his more superficial colleague.

The Masons are allied to
almost every notable family
in Virginia, but most closely
to the Lees. The elder of
the two sons of Light Horse
Harry, Admiral Sydney Smith
Lee, married Anna Maria
Mason, sister of Mrs. Samuel
Cooper. Their six gallant
sons, headed by " Fitz," will
be met soon.

The head of the third house
of Mason was a noted and
very active American, albeit
not directly descended from
either of the others' progen
itors.

John Y. Mason was born in Sussex county, in 1795, be
came secretary of the navy under President Tyler in 1844;
attorney-general in 1845, and secretary of the navy in 1846,
under the Polk administration. Later Mr. Mason was ap
pointed minister to France by President Pierce; and died
in Paris in 1859. Mr. Mason combined directness that seems
to have inhered with the name he bore, with an astuteness
that made him a more successful diplomat than his name
sake and successor of that suave capital of intrigue.

MRS. SYDNEY SMITH LEE
(ANNA MARIA MASON)

304 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

There were four daughters of this family; three of whom
are now living — Mrs. A. Archer Anderson, of Richmond;
and Misses Susan and Saidie Mason, of Georgetown. The
other daughter, Miss Emma Mason, was a brilliant and ex
ceptionally handsome girl in war-day Richmond. She had
much chic, and quite as much tact, being a prize to the beaux
with brains, but a terror to the gandins. She married Mr.
Barksdale; both are dead.

Still another branch, the Roy Masons, of Clieveland
on the Rappahannock, were not direct descendants of
George Mason, of Gunston; but were related by maternal
line. One of the daughters of George Mason, 2d, married
twice, her second husband being John Dinwiddie. Their
daughter, Elizabeth, married General Fouke; and their
daughter, or granddaughter, was the mother of Roy Mason,
of Clieveland. Ten years ago this old home passed into
possession of a collateral branch; the Masons of La Grange.
It was burned while Miss Blount Mason was alone in the
house, but she promptly rebuilt it.

James Murray Mason, of Clover Hill, near Fredericks-
burg, was direct descendant of James Roy Mason; and his
son, Dr. Alex, Mason, was father of three daughters, of whom
Mrs. Laura R. Webb, of Washington, is the only one left.
Elizabeth, who married General E. P. Alexander, is dead;
as is her sister, wife of that true gentleman and good soldier,
my boyhood's mate and adult chum, Wade Hampton Gibbs,
of Columbia, S. C. Three double first cousins followed the
military bent. Monimia, Augusta, and Sue Mason married
respectively, Generals Charles W. Field, Charles Collins and
Dabney H. Maury; all West Pointers.

Blunt old General Harney remarked: "If there are any
more Mason girls left the army will have to be enlarged!"

There are many more Masons left, but this chapter can
not be enlarged.

CHAPTER XXVII

MORE HISTORIC HOUSES

No feet have left deeper imprint upon the historic soil
of Virginia than those of the Wise family. In all public
matters in their state, aggressive men of its two branches
have cast strong lights and shadows upon the foreground
of the national picture, and in war they acted out the motto
of the Douglas.

The Wise name harks back in colonial history to 1635.
In that year the first John Wise came over and took up lands.
He married Hannah Scarbrough, sister to Sir Charles
Scarbrough, court physician to Charles second; and to Col.
Edmund Scarbrough, surveyor-general of the colonies.

The second John Wise, their son, married Matilda, daughter
of Lieut-Col. John Wrest, a cousin of Lord Delaware. Their
son was the third John of the name; and he married Scar
brough Robinson, daughter of Col. Tully Robinson, a burgess
and leading churchman; and of a very distinguished Vir
ginia family.

Their son was the fourth John Wise; county lieutenant
of Accomac and of Norfolk boroughs. He first married
Elizabeth Cable; and his second wife was Margaret Douglas,
daughter of Col. George Douglas, who was king's counsel
and thirty-two years a burgess. Their son (of the second
marriage) was the fifth John Wise. He also married twice;
first Mary Henry, daughter of Judge James Henry ; and sec-

305

306 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

ond, Sarah Corbin Cropper. Her father was a Revolutionary
major-general, having risen through every rank, under Mor
gan's command. He commanded at the battle of Mon-

mouth, while Morgan was
in the South. John Mar
shall, the famed chief justice,
was a lieutenant in the same
regiment.

Their son, the sixth in
direct descent — broke the
continuity of baptism and
was named Henry Alexander
Wise.

A bold and clear-cut, if
somewhat rugged figure
stands out in the old con
gressman, minister to Brazil,
governor and Confederate
general. I shall never forget
my first sight of him, in

the smoky glare of wide-awakes, as he stood upon
the gallery of an Avenue hotel and spoke to the
surging, cheering Washington crowd. That was in 1855,
when he was elected governor of Virginia, over the Know
Nothing surge; and I can almost hear the yell that greeted
his shouted: "Yes, I've got my foot upon the neck of Sam!"
And he kept it there; as he did usually upon those of his
opponents in a long, strenuous and generally successful
career. Vigor, alacrity and tenacity were his attributes;
and they were called upon by those who did not always "train
with him." He was a member of the commission to ad
just the boundary between Maryland and Virginia; and
when Abraham Lincoln made that memorable visit to Rich
mond, close succeeding it's surrender, Governor Wise was

HENRY A. WISE

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 307

the one man he sent to advise with him; and the veteran
politician insisted on taking Hon. James Lyons with him.

The future governor was born in his father's house on the
third of December, 1806. He was educated at Washington
College, Pa., and afterward studied law. He married Ann
Jennings, by whom he had four children; the second wife
was Miss Sarah Sergeant, daughter of Hon. John Sergeant,
of Philadelphia, by whom he had three children. He had no
children by his third wife, who was Mary Lyons, of Richmond,
Va. Three daughters and four sons reached maturity.
The eldest daughter, Mary Wise, married Dr. A. Y. P. Gar-
nett, of Washington; only one childless daughter remaining
of a numerous family, save four children of a son, long dead,
Henry Wise Garnett. The
parents passed away years
ago.

One of the daintiest mem
ories of my Washington
youth is the picture of the
second sister, Miss Annie
Wise. She married Freder
ick Plumer Hobson, of .
Goochland ; and lived during
the war's continuance on the
farm twenty miles above
Richmond. The next sister,
Margaretta Ellen, whom
everyone called " Nene, " was
a marked belle of Richmond
war-time; her wit and point-
ed talk making the tall,
handsome blonde a centre of attraction to men who were
not afraid of her — with cause. She married William C.
Mayo, and survived him, residing in Richmond.

308 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

The eldest son, 0. Jenning Wise was a remarkable man
in every regard: a true cavalier, scholar, fighter, orator, and
a duelist of note, from principle more than inclination.. As
a youth, he was noted in public affairs; became a politician
and journalist from circumstance, and a soldier from choice.
Killed at the head of his company in the desperate fight

at Roanoke Island, in Feb
ruary, 1862, his death was
perhaps more lamented than
that of any youth of that
bloody year. The next
brother, named for his fath
er, was a minister, and a man
of lovely character. He mar
ried Miss Hallie Haxall, and
died in 1868, leaving no
children to uphold the name,
only one female grandchild
remaining. Dr. Richard A.
Wise, the third brother, was
captain and brigade inspector
on his father's staff. He
married Miss Maria Dainger-
field Peachy; and died while
in congress, also leaving only
one female descendant. Thus

CAPTAIN JOHN S. WISE

the perpetuation of the old
name has fallen to the youngest son ; a precocious and handsome
boy when I met him at Richmond. This John Sergeant
Wise, named for his maternal grandfather, was in the famous
"fighting classes" of the Virginia Military Institute, that
ran away to the battle of Newmarket and wrote the primer
history of Southern truants in letters of blood.
John S. Wise was wounded at Newmarket, and his father

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 309

sent him to the country to recuperate and keep out of dan
ger. How the sixteen-year-old did this, his own words
to me in a private letter may best describe:

"I was sent, in October, 764, to southwest Virginia, to
drill reserves; and got into a devil of a racket at Saltville
two days after reaching there. Burbridge attacked the
saltworks and we licked him. Then I was adjutant of the
artillery defenses, from Richmond to Danville, under old
Major Boggs. We had about one hundred heavy guns,
at points along the line, and about one hundred men to fight
them. We were a ' movable feast/ When the retreat began
I was sent in from Clover Depot with despatches for General
Lee, and got in and came out; delivering the last despatch
he sent Mr. Davis."

After the war, John S. Wise graduated in law from the
University of Virginia and practiced with his father, at
Richmond. Being a Wise, he went into politics; and, ag
gressive and independent, he took his own head in the very
thick of readjustment fights. He was elected congress-
man-at-large, on the Republican ticket in 1882, coincidently
while his first cousin, George Douglas, was member from
Democratic Richmond. He is now a successful practitioner in
New York, having two chips of the old block in his office.
He is also a vigorous writer of essay and fiction, and several
of his books have won success. He is a strong and pictur
esque talker, as well, and very popular in after-dinner efforts.
About thirty-eight years ago he married Miss Evelyn
Beverly, daughter of Colonel Hugh and Mrs. Nancy Ham
ilton Douglas, of Nashville.

This marriage perpetuates the old name, there being five
sons and two daughters. The eldest is Hugh Douglas Wise,
captain in the 9th Infantry. He married Miss Ida Hun-
gerford, of Watertowri, N. Y. The next brother, Henry
Alexander Wise, is his father's partner in the law. He mar-

310 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

ried Miss Henrietta Edwina Booth, of Virginia, and they
have two children, a boy and a girl. John Sergeant Wise,
Jr., is the third son, and also in the law firm.

Eva Douglas Wise, the next in age, married Lieutenant
James T. Perrine Barney, of the 8th United States Cavalry,
and their young son is named for his father. Jennings
Cropper Wise married Miss Elizabeth Anderson, of Water-
town, and their son renews the grandfather's name. The
sixth of the family, Miss Margaretta Watmough Wise, is
still unmarried, as is the youngest son, Byrd Douglas Wise.

The other branch of the Wise family were double cousins
to these.

Tully R. Wise married his cousin, the sister of Henry A.
Wise, and their children were seven notable sons, who made
their mark upon the century past. John Henry, the 2d, still
lives in California, where he was a merchant and collector
of port under Cleveland. He is now past eighty. George
Douglas, the third son, who was the Democratic congress
man noted, was captain and inspector of Stevenson's di
vision of Johnston's army. He is now living in Virginia
though still a bachelor. The next, James M. Wise, was
captain and ordnance officer of Wise's brigade. He married
Miss Ann Dunlop, and left one son. Peyton, the next,
married Miss Laura Chilton, daughter of General Robert
Chilton, and died without issue. He was a good scholar,
a good soldier and citizen, and well appreciated in his state.
Frank, the next brother, married Miss Ellen Tompkins,
daughter of Colonel C. Q. Tompkins. His widow survives
with only one daughter. The youngest, Lewis Warrington,
married Miss Mattie Allen. They are still alive and have
no children.

John Wise, eldest son of Major John Wise and Mary Henry,
and half brother to the governor — married Miss Harriet
Wilkins. Their sons were Dr. John James Henry Wise

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 311

and Capt. George Douglas Wise. The former died unmarried.
George married Marietta Atkinson, daughter of Dr. Archibald
Atkinson, of Smithfield, Isle of Wight. Killed at Peters
burg, on his uncle's staff, he left but one child, Marietta,
who never married.

Another direct branch of this notable family was that
of John Cropper Wise, son of the fifth John by his second
marriage and full brother of Governor Wise. He married Miss
Anne Finney, of Accomac county, and became father of
six sons and three daughters; the latter leaving no children.
One son— John, who would have been the seventh of that
name in direct line — died in his early youth.

Henry A., the next son, was at Roanoke Island, wounded
and became professor captain of cadets at the V. M. I.
as will be seen later. Louis, the third brother, was also
at Newmarket, and wounded there. William Bowman,
the next brother was wounded at Malvern Hill, and later
lost a foot at Port Walthall. He died unmarried, last
year.

Dr. John Cropper, the fifth brother, was in the United
States Navy and medical director of the Baltimore, Cap
tain Dyer's leader, in the battle of Manila bay. He
married Miss Agnes Brooke, of Fauquier county. Heber,
the youngest brother, is unmarried.

By the marriage of the governor's father, Major John Wise,
to Miss Cropper, the family became identified with the
Custis-Lees; by that of Nene Wise, with the Mayos; and
by that of Henry A. Wise, Jr., with the Haxalls andTripletts
and by that of John Sergeant Wise to Miss Douglas, it was
allied to the Carter, Byrd, Beverley, Bland, Hale, Kinkead
and Hamilton families. In the last and present generations
it is representative of almost every old family in the state.

Still another branch — more remote, but still very promi
nent one — is known as the "Craney Island Branch." Its

312 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

head was Colonel John Wise, who married Miss Margaret
Douglas, and his brother, Tully Robinson Wise, married
her sister, Mathilda.

A son of the second couple became known as^Craney Island

George." His name was
George Douglas; and he in
herited the Island estate from
his great-grandfather, Colo
nel William Robinson. He
married Miss Catherine Stew
art, of Bowling Green; and
4 their numerous children be-

jflSjl came known as the "Craney

Island Wises." Their son,
Captain George Stewart Wise,
was a paymaster in the United
States Navy. He married
Eliza Stansberry, of Dela
ware ; and had two sons : one
George Douglas Stewart
Wise, who married first Miss
Laura May of Baltimore.

He was general in the United States Army, and his son was
Admiral Fred May Wise of the navy. This family have a
very large and scattered descent. The admiral's son is
Major Fred May Wise, United States Marines.

Henry Augustus Wise, brother to Gen. Geo. Douglas Stewart
Wise, was a commodore in the navy; and married the bril
liant and popular daughter of Massachusetts " favorite son,"
Edward Everett. The pair were wholly in the swim during
Miss Harriet Lane's reign; and the husband died in Genoa,
leaving children who have married and scattered widely
in North and South. One of the best known of the daughters
is Mrs. Jacob .D. Miller. * Many "Craney Island" Wises still

MRS. HENRY A. WISE, JR.
(HALLIE HAXALL)

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 313

reside in the vicinity of Norfolk, notable among them, in this
generation, being George Nelms Wise, of Newport News.

Intellect, culture, humor and conviction rarely centre in
one man. They did in "V", as Captain Virginius Dabney
was known to his intimates. He added in his make-up a
tenderness almost feminine, and a loyalty that was quite
that.

His life in New York was antithesis to Thompson's. Dab
ney fought fiercely with equals and against odds, and that
he could not coerce surroundings never hinted to him the
thought of changing these methods. So he lived and died
a not unhappy if not triumphant man. His literary work
in New York was hidden at its best, for that was in essays
and critiques in unsigned papers and as reader for the great
publishing houses.

Dabney's novels were genre pictures, but — and probably
intentionally — far over the head of the general reader. " Don
Miff" and "Gold That Did Not Glitter" had marked succes
d'e'stime; they were written less for the more material sort.
His deeper impress on the New York of that day was his
journalistic and critical work.

Born at Elmington, Gloucester county, in February,
1835, Virginius was named in honor of his state by that
stern old Roman, his father. This Colonel Thomas Smith
Gregory Dabney was about to leave the loved soil of his
own birth and remove to Mississippi, where his new home
at Dry Grove was made famous by his gifted daughter Su
san (Mrs. Smedes). "A Southern Planter," her simple but
elegant recital of old Southern home life, drew from Mr.
Gladstone a letter of four autograph pages.

Colonel Dabney had one full uncle, Augustine Lee Dabney,
and two half-uncles, George and Benjamin Dabney. These
had descendants who, with his own sixteen children, made
a house of at least Virginian if not biblical reach. The im-

314 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

mediate descendants of whom Virginius was the head were
Charles, Thomas, James, Charles, 2d, -Edward, Sarah (now
Mrs. J. R. Eggleston, of Raymond, wife of a gallant sailor
" Reb" and head of her state's U. D. C.), Susan (Mrs. Smedes,
of Gladstone Hall, Sewanee); Sophia (Mrs. Thurmond, also
at Sewanee), Benjamin, Emmeline, Benjamin, 2d, Ida, Thom
as S., so popular still in New Orleans; Lelia (living with Mrs
Smedes) and Rosalie.

Eight of these have passed away and several of them have
become noted in their chosen walks of work. They and their
descendants have carried the Dabney name, and have made
it respected, into every section of their country. They had
blood-coadjutors in this in the children of the great-uncle,
Augustine Lee Dabney, whose nine were Frederick Yea-
mans, Thomas Gregory, Marye, John Davis, Ann Robinson,
Elizabeth, Martha Chamberlayne, Mary Smith and Letitia.

Respected and admired for great qualities by his friends
and neighbors, Colonel Dabney was a man of iron mold and
emphatically the head of his family, in the Roman sense.
As indication that his word was law, one day he was crossing
the hall with a large dose of castor oil for a sick child. Meet
ing a well one, he said briefly:

"Take that dose of medicine, sir — Well, Sambo?" He
interrupted himself to hear the negro's message, then finished
to the child: " — to your sick brother."

The abashed child gasped, "Why, papa, I took it myself!"

Virginius Dabney first married Miss Ellen Maria Heath,
who died leaving one child, Richard Heath Dabney. His
second wife was Anna Wilson Noland, and her children were
Thomas Lloyd, Burr Noland, Susan Wilson, Virginius and
Joseph Drexel, all of whom are still living except the last.

Richard Heath Dabney is the well-known professor of
English and history of the University of Virginia, where his
industry keeps full pace with his high attainments. He

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 315

also had been twice married, in 1888, to Miss Mary Amanda
Bentley and eleven years later to Miss Lily Heth Davis, by
whom he had two children.

Colonel Dabney's sister, Martha, married Dr. Lewis Cham-
berlayne and became the mother of several children, two
of them being noted figures in the Richmond war-time. Cap
tain Hampden Chamberlayne and his sister Parke were a
great resource at the Mosaic Club. Miss Chamberlayne had,
too, that loyalty inherent in good blood, and hers strained
from the Hampdens and John Pym. After a courtship "en-
durin' ov de wah" she married rare George William Bagby,
the humorist, poet and editor of the Southern Literary Mes
senger elsewhere met. Widowed early, she reared a family
of sons and daughters who have been popular in their Rich
mond home and wherever else encountered. Miss Virginia
Bagby married Henry B. Taylor, Jr., of Louisa county; and
their family is of four children. Miss Parke married Charles
E. Boiling, of Richmond; the next sister, Martha, is Mrs.
George Gordon Battle, of North Carolina. She resides now
in New York City; and in Richmond lives Miss Ellen, the
unmarried sister. There are also four brothers: Prof. John
Hampden Chamberlain Bagby, of physical science, at Hamp-
den-Sidney college. Robert Coleman, the next brother is
in business, at Greenville, South Carolina; and Philip Haxall
Bagby is a lieutenant in the 6th United States Infantry.
George W. Bagby, Jr., is in the car service department of the
C. &. 0. railway, at Richmond.

Direct antipodes to his predecessor, Thompson, in the Mes
senger chair, Bagby was a fluent and easy writer, with a unique
vein of humor. His "Mozis Addums" sketches were to a cer
tain class of his state's life what Judge Longstreet's " Georgia
Scenes" were to his. He was a poet too, and his "Empty
Sleeve" became a camp classic.

"Ham" Chamberlayne had his sister's wit and humor and

316 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

was a great scholar, but eccentric and saturnine. He was
a brave soldier and a true friend, a forceful, fluent writer,
with a great future before him which the scythe of the grim
Reaper cut off in its mid-promise.

The longevity of the men and women of the war has made
possible many " reunions" of the Vets, and "campfires" of
the G. A. R. But as the autumn of Time advances, the
leaves fall faster — and more silently — in his forests.

In the five years of making this book, scores of its people
have passed away; several after its pages were ready for
press , as Miss Mason, Gen. S. D. Lee, Mrs. HennieHall Thomp
son, rare Joseph Bryan and well-loved Acldie Deane Lyons.

This chapter was already printed, when another noted
woman passed away. On the 23rd of March, Mrs. William
Carrington Mayo — "Nene" Wise of happy memory — went
to final sleep. She was true daughter of a great father and
widow of a true and genial gentleman. Five children mourn
their loss irreparable: Henry Wise Mayo, of New York;
Mesdames William T. and St. Julien Oppenheimer, of Rich
mond; Mrs. Richard Parker Crenshaw;of Havana; and Mrs.
James Brandt Latimer, of Chicago. She left but one brother,
John S. Wise, of New York; youngest and last of the seven
children of the great old governor. But there are hosts of
close kin and old friends who send out heartborn sympathy
to those who feel the All-wise hand so heavily.

CHAPTER XXVIII

OUR FOREIGN RELATIONS

EVERY empire must perforce have its "relations" with for
eign ones to preserve that misty, but much discussed some
thing — balance of power. The Southern Confederacy, claim
ing to be an empire within herself, was strictly kept in that
position by the cordon of ships that sealed up her ports and
the cordon of blue coats that defined her land borders all
too distinctly.

She was literally an imperium in imperio. Yet she main
tained one sort of " foreign relations" that in turn helped her
to maintain her exceptional status for four unparalleled years
of existence.

No history of the war would be complete without mention
of the two regiments of the First Maryland, or the " Mary
land Line, " so linked with the memories of the A. N. V. They
fought their way well and cheerily from Bull Run to Appo-
mattox, forgetting home terrapin and jovial sociability in ice
bound camps and with scantiest rations. They gave the
army noted generals and useful officers in staff and line.

Every Confederate reunion of today brings up new stories
of sturdy, blunt and soldierly General Bradley T. Johnson,
and of his brainy and helpful wife, Jane Claudia Saunders,
daughter of Governor Saunders, of North Carolina — always
a pair that made friends and held them by strength of nature
that needed no adventitious aid from art. Their son, Bradley

317

318 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

Saunders Johnson, married Miss Ann Rutherford, of Gooch-
land county, and they reside at Rock Castle.

Burly General Arnold Elzey and his faithful helpmate,
too, won hosts of friends; as evidenced by all Richmond's
sympathy in the old fighter's ugly wound that forbade
speech, even to the little remedial oath when his milk punch was
delayed. Brilliant and dashing Snowden Andrews carried
for years the ghastly proof of his loyalty to conviction in the

__ ^ wound that tore his side

away and gave him pain
unspeakable. But it carried
some balm in the warm
-sympathy of all who knew
him and of thousands he had
never seen.

But the shell that took its
literal Shylock pound, cut off
besides the certain wreath
that was ready to encircle
his stars. Three of those
came to Generals George H.
Steuart and John H. Winder,
i< and were worn usefully to
THOMAS w. SYMINGTON the ending; and lesser rank

sought the frank and manly " fellows from across" in meed
as full as it was well earned.

No parlor, mimic play-house, nor " starvation" in Dixie
was complete without the Mary landers. They mixed the ut-
ile cum duke, in rare good taste, many of them being "the
curled darlings of society. "

Merest mention of that rare lot of gentlemen fighters de
ploys across the field of memory a wealth of names and forms
and faces that only the stenograph might list. Who of us
does not recall those splendid specimens of young man-

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 319

hood, the Symingtons, Stewart and Tom, fresh, vigorous and
favorites with all women? The former is now a respected old
citizen of Baltimore; but the other, ever recalled as the most
vitally handsome fellow of his day, has long since left us.
There, too, were the Brogdens, Harry and Arthur, if not the
Gemini, then a well-groomed, courtly Hercules and a red
blooded and high-toned Apollo. To this day Richmond and
Baltimore repeat the quaint quips and quick sarcasms of the
aptly named Lemmon boys; Captain George a perfect mental
cocktail, for appetizing flavor with the dash of bitter, and
Bill Lemmon, mixed in the same style with slightly va
riant proportions. Then "all the blood of all the Howards"
offered to free flowing for principle, as had that of the sires
of their race. The strain of the " Star Spangled Banner " came
to the new flag when they and the Keys flocked to it. The
Browns and Spences and Latrobes touched the left elbow
with old-time comradeship of their houses; and the Carys
and Skipwiths came home again to the seats of their sires.
And when they came, one and all bore themselves as men
who had a purpose and meant to do for it, cost what the do
ing might.

In the procession pass the forms of Curzon Hoffman,
quaint Frank Ward and the beautiful, cameo face of Joseph
B. Polk, General Winder's nephew and aide. Graceful, and
gifted, he chose the stage as his " bread-bakery," soon after
the peace; and his successes, first at Wallack's and Daly's in
New York and later as a star in " Mixed Pickles" are widely
known. The first commission signed by Jefferson Davis for
the Maryland Line was that of one of these " foreigners. "

This was at Montgomery, to First Lieutenant Theodore
Oscar Chestney, of Washington City, who fought his way to his
majority, survived the war and now commands columns of
credits as cashier of the Central Georgia Bank of Macon,
Georgia.

320 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

He is, moreover, the father of a large and interesting fam
ily, having married the daughter of that famous old naval
hero, Captain Peter Ulmstead Murphy, familiarly known
as "Pat Murphy," who commanded the Norfolk Navy Yard
when the Virginians " borrowed it." His Chestney grand
children are Kate, named for her mother who married the
son of Major John F. Hanson, the journalist and Republican
leader of Georgia; a second daughter, Miss Courtney, who
married the grandson of Hon. William A. Graham, of North
Carolina, secretary of the navy under Fillmore, and vice-
presidential candidate on the Scott ticket ; and a third daugh
ter, who married Devries Davis, of the Southern Railway.
The eldest son, Piercy Ulmstead, a civil engineer, is in the
Macon post-office, and the second, Clement Clay Chestney,
represents a great Macon firm in New York. The youngest,
Brown Ruffin, has just finished his course at the Georgia
Tech., at Atlanta.

But I must pause. I have omitted many? Verily, and
of need; else had the list grown to Leporello's length, and
names of all worth the record had been replica of the Mary
land morning report.

Really but a part of Maryland, its name changed for cause,
the District of Columbia could not keep its youth from ford
ing the Potomac. There the north wind and the south wind
blew the pollen of " rebellion" in to men's nostrils, and inter
est and old habit were alike impotent to keep the Washing
ton and Georgetown boys at home. Many of these, like their
brethren nearest North, are noted elsewhere in these pages:
but one segment of them went South in a body, organized,
drilled; and each became a picked man. The name of the
National Rifles had long been famed as that of a veritable
society corps. In its ranks were the flower of representative
youth of the capital. Under Captain W. M. Shaffer, at the
firing of the Sumter gun, 'it was a great peace company. The

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 321

echo of that gun split it into two war companies. Obeying
the command, "Fall in!" sundered by principle or prejudice,
the men aligned in two platoons, facing each other with war
in their eyes.

The Northern section held the armory, of course, the arms
and the archives; the
Southerners slung their
knapsacks and marched
South under Captain
Shaffer, with Edmund H.
Cummins and Charles H.
Hill as his lieutenants. At
first the company, holding
to its old name, was at
tached to the Maryland
Line ("Old Brad" John
son) participating in the
Bull Run overture and
then put on advanced out
post duty at Munson's Hill.
There Cummins succeeded
to command, Hill rising to
first lieutenant. But be
fore the company had time
to make another distinct CHARLES s' HILL AND E' D' H' CUMMINS
record the very quality of its membership almost broke it
up. Shaffer was made a major on the staff. Cummins
went to General Dabney Maury's staff on promotion to a
captaincy and came out of the war with a record of ad
mirable soldiership and stars on his collar. He was a
splendid tactician and disciplinarian; of immense strength
and agility and a trained athlete. He was my assistant in
the National Drill and Encampment at Washington in 1886,
and died in that city seven years ago. Charles Hill went

G. THOMAS COX,

322 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

into the engineer department on promotion so distinguishing
himself as to draw the attention of Forrest to him, and he
served on that great cavalryman's staff, taking his parole
as a major.

George Thomas Cox was another National Rifleman who
found promotion in the engineer department at Charleston,
was sent to Mobile as a captain and settled there, married
Miss Mollie Wilson, stepdaughter of Mrs. Augusta Evans
Wilson, the celebrated authoress. His death followed hers
after a few years. Their two sons, Ernest and George, are
now heads of families. But again space restricts mention
of many a clever fellow who did well what he left home and
friends to do, and gained credit and often promotion for it.
In the ranks of the Northern segment of the National Ri
fles were many true men who won name and fame in their
line of duty. Notable among them was Renwick Smedberg,
of whom I have spoken. That best of fellows and of dancers
has won golden opinions in his new home near the Golden
Gate. There he pets his grandchildren and fights earth
quakes instead of "secesh"; making all too rare trips East
to get a new leg from an appreciative government. In the
ranks, too, were the Pyne brothers, Henry and Charles
M., who lost his leg at first Bull Run and later went into
the Church like his brilliant and wholly original father, Rev.
Dr. Smith Pyne, so long rector of old St. John's.

