A DIARY FROM
DIXIE * * * j*
MRS. JAMES CIIESNUT, JK
From a Portrait in Oil.
A DIARY FROM
E , as written by
MARY BOYKIN CHESNUT, wife of JAMES
^HESNUT, JR., United States Senator from South
Carolina, 1859-1861, and afterward an Aide
to Jefferson Dams and a Brigadier-
General in the Confederate Army
Edited by
Isabella D. Martin and
Myrta Lockett
Avary
NEW YORK
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
1906
COPYRIGHT. 1905, BY
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
Published March, 190*
CONTENTS
PAGE
INTRODUCTION: THE AUTHOR AND HER BOOK . xiii
CHAPTER I.— CHARLESTON, S. C., November 8,
1860— December 27, 1860.
The news of Lincoln's election — Raising the Palmetto
flag — The author's husband resigns as United States
Senator — The Ordinance of Secession — Anderson takes
possession of Fort Sumter 1
CHAPTER II.— MONTGOMERY, Ala., February 19,
1861— March 11, 1861.
Making the Confederate Constitution — Robert Toombs
— Anecdote of General Scott — Lincoln's trip through
Baltimore — Ho well Cobb and Benjamin H. Hill — Hoist
ing the Confederate flag — Mrs. Lincoln's economy in
the White House — Hopes for peace — Despondent talk
with anti-secession leaders — The South unprepared —
Fort Sumter 6
CHAPTER III.— CHARLESTON, S. C., March 26, 1861
— April 15, 1861.
A soft-hearted slave-owner — Social gaiety in the midst of
war talk — Beauregard a hero and a demigod — The first
shot of the war — Anderson refuses to capitulate — The
bombardment of Fort Sumter as seen from the house
tops — War steamers arrive in Charleston harbor — " Bull
Run " Russell — Demeanor of the negroes ... 21
v
271043
CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER IV.— CAMDEN, S. C., April 20, 1861—
April 22, 1861.
After Sumter was taken — The jeunesse doree — The
story of Beaufort Watts — Maria Whitaker's twins —
The inconsistencies of life 42
CHAPTER V.— MONTGOMERY, Ala., April 27, 1861 ^
— May 20, 1861.
Baltimore in a blaze — Anderson's account of the sur
render of Fort Sumter — A talk with Alexander H.
Stephens — Reports from Washington — An unexpected
reception — Southern leaders take hopeless views of
the future — Planning war measures — Removal of the
capital 47
CHAPTER VI.— CHARLESTON, S. C., May 25, 1861
—June 24, 1861.
Waiting for a battle in Virginia — Ellsworth at Alex
andria — Big Bethel — Moving forward to the battle
ground — Mr. Petigru against secession — Mr. Chesnut
goes to the front — Russell's letters to the London
Times 57
CHAPTER VII.— RICHMOND, Va., June 27, 1861-
July 4, 1861.
Arrival at the new capital — Criticism of Jefferson Davis
— Soldiers everywhere — Mrs. Davis's drawing-room —
A day at the Champ de Mars — The armies assembling
for Bull Run— Col. L. Q. C. Lamar . ... 68
CHAPTER VIII.— FAUQUIER WHITE SULPHUR
SPRINGS, Va., July 6, 1861— July 11, 1861.
Cars crowded with soldiers — A Yankee spy — Anecdotes
of Lincoln — Gaiety in social life — Listening for guns —
A horse for Beauregard 77
CHAPTER IX.— RICHMOND, Va., July 13, 1861-
September 2, 1861.
General Lee and Joe Johnston— The battle of Bull Run
— Colonel Bartow's death — Rejoicings and funerals —
vi
CONTENTS
Anecdotes of the battle — An interview with Robert E.
Lee — Treatment of prisoners — Toombs thrown from his
horse — Criticism of the Administration — Paying the sol
diers — Suspected women searched — Mason and Slidell . 82
CHAPTER X.— CAMDEN, S. C., September 9, 1861—
September 19, 1861.
The author's sister, Kate Williams — Old Colonel Ches-
nut — Roanoke Island surrenders — Up Country and
Low Country — Family silver to be taken for war ex
penses — Mary McDuffie Hampton — The Merrimac and
the Monitor . . 127
CHAPTER XI.— COLUMBIA, S. C., February 20,
1862— July 21, 1862.
Dissensions among Southern leaders — Uncle Tom's
Cabin — Conscription begins — Abuse of Jefferson Davis
— The battle of Shiloh — Beauregard flanked at Nash
ville — Old Colonel Chesnut again — New Orleans lost —
The battle of Williamsburg — Dinners, teas, and break
fasts — Wade Hampton at home wounded — Battle of
the Chickahominy — Albert Sidney Johnston's death —
Richmond in sore straits — A wedding and its tragic
ending — Malvern Hill — Recognition of the Confed
eracy in Europe 131
CHAPTER XII.— FLAT ROCK, N. C., August 1, 1862
—August 8, 1862.
A mountain summer resort — George Cuthbert — A dis
appointed cavalier — Antietam and Chancellorsville —
General Chesnut 's work for the army . . . .210
CHAPTER XIII.— PORTLAND, Ala., July 8, 1863—
July 30, 1863.
A journey from Columbia to Southern Alabama — The
surrender of Vicksburg — A terrible night in a swamp
on a riverside — A good pair of shoes — The author at
her mother's home — Anecdotes of negroes — A Federal
Cynic 216
vii
CONTENTS
CHAPTER XIV.— RICHMOND, Va., August 10, 1863—
September 7, 1863.
General Hood in Richmond — A brigade marches
through the town — Rags and tatters — Two love affairs
and a wedding — The battle of Brandy Station — The
Robert Barnwell tragedy 229
CHAPTER XV.— CAMDEN, S. C., September 10, 1863
—November 5, 1863.
A bride's dressing-table — Home once more at Mul
berry — Longstreet's army seen going West — Constance
and Hetty Gary — At church during Stoneman's raid —
Richmond narrowly escapes capture — A battle on the
Chickahominy — A picnic at Mulberry .... 240
CHAPTER XVI.— RICHMOND, Va., November 28,
1863— April 11, 1864.
Mr. Davis visits Charleston — Adventures by rail — A
winter of mad gaiety — Weddings, dinner-parties, and
private theatricals — Battles around Chattanooga —
• Bragg in disfavor — General Hood and his love affairs —
Some Kentucky generals — Burton Harrison and Miss
Constance Gary — George Eliot — Thackeray's death —
Mrs. R. E. Lee and her daughters — Richmond almost
lost — Colonel Dahlgren's death — General Grant — De
preciated currency — Fourteen generals at church . . 252
CHAPTER XVII.— CAMDEN, S. C., May 8, 1864—
June 1, 1864.
A farewell to Richmond — "Little Joe's" pathetic death
and funeral — An old silk dress — The battle of the
Wilderness — Spottsylvania Court House — At Mulberry
once more — Old Colonel Chesnut's grief at his wife's
death . .304
CHAPTER XVIII.— COLUMBIA, S. C., July 6, 1864-
January 17, 1865.
Gen. Joe Johnston superseded and the Alabama sunk —
The author's new home — Sherman at Atlanta — The
viii
CONTENTS
battle of Mobile Bay — At the hospital in Columbia —
Wade Hampton's two sons shot — Hood crushed at
Nashville — Farewell to Mulberry — Sherman's advance
eastward — The end near 313
CHAPTER XIX.— LINCOLNTON, N. C., February 16,
1865— March 15, 1865.
The flight from Columbia — A corps of generals with
out troops — Broken-hearted and an exile — Taken for
millionaires — A walk with Gen. Joseph E. Johnston
— The burning of Columbia — Confederate money re
fused in the shops — Selling old clothes to obtain food
— Gen. Joe Johnston and President Davis again —
Braving it out — Mulberry saved by a faithful negro-
Ordered to Chester, S. C 344
CHAPTER XX.— CHESTER, S. C., March 21, 1865—
May 1, 1865.
How to live without money — Keeping house once more
— Other refugees tell stories of their flight — The Hood
melodrama over — The exodus from Richmond — Pas
sengers in a box car — A visit from General Hood — The
fall of Richmond — Lee's surrender — Yankees hovering
around — In pursuit of President Davis . . . 367
CHAPTER XXI.— CAMDEN, S. Cv May 2, 1865—
August 2, 1865.
Once more at Bloomsbury — Surprising fidelity of negroes
— Stories of escape — Federal soldiers who plundered old
estates — Mulberry partly in ruins — Old Colonel Chesnut
last of the grand seigniors — Two classes of sufferers —
A wedding and a funeral — Blood not shed in vain . 384
INDEX ... 405
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
MRS. JAMES CHESNUT, JR Frontispiece
From a Portrait in Oil. Reproduced by courtesy of the
owner, Mr. David R. Williams, of Camden, S. C.
A PAGE OF THE DIARY IN FACSIMILE .... xxii
THE OLD BAPTIST CHURCH IN COLUMBIA, S. C. . . 4
Here First Met the South Carolina Secession Convention.
VIEW OF CHARLESTON DURING THE WAR ... 22
From an Old Print.
FORT SUMTER UNDER BOMBARDMENT .... 38
From an Old Print.
A GROUP OF CONFEDERATE GENERALS ... 94
Robert E. Lee, Joseph E. Johnston, Albert Sidney John
ston, "Stonewall" Jackson, John B. Hood, and Pierre
G. T. Beauregard.
MULBERRY HOUSE, NEAR CAMDEN, S. C. . . .128
From a Recent Photograph.
A GROUP OF CONFEDERATE WOMEN .... 148
Mrs. Jefferson Davis, Mrs. Francis W. Pickens, Mrs. Louisa
S. McCord, Miss S. B. C. Preston, Mrs. David R. Will
iams (the author's sister Kate), Miss Isabella D. Martin.
ANOTHER GROUP OF CONFEDERATE GENERALS . 230
Robert Toombs, John H. Morgan, John C. Preston, Joseph
B. Kershaw, James Chesnut, Jr., Wade Hampton,
xi
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING
PAGE
THE DAVIS MANSION IN RICHMOND, THE "WHITE
HOUSE" OF THE CONFEDERACY .... 264
Now the Confederate Museum.
MRS. JAMES CHESNUT, SR 310
From a Portrait in Oil by Gilbert Stuart. Reproduced by
courtesy of the owner, Mr. David R. Williams, of Cam-
den, S. C.
MRS. CHESNUT'S HOME IN COLUMBIA IN THE LAST
YEAR OF THE WAR 314
Here Mrs. Chesnut entertained Jefferson Davis.
RUINS OF MILLWOOD, WADE HAMPTON'S ANCES
TRAL HOME 350
From a Recent Photograph.
A NEWSPAPER "EXTRA" 380
Issued in Chester, S. C., and Announcing the Assassination
of Lincoln.
COL. JAMES CHESNUT, SR 390
From a Portrait in Oil by Gilbert Stuart. Reproduced
by courtesy of the owner, Mr. David R. Williams, of
Camden, S. C.
SARSFIELD, NEAR CAMDEN, S. C 402
Built by General Chesnut after the War, and the Home of
himself and Mrs. Chesnut until they Died. From a Re
cent Photograph.
xil
THE AUTHOR AND HER BOOK
where were able to clear their lands of mortgages and put
money in the bank besides. Planters in the South, mean
while, were borrowing money to support the negroes in
idleness at home, while they themselves were fighting at
the front. Old Colonel Chesnut, the author's father-in-
law, in April, 1862, estimated that he had already lost half
a million in bank stock and railroad bonds. When the
war closed, he had borrowed such large sums himself and
had such large sums due to him from others, that he saw no
likelihood of the obligations on either side ever being dis
charged.
Mrs. Chesnut wrote her Diary from day to day, as the
mood or an occasion prompted her to do so. The fortunes
of war changed the place of her abode almost as frequently
as the seasons changed, but wherever she might be the
Diary was continued. She began to write in Charleston
when the Convention was passing the Ordinance of Seces
sion. Thence she went to Montgomery, Ala., where the
Confederacy was organized and Jefferson Davis was in
augurated as its President. She went to receptions where,
sitting aside on sofas with Davis, Stephens, Toombs, Cobb,
or Hunter, she talked of the probable outcome of the war,
should war come, setting down in her Diary what she heard
from others and all that she thought herself. Returning to
Charleston, where her husband, in a small boat, conveyed
to Major Anderson the ultimatum of the Governor of South
Carolina, she saw from a housetop the first act of war com
mitted in the bombardment of Fort Sumter. During the
ensuing four years, Mrs. Chesnut 's time was mainly passed
between Columbia and Richmond. For shorter periods she
was at the Fauquier White Sulphur Springs in Virginia,
Flat Rock in North Carolina, Portland in Alabama (the
home of her mother) , Camden and Chester in South Caro
lina, and Lmcolnton in North Carolina.
In all these places Mrs. Chesnut was in close touch
with men and women who were in the forefront of the
xv
INTRODUCTION
social, military, and political life of the South. Those
who live in her pages make up indeed a catalogue of the
heroes of the Confederacy— President Jefferson Davis,
Vice-President Alexander H. Stephens, General Robert E.
Lee, General " Stonewall " Jackson, General Joseph E.
Johnston, General Pierre G. T. Beauregard, General Wade
Hampton, General Joseph B. Kershaw, General John B.
Hood, General John S. Preston, General Robert Toombs,
R. M. T. Hunter, Judge Louis T. Wigfall, and so many
others that one almost hears the roll-call. That this
statement is not exaggerated may be judged from a
glance at the index, which has been prepared with a
view to the inclusion of all important names mentioned in
the text.
As her Diary constantly shows, Mrs. Chesnut was a
woman of society in the best sense. She had love of com
panionship, native wit, an acute mind, knowledge of books,
and a searching insight into the motives of men and women.
She was also a notable housewife, much given to hospitality ;
and her heart was of the warmest and tenderest, as those
who knew her well bore witness.
Mary Boykin Miller, born March 31, 1823, was the
daughter of Stephen Decatur Miller, a man of distinction
in the public affairs of South Carolina. Mr. Miller was
elected to Congress in 1817, became Governor in 1828, and
was chosen United States Senator in 1830. He was a
strong supporter of the Nullification movement. In 1833,
owing to ill-health, he resigned his seat in the Senate and
not long afterward removed to Mississippi, where he en
gaged in cotton planting until his death, in March, 1838.
His daughter, Mary, was married to James Chesnut, Jr.,
April 23, 1840, when seventeen years of age. Thenceforth
her home was mainly at Mulberry, near Camden, one of
several plantations owned by her father-in-law. Of the
domestic life at Mulberry a pleasing picture has come down
xvi
THE AUTHOR AND HER BOOK
to us, as preserved in a time-worn scrap-book and written
some years before the war :
" In our drive of about three miles to Mul
berry, we were struck with the wealth of forest
trees along our way for which the environs of
Camden are noted. Here is a bridge completely
canopied with overarching branches ; and, for the
remainder of our journey, we pass through an
aromatic avenue of crab-trees with the Yellow Jes
samine and the Cherokee rose, entwining every
shrub, post, and pillar within reach and lending
an almost tropical luxuriance and sweetness to
the way.
" But here is the house — a brick building,
capacious and massive, a house that is a home for
a large family, one of the homesteads of the olden
times, where home comforts and blessings cluster,
sacred alike for its joys and its sorrows. Birth
days, wedding-days, * Merry Christmases, ' depar
tures for school and college, and home return-
ings have enriched this abode with the treasures
of life.
" A warm welcome greets us as we enter.
The furniture within is in keeping with things
without; nothing is tawdry; there is no ginger
bread gilding; all is handsome and substantial.
In the ' old arm-chair ' sits the venerable mother.
The father is on his usual ride about the planta
tion; but will be back presently. A lovely old
age is this mother's, calm and serene, as the soft
mellow days of our own gentle autumn. She
came from the North to the South many years
ago, a fair young bride.
" The Old Colonel enters. He bears himself
erect, walks at a brisk gait, and needs no specta-
3 xvii
INTRODUCTION
cles, yet he is over eighty. He is a typical South
ern planter. From the beginning he has been one
of the most intelligent patrons of the Wateree
Mission to the Negroes, taking a personal interest
in them, attending the mission church and wor
shiping with his own people. May his children
see to it that this holy charity is continued to their
servants forever! ':
James Chesnut, Jr., was the son and heir of Colonel
James Chesnut, whose wife was Mary Coxe, of Philadelphia.
Mary Coxe's sister married Horace Binney, the eminent
Philadelphia lawyer. James Chesnut, Jr., was born in 1815
and graduated from Princeton. For fourteen years he
served in the legislature of South Carolina, and in January,
1859, was appointed to fill a vacancy in the United States
Senate. In November, 1860, when South Carolina was
about to secede, he resigned from the Senate and thence
forth was active in the Southern cause, first as an aide to
General Beauregard, then as an aide to President Davis,
and finally as a brigadier-general of reserves in command
of the coast of South Carolina.
General Chesnut was active in public life in South Caro
lina after the war, in so far as the circumstances of Recon
struction permitted, and in 1868 was a delegate from that
State to the National convention which nominated Horatio
Seymour for President. His death occurred at Sarsfield,
February 1, 1885. One who knew him well wrote:
" While papers were teeming with tribute to
this knightly gentleman, whose services to his
State were part of her history in her prime — trib
ute that did him no more than justice, in recount
ing his public virtues — I thought there was an
other phase of his character which the world did
not know and the press did not chronicle — that
xviii
THE AUTHOR AND HER BOOK
which showed his beautiful kindness and his cour
tesy to his own household, and especially to his
dependents.
" Among all the preachers of the South Caro
lina Conference, a few remained of those who ever
counted it as one of the highest honors conferred
upon them by their Lord that it was permitted to
them to preach the gospel to the slaves of the
Southern plantations. Some of these retained
kind recollections of the cordial hospitality shown
the plantation missionary at Mulberry and Sandy
Hill, and of the care taken at these places that the
plantation chapel should be neat and comfortable,
and that the slaves should have their spiritual as
well as their bodily needs supplied.
' ' To these it was no matter of surprise to learn
that at his death General Chesnut, statesman and
soldier, was surrounded by faithful friends, born
in slavery on his own plantation, and that the last
prayer he ever heard came from the lips of a negro
man, old Scipio, his father's body-servant; and
that he was borne to his grave amid the tears and
lamentations of those whom no Emancipation
Proclamation could sever from him, and who cried
aloud : ' 0 my master ! my master ! he was so good
to me ! He was all to us ! We have lost our best
friend! '
" Mrs. Chesnut 's anguish when her husband
died, is not to be forgotten ; the ' bitter cry ' never
quite spent itself, though she was brave and
bright to the end. Her friends were near in that
supreme moment at Sarsfield, when, on November
22, 1886, her own heart ceased to beat. Her serv
ants had been true to her; no blandishments of
freedom had drawn Ellen or Molly away from
1 Miss Mary/ Mrs. Chesnut lies buried in the
xix
INTRODUCTION
family cemetery at Knight's Hill, where also sleep
her husband and many other members of the
Chesnut family."
The Chesnuts settled in South Carolina at the close of
the war with France, but lived originally on the frontier of
Virginia. Their Virginia home had been invaded by French
and Indians, and in an expedition to Fort Duquesne the
father was killed. John Chesnut removed from Virginia
to South Carolina soon afterward and served in the Revo
lution as a captain. His son James, the " Old Colonel,"
was educated at Princeton, took an active part in public
affairs in South Carolina, and prospered greatly as a
planter. He survived until after the War, being a nonoge-
narian when the conflict closed. In a charming sketch of
him in one of the closing pages of this Diary, occurs the
following passage: " Colonel Chesnut, now ninety-three,
blind and deaf, is apparently as strong as ever, and cer
tainly as resolute of will. Partly patriarch, partly grand
seigneur, this old man is of a species that we shall see no
more; the last of a race of lordly planters who ruled this
Southern world, but now a splendid wreck."
Three miles from Camden still stands Mulberry. Dur
ing one of the raids committed in the neighborhood by Sher
man's men early in 1865, the house escaped destruction
almost as if by accident. The picture of it in this book
is from a recent photograph. A change has indeed come
over it, since the days when the household servants and de
pendents numbered between sixty and seventy, and its owner
was lord of a thousand slaves. After the war, Mulberry
ceased to be the author's home, she and General Chesnut
building for themselves another to which they gave the
name of Sarsfield. Sarsfield, of which an illustration is
given, still stands in the pine lands not far from Mulberry.
Bloomsbury, another of old Colonel Chesnut 's plantation
dwellings, survived the march of Sherman, and is now the
xx
THE AUTHOR AND HER BOOK
home of David R. Williams, Jr., and Ellen Manning, his
wife, whose children roam its halls, as grandchildren of the
author's sister Kate. Other Chesnut plantations were Cool
Spring, Knight's Hill, The Hermitage, and Sandy Hill.
The Diary, as it now exists in forty-eight thin volumes,
of the small quarto size, is entirely in Mrs. Chesnut 's hand
writing. She originally wrote it on wrhat was known
as " Confederate paper," but transcribed it afterward.
When Richmond was threatened, or when Sherman was
coming, she buried it or in some other way secreted it from
the enemy. On occasion it shared its hiding-place with
family silver, or with a drinking-cup which had been pre
sented to General Hood by the ladies of Richmond. Mrs.
Chesnut was fond of inserting on blank pages of the Diary
current newspaper accounts of campaigns and battles, or
lists of killed and wounded. One item of this kind, a news
paper " extra," issued in Chester, S. C., and announcing
the assassination of Lincoln, is reproduced in this volume.
Mrs. Chesnut, by oral and written bequest, gave the
Diary to her friend whose name leads the signatures to this
Introduction. In the Diary, here and there, Mrs. Ches
nut 's expectation that the work would some day be printed
is disclosed, but at the time of her death it did not seem
wise to undertake publication for a considerable period.
Yellow with age as the pages now are, the only harm that
has come to them in the passing of many years, is that a
few corners have been broken and frayed, as shown in one
of the pages here reproduced in facsimile.
In the summer of 1904, the woman whose office it
has been to assist in preparing the Diary for the press,
went South to collect material for another work to follow
her A Virginia Girl in the Civil War. Her investiga
tions led her to Columbia, where, while the guest of Miss
Martin, she learned of the Diary's existence. Soon after
ward an arrangement was made with her publishers under
which the Diary's owner and herself agreed to condense
xxi
INTRODUCTION
and revise the manuscript for publication. The Diary
was found to be of too great length for reproduction in
full, parts of it being of personal or local interest rather
than general. The editing of the book called also for the
insertion of a considerable number of foot-notes, in order
that persons named, or events referred to, might be the
better understood by the present generation.
Mrs. Chesnut was a conspicuous example of the well
born and high-bred woman, who, with active sympathy and
unremitting courage, supported the Southern cause. Born
and reared when Nullification was in the ascendent, and
acquiring an education which developed and refined her
natural literary gifts, she found in the throes of a great
conflict at arms the impulse which wrought into vital ex
pression in words her steadfast loyalty to the waning for
tunes of a political faith, which, in South Carolina, had
become a religion.
Many men have produced narratives of the war between
the States, and a few women have written notable chronicles
of it ; but none has given to the world a record more radiant
than hers, or one more passionately sincere. Every line in
this Diary throbs with the tumult of deep spiritual passion,
and bespeaks the luminous mind, the unconquered soul, of
the woman who wrote it.
ISABELLA D. MARTIN,
MYRTA LOCKETT AVARY.
xxn
' £f
/7
<
A PAGE OF THE DIARY IX FACSIMILE.
CHARLESTON. S. C.
November 8, 1860— December 27, 1860
HARLESTON, S. C., November 8, I860.— Yesterday
on the train, just before we reached Fernandina, a
woman called out : " That settles the hash. ' ' Tanny
touched me on the shoulder and said: " Lincoln's elected."
11 How do you know? " " The man over there has a tele
gram."
The excitement was very great. Everybody was talk
ing at the same time. One, a little more moved than the
others, stood up and said despondently : ' ' The die is cast ;
no more vain regrets ; sad forebodings are useless ; the
stake is life or death." " Did you ever! " was the prevail
ing exclamation, and some one cried out: " Now that the
black radical Republicans have the power I suppose they
will Brown * us all. ' ' No doubt of it.
I have always kept a journal after a fashion of my
own, with dates and a line of poetry or prose, mere quota
tions, which I understood and no one else, and I have kept
letters and extracts from the papers. From to-day forward
I will tell the story in my own way. I now wish I had a
chronicle of the two delightful and eventful years that have
just passed. Those delights have fled and one's breath is
taken away to think what events have since crowded in.
Like the woman's record in her journal, we have had
" earthquakes, as usual " — daily shocks.
1 A reference to John Brown of Harper's Ferry.
1
. 8^ i860 CHARLESTON, S. C. Dec, 27, 1860
At Fernandina I saw young men running up a Palmetto
flag, and shouting a little prematurely, " South Caro
lina has seceded! " I was overjoyed to find Florida so
sympathetic, but Tanny told me the young men were Gads-
dens, Porchers, and Gourdins,1 names as inevitably South
Carolinian as Moses and Lazarus are Jewish.
From my window I can hear a grand and mighty
flow of eloquence. Bartow and a delegation from Savan
nah are having a supper given to them in the dining-room
below. The noise of the speaking and cheering is pretty
hard on a tired traveler. Suddenly I found myself listen
ing with pleasure. Voice, tone, temper, sentiment, lan
guage, all were perfect. I sent Tanny to see who it was
that spoke. He came back saying, " Mr. Alfred Huger,
the old postmaster. ' ' He may not have been the wisest or
wittiest man there, but he certainly made the best after-
supper speech.
December 10th. — We have been up to the Mulberry
Plantation with Colonel Colcock and Judge Magrath, who
were sent to Columbia by their fellow-citizens in the low
country, to hasten the slow movement of the wisdom assem
bled in the State Capital. Their message was, they said:
" Go ahead, dissolve the Union, and be done with it, or
it will be worse for you. The fire in the rear is hottest.'*
And yet people talk of the politicians leading! Every
where that I have been people have been complaining bit
terly of slow and lukewarm public leaders.
Judge Magrath is a local celebrity, who has been
stretched across the street in effigy, showing him tearing off
his robes of office. The painting is in vivid colors, the
canvas huge, and the rope hardly discernible. He is
depicted with a countenance flaming with contending emo
tions — rage, disgust, and disdain. We agreed that the time
1 This and other French names to be met with in this Diary are of
Huguenot origin.
2
THE SECESSION CONVENTION
had now come. We had talked so much heretofore. Let the
fire-eaters have it out. Massachusetts and South Carolina
are always coming up before the footlights.
As a woman, of course, it is easy for me to be brave
under the skins of other people ; so I said : ' ' Fight it out.
Bluffton 1 has brought on a fever that only bloodletting will
cure.'7 My companions breathed fire and fury, but I dare
say they were amusing themselves with my dismay, for,
talk as I would, that I could not hide.
At Kingsville we encountered James Chesnut, fresh
from Columbia, where he had resigned his seat in the
United States Senate the -day before. Said some one spite
fully, ' * Mrs. Chesnut does not look jit all__resigned. ' ' For
once in her life, Mrs. Chesnut held her tongue: she was
dumb. In the high-flown style which of late seems to have
gotten into the very air, she was offering up her life to
the cause.
We have had a brief pause. The men who are all, like
Pickens,2 ' ' insensible to fear, ' ' are very sensible in case of
small-pox. There being now an epidemic of small-pox in
Columbia, they have adjourned to Charleston. In Camden
we were busy and frantic with excitement, drilling, march
ing, arming, and wearing high blue cockades. Red sashes,
guns, and swords were ordinary fireside accompaniments.
So wild were we, I saw at a grand parade of the home-guard
a woman, the wife of a man who says he is a secessionist
per se, driving about to see the drilling of this new com
pany, although her father was buried the day before.
Edward J. Pringle writes me from San Francisco
on November 30th: "I see that Mr. Chesnut has re-
1 A reference to what was known as " the Bluffton movement " of
1844, in South Carolina. It aimed at secession, but was voted down.
2 Francis W. Pickens, Governor of South Carolina, 1860-62. He had
been elected to Congress in 1834 as a Nullifier, but had voted against
the " Bluffton movement." From 1858 to 1860, he was Minister to Rus
sia. He was a wealthy planter and had fame as an orator.
3
Nov. 8, 1860 CHARLESTON, S. C. Dec. 27, 1860
: signed and that South Carolina is hastening into a Con-
Wention, perhaps to secession. Mr. Chesnut is probably to
be President of the Convention. T see all of the leaders
in the State are in favor of secession. But I confess I
hope the black Republicans will take the alarm and submit
some treaty of peace that will enable us now and for
ever to settle the question, and save our generation from
the prostration of business and the decay of prosperity
that must come both to the North and South from a disrup
tion of the Union. However, I won't speculate. Before
this reaches you, South Carolina may be off on her own
hook — a separate republic. "
December 21st. — Mrs. Charles Lowndes was sitting with
us to-day, when Mrs. Kirkland brought in a copy of the
Secession Ordinance. I wonder if my face grew as white
as hers. She said after a moment : ' * God help us. As our
day, so shall our strength be." How grateful we were for
this pious ejaculation of hers ! They say I had better take
my last look at this beautiful place, Combahee. It is on the
coast, open to gunboats.
We mean business this time, because of this convocation
of the notables, this convention.1 In it are all our wisest
and best. They really have tried to send the ablest men,
the good men and true. South Carolina was never more
splendidly represented. Patriotism aside, it makes society
delightful. One need not regret having left Washington.
December 27th. — Mrs. Gidiere came in quietly from her
marketing to-day, and in her neat, incisive manner explod
ed this bombshell : ' ' Major Anderson 2 has moved into
1 The Convention, which on December 20, 1860, passed the famous
''Ordinance of Secession, and had first met in Columbia, the State capital.
3 Robert Anderson, Major of the First Artillery, United States Army,
who, on November 20, 1860, was placed in command of the troops in
Charleston harbor. On the night of December 26th, fearing an attack,
he had moved his command to Fort Sumter. Anderson was a graduate
of West Point and a veteran of the Black Hawk, Florida, and Mexican
Wars.
4
ANDERSON IN FORT SUMTER
Fort Sumter, while Governor Pickens slept serenely." The
row is fast and furious now. State after State is taking its
forts and fortresses. They say if we had been left out in
the cold alone, we might have sulked a while, but back we
would have had to go, and would merely have fretted and
fumed and quarreled among ourselves. We needed a little
wholesome neglect. Anderson has blocked that game, but
now our sister States have joined us, and we are strong.
I give the condensed essence of the table-talk : ' ' Anderson
has united the cotton States. Now for Virginia ! ' ' " An
derson has opened the ball." Those who want a row are in
high glee. Those who dread it are glum and thoughtful
enough.
A letter from Susan Rutledge : ' ' Captain Humphrey
folded the United States Army flag just before dinner
time. Ours was run up in its place. You know the Arsenal
is in sight. What is the next move ? I pray God to guide
us. We stand in need of Avise counsel; something more
than courage. The talk is : ' Fort Sumter must be taken ;
and it is one of the strongest forts.' How in the name of
sense are they to manage? I shudder to think of rash
II
MONTGOMERY, ALA.
February 19, 1861— March 11, 1861
10NTGOMERY, Ala., February 19, 1861.— The brand-
new Confederacy is making or remodeling its Con
stitution. Everybody wants Mr. Dayis to be Gen-
eral-in-Chief_or^President. Keitt and Boyce and a party
preferred Howell Cobb *• for President. And the fire-eaters
per se wanted Barnwell Rhett.
My brother Stephen brought the officers of the " Mont
gomery Blues ' ' to dinner. ' * Very soiled Blues, ' ' they said,
apologizing for their rough condition. Poor fellows! they
had been a month before Fort Dickens and not allowed to
attack it. They said Colonel Chase built it, and so were
sure it was impregnable. Colonel Lomax telegraphed to
Governor Moore 2 if he might try to take it, " Chase or no
Chase," and got for his answer, " No." il And now," say
the Blues, " we have worked like niggers, and when the
fun and fighting begin, they send us home and put regu-
1 A native of Georgia, Howell Cobb had long served in Congress, and
in 1849 was elected Speaker. In 1851 he was elected Governor of Geor
gia, and in 1857 became Secretary of the Treasury in Buchanan's Ad
ministration. In 1861 he was a delegate from Georgia to the Provisional
Congress which adopted the Constitution of the Confederacy, and pre
sided over each of its four sessions.
2 Andrew Bary Moore, elected Governor of Alabama in 1859. In
1861, before Alabama seceded, he directed the seizure of United States
forts and arsenals and was active afterward in the equipment of State
troops.
6
TOOMBS AND SCOTT
lars there." They have an immense amount of powder.
The wheel of the car in which it was carried took fire.
There was an escape for yon! We are packing a hamper
of eatables for them.
I am despondent once more. If I thought them in ear
nest because at first they put their best in front, what now ?
We have to meet tremendous odds by pluck, activity, zeal,
dash, endurance of the toughest, military instinct. We
have had to choose born leaders of men who could attract
love and secure trust. Everywhere political intrigue is as
rife as in Washington.
Cecil 's saying of Sir Walter Raleigh that he could * ' toil
terribly ' ' was an electric touch. Above all, let the men who
are to save South Carolina be young and vigorous. While
I was reflecting on what kind of men we ought to choose, I
fell on Clarendon, and it was easy to construct my man
out of his portraits. What has been may be again, so the
men need not be purely ideal types.
Mr. Toombs x told us a story of General Scott and him
self. He said he was dining in Washington with Scott,
who seasoned every dish and every glass of wine with the
eternal refrain, 4 * Save the Union ; the Union must be pre
served." Toombs remarked that he knew why the Union
was so dear to the General, and illustrated his point by a
steamboat anecdote, an explosion, of course. While the
passengers were struggling in the water a woman ran up
and down the bank crying, " Oh, save the red-headed
1 Robert Toombs, a native of Georgia, who early acquired fame as a
lawyer, served in the Creek War under General Scott, became known in
1842 as a " State Rights JWhig," being elected to Congress, where he
was active in tKeCompromise measures of 1850. He served in the
United States Senate from 1853 to 1861, where he was a pronounced
advocate of the sovereignty of States, the extension of slavery , and seces
sion. He was a member of the Confederate Congress at its first session
and, by a single vote, failed of election as President of the Confederacy.
After the war, he was conspicuous for his hostility to the Union.
7
Feb. 19, 1861 MONTGOMERY, ALA. March 13, 1861
man ! ' ' The red-headed man was saved, and his preserver,
after landing him noticed with surprise how little interest in
him the woman who had made such moving appeals seemed
to feel. He asked her, " Why did you make that pathetic
outcry? " She answered, ''Oh, he owes me ten thousand
dollars." "Now, General," said Toombs, "the Union
owes you seventeen thousand dollars a year ! ' : I can imag
ine the scorn on old Scott 's face.
February 25th. — Find every one working very hard
here. As I dozed on the sofa last night, could hear the
scratch, scratch of my husband's pen as he wrote at the
table until midnight.
After church to-day, Captain Ingraham called. He left
me so uncomfortable. He dared to express regrets that he
had to leave the United States Navy. He had been sta
tioned in the Mediterranean, where he liked to be, and
expected to be these two years, and to take those lovely
daughters of his to Florence. Then carne Abraham Lin
coln, and rampant black Republicanism, and he must lay
down his life for South Carolina. He, however, does not
make any moan. He says we lack everything necessary in
naval gear to retake Fort Sumter. Of course, he only
expects the navy to take it. He is a fish out of water here.
He is one of the finest sea-captains ; so I suppose they will
soon give him a ship and send him back to his own element.
At dinner Judge - - was loudly abusive of Congress.
He said: " They have trampled the Constitution under
foot. They have provided President Davis with a house."
He was disgusted with the folly of parading the President
at the inauguration in a coach drawn by four white horses.
Then some one said Mrs. Fitzpatrick was the only lady
who sat with the Congress. After the inaugural she poked
Jeff Davis in the back with her parasol that he might turn
and speak to her. " I am sure that was democratic
enough," said some one.
Governor Moore came in with the latest news — a tele-
8
A WAR SHIP OFF CHARLESTON
gram from Governor Pickens to the President, " that a
war steamer is lying off the Charleston bar laden with
reenforcernents for Fort Sumter, and what must we do? "
Answer : ' ' Use your own discretion ! ' ' There is faith for
you, after all is said and done. It is believed there is still
some discretion left in South Carolina fit for use.
Everybody who comes here wants an office, and the
many who, of course, are disappointed raise a cry of cor
ruption against the few who are successful. I thought we
had left all that in Washington. Nobody is willing to be
out of sight, and all will take office.
" Constitution " Browne says he is going to Washing
ton for twenty- four hours. I mean to send by him to Mary
Garnett for a bonnet ribbon. If they take him up as a
traitor, he may cause a civil war. War is now our dread.
Mr. Chesnut told him not to make himself a bone of con
tention.
Everybody means to go into the army. If Sumter is
attacked, then Jeff Davis 's troubles will begin. The Judge
says a military despotism would be best for us — anything
to prevent a triumph of the Yankees. All right, but every
man objects to any despot but himself.
Mr. Chesnut, in high spirits, dines to-day with the
Louisiana delegation. Breakfasted with " Constitution "
Browne, who is appointed Assistant Secretary of State,
and so does not go to Washington. There was at table the
man who advertised for a wife, with the wife so obtained.
She was not pretty. We dine at Mr. Pollard's and go to
a ball afterward at Judge Bibb's. The New York Herald
says Lincoln stood before Washington 's picture at his inau
guration, which was taken by the country as a good sign.
We are always frantic for a good sign. Let us pray that a
Caesar or a Napoleon may be sent us. That would be our
best sign of success. But they still say, ' ' No war. ' ' Peace
let it be, kind Heaven !
Dr. De Leon called, fresh from Washington, and says
9
Feb. 19, 1861 MONTGOMERY, ALA. March 13, 1861
General Scott is using all his power and influence to pre
vent officers from the South resigning their commissions,
among other things promising that they shall never be sent
against us in case of war. Captain Ingraham, in his short,
curt way, said: " That will never do. If they take their
government's pay they must do its fighting."
A brilliant dinner at the Pollards 's. Mr. Barnwell * took
me down. Came home and found the Judge and Governor
Moore waiting to go with me to the Bibbs 's. And they say it
is dull in Montgomery ! Clayton, fresh from Washington,
was at the party and told us ' * there was to be peace. ' '
February 28th. — In the drawing-room a literary lady
began a violent attack upon this mischief-making South
Carolina. She told me she was a successful writer in the
magazines of the day, but when I found she used " incredi
ble " for " incredulous," I said not a word in defense of
my native land. I left her ' ' incredible. ' ' Another person
came in, while she was pouring upon me her home troubles,
and asked if she did not know I was a Carolinian. Then
she gracefully reversed her engine, and took the other tack,
sounding our praise, but I left her incredible and I re
mained incredulous, too.
Brewster says the war specks are growing in size. No
body at the North, or in Virginia, believes we are in ear
nest. They think we are sulking and that Jeff Davis and
Stephens 2 are getting up a very pretty little comedy. The
1 Robert Woodward Barnwell, of South Carolina, a graduate of
Harvard, twice a member of Congress and afterward United States
Senator. In 1860, after the passage of the Ordinance of Secession, he
was one of the Commissioners who went to Washington to treat with
the National Government for its property within the State. He was
a member of the Convention at Montgomery and gave the casting vote
which made Jefferson Davis President of the Confederacy.
2 Alexander H. Stephens, the eminent statesman of Georgia, who
before the war had been conspicuous in all the political movements of
his time and in 1861 became Vice-President of the Confederacy. After
10
WAR SPECKS GROWING
Virginia delegates were insulted at the peace conference;
Brewster said, " kicked out."
The Judge thought Jefferson Davis rude to him
when the latter was Secretary of War. Mr. Chesnut per
suaded the Judge to forego his private wrong for the pub
lic good, and so he voted for him, but now his old grudge
has come back with an increased venomousness. What a
pity to bring the spites of the old Union into this new one !
It seems to me already men are willing to risk an injury to
our cause, if they may in so doing hurt Jeff Davis.
March 1st. — Dined to-day with Mr. Hill x from Georgia,
and his wife. After he left us she told me he was the cele
brated individual who, for Christian scruples, refused to
fight a duel with Stephens.2 She seemed very proud of
him for his conduct in the affair. Ignoramus that I am, I
had not heard of it. I am having all kinds of experiences.
Drove to-day with a lady who fervently wished her husband
would go down to Pensacola and be shot. I was dumb with
amazement, of course. Telling my story to one who knew
the parties, was informed, " Don't you know he beats
her ? ' : So I have seen a man ' * who lifts his hand against
a woman in aught save kindness."
the war he again became conspicuous in Congress and wrote a history-
entitled "The War between the States."
1 Benjamin IL Hill, who had already been active in State and
National affairs when the Secession movement was carried through.
He had been an earnest advocate of the Union until in Georgia the reso
lution was passed declaring that the State ought to secede. He then
became a prominent supporter of secession. He was a member of the
Confederate Congress, which met in Montgomery in 1861, and served
in the Confederate Senate until the end of the war. After the war, he
was elected to Congress and opposed the Reconstruction policy of that
body. In 1877 he was elected United States Senator from Georgia.
2 Governor Herschel V. Johnson also declined, and doubtless for
similar reasons, to accept a challenge from Alexander H. Stephens, who,
though endowed with the courage of a gladiator, was very small and
frail.
3 11
Feb. 19, 1861 MONTGOMERY, ALA. March 13, 1861
Brewster says Lincoln passed through Baltimore dis
guised, and at night, and that he did well, for just now Bal
timore is dangerous ground. He says that he hears from
all quarters that the vulgarity of Lincoln, his wife, and his
son is beyond credence, a thing you must see before you
can believe it. Senator Stephen A. Douglas told Mr. Ches-
nut that " Lincoln is awfully clever, and that he had
found him a heavy handful."
Went to pay my respects to Mrs. Jefferson Davis. She
met me with open arms. We did not allude to anything
by which we are surrounded. We eschewed politics and
our changed relations.
March 3d. — Everybody in fine spirits in my world.
They have one and all spoken in the Congress * to their
own perfect satisfaction. To my amazement the Judge
took me aside, and, after delivering a panegyric upon him
self (but here, later, comes in the amazement), he praised
my husband to the skies, and said he was the fittest man of
all for a foreign mission. Aye ; and the farther away they
send us from this Congress the better I will like it.
Saw Jere Clemens and Nick Davis, social curiosities.
They are Anti -Secession leaders ; then George Sanders and
George Deas. The Georges are of opinion that it is
folly to try to take back Fort Sumter from Anderson and
the United States : that is, before we are ready. They saw
in Charleston the devoted band prepared for the sacrifice;
I mean, ready to run their heads against a stone wall.
Dare devils they are. They have dash and courage enough,
but science only could take that fort. They shook their
heads.
March 4th. — The Washington Congress has passed peace
1 It was at this Congress that Jefferson Davis, on February 9, 1861,
was elected President, and Alexander H. Stephens Vice-President of
the Confederacy. The Congress continued to meet in Montgomery
until its removal to Richmond, in July, 1861.
12
PEACE MEASURES
measures. Glory be to God (as my Irish Margaret used to
preface every remark, both great and small).
At last, according to his wish, I was able to introduce
Mr. Hill, of Georgia, to Mr. Mallory,1 and also Governor
Moore and Brewster, the latter the only man without a
title of some sort that I know in this democratic subdivided
republic.
I have seen a negro woman sold on the block at auction.
She overtopped the crowd. I was walking and felt faint,
seasick. The creature looked so like my good little Nancy,
a bright mulatto with a pleasant face. She was magnifi
cently gotten up in silks and satins. She seemed delighted
with it all, sometimes ogling the bidders, sometimes looking
quiet, coy, and modest, but her mouth never relaxed from
its expanded grin of excitement. I dare say the poor
thing knew who would buy her. I sat down on a stool in a
shop and disciplined my wild thoughts. I tried it Sterne
fashion. You know how women sell themselves and are
sold in marriage from queens downward, eh? You know
what the Bible says about slavery and marriage; poor
women! poor slaves! Sterne, with his starling — what did
he know? He only thought, he did not feel.
In Evan Harrington I read: " Like a true English
female, she believed in her own inflexible virtue, but never
trusted her husband out of sight/'
The New York Herald says : ' i Lincoln 's carriage is not
bomb-proof; so he does not drive out." Two flags and a
bundle of sticks have been sent him as gentle reminders.
The sticks are to break our heads with. The English are
gushingly unhappy as to our family quarrel. Magnani
mous of them, for it is their opportunity.
1 Stephen R. Mallory was the son of a shipmaster of Connecticut,
who had settled in Key West in 1820. From 1851 to 1861 Mr. Mallory
was United States Senator from Florida, and after the formation of the
Confederacy, became its Secretary of the Navy.
13
Feb. 19, 1861 MONTGOMERY, ALA. March 13, 1861
March 5th. — We stood on the balcony to see our Confed
erate flag go up. Roars of cannqn, etc., etc. Miss Sanders
complained (so said Captain Ingraham) of the deadness of
the mob. * ' It was utterly spiritless, ' ' she said ; ' ' no cheer
ing, or so little, and no enthusiasm." Captain Ingraham
suggested that gentlemen " are apt to be quiet," and this
was " a thoughtful crowd, the true mob element with us
just now is hoeing corn." And yet! It is uncomfortable
that the idea has gone abroad that we have no joy, no
pride, in this thing. The band was playing ' * Massa in the
• cold, cold ground. ' ' Miss Tyler, daughter of the former
President of the United States, ran up the flag.
Captain Ingraham pulled out of his pocket some verses
sent to him by a Boston girl. They were well rhymed and
amounted to this: she held a rope ready to hang him,
though she shed tears when she remembered his heroic res
cue of Koszta. Koszta, the rebel ! She calls us rebels, too.
So it depends upon whom one rebels against — whether to
save or not shall be heroic.
I must read Lincoln's inaugural. Oh, " comes he in
peace, or comes he in war, or to tread but one measure as
Young Lochinvar? " Lincoln's aim is to seduce the border
vStates.
The people, the natives, I mean, are astounded that I
calmly affirm, in all truth and candor, that if there were
awful things in society in Washington, I did not see or
hear of them. One must have been hard to please who did
not like the people I knew in Washington.
Mr. Chesnut has gone with a list of names to the Presi
dent — de Treville, Kershaw, Baker, and Robert Rutledge.
They are taking a walk, I see. I hope there will be good
places in the army for our list.
March 8th. — Judge Campbell,1 of the United States
1 John Archibald Campbell, who had settled in Montgomery and was
appointed Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court by
14
FALLEN GREATNESS
Supreme Court, has resigned. Lord! how he must have
hated to do it. How other men who are resigning high posi
tions must hate to do it.
Now we may be sure the bridge is broken. And yet
in the Alabama Convention they say Reconstructionists
abound and are busy.
Met a distinguished gentleman that I knew when he
was in more affluent circumstances. I was willing enough
to speak to him, but when he saw me advancing for that
purpose, to avoid me, he suddenly dodged around a corner
—William, Mrs. de Saussure 's former coachman. I remem
ber him on his box, driving a handsome pair of bays,
dressed sumptuously in blue broadcloth and brass but
tons; a stout, respectable, fine-looking, middle-aged mulat
to. He was very high and mighty.
Night after night we used to meet him as fiddler-in-chief
of all our parties. He sat in solemn dignity, making faces
over his bow, and patting his foot with an emphasis that
shook the floor. We gave him five dollars a night ; that was
his price. His mistress never refused to let him play for
any party. He had stable-boys in abundance. He was far
above any physical fear for his sleek and well-fed person.
How majestically he scraped his foot as a sign that he was
tuned up and ready to begin !
Now he is a shabby creature indeed. He must have felt
his fallen fortunes when he met me — one who knew him in
his prosperity. He ran away, this stately yellow gentle
man, from wife and children, home and comfort. My
Molly asked him " Why? Miss Liza was good to you, I
know." I wonder who owns him now; he looked forlorn.
Governor Moore brought in, to be presented to me, the
President of the Alabama Convention. It seems I had
President Pierce in 1853. Before he resigned, he exerted all his influence
to prevent Civil War and opposed secession, although he believed that
States had a right to secede.
15
Feb. 19, 1861 MONTGOMERY, ALA. March 13, 1861
known him before; he had danced with me at a dancing-
school ball when I was in short f Kocks, with sash, flounces,
and a wreath of roses. He was one of those clever boys of
our neighborhood, in whom my father saw promise of bet
ter things, and so helped him in every way to rise, with
books, counsel, sympathy. I was enjoying his conversation
immensely, for he was praising my father * without stint,
when the Judge came in, breathing fire and fury. Congress
has incurred his displeasure. We are abusing one another
as fiercely as ever we have abused Yankees. It is disheart
ening.
March 10th. — Mrs. Childs was here to-night (Mary An
derson, from Statesburg), with several children. She is
lovely. Her hair is piled up on the top of her head oddly.
Fashions from France still creep into Texas across Mexican
borders. Mrs. Childs is fresh from Texas. Her husband
is an artillery officer, or was. They will be glad to promote
him here. Mrs. Childs had the sweetest Southern voice,
absolute music. But then, she has all of the high spirit of
those sweet- voiced Carolina women, too.
Then Mr. Browne came in with his fine English accent,
so pleasant to the ear. He tells us that Washington society
is not reconciled to the Yankee regime. Mrs. Lincoln means
to economize. She at once informed the major-domo that
they were poor and hoped to save twelve thousand dollars
every year from their salary of twenty thousand. Mr.
Browne said Mr. Buchanan's farewell was far more impos
ing than Lincoln's inauguration.
The people were so amusing, so full of Western stories.
1 Mrs. Chesuut's father was Stephen Decatur Miller, who was born
in South Carolina in 1787, and died in Mississippi in 1838. He was
elected to Congress in 1816, as an Anti-Calhoun Democrat, and from
1828 to 1830 was Governor of South Carolina. He favored Nullifica
tion, and in 1830 was elected United States Senator from South Carolina,
but resigned three years afterward in consequence of ill health. In
1835 he removed to Mississippi and engaged in cotton growing.
16
SEWARD IN THE ASCENDENT
Dr. Boykin behaved strangely. All day he had been gaily
driving about with us, and never was man in finer spirits.
To-night, in this brilliant company, he sat dead still as if
in a trance. Once, he waked somewhat — when a high public
functionary came in with a present for me, a miniature
gondola, "A perfect Venetian specimen," he assured me
again and again. In an undertone Dr. Boykin muttered:
" That fellow has been drinking." " Why do you think
so? " il Because he has told you exactly the same thing
four times. ' ' Wonderful ! Some of these great statesmen
always tell me the same thing — and have been telling me
the same thing ever since we came here.