I do not think that the lamented soldier and clubman,
J. Henley Smith, was ever in the Rifles; or the Ratcliffe boys,
with whom he rode long and hard and far with Mosby — and
another, as will be told. Charley Forsythe was an old Rifle
who, though a Michigan man, and protege of Secretary Lewis
Cass, went South and did good duty. His brother, L. Cass For
sythe, remained and later was in the Northern Regular Army.

The Northern segraent of the Rifles was in command of
Captain John R. Smead, who was killed at the second Bull

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 323

Run. The company was in active service in '61. Of its mem
bers was Alex. Shepherd, the later "Boss, " and Captain "Billy"
Moore, who was secretary to Andrew Johnson and later chief of
police at the capital: a banker, and organizer of the present
Washington Light Infantry.

A unique link between the states was Jackson's dashing
aide, Henry Kyd Douglas, of Hagerstown. Native Virgin
ian, he was a Marylander from early manhood and his person
al and professional gifts made him a marked man in the
society and the law courts of Washington as well. Reckless
yet reliable, he was trusted by his general, as shown in the
latter 's • abrupt order: "Find Early and give him this!" The
other general was "somewhere across the mountain," the
night dark and the rain making roads fetlock deep ; but Doug
las rode seventy-six miles, killed or broke down three horses,
found the general and brought his answer ere he slept. Af
ter the war the tall, stately soldier was prominent in his
profession and in Maryland politics. He was Governor
Brown's adjutant-general for the state, long commanded one
of its best regiments, and socially received special consider
ation in his own section and at the chief resorts of Northern
fashion and elegance. He long fought his unconquerable foe,
consumption, which carried him off four years ago. Of him,
Charles King, soldier on the Federal side and romancer "for
both sides, wrote me: "Never did I know a man who more
deserved the too-often used words, 'a soldier and a gentleman' !"

Superb John C. Breckinridge, statesman, soldier, and the
choice of a great portion of his people for the first office in
their gift, was the central figure around which grouped a gal
axy of war-stars uneclipsed by the lights from any other
state. The sons of the soil of Daniel Boone have ever been
as brave and brainy as their best brethren, in the wars and
in the councils that made and held together the federated
states. Bright proof of this was that hero of three wars,

324 BELLES, BEAUX AND BE A INS OF THE SIXTIES

Albert Sidney Johnson, a West Pointer of the class of '26,
Indian fighter and commander-in-chief of the Texan army
and later the meteor of war in the Southern battle van. When

the states parted, splitting
asunder several of their units,
m much of the strongest brain

I ii'ilUfc and brawn of Kentucky ranged

if promptly under the Stars and

Bars. General Breckinridge
brought with him a following
of ardent and youthful fighters,
and by his side stood Buckner
and bold Morgan, Basil Duke
and Preston, ready to lead
them and their chosen com
rades wherever danger lay.
From first to last the peerless
Kentucky chief proved his

GENERAL j. c. BRECKINRIDGE mettle and theirs, ringing true

at every touch of duty, vigilant

and resourceful in cabinet as he was cool and brilliant in
battle. So the history and the romance of the war have
been enriched and rubricated by the deeds of the boys from
Bluegrass, and the legend-seeming ride of John Morgan had
softer refrain in the new Tales of the Border than the blast of
bugle and the clatter of answering hoof.

Genial and courtly General John B. Castleman, of Louis
ville, today has a wide and warm circle of friends all around
the Union. After the war he married a lady as notable a-
mong the young women of their state as he was among its
younger "vets, " Miss Barbee. Their daughters have carried
inherited graces of person and manner to social triumphs on
both sides of the ocean.

Memory, unbidden, brings up another picture, ruddy, vivid

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 325

and bold. Frank, outspoken Colonel Tom Taylor was as
good a soldier as ever buckled sabre. He was my messmate
in the " nursery days" at Montgomery: restless for the front;
and he commanded his Kentucky regiment with marked
distinction. As a comrade from another state said of him:
"Tom Taylor would have fought hell with one bucket of
water!"

Harassed by spies and coerced by Federal garrisons already
within her borders, the men of Missouri could not have made
head against the protected Union sentiment, even as now
stated, if it was really in the majority. But that did not
deter the sons of "the River
Empire" from carrying their
principles to gunpowder ex
pression. Even the shrewd
ness and vigilance which
gave Captain Lyon his
brigade, could not prevent
the flower of its youth slip
ping through the net he
spread about St. Louis. In
the more open country there
was scarce a let to Confeder
ate manifestation, and the
sympathizers with the South
passed into her territory and
joined her growing armies by
scores and hundreds.

This gossipy recital must
avoid historic semblance and
need only remind one of the

work done by steadfast General Sterling Price, so successful
in battle and clever in raids. He was a Virginian who
went early to Missouri and represented her in congress,

326 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

before he was governor. He outlived the war but a few
years. There were the Marmadukes; five brothers, all
noted for work on land and sea and General John hand
ling his brigade with fine record.

Missouri was remote; methods of the trans-Mississippi
less picturesque than those of Virginian and middle Western
armies; but the results upon both of them were helpful and
effective to an extent hard to overestimate and in those re
sults the Missourians had full share. In the social lights
and shadows of the great war picture, however, they show
less in the foreground grouping at first; and later the jeal
ously guarded river prevented an immigration to the new
capital of many an interesting and gentle non-combatant
whose heart was as much with the Cause as though personal
presence had accentuated it.

So, despite the distance of their red theatre, men walked
its boards whose acting in the war drama thrills today, at
mention of their names. General F. M. Cockrell, the bold
senator from Missouri, now resident at Washington as mem
ber of the railroad commission, commanded the famed bri
gade named for him. Frequently too, in the last year of the
war, he commanded the Missouri division, winning undy
ing credit in both. Colonel Elijah Gates, now resident at
St. Joseph, was the most undaunted and determined of sol
diers. He was the Forrest of the trans-river fighters, lacking
in education but brimming with the acumen of war. He
came out of the press at Franklin with both arms shattered,
holding the bridle with his teeth. With one arm left, he re
turned and fought to the surrender. This he did against
hope, for he told a comrade after Shiloh that he had seen
enough to satisfy him that the Cause was hopeless. The
man to whom he spoke thus was Captain Albert C. Banner,
who went in as a boy and served to the end as gallantly and
steadily as any of the 6,000 in the Missouri brigade; that

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 327

one of which General Maury writes, in his history, as "the
finest body of soldiers that I had ever seen up to that time,
or have ever seen since." And Captain Banner's record as
a progressive citizen of Mobile squares with his war
repute.

No men were better known with the Missouri Division
than the Kennedy half dozen: brothers and cousins.
Lewis Hancock, James and Sam were sons of Captain
George Hancock Kennedy, of the old army. Herital trait
and life in garrison fitted all three to win their father's
grade, in the new one. All three are dead, though two
outlived the war.

Capt. "Lew" Kennedy married Miss Mary, eldest daughter
of Mr. and Mrs. C. K. Foote, of Mobile. Her next sister,
Nellie, is widow of the late Richard H. Clarke; and their
handsome and popular daughters, Helen, and Mary Morris,
have recently become Mrs. Harry Smith, of New York,
and Carl Seale, of Birmingham. Miss Sallie Foote married
Mr. Charles J. Waller and is now a widow in Washington.
All these sisters are brainy and clever women. Mrs. Ken
nedy's children are Sally (Mrs. Edward T. Herbert, of
Cincinnati) ; Miss Alzire, and Messrs. Charles F. and Lewis
Hancock Kennedy. The last is an artist, living with his
mother and sisters, in Cincinnati; Charles, who married popu
lar Miss Mary Fowler, is on engineer duty on Mobile harbor.

Captain Clark Kennedy, a first cousin, is still alive, in St.
Louis. At eighty-five, he retains the elasticity of a man of
fifty, in mind and body, being a vigorous walker and a fluent
raconteur of valuable reminiscence. He married Florence,
daughter of Mr. Augustus Brooks, long so popular in Mobile.
Her next sister is today one of the best loved women, gentle,
accomplished and selfless, in the city by the gulf. She is
wife of the younger of the Irwin brothers, both of whom
carry marks of service well performed. Col. Lee Fearn

328 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

Irwin made his best capture in Miss Mollie Brooks and he is
prouder of their three married daughters and an unmarried
son and daughter, than he would be of five presidential
chairs. The youngest Brooks sister , Aline, is now Mrs. Ferd.
Risque, of St. Louis, and mother of an adult family.

Captain Joseph Boyce, chairman of St. Louis reform coun
cil, stands high in that community. He was a gallant, chivalrous
soldier "all through it." So was Captain Samuel Kennard,
of the artillery, now one of the wealthiest merchants of St.
Louis and a large owner in the Planters' Hotel. Captain
"Hack" Wilkinson, another fighter whose valor belied his
nickname, still lives and is doing well in Chillicothe. Charles
B. Cleveland, of Marengo county, Ala., was a sterling and
gallant fighter "through it all," and another, a present Mo-
bilian, is Judge Robert L. Maupin. He had but one hand
when the ball opened, but he raised a company of cavalry
and did great work with it. Once captured, he was carried
across the Ohio line, tried as a spy and condemned to hang.
He passed the sentry by claiming to be the surgeon, "got"
a blood horse and rode through the state of Kentucky — a
hundred and ten miles in one night — and joined Morgan.
This fact I celebrated in my romance, "John Holden, Union
ist." Captain W. P. Barlow, "Old Bill" Duncan and others
are gone: but their memories

' 'Smell sweet and blossom in the dust. "

CHAPTER XXIX

FROM OVER SEAS

WHOLLY different from that of their Western kith and kin —
and, indeed, from that of any other state — was the case of
the lithe and ever active Louisianians.

Those sinuous and picturesque fighters of the Franco-Latin
races were ubiquitous in the army and in the merriment and,
alas! be it said, in the deviltry of all the war-time.

Into the " Cradle of the Confederacy" glided soldiers and
statesmen of the Pelican State, and the move to Richmond
early made that city populous with those whose forms and
faces might have seemed more congenial to Paris. With them
to both cities, came languid belles, of olive complexion and
piquant speech, that had made Tom Hood repeat of them:

"They are the foreigners!"

Yet their hearts were American and their swords were
Southern, let the glib tongues speak what accent they might.

Even in the glare of deeds from the famous Washington
artillery, the Crescent Rifles and other corps d'elite, of Eng
lish-speaking Louisiana, those of the Zouaves, the alert Chas
seur s-a-pieds and the wild, looting Tigers of Major Bob WTheat
who fell all too soon at first Manassas, show with steady and
effective light. The last named made not a pious crew, but
they fought.

The Zouaves battalion was commanded by two brothers,

successively. The first was Lieutenant-Colonel Georges Au-

329

330 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

guste Gaston Coppens, who carried the corps to Pensacola and
thence to the Peninsula. He was killed at the front on the
great day of Sharpsburg, leaving a young wife, who had been
Mademoiselle Bellocq, of New Orleans. He was succeeded
by his brother, Marie Alfred Coppens, major of the battalion
and its former adjutant. He was a gallant and capable
soldier, survived the war and married Miss Pizzini, of Rich
mond. She survived him when he was drowned in Galves-
ton bay, in 1868, while bathing. Both the Coppens were
French to their finger-tips, as their own tongue had phrased
it. In face, form, military method and corps aspect they
and their men might have been translated straight from an
Algerian camp.

Agile, bronzed and muscular little fellows, with blue "bags"
and gaiters, braided vests and scarlet jackets, surmounted by
the dingy red fez, they — like their polyglot comrades of the
Tigers — kept discipline on a dog-trot and subsisted on loot
or nothing, with equal comfort. As fatalistic as Arabs, and
perhaps as unreasoning, they fought as a matter of course
and died with seeming carelessness. Their officers, as a rule,
were courteous gentlemen, though language and tastes for
bade the close comradeship their state's other soldiers held
with those of the other " sisters in rebellion."

The men were a picturesque, reckless and ribald lot; some
of them, apparently, needed killing — which they got, all of
them needing soap, which they apparently did not get.

Wheat's early death in battle was the regret of the many
friends he had before the war and those he made during his
brief career in it.

The Chasseurs-h-pieds were a somewhat identical battalion,
in language, usage, and outer appearance, though of probably
better personnel and discipline. They were more thoroughly
French, lacking the Diego element largely and with some
American membership.

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF TEE SIXTIES 331

Major Henri St. Paul, their commander, was a veritable
chevalier and " gentleman of France," whom I was proud to
call my friend. He was scholar and linguist, lawyer and
journalist, ultra as to personal honor and a good shot and
perfect swordsman to defend his ideas on that score.

Adjutant John L. Rapier was then a tall, slender youth,
but already a good soldier. Later he served in the Mobile
forts and it was his pride that he had never surrendered, but
escaped in an open boat. He went into newspaper work
after the war, with St. Baul, who was then his father-in-law;
finally becoming proprietor of the Mobile Register, and dying
four years ago much honored and regretted. His next broth
er, Thomas G. Rapier, by strange coincidence never gave his
surrender in. He was a boy midshipman with Mr. Davis's
escort, at the capture; " borrowed" a mule and rode home
to New Orleans with the parole he had written for himself.
He has long been the head of the Picayune newspaper of that
city.

Major St. Paul died twenty years ago, after giving up edit
ing for law. Genuine sorrow followed his demise; deepest
from those who knew him best. His ability and profession
descended to his son, Judge John St. Paul, former state sen
ator, of Louisiana.

Among the actual foreigners, who had served in European
wars with distinction and added to it while they wore the
gray, were several exceptional men. It was a privilege to
meet the men who held the lives of thousands — the fate of
the nation — in their hands; but even then the sympathies
of all — and surely of the women — went out strongly to those
foreign fighters who had concreted a sentiment into a sacri
fice.

General Count Camille de Polignac was veteran of the
staff in the French service and was chief of staff to General
Bcauregard. He was a typical modern Gaul; tall, thin and

332 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEA1NS OF THE SIXTIES

with grave face decorated with Napoleon beard, there was
just a suspicion of La Mancha's knight in his mount. The
rough humor of the soldiers often pelted him as he rode past :
"Come out 'er them boots! We see yer mustache!"

Yet he was a great soldier, a knightly gentleman and a
courtier, in field, camp and lady's bower. On one occasion,
I heard Miss Pegram congratulate him on promotion to a
brigadier, correcting herself to call him " Count." Simply

as a child, he answered:

"No, Madame: God made

^^^_^ me that; the other I made

jg^|5^ myself!"

J| B| De Polignac was often con

founded with his cousin,
jj|. Prince Emil de Polignac, who

married the daughter of the
plebeian banker, Meires.
Asked why, he answered,
"Ilfaut bien dorer la pilule!"
(The pill must be gilded.)
The fighting cousin got safe
ly through our war in having
serious wound of neither
sort.

A G<™ voiu"tcc'- ™» as

marked a man in the A. N. V.
as was his French comrade. Colonel the Baron Heros von
Borcke was formerly on the staff of the Prince of Prussia;
but he asked leave, crossed to Dixie and became chief of staff
to dashing "Jeb" Stuart. His given name was apposite;
hero he was, if ever soldier won that title. He was wounded
in the throat and they dared not operate. They told him
that the heavy Minie ball must rest there, and should the
cyst about it move, it would drop into the -windpipe and

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 333

strangle him. The gallant foreign fighter lived his living death,
rode gaily to the forefront of the charge and went as gaily into
society. When he died, years later, it was not the wound
that took him off. He was a man of grand physique; as tall
as de Polignac but more muscular and with the stretch and chest
of a prize-fighter. He was not only a splendid tactician and
organizer, but perfectly educated and thoroughly up in the
literature and art of Europe, and he had the simplicity and
gentleness of most cultivated Germans. The two men wore
swords that rivaled Colonel Skinner's famed blade, and both
used them in personal combat almost as effectively as he had
done. But the German was more staid and introspective
than the Gaul, of whose jests some odd ones survive.

Once he captured the officers of a cavalry regiment and
their orderlies, single-handed and without a shot. He was
scouting alone; a favorite sport with him.

Clever, jolly and sympathetic Englishmen were frequent
in the Confederacy, and sometimes very useful, but the fight
ing exceptions were rare. A notable one was Captain Frank
W. Dawson, of the Pegram artillery corps. When the famous
Nashville blockade runner was well out of British waters
on her trial trip over, Captain Robert Pegram found a stow
away upon his ship. A fresh-faced, intelligent youth, he
said that he only wanted to fight for the South and was willing '
to work his passage to get the chance. The captain demurred
at enlisting a mere boy of another nation; but there was
no help, the new ship was sailing precarious seas, and the
stowaway landed at Wilmington, an utter stranger but a
full-fledged Rebel. He promptly enlisted in Willie Pegram's
battalion of artillery as a private, rose rapidly and soon wore
one gold bar on the red collar of his gray jacket. Next he
became corps ordnance officer, when Pegram was promoted
and he surrendered as a captain, while awaiting promotion
for gallantry on the field. Cool, brave and reliable, Dawson

334 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

was still a boyish looking, fresh-faced stripling when he gave,
in his gurgling English voice and simple manner, the recital
of his swimming aboard the Nashville and starving three days,
to " dodge the British, you see. "

How few of his listeners at the Mosaic Club dreamed of
the tragic fate in store for him. He had adopted journalism
and the noted Ben Wood, of New York, then reaching out
for control of Southern newspapers, had bought the Charles
ton Courier. Dawson became its editor, in the business
management of James Riordan, of Washington. Good sol
dier in war, he was proving himself good citizen of the reunited
country of his adoption, when he was slain in private quar
rel — protecting the good name of a woman. His martyrdom
was mourned by a devoted wife and young family: singular
reversal of the horrors of war and the blessings of peace.

Another Englishman and journalist — though much older
and already notable at home — was long and popularly met
in Richmond: Hon. Francis Lawley, son of Lord Wenlock.
Mrs. Mattie Paul Myers writes me of him:

" You recall him as one of the handsomest and most agree
able men I ever knew, " and her verdict is just. He was then
correspondent of the London Telegraph, afterward its editor,
and later on the Times, and also member of parliament. His
letters from Richmond were bold and true, with strong South
ern bias, but some prophecy in them.

Still another correspondent, and one equally widely known,
in far different field, was Frank Vizitelly, of the London Il
lustrated News. He was equally clever with pen and brush,
but a reckless, aimless sort of fellow, a boon companion, but
forgetful of Polonius1 sage advice as to a borrower and lender.
A reminiscent friend recently asked me:

"Were you not at that memorable dinner, given by Gor
don, Lord Cavendish and Vizitelly, which lasted from two
o'clock until midnight, and was never paid for — by them?"

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 335

That was not one of tny experiences with the artist, nor was
it an exceptional event of the time. He was a daring fellow
at other places than at dinner, as one of Mrs. Myers's letters
proves :

" When I was in London last I saw in the crypt of St. Paul's
Cathedral the name of Frank Vizitelly on a tablet of honor,
as one of those who had died in the service of his country.
I think he was killed in Egypt." The man had his faults,
but good traits did much to balance them, and in the main
he was, as his compatriots say, "not a half-bad fellow."

"Lord Cavendish," who swaggered largely in Richmond
and imposed on some experienced society people, was a very
different class of adventurer. He told very tough stories
when he reappeared "from the front," and fought "the ti
ger" in reality. It turned out that he was an Irishman named
Short, before he disappeared with loans from sundry
dupes to whom he remained hopelessly absent-minded.

Colonel George Gordon, of the British army, was a real
soldier who got into some trouble in England and came to
cast his lot with the South. He was a big, soldierly looking
man, with red whiskers, but with a sweet voice and beauti
ful manners. He was a constant visitor at the Pegrams',
Mrs. Stanard's and other refined homes. He was a real
fighter, however, despite his constant support to the noted
corps that held the notorious gambling " club" near the Spots-
wood Hotel. But General "Jeb" Stuart knew a man when
he saw one, and he put Gordon on staff duty and never ex
pressed any regret for having done so.

Another Englishman with strong sympathy that did some
practical work for the South was C. J. Cridland, consul at
Norfolk when the war began, and later at Richmond, where
he was a favored guest at the delightful home of Gustavus
Myers. At that home Mr. Lawley resided during his stay
in Richmond, host and guest being congenial friends and a

336 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

most compensating coterie always collecting there. Grid-
land was a big man in a small body, and, during his Recon
struction days in Mobile — to which city he had been trans
ferred — made many and lasting friends by his steady opposi
tion to the rife aggressions and injustices practiced under
the cloak of law.

Another consul, even more outspoken in his defense of
human and not merely women's rights, was Albany de Gren-

ier de Fonblanque, the Brit
ish representative at New
Orleans. This foreigner's love
of fair play and his disgust of
injustice by military power
were expressed in no measured
terms in his novels laid in the
time of General Ben Butler's
satrapy. He used such vig
orous, as \vell as good, Eng
lish as to give timely accept
ance and lasting repute to his
stories.

One connecting link
between the Anglo-Saxon and
the Gaul comes up unbidden
when thinking of New Or
leans. Colonel Jos. A. Chal-
aron, type of the best Franco-
America youth, stands today the proof of the survival of the
fittest and is regarded by old comrades and all citizens as
the reincarnation of the old Confederate spirit.

The Chalarons come of warlike strains; several of their
males having fought with renown under the first Napoleon;
and a female ancestor, present at his birth, having been made
first nourrice to him who

COL. JOSEPH ADOLPH CHALARON
(WASHINGTON ARTILLERY)

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF TEE SIXTIES 337

I

"Born no king, made monarchs draw his car!"

Five Chalaron brothers entered the army; the last a mere
stripling being forced to return to save the plantation from
absolute devastation. Strangely enough not one was killed,
though they were in the thick of every fight and bear
scars of many a wound. Two died after the war; Antonio
Jacques, the second born, who entered the famous Washing
ton Artillery as a private and served through the war: and
James, the fifth, the stripling above noted, who only con
sented to leave his battery on pledge that he might return
and replace the first brother killed. The eldest, Joseph
Adolph, who commanded the fifth company of the famed
W. A., still lives as do the third, and fourth brothers : Stephen,
who served in the second battery, and later in the ord
nance department ; and Henry, who fought under his brother
in the fifth battery.

Randall, the poet, told me that Col. Jos. Chalaron said to him :

" I really seemed to bear a charmed life! Horses were killed
under me; comrades fell all around me and many a one died
in my arms ; yet I am here, and spared, I hope, for usefulness
in peace."

Mrs. Fanny Beers, in her " Memories" describes this use
ful young warrior, when he invaded Georgia to force supplies
and medicines being sent to Bragg's army in its hideous
retreat from Tennessee. Today, he is secretary of the Louis
iana Historical Society, and superintendent of the Hall of
Records, which embalms many precious memories of what
the Confederacy gained from "Over Seas."

He is a courtly and interesting link between yesterday and
today; and a mine of reminiscence.

Such were a few of the "foreigners" — as they were not,

338 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

in most cases — who helped to highlight the more sombre
shadows of the war picture.

These come up automatically, but indubitably many
more — like the Roman patricians at the funeral — are con
spicuous by their absence.

CHAPTER XXX

BY LAND AND SEA

METEOR flashes of character, of action and of result show
through the darkest days of Dixie in vivid gleams; not con
fined to one sphere of her life, but by land and sea, and in
song.

Within the past two years, Georgians have reared in tne
grounds of their state capitol an equestrian bronze in which
the soldier-statesman, John Brown Gordon, rides forth to
the future, as the Cid. Need for the monument was scarcely
great today, but the spontaneous act of a whole population
is of sweet savor and its perfume will penetrate all history.
Gordon was literally a "born soldier," although there was
no inherited imposition upon him to urge arms as a calling.
The son of Rev. Zachariah H. Gordon, he was born in Upson
county, Georgia, June 6, 1832. From early youth he was an
impulsive but clear-headed fellow, quick to decide and quite
as quick to act, ready to take first place and, as he proved,
wholly fitted to hold it. He graduated at the head of his
class at the University of Georgia in 1852, read law in the
office of his brother-in-law, Judge L. E. Bleckley and was
admitted, but promptly gave up the idea of practice, to assist
his father in coal mine interests that were growing valuable.

Gordon called his first company the Mountain Rifles,
but one of the men declared: "Mountain hell! We're the
Raccoon Roughs," and the baptism held for aye.

339

340 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

Originally meant for cavalry, the Roughs were dismounted
before mounting by the dictum: "No more cavalry needed.'7
Then, variously armed with sporting rifles, shotguns and
rough pikes, but aflame with war spirit, Gordon tried on
Milledgeville, then capital of Georgia, for enlistment. "Old
Joe" Brown declined the proffer and the young captain made
the wires hot, as he himself writes, with proffers to other
governors. One of those, Moore of Alabama, accepted the

strangely named company
and "we became one-
twelfth of the Sixth Ala
bama, one of the largest
regiments in the service."
Gordon was early elected its
major, then lieutenant-col
onel and at the bloody Seven
Pines commanded the regi
ment in Rhodes' brigade,
with signal gallantry and
ability that soon brought his
wreath.

To Gordon's thinned com
mand Lee left it to hold the
centre against the assured

MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN B. GORDON lmPaCt °f Overwhelming

numbers at Sharpsburg.

How he held it, his simple narrative of the bare and
bloody facts has told with a selfless simplicity that carries
and clinches conviction. Through that trying day
struck four times with painful and exhausting wounds, the
true soldier acted out his great chief's motto and made duty
the sublimest word and the panacea. Late in the day when
Lee's aide dashed through the leaden hail to ask if he needed
reinforcements, the blood streaming and powder-blackened

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 341

hero pointed to his reeling, torn and still cheering line and
answered: "Tell General Lee we are holding the centre!"

Next instant, he received the hideous wound in the face
that stunned him, falling prone with his face in the cap that
had drowned him in his own blood, save for the bullet holes
through which its noble stream escaped.

Such was John Brown Gordon, captain of the Raccoon
Roughs, self-made major-general and named, if not really
commissioned, lieutenant-general of the Confederacy. Meet
was it that his state and people reared his Bronze.

Two years after winning university honors, young Gor
don married Miss Fanny Haralson. Loving, gentle and un
flinching at trial, she was a fit helpmate for such a man and
through every soul-harrowing test of the long war she was
near him as counsellor, comrade and nurse. When she brav
ed peril to fly to his side on Sharpsburg's night, she came to
cheer, not moan and her kindred spirit welcomed her with
the jest that must have agonized afresh his blood stiffened
and shattered jaw.

"Mrs. Gordon, you have not a very handsome husband!"

She survives him at the old family home, "Sutherland,"
where their children were reared and where their father liv
ed while twice governor and three times senator from his
state. Of this union there were three children reaching
adult age. Major Frank Gordon died only within two years
of pneumonia, at Washington. His sisters are Frances, now
Mrs. Burton Smith, and Caroline, Mrs. Orton Bishop Brown.
There are two Smith children, the boy bearing his grand
father's name. Mrs. Brown's children are two boys and a
girl.

Dignified and reserved in appearance, the general had
strong magnetism, as proved by his frequent choice for high
place, and by the devotion of the veterans. When fire de
stroyed Sutherland a decade gone, telegrams poured in from

342 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

camps everywhere with offers to rebuild the home. Gor
don promptly refused, saying the "Old boys are poorer than
I am."

It has been noted that men of Northern birth or descent who
gave allegiance to the Cause, wrought in it as steadfast and
as effectually as did the longest lined of colonial, Huguenot
or Creole fighters. General Cooper was from the further
side of the Potomac, Colonel Ives was a New Yorker and
many another illustrated this truth. Notable examples
were two brothers, coming from Northern stock, though long
resident in New Orleans: the Owen brothers, William Miller
and Edward, of the famous Washington Artillery. The elder
answered the last roll years ago, honored by his state and
regretted by his comrades. The other still lives, typifying
in his Northern home the loyalty of the Confederate soldier
to the flag he fought for.

John Owen, their great grandfather, settled in Portland,
Maine, about 1716. His son, John Owen, 2d, in 1745
served at Louisberg; and his grandson, Allison, was the father
of Miller and Edward Owen. Philip Owen, a granduncle,
was born at Brunswick, Maine, in 1756. He was a soldier
in the Revolution, member of the general court of Massachu
setts (Maine being still part of Massachusetts in 1812-13).
He served at Ticonderoga and at the surrender of Burgoyne !
and witnessed Andre's execution, his regiment being station
ed at West Point on October 2d, 1780. Philip Owen, 3d,
served in the War of 1812.

Judge William Miller, maternal grandfather to the Owen
brothers, settled in Rapides Parish, in 1798. Four years la
ter, he was made commissioner of the United States for the
Spanish transfers of posts in Rapides. Dr. Meuillon was
commissioner on Spain's part ; and his daughter later became
Judge Miller's wife. He was also appointed by Governor
Claiborne, first United States judge in Rapides. In 1814, he

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 343

raised a company and fought it under Jackson at the battle
of New Orleans.