A man came in and some one said in an undertone,
" The age of chivalry is not past, O ye Americans! ?;
* What do you mean ? ' : ' ' That man was once nominated
by President Buchanan for a foreign mission, but some Sen
ator stood up and read a paper printed by this man abusive
of a woman, and signed by his name in full. After that
the Senate would have none of him; his chance was gone
forever. ' '
March llth. — In full conclave to-night, the drawing-
room crowded with Judges, Governors, Senators, Generals,
Congressmen. They were exalting John C. Calhoun's hos
pitality. He allowed everybody to stay all night who chose
to stop at his house. An ill-mannered person, on one occa
sion, refused to attend family prayers. Mr. Calhoun said
to the servant, ' ' Saddle that man 's horse and let him go. ' '
From the traveler Calhoun would take no excuse for the
" Deity offended." I believe in Mr. Calhoun's hospitality,
but not in his family prayers. Mr. Calhoun's piety was of
the most philosophical type, from all accounts.1
The latest news is counted good news; that is, the last
man who left Washington tells us that Seward is in the
ascendency. He is thought to be the friend of peace.
1 John C. Calhoun had died in March, 1850.
17
Feb. 19, 1861 MONTGOMERY, ALA. March 13, 1861
The man did say, however, that " that serpent Seward is
in the ascendency just now."
Harriet Lane has eleven suitors. One is described as
likely to win, or he would be likely to win, except that he is
too heavily weighted. He has been married before and
goes about with children and two mothers. There are limits
beyond which ! Two mothers-in-law !
Mr. Ledyard spoke to Mrs. Lincoln in behalf of a door
keeper who almost felt he had a vested right, having been
there since Jackson 's time ; but met with the same answer ;
she had brought her own girl and must economize. Mr.
Ledyard thought the twenty thousand (and little enough it
is) was given to the President of these United States to
enable him to live in proper style, and to maintain an estab
lishment of such dignity as befits the head of a great na
tion. It is an infamy to economize with the public money
and to put it into one's private purse. Mrs. Browne was
walking with me when we were airing our indignation
against Mrs. Lincoln and her shabby economy. The Herald
says three only of the elite Washington families attended
the Inauguration Ball.
Th£ Judge has just come in and said : * ' Last night,
after Dr. Boykin left on the cars, there came a telegram
that his little daughter, Amanda, had died suddenly." In
some way he must have known it beforehand. He changed
so suddenly yesterday, and seemed so careworn and un
happy. He believes in clairvoyance, magnetism, and all
that. Certainly, there was some terrible foreboding of
this kind on his part.
Tuesday. — Now this, they say, is positive : ' ' Fort Sum-
er is to be released and we are to have no war." After
all, far too good to be true. Mr. Browne told us that, at
one of the peace intervals (I mean intervals in the interest
of peace) , Lincoln flew through Baltimore, locked up in an
express car. He wore a Scotch cap.
We went to the Congress. Governor Cobb, who pre-
18
LINCOLN DESCRIBED
sides over that august body, put James Chesnut in the
chair, and came down to talk to us. He told us why the
pay of Congressmen was fixed in secret session, and why the
amount of it was never divulged — to prevent the lodging-
house and hotel people from making their bills of a size to
cover it all. " The bill would be sure to correspond with
the pay," he said.
In the hotel parlor we had a scene. Mrs. Scott was
describing Lincoln, who is of the cleverest Yankee type.
She said : ' ( Awfully ugly, even grotesque in appearance,
the kind who are always at the corner stores, sitting on
boxes, whittling sticks, and telling stories as funny as they
are vulgar." Here I interposed: " But Stephen A.
Douglas said one day to Mr. Chesnut, ' Lincoln is the hard
est fellow to handle I have ever encountered yet.' ' Mr.
Scott is from California, and said Lincoln is "an utter
American specimen, coarse, rough, and strong; a good-na
tured, kind creature; as pleasant-tempered as he is clev
er, and if this country can be joked and laughed out of
its rights he is the kind-hearted fellow to do it. Now if
there is a war and it pinches the Yankee pocket instead of
filling it-
Here a shrill voice came from the next room (which
opened upon the one we were in by folding doors thrown
wide open) and said: " Yankees are no more mean and
stingy than you are. People at the North are just as good
as people at the South." The speaker advanced upon us
in great wrath.
Mrs,. Scott apologized and made some smooth, polite re
mark, though evidently much embarrassed. But the vine
gar face and curly pate refused to receive any concessions,
and replied : * ' That comes with a very bad grace after what
you were saying, ' ' and she harangued us loudly for several
minutes. Some one in the other room giggled outright,
but we were quiet as mice. Nobody wanted to hurt her
feelings. She was one against so many. If I were at the
19
Feb. 19, 1861 MONTGOMERY, ALA. March 13, 1861
North, I should expect them to belabor us, and should hold
my tongue. We separated North from South because of in
compatibility of temper. We are divorced because we
have hated each other so. If we could only separate, a
" separation a I'agreable," as the French say it, and not
have a horrid fight for divorce.
The poor exile had already been insulted, she said.
She was playing " Yankee Doodle " on the piano before
breakfast to soothe her wounded spirit, and the Judge came
in and calmly requested her to " leave out the Yankee
while she played the Doodle." The Yankee end of it did
not suit our climate, he said; was totally out of place and
had got out of its latitude.
A man said aloud : ' ' This war talk is nothing. It will
soon blow over. Only a fuss gotten up by that Charleston
clique." Mr. Toombs asked him to show his passports, for
a man who uses such language is a suspicious character.
20
Ill
CHARLESTON, S. C.
March 26, 1861— Apn7 15, 1861
HARLESTON, S. C., March 26, 1861.— I have just
come from Mulberry, where the snow was a foot
deep — winter at last after months of apparently
May or June weather. Even the climate, like everything
else, is upside down. But after that den of dirt and hor
ror, Montgomery Hall, how white the sheets looked, luxu
rious bed linen once more, delicious fresh cream with my
coffee ! I breakfasted in bed.
Dueling was rife in Camden. William M. Shannon chal
lenged Leitner. Rochelle Blair was Shannon's second and
Artemus Goodwyn was Leitner 's. My husband was rid
ing hard all day to stop the foolish people. Mr. Chesnut
finally arranged the difficulty. There was a court of honor
and no duel. Mr. Leitner had struck Mr. Shannon at a
negro trial. That's the way the row began. Everybody
knows of it. We suggested that Judge Withers should ar
rest the belligerents. Dr. Boykin and Joe Kershaw l aided
Mr. Chesnut to put an end to the useless risk of life.
- John Chesnut is a pretty soft-hearted slave-owner. He
had two negroes arrested for selling whisky to his people
on his plantation, and buying stolen corn from them. The
culprits in jail sent for him. He found them (this snowy
1 Joseph B. Kershaw, a native of Camden, S. C., who became fa
mous in connection with "The Kershaw Brigade" and its brilliant
record at Bull Run, Fredericksburg, Chickamauga, Spottsylvania, and
elsewhere throughout the war.
21
March 26, 1861 CHARLESTON, S. C. April 15, 1861
weather) lying in the cold on a bare floor, and he thought
that punishment enough; they having had weeks of it.
But they were not satisfied to be allowed to evade justice
and slip away. They begged of him (and got) five dollars
to buy shoes to run away in. I said : ' ' Why, this is flat
compounding a felony. ' ' And Johnny put his hands in the
armholes of his waistcoat and stalked majestically before
me, saying, ' * Woman, what do you know about law ? ' :
Mrs. Reynolds stopped the carriage one day to tell me
Kitty Boykin was to be married to Savage Heyward. He
has only ten children already. These people take the old
Hebrew pride in the number of children they have. This
is the true colonizing spirit. There is no danger of crowd
ing here and inhabitants are wanted. Old Colonel Ches-
nut 1 said one day : ' * Wife, you must feel that you have
not been useless in your day and generation. You have
now twenty-seven great-grandchildren."
Wednesday. — I have been mobbed by my own house ser
vants. Some of them are at the plantation, some hired out
at the Camden hotel, some are at Mulberry. They agreed
to come in a body and beg me to stay at home to keep my
own house once more, " as I ought not to have them scat-
- tered and distributed every which way." I had not been
a month in Camden since 1858. So a house there would be
for their benefit solely, not mine. I asked my cook if she
lacked anything on the plantation at the Hermitage.
" Lack anything? " she said, " I lack everything. What
are corn-meal, bacon, milk, and molasses? Would that be
1 Colonel Chesnut, the author's father-in-law, was born about 1760.
He was a prominent South Carolina planter and a public-spirited man.
The family had originally settled in Virginia, where the farm had been
overrun by the French and Indians at the time of Braddock's cam
paign, the head of the family being killed at Fort Duquesne. Colonel
Chesnut, of Mulberry, had been educated at Princeton, and his wife was
a Philadelphia woman. In the final chapter of this Diary, the author
gives a charming sketch of Colonel Chesnut.
22
MULBERRY
all you wanted? Ain't I been living and eating exactly
as you does all these years ? When I cook for you, didn 't I
have some of all ? Dere, now ! ' ' Then she doubled herself
up laughing. They all shouted, " Missis, we is crazy for
you to stay home."
Armsted, my butler, said he hated the hotel. Besides,
he heard a man there abusing Marster, but Mr. Clyburne
took it up and made him stop short. Armsted said he
wanted Marster to know Mr. Clyburne was his friend and
would let nobody say a word behind his back against him,
etc., etc. Stay in Camden? Not if I can help it. "Festers
in provincial sloth ' ' — that 's Tennyson 's way of putting it.
" We " came down here by rail, as the English say.
Such a crowd of Convention men on board. John Man
ning * flew in to beg me to reserve a seat by me for a young
lady under his charge. " Place aux dames," said my hus
band politely, and went off to seek a seat somewhere else.
As soon as we were fairly under way, Governor Manning
came back and threw himself cheerily down into the vacant
place. After arranging his umbrella and overcoat to his
satisfaction, he coolly remarked : * ' I am the young lady. ' '
He is always the handsomest man alive (now that poor
William Taber has been killed in a duel), and he can be
very agreeable ; that is, when he pleases to be so. He does
not always please. He seemed to have made his little
maneuver principally to warn me of impending danger to
my husband's political career. " Every election now will
be a surprise. New cliques are not formed yet. The old
ones are principally bent upon displacing one another."
"But the Yankees— those dreadful Yankees!" "Oh,
1 John Lawrence Manning was a son of Richard I. Manning, a for
mer Governor of South Carolina. He was himself elected Governor of
that State in 1852, was a delegate to the convention that nominated
Buchanan, and during the War of Secession served on the staff of General
Beauregard. In 1805 he was chosen United States Senator from South
Carolina, but was not allowed to take his seat.
23
March tt>, 1861 CHARLESTON, S. C. April 15, 1861
How will you like to rusticate! — go back and mind your
own business? " " If I only knew
never mind, we are going to take care of home folks first!
jticate! — go back and mind your
only knew what that was — what
was my own business."
Our round table consists of the Judge, Langdon
Cheves,1 Trescott,2 and ourselves. Here are four of the
cleverest men that we have, but such very different people,
as opposite in every characteristic as the four points of
the compass. Langdon Cheves and my husband have feel
ings and ideas in common. Mr. Petigru3 said of the brill
iant Trescott: " He is a man without indignation." Tres
cott and I laugh at everything.
The Judge, from his life as solicitor, and then on the
bench, has learned to look for the darkest motives for every
action. His judgment on men and things is always so
harsh, it shocks and repels even his best friends. To-day
he said: " Your conversation reminds me of a flashy sec
ond-rate novel." " How? " " By the quantity of French
you sprinkle over it. Do you wish to prevent us from un
derstanding you? ' " No," said Trescott, " we are using
French against Africa. We know the black waiters are all
ears now, and we want to keep what we have to say dark.
1 Son of Langdon Cheves, an eminent lawyer of South Carolina, who
served in Congress from 1810 to 1814; he was elected Speaker of the
House of Representatives, and from 1819 to 1823 was President of the
United States Bank; he favored Secession, but died before it was ac
complished — in 1857.
2 William Henry Trescott, a native of Charleston, was Assistant
Secretary of State of the United States in 1860, but resigned after South
Carolina seceded. After the war he had a successful career as a lawyer
and diplomatist.
3 James Louis Petigru before the war had reached great distinction
as a lawyer and stood almost alone in his State as an opponent of the
Nullification movement of 1830-1832. In 1860 he strongly opposed
disunion, although he was then an old man of 71. His reputation has
survived among lawyers because of the fine work he did in codifying
the laws of South Carolina.
24
SOME CLEVER MEN
We can't afford to take them into our confidence, you
know. ' '
This explanation Trescott gave with great rapidity and
many gestures toward the men standing behind us. Still
speaking the French language, his apology was exasperat
ing, so the Judge glared at him, and, in unabated rage,
turned to talk with Mr. Cheves, who found it hard to keep
a calm countenance.
On the Battery with the Rutledges, Captain Hartstein
was introduced to me. He has done some heroic things —
brought home some ships and is a man of mark. After
ward he sent me a beautiful bouquet, not half so beautiful,
however, as Mr. Robert Gourdin's, which already occupied
the place of honor on my center table. What a dear, de
lightful place is Charleston !
A lady (who shall be nameless because of her story)
came to see me to-day. Her husband has been on the Island
with the troops for months. She has just been down to see
him. She meant only to call on him, but he persuaded her
to stay two days. She carried him some clothes made from
his old measure. Now they are a mile too wide. ** So
much for a hard life! " I said.
" No, no," said she, " they are all jolly down there.
He has trained down ; says it is good for him, and he likes
the life." Then she became confidential, although it was
her first visit to me, a perfect stranger. She had taken
no clothes down there — pushed, as she was, in that manner
under Achilles 's tent. But she managed things; she tied
her petticoat around her neck for a nightgown.
April 2d. — Governor Manning came to breakfast at
our table. The others had breakfasted hours before. I
looked at him in amazement, as he was in full dress, ready
for a ball, swallow-tail and all, and at that hour. " What
is the matter with you? " " Nothing, I am not mad, most
noble madam. I am only going to the photographer. My
wife wants me taken tluis. ' ' He insisted on my going, too,
25
March 26, 1861 CHARLESTON, S. C. April 15, 1861
and we captured Mr. Chesnut and Governor Means.1 The
latter presented me with a book, a photo-book, in which I
am to pillory all the celebrities. •
Doctor Gibbes says the Convention is in a snarl. It was
called as a Secession Convention. A secession of places
seems to be what it calls for first of all. It has not stretched
its eyes out to the Yankees yet ; it has them turned inward ;
introspection is its occupation still.
Last night, as I turned down the gas, I said to myself:
"Certainly this has been one of the pleasantest days of my
life. ' ' I can only give the skeleton of it, so many pleasant
people, so much good talk, for, after all, it was talk, talk,
talk a la Caroline du Sud. And yet the day began rather
dismally. Mrs. Capers and Mrs. Tom Middleton came for
me and we drove to Magnolia Cemetery. I saw William
Taber's broken column. It was hard to shake off the
blues after this graveyard business.
The others were off at a dinner party. I dined tete-a-
tete with Langdon Cheves, so quiet, so intelligent, so very
sensible withal. There never was a pleasanter person, or a
better man than he. While we were at table, Judge Whit-
ner, Tom Frost, and Isaac Hayne came. They broke up
our deeply interesting conversation, for I was hearing
what an honest and brave man feared for his country, and
then the Rutledges dislodged the newcomers and bore me
off to drive on the Battery. On the staircase met Mrs.
Izard, who came for the same purpose. On the Battery
Governor Adams 2 stopped us. He had heard of my say
ing he looked like Marshal Pelissier, and he came to say
1 John Hugh Means was elected Governor of South Carolina in 1850,
and had long been an advocate of secession. He was a delegate to the
Convention of 1860 and affixed his name to the Ordinance of Secession.
He was killed at the second battle of Bull Run in August, 1862.
2 James H. Adams was a graduate of Yale, who in 1832 strongly
opposed Nullification, and in 1855 was elected Governor of South Caro
lina.
26
GLOOM IN WASHINGTON
that at last I had made a personal remark which pleased
him, for once in my life. When we came home Mrs. Isaac
Hayne and Chancellor Carroll called to ask us to join
their excursion to the Island Forts to-morrow. With them
was William Haskell. Last summer at the White Sulphur
he was a pale, slim student from the university. To-day
he is a soldier, stout and robust. A few months in camp,
with soldiering in the open air, has worked this wonder.
Camping out proves a wholesome life after all. Then came
those nice, sweet, fresh, pure-looking Pringle girls. We
had a charming topic in common — their clever brother
Edward.
A letter from Eliza B., who is in Montgomery: " Mrs.
Mallory got a letter from a lady in Washington a few days
ago, who said that there had recently been several attempts
to be gay in Washington, but they proved dismal failures.
The Black Kepublicans were invited and came, and stared
at their entertainers and their new Republican companions,
looked unhappy while they said they were enchanted,
showed no ill-temper at the hardly stifled grumbling and
growling of our friends, who thus found themselves con
demned to meet their despised enemy. ' '
I had a letter from the Gwinns to-day. They say Wash
ington offers a perfect realization of Goldsmith's Deserted
Village.
Celebrated my 38th birthday, but I am too old now to
dwell in public on that unimportant anniversary. A long,
dusty day ahead on those windy islands; never for me, so
I was up early to write a note of excuse to Chancellor Car
roll. My husband went. I hope Anderson will not pay
them the compliment of a salute with shotted guns, as they
pass Fort Sumter, as pass they must.
Here I am interrupted by an exquisite bouquet from the
Rutledges. Are there such roses anywhere else in the
world? Now a loud banging at my door. I get up in a
pet and throw it wide open. " Oh ! " said John Manning,
4 27
March 26, 1861 CHARLESTON, S. C. April 15, 1861
standing there, smiling radiantly; " pray excuse the noise
I made. I mistook the number;.! thought it was Rice's
room ; that is my excuse. Now that I am here, come, go
with us to Quinby's. Everybody will be there who are
not at the Island. To be photographed is the rage just
now. ' '
We had a nice open carriage, and we made a number
of calls, Mrs. Izard, the Pringles, and the Tradd Street Rut-
ledges, the handsome ex-Governor doing the honors gal
lantly. He had ordered dinner at six, and we dined tete-a-
tete. If he should prove as great a captain in ordering his
line of battle as he is in ordering a dinner, it will be as well
for the country as it was for me to-day.
Fortunately for the men, the beautiful Mrs. Joe Hey-
ward sits at the next table, so they take her beauty as one
of the goods the gods provide. And it helps to make life
pleasant with English grouse and venison from the West.
Not to speak of the salmon from the lakes which began
the feast. They have me to listen, an appreciative audience,
while they talk, and Mrs. Joe Heyward to look at.
Beauregard * called. He is the hero of the hour. That
is, he is believed to be capable of great things. A hero
worshiper was struck dumb because I said: " So far, he
has only been a captain of artillery, or engineers, or some
thing." I did not see him. Mrs. Wigfall did and re
proached my laziness in not coming out.
Last Sunday at church beheld one of the peculiar local
sights, old negro maumas going up to the communion, in
their white turbans and kneeling devoutly around the
chancel rail.
1 Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard was born in New Orleans in
1818, and graduated from West Point in the class of 1838. He served
in the war with Mexico; had been superintendent of the Military Acad
emy at West Point a few days only, when in February, 1861, he resigned
his commission in the Army of the United States and offered his services
to the Confederacy.
28
ELEVENTH-HOUR MEN
The morning papers say Mr. Chesnut made the best
shot on the Island at target practice. No war yet, thank
God. Likewise they tell me Mr. Chesnut has made a capital
speech in the Convention.
Not one word of what is going on now. " Out of the
fulness of the heart the mouth speaketh," says the Psalm
ist. Not so here. Our hearts are in doleful dumps, but we
are as gay, as madly jolly, as sailors who break into the
strong-room when the ship is going down. At first in our *
great agony we were out alone. We longed for some of
our big brothers to come out and help us. Well, they are
out, too, and now it is Fort Sumter and that ill-advised
Anderson. There stands Fort Sumter, en evidence, and
thereby hangs peace or war.
Wigfall x says before he left Washington, Pickens, our
Governor, and Trescott were openly against secession;
Trescott does not pretend to like it now. He grumbles all
the time, but Governor Pickens is fire-eater down to the
ground. " At the White House Mrs. Davis wore a badge.
Jeff Davis is no seceder, " says Mrs. Wigfall.
Captain Ingraham comments in his rapid way, words
tumbling over each other out of his mouth: " Now, Char
lotte Wigfall meant that as a fling at those people. I think
better of men who stop to think; it is too rash to rush on
as some do." " And so," adds Mrs. Wigfall, " the elev
enth-hour men are rewarded; the half-hearted are traitors
in this row. ' '
April 3d. — Met the lovely Lucy Holcombe, now Mrs.
Governor Pickens, last night at Isaac Hayne's. I saw Miles
now begging in dumb show for three violets she had in her
1 Louis Trezevant Wigfall was a native of South Carolina, but
removed to Texas after being admitted to the bar, and from that State
was elected United States Senator, becoming an uncompromising de
fender of the South on the slave question. After the war he lived in
England, but in 1873 settled in Baltimore. He had a wide Southern
reputation as a forcible and impassioned speaker.
29
March 26, 1861 CHARLESTON, S. C. April 15, 1861
breastpin. She is a consummate actress and he well up in
the part of male flirt. So it was well done.
" And you, who are laughing in your sleeves at the
scene, where did you get that huge bunch? ': " Oh, there
is no sentiment when there is a pile like that of any
thing! " " Oh, oh! "
To-day at the breakfast table there was a tragic be
stowal of heartsease on the well-known inquirer who, once
more says in austere tones : ' ' Who is the flirt now ? ' '
And so we fool on into the black cloud ahead of us. And
after heartsease cometh rue.
April 4th. — Mr. Hayne said his wife moaned over the
hardness of the chaperon es* seats at St. Andrew's Hall at
a Cecilia Ball.1 She was hopelessly deposited on one for
hours. ' * And the walls are harder, my dear. What are your
feelings to those of the poor old fellows leaning there, with
their beautiful young wives waltzing as if they could never
tire and in the arms of every man in the room. Watch
their haggard, weary faces, the old boys, you know. At
church I had to move my pew. The lovely Laura was too
much for my boys. They all made eyes at her, and nudged
each other and quarreled so, for she gave them glance for
glance. Wink, blink, and snicker as they would, she liked
it. I say, my dear, the old husbands have not exactly a
bed of roses; their wives twirling in the arms of young
men, they hugging the wall. ' '
While we were at supper at the Haynes's, Wigfall was
sent for to address a crowd before the Mills House piazza.
Like James Fitz James when he visits Glen Alpin again,
it is to be in the saddle, etc. So let Washington beware.
We were sad that we could not hear the speaking. But the
1 The annual balls of the St. Cecilia Society in Charleston are still
the social events of the season. To become a member of the St. Cecilia
Society is a sort of presentation at court in the sense of giving social
recognition to one who was without the pale.
30
BEAUREGARD
supper was a consolation — pate de foie gras salad, biscuit
glace and champagne frappe.
A ship was fired into yesterday, and went back to sea.
Is that the first shot? How can one settle down to any
thing ; one 's heart is in one 's mouth all the time. Any mo
ment the cannon may open on us, the fleet come in.
April 6th. — The plot thickens, the air is red hot with
rumors; the mystery is to find out where these utterly
groundless tales originate. In spite of all, Tom Huger
came for us and we went on the Planter to take a look
at Morris Island and its present inhabitants — Mrs. Wigf all
and the Cheves girls, Maxcy Gregg and Colonel Whiting,
also John Rutledge, of the Navy, Dan Hamilton, and Will
iam Haskell. John Rutledge was a figurehead to be proud
of. He did not speak to us. But he stood with a Scotch
shawl draped about him, as handsome and stately a crea
ture as ever Queen Elizabeth loved to look upon.
There came up such a wind we could not land. I was
not too sorry, though it blew so hard (I am never seasick).
Colonel Whiting explained everything about the forts, what
they lacked, etc., in the most interesting way, and Maxcy
Gregg supplemented his report by stating all the deficien
cies and shortcomings by land.
Beauregard is a demigod here to most of the natives,
but there are always seers who see and say. They give
you to understand that Whiting has all the brains now in
use for our defense. He does the work and Beauregard
reaps the glory. Things seem to draw near a crisis. And
one must think. Colonel Whiting is clever enough for
anything, so we made up our minds to-day, Maxcy Gregg
and I, as judges. Mr. Gregg told me that my husband was
in a minority in the Convention; so much for cool sense
when the atmosphere is phosphorescent. Mrs. Wigfall says
we are mismatched. She should pair with my cool, quiet,
self-poised Colonel. And her stormy petrel is but a male
reflection of me.
31
March 26, 1861 CHARLESTON, S. C. April 15, 1861
April 8th. — Yesterday Mrs. Wigfall and I made a few
visits. At the first house they wanted Mrs. Wigfall to set
tle a dispute. " Was she, indeed, fifty-five? " Fancy her
face, more than ten years bestowed upon her so freely.
Then Mrs. Gibbes asked me if I had ever been in Charles
ton before. Says Charlotte Wigfall (to pay me for my
snigger when that false fifty was flung in her teeth), " and
she thinks this is her native heath and her name is Mc
Gregor." She said it all came upon us for breaking the
Sabbath, for indeed it was Sunday.
Allen Green came up to speak to me at dinner, in all his
soldier's toggery. It sent a shiver through me. Tried to
read Margaret Fuller Ossoli, but could not. The air is
full of war news, and we are all so restless.
Went to see Miss Pinckney, one of the last of the old-
world Pinckneys. She inquired particularly about a por
trait of her father, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney,1 which
she said had been sent by him to my husband's grand
father. I gave a good account of it. It hangs in the place
of honor in the drawing-room at Mulberry. She wanted
to see my husband, for " his grandfather, my father's
friend, was one of the handsomest men of his day." We
came home, and soon Mr. Robert Gourdin and Mr. Miles
called. Governor Manning walked in, bowed gravely, and
seated himself by me. Again he bowed low in mock heroic
style, and with a grand wave of his hand, said: " Madame,
your country is invaded." When I had breath to speak,
I asked, " What does he mean? " He meant this: there
1 Charles Cotesworth Pinckney was a brigadier-general in the Revo
lution and a member of the Convention that framed the Constitution
of the United States. He was an ardent Federalist and twice declined
to enter a National Cabinet, but in 1796 accepted the office of United
States Minister to France. He was the Federalist candidate for Vice-
President in 1800 and for President in 1804 and 1808. Other distin
guished men in this family were Thomas, Charles, Henry Laurens, and
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, the second.
32
"A SOUND OF REVELRY BY NIGHT11
are six men-of-war outside the bar. Talbot and Chew have
come to say that hostilities are to begin. Governor Pickens
and Beauregard are holding a council of war. Mr. Chesnut
then came in and confirmed the story. Wigfall next en
tered in boisterous spirits, and said: " There was a sound
of revelry by night." In any stir or confusion my heart
is apt to beat so painfully. Now the agony was so stifling
I could hardly see or hear. The men went off almost imme
diately. And I crept silently to my room, where I sat
down to a good cry.
Mrs. Wigfall came in and we had it out on the subject
of civil war. We solaced ourselves with dwelling on all its
known horrors, and then we added what we had a right
to expect with Yankees in front and negroes in the rear.
" The slave-owners must expect a servile insurrection, of
course," said Mrs. Wigfall, to make sure that we were un
happy enough.
Suddenly loud shouting was heard. We ran out. Can
non after cannon roared. We met Mrs. Allen Green in
the passageway with blanched cheeks and streaming eyes.
Governor Means rushed out of his room in his dressing-
gown and begged us to be calm. " Governor Pickens,"
said he, " has ordered in the plenitude of his wisdom, .
seven cannon to be fired as a signal to the Seventh Regi
ment. Anderson will hear as well as the Seventh Regi
ment. Now you go back and be quiet; fighting in the
streets has not begun yet. ' '
So we retired. Dr. Gibbes calls Mrs. Allen Green Dame
Placid. There was no placidity to-day, with cannon burst
ing and Allen on the Island. No sleep for anybody last
night. The streets were alive with soldiers, men shouting,
marching, singing. Wigfall, the " stormy petrel," is in
his glory, the only thoroughly happy person I see. To-day
things seem to have settled down a little. One can but
hope still. Lincoln, or Seward, has made such silly ad
vances and then far sillier drawings back. There may be a
33
March 26, 1861 CHARLESTON, S. C. April 15, 1861
chance for peace after all. Things are happening so fast.
My husband has been made an aide-de-camp to General
Beauregard.
Three hours ago we were quickly packing to go home.
The Convention has adjourned. Now he tells me the attack
on Fort Sumter may begin to-night ; depends upon Ander
son and the fleet outside. The Herald says that this show
of war outside of the bar is intended for Texas. John Man
ning came in with his sword and red sash, pleased as a boy
to be on Beauregard 's staff, while the row goes on. He
has gone with Wigfall to Captain Hartstein with instruc
tions. Mr. Chesnut is finishing a report he had to make
to the Convention.
Mrs. Hayne called. She had, she said, but one feeling;
pity for those who are not here. Jack Preston, Willie
Alston, ' * the take-lif e-easys, ' ' as they are called, with John
Green, " the big brave," have gone down to the islands —
volunteered as privates. Seven hundred men were sent
over. Ammunition wagons were rumbling along the streets
all night. Anderson is burning blue lights, signs, and sig
nals for the fleet outside, I suppose.
To-day at dinner there was no allusion to things as they
stand in Charleston Harbor. There was an undercurrent
of intense excitement. There could not have been a more
brilliant circle. In addition to our usual quartette (Judge
Withers, Langdon Cheves, and Trescott), our two ex-Gov
ernors dined with us, Means and Manning. These men all
talked so delightfully. For once in my life I listened.
That over, business began in earnest. Governor Means had
rummaged a sword and red sash from somewhere and
brought it for Colonel Chesnut, who had gone to demand
the surrender of Fort Sumter. And now patience — we
must wait.
Why did that green goose Anderson go into Fort Sum
ter? Then everything began to go wrong. Now they have
intercepted a letter from him urging them to let him sur-
34
ANDERSON'S REFUSAL
render. He paints the horrors likely to ensue if they will
not. He ought to have thought of all that before he put
his head in the hole.
April 12th. — Anderson will not capitulate. Yesterday's
was the merriest, maddest dinner we have had yet. Men
were audaciously wise and witty. We had an unspoken
foreboding that it was to be our last pleasant meeting.
Mr. Miles dined with us to-day. Mrs. Henry King rushed
in saying, * * The news, I come for the latest news. All the
men of the King family are on the Island, ' ' of which fact
she seemed proud.
While she was here our peace negotiator, or envoy,
came in — that is, Mr. Chesnut returned. His interview
with Colonel Anderson had been deeply interesting, but
Mr. Chesnut was not inclined to be communicative. He
wanted his dinner. He felt for Anderson and had tele
graphed to President Davis for instructions — what answer
to give Anderson, etc. He has now gone back to Fort Sum-
ter with additional instructions. When they were about to
leave the wharf A. H. Boykin sprang into the boat in great
excitement. He thought himself ill-used, with a likelihood
of fighting and he to be left behind !
I do not pretend to go to sleep. How can 1 1 If Ander
son does not accept terms at four, the orders are, he shall be
fired upon. I count four, St. Michael's bells chime out and
I begin to hope. At half -past four the heavy booming of a
cannon. I sprang out of bed, and on my knees prostrate I
prayed as I never prayed before.
There was a sound of stir all over the house, pattering
of feet in the corridors. All seemed hurrying one way.
I put on my double-gown and a shawl and went, too. It
was to the housetop. The shells were bursting. In the
dark I heard a man say, ' ' Waste of ammunition. ' ' I knew
my husband was rowing about in a boat somewhere in that
dark bay, and that the shells were roofing it over, burst
ing toward the fort. If Anderson was obstinate, Colonel
35
March 26, 1861 CHARLESTON, S. C. April 15, 1861
Chesnut was to order the fort on one side to open fire.
Certainly fire had begun. The regular roar of the cannon,
there it was. And who could tell what each volley accom
plished of death and destruction ?
^ The women were wild there on the housetop. Prayers
came from the women and imprecations from the men.
And then a shell would light up the scene. To-night they
say the forces are to attempt to land. We watched up
there, and everybody wondered that Fort Sumter did not
fire a shot.
To-day Miles and Manning, colonels now, aides to
Beauregard, dined with us. The latter hoped I would keep
the peace. I gave him only good words, for he was to be
under fire all day and night, down in the bay carrying
orders, etc.
Last night, or this morning truly, up on the housetop
I was so weak and weary I sat down on something that
looked like a black stool. " Get up, you foolish woman.
Your dress is on fire," cried a man. And he put me out.
I was on a chimney and the sparks had caught my clothes.
Susan Preston and Mr. Venable then came up. But my
fire had been extinguished before it burst out into a regular
blaze.
Do you know, after all that noise and our tears and
prayers, nobody has been hurt ; sound and fury signifying
nothing — a delusion and a snare.
Louisa Hamilton came here now. This is a sort of news
center. Jack Hamilton, her handsome young husband, has
all the credit of a famous battery, which is made of rail
road iron. Mr. Petigru calls it the boomerang, because it
throws the balls back the way they came ; so Lou Hamilton
tells us. During her first marriage, she had no children;
hence the value of this lately achieved baby. To divert
Louisa from the glories of " the Battery," of which she
raves, we asked if the baby could talk yet. " No, not
exactly, but he imitates the big gun when he hears that.
36
FORT SUMTER BOMBARDED
He claps his hands and cries ' Boom, boom.' ' Her mind
is distinctly occupied by three things: Lieutenant Hamil
ton, whom she calls " Randolph," the baby, and the big
gun, and it refuses to hold more.
Pryor, of Virginia, spoke from the piazza of the Charles
ton hotel. I asked what he said. An irreverent woman re
plied: " Oh, they all say the same thing, but he made
great play with that long hair of his, which he is always
tossing aside ! ' :
Somebody came in just now and reported Colonel Ches-
nut asleep on the sofa in General Beauregard's room.
After two such nights he must be so tired as to be able
to sleep anywhere.
Just bade farewell to Langdon Cheves. He is forced to
go home and leave this interesting place. Says he feels
like the man that was not killed at Thermopylae. I think
he said that unfortunate had to hang himself when he got
home for very shame. Maybe he fell on his sword, which
was the strictly classic way of ending matters.
I do not wonder at Louisa Hamilton's baby; we hear
nothing, can listen to nothing; boom, boom goes the can
non all the time. The nervous strain is awful, alonS in this
darkened room. " Richmond and Washington ablaze,"
say the papers — blazing with excitement. Why not? To
us these last days' events seem frightfully great. We
were all women on that iron balcony. Men are only seen
at a distance now. Stark Means, marching under the piazza
at the head of his regiment, held his cap in his hand all
the time he was in sight. Mrs. Means was leaning over and
looking with tearful eyes, when an unknown creature
asked, " Why did he take his hat off ? " Mrs. Means stood
straight up and said : " He did that in honor of his mother ;
he saw me. ' ' She is a proud mother, and at the same time
most unhappy. Her lovely daughter Emma is dying in
there, before her eyes, of consumption. At that moment
I am sure Mrs. Means had a spasm of the heart; at least,
37
March 26, 1861 CHARLESTON, S. C. April 15, 1861
she looked as I feel sometimes. She took my arm and we
came in.
April 13th. — Nobody has been hurt after all. How gay
we were last night. Eeaction after the dread of all the
slaughter we thought those dreadful cannon were making.
Not even a battery the worse for wear. Fort Sumter has
been on fire. Anderson has not yet silenced any of our
guns. So the aides, still with swords and red sashes by
way of uniform, tell us. But the sound of those guns
makes regular meals impossible. None of us go to 'table.
Tea-trays pervade the corridors going everywhere. Some
of the anxious hearts lie on their beds and moan in solitary
misery. Mrs. Wigfall and I solace ourselves with tea in
my room. These women have all a satisfying faith. £ ' God
is on our side," they say. When we are shut in Mrs. Wig-
fall and I ask " Why? " " Of course, He hates the Yan
kees, we are told. You'll think that well of Him."
Not by one word or look can we detect any change in
the demeanor of these negro servants. Lawrence sits at
our door, sleepy and respectful, and profoundly indiffer
ent. So are they all, but they carry it too far. You could
not tell that they even heard the awful roar going on in
the bay, though it has been dinning in their ears night and
day. People talk before them as if they were chairs and
tables. They make no sign. Are they stolidly stupid ? or .
wiser than we are ; silent and strong, biding their time ?
So tea and toast came; also came Colonel Manning, red
sash and sword, to announce that he had been under fire,
and didn't mind it. He said gaily: " It is one of those
things a fellow never knows how he will come out until he
has been tried. Now I know I am a worthy descendant of
my old Irish hero of an ancestor, who held the British offi
cer before him as a shield in the Revolution, and backed
out of danger gracefully." We talked of St. Valentine's
eve, or the maid of Perth, and the drop of the white doe's
blood that sometimes spoiled all.
38
SURRENDER OF THE FORT
The war-steamers are still there, outside the bar. And
there are people who thought the Charleston bar " no
good " to Charleston. The bar is the silent partner, or
sleeping partner, and in this fray it is doing us yeoman
service.
April 15th. — I did not know that one could live such
days of excitement. Some one called : * ' Come out ! There
is a crowd coming." A mob it was, indeed, but it was
headed by Colonels Chesnut and Manning. The crowd was
shouting and showing these two as messengers of good
news. They were escorted to Beauregard's headquarters.
Sort SumtfT had nnrrrmrJorod •' Those upon the housetops
shouted to us " The fort is on fire." That had been the
story once or twice before.
When we had calmed down, Colonel Chesout. who had
taken it all quietly enough, if anything more unruffled
than usual in his serenity, tolcLusJlQJg -the suriwi rj pr r»a ™ p_
about. Wigfall was with them on Morris Island when they
saw the fire in the fort; he jumped in a little boat, and
with his handkerchief as a white flag, rowed over. Wig-
fall went in through a porthole. When Colonel Chesnut
arrived shortly after, and was received at the regular en
trance, Colonel Anderson told him he had need to pick his
way warily, for the place was all mined. As far as I can
make out the fort surrendered to Wigfall. But it is all con
fusion. Our flag is flying there. Fire-engines have been
sent for to put out the fire. Everybody tells you half of
something and then rushes off to tell something else or to
hear the last news.
In the afternoon, Mrs.^Pjeston/ Mrs*.... Joe- Heyward,
and I drove around the Battery. We were in an open car-
1 Caroline Hampton, a daughter of General Wade Hampton, of the
Revolution, was the wife of John S. Preston, an ardent advocate of
secession, who served on the staff of Beauregard at Bull Run and
subsequently reached the rank of brigadier-general.
39
March 26, 18G1 CHARLESTON, S. C. April 15, 1861
riage. ^What a changed scene — the very liveliest crowd I
think I ever saw, everybody talking at once. All glasses
were still turned on the grim old fort.
Russell,1 the correspondent of the London Times, was
there. They took him everywhere. One man got out
Thackeray to converse with him on equal terms. Poor
Russell was awfully bored, they say. He only wanted
to see the fort and to get news suitable to make up into
an interesting article. Thackeray had become stale over
the water.
Mrs. Frank Hampton2 and I went to see the camp of the
Richland troops. South Carolina College had volunteered
to a boy. Professor Venable (the mathematical) , intends to
raise a company from among them for the war, a perma
nent company. This is a grand frolic no more for the stu
dents, at least. Even the staid and severe of aspect, C ling-
man, is here. He says Virginia and North Carolina are
arming to come to our rescue, for now the North will
swoop down on us. Of that we may be sure. We have
burned our ships. We are obliged to go on now. He calls
us a poor, little, hot-blooded, headlong, rash, and trouble
some sister State. General McQueen is in a rage because
we are to send troops to Virginia.
Preston Hampton is in all the flush of his youth and
beauty, six feet in stature ; and after all only in his teens ;
he appeared in fine clothes and lemon-colored kid gloves to
grace the scene. The camp in a fit of horse-play seized him
and rubbed him in the mud. He fought manfully, but took
it all naturally as a good joke.
1 William Howard Russell, a native of Dublin, who served as a cor
respondent of the London Times during the Crimean War, the Indian
Mutiny, the War of Secession and the Franco-German War. He has
been familiarly known as "Bull Run Russell." In 1875 he was hon
orary Secretary to the Prince of Wales during the Prince's visit to India.
2 The " Sally Baxter" of the recently published " Thackeray Letters
to an American Family."
40
BULL RUN RUSSELL
Mrs. Prank Hampton knows already what civil war
means. Her brother was in the New York Seventh Regi
ment, so roughly received in Baltimore. Frank will be in
the opposite camp.
Good stories there may be and to spare for Russell, the
man of the London Times, who has come over here to find
out our weakness and our strength and to tell all the rest
of the world about us.
41
IV
CAMDEN, S. C.
April 20, 1861— April 23, 1861
AMDEN, S. C., April 20, 1861.— Home .again at Mul
berry. In those last days of my stay in Charleston
I did not find time to write a word.
And so wo took Fort Sumter, nous autres ; we — Mrs.
Frank Hampton, and others — in the passageway of the
Mills House between the reception-room and the drawing-
room, for there we held a sofa against all comers. All the
agreeable people South seemed to have flocked to Charles
ton at the first gun. That was after we had found out that
bombarding did not kill anybody. Before that, we wept
and prayed and took our tea in groups in our rooms, away
from the haunts of men.
Captain Ingraham and his kind also took Fort Sumter
— from the Battery with field-glasses and figures made with
their sticks in the sand to show what ought to be done.
Wigfall, Chesnut, Miles, Manning, took it rowing about
the harbor in small boats from fort to fort under the
enemy's guns, with bombs bursting in air.
And then the boys and men who worked those guns so
faithfully at the forts — they took it, too, in their own way.
Old Colonel Beaufort Watts told me this story and
many more of the jeunesse doree under fire. They took the
fire easily, as they do most things. They had cotton bag
bomb-proofs at Fort Moultrie, and when Anderson's shot
knocked them about some one called out " Cotton is fall
ing." Then down went the kitchen chimney, loaves of
42
OLD COLONEL BEAUFORT WAITS
bread flew out, and they cheered gaily, shouting, " Bread-
stuffs are rising."
Willie Preston fired the shot which broke Anderson's
flag-staff. Mrs. Hampton from Columbia telegraphed him,
' ' Well done, Willie ! ' ! She is his grandmother, the wife,
or widow, of General Hampton, of the Revolution, and the
mildest, sweetest, gentlest of old ladies. This shows how
the war spirit is waking us all up.
Colonel Miles (who won his spurs in a boat, so William
Gilmore Simms J said) gave us this characteristic anecdote.
They met a negro out in the bay rowing toward the city
with some plantation supplies, etc. " Are you not afraid
of Colonel Anderson's cannon? " he was asked. ' No,
sar, Mars Anderson ain 't daresn 't hit me ; he know Marster
wouldn't 'low it."
I have been sitting idly to-day looking out upon this
beautiful lawn, wondering if this can be the same world
I was in a few days ago. After the smoke and the din of
the battle, a calm.
April 22d. — Arranging my photograph book. On the
first page, Colonel Watts. Here goes a sketch of his life;
romantic enough, surely: Beaufort Watts; bluest blood;
gentleman to the tips of his fingers; chivalry incarnate.
He was placed in charge of a large amount of money, in
bank bills. The money belonged to the State and he was
to deposit it in the bank. On the way he was obliged to
stay over one night. He put the roll on a table at his bed
side, locked himself in, and slept the sleep of the righteous.
Lo, next day when he awaked, the money was gone. Well !
all who knew him believed him innocent, of course. He
searched and they searched, high and low, but to no pur
pose. The money had vanished. It was a damaging story,
1 William Gilmore Simms, the Southern novelist, was born in
Charleston in 1806. He was the author of a great many volumes deal
ing with Southern life, and at one time they were widely read.
5 43
April 20, 1861 CAMDEN, S. C. April 23, 1861
in spite of his previous character, and a cloud rested on
him.
Years afterward the house* in which he had taken
that disastrous sleep was pulled down. In the wall, behind
the wainscot, was found his pile of money. How the rats
got it through so narrow a crack it seemed hard to realize.
Like the hole mentioned by Mercutio, it was not as deep as
a well nor as wide as a church door, but it did for Beaufort
Watts until the money was found. Suppose that house had
been burned, or the rats had gnawed up the bills past
recognition ?
People in power understood how this proud man suf
fered those many years in silence. Many men looked
askance at him. The country tried to repair the work of
blasting the man's character. He was made Secretary of
Legation to Russia, and was afterward our Consul at
Santa Fe de Bogota. When he was too old to wander far
afield, they made him Secretary to all the Governors of
South Carolina in regular succession.
I knew him more than twenty years ago as Secretary
to the Governor. He was a made-up old battered dandy,
the soul of honor. His eccentricities were all humored.
Misfortune had made him sacred. He stood hat in hand
before ladies and bowed as I suppose Sir Charles Grandi-
son might have done. It was hard not to laugh at the pur
ple and green shades of his overblack hair. He came at
one time to show me the sword presented to Colonel Shel-
ton for killing the only Indian who was killed in the Semi-
nole war. We bagged Osceola and Micanopy under a flag
of truce — that is, they were snared, not shot on the wing.
To go back to my knight-errant : he knelt, handed me the
sword, and then kissed my hand. I was barely sixteen and
did not know how to behave under the circumstances. He
said, leaning on the sword, " My dear child, learn that it is
a much greater liberty to shake hands with a lady than to
kiss her hand. I have kissed the Empress of Russia's hand
44
MARIA WHIT AKER'S TWINS
and she did not make faces at me." He looks now just as
he did then. He is in uniform, covered with epaulettes,
aigulettes, etc., shining in the sun, and with his plumed hat
reins up his war-steed and bows low as ever.
Now I will bid farewell for a while as Othello did to all
the ' ' pomp, pride, and circumstance of glorious war, ' ' and
come down to my domestic strifes and troubles. I have a
sort of volunteer maid, the daughter of my husband's
nurse, dear old Betsy. She waits on me because she so
pleases. Besides, I pay her. She belongs to my father-in-
law, who has too many slaves to care very much about their
way of life. So Maria Whitaker came, all in tears. She
brushes hair delightfully, and as she stood at my back I
could see her face in the glass. " Maria, are you crying
because all this war talk scares you? " said I. * No,
ma'am." " What is the matter with you? " " Nothing
more than common." " Now listen. Let the war end
either way and you will be free. We will have to free you
before we get out of this thing. Won't you be glad? "
" Everybody knows Mars Jeems wants us free, and it is
only old Marster holds hard. He ain't going to free any
body any way, you see. ' '
And then came the story of her troubles. " Now,
Miss Mary, you see me married to Jeems Whitaker yourself.
I was a good and faithful wife to him, and we were com
fortable every way — good house, everything. He had no
cause of complaint, but he has left me." " For heaven's
sake ! Why ? ' : " Because I had twins. He says they are
not his because nobody named Whitaker ever had twins."
Maria is proud in her way, and the behavior of this bad
husband has nearly mortified her to death. She has had
three children in two years. No wonder the man was
frightened. But then Maria does not depend on him for
anything. She was inconsolable, and I could find nothing
better to say than, " Come, now, Maria ! Never mind, your
old Missis and Marster are so good to you. Now let us
45
April 20, 1861 CAMDEN, S. C. April 23, 1861
look up something for the twins." The twins are named
" John and Jeems," the latter for her false loon of a hus
band. Maria is one of the good colored women. She de
served a better fate in her honest matrimonial attempt.
But they do say she has a trying temper. Jeems was tried,
and he failed to stand the trial.
April 23d. — Note the glaring inconsistencies of life.
Our chatelaine locked up Eugene Sue, and returned even
Washington Allston's novel with thanks and a decided
hint that it should be burned ; at least it should not remain
in her house. Bad books are not allowed house room, except
in the library under lock and key, the key in the Master's
pocket ; but bad women, if they are not white, or serve in a
menial capacity, may swarm the house unmolested; the
ostrich game is thought a Christian act. Such women are
no more regarded as a dangerous contingent than canary
birds would be.
If you show by a chance remark that you see some par
ticular creature, more shameless than the rest, has no end
of children, and no beginning of a husband, you are
frowned down; you are talking on improper subjects.
There are certain subjects pure-minded ladies never touch
upon, even in their thoughts. It does not do to be so hard
and cruel. It is best to let the sinners alone, poor things.
If they are good servants otherwise, do not dismiss them;
all that will come straight as they grow older, and it does !
They are frantic, one and all, to be members of the church.
The Methodist Church is not so pure-minded as to shut its
eyes ; it takes them up and turns them out with a high hand
if they are found going astray as to any of the ten com
mandments.
46
MONTGOMERY, ALA.
April 27, 1861— May 20, 1861
ONTGOMERY, Ala., April 27, 1861.— Here we are
once more. Hon. Robert Barnwell came with us. His
benevolent spectacles give him a most Pickwickian
expression. We Carolinians revere his goodness above all
things. Everywhere, when the car stopped, the people
wanted a speech, and we had one stream of fervid oratory.
We came along with a man whose wife lived in Washing
ton. He was bringing her to Georgia as the safest place.
The Alabama crowd are not as confident of taking
Fort Pickens as we were of taking Fort Sumter.
Baltimore is in a blaze. They say Colonel Ben Huger
is in command there — son of the ' ' Olmutz ' ' Huger. Gen
eral Robert E. Lee, son of Light Horse Harry Lee, has been
made General-in-Chief of Virginia. With such men to the
fore, we have hope. The New York Herald says, ' ' Slavery
must be extinguished, if in blood. ' ' It thinks we are shak
ing in our shoes at their great mass meetings. We are jolly
as larks, all the same.
Mr. Chesnut has gone with Wade Hampton * to see
President Davis about the legion Wade wants to get up.
1 Wade Hampton was a son of another Wade Hampton, who was
an aide to General Jackson at the battle of New Orleans, and a grandson
of still another Wade Hampton, who was a general in the Revolution.
He was not in favor of secession, but when the war began he enlisted as
a private and then raised a command of infantry, cavalry, and artillery,
which as "Hampton's Legion" won distinction in the war. After the
war, he was elected Governor of South Carolina and was then elected
to the United States Senate.
47
April 27, 1861 MONTGOMERY, ALA. May 20, 1861
The President came across the aisle to speak to me at
church to-day. He was very cordial, and I appreciated the
honor.
Wigfall is black with rage at Colonel Anderson's ac
count of the fall of Sumter. Wigfall did behave magnani
mously, but Anderson does not seem to see it in that light.