Both brothers were born in Cincinnati, being the only
children of Allison Owen and Caroline Miller, old stock Ohio-
ans. Business carried them to the South, where they became
active and respected citizens
and both entered the war at
first call, in the famous Wash-
ington Artillery of their
adopted city.

William Miller Owen, the
elder, was its adjutant, dis
tinguished himself by gal
lantry and was promoted to
major. Then he became lieu
tenant-colonel of a Virginia
battalion of artillery and had
that rank when he surren
dered with Lee. Immediately
after that he returned to New
Orleans and married, the year
succeeding, Miss Carrie Zach-
arie, of the noted old Creole COLONEL EDWARD OWEN

family. Gentle and loved by (NEW YORK CAMP u" c- v'}

all, she was pet-named " Happy Zacharie" by her girlhood
friends. She survives him, as do their two sons, Allison and
Pendleton Owen, all of New Orleans. Colonel Owen died
fifteen years ago, after a useful public life, in which he did
much to perfect the citizen soldiership of his state, and
served capably as its adjutant-general.

Edward Owen went into the war as first sergeant of Bat
tery A of this same battalion, was an efficient and marked
soldier, was twice dangerously wounded and was promoted
through intervening grades to captain of his original company

344 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

ere Appomattox. He also returned to business pursuits
in New Orleans and married there, in the year after
the peace, Miss Hattie Bryan. After her death he removed
to New York, where he has ever since been a conspicuous
figure, not only in the "Southern colony," but in the business
and political organizations of the city. He was first secre
tary of the Southern Society and chairman of executive
committee of New York Camp, U. C. V., until his election
as commander, which post he has held continuously for
twelve years. This is one of the most notable in all the vet
eran ranks, both for numbers and distinguished personnel;
and its annual dinners on Lee's birthday at the Waldorf-
Astoria, have become very notable functions of the year.

This camp was organized in 1890, with these officers:
Commander A. G. Dickinson; W. S. Keiley, adjutant; Jo
seph H. Parker, lieut. -commander; Edward Owen, paymaster
and Stephen W. Jones, quartermaster. Succeeding com
manders have been A. R. Chisolm, George C. Harrison, C. E.
Thorburn and Edward Owen, reelected annually since 1898.
The adjutants have been: Thomas L. Moore, Edwin Selvage
and Clarence R. Hatton. The membership at organization
was twenty-one; now it is three hundred and fifty.

A consistent Democrat, Colonel Owen was also a thorough
business expert and his party early made him chief clerk
of the commissioner's department of its city government,
promoted him to its head for successive terms and when
faction ousted him promptly selected him again for chief
clerkship and actual management.

In 1874 the handsome and popular widower married
Mrs. Adelaide B. Dick, of New York. There is one "fair
daughter of my house and heart," Miss Mary Miller Owen.

The show occasions for the navy were few, but where
they were given, the light on the waters shone bright, if not
lurid. Foremost arises "the familiar story of the " Viking

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

of the South." Admiral Raphael Semmes has written his
meteor-like record upon the history of his time in the pages
of many a nationality. Dubbed the "pirate" by the same
thoughtless catering to inflamed popular sentiment that
imprisoned Jefferson Davis, Semmes went to his grave be
wailed by his own section and thoroughly respected by the
civilized world. And today the name of one of the oldest
and most ramified of American families takes added lustre
from having owned him as
one of its sons.

The several branches of _^

that family have helped to
people many a state and
have ever been noted for
brainy and loyal men, for
gracious, beautiful and ac
complished women. Their
descendants are leaders in
the publicism and the schol
arship of most of the large
cities today and at the time
of the war had already won
their way to prominence.
The sons and daughters of
Raphael Semmes, of George
town, have already been met in these pages. The " pirate" was
their cousin ; a?nd — as another reminder of the steadfast North
ern strain — his wile was colonial and of the old stock that pio
neered the West . Today their children prove their good blood,
in widely separated sections, shining in the forefront of pro
fessional and social life of the land with no uncertain gleam.

Admiral Semmes was the son of Richard Thompson Semmes
and Catherine Middleton and was born in Charles county,
Md., on September 27, 1809. He graduated at Annapolis

ADMIRAL RAPHAEL SEMMES
(TAKEN IN 1873)

346 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

and entered the navy, which he left only to enter the Con
federate service in 1861. He was one of three children,
his brother having been Samuel Middleton Semmes. The
young sailor married Miss Anne Elizabeth Spencer, of Cin
cinnati, her father being of English colonial stock and him
self an early pioneer of the Ohio Reserve. He was captured
by Indian hostiles and held captive nearly a year and ran
somed only through the efforts of General Washington. This
union bore six children, three sons and three daughters,
most of whom are still illustrating the old name in the busy
life of today. Spencer S. Semmes married the daughter of
General Paul Semmes, of Gettysburg fame, and now resides
in Arkansas. His family includes Spencer S., Jr., Paul J.,
Raphael, Oliver Middleton, Mary Anne, Frank, Kate, Electra,
Myra, Lyman, Pruitt and Charles Middleton — a "baker's
dozen," but all with the old leaven.

Oliver J., the second son, married Amante Gaines, daughter
of Dr. Edmund Pendleton Gaines, and has three children:
0. J., Jr., resident of Pensacola, Raphael and Amante, now
Mrs. Percy Finley, of Memphis, and confessedly one of the
most brilliant and original of that city's young matrons.

Raphael, the third son, married Miss Marion Adams and
has five children, Raphael, Eunice, Aubrey, Richard and
Marion. The father is well known to Memphis, Mobile and
other cities as constructor and manager of electric rail sys
tems, and is personally more like his father than either of
the brothers.

In peace as in war the children of the " pirate" have borne
themselves as worthy sons. Oliver was his father's part
ner in law and later was unanimous choice for judge of Mo
bile's criminal court, a post to which he has been re-elected
for some thirty years.

The three daughters of the admiral are Mrs. Electra
Semmes Colston, head of the female department of the Mo-

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAIN S OF THE SIXTIES 347

bile public school system for a quarter century, and one of
the most brilliant and cultured — as well as the best beloved
and most altruistic — of women of her day. She is gentle
and epigrammatic, a brilliant talker, and writer and the
most loyal of friends; finds time for club work in women's
best lines and is a social prize in public and private funct ions.
Her husband, Pendleton
Colston, of Baltimore, died
when their two sons were
almost infants, the mother
rearing them with care.
Pendleton, who married
Miss Esther Turner, of
Bladen, died childless some
years ago; his brother,
Raphael Semmes Colston,
married Miss Olive M. Tar-
rant, of Georgia, is a noted
newspaper man and pres
ent city editor of the Times-
Democrat.

Kate Middleton Semmes
the second daughter of the
''viking/' married General
Luke E. Wright, when he
was not dreaming of gov
ernorships, diplomacy Or MRS. CHARLES R. PALMER
the war portfolio. She has (KATHRINA WRIGHT)

long been a noted leader in the social world of Mem
phis and has illustrated American womanhood abroad,
as able aide to her husband in three trying posts. The
Wright family numbers five. The eldest sister, Anna,
married John Watkins, after a brilliant belleship and is a
factor in the Memphian society of today. Kathrina Mid-

348 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

dleton, the younger sister, married, at the American em
bassy at Tokio, Charles B. Palmer, now a banker in the
Philippines. Eldrige, the eldest son, married Miss Minnie
Pettus; Luke E., Jr., is a society bachelor, and Raphael
Semmes recently wedded in the Philippines.

Anna Elizabeth Semmes, the third sister, was as popular
as the others with the uniformed youths who thronged the
Mobile home of the family in war-time. Soon thereafter
she married Charles B. Bryan, another Memphian of note
and has since been one of that city's most active and appre
ciated workers in all feminine progress. Her sisters of the
Confederate Daughters have honored her with high office
in their national council and Governor Patterson selected
her as commissioner for the state to the Jamestown Expo
sition. There are two Bryan boys, Raphael Semmes, who
married Miss Georgia Scott, and Charles Middlcton, whose
wife was Miss Bessie Smith. Thus it will be seen that Ten
nessee claims most of the admiral's direct descent, as she
did much of his family, when B. J. Semmes and his brothers
established in Memphis business. The latter is dead. He
invested $80,000 in gold in Confederate cotton bonds and
refused to sell them to the end. Another brother of Mrs.
Ives, Dr. A. J. Semmes, of Savannah, was on Jackson's
medical staff until he broke down in the Valley campaigns,
when he took charge of Richmond hospitals. He married
the daughter of Hon. C. M. Berrian, who was in Andrew
Jackson's cabinet and later senator from Georgia. The
surviving brother, "the baby of the family," is Captain
Warfield Semmes, now a merchant of Memphis. He en
tered a Louisiana regiment while in his teens, was twice
severely wounded and was promoted for gallantry and bears
its honorable scars today.

A personality too marked in Richmond to miss mention
was Commander John Taylor Wood, aide to the President

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF TEE SIXTIES 349

and his nephew-in-law. He was elder son of Dr. Wood,
United States Navy, who married a daughter of Zachary
Taylor, older than the first Mrs. Davis. He promptly
resigned, was given the same rank in the new navy and
developed such traits of courage and mentality that Mr.
Davis placed him on his personal staff.

But, as I have said, the naval service claimed others of
the Davis family: the gallant young brothers of Mrs. Davis,
Bennett and Jeff Davis How-
ell. Neither of them married,
but both did good service
on the Alabama. In the
cemetery at Seattle stands
a monument to the memory
of the youngest, erected by
the Masons to commemorate
his death, which carried out
the great Second Lesson.
After the peace, Jeff Howell
stuck to his seafaring, taking
service on a Pacific coast
liner and soon rising to its
command. In a storm his
ship and nearly all on board JEFFERSON DAVIS HOWELL

were lost. Captain Howell (YOUNGEST BROTHER OF MRS. DAVIS)

was last to leave the wreck on an improvised raft, taking
with him a woman and a child. She alone was saved,
after days of hideous trial and privation, and she wrote his
deathless eulogy in telling how he had given her the slendei
stock of food and water — starving and famishing ere he was
swept away in his efforts to steer her frail refuge to safety.

Other staunch and true "seadogs" illustrated the salty
side of Confederate endeavor, as the Barrens, father and son.
The commodore we have already met. Loyal, sturdy,

350 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

blunt Sam Barren, loved by man and woman equally for
his heart of gold, was my friend in youth. He chafed under
the cramp of circumstance, but sought any duty possible
and did it well. After the war he married Miss Agnes Muse
Smith, went into business and reared a family who now
reside in Virginia with their mother. The eldest son died
recently. Armistead W. and James S. Barren are still liv
ing. The latter captured a prize last year in the person

of Miss Kate Massie Ryan
of Norfolk. The daughters
are Miss Sallie H. Barren,
Mrs. Imogen W. Denny and
Mrs. Agnes N. Segar.

Barren's gentle and popu
lar sister, so sought by the
best of both sexes when in
Richmond, became the wife
of Captain Edward R. Baird,
of General George Pickett's
staff; she died twelve years
ago, leaving ten children,
who are still living.

Lieutenant-C ommander

LIEUT. SAMUEL BARRON J()hn M Brooke Jeft the M

navy to win fame in the new and to create an era in ord
nance. Scientific, reticent and untiring, he perfected that
famous gun which made toys of Federal frigates and jammed
the turret of the " invulnerable " Monitor. I had the priv
ilege of being at the test of this product of the Tredegar
works: a banded, welded and laminated rifle, the first in
the world 'to project a seven-inch shell. Indubitably this
gun was a new era in warfare: the progenitor of the cost
lier — and far greater — bores of the recent past, Brooke
was vindicated by experience.

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 351

Two of the naval "show prizes," rare as they were in the
war lottery, fell to Admiral Franklin Buchanan. The first
was in Hampton Roads, on a balmy morning, March 8th,
with one so-called " ironclad" — the first and only effective
one of the war, and with the Brooke gun — when he won
the only naval victory of the war.

The ram Virginia was the razed U. S. frigate, Mer-
rimac, gun-decked at water line; and turtled low with shell
of railroad iron melted into 4-inch steel plates. Thus she
had defence that a modern rifle-bolt had pierced as a hot
needle would soft butter.

Her commander was Admiral Buchanan, with Catesby
R. Jones second in command and Robert D. Minor, next.
The " James river fleet" had been ordered down; consist
ing of four small wooden vessels: the flagship James
town of Commodore John R. Tucker; the Yorktown,
Commander Ariel N. Barney: and the midgets of smallest
class, Raleigh and Beaufort — saved by Captain Lynch
from the debris of Roanoke Island. The entire flotilla car
ried only 27 guns, but Buchanan went out to attack an
enemy out numbering him five fold and carrying 220 of the
heaviest guns in the United States Navy!

On glided the strange low, brown monster — convoyed
by the wooden toys — past the Susquehanna, the heaviest
armed ship of the navy; on, straight for the Cumberland
frigate: on, until her bow gun was in shortest pointblank
range. Then the untried Brooke gun sent one shell at the
frigate's stern. It ripped her open through gun decks,
and tore away her bow. With colors flying and the men
at quarters, the gallant ship shivered, lurched and went
down by the bows: her dauntless captain, George Upshur
Morris, ringing out the order, "Fire!" as her upper battery
touched the water!

Never halting, the Virginia bore straight for the fri-

352 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

gate Congress, nearer inshore; took her battery broad
side like green pea pelting; and sent in one terrible, close
range volley that literally riddled the huge ship. She hauled
down her colors and Capt. Wm. R. Smith and Lieutenant
Pendergrast, came off and surrendered the ship and them
selves.

The entire fleet and shipping in the Roads, hauled away
from the novel and invulnerable destroyer, taking shelter
in speed and under the guns of Fortress Monroe. The
Monitor warily held away; but daring combat next day,
was cleverly stopped by one shot from the Virginia,
that laid her helpless with a jammed turret. This ended
the fight; a resultless one upon the end of the struggle, but
a wondrous show of American pluck and manhood, on both
sides.

As brilliant, and almost as solitary, a search for the San-
grael of victory, was Buchanan's fight with Farragut's
great fleet, in Mobile bay, on the morning of August 6th.
1864. The Federal admiral on his Hartford flagship,
steamed round the obstructions and past Fort Morgan,
wholly untouched. He had four improved monitors, seven
outclassing war steamers; carrying in all 199 guns and 2,700
men. Buchanan steamed down to defend the harbor, with
the ill-constructed ram Tennessee: plated with railroad
iron and still unfinished. The other " ships " were the wooden
gunboats: Morgan, 6 guns, under Captain G. W. Har
rison; the Gaines, 6 guns, Lieut.-Com'r. J. W. Bennett,
and the Selma 4 guns, Lieut.-Com'r. Pat U. Murphy: in
all 26 guns and 250 men. On the flagship, Tennessee
the admiral had executive officer Commander J. D. John
ston, Lieut. Thos. L. Harrison and a picked staff. The
fight was fierce and short: the vast preponderance of metal,
men and speed making it hopeless from the first gun. But
the wooden shells fought until splintered and sinking: and

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF TEE SIXTIES 353

the flagship was surrendered by Johnston only after the
admiral had been wounded and the stearing gear and gun
carriages shot away.

In his blunt, short way, Farragut warmly congratulated
Buchanan on the great fight he had put up; and he, as well
as his officers, told their prisoners that they were amazed
at the damage that had been inflicted upon their superior
fleet. Yet, while ''magnificent," this combat "was not
war."

Strong indeed is the temptation to follow the white-
winged flyers of the seas, loosened from the wrist of the strug
gling young nation hemmed in from contact by connivance
of the selfish world-powers: to note the "derring do" of
Sumter and Shenandoah and to roster the names of the men
who followed Semmes if in a lesser orbit. But that would
need a volume and the Fate's shears must needs clip the
thread.

CHAPTER XXXI

CONFEDERATE song would demand a separate volume,
were attempt made to exemplify it. Temptation has aris
en often, as these pages spun themselves, to do one or the
other, and resistance to it has been difficult . But there
are some singular errors about the more familiar specimens
of the songs sung, which stalk among us with the restless
ness — and the nebulousness — of Pompey's shade. "All
Quiet Along the Potomac" has been as unsettled a moot
for four decades as was " Beautiful Snow," or the letters
of "Junius." Colonel Lamar Fontaine insists that he
wrote it, at a Virginia outpost, while the North states day
and date to prove that it was printed, prior to his contention,
over the name of Mrs. Ethel Beers, in Harper's Weekly.
Only when the deliverer of the aforetime blow to William
Patterson comes up and confesses, will this momentous
question ever down.

The origin of the first flag, and of the Confederate uniform,
have been and still are claimed by as many discoverers
as any modern patent. These I think I have stated correct
ly in early chapters, but there is widespread ignorance of
the exact origin of two most popular Rebel ditties, one of
which no less a critic than Mr. Lincoln declared "too good
to be kept by the Rebels," and proceeded to Ben-butler
it out of hand.

354

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 355

The esthetic musical critic will say that we should shame
to adopt " Dixie" and "The Bonny Blue Flag" as la Mar
seillaise and the Partant Pour le Syrie of the Lost Cause.
Of a truth, they were as ready inspirers, and perhaps as
costly in the inspiration, to " t'other fellow."

I have been at pains to get the truth as to these two im
portant songs: I have succeeded, beyond doubt. Mr. J.
Tannenbaum is a veteran leader and minstrel manager
and well known to the theatrical profession for a half-cent
ury. Of them he wrote me:

" There was only one Macarthy, and he wrote The Bon
nie Blue Flag/ at Jackson, on the day Mississippi passed
the ordinance of secession. He sang it first that night.
Harry Macarthy was capable of inventing melodies, and he
wrote other songs, among them, The Stars and Bars/ The
Volunteer/ or 'It's my Country's Call/ 'Josephine Gay/ etc.
I was his leader and manager and I harmonized and orches
trated all his songs at that time. Others claim to have
written The Bonnie Blue Flag/ but they do not tell the
truth. It was first published by Blackmar Brothers, of
New Orleans, and some copies are still in existence to prove
what I say. It ought to be known for all time that Harry
Macarthy is the author.

"The 'Dan' you refer to is Dan Emmett, whom I knew
well. He is the composer of 'Dixie/ which was sung by
Bryant's minstrels, first as a 'walk-around/ which in those
days finished a minstrel performance. He was noted for
writing several 'walk-arounds/ among them 'High Daddy
in the Morning/ 'We are all Surrounded!' etc. He died
only a few years ago, his last appearance being with Field's
minstrels, as an old man — an advertising card for Field.
He wrote 'Dixie/ and this is established and no other has
a right. This should not be misunderstood. He was a
fine man, Dan Emmett."

356 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

A claim was recently made that " Dixie" was first written
upon the walls of the old Mobile Theatre, on the sudden
inspiration of Emmett. The leader then was "E. J. Ar
nold/' now in his seventies, but still directing the orchestra
of the Lyceum Theatre at Memphis.

In 1895 Mrs. Annie Chambers Ketchum, of Mississippi,
claimed the authorship of "The Bonnie Blue Flag." The

Southern press finally pushed
that claim, and Mr. A. E.
Blackmar wrote emphatically
that his father had bought
the original from the author
and published words and
music unchanged.

Emmett was the star of
Birch and Backus, as endman.
A similar and equally futile
claim was made for Mobile
as the cradle of "Dixie" but
Jj that was made vicariously.
JH A traveling vaudeville man

ager wrote a long and circum
stantial letter to the Reg
ister, giving the "facts" of
the song having been writ
ten on the white wall of the old Mobile Theatre, by
"Mr. E. J. Arnold." This was in 1860. The writer
described the wild excitement and fervor of Dan Emmett,
"great with Song"; and he stated that the curtain was about
to rise and that Mr. Arnold had no paper. "Write it any
where!" Emmett cried — "Write it on the wall!" And the
aged orchestra leader, then and there, wrote his modern
Danielscript.

Like Sir Lucius O'Trigger's quarrel, the story above is

DANIEL DECATUR EMMETT

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 357

"very pretty as it stands." The troubles with it are that
there is no "E. J. Arnold" a leader anywhere: that the Mo
bile Theatre was burned in January, 1859, and no other
was built until 1865. Moreover, Mr. Herman C. Arnold —
now seventy-three years old and leader of the Memphis
"Lyceum," writes me that he never told the story above
quoted to anyone; that he never was at the Mobile The
atre, but at the New Montgomery Theatre, which opened
with Wilkes Booth as star, in 1860. Mr. Arnold was lead
er of that theatre's orchestra; and he writes:

" Hearing Dan Emmett sing Dixie, I admired it very much
and wrote the score for band and orchestra arid I played
it for the raising of the first three Confederate flags which
were raised at the capitol at Montgomery and also at the
inauguration of Jefferson Davis. It made such a sensation
that it became the war tune of the South." And this set
tles the Mobile origin.

General E. P. Alexander — the gallant Confederate and
cultured gentleman elsewhere noted as one of the lucky
men who married the Misses Mason — now resides at South
Island, South Carolina. On reading the Arnold romance,
he wrote to me, deriding the claim. He says:

"I was married in April, 1860, and in June, or

July, of that year returned to my post at West Point. Soon
after, my wife and myself went down to New York, to see
a play then running at Laura Keene's, called The Japanese
Ambassador/ Those dignitaries were then in the city and
the papers were full of all their doings. The play was evi
dently gotten up in a hurry; and one of Joe Jefferson's sons
told me that his father was its author. In this extravaganza,
some bogus ambassadors introduced by 'Brown, of Grace
Church/ (when the real ambassadors were not able to
attend), were called upon to sing a 'Japanese' song. A
brother-in-law of mine was then in New York, George G.

358 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

Hall, son of Asbury Hall of Athens. He was the greatest
amateur violinist I ever heard. He knew more songs
than any man I ever knew. Hall told me about the play,
before taking me to hear it ; and said that when the Japanese
song was called for, they 'played that old thing, Dixie!'
with an accent on the 'old !' So I went and heard 'Dixie, '
for the first time that night; but I believe it was already
in print, in an old sort of circus song-book, that I had had
as a boy, before I left Washington in 1853, to go to West
Point.

"However that may be, this one thing is certain: 'Dix
ie' was born from that play of 'The Japanese Ambassador.'
This was in the June, or July of 1860, before the election
of Lincoln in that November; and all the newsboys of
New York were whistling it within a week. On August 9th,
1860, I sailed for Colon; and, when we arrived ten days
later, 'Dixie' was there ahead of us and we found it had
preceded us to San Francisco, Portland and even to Wash
ington Territory." Then, after scouting the Mobile story,
Gen. Alexander adds:

" I believe the song was a still older walk-around, and can
easily be found by anyone who will search old theatrical
song books and records of the time. The name ' Dixie' came
from a man named Dix, who owned many slaves on Man
hattan Island and sold them to be taken South, just before
slavery was abolished. As the darkies are natural patron-
izers of every circus, their traditions and the name attached
to their place of habitation, has survived in the last line of
the chorus: 'In Dixie's Ian' I take my stan, To live an' die
in Dixie!'-"

Every word General Alexander writes is literally true; but
that more strongly corroborates Daniel Emmett's claim. I
myself base my belief upon his authorship of the song, on
a rainy Sunday of April, 1859, on personal knowledge of

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 359

himself; upon Mr. Tannenbaum's reliable letter; and upon
a circumstantial statement written for me by Col. T. Allston
Brown, author, manager and late dramatic editor of the
New York Clipper. The Brown statement details the entire
story; but I need only quote here what he tells of a restaurant
party in the war-time :

"This is the origin of ' Dixie' and you can swear
to it!

"I give it as received from Dan Emmett himself and from
my own recollection. While I was dramatic editor of the
New York Clipper, in 1861, Tom Kingsland, of Dodsworth's
Band, Was proprietor of a famous bar and lunch room in
Broome street, much frequented by actors, newspaper men,
minstrels, etc. D. T. Morgan, having come back from the
army, in the winter, dropped in at Kingsland's.

"Sitting at the several tables and all, apparently, having
a good time, were about twenty jovial fellows and among
them, Dan Bryant. I was soon at a table with him, Nelse
Seymour, Dan Emmett and others.

"Morgan told Emmett that, at night, he could hear the
Confederate bands playing Dixie; and that they seemed to
have adopted it down South, as their national air. Em
mett replied warmly:

" ' Yes: and if I had known to what use they were going to
put my song, I will be damned if I'd have written it ! '

"I asked him how he came by the idea. He tipped back
in his chair, moved closer to my side and, speaking very
low, said he supposed me too young to have heard a song
which his mother (or grandmother) sang to him in his merry
young days. He said it was called 'Come, Philander!'
He was more than taken aback, when I told him that my
mother had put me to sleep many times, with that same
song. Then I repeated the first two lines to him : all I could
remember:

360 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

'Come, Philander, let's be marchin,'
Every one for his true love sarchin! —

" 'Yes: that's it!' cried Emmett. 'I based the first part
of Dixieland upon that song of my childhood days.' He
did not call it 'Dixie' but ' Dixieland.'

"While Emmett was with Bryant's Minstrels, one Saturday

night in 1859, Bryant said
to him: 'Dan, can't you get
us up a walk-around? I
need something new for
Monday night. '

"At that time, all minstrel
shows used to end up with
a walk-around. Dan Em
mett remained in the house
all day Sunday; but by the
afternoon, he had the words
commencing: 'I wish I was
in Dixie!'"

When Colonel Brown wrote
the words above quoted, he

CAPT. R. T. ("TRAV") DANIEL had SPr6ad OUt before Will tllC

New York Herald, of Sunday,

April 3rd, 1859, with this advertisement: "Bryant's Min
strels ! ! Dixie's Land : another New Plantation Festival !!!!!"

It is strange indeed that, even in the South, during and
after the war, there was so little real effort to fix definitely
the origin of this and other popular songs and poems. They
were accepted greedily by ear, when they hit the popular
fancy : but it was rare that any man, or woman, who whistled,
sang, or recited them, paused one instant to sift either their
origin, or what of meaning they had.

I recall a lively talk, among members of the Mosaic Club,

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 361

when "Trav" Daniel and others were discussing this very
" national air." Daniel was a star member of the unofficered
club; a herital thinker, with much of his father's acumen,
information and dry humor; and these he shared in common
with his sisters, Augusta, Charlotte and Lizzie. He was
very antithesis, in method, to his bubbling arid impulsive
brother-in-law, "Jimmie" Pegram.

At this distance, I cannot recall who were speaking of
" Dixie/7 but I think Judge Ran Tucker, J. R. Thompson
and Judge Daniel were among them. Trav made the point
that a nation's song was its trademark and should be veri
fied; but we were all too much in a hurry to stop and
think in those days; and I have no recollection that "Dixie"
ever came up as a contention thereafter, even in the Mosaic.
It fitted into the time, was accepted as a Southern song,
necessarily by a Southern man; and that was the end of
it. Was it both, or either ?

Daniel Decatur Emmett was born in Mt. Vernon, Ohio,
in 1815, arid was resident there in his eighty-seventh year.
He died only four years ago.

One song; popular in both armies, and claimed by each
long after the war, was "Tenting on the Old Camp Ground."
It was undoubtedly of Northern birth.

The battle of Cedar Creek Hill bore many serious results,
and some laughable ones, among them the loss of the Val
ley granary and meat-house, the over-done art, poetry and
gush of Sheridan's ride, and Randolph's living line:

"Where sadly pipes that Early bird that never caught
the worm!"

The night following this defeat, two members of a Ver
mont regiment composed and sang that song, which was
later polished and published. Private Kittridge a New
Hampshire boy, improvised the original words; Russell,

362 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

a Green Mountaineer, composing the air as his comrade
went on. Many still living can vouch for the truth of this
statement, which has challenged dispute; among them
being Captain W. A. Russell, now a resident of Berlin, Can
ada, the composer's brother.

Local rather than generic and with its frayed antiquity
of musical setting, "My Maryland" is the nearest approach
to a real anthem produced by the war. It was born out
of occasion, and it grew to a national expression. In its
springing from the smoking blood that dabbled the cobbles
of Baltimore, at the first forcible tramp upon them of hos
tile feet, memory brings back that night of 1792 at Stras-
burg, when, with burning cheeks and blazing eyes, Rouget
de Lisle wrote and chanted the words of La Marseillaise.

At Point e Coupee, La., the young Maryland poet heard
the echo of his stricken brothers' cries of anguish and
defiance. He dipped his pen into his heart and " Mary
land" sprang forth, full statured and full armed as did the
mythologic brain-birth. The words caught the fevered
spirit of the hour. In a month they were burning in the
hearts of gathering clans.

Randall was my boy chum and college mate. He once
wrote: "In our callow days Cooper De Leon and I made
mud-pies and capped verses. . . . Today he is at home
wherever pen and paper are to be found; and if they are in
the vocative, a rusty nail and a white wall will do as
well. ... It will not do to wish that 'his shadow may
never grow less', for it is not in the memory of man that he
ever cast a shadow."