" Catch me risking my life to save him again/' says Wig-
fall. " He might have been man enough to tell the truth
to those New Yorkers, however unpalatable to them a good
word for us might have been. We did behave well to him.
The only men of his killed, he killed himself, or they killed
themselves firing a salute to their old striped rag. ' '
Mr. Chesnut was delighted with the way Anderson spoke
to him when he went to demand the surrender. They
parted quite tenderly. Anderson said: " If we do not
meet again on earth, I hope we may meet in Heaven."
How Wigfall laughed at Anderson " giving Chesnut a
howdy in the other world ! ' :
What a kind welcome the old gentlemen gave me ! One,
more affectionate and homely than the others, slapped me
on the back. Several bouquets were brought me, and I put
them in water around my plate. Then General Owens
gave me some violets, which I put in my breastpin.
11 Oh," said my " Gutta Percha " Hemphill,1 " if I
had known how those bouquets were to be honored I would
have been up by daylight seeking the sweetest flowers! "
Governor Moore came in, and of course seats were offered
him. " This is a most comfortable chair/' cried an
overly polite person. " The most comfortable chair is be
side Mrs. Chesnut," said the Governor, facing the music
gallantly, as he sank into it gracefully. Well done, old
fogies !
1 John Hemphill was a native of South Carolina, who had removed
to Texas, where he became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the
State, and in 1858 was elected United States Senator.
48
A TALK WITH STEPHENS
Browne said: " These Southern men have an awfully
flattering way with women. " " Oh, so many are descend
ants of Irishmen, and so the blarney remains yet, even, and
in spite of their gray hairs ! ' :l For it was a group of silver-
gray flatterers. Yes, blarney as well as bravery came in
with the Irish.
At Mrs. Davis 's reception dismal news, for civil war
seems certain. At Mrs. Toombs's reception Mr. Stephens
came by me. Twice before we have had it out on the sub
ject of ,this Confederacy, once on the cars, coming from
Georgia here, once at a supper, where he sat next to me.
To-day he was not cheerful in his views. I called him
half-hearted, and accused him of looking back. Man after
man came and interrupted the conversation with some
frivle-fravle, but we held on. He was deeply interesting,
and he gave me some new ideas as to our dangerous situa
tion. Fears for the future and not exultation at our suc
cesses pervade his discourse.
Dined at the President's and never had a pleasanter
day. He is as witty as he is wise. He was very agreeable ;
he took me in to dinner. The talk was of Washington ; noth
ing of our present difficulties.
A General Anderson from Alexandria, D. C., was in
doleful dumps. He says the North are so much better pre
pared than we are. They are organized, or will be, by
General Scott. We are in wild confusion. Their army is
the best in the world. We are wretchedly armed, etc., etc.
They have ships and arms that were ours and theirs.
Mrs. Walker, resplendently dressed, one of those gor
geously arrayed persons who fairly shine in the sun, tells
me she mistook the inevitable Morrow for Mr. Chesnut, and
added, ' ' Pass over the affront to my powers of selection. ' '
I told her it was ' * an insult to the Palmetto flag. ' ' Think
of a South Carolina Senator like that !
Men come rushing in from Washington with white lips,
crying, " Danger, danger! " It is very tiresome to have
49
April Vt, 1861 MONTGOMERY, ALA. MayW, 1861
these people always harping on this: " The enemy's
troops are the finest body of men we ever saw." " Why
did you ,not make friends of them, ' ' I feel disposed to say.
We would have war, and now w£ seem to be letting our
golden opportunity pass; we are not preparing for war.
There is talk, .talk, talk in that Congress — lazy legislators,
and rash, reckless, headlong, devil-may-care, proud, passion
ate, unruly, raw material for soldiers. They say we have
among us a regiment of spies, men and women, sent here
by the wily Seward. Why? Our newspapers tell every
word there is to be told, by friend or foe.
A two-hours' call from Hon. Robert Barnwell. His
theory is, all would have been right if we had taken Fort
Sumter six months ago. He made this very plain to me.
He is clever, if erratic. I forget why it ought to have been
attacked before. At another reception, Mrs. Davis was in
fine spirits. Captain Dacier was here. Came over .in his
own yacht. Russell, of The London Times, wondered how
we had the heart to enjoy life so .thoroughly when all the
Northern papers said we were to be exterminated in such a
short time.
May 9th. — Virginia Commissioners here. Mr. Staples
and Mr. Edmonston came to see me. They say Virginia
" has no grievance; she comes out on a point of honor;
could she stand by and see her sovereign sister States in
vaded?"
Sumter ,Anderson has been offered a Kentucky regi
ment. Can they raise a regiment in Kentucky against us ?
In Kentucky, our sister State?
Suddenly General Beauregard and his aide (the last
left him of the galaxy who surrounded him in Charleston),
John Manning, have gone — Heaven knows where, but out
on a war-path certainly. Governor Manning called himself
" the last .rose of summer left blooming alone " of that
fancy staff. A new fight will gather them again.
Ben McCulloch, the Texas Ranger, is here, and Mr.
50
AN OLD MAN AND HIS HOURIS
Ward,1 my " Gutta Percha " friend's colleague from
Texas. Senator Ward in appearance is the exact opposite
of Senator HemphiJl. The latter, with the face of an old
man, has the hair of a boy of twenty. Mr. Ward is fresh
and fair, with blue eyes and a boyish face, but his head is
white as snow. Whether he turned it white in a single
night or by slower process I do not know, but it is strangely
out of keeping with his clear young eye. He is thin, and
has a queer stooping figure.
This story he told me of his own experience. On a
Western steamer there was a great crowd and no unoccu
pied berth, or sleeping place of any sort whatsoever in
the gentlemen's cabin — saloon, I think they called it. He
had taken a stateroom, 110, .but he could not eject the peo
ple who had already seized it and were asleep in it. Neither
could the Captain. It would have been a .case of revolver
or * ' 'leven inch Bowie-knife. ' '
Near the ladies' saloon the steward took pity on him.
" This man," said he, " is 110, and I can find no place for
him, poor fellow." There was a peep out of bright eyes:
1 ' I say, steward, have you a man 110 years old out there ?
Let us see him. He must be a natural curiosity." " We
are overcrowded," was the answer, " and we can't find a
place for him to sleep." " Poor old soul; bring .him in
here. We will take care of him. ' '
" Stoop and totter," sniggered .the steward to No. 110,
* ' and go in. ' '
" Ah," said Mr. Ward, " how those houris patted ,and
pitied me and hustled me about and gave me the best berth !
I tried not to look ; I knew it was wrong, but I looked. I saw
them undoing their back hair and was lost in amazement
1 Matthias Ward was a native of Georgia, but had removed to Texas
in 1836. He was twice a delegate to National Democratic Conventions,
and in 1858 was appointed to fill a vacancy from Texas in the United
States Senate, holding that office until 1860.
51
April 27, 1861 MONTGOMERY, ALA. May 20, 1861
at the collapse when the huge hoop-skirts fell off, unheeded
on the cabin floor. ' '
One beauty who was disporting herself near his cur
tain suddenly caught his eye. She stooped and gathered
up her belongings as she said: " I say, stewardess, your
old hundred and ten is a humbug. His eyes are too blue
for anything," and she fled as he shut himself in, nearly
frightened to death. I forget how it ended. There was so
much laughing at his story I did not .hear it all. So much
for hoary locks and their reverence-inspiring power !
Russell, the wandering English newspaper correspond
ent, was telling how very odd some of our plantation habits
were. He was staying at the house of an ex-Cabinet Min
ister, and Madame would stand on the back piazza and
send her voice three fields off, calling a servant. Now that
is not a Southern peculiarity. Our women are soft, and
sweet, low-toned, indolent, graceful, quiescent. I dare say
there are bawling, squalling, vulgar people everywhere.
May }3th. — We have been down from Montgomery on
the boat to that God-forsaken landing, Portland, Ala.
Found everybody drunk — that is, the three men who were
there. At last secured a carriage to carry us to my broth
er-in-law 's house. Mr. Chesnut had to drive seven miles,
pitch dark, over an unknown road. My heart was in my
mouth, which last I did not open.
Next day a patriotic person informed us that, so great
was the war fever only six men could be found in Dallas
County. I whispered to Mr. Chesnut: " We found three
of the lone ones hors de combat at Portland." So much
for the corps of reserves — alcoholized patriots.
Saw for the first time the demoralization produced by
hopes of freedom. My mother's butler (whom I taught
to read, sitting on his knife-board) contrived to keep from
speaking to us. He was as .efficient as ever in his proper
place, but he did not come behind the scenes as usual and
have a friendly chat. Held himself aloof so grand and
52
R. M. T. HUNTER
stately we had to send him a ' * tip " through his wife
Hetty, mother's maid, who, however, showed no signs of
disaffection. She came to my bedside next morning with
everything that was nice for breakfast. She had let me
sleep till midday, and embraced me over and over again.
I remarked : ' ' What a capital cook they have here ! ' : She
curtsied to the ground. ' * I cooked every mouthful on that
tray — as if I did not know what you liked to eat since you
was a baby. ' '
May 19th. — Mrs. Fitzpatrick says Mr. Davis is too
gloomy for her. He says we must prepare for a long war
and unmerciful reverses at first, because they are readier
for war and so much stronger numerically. Men and
money count so in war. " As they do everywhere else,"
said I, doubting her accurate account of Mr. Davis 's
spoken words, though she tried to give them faithfully.
We need patience and persistence. There is enough and to
spare of pluck and dash among us, the do-and-dare style.
I drove out with Mrs. Davis. She finds playing Mrs.
President of this small confederacy slow work, after leav
ing friends such as Mrs. Emory and Mrs. Joe Johnston *
in Washington. I do not blame her. The wrench has been
awful with us all, but we don't mean to be turned into
pillars of salt.
Mr. Mallory came for us to go to Mrs. Toombs's recep
tion. Mr. Chesnut would not go, and I decided to remain
with him. This proved a wise decision. First Mr. Hunter 2
1 Mrs. Johnston was Lydia McLane, a daughter of Louis McLane,
United States Senator from Delaware from 1827 to 1829, and afterward
Minister to England. In 1831 he became Secretary of the Treasury
and in 1833 Secretary of State. General Joseph E. Johnston was grad
uated from West Point in 1829 and had served in the Black Hawk,
Seminole, and Mexican Wars. He resigned his commission in the
United States Army on April 22, 1861.
2 Mr. Hunter was a Virginian. He had long served in Congress*
was twice speaker of the House, and in 1844 was elected a United States
53
April 27, 1861 MONTGOMERY, ALA. May 20, 1861
came. In college they called him from his initials, R.
M. T., " Run Mad Tom " Hunter. Just now I think he is
the sanest, if not the wisest, man in our new-born Confed
eracy. I remember when I first met him. He sat next to
me at some state dinner in Washington. Mr. Clay had
taken me in to dinner, but seemed quite satisfied that my
1 ' other side ' ' should take me off his hands.
Mr. Hunter did not know me, nor I him. I suppose he
inquired, or looked at my card, lying on the table, as I
looked at his. At any rate, we began a conversation which
lasted steadily through the whole thing from soup to
dessert. Mr. Hunter, though in evening dress, presented a
rather tumbled-up appearance. His waistcoat wanted pull
ing down, and his hair wanted brushing. He delivered un
consciously that day a lecture on English literature which,
if printed, I still think would be a valuable addition to
that literature. Since then, I have always looked forward
to a talk with the Senator from Virginia with undisguised
pleasure. Next came Mr. Miles and Mr. Jameson, of
South Carolina. The latter was President of our Secession
Convention; also has written a life of Du Guesclin that is
not so bad. So my unexpected reception was of the most
charming. Judge Frost came a little later. They all re
mained until the return of the crowd from Mrs. Toombs's.
These men are not sanguine — I can't say, without hope,
exactly. They are agreed in one thing: it is worth while
to try a while, if only to get away from New England.
Captain Ingraham was here, too. He is South Carolina to
the tips of his fingers ; yet he has it dyed in the wool — it is
part of his nature — to believe the United States Navy can
whip anything in the world. All of these little inconsisten
cies and contrarieties make the times very exciting. One
Senator, serving until 1861. He supported slavery and became active
in the secession movement. At the Charleston Convention in I860, he
received the next highest vote to Stephen A. Douglas for President.
54
AT LUNCH WITH MRS. DAVIS
iiever knows what tack any one of them will take at the
next word.
May 20th. — LunchecLajJMrs. Davis ?s; everything nice
to eat, and I was ravenous. For a fortnight I have not
even gone to the dinner table. Yesterday I was forced to
dine on cold asparagus and blackberries, so repulsive in
aspect was the other food they sent me. Mrs. Davis was
as nice as the luncheon. When she is in the mood, I do not
know so pleasant a person. She is awfully clever, always.
We talked of this move from Montgomery. Mr. Ches-
nut opposes it violently, because this is so central a posi
tion for our government. He wants our troops sent into
Maryland in order to make our fight on the border, and so
to encompass Washington. I see that the uncomfortable
hotels here will at last move the Congress. Our statesmen
love their ease, and it will be hot here in summer. " I do
hope they will go," Mrs. Davis said. " The Yankees will
make it hot for us, go where we will, and truly so if war
comes." " And it has come," said I. " Yes, I fancy
these dainty folks may live to regret losing even the fare
of the Montgomery hotels. " " Never. ' '
Mr. Chesnut has three distinct manias. The Maryland
scheme is one, and he rushes off to Jeff Davis, who, I dare
say, has fifty men every day come to him with infallible
plans to save the country. If only he can keep his temper.
Mrs. Davis says he answers all advisers in softly modu
lated, dulcet accents.
What a rough menagerie we have here. And if nice
people come to see you, up walks an irate Judge, who en
grosses the conversation and abuses the friends of the com
pany generally; that is, abuses everybody and prophesies
every possible evil to the country, provided he finds that
denouncing your friends does not sufficiently depress you.
Everybody has manias — up North, too, by the papers.
But of Mr. Chesnut 's three crazes : Maryland is to be
made the seat of war, old Morrow's idea of buying up
55
April 27, 1861 MONTGOMERY, ALA. May 20, 1861
steamers abroad for our coast defenses should be adopted,
and, last of all, but far from the least, we must make much
cotton and send it to England as a bank to draw on. The
very cotton we have now, if sent across the water, would
be a gold mine to us.
56
VI
CHARLESTON, S. C.
May 25, 1861— June 24, 1861
HARLESTON, S. C., May 25, 1861.— We have come
back to South Carolina from the Montgomery Con
gress, stopping over at Mulberry. We came with
R. M. T. Hunter and Mr. Barnwell. Mr. Barnwell has ex
cellent reasons for keeping cotton at home, but I forget
what they are. Generally, people take what he says, also
Mr. Hunter's wisdom, as unanswerable. Not so Mr. Ches-
nut, who growls at both, much as he likes them. We also
had Tom Lang and his wife, and Doctor Boykin. Surely
there never was a more congenial party. The younger men
had been in the South Carolina College while Mr. Barnwell
was President. Their love and respect for him were im
measurable and he benignly received it, smiling behind
those spectacles.
Met John Darby at Atlanta and told him he was Sur
geon of the Hampton Legion, which delighted him. He
had had adventures. With only a few moments on the
platform to interchange confidences, he said he had re
mained a little too long in the Medical College in Philadel
phia, where he was some kind of a professor, and they had
been within an ace of hanging him as a Southern spy.
" Rope was ready," he sniggered. At Atlanta when he
unguardedly said he was fresh from Philadelphia, he barely
escaped lynching, being taken for a Northern spy. ' ' Lively
life I am having among you, on both sides, ' ' he said, hurry
ing away. And I moaned, " Here was John Darby like
57
May 25, 1861 CHARLESTON, S. C. June 24, 1861
to have been killed by both sides, and no time to tell me
the curious coincidences." What marvelous experiences a
little war begins to produce.
May 27th.— They look for a fight at Norfolk. Beaure-
gard is there. I think if I were a man I'd be there, too.
Also Harper's Ferry is to be attacked. The Confederate
flag has been cut down at Alexandria by a man named Ells
worth,1 who was in command of Zouaves. Jackson was the
name of the person who shot Ellsworth in the act. Sixty
of our cavalry have been taken by Sherman's brigade.
Deeper and deeper we go in.
Thirty of Tom Boykin's company have come home from
Richmond. They went as a rifle company, armed with mus
kets. They were sandhill tackeys — those fastidious ones,
not very anxious to fight with anything, or in any way,
I fancy. Richmond ladies had come for them in carriages,
feted them, waved handkerchiefs to them, brought them
dainties with their own hands, in the faith that every Car
olinian was a gentleman, and every man south of Mason
and Dixon 's line a hero. But these are not exactly descend
ants of the Scotch Hay, who fought the Danes with his
plowshare, or the oxen's yoke, or something that could
hit hard and that came handy.
Johnny has gone as a private in Gregg's regiment. He
could not stand it at home any longer. Mr. Chesnut was
willing for him to go, because those sandhill men said
" this was a rich man's war," and the rich men would be
the officers and have an easy time and the poor ones would
1 Ephraim Elmer Ellsworth was a native of Saratoga County, New
York. In 1860 he organized a regiment of Zouaves and became its
Colonel. He accompanied Lincoln to Washington in 1861 and was soon
sent with his regiment to Alexandria, where, on seeing a Confederate
flag floating from a hotel, he personally rushed to the roof and tore it
down. The owner of the hotel, a man named Jackson, met him as he
was descending and shot him dead. Frank E. Brownell, one of Ells
worth's men, then killed Jackson.
58
A GENTLEMAN PRIVATE
be privates. So he said: " Let the gentlemen set the ex
ample; let them go in the ranks." So John Chesnut is a
gentleman private. He took his servant with him all the
same.
Johnny reproved me for saying, " If I were a man, I
would not sit here and dole and drink and drivel and for
get the fight going on in Virginia." He said it was my
duty not to talk so rashly and make enemies. He ' ' had the
money in his pocket to raise a company last fall, but it has
slipped through his fingers, and now he is a common sol
dier." " You wasted it or spent it foolishly," said I.
1 ' I do not know where it has gone, ' ' said he. ' ' There was
too much consulting over me, too much good counsel was
given to me, and everybody gave me different advice."
" Don't you ever know your own mind? " " We will do
very well in the ranks ; men and officers all alike ; we know
everybody. ' '
So I repeated Mrs. Lowndes's solemn words when she
heard that South Carolina, had seceded alone: " As thy
days so shall thy strength be." Don't know exactly what
I meant, but thought I must be impressive as he was going
away. Saw him off at the train. Forgot to say anj^thing
there, but cried my eyes out.
Sent Mrs. Wigfall a telegram — " Where shrieks the
wild sea-mew? ': She answered: " Sea-mew at the Spots-
wood Hotel. Will shriek soon. I will remain here. ' '
June 6th. — Davin! Have had a talk concerning him
to-day with two opposite extremes of people.
Mrs. Chesnut, my mother-in-law, praises everybody,
good and bad. " Judge not," she says. She is a philoso
pher; she would not give herself the pain to find fault.
The Judge abuses everybody, and he does it so well —
short, sharp, and incisive are his sentences, and he revels
in condemning the world en Hoc, as the French say. So
nobody is the better for her good word, or the worse for
his bad one.
6 59
May 2.5, 1861 CHARLESTON, S. C. June 24, 1861
In Camden I found myself in a flurry of women.
" Traitors," they cried. " Spies; they ought to be
hanged ; Davin is taken up, Deaij and Davis are his accom
plices." " What has Davin done? " "He'll be hanged,
never you mind." " For what? " " They caught him
walking on the trestle work in the swamp, after no good,
you may be sure." " They won't hang him for that! "
' ' Hanging is too good for him ! ' : " You wait till Colonel
Chesiiut comes." " He is a lawyer," I said, gravely.
" Ladies, he will disappoint you. There will be no lynch
ing if he goes to that meeting to-day. He will not move a
step except by habeas corpus and trial by jury, and a
quantity of bench and bar to speak long speeches."
Mr. Chesnut did come, and gave a more definite ac
count of poor Davin 's precarious situation. They had
intercepted treasonable letters of his at the Post Office. I
believe it was not a very black treason after all. At any
rate, Mr. Chesnut spoke for him with might and main at
the meeting. It was composed (the meeting) of intelligent
men with cool heads. And they banished Davin to Fort
Sumter. The poor Music Master can't do much harm in
the casemates there. He may thank his stars that Mr. Ches
nut gave him a helping hand. In the red hot state our
public mind now is in there will be a short shrift for spies.
Judge Withers said that Mr. Chesnut never made a more
telling speech in his life than he did to save this poor
Frenchman for whom Judge Lynch was ready. I had
never heard of Davin in my life until I heard he was to
be hanged.
Judge Stephen A. Douglas, the ' * little giant, ' ' is dead ;
one of those killed by the war, no doubt ; trouble of mind.
Charleston people are thin-skinned. They shrink from
Russell's touches. I find his criticisms mild. He has a
light touch. I expected so much worse. Those Englishmen
come, somebody says, with three P's — pen, paper, preju
dices. I dread some of those after-dinner stories. As to
60
FRANKLIN'S GRANDDAUGHTER
that day in the harbor, he let us off easily. He says our
men are so fine looking. Who denies it? Not one of us.
Also that it is a silly impression which has gone abroad
that men can not work in this climate. We live in the open
air, and work like Trojans at all manly sports, riding hard,
hunting, playing at being soldiers. These fine, manly spec
imens have been in the habit of leaving the coast when it
became too hot there, and also of fighting a duel or two,
if kept long sweltering under a Charleston sun. Hand
some youths, whose size and muscle he admired so much
as they prowled around the Mills House, would not relish
hard work in the fields between May and December. Ne
groes stand a tropical or semitropical sun at noon-day bet
ter than white men. In fighting it is different. Men will
not then mind sun, or rain, or wind.
Major Emory,1 when he was ordered West, placed his
resignation in the hands of his Maryland brothers. After
the Baltimore row the brothers sent it in, but Maryland
declined to secede. Mrs. Emory, who at least is two-thirds
of that copartnership, being old Franklin's granddaugh
ter, and true to her blood, tried to get it back. The Presi
dent refused point blank, though she went on her knees.
That I do not believe. The Franklin race are stiff-necked
and stiff-kneed ; not much given to kneeling to God or man
from all accounts.
If Major Emory comes to us won't he have a good time?
Mrs. Davis adores Mrs. Emory. No wonder I fell in
love with her myself.. I heard of her before I saw her in
1 William H. Emory had served in Charleston harbor during the
Nullification troubles of 1831-1836. In 1846 he went to California,
afterward served in the Mexican War, and later assisted in running the
boundary line between Mexico and the United States under the Gadsden
Treaty of 1853. In 1854 he was in Kansas and in 1858 in Utah. After
resigning his commission, as related by the author, he was reappointed
a Lieutenant-Colonel in the United States Army and took an active part
in the war on the side of the North.
61
May 25, 1861 CHARLESTON, S. C. June 24, 1861
this wise. Little Banks told me the story. She was danc
ing at a ball when some bad accident maker for the Even
ing News rushed up and informe^ her that Major Emory
had been massacred by ten Indians somewhere out West.
She coolly answered him that she had later intelligence;
it was not so. Turning a deaf ear then, she went on
dancing. Next night the same officious fool met her with
this congratulation : * ' Oh, Mrs. Emory, it was all a hoax !
The Major is alive." She cried: " You are always run
ning about with your bad news," and turned her back on
him; or, I think it was, " You delight in spiteful stories,"
or, * ' You are a harbinger of evil. ' ' Banks is a newspaper
man and knows how to arrange an anecdote for effect.
June 12th. — Have been looking at Mrs. O'Dowd as she
burnished the " Meejor's arrms " before Waterloo. And
I have been busy, too. My husband has gone to join Beau-
regard, somewhere beyond Richmond. I feel blue-black
with melancholy. But I hope to be in Richmond before
..long myself. That is some comfort.
The war is making us all tenderly sentimental. No
casualties yet, no real mourning, nobody hurt. So it is all
parade, fife, and fine feathers. Posing we are en grande
tenue. There is no imagination here to forestall woe, and
only the excitement and wild awakening from every-day
stagnant life are felt. That is, when one gets away from
the two or three sensible men who are still left in the world.
When Beauregard's report of the capture of Fort Sum-
ter was printed, Willie Ancrum said: " How is this? Tom
Ancrum and Ham Boykin's names are not here. We
thought from what they told us that they did most of the
fighting."
Colonel Magruder 1 has done something splendid on the
1 John Bankhead Magruder was a graduate of West Point, who had
served in the Mexican War, and afterward while stationed at Newport,
R. I., had become famous for his entertainments. When Virginia
62
THE BATTLE OF BIG BETHEL
peninsula. Bethel is the name of the battle. Three hun
dred of the enemy killed, they say.
Our people, Southerners, I mean, continue to drop in
from the outside world. And what a contempt those who
seceded a few days sooner feel for those who have just
come out! A Camden notable, called Jim Velipigue, said
in the street to-day: " At heart Robert E. Lee is against
us ; that I know. ' ' What will not people say in war times !
Also, he said that Colonel Kershaw wanted General Beau-
regard to change the name of the stream near Manassas
Station. Bull's Run is so unrefined. Beauregard an
swered : ' ( Let us try and make it as great a name as your
South Carolina Cowpens. ' ' *
Mrs. Chesnut, born in Philadelphia, can not see what
right we have to take Mt. Vernon from our Northern sis
ters. She thinks that ought to be common to both parties.
We think they will get their share of this world's goods,
do what we may, and we will keep Mt. Vernon if we can.
No comfort in Mr. Chesnut 's letter from Richmond. Un
utterable confusion prevails, and discord already.
In Charleston a butcher has been clandestinely supply
ing the Yankee fleet outside the bar with beef. They say
he gave the information which led to the capture of the
Savannah. They will hang him.
Mr. Petigru alone in South Carolina has not seceded.
When they pray for our President, he gets up from his
knees. He might risk a prayer for Mr. Davis. I doubt if
seceded, he resigned his commission in the United States Army. After
the war he settled in Houston, Texas.
The battle of Big Bethel was fought on June 10, 1861. The Feder
als lost in killed and wounded about 100, among them Theodore Win-
throp, of New York, author of Cecil Dreeme. The Confederate losses
were very slight.
1 The battle of the Cowpens in South Carolina was fought on Jan
uary 17, 1781; the British, under Colonel Tarleton, being defeated by
General Morgan, with a loss to the British of 300 killed and wounded and
500 prisoners.
63
May 25, 1861 CHARLESTON, S. C. June 24, 1861
it would seriously do Mr. Davis any good. Mr. Petigru is
too clever to think himself one of the righteous whose
prayers avail so overly much. Mr. Petigru 's disciple,
Mr. Bryan, followed his example. Mr. Petigru has such
a keen sense of the ridiculous he must be laughing in his
sleeve at the hubbub this untimely trait of independence
has raised.
Looking out for a battle at Manassas Station. I am al
ways ill. The name of my disease is a longing to get away
from here and to go to Richmond.
June 19th. — In England Mr. Gregory and Mr. Lyndsey
rise to say a good word for us. Heaven reward them;
shower down its choicest blessings on their devoted heads,
as the fiction folks say.
Barnwell Heyward telegraphed me to meet him at
Kingsville, but I was at Cool Spring, Johnny's plantation,
and all my clothes were at Sandy Hill, our home in the
Sand Hills; so I lost that good opportunity of the very
nicest escort to Richmond. Tried to rise above the ago
nies of every-day life. Read Emerson; too restless — Ma
nassas on the brain.
Russell's letters are filled with rubbish about our want
ing an English prince to reign over us. He actually inti
mates that the noisy arming, drumming, marching, pro
claiming at the North, scares us. Yes, as the making of
faces and turning of somersaults by the Chinese scared the
English.
Mr. Binney * has written a letter. It is in the Intelli
gencer of Philadelphia. He offers Lincoln his life and
fortune; all that he has put at Lincoln's disposal to con
quer us. Queer ; we only want to separate from them, and
1 Horace Binney, one of the foremost lawyers of Philadelphia, who
was closely associated with the literary, scientific, and philanthropic
interests of his time. His wife was a sister of Mrs. Chesnut, the author's
mother-in-law.
64
THE TWO ARMIES ADVANCING
they put such an inordinate value on us. They are willing
to risk all, life and limb, and all their money to keep us,
they love us so.
.^Mr. Chesnut is accused of firing the first shot, and his
cousin, an ex- West Pointer, writes in a martial fury. They
confounded the best shot made on the Island the day of the
picnic with the first shot at Fort Sumter. This last is
claimed by Captain 'James. Others say it was one of the
Gibbeses who first fired. But it was Anderson who fired the
train which blew up the Union. He slipped into Fort Sum
ter that night, when we expected to talk it all over. A let
ter from my husband dated, " Headquarters, Manassas
Junction, June 16, 1861 ":
MY DEAR MARY: I wrote you a short letter from Richmond
last Wednesday, and came here next day. Found the camp all
busy and preparing for a vigorous defense. We have here at this
camp seven regiments, and in the same command, at posts in the
neighborhood, six others — say, ten thousand good men. The Gen
eral and the men feel confident that they can whip twice that
number of the enemy, at least.
I have been in the saddle for two days, all day, with the Gen
eral, to become familiar with the topography of the country, arid
the posts he intends to assume, and the communications between
them.
We learned General Johnston has evacuated Harper's Ferry,
and taken up his position at Winchester, to meet the advancing
column of McClellan, and to avoid being cut off by the three col
umns which were advancing upon him. Neither Johnston nor
Beauregard considers Harper's Ferry as very important in a stra
tegic point of view.
I think it most probable that the next battle you will hear of
will be between the forces of Johnston and McClellan.
I think what we particularly need is a head in the field — a
Major-General to combine and conduct all the forces as well as
plan a general and energetic campaign. Still, we have all confi
dence that we will defeat the enemy whenever and wherever we
meet in general engagement. Although the majority of the peo-
65
1861 CHARLESTON, S. C. June 24, 1861
pie just around here are with us, still there are many who are
against us.
God bless you. Yours,
, JAMES CHESNUT, JR.
Mary Hammy and myself are off for Richmond. Rev.
Mr. Meynardie, of the Methodist persuasion, goes with us.
We are to be under his care. War-cloud lowering.
Isaac Hayne, the man who fought a duel with Ben
Alston across the dinner-table and yet lives, is the bravest
of the brave. He attacks Russell in the Mercury — in the
public prints — for saying we wanted an English prince to
the fore. Not we, indeed ! Every man wants to be at the
head of affairs himself. If he can not be king himself,
then a republic, of course. It was hardly necessary to do
more than laugh at Russell's absurd idea. There was a
great deal of the wildest kind of talk at the Mills House.
Russell writes candidly enough of the British in India. We
can hardly expect him to suppress what is to our detriment.
June 24th. — Last night I was awakened by loud talking
and candles flashing, tramping of feet, growls dying away
in the distance, loud calls from point to point in the yard.
Up I started, my heart in my mouth. Some dreadful thing
had happened, a battle, a death, a horrible accident. Some
one was screaming aloft — that is, from the top of the stair
way, hoarsely like a boatswain in a storm. Old Colonel
Chesnut was storming at the sleepy negroes looking for fire,
with lighted candles, in closets and everywhere else. I
dressed and came upon the scene of action.
" What is it? Any news? " " No, no, only mamma
smells a smell; she thinks something is burning some
where." The whole yard was alive, literally swarming.
There are sixty or seventy people kept here to wait upon
this household, two-thirds of them too old or too young
to be of any use, but families remain intact. The old
Colonel has a magnificent voice. I am sure it can be heard
for miles. Literally, he was roaring from the piazza, giv-
66
OFF TO RICHMOND
ing orders to the busy crowd who were hunting the smell
of fire.
Old Mrs. Chesnut is deaf; so she did not know what a
commotion she was creating. She is very sensitive to bad
odors. Candles have to be taken out of the room to be
snuffed. Lamps are extinguished only in the porticoes, or
farther afield. She finds violets oppressive ; can only toler
ate a single kind of sweet rose. A tea-rose she will not
have in her room. She was totally innocent of the storm
she had raised, and in a mild, sweet voice was suggesting
places to be searched. I was weak enough to laugh hys
terically. The bombardment of Fort Suniter was nothing
to this.
After this alarm, enough to wake the dead, the smell was
found. A family had been boiling soap. Around the soap-
pot they had swept up some woolen rags. Raking up the
fire to make all safe before going to bed, this was heaped
up with the ashes, and its faint smoldering tainted the air,
at least to Mrs. Chesnut 's nose, two hundred yards or more
away.
Yesterday some of the negro men on the plantation
Vwere found with pistols. I have never before seen aught
about any negro to show that they knew we had a war on
hand in which they have any interest.
Mrs. John de Saussure bade me good-by and God bless
you. I was touched. Camdeu people never show any more
feeling or sympathy than red Indians, except at a funeral.
It is expected of all to howl then, and if you don't " show
feeling," indignation awaits the delinquent.
67
VII
RICHMOND, VA.
June 27, 1861— July 4, 1861
EICHMOND, Va., June 27, 1861.— Mr. Meynardie was
perfect in the part of traveling companion. He had
his pleasures, too. The most pious and eloquent
of parsons is human, and he enjoyed the converse of the
" eminent persons " who turned up on every hand and
gave their views freely on all matters of state.
Mr. Lawrence Keitt joined us en route. With him came
his wife and baby. We don't think alike, but Mr. Keitt
is always original and entertaining. Already he pro
nounces Jeff Davis a failure and his Cabinet a farce.
" Prophetic, " I suggested, as he gave his opinion before
the administration had fairly got under way. He was
fierce in his fault-finding as to Mr. Chesnut's vote for Jeff
Davis. He says Mr. Chesnut overpersuaded the Judge,
and those two turned the tide, at least with the South Car
olina delegation. We wrangled, as we always do. He says
Howell Cobb's common sense might have saved us.
Two quiet, unobtrusive Yankee school-teachers were on
the train. I had spoken to them, and they had told me all
about themselves. So I wrote on a scrap of paper, " Do
not abuse our home and house so before these Yankee
strangers, going North. Those girls are schoolmistresses
returning from whence they came. ' '
Soldiers everywhere. They seem to be in the air, and
certainly to fill all space. Keitt quoted a funny Georgia
man who says we try our soldiers to see if they are hot
68
AT THE SPOTSWOOD
enough before we enlist them. If, when water is thrown
on them they do not sizz, they won 't do ; their patriotism is
too cool.
To show they were wide awake and sympathizing en
thusiastically, every woman from every window of every
house we passed waved a handkerchief, if she had one. This
fluttering of white flags from every side never ceased from
Camden to Richmond. Another new symptom — parties of
girls came to every station simply to look at the troops
passing. They always stood (the girls, I mean) in solid
phalanx, and as the sun was generally in their eyes, they
made faces. Mary Hammy never tired of laughing at this
peculiarity of her sister patriots.
At the depot in Richmond, Mr. Mallory, with Wigfall
and Garnett, met us. We had no cause to complain of the
warmth of our reception. They had a carriage for us, and
our rooms were taken at the Spotswood. But then the peo
ple who were in the rooms engaged for us had not departed
at the time they said they were going. They lingered among
the delights of Richmond, and we knew of no law to make
them keep their words and go. Mrs. Preston had gone for
a few days to Manassas. So we took her room. Mrs. Davis
is as kind as ever. She met us in one of the corridors acci
dentally, and asked us to join her party and to take our
meals at her table. Mr. Preston came, and we moved into
a room so small there was only space for a bed, wash-stand,
and glass over it. My things were hung up out of the way
on nails behind the door.
As soon as my husband heard we had arrived, he came,
too. After dinner he sat smoking, the solitary chair of the
apartment tilted against the door as he smoked, and my
poor dresses were fumigated. I remonstrated feebly.
" War times, " said he; " nobody is fussy now. When I
go back to Manassas to-morrow you will be awfully sorry
you snubbed me about those trumpery things up there."
So he smoked the pipe of peac"e, for I knew that his re-
69
June 27, 1861 RICHMOND, VA. July 4, 1861
marks were painfully true. As soon as he was once
more under the enemy's guns, I would repent in sackcloth
and ashes.
Captain Ingraham came with Colonel Lamar.1 The lat
ter said he could only stay five minutes; he was obliged
to go back at once to his camp. That was a little before
eight. However, at twelve he was still talking to us on
that sofa. We taunted him with his fine words to the
the F. F. V. crowd before the Spotswood : ' ' Virginia has
no grievance. She raises her strong arm to catch the blow
aimed at her weaker sisters." He liked it well, how
ever, that we knew his speech by heart.
This Spotswood is a miniature world. The war topic
is not so much avoided, as that everybody has some per
sonal dignity to take care of and everybody else is indiffer
ent to it. I mean the " personal dignity of " autrui. In
this wild confusion everything likely and unlikely is told
you, and then everything is as flatly contradicted. At any
rate, it is safest not to talk of the war.
Trescott was telling us how they laughed at little South
Carolina in Washington. People said it was almost as
large as Long Island, which is Hardly more than a tail-,
feather of New York. Always there is a child who sulks
and won't play; that was our role. And we were posing
as San Marino and all model-spirited, though small, re
publics, pose.
1 Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar, a native of Georgia and of
Huguenot descent, who got his classical names from his father: his
father got them from an uncle who claimed the privilege of bestowing
upon his nephew the full name of his favorite hero. When the war
began, Mr. Lamar had lived for some years in Mississippi, where he
had become successful as a lawyer and had been elected to Congress.
He entered the Confederate Army as the Colonel of a Mississippi regi
ment. He served in Congress after the war and was elected to the
United States Senate in 1877. In 1885 he became Secretary of the In
terior, and in 1888, a justice of the United States Supreme Court.
70
A TALK WITH PRESIDENT DAVIS
He tells us that Lincoln is a humorist. Lincoln sees
the fun of things ; he thinks if they had left us in a corner
or out in the cold a while pouting-, with our fingers in our
mouth, by hook or by crook he could have got us back, but
Anderson spoiled all.
In Mrs. Davis 's drawing-room last- night, the President
took a seat by me orLjthe sofa where I sat. He talked for
nearly an hour. He laughed at our faith in our own pow
ers. We are like the British. We think every Southerner
equal to three Yankees at least. We will have to be equiva
lent to a dozen now. After his experience of the fighting
qualities of Southerners in Mexico, he believes that wre will
do all that can foe- done,. by pluck and muscle, endurance,
and dogged courage, dash, and red-hot patriotism. And
yet his tone was not sanguine. There was a sad refrain
running through it all. For one thing, either way, he
thinks it will be a long war. That floored me at once. It
has been too long for me already. Then he said, before the
end came we would have many a bitter experience. He said
only fools doubted the courage of the Yankees, or their
willingness to fight when they saw fit. And now that we
have stung their pride, we have roused them till they will
fight like devils.
Mrs. Bradley Johnson is here, a regular heroine. She
outgeneraled the Governor of North Carolina in some way
and has got arms and clothes and ammunition for her hus
band 's regiment.1 There was some joke. The regimental
breeches were all wrong, but a tailor righted that — hind
part before, or something odd.
Captain Hartstein came to-day with Mrs. Bartow.
Colonel Bartow is Colonel of a Georgia regiment now in
1 Bradley Tyler Johnson, a native of Maryland, and graduate of
Princeton, who had studied law at Harvard. At the beginning of the
war he organized a company at his own expense in defense of the South.
He was the author of a Life of General Joseph E. Johnston.
71
June 27, 1861 RICHMOND, VA. July 4, 1861
Virginia. He was the Mayor of Savannah who helped to
wake the patriotic echoes the livelong night under my
sleepless head into the small hours in Charleston in No
vember last. His wife is a charming person, witty and wise,
daughter of Judge Berrieh. She had on a white muslin
apron with pink bows on the pockets. It gave her a gay
and girlish air, and yet she must be as old as I am.
Mr. Lamar, who does not love slavery more than Sumner
does, nor than I do, laughs at the compliment New England
pays us. We want to separate from them ; to be rid of the
Yankees forever at any price. And they hate us so, and
would clasp us, or grapple us, as Polonius has it, to their
bosoms ' ' with hooks of steel. ' ' We are an unwilling bride.
I think incompatibility of temper began when it was made
plain to us that we got all the opprobrium of slavery and
they all the money there was in it with their tariff.
Mr. Lamar says, the young men are light-hearted be
cause there is a fight on hand, but those few who look
ahead, the clear heads, they see all the risk, the loss of land,
limb, and life, home, wife, and children. As in ' ' the brave
days of old," they take to it for their country's sake.
They are ready and willing, come what may. But not so
light-hearted as the jeunesse doree.
June 29th. — Mrs. Preston, Mrs. Wigfall, Mary Hammy
and I drove in a fine open carriage to see the Champ de
Mars. It was a grand tableau out there. Mr. Davis rode
a beautiful gray horse, the Arab Edwin de Leon brought
him from Egypt. His worst enemy will allow that he is a
consummate rider, graceful and easy in the saddle, and Mr.
Chesnut, who has talked horse with his father ever since he
was born, owns that Mr. Davis knows more about horses
than any man he has met yet. General Lee was there with
him; also Joe Davis and Wigfall acting as his aides.
Poor Mr. Lamar has been brought from his camp —
paralysis or some sort of shock. Every woman in the house
is ready to rush into the Florence Nightingale business. I
72
L. Q. C. LAMAR
think I will wait for a wounded man, to make my first effort
as Sister of Charity. Mr. Lamar sent for me. As every
body went, Mr. Davis setting the example, so did I. Lamar
will not die this time. Will men flatter and make -eyes,
until their eyes close in death, at the ministering angels?
He was the same old Lamar of the drawing-room.
It is pleasant at the President's table. My seat is next
to Joe Davis, with Mr. Browne on the other side, and Mr.
Mallory opposite. There is great constraint, however. As
soon as I came I repeated what the North Carolina man
said on the cars, that North Carolina had 20,000 men ready
and they were kept back by Mr. Walker, etc. The Presi
dent caught something of what I was saying, and asked me
to repeat it, which I did, although I was scared to death.
1 * Madame, when you see that person tell him his statement
is false. We are too anxious here for troops to refuse a
man who offers himself, not to speak of 20,000 men." Si
lence ensued — of the most profound.
Uncle H. gave me three hundred dollars for his daugh
ter Mary's expenses, making four in all that I have of hers.
He would pay me one hundred, which he said he owed my
husband for a horse. I thought it an excuse to lend me
money. I told him I had enough and to spare for all my
needs until my Colonel came home from the wars.
Ben Allston, the Governor's son, is here — came to see
me ; does not show much of the wit of the Petigrus ; pleas
ant person, however. Mr. Brewster and Wigfall came at
the same time. The former, chafing at Wigf all's anoma
lous position here, gave him fiery advice. Mr. Wigfall was
calm and full of common sense. A brave man, and with
out a thought of any necessity for displaying his temper,
he said: " Brewster, at this time, before the country is
strong and settled in her new career, it would be disastrous
for us, the head men, to engage in a row among ourselves. ' '
As I was brushing flies away and fanning the prostrate
Lamar, I reported Mr. Davis 's conversation of the night
73
June 27, 1861 RICHMOND, VA. July 4, 1361
before. " He is all right," said Mr. Lamar, " the fight had
to come. We are men, not women. The quarrel had lasted
long enough. We hate each other sjo, the fight had to come.
Even Homer's heroes, after they had stormed and scolded
enough, fought like brave men, long and well. If the ath
lete, Sumner, had stood on his manhood and training and
struck back when Preston Brooks assailed him, Preston
Brooks 's blow need not have been the opening skirmish of
the war. Sumner 's country took up the fight because he
did not. Sumner chose his own battle-field, and it was the
worse for us. What an awful blunder that Preston
Brooks business was ! ' : Lamar said Yankees did not fight
for the fun of it ; they always made it pay or let it alone.
Met Mr. Lyon with news, indeed — a man here in the
midst of us, taken with Lincoln's passports, etc., in his
pocket — a palpable spy. Mr. Lyon said he would be hanged
—in all human probability, that is.
A letter from my husband written at Camp Pickens,
and saying : ' * If you and Mrs. Preston can make up your
minds to leave Richmond, and can come up to a nice little
country house near Orange Court House, we could come to
see you frequently while the army is stationed here. It
would be a safe place for the present, near the scene of
action, and directly in the line of news from all sides. ' ' So
we go to Orange Court House.
Read the story of Soulouque,1 the Haytian man : he has
wonderful interest just now. Slavery has to go, of course,
and joy go with it. These Yankees may kill us and lay
waste our land for a while, but conquer us — never !
July 4th. — Russell abuses us in his letters. People here
care a great deal for what Russell says, because he repre-
1 Faustin Elie Soulouque, a negro slave of Hayti, who, having been
freed, took part in the insurrection against the French in 1803, and rose
by successive steps until in August, 1849, by the unanimous action of
the parliament, he was proclaimed emperor.
74
A DRIVE TO CAMP
sents the London Times, and the Times reflects the
sentiment of the English people. How~^w_e_ do cling to
the idea of an alliance with England or France ! Without
France even Washington could not have done it.
We drove to the camp to see the President present a
flag to a Maryland regiment. Having lived on the battle
field (Kirkwood), near Camden,1 we have an immense re
spect for the Maryland line. When our militia in that
fight ran away, Colonel Howard and the Marylanders held
their own against Rawdon, Cornwallis, and the rest, and
everywhere around are places named for a doughty cap
tain killed in our defense — Kirkwood, De Kalb, etc. The
last, however, was a Prussian count. A letter from my
husband, written 'June 22d, has just reached me. He
says:
" We are very strongly posted, entrenched, and have
now at our command about 15,000 of the best troops in the
world. We have besides, two batteries of artillery, a regi
ment of cavalry, and daily expect a battalion of flying
artillery from Richmond. We have sent forward seven regi
ments of infantry and rifles toward Alexandria. Our out
posts have felt the enemy several times, and in every
instance the enemy recoils. General Johnston has had sev
eral encounters — the advancing columns of the two armies
— and with him, too, the enemy, although always superior
in numbers, are invariably driven back.
" There is great deficiency in the matter of ammuni
tion. General Johnston's command, in the very face of
overwhelming numbers, have only thirty rounds each. If
they had been well provided in this respect, they could and
would have defeated Cadwallader and Paterson with great
ease. I find the opinion prevails throughout the army that
1 At Camden in August, 1780, was fought a battle between General
Gates and Lord Cornwallis. in which Gates was defeated. In April of
the following year near Camden, Lord Rawdon defeated General Greene.
7 '75
June 27, 1861 RICHMOND, VA. July 4, 1861
there is great imbecility and shameful neglect in the War
Department.
te Unless the Republicans fall back, we must soon come
together on both lines, and have a decided engagement.
But the opinion prevails here that Lincoln's army will not
meet us if they can avoid it. They have already fallen
back before a slight check from 400 of Johnston's men.
They had 700 and were badly beaten. You have no idea
how dirty and irksome the camp life is. You would hardly
know your best friend in camp guise. ' '
Noise of drums, tramp of marching regiments all day
long; rattling of artillery wagons, bands of music, friends
from every quarter coming in. We ought to be miserable
and anxious, and yet these are pleasant days. Perhaps we
are unnaturally exhilarated and excited.
Heard some people in the drawing-room say: ' Mrs.
Davis 's ladies are not young, are not pretty, ' ' and I am one
of them. The truthfulness of the remark did not tend to
alleviate its bitterness. We must put Maggie Howell and
Mary Hammy in the foreground, as youth and beauty are
in request. At least they are young things — bright spots
in a somber-tinted picture. The President does not forbid
our going, but he is very much averse to it. We are con
sequently frightened by our own audacity, but we are
wilful women, and so -we go.
76
VIII
FAUQUIER WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, VA.
July 6, 1861— July 11, 1861
AUQUIER WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, Va..
July 6, 1861. — Mr. Brewster came here with us. The
cars were jammed with soldiers to the muzzle. They
were very polite and considerate, and we had an agreeable
journey, in spite of heat, dust, and crowd. Rev. Robert
Baruwell was with us. He means to organize a hospital for
sick and wounded. There was not an inch of standing-
room even; so dusty, so close, but everybody in tip-top
spirits.
Mr. Preston and Mr. Chesnut met us at Warrenton.
Saw across the lawn, but did not speak to them, some of
Judge Campbell's family. There they wander disconso
late, just outside the gates of their Paradise: a resigned
Judge of the Supreme Court of the United States : resigned,
and for a cause that he is hardly more than half in sympa
thy with, Judge Campbell ?s is one of the hardest cases.
July 7th. — This water is making us young again. How
these men enjoy the baths. They say Beauregard can stop
the way with sixty thousand: that many are coming.
An antique female, with every hair curled and frizzed,
said to be a Yankee spy, sits opposite us. Brewster sol
emnly wondered " with eternity and the judgment to come
so near at hand., how she could waste her few remaining
minutes curling her hair." He bade me be very polite, for
she would ask me questions. When we were walking away
77
July 6, 1861 FAUQUIER, VA. July 11, 1861
from table, I demanded his approval of my self-control
under such trying circumstances. It seems I was not as
calm and forbearing as I thought myself. Brewster an
swered with emphasis: " Do you always carry brickbats
like that in your pocket ready for the first word that of
fends you ? You must not do so, when you are with spies
from the other side." I do not feel at all afraid of spies
hearing anything through me, for I do not know anything.
But our men could not tarry with us in these cool
shades and comfortable quarters, with water unlimited, ex
cellent table, etc. They have gone back to Manassas, and
the faithful Brewster with them to bring us the latest news.
They left us in excellent spirits, which we shared until they
were out of sight. We went with them to Warrenton, and
then heard that General Johnston was in full retreat, and
that a column was advancing upon Beauregard. So we
came back, all forlorn. If our husbands are taken prison
ers, what will they do with them? Are they soldiers or
traitors ?
Mrs. Ould read us a letter from Richmond. How hor
rified they are there at Joe Johnston's retreating. And the
enemies of the War Department accuse Walker of not send
ing General Johnston ammunition in sufficient quantities;
say that is the real cause of his retreat. Now will they
not make the ears of that slow-coach, the Secretary of War,
buzz?
Mrs. Preston 's maid Maria has a way of rushing in —
" Don't you hear the cannon? " We fly to the windows,
lean out to our waists, pull all the hair away from our ears,
but can not hear it. Lincoln wants four hundred millions
of money and men in proportion. Can he get them? He
will find us a heavy handful. Midnight. I hear Maria's
guns.
We are always picking up some good thing of the rough
Illinoisan's saying. Lincoln objects to some man — " Oh,
he is too interruptions "; that is a horrid style of man or
78
MRS. DAVIDS LADIES DESCRIBED
woman, the inter ruptious. I know the thing, but had no
name for it before.