Neither of us had forgotten the dewy freshness of life's
morning. Meeting at intervals only, we were the same old
chums, as the shadows lengthened toward our sunset.

Randall was another of Northern descent who was Rebel
to the core. His great-grandsire was a Pilgrim-bred,

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 363

witch-hating Yankee, an elder in the church of Hate to
dissent. What he was his poems tell. Born with the rare
fire in him that only needed friction of a Cause to glow and
incandesce, he met the need in the immortal one. He had
written more graceful poems ere that, as "The Cameo Brace
let." That was when his somewhat errant fancy had made
its throne at the feet of Miss Esther Jonas, of New Orleans.
Within his last year he re
cited those early strophes to
their inspiration, now wife of
Captain I. L. Lyons, with
the third generation at her
knee.

In years between, the
poet's heart, beelike, had
gathered honey where it
listed. Rumor tells us that
its one-time flower of flowers
was the younger sister of
Miss Augusta Evans, long
since married and dead.

When the nominal peace
came, Randall found his real
one in marrying a lovely
South Carolinian, Miss Ham
mond; and they had reared
to usefulness five of their
eight children. Two years

ago the youngest of these, scarce more than a bride, was
taken from them. Another year, and the poet was taken
from those she left.

Randall had written in the years since the war some strong
poetry and much admirable correspondence and editorial.
He had been editor of the Augusta Constitutionalist with

JAMES R. RANDALL
(AUTHOR OF "MY MARYLAND" )

364 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

Colonel James Gardiner, and of the Chronicle with Senator
Patrick Walsh. He had worked with the Sage of Liberty
Hall upon his memoirs, and had held Washington positions
of trust. But, as the hart panteth after the water brooks,
the old journalist longed after the tripod. He went again
to the Crescent City of his early love, and edited the Morn
ing Star and did telling correspondence for the Colum
bian.

In 1907, Randall was signally complimented by his native
state. She brought him from New Orleans to be her guest
of honor on " Mary land Day," at Jamestown Exposition;
then bore him back in triumph to his native Baltimore.
There he was feasted and hailed as the poet of the Cause,
honored though lost. Fair and noble Daughters of that
Cause demanded a complete edition of his poems; he was
whelmed in flowers, feasts and pretty speeches. Then he
went back to the old Augusta home, warmed with ambition
and cheered by the strong old love. He wrote me glowing
and hopeful note of it all. Before I could write congratu
lations, the wires bore the news of his sudden death. Then
the tribute lately paid him in his old home swelled to a na
tional pa?an and the world heaped immortelles above the
grave of a people's poet.

Knowing my friend's lack of money-making habit, I
read with regret that Maryland promised a $25,000 statue;
Augusta a shaft and New Orleans another stone. Imme
diately, I sent appeals to the press and to those cities. I
felt that if we took care of the bread, the stone would take
care of itself. The appeal was universally endorsed: and
practically, in some quarters. Maryland, as a state, voted
his wife and daughter an annuity of $600 per year; and her
Daughters printed the poet's works in a handsome volume,
the entire proceeds from which go to his widow. A noble
matron of Nashville — an old friend of mine and of the Ran-

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 365

dalls — headed the Tennessee tribute with a hundred dollar
check; and the U. D. C. division of Alabama sent its share.
From distant and unexpected quarters, practical reminders
came: and it was plain that the poet's song still echoed in
the people's heart.

CHAPTER XXXII

THE PIOUS AND THE SPORTY

I HAVE written elsewhere that the early settlement of
America had two impelling forces: greed and creed.

The Spaniards, in their thirst for acquisition of the South
ern Gulf littoral, had only the first. It was the zeal of the
Pilgrims that influenced their changing homes of generations
for the frozen wastes of the far North, with their Indian hos-
tiles. The French in La Louisiane and the English and
Huguenot colonists of "the Virginia Plantation," perhaps
doubled the motives, letting either predominate as occasion
demanded.

As early as 1587, Peter Martyr dedicated his "History
of the New World" to Walter Raleigh, and in another book
on Florida, urged him "to prosecute the work for the only
true motive, that induced the glory of God and the saving
of the souls of the poor, misguided Infidels. "

Whether because of this exhortation, or other cause,
Sir Walter gave five hundred pounds the next year "for the
propagation of Christianity in Virginia." This is of the
piece with the claim of Bishop Meade, in his valuable book,
that Smith and Sydney "were also for the glory of God
and missionary spirit."

Richmond was a godly city when the first invasion by
any government captured that capital. * Yet, I think it is
admitted that the surrender saw many a theory shattered

366

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEA1NS OF THE SIXTIES 367

and many a revered idol sprawled from its pedestal by un
usual, if not impious practices. Still, as in the described
rush to the new national " Nursery, " at Montgomery, that
devil, dissipation, was of hue far less sable than that in which
he has been swiftly, and quite as untenably, limned.

There were gross exaggerations of the gambling, the
drinking and the debauchery of the leagured capital during
those most bitter four years of blood and loss, trial and
temptation.

With a promiscuous and
unbridled population, largely
untrained, crude and amen
able to the military law
alone — while its civil sister
slept — small indeed were
the wonder had the slanders
upon that point really been
truths. And this is no
afterthought. It was so
agreed with Smith Lee,
Fitz's next brother, after a
round we made to inspect
Richmond and compare the

two cities, shortly after his LIEUT- SYDNEY 8MITH LEE> JR-> c- s- N-
voluntary withdrawal from the "Paris navy."

Practically every man in the South was in the army, and
the pay of a soldier in the mid days of the war would not
have bought a breakfast at the average Richmond restau
rant. Liquor, save as a medical ration, was almost wholly
above reach, and tobacco, an absolute necessity with missed
meals and physical and mental strain, was equally scarce
and vile. Here was the temptation, when "the boys"
came to Richmond, and luxuries as resistless as the green-
sleeved Houris of Mohamet's heaven were thrust upon them,

368 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

with added appeal to the greed latent in every soul.
The wonder is not that so many yielded to the seductions
of drink and cards, but that there were so many who did
not.

When rations were reduced to the last limit in every
camp, the faro banks of the capital spread great tables
with peace-time meals sumptuously prepared, with liquors
and even rare wines. These unaccustomed luxuries, under
scored by really good cigars, were forced upon all comers,
with no apparent care whether they gave promise of return
in future losses. The sporting spider, in his seductive par
lor, practiced — whether he had read it or not: "And he that
hath not from him shall be taken even that which he hath."
On the other hand, he did not hesitate to give before taking.
These " hells" were not really open to all, unless introduced
by an habitue ; but the latter were numerous enough to give
them a huge clientele and to make them an evident feature
on the face of the time. Men of all ranks and ages frequented
them: some for greed alone, and more for that added to
greediness. Their officials and dealers were usually recruit
ed from Washington, and Baltimore, or from the popular
" sports" of the Virginia watering-places, care being taken
to select men "with a pull" from past acquaintance.

Strangely enough, with all this and much more of it in a
minor key, there was little general drunkenness, and gamb
ling, while wholly unpunished and even unchecked, was more
the exception than the rule. The reasons for this were
probably the same suggested at Montgomery: the absorp
tion of men in great and continuous excitement and the
outdoor life, on plain diet, that changed the physical man
so quickly; and through him, the moral and mental one.

Private gambling, outside of the "corn-grain limit" of
the camps, was confined to the hotels and private homes
of the few that condoned. Club life, as such, was practi-

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 369

cally done away with in every Southern city. Poker, of
course, was the popular game: it had always been, and is
so, in that section as at the North. And that game divided
the love of the more "game sports/' with the " games of
the house," faro and roulette. The house, however, treated
its poker patrons with great consideration and liberality
of food and drink, but they were no losers thereby, for the
winner in the private game would often "drop his pile" at
the bank, as though it burned holes in his pocket. The
most notable of the Richmond hells was that of the Mon-
teiro brothers, and the names of "Alf" and "Jim" grew
familiar to even feminine ears. Great sums were won and
lost at that house and, as the money slide went rapidly
downward, fabulous-sounding sums were often quoted.
Even when the Confederate bills were crisp and not much
depreciated, I have known losses in an evening to run into
five figures; but the cases were rare and the average one
very small — whatever the will of the loser might have made
them.

No habitue of the Richmond "hells" — and many a stiff-
necked churchman of later days might "train with them"-
but will recall Bill Burns and John Worsham. These men
were chums from contact and professional pride; the former
blunt, jovial and honest, the other refined, quiet and gen
erous to a fault. Burns outlived the war and was later a
marked figure on Pennsylvania avenue, on most days and
almost all nights. But the "Storm and Stress" of the strug
gle finished his comrade, sometime ere its close.

I once wrote a novelette — "A Bayard of the Green Cloth "-
and got much soft buffeting from the unco godly for mak
ing its hero a gambler. I had Johnnie Worsham in mind,
no less than a well born Southern sport, while I wrote. Yet
no real man who knew him will deny that the young faro
dealer was the preux chevalier of gamesters: with a great

370 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

heart, an open hand and graces of soul; not always inhered
under a ruffled shirt. One blunt fighter — as true a man
as ever drew breath, sword or cork — lately wrote me of him :

"Do I recall John Worsham? Well, I rather think I
should. He fed us when all others failed us. He certainly
was a high type of man."

This is homely praise? Perhaps: but it has all the verity
of the mining camp obituary: "He done his durndest: an-
gils kin do no more!"

Johnnie, as they all called him, was the soldier boy's
best friend, even among the easy-going gambling fraternity.
He served them the very best to be had, and he shared with
them all he could get, when the pinch of starvation began.
His death was regretted by the fighting lot as that of a comrade.

His reckless mode of life was underlaid by a romance;
and many a man-about-town, of that day, will vividly re
call its handsome and magnetic heroine. They may also
recall a narrow chested, tall placed house, near a popular
hotel, which was the field of this romance. Ay di me! was
that yesterday, or — the day before? Worsham's death
let the feminine surroundings drift Westward: but those
who recall the past of that episode, and then stare at the
present, must confess that this world is a very small one
indeed; and that, like Time, it has its "whirligig and brings
in strange revenges!"

The hotels and restaurants of Richmond were fairly good
at first and both battled bravely against fast increasing priva
tion. They were one field of war dissipation, and tended to that
reckless disregard of values which is typical of fighting
soldiers; and which fell into utter contempt of the paper
money as it grew less and less in value.

Morally, the tone of all ranks of society was wonderfully
high. Civil laws, where not soundly asleep, were weak of
execution from the army drain of men; and the provost

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 371

substitute was more interested in guarding the body of
the backslider than in mounting guard over his soul. The
bars between the sexes were nominal; intercourse — under
common sympathy in pride or sorrow for events in pas
sage — was free and friendly, and, as before noted, the duen
na was represented by X. Yet there was so little of open
and brazen debauchery as to make it scarcely a consider
ation. Society guarded itself by habit and pride; its lower
ranks, by absorption in an elevating and universal altruism.
The Christianity of theory crystallized in the Christianity
of practice.

From first to last the sporty did not predominate over
the godly in the economics of the Confederacy The latter
were in the ascendency at all times, and in Richmond there
were churches in great numbers, presided over by able and
earnest men, who made their mark upon the time. That
the martial and religious spirit went hand in hand lacks
no shining exemplars. Lee and Stonewall Jackson; the
latter 's brother-in-law, General D. H. Hill, Father Ryan,
the brilliant and untiring poet-priest; Father Patterson,
of Tennessee; Louisiana's Leonidas Polk, general and
bishop; Pemberton, and Jefferson Davis himself, come up
at the touch of suggestion. And what was true of the army
was more discernible in those civil ranks of Dixie life, less
diverted from active religion by over-activity of brain and
body.

So, central and variously enough attended as to make
them universally known then, the churches and pastors
of Richmond will make a pleasantly reminiscent note. They
were of all denominations, the actual list being this :

The Episcopal churches: St. Paul's, Rev. Charles Minne-
gerode, D. D., was General Lee's church and the scene of
many historic weddings and funerals. Dr. Minnegerode
was an intimate of President Davis, and visited him while

372 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

in prison. St. James's was the church of Rev. Joshua Pe-
terkin, D. D., another loved and popular preacher, and
Dr. George Woodbridge held the pulpit of the Monumental.
Grace church was Rev. Dr. Baker's, with a large congre
gation, and Christ church and St. Mark's were noted churches,
though I cannot now place their rectors.

The Presbyterian churches were: First, Dr. T. V. Moore,
and the Second was in charge of Rev. Moses D. Hoge,
D. D., a most eminent preacher and very popular, espe
cially with the soldiers. Dr. C. H. Read, was in charge of
Grace street church, and Dr. R. R. Howison presided at
the Third Presbyterian. All these had large transient
congregations, when the war held great armies near the
capital. The same was the case with the Methodist churches.
The Centenary was Dr. Doggett's, and the Broad street
was in charge of Dr. J. A. Duncan, later bishop of Virginia.
The Clay street and Union Station churches were active
and well attended, but I cannot trace their pastors. It
is a trifle singular that it has proved easier to find a sergeant
in one army than a captain in the other. Immersion in
chronicle has let me fare better with the Baptist churches:
The First, presided over by Dr. J. L. Burrows, the Second
by Dr. D. Shaver. The Grace street Baptist was a centre
of curiosity as well as of interest. Its pastor, Rev. J. B.
Jeter, D. D., was one of the most marked figures of war
time Richmond. The pulpit of the Leigh street Baptist
was filled by Dr. J. B. Soloman.

The solemnity of sacred things did not fully spike the
batteries of the wicked wits. There were jokes — and some
times jibes — at almost every black coat, however popular,
and deservedly so. McCarty used to swear that he heard
one pious sister confide to another, at the porch:

"I jes' do love to hear Brother Jeter!" and the other
assented :

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 373

"Me, too, sister; he do preach so moanful!"

On one occasion a lovely and noble fellow in the fulmin
ate works, was blown almost into shreds while fusing shells.
Next Sunday his family's pastor explained in his notices:
" Immediately after worship, beloved, we will hold service
over the remains of our departed brother — ahem! I should
have said, what remains of the remains. "

St. Paul's was the church of fashion and the scene, as
I noted, of many swell weddings. At these, in open church,
the crush of the curious was always great. On one occasion
its conduct was more picnicky than pious, flirtation raging
with giggle and sigh, and jest passing from mouth to mouth.
After one very large and fashionable wedding a wag pinned
a penciled cartoon on the door of St. Paul's. It represent
ed the pompous sexton, a noted character in town, standing
at the portal and waving back some meek-faced worship
ers who ask:

"But is this not the house of God?" and the janitor
responds :

" Yes; but He isn't at home!"

Only to locate it justly, the familiar slip of the tongue
made by Dr. Hoge may be pardoned repetition. When
the war was nearly crushed to a close he prayed for General
Breckinridge, then war secretary:

"And may his hand be so strengthened that his enemies
may not trump over him!"

The Roman*Church was ever sympathetic with the Cause,
and its clergy and especially its Sisters of Charity and of
Mercy did early, constant and indescribable labor for the
bodies of the sick as well as for their souls. They wrought
unceasingly, in the de Sales hospital on Brook avenue;
in any other, where their white, unshaking hands found
work to do — in Norfolk, Lynchburg and Charlottesville,
as well as in all the wide stretch of havoc and misery that

374 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

measured the Confederacy. One of these noble women
has just passed the golden jubilee of her novitiate. Through
the whole land the hearts of veterans went out in loving
greeting to the meek and fearless war nurse, Sister Made
line O'Brien, in her Baltimore rest.

Rt. Rev. John McGill, war bishop of Richmond, was

a stanch Rebel and a scorn-
er of half-utterance. He
did all that in him lay to
promote the Cause and to
heal those stricken by sick
ness, or sword, or — famine.
His cathedral pulpit was
held by Revs. Robert H.
Andrews, A. L. McMullen
and John Hagan.

Rev. Leonard Mayer, 0.
S. B., preached at St. Mary's,
and at St. Patrick's Rev.
J. Teeling, D. D. These all
did good work, they and the
Jesuits — notably Fathers P.
P. Kroes and P. Toale—
carried piety and tending
to Fortress Monroe, Fairfax
and all the army lines.
Another bishop with warrior soul and unswerving loy
alty to the Cause — and who was later Prelate of the Diocese
of Humor in the American Church — was Rt. Rev. Rich
ard Hooker Wilmer, war bishop of Mobile. Consecrated
to that see in 1862, he forbade further use of the perfunc
tory prayer for the president of the United States. When
the end came and General Thomas was in command, he
sent for Bishop Wilmer and insisted that the prayer should

RT. REV. RICHARD HOOKER WILMER
(WAR BISHOP OF MOBILE)

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 375

be returned to its use in all the churches. The bishop
refused flatly, pointing out that it would be as illogical as
insincere. Then "Old Pap" declared he would close the
Episcopal churches. Bishop Wilmer confessed that might
gave the general power to do that, but no right to coerce
his conscience; so the public worship ceased, and all ser
vices were held in private homes until the Washington
government rescinded the Thomas order, and the daunt
less churchman triumphed over the inter arma proverb.

Bishop Perry in his work on the "Bishops of the Amer
ican Church, " clearly shows that the action of the Alabama
bishop was based on logic and law; and that its indorsement
forced from the government was the step that marked
forever the division of church and state in this Repub
lic.

Some years later, when the guest of his daughter-in-
law, Mrs. W. H. Wilmer, at Washington, he was walking
at the then completing Thomas Circle. He asked the lady
whose was the new equestrian statue. When she told him
it was General Thomas, the clerical wit halted facing the
figure, waved his hand and cried:

"I am glad to meet you again, sir; and I have all the
advantage. Now, you cannot answer back!"

Only nine years ago, when in his eighty-fifth year, the
stanch bishop died in Mobile. His daughter, Mrs. Minnie
Wilmer Jones, wife of Colonel Harvey E. Jones, who left
his leg in Virginia and is adjutant-general of Alabama
Veterans, resides in Mobile, happy in her children and grand
children. She is prominent in leadership in the Daughters
of the Confederacy; and it was she who forced the passage
of the resolution of Mrs. N. V. Randolph, of Virginia, pray
ing the abolishment of the sponsor fad, and had it sent
to General S. D. Lee, veteran commander-in-chief. Her
brother, Dr. William Holland Wilmer, is the famous ocu-

376 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

list of Washington, where he resides with his accomplished
wife and three children, his eldest boy renewing the grand-
paternal name.

Another Virginian — a man of war and a man of sport,
and later a most famous man of God — was Thomas Under
wood Dudley, Son of Thomas Underwood Dudley, the be
loved city sergeant of ante-bellum Richmond, and his wife,
Martha Maria Friend. Born in Richmond in 1837, young
Dudley was classmate at the University of Virginia with
Virginius Dabney and Dr. Wm. Porcher Du Bose. More
notable men in different lines I do not recall, out of that
character-breeding epoch. Dabney has already been seen
at close range. Dean Du Bose was a born student and a
preordained churchman; but he went into the war and got
his first baptism of fire, ere going into the church to rise to the
head of its writers and dean of one of its noted sem
inaries.

Dudley — "Tom," as every one called him — was a round
about fellow, brimming with thought, wit, quick acquis
itiveness of all worth knowing. He was a feature in college
life; leading in all the fun and reckless jollity and — as Dr.
Du Bose said in his memorial service — "not altogether
out of its dissipations." As the same best authority added:
"He was more of a boy, and more kinds of a boy, than any
one of his time. "

All these three classmates went into the war: two of
them Virginians and the other — as his name doubly proves —
a Huguenot Carolinian. Dudley went in as private, but
was promoted to quartermaster captain. Thus he lost that
rapid promotion which his strong attributes would have
forced from line service. Early after war, he entered the
priesthood, under rather strange circumstances. For at
college he had balanced between opinion and intent. He
was of legal mental habit, not devotional, V. Dabney in-

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 377

sisted. Young Du Bose combated this with, the dictum
that "Tom was born for the church!"

When the surrender was still green, and men were cast
ing about what to do, a number of us youngsters decided
to start, at least, with a rollicking visit to Baltimore. John
Saunders had just moved there; Henley Smith was with us
and his parents had a lovely home there; the clubs were
sure to swing wide doors. So we went: Myers, Hampden
Chamberlayne, Page McCar-
ty. John R. Key, Innes
Randolph, myself and Tom
Dudley. Needless to recall
what was done, eaten and
imbibed in that round of
gastronomy fit for Lucullus!
The ancient town had indeed
much caloric added to its
time! We all roomed at
"Guy's"— the old tavern:
Dudley and Page McCarty
being my roommates. One
morning I was awakened at
dawn by someone moving.
Half-asleep, I asked : "Want
iced water?"

"More than gold or pre
cious stones," whispered Dud
ley. He added not to wake
Page; he was dressed to
catch the Washington train, and take that day's Acquia
Creek boat for Richmond. And he added: "Can't stand
this pace: it means jim-jams, sure! I'm going home to law
and corn pone!"

He went, and the next time I met him — at a family dinner

J. HENLEY SMITH

(OF MOSBY'B CAVALRY)

378 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

in Baltimore, years after, he wore clerical dress. The change
possibly induced by Du Bose's insistence, was hastened by
what I heard later. The story ran thus :

In those days the route from Washington to Richmond
was mainly by boat, and stage coach. Recognizing an old
comrade in the tooler of the four-in-hand, the bishop-to-be
clambered to the box seat and soon had the reins and was
bowling merrily adown the pike. Then — whether from
Baltimore on the nerves, or from sitting away from the
brake — he picked up a big boulder, upset the coach and
threw the insiders into a massed heap. They found their
volunteer Phaeton with a fractured collar bone and ribs
and left him at a wayside farm, with a country doctor who tied
him immovable in starch bandages. Then, after days, the mail
that had followed him to Baltimore — and several delayed tel
egrams — overtook the helpless man. These told him that his
wife was desperately ill ; and that he must hasten to Richmond,
if he would see her alive. Sore in body and in conscience,
the remorseful man took first conveyance and reached home.
The old intent mastered him; and soon after his wife's death,
he was admitted to the Episcopal ministry.

Ordained as deacon in June, 1867, he was placed at Har-
risonburg. Next year he was ordained priest and made
assistant to Dr. H. A. Wise, at Christ church, Baltimore;
becoming rector of that important parish soon after. Then,
April, 1875 — less than a decade from his deaconite —
and in his 38th year — he was consecrated bishop of the
great diocese of Kentucky. His career in the church is
too recent history to need note here. So is that as chan
cellor of the University of the South, to which he succeeded
Bishop Gregg, of Texas, in June 1893.

Bishop Dudley was thrice married, his first wife having
been Miss Fanny Cochran, of Loudon county, Va. She left
four daughters: Catherine Noland, now Mrs. G. S. Richards,

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 379

of New York; Martha Maria, now Mrs. James Kirkpatrick,
of Collington, Md., Alice Harrison, now Mrs. William Mc
Dowell, of Lexington, Ky., and Fanny Cochran, the late
Mrs. H. R. Woodward, of Middleburg, Va.

The second wife of the bishop was Miss Virginia Fisher
Rowland, of Norfolk, Va. She had two sons, Thos. Under
wood, Jr., of Middlesburg, and John Rowland Dudley, of
Terminal, Cal., and Harriet Gardner Dudley, now Mrs.
Tevis Goodloe, of Louisville, Ky.

The third Mrs. Dudley, who survives the bishop, was Miss
Mary Elizabeth Aldrich, of New York. Her two children
are Gertrude Wyman Dudley, now Mrs. H. S. Musson,
of Louisville, and Aldrich Dudley of the same city.

Bishop Dudley's life was not only a great and busy one:
it was result ful and efficacious. In it and the international
respect and praise it won him, is ample room for pleasant
contemplation to his numerous descendants of the second
and third generations.

A still older church worked for the souls and bodies of
its children.

Two Jewish synagogues were open all the war, in Rich
mond; the Portuguese, Beth Shalome, Rabbi George
Jacobs, and the German, Bethahabah, Rabbi M. J. Mich-
elbacher. And, outside of church charity proper, Jewish
women wrought unceasingly in hospital and camp, nurs
ing and feeding the needy; among them, well remembered
Mrs. Abram Hutzler, Mrs. Abram Smith, Mrs. M. J. Mich-
elbacher, the Misses Rachel Levey, Leonora Levy, now
Mrs. Mayer Hart, of Norfolk; Bertha Myers, Clara Myers
and Rosa Smith. To one and all, Jew and Gentile, hail!

Yet, after all — and with no irreverence and no disrespect to
the cloth — the truest manifestation of real piety during the
war gleamed out from the fetid and loathsome hospitals of
camp and town.

CHAPTER XXXIII

HOSPITALS AND WOMEN'S WORK

IF religion be really charity wearing the mantle of hero
ism, then the noble women and the tireless men who tended
the wounded and the suffering wrought their own canon
ization in the Unerring Sight. Nowhere on the globe have
war nurses worked more ceaselessly and more gently to
beneficent result; nowhere have they worked against such
tremendous odds of wearing strain, lacking appliances and
want of education and experience, in both the tender and
the tended.

The distant reaches of the trans-Mississippi, the long
suspense of Vicksburg, the ghastliness and horror of Bragg's
retreat; Richmond, Atlanta — every blood-hallowed section
of the fair South, wrote its undying epic of constancy, cour
age and self-sacrifice, on the white-washed walls of its
nearest hospital.

That matrons and mothers did such great deeds was he
roic; that young and tender girls, nurtured as the darlings
of luxurious homes, stood with them, shoulder to shoul
der, through all the war's length, was godlike!

There is no iota of exaggeration in the recitals of women's
work for those long, bitter yet resultful four years. Un
happily, it has been left too much to tradition when it
deserves graving upon bronze. Even its roughest recital is
a poem and its memory a sacrament; and, as in most other

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 381

things I attempt to describe, Richmond was the convex
reflex of that highest manifestation of the Cause "In the
land where we were dreaming."

Space permits but casual glimpse of the Richmond hos
pital trials; but by one all are seen. Nor will mention from
memory seem invidious, for the grandchildren and one
time lovers of those dear old girls realize the literal truth
that theirs was the beautiful charity that elects not in its
giving of succor and of love, yet strives to hide from its left
hand the benefactions of its right.

In a time when no sexagenarian was too feeble, no strip
ling too young, to answer to unceasing call for more men,
every girl in Dixie stood ready to line up with the elder
women and face the sickening or heartbreaking scenes that
trod, swift and dizzying, in the red footprints of every bat
tle. And not one record is extant that any single sister
failed the mute call for aid from the lips of her gray-clad
brother's wounds; that one turned inattentive ear to the
message in the fleeting breath to those dear ones far away
for whom — as well as for her — he died.

Through these pages, current note has been made of how
the women, young and old, gentle and rough, began their
sacrifices early for "the boys"; how the daintiest fingers
fell to "scraping lint for the brave to bleed upon." But
in those hope-sunnied days lint was an incident, as "French
knots" were later, and wounds were the veriest shadow of
a glib-spoken name. But as ideas fast indurated into hid
eous facts, the women of all degrees faced them with some
thing deeper than bravery: higher and holier than calmness.
Mrs. Mattie Myers wrote me photographic words of the
young Fitz Lee, "When life was a jest, and war a pastime."
But when the glamour dimmed and the jest was finding
its echo from the Valley of Death, the lint-scraping girls
had statured to veritable heroines — and never dreamed it,

382 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

Eyes that had brimmed over in early partings for the front,
were tearless under duty's mandate in sight of hideous
suffering and unaccustomed deaths; little hands that had
known no rougher touch than that of a true love's lips,
never trembled when holding the jetting artery, or soaking
the blood-stiffened bandages from ghastly and loathsome
wounds. And through all the strain arid suspense and
noisomeness, there were no mock heroics — no slightest
tinge of self-illustration.

Elsewhere I have told how the young and brilliant belles
of war-time would leave the hospital kitchen, or the more
exacting ward, doff apron and cap to don what ball-dress
the blockade had left them, or the tinsel and gewgaws of
the mimic stage, again to work for the one Cause that was
to them the Trinity of Love and Hope and Duty. To un
dying honor of the butterflies of that day's fashion, they
never recalled their gaudy wings, nor longed for missing
honey, when each and every one went back into the grub
next morning.

Not for any ordinary pen is it to write the work of one
tithe of the noble woman-helpers — to fix the shifting scenes
of their wondrous drama of love and duty done. Yet I
may record a few that crowd to memory, unbidden — re
sistless. One of their white-clad band has given her " Mem
ories"; touching the Western and the Eastern war, as
at Ringgold, Newnan, Buckner's and the heart-freezing
wake of Bragg' s retreat.

Mrs. Fanny A. Beers, of Louisiana, tells simply of her
first duty at the sweet, fresh little " Soldier's Rest," on
convenient Clay street, Richmond. Later, she was a ref
uge and ministering angel at Gainsville and Resaca, Ring-
gold and Atlanta: in the wake of Bragg's blood-stained
retreat. There in charge were Mrs. Gwathmey, Mrs. Book
er, Mrs. James Grant, with Misses Catherine Poitreaux

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 383

and Susan Watkins, and not forgetting Mrs. Edmund Ruffin.
Near this was a similar private refuge — would that they
had half sufficed! — organized and managed by Mrs. Caro
line Mayo. Great woman that she was, the flower of Vir
ginia womanhood was quick to respond to her call. A little
later, as the war began its first red steps toward quick-com
ing ghastliness, almost every great home in the city had
its hospital-room, as de
scribed in Mrs. Louisa Hax-
all Harrison's letter,
heretofore quoted. They
were the nurseries of the
famous and selfless nurses
who made possible the tre
mendous work done in the
vast and quick-overflowed
museums of mangled man
hood : as Chimborazo,
Robinson's, Officer's hospi
tal, the Georgia, Louisiana,
Winder's, the Alabama and
the Tompkins.

The story of the Alabama
hospital at Richmond is lumi
nous with the record of a woman who no less authority than
General Joseph E. Johnston declared, "Was more use
ful to my army than a new brigade." Mrs. Hopkins had
married before she wedded Judge Arthur F. Hopkins, of
Mobile. At the first fighting, she offered her services to
the state in its crude organizing; developed special fitness
and was sent to Richmond, before Bull Run. There she
organized and controlled that great house of mercy, all dur
ing the war, writing her biography indelibly on the heart
of many a modest hero yet living — of many more that have

MRS. FANNIE A. BEERS

384 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

been still for decades. Her memory lives, green and fra
grant, in Virginia and in her home state.

Juliet Ann Opie was eldest daughter of Hon. Hierome
Lindsay Opie, of Virginia, and was born in Jefferson county,
Va., in 1816. She was in direct sixth descent from Helen
Lindsay, daughter of Rev. David Lindsay, who died in North
umberland in 1667 and was only son of Sir Hierome Lind
say, of the Mount, Lord Lion King-at-Arms, of Scotland.
In early youth Miss Opie married Capt. Alex. G. Gordon,
U. S. N., and was early widowed. Later she married chief
justice of Alabama, Arthur Francis Hopkins. She sold prop
erty in Alabama, Virginia and New York and gave nearly
$200,000 to the Confederate cause. She was honored by
vote of thanks of her state and her face was printed upon
two of its bank bills. Not only untiring and self-sacrificing,
she was twice wounded upon the field at Seven Pines, while
lifting wounded men. She limped slightly from the last
hurt, until her death at Washington in 1890, when she was
followed to her grave at Arlington by Gray and Blue. Gen
erals Joe Johnston, Joe Wheeler and Lieutenant-General
Schofield, head of the United States Army, were among
her mourners.

General Lee wrote to her, "You have done more for the
South than all the women." Johnston has been quoted
and, in a glowing letter Wheeler called her even
more.

It is pleasantly coincidental that the daughter of the
general who called Mrs. Hopkins "the Florence Nightin
gale of the South" was known to the soldiers of the Spanish
war as "the Army Angel." Miss Annie Wheeler won un
knowing, and worthily wore, that title by her beautiful
work of love in the yellow fever hospitals in Cuba. Years
before, General Joseph E. Johnston had written of Mrs.
Hopkins as "The Angef of the South."

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 385

Her beautiful daughter, Juliet Opie, married old General
Romeyn B. Ayres, while a young girl, and now resides
at Laurel, Md. It was to her that the exceptional
phrase of General Johnston was written. Her two young
children sleep by her mother and General Ayres at Arlington.

The heights of Chimborazo had a great and busy hospital.
Its brisk and brilliant matron was the Mrs. Phoebe Pember
already spoken of. Hers
was a will of steel, under a
suave refinement, and her
pretty, almost Creole ac
cent covered the power to
ring in deft on occasion. The
friction of these attributes
against bumptiousness, or
young authority, made the
hospital the field of many
"fusses" and more fun.

Pretty and charming Mrs.
Lucy Mason Webb has al
ready been met on the mim
ic boards of charity work.
She performed a heavier
role, and that most success
fully, in her long engagement as matron in the Officer's hos
pital, under Doctors Charles Bell Gibson, A. Y. P. Garnett, La
fayette Guild and others. Her husband was killed in the collapse
of the floor of the capitol at Richmond, and the universally
loved widow devoted her best years to caring for suffering
strangers, who yet were brothers.

One noble Alabama woman sleeps in the midst of the boys
she loved and lived for in the " Soldiers' Rest" of Magnolia
Cemetery at Mobile. Ann Toulmin Hunter was the mother
of the soldiers, from the day the gray was donned. Un-

MRS. ARTHUR F. HOPKINS
(JULIET ANN OPIE)

:'.S6 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

ceasingly she worked for them in kitchen, camp and hospital,
and when the first nameless dead of her state were collected
and brought home — long preceding this era of pretty parks
and pretty oratory — she never rested until name and roster
had been recovered, in every case possible.

When she laid down for endless sleep her wish was carried
out, and her rest is in the soldiers' last home.

A Georgia matron, whose war-time life and energies were
devoted to the soldier, sick or well, left her high epitaph
written in letters of love, upon the monument she reared
to their honor. The widow of Dr. John Carter of Augusta,
had been a belle and beauty as Miss Martha Milledge Flournoy.
Her married life had passed in society: and her widowhood,
prior to the war had changed her mode of life but little. But
when the call came, Mrs. Carter threw all her exceptional
strength of character into work for the boys. She helped
the men at the front with forwarded food, clothing and
delicacies; aided the Georgia hospitals in Virginia with
contributions and personally tended the sick and wounded
and buried the dead, when the grasp of active war held
her own state. Mrs. Carter's memory is still green with
the veterans ; and she has made theirs immortal by her post-
bellum energy and influence. She it was who organized
and for many years was president of the Ladies' Memorial
Association; and her zeal and judgment made possible that
stately monument to the Confederate dead; of which August-
ans of today are justly proud.

Mrs. Carter's death brought universal regret, social and
civic, in the home city she had served so well. Of her chil
dren but two survive, but the third and fourth generations
cherish her memory. Major Mason Carter, 5th U. S. In
fantry (retired) is now at San Diego, Cal. He went through
the Civil War; and I latest recall him and his gifted and
gracious wife, when he was detailed as tactical head of the

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 387

Sewanee cadets and the pair were marked factors in the
cultured circles of the mountain. His sister, Sophia Flour-
noy Carter Johnson, resides at the university; and she is
credited with being the brightest and most helpful of the
many handsome widows there, who tea and talk and help
the needy. Her mother's tact and energy have descend
ed on her and her experience and dramatic tact make her
the younger "set's" leader. In her picturesque home is her
daughter, Miss Florine Johnson; but the three sons are
scattered. Flournoy Carter Johnson resides in New Or
leans; a skilled chemist. He married Miss Julienne Sneed,
a Memphis belle and popular in all three of her homes; be
ing frank as intellectual and a delightful musician. Two
sturdy and pretty boys complete that family.

Sebastian King Johnson is still a bachelor, residing in
Columbus, Ohio; but his youngest brother sets him good
example. Bertram Page Johnson is first lieutenant in the
20th U. S. Infantry, stationed at the Presidio, Monterey,
Cal. He married Miss Augusta Ford Hill, of Helena, Mont.

The children of Dr. and Mrs. John Carter who died were:
Captain Milburn Carter, killed on the Confederate side
at Missionary Ridge; Dr. Flournoy Carter, who served as
surgeon of Rhett's battery; and Barren Carter, U. S. en
sign, who served as aide to Commodore Tatnall.

Miss Emily Virginia Mason has already appeared in this
narration en doyenne of her family. Past her ninety-fourth
birthday, she had still a wonderful greenery of heart and
strength of character and vivacity of mind. She lately wrote
me with her own hand and retained her quaint and pretty
humor. I recall her at eighty-four years of age arranging
to chaperone a party of young girls on an extensive tour
of Europe.

The combination of attributes noted made her a leader
in the great work of the hospitals, all during the war. No

388 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

roster of its immortal matrons would be complete without
her name. She was almost ubiquitous at the Greenbrier
White, Norfolk, Charlottesville and Lynchburg, and was
chief matron of the Winder hospital at Richmond, to
the very close. With her worked the only other daughters
of John Thomson Mason who reached womanhood, Mrs.

Catherine Armistead Rowland
(whose daughter, Kate Mason
Rowland, late lived with Miss
Mason at Washington) and
Mrs. Laura Ann Thomson
Chilton, now of Richmond.

The work of Miss Mason
has been recorded often in
print, notably in the Atlantic
Monthly and in Mrs. Davis 's
book, and she was herself a
forceful and piquant writer,
whose pen has been much in
demand.

Only in the February of
this year, the brave, loyal
and gentle nature of this ven
erable lady of another day
yielded to a sudden stroke of paralysis. She never rallied and,
on the 17th of that month — when this page was ready for the
press — she passed into her better life, painlessly and almost
imperceptibly. About her bedside were the few still left of
those nearest and dearest to her; but the thousands who
knew her name, yet had never seen her face, sent to them
a true and deep sympathy that was heartborn and a balm.
Baltimore, Washington, and all Virginia will mourn for
"Miss Emily"; but the general regret has no limits of sec
tion. All who knew " of her even, feel that a vital

EMILY VIRGINIA MASON IN HER
92D YEAR

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 389

link between the past and the present has been broken.

No memory of woman's work in trying days is without an
echo of another Virginian, who labored beside her, almost as
early and in the same rich field of Charity and Love. The
name of Miss Sallie Tompkins, — sister of Col. Christopher Q.
Tompkins and "Aunt Sallie" as she was known to those
near her — glows freshly today in the heart of many a brave
fellow who is still here, only through her ministrations at
the Tompkins Hospital at Richmond, of which she was the
head and soul. Original, old fashioned and tireless in
well doing, she was as simple as a child and as resolute as
a veteran. She is living as these lines are written, I think,
near the capital in which her work was done; but she is very
old. She bears the unique distinction of being the only
woman commissioned as captain in the Confederate Army.

From the group of noble women who wrought and sacri
ficed most in the war, Mrs. Henri Weber stands out clearly.

Margaret Isabella Walker was the eldest daughter of
Hon. Carleton Walker, collector of the port of Wilmington
in 1812, and of Caroline Mallet; and was born in 1824, at
Fayettcville, in that state. Her twin brother was Dr. John
Mosely Walker, long since dead. The girl was most care
fully educated by an accomplished father, in her home state
and at the Barhamville Institute, Columbia, S. C. While
she was still a girl, he failed by heavy endorsements for
a friend, then governor of his state; and the daughter began
that career as a teacher, in which she attained such fame.
When her family moved to Tennessee she taught at Col
umbia, and later in Nashville. There she met Professor
Henrich David Christian Frederich Weber, a notable teacher
of that day. A warm attachment was followed by a marriage
in 1852; and the pair settled in Nashville and taught to
gether until the war began. But the husband was a Union
ist by principle and education ; and moreover, he had interests

390 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

in the Northwest. He went to Cincinnati, as a base; and his
wife remained for the moment with her kinsfolk in Ten
nessee, all her sympathies, education and instincts being
warmly pro Southern. Then the expected " short war"
waxed longer and more bitter; Donelson fell and Nashville;
and communication was wholly cut off between the pair.
Mrs. Weber, with her two little sons, fled to the home of
her sister, Mrs. Adams, at Lafayette, Ala. There she strug
gled on alone, until the neighbors lost all means of paying for
tuition; hearing only at rare intervals, any word from her
husband. Meantime she never wearied of caring for the
well men at the front, or nursing the sick and wounded,
or sister-like, soothing the last hour of suffering here and
speeding the fleeting soul. Her record as a nurse and com
forter is no less white because never blared abroad. It was
graved deep on the hearts of her proteges.

Then came what was misnamed Peace. The madman's
pistol had murdered the infant conciliation and the leaders
of the Cause were corralled by blind rage and driven into
prison pens. The eyes of all the world — the patience of
civilization — were strained to one reeking and unwholesome
casemate at Fortress Monroe. And, just then, Professor
Weber's influential friends secured conduct through the
lines for his wife. He sent her passports and funds to reach
him at Cincinnati, by way of Roanoke Island and Norfolk.
At the former, she was robbed by the guard and she landed
at Fort Monroe penniless and unable to communicate with
her husband. But she learned, for the first time, of the
treatment of "the prisoner of state" and of his shackling
by Stanton's order, at the servile hands of that general,
whose service had taught him that obedience to hint of
superior was the best soldiership.

Burning with indignant shame, Mrs. Weber forgot self,
husband, her recent destitution. For the time, she trans-

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 391

figured insulted Southern womanhood. She had ticket
for herself and the boys to Washington and Baltimore.
Thence she hastened to Washington and the White House.
She had known the statesman sartor at home; and he re
ceived her courteously. But that trimmer to the wind
of expediency and the moment was just then adamant.
Her plea for justice — even for release of the man she knew
to be innocent — moved Mr. Johnson no tittle. He scoffed
at the idea of any interference with "Stanton's justice;"
and, convinced that there was no more power to move him,
Mrs. Weber gave rein to her disgust and there, in the White
House, lashed his accidency with verbal knouts. When
she finally reached her husband and related the episode,
he cried:

"What have you done, wife? We have been separated
for four years and tomorrow we shall be sent together to
the penitentiary!"

But no such finale came. Andy Johnson was either too
busy and baited, or too jealous of his surroundings, ever
to vent personal malignity upon the helpless ones in his
clutch. Years after, he met Mrs. Weber, without recalling
the incident in any way.

A few years after the war, Prof esser Weber died ; and his
widow — after completing the careful education of her chil
dren — continued to teach at Nashville and added up, in all,
forty years of service to the youth of that city. No marvel
then, that when she died in Nashville, two years ago, the
day of her funeral was made a memorial one by the mayor:
all schools being closed and the teachers and pupils following
the flower hidden casket to Mount Olivet.

Mrs. Weber had two sons: John Walker Weber and Henri
Carleton Weber; both cultured and experienced instruct
ors for years. The elder died after long and useful manage
ment of the Sewanee grammar school under Bishop

392 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

Quintard and Dr. Hodgson. Professor Carleton Weber
is now superintendent of the schools of Nashville, his native
city. She had also two step-children, Mary E. Weber,
now Mrs. F. E. Farrar, and Frederich E. Weber. She also
adopted a daughter, Eva Theodora, now Mrs. Lyman Syms,
of Jefferson ville, Ind.

John Weber, Mrs. Weber's elder son, left four children:

Caro Carleton Weber — now
Mrs. Marvin Sneed, of Cal-
vert, Tex., and the mother
of two children, Marvin and
John W. Sneed : — Margaret
Isabella Weber, John Walk
er Weber and Lee Ellis Web
er, all residing in Nashville.

The children of Carleton
Weber are six : Beulah Beau
mont Weber, Louise Weber,
Margaret Isabella Weber,
Sarah Carleton Weber, Doro
thy Weber and Henri Carle-
ton Weber; all of Nashville.

It is notable that this
remarkable woman began
teaching at the age of eight
een, and lived to be eighty-six.
She married in 1852, and when
eighty-two years old wrote her reminiscences : after having
always been a fluent and popular writer of poems and sketch
es. She- was a stately, elegant personality: a delightful
raconteuse; and the summer society of Sewanee looked to
her as its head.

Another Alabama girl, who later reached more general
fame, was a wise and willing worker in the hospitals and

MRS. L. M. WILSON
(AUGUSTA EVANS IN 1867)

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 393

camps near her home. Augusta Evans Wilson, one of the
most successful women authors of America, was then a tall,
young brunette, with much promise and even more altru
ism. Her father's home was close to the Summerville camp
and the writer-to-be spent all of her time in its kitchen
and at the bedsides of the sick. Even that early they re
quired little forcing to take her " compositions. " In her
age and fame perhaps more valued than the many tokens
and souvenirs, sent her from the noted far and near, are the
rough rings, bracelets and baskets, cut from buttons and
fruit seeds by her convalescents, as only possible expression
of the love and reverence they bore her.

These are but few of the many, whose names escape me,
as they worked for love, and not renown. All honor to the
few still left ! Equal meed to those who wait the final bugle
that will rename their " unknown dead."

CHAPTER XXXIV

THE CRUSH OF THE " 'CONDA"

THERE is ever a reason given when one side to a contest
is defeated. If I were asked the most active cause in the
Confederate collapse I should say: The blockade whipped
us. It crushed the early hope and strangled the laboring
breath of the moribund desperation of a hemmed-in few,
resisting many, peering into black hopelessness, across
the line of bristling bayonets in front and a cordon of ar
mored and armed ships behind their only egress and ingress.

Aptly did camp slang name the blockade the " 'Conda. "
It was the crush of the " 'Conda" that squeezed us to death.

At first flush of war the masses of the South really be
lieved that one Southerner " could whip a half-dozen Yankees
and not half try."

This feeling was shared, at first, by many an earnest
fighter, who won the best results after he had learned that
one to two was easier odds and one to one more sure. It
is plain that deathless John Brown Gordon felt this when he
took the" Racoon Roughs' ' to Atlanta armed only with pikes.
Gallant Barney Bee believed it at cost of a priceless life
when he cried to Jackson: "They are driving us, sir!"
Many another, in yellow sash as in unmarked butternut-
urged by dearest and best loved little heroes in homespun
at home — believed it, until too late.

394

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 395

Calm Lee, astute Stephens, inspired Jackson, swinging
old Longstreet — tough Jubal Early — Jefferson Davis him
self — never trusted in the fallacy, preproved by their know
ledge of a common people, rent asunder by beliefs and in
terests that seemed to mean life to each segment. But
facing the fact discouraged none of the thinkers.

No one of the leaders of the South ever feared the foe
in front ; all of them cast nervous glances over their shoulders
at the blockade behind them. Decades ago I smoked my
post-prandial cigar, at Atlanta, with a division commander,
who had won first spurs in Florida and had worn the.m
worthily in all subsequent wars — General William .S.
Walker.

"General," I casually Sir Oracled — "the blockade whip
ped us."

He shifted the brief stump of his leg across his crutch;
blew one blue ring through another, ere he answered slowly:
"Well, that . . . and the fact that the mothers of the
South did not bear all male children!"

As the war wore on the blockade became a serious prob
lem, and ere its close a hideous one, in the straining clutch
for the very means of life. The gradual drain of resources
had habituated even the wealthier classes to plain fare
and little of that; but when the whole carrying power of
the one poor railroad — ill equipped and constantly threatened
by cavalry raids — was overtaxed by dire demand of the
army at Petersburg, privation grinned out of most costly
cupboards. And even had there been the transport for it there
was no product in the land capable of supporting the army and
the people, in any sort of needful comfort. Only in portions
of the trans-Mississippi were supplies of meat and corn
quite adequate to the demand; but the entire cis-river Con
federacy starved and fought.

As the struggle drew to its close, thoughtful men saw that

396 BELLES, BEAUX AND BKAINS OF THE SIXTIES

•

we were dying in gasps under the crushing folds of the
" 'Conda. " We were not permitted to fight it out to the bitter
end and die, but to waste and shrink in an exhausted receiver,
that had no pinhole of hope nor refreshment piercing to
its vacuum.

Yet, there was neither despondency nor pessimism among
the thinkers of the older set. If felt, it was hidden, or whispered
only in cabinet, or council of leaders. The young and
the gay held cheer in their hearts, whatever they may have
had upon the board. The gloom brought to Richmond's
kitchens by the blockade never was allowed ascent to her
parlors.

It has been shown how the women and girls sustained
the ardor of the men; sharing with them to the very last
every dainty now growing rarer daily — even denying them
selves necessaries of life to "give to the boys." It has
been shown, too, that out of this very sharing of what each
had, grew the most unique assemblies, or balls, ever known
in the land. This mutuality of moral support was the ori
gin of those exceptional " starvation parties" which lasted
to the very eve of the Dies Irce. They were the wraiths
and manes of aforetime splendors in every point, save two:
the old time hospitality and the genuine enjoyment. In
a pretty long society experience, I recall no dances where
higher courtliness and real refinement shone than in these
impromptus of the butternut beaux and calico-clad belles
of the middle Ws.

The toilettes? Well, there were some few who held to
the remnants of glories, when the larders were not even
restaurants for ants. The recent letter of a brilliant woman
recalls this, in quotation of "a great get-up" at a very swell
wedding reception:

"Let me whisper: this dress, that I now wear for thee,
Was a curtain of old, in Philadelphee! "

BELLES, BEAUX 2ND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 397

The over-pious and the pessimistic shook sad heads at
the recurrent starvations: "It was dancing on the grave's
edge!" But the girls and the gay ones laughed reply:

" These poor boys have little enough of fun and frolic;
and it is little enough to give them all they ask."

In the " mire-truce" of winter, or when they slipped in
on duty, that was always a dance.

The beaux came from every state and every arm of
service. The navy men were
always popular, for "Anna
polis dancing" as well as
better things. What girl of
that day forgets Walter
Butt, Hilary Cenas, the Lee
boys, or Henry Marmaduke?

There was quite a flutter
when the last named was
transferred from Mobile sta
tion to Richmond. He was
an original with nomadic
turn that has clung to him,
even in the old bachelorhood
he is now passing at Wash
ington, in congenial and al
truistic work for friends of
old . Henry Hungerf ord

Marmaduke was the fifth of the six Marmaduke brothers : all
in service save one too young. These were Colonel Vin
cent Marmaduke who fought his Missouri regiment from start
to finish. He first married Miss Spence, of Tennessee,
who left two daughters: Mrs. Dr. Harrison and Mrs. Robert
Gary, of Kansas City. His later marriage to Mrs. Ames, of
Missouri, brought no children. He and she are both dead.

General John S. Marmaduke won high repute in the

LIEUT H H. MARMADUKE, C. S. N.

398 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEA1NS OF THE SIXTIES

Western army and was governor of Missouri after peace.
He died a bachelor.

The third Marmaduke, Meredith Miles, married Miss
Harvey, of Missouri, and had several children. They moved
to Florida, where their many descendants are well known,
as well as in other states to which they have scattered.

Darwin W. Marmaduke first married Miss Sappingtori,
of Missouri, who died without children: but the second
wife has three. She was Miss Mary Crawford, daughter
of Colonel James Crawford, of Mobile. The children are
James Crawford Marmaduke, of Seattle; Zemula, Mrs. George
C. Pope, of Iowa; and Mrs. Henry Ames, of St. Louis.

The fifth brother we have seen; and the youngest, Leslie
Marmaduke, now lives in St. Louis. He also married one
of the Crawford sisters (Zemula), the third being now Mrs.
Wm. M. Mastin, of Mobile. Leslie Marmaduke has two
unmarried daughters.

But while there was penury at the capital there was
often luxury at the port. The blockaded towns, especially
Wilmington, had opportunities for things they had never
dreamed of before. When families in Richmond, who were
on easy terms with truite a la Tartare, recognized Stras
bourg pie as a friend and sipped burgundy familiarly, were
living entirely on cornmeal, rice and slim-side bacon, I was
sent to Wilmington for a blockader's cargo of ammunition.
Capua and Corinth rolled into one had not seemed more
like fairy-land.

The ordnance cargo had not managed to elude the lazy,
hulking double-enders guarding the Cape Fair; but a trader
steamer had slipped in from Nassau with perishable cargo,
in part. At the blockade headquarters I dined on South
down mutton, brought over on ice, fresh fish, tropical fruits
and even oysters. The men themselves took them all as
a matter of course, but I fear that my own appetite and won-

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 399

derment must have startled my really hospitable hosts.
I had been to the ports before on similar missions, but then
the privation inland and at the border had not made the
contrast so glaring. All the ports had more or less comfort,
but Wilmington was the veritable city of Lucullus on the
Confederate map.

Around that city, too, centred most of the stirring inci
dent and romance of "runnin' th' Bloc." That little river
was the feeder, in great part, of the cannon that spoke to
Pope, McClellan and Joe Hooker — even to Grant for a time —
and bade them " Stand back!" It was the hope of the sur
geons and eager hospital matrons, for medicines and ap
pliances that the smaller "Potomac Ferry" could not furnish.
It was, too, the grave of more than one adventurous fellow
and of one beautiful woman, whose fate was stranger than
that of Absalom. It was down that river, too, that hand
some and ill-fated Frank Du Barry floated to his death,
and was buried in the sea, with a sail winding-sheet and a
32-pound shot at his feet.

The last time I saw " Jimmy" Clark was forty-four years
ago ; the day that Lee evacuated Petersburg. He had been my
boyhood friend in Washington and my partner in more than
one round of the cosy parlors, or tke glittering gambling dens
of Richmond, when he came back from Camp Chase, in
February, 1865. On the morning of Lee's retreat, Clark
was watching the shell-ignited tobacco warehouses, with
the pretty Lucas sisters, as his parole kept him from better
duty. Capt. Frank Markoe galloped up and told him he
was to take Miss Mary Lee back home on a train that would
bring in Field's division. In his late letter to me, Clark says:

"I landed Miss Mary safely, at Mrs. Lee's, Grace street,
about two A. M. next day; and left Richmond before day
light, up the canal for the Valley. I did not see any of the
boys, if indeed any of them were left in Richmond."

400 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

James Louis Clark was the son of Major Michael M. Clark,
U. S. A.; and though born in barracks, was my chum at the
Rugby Academy, at Washington; now Hotel Hamilton,
on K and 14th streets. His lovely mother was Miss Anne
Matthews Johnson, of Frederick county, Md., and the other
children were: Duncan Clinch Clark, who married Miss
Chrissie Haywood; Jula Lee Clark, John Mackay Clark,
Thomas Johnson Clark, who married Miss Elizabeth Ma-
gruder; Annie Johnson Clark, who married Joseph Rieman;
and Charles Michael Clark. The married ones all reside
in Baltimore. " Jimmy" came South as quartermaster
of the First Maryland, resigned to go on Stuart's staff and
then commanded Troop F, of (Harry Gilmore's) Maryland
cavalry battalion. He was a popular fellow in Washington
and later in Richmond with both sexes. After the war
he disappeared in the then Wild West. He was district
attorney for the Leadville district and is now at his mine
in Colorado, 135 miles from a railroad. Last June I wrote
a syndicate sketch of Jefferson Davis. In faraway Col
umbine, Clark picked up a copy of the Savannah News,
saw my name on the article and sent a tracer letter
to that city. Since we have corresponded and recently
he wrote me of a Richmond breakfast that defied the block
ade and was remarkable in its collection of notables of that
day. It is worthy of reproduction also, as showing Gen.
Jos. E. Johnston's estimate of Gen. R. E. Lee. It was at
the time when General Johnson was ordered to command the
Western army, on recovery from his wound at Seven Pines;
and when the relative merits of Lee and Johnson were much
discussed. Clark writes that he was in Richmond, having
resigned from the First Maryland and not having yet joined
Gen. J. E. B. Stuart as volunteer aide. He adds:

"Gen. Johnston's first act had been to appoint Major
Alfred Barbour, who had been his chief quartermaster at

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 401

Manassas, to the same position in the Western army; and
Major Blue Moore, who had been first assistant, to his old
post. A week or so before the general went West, a break
fast was given by Majors Barbour and Moore, at Old Tom
Griffin's, on Main street. Rumor said the breakfast was
to honor the reconciliation between Senator Henry S. Foote
and Hon. Wm. M. Yancey, who had been estranged after
long intimacy ; and both these great men were enthusiastic
partisans of Gen. Johnston.

"Major Barbour presided at head of the table; Senator
Foote at his right and Gov. Milledge T. Bonham of South
Carolina, next. Then came Gen. Gustavus W. Smith and
next, Major John Daniel, of the Richmond Examiner, with
his arm in a slirig from the wound received while acting
as Johnson's aide, at the time both were shot down.
Next sat Gen. Johnston, on the left of Major Blue Moore,
who held the foot of the table. On Major Moore's right,
I sat: next me, John Bonne Gary and next, his brother,
Wilson M. Gary, who was going West, with Major Moore. On
his right was Gen. John B. Floyd, late Buchanan's secretary
of war; and finally, Mr. Yancey, on Major Barbour's left.
And "The breakfast was one such as old Tom Griffin alone
could prepare, though I recall nothing of a menu, rare in
those days. Being a youngster, I was all attention to the
talk.

"Gen. Johnston, as usual, was taciturn; still suffering
much from his unhealed wound. But Mr. Yancey and Mr.
Foote were the life of the party, while others, of course,
contributed their mite to its success. Mr. Daniel — the
most brilliant editor the South had — was a close second
to Gen. Joe Johnston for taciturnity. Gen. Bonham sang
several sweet little love songs; but the head of the table
virtually had the whole innings: Yancey and Foote vicing
in brilliancy. Suddenly, Mr. Foote said:

402 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

" ' Gentlemen, what do you think? Some time ago,
Mr. Yancey characterized me as an old duffer!' Then,
turning to Mr. Yancey, 'Now, Yancey, you know I was
married a little over a year ago. You are to come and take
breakfast with us tomorrow; and we will show you as fine
and bouncing a boy of three months, to disprove your epi
thet!'