July 9th. — Our battle summer. May it be our first and
our last, so called. After all we have not had any of the
horrors of war. Could there have been a gayer, or pleas-
anter, life than we led in Charleston. And Montgomery,
how exciting it all was there! So many clever men and
women congregated from every part of the South. Mos
quitoes, and a want of neatness, and a want of good things
to eat, drove us away. In Richmond the girls say it is per
fectly delightful. We found it so, too, but the bickering
and quarreling have begun there.
At table to-day we heard Mrs. Davis 's ladies described.
They were said to wear red frocks and flats on their heads.
We sat mute as mice. One woman said she found the
drawing-room of the Spotswood was warm, stuffy, and
stifling. ' ' Poor soul, ' ' murmured the inevitable Brewster,
" and no man came to air her in the moonlight stroll, you
know. Why didn't somebody ask her out on the piazza to
see the comet? ': Heavens above, what philandering was
done in the name of the comet ! When you stumbled on a,
couple on the piazza they lifted their eyes, and " comet "
was the only word you heard. Brewster came back with
a paper from Washington with terrific threats of what
they will do to us. Threatened men live long.
There was a soft, sweet, low, and slow young lady oppo
site to us. She seemed so gentle and refined, and so un
certain of everything. Mr. Brewster called her Miss Albina
McClush, who always asked her maid when a new book was
mentioned, " Seraphina, have I perused that volume? "
Mary Hammy, having a fiance in the wars, is inclined
at times to be sad and tearful. Mrs. Preston quoted her
negro nurse to her: " Never take any more trouble in
your heart than you can kick off at the end of your toes."
July llth. — We did hear cannon to-day. The woman
who slandered Mrs. Davis 's republican court, of which we
79
July 6, 1861 FAUQUIER, VA. July 11, 1861
are honorable members, by saying they — well, were not
young ; that they wore gaudy colors, and dressed badly — I
took an inventory to-day as to her, charms. She is darkly,
deeply, beautifully freckled; she wears a wig which is
kept in place by a tiara of mock jewels ; she has the fattest
of arms and wears black bead bracelets.
The one who is under a cloud,, shadowed as a Yankee
spy, has confirmed our worst suspicions. She exhibited un
holy joy, as she reported seven hundred sick soldiers in the
hospital at Culpeper, and that Beauregard had sent a
flag of truce to Washington.
What a night we had ! Maria had seen suspicious per
sons hovering about all day, and Mrs. Preston a ladder
which could easily be placed so as to reach our rooms.
Mary Hammy saw lights glancing about among the trees,
and we all heard guns. So we sat up. Consequently, I am
writing in bed to-day. A letter from my husband saying,
in particular : ' * Our orders are to move on, ' ' the date, July
10th. " Here we are still and no more prospect of move
ment now than when I last wrote to you. It is true, how
ever, that the enemy is advancing slowly in our front, and
we are preparing to receive him. He comes in great force,
being more than three times our number."
The spy, so-called, gave us a parting shot : said Beaure
gard had arrested her brother in order that he might take a
fine horse which the aforesaid brother was riding. Why?
Beauregard, at a moment's notice, could have any horse in
South Carolina, or Louisiana, for that matter. This man
was arrested and sent to Richmond, and ' ' will be acquitted
as they always are," said Brewster. " They send them
first to Richmond to see and hear everything there; then
they acquit them, and send them out of the country by way
of Norfolk to see everything there. But, after all, what
does it matter 1 They have no need for spies : our newspa
pers keep no secrets hid. The thoughts of our hearts are all
revealed. Everything with us is open and aboveboard.
80
A HORSE FOR BEAUREGARD
" At Bethel the Yankees fired too high. Every daily
paper is jeering them about it yet. They'll fire low enough
next time, but no newspaper man will be there to get the
benefit of their improved practise, alas! "
81
IX
RICHMOND, VA.
July 13, 1861— September 2, 1861
ICHMOND, Va., July 13, 1861.— Now we feel safe
and comfortable. We can not be flanked. Mr. Pres
ton met us at Warrenton. Mr. Chesnut doubtless
had too many spies to receive from Washington, galloping
in with the exact numbers of the enemy done up in their
back hair.
Wade Hampton is here; Doctor Nott also — Nott and
Glyddon known to fame. Everybody is here, en route for
the army, or staying for the meeting of Congress.
Lamar is out on crutches. His father-in-law, once
known only as the humorist Longstreet,1 author of Geor
gia Scenes, now a staid Methodist, who has outgrown the
follies of his youth, bore him off to-day. They say Judge
Longstreet has lost the keen sense of fun that illuminated
his life in days of yore. Mrs. Lamar and her daughter
were here.
The President met us cordially, but he laughed at our
sudden retreat, with baggage lost, etc. He tried to keep us
from going ; said it was a dangerous experiment. Dare say
he knows more about the situation of things than he
chooses to tell us.
To-day in the drawing-room, saw a vivandiere in the
1 Augustus Baldwin Longstreet had great distinction in the South
as a lawyer, clergyman, teacher, journalist, and author, and was suc
cessively president of five different colleges. His Georgia Scenes, a
series of humorous papers, enjoyed great popularity for many years.
82
REV. ROBERT BARNWELL
flesh. She was in the uniform of her regiment, but wore
Turkish pantaloons. She frisked about in her hat and
feathers; did not uncover her head as a man would have
done; played the piano; and sang war-songs. She had no
drum, but she gave us rataplan. She was followed at
every step by a mob of admiring soldiers and boys.
Yesterday, as we left the cars, we had a glimpse of war.
It was the saddest sight : the memory of it is hard to shake
off — sick soldiers, not wounded ones. There were quite two
hundred (they said) lying about as best they might on the
platform. Robert Barnwell J was there doing all he could.
Their pale, ghastly faces ! So here is one of the horrors of
war we had not reckoned on. There were many good men
and women with Robert Barnwell, rendering all the service
possible in the circumstances.
Just now I happened to look up and saw Mr. Chesnut
with a smile on his face watching me from the passageway.
I flew across the room, and as I got half-way saw Mrs. Davis
touch him on the shoulder. She said he was to go at once
into Mr. Davis 's room, where General Lee and General
Cooper were. After he left us, Mrs. Davis told me General
Beauregard had sent Mr. Chesnut here on some army
business.
July 14th. — Mr. Chesnut remained closeted with the
President and General Lee all the afternoon. The news
does not seem pleasant. At least, he is not inclined to tell
me any of it. He satisfied himself with telling me how sen
sible and soldierly this handsome General Lee is. General
Lee's military sagacity was also his theme. Of course the
President dominated the party, as well by his weight of
brain as by his position. I did not care a fig for a descrip
tion of the war council. I wanted to know what is in
the wind now ?
1 Rev. Robert Barnwell, nephew of Hon. Robert BaraweHy-estab-
lished in Richmond a "hospital for South Carolinians.
83
July 13, 1861 RICHMOND, VA. Sept. 2, 1861
July 16th. — Dined to-day at the President's table. Joe
Davis, the nephew, asked me if I liked white port wine. I
said I did not know ; ' l all that I ha,d ever known had been
dark red. " So he poured me out a glass. I drank it, and
it nearly burned up my mouth and throat. It was horrid,
but I did not let him see how it annoyed me. I pretended to
be glad that any one found me still young enough to play
off a practical joke upon me. It was thirty years since I
had thought of such a thing.
Met Colonel Baldwin in the drawing-room. He pointed
significantly to his Confederate colonel's buttons and gray
coat. At the White Sulphur last summer he was a ' ' Union
man " to the last point. " How much have you changed
besides your coat ? " "I was always true to our country, ' '
he said. " She leaves me no choice now."
As far as I can make out, Beauregard sent Mr. Chesnut
to the President to gain permission for the forces of Joe
Johnston and Beauregard to join, and, united, to push the
enemy, if possible, over the Potomac. Now every day we
grow weaker and they stronger; so we had better give a
telling blow at once. Already, we begin to cry out for
more ammunition, and already the blockade is beginning to
shut it,.all out.
A young Emory is here. His mother writes him to go
back. Her Franklin blood certainly calls him with no un
certain sound to the Northern side, while his fatherland is
wavering and undecided, split in half by factions. Mrs.
Wigf all says he is half inclined to go. She wondered that
he did not. With a father in the enemy's army, he will
always be " suspect " here, let the President and Mrs. Da
vis do for him what they will.
I did not know there was such a " bitter cry " left in
me, but I wept my heart away to-day when my husband
went off. Things do look so black. When he comes up
here he rarely brings his body-servant, a negro man. Law
rence has charge of all Mr. Chesnut 's things — watch,
84
GENERAL COOPER RADIANT
clothes, and two or three hundred gold pieces that lie in the
tray of his trunk. All these, papers, etc., he tells Lawrence
to bring to me if anything happens to him. But I said:
" Maybe he will pack off to the Yankees and freedom
with all that." " Fiddlesticks! He is not going to leave
me for anybody else. After all, what can he eveij be, bet
ter than he is now — a gentleman's gentleman? " " He is
within sound of the enemy's guns, and when he gets to the
other army he is free." Maria said of Mr. Preston's man:
11 What he want with anything more, ef he was free?
Don't he live just as well as Mars John do now? ':
Mrs. McLane, Mrs. Joe Johnston, Mrs. Wigf all, all came.
I am sure so many clever women could divert a soul in
extremis. The Hampton Legion all in a snarl — about, I
forget what; standing on their dignity, I suppose. I have
come to detest a man who says, ' * My own personal dignity
and self-respect require." I long to cry, " No need to re
spect yourself until you can make other people do it."
July 19th. — Beauregard telegraphed yesterday (they
say, to General Johnston), " Come down and help us, or we
shall be crushed by numbers. ' ' The President telegraphed
General Johnston to move down to Beauregard 's aid. At
Bull Run, Bonham's Brigade, Ewell's, and Longstreet's
encountered the foe and repulsed him. Six hundred pris
oners have been sent here.
I arose, as the Scriptures say, and washed my face
and anointed my head and went down-stairs. At the
foot of them stood General Cooper, radiant, one finger ner
vously arranging his shirt collar, or adjusting his neck to
it after his fashion. He called out : * ' Your South Carolina
man, Bonham, has done a capital thing at Bull Run — driv
en back the enemy, if not defeated him; with killed and
prisoners/' etc., etc. Clingman came to tell the particulars,
and Colonel Smith (one of the trio with Garnett, McClel-
lan, who were sent to Europe to inspect and report on mil
itary matters). Poor Garnett is killed. There was cow-
85
July 13, 1861 RICHMOND, VA. Sept. 2, 1861
ardice or treachery on the part of natives up there, or
some of Governor Letcher 's appointments to military posts.
I hear all these things said. I dp not understand, but it
was a fatal business.
Mrs. McLane says she finds we do not believe a word of
any news unless it comes in this guise: " A great battle
fought. Not one Confederate killed. Enemy's loss in
killed, wounded, and prisoners taken by us, immense." I
was in hopes there would be no battle until Mr. Chesnut
was forced to give up his amateur aideship to come and at
tend to his regular duties in the Congress.
Keitt has come in. He says Bonham 's battle was a skir
mish of outposts. Joe Davis, Jr., said: " Would Heaven
only send us a Napoleon! " Not one bit of use. If
Heaven did, Walker would not give him a commission.
Mrs. Davis and Mrs. Joe Johnston, " her dear Lydia," were
in fine spirits. The effect upon nous autres was evident;
we rallied visibly. South Carolina troops pass every day.
They go by with a gay step. Tom Taylor and John Rhett
bowed to us from their horses as we leaned out of the win
dows. Such shaking of handkerchiefs. We are forever at
the windows.
It was not such a mere skirmish. We took three rifled
cannon and six hundred stands of arms. Mr. Davis has
gone to Manassas. He did not let Wigfall know he was
going. That ends the delusion of Wigf all's aideship. No
mistake to-day. I was too ill to move out of my bed. So
they all sat in my room.
July 2 3d. — Mrs. Davis came in so softly that I did not
know she was here until she leaned over me and said : ' ' A
great battle has been fought.1 Joe Johnston led the right
1 The first battle of Bull Run, or Manassas, fought on July 21, 1861,
the Confederates being commanded by General Beauregard, and the
Federals by General McDowell. Bull Run is a small stream tributary
to the Potomac.
REPORTS OF THE BATTLE
wing, and Beauregard the left wing of the army. Your
husband is all right. Wade Hampton is wounded.
Colonel Johnston of the Legion killed; so are Colonel Bee
and Colonel Bartow. Kirby Smith1 is wounded or killed."
I had no breath to speak ; she went on in that desperate,
calm way, to which people betake themselves under the
greatest excitement: " Bartow, rallying his men, leading
them into the hottest of the fight, died gallantly at the head
of his regiment. The President telegraphs me only that ' it
is a great victory.' General Cooper has all the other tele
grams. ' '
Still I said nothing ; I was stunned ; then I was so grate
ful. Those nearest and dearest to me were safe still. She
then began, in the same concentrated voice, to read from a
paper she held in her hand : ' ' Dead and dying cover the
field. Sherman's battery taken. Lynchburg regiment cut
to pieces. Three hundred of the Legion wounded."
That got me up. Times were too wild with excitement
to stay in bed. We went into Mrs. Preston's room, and she
made me lie down on her bed. Men, women, and children
streamed in. Every living soul had a story to tell. ' ' Com
plete victory," you heard everywhere. We had been such
anxious wretches. The revulsion of feeling was almost too
much to bear.
To-day I met my friend, Mr. Hunter. I was on my
way to Mrs. Bartow 's room and begged him to call at some
other time. I was too tearful just then for a morning visit
from even the most sympathetic person.
A woman from Mrs. Bartow 's country was in a fury
because they had stopped her as she rushed to be the first
to tell Mrs. Bartow her husband was killed, it having been
1 Edmund Kirby Smith, a native of Florida, who had graduated
from West Point, served in the Mexican War, and been Professor of
Mathematics at West Point. He resigned his commission in the United
States Army after the secession of Florida.
87
July 13, 1861 RICHMOND, VA. Sept. 2, 1861
decided that Mrs. Davis should tell her. Poor thing ! She
was found lying on her bed when Mrs. Davis knocked.
* * Come in, ' ' she said. When she saw it was Mrs. Davis, she
sat up, ready to spring to her feet, but then there was some
thing in Mrs. Davis 's pale face that took the life out of her.
She stared at Mrs. Davis, then sank back, and covered her
face as she asked: " Is it bad news for me? " Mrs. Davis
did not speak. " Is he killed? " Afterward Mrs. Bartow
said to me : " As soon as I saw Mrs. Davis 's face I could not
say one word. I knew it all in an instant. I knew it be
fore I wrapped the shawl about my head. ' '
Maria, Mrs. Preston's maid, furiously patriotic, came
into my room. " These colored people say it is printed in
the papers here that the Virginia people done it all. Now
Mars Wade had so many of his men killed and he
wounded, it stands to reason that South Carolina was no
ways backward. If there was ever anything plain, that's
plain."
Tuesday. — Witnessed for the first time a military
funeral. As that march came wailing up, they say Mrs.
Partow fainted. The empty saddle and the led war-horse
— we saw and heard it all, and now it seems we are never out
of the sound of the Dead March in Saul. It comes and it
comes, until I feel inclined to close my ears and scream.
Yesterday, Mrs. Singleton and ourselves sat on a bed
side and mingled our tears for those noble spirits — John
Darby, Theodore Barker, and James Lowndes. To-day we
find we wasted our grief ; they are not so much as wounded.
I dare say all the rest is true about them — in the face of the
enemy, with flags in their hands, leading their men. ' But
Dr. Darby is a surgeon. " He is as likely to forget that as I
am. He is grandson of Colonel Thomson of the Revolution,
called, by way of pet name, by his soldiers, " Old Danger/'
Thank Heaven they are all quite alive. And we will not
cry next time until officially notified.
July 24th. — Here Mr. Chesnut opened my door and
88
STONEWALL JACKSON
walked in. Out of the fulness of the heart the mouth
speaketh. I had to ask no questions. He gave me an ac
count of the battle as he saw it (walking up and down my
room, occasionally seating himself on a window sill, but
too restless to remain still many moments) ; and told what
regiments he was sent to bring up. He took the orders to
Colonel Jackson, whose regiment stood so stock still under
fire that they were called a " stone wall." Also, they call
Beauregard, Eugene, and Johnston, Marlboro. Mr. Ches-
nut rode with Lay's cavalry after the retreating enemy in
the pursuit, they following them until midnight. Then
there came such a fall of rain — rain such as is only known
in semitropical lands.
In the drawing-room, Colonel Chesnut was the lt belle
of the ball ' ' ; they crowded him so for news. He was the
first arrival that they could get at from the field of
battle. But the women had to give way to the dignitaries
of the land, who were as filled with curiosity as them
selves — Mr. Barnwell, Mr. Hunter, Mr. Cobb, Captain In-
graham, etc.
Wilmot de Saussure says Wilson of Massachusetts, a
Senator of the United States,1 came to Manassas, en route
to Richmond, with his dancing shoes ready for a festive
scene which was to celebrate a triumph. The New York
Tribune said: " In a few days we shall have Richmond,
Memphis, and New Orleans. They must be taken and at
once. ' ' For ' ' a few days ' ' maybe now they will modestly
substitute ' l in a few years. ' '
They brought me a Yankee soldier's portfolio from the
battle-field. The letters had been franked bv Senator Har-
1 Henry Wilson, son of a farm laborer and self-educated, who rose
to much prominence in the Anti-Slavery contests before the war. He
was elected United States Senator from Massachusetts in 1855, holding
the office until 1873, when he resigned, having been elected Vice-Presi-
dent of the United States on the ticket with Ulysses S. Grant.
89
July 13, 1861 RICHMOND, VA. Sept. 2, 1861
Ian.1 One might shed tears over some of the letters.
Women, wives and mothers, are the same everywhere.
What a comfort the spelling was ! We had been willing to
admit that their universal free-School education had put
them, rank and file, ahead of us literarily, but these letters
do not attest that fact. The spelling is comically bad.
July 27th. — Mrs. Davis 's drawing-room last night was
brilliant, and she was in great force. Outside a mob called
for the President. He did speak — an old war-horse, who
scents the battle-fields from afar. His enthusiasm was con
tagious. They called for Colonel Chesnut, and he gave
them a capital speech, too. As public speakers say some
times, " It was the proudest moment of my life." I did
not hear a great deal of it, for always, when anything hap
pens of any moment, my heart beats up in my ears, but the
distinguished Carolinians who crowded round told me
how good a speech he made. I was dazed. There goes the
Dead March for some poor soul.
To-day, the President told us at dinner that Mr. Ches
nut 's eulogy of Bartow in the Congress was highly praised.
Men liked it. Two eminently satisfactory speeches in twen
ty-four hours is doing pretty well. And now I could be
happy, but this Cabinet of ours are in such bitter quarrels
among themselves — everybody abusing everybody.
Last night, while those splendid descriptions of the bat
tle were being given to the crowd below from our windows,
I said: " Then, why do we not go on to Washington? "
* You mean why did they not; the opportunity is lost."
Mr. Barnwell said to me: " Silence, we want to listen to
the speaker," and Mr. Hunter smiled compassionately,
" Don't ask awkward questions."
Kirby Smith came down on the turnpike in the very
nick of time. Still, the heroes who fought all day and
1 James Harlan, United States Senator from Iowa from 1855 to
1865. In 1865 he was appointed Secretary of the Interior.
90
THE LAST OPPORTUNITY
held the Yankees in check deserve credit beyond words, or
it would all have been over before the Joe Johnston contin
gent came. It is another case of the eleventh-hour scrape ;
the eleventh-hour men claim all the credit, and they who
bore the heat and brunt and burden of the day do not
like that.
Everybody said at first, " Pshaw! There will be no
war. ' ' Those who foresaw evil were called ravens, ill-f ore-
boders. Now the same sanguine people all cry, " The war
is over " — the very same who were packing to leave Rich
mond a few days ago. Many were ready to move on at a
moment's warning, when the good news came. There are
such owls everywhere.
But, to revert to the other kind, the sage and circum
spect, those who say very little, but that little shows they
think the war barely begun. Mr. Rives and Mr. Seddon
have just called. Arnoldus Van der Horst came to see me
at the same time. He said there was no great show of vic
tory on our side until two o'clock, but when we began to
win, we did it in double-quick time. I mean, of course, the
battle last Sunday.
Arnold Harris told Mr. Wigfall the news from Wash
ington last Sunday. For hours the telegrams reported at
rapid intervals, " Great victory," " Defeating them at all
points." The couriers began to come in on horseback, and
at last, after two or three o 'clock, there was a sudden cessa
tion of all news. About nine messengers with bulletins
came on foot or on horseback — wounded, weary, draggled,
footsore, panic-stricken — spreading in their path on every
hand terror and dismay. That was our opportunity. Wig-
fall can see nothing that could have stopped us, and when
they explain why we did not go to Washington I under
stand it all less than ever. Yet here we will dilly-dally,
and Congress orate, and generals parade, until they in the
North get up an army three times as large as McDowell's,
which we have just defeated.
8 91
July 13, 1861 RICHMOND, VA. Sept. 2, 1861
Trescott says this victory will be our ruin. It lulls us
into a fool 's paradise of conceit at our superior valor, and
e shameful farce of their flight will wake every inch of
their manhood. It was the very fillip they needed. There
are a quieter sort here who know their Yankees well. They
say if the thing begins to pay — government contracts, and
all that — we will never hear the end of it, at least, until
they get their pay in some way out of us. They will not
lose money by us. Of that we may be sure. Trust Yankee
shrewdness and vim for that.
There seems to be a battle raging at Bethel, but no mor
tal here can be got to think of anything but Manassas.
Mrs. McLean says she does not see that it was such a great
victory, and if it be so great, how can one defeat hurt a
nation like the North.
John Waties fought the whole battle over for me. Now
I understand it. Before this nobody would take the time
to tell the thing consecutively, rationally, and in order.
Mr. Venable said he did not see a braver thing done than
the cool performance of a Columbia negro. He carried his
master a bucket of ham and rice, which he had cooked for
him, and he cried : ' ' You must be so tired and hungry,
marster ; make haste and eat. ' ' This was in the thickest of
the fight, under the heaviest of the enemy 's guns.
The Federal Congressmen had been making a picnic of
it: their luggage was all ticketed to Richmond. Cameron
has issued a proclamation. They are making ready to come
after us on a magnificent scale. They acknowledge us at
last foemen worthy of their steel. The Lord help us, since
England and France won't, or don't. If we could only
get a friend outside and open a port.
One of these men told me he had seen a Yankee prisoner,
who asked him ' ' what sort of a diggins Richmond was for
trade." He was tired of the old concern, and would like
to take the oath and settle here. They brought us hand
cuffs found in the debacle of the Yankee army. For whom
92
ROBERT E. LEE
were they? Jeff Davis, no doubt, and the ringleaders.
' * Tell that to the marines. ' ' We have outgrown the hand
cuff business on this side of the water.
Dr. Gibbes says he was at a country house near Manas-
sas, when a Federal soldier, who had lost his way, came in
exhausted. He asked for brandy, which the lady of the
house gave him. Upon second thought, he declined it. She
brought it to him so promptly he said he thought it might
be poisoned; his mind was; she was enraged, and said:
' ' Sir, I am a Virginia woman. Do you think I could be as
base as that ? Here, Bill, Tom, disarm this man. He is our
prisoner. " The negroes came running, and the man sur
rendered without more ado.
Another Federal was drinking at the well. A negro
girl said : ' ' You go in and see Missis. ' ' The man went in
and she followed, crying triumphantly : ' ' Look here, Mis
sis, I got a prisoner, too ! ' ' This lady sent in her two pris
oners, and Beauregard complimented her on her pluck and
patriotism, and her presence of mind. These negroes were
rewarded by their owners.
Now if slavery --4s- as disagreeable to negroes as we think
it, why don 't they all march over the border where they
would be received with open arms? It all amazes me. I
am always studying these creatures. They are to me in
scrutable in their way and past finding out. Our negroes
were not ripe for John Brown.
This is how I saw Robert E. Lee for the first time:
though his family, then living at Arlington, called to see
me while I was in Washington (I thought because of old
Colonel Chesnut's intimacy with Nellie Custis in the old
Philadelphia days, Mrs. Lee being Nelly Custis 's niece), I
had not known the head of the Lee family. He was some
where with the army then.
Last summer at the White Sulphur were Roony Lee and
his wife, that sweet little Chailotte Wickam, and I spoke of
Roony with great praise. Mrs. Izard said: " Don't waste
93
July 13, 1861 RICHMOND, VA. Sept. 2, 1861
your admiration on him ; wait till you see his father. He
is the nearest to a perfect man I ever saw." "How? "
" In every way — handsome, clever, agreeable, high-bred."
Now, Mrs. Stanard came for Mrs. Preston and me to
drive to the camp in an open carriage. A man riding a
beautiful horse joined us. He wore a hat with something
of a military look to it, sat his horse gracefully, and was
so distinguished at all points that I very much regretted
not catching his name as Mrs. Stanard gave it to us. He,
however, heard ours, and bowed as gracefully as he rode,
and the few remarks he made to each of us showed he knew
all about us.
But Mrs. Stanard was in ecstasies of pleasurable excite
ment. I felt that she had bagged a big fish, for just then
they abounded in Richmond. Mrs. Stanard accused him
of being ambitious, etc. He remonstrated and said his
tastes were " of the simplest." He only wanted " a Vir
ginia farm, no end of cream and fresh butter and fried
chicken — not one fried chicken, or two, but unlimited fried
chicken. ' '
To all this light chat did we seriously incline, be
cause the man and horse and everything about him were
so fine-looking; perfection, in fact; no fault to be found if
you hunted for it. As he left us, I said eagerly, " Who is
he? " " You did not know! Why, it was Robert E. Lee,
son of Light Horse Harry Lee, the first man in Virginia,"
raising her voice as she enumerated his glories. All the
same, I like Smith Lee better, and I like his looks, too. I
know Smith Lee well. Can anybody say they know his
brother ? I doubt it. He looks so cold, quiet, and grand.
Kirby Smith is our Bliicher ; he came on the field in the
nick of time, as Bliicher at Waterloo, and now we are as the
British, who do not remember Bliicher. It is all Welling
ton. So every individual man I see fought and won the
battle. From Kershaw up and down, all the eleventh-hour
men won the battle; turned the tide. The Marylanders —
94
" STONEWALL " JACKSON.
)SKPH E. JOHNSTON.
JOHN B. HOOD. ALBERT SIDNEY JOHNSTON.
A GROUP OF CONFEDERATE GENERALS.
JUDGE WIGFALL AND MR. DAVIS
Elzey & Co. — one never hears of — as little as one hears of
Bliicher in the English stories of Waterloo.
Mr. Venable was praising Hugh Garden and Kershaw's
regiment generally. This was delightful. They are my
friends and neighbors at home. I showed him Mary Stark 's
letter, and we agreed with her. At the bottom of our hearts
we believe every Confederate soldier to be a hero, sans peur
et sans reproche.
Hope for the best to-day. Things must be on a pleas- (
anter footing all over the world. Met the President in the 1
corridor. He took me by both hands. "Have you break
fasted? " said he. " Come in and breakfast with me? "
Alas ! I had had my breakfast.
At the public dining-room, where I had taken my break
fast with Mr. Chesnut, Mrs. Davis came to him, while we
were at table. She said she had been to our rooms. She
wanted Wigfall hunted up. Mr. Davis thought Chesnut
would be apt to know his whereabouts. I ran to Mrs. Wig-
fairs room, who told me she was sure he could be found
with his regiment in camp, but Mr. Chesnut had not to go to
the camp, for Wigfall came to his wife's room while I was
there. Mr. Davis and Wigfall would be friends, if — if—
The Northern papers say we hung and quartered a
Zouave ; cut him into four pieces ; and that we tie prisoners
to a tree and bayonet them. In other words, we are sav
ages. It ought to teach us not to credit what our papers
say of them. It is so absurd an imagination of evil. We are
absolutely treating their prisoners as well as our own men :
we are complained of for it here. I am going to the hos
pitals for the enemy 's sick and wounded in order to see for
myself.
Why did we not follow the flying foe across the Poto
mac? That is the question of the hour in the drawing-
room with those of us who are not contending as to " who
took Rickett's Battery? " Allen Green, for one, took it.
Allen told us that, finding a portmanteau with nice clean
95
July 13, 1861 RICHMOND, VA. Sept. 2, 1861
shirts, he was so hot and dusty he stepped behind a tree
and put on a clean Yankee shirt, and was more comfortable.
The New York Tribune soothes the Yankee self-conceit,
which has received a shock, by saying we had 100,000 men
on the field at Manassas ; we had a^out 15,000 effective men
in all. And then, the Tribune tries to inflame and envenom
them against us by telling lies as to our treatment of pris
oners. They say when they come against us next it will be
in overwhelming force. I long to see Russell 's letter to the
London Times about Bull Run and Manassas. It will be
rich and rare. In Washington, it is crimination and re
crimination. Well, let them abuse one another to their
hearts' content.
August 1st.— Mrs. Wigfall, with the " Lone Star " flag
in her carriage, called for me. We drove to the fair
grounds. Mrs. Davis 's landau, with her spanking bays,
rolled along in front of us. The fair grounds are as cov
ered with tents, soldiers, etc., as ever. As one regiment
moves off to the army, a fresh one from home comes to be
mustered in and take its place.
The President, with his aides, dashed by. My husband
was riding with him. The President presented the flag to
the Texans. Mr. Chesnut carne to us for the flag, and bore
it aloft to the President. We seemed to come in for part of
the glory. We were too far off to hear the speech, but Jeff
Davis is very good at that sort of thing, and we were sat
isfied that it was well done.
Heavens! how that redoubtable Wigfall did rush those
poor Texans about! He maneuvered and marched them
until I was weary for their sakes. Poor fellows; it was a
hot afternoon in August and the thermometer in the nine
ties. Mr. Davis uncovered to speak. Wigfall replied with
his hat on. Is that military ?
At the fair grounds to-day, such music, mustering, and
marching, such cheering and flying of flags, such firing of
guns and all that sort of thing. A gala day it wavS, with
96
TOOMBS UNHORSED, MOUNTS AGAIN
double-distilled Fourth-of-July feeling. In the midst of
it all, a messenger came to tell Mrs. Wigfall that a telegram
had been received, saying her children were safe across the
lines in Gordonsville. That was something to thank God
for, without any doubt.
These two little girls came from somewhere in Connecti
cut, with Mrs. Wigf all's sister — the one who gave me my
Bogotsky, the only person in the world, except Susan Rut-
ledge who ever seemed to think I had a soul to save. Now
suppose Seward had held Louisa and Fanny as hostages
for Louis Wigfall 's good behavior ; eh ?
Excitement number two : that bold brigadier, the Geor
gia General Toombs, charging about too recklessly, got
thrown. His horse dragged him up to the wheels of our
carriage. For a moment it was frightful. Down there
among the horses' hoofs was a face turned up toward us,
purple with rage. His foot was still in the stirrup, and he
had not let go the bridle. The horse was prancing over him,
tearing and plunging ; everybody was hemming him in, and
they seemed so slow and awkward about it. We felt it an
eternity, looking down at him, and expecting him to be
killed before our very faces. However, he soon got it all
straight, and, though awfully tousled and tumbled, dusty,
rumpled, and flushed, with redder face and wilder hair
than ever, he rode oft' gallantly, having to our admiration
bravely remounted the recalcitrant charger.
Now if I were to pick out the best abused one, where all
catch it so bountifully, I should say Mr. Commissary-Gen
eral Northrop was the most ' * cussed ' ' and villified man in
the Confederacy. He is held accountable for everything
that goes wrong in the army. He may not be efficient, but
having been a classmate and crony of Jeff Davis at West
Point, points the moral and adorns the tale. I hear that
alluded to oftenest of his many crimes. They say Beaure-
gard writes that his army is upon the verge of starvation.
Here every man, woman, and child is ready to hang to the
97
July 13, 1861 RICHMOND, VA. Sept. 2, 1*61
first lamp-post anybody of whom that army complains.
Every Manassas soldier is a hero dear to our patriotic
hearts. Put up with any neglect of the heroes of the 21st
July — never !
And now they say we did not move on right after the
flying foe because we had no provisions, no wagons, no
ammunition, etc. Rain, mud, and Northrop. Where were
the enemy's supplies that we bragged so of bagging? Echo
answers where ? Where there is a will there is a way. We
stopped to plunder that rich convoy, and somehow, for a
day or so, everybody thought the war was over and stopped
to rejoice: so it appeared here. All this was our dinner-
table talk to-day. Mr. Mason dined with us and Mr. Barn-
well sits by me always. The latter reproved me sharply,
but Mr. Mason laughed at " this headlong, unreasonable
woman 's harangue and female tactics and their war- ways. ' '
A freshet in the autumn does not compensate for a drought
in the spring. Time and tide wait for no man, and there
was a tide in our affairs which might have led to Washing
ton, and we did not take it and lost our fortune this
round. Things which nobody could deny.
McClellan virtually supersedes the Titan Scott.
Physically General Scott is the largest man I ever saw.
Mrs. Scott said, " nobody but his wife could ever know
how little he was." And yet they say, old Winneld Scott
could have organized an army for them if they had had
patience. They would not give him time.
August 3d. — Prince Jerome 1 has gone to Washington.
Now the Yankees so far are as little trained as we are ; raw
troops are they as yet. Suppose France takes the other side
1 Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte, a grandson of Napoleon Bonaparte's
brother Jerome and of Elizabeth Patterson of Baltimore. He was a
graduate of West Point, but had entered the French Army, where he
saw service in the Crimea, Algiers, and Italy, taking part in the battle
of Balaklava, the siege of Sebastopol, and the battle of Solferino. He
died in Massachusetts in 1893.
98
BEAUREGARD AND JORDAN:
and we have to meet disciplined and armed men, soldiers
who understand war, Frenchmen, with all the elan we
boast of.
Ransom Calhoun, Willie Preston, and Doctor Nott's
boys are here. These foolish, rash, hare-brained Southern
lads have been within an ace of a fight with a Maryland
company for their camping grounds. It is much too Irish
to be so ready to fight anybody, friend or foe. Men are
thrilling with fiery ardor. The red-hot Southern martial
spirit is in the air. These young men, however, were all
educated abroad. And it is French or German ideas that
they are filled with. The Marylanders were as rash and
reckless as the others, and had their coat-tails ready for
anybody to tread on, Donny brook Fair fashion. One would
think there were Yankees enough and to spare for any kill
ing to be done. It began about picketing their horses. But
these quarrelsome young soldiers have lovely manners.
They are so sweet-tempered when seen here among us at
the Arlington.
August 5th. — A heavy, heavy heart. Another missive
from Jordan, querulous and fault-finding; things are all
wrong — Beauregard's Jordan had been crossed, not the
stream " in Canaan's fair and happy land, where our pos
sessions lie. ' ' They seem to feel that the war is over here,
except the President and Mr. Barnwell ; above all that fore
boding friend of mine, Captain Ingraham. He thinks it
hardly begun.
Another outburst from Jordan. Beauregard is not sec
onded properly. Helas! To think that any mortal gen
eral (even though he had sprung up in a month or so from
captain of artillery to general) could be so puffed up with
vanity, so blinded by any false idea of his own consequence
as to write, to intimate that man, or men, would sacrifice
their country, injure themselves, ruin their families, to
spite the aforesaid general ! Conceit and self-assertion can
never reach a higher point than that. And yet they give
99
RICHMOND, VA. Sept. 2,
you to understand I\Ir. Davis does riot like Beauregard. In
point of fact they fancy he is jealous of him, and rather
than Beauregard shall have a showing the President (who
would be hanged at least if things go wrong) will cripple
the army to spite Beauregard. Mr. Mallory says, 4' How
we could laugh, but you see it is no laughing matter to have
our fate in the hands of such self-sufficient, vain, army
idiots." So the amenities of life are spreading.
In the meantime we seem to be resting on our oars, de
bating in Congress, while the enterprising Yankees are
quadrupling their army at their leisure. Every day some
of our regiments march away from here. The town is
crowded with soldiers. These new ones are fairly running
in ; fearing the war will be over before they get a sight of
the fun. Every man from every little precinct wants a
place in the picture.
Tuesday. — The North requires 600,000 men to invade us.
Truly we are a formidable power! The Herald says it is
useless to move with a man less than that. England has made
it all up with them, or rather, she will not break with them.
Jerome Napoleon is in Washington and not our friend.
Doctor Gibbes is a bird of ill omen. To-day he tells me
eight of our men have died at the Charlottesville Hospital.
It seems sickness is more redoubtable in an army than the
enemy's guns. There are 1,100 there liors de combat, and
typhoid fever is with them. They want money, clothes,
and nurses. So, as I am writing, right and left the letters
fly, calling for help from the sister societies at home. Good
and patriotic women at home are easily stirred to their work.
Mary Hammy has many strings to her bow — a fiance in
the army, and Doctor Berrien in town. To-day she drove
out with Major Smith and Colonel Hood. Yesterday, Cus-
tis Lee was here. She is a prudent little puss and needs no
good advice, if I were one to give it.
Lawrence does all our shopping. All his master's money
has been in his hands until now. I thought it injudicious
100
A SWORD FROM BULL * HUN
when gold is at such a premium to leave it lying loose in
the tray of a trunk. So I have sewed it up in a belt, which
I can wear upon an emergency. The cloth is wadded and
my diamonds are there, too. It has strong strings, and can
be tied under my hoops about my waist if the worst comes
to the worst, as the saying is. Lawrence wears the same
bronze mask. No sign of anything he may feel or think of
my latest fancy. Only, I know he asks for twice as much
money now when he goes to buy things.
August 8th. — To-day I saw a sword captured at Manas-
sas. The man who brought the sword, in the early part
of the fray, was taken prisoner by the Yankees. They
stripped him, possessed themselves of his sleeve-buttons,
and were in the act of depriving him of his boots when the
rout began and the play was reversed; proceedings then
took the opposite tack.
From a small rill in the mountain has flowed the mighty
stream which has made at last Louis Wigfall the worst
enemy the President has in the Congress, a fact which com
plicates our affairs no little. Mr. Davis 's hands ought to
be strengthened ; he ought to be upheld. A divided house
must fall, we all say.
Mrs. Sam Jones, who is called Becky by her friends and
cronies, male and female, said that Mrs. Pickens had con
fided to the aforesaid Jones (nee Taylor, and so of the
President Taylor family and cousin of Mr. Davis 's first
wife), that Mrs. Wigfall " described Mrs. Davis to Mrs.
Pickens as a coarse Western woman. ' ' Now the fair Lucy
Holcombe and Mrs. Wigfall had a quarrel of their own out
in Texas, and, though reconciled, there was bitterness un
derneath. At first, Mrs. Joe Johnston called Mrs. Davis
" a Western belle/'1 but when the quarrel between Gen-
1 Mrs. Davis was born in Natchez, Mississippi, and educated in
Philadelphia. She was married to Mr. Davis in 1845. In recent years
her home has been in New York City, where she still resides (Dec. 1904).
101
; fiiCHMOND, VA. Sept. 2, 1861
eral Johnston and the President broke out, Mrs. Johnston
took back the ' ' belle ' ' and substituted * l woman ' ' in the
narrative derived from Mrs. Jones.
Commodore Barron *• came with glad tidings. We had
taken three prizes at sea, and brought them in safely, one
laden with molasses. General Toombs told us the President
complimented Mr. Chesnut when he described the battle
scene to his Cabinet, etc. General Toombs is certain Colonel
Chesnut will be made one of the new batch of brigadiers.
Next came Mr. Clayton, who calmly informed us Jeff Davis
would not get the vote of this Congress for President, so
we might count him out.
Mr. Meynardie first told us how pious a Christian sol
dier was Kershaw, how he prayed, got up, dusted his knees
and led his men on to victory with a dash and courage
equal to any Old Testament mighty man of war.
Governor Manning's account of Prince Jerome Napo
leon: " He is stout and he is not handsome. Neither
is he young, and as he reviewed our troops he was ter
ribly overheated.'' He heard him say " en avant," of
that he could testify of his own knowledge, and he was
told he had been heard to say with unction " Allons "
more than once. The sight of the battle-field had made
the Prince seasick, and he received gratefully a draft of
fiery whisky.
Arrago seemed deeply interested in Confederate statis
tics, and praised our doughty deeds to the skies. It was
but soldier fare our guests received, though we did our
best. It was hard sleeping and worse eating in camp.
Beauregard is half Frenchman and speaks French like a
native. So one awkward mess was done away with, and it
was a comfort to see Beauregard speak without the agony
1 Samuel Barren was a native of Virginia, who had risen to be
a captain in the United States Navy. At the time of Secession he
received a commission as Commodore in the Confederate Navy.
102
OPPOSITION TO MR. DAVIS
of finding words in the foreign language and forming them,
with damp brow, into sentences. A different fate befell
others who spoke " a little French."
General and Mrs. Cooper came to see us. She is Mrs.
Smith Lee's sister. They were talking of old George Ma
son — in Virginia a name to conjure with. George Mason
violently opposed the extension of slavery. He was a thor
ough aristocrat, and gave as his reason for refusing the
blessing of slaves to the new States, Southwest and North
west, that vulgar new people were unworthy of so sacred a
right as that of holding slaves. It was not an institution
intended for such people as they were. Mrs. Lee said :
" After all, what good does it do my sons that they are
Light Horse Harry Lee's grandsons and George Mason's?
I do not see that it helps them at all."
A friend in Washington writes me that we might have-
walked into Washington any day for a week after Manassas,
such were the consternation and confusion there. But the
god Pan was still blowing his horn in the woods. Now she
says Northern troops are literally pouring in from all quar
ters. The horses cover acres of ground. And she thinks
we have lost our chance forever.
A man named Grey (the same gentleman whom Sec
retary of War Walker so astonished by greeting him with,
" Well, sir, and what is your business? ") described the
battle of the 21st as one succession of blunders, redeemed by
the indomitable courage of the two-thirds who did not run
away on our side. Doctor Mason said a fugitive on the
other side informed him that " a million of men with the
devil at their back could not have whipped the rebels at
Bull Run." That's nice.
There must be opposition in a free country. But it is
very uncomfortable. " United we stand, divided we fall."
Mrs. Davis showed us in The New York Tribune an extract
from an Augusta (Georgia) paper saying, " Cobb is our
man. Davis is at heart a reconstructionist. " We may be
103
July 13, 1861 RICHMOND, VA. Sept. 2, 1861
flies on the wheel, we know our 'insignificance ; but Mrs.
Preston and myself have entered into an agreement; our
oath is recorded on high. We mean to stand by our Presi
dent and to stop all fault-finding with the powers that be,
if we can and where we can, be the fault-finders generals
or Cabinet Ministers.
August 13lh. — Hon. Robert Barnwell says, " The Mer
cury's influence began this opposition to Jeff Davis before
he had time to do wrong. They were offended, not with him
so much as with the man who was put into what they con
sidered Barnwell Rhett's rightful place. The latter had
howled nullification and secession so long that when he
found his ideas taken up by all the Confederate world, he
felt he had a vested right to leadership/'
Jordan, Beauregard's aide, still writes to Mr. Chesnut
that the mortality among the raw troops in that camp is
fearful. Everybody seems to be doing all they can. Think
of the British sick and wounded away off in the Crimea.
Our people are only a half -day's journey by rail from
Richmond. With a grateful heart I record the fact of rec
onciliation with the Wigfalls. They dined at the Presi
dent's yesterday and the little Wigfall girls stayed all
night.
Seward is feting the outsiders, the cousin of the Em
peror, Napoleon III., and Russell, of the omnipotent Lon
don Times.
August 14th. — Last night there was a crowd of men to
see us and they were so markedly critical. I made a futile
effort to record their sayings, but sleep and heat overcame
me. To-day I can not remember a word. One of Mr. Ma
son's stories relates to our sources of trustworthy informa
tion. A man of very respectable appearance standing on
the platform at the depot, announced, ' * I am just from the
seat of war." Out came pencil and paper from the news
paper men on the qui vive. il Is Fairfax Court House
burned? " they asked. " Yes, burned yesterday." " But
104
BEAUTIFUL MRS. RANDOLPH
I am just from there," said another; " left it standing
there all right an hour or so ago. " " Oh ! But I must do
them justice to say they burned only the tavern, for they
did not want to tear up and burn anything else after the
railroad." " There is no railroad at Fairfax Court
House," objected the man just from Fairfax. "Oh! In
deed! " said the seat-of-war man, " I did not know that;
is that so ? ' : And he coolly seated himself and began talk
ing of something else.
Our people are lashing themselves into a fury against
the prisoners. Only the mob in any country would do that.
But I am told to be quiet. Decency and propriety will not
be forgotten, and the prisoners will be treated as prisoners
of war ought to be in a civilized country.
August 15th. — Mrs. Randolph came. With her were the
Freelands, Rose and Maria. The men rave over Mrs.
Randolph's beauty; called her a magnificent specimen of
the finest type of dark-eyed, rich, and glowing Southern
woman-kind. Clear brunette she is, with the reddest lips,
the whitest teeth, and glorious eyes ; there is no other word
for them. Having given Mrs. Randolph the prize among
Southern beauties, Mr. Clayton said Prentiss was the finest
Southern orator. Mr. Marshall and Mr. Barnwell dissent
ed; they preferred William C. Preston. Mr. Chesnut had
found Colquitt the best or most effective stump orator.
Saw Henry Deas Nott. He is just from Paris, via New
York. Says New York is ablaze with martial fire. At no
time during the Crimean war was there ever in Paris the
show of soldiers preparing for the war such as he saw at
New York. The face of the earth seemed covered with
marching regiments.
Not more than 500 effective men are in Hampton 's Le
gion, but they kept the whole Yankee army at bay until
half -past two. Then just as Hampton was wounded and
half his colonels shot, Cash and Kershaw (from Mrs. Smith
Lee audibly, " How about Kirby Smith? ") dashed in and
105
July 13, 1861 RICHMOND, VA. Sept. 2, 1861
not only turned the tide, but would have driven the fugi
tives into Washington, but Beauregard recalled them. Mr.
Chesnut finds all this very amusing, as he posted many of
the regiments and all the time was carrying orders over the
field. The discrepancies in all these private memories amuse
him, but he smiles pleasantly and lets every man tell the
tale in his own way.
August 16th. — Mr. Barnwell says, Fame is an article
usually home made ; you must create your own puffs or su
perintend their manufacture. And you must see that the
newspapers print your own military reports. No one else
will give you half the credit you take to yourself. No one
will look after your fine name before the world with the
loving interest and faith you have yourself.
August 17th. — Captain Shannon, of the Kirkwood Rang
ers, called and stayed three hours. Has not been under fire
yet, but is keen to see or to hear the flashing of the guns;
proud of himself, proud of his company, but proudest of all
that he has no end of the bluest blood of the low country in
his troop. He seemed to find my knitting a pair of socks a
day for the soldiers droll in some way. The yarn is coarse.
He has been so short a time from home he does not know how
the poor soldiers need them. He was so overpoweringly
flattering to my husband that I found him very pleasant
company.
August 18th. — Found it quite exciting to have a spy
drinking his tea with us — perhaps because I knew his pro
fession. I did not like his face. He is said to have a
scheme by which Washington will fall into our hands like
an overripe peach.
Mr. Barnwell urges Mr. Chesnut to remain in the Sen
ate. There are so many generals, or men anxious to be. He
says Mr. Chesnut can do his country most good by wise
counsels where they are most needed. I do not say to the
contrary ; I dare not throw my influence on the army side,
for if anything happened !
106
ONE PAIR OF SOCKS A DAY
Mr. Miles told us last night that he had another letter
from General Beauregard. The General wants to know
if Mr. Miles has delivered his message to Colonel Kershaw.
Mr. Miles says he has not done so ; neither does he mean to
do it. They must settle these matters of veracity according
to their own military etiquette. He is a civilian once more.
It is a foolish wrangle. Colonel Kershaw ought to have re
ported to his commander-in-chief, and not made an inde
pendent report and published it. He meant no harm. He
is not yet used to the fine ways of war.
The New York Tribune, is so unfair. It began by howl
ing to get rid of us : we were so wicked. Now that we are
so willing to leave them to their overrighteous self-con
sciousness, they cry : ' ' Crush our enemy, or they will sub
jugate us." The idea that we want to invade or subjugate
anybody; we would be only too grateful to be left alone.
We ask no more of gods or men.
Went to the hospital with a carriage load of peaches and
grapes. Made glad the hearts of some men thereby. When
my supplies gave out, those who had none looked so wist
fully as I passed out that I made a second raid on the mar
ket. Those eyes sunk in cavernous depths and following me
from bed to bed haunt me.
Wilmot de Saussure, harrowed my soul by an account
of a recent death by drowning on the beach at Sullivan's
Island. Mr. Porcher, who was trying to save his sister's
life, lost his own and his child's. People seem to die out
of the army quite as much as in it.
Mrs. Randolph presided in all her beautiful majesty at
an aid association. The ladies were old, and all wanted
their own way. They were cross-grained and contradictory,
and the blood mounted rebelliously into Mrs. Randolph's
clear-cut cheeks, but she held her own with dignity and
grace. One of the causes of disturbance was that Mrs. Ran
dolph proposed to divide everything sent on equally with
the Yankee wounded and sick prisoners. Some were enthu
se 107
July 13, 1861 RICHMOND, VA. Sept. 2, 1861
siastic from a Christian point of View ; some shrieked in
wrath at the bare idea of putting our noble soldiers on a par
with Yankees, living, dying, or dead. Fierce dames were
some of them, august, severe matrons, who evidently had not
been accustomed to hear the other side of any question from
anybody, and just old enough to find the last pleasure in
life to reside in power — the power to make their claws felt.
August 23d. — A brother of Doctor Garnett has come
fresh and straight from Cambridge, Mass., and says (or is
said to have said, with all the difference there is between the
two), that " recruiting up there is dead." He came by
Cincinnati and Pittsburg and says all the way through it
was so sad, mournful, and quiet it looked like Sunday.
I asked Mr. Brewster if it were true Senator Toombs
had turned brigadier. " Yes, soldiering is in the air.
Every one will have a touch of it. Toombs could not stay
in the Cabinet." " Why? " " Incompatibility of tem
per. He rides too high a horse; that is, for so despotic a
person as Jeff Davis. I have tried to find out the sore, but
I can't. Mr. Toombs has been out with them all for
months." Dissension will break out. Everything does,
but it takes a little time. There is a perfect magazine of
discord and discontent in that Cabinet; only wants a hand
to apply the torch, and up they go. Toombs says old Mem-
minger has his back up as high as any.