"And, amid great laughter, Mr Yancey agreed to adopt
the breakfast and the boy!

"The breakfast lasted from ten to twelve o'clock; and
then Mr. Yancey said to Old Tom Griffin: 'Bring fresh
glasses and fill bumpers of champagne.'

"When this was done, Mr. Yancey arose and said: This
toast is to be drunk standing,' and he looked straight
at Gen. Johnston, who kept his seat, when all the rest arose;
'Gentlemen, let us drink to the health of the only man who
can save the Confederacy — General Joseph E. Johnston!'

"The glasses were emptied with enthusiasm amid great
applause. The general had not yet touched his glass.
Now he took it up and said gravely: 'Mr. Yancey, the man
you describe is now in the field, in the person of General
Robert E. Lee. I will drink to his health!'

"Mr. Yancey's reply came like a flash: 'I can only reply
to you, sir, as the speaker of the house of burgesses did
to Gen. Washington: — "Your modesty is only equalled
by your valor!'" Then the breakfast was over."

The Wolf had early begun his permanent siesta upon
the doormat. The dire straits for food and shelter, suc
ceeding the battles around Richmond caused the government
to endorse and encourage the hegira started by the fears
of the floating feminine population. Georgia and North
Carolina were the favorite refuges in their inland towns,
like Charlotte, Salisbury, Milledgeville and La Grange. At
the last, my mother and sisters were measurably comfortable,

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 403

later in the war. While not wholly immune from raids,
the little places gave families easier access to Richmond
and to earlier news, thus living in less anxiety and at cheap
er rate. So, refugee life became a distinct war system and
some of the coteries in the disused factories and school
buildings were of cultivated women and exceptionally bright
young girls. They were as free from men as the latter day
watering-places ; but convalescent young heroes and droppers-
in returning from brief fur
loughs prevented utter stag
nation of sentiment. Espe
cial prizes were men notable
in society for marked traits,
as "Jim Frazer, the hand
somest man in the army :" so
written down in a delicate
but faded handwriting.
Sometimes flirtation ran its
length; and more than one
engagement " for three years
or the war," became a real
ity before it matured. One
special case attracted much
comment then and is still
recalled.

Mr. I. I. Jones, a prosperous merchant of Mobile, discount
ed Jepthah of old and, in the language of the green cloth,
"went him five better." A man of sense, as well as of taste,
he educated his sextette of daughters under his own eye
and kept it jealously upon them. They had singular una
nimity of beauty; all being gifted with the peculiar charms
of form and face and voice that mark the highbred Hebrew
maiden. Sarah, the eldest, is now Mrs. Louis L. Morrison,
of New York, and has a notable family: Mr. L. L. Mor-

CAPTAIN JAMES FRAZER

404 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

rison, Jr., being a prominent lawyer of that city. The second,
Julia, married Mr. J. K. Cobin, of the same city. Their
daughter, Miss Rosalind, a brilliant and most sought mu
sician, is now Mrs. Ransom Wright, of Augusta, Ga., and the
only son, Mr. I. Jones Cobin, coincidently wedded the most
noted and popular of Mobile musicians, Miss Julia McPhillips.
They now reside in Brooklyn.

The third of the Jones sisters, Adelaide, married and died
long since, as did her children; and the fourth, Emily, became
wife of a famous rabbi of New Orleans, Rev. James K. Gut-
heim. She was prime mover in the great Touro Infirmary,
of that city. Her funeral, a few years after that, was par
ticipated in by clergy of all denominations ; over ten thousand
people of all classes and van-loads of floral devices, making
it a sort of mortuary carnival. The fifth sister, Bertha
Jones, married Major Thomas P. Brown, one of the most
popular and prominent of Mobile's merchants. There,
still reside two of their fourteen children: Mr. T. P. Brown,
Jr., who married Miss Winnie Forbes; and Bertha, wife of
Mr. A. E. Reynolds; while Mr. Golden Brown is a merchant
of Hong Kong.

When a girl in her teens, the youngest of the Jones sisters
was heroine of a romance at La Grange. Miss Esther was
perfect type of petite brunette in face and figure; her mid
night hair still in long plaits. She soon became the toast
with youthful heroes, straying into that almost Adamless
Eden. There were other notable women there, too; Mrs.
Phillips, of Ship Island; the families of Senators Sparrow,
of Louisiana, and Ben Hill, of Georgia; Mrs. Clay, Misses
Emily and Esmeralda Boyle, the poetess, and many another.

The pretty stranger, though young, was already affianced
to dashing Garland Webb, a troop captain from Kentucky.
He was at the front, but his younger brother, John Webb,
chanced in La Grange a'nd set up protectorate over his sister-

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 405

to-be. At a soiree in honor of her, one of those trifles that
made the sum of life, with the hot bloods of that day, fell
out between Webb and Captain J. S. Barrett.

Next morning saw the whole town wending its way to a
suburban field. All women were on tiptoe of excitement,
except the innocent cause of the affair of honor. But when
she "Saw his body, borne by her on a shutter," Miss Jones
shrieked, flew to the telegraph office, and wired her sire
to come. He arrived promptly; meeting at the station
arriving Captain Webb, who came to nurse his brother,
or — bury him! Happily, no need for that last ceremony,
so Yew and tears were replaced by orange blossoms and
smiles. The beautiful casus belli became Mrs. Esther Webb.
All the " colony" assisted at the pretty, if sudden, function:
Misses Hennie Hill and Fannie Sparrow were bridesmaids.
But the sequel was an early funeral at New Orleans; and the
girl-widow went to her father. She was much sought
by army beaux; but it was several years before she mar
ried Mr. Clifton Moses, of South Carolina. Again widowed,
she devoted her life to rearing her two lovely daughters.
Only one of them, named for her father, now survives, to
be the stay and comfort of her mother's advancing years.

Mrs. Phillips, the Boyle sisters and many another of
the La Grange refugees have passed the shadowy border.
Miss Hennie Hill married, many years ago, Mr. Edgar Thomp
son, of Atlanta. Only in mid-February of this year she
died in that city. She was the only daughter of the great
senator; but his two sons still illustrate the famous name in
the state for which he did so much: Ben H. as chief jus
tice of her court of appeals; and Charles S. Hill, solicitor
of the superior court of Fulton county. So, the orator-
statesman's name will be kept in its present green life by
his descendants of the third generation.

Miss Fannie Sparrow, the bridesmaid named here, was

406 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

the youngest of the three daughters of Senator Edward
Sparrow. The eldest was Anna, who married Mr. Decker,
of New Jersey and had several children; one of them now
being wife of Hon. C. S. Wyly, of Lake Providence, La. The
next sister, Kate, when widow of George Sanderson of Nat
chez, married George Foster. Her two daughters are Mrs.
Joseph H. Kent, of Roanoke, Va., and Mrs. J. M. Tomp-
kins, of Lake Providence.

Miss Fannie, the bridesmaid, married Captain A. M.
Ashbridge, and went to reside in Pau, France, during the
war, but returned to the Lake Providence neighborhood.
One of her daughters is now Mrs. C. A. Voelker, wife of the
prominent planter of the same parish.

How many names recur in these pages to recall the line
of the old song :

" Some at the bridal and some at the tomb!"

CHAPTER XXXV

ROMANCE AND PERIL OF "THE BLOC"

FEW habitues of Washington, in winters preceding
the war, have forgotten "the beautiful Greenhows." Mrs.
Rosalie Greenhow was still handsome and young-looking,
although one of her daughters, Miss Florence, was a con
fessed belle and the easy peer in good looks of her famous
cousin and rival, Miss Adele Cutts. The second sister,
Miss Gertrude, was also a charming girl; and the then baby
of the family was little Rosa, her mother's idol.

The beautiful eldest sister married Lieutenant Treadwell
W. Moore, of the regular army. Of course she remained
North, love being more masterful than section, and her son,
Captain Treadwell W. Moore, is now with his infantry com
mand in the West.

The father became a general and died in 1876; the mother
died at Narragansett Pier in 1892, and four years later Cap
tain Moore married Flora Green, daughter of General C. L.
Cooper, U. S. A. They have no children.

Mrs. Greenhow was the sister of Mrs. J. Madison Cutts.
Their daughters divided capital belleship until Miss Adele
Cutts became the wife of Senator Stephen A. Douglas. La
ter she married a noted army man, Captain Williams; and
their daughters have since been popular factors of Washing
ton sociality.

Mrs. Greenhow was a famous beauty, and as Rose

407

408 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

O'Neill gained the sobriquet of "the Wild Rose." She mar
ried Mr. Greenhow of the state department, and at his death
was still a young and elegant woman. Southern enthusiast
she was, and when the war came offered her aid to Mr. Davis
and did useful and delicate secret service. Once she col
lected a large sum of money abroad, changed it into gold
and went to Nassau, to take a blockade-runner into Wil
mington. Safely passing the fleet in Cape Fear river,
she was landing in a small boat when her footing missed,
and she went to the bottom. The gold, belted about her
waist, drowned her before the sailors could reach her. In
her arms, all the voyage, she had carried her beautiful little
girl, Rose, scarce more than an infant. The child was saved,
educated partly abroad, and returned to America in the
early ;70's. She went upon the stage in New York,
was induced to leave it by friends; and later married an
army officer. During Mrs. Cleveland's time at the White
House, she was a noted beauty at the capital and a prot
egee of that tasteful and charming " first lady." Miss
Gertrude Greenhow died unmarried in the South, late in
the war or shortly after it.

The story of poor Du Barry was an equally pathetic one.
Of fine old Maryland stock, splendid physique, and much
personal magnetism, he had left a marine commission be
hind to come South from conviction. The second year
of the war saw him a captain of ordnance at Mobile. It
was gossiped in Washington society that he had left the
love of his life behind him, in the keeping of a pretty woman
with a " signer's" name; but he was suddenly married in
the Gulf City, in her very fresh widowhood, to Mrs. Willie
Chandler. This lady, whom I first knew as Miss Carrie
Holbrook, of New York, had a peculiar sway over men
from her early girlhood. Scarcely accounted beautiful,
she could have given " handicap" to any prize beauty after

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 409

the first half hour. Chandler's early death left her with two
children, Holbrook, who died before reaching full manhood,
and Florence — the unhappy Mrs. Maybrick, whose case
has so moved the sympathetic on both sides of the ocean.
The Du Barry nuptials followed the burial of his prede
cessor swiftly enough to cause an equal amount of gossip.
Within the year I had urgent letters to try and have him
sent abroad, as the doctors said a sea voyage was the sole
hope for some mysterious
malady that was rapidly
ending him. Influence and
his old memory with the
Davis and Mallory families
soon got him orders to pur
chase ammunition abroad.
I met him on arrival at
Richmond, shocked to see
but a wreck of the brilliant
fellow. I was en route, as
it chanced, to Wilmington,
convoyed the party to that
port and held the later Mrs.
Maybrick on my lap much of
the tedious and trying trip.
They boarded the slim speedy
blockader; she ran swiftly through the lubberly watchers
at the river's mouth and the next day was safe at sea. That
afternoon the gallant tar in command of the runner was
startled by the news that Du Barry had died very suddenly.
The again widowed wife insisted upon his immediate burial,
at sea; declaring that his emphatic wish. The last of the
society favorite was slid from a plank into the Atlantic,
to stand upright in its depths until it gives up all its secrets
at the Judgment day. Mrs. Du Barry went abroad and was

MADAME VON RORQUE
(CARRIE HOLBROOK)

410 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

married more than once again. She was last the Baroness
von Rorque and resided jn Germany, where her last hus
band has wealth and rank. Madame was unhappily in ev
idence at the lamentable trial of her unfortunate daughter,
the two appearing wholly bound up in each other. Since
Mrs. Maybrick's reappearance in America, I believe her
mother has returned also, for permanent residence.

Of the once wonderful little magnetizer of our sex, a vete
ran warrior and society man wrote me very lately, from
the Pacific coast :

"And speaking of old Washington days, I was again
reminded of Frank Du Barry in reading the other day of
Mrs. Maybrick. That took me back to Frank and further
back to the Holbrook house, in 14th street, New York;
and I again almost see the face of Carrie Holbrook in front
of me! She was a wonderful dancer, as you recall; and
I knew her very well. After Frank's death she married
some Englishman, I think."

I think the lady made several marriages, after that with
Willie Chandler, when she had recently shone in Baltimore
and Washington circles She met her first husband while in
Mobile, to visit her uncle, Rev. Jos. H. Ingraham, the poly
gon divine who wrote the "Prince of the House of David,"
the "Pillar of Fire," and some far different romances. That
marriage connected Miss Holbrook with some of the oldest
families in the South.

Gradually — then more rapidly, fatally — the stricture of
the "Conda" tightened about its predestined prey. Better
naval workshops, unlimited cash or equivalent credit a-
broad and the navies of the world to draw from at will,
strengthened the coil and closed every port hermetically,
save Wilmington. But that port was literally the key to
the Confederate situation; its lungs and heart combined.
So the brain of the nation fostered it with every food and

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 411

stimulant that poverty and depletion could command. Re-
ponse quick and earnest came; but the vitality that feeds
upon itself must at last succumb. Captures and shipwreck re
duced the blockade vessels that could not be replaced, and
the reckless, daring officers of the risky service, finding them
selves without ships, began to drift into other fields. My
last visit to the port, to carry a cargo of shells to Richmond,
was sad contrast to the first
one I described here. The
town was listless and dull,
the river front deserted, and
the blockade managers
moody from suspenseful
watch for the now rare in
comers. These brought no
more luxuries, the dire need
for shot and shell and arms
relegating them to simply
army transports. They were
received gravely and their
cargoes rushed to the front
as fast as one badly
equipped road — constantly
raided and frequently cut —
could compass that result.

Meantime, the fall of New
Orleans had closed the small
incoming at the Passes and
had sealed the river.

My brother and his wife ran into New
of the last of the low, swift steamers that eluded
assembling for ascent to the city.

Tiring of diplomatic mission in Europe, which he felt
could avail nothing, he took conge and sailed for Bermuda,

HON. EDWIN DE LEON
(C. 8. COMMISSIONER ABROAD)

Orleans in one
the fleet

412 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

to run the blockade and join the army. He had married
while in Egypt, but his wife had never been on this side.
Now she insisted on sharing the peril of his venture, even
urging him to take the very first vessel. This chanced to
be an old one for New Orleans. The trip was safely made
but at the Passes the runner was sighted and closely chased
by several gunboats. My sister was, of course, the only
woman aboard, and while shells were passing over the craft
she learned for the first time that its entire cargo was com
posed of shells and powder. The runner was struck twice,
but landed her two passengers safely at the Crescent City,
whence they proceeded direct to Richmond.

After the fall of New Orleans, and later of Vicksburg,
the re-inspired North redoubled the numbers and the vigi
lance of its land-bordered blockade. Especially was this
the case along the Potomac, infraction of that coil of the
"Conda" having theretofore been a pastime with advent
urous men and earnest, helpful women.

Of these, some were the tenderest darlings of home and
society, but they braved the roughness of camp and the
long, icy rides to the river — often through hostile lines that
caused hiding by day and progress only at night — to what
was known as the " Potomac Ferry." Strangely enough,
the ferryman was often an old Maryland " plantation hand/'
more loyal to "ole mar's" than to the Bluecoats fighting
for his freedom — as they thought.

Both Misses Hetty and Constance Cary crossed the river
more than once, bringing back rare drugs for the sick and
information as valued for the generals. Sometimes a des
patch or a plan of a marching raid was curled in the soft
tresses of a Baltimore woman, sent through as " rebellious, "
on the flag of truce boat.

"Jeb" Stuart, Fitz Lee, Pierce Young— and others for
aught I know — intfusted some women with permanent

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 413

passes through their lines, to come and go at will. But
there was another class, seeking notoriety, gain — or some
thing else — more than the good of the Cause, and the flare
from their overadvertised flambeaux has obscured the quieter
light of some better — and far more useful — women volunteers.

We have met Miss Chestney before, in soubrette
parts" and as a tyrannous 'teener. She was the friend
and trusted adjutant of Mrs. Randolph, in all entertainments
for charitable ends. She was a native Washingtonian and
sister of Major Oscar Chestney, named lately.

In the late '50's Carusi's dancing school was the Mecca
of the gilded squads of the national capital. There, was
met a petite and blonde beauty, who danced like a sylph
and had a tact and a wit all unknown to the average of the
"best society" of mythologic date.

Every function, social or dramatic, in Richmond, knew
Miss Chestney; every fellow with good taste admired her,
but her pose was that of a reticent " Victory" and her tri
umphs — save the blockade and stage ones — were never
discussed. Today, as the widow of Hon. George H. But
ler, this lady is familiar ' to the cultured and diplomatic
circles of the capital. She is the replica of Ninon de L'En-
clos, physically, for none meeting her as strangers could
believe that this belle of the '60's had ever known the war
save by report.

Elsewhere I have mentioned Ratcliffe and Henley Smith
of Mosby's corps. The latter has late gone to answer "Ad-
sum!" when his name was called from the great roll. A
gallant, generous, cultivated gentleman he was, descended
from a line of such, his father having been Hon. J. Bayard
H. Smith, of Washington and Baltimore. Both were law
yers and both, as the grandfather had been, treasurers of
the Washington monument association; the first of the three
having been one of the founders of the old National Intel-

414 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

ligencer. Henley Smith, in his late 'teens, was at Princeton,
when the echo of the Sumter gun came to him. He ran
away, joined Mosby and served through the war with
wounds and credit, but never sought the promotion that
wealth and influence would have added to commendation.
After the war he settled in Washington, marrying and spend
ing the leisure of wealth in study and travel abroad, and
elegant, but unostentatious hospitality in his Dupont Cir
cle home. He died suddenly
at Florence while on a Con
tinental tour, leaving his
widow to bemoan his passing
away in a strange land and
without warning. In 1867
Henley Smith married Miss
Rebecca Young, daughter of
McClintock Young, of Fred
erick county, Md., who had
passed most of her girlhood
in Baltimore; and much of
their married life was spent
in that city. The union was
childless.

In his last letter to me
Smith described a ride he and
Ratcliffe took with Miss Chestney when she crossed the
Potomac in 1865 to get medicine and clothing. She made
the trip alone, after her escorts were forced to leave her,
returning successful and remaining South for the rest of
the war.

The river blockade was broken often, to advantage of the
hospitals and the larders of Richmond, often to the bring
ing of important cipher despatches that gave warning of
coming raids or advance in force. It was the " underground

MRS. GEORGE H. BUTLER
(JOSEPHINE CHESTNEY)

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 415

mail" too that told the " foreign" fighters of the loved ones
at home. Nor was it without its humors and its comic
episodes. Randolph, the ever-ready, has embalmed one
of its meaner advantagings in a clever parody beginning:

We rowed across the Potomac,

Maryland!
We put up cash and then rowed back,

Maryland!

We're loaded deep with hats and shoes,
Or medicines the rich can use —
At prices that just beat the Jews!

Maryland, my Maryland!

There is neither need nor space to touch upon the dry
and familiar details of the naval composition of the Con
federacy. The glamour and romance, in great part, and
pretty nearly all of the usefulness of the sea side of the pic
ture, hang about the dashing and reckless work of the \vooden
flyers. But obdurate circumstances forced the rest from
resultful sequence into mere episodes — brilliant, immortal,
but null.

So it was with the outside attempts of the gallant, expe
rienced and eager naval men, chafing at inaction or uncon
genial duty and crushed in by the bulky folds of the" 'Conda. "

The hoped-for building of iron-clad gunboats — the dear
ambition of hopeful and able Secretary Mallory — was cut
off in infancy by closer-drawn land blockade giving quicker
ingress to cavalry raiders. Building in sequestered rivers,
many of them had to be destroyed to save capture. A
saucy speech there anent was made to the secretary by Miss
Maggie Howell. Invited to inspection and lunch aboard
a new ironclad, in the James, near "Rocketts," full praise
was given by all. As we left the side the genial host said:

"Well, ladies, I have shown you everything about them."

410 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

"Everything but one," Miss Howell replied demurely,
and to the secretary's surprised stare, she added: "The
place where you blow them up?"

The story of the greased money-slide — facilis descensus,
indeed — had been told too often to re-detail. Hanging at
slight discount from gold for nearly the whole first year,
Confederate bonds and currency alike began a drop as
sudden and as shocking as a broken elevator in a sky-scraper.
Ten, twenty, a hundred for one, was the quick-coming ratio.
In the last year of the confessedly hopeless struggle, twelve
and fifteen hundred dollars in notes was often given for one
gold dollar. The last pair of riding boots I bought cost
eighteen hundred dollars, but they would have been a
rare bargain, at the exchange rate, in any Northern city.

It is related that General Lee was first recipient of the
ever-quoted differentiation of past and present, by an old
woman neighbor of his. In Richmond one day he met the
good dame, with a large basket and a small purse to which
she clung with eager grip. Ever pleasant, even when op
pressed with cares, the great leader said:

"You must think it is Christmas, from the size of your
basket?"

"No, indeed," she retorted sadly. "Time was when I
carried my cash to market in this purse and brought the
provender home in the basket. Now I have to tote the notes
in the basket and I can just bring the marketing back in the
purse!"

There was deep truth under this exaggeration and its
parent was the blockade. Had the ports been open, or
forceable, had the steel line along the border been pene
trable, had the state and treasury departments listened
to reason and urgence, in putting the cotton of the South
abroad, in time, as a basis of credit, there might not have
been a chance for the Cause in which all fought and suffered

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 417

and starved alike, but the fighting had then been done with
out the backward glance that showed starvation in the
home of the loved ones far away; misery and suffering in
the unsupplied homes of the torn, and fevered effigies of
man, left by the dire crush of the "'Conda. "

CHAPTER XXXVI

IN FAME'S OWN HALL

SOME rare names shine out of History's page, as though

created for its illumination.
These stand examplars for
all time. Fame takes their
wearers by the hand, with
Justice and Truth on either
side, to pedestal them in her
own "Hall."

Before one niche in
Fame's own hall, every
comer seems to hear, as in
whispers from remoter past,
his own father's words of
another, who stood first in
war and peace, first still
morc in the hearts of his
countrymen.

The war between the states
from its origin in deep-rooted
prejudices and its growth to
red maturity, in an era of

strong men, on both sides of the historic river, threw to the
surface of bubbling events more than one who was to hold
thenceforward the eye of the world.

418

GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 419

Of them, one rises today whenever that war is named:
a man calm; noble and potent beyond his peers. In mid-
rush of interest, ambition and self-seeking, this grand form
elicits admiration, respect and affection in the hearts of all
" conditions of men" — and women. No life I can recall
is more truly epitomized in the lines penned by his state's
truest poetess, on the death of one of his bravest lieutenants,
Turner Ashby:

"Bold as the Lion-Heart, dauntless and brave;
Knightly as knightliest Bayard could crave:
Sweet, with all Sydney's grace —
Tender as Hampden's face —
Who, who shall fill the space,
Void by his grave?"

Young people, without
exception, loved Lee. He
was their friend in word and
in deed, even when the stress
of action, or the shadow of
desolation bore upon him.

His gentleness to the young
and his knightly thought for
women are pointed by one
simplest act, best told in the
simple words written me by
Mrs. Harrison, of Baltimore
—u little " Louisa T. Haxall at
the time of Appomattox:

"I was away from Rich- MILDRED LEE

mond When the girls Were (YOUNGEST DAUGHTER OF GEN. LEE)

asking for buttons and stars from General Lee's coat, after
the surrender and he was at home on Franklin street. On my
return, I was visiting his daughter Mildred, and the gen-

420 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

eral asked if I would go with him into his little office. Out
of one of the little old trunks he had carried through the
war, he took a button and a star which he said he had saved
for me, thinking I would care to have them.

"You may be sure I did. The button I have, set in gold
in Geneva, Switzerland. The star I keep, unset.

"A while later, my father heard that 'the mess' at General
Lee's home had had no meat for some days — and no money
to buy it — so he sent some hams in my name, knowing that
then they would not be refused; and other things from our
farm helped in their menu for many months."

Robert Edward Lee was facile, if modest, the centre of
every group into which he came, whether cabinet, council,
conference of military leaders, highest social functions, or
giddy throngs of youth.

Descended from historic stock, "their names, familiar
in your ,. mouths as household words," the brilliant acumen
and oratory of Richard Henry Lee and of his cousin, Henry
Lee, were almost forgotten in the calm, impelling presence
of the man to whom his fellows, no less than his inferiors,
looked up with a confidence and hope that touched upon
idolatry.

When the war was over and the "solitude" made in the
South was called "Peace," the wrath of an incensed and
policy-goaded North halted hatred and suspicion at the
threshold of one Southern leader. The breath of most
venomous rumor never once sullied the mirror-surface record
of this Virginian. Mrs. Clay, incidentally and with no thought
of praise, or word of wonderment, notes that when the John
son junta summoned Lee, as witness, in 1866, all men of all
parties paid him deference that was silent homage.

When the gratitude, love and admiration of his own people
reared an equestrian bronze to their great soldier, at their
once capital, even his old foes forgot for a time that "the

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 421

war is not yet over. " They, too, paid the tribute to the man
that they had denied to the leader.

Decades later, when his centennial came, a world bared
its head in deference and respect for worth that knew no
narrow bounds, but permeated the greatness of a time.
Then some who had weighed that side of his career — states
men from every quarter of this and other countries, scholars
and poets with the world's ear, even the universal press —
all paused in mid-rush of
ambition, greed and self-
seeking, to lay their tributes
of bay and oak and laurel
on that one man's grave.

Then, voices long discord
ant joined in strange, new
unison; chanting one psean
to greatness too white to be
denied its purity. Then,
even that most strenuous
denouncer of the past and
dead " rebellion, " — he who
had once at least over
stepped the further bound of
unforgiving zeal, in his vig- ^AJ.-GEN. w. H. F. ("ROONEY") LEE

orous mode of speech — these, one and all, spoke the name of
Lee in deference that neared to love. And in love is found all
highest and purest tribute to this rare nature. His tallest and
fairest monument rises from the hearts of his people — self-
erected, sempiternal.

The twice-told tale of "Lee to the rear" was one proof
irrefutable of this love. Even in death and disaster his
simple words were held as priceless guerdon and fadeless
epitaph.

When dainty but knightly Lord Page King rode through

422 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

the hail of Frederic ksburg and died with Lee's message to
his own general upon his lips, the former spoke three words
that stand with the family record cere perennius: "Poor,
brave boy!"

When the boy cannoneer laid his meteor career at the feet
of Glory and fell,

11 Hushed in the alabaster arms of Death,"

his name was linked to immortality in three words of Lee:
"The gallant Pelham!"

Only short months ago I dared essay "The Living Lee/'
for his centennial. Then the reckless, contumacious boy-
fighter who had carried General Lee's last despatch safely to
Mr. Davis wrote me of the verses and added: "God! what a
privilege to have lived in his time and known him."

Lord Bulwer, following "Cinq Mars," made the greatest,
if the craftiest, cardinal of France, himself a soldier, boast
that his secret to control of men, of a kingdom and almost
of a world, was "Justice!"

What was the talisman of Lee, the magnet that drew to
him all hearts of men? It was something higher than Justice :
Truth, in its highest meaning of loyalty, constancy and faith ;
truth unswerving, to country, to race and to his Maker!

This ingrained truth permeated every fibre of the man,
dominated every act of his life. It shone through his early
boyhood at Alexandria, where his father had carried him, at
four years of age, for schooling; in his still earlier days, when
orphaned at eleven years and he bore it, clear and radiating,
through his West Point life. He was a "model cadet" and
pointed to as example for his classmates. That Mentor-
trait made him the "gentleman subaltern" in the day of
frontier-duty recklessness ; the trusted and favorite staff-
captain of Scott in Mexico; the efficient and praised superin-

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 423

tendent of his alma mater', and through them all, the patriot
citizen.

Even criticism now concedes that he loved his country
even as he loved his state. His own words tell that when he
longingly erased the "U. S." from the sword, still stainless.
Who may doubt his real patriotism after reading the heart
break in that letter to his wife that hid, for her sake, some of
the struggle, suspense and anguish of his decision, made
wholly for truth's sake.

I have classed General Lee
as a "Union man"; that
class of fighters who struck
for conviction, but ever
without hate. He, loving the
mother-state more, loved her
mother none the less.

Who held the olive high above

the sword,
But "Duty" read as God's

sublimest word!

He could have been noth
ing else. His name, lineage K

and dearest ties and interests , MRS- ROBERT E- LEE

(MARY RANDOLPH CUSTIS)
were all too inextricably

mixed with the Union not to bring a sigh with every blow
against it that Duty struck.

Defeated, though not disarmed,* through the just sense of
the victor, he was at heart and in post-bellum precept, a Union
man in the real and better sense. He had no confession of
error to make, no forgiveness to crave. .Loving one part as
nobly as he had proved, he could never have hated the whole,

*General Lee's sword was never offered to General Grant as currently
stated. It was, therefore, never returned.

424 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

even when falsely dominated and misdirected ; even when his
fair state was relegated to "District One!"

Another Mexican veteran who carried his captaincy to a
major-generalcy, in the Ws, was also a " Union man."
William S. Walker was a stripling lieutenant at Chapulte-
pec. He was the first Bluecoat over the castle wall, and with
hand upon the halyards to run down the captured flag, heard
the voice of his captain behind him. The young Bayard
turned, saluted and asked his senior to do him that honor.
When he was a major-general with one leg, at Atlanta, a
decade ago, it was my privilege to meet him often and to
hear some novel facts about two wars. One of his stories
proves that General Lee's quiet vein of humor was not ob
scured by the smoke of battle and that he perhaps knew the
never spoken prejudice of the ultra secession element.

At one closely contested battle Walker bore a message
from his corps commander to General Lee. At the moment
of its delivery one of that corps brigades, commanded by a
gallant fellow who had carried his convention for secession,
but could not hold his men against overwhelming odds, fell
back in disorder.

Not taking down the field-glass, through which he watched
this check, the general said quietly to Walker:

"Order General to put in 's division. Major, it

seems to be left to us 'Union men' to win this battle!"

Personal beauty is the least of all attributes to be con
sidered when speaking of the truly great, yet General Lee
won admiration at a casual glance.

Mrs. Chesnut records at length her impressions on first
seeing him. She was driving with Mrs. Preston and two other
ladies, when President Davis rode by, mounted on a superb
Arab stallion, sent him through the blockade by my brother.
Mr. Davis was an exceptionally fine horseman. The white
stallion was of straight descent from the mares of the Prophet

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 425

and my brother had to smuggle him out of Egypt. Yet the
dear old Carolina chronicler frankly states that the magnifi
cent man on another white horse, afterward so famous as his
pet, Traveler, attracted all the curiosity of the feminine
quartet. Mrs. Chesnut distinctly records him as "the
handsomest man I had ever met."

By odd coincidence another Carolinian, of the other sex
and far wider experience of men, used these identical words
of their subject, about the same time. In his "Secret His
tory of Confederate Diplomacy," Edwin De Leon describes
an interview that has not gone into history. When he ran
the blockade, he was closeted with Mr. Davis discussing the
foreign situation. General Lee entered hurriedly, with a
telegram.

"Addressing Mr. Davis he said: 'I have some news from
Savannah, Mr. President.'

"Mr. Davis looked up quickly, a shade of anxiety on his
face, as he replied: 'I hope it is good news?' General Lee
calmly replied, ' I regret to say that it is not. Fort Pulaski
is taken.' A flush of vexation passed over the worn face of
the President. 'Should this have been, General? You
know that fort. You examined its defenses a short time since.'

11 'In my judgment it was impregnable/ answered General
Lee, and then went on to state what those defenses were.;
adding with his unvarying fairness : ' Our information, as yet,
is too scanty to permit us to judge of the merits of the case.
This only is certain: the fort has surrendered.'

"What struck me most in this interview," Mr. De Leon
says, "was the manner in which these two leaders took the
reverse; the unshaken fortitude — the almost Indian stoicism
—displayed by General Lee and the absence of all petulant
complaint on the part of the President. It was a lesson in
self-command and dignity, for both doubtless felt more than
they cared to show to one another.

426 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

"At that time General Lee — unworn by the anxieties and
privations which afterwards aged him in appearance — was,
I think, one of the handsomest men I have ever seen. His
face was closely shaven, and a small, dark moustache shaded
the upper lip. Both in face and form he looked a young man,
while his stately figure, carried with military erectness, in
duced all who passed him by
to turn and look again."

In my first book upon the
war-time, "Four Years in
Rebel Capitals" (printed in
1867), I told of the return
of stanch Major Tom Brand-
er to his desolated home city.
Then came the most touch
ing scene of the war's end
ing: the love and veneration
of his neighbors for Robert
Lee.

"Next morning a small
group of horsemen appeared
on the further side of the
pontoon. By some strange
intuition it was known that
General Lee was among them
and a crowd gathered all
along the route he must
take, silent and bareheaded.

There was no excitement appearing — no cheering, but as
the great chief passed, a. deep, loving murmur — far deeper
than either — rose from the very hearts of the crowd. Taking
off his hat and merely bowing his head, the man great in ad
versity passed silently to his own door. It closed upon him and
his people had seen him for the last time in his war harness."

AGNES LEE
(THIRD DAUGHTER OF GEN. LEE)

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 427

When next they saw him leave that quiet home, it was as
the calm, simple citizen of Virginia — the plain man of duty.

Uncouth indeed were the hand that would draw the curtain
from what had been the strain and struggle and heartbreak of
that brief interval — the travail and the trial preceding self-
conquest. The minor physical trials have been naively told
in Louisa HaxalPs words: the strain on brain and soul had
made them as nothing.

But the stainless sword that the magnanimous victor never
asked for was sheathed forever. The Arthur of modern war
had hung Excalibur upon the walls of History.

It is now accepted truth that this man might have led
the armies of the Union; might have fought at the forefront
for the flag that lineage, habit and logic all had made so clear
to him. General Scott, ever his warm and outspoken ad
mirer, had recommended him for the leadership of the forces
that were massing to "save the Union."

Quite recently the G. A. R. posts of Washington grew
restive at the "treason" that permits plain statement of an
historical fact, by a Virginia woman, to be conned in the
public schools of the capital. Our "comrades across" need
have borrowed no trouble. Robert Lee had refused the
substance forced into his hand by the most potent power
at the war's opening. The fact remains; its tenuous shadow,
through time need never have disquieted.

Close after the peace, overtures were made to General Lee
to take command of the armies of Roumania, against the
Danubian principalities. He declined the proffer, on prin
ciple, as he had the urgence from Scott. Then the offer, as
seen, was made to Beauregard.

Potent French influences behind Maximilian urged appoint
ment to marshalship in the army of Mexico upon the defeated
Confederate chief. He never paused to consider the sugges
tion, nor a similar one from the khedive of Egypt, ready for

428 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

the formal making, had my brother been able to give the
least hope for its acceptance.

When Lee sheathed the sword honored at Appomattox,

it was forever. Thence
forward the sublimest word,
"Duty," was to be read-
Peace. When he gave his
parole, it was not lisped in
the letter to be violated in
the spirit. He was "not
made of such slight ele
ments!"

The man of war had be
come the Virginia citizen of
peace, pledged to labor to
her rehabilitation through
the right and the reason in
him even as he had preferred
to do before the trial by fire.
In his conduct of the uni
versity that now bears his
name, twinned with the other
" First in Peace," he wrought
for the upbuilding of his state, and through her, of a re-
perfected Union. In both his eldest son succeeded him.

The pungent paragraphist and caustic satirist, Donn
Piatt, has partly listed for us, in his "Men Who Saved the
Union," such bright exemplars as Lincoln, of Kentucky;
Stanton, of North Carolina, and Thomas, a Virginian.

James R. Randall suggests another Virginian, Farragut,
who perhaps did as much in his watery way as any of the
trio, toward the brilliant "wreckage." The list may not be
expanded from the trans-Potomac, but there were unnamed
and unnoted workers "in the South, saving and recementing

GENS. R. E. AND G. W. C. LEE

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 429

the recent shattered segment by their work to save the rele
gated " Districts."

"Keen was the smart, but keener far to feel
He plumed the pinion that impelled the steel."

Foremost among such rebuilders was Robert Lee.

No need have such men of statue or of eulogy ; of paean or of
poem. They grave their own stories deep upon time. Tardy
Truth at last erects their forms in Fame's own Hall!

STATUE OVER THE TOMB OF GENERAL LEE AT LEXINGTON
(BY VALENTINE)

CHAPTER XXXVII

FROM KNIGHTHOOD'S PALMY DAYS

THE proverbial veracity of good blood has found fresh
proof in that of the Lees, since far beyond "the Conquest."
There were Lees, or Lias, or Leighs, in Normandy, harking
back to the followers of Hollo and, possibly, in the van of
that rough Viking. Launcelot Lee came over with the con
quering William, and fought valiantly at Hastings. Sir
Lionel Lee was in the Crusades as a favorite knight of doughty
Richard the Lion Heart, displaying such prowess at the
storming of Acre as to win later the earldom of Litchfield,
with broad acres which he named "Ditchley."

The progenitor of the Virginia Lees was Richard Lee,
of Shropshire, England, who came over in 1641, under the
protection of his friend, Sir William Berkeley, governor
and favorite under the first Charles.

Richard Lee sat down on the broad acres in York county,
ceded him by the crown, building his manor near Green
Spring, the Berkeley home. He became a noted man in
the colony, having many grants of new lands and many
offices of honor and profit under Berkeley and succeeding
governors; was burgess, justice, secretary of state and
member of the king's council, at different times. In phy
sique he was imposing and handsome; in character, dig
nified, generous and loyal to friends, traits he has sent shin
ing down time through his descendants. He and his sons

430

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 431

owned many plantations in the Northern Neck of what is
now the state, as "Stratford," "Ditchley," "Lee Hall/'
" Langley, " and "Coton, " all named from the old English
seats of the family.

At his death, in 1663, he was succeeded by his son Richard,
2d, and in his issue, the family branched into three distinct
divisions. These were the Stratford line of Richard, 3d;
the Ditchley one headed by Hancock Lee, and the Cobb's
Hall branch by the young
est son of the second Rich
ard, Charles Lee. Details of
this earlier family, interesting
as they are, must give place

to later connections. Richard zfr ^

Lee, 2d, married in 1674,
Letitia Corbin, whom he sur
vived with their six sons and
one daughter, Anne, who
married Colonel William Fitz-
hugh. In her will she left
' ' to my son Henry, my grand
father Corbin's wedding ring, "
the grandson being the

grandsire of the Confederate ADMIRAL SYDNEY SMITH LEE

(SON OF LIGHT HORSE HARRY )

chief.

Of the six sons of this Richard Lee, those directly con
nected with this reminder are Thomas and Henry, the fifth
and sixth. The former was prominent in all matters of the
commonwealth and noted in its Indian difficulties. He
was princely in his entertaining at Stratford, and was known
to chronicle as President Lee. He married Hannah, daugh
ter of Colonel Philip Ludwell, as his second wife, after the
death of the first spouse, the celebrated Lady* Berkeley.
Thomas Lee was acting governor of the colony for con-

432 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

siderable time and the king sent him royal commission as
governor, the first ever written in the name of a native
Virginian. His death, in 1750, occurred before the tardy ship

mail delivered the parch
ment. He left six sons un-
__ surpassed in the history of

^{H^L Virginia — the great "band

mr" ^^ of brothers, intrepid and

• -^ f^p unchangeable/' of whom

President John Adams wrote.
These were Thomas Ludwell
Lee, Richard Henry Lee,
I Francis Lightfoot Lee, Wil

liam Lee, Philip Ludwell
Lee, and Arthur Lee. The
brilliant granduncles of Rob
ert Edward Lee, were all
men of high parts, admirable
CAPTAIN R. E. LEE, JR. culture and of preeminence

(YOUNGEST SON OF GEN. R. E. LEE) .-, . . »

in the stirring antecedents of

Revolution. When the Westmoreland Declaration against
the Stamp Act was signed in 1765, four of their names were
found upon it. Two of the brothers signed the Declaration
of Independence, Richard Henry and Francis Lightfoot Lee.
Both of the Virginia signers were born in the same room at
Stratford wherein the Confederate general first saw the
light, seventy-five years later.

Allurement to dwell upon the splendid achievements of
this branch of the family must needs be curtailed; space
hastens me to that of the second son of the second Richard
Lee, who was the great-grandfather of our general. He
was appointed by Governor Spottswood to succeed his father
as naval officer of the Potomac; but he took no other office
and little active part in public affairs. He married Mary

BELLES, BEAUX AND BMAINS OF THE SIXTIES 433

Bland, daughter of Theodoric Bland, of Westover, thus
allying the Lees to the Randolph and Tucker families.

They had three sons, all of whom were in the colonial
house of burgesses. The eldest of these, Henry Lee, was
also county lieutenant of Westmoreland, up to and during
the Revolution. What brings him closest to our interest
today is that he was grandfather to "The Living Lee,"
his son, Henry, third successive to the name, having been
" Light Horse Harry," of Washington's army. His elder
brother, Charles Lee, was Washington's attorney-general.

Young Henry was a brilliant and distinguished student
at Princeton. Graduating early, he changed the usual
foreign tour of well-bred
youth of that day for a
company of militia at the
battle of Lexington, com
manding it with such dash
as to win instant note as a
soldier. He was quickly
promoted to major and lieu
tenant-colonel, in command
of -"Lee's Legion" of light
cavalry, from which he took
his sobriquet. He won the
respect and love of Wash
ington and a place in mili
tary history scarcely second
to that of his son. Congress
voted him its thanks, and
presented him a special med
al for detailed achievements.

General Harry Lee married his cousin Mathilda, daughter
of Philip Ludwell Lee, thereby becoming the owner of the
Stratford estate, shortly after the surrender of Cornwallis.

> "

ANNE CARTER LEE AND

MARY CUSTIS LEE
(ONLY GRANDDAUGHTERS OF GEN. LEE)

434 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

He was three years governor of Virginia and her represent
ative in congress. On the death of Washington he spoke
that eulogy of him which has become immortal, little dream
ing that his own youngest born would have it fitted to him
so closely thereafter.

By his marriage with his cousin, Henry Lee had four chil
dren, and by his second, with
Anne Hill Carter, six chil
dren. Seven of these were
sons, of whom four reached
adult age; these were Hen
ry, Charles, Sydney Smith
and Robert Edward Lee.
This youngest son was elev
en years old when his
father died in Georgia, in
1818, at the home of his old
commander, General Greene.
It were more than twice-
told tale to any reader to
trace the record of Robert
Lee. Going to West Point
in 1825, he graduated in
'29, second in a class of
forty-three, entered the
Engineers and two years later married Mary Randolph,
daughter of George Washington Parke Custis, of Arlington.
This union was a model one, bringing tender sympathy
and high incentive to the soldier's early life, that never
flagged in the zenith of his fame, or when trial, suspense
and loss unspeakable whelmed his country and his home
in desolation.

The pair had seven children, George Washington Cus
tis, Mary Custis, William Henry Fitzhugh, Anne, Agnes,

ROBERT CARTER LEE
(YOUNGEST SON OF ADMIRAL LEE)

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 435

Robert Edward, Jr., and Mildred. Only the eldest sister,
Miss Lee, is living, and spends most of her leisure time
abroad.

Miss Anne Carter Lee died in 1862 and was buried at
White Sulphur Springs, in North Carolina. There her grave
is lovingly tended by a woman's association formed for
that work of love. Her sister, Agnes Lee, followed her
eight years after the surrender. She sleeps beside her mother,
at Lexington. Miss Mildred Lee was the youngest of the
family. She was the "Baby girl," growing up during the
war, and was her father's pet, if he had one, in his great
and even love for his children. She was the idol of the
household as well as of the veteran organizations, on the rare
occasions when she came into their contact. She died only
in March, 1905, followed by the universal sorrow of the
South and a wide sympathy from the North.

All the Lee men and boys, the general's three sons and
six nephews, went early into the Confederate service and
stayed in it to its ending. All of them did active and good
service, and three won the rank of major-general, not be
cause of their name, but from the merit and manhood in them.
Of them all, only four are now living. General Custis Lee
and Captain R. E. Lee, Jr., the general's sons, and two
of his nephews, John Mason Lee and Daniel Murray Lee.
The first is the present head of the Virginia Lees, a cultured
and courteous gentleman, who resides at Ravensworth,
Burke Station. He never married and is a great sufferer
from rheumatic gout, which prevented his retaining the
presidency of Washington-Lee University, to which he was
unanimously chosen as successor to his father; and which
unfits him for active use of many of his high attributes and
exceptional accomplishments. He graduated with distinc
tion from West Point, in 1854, about the time that " Little
Joe" Wheeler entered the academy.

436 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

General Custis Lee went early into the Confederate ser
vice, rising to command of his division through service in
the field and especially good work in the planning of the
defenses of Richmond, as well as in command around that
city.

William Henry Fitzhugh Lee, the next brother, was

called "Rooney" by their father
and the army, and even history
has adopted the name, to distin
guish between him and his first
cousin, of the same name, abbre
viated to Fitz. He was educated
at Harvard, but appointed to a
lieutenancy in the army, at the
express request of General Win-
field S. Scott, who ever held the
father in high esteem. Later,
young Lee left the army and
became a planter at the White
House on the old Custis estate,
where George Washington
changed the pretty widow's name
to his own.

At the outbreak of the Civil
War, "Rooney" Lee entered the
army as a captain, rose grade by grade, and surrendered
as a major-general. That grade he won at the age of twenty-
seven, through distinguished and resultful command of
cavalry when opposed by some of the best Federals.

He was later elected to congress three times, and was
twice married. His first wife was Miss Charlotte Wick-
ham, cousin of General Wickham. She died in 1863, after
losing her two young children. Three years later, the wid
ower married that belle and beauty of later war-time, Miss

mmm

MRS. W. H. F. LEE

(MARY TABB BOLLING)

R. E. LEE, JR. DR. BOLLING LEE

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 437

Mary Tabb Boiling, who survives him, with two sons, Colonel
R. E. Lee, 3d, and Dr. Boiling Lee. These are the only
grandsons of General Lee: already proving "ensample of fair
name" through which their gentle mother will live in history
as a modern Cornelia.

Robert E. Lee, Jr., was but a youth in 1861. He prompt
ly put on a private's jacket in the Rockbridge battery of the
Stonewall Brigade, and won his captaincy on the cavalry
staff, under "'Rooney" Lee, "Jeb" Stuart and others.
He was twice married, first to Miss Charlotte Haxall, who
died childless, and later to Miss Anne Carter, daughter
of Colonel Carter, of the University of Virginia. Today,
with two daughters, Mary Custis and Anne Carter Lee they
reside at Romancoke, near West Point.

The third son of " Light Horse Harry" and Ann Hill
Carter — next older than Robert — was Captain Sydney
Smith Lee, of the old navy. He could have been an ad
miral had not the impulse of race carried him across the
Potomac. There he was promptly accorded his former
rank, did good work and became the trusted adviser of
Secretary Mallory from his thorough familiarity with the
men of his old service. He became admiral when the law
created that grade. He married Anna Maria Mason, of the
Gunston branch, and strangely enough in Virginian dupli
cation of names, the sister of Mrs. Samuel Cooper, Sarah
Maria Mason.

Fitz Lee was the eldest of their six children, all sons.
A graduate of West Point, he was a dashing dragoon in the
old service; familiar beyond need of reminder in the new
one; consul-general to Havana, and so retained by the ad
verse party for his war knowledge; governor of his state,
its desired candidate for senator and later brigadier-general
in the regular army. Fitz Lee's later record and his death,
with the universal grief it brought, are too recent to rehearse.

438 BELLES, BEAUX AND BBAINS OF THE SIXTIES

He married Miss Ellen Bernard Fowle, daughter of William
Fowle, of Alexandria, and she survives him with a family
of five, three daughters and two sons. Miss Ellen Lee mar
ried Captain Rhea, of the Seventh United States Cavalry;
her next sister, Anne, married Lieutenant Lewis Brown,
and the youngest, Virginia, lately married Lieutenant John

Carter Montgomery, all of
the same regiment. The
eldest son, Captain Fitzhugh
Lee, is in the Seventh Cav
alry, and was attached to
the presidential staff at
Washington, and George
Mason Lee is a lieutenant
in the same regiment.

Sydney Smith Lee, the
brother next to Fitz, was
a lieutenant in the Confed
erate Navy. He was first in
the Drewry's Bluff batteries,
and thence was sent abroad
to await the building of the
foreign cruisers. Tiring of
inaction in what he and Sam
Barron called "The Paris
CAPTAIN HENRY CARTER LEE Navy, " he was recalled and

C. S. CAVALRY

(4TH SON OF ADMIRAL LEE) served oil coast defense duty

and in the small inland-built

ironclads, of brief life. He never married, though he survived
the surrender and was as popular with the gentler sex as
with his own. He died in 1887.

Major John Mason Lee, elder of the two surviving sons
of the admiral, now resides in Stratford county. He made
good record in the cavalry of the A. N. V., winning his rank;

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 439

and after the war married Miss Nora Bankhead, daughter
of Dr. Bankhead, of that neighborhood. There are five
children of this union: Miss Nannie Mason Lee, Mrs. Lin-
wood Antrim (Dorothea Lee) of Richmond; Mrs. C. P.
Cardwell (Bessie Lee), of Hanover; John M. Lee, Jr., and
Bankhead Lee.

Henry Carter Lee, next brother to John Mason, also served
in the cavalry and gained his captaincy. He married
Miss Sallie B. Johnston, and resided in Richmond, dying
there two decades ago. They had three : sons and one
daughter: Johnston and Smith, now of Richmond; Willie,
now living in New York, and Miss Nannie Mason Lee, of
Richmond.

No youngster was better
nor more pleasantly known
in war-time Richmond than
Dan Murray Lee, the next
youngest son of the admiral.
He entered the C. S. N. at its
formation, as a midshipman,
and came out of it web-

footed as it were; passed-
middie and staff captain. He
was on the Merrimac of
famous memory: later at
Drewry's Bluff, on the
Chickamaugdj and in the
Chicora and other vessels
in the long defense of Charles
ton; at the capture of Ply
mouth and Fort Fisher and
later in the batteries around Richmond. He was captured
at Sailor's Creek, escaped and joined his brother Fitz and
acted on his staff, with rank of captain. Was at

CAPT. DANIEL MURRAY LEE
(5TH SON OF ADMIRAL LEE)

440 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

Appomattox, but escaped and only surrendered a week
later, at Farmville. Thirty-two years ago he married Miss
Nannie Ficklen, whose mother was Miss Fitzhugh, of

Chatham, who married Mr.
Ficklen, of Falmouth.

Dan Lee now resides at
Highland Home, near Fred-
ericksburg, on a model stock
farm. The pair have six
children; two girls, Misses
Edmo Corbin and Mary
Custis Lee: D. M. Lee, Jr.,
J. B. F. Lee, Sydney Smith
Lee and H. F. Lee. The
eldest lives in California;
the second on his Mexican
ranch ; the third is lieutenant
in the United States Marine
Corps in Cuba and the
last is at the V. M. I.,
Lexington.

The youngest of the six
brothers was a mere boy all
during the war, but went in and saw service during its last
year. This was Robert Carter Lee, now dead many
years. He never married.

Such is the roster of the Lee family in war and peace,
and there is no need to emphasize its place "in the hearts
of its countrymen."

MRS. DANIEL MURRAY LEE

(NANNIE FICKLEN)

CHAPTER XXXVIII

YOUNG VETERANS AND OLD BOYS

JACKSON was gone: the Valley was unguarded, and its
wastes were the open back door to the capital. There was
dire need of men to check the secure invader. Then young
boys sprang to the rescue.

General Scott Shipp, the lieutenant-colonel, comman
dant of the Virginia Military Institute, at Lexington, was
called upon by Breckinridge. Not one boy flinched. Shipp
led every one big enough to "tote" a musket, fought them
against Sigel's artillery until he was shot down, and even
then the youngsters stayed in under Captain Henry A. Wise
until the fight was won; capturing the Union battery and
many prisoners. They went in a battalion of 470, in four
companies commanded by Collier Harrison Minge, of Ala
bama, Company A; C. W. Shafer, of Virginia, Company
B; S. S. Shriver, of Virginia, Company C, and B. A. Colonna,
of Virginia, Company D. They left eight dead upon the
field, and forty-four wounded. The former roll of honor
reads: W. H. McDowell, of North Carolina; S. F. Atwell,
W. H. Cabell, J. B. Stanard, F. G. Jefferson, H. T. Jones,
C. G. Crockett, and J. C. Wheelright, all of Virginia.

Captain Minge was given the post of honor in command
of the artillery section and — as a comrade writes me — "bore
himself very gallantly." Colonna, "Old Duck," was at
hand-to-hand; hammering a gunner over the head with his
cadet dress sword. Shriver also was conspicuous for dash and

441

442 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

coolness. The color-bearer was complimented for vim and
pluck, and the sergeant-major, Woodbridge, coolly took

his place forty paces beyond
the line, to form on, as
though on dress parade.
"Little General" C. C.
Randolph, who had been
Stonewall's courier, and was
sent to the V. M. I. " because
he was no larger than a
broiling chicken," was fear
fully wounded, and it is a
wonder he ever recovered.
He is now the Rev. Charles
Randolph, of Evington, Va.
First Sergeant Erskine Ross,
of "A," was distinguished
for gallantry. He is now
United States circuit judge
in California, and Color-
Bearer Oliver Perry Evans

GENERAL SCOTT SHIPP, V. M. I. , , d T7 •

also became a San Francisco

judge. First Sergeant A. Pizzini, Jr., was specially noted
for "grit," as was peach-cheeked "Coonie" Ricketts, the
envied pet of the petticoats. Winder Garrett, of Williams-
burg, ran his bayonet through a gunner in the charge that
took the battery, and he and Charlie Faulkner captured
twenty-two big Germans, barricaded in an icehouse.
Cadet Levi Welsh, of "B," made a great mark for daring,
and Patrick Henry, of Tennessee, won- his spurs through
all the fight. Grim and gallant Professor-Captain Henry
A. Wise always commended the bearing of Edmund
Berkeley, Bob Brockenborough, Preston Cocke and Pern
Thomson. All were "Valley boys, except Cocke, who was

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 443

from the James River Valley, but of the old Preston blood.

That a number of Alabama boys were in, I chanced to
know. H. Walker Garrow, a fine fellow, later loved in
Mobile, was one. Another letter, equally unsuspecting of
publication, from Minge, says:

uThe cadet corps' little stunt at Newmarket seems to
have crept into history as a marginal note. This 'seed-
corn battalion/ as President Davis styled it, when he heard
of the slaughter of the innocents, has been tenderly handled
by all the recorders. It was without question a most beau
tiful and touching illustration of Lee's grand maxim, 'Duty
is the noblest word in the
language.' And then the
book closes.

" There are no specific rec
ords left and no specific
deeds. Hunter, in his cam
paign of desolation up the
Valley, destroyed the institute
and its records, June llth,
1864. The rosters were ob
tainable only from the mem
ories of those officers whose
duty it was to call the com
pany rolls. These were
collected and revised with
care, until I think all who
participated in the battle were
enrolled in the four companies.
I had been honored with the
first captaincy and helped to

return that roster. Other cadet officers did the same for
their several companies and the result is in the possession of
the institute. It is inscribed on four tablets on sides of the

CAPT. COLLIER H. MINGE
(COMMANDING BATTERY)

444 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

base of a memorial standing at the entrance to Jackson's
memorial hall. I would not trust myself to* call over that
company roll again at the age of sixty-two.

"Sir Moses Ezekiel — 'Zeek/ of tender memory — was one
of the boys."

After the war Minge went into the cotton business in
Mobile, thence removing it to Shreveport. Now he is the
prosperous, if portly, head of houses in Shreveport, New
Orleans and Texas towns, with a summer home at Mississippi
City. He married Miss Eva, daughter of the noted and popu
lar Colonel A. J. Ingersoll, of Mobile's halcyon days. Their
family of adult boys and girls is the pride of the most youth
ful grandmother in her section. Collier H., Jr., married
Miss Theo Vance; uniting Revolutionary blood of South
Carolina and Virginia. Ethel Ingersoll married Mr. Richard
Montague Walford, an English gentleman in the cotton
business. Miss Ingersoll Minge, the second daughter, was
recently queen of New Orleans carnival; the third Miss
Jeannie Dixey, like her, refuses to leave the paternal
roof.

I have noted already that Gay lord B. Clark was at the
V. M. I., Newmarket. He was sent early from his native
Mobile to Lexington as a pupil to General Pendleton; en
tered the institute and was a sergeant in the "cornseeds."
How he bore himself is told in a late letter from a com
rade: "He was the man who made everybody laugh, under
hottest fire. He grabbed the tall sugar-loaf hat of some
Yankee officer, placed it on his head, put one foot on a dead
artillery horse, folded his arms and struck an attitude. Then
he coolly asked whether he did not look like Napoleon Bona
parte."