Oh, such a day! Since I wrote this morning, I have
been with Mrs. Randolph to all the hospitals. I can never
again shut out of view the sights I saw there of human
misery. I sit thinking, shut my eyes, and see it all ; think
ing, yes, and there is enough to think about now, God
knows. Gilland's was the worst, with long rows of ill men
on cots, ill of typhoid fever, of every human ailment; on
dinner-tables for eating and drinking, wounds being
dressed ; all the horrors to be taken in at one glance.
Then we went to the St. Charles. Horrors upon hor
rors again; want of organization, long rows of dead and
108
JOHN BRIGHTS SPEECHES
dy ing. ;_8JEf ill sights. A boy from home had sent for me.
He was dying in a cot, ill of fever. Next him a man died
in convulsions as we stood there. I was making arrange
ments with a nurse, hiring him to take care of this lad ; but
I do not remember any more, for I fainted. Next that I
knew of, the doctor and Mrs. Randolph were having me, a
limp rag, put into a carriage at the door of the hospital.
Fresh air, I dare say, brought me to. As we drove home
the doctor came along with us, I was so upset. He said:
1 ' Look at that Georgia regiment marching there ; look at
their servants on the sidewalk. I have been counting them,
making an ertimate. There is $16,000 — sixteen thousand
dollars ' worth of negro property which can go off on its
own legs to the Yankees whenever it pleases."
August 24th. — Daniel, of The Examiner, was at the
President's. Wilmot de Saussure wondered if a fellow did
not feel a little queer, paying his respects in person at the
house of a man whom he abused daily in his newspaper.
A fiasco: an aide engaged to two young ladies in the
same house. The ladies had been quarreling, but became
friends unexpectedly when his treachery, among many
other secrets, was revealed under that august roof. Fancy
the row when it all came out.
Mr. Lowndes said we have already reaped one good re
sult from the war. The orators, the spouters, the furious
patriots, that could hardly be held down, and who were so
wordily anxious to do or die for their country — they had
been the pest of our lives. Now they either have not tried
the battle-field at all, or have precipitately left it at their
earliest convenience : for very shame we are rid of them for
a while. I doubt it. Bright 's speech1 is dead against us.
Reading this does not brighten one.
1 The reference is to John Bright, whose advocacy of the cause of
the Union in the British Parliament attracted a great deal of attention
at the time.
109
July 13, 1861 RICHMOND, VA. Sept. 2, 1861
August 25th. — Mr. Barnwell says democracies lead to
untruthfulness. To be always electioneering is to be al
ways false; so both we and the Yankees are unreliable as
regards our own exploits. " How about empires? Were
there ever more stupendous lies than the Emperor Napo
leon's? " Mr. Barnwell went on: " People dare not tell
the truth in a canvass ; they must conciliate their constit
uents. Now everybody in a democracy always wants an
office; at least, everybody in Richmond just now seems to
want one." Never heeding interruptions, he went on:
" As a nation, the English are the most truthful in the
world. " " And so are our country gentlemen : they own
their constituents — at least, in some of the parishes, where
there are few whites; only immense estates peopled by
negroes/' Thackeray speaks of the lies that were told
on both sides in the British wars with France; England
kept quite alongside of her rival in that fine art. England
lied then as fluently as Russell lies about us now.
Went to see Agnes De Leon, my Columbia school friend.
She is fresh from Egypt, and I wished to hear of the Nile,
the crocodiles, the mummies, the Sphinx, and the Pyramids.
But her head ran upon Washington life, such as we knew
it, and her soul was here. No theme was possible but a dis
cussion of the latest war news.
Mr. Clayton, Assistant Secretary of State, says we
spend two millions a week. Where is all that money to
come from? They don't .want us to plant cotton, but to
make provisions. Now, cotton always means money, or did
when there was an outlet for it and anybody to buy it.
Where is money to come from now ?
Mr. Barnwell 's new joke, I dare say, is a Joe Miller,
but Mr. Barnwell laughed in telling it till he cried. A man
was fined for contempt of court and then, his case coming
on, the Judge talked such arrant nonsense and was so
warped in his mind against the poor man, that the " fined
one " walked up and handed the august Judge a five-dollar
110
THE TALE AS IT IS TOLD
bill. " Why? What is that for? " said the Judge. " Oh,
I feel such a contempt of this court coming on again ! ' '
I came up tired to death; took down my hair; had it
hanging over me in a Crazy Jane fashion; and sat still,
hands over my head (half undressed, but too lazy and
sleepy to move). I was sitting in a rocking-chair by an
open window taking my ease and the cool night air, when
suddenly the door opened and Captain walked in.
He was in the middle of the room before he saw his mistake ;
he stared and was transfixed, as the novels say. I dare say
I looked an ancient Gorgon. Then, with a more frantic
glare, he turned and fled without a word. I got up and
bolted the door after him, and then looked in the glass and
laughed myself into hysterics. I shall never forget to lock
the door again. But it does not matter in this case. I
looked totally unlike the person bearing my name, who,
covered with lace cap, etc., frequents the drawing-room. I
doubt if he would know me again.
August 26th. — The Terror has full swing at the North
now. All the papers favorable to us have been suppressed.
How long would our mob stand a Yankee paper here?
But newspapers against our government, such as the Ex
aminer and the Mercury flourish like green bay-trees. A
man up to the elbows in finance said to-day: " Clayton's
story is all nonsense. They do sometimes pay out two mil
lions a week ; they paid the soldiers this week, but they don't
pay the soldiers every week. " * ' .Not by a long shot, ' ' cried
a soldier laddie with a grin.
' ' Why do you write in your diary at all, ' ' some one said
to me, " if, as you say, you have to contradict every day
what you wrote yesterday? " " Because I tell the tale as
it is told to me. I write current rumor. I do not vouch for
anything. ' '
We went to Pizzini's, that very best of Italian confec
tioners. From there we went to Miss Sally Tornpkins's
hospital, loaded with good things for the wounded. The
111
July 13, 1861 RICHMOND, VA. Sept. 2, 1861
men under Miss Sally 's kind care Tboked so clean and com
fortable — cheerful, one might say. They were pleasant and
nice to see. One, however, was dismal in tone and aspect,
and he repeated at intervals with no change of words, in a
forlorn monotone : ' * What a hard time we have had since
we left home/' But nobody seemed to heed his wailing,
and it did not impair his appetite.
At Mrs. Toombs's, who was raging; so anti-Davis she
will not even admit that the President is ill. " All hum
bug." * But what good could pretending to be ill do
him? " * That reception now, was not that a humbug?
Such a failure. Mrs. Reagan could have done better than
that."
Mrs. Walker is a Montgomery beauty, with such mag
nificent dresses. She was an heiress, and is so dissatisfied
with Richmond, accustomed as she is to being a belle under
different conditions. As she is as handsome and well
dressed as ever, it must be the men who are all wrong.
1 'Did you give Lawrence that fifty-dollar bill to go out
and change it? " I was asked. " Suppose he takes himself
off to the Yankees. He would leave us with not too many
fifty-dollar bills." He is not going anywhere, however. I
think his situation suits him. That wadded belt of mine,
with the gold pieces quilted in, has made me ashamed more
than once. I leave it under my pillow and my maid finds
it there and hangs it over the back of a chair, in evidence
as I reenter the room after breakfast. When I forget and
leave my trunk open, Lawrence brings me the keys and tells
me, " You oughten to do so, Miss Mary." Mr. Chesnut
leaves all his little money in his pockets, and Lawrence says
that's why he can't let any one but himself brush Mars
Jeems's clothes.
August 27th. — Theodore Barker and James Lowndes
came ; the latter has been wretchedly treated. A man said,
" All that I wish on earth is to be at peace and on my own
plantation," to which Mr. Lowndes replied quietly, " I
112
" SALLY " ARCHER OF PRINCETON COLLEGE
wish I had a plantation to be on, but just now I can't see
how any one would feel justified in leaving the army. " Mr.
Barker was bitter against the spirit of braggadocio so ram
pant among us. The gentleman who had been answered so
completely by James Lowndes said, with spitefulness :
" Those women who are so frantic for their husbands to
join the army would like them killed, no doubt. "
Things were growing rather uncomfortable, but an in
terruption came in the shape of a card. An old classmate
of Mr. Chesnut's — Captain Archer, just now fresh from
California — followed his card so quickly that Mr. Chesnut
had hardly time to tell us that in Princeton College they
called him " Sally " Archer he was so pretty — when he en
tered. He is good-looking still, but the service and conse
quent rough life have destroyed all softness and girlish-
ness. He will never be so pretty again.
The North is consolidated ; they move as one man, with
no States, but an army organized by the central power.
Eussell in the Northern camp is cursed of Yankees for that
Bull Run letter. Russell, in his capacity of Englishman,
despises both sides. He divides us equally into North and
South. He prefers to attribute our victory at Bull Run to
Yankee cowardice rather than to Southern courage. He
gives no credit to either side; for good qualities, we are
after all mere Americans ! Everything not ' * national ' ' is
arrested. It looks like the business of Seward.
I do not know when I have seen a woman without knit
ting in her hand. Socks for the soldiers is the cry. One
poor man said he had dozens of socks and but one shirt.
He preferred more shirts and fewer stockings. We make
a quaint appearance with this twinkling of needles and the
everlasting sock dangling below.
They have arrested Wm. B. Reed and Miss Winder, she
boldly proclaiming herself a secessionist. Why should she
seek a martyr's crown? Writing people love notoriety. It
is so delightful to be of enough consequence to be arrested.
113
July 13, 1861 RICHMOND, VA. Sept. 2, 1861
I have often wondered if such incense was ever offered as
Napoleon's so-called persecution and alleged jealousy of
Madame de Stael.
Russell once more, to whom London, Paris, and India
have been an every-day sight, and every-night, too, streets
and all. How absurd for him to go on in indignation be
cause there have been women on negro plantations who
were not vestal virgins. Negro women get married, and
after marriage behave as well as other people. Marrying is
the amusement of their lives. They take life easily ; so do
their class everywhere. Bad men are hated here as else
where.
" I hate slavery. I hate a man who — You say there
'are no more fallen women on a plantation than in London
in proportion to numbers. But what do you say to this
—to a magnate who runs a hideous black harem, with its
consequences, under the same roof with his lovely white
wife and his beautiful and accomplished daughters? He
holds his head high and poses as the model of all human vir
tues to these poor women whom God and the laws have
given him. From the height of his awful majesty he scolds
and thunders at them as if he never did wrong in his life.
Fancy such a man finding his daughter reading Don
Juan. ' You with that immoral book! ' he would say,
and then he would order her out of his sight. You see Mrs.
Stowe did not hit the sorest spot. She makes Legree a
bachelor." " Remember George II. and his likes."
* ' Oh, I know half a Legree — a man said to be as cruel as
Legree, but the other half of him did not correspond. He
was a man of polished manners, and the best husband and
father and member of the church in the world." " Can
that be so? "
1 Yes, I know it. Exceptional case, that sort of thing,
always. And I knew the dissolute half of Legree well. He
114
PLANTATION IMMORALITY
was high and mighty, but the kindest creature to his slaves.
And the unfortunate results of his bad ways were not sold,
had not to jump over ice-blocks. They were kept in full
view, and provided for handsomely in his will."
" The wife and daughters in the might of their purity
and innocence are supposed never to dream of what is as
plain before their eyes as the sunlight, and they play their
parts of unsuspecting angels to the letter. They profess to
adore the father as the model of all saintly goodness."
1 ' Well, yes ; if he is rich he is the fountain from whence all
blessings flow."
" The one I have in my eye — my half of Legree, the dis
solute half — was so furious in temper and thundered his
wrath so at the poor women, they were glad to let him
do as he pleased in peace if they could only escape his
everlasting fault-finding, and noisy bluster, making every
body so uncomfortable." " Now — now, do you know any
woman of this generation who would stand that sort of
thing? No, never, not for one moment. The make-believe
angels were of the last century. We know, and we won't
have it."
" The condition of women is improving, it seems."
" Women are brought up not to judge their fathers or
their husbands. They take them as the Lord provides and
are thankful."
* ' If they should not go to heaven after all ; think what
lives most women lead. " ' ' No heaven, no purgatory, no —
the other thing? Never. I believe in future rewards and
punishments. ' '
' How about the wives of drunkards ? I heard a woman
say once to a friend of her husband, tell it as a cruel matter
of fact, without bitterness, without comment, ' Oh, you
have not seen him ! He has changed. He has not gone to
bed sober in thirty years. ' She has had her purgatory, if
not ' the other thing,' here in this world. We all know
what a drunken man is. To think, for no crime, a person
115
July 13, 1861 RICHMOND, VA. Sept. 2, 1861
may be condemned to live with one thirty years. " ' ' You
wander from the question I asked. Are Southern men
worse because of the slave system and the facile black
women? " " Not a bit. They see too much of them. The
barroom people don 't drink, the confectionery people loathe
candy. They are sick of the black sight of them. "
" You think a nice man from the South is the nicest
thing in the world ? " ' * I know it. Put him by any other
man and see! "
Have seen Yankee letters taken at Manassas. The spell
ing is often atrocious, and we thought they had all gone
through a course of blue-covered Noah Webster spelling-
books. Our soldiers do spell astonishingly. There is Horace
Greeley: they say he can't read his own handwriting. But
he is candid enough and disregards all time-serving. He
says in his paper that in our army the North has a hard
nut to crack, and that the rank and file of our army is
superior in education and general intelligence to theirs.
My wildest imagination will not picture Mr. Mason * as
a diplomat. He will say chaw for chew, and he will call
himself Jeems, and he will wear a dress coat to breakfast.
Over here, whatever a Mason does is right in his own eyes.
He is above law. Somebody asked him how he pronounced
his wife's maiden name: she was a Miss Chew from Phila
delphia.
1 James Murray Mason was a grandson of George Mason, and had
been elected United States Senator from Virginia in 1847. In 1851
he drafted the Fugitive Slave Law. His mission to England in 1861
was shared by John Slidell. On November 8, 1861, while on board the
British steamer Trent, in the Bahamas, they were captured by an
American named Wilkes, and imprisoned in Boston until January 2,
1862. A famous diplomatic difficulty arose with England over this
affair. John Slidell was a native of New York, who had settled in Loui
siana and became a Member of Congress from that State in 1843. In
1853 he was elected to the United States Senate.
116
MASON AND SLIDELL
They say the English will like Mr. Mason; he is so
manly, so straightforward, so truthful and bold. " A fine
old English gentleman," so said Russell to me, " but for
tobacco." " I like Mr. Mason and Mr. Hunter better than
anybody else." " And yet they are wonderfully unlike."
11 Now you just listen to me," said I. "Is Mrs. Davis in
hearing — no? Well, this sending Mr. Mason to London is
the maddest thing yet. Worse in some points of view than
Yancey, and that was a catastrophe."
August 29th. — No more feminine gossip, but the li
censed slanderer, the mighty Russell, of the Times. He
says the battle of the 21st was fought at long range : 500
yards apart were the combatants. The Confederates were
steadily retreating when some commotion in the wagon
train frightened the " Yanks," and they made tracks. In
good English, they fled amain. And on our side we were
too frightened to follow them — in high-flown English, to
pursue the flying foe.
In spite of all this, there are glimpses of the truth
sometimes, and the story leads to our credit with all the
sneers and jeers. When he speaks of the Yankees' coward
ice, falsehood, dishonesty, and braggadocio, the best words
are in his mouth. He repeats the thrice-told tale, so often
refuted and denied, that we were harsh to wounded pris
oners. Dr. Gibson told me that their surgeon-general has
written to thank our surgeons: Yankee officers write very
differently from Russell. I know that in that hospital with
the Sisters of Charity they were better off than our men
were at the other hospitals : that I saw with my own eyes.
These poor souls are jealously guarded night and day.
It is a hideous tale — what they tell of their sufferings.
Women who come before the public are in a bad box
now. False hair is taken off and searched for papers.
Bustles are " suspect." All manner of things, they say,
come over the border under the huge hoops now worn; so
they are ruthlessly torn off. Not legs but arms are looked
117
July 13, 1861 RICHMOND, VA. Sept. 2, 1861
•
for under hoops, and, sad to say, found. Then women are
used as detectives and searchers, to see that no men slip
over in petticoats. So the poor creatures coming this way
are humiliated to the deepest degree. To men, glory,
honor, praise, and power, if they are patriots. To women,
daughters of Eve, punishment comes still in some shape, do
what they will.
Mary Hammy's eyes were starting from her head with
amazement, while a very large and handsome South Caro
linian talked rapidly. " What is it? " asked I after he had
gone. : ' Oh, what a year can bring forth — one year ! Last
summer you remember how he swore he was in love with
me ? He told you, he told me, he told everybody, and if I
did refuse to marry him I believed him. Now he says he
has seen, fallen in love with, courted, and married another
person, and he raves of his little daughter's beauty. And
they say time goes slowly ' ; — thus spoke Mary Hammy ,
with a sigh of wonder at his wonderful cure.
' Time works wonders," said the explainer-general.
" What conclusion did you come to as to Southern men at
the grand pow-wow, you know? " " They are nicer than
the nicest — the gentlemen, you know. There are not too
many of that kind anywhere. Ours are generous, truthful,
brave, and — and — devoted to us, you know. A Southern
husband is not a bad thing to have about the house. ' '
Mrs. Frank Hampton said : ' ' For one thing, you could
not flirt with these South Carolinians. They would not
stay at the tepid degree of flirtation. They grow so hor
ridly in earnest before you know where you are." " Do
you think two married people ever lived together without
finding each other out? I mean, knowing exactly how
good or how shabby, how weak or how strong, above all,
how selfish each was? " " Yes; unless they are dolts, they
know to a tittle; but you see if they have common sense
they make believe and get on, so so." Like the Marchion
ess's orange-peel wine in Old Curiosity Shop.
118
"LITTLE MAC"
A violent attack upon the North to-day in the Albion.
They mean to let freedom slide a while until they subjugate
us. The Albion says they use lettres de cachet, passports,
and all the despotic apparatus of regal governments. Rus
sell hears the tramp of the coming man — the king and
kaiser tyrant that is to rule them. Is it McClellan? —
" Little Mac "? We may tremble when he comes. We
down here have only " the many-headed monster thing, "
armed democracy. Our chiefs quarrel among themselves.
McClellan is of a forgiving spirit. He does not resent
Russell 's slurs upon Yankees, but with good policy has Rus
sell with him as a guest.
The Adonis of an aide avers, as one who knows, that
' ' Sumter ' ' Anderson 's heart is with us ; that he will not
fight the South. After all is said and done that sounds like
nonsense. " Sumter " Anderson's wife was a daughter of
Governor Clinch, of Georgia. Does that explain it? He
also told me something of Garnett (who was killed at Rich
Mountain).1 He had been an unlucky man clear through.
In the army before the war, the aide had found him proud,
reserved, and morose, cold as an icicle to all. But for his
wife and child he was a different creature. He adored
them and cared for nothing else.
One day he went off on an expedition and was gone six
weeks. He was out in the Northwest, and the Indians were
troublesome. When he came back, his wife and child were
underground. He said not one word, but they found him
more frozen, stern, and isolated than ever; that was all.
The night before he left Richmond he said in his quiet way :
1 They have not given me an adequate force. I can do
nothing. They have sent me to my death." It is acknowl-
1 The battle of Rich Mountain, in Western Virginia, was fought July
11, 1861, and General Garnett, Commander of the Confederate forces,
pursued by General McClellan, was killed at Carrick's Ford, July 13th,
while trying to rally his rear-guard.
119
July 13, 1861 RICHMOND, VA. Sept. 2, 1861
edged that he threw away his* life — " a dreary-hearted
man/' said the aide, li and the unluckiest."
On the front steps every evening we take our seats and
discourse at our pleasure. A nicer or more agreeable set of
people were never assembled than our present Arlington
crowd. To-night it was Yancey1 who occupied our tongues.
Send a man to England who had killed his father-in-law
in a street brawl! That was not knowing England or
Englishmen, surely. Who wants eloquence? We want
somebody who can hold his tongue. People avoid great
talkers, men who orate, men given to monologue, as they
would avoid fire, famine, or pestilence. Yancey will have
no mobs to harangue. No stump speeches will be possible,
superb as are his of their kind, but little quiet conversation
is best with slow, solid, common-sense people, who begin to
suspect as soon as any flourish of trumpets meets their ear.
If Yancey should use his fine words, who would care for
them over there ?
Commodore Barron, when he was a middy, accompanied
Phil Augustus Stockton to claim his bride. He, the said
Stockton, had secretly wedded a fair heiress (Sally Cantey).
She was married by a magistrate and returned to Mrs.
Grillaud's boarding-school until it was time to go home
—that is, to Camden.
Lieutenant Stockton (a descendant of the Signer) was
the handsomest man in the navy, and irresistible. The
bride was barely sixteen. When he was to go down South
among those fire-eaters and claim her, Commodore Barron,
then his intimate friend, went as his backer. They were to
announce the marriage and defy the guardians. Commo-
1 William Lowndes Yancey was a native of Virginia, who settled in
Alabama, and in 1844 was elected to Congress, where he became a leader
among the supporters of slavery and an advocate of secession. He was
famous in his day as an effective public speaker.
120
STEALING AN HEIRESS
dore Barren said he anticipated a rough job of it all, but
they were prepared for all risks. " You expected to find
us a horde of savages, no doubt/' said I. " We did not
expect to get off under a half-dozen duels." They looked
for insults from every quarter and they found a polished
and refined people who lived en prince, to say the least of it.
They were received with a cold, stately, and faultless po
liteness, which made them feel as if they had been sheep-
stealing.
The young lady had confessed to her guardians and
they were for making the best of it; above all, for saving
her name from all gossip or publicity. Colonel John Boy-
kin, one of them, took Young Lochinvar to stay with him.
His friend, Barren, was also a guest. Colonel Deas sent for
a parson, and made assurance doubly sure by marrying
them over again. Their wish was to keep things quiet and
not to make a nine-days' wonder of the young lady.
Then came balls, parties, and festivities without end.
He was enchanted with the easy-going life of these people,
with dinners the finest in the world, deer-hunting, and fox
hunting, dancing, and pretty girls, in fact everything that
heart could wish. But then, said Commodore Barron, " the
better it was, and the kinder the treatment, the more
ashamed I grew of my business down there. After all, it
was stealing an heiress, you know."
I told him how the same fate still haunted that estate in
Camden. Mr. Stockton sold it to a gentleman, who later sold
it to an old man who had married when near eighty, and
who left it to the daughter born of that marriage. This
pretty child of his old age was left an orphan quite young.
At the age of fifteen, she ran away and married a boy of
seventeen, a canny Scotchman. The young couple lived to
grow up, and it proved after all a happy marriage. This
last heiress left six children; so the estate will now be
divided, and no longer tempt the fortune-hunters.
The Commodore said: " To think how we two young-
121
July 13, 1861 RICHMOND, VA. Sept. 2, 1861
•
sters in our blue uniforms went down there to bully those
people." He was much at €olonel Chesnut's. Mrs. Ches-
nut being a Philadelphian, he was somewhat at ease with
them. It was the most thoroughly appointed establishment
he had then ever visited.
Went with our leviathan of loveliness to a ladies' meet
ing. No scandal to-day, no wrangling, all harmonious,
everybody knitting. Dare say that soothing occupation
helped our perturbed spirits to be calm. Mrs. C is
lovely, a perfect beauty. Said Brewster: " In Circassia,
think what a price would be set upon her, for there beauty
sells by the pound! "
Coming home the following conversation: " So Mrs.
Blank thinks purgatory will hold its own — never be abol
ished while women and children have to live with drunken
fathers and brothers. " " She knows." " She is too bitter.
She says worse than that. She says we have an institution
worse than the Spanish Inquisition, worse than Torque-
mada, and all that sort of thing." " What does she
mean ? ' 5 ' ' You ask her. Her words are sharp arrows. I
am a dull creature, and I should spoil all by repeating what
she says."
"It is your own family that she calls the familiars of
the Inquisition. She declares that they set upon you, fall
foul of you, watch and harass you from morn till dewy
eve. They have a perfect right to your life, night and day,
unto the fourth and fifth generation. They drop in at
breakfast and say, ' Are you not imprudent to eat that? '
' Take care now, don't overdo it.' 'I think you eat too
much so early in the day. ' And they help themselves to the
only thing you care for on the table. They abuse your
friends and tell you it is your duty to praise your enemies.
They tell you of all your faults candidly, because they love
you so ; that gives them a right to speak. What family in-
122
"BLOOD'S THICKER THAN WATER"
terest they take in you. You ought to do this; you ought
to do that, and then the everlasting ' you ought to have
done/ which comes near making you a murderer, at least
in heart, ' Blood's thicker than water/ they say, and
there is where the longing to spill it comes in. No locks
or bolts or bars can keep them out. Are they not your
nearest family? They dine with you, dropping in after
you are at soup. They come after you have gone to bed,
when all the servants have gone away, and the man of the
house, in his nightshirt, standing sternly at the door with
the huge wooden bar in his hand, nearly scares them to
death, and you are glad of it."
" Private life, indeed! " She says her husband entered
public life and they went off to live in a far-away city.
Then for the first time in her life she knew privacy. She
never will forget how she jumped for joy as she told her
servant not to admit a soul until after two o'clock in the
day. Afterward, she took a fixed day at home. Then she
was free indeed. She could read and write, stay at home,
go out at her own sweet will, no longer sitting for hours
with her fingers between the leaves of a frantically inter
esting book, while her kin slowly driveled nonsense by the
yard — waiting, waiting, yawning. Would they never go?
Then for hurting you, who is like a relative? They do it
from a sense of duty. For stinging you, for cutting you
to the quick, who like one of your own household ? In point
of fact, they alone can do it. They know the sore, and how
to hit it every time. You are in their power. She says, did
you ever see a really respectable, responsible, revered and
beloved head of a family who ever opened his mouth at
home except to find fault? He really thinks that is his
business in life and that all enjoyment is sinful. He is
there to prevent the women from such frivolous things as
pleasure, etc., etc.
I sat placidly rocking in my chair by the window, try
ing to hope all was for the best. Mary Hammy rushed in
10 123
July 13, 1861 RICHMOND, VA. Sept. 2, 1861
•
literally drowned in tears. I never saw so drenched a face
in my life. My heart stopped still. " Commodore Barren
is taken prisoner," said she. " The Yankees have cap
tured him and all his lieutenants. Poor Imogen — and
there is my father scouting about, the Lord knows where.
I only know he is in the advance guard. The Barren's
time has come. Mine may come any minute. Oh, Cousin
Mary, when Mrs. Lee told Imogen, she fainted! Those
poor girls ; they are nearly dead with trouble and fright. ' '
" Go straight back to those children," I said. " No
body will touch a hair of their father's head. Tell them I
say so. They dare not. They are not savages quite. This
is a civilized war, you know. ' '
Mrs. Lee said to Mrs. Eustis (Mr. Corcoran 's daughter)
yesterday: " Have you seen those accounts of arrests in
Washington ? ' : Mrs. Eustis answered calmly : ' ' Yes, I
know all about it. I suppose you allude to the fact that my
father has been imprisoned." " No, no," interrupted the
explainer, " she means the incarceration of those mature
Washington belles suspected as spies." But Mrs. Eustis
continued, ' ' I have no fears for my father 's safety. ' '
August 31st. — Congress adjourns to-day. Jeff Davis
\ ill. We go home on Monday if I am able to travel. Al
ready I feel the dread stillness and torpor of our Sahara
of a Sand Hill creeping into my veins. It chills the marrow
of my bones. I am reveling in the noise of city life. I
know what is before me. Nothing more cheering than the
cry of the lone whippoorwill will break the silence at Sandy
Hill, except as night draws near, when the screech-owl will
add his mournful note.
September 1st. — North Carolina writes for arms for her
soldiers. Have we any to send ? No. Brewster, the plain-
spoken, says, " The President is ill, and our affairs are in
the hands of noodles. All the generals away with the
army; nobody here; General Lee in Western Virginia.
Reading the third Psalm. The devil is sick, the devil a
124
LEAVING RICHMOND
saint would be. Lord, how are they increased that trouble
me ? Many are they that rise up against me ! "
September 2d. — Mr. Miles says he is not going anywhere
at all, not even home. He is to sit here permanently — chair
man of a committee to overhaul camps, commissariats, etc.,
etc.
We exchanged our ideas of Jtr. Mason, in which we
agreed perfectly. In the first place, he has a noble pres
ence — really a handsome man; is a manly old Virginian,
straightforward, brave, truthful, clever, the very beau-ideal
of an independent, high-spirited F. F. V. If the English
value a genuine man they will have one here. In every par
ticular he is the exact opposite of Talleyrand. He has
some peculiarities. He had never an ache or a pain him
self ; his physique is perfect, and he loudly declares that he
hates to see persons ill ; seems to him an unpardonable weak
ness.
It began to grow late. Many people had come to say
good-by to me. I had fever as usual to-day, but in the ex
citement of this crowd of friends the invalid forgot fever.
Mr. Chesnut held up his watch to me warningly and inti
mated " it was late, indeed, for one who has to travel to
morrow. " So, as the Yankees say after every defeat, I
1 1 retired in good order. ' '
Not quite, for I forgot handkerchief and fan. Gon-
zales rushed after and met me at the foot of the stairs. In
his foreign, pathetic, polite, high-bred way, he bowed low
and said he had made an excuse for the fan, for he had a
present to make me, and then, though " startled and
amazed, I paused and on the stranger gazed. ' ' Alas ! I am
a woman approaching forty, and the offering proved to be
a bottle of cherry bounce. Nothing could have been more
opportune, and with a little ice, etc., will help, I am sure,
to save my life on that dreadful journey home.
No discouragement now felt at the North. They take
our forts and are satisfied for a while. Then the English
125
July 13, 1861 RICHMOND, VA. Sept. 2, 1861
are strictly neutral. Like the woman who saw her husband
fight the bear, * ' It was the first fight she ever saw when she
did not care who whipped. ' '
Mr. Davis was very kind about it all. He told Mr. Ches-
nut to go home and have an eye to all the State defenses,
etc., and that he would give him any position he asked for
if he still wished to continue in the army. Now, this would
be all that heart could wish, but Mr. Chesnut will never ask
for anything. What will he ask for? That's the rub. I
am certain of very few things in life now, but this is one
I am certain of: Mr. Chesnut will never ask mortal man
for any promotion for himself or for one of his own family.
126
X
CAMDEN, S. C.
September 9, 1861— September 19, 1861
AMDEN, S. C., September 9, 1861.— Home again at
Mulberry, the fever in full possession of me. My
sister, Kate, is my ideal woman, the most agreeable
person I know in the world, with her soft, low, and sweet
voice, her graceful, gracious ways, and her glorious gray
eyes, that I looked into so often as we confided our very
souls to each other.
God bless old Betsey 's yellow face ! She is a nurse in a
thousand, and would do anything for ' ' Mars Jeems ' wife. ' '
My small ailments in all this comfort set me mourning over
the dead and dying soldiers I saw in Virginia. How feeble
my compassion proves, after all.
I handed the old Colonel a letter from his son in the
army. He said, as he folded up the missive from the seat
of war, " With this war we may die out. Your husband is
the last — of my family." He means that my husband is
his only living son ; his grandsons are in the army, and
they, too, may be killed — even Johnny, the gallant and gay,
may not be bullet-proof. No child have I.
Now this old man of ninety years was born when it was
not the fashion for a gentleman to be a saint, and being
lord of all he surveyed for so many years, irresponsible, in
the center of his huge domain, it is wonderful he was not a
greater tyrant — the softening influence of that angel wife,
no doubt. Saint or sinner, he understands the world about
him — au fond.
127
Sept. 9, 1861 CAMDEN, S. C. Sept. 19, 1861
9
Have had a violent attack of something wrong about my
heart. It stopped beating, then it took to trembling, creak
ing and thumping like a Mississippi high-pressure steam
boat, and the noise in my ears was more like an ammunition
wagon rattling over the stones in Richmond. That was
yesterday, and yet I am alive. That kind of thing makes
one feel very mortal.
Russell writes how disappointed Prince Jerome Napo
leon was with the appearance of our troops, and " he did
not like Beauregard at all." Well ! I give Bogar up to him.
But how a man can find fault with our soldiers, as I have
seen them individually and collectively in Charleston,
Richmond, and everywhere — that beats me.
The British are the most conceited nation in the world,
the most self-sufficient, self-satisfied, and arrogant. But
each individual man does not blow his own penny whistle ;
they brag wholesale. Wellington — he certainly left it for
others to sound his praises — though Mr. Binney thought the
statue of Napoleon at the entrance of Apsley House was a
little like " ' Who killed Cock Robin? ' ' I, said the spar
row, with my bow and arrow.' : But then it is so pleasant
to hear them when it is a lump sum of praise, with no pri
vate crowing — praise of Trafalgar, Waterloo, the Scots
Greys.
Fighting this and fighting that, with their crack corps
stirs the blood and every heart responds — three times three !
Hurrah!
But our people feel that they must send forth their own
reported prowess : with an, * ' I did this and I did that. ' ' I
know they did it ; but I hang my head.
In those Tarleton Memoirs, in Lee's Memoirs, in Moul-
trie's, and in Lord Rawdon's letters, self is never brought
to the front. I have been reading them over and admire
their modesty and good taste as much as their courage and
cleverness. That kind of British eloquence takes me. It
is not, " Soldats! marclions, gloire! " Not a bit of it; but,
128
SLAVERY NORTH AND SOUTH
" Now, my lads, stand firm ! " and, " Now up, and let them
have it! "
Our name has not gone out of print. To-day, the Ex
aminer, as usual, pitches into the President. It thinks
Toombs, Cobb, Slidell, Lamar, or Chesnut would have been
far better in the office. There is considerable choice in that
lot. Five men more utterly dissimilar were never named
in the same paragraph.
September 19th. — A painful piece of news came to us
yesterday — our cousin, Mrs. Witherspoon, of Society Hill,
was found dead in her bed. She was quite well the night
before. Killed, people say, by family sorrows. She was a
proud and high-strung woman. Nothing shabby in word,
thought, or deed ever came nigh her. She was of a warm
and tender heart, too; truth and uprightness itself. Few
persons have ever been more loved and looked up to. She
was a very handsome old lady, of fine presence, dignified
and commanding.
" Killed by family sorrows," so they said when Mrs.
John N. Williams died. So Uncle John said yesterday of
his brother, Burwell. ' * Death deserts the army, ' ' said that
quaint old soul, " and takes fancy shots of the most eccen
tric kind nearer home."
The high and disinterested conduct our enemies seem to
expect of us is involuntary and unconscious praise. They
pay us the compliment to look for from us (and execrate
us for the want of it) a degree of virtue they were never
able to practise themselves. It is a crowning misdemeanor
for us to hold still in slavery those Africans whom they
brought here from Africa, or sold to us when they found it
did not pay to own them themselves. Gradually, they slid
or sold them off down here; or freed them prospectively,
giving themselves years in which to get rid of them in a
remunerative way. We want to spread them over other
lands, too — West and South, or Northwest, where the cli
mate would free them or kill them, or improve them out
129
Sept. 0, 1861 CAMDEN, S. C. Sept. 19, 1861
^
of the world, as our friends up North do the Indians. If
they had been forced to keep the negroes in New England,
I dare say the negroes might have shared the Indians' fate,
for they are wise in their generation, these Yankee children
of light. Those pernicious Africans ! So have just spoken
Mr. Chesnut and Uncle John, both ci-devant Union men,
now utterly for State rights.
It is queer how different the same man may appear
viewed from different standpoints. * * What a perfect gen
tleman," said one person of another; " so fine-looking,
high-bred, distinguished, easy, free, and above all graceful
in his bearing; so high-toned! He is always indignant at
any symptom of wrong-doing. He is charming — the man
of all others I like to have strangers see — a noble represen
tative of our country. " " Yes, every word of that is true, ' '
was the reply. " He is all that. And then the other side
of the picture is true, too. You can always find him. You
know where to find him! Wherever there is a looking-
glass, a bottle, or a woman, there will he be also." " My
God! and you call yourself his friend." " Yes, I know
him down to the ground. ' '
This conversation I overheard from an upper window
when looking down on the piazza below — a complicated
character truly beyond La Bruyere — with what Mrs. Pres
ton calls refinement spread thin until it is skin-deep only.
An iron steamer has run the blockade at Savannah. We
now raise our wilted heads like flowers after a shower.
This drop of good news revives us.1
1 By reason of illness, preoccupation in other affairs, and various
deterrent causes besides, Mrs. Chesnut allowed a considerable period
to elapse before making another entry in her diary.
130
XI
COLUMBIA, S. C.
February 20, 1862— July 21, 1862
OLUMBIA, S. C., February 20, 1862.— Had an appe
tite for my dainty breakfast. Always breakfast in
bed now. But then, my Mercury contained such
bad news. That is an appetizing style of matutinal news
paper. Fort Donelson x has fallen, but no men fell with
it. It is prisoners for them that we can not spare, or pris
oners for us that we may not be able to feed : that is so much
to be " foref ended," as Keitt says. They lost six thousand,
we two thousand ; I grudge that proportion. In vain, alas !
ye gallant few — few, but undismayed. Again, they make a
stand. We have Buckner, Beauregard, and Albert Sidney
Johnston. With such leaders and God's help we may be
saved from the hated Yankees ; who knows ?
February 21st. — A crowd collected here last night and
there was a serenade. I am like Mrs. Nickleby, who never
saw a horse coming full speed but she thought the Cheery-
bles had sent post-haste to take Nicholas into co-partner
ship. So I got up and dressed, late as it was. I felt sure
England had sought our alliance at last, and we would
1 Fort Donelson stood on the Cumberland River about 60 miles
northwest of Nashville. The Confederate garrison numbered about
18,000 men. General Grant invested the Fort on February 13, 1862,
and General Buckner, who commanded it, surrendered on February
16th. The Federal force at the time of the surrender numbered 27,000
men; their loss in killed and wounded being 2,660 men and the Confed
erate loss about 2,000.
131
Feb. 20, 1862 COLUMBIA, S. C. July 21, 1862
•
make a Yorktown of it before long. Who was it? Will
you ever guess? — Artemus Goodwyn and General Owens,
of Florida.
Just then, Mr. Chesnut rushed in, put out the light,
locked the door and sat still as a mouse. Rap, rap, came
at the door. " I say, Chesnut, they are calling for you."
At last we heard Janney (hotel-keeper) loudly proclaiming
from the piazza that ' * Colonel Chesnut was not here at all,
at all." After a while, when they had all gone from the
street, and the very house itself had subsided into perfect
quiet, the door again was roughly shaken. " I say, Ches
nut, old fellow, come out — I know you are there. Nobody
here now wants to hear you make a speech. That crowd has
all gone. We want a little quiet talk with you. I am just
from Richmond. ' ' That was the open sesame, and to-day I
hear none of the Richmond news is encouraging. Colonel
Shaw is blamed for the shameful Roanoke surrender.1
Toombs is out on a rampage and swears he will not ac
cept a seat in the Confederate Senate given in the insulting
way his was by the Georgia Legislature: calls it shabby
treatment, and adds that Georgia is not the only place
where good men have been so ill used.
The Governor and Council have fluttered the dove-cotes,
or, at least, the tea-tables. They talk of making a call for
all silver, etc. I doubt if we have enough to make the sac
rifice worth while, but we propose to set the example.
February 22d.— What a beautiful day for our Confed
erate President to be inaugurated! God speed him; God
keep him; God save him!
John Chesnut 's letter was quite what we needed. In
spirit it is all that one could ask. He says, " Our late
reverses are acting finely with the army of the Potomac.
A few more thrashings and every man will enlist for the
1 General Burnside captured the Confederate garrison at Roanoke
Island on February 8, 1862.
132
YANKEE PRISONERS IN COLUMBIA
war. Victories made us too sanguine and easy, not to say
vainglorious. Now for the rub, and let them have it ! ' '
A lady wrote to Mrs. Bunch: " Dear Emma: When
shall I call for you to go and see Madame de St. Andre ? ' '
She was answered : ' * Dear Lou : I can not go with you to
see Madame de St. Andre, but will always retain the kind
est feeling toward you on account of our past relations,"
etc. The astounded friend wrote to ask what all this meant.
No answer came, and then she sent her husband to ask and
demand an explanation. He was answered thus: " My
dear fellow, there can be no explanation possible. Here
after there will be no intercourse between my wife and
yours; simply that, nothing more." So the men meet at
the club as before, and there is no further trouble between
them. The lady upon whom the slur is cast says, " and I
am a woman and can 't fight ! '
February 23d. — While Mr. Chesnut was in town I was at
the Prestons. John Cochran and some other prisoners had
asked to walk over the grounds, visit the Hampton Gar
dens, and some friends in Columbia. After the dreadful
state of the public mind at the escape of one of the prison
ers, General Preston was obliged to refuse his request. Mrs.
Preston and the rest of us wanted him to say " Yes," and
so find out who in Columbia were his treacherous friends.
Pretty bold people they must be, to receive Yankee invaders
in the midst of the row over one enemy already turned
loose amid us.
General Preston said: " We are about to sacrifice life
and fortune for a fickle multitude who will not stand up
to us at last. ' ' The harsh comments made as to his lenient
conduct to prisoners have embittered him. I told him
what I had heard Captain Trenholm say in his speech. He
said he would listen to no criticism except from a man with
a musket on his shoulder, and who had beside enlisted for
the war, had given up all, and had no choice but to succeed
or die.
133
Feb. 20, 1862 COLUMBIA, S. C. July 21, 1862
February 24th. — Congress and the newspapers render
one desperate, ready to cut one's own throat. They repre
sent everything in our country as deplorable. Then comes
some one back from our gay and gallant army at the front.
The spirit of our army keeps us up after all. Letters from
the army revive one. They come as welcome as the flowers
in May. Hopeful and bright, utterly unconscious of our
weak despondency.
February 25th. — They have taken at Nashville * more
men than we had at Manassas; there was bad handling of
troops, we poor women think, or this would not be. Mr.
Venable added bitterly, ' ' Giving up our soldiers to the ene
my means giving up the cause. We can not replace them. ' *
The up-country men were Union men generally, and the
low-country seceders. The former growl ; they never liked
those aristocratic boroughs and parishes, they had them
selves a good and prosperous country, a good constitution,
and were satisfied. But they had to go — to leave all and
fight for the others who brought on all the trouble, and who
do not show too much disposition to fight for themselves.
That is the extreme up-country view. The extreme low-
country says Jeff Davis is not enough out of the Union yet.
His inaugural address reads as one of his speeches did four
years ago in the United States Senate.
A letter in a morning paper accused Mr. Chesnut of
staying too long in Charleston. The editor was asked for
the writer's name. He gave it as Little Moses, the Gover
nor's secretary. When Little Moses was spoken to, in a
great trepidation he said that Mrs. Pickens wrote it, and
got him to publish it ; so it was dropped, for Little Moses is
such an arrant liar no one can believe him. Besides, if that
sort of thing amuses Mrs. Pickens, let her amuse herself.
March 5th. — Mary Preston went back to Mulberry with
1 Nashville was evacuated by the Confederates under Albert Sidney
Johnston, in February, 1862.
134
NASHVILLE EVACUATED
me from Columbia. She found a man there tall enough
to take her in to dinner — Tom Boykin, who is six feet four,
the same height as her father. Tom was very handsome in
his uniform, and Mary prepared for a nice time, but he
looked as if he would so much rather she did not talk to
him, and he set her such a good example, saying never
a word.
Old Colonel Chesnut came for us. When the train
stopped, Quashie, shiny black, was seen on his box, as
glossy and perfect in his way as his blooded bays, but the
old Colonel would stop and pick up the dirtiest little negro
I ever saw who was crying by the roadside. This ragged
little black urchin was made to climb up and sit beside
Quash. It spoilt the symmetry of the turn-out, but it was
a character touch, and the old gentleman knows no law but
his own will. He had a biscuit in his pocket which he gave
this sniffling little negro, who proved to be his man Scip's
son.
I was ill at Mulberry and never left my room. Doctor
Boykin came, more military than medical. Colonel Ches
nut brought him up, also Teams, who said he was down in
the mouth. Our men were not fighting as they should.
We had only pluck and luck, and a dogged spirit of fight
ing, to offset their weight in men and munitions of war. I
wish I could remember Teams 's words ; this is only his idea.
His language was quaint and striking — no grammar, but
no end of sense and good feeling. Old Colonel Chesnut,
catching a word, began his litany, saying, " Numbers will
tell," :< Napoleon, you know," etc., etc.
At Mulberry the war has been ever afar off, but threats
to take the silver came very near indeed — silver that we had
before the Kevolution, silver that Mrs. Chesnut brought
from Philadelphia. Jack Cantey and Doctor Boykin came
back on the train with us. Wade Hampton is the hero.
Sweet May Dacre. Lord Byron and Disraeli make their
rosebuds Catholic; May Dacre is another Aurora Kaby. I
135
Feb. 20, 1862 COLUMBIA, S. C. July 21, 1862
•
like Disraeli because I find so many clever things in him.
I like the sparkle and the glitter. Carlyle does not hold up
his hands in holy horror of us because of African slavery.
Lord Lyons l has gone against us. Lord Derby and Louis
Napoleon are silent in our hour of direst need. People call
me Cassandra, for I cry that outside hope is quenched.
From the outside no help indeed cometh to this beleaguered
land.
March 7th. — Mrs. Middleton was dolorous indeed. Gen
eral Lee had warned the planters about Combahee, etc., that
they must take care of themselves now ; he could not do it.
Confederate soldiers had committed some outrages on the
plantations and officers had punished them promptly. She
poured contempt upon Yancey's letter to Lord Russell.2
It was the letter of a shopkeeper, not in the style of a states
man at all.
We called to see Mary McDuffie.3 She asked Mary Pres
ton what Doctor Boykin had said of her husband as we came
along in the train. She heard it was something very com
plimentary. Mary P. tried to remember, and to repeat it
all, to the joy of the other Mary, who liked to hear nice
things about her husband.
Mary was amazed to hear of the list of applicants for
promotion. One delicate-minded person accompanied his
demand for advancement by a request for a written descrip
tion of the Manassas battle ; he had heard Colonel Chesnut
give such a brilliant account of it in Governor Cobb's
room.
The Merrimac 4 business has come like a gleam of light-
1 Richard, Lord Lyons, British minister to the United States from
1858 to 1865.
2 Lord Russell was Foreign Secretary under the Palmerston admin
istration of 1859 to 1865.
3 Mary McDuffie was the second wife of Wade Hampton.
4 The Merrimac was formerly a 40-gun screw frigate of tho United
States Navy. In April, 1861, when the Norfolk Navy-yard was aban-
136
MONITOR AND MERRIMAC
ning illumining a dark scene. Our sky is black and low
ering.
The Judge saw his little daughter at my window and
he came up. He was very smooth and kind. It was really
a delightful visit ; not a disagreeable word was spoken. He
abused no one whatever, for he never once spoke of any one
but himself, and himself he praised without stint. He did
not look at me once, though he spoke very kindly to me.
March 10th. — Second year of Confederate independ
ence. I write daily for my own diversion. These memoires
pour servir may at some future day afford facts about
these times and prove useful to more important people than
I am. I do not wish to do any harm or to hurt any one. If
any scandalous stories creep in they can easily be burned.
It is hard, in such a hurry as things are now, to separate
the wheat from the chaff. Now that I have made my pro
test and written down my wishes, I can scribble on with a
free will and free conscience.
Congress at the North is down on us. They talk largely
of hanging slave-owners. They say they hold Port Royal,
as we did when we took it originally from the aborigines,
who fled before us; so we are to be exterminated and im
proved, a I'Indienne, from the face of the earth.
Medea, when asked: " Country, wealth, husband, chil
dren, all are gone; and now what remains? " answered:
:' Medea remains." " There is a time in most men's lives
when they resemble Job, sitting among the ashes and drink
ing in the full bitterness of complicated misfortune."
doned by the United States she was sunk. Her hull was afterward
raised by the Confederates and she was reconstructed on new plans,
and renamed the Virginia. On March 2, 1862, she destroyed the
Congress, a sailing-ship of 50 guns, and the Cumberland, a sailing-ship
of 30 guns, at Newport News. On March 7th she attacked the Minne
sota, but was met by the Monitor and defeated in a memorable engage
ment. Many features of modern battle-ships have been derived from
the Merrimac and Monitor.
137
Feb. 20, 1862 COLUMBIA, S. C. July 21, 1862
•
March llth. — A freshman came quite eager to be in
structed in all the wiles of society. He wanted to try his
hand at a flirtation, and requested minute instructions, as
he knew nothing whatever : he was so very fresh. * * Dance
with her, ' ' he was told, ' ' and talk with her ; walk with her
and flatter her; dance until she is warm and tired; then
propose to walk in a cool, shady piazza. It must be a some
what dark piazza. Begin your promenade slowly; warm
up to your work; draw her arm closer and closer; then,
break her wing."
11 Heavens, what is that — break her wing? " " Why,
you do not know even that 1 Put your arm round her waist
and kiss her. After that, it is all plain sailing. She comes
down when you call like the coon to Captain Scott: ' You
need not fire, Captain/ etc."
The aspirant for fame as a flirt followed these lucid di
rections literally, but when he seized the poor girl and
kissed her, she uplifted her voice in terror, and screamed
as if the house was on fire. So quick, sharp, and shrill
were her yells for help that the bold flirt sprang over the
banister, upon which grew a strong climbing rose. This he
struggled through, and ran toward the college, taking a bee
line. He was so mangled by the thorns that he had to go
home and have them picked out by his family. The girl's
brother challenged him. There was no mortal combat, how
ever, for the gay young fellow who had led the freshman's
ignorance astray stepped forward and put things straight.
An explanation and an apology at every turn hushed it
all up.
Now, we all laughed at this foolish story most heartily.
But Mr. Venable remained grave and preoccupied, and was
asked : ' ' Why are you so unmoved ? It is funny. ' '
" I like more probable fun; I have been in college
and I have kissed many a girl, but never a one scrome
yet."
Last Saturday was the bloodiest we have had in
138
MRS. McCORD
proportion to numbers.1 The enemy lost 1,500. The hand
ful left at home are rushing to arms at last. Bragg has
gone to join Beauregard at Columbus, Miss. Old Abe truly
took the field in that Scotch cap of his.
Mrs. McCord,2 the eldest daughter of Langdon Cheves,
got up a company for her son, raising it at her own ex
pense. She has the brains and energy of a man. To-day
she repeated a remark of a low-country gentleman, who is
dissatisfied: " This Government (Confederate) protects
neither person nor property. ' ' Fancy the scornful turn of
her lip ! Some one asked for Langdon Cheves, her brother.
" Oh, Langdon ! " she replied coolly, " he is a pure patriot;
he has no ambition. While I was there, he was letting Con
federate soldiers ditch through his garden and ruin him at
their leisure."
Cotton is five cents a pound and labor of no value at all ;
it commands no price whatever. People gladly hire out
their negroes to have them fed and clothed, which latter
can not be done. Cotton osnaburg at 37% cents a yard,
leaves no chance to clothe them. Langdon was for martial
law and making the bloodsuckers disgorge their ill-gotten
gains. We, poor fools, who are patriotically ruining our
selves will see our children in the gutter while treacherous
dogs of millionaires go rolling by in their coaches — coaches
that were acquired by taking advantage of our necessities.
This terrible battle of the ships — Monitor, Merrimac,
etc. All hands on board the Cumberland went down. She
fought gallantly and fired a round as she sank. The Con-
1 On March 7 and 8, 1862, occurred the battle of Pea Ridge in
Western Arkansas, where the Confederates were defeated, and on March
8th and 9th, occurred the conflict in Hampton Roads between the war
ships Merrimac, Cumberland, Congress, and Monitor.
2 Louisa Susanna McCord, whose husband was David J. McCord, a
lawyer of Columbia, who died in 1855. She was educated in Philadel
phia, and was the author of several books of verse, including Caius
Gracchus, a tragedy; she was also a brilliant pamphleteer.
11 139
Feb. 20, 1862 COLUMBIA, S. C. Jtdy 21, 1862
•
gress ran up a white flag. She fired on our boats as they
went up to take off her wounded. She was burned. The
worst of it is that all this will arouse them to more furious
exertions to destroy us. They hated us so before, but how
now?
In Columbia I do not know a half-dozen men who would
not gaily step into Jeff Davis 's shoes with a firm conviction
that they would do better in every respect than he does.
The monstrous conceit, the fatuous ignorance of these crit
ics! It is pleasant to hear Mrs. McCord on this subject,
when they begin to shake their heads and tell us what Jeff
Davis ought to do.
March 12th. — In the naval battle the other day we had
twenty-five guns in all. The enemy had fifty-four in the
Cumberland, forty- four in the St. Lawrence, besides a fleet
of gunboats, filled with rifled cannon. Why not? They
can have as many as they please. ' ' No pent-up Utica con
tracts their powers "; the whole boundless world being
theirs to recruit in. Ours is only this one little spot of
ground — the blockade, or stockade, which hems us in with
only the sky open to us, and for all that, how tender-footed
and cautious they are as they draw near.
An anonymous letter purports to answer Colonel Ches-
nut's address to South Carolinians now in the army of the
Potomac. The man says, ' ' All that bosh is no good. ' ' He
knows lots of people whose fathers were notorious Tories
in our war for independence and made fortunes by selling
their country. Their sons have the best places, and they
are cowards and traitors still. Names are given, of course.
Floyd and Pillow J are suspended from their commands
1 John D. Floyd, who had been Governor of Virginia from 1850 to
1853, became Secretary of War in 1857 He was first in command
at Fort Donelson. Gideon J. Pillow had been a Major-General of volun
teers in the Mexican War and was second in command at Fort Donelson.
He and Floyd escaped from the Fort when it was invested by Grant,
leaving General Buckner to make the surrender.
140
ALBERT SIDNEY JOHNSTON
because of Fort Donelson. The people of Tennessee de
mand a like fate for Albert Sidney Johnston. They say he
is stupid. Can human folly go further than this Tennessee
madness ?
I did Mrs. Blank a kindness. I told the women when
her name came up that she was childless now, but that she
had lost three children. I hated to leave her all alone.
Women have such a contempt for a childless wife. Now,
they will be all sympathy and goodness. I took away her
' * reproach among women. ' '
March 13th. — Mr. Chesnut fretting and fuming. From
the poor old blind bishop downward everybody is besetting
him to let off students, theological and other, from going
into the army. One comfort is that the boys will go. Mr.
Chesnut answers : * * Wait until you have saved your coun
try before you make preachers and scholars. When you
have a country, there will be no lack of divines, students,
scholars to adorn and purify it. ' ' He says he is a one-idea
man. That idea is to get every possible man into the ranks.
Professor Le Conte l is an able auxiliary. He has un
dertaken to supervise and carry on the powder-making en
terprise — the very first attempted in the Confederacy, and
Mr. Chesnut is proud of it. It is a brilliant success, thanks
to Le Conte.
Mr. Chesnut receives anonymous letters urging him to
arrest the Judge as seditious. They say he is a dangerous
and disaffected person. His abuse of Jeff Davis and the
Council is rabid. Mr. Chesnut laughs and throws the let
ters into the fire. " Disaffected to Jeff Davis," says he;
1 Joseph Le Conte, who afterward arose to much distinction as a
geologist and writer of text-books on geology. He died in 1901, while he
was connected with the University of California. His work at Columbia
was to manufacture, on a large scale, medicines for the Confederate
Army, his laboratory being the main source of supply. In Professor
Le Conte's autobiography published in 1903, are several chapters de
voted to his life in the South.
141
Feb. 20, 1862 COLUMBIA, S. C. July 21, 1862
•
" disaffected to the Council, that don't count. He knows
what he is about; he would not injure his country for the
world."
Read Uncle Tom's Cabin again. These negro women
have a chance here that women have nowhere else. They
can redeem themselves — the " impropers " can. They can
marry decently, and nothing is remembered against these
colored ladies. It is not a nice topic, but Mrs. Stowe revels
in it. How delightfully Pharisaic a feeling it must be to
rise superior and fancy we are so degraded as to defend
and like to live with such degraded creatures around us —
such men as Legree and his women.
The best way to take negroes to your heart is to get as
far away from them as possible. As far as I can see,
Southern women do all that missionaries could do to pre
vent and alleviate evils. The social evil has not been sup
pressed in old England or in New England, in London or in
Boston. People in those places expect more virtue from a
plantation African than they can insure in practise among
themselves with all their own high moral surroundings —
light, education, training, and support. Lady Mary Mon
tagu says, " Only men and women at last." " Male and
female, created he them, ' ' says the Bible. There are cruel,
graceful, beautiful mothers of angelic Evas North as well
as South, I dare say. The Northern men and women who
came here were always hardest, for they expected an Afri
can to work and behave as a white man. We do not.
I have often thought from observation truly that per
fect beauty hardens the heart, and as to grace, what so
graceful as a cat, a tigress, or a panther. Much love, ad
miration, worship hardens an idol's heart. It becomes ut
terly callous and selfish. It expects to receive all and to
give nothing. It even likes the excitement of seeing people
suffer. I speak now of what I have watched with horror
and amazement.
Topsys I have known, but none that were beaten or ill-
142
UNCLE TOM'S CABIN
used. Evas are mostly in the heaven of Mrs. Stowe's im
agination. People can't love things dirty, ugly, and repul
sive, simply because they ought to do so, but they can be
good to them at a distance ; that 's easy. You see, I can not
rise very high ; I can only judge by what I see.
March 14th. — Thank God for a ship! It has run the
blockade with arms and ammunition.
There are no negro sexual relations half so shocking as
Mormonism. And yet the United States Government makes
no bones of receiving Mormons into its sacred heart. Mr.
Venable said England held her hand over " the malignant
and the turbaned Turk " to save and protect him, slaves,
seraglio, and all. But she rolls up the whites of her eyes
at us when slavery, bad as it is, is stepping out into freedom
every moment through Christian civilization. They do not
grudge the Turk even his bag and Bosphorus privileges.
To a recalcitrant wife it is, " Here yawns the sack; there
rolls the sea," etc. And France, the bold, the brave, the
ever free, she has not been so tender- footed in Algiers. But
then the ll you are another " argument is a shabby one.
" You see," says Mary Preston sagaciously, " we are white
Christian descendants of Huguenots and Cavaliers, and
they expect of us different conduct."
Went in Mrs. Preston's landau to bring my boarding-
school girls here to dine. At my door met J. F., who wanted
me then and there to promise to help him with his commis
sion or put him in the way of one. At the carriage steps I
was handed in by Gus Smith, who wants his brother made
commissary. The beauty of it all is they think I have some
influence, and I have not a particle. The subject of Mr.
Chesnut's military affairs, promotions, etc., is never men
tioned by me.
March 15th. — When we came home from Richmond,
there stood Warren Nelson, propped up against my door,
lazily waiting for me, the handsome creature. He said he
meant to be heard, so I walked back with him to the draw-
143
Fd>. 20, 1862 COLUMBIA, S. C. July 21, 1862
ing-room. They are wasting their time dancing attendance
on me. I can not help them. Let them shoulder their
musket and go to the wars like men.
After tea came " Mars Kit "—he said for a talk, but
that Mr. Preston would riot let him have, for Mr. Preston
had arrived some time before him. Mr. Preston said
" Mars Kit " thought it " bad form " to laugh. After that
you may be sure a laugh from " Mars Kit " was secured.
Again and again, he was forced to laugh with a will. I re
versed Oliver Wendell Holmes 's good resolution — never
to be as funny as he could. I did my very utmost.
Mr. Venable interrupted the fun, which was fast and
furious, with the very best of bad news ! Newbern shelled
and burned, cotton, turpentine — everything. There were
5,000 North Carolinians in the fray, 12,000 Yankees. Now
there stands Goldsboro. One more step and we are cut in
two. The railroad is our backbone, like the Blue Ridge and
the Alleghanies, with which it runs parallel. So many dis
comforts, no wonder we are down-hearted.
Mr. Venable thinks as we do — Garnett is our most thor
ough scholar ; Lamar the most original, and the cleverest of
our men — L. Q. C. Lamar — time fails me to write all his
name. Then, there is R. M. T. Hunter. Muscoe Russell
Garnett and his Northern wife : that match was made at my
house in Washington when Garnett was a member of the
United States Congress.
March 17th. — Back to the Congaree House to await my
husband, who has made a rapid visit to the Wateree region.
As we drove up Mr. Chesnut said : * ' Did you see the stare
of respectful admiration E. R. bestowed upon you, so cu
riously prolonged ? I could hardly keep my countenance. ' '
" Yes, my dear child, I feel the honor of it, though my in
dividual self goes for nothing in it. I am the wife of the
man who has the appointing power just now, with so many
commissions to be filled. I am nearly forty, and they do my
understanding the credit to suppose I can be made to be-
144
JOHNSTON PETTIGREW
lieve they admire my mature charms. They think they fool
me into thinking that they believe me charming. There is
hardly any farce in the world more laughable. ' '
Last night a house was set on fire ; last week two houses.
4 ' The red cock crows in the barn ! ' ' Our troubles thicken,
indeed, when treachery comes from that dark quarter.
When the President first offered Johnston Petti grew a
brigadier-generalship, his answer was : ' ' Not yet. Too
many men are ahead of me who have earned their promo
tion in the field. I will come after them, not before. So
far I have done nothing to merit reward, ' ' etc. He would
not take rank when he could get it. I fancy he may cool his
heels now waiting for it. He was too high and mighty.
There was another conscientious man — Burnet, of Ken
tucky. He gave up his regiment to his lieutenant-colonel
when he found the lieutenant-colonel could command the
regiment and Burnet could not maneuver it in the field. He
went into the fight simply as an aide to Floyd. Modest
merit just now is at a premium.
William Gilmore Simms is here ; read us his last poetry ;
have forgotten already what it was about. It was not tire
some, however, and that is a great thing when people will
persist in reading their own rhymes.
I did not hear what Mr. Preston was saying. " The
last piece of Richmond news, ' ' Mr. Chesnut said as he went
away, and he looked so fagged out I asked no questions. I
knew it was bad.
At daylight there was a loud knocking at my door. I
hurried on a dressing-gown and flew to open the door.
;< Mrs. Chesnut, Mrs. M. says please don't forget her son.
Mr. Chesnut, she hears, has come back. Please get her son a
commission. He must have an office." I shut the door in
the servant's face. If I had the influence these foolish
people attribute to me why should I not help my own? I
have a brother, two brothers-in-law, and no end of kin, all
gentlemen privates, and privates they would stay to the
Feb. 20, 1862 COLUMBIA, S. C. July 21, 1862
end of time before they said a word to me about commis
sions. After a long talk we were finally disgusted and the
men went off to the bulletin-board. Whatever else it shows,
good or bad, there is always woe for some house in the killed
and wounded. We have need of stout hearts. I feel a
sinking of mine as we drive near the board.
March 18th. — My war archon is beset for commissions,
and somebody says for every one given, you make one in-
grate and a thousand enemies.
As I entered Miss Mary Stark 's I whispered: " He
has promised to vote for Louis. ' ' What radiant faces. To
my friend, Miss Mary said, " Your son-in-law, what is he
doing for his country? " " He is a tax collector." Then
spoke up the stout old girl : ' ' Look at my cheek ; it is red
with blushing for you. A great, hale, hearty young man !
Fie on him ! fie on him ! for shame ! Tell his wife ; run him
out of the house with a broomstick; send him down to the
coast at least." Fancy my cheeks. I could not raise my
eyes to the poor lady, so mercilessly assaulted. My face
was as hot with compassion as the outspoken Miss Mary
pretended hers to be with vicarious mortification.
Went to see sweet and saintly Mrs. Bartow. She read
us a letter from Mississippi — not so bad: " More men
there than the enemy suspected, and torpedoes to blow up
the wretches when they came." Next to see Mrs. Izard.
She had with her a relative just from the North. This lady
had asked Seward for passports, and he told her to " hold
on a while ; the road to South Carolina will soon be open to
all, open and safe." To-day Mrs. Arthur Hayne heard
from her daughter that Richmond is to be given up. Mrs.
Buell is her daughter.
Met Mr. Chesnut, who said : ' ' New Madrid l has been
given up. I do not know any more than the dead where
New Madrid is. It is bad, all the same, this giving up. I
1 New Madrid, Missouri, had been under siege since March 3, 1862.
146
THE CABINET REMODELED
can 't stand it. The hemming-in process is nearly complete.
The ring of fire is almost unbroken."
Mr. Chesnut's negroes offered to fight for him if he
would arm them. He pretended to believe them. He says
one man can not do it. The whole country must agree to it.
He would trust such as he would select, and he would give
so many acres of land and his freedom to each one as he en
listed.
Mrs. Albert Rhett came for an office for her son John.
I told her Mr. Chesnut would never propose a kinsman for
office, but if any one else would bring him forward he would
vote for him certainly, as he is so eminently fit for position.
Now he is a private.
March 19th. — He who runs may read. Conscription
means that we are in a tight place. This war was a volun
teer business. To-morrow conscription begins — the dernier
ressort. The President has remodeled his Cabinet, leaving
Bragg for North Carolina. His War Minister is Randolph,
of Virginia. A Union man par excellence, Watts, of Ala
bama, is Attorney-General. And now, too late by one year,
when all the mechanics are in the army, Mallory begins to
telegraph Captain Ingraham to build ships at any expense.
We are locked in and can not get ' ' the requisites for naval
architecture/' says a magniloquent person.
Henry Frost says all hands wink at cotton going out.
Why not send it out and buy ships ? ' ' Every now and then
there is a holocaust of cotton burning," says the magnilo
quent. Conscription has waked the Rip Van Winkles. The
streets of Columbia were never so crowded with men. To
fight and to be made to fight are different things.
To my small wits, whenever people were persistent,
united, and rose in their might, no general, however great,
succeeded in subjugating them. Have we not swamps, for
ests, rivers, mountains — every natural barrier? The Car
thaginians begged for peace because they were a luxurious
people and could not endure the hardship of war, though
147
Feb. 20, 1862 COLUMBIA, S. C. July 21, 1862
~*~
the enemy suffered as sharply as they did! " Factions
among themselves ' ' is the rock on which we split. Now for
the great soul who is to rise up and lead us. Why tarry his
footsteps ?
March 20th. — The Merrimac is now called the Virginia.
I think these changes of names so confusing and so sense
less. Like the French " Royal Bengal Tiger," " National
Tiger," etc. Rue this, and next day Rue that, the very
days and months a symbol, and nothing signified.
I was lying on the sofa in my room, and two men slowly
walking up and down the corridor talked aloud as if neces
sarily all rooms were unoccupied at this midday hour. I
asked Maum Mary who they were. " Yeadon and Barn-
well Rhett, Jr." They abused the Council roundly, and
my husband's name arrested my attention. Afterward,
when Yeadon attacked Mr. Chesnut, Mr. Chesnut sur
prised him by knowing beforehand all he had to say. Nat
urally I had repeated the loud interchange of views I had
overheard in the corridor.
First, Nathan Davis called. Then Gonzales, who pre
sented a fine, soldierly appearance in his soldier clothes,
and the likeness to Beauregard was greater than ever.
Nathan, all the world knows, is by profession a handsome
man.
General Gonzales told us what in the bitterness of his
soul he had written to Jeff Davis. He regretted that he had
not been his classmate; then he might have been as well
treated as Northrop. In any case he would not have been
refused a brigadiership, citing General Trapier and Tom
Drayton. He had worked for it, had earned it; they had
not. To his surprise, Mr. Davis answered him, and in a
sharp note of four pages. Mr. Davis demanded from whom
he quoted, " not his classmate." General Gonzales re
sponded, ' ' from the public voice only. ' ' Now he will fight
for us all the same, but go on demanding justice from Jeff
Davis until he get his clues — at least, until one of them gets
148
MISS S. B. C. PRESTON.
MISS 1SA15KLLA D. MAUT1X.
USON DAVIS.
MRS. LOCISA S. -McCORD
MRS. FRAN'CIS W. P1CKENS.
MRS. DAVID R. WILLIAMS.
(The author's sister, Kate.)
A GROUP OF CONFEDERATE WOMEN.
MEN BORN IN THE NORTH
his dues, for he means to go on hitting Jeff Davis over the
head whenever he has a chance.
" I am afraid," said I, " you will find it a hard head
to crack. ' ' He replied in his flowery Spanish way : * ' Jeff
Davis will be the sun, radiating all light, heat, and patron
age ; he will not be a moon reflecting public opinion, for he
has the soul of a despot; he delights to spite public opinion.
See, people abused him for making Crittenden brigadier.
Straightway he made him major-general, and just after a
blundering, besotted defeat, too." Also, he told the Presi
dent in that letter: " Napoleon made his generals after
great deeds on their part, and not for having been educated
at St. Cyr, or Brie, or the Polytechnique, ' ' etc., etc. Nathan
Davis sat as still as a Sioux warrior, not an eyelash moved.
And yet he said afterward that he was amused while the
Spaniard railed at his great namesake.
Gonzales said : ' * Mrs. Slidell would proudly say that she
was a Creole. They were such fools, they thought Creole
meant — Here Nathan interrupted pleasantly : " At the
St. Charles, in New Orleans, on the bill of fare were
' Creole eggs. ' When they were brought to a man who had
ordered them, with perfect simplicity, he held them up,
' Why, they are only hens' eggs, after all.' What in Heav
en's name he expected them to be, who can say? " smiled
Nathan the elegant.
One lady says (as I sit reading in the drawing-room
window while Maum Mary puts my room to rights) : "I
clothe my negroes well. I could not bear to see them in
dirt and rags; it would be unpleasant to me." Another
lady : ' ' Yes. Well, so do I. But not fine clothes, you
know. I feel — now — it was one of our sins as a nation, the
way we indulged them in sinful finery. We will be pun
ished for it."
Last night, Mrs. Pickens met General Cooper. Madam
knew General Cooper only as our adjutant-general, and
Mr. Mason ?s brother-in-law. In her slow, graceful, impress-
149
Feb. 20, 1862 COLUMBIA, S. C. July 21, 1862
ive way, her beautiful eyes eloquent with feeling, she in
veighed against Mr. Davis 's wickedness in always sending
men born at the North to command at Charleston. General
Cooper is on his way to make a tour of inspection there now.
The dear general settled his head on his cravat with the aid
of his forefinger ; he tugged rather more nervously with the
something that is always wrong inside of his collar, and
looked straight up through his spectacles. Some one
crossed the room, stood back of Mrs. Pickens, and mur
mured in her ear,, " General Cooper was born in New
York." Sudden silence.
Dined with General Cooper at the Prestons. General
Hampton and Blanton Duncan were there also; the latter
a thoroughly free-and-easy Western man, handsome and
clever; more audacious than either, perhaps. He pointed
to Buck— Sally Buchanan Campbell Preston. " What's
that girl laughing at? " Poor child, how amazed she
looked. He bade them ' * not despair ; all the nice young men
would not be killed in the war ; there would be a few left.
For himself, he could give them no hope ; Mrs. Duncan was
uncommonly healthy." Mrs. Duncan is also lovely. We
have seen her.
March 24th. — I was asked to the Tognos' tea, so refused
a drive with Mary Preston. As I sat at my solitary case
mate, waiting for the time to come for the Tognos, saw
Mrs. Preston's landau pass, and Mr. Venable making Mary
laugh at some of his army stories, as only Mr. Venable can.
Already I felt that I had paid too much for my whistle —
that is, the Togno tea. The Gibbeses, Trenholms, Edmund
Rhett, there. Edmund Rhett has very fine eyes and makes
fearful play with them. He sits silent and motionless, with
his hands on his knees, his head bent forward, and his eyes
fixed upon you. I could think of nothing like it but a set
ter and a covey of partridges.
As to President Davis, he sank to profounder deeps of
abuse of him than even Gonzales. I quoted Yancey: " A
150
ONE'S OWN HUSBAND
crew may not like their captain, but if they are mad enough
to mutiny while a storm is raging, all hands are bound
to go to the bottom. ' ' After that I contented myself with a
mild shake of the head when I disagreed with him, and at
last I began to shake so persistently it amounted to in
cipient palsy. " Jeff Davis," he said, " is conceited,
wrong-headed, wranglesome, obstinate — a traitor." " Now
I have borne much in silence, ' ' said I at last, * ' but that is
pernicious nonsense. Do not let us waste any more time
listening to your quotations from the Mercury."
He very good-naturedly changed the subject, which was
easy just then, for a delicious supper was on the table
ready for us. But Doctor Gibbes began anew the fighting.
He helped me to some pate — " Not foie gras," said
Madame Togno, " pate perdreaux." Doctor Gibbes, how
ever, gave it a flavor of his own. " Eat it," said he, " it
is good for you; rich and wholesome; healthy as cod-liver
oil."
A queer thing happened. At the post-office a man saw a
small boy open with a key the box of the Governor and the
Council, take the contents of the box and run for his life.
Of course, this man called to the urchin to stop. The urchin
did not heed, but seeing himself pursued, began tearing up
the letters and papers. He was caught and the fragments
were picked up. Finding himself a prisoner, he pointed
out the negro who gave him the key. The negro was ar
rested.
Governor J^ickens called tojsee me to-day. We began
with Fort Sumter. For an hour did we hammer at that
fortress. We took it, gun by gun. He was very pleasant
and friendly in his manner.
James Chesnut has been so nice this winter; so reason
able and considerate — that is, for a man. The night I
came from Madame Togno 's, instead of making a row about
the lateness of the hour, he said he was ' ' so wide awake and
so hungry." I put on my dressing-gown and scrambled
151
Feb. 20, 1862 COLUMBIA, S. C. July 81, 1862
•
some eggs, etc., there on our own fire. And with our feet on
the fender and the small supper-table between us, we en
joyed the supper and glorious gossip. Rather a pleasant
state of things when one's own husband is in good humor
and cleverer than all the men outside.
This afternoon, the entente cordiale still subsisting,
Maum Mary beckoned me out mysteriously, but Mr. Ches-
nut said : ' ' Speak out, old woman ; nobody here but my
self. " * * Mars Nathum Davis wants to speak to her, ' ' said
she. So I hurried off to the drawing-room, Maum Mary
flapping her down-at-the-heels shoes in my wake. " He's
gwine bekase somebody done stole his boots. How could he
stay bedout boots? " So Nathan said good-by. Then
we met General Gist, Maum Mary still hovering near, and I
congratulated him on being promoted. He is now a brig
adier. This he received with modest complaisance. " I
knowed he was a general," said Maum Mary as he passed
on, ' ' he told me as soon as he got in his room bef o ' his boy
put down his trunks. ' '
As Nathan, the unlucky, said good-by, he informed me
that a Mr. Reed from Montgomery was in the drawing-
room and wanted to see me. Mr. Reed had traveled with
our foreign envoy, Yancey. I was keen for news from
abroad. Mr. Reed settled that summarily. " Mr. Yancey
says we need not have one jot of hope. He could bowstring
Mallory for not buying arms in time. The very best citi
zens wanted to depose the State government and take
things into their own hands, the powers that be being in
efficient. Western men are hurrying to the front, bestirring
themselves. In two more months we shall be ready."
What could I do but laugh? I do hope the enemy will be
considerate and charitable enough to wait for us.
Mr. Reed's calm faith in the power of Mr. Yancey 's
eloquence was beautiful to see. He asked for Mr. Chesnut.
I went back to our rooms, swelling with news like a pouter
pigeon. Mr. Chesnut said : ' ' Well ! four hours — a call
152
EMANCIPATION THREATENED
from Nathan Davis of four hours ! ' : Men are too absurd !
So I bear the honors of my forty years gallantly. I can
but laugh. * ' Mr. Nathan Davis went by the five-o 'clock
train, ' ' I said ; * ' it is now about six or seven, maybe eight.
I have had so many visitors. Mr. Reed, of Alabama, is ask
ing for you out there." He went without a word, but I
doubt if he went to see Mr. Reed, my laughing had made
him so angry.
At last Lincoln threatens us with a proclamation abolish
ing slavery7^— here in the free SouthernConf ederacy ; and
they say McClellan is deposed. They_want more fighting
— I mean the government, whose"skiiis are safe, they want
more fighting, and trust to luck for the skill of the new
generals.
March 28th. — I did leave with regret Maum Mary. She
was such a good, well-informed old thing. My Molly,
though perfection otherwise, does not receive the confiden
tial communications of new-made generals at the earliest
moment. She is of very limited military information.
Maum Mary was the comfort of my life. She saved me
from all trouble as far as she could. Seventy, if she is a
day, she is spry and active as a cat, of a curiosity that
knows no bounds, black and clean; also, she knows a joke
at first sight, and she is honest. I fancy the negroes are
ashamed to rob people as careless as James Chesnut and
myself.
One night, just before we left the Congaree House, Mr.
Chesnut had forgotten to tell some all-important thing to
1 The Emancipation Proclamation was not actually issued until
September 22, 1862, when it was a notice to the Confederates to return
to the Union, emancipation being proclaimed as a result of their failure
to do so. The real proclamation, freeing the slaves, was delayed until
January 1, 1863, when it was put forth as a war measure. Mrs. Chesnut's
reference is doubtless to President Lincoln's Message to Congress,
March 6, 1862, in which he made recommendations regarding the abo
lition of slavery.
153
Feb. 20, 1862 COLUMBIA, S. C. July 21, 1862
Governor Gist, who was to leave on a public mission next
day. So at the dawn of day he put on his dressing-gown and
went to the Governor's room. He found the door unlocked
and the Governor fast asleep. He shook him. Half-asleep,
the Governor sprang up and threw his arms around Mr.
Chesnut 's neck and said : * * Honey, is it you ? ' ' The mis
take was rapidly set right, and the bewildered plenipoten
tiary was given his instructions. Mr. Chesnut came into
my room, threw himself on the sofa, and nearly laughed
himself to extinction, imitating again and again the pa
thetic tone of the Governor's greeting.
Mr. Chesnut calls Lawrence * ' Adolphe, ' ' but says he is
simply perfect as a servant. Mary Stevens said: " I
thought Cousin James the laziest man alive until I knew his
man, Lawrence." Lawrence will not move an inch or lift
a finger for any one but his master. Mrs. Middleton po
litely sent him on an errand; Lawrence, too, was very po
lite; hours after, she saw him sitting on the fence of the
front yard. ' ' Didn 't you go ? " she asked. * ' No, ma 'am.
I am waiting for Mars Jeems." Mrs. Middleton calls him
now, " Mr. Take-it-Easy."
My very last day's experience at the Congaree. I was
waiting for Mars Jeems in the drawing-room when a lady
there declared herself to be the wife of an officer in Cling-
man's regiment. A gentleman who seemed quite friendly
with her, told her all Mr. Chesnut said, thought, intended
to do, wrote, and felt. I asked: " Are you certain of all
these things you say of Colonel Chesnut? " The man
hardly deigned to notice this impertinent interruption from
a stranger presuming to speak but who had not been intro
duced! After he went out, the wife of Clingman's officer
was seized with an intuitive curiosity. ' ' Madam, will you
tell me your name? " I gave it, adding, " I dare say I
showed myself an intelligent listener when my husband's
affairs were under discussion. ' ' At first, I refused to give
my name because it would have embarrassed her friend if
154
A STRING OF PEARLS
she had told him who I was. The man was Mr. Chesnut's
secretary, but I had never seen him before.
A letter from Kate says she had been up all night pre
paring David's things. Little Serena sat up and helped
her mother. They did not know that they would ever see
him again. Upon reading it, I wept and James Chesnut
cursed the Yankees.
Gave the girls a quantity of flannel for soldiers ' shirts ;
also a string of pearls to be raffled for at the Gunboat Fair.
Mary Witherspoon has sent a silver tea-pot. We do not
spare our precious things now. Our silver and gold, what
are they? — when we give up to war our beloved.
April 2d. — Dr. Trezevant, attending Mr. Chesnut, who
was ill, came and found his patient gone ; he could not stand
the news of that last battle. He got up and dressed, weak
as he was, and went forth to hear what he could for him
self. The doctor was angry with me for permitting this,
and more angry with him for such folly. I made him listen
to the distinction between feminine folly and virulent va
garies and nonsense. He said : ' ' He will certainly be sali
vated after all that calomel out in this damp weather. ' '
To-day, the ladies in their landaus were bitterly attacked
by the morning paper for lolling back in their silks and
satins, with tall footmen in livery, driving up and down
the streets while the poor soldiers ' wives were on the side
walks. It is the old story of rich and poor ! My little ba
rouche is not here, nor has James Chesnut any of his horses
here, but then I drive every day with Mrs. McCord and
Mrs. Preston, either of whose turnouts fills the bill. The
Governor's carriage, horses, servants, etc., are splendid —
just what they should be. Why not 1
April 14th. — Our Fair is in full blast. We keep a
restaurant. Our waitresses are Mary and Buck Preston,
Isabella Martin, and Grace Elmore.
April 15th. — Trescott is too clever ever to be a bore;
that was proved to-day, for he stayed two hours ; as usual,
12 155
Feb. 20, 1862 COLUMBIA, S. C. July 21, 1862
i i. i^i^ii.a •! i uj^mJL rjT.a.-Lj— . ~m •^^^^••rr»»iMMmM
Mr. Chesnut said " four." Trescott was very surly; calls
himself ex-Secretary of State of the United States; now,
nothing in particular of South Carolina or the Confederate
States. Then he yawned, " What a bore this war is. I
wish it was ended, one way or another." He speaks of
going across the border and taking service in Mexico.
" Rubbish, not much Mexico for you," I answered. An
other patriot came then and averred, * * I will take my fam
ily back to town, that we may all surrender together. I
gave it up early in the spring." Trescott made a face be
hind backs, and said: " Lache! f>
The enemy have flanked Beauregard at Nashville.
There is grief enough for Albert Sidney Johnston now; we
begin to see what we have lost. We were pushing them into
the river when General Johnston was wounded. Beaure
gard was lying in his tent, at the rear, in a green sickness —
melancholy — but no matter what the name of the malady.
He was too slow to move, and lost all the advantage gained
by our dead hero.1 Without him there is no head to our
Western army. Pulaski has fallen. What more is there
to fall?
April 15th. — Mrs. Middleton : * ' How did you settle
Molly's little difficulty with Mrs. McMahan, that l piece of
her mind ' that Molly gave our landlady ? ' '' ll Oh, paid our
way out of it, of course, and I apologized for Molly ! ' '
Gladden, the hero of the Palmettos in Mexico, is killed.
Shiloh has been a dreadful blow to us. Last winter Stephen,
my brother, had it in his power to do such a nice thing for
Colonel Gladden. In the dark he heard his name, also that
he had to walk twenty-five miles in Alabama mud or go on
1 The battle of Shiloh, or Pittsburg Landing, in Tennessee, eighty-
eight miles east of Memphis, had been fought on April 6 and 7,
1862. The Federals were commanded by General Grant who, on the
second day, was reenforced by General Buell. The Confederates were
commanded by Albert Sidney Johnston on the first day, when Johnston
was killed, and on the second day by General Beauregard.
156
SHILOH
an ammunition wagon. So he introduced himself as a
South Carolinian to Colonel Gladden, whom he knew only
by reputation as colonel of the Palmetto regiment in the
Mexican war. And they drove him in his carriage comfort
ably to where he wanted to go — a night drive of fifty miles
for Stephen, for he had the return trip, too. I would
rather live in Siberia, worse still, in Sahara, than live in a
country surrendered to Yankees.
The Carolinian says the conscription bill passed by Con
gress is fatal to our liberties as a people. Let us be a people
" certain and sure," as poor Tom B. said, and then talk of
rebelling against our home government.
Sat up all night. Read Eothen straight through, our
old Wiley and Putnam edition that we bought in London in
1845. How could I sleep? The power they are bringing
to bear against our country is tremendous. Its weight may
be irresistible — I dare not think of that, however.
April 21st. — Have been ill. One day I dined at Mrs.
Preston's, pate de foie gras and partridge prepared for
me as I like them. I had been awfully depressed for days
and could not sleep at night for anxiety, but I did not
know that I was bodily ill. Mrs. Preston came home with
me. She said emphatically: "Molly, if your mistress is
worse in the night send for me instantly." I thought it
very odd. I could not breathe if I attempted to lie down,
and very soon I lost my voice. Molly raced out and sent
Lawrence for Doctor Trezevant. She said I had the croup.
The doctor said, ' ' congestion of the lungs. ' '
So here I am, stranded, laid by the heels. Battle after
battle has occurred, disaster after disaster. Every morn
ing 's paper is enough to kill a well woman and age a strong
and hearty one.
To-day, the waters of this stagnant pool were wildly
stirred. The President telegraphed for my husband to
come on to Richmond, and offered him a place on his staff.
I was a joyful woman. It was a way opened by Providence
157
Feb. 20, 1862 COLUMBIA, S. C. July 21, 1862
from this Slough of Despond, this Council whose counsel no
one takes. I wrote to Mr. Davis, "With thanks, and beg
ging your pardon, how I would like to go." Mrs. Preston
agrees with me, Mr. Chesnut ought to go. Through Mr.
Chesnut the President might hear many things to the ad
vantage of our State, etc.
Letter from Quinton Washington. That was the best
tonic yet. He writes so cheerfully. We have fifty thousand
men on the Peninsula and McClellan eighty thousand. We
expect that much disparity of numbers. We can stand that.
April 23d. — On April 23, 1840, I was married, aged
seventeen ; consequently on the 31st of March, 1862, I was
thirty-nine. I saw a wedding to-day from my window,
which opens on Trinity Church. Nanna Shand married a
Doctor Wilson. Then, a beautiful bevy of girls rushed into
my room. Such a flutter and a chatter. Well, thank
Heaven for a wedding. It is a charming relief from the
dismal litany tff-trnr~tlaily songT"
A letter to^Hay from our octogenarian at Mulberry.
His nephew, Jack Deas, had two horses shot under him ; the
old Colonel has his growl, " That's enough for glory, and
no hurt after all." He ends, however, with his never-fail
ing refrain : We can 't fight all the world ; two and two only
make four; it can't make a thousand; numbers will not lie.
He says he has lost half a million already in railroad bonds,
bank stock, Western notes of hand, not to speak of negroes
to be freed, and lands to be confiscated, for he takes the
gloomiest views of all things.
April 26th. — Doleful dumps, alarm-bells ringing. Tele
grams say the mortar fleet has passed the forts at New
Orleans. Down into the very depths of despair are we.
April 27th. — New Orleans gone * and with it the Con-
1 New Orleans had been seized by the Confederates at the outbreak
of the war. Steps to capture it were soon taken by the Federals and
on April 18, 1862, the mortar flotilla, under Farragut, opened fire
158
FARRAGUT TAKES NEW ORLEANS
federacy. That Mississippi rniT\3jTg if lost. The Confed
eracy has been done to death by the politicians. What
wonder we are lost.
The soldiefgrhave clonp their duty. All honor to the
army. Statesmen as busy as bees about their own places,
or their personal honor, too busy to see the enemy at a dis
tance. With a microscope they were examining their own
interests, or their own wrongs, forgetting the interests of the
people they represented. They were concocting newspaper
paragraphs to injure the government. No matter how
vital it may be, nothing can be kept from the enemy. They
must publish themselves, night and day, what they are do
ing, or the omniscient Buncombe will forget them.
This fall of New Orleans means utter ruin to the pri
vate fortunes of the Prestons. Mr. Preston came from New
Orleans so satisfied writh Mansfield Lovell and the tremen
dous steam-rams he saw there. While in New Orleans
Burnside offered Mr. Preston five hundred thousand dol
lars, a debt due to him from Burnside, and he refused to
take it. He said the money was safer in Burnside 's hands
than his. And so it may prove, so ugly is the outlook now.
Burnside is wide awake ; he is not a man to be caught nap
ping.
Mary Preston was saying she had asked the Hamptons
how they relished the idea of being paupers. If the country
is saved none of us will care for that sort of thing. Philo
sophical and patriotic, Mr. Chesnut came in, saying:
' ' Conrad has been telegraphed from New Orleans that the
great iron-clad Louisiana went down at the first shot."
Mr. Chesnut and Mary Preston walked off, first to the bul
letin-board and then to the Prestons'.
on its protecting forts. Making little impression on them, Farragut
ran boldly past the forts and destroyed the Confederate fleet, compris
ing 13 gunboats and two ironclads. On April 27th he took formal
possession of the city.
159
Feb. 20, 1862 COLUMBIA, S. C. July 21, 1862
April 29th. — A grand smash, the news from New Or
leans fatal to us. Met Mr. Weston. He wanted to know
where he could find a place of safety for two hundred ne
groes. I looked into his face to see if he were in earnest;
then to see if he were sane. There was a certain set of
two hundred negroes that had grown to be a nuisance. Ap
parently all the white men of the family had felt bound
to stay at home to take care of them. There are people
who still believe negroes property — like Noah's neighbors,
who insisted that the Deluge would only be a little shower
after all.
These negroes, however^ were Plowden Weston 's, a to
tally different part of speech. He gave field-rifles to one
company and forty thousand dollars to another. He is
away with our army at Corinth. So I said: " You may
rely upon Mr. Chesnut, who will assist you to his uttermost
in finding a home for these people. Nothing belonging to
that patriotic gentleman shall come to grief if we have to
take charge of them on our own place. ' ' Mr. Chesnut did
get a place for them, as I said he would.
Had to go to the Governor's or they would think we
had hoisted the black flag. Heard there we are going to
be beaten as Cortez beat the Mexicans — by superior arms.
Mexican bows and arrows made a poor showing in the face
of Spanish accoutrements. Our enemies have such superior
weapons of war, we hardly any but what we capture from
them in the fray. The Saxons and the Normans were in
the same plight.
War seems a game of chess, but we have an unequal
f number of pawns to begin with. We have knights, kings,
queens, bishops, and castles enough. But our skilful gen
erals, whenever they can not arrange the board to suit them
exactly, burn up everything and march away. We want
them to save the country. They seem to think their whole
duty is to destroy ships and save the army.
Mr. Robert Barnwell wrote ' that he had to hang his
160
THE SIEGE OF YORKTOWN
head for South Carolina. We had not furnished our quota
of the new levy, five thousand men. To-day Colonel Ches-
nut published his statement to show that we have sent thir
teen thousand, instead of the mere number required of us ;
so Mr. Barnwell can hold up his head again.
April 30lh. — The last day of this month of calamities.
Lovell left the women and children to be shelled, and took
the army to a safe place. I do not understand why we do
not send the women and children to the safe place and let
the army stay where the fighting is to be. Armies are to
save, not to be saved. At least, to be saved is not their
raison d'etre exactly. If this goes' on the spirit of our peo
ple will be broken. One ray of comfort comes from Henry
Marshall. ' ' Our Army of the Peninsula is fine ; so good I
do not think McClellan will venture to attack it. ' ' So mote
it be.
May 6th. — Mine is a painful, self-imposed task : but why
write when I have nothing to chronicle but disaster ? x So
I read instead : First, Consuelo, then Columba, two ends of
the pole certainly, and then a translated edition of Elective
Affinities. Food enough for thought in every one of this
odd assortment of books.
At the Prestons', where I am staying (because Mr.
Chesnut has gone to see his crabbed old father, whom he
loves, and who is reported ill), I met Christopher Hamp
ton. He tells us Wigf all is out on a warpath ; wants them
to strike for Maryland. The President 's opinion of the *
move is not given. Also Mr. Hampton met the first lieuten
ant of the Kirkwoods, E. M. Boykin. Says he is just the
same man he was in the South Carolina College. In what-*'
ever company you may meet him, he is the pleasantest man
there.
A telegram reads: " We have repulsed the enemy at
1 The Siege of Yorktown^was begun on April 5, 1862, the place
being evacuated by the Confederates on May 4th.
161
Feb. 20, 1862 COLUMBIA, S. C. July 91, 1869
Williamsburg. ' ' 1 Oh, if we could drive them back * * to
their ain countree ! ' ' Richmond was hard pressed this day.
The Mercury of to-day says, " Jeff Davis now treats all
men as if they were idiotic insects. ' '
Mary Preston said all sisters quarreled. No, we never
quarrel, I and mine. We keep all our bitter words for our
enemies. We are frank heathens ; we hate our enemies and
love our friends. Some people (our kind) can never make
up after a quarrel ; hard words once only and all is over. To
us forgiveness is impossible. Forgiveness means calm in
difference; philosophy, while love lasts. Forgiveness of
love's wrongs is impossible. Those dutiful wives who
piously overlook — well, everything — do not care one fig for
their husbands. I settled that in my own mind years ago.
Some people think it magnanimous to praise their enemies
and to show their impartiality and justice by acknowledg
ing the faults of their friends. I am for the simple rule,
the good old plan. I praise whom I love and abuse whom
I hate.
Mary Preston has been translating Schiller aloud. We
are provided with Bulwer's translation, Mrs. Austin's,
Coleridge's, and Carlyle's, and we show how each renders
the passage Mary is to convert into English. In Wallen-
stein at one point of the Max and Thekla scene, I like Car-
lyle better than Coleridge, though they say Coleridge 's Wal-
4 lenstein is the only translation in the world half so good as
* the original. Mrs. Barstow repeated some beautiful scraps
by Uhland, which I had never heard before. She is to
write them for us. Peace, and a literary leisure for my
old age, unbroken by care and anxiety!
General Preston accused me of degenerating into a
boarding-house gossip, and is answered triumphantly by
1 The battle of Williamsburg was fought on May 5, 1862, by a part
of McClellan's army, under General Hooker and others, the Confederates
being commanded by General Johnston.
162
HAMPTON GIRLS ON SLAVERY
his daughters: " But, papa, one you love to gossip with
full well."
Hampton estate has fifteen hundred negroes on Lake
Washington, Mississippi. Hampton girls talking in the
language of James 's novels : ' ' Neither Wade nor Preston
— that splendid boy ! — would lay a lance in rest — or couch
it, which is the right phrase for fighting, to preserve slav
ery. They hate it as we do." " What are they fighting
for? '! " Southern rights — whatever that is. And they
do not want to be understrappers forever to the Yankees.
They talk well enough about it, but I forget what they
say. ' ' Johnny Chesnut says : ' ' No use to give a reason —
a fellow could not stay away from the fight — not well. ' ' It
takes four negroes to wrait on Johnny satisfactorily.
It is this giving up that kills me. Norfolk they talk of
now ; why not Charleston next ? I read in a Western letter,
" Not Beauregard, but the soldiers who stopped to drink
the whisky they had captured from the enemy, lost us Shi-
loh. ' ' Cock Robin is as dead as he ever will be now ; what
matters it who killed him?
May 12th. — Mr. Chesnut says he is very glad he went to
town. Everything in Charleston is so much more satisfac
tory than it is reported. Troops are in good spirits. It will
take a lot of iron-clads to take that city.
Isaac Hayne said at dinner yesterday that both Beaure
gard and the President had a great opinion of Mr. Ches
nut 's natural ability for strategy and military evolution.
Hon. Mr. Barnwell concurred; that is, Mr. Barnwell had
been told so by the President. ' ' Then why did not the Pres
ident offer me something better than an aideship? " "I
heard he offered to make you a general last year, and you
said you could not go over other men 's shoulders until you
had earned promotion. You are too hard to please. " ll No,
not exactly that, I was only offered a colonelcy, and Mr.
Barnwell persuaded me to stick to the Senate; then he
163
Feb. 20, 1862 COLUMBIA, S. C. July 21, 1862
_ ^ -.,-_—
wanted my place, and between the two stools I fell to the
ground. ' '
My Molly will forget Lige and her babies, too. I asked
her who sent me that beautiful bouquet I found on my cen
ter-table. * ' I give it to you. 'Twas give to me. ' ' And Molly
was all wriggle, giggle, blush.
May 18th. — Norfolk has been burned and the Merrimac
sunk without striking a blow since her coup d'etat in Hamp
ton Roads. Read Milton. See the speech of Adam to Eve
in a new light. Women will not stay at home ; will go out
to see and be seen, even if it be by the devil himself.
Very encouraging letters from Hon. Mr. Memminger
and from L. Q. Washington. They tell the same story in
very different words. It amounts to this: " Not one foot
of Virginia soil is to be given up without a bitter fight for
it. We have one hundred and five thousand men in all,
McClellan one hundred and ninety thousand. We can
stand that disparity. ' '
What things I have been said to have said! Mr.
heard me make scoffing remarks about the Governor and the
Council — or he thinks he heard me. James Chesnut wrote
him a note that my name was to be kept out of it — indeed,
that he was never to mention my name again under any pos
sible circumstances. It was all preposterous nonsense, but it
annoyed my husband amazingly. He said it was a scheme
to use my chatter to his injury. He was very kind about it.
He knows my real style so well that he can always tell my
real impudence from what is fabricated for me.
There is said to be an order from Butler * turning over
1 General Benjamin F. Butler took command of New Orleans on
May 2, 1862. The author's reference is to his famous "Order No. 28,"
which reads: "As the officers and soldiers of the United States have
been subject to repeated insults from the women (calling themselves
ladies) of New Orleans, in return for the most scrupulous non-interfer
ence and courtesy on our part, it is ordered that hereafter when an}'
female shall by word, gesture, or movement, insult or show contempt
164
BUTLER AT NEW ORLEANS
the women of New Orleans to his soldiers. Thus is the
measure of his iniquities filled. We thought that generals
always restrained, by shot or sword if need be, the brutal
ity of soldiers. This hideous, cross-eyed beast orders his
men to treat the ladies of New Orleans as women of the
town — to punish them, he says, for their insolence.
Footprints on the boundaries of another world once
more. Willie Taylor, before he left home for the army,
fancied one day — day, remember — that he saw Albert
Rhett standing by his side. He recoiled from the ghostly
presence. " You need not do that, Willie. You will soon
be as I am. ' ' Willie rushed into the next room to tell them
what had happened, and fainted. It had a very depressing
effect upon him. And now the other day he died in Vir
ginia.
May 24th. — The enemy are landing at Georgetown.
With a little more audacity where could they not land?
But we have given them such a scare, they are cautious. If
it be true, I hope some cool-headed white men will make
the negroes save the rice for us. It is so much needed.
They say it might have been done at Port Royal with a lit
tle more energy. South Carolinians have pluck enough, but
they only work by fits and starts; there is no continuous
effort; they can't be counted on for steady work. They
will stop to play — or enjoy life in some shape.
Without let or hindrance Halleck is being reenforced.
Beauregard, unmolested, was making some fine speeches —
and issuing proclamations, while we were fatuously looking
for him to make a tiger's spring on Huntsville. Why not?
Hope springs eternal in the Southern breast.
for any officer or soldier of the United States she shall be regarded and
held liable to be treated as a woman of the town plying her vocation."
This and other acts of Butler in New Orleans led Jefferson Davis to
issue a proclamation, declaring Butler to be a felon and an outlaw, and
if captured that he should be instantly hanged. In December Butler
was superseded at New Orleans by General Banks.
165
Feb. 20, 1862 COLUMBIA, S. C. July 21, 1862
•
My Hebrew friend, Mem Cohen, has a son in the war.
He is in John Chesnut's company. Cohen is a high name
among the Jews: it means Aaron. She has long fits of
silence, and is absent-minded. If she is suddenly roused,
she is apt to say, with overflowing eyes and clasped hands,
* * If it please God to spare his life. ' ' Her daughter is the
sweetest little thing. The son is the mother's idol. Mrs.
Cohen was Miriam de Leon. I have known her intimately
ail my life.
Mrs. Bartow, the widow of Colonel Bartow, who was
killed at Manassas, was Miss Berrien, daughter of Judge
Berrien, of Georgia. She is now in one of the departments
here, cutting bonds — Confederate bonds — for five hundred
Confederate dollars a year, a penniless woman. Judge
Carroll, her brother-in-law, has been urgent with her to
come and live in his home. He has a large family and she
will not be an added burden to him. In spite of all he can
say, she will not forego her resolution. She will be inde
pendent. She is a resolute little woman, with the softest,
silkiest voice and ways, and clever to the last point.
Columbia is the place for good living, pleasant people,
pleasant dinners, pleasant drives. I feel that I have put
the dinners irithe wrong place. They are the climax of the
good things here. This is the most hospitable place in the
world, and the dinners are worthy of it.
In Washington, there was an endless succession of state
dinners. I was kindly used. I do not remember ever be
ing condemned to two dull neighbors: on one side or the
other was a clever man ; so I liked Washington dinners.
In Montgomery, there were a few dinners — Mrs. Pol
lard's, for instance, but the society was not smoothed down
or in shape. Such as it was it was given over to balls and
suppers. In Charleston, Mr. Chesnut went to gentlemen's
dinners all the time ; no ladies present. Flowers were sent
to me, and I was taken to drive and asked to tea. There
could not have been nicer suppers, more perfect of their
1G6
DELIGHTFUL SOCIETY
kind than were to be found at the winding up of those fes
tivities.
In Richmond, there were balls, which I did not attend —
very few to which I was asked: the MacFarlands' and
Lyons 's, all I can remember. James Chesnut dined out
nearly every day. But then the breakfasts — the Virginia
breakfasts — where were always pleasant people. Indeed, I
have had a good time everywhere — always clever people,
and people I liked, and everybody so good to me.
Here in Columbia, family dinners are the specialty.
You call, or they pick you up and drive home with you.
* ' Oh, stay to dinner ! ' ' and you stay gladly. They send for
your husband, and he comes willingly. Then comes a per
fect dinner. You do not see how it could be improved;
and yet they have not had time to alter things or add be
cause of the unexpected guests. They have everything of
the best— silver, glass, china, table linen, and damask, etc.
And then the planters live " within themselves," as they
call it. From the plantations come mutton, beef, poultry,
cream, butter, eggs, fruits, and vegetables.
It is easy to live here, with a cook who has been sent for
training to the best eating-house in Charleston. Old Mrs.
Chesnut 's Romeo was apprenticed at Jones's. I do not
know where Mrs. Preston's got his degree, but he deserves
a medal.
At the Prestons', James Chesnut induced Buck to de
claim something about Joan of Arc, which she does in a
manner to touch all hearts. While she was speaking, my
husband turned to a young gentleman who was listening
to the chatter of several girls, and said : " Ecoutez! ''' The
youth stared at him a moment in bewilderment; then,
gravely rose and began turning down the gas. Isabella
said : ' ' Ecoutez, then, means put out the lights. ' '
I recall a scene which took place during a ball given by
Mrs. Preston while her husband was in Louisiana. Mrs.
Preston was resplendent in diamonds, point lace, and vel-
167
Feb. 20, 1862 COLUMBIA, %S. C. July 21, 1862
vet. There is a gentle dignity about her which is very at
tractive; her voice is low and sweet, and her will is iron.
She is exceedingly well informed, but very quiet, retiring,
and reserved. Indeed, her apparent gentleness almost
amounts to timidity. She has chiseled regularity of fea
tures, a majestic figure, perfectly molded.
Governor Manning said to me: " Look at Sister Caro
line. Does she look as if she had the pluck of a heroine? "
Then he related how a little while ago William, the butler,
came to tell her that John, the footman, was drunk in the
cellar — mad with drink ; that he had a carving-knife which
he was brandishing in drunken fury, and he was keeping
everybody from their business, threatening to kill any one
who dared to go into the basement. They were like a
flock of frightened sheep down there. She did not speak
to one of us, but followed William down to the basement,
holding up her skirts. She found the servants scurrying
everywhere, screaming and shouting that John was
crazy and going to kill them. John was bellowing like
a bull of Bashan, knife in hand, chasing them at his
pleasure.
Mrs. Preston walked up to him. " Give me that knife/'
she demanded. He handed it to her. She laid it on the
table. " Now come with me," she said, putting her hand
on his collar. She led him away to the empty smoke-house,
and there she locked him in and put the key in her pocket.
Then she returned to her guests, without a ripple on her
placid face. ' * She told me of it, smiling and serene as you
see her now, ' ' the Governor concluded.
Before the war shut him in, General Preston sent to the
lakes for his salmon, to Mississippi for his venison, to the
mountains for his mutton and grouse. It is good enough,
the best dish at all these houses, what the Spanish call ' * the
hearty welcome. ' ' Thackeray says at every American table
he was first served with " grilled hostess." At the head
of the table sat a person, fiery-faced, anxious, nervous, in-
168
HOSPITALITY AT MULBERRY
wardly murmuring, like Falstaff, " Would it were night,
Hal, and all were well. ' '
At Mulberry the house is always filled to overflowing,
and one day is curiously like another. People are coming
and going, carriages driving up or driving off. It has the
air of a watering-place, where one does not pay, and where
there are no strangers. At Christmas the china closet gives
up its treasures. The glass, china, silver, fine linen reserved
for grand occasions come forth. As for the dinner itself,
it is only a matter of greater quantity — more turkey, more
mutton, more partridges, more fish, etc., and more solemn
stiffness. Usually a half-dozen persons unexpectedly drop
ping in make no difference. The family let the housekeeper
know; that is all.
People are beginning to come here from Richmond.
One swallow does not make a summer, but it shows how the
wind blows, these straws do — Mrs. " Constitution " Browne
and Mrs. Wise. The Gibsons are at Doctor Gibbes's. It
does look squally. We are drifting on the breakers.
May 29th. — Betsey, recalcitrant maid of the W.'s, has
been sold to a telegraph man. She is as handsome as a mu
latto ever gets to be, and clever in every kind of work. My
Molly thinks her mistress li very lucky in getting rid of
her." She was " a dangerous inmate," but she will be a
good cook, a good chambermaid, a good dairymaid, a beauti
ful clear-starcher, and the most thoroughly good-for-noth
ing woman I know to her new owners, if she chooses.
Molly evidently hates her, but thinks it her duty ' ' to stand
by her color."
Mrs. Gibson is a Philadelphia woman. She is true to
her husband and children, but she does not believe in us —
the Confederacy, I mean. She is despondent and hopeless ;
as wanting in faith of our ultimate success as is Sally Bax
ter Hampton. I make allowances for those people. If I
had married North, they would have a heavy handful in me
just now up there.
169
Feb. 20, 1862 COLUMBIA, .S. C. July 21, 1862
Mrs. Chesnut, my mother-in-law, has been sixty years
in the South, and she has not changed in feeling or in taste
one iota. She can not like hominy for breakfast, or rice for
dinner, without a relish to give it some flavor. She can not
eat watermelons and sweet potatoes sans discretion, as we
do. She will not eat hot corn bread a discretion, and hot
buttered biscuit without any.
" Richmond is obliged to fall," sighed Mrs. Gibson.
' ' You would say so, too, if you had seen our poor soldiers. ' '
" Poor soldiers? " said I. " Are you talking of Stonewall
Jackson's men? Poor soldiers, indeed! " She said her
mind was fixed on one point, and had ever been, though she
married and came South : she never would own slaves.
" Who would that was not born to it? " I cried, more ex
cited than ever. She is very handsome, very clever, and
has very agreeable manners.
" Dear madam," she says, with tears in her beautiful
eyes, " they have three armies." " But Stonewall has
routed one of them already. Heath another." She only
answered by an unbelieving moan. " Nothing seemed to
suit her," I said, as we went away. " You did not cer
tainly, ' ' said some one to me ; " you contradicted every
word she said, with a sort of indignant protest."
We met Mrs. Hampton Gibbes at the door — another
Virginia woman as good as gold. They told us Mrs. Davis
was delightfully situated at Raleigh ; North Carolinians so
loyal, so hospitable ; she had not been allowed to eat a meal
at the hotel. " How different from Columbia," said Doc
tor Gibbes, looking at Mrs. Gibson, who has no doubt been
left to take all of her meals at his house. ' ' Oh, no ! " cried
Mary, ' * you do Columbia injustice. Mrs. Chesnut used to
tell us that she was never once turned over to the tender
mercies of the Congaree cuisine, and at McMahan's it is
fruit, flowers, invitations to dinner every day."
After we came away, * ' Why did you not back me up V "
I was asked. * ' Why did you let them slander Columbia ? ' '
170
SEVEN PINES OR FAIR OAKS
" It was awfully awkward," I said, " but you see it would
have been worse to let Doctor Gibbes and Mrs. Gibson see
how different it was with other people."
Took a moonlight walk after tea at the Halcott Greens'.
All the company did honor to the beautiful night by walk
ing home with me.
Uncle Hamilton Boykin is here, staying at the de
Saussures'. He says, " Manassas was play to Williams-
burg," and he was at both battles. He lead a part of
Stuart's cavalry in the charge at Williamsburg, riding a
hundred yards ahead of his company.
Toombs is ready for another revolution, and curses
freely everything Confederate from the President down to
a horse boy. He thinks there is a conspiracy against him
in the army. Why ? Heavens and earth — why ?
June 2d. — A battle 1 is said to be raging round Rich
mond. I am at the Prestons'. James Chesnut has gone to
Richmond suddenly on business of the Military Depart
ment. It is always his luck to arrive in the nick of time
and be present at a great battle.
Wade Hampton shot in the foot, and Johnston Petti-
grew killed. A telegram says Lee and Davis were both on
the field: the enemy being repulsed. Telegraph operator
said: " Madam, our men are fighting." " Of course they
are. What else is there for them to do now but fight? "
" But, madam, the news is encouraging." Each army is
burying its dead : that looks like a drawn battle. We haunt
the bulletin-board.
Back to McMahan -s. Mem Cohen is ill. Her daughter,
Isabel, warns me not to mention the battle raging around
Richmond. Young Cohen is in it. Mrs. Preston, anxious
1 The Battle of Fair Oaks or Seven Pines, took place a few miles
east of Richmond, on May 31 and June 1, 1862, the Federals being
commanded by McClellan and the Confederates by General Joseph E.
Johnston.
13 171
Feb. 20, 1862 COLUMBIA, S. C. July 21, 1862
•
and unhappy about her sons. John is with General Huger
at Richmond; Willie in the swamps on the coast with his
company. Mem tells me her cousin, Edwin de Leon, is sent
by Mr. Davis on a mission to England.
Rev. Robert Barnwell has returned to the hospital. Oh,
that we had given our thousand dollars to the hospital and
not to the gunboat! " Stonewall Jackson's movements, "
the Herald says, " do us no harm ; it is bringing out volun
teers in great numbers." And a Philadelphia paper abused
us so fervently I felt all the blood in me rush to my head
with rage.
June 3d. — Doctor John Cheves is making infernal ma
chines in Charleston to blow the Yankees up ; pretty name
they have, those machines. My horses, the overseer says,
are too poor to send over. There was corn enough on the
place for two years, they said, in January; now, in June,
they write that it will not last until the new crop comes in.
Somebody is having a good time on the plantation, if it be
not my poor horses.
Molly will tell me all when she comes back, and more.
Mr. Venable has been made an aide to General Robert E.
Lee. He is at Vicksburg, and writes, " When the fight is
over here, I shall be glad to go to Virginia. " He is in cap
ital spirits. I notice army men all are when they write.
Apropos of calling Major Venable " Mr." Let it be
noted that in social intercourse we are not prone to give
handles to the names of those we know well and of our
nearest and dearest. A general's wife thinks it bad form
to call her husband anything but " Mr." When she gives
him his title, she simply " drops " into it by accident. If
I am ' ' mixed ' ' on titles in this diary, let no one blame me.
Telegrams come from Richmond ordering troops from
Charleston. Can not be sent, for the Yankees are attacking
Charleston, doubtless with the purpose to prevent Lee's re
ceiving reenforcements from there.
Sat down at my window in the beautiful moonlight, and
172
A FLOOD OF TEARS
tried hard for pleasant thoughts. A man began to play on
the flute, with piano accompaniment, first, " Ever of thee
I am fondly dreaming, ' ' and then, 1 1 The long, long, weary
day. ' ' At first, I found this but a complement to the beau
tiful scene, and it was soothing to my wrought-up nerves.
But Von Weber's "Last Waltz" was too much; I broke
down. Heavens, what a bitter cry came forth, with such
floods of tears ! the wonder is there was any of me left.
I learn that Richmond women go in their carriages for
the wounded, carry them home and nurse them. One saw
a man too weak to hold his musket. She took it from him,
put it on her shoulder, and helped the poor fellow along.
If ever there was a man who could control every expres
sion of emotion, who could play stoic, or an Indian chief,
it is James Chesnut. But one day when he came in from
the Council he had to own to a break-down. He was awful
ly ashamed of his weakness. There was a letter from Mrs.
Gaillard asking him to help her, and he tried to read it to
the Council. She wanted a permit to go on to her son, who
lies wounded in Virginia. Colonel Chesnut could not con
trol his voice. There was not a dry eye there, when sud
denly one man called out, 1 1 God bless the woman. ' '
Johnston Pettigrew 's aide says he left his chief mortally
wounded on the battle-field. Just before Johnston Petti-
grew went to Italy to take a hand in the war there for
freedom, I met him one day at Mrs. Frank Hampton's. A
number of people were present. Some one spoke of the
engagement of the beautiful Miss to Hugh Rose. Some
one else asked: " How do you know they are engaged? "
* ' Well, I never heard it, but I saw it. In London, a month
or so ago, I entered Mrs. 's drawing-room, and I saw
these two young people seated on a sofa opposite the door. ' '
" Well, that amounted to nothing." " No, not in itself.
But they looked so foolish and so happy. I have noticed
newly engaged people always look that way." And so on.
Johnston Pettigrew was white and red in quick succession
173
Feb. 20, 1862 COLUMBIA, S. C. July 21, 1862
£
during this turn of the conversation ; he was in a rage of
indignation and disgust. ' i I think this kind of talk is tak
ing a liberty with the young lady's name," he exclaimed
finally, " and that it is an impertinence in us." I fancy
him left dying alone ! I wonder what they feel — those who
are left to die of their wounds — alone — on the battle-field.
Free schools are not everything, as witness this spelling.
Yankee epistles found in camp show how illiterate they can
be, with all their boasted schools. Fredericksburg is spelled
" Fredrexbirg, " medicine, " metison," and we read, " To
my sweat brother," etc. For the first time in my life no
books can interest me. Life is so real, so utterly earnest,
that fiction is flat. Nothing but what is going on in this
distracted world of ours can arrest my attention for ten
minutes at a time.
June 4th. — Battles occur near Richmond, with bom
bardment of Charleston. Beauregard is said to be fighting
his way out or in.
Mrs. Gibson is here, at Doctor Gibbes's. Tears are al
ways in her eyes. Her eldest son is Willie Preston's lieu
tenant. They are down on the coast. She owns that she
has no hope at all. She was a Miss Ayer, of Philadelphia,
and says, " We may look for Burnside now, our troops
which held him down to his iron flotilla have been with
drawn. They are three to one against us now, and they
have hardly begun to put out their strength — in numbers,
I mean. We have come to the end of our tether, except we
wait for the yearly crop of boys as they grow up to the
requisite age." She would make despondent the most san
guine person alive. " As a general rule," says Mrs. Gib
son, " government people are sanguine, but the son of one
high functionary whispered to Mary G., as he handed her
into the car, ' Richmond is bound to go. ' ' The idea now is
that we are to be starved out. If they shut us in, prolong the
agony, it can then have but one end.
Mrs. Preston and I speak in whispers, but Mrs. McCord
174
STONEWALL JACKSON
scorns whispers, and speaks out. She says : ' * There are our
soldiers. Since the world began there never were better,
but God does not deign to send us a general worthy of
them. I do not mean drill-sergeants or military old maids,
who will not fight until everything is just so. The real am
munition of our war is faith in ourselves and enthusiasm in
our cause. West Point sits down on enthusiasm, laughs it
to scorn. It wants discipline. And now comes a new dan
ger, these blockade-runners. They are filling their pockets
and they gibe and sneer at the fools who fight. Don't you
see this Stonewall, how he fires the soldiers ' hearts • he will
be our leader, maybe after all. They say he does not care
how many are killed. His business is to save the country,
not the army. He fights to win, God bless him, and he wins.
If they do not want to be killed, they can stay at home.
They say he leaves the sick and wounded to be cared for by
those whose business it is to do so. His business is war.
They say he wants to hoist the black flag, have a short,
sharp, decisive war and end it. He is a Christian soldier."
June 5th. — Beauregard retreating and his rear-guard
cut off. If Beauregard 's veterans will not stand, why
should we expect our newly levied reserves to do it? The
Yankee general who is besieging Savannah announces his
orders are " to take Savannah in two weeks' time, and then
proceed to erase Charleston from the face of the earth. ' '
Albert Luryea was killed in the battle of June 1st. Last
summer when a bomb fell in the very thick of his company
he picked it up and threw it into the water. Think of that,
those of ye who love life ! The company sent the bomb to
his father. Inscribed on it were the words, ' ' Albert Luryea,
bravest where all are brave.'* Isaac Hayne did the same
thing at Fort Moultrie. This race has brains enough, but
they are not active-minded like those old Revolutionary
characters, the Middletons^ Lowndeses, Rutledges, Marions,
Sumters. They have come direct from active-minded fore
fathers, or they would not have been here; but, with two
175
Feb. 20, 1862 COLUMBIA, S. C. July 21, 1862
or three generations of gentlemen planters, how changed
has the blood become ! Of late, all the active-minded men
who have sprung to the front in our government were im
mediate descendants of Scotch, or Scotch-Irish — Calhoun,
McDuffie, Cheves, and Petigru, who Huguenotted his name,
but could not tie up his Irish. Our planters are nice fel
lows, but slow to move ; impulsive but hard to keep moving.
They are wonderful for a spurt, but with all their strength,
they like to rest.
June 6th. — Paul Hayne, the poet, has taken rooms here.
My husband came and offered to buy me a pair of horses.
He says I need more exercise in the open air. * ' Come, now,
are you providing me with the means of a rapid retreat? "
said I. "I am pretty badly equipped for marching. "
Mrs. Rose Greenhow is in Richmond. One-half of the
ungrateful Confederates say Seward sent her. My hus
band says the Confederacy owes her a debt it can never pay.
She warned them at Manassas, and so they got Joe Johnston
and his Paladins to appear upon the stage in the very nick
of time. In Washington they said Lord Napier left her a
legacy to the British Legation, which accepted the gift, un
like the British nation, who would not accept Emma Hamil
ton and her daughter, Horatia, though they were willed to
the nation by Lord Nelson.
Mem Cohen, fresh from the hospital where she went
with a beautiful Jewish friend. Rachel, as we will call her
(be it her name or no) , was put to feed a very weak patient.
Mem noticed what a handsome fellow he was and how quiet
and clean. She fancied by those tokens that he was a gen
tleman. In performance of her duties, the lovely young
nurse leaned kindly over him and held the cup to his lips.
When that ceremony was over and she had wiped his
mouth, to her horror she felt a pair of by no means weak
arms around her neck and a kiss upon her lips, which she
thought strong, indeed. She did not say a word ; she made
no complaint. She slipped away from the hospital, and
176
HE WAS A MAN AFTER ALL
hereafter in her hospital work will minister at long range,
no matter how weak and weary, sick and sore, the patient
may be. ' ' And, ' ' said Mem, * ' I thought he was a gentle
man." " Well, a gentleman is a man, after all, and she
ought not to have put those red lips of hers so near. ' '
\/ June 7th. — Cheves McCord's battery on the coast has
three guns and one hundred men. If this battery should be
captured John's Island and James Island would be open
to the enemy, and so Charleston exposed utterly.
Wade Hampton writes to his wife that Chickahominy
was not as decided a victory as he could have wished.
Fort Pillow and Memphis * have been given up. Next ! and
next!
June 9th. — When we read of the battles in India, in
Italy, in the Crimea, what did we care ? Only an interest
ing topic, like any other, to look for in the paper. Now
you hear of a battle with a thrill and a shudder. It has
come home to us ; half the people that we know in the world
are under the enemy 's guns. A telegram reaches you, and
you leave it on your lap. You are pale with fright. You
handle it, or you dread to touch it, as you would a rattle
snake; worse, worse, a snake could only strike you. How
many, many will this scrap of paper tell you have gone to
their death?
When you meet people, sad and sorrowful is the greet
ing ; they press your hand ; tears stand in their eyes or roll
down their cheeks, as they happen to possess more or less
self-control. They have brother, father, or sons as the
case may be, in battle. And now this thing seems never to
stop. We have no breathing time given us. It can not be
1 Fort Pillow was on the Mississippi above Memphis. It had been
erected by the Confederates, but was occupied by the Federals on June
5, 1862, the Confederates having evacuated and partially destroyed
it the day before. On June 6, 1862, the Federal fleet defeated the
Confederates near Memphis. The city soon afterward was occupied
by the Federals.
177
Feb. 20, 1862 COLUMBIA, S. C. July 21, 1862
•
so at the North, for the papers say gentlemen do not go into
the ranks there, but are officers, or clerks of departments.
Then we see so many members of foreign regiments among
our prisoners — Germans, Irish, Scotch. The proportion of
trouble is awfully against us. Every company on the field,
rank and file, is filled with our nearest and dearest, who are
common soldiers.
Mem Cohen's story to-day. A woman she knew heard
her son was killed, and had hardly taken in the horror of it
when they came to say it was all a mistake in the name.
She fell on her knees with a shout of joy. " Praise the
Lord, 0 my soul! " she cried, in her wild delight. The
household was totally upset, the swing-back of the pendu
lum from the scene of weeping and wailing of a few mo
ments before was very exciting. In the midst of this hub
bub the hearse drove up with the poor boy in his metallic
coffin. Does anybody wonder so many women die? Grief
and constant anxiety kill nearly as many women at home
as men are killed on the battle-field. Mem 's friend is at the
point of death with brain fever; the sudden changes from
grief to joy and joy to grief were more than she could bear.
A story from New Orleans. As some Yankees passed
two boys playing in the street, one of the boys threw a hand
ful of burned cotton at them, saying, " I keep this for you/*
The other, not to be outdone, spit at the Yankees, and said,
" I keep this for you." The Yankees marked the house.
Afterward, a corporal's guard came. Madam was affably
conversing with a friend, and in vain, the friend, who was
a mere morning caller, protested he was not the master of
the house ; he was marched off to prison.
Mr. Moise got his money out of New Orleans. He went
to a station with his two sons, who were quite small boys.
When he got there, the carriage that he expected was not to
be seen. He had brought no money with him, knowing he
might be searched. Some friend called out, "I will lend
you my horse, but then you will be obliged to leave the
178
CORINTH EVACUATED
children/' This offer was accepted, and, as he rode off,
one of the boys called out, " Papa, here is your tobacco,
which you have forgotten. ' ' Mr. Moise turned back and the
boy handed up a roll of tobacco, which he had held openly
in his hand all the time. Mr. Moise took it, and galloped
off, waving his hat to them. In that roll of tobacco was
encased twenty-five thousand dollars.
Now, the Mississippi is virtually open to the Yankees.
Beauregard has evacuated Corinth.1
Henry Nott was killed at Shiloh ; Mrs. Auze wrote to tell
us. She had no hope. To be conquered and ruined had
always been her fate, strive as she might, and now she knew
it would be through her country that she would be made
to feel. She had had more than most women to endure,
and the battle of life she had tried to fight with courage,
patience, faith. Long years ago, when she was young, her
lover died. Afterward, she married another. Then her
husband died, and next her only son. When New Orleans
fell, her only daughter was there and Mrs. Auze went to
her. Well may she say that she has bravely borne her bur
den till now.2
Stonewall said, in his quaint way : " I like strong drink,
so I never touch it. ' ' May heaven, who sent him to help us,
save him from all harm!
My husband traced Stonewall 's triumphal career on
the map. He has defeated Fremont and taken all his
cannon; now he is after Shields. The language of
the telegram is vague : ' ' Stonewall has taken plenty of
prisoners " — plenty, no doubt, and enough and to spare.
We can't feed our own soldiers, and how are we to feed
prisoners ?
They denounce Toombs in some Georgia paper, which I
1 Corinth was besieged by the Federals, under General Halleck, in
May, 1862, and was evacuated by the Confederates under Beauregard
on May 29th.
2 She lost her life in the Windsor Hotel fire in New York.
179
Feb. 20, 1862 COLUMBIA, S. C. July 21, 1862
saw to-day, for planting a full crop of cotton. They say he
ought to plant provisions for soldiers.
And now every man in Virginia, and the eastern part of
South Carolina is in revolt, because old men and boys are
ordered out as a reserve corps, and worst of all, sacred
property, that is, negroes, have been seized and sent out to
work on the fortifications along the coast line. "We are in
a fine condition to fortify Columbia !
June 10th. — General Gregg writes that Chickahominy *
was a victory manque, because Joe Johnston received a dis
abling wound and G. W. Smith was ill. The subordinates
in command had not been made acquainted with the plan
of battle.
A letter from John Chesnut, who says it must be all a
mistake about Wade Hampton's wound, for he saw him in
the field to the very last; that is, until late that night.
Hampton writes to Mary McDuffie that the ball was ex
tracted from his foot on the field, and that he was in the
saddle all day, but that, when he tried to take his boot off
at night his foot was so inflamed and swollen, the boot had
to be cut away, and the wound became more troublesome
than he had expected.
Mrs. Preston sent her carriage to take us to see Mrs.
Herbemont, whom Mary Gibson calls her " Mrs. Burga-
mot." Miss Bay came down, ever-blooming, in a cap so
formidable, I could but laugh. It was covered with a
bristling row of white satin spikes. She coyly refused to
enter Mrs. Preston 's carriage — * ' to put foot into it, ' ' to use
her own words ; but she allowed herself to be overpersuaded.
I am so ill. Mrs. Ben Taylor said to Doctor Trezevant,
' ' Surely, she is too ill to be going about ; she ought to be in
bed. ' ' il She is very feeble, very nervous, as you say, but
then she is living on nervous excitement. If you shut her
1 This must be a reference to the Battle of Seven Pines or to the
Campaign of the Chickahominy, up to and inclusive of that battle.
180
WEST POINT TRAINING
up she would die at once. ' ' A queer weakness of the heart,
I have. Sometimes it beats so feebly I am sure it has
stopped altogether. Then they say I have fainted, but I
never lose consciousness.
Mrs. Preston and I were talking of negroes and cows.
A negro, no matter how sensible he is on any other subject,
can never be convinced that there is any necessity to feed a
cow. ' ' Turn 'em out, and let 'em grass. Grass good nuff
for cow."
Famous news comes from Richmond, but not so good
from the coast. Mrs. Izard said, quoting I forget whom:
" If West Point could give brains as well as training! "
Smith is under arrest for disobedience of orders — Pember-
ton's orders. This is the third general whom Pemberton
has displaced within a few weeks — Ripley, Mercer, and now
Smith.
When I told my husband that Molly was full of airs
since her late trip home, he made answer : ' ' Tell her to go
to the devil — she or anybody else on the plantation who is
dissatisfied; let them go. It is bother enough to feed and
clothe them now." When he went over to the plantation
he returned charmed with their loyalty to him, their affec
tion and their faithfulness.
Sixteen more Yankee regiments have landed on James
Island. Eason writes, " They have twice the energy and
enterprise of our people." I answered, " Wait a while.
Let them alone until climate and mosquitoes and sand-flies
and dealing with negroes takes it all out of them. ' ' Stone
wall is a regular brick, going all the time, winning his
way wherever he goes. Governor Pickens called to see me.
His wife is in great trouble, anxiety, uncertainty. Her
brother and her brother-in-law are either killed or taken
prisoners.
Tom Taylor says Wade Hampton did not leave the field
on account of his wound. " What heroism! " said some
one. No, what luck! He is the luckiest man alive. He'll
181
Feb. 20, 1862 COLUMBIA, JS. C. July 21, 1862
never be killed. He was shot in the temple, but that did
not kill him. His soldiers believe in his luck.
General Scott, on Southern soldiers, says, we have elan,
courage, woodcraft, consummate horsemanship, endurance
of pain equal to the Indians, but that we will not submit to
discipline. "We will not take care of things, or husband our
resources. Where we are there is waste and destruction.
If it could all be done by one wild, desperate dash, we would
do it. But he does not think we can stand the long, blank
months between the acts — the waiting! We can bear pain
without a murmur, but we will not submit to be bored, etc.
Now, for the other side. Men of the North can wait;
they can bear discipline; they can endure forever. Losses
in battle are nothing to them. Their resources in men and
materials of war are inexhaustible, and if they see fit they
will fight to the bitter end. Here is a nice prospect for us —
as comfortable as the old man's croak at Mulberry, '* Bad
times, worse coming."
Mrs. McCord says, " In the hospital the better born,
that is, those born in the purple, the gentry, those who are
accustomed to a life of luxury, are the better patients.
They endure in silence. They are hardier, stronger,
tougher, less liable to break down than the sons of the soil."
" Why is that? " I asked, and she answered, " Something
in man that is more than the body."
I know how it feels to die. I have felt it again and again.
For instance, some one calls out, ' ' Albert Sidney Johnston
is killed." My heart stands still. I feel no more. I am,
for so many seconds, so many minutes, I know not how
long, utterly without sensation of any kind — dead ; and
then, there is that great throb, that keen agony of physical
pain, and the works are wound up again. The ticking of
the clock begins, and I take up the burden of life once
more. Some day it will stop too long, or my feeble heart
will be too worn out to make that awakening jar, and
all will be over. I do not think when the end comes that
182
BUTLER IN NEW ORLEANS
there will be any difference, except the miracle of the new
wind-up throb. And now good news is just as exciting as
bad. * t Hurrah, Stonewall has saved us ! ' ! The pleasure
is almost pain because of my way of feeling it.
Miriam's Luryea and the coincidences of his life. He
was born Moses, and is the hero of the bombshell. His
mother was at a hotel in Charleston when kind-hearted
Anna De Leon Moses went for her sister-in-law, and gave
up her own chamber, that the child might be born in the
comfort and privacy of a home. Only our people are
given to such excessive hospitality. So little Luryea was
born in Anna De Leon's chamber. After Chickahominy
when he, now a man, lay mortally wounded, Anna Moses,
who was living in Richmond, found him, and she brought
him home, though her house was crowded to the door-steps.
She gave up her chamber to him, and so, as he had been
born in her room, in her room he died.
June 12th. — New England's Butler, best known to us as
" Beast" Butler, is famous or infamous now. His amazing
order to his soldiers at New Orleans and comments on it
are in everybody's mouth. We hardly expected from Mas
sachusetts behavior to shame a Comanche.
One happy moment has come into Mrs. Preston's life.
I watched her face to-day as she read the morning papers.
Willie 's battery is lauded to the skies. Every paper gave
him a paragraph of praise.
South Carolina was at Beauregard's feet after Fort
Sumter. Since Shiloh, she has gotten up, and looks askance
rather when his name is mentioned. And without Price or
Beauregard who takes charge of the Western forces?
" Can we hold out if England and France hold off? " cries
Mem. ' ' No, our time has come. ' '
* ' For shame, faint heart ! Our people are brave, our
cause is just ; our spirit and our patient endurance beyond
reproach." Here came in Mary Cantey's voice: " I may
not have any logic, any sense. I give it up. My woman's
183
Feb. 20, 1862 COLUMBIA, S. C. July *1, 1862
instinct tells me, all the same, that slavery's time has come.
If we don't end it, they will."
After all this, tried to read Uncle Tom, but could not ;
too sickening ; think of a man sending his little son to beat
a human being tied to a tree. It is as bad as Squeers beat
ing Smike. Flesh and blood revolt ; you must skip that ; it
is too bad.
Mr. Preston told a story of Joe Johnston as a boy. A
party of boys at Abingdon were out on a spree, more boys
than horses; so Joe Johnston rode behind John Preston,
who is his cousin. While going over the mountains they
tried to change horses and got behind a servant who was in
charge of them all. The servant's horse kicked up, threw
Joe Johnston, and broke his leg; a bone showed itself.
* * Hello, boys ! come here and look : the confounded bone
has come clear through, ' ' called out Joe, coolly.
They had to carry him on their shoulders, relieving
guard. As one party grew tired, another took him up.
They knew he must suffer fearfully, but he never said so.
He was as cool and quiet after his hurt as before. He was
pretty roughly handled, but they could not help it. His
father was in a towering rage because his son's leg was to
be set by a country doctor, and it might be crooked in the
process. At Chickahominy, brave but unlucky Joe had
already eleven wounds.
June 13th. — Decca's wedding. It took place last year.
We were all lying on the bed or sofas taking it coolly as to
undress. Mrs. Singleton had the floor. They were engaged
before they went up to Charlottesville ; Alexander was on
Gregg's staff, and Gregg was not hard on him; Decca was
the worst in love girl she ever saw. " Letters came while
we were at the hospital, from Alex, urging her to let him
marry her at once. In war times human events, life es
pecially, are very uncertain.
* ' For several days consecutively she cried without ceas
ing, and then she consented. The rooms at the hospital
184
DECCA'S WEDDING
were all crowded. Decca and I slept together in the same
room. It was arranged by letter that the marriage should
take place; a luncheon at her grandfather Minor's, and
then she was to depart with Alex for a few days at Rich
mond. That was to be their brief slice of honeymoon.
" The day came. The wedding-breakfast was ready, so
was the bride in all her bridal array; but no Alex, no
bridegroom. Alas! such is the uncertainty of a soldier's
life. The bride said nothing, but she wept like a water-
nymph. At dinner she plucked up heart, and at my ear
nest request was about to join us. And then the cry, ' The
bridegroom cometh.' He brought his best man and other
friends. We had a jolly dinner. * Circumstances over
which he had no control ' had kept him away.
" His father sat next to Decca and talked to her all the
time as if she had been already married. It was a piece of
absent-mindedness on his part, pure and simple, but it was
very trying, and the girl had had much to stand that morn
ing, you can well understand. Immediately after dinner
the belated bridegroom proposed a walk; so they went for
a brief stroll up the mountain. Decca, upon her return,
said to me : ' Send for Robert Barnwell. I mean to be
married to-day.'
' ' ' Impossible. No spare room in the house. No getting
away from here ; the trains all gone. Don 't you know this
hospital place is crammed to the ceiling? ' ' Alex says I
promised to marry him to-day. It is not his fault ; he could
not come before.' I shook my head. ' I don't care,' said
the positive little thing, * I promised Alex to marry him
to-day and I will. Send for the Rev. Robert Barnwell/
We found Robert after a world of trouble, and the bride,
lovely in Swiss muslin, was married.
* Then I proposed they should take another walk, and I
went to one of my sister nurses and begged her to take me
in for the night, as I wished to resign my room to the young
couple. At daylight next day they took the train for
185
Feb. 20, 1862 COLUMBIA, S. C. July 21, 1862
»
Richmond." Such is the small allowance of honeymoon
permitted in war time.
Beauregard's telegram: he can not leave the army of
the West. His health is bad. No doubt the sea breezes
would restore him, but — he can not come now. Such a
lovely name — Gustave Tautant Beauregard. But Jackson
and Johnston and Smith and Jones will do — and Lee, how
short and sweet.
' ' Every day, ' ' says Mem, ' ' they come here in shoals —
men to say we can not hold Richmond, and we can not hold
Charleston much longer. "Wretches, beasts! Why do you
come here? Why don't you stay there and fight? Don't
you see that you own yourselves cowards by coming away
in the very face of a battle ? If you are not liars as to the
danger, you are cowards to run away from it. ' ' Thus roars
the practical Mem, growing more furious at each word.
These Jeremiahs laugh. They think she means others, not
the present company.
Tom Huger resigned his place in the United States
Navy and came to us. The Iroquois was his ship in the old
navy. They say, as he stood in the rigging, after he was
shot in the leg, when his ship was leading the attack upon
the Iroquois, his old crew in the Iroquois cheered him, and
when his body was borne in, the Federals took off their caps
in respect for his gallant conduct. When he was dying,
Meta Huger said to him : * ' An officer wants to see you : he
is one of the enemy." " Let him come in; I have no ene
mies now." But when he heard the man's name :
11 No, no. I do not want to see a Southern man who is
now in Lincoln's navy." The officers of the United States
Navy attended his funeral.
June 14th. — All things are against us. Memphis gone.
Mississippi fleet annihilated, and we hear it all as stolidly
apathetic as if it were a story of the English war against
China which happened a year or so ago.
The sons of Mrs. John Julius Pringle have come. They
186
NEWS FROM THE FRONT
were left at school in the North. A young Huger is with
them. They seem to have had adventures enough. Walked,
waded, rowed in boats, if boats they could find ; swam riv
ers when boats there were none ; brave lads are they. One
can but admire their pluck and energy. Mrs. Fisher, of
Philadelphia, nee Middleton, gave them money to make the
attempt to get home.,
Stuart's cavalry have rushed through McClellan's lines
and burned five of his transports. Jackson has been reen-
forced by 16,000 men, and they hope the enemy will be
drawn from around Richmond, and the valley be the seat
of war.
John Chesnut is in "Whiting's brigade, which has been
sent to Stonewall. Mem's son is with the Boykin Rangers;
Company A, No. 1, we call it. And she has persistently
wept ever since she heard the news. It is no child's play,
she says, when you are with Stonewall. He doesn't play
at soldiering. He doesn 't take care of his men at all. He
only goes to kill the Yankees.
Wade Hampton is here, shot in the foot, but he knows
no more about France than he does of the man in the moon.
Wet blanket he is just now. Johnston badly wounded.
Lee is King of Spades. They are all once more digging for
dear life. Unless we can reenforce Stonewall, the game is
up. Our chiefs contrive to dampen and destroy the enthu
siasm of all who go near them. So much entrenching and
falling back destroys the morale of any army. This ever
lasting retreating, it kills the hearts of the men. Then we
are scant of powder.
James Chesnut is awfully proud of Le Conte's powder
manufactory here. Le Conte knows how to do it. James
Chesnut provides him the means to carry out his plans.
Colonel Venable doesn't mince matters: " If we do not
deal a blow, a blow that will be felt, it will be soon all up
with us. The Southwest will be lost to us. We can not af
ford to shilly-shally much longer."
14 187
Feb. 20, 1862 COLUMBIA, S. C. July 21, 1862
Thousands are enlisting on the other side in New Or
leans. Butler holds out inducements. To be sure, they are
principally foreigners who want to escape starvation. Ten
nessee we may count on as gone, since we abandoned her at
Corinth, Fort Pillow, and Memphis. A man must be sent
there, or it is all gone now.
' You call a spade by that name, it seems, and not an
agricultural implement? " " They call Mars Robert ' Old
Spade Lee.' He keeps them digging so." " General Lee
is a noble Virginian. Respect something in this world.
Caesar — call him Old Spade Caesar? As a soldier, he was
as much above suspicion, as he required his wife to be, as
Caesar's wife, you know. If I remember Caesar's Commen
taries, he owns up to a lot of entrenching. You let Mars
Robert alone. He knows what he is about. ' '
" Tell us of the women folk at New Orleans; how did
they take the fall of the city? " " They are an excitable
race," the man from that city said. As my inform
ant was standing on the levee a daintily dressed lady
picked her way, parasol in hand, toward him. She
accosted him with great politeness, and her face was
as placid and unmoved as in antebellum days. Her
first question was : ' ' Will you be so kind as to tell me
what is the last general order ? ' ' "No order that I know
of, madam; General Disorder prevails now." " Ah! I
see ; and why are those persons flying and yelling so noisily
and racing in the streets in that unseemly way ? " " They
are looking for a shell to burst over their heads at any mo
ment." " Ah! " Then, with a courtesy of dignity and
grace, she waved her parasol and departed, but stopped to
arrange that parasol at a proper angle to protect her face
from the sun. There was no vulgar haste in her move
ments. She tripped away as gracefully as she came. My
informant had failed to discompose her by his fearful reve
lations. That was the one self-possessed soul then in New
Orleans.
188
THE WOMEN OF NEW ORLEANS
Another woman drew near, so overheated and out of
breath, she had barely time to say she had run miles
of squares in her crazy terror and bewilderment, when a
sudden shower came up. In a second she was cool and calm.
She forgot all the questions she came to ask. ' ' My bonnet,
I must save it at any sacrifice, ' ' she said, and so turned her
dress over her head, and went off, forgetting her country's
trouble and screaming for a cab.
Went to see Mrs. Burroughs at the old de Saussure
house. She has such a sweet face, such soft, kind, beauti
ful, dark-gray eyes. Such eyes are a poem. No wonder she
had a long love-story. We sat in the piazza at twelve
o'clock of a June day, the glorious Southern sun shining
its very hottest. But we were in a dense shade — magnolias
in full bloom, ivy, vines of I know not what, and roses in
profusion closed us in. It was a living wall of every
thing beautiful and sweet. In all this flower-garden of
a Columbia, that is the most delicious corner I have been
in yet.
Got from the Prestons' French library, Fanny, with a
brilliant preface by Jules Janier. Now, then, I have come
to the worst. There can be no worse book than Fanny.
The lover is jealous of the husband. The woman is for the
polyandry rule of life. She cheats both and refuses to
break with either. But to criticize it one must be as shame
less as the book itself. Of course, it is clever to the last de
gree, or it would be kicked into the gutter. It is not nastier
or coarser than Mrs. Stowe, but then it is not written in
the interests of philanthropy.
We had an unexpected dinner-party to-day. First,
Wade Hampton came and his wife. Then Mr. and Mrs.
Rose. I remember that the late Colonel Hampton once
said to me, a thing I thought odd at the time, " Mrs.
'James Rose " (and I forget now who was the other) " are
the only two people on this side of the water who know how
to give a state dinner. ' ' Mr. and Mrs. James Rose : if any-
189
Feb. 20, 1862 COLUMBIA, . S. C. July 21, 1862
body wishes to describe old Carolina at its best, let them
try their hands at painting these two people.
Wade Hampton still limps a little, but he is rapidly
recovering. Here is what he said, and he has fought so
well that he is listened to : * * If we mean to play at war,
as we play a game of chess, West Point tactics prevailing,
we are sure to lose the game. They have every advantage.
They can lose pawns ad infinitum, to the end of time and
never feel it. We will be throwing away all that we had
hoped so much from — Southern hot-headed dash, reckless
gallantry, spirit of adventure, readiness to lead forlorn
hopes. ' '
Mrs. Rose is Miss Sarah Parker's aunt. Somehow it
came out when I was not in the room, but those girls tell
me everything. It seems Miss Sarah said : ' * The reason I
can not bear Mrs. Chesnut is that she laughs at everything
and at everybody. ' ' If she saw me now she would give me
credit for some pretty hearty crying as well as laughing.
It was a mortifying thing to hear about one's self, all the
same.
General Preston came in and announced that Mr. Ches
nut was in town. He had just seen Mr. Alfred Huger, who
came up on the Charleston train with him. Then Mrs. Mc-
Cord came and offered to take me back to Mrs. McMahan's
to look him up. I found my room locked up. Lawrence
said his master had gone to look for me at the Prestons'.
Mrs. McCord proposed we should further seek for my
errant husband. At the door, we met Governor Pickens,
who showed us telegrams from the President of the most
important nature. The Governor added, "And I have one
from Jeems Chesnut, but I hear he has followed it so close
ly, coming on its heels, as it were, that I need not show you
that one/'
" You don't look interested at the sound of your hus
band's name? " said he. " Is that his name? " asked I.
" I supposed it was James." " My advice to you is to find
190
SECESSIONVILLE
him, for Mrs. Pickens says he was last seen in the company
of two very handsome women, and now you may call him
any name you please. ' '
We soon met. The two beautiful dames Governor
Pickens threw in my teeth were some ladies from Rafton
Creek, almost neighbors, who live near Camden.
By way of pleasant remark to Wade Hampton : ' ' Oh,
General! The next battle will give you a chance to be
major-general." " I was very foolish to give up my Le
gion," he answered gloomily. " Promotion don't really
annoy many people. ' ' Mary Gibson says her father writes
to them, that they may go back. He thinks now that the
Confederates can hold Richmond. Gloria in excelsis!
Another personal defeat. Little Kate said: " Oh, Cous
in Mary, why don 't you cultivate heart ? They say at Kirk-
wood that you had better let your brains alone a while and
cultivate heart." She had evidently caught up a phrase
and repeated it again and again for my benefit. So that is
the way they talk of me ! The only good of loving any one
with your whole heart is to give that person the power
to hurt you.
June 24th. — Mr. Chesnut, having missed the Secession-
ville * fight by half a day, was determined to see the one
around Richmond. He went off with General Cooper and
Wade Hampton. Blanton Duncan sent them for a lunch
eon on board the cars, — ice, wine, and every manner of good
thing.
In all this death and destruction, the women are the
same — chatter, patter, clatter. " Oh, the Charleston refu
gees are so full of airs; there is no sympathy for them
here!" " Oh, indeed! That is queer. They are not half
as exclusive as these Hamptons and Prestons. The airs
these people do give themselves." " Airs, airs," laughed
1 The battle of Secessionville occurred on James Island, in the
harbor of Charleston, June 16, 1862.
191
Feb. 20, 1862 COLUMBIA, . S. C. July 21, 1862
Mrs. Bartow, parodying Tennyson's Charge of the Light
Brigade. " Airs to the right of them, Airs to the left of
them, some one had blundered." " Volleyed and thun
dered rhymes but is out of place. ' '
The worst of all airs came from a democratic landlady,
who was asked by Mrs. President Davis to have a carpet
shaken, and shook herself with rage as she answered, * ' You
know, madam, you need not stay here if my carpet or any
thing else does not suit you. ' '
John Chesnut gives us a spirited account of their ride
around McQlellan. I sent the letter to his grandfather.
The women ran out screaming with joyful welcome as soon
as they caught sight of our soldiers ' gray uniforms ; ran to
them bringing handfuls and armfuls of food. One gray-
headed man, after preparing a hasty meal for them, knelt
and prayed as the}^ snatched it, as you may say. They were
in the saddle from Friday until Sunday. They were used
up; so were their horses. Johnny writes for clothes and
more horses. Miss S. C. says: " No need to send any more
of his fine* horses to be killed or captured by the Yankees ;
wait and see how the siege of Richmond ends. ' ' The horses
will go all the same, as Johnny wants them.
June 25th. — I forgot to tell of Mrs. Pickens's reception
for General Hampton. My Mem dear, described it all.
1 1 The Governess " ( " Tut, Mem ! that is not the right name
for her — she is not a teacher." " Never mind, it is the
easier to say than the Governor's wife." " Madame la
Gouvernante " was suggested. * * Why ? That is worse than
the other! ") " met him at the door, took his crutch away,
putting his hand upon her shoulder instead. " That is the
way to greet heroes, ' ' she said. Her blue eyes were aflame,
and in response poor Wade smiled, and smiled until his
face hardened into a fixed grin of embarrassment and an
noyance. He is a simple-mannered man, you know, and
does not want to be made much of by women.
The butler was not in plain clothes, but wore, as the
192
WADE HAMPTON HOME
other servants did, magnificent livery brought from the
Court of St. Petersburg, one mass of gold embroidery, etc.
They had champagne and Russian tea, the latter from a
samovar made in Russia. Little Moses was there. Now
for us they have never put their servants into Russian
livery, nor paraded Little Moses under our noses, but I
must confess the Russian tea and champagne set before us
left nothing to be desired. " How did General Hampton
bear his honors? " " Well, to the last he looked as if he
wished they would let him alone. "
Met Mr. Ashmore fresh from Richmond. He says
Stonewall is coming up behind McClellan. And here comes
the tug of war. He thinks we have so many spies in Rich
mond, they may have found out our strategic movements
and so may circumvent them.
Mrs. Bartow's story of a clever Miss Toombs. So many
men were in love with her, and the courtship, while it lasted,
of each one was as exciting and bewildering as a fox-chase.
She liked the fun of the run, but she wanted something
more than to know a man was in mad pursuit of her; that
he should love her, she agreed, but she must love him, too.
How was she to tell? Yet she must be certain of it before
she said " Yes." So, as they sat by the lamp she would
look at him and inwardly ask herself, " Would I be willing
to spend the long winter evenings forever after sitting here
darning your old stockings ? ' : Never, echo answered. No,
no, a thousand times no. So, each had to make way for
another.
June 27th. — We went in a body (half a dozen ladies,
with no man on escort duty, for they are all in the army) tou.
a concert. Mrs. Pickens came in. She was joined soon by
Secretary Moses and Mr. Follen. Doctor Berrien came to
our relief. Nothing could be more execrable than the sing
ing. Financially the thing was a great success, for though
the audience was altogether feminine, it was a very large
one.
193
Feb. 20, 1862 COLUMBIA,. S. C. July 21, 1862
Telegram from Mr. Chesnut, ' ' Safe in Richmond ' ' ;
that is, if Richmond be safe, with all the power of the
United States of America battering at her gates. Strange
not a word from Stonewall Jackson, after all! Doctor
Gibson telegraphs his wife, ' * Stay where you are ; terrible
battle * looked for here. ' '
Decca is dead. That poor little darling ! Immediately
after her baby was born, she took it into her head that Alex
was killed. He was wrounded, but those around had not
told her of it. She surprised them by asking, " Does any
one know how the battle has gone since Alex was killed ? ' :
She could not read for a day or so before she died. Her
head was bewildered, but she would not let any one else
touch her letters ; so she died with several unopened ones in
her bosom. Mrs. Singleton, Decca 's mother, fainted dead
away, but she shed no tears. We went to the house and saw
Alex's mother, a daughter of Langdon Cheves. Annie was
with us. She said : ' ' This is the saddest thing for Alex. ' '
' ' No, ' ' said his mother, * ' death is never the saddest thing.
If he were not a good man, that would be a far worse
thing/7 Annie, in utter amazement, whimpered, " But
Alex is so good already. " ' ' Yes, seven years ago the death
of one of his sisters that he dearly loved made him a Chris
tian. That death in our family was worth a thousand
lives."
One needs a hard heart now. Even old Mr. Shand shed
tears. Mary Barnwell sat as still as a statue, as white and
stony. ' ' Grief which can relieve itself by tears is a thing to
pray for, ' ' said the Rev. Mr. Shand. Then came a telegram
from Hampton, " All well; so far we are successful."
Robert Barnwell had been telegraphed for. His answer
came, " Can't leave here; Gregg is fighting across the
1 Malvern Hill, the last of the Seven Days' Battles, was fought near
Richmond on the James River, July 1, 1862. The Federals were com
manded by McClellan and the Confederates by Lee.
194
DEATH OF DECCA
Chickahominy. ' ' Said Alex 's mother : ' ' My son, Alex, may
never hear this sad news," and her lip settled rigidly.
" Go on ; what else does Hampton say? " asked she. " Lee
has one wing of the army, Stonewall the other. ' '
Annie Hampton came to tell us the latest news — that
we have abandoned James Island and are fortifying
Morris Island. ' ' And now, ' ' she says, ' i if the enemy will
be so kind as to wait, we will be ready for them in two
months. ' '
Rev. Mr. Shand and that pious Christian woman, Alex 's
mother (who looks into your very soul with those large
and lustrous blue eyes of hers) agreed that the Yankees,
even if they took Charleston, would not destroy it. I think
they will, sinner that I am. Mr. Shand remarked to her,
" Madam, you have two sons in the army." Alex's mother
replied, " I have had six sons in the army; I now have
five."
There are people here too small to conceive of any
larger business than quarreling in the newspapers. One
laughs at squibs in the papers now, in such times as these,
with the wolf at our doors. Men safe in their closets writing
fiery articles, denouncing those who are at work, are be
neath contempt. Only critics with muskets on their shoul
ders have the right to speak now, as Trenholm said the other
night.
In a pouring rain we went to that poor child's funeral
— to Decca's. They buried her in the little white frock
she wore when she engaged herself to Alex, and which
she again put on for her bridal about a year ago. She
lies now in the churchyard, in sight of my window. Is
she to be pitied ? She said she had had ' ' months of perfect
happiness. ' ' How many people can say that ? So many of
us live their long, dreary lives and then happiness never
comes to meet them at all. It seems so near, and yet it
eludes them forever.
June 28th. — Victory! Victory heads every telegram
195
Feb. 20, 1862 COLUMBIA, . S. C. July 21, 1862
now ;* one reads it on the bulletin-board. It is the anni
versary of the battle of Fort Moultrie. The enemy went off
so quickly, I wonder if it was not a trap laid for us, to lead
us away from Richmond, to some place where they can
manage to do us more harm. And now comes the list of
killed and wounded. Victory does not seem to soothe sore
hearts. Mrs. Haskell has five sons before the enemy 's illim
itable cannon. Mrs. Preston two. McClellan is routed and
we have twelve thousand prisoners. Prisoners ! My God !
and what are we to do with them "I We can 't feed our own
people.
For the first time since Joe Johnston was wounded at
Seven Pines, we may breathe freely ; we were so afraid of
another general, or a new one. Stonewall can not be
everywhere, though he comes near it.
Magruder did splendidly at Big Bethel. It was a won
derful thing how he played his ten thousand before Mc
Clellan like fireflies and utterly deluded him. It was part
ly due to the Manassas scare that we gave them; they will
never be foolhardy again. Now we are throwing up our
caps for R. E. Lee. We hope from the Lees what the first
sprightly running (at Manassas) could not give. We do
hope there will be no ' * if s. " " If s " have ruined us. Shi-
loh was a victory if Albert Sidney Johnston had not been
killed ; Seven Pines if Joe Johnston had not been wounded.
The " ifs " bristle like porcupines. That victory at Manas
sas did nothing but send us off in a fool 's paradise of con
ceit, and it roused the manhood of the Northern people.
For very shame they had to move up.
A French man-of-war lies at the wharf at Charleston to
take off French subjects when the bombardment begins.
William Mazyck writes that the enemy's gunboats are
1 The first battle of the Chickahominy, fought on June 27, 1862.
It is better known as the battle of Gaines's Mill, or Cold Harbor. It
was participated in by a part of Lee's army and a part of McClellan's,
and its scene was about eight miles from Richmond.
196
THE SEVEN DAYS1 FIGHTING
shelling and burning property up and down the Santee
River. They raise the white flag and the negroes rush
down on them. Planters might as well have let these
negroes be taken by the Council to work on the fortifica
tions. A letter from my husband :
RICHMOND, June 29, 1862.
MY DEAR MARY :
For the last three days I have been a witness of the
most stirring events of modern times. On my arrival here,
I found the government so absorbed in the great battle
pending, that I found it useless to talk of the special busi
ness that brought me to this place. As soon as it is over,
which will probably be to-morrow, I think that I can easily
accomplish all that I was sent for. I have no doubt that we
can procure another general and more forces, etc.
The President and General Lee are inclined to listen to
me, and to do all they can for us. General Lee is vindicat
ing the high opinion I have ever expressed of him, and his
plans and executions of the last great fight will place him
high in the roll of really great commanders.
The fight on Friday was the largest and fiercest of the
whole war. Some 60,000 or 70,000, with great prepon
derance on the side of the enemy. Ground, numbers, arma
ment, etc., were all in favor of the enemy. But our men and
generals were superior. The higher officers and men be
haved with a resolution and dashing heroism that have
never been surpassed in any country or in any age.
Our line was three times repulsed by superior numbers
and superior artillery impregnably posted. Then Lee, as
sembling all his generals to the front, told them that victory
depended on carrying the batteries and defeating the army
before them, ere night should fall. Should night come
without victory all was lost, and the work must be done by
the bayonet. Our men then made a rapid and irresistible
charge, without powder, and carried everything. The ene-
197
Feb. 20, 186? COLUMBIA, .S. C. July 21, 1862
my melted before them, and ran with the utmost speed,
though of the regulars of the Federal army. The fight be
tween the artillery of the opposing forces was terrific and
sublime. The field became one dense cloud of smoke, so
that nothing could be seen, but the incessant flash of fire.
They were within sixteen hundred yards of each other and
it rained storms of grape and canister. We took twenty-
three pieces of their artillery, many small arms, and small
ammunition. They burned most of their stores, wagons, etc.
The victory of the second day was full and complete.
Yesterday there was little or no fighting, but some splendid
maneuvering, which has placed us completely around them.
I think the end must be decisive in our favor. We have
lost many men and many officers ; I hear Alex Haskell and
young McMahan are among them, as well as a son of Dr.
Trezevant. Very sad, indeed. We are fighting again to
day ; will let you know the result as soon as possible. Will
be at home some time next week. No letter from you yet.
With devotion, yours,
JAMES CHESNUT.
A telegram from my husband of June 29th from Rich
mond: " Was on the field, saw it all. Things satisfying
so far. Can hear nothing' of John Chesnut. He is in
Stuart's command. Saw Jack Preston; safe so far. No
reason why we should not bag McClellan's army or cut it to
pieces. From four to six thousand prisoners already."
Doctor Gibbes rushed in like a whirlwind to say we were
driving McClellan into the river.
June 30th. — First came Dr. Trezevant, who announced
Burnet Rhett's death. " No, no ; I have just seen the bulle
tin-board. It was Grimke Rhett 's. ' ' When the doctor went
out it was added : ' ' Howell Trezevant 's death is there, too.
The doctor will see it as soon as he goes down to the board. ' '
The girls went to see Lucy Trezevant. The doctor was lying
still as death on a sofa with his face covered.
198
NO DECISIVE BATTLE YET
July 1st. — No more news. It has settled down into
this. The general battle, the decisive battle, has to be
fought yet. Edward Cheves, only son of John Cheves,
killed. His sister kept crying, " Oh, mother, what shall
we do; Edward is killed," but the mother sat dead still,
white as a sheet, never uttering a word or shedding a tear.
Are our women losing the capacity to weepl The father
came to-daypMfT John Cheves. "He Has been making infer
nal machines in Charleston to blow up Yankee ships.
While Mrs. McCord was telling me of this terrible
trouble in her brother's family, some one said: " Decca's
husband died of grief." Stuff and nonsense; silly senti
ment, folly! If he is not wounded, he is alive. His
brother, John, may die of that shattered arm in this hot
weather. Alex will never die of a broken heart. Take my
word for it.
July 3d. — Mem says she feels like sitting down, as an
Irishwoman does at a wake, and howling night and day.
Why did Huger let McClellan slip through his fingers?
Arrived at Mrs. McMahan's at the wrong moment. Mrs.
Bartow was reading to the stricken mother an account of
the death of her son. The letter was written by a man who
was standing by him when he was shot through the head.
"My God! " he said; that was all, and he fell dead.
James Taylor was color-bearer. He was shot three times
before he gave in. Then he said, as he handed the colors
to the man next him, " You see I can't stand it any
longer," and dropped stone dead. He was only seven
teen years old.
If anything can reconcile me to the idea of a horrid fail- ,
ure after all efforts to make good our independence of Yan- \
kees, it is Lincoln's proclamation freeing the negroes. Es-J
pecially yours, Messieurs, who write insults to your Gov
ernor and Council, dated from Clarendon. Three hundred
of Mr. Walter Blake's negroes have gone to the Yankees.
Remember, that recalcitrant patriot's property on two legs
199
Feb. 20, 1863 COLUMBIA, . S. C. July 21, 1862
may walk off without an order from the Council to work on
fortifications.
Have been reading The Potiphar Papers by Curtis.
Can this be a picture of New York socially ? If it were not
for this horrid war, how nice it would be here. We might
lead such a pleasant life. This is the most perfectly ap
pointed establishment — such beautiful grounds, flowers,
and fruits ; indeed, all that heart could wish ; such delight
ful dinners, such pleasant drives, such jolly talks, such
charming people; but this horrid war poisons everything.
July 5th. — Drove out with Mrs. " Constitution "
Browne, who told us the story of Ben McCulloch's devotion
to Lucy Gwynn. Poor Ben McCulloch — another dead hero.
Called at the Tognos' and saw no one; no wonder. They
say Ascelie Togno was to have been married to Grimke
Ehett in August, and he is dead on the battle-field. I had
not heard of the engagement before I went there.
July 8th. — Gunboat captured on the Santee. So much
the worse for us. We do not want any more prisoners, and
next time they will send a fleet of boats, if one will not do.
The Governor sent me Mr. Chesnut's telegram with a note
saying, " I regret the telegram does not come up to what
we had hoped might be as to the entire destruction of Mc-
Clellan's army. I think, however, the strength of the war
with its ferocity may now be considered as broken."
Table-talk to-day: This war was undertaken by us to
shake off the yoke of foreign invaders. So we consider our
cause righteous. The Yankees, since the war has begun,
have discovered it is to free the slaves that they are fighting.
So their cause is noble. They also expect to make the war
pay. Yankees do not undertake anything that does not pay.
They think we belong to them. We have been good milk
cows — milked by the tariff, or skimmed. We let them have
1 all of our hard earnings. We bear the ban of slavery;
1 they get the money. Cotton pays everybody who handles
1 it, sells it, manufactures it, but rarely pays the man who
200
McCLELLAN'S ESCAPE
grows it. Second hand the Yankees received the wages o^
slavery. They grew rich. We grew poor. The receiver isj
as bad as the thief. That applies to us, too, for we received1
the savages they stole from Africa and brought to us in;
their slave-ships. As with the Egyptians, so it shall bej
with us : if they let us go, it must be across a Red Sea — but
one made red by blood.
July 10th. — My husband has come. He believes from
what he heard in Richmond that we are to be recognized as
a nation by the crowned heads across the water, at last. Mr.
Davis was very kind; he asked him to stay at his house,
which he did, and went every day with General Lee and Mr.
Davis to the battle-field as a sort of amateur aide to the
President. Likewise they admitted him to the informal
Cabinet meetings at the President's house. He is so hopeful
now that it is pleasant to hear him, and I had not the heart
to stick the small pins of Yeadon and Pickens in him yet
a while.
Public opinion is hot against Huger and Magruder for
McClellan's escape. Doctor Gibbes gave me some letters
picked up on the battle-field. One signed " Laura," tells
her lover to fight in such a manner that no Southerner can
ever taunt Yankees again with cowardice. She speaks of a
man at home whom she knows, " who is still talking of his
intention to seek the bubble reputation at the cannon's
mouth. " * ' Miserable coward ! "she writes, ' ' I will never
speak to him again. ' ' It was a relief to find one silly young
person filling three pages with a description of her new
bonnet and the bonnet still worn by her rival. Those fiery
Joan of Arc damsels who goad on their sweethearts bode us
no good.
Rachel Lyons was in Richmond, hand in glove with Mrs.
Greenhow. Why not ? "So handsome, so clever, so angel
ically kind," says Rachel of the Greenhow, " and she offers
to matronize me."
Mrs. Philips, another beautiful and clever Jewess, has
201
Feb. 20, 1862 COLUMBIA, S. C. July 21, 1862
been put into prison again by ' ' Beast ' ' Butler because she
happened to be laughing as a Yankee funeral procession
went by.
Captain B. told of John Chesnut's pranks. Johnny was
riding a powerful horse, captured from the Yankees. The
horse dashed with him right into the Yankee ranks. A
dozen Confederates galloped after him, shouting, ' ' Stuart !
Stuart! " The Yankees, 'mistaking this mad charge for
Stuart's cavalry, broke ranks and fled. Daredevil Camden
boys ride like Arabs !
Mr. Chesnut says he was riding with the President when
Colonel Browne, his aide, was along. The General com
manding rode up and, bowing politely, said : ' * Mr. Presi
dent, am I in command here? " " Yes." " Then I for
bid you to stand here under the enemy's guns. Any expo
sure of a life like yours is wrong, and this is useless
exposure. You must go back." Mr. Davis answered:
" Certainly, I will set an example of obedience to orders.
Discipline must be maintained." But he did not go back.
Mr. Chesnut met the Haynes, who had gone on to nurse
their wounded son and found him dead. They were stand
ing in the corridor of the Spotswood. Although Mr. Ches
nut was staying at the President's, he retained his room at
the hotel. So he gave his room to them. Next day, when
he went back to his room he found that Mrs. Hayne had
thrown herself across the foot of the bed and never moved.
No other part of the bed had been touched. She got up and
went back to the cars, or was led back. He says these heart
broken mothers are hard to face.
July 12th. — At McMahan's our small colonel, Paul
Hayne 's son, came into my room. To amuse the child I
gave him a photograph album to look over. ' You have
Lincoln in your book ! ' ' said he. "I am astonished at you.
I hate him! " And he placed the book on the floor and
struck Old Abe in the face with his fist.
An Englishman told me Lincoln has said that had he
202
LINCOLN'S REGRETS
known such a war would follow his election he never would
have set foot in Washington, nor have been inaugurated.
He had never dreamed of this awful fratricidal bloodshed.
That does not seem like the true John Brown spirit. I was
very glad to hear it — to hear something from the President
of the United States which was not merely a vulgar joke,
and usually a joke so vulgar that you were ashamed to
laugh, funny though it was. They say Seward has gone to
England and his wily tongue will turn all hearts against us.
Browne told us there was a son of the Duke of Somer
set in Richmond. He laughed his fill at our ragged, dirty
soldiers, but he stopped his laughing when he saw them un
der fire. Our men strip the Yankee dead of their shoes,
but will not touch the shoes of a comrade. Poor fellows,
they are nearly barefoot.
Alex has come. I saw him ride up about dusk and go
into the graveyard. I shut up my windows on that side.
Poor fellow!
July 13th. — Halcott Green came to see us. Bragg is a
stern disciplinarian, according to Halcott. He did not in
the least understand citizen soldiers. In the retreat from
Shiloh he ordered that not a gun should be fired. A soldier
shot a chicken, and then the soldier was shot. " For a
chicken ! ' ' said Halcott. ' ' A Confederate soldier for a
chicken! "
Mrs. McCord says a nurse, who is also a beauty, had
better leave her beauty with her cloak and hat at the door.
One lovely lady nurse said to a rough old soldier, whose
wound could not have been dangerous, " Well, my good
soul, what can I do for you? " " Kiss me ! " said he. Mrs.
McCord 's fury was " at the woman's telling it," for it
brought her hospital into disrepute, and very properly.
She knew there were women who would boast of an insult
if it ministered to their vanity. She wanted nurses to come
dressed as nurses, as Sisters of Charity, and not as fine la
dies. Then there would be no trouble. When she saw them
15 203
Feb. 20, 1862 COLUMBIA, * S. C. July 21, 1863
coming in angel sleeves, displaying all their white arms and
in their muslin, showing all their beautiful white shoulders
and throats, she felt disposed to order them off the premises.
That was no proper costume for a nurse. Mrs. Bartow goes
in her widow's weeds, which is after Mrs. McCord's own
heart. But Mrs. Bartow has her stories, too. A surgeon
said to her, ' ' I give you no detailed instructions : a mother
necessarily is a nurse." She then passed on quietly, " as
smilingly acquiescent, my dear, as if I had ever been a
mother. ' '
Mrs. Greenhow has enlightened Rachel Lyons as to Mr.
Chesnut's character in Washington. He was " one of the
very few men of whom there was not a word of scandal
spoken. I do not believe, my dear, that he ever spoke to a
woman there." He did know Mrs. John R. Thompson,
however.
Walked up and down the college campus with Mrs. Mc-
Cord. The buildings all lit up with gas, the soldiers seated
under the elms in every direction, and in every stage of
convalescence. Through the open windows, could see the
nurses flitting about. It was a strange, weird scene. Walked
home with Mrs. Bartow. We stopped at Judge Carroll's.
Mrs. Carroll gave us a cup of tea. When we got home,
found the Prestons had called for me to dine at their house
to meet General Magruder.
Last night the Edgefield Band serenaded Governor
Pickens. Mrs. Harris stepped on the porch and sang the
Marseillaise for them. It has been more than twenty years
since I first heard her voice ; it was a very fine one then, but
there is nothing which the tooth of time lacerates more
cruelly than the singing voice of women. There is an incon
gruous metaphor for you.
The negroes on the coast received the Rutledge 's Mount
ed Rifles apparently with great rejoicings. The troops were
gratified to find the negroes in such a friendly state of mind.
One servant whispered to his master, " Don't you mind
204
THE WAYSIDE HOSPITAL
'em, don 't trust 'em ' ' —meaning the negroes. The master
then dressed himself as a Federal officer and went down to
a negro quarter. The very first greeting was, * ' Ki ! massa,
you come fuh ketch rebels? We kin show you way you
kin ketch thirty to-night. ' ' They took him to the Confed
erate camp, or pointed it out, and then added for his edifi
cation, " We kin ketch officer fuh you whenever you want
'em."
Bad news. Gunboats have passed Vicksburg. The
Yankees are spreading themselves over our fair Southern
land like red ants.
July 21st. — Jackson has gone into the enemy's country.
'Joe Johnston and Wade Hampton are to follow.
Think of Rice, Mr. Senator Rice,1 who sent us the buf
falo-robes. I see from his place in the Senate that he
speaks of us as savages, who put powder and whisky into
soldiers' canteens to make them mad with ferocity in the
fight. No, never. We admire coolness here, because we
lack it; we do not need to be fired by drink to be brave.
My classical lore is small, indeed, but I faintly remember
something of the Spartans who marched to the music of
lutes. No drum and fife were needed to revive their faint
ing spirits. In that one thing we are Spartans.
The Wayside Hospital 2 is duly established at the Co-
1 Henry M. Rice, United States Senator from Minnesota, who had
emigrated to that State from Vermont in 1835.
2 Of ameliorations in modern warfare, Dr. John T. Darby said in
addressing the South Carolina Medical Association, Charleston, in
1873: "On the route from the army to the general hospital, wounds
are dressed and soldiers refreshed at wayside homes; and here be it
said with justice and pride that the credit of originating this system
is due to the women of South Carolina. In a small room in the capital
of this State, the first Wayside Home was founded; and during the
war, some seventy-five thousand soldiers were relieved by having their
wounds dressed, their ailments attended, and very frequently by being
clothed through the patriotic services and good offices of a few untiring
205
Feb. 20, 1869 COLUMBIA, & C. July 21, 1862
lumbia Station, where all the railroads meet. All honor to
Mrs. Fisher and the other women who work there so faith
fully ! The young girls of Columbia started this hospital.
In the first winter of the war, moneyless soldiers, sick and
wounded, suffered greatly when they had to lie over here
because of faulty connections between trains. Rev. Mr.
Martin, whose habit it was to meet trains and offer his aid
to these unfortunates, suggested to the Young Ladies' Hos
pital Association their opportunity ; straightway the blessed
maidens provided a room where our poor fellows might
have their wounds bound up and be refreshed. And now,
the " Soldiers ' Rest " has grown into the Wayside Hospi
tal, and older heads and hands relieve younger ones of the
grimmer work and graver responsibilities. I am ready to
help in every way, by subscription and otherwise, but too
feeble in health to go there much.
Mrs. Browne heard a man say at the Congaree House,
*' ' We are breaking our heads against a stone wall. We are
jbound to be conquered. We can not keep it up much longer
jagainst so powerful a nation as the United States. Crowds
.of Irish, Dutch, and Scotch are pouring in to swell their
armies. They are promised our lands, and they believe
they will get them. Even if we are successful we can not
live without Yankees." " Now," says Mrs. Browne, " I
jcall that man a Yankee spy." To which I reply, " If he
I were a spy, he would not dare show his hand so plainly."
" To think," says Mrs. Browne, " that he is not taken
up. Seward's little bell would tinkle, a guard would come,
and the Grand Inquisition of America would order that
man put under arrest in the twinkling of an eye, if he had
ventured to speak against Yankees in Yankee land."
General Preston said he had " the right to take up any
ladies in Columbia. From this little nucleus, spread that grand system
of wayside hospitals which was established during our own and the
late European wars."
206
THE PRINCE OF WALES
one who was not in his right place and send him where he
belonged/* " Then do take up my husband instantly. He
is sadly out of his right place in this little Governor's Coun
cil." The general stared at me and slowly uttered in his
most tragic tones, " If I could put him where I think he
ought to be ! "' This I immediately hailed as a high compli
ment and was duly ready with my thanks. Upon reflection,
it is borne in upon me, that he might have been more ex
plicit. He left too much to the imagination.
Then Mrs. Browne described the Prince of Wales, whose
manners, it seems, differ from those of Mrs. , who ar
raigned us from morn to dewy eve, and upbraided us with
our ill-bred manners and customs. The Prince, when he
was here, conformed at once to whatever he saw was the
way of those who entertained him. He closely imitated
President Buchanan's way of doing things. He took off
his gloves at once when he saw that the President wore
none. He began by bowing to the people who were pre
sented to him, but when he saw Mr. Buchanan shaking
hands, he shook hands, too. When smoking affably with
Browne on the White House piazza, he expressed his con
tent with the fine cigars Browne had given him. The Presi
dent said : ' ' I was keeping some excellent ones for you, but
Browne has got ahead of me." Long after Mr. Buchanan
had gone to bed, the Prince ran into his room in a jolly,
boyish way, and said : ' ' Mr. Buchanan, I have come for the
fine cigars you have for me. ' '
As I walked up to the Prestons', along a beautiful
shaded back street, a carriage passed with Governor Means
in it. As soon as he saw me he threw himself half out and
kissed both hands to me again and again. It was a whole-
souled greeting, as the saying is, and I returned it with my
whole heart, too. " Good-by," he cried, and I responded
'' Good-by." I may never see him again. I am not sure
that I did not shed a few tears.
General Preston and Mr. Chesnut were seated on the
207
Feb. 20, 1862 COLUMBIA, §. C. July 21, 1862
piazza of the Hampton house as I walked in. I opened my
batteries upon them in this scornful style : * * You cold, for
mal, solemn, overly-polite creatures, weighed down by your
own dignity. You will never know the rapture of such a
sad farewell as John Means and I have just interchanged.
He was in a hack, ' ' I proceeded to relate, ' ' and I was on the
sidewalk. He was on his way to the Avar, poor fellow. The
hackman drove steadily along in the middle of the street;
but for our gray hairs I do not know what he might have
thought of us. John Means did not suppress his feelings
at an unexpected meeting with an old friend, and a good
cry did me good. It is a life of terror and foreboding we
lead. My heart is in my mouth half the time. But you
two, under no possible circumstances could you forget your
manners."
Read Russell's India all day. Saintly folks those Eng
lish when their blood is up. Sepoys and blacks we do not
expect anything better from, but what an example of Chris
tian patience and humanity the white " angels " from the
West set them.
The beautiful Jewess, Rachel Lyons, was here to-day.
She flattered Paul Hayne audaciously, and he threw back
the ball.
To-day I saw the Rowena to this Rebecca, when Mrs.
Edward Barnwell called. She is the purest type of Anglo-
Saxon — exquisitely beautiful, cold, quiet, calm, lady-like,
fair as a lily, with the blackest and longest eyelashes, and
her eyes so light in color some one said " they were the
hue of cologne and water." At any rate, she has a patent
right to them; there are no more like them to be had. The
effect is startling, but lovely beyond words.
Blanton Duncan told us a story of Morgan in Kentucky.
Morgan walked into a court where they were trying some
Secessionists. The Judge was about to pronounce sentence,
but Morgan rose, and begged that he might be allowed to
call some witnesses. The Judge asked who were his wit-
208
SANDHILLERS
nesses. " My name is John Morgan, and my witnesses are
1,400 Confederate soldiers.7'
Mrs. Izard witnessed two instances of patriotism in the
caste called " Sandhill tackeys." One forlorn, chill, and
fever-freckled creature, yellow, dirty, and dry as a nut,
was selling peaches at ten cents a dozen. Soldiers collected
around her cart. She took the cover off and cried, " Eat
away. Eat your fill. I never charge our soldiers any
thing." They tried to make her take pay, but when she
steadily refused it, they cheered her madly and said:
" Sleep in peace. Now we will fight for you and keep ofl5
the Yankees. ' ' Another poor Sandhill man refused to sell
his cows, and gave them to the hospital.
200
XII
FLAT ROCK, N. C.
August I, 1862— August 8, 1862
LAT ROCK, N. C., August 1, 1862.— Being ill I left
Mrs. McMahan's for Flat Rock.1 It was very hot
and disagreeable for an invalid in a boarding-house
in that climate. The La Bordes and the McCord girls came
part of the way with me.
The cars were crowded and a lame soldier had to stand,
leaning on his crutches in the thoroughfare that runs be
tween the seats. One of us gave him our seat. You may
depend upon it there was no trouble in finding a seat for
our party after that. Dr. La Borde quoted a classic anec
dote. In some Greek assembly an old man was left stand
ing. A Spartan gave him his seat. The Athenians cheered
madly, though they had kept their seats. The comment was,
' Lacedemonians practise virtue; Athenians know how to
admire it."
Nathan Davis happened accidentally to be at the sta
tion at Greenville. He took immediate charge of Molly and
myself, for my party had dwindled to us two. He went
with us to the hotel, sent for the landlord, told him who I
was, secured good rooms for us, and saw that we were made
1 Flat Rock was the summer resort of many cultured families from
the low countries of the South before the war. Many attractive houses
had been built there. It lies in the region which has since become fa
mous as the Asheville region, and in which stands Biltmore.
210
COLONEL AND MRS. IVES
comfortable in every way. At dinner I entered that im
mense dining-room alone, but I saw friends and acquaint
ances on every side. My first exploit was to repeat to Mrs.
Ives Mrs. Pickeus's blunder in taking a suspicious attitude
toward men born at the North, and calling upon General
Cooper to agree with her. Martha Levy explained the
grave faces of my auditors by saying that Colonel Ives was
a New Yorker. My distress was dire.
Louisa Hamilton was there. She told me that Captain
George Cuthbert, with his arm in a sling from a wound by
no means healed, was going to risk the shaking of a stage
coach; he was on his way to his cousin, William Cuthbert 's,
at Flat Rock. Now George Cuthbert is a type of the finest
kind of Southern soldier. We can not make them any bet
ter than he is. Before the war I knew him ; he traveled in
Europe with my sister, Kate, and Mary Withers. At once I
offered him a seat in the comfortable hack Nathan Davis
had engaged for me.
Molly sat opposite to me, and often when I was tired
held my feet in her lap. Captain Cuthbert 's man sat with
the driver. We had ample room. We were a dilapidated
company. I was so ill I could barely sit up, and Captain
Cuthbert could not use his right hand or arm at all. I had
to draw his match, light his cigar, etc. He was very quiet,
grateful, gentle, and, I was going to say, docile. He is a
fiery soldier, one of those whose whole face becomes trans
figured in battle, so one of his men told me, describing his
way with his company. He does not blow his own trumpet,
but I made him tell me the story of his duel with the Mer
cury 's reporter. He seemed awfully ashamed of wasting
time in such a scrape.
That night we stopped at a country house half-way to
ward our journey's end. There we met Mr. Charles
Lowndes. Rawlins Lowndes, his son, is with Wade Hamp
ton.
First we drove, by mistake, into Judge King's yard, our
211
Aug. 1, 1862 FLAT ROCK, N. C. Aug. 8, 1862
hackman mistaking the place for the hotel. Then we made
Farmer's Hotel (as the seafaring men say).
Burnet Rhett, with his steed, was at the door ; horse and
man were caparisoned with as much red and gold artillery
uniform as they could bear. He held his horse. The stir
rups were Mexican, I believe; they looked like little side
saddles. Seeing his friend and crony, George Cuthbert,
alight and leave a veiled lady in the carriage, this hand
some and undismayed young artillerist walked round and
round the carriage, talked with the driver, looked in at the
doors, and at the front. Suddenly I bethought me to raise
my veil and satisfy his curiosity. Our eyes met, and I
smiled. It was impossible to resist the comic disappoint
ment on his face wrhen a woman old enough to be George
Cuthbert 's mother, with the ravages of a year of gastric
fever, almost fainting with fatigue, greeted his vision. He
instantly mounted his gallant steed and pranced away to
his fiancee. He is to marry the greatest heiress in the
State, Miss Aiken. Then Captain Cuthbert told me his
name.
At Kate's, I found Sally Rutledge, and then for weeks
life was a blank; I remember nothing. The illness which
had been creeping on for so long a time took me by the
throat. At Greenville I had met many friends. I wit
nessed the wooing of Barny Heyward, once the husband of
the lovely Lucy Izard, now a widower and a bon parti.
He was there nursing Joe, his brother. So was the beauti
ful Henrietta Magruder Heyward, now a widow, for poor
Joe died. There is something magnetic in Tatty Clinch's
large and lustrous black eyes. No man has ever resisted
their influence. She says her virgin heart has never beat
one throb the faster for any mortal here below — until now,
when it surrenders to Barny. Well, as I said, Joseph Hey
ward died, and rapidly did the bereaved beauty shake the
dust of this poor Confederacy from her feet and plume her
wings for flight across the water.
212
CAPTAIN GEORGE CUTHBERT
[Let me insert here now, much later, all I know of that
brave spirit, George Cuthbert. While I was living in the
winter of 1863 at the corner of Clay and Twelfth Streets in
Richmond, he came to see me. Never did man enjoy life
more. The Preston girls were staying at my house then,
and it was very gay for the young soldiers who ran down
from the army for a day or so. We had heard of him, as
usual, gallantly facing odds at Sharpsburg.1 And he asked
if he should chance to be wounded would I have him
brought to Clay Street.
He was shot at Chancellorsville,2 leading his men. The
surgeon did not think him mortally wounded. He sent me
a message that ' ' he was coming at once to our house. ' ' He
knew he would soon get well there. Also that * ' I need not
be alarmed; those Yankees could not kill me." He asked
one of his friends to write a letter to his mother. After
ward he said he had another letter to write, but that he
wished to sleep first, he felt so exhausted. At his request
they then turned his face away from the light and left him.
When they came again to look at him, they found him dead.
He had been dead for a long time. It was bitter cold;
wounded men lost much blood and were weakened in that
way; they lacked warm blankets and all comforts. Many
died who might have been saved by one good hot drink or a
few mouthfuls of nourishing food.
One of the generals said to me : ' ' Fire and reckless cour
age like Captain Cuthbert 's are contagious; such men in an
1 The battle of Sharpsburg, or Antietam, one of the bloodiest of
the war, was fought in western Maryland, a few miles north of Har
per's Ferry, on September 16 and 17, 1862, the Federals being under
McClellan, and the Confederates under Lee.
2 The battle of Chancellorsville, where the losses on each side were
more than ten thousand men, was fought about fifty miles northwest
of Richmond on May 2, 3, and 4, 1863. The Confederates were under
Lee and the Federals under Hooker. In this battle Stonewall Jackson
was killed.
213
Aug. 1, 1862 FLAT ROCK, N. C. Aug. 8, 1862
army are invaluable; Josses like this weakened us, indeed. "
But I must not linger longer around the memory of the
bravest of the brave — a true exemplar of our old regime,
gallant, gay, unfortunate. — M. B. C.]
August 8th. — Mr. Daniel Blake drove down to my sis
ter's in his heavy, substantial English phaeton, with stout
and strong horses to match. I went back with him and
spent two delightful days at his hospitable mansion. I met
there, as a sort of chaplain, the Rev. Mr. . He dealt un
fairly by me. We had a long argument, and when we knelt
down for evening prayers, he introduced an extempora
neous prayer and prayed for me most palpably. There was
I down on my knees, red-hot with rage and fury. David
W. said it was a clear case of hitting a fellow when he was
down. Afterward the fun of it all struck me, and I found
it difficult to keep from shaking with laughter. It was not
an edifying religious exercise, to say the least, as far as I
was concerned.
Before Chancellorsville, was fatal Sharpsburg.1 My
friend, Colonel Means, killed on the battle-field; his only
son, Stark, wounded and a prisoner. His wife had not re
covered from the death of her other child, Emma, who had
died of consumption early in the war. She was lying on a
bed when they told her of her husband's death, and then
they tried to keep Stark 's condition from her. They think
now that she misunderstood and believed him dead, too.
She threw something over her face. She did not utter one
word. She remained quiet so long, some one removed the
light shawl which she had thrown over her head and found
1 During the summer of 1862, after the battle of Malvern Hill and
before Sharpsburg, or Antietam, the following important battles had
taken place: Harrison's Landing, July 3d and 4th; Harrison's Land
ing again, July 31st; Cedar Mountain, August 9th; Bull Run (second
battle), August 29th and 30th, and South Mountain, September 14th.
214
GENERAL CHESNUTS ACTIVITIES
she was dead. Miss Mary Stark, her sister, said afterward,
" No wonder! How was she to face life without her hus
band and children? That was all she had ever lived for. "
These are sad, unfortunate memories. Let us run away
from them.
What has not my husband been doing this year, 1862,
when all our South Carolina troops are in Virginia ? Here
we were without soldiers or arms. He raised an army, so to
speak, and imported arms, through the Trenholm firm. He
had arms to sell to the Confederacy. He laid the founda
tion of a niter-bed ; and the Confederacy sent to Columbia to
learn of Professor Le Conte how to begin theirs. He bought
up all the old arms and had them altered and repaired.
He built ships. He imported clothes and shoes for our soj-
diers, for which things they had long stood sorely in need.
He imported cotton cards and set all idle hands carding
and weaving. All the world was set to spinning cotton. H&
tried to stop the sale of whisky, and alas, he called for re
serves — that is, men over age, arid he committed the unfor
givable offense of sending the sacred negro property to
work on fortifications away from their owners' planta
tions.
215
XIII
PORTLAND, ALA.
July 8, 1863— July 30, 1863
HORTLAND, Ala., Juhj 8, 1863.— My mother ill at
her home on the plantation near here — where I have
come to see her. But to go back first to my trip
home from Flat Rock to Camden. At the station, I saw
men sitting 011 a row of coffins smoking, talking, and laugh
ing, with their feet drawn up tailor-fashion to keep them
out of the wet. Thus does war harden people's hearts.
Met James Chesnut at Wilmington. He only crossed
the river with me and then went back to Richmond. He
was violently opposed to sending our troops into Pennsyl
vania : wanted all we could spare sent West to make an
end there of our enemies. He kept dark about Vallandig-
ham.1 I am sure we could not trust him to do us any good,
or to do the Yankees any harm. The Coriolanus business
is played out.
As we came to Camden, Molly sat by me in the cars.
She touched me, and, with her nose in the air, said : " Look,
Missis." There was the inevitable bride and groom — at
least so I thought — and the irrepressible kissing and lolling
against each other which I had seen so often before. I was
rather astonished at Molly's prudery, but there was a touch
1 Clement Baird Vallandigham was an Ohio Democrat who repre
sented the extreme wing of Northern sympathizers with the South. He
was arrested by United States troops in May, 1863, court-martialed
and banished to the Confederacy. Not being well received in the
South, he went to Canada, but after the war returned to Ohio.
216
NEGRO BALLS AND "PASSES"
in this scene which was new. The man required for his
peace of mind that the girl should brush his cheek with
those beautiful long eyelashes of hers. Molly became so
outraged in her blue-black modesty that she kept her head
out of the window not to see ! When we were detained at a
little wayside station, this woman made an awful row about
her room. She seemed to know me and appealed to me ; said
her brother-in-law was adjutant to Colonel K , etc.
Molly observed, " You had better go yonder, ma'am,
where your husband is calling you." The woman drew
herself up proudly, and, with a toss, exclaimed: " Hus
band, indeed ! I 'm a widow. That is my cousin. I loved
my dear husband too well to marry again, ever, ever! "
Absolutely tears came into her eyes. Molly, loaded as she
was with shawls and bundles, stood motionless, and said:
' * After all that gwine-on in the kyars ! 0, Lord, I should
a let it go 'twas my husband and me ! nigger as I am. ' '
Here I was at home, on a soft bed, with every physical
comfort; but life is one long catechism there, due to the
curiosity of stay-at-home people in a narrow world.
In Richmond, Molly and Lawrence quarreled. He de
clared he could not put up with her tantrums. Unfortu
nately I asked him, in the interests of peace and a quiet
house, to bear with her temper ; I did, said I, but she was
so good and useful. He was shabby enough to tell her what
I had said at their next quarrel. The awful reproaches she
overwhelmed me with then ! She said she ' ' was mortified
that I had humbled her before Lawrence. ' '
But the day of her revenge came. At negro balls in
Richmond, guests were required to carry " passes," and,
in changing his coat Lawrence forgot his pass. Next day
Lawrence was missing, and Molly came to me laughing to
tears. * ' Come and look, ' ' said she. * ' Here is the fine gen
tleman tied between two black niggers and marched off to
jail." She laughed and jeered so she could not stand with
out holding on to the window. Lawrence disregarded her
217
July 8, 1863 PORTLAND, ALA. July 30, 1863
and called to me at the top of his voice: " Please, ma'am,
ask Mars Jeems to come take me out of this. I ain't done
nothin'."
As soon as Mr. Chesnut came home I told him of Law
rence 's sad fall, and he went at once to his rescue. There
had been a fight and a disturbance at the ball. The police
had been called in, and when every negro was required to
show his " pass," Lawrence had been taken up as having
none. He was terribly chopfallen when he came home
walking behind Mr. Chesnut. He is always so respectable
and well-behaved and stands on his dignity.
I went over to Mrs. Preston's at Columbia. Camden
had become simply intolerable to me. There the telegram
found me, saying I must go to my mother, who was ill at her
home here in Alabama. Colonel Goodwyn, his wife, and
two daughters were going, and so I joined the party. I tele
graphed Mr. Chesnut for Lawrence, and he replied, for
bidding me to go at all ; it was so hot, the cars so disagreea
ble, fever would be the inevitable result. Miss Kate Hamp
ton, in her soft voice, said: " The only trouble in life is
when one can 't decide in which way duty leads. Once know
your duty, then all is easy. ' '
I do not know whether she thought it my duty to obey
my husband. But I thought it my duty to go to my mother,
as I risked nothing but myself.
We had two days of an exciting drama under our very
noses, before our eyes. A party had come to Columbia who
said they had run the blockade, had come in by flag of
truce, etc. Colonel Goodwyn asked me to look around and
see if I could pick out the suspected crew. It was easily
done. We were all in a sadly molting condition. We had
come to the end of our good clothes in three years, and
now our only resource was to turn them upside down, or
inside out, and in mending, darning, patching, etc.
Near me on the train to Alabama sat a young woman
in a traveling dress of bright yellow ; she wore a profusion
218
VICKSBURG SURRENDERS
of curls, had pink cheeks, was delightfully airy and easy in
her manner, and was absorbed in a flirtation with a Confed
erate major, who, in spite of his nice, new gray uniform and
two stars, had a very Yankee face, fresh, clean-cut, sharp,
utterly unsunburned, florid, wholesome, handsome. What
more in compliment can one say of one's enemies? Two
other women faced this man and woman, and we knew
them to be newcomers by their good clothes. One of these
women was a German. She it was who had betrayed them.
I found that out afterward.
The handsomest of the three women had a hard, North
ern face, but all were in splendid array as to feathers, flow
ers, lace, and jewelry. If they were spies why were they
so foolish as to brag of New York, and compare us unfavor
ably with the other side all the time, and in loud, shrill
accents ? Surely that was not the way to pass unnoticed in
the Confederacy.
A man came in, stood up, and read from a paper, ' ' The
surrender of Vicksburg. " 1 I felt as if I had been struck a
hard blow on the top of my head, and my heart took one of
its queer turns. I was utterly unconscious : not long, I dare
say. The first thing I heard was exclamations of joy and
exultation from the overdressed party. My rage and
humiliation were great. A man within earshot of this
party had slept through everything. He had a greyhound
face, eager and inquisitive when awake, but now he was as
one of the seven sleepers.
Colonel Goodwyn wrote on a blank page of my book
(one of De Quincey's — the note is there now), that the
sleeper was a Richmond detective.
1 Vicksburg surrendered on July 4, 1863. Since the close of 1862, it
had again and again been assaulted by Grant and Sherman. It was com
manded by Johnston and Pemberton, Pemberton being in command at
the time of the surrender. John C. Pemberton was a native of Philadel
phia, a graduate of West Point, and had served in the Mexican War.
16 219
July 8, 1863 PORTLAND, ALA. July 30, 1863
Finally, hot and tired out, we arrived at West
Point, on the Chattahoochee River. The dusty cars were
quite still, except for the giggling flirtation of the yellow
gown and her major. Two Confederate officers walked
in. I felt mischief in the air. One touched the smart ma
jor, who was whispering to Yellow Gown. The major
turned quickly. Instantly, every drop of blood left his
face ; a spasm seized his throat ; it was a piteous sight. And
at once I was awfully sorry for him. He was marched out
of the car. Poor Yellow Gown's color was fast, but the
whites of her eyes were lurid. Of the three women spies
we never heard again. They never do anything worse to
women, the high-minded Confederates, than send them out
of the country. But when we read soon afterward of the
execution of a male spy, we thought of the " major/'
At Montgomery the boat waited for us, and in my haste
I tumbled out of the omnibus with Dr. Robert Johnson's
assistance, but nearly broke my neck. The thermometer
was high up in the nineties, and they gave me a stateroom
over the boiler. I paid out my Confederate rags of money
freely to the maid in order to get out of that oven. Surely,
go where we may hereafter, an Alabama steamer in August
lying under the bluff with the sun looking down, will give
one a foretaste, almost an adequate idea, of what 's to come,
as far as heat goes. The planks of the floor burned one's
feet under the bluff at Selma, where we stayed nearly all
day — I do not know why.
Met James Boy kin, who had lost 1,200 bales of cotton at
Vicksburg, and charged it all to Jeff Davis in his wrath,
which did not seem exactly reasonable to me. At Portland
there was a horse for James Boykin, and he rode away,
promising to have a carriage sent for me at once. But he
had to go seven miles on horseback before he reached my
sister Sally's, and then Sally was to send back. On that
lonely riverside Molly and I remained with dismal swamps
on every side, and immense plantations, the white people
220
OLD FAMILY SERVANTS
few or none. In my heart I knew my husband was right
when he -forbade me to undertake this journey.
There was one living thing at this little riverside inn —
a white man who had a store opposite, and oh, how drunk
he was ! Hot as it was, Molly kept up a fire of pine knots.
There was neither lamp nor candle in that deserted house.
The drunken man reeled over now and then, lantern in
hand ; he would stand with his idiotic, drunken glare, or go
solemnly staggering round us, but always bowing in his
politeness. He nearly fell over us, but I sprang out of his
way as he asked, * * Well, madam, what can I do for you ? ' ;
Shall I ever forget the headache of that night and the
fright? My temples throbbed with dumb misery. I sat
upon a chair, Molly on the floor, with her head resting
against my chair. She was as near as she could get to me,
and I kept my hand on her. " Missis," said she, " now I
do believe you are scared, scared of that poor, drunken
thing. If he was sober I could whip him in a fair fight,
and drunk as he is I kin throw him over the banister, ef
he so much as teches you. I don 't value him a button ! ' :
Taking heart from such brave words I laughed. It
seemed an eternity, but the carriage came by ten o'clock,
and then, with the coachman as our sole protector, we poor
women drove eight miles or more over a carriage road,
through long lanes, swamps of pitchy darkness, with plan
tations on every side.
The house, as we drew near, looked like a graveyard in
a nightmare, so vague and phantom-like were its outlines.
I found my mother ill in bed, feeble still, but better
than I hoped to see her. " I knew you would come," was
her greeting, with outstretched hands. Then I went to bed
in that silent house, a house of the dead it seemed. I sup
posed I was not to see my sister until the next day. But
she came in some time after I had gone to bed. She kissed
me quietly, without a tear. She was thin and pale, but her
voice was calm and kind.
221
JulyS, 1863 PORTLAND, ALA July-SO, 1863
As she lifted the candle over her head, to show me some
thing on the wall, I saw that her pretty brown hair was
white. It was awfully hard not to burst out into violent
weeping. She looked so sweet, and yet so utterly broken
hearted. But as she was without emotion, apparently, it
would not become me to upset her by my tears.
Next day, at noon, Hetty, mother's old maid, brought
my breakfast to my bedside. Such a breakfast it was!
Delmonico could do no better. " It is ever so late, I
know," to which Hetty replied: " Yes, we would not let
Molly wake you. " " What a splendid cook you have here. ' '
" My daughter, Tenah, is Miss Sally's cook. She's well
enough as times go, but when our Miss Mary comes to see
us I does it myself, ' ' and she courtesied down to the floor.
" Bless your old soul," I cried, and she rushed over and
gave me a good hug.
She is my mother's factotum; has been her maid since
she was six years old, when she was bought from a Virginia
speculator along with her own mother and all her brothers
and sisters. She has been pampered until she is a rare old
tyrant at times. She can do everything better than any
one else, and my mother leans on her heavily. Hetty is
Dick's wife; Dick is the butler. They have over a dozen
children and take life very easily.
Sally came in before I was out of bed, and began at
once in the same stony way, pale and cold as ice, to tell me
of the death of her children. It had happened not two weeks
before. Her eyes were utterly without life ; no expression
whatever, and in a composed and sad sort of manner she
told the tale as if it were something she had read and
wanted me to hear :
' ' My eldest daughter, Mary, had grown up to be a love
ly girl. She was between thirteen and fourteen, you know.
Baby Kate had my sister's gray eyes; she was evidently to
be the beauty of the family. Strange it is that here was
one of my children who has lived and has gone and you
222
A SORROWFUL STORY
have never seen her at all. She died first, and I would not
go to the funeral. I thought it would kill me to see her put
under the ground. I was lying down, stupid with grief
when Aunt Charlotte came to me after the funeral with this
news : ' Mary has that awful disease, too. ' There was
nothing to say. I got up and dressed instantly and went to
Mary. I did not leave her side again in that long struggle
between life and death. I did everything for her with my
own hands. I even prepared my darling for the grave. I
went to her funeral, and I came home and walked straight
to my mother and I begged her to be comforted; I would
bear it all without one word if God would only spare me the
one child left me now. ' '
Sally has never shed a tear, but has grown twenty
years older, cold, hard, careworn. With the same rigidity
of manner, she began to go over all the details of Mary 's ill
ness. ' ' I had not given up hope, no, not at all. As I sat by
her side, she said: ' Mamma, put your hand on my knees;
they are so cold.' I put my hand on her knee; the cold
struck to my heart. I knew it was the coldness of death. ' '
Sally put out her hand on me, and it seemed to recall the
feeling. She fell forward in an agony of weeping that
lasted for hours. The doctor said this reaction was a bless
ing ; without it she must have died or gone mad.
While the mother was so bitterly weeping, the little
girl, the last of them, a bright child of three or four,
crawled into my bed. * ' Now, Auntie, ' ' she whispered, ' * I
want to tell you all about Mamie and Katie, but they watch
me so. They say I must never talk about them. Katie
died because she ate blackberries, I know that, and then
Aunt Charlotte read Mamie a letter and that made her die,
too. Maum Hetty says they have gone to God, but I know
the people saved a place between them in the ground for
me."
Uncle William was in despair at the low ebb of patriot
ism out here. " West of the Savannah River," said he,
223
July 8, 1863 PORTLAND, "ALA. July 30, 1863
" it is property first, life next, honor last." He gave me
an excellent pair of shoes. What a gift ! For more than a
year I have had none but some dreadful things Armstead
makes for me, and they hurt my feet so. These do not fit,
but that is nothing ; they are large enough and do not pinch
anywhere. I have absolutely a respectable pair of shoes ! !
Uncle William says the men who went into the war to
save their negroes are abjectly wretched. Neither side now
cares a fig for these beloved negroes, and would send them
all to heaven in a hand-basket, as Custis Lee says, to win
in the fight.
General Lee and Mr. Davis want the negroes put into
the army. Mr. Chesnut and Major Venable discussed the
subject one night, but would they fight on our side or de
sert to the enemy? They don't go to the enemy, because
they are comfortable as they are, and expect to be free
anyway.
When we were children our nurses used to give us tea
out in the open air on little pine tables scrubbed as clean as
milk-pails. Sometimes, as Dick would pass us, with his slow
and consequential step, we would call out, " Do, Dick,
come and wait on us." " No, little missies, I never wait
on pine tables. Wait till you get big enough to put your
legs under your pa 's mahogany. ' '
I taught him to read as soon as I could read myself,
perched on his knife-board. He won't look at me now;
but looks over my head, scenting freedom in the air. He
was always very ambitious. I do not think he ever troubled
himself much about books. But then, as my father said,
Dick, standing in front of his sideboard, has heard all sub
jects in earth or heaven discussed, and by the best heads
in our world. He is proud, too, in his way. Hetty, his
wife, complained that the other men servants looked finer
in their livery. ' Nonsense, old woman, a butler never
demeans himself to wear livery. He is always in plain
clothes. ' ' Somewhere he had picked that up.
224
LAWYER MILLER"
He is the first negro in whom I have felt a change. Oth
ers go about in their black masks, not a ripple or an emo
tion showing, and yet on all other subjects except the war
they are the most excitable of all races. Now Dick might
make a very respectable Egyptian Sphinx, so inscrutably
silent is he. He did deign to inquire about General Rich
ard Anderson. " He was my young master once," said he.
' ' I always will like him better than anybody else. ' '
When Dick married Hetty, the Anderson house was
next door. The two families agreed to sell either Dick or
Hetty, whichever consented to be sold. Hetty refused out
right, and the Andersons sold Dick that he might be with
his wife. This was magnanimous on the Andersons' part,
for Hetty was only a lady's-maid and Dick was a trained
butler, on whom Mrs. Anderson had spent no end of pains
in his dining-room education, and, of course, if they had
refused to sell Dick, Hetty would have had to go to them,
Mrs. Anderson was very much disgusted with Dick's in
gratitude when she found he was willing to leave them.
As a butler he is a treasure ; he is overwhelmed with dignity,
but that does not interfere with his work at all.
My father had a body-servant, Simon, who could imi
tate his master's voice perfectly. He would sometimes call
out from the yard after my father had mounted his horse :
" Dick, bring me my overcoat. I see you there, sir, hurry
up. ' ' When Dick hastened out, overcoat in hand, and only
Simon was visible, after several obsequious " Yes, mars-
ter; just as marster pleases," my mother had always to
step out and prevent a fight. Dick never forgave her
laughing.
Once in Sumter, when my father was very busy pre
paring a law case, the mob in the street annoyed him, and
he grumbled about it as Simon was making up his fire.
Suddenly he heard, as it were, himself speaking, ' ' the Hon.
S. D. Miller — Lawyer Miller," as the colored gentleman
announced himself in the dark — appeal to the gentlemen
225
July 8, 1863 PORTLAND, ALA. July 30, 1863
outside to go away and leave a lawyer in peace to prepare
his case for the next day. My father said he could have
sworn the sound was that of his own voice. The crowd dis
persed, but some noisy negroes came along, and upon them
Simon rushed with the sulky whip, slashing around in the
dark, calling himself " Lawyer Miller," who was deter
mined