He became a noted lawyer in Alabama and a power in her
publicism. He married a brilliant belle of post-bellum Mobile
— Miss Lettice Smith, whose father was Colonel Robert

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 445

White Smith, a prominent merchant and a cavalry commander
in the war. On her mother's side she is of the Virginia
Hunters. Mrs. Clark is a still youthful and popular society
woman, with two children: Gaylord, who took his degree in
his father's profession at the University of Virginia, and Let-
tice Lee Clark, one of the most popular young women of far
Southern and Virginian society.
Another son of Francis B.
Clark, his namesake and next
to Gaylord, graduated at the
V. M. L, before entering the
law and becoming his brother's
partner. He left two sons,
Francis B. Clark, Jr., of Texas,
and Rev. Willis G. Clark, of
Montgomery. The military
strain of the family blood
inheres in General Louis V.
Clark, of the Alabama National
Guard. His cadet company
won the first prize at the
interstate drill mentioned, and
he was later on headquarters
staff at Washington and
Chicago encampments. The other living brothers are
J. Shepherd Clark and Burnet L. Clark, editors and owners
of El Comercio, the Spanish trade journal of New York.
Mrs. Burnet L. Clark, as Miss Armantine Oliver, was one of
the most beautiful and charming belles of the after-war
Mobile. She retains both traits in her New York home, and
has loaned them to her fair young daughter, Miss Pauline.
The youngest of the six sons of Francis B. Clark except
Louis, is Le Vert Clark, now of Detroit. He was in the Mobile
law firm, but married Miss Parke, of the Michigan metropolis,

GAYLORD B. CLARK
(CADET AT NEWMARKET)

446 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

and removed there. Gaylord Clark had but one sister, Miss
Nellie, who married Norman Brooks and resided in New
York until widowed. Now she lives with her father and
brother, in Birmingham, while her only son, Russell Sage
Brooks, completes his university career.

When my brilliant, yet astute, friend, Henry W. Grady, told
the North of the "New South/' he knew the efficacy of a
rallying cry as well as did the inventors of " Old Hickory"
and "Tippecanoe and Tyler, too!" as well as did Colonel
Bryan when he inverted the " Crown of Thorns" and amal-
gamized the " Cross of Gold."

Grady knew that there was — and could be no "New
South." He knew that it was the same old South, bracing
her every sinew and girding up her loins for a fresh struggle
with the conditions of day-after-tomorrow, out of the methods
of day-before-yesterday. He knew, thinker that he was,
that the habits and traditions of three centuries could no
more be whistled down the wind by a word than they could
be uprooted by the sword, and what he knew then exists today.

The North and the South alike cherish their memories, the
bitter through proper loyalty, the sweet through love.

The United Confederate Veterans were organized for two
objects: to preserve the sweet and bitter memories with equal
care: higher still, to aid the disabled, the suffering and the
needy of those who had thrilled them with the Rebel yell
indescribable, and had won worthily the right to wear "the
true cross of honor."

The U. C. V. organized first on June 10, 1889, at New Or
leans, unanimously choosing John B. Gordon commander-
in-chief, with Clement A. Evans as his first adjutant-gen
eral. Never during Gordon's life would "the boys" hear
another name offered for their leader. Only his death brought
his successor in Lieutenant-General Stephen D. Lee.

Just before the reunion of 1898, this true knight and gentle

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 447

souled paladin was suddenly stricken with fatal illness. Not the
death of Gordon even, was so truly and universally lamented.
Honest and chivalrous, he was indeed loyal and true, equally
to his country and his friends. A mighty sob went up from
the hearts of Dixie, — echoing back from many a Northern
voice — for his requiem. He was succeeded by General Clement
A. Evans : a good soldier and churchman and a disciplinarian.

At organization the camps of the Vets numbered only
a few score. Today they number over 1,500, covering
every state and territory in the Union. Yet this was not
the first commemorative body, by many years. Already
separate bodies of old soldiers had existed in Mobile, Rich
mond, New Orleans, Charleston and Chattanooga. Each
of these claims seniority, but certain it is that the "R. E.
Lee Association" celebrated the nineteenth of January,
1867, at Mobile, and remained a growing society when it
merged into Raphael Semmes Camp, No. 11, U. C. V., in
1890.

What the Veterans have done for perpetuation of facts
and records has been seen of all men, and honored by their
old fighting opponents. With them fraternization has
been frequent, notably at Atlanta, Boston and New Orleans.
Both have verified General Damas, of Bulwer's play: "It
is astonishing how much I like a man after I have fought
with him!"

There may be exceptional cases of sectional rabies, but
there is no generation stegomyia maligniati to sting it to
epidemic on the people who wore the blue or doffed the gray.
The exceptional Dammerses prove the rule of mutual
respect and recognition of the men who had bought their know
ledge of each other with their blood.

I chanced to be managing secretary of perhaps the first
important encampment at which the Blue and the Gray
went under tents together, at Mobile, in 1885. Then Gen-

448 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

eral C. S. Bentley brought down the " Northwestern Bri
gade/7 of Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin
and Ohio, under General H. H. Wright, of the First Iowa.

Two years later I held the same position at the National
Drill and Encampment around the Washington Monument.
There General C. C. Augur, U. S. A., was in command, with
H. Kyd Douglas, of Stonewall Jackson's staff, adjutant-
general; Fitz Lee, then governor of Virginia, with a brigade,
and officers of all grades from the old soldiers of North and
South.

At both these encampments the picked flower of citizen
soldiery — at the latter to the number of 12,500 on the morn
ing report — embraced men who had been through the war
and bore its scars. At both absolute harmony and good-
fellowship reigned, and no single case of ill-feeling, taunt
or bitterness developed. Similar instances were the Atlanta
Exposition and the G. A. R. reunion at Boston in 1904.

The organization of the Daughters began at Nashville
in 1894, when only three chapters convened and elected
their founder, Mrs. M. C. Goodlett, of that city, president-
general. There are now eleven hundred and fifteen chapters,
embracing almost all the states, with many of their most
representative women, to an aggregate membership computed
at nearly 60,000. The present heads are Mrs. Cornelia
Branch Stone, of Texas, president-general; Mrs. A. H. Voor-
hies, of San Francisco and Mrs. D. A. S. Vaught, of New Or
leans, vice-presidents-general; Mrs. A. L. Dowdell, of Alabama,
and Mrs. A. W. Rapley, of St. Louis, recording and corre
sponding secretaries. Mrs. L. E. Williams, Kentucky, is treas
urer-general. In the interim the presidents-general have been
Mesdames John C. Brown (Nashville), Fitzhugh Lee (Alexan
dria), Kate Cabell Currie (Dallas), Edwin G. Weed (Jackson
ville), James A. Rounsaville (Rome, Georgia) and A. T.
Srnythe (Charleston). *

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 44$

As with the Veterans, each state is organized under its
own head and the object of all is the care of the sick and
aged, preservation of cemeteries and aid to the soldiers'
homes, in most of the states.

Of similar sentimental birth came the United Sons of
Veterans a decade later. What real need there is for their
existence was found in a nucleus for a memorial order, when
all the Vets have passed away.

Still, the idea took with
the young men of the South
ern states, and the three or
four camps of their beginning
now number hundreds in an
aggregate of many thou
sands. This picturesque,
well-uniformed and some
times eloquent body has
added largely to the glitter
and the giddiness of the
annual reunions of the " old
boys."

The first commander,
chosen at the Richmond
organizing, was, J. E . B .
Stuart, of Newport News.
The present officers in chief are : John W. Apperson, general
commanding, and N. B. Forrest, Jr., adjutant-general, both
of Memphis, Tenn., re-elected at the last convention.

Bishop Thomas Frank Gailor, the brilliant and stalwart
prelate of Tennessee, whose father died on the Field of Perry-
ville, was urged in consecutive years to accept the command-
in-chief. This carries with it the rank major-general. He
declined, saying that a bishop should not hold military rank
except for war-need. Urged next year he said he could

Rt. REV. THOMAS FRANK GAILOR
(BISHOP OF TENNESSEE)

450 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

accept only on two conditions, that there should be unan
imous choice and that the military features of the or
ganization should be entirely abrogated. Only thus, he
felt, could the real usefulness of the Sons be best
assured.

Gradually the need that had bred the organizations seem
ed fulfilled, the novelty of the reunions began to wane and
the parades had to seek, in their function as crowd-drawers
to entertaining cities, the addition of beauty and youth in
what many declared to be too many sponsors and too much
display. What had been a grave event, with something in it
of sacredness, fell into a society function that hid the origi
nal intent almost wholly from view. Naturally, some "old
fogies" of the parent order grew restive under a change that
obscured their light. What they had introduced as a pretty
and appropriate innovation threatened to grow equally
overbalancing and costly.

There is no blame to the Old Boys. They are not what
someone called Tom Ochiltree, "a war cocktail," but the
straight war distillation, and the longer they are kept out of
wood the purer the spirit.

So it made the judicious grieve when they thought they
saw these venerable patres non conscripti relegated to the
rear, behind the young alignment of brilliant and fresh Sons
and even of dainty and daintily sashed Daughters.

At the Atlanta reunion, where " Little Joe" Wheeler, fresh
from Cuba, rode at Gordon's right hand the cynosure of all
eyes, a grim old Vet left a note at his hotel for any old com
rades who called on him:

"Gone home; found too little Vet and a d sight too

much Sponsor and Son!"

The memory-born novelty may wane, the reunion may die
of old age, but the memory that bore both will live when the
last old Reb is headstoned, when the sponsors' sashes have

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 451

mildewed with time, and the " Generals" epaulettes are black
with the tarnish of forget fulness and cheap gilt.

The recent death of a very noted and widely mourned
Daughter of the Confederacy calls up vivid memories of her
famous husband. General Edmund Kirby Smith, son of
Joseph Lee Smith and Frances Kirby, was born at St. Augus
tine in 1824. Their old home is now the library of the old
city, by his donation. He graduated at West Point in 1845,
seeing first service in the
Mexican War. Later he was
assigned as professor at the
academy. He was a major
when he joined the South
and was made brigadier-
general. Wounded at Bull
Run, he was nursed at Rich
mond by Cassie Selden, the
brave and gifted daughter
of Armistead Selden and
Caroline Hare, of Lynch-
burg. The result was the
marriage that made her " the
Bride of the Confederacy.'7
Made lieutenant-general in
1862, General Smith was
assigned to the trans-Mis
sissippi Department the next year and in 1864 was
made one of the six full generals. His command was the
last to lay down arms, many of its officers crossing to Mexico
to avoid surrender.

General Smith went to Cuba and his wife to Washington,
where his old comrade, Grant, arranged for his return. He
was president of the Altantic & Pacific Telegraph Company
until 1868, when he became chancellor of the University of

GEN. EDMUND KIRBY SMITH

(COMMANDING TRANS-MISSISSIPPI

DEPARTMENT)

452 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

Nashville. In 1875 he accepted the chair of mathematics at
Sewanee, University of the South, which he held until his
death in 1893.

The young wife had followed her husband through the war,
sharing his dangers and privations in "the 'cross river king
dom." Their home at Sewanee became a centre of hospitality
and Mrs Kirby-Smith never forgot the old soldiers of that
mountain region. Each year she gave a garden party to the
Vets of the three counties, and they mourn her death as a
sister's. She was a woman of dominant character arid prac
tical sense and her voice was listened to in the councils of the
Daughters. Her eleven children were reared — and several
of them, and the twelve grandchildren, born at Sewanee.
They all survive her and are: Caroline Selden (Mrs. W. S.
Crolly, of New York); Fannie (Mrs. Wade, of Los Angeles),
with two children; Edmund Kirby-Smith, now of Mexico,
who married Virginia Dellez, and has four children; Lydia
(Mrs. Roland Hale) with two children; Nina (Mrs. Randolph
Buck, of Indianapolis), with two children; Elizabeth and
Josephine Kirby-Smith; Dr. Reynold Marvin Kirby-Smith,
who married Miss Thomson, of Atlanta, and has two children ;
William Selden and Ephraim, both mining in Mexico; and Dr.
J. Lee Kirby-Smith, a bachelor, in New York.

Very recently Ephraim, youngest of the eleven children,
married Mary Carroll Brooks, daughter of Preston S. Brooks,
of Sewanee, and granddaughter of the famous Congressman
Preston S. Brooks, of South Carolina. Distinguished in
Pierce Butler's Palmetto regiment, in Mexico, he was repre
senting his state in the lower house, when Charles Sumner
spoke words in the senate insulting to the aged and infirm
Senator Pickens Butler, a kinsman of Brooks. Next day, the
latter made a cause celebre by caning the Massachusetts man
in his seat in the senate, just ere that august body was called
to order.

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 453

Again the to-be-expected has happened. Just closing
this page, the printer heard echo of wedding chimes from
far Sewanee mountain. In mid-March, Miss Josephine
Kirby-Smith, the youngest of the six sisters, became Mrs.
Roades Fayerweather, at new St. Luke's chapel, donated to
the university by the late Mrs. Telfair Hodgson, as memorial
to her husband and daughter.

The newly wedded pair will reside in Baltimore, leaving
Miss Elizabeth Kirby-Smith at the old home: the only
unmarried sister — for the present.

CHAPTER XXXIX

AFTERMATH

" The past is past; what's done is done for aye!"

HAUPTMANN, the great German, was as much philos
opher as poet when he wrote that line of "The Sunken Bell. "

Every brew, when pure, leaves aftermath. When Fate
is the brewer the aftermath is often bitter. That of the
Lost Cause, sweet and bitter commingled, is ours; nor would
we change it for any less of either, not permeated with the
sacred savor of memory.

Seismic convulsion had torn and tumbled a great national
structure. Upon its supposed ruins Hope, Valor and Am
bition essayed the rearing of a new one that in turn toppled
and crumbled into dust.

The new design was too nearly like the old. It fell, even
as Babel, because it essayed a too great height, builded too
fast, and the conglomerate foundation could not concrete.

Across the debris of a people's hopes and struggles, through
the still luminous dust from their downfall, bright and no
ble forms pass in long procession, fadeless and ever new;
and each Confederate Banquo

"Bears a glass that shows me many more."

Some have essayed their work of "resurrection" and
have found vending for their cadavers of reputation, ex
posed to the dull scalpel of controversy. Not always was
this for the sake of history or of truth.

454

BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES 455

What was really done can never be undone to the
satisfaction of any. Attempts to undo it are ever
futile; worse, they are fecund of Dead Sea fruit, dry
and acrid to the taste, even when happily seedless.

The war is over, despite the natural soreness of old wounds
under friction, or an occasional bitter afterthought. The
pact between the generals
had made this truth an
earlier one by four decades,
had Lincoln lived. Still, it
is now ten years since belief
in our having one common
country sent " Little Joe"
Wheeler from his legislative
seat to one in the discarded
saddle : sent one of the oldest
of the Lees back to the flag un
der which he had first fought.

The reasons for failure
are always as numerous as
the reasons for war. They
are equally as unprovable.
A great Confederate, when
asked why we lost the battle of
Gettysburg, replied: " Stone
wall Jackson died too soon. "

That was epigram, not proof. So Reconstruction may
be summed up: Abraham Lincoln died too early.

But for the madman Booth's pistol, that jarred apart
the closing wound of war-born hatred, there had been no
bitter aftermath. That one reverberation in the Wash
ington opera box swelled into the vaporous vastity of the
Geni's cloud in Arabian Nights' tale. Out of it strode that
Afrite of hate, horror and long-lived rancor; the evil spirit

LIEUT.-GEN. JOSEPH WHEELER

456 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF TEE SIXTIES

that blighted the seeds sowed by Lee and Grant — John
ston and Sherman.

At that vibration the promised fruits of humanity, homo
geneity, nationality, were scattered to the wind for a time.

Upon the horrors, injustice and grotesque illegality of
Reconstruction this is no place to dwell. These demand
an ampler page and have been treated in history, essay
and symposium by abler pens than mine. Yet their more
potent material rests behind. Yet, applying the wisdom of Tal
leyrand to Reconstruction, it stands forth more glaring
than a crime: as the most egregious error ever perpetrated
upon policy by politics. Were it not pitiable it would be
laughable.

That fallacious makeshift abruptly cut off the fine nose
of national wealth, to spite the Southern face; procured
a few lewd votes, that its political lechery could not use,
and essayed the elevation to equality of an unliftable race
by amendment petards that now uncomfortably hoist their
inventors higher than their would-be victims.

The Macaulay of politico-economics, when he comes
to stand upon the ruins of this rotten bridge across momen
tary expediency, will record it as the silliest error in all the
annals of government by enactment.

The government of a victorious and firmly placed party
studiously proclaimed what its own second-thought found
it vital to very existence to disprove after offering rewards
for the heads of palpably innocent men. Hatred was smear
ed over political venality in slimy distortion; while a pur
posely inflamed political sense, with dilated nostrils, sniffed
up its savor.

Had the madman's pistol missed fire that fateful night
in the theatre the martyred president had lived greater
still in history. He would have confirmed the cartels be
tween his generals and ours at Appomattox and Atlanta.

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 457

There would have been no Reconstruction; and the nascent
respect of the one section for the other had never been stran
gled in its cradle by the puny Hercules of hate.

Natural instinct and paying interdependence would have
written Mr. Lincoln's word, "Union," at the head of the
page. He could then have well afforded to let the trick
sters of politics " write whatever you please under it!"

Direct issue, too, of Reconstruction was that lynching —
equally bugabooed, too, by purpose or imagination — which
was a fine art, with hideous cause as motif in the South, and
has been transplanted, without the cause, into a tough trade
in the North.

Honesty, policy, and common sense have long since cre
mated 'the very bones of Reconstruction ; and the process has
killed even their loathsome odor.

But all the aftermath of unrest and rancor was not con
fined to one side of the Potomac.

No trial where the witnesses have all been "discharged by
death," could bring any verdict that would stand the test of
posterity. Criticism is one thing; narration of new facts —
legitimate progeny of history — another.

The better afterthought of the South had settled down into
calm acceptance of the inevitable. It was trying honestly
the " let- well-enough-alone " philosophy. It indubitably
was regretful, where not shocked, by the exhumation and
exhibition in the gossip morgue of the "unsent message" to
congress of Mr. Davis, giving his reasons for refusal to obey
the popular wish to replace Johnston in command before
Atlanta. Cui bonof was the universal query when the print
appeared. That paper could have proved nothing, even
had Mr. Davis sent it in to the Richmond congress. It could
only have added, then, to the bitterness of the Davis and
Johnston partisans in that body, and to the widespread dis
satisfaction upon the quarrel, in the army. Even at that

458 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

time, it could have settled no one fact to the satisfaction of
any doubter on either side, for the reason that — like General
Johnston's later retort — it was merely the one man's differen
tiation of himself and another man.

No one who comprehends the character and motives of
Mr. Davis doubts for an instant that he must have had cogent
reasons for withholding an important state paper that had
cost labor, thought and midnight oil. That reason must
have been one of two; the inefficacy of the paper to convince,
or his own belief that its utterance would indurate a pair of
prejudices that were fast growing into opposed hatreds. For
the uunsent message" added no tittle to the truth of history.
It gave no scintilla of proof for the correctness of its writer's
estimate of the man whom General Hood himself, William J.
Hardee and Alexander P. Stuart joined in a telegram to have
retained in command — whom General Lee immediately
called back to the post denied him, when he became com-
mander-in-chief.

More unhappy still was the publication of the legacy letter,
written by Mrs. Davis to her old friend, Judge Allen Kiin-
brough, of Mississippi, to exculpate herself from aspersion
of disloyalty to section and principle, because she had found
it practical, or needful, to live at the North. But if that
letter was needless, tactless and ill-timed was the forcing of
that letter by Mrs. Kimbrough upon the unwilling assemblage
of the Daughters, at Gulfport, in 1906.

No honest thinker could ever have condoned the dis
crediting of the wife of the dead president for selecting her
own residence. Brave and brawny men have done the same,
in hundreds of cases, leaving home, friends and traditional
surroundings for the openly avowed purpose of gain. Criticism
never has assailed them, and there was less cause for the
singling out of a bereaved — and somewhat neglected — woman
for venomed, if misdirected, shafts. But what the few said,

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 45»

the many never heard, nor, hearing, had believed, until the
needless post-mortem defence raised futile whispers to a roar
and set up a skeleton in the united feminine closet.

Sectional pride is the proper thing: sectional prejudice
is the silly one. Looking back across a clear calm retrospect,
may we not see in the latter one active motor of the Civil
War? Then glance at the social and business positions of
the " Southern colony" in New York today: note her now
old Southern Society, of
which an early secretary
was a Virginian Randolph.

Prejudice is of long life,
albeit confined to no partic
ular habitat. Only yester
day, veterans and cadets
from Georgia flocked to the
escort for the Taft inaug
uration; aides from other
Southern states rode down
the line and Alabamians
received the all-states guests
at the night's ball. But,
only day before yesterday,
General Rufus Rhodes was
assailed by ultra Southern

scribes, for invoking God's blessing upon Mr. Taft, when he
went to invite him to his home-city (quite a proper "grace
before meat"); and for editorial intimation that the people's
choice of the big president was preferable to raising a flag
of tattered and torn platitudes, on a nickel plate staff, above
the White House.

The day before that, Dr. Hannis Taylor, of Washington,
was soundly basted in some Southern presses, for writing
in the North American Review that "the Solid South was

LIEUT. WILTON HANDOLPH

460 BELLES, BEAUX AND BRAINS OF THE SIXTIES

a national calamity" but Mr. Taylor was only borrowing of
Scripture, in stating that the house — however strongly based
must fall, if divided against itself.

It is nearly two decades since I was even more widely
berated for my article in that same Review — "The Weakness
of Mr. Davis's Strength" — which showed that he failed
of attempt to do, in his own proper person, what those he
had gathered about him could not accomplish. All of which
recalls the wisdom of the negro preacher, who answered
brother Jasper, of Richmond:

"Ya-as,m' breddren, de science folk hab proobe de sun
do stan' still an' de wuiT hit do moobe. Doan' yer be like
de sun. Git er Moobe onter yer! Ef de wurl' do moobe,
den dem az doan' moobe too, ez dead sho' ter fall offen hit!"

I have noted Don Piatt's clever differentiation of "Men
Who Saved the Union." It may be pertinent in this after
math of great events to glance aUsome of the men who made
the Union, before it grew to need of the saving process. He
who is accepted as "Father of his Country," was a Virginian.
A neighbor of his was author of the Declaration of Indepen
dence; Richard Henry Lee offered the resolutions that pro
duced it, and two of those six brothers of that name were
signers. Madison was main framer of the Constitution, and
its accepted expounder was another Virginian, John Marshall.

In one of his meaty and reminiscent addresses, Honorable
Champ Clark, of Missouri, took for his theme cognate facts,
seemingly forgotten by many bookmakers and most book-
readers. He reminded his hearers that it was Governor
Patrick Henry who sent George Rogers Clark, "the Hannibal
of the West/' to acquire the great Northwest Territory; that
Jefferson and Polk gave the Union its splendid trans-Missis
sippi purchase and that Monroe brought the Floridas under
the flag. Mr. Clark also took up eminent Southerners who
had illustrated American genius and discovery, showing that

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 461

they were neglected and often ignored by Northern book
makers and cyclopedists. He instanced the famous William
Rufus King, of Alabama, congressman, senator, diplomat,
who died as viee-president ; Dr. Crawford W. Long, of Athens,
Ga., who invented chloroform, while the credit is given Dr.
Samuel Guthrie, of New York. The former's state has-
chosen his figure for Statuary Hall, as one of its two repre
sentatives. -

Mr. Clark notes that Robert Toombs and Charles Sumner
were contemporary senators, and that Northern cyclopedists
give the latter three or four columns and the Georgian about
a quarter column. Lincoln gets five or six columns; Jeffer
son Davis, one.

The reminiscent congressman ever has his facts well in
hand. He ought to have added that Matthew F. Maury
made the Atlantic cable a possibility by his deep sea sound
ings and that Professor Robert Ellett, of South Carolina
University, gave the basis of dynamite, the great destructive,
and of collodion, the best reconstructive, by perfecting gun-
cotton. Gorrie, of Florida, first made artificial ice; and hi&
state will make his statue one of her two in the capital at
Washington.

It was Duncan N. Ingraham, a South Carolina captain,
of the "St. Louis," in the harbor of Smyrna, who first car
ried the Monroe Doctrine to the deck of an Austrian warship,
and brought Martin Costza away, safely wrapped up in it.

These are some few things the men of the South did to
make the Union. And her women have "done things" too.
Which more aided the women of the country arid its moral
tone, Harriet Beecher Stowe, or Augusta Evans Wilson?

Verily, my one-legged philosopher, General Walker, might
have added to the losses of the South in her mothers not
bearing all male children, the patent one that her authors,
did not write all the histories.

462 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

One theme most pregnant, and cognate with the after
math of the great struggle, I perforce leave untouched. Its
mere mention brings up so many innate and collateral facts —
so many persons of historic interest — that it would overstep
all possible boundaries of space in this narration. Attempt
to condense the origin and effects of the diplomacy of the
Confederacy — its promises and errors and their results;
and its twin failure, finance — were hopeless; and I have

been forced to leave it to a
wider, and a separate field.
From Georgia's pioneer com
missioner, Thomas Butler King,
through the Yost-Mann-
Yancey experiment, to the
Mason-Slidell fiasco, the story
intertwists European and
American history of that day
so closely that no singled
threads of either could be
made distinct.

So, for the moment, I have
left diplomacy and finance
where they placed themselves
—in nubibus! Yet this is a
legitimate theme for History;
not being the story of the
calamities of individuals, but of a great nation — conceived,
nascent, possible of self-existence. Nor is this the place
to discuss whether the last had been a universal blessing,
or a local curse.

Verily, the war is over, save in a few hearts that beat
only for prejudice or profit; or in the still tender ones of
some "dear old girls," who feel when they would reason:
who cannot be — whom none would have — " reconstructed. "

LIEUT. S. S. LEE, 3D.
(U. S. MARINE CORPS)

BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES 463

Joe Wheeler sleeps at Arlington, with the derring do of
both armies twinned upon his monument. His comrade
both in the blue and the gray was laid to rest under the
national flag, amid paeans from the North:

He sleeps; but over ev'ry re-fought field,
Mem'ry shall wake Fitz Lee to ride again!

And his sons and the husbands of all his daughters wear
sabres with U. S. on their blades; while his youngest nephew
wears the blue today in Cuba.

Only recently, in sturdy Tennessee, the veteran fighters
of the Confederacy marched to the music "of the Union,"
as escort to the president of their country, and that stal
wart statesman — little condoning of what he deems " rebel
lion" — told them he felt their action the highest honor done
him during his tour.

When the thirteen tattered ensigns of the Maryland reg
iments were lately placed, as trophies of her glory, at An
napolis, United States officers in the escort bared their heads;
their pupils — the flowers of descent from fighters on both
sides — shouted in unison to the strains of " Dixie" by the
government band.

Recently, the son of the hero who ignored Lee's sword,
with his noted comrades, revisited the National park at the
precedent Occidental Port Arthur and struck hands with
the old generals and the young "unreconstructed" governors
of the South. And Frederick Dent Grant had already told
us that the greatest Fourth of July of his boyhood was when,
as a lad of thirteen, he went with his father for conference
with General Pemberton at Vicksburg. And he added:
"Our men were no sooner inside the lines than the armies
began to fraternize .... I saw our men taking bread
from their haversacks and giving it to the enemy they had
so recently been starving out."

464 BELLES, BEAUX AND BEAINS OF THE SIXTIES

Later still, the ranking officer of the Union, General Bell,
chief-of-staff, presented to the Virginia Military Institute, a
silken replica of their Newmarket battle flag, burned in
the Hunter raid of 1864. It was received, in words as
soldierly and as glowing as his own, by Hon. John S. Wise,
of the New York bar: himself a cadet veteran, wounded
at "the corn-seed battle."

And, as last seal of peace, President Roosevelt — who once
branded Jefferson Davis and his men in gray as " traitors"
yielded to the plea of Mrs. Cornelia Branch Stone and her
Daughters of the South, and replaced the name of the Con
federate chief upon Cabin John bridge. And the order was
issued by his secretary of war, the veteran Luke E. Wright—
of Tennessee!

And so the aftermath of war is fruity with memories,
wafting northward or southward across the Potomac. So
should it be: so will it be as long as true men honor the
brave and true.

The old rhyme tells us that the knights of eld are dust
and their good swords corroded in the dews of time. But
the knights of the Southland live ; their forms sealed in bronze
and marble, their memories vivid and ever-present in the
hearts of all.

Sighs in each breeze the dirge's tender tone,
Shrilling anon to clarion pcean loud;

Telling of loss and travail, once thine own.

That make old foes of common kinship proud.

Arch o'er their sleep the Laurel and the Yew —

The Oak that triumph crowned, old Rome to glee.

Wreathed by Love's hand above the Gray or Blue,
Their leaflets touch to Immortality!

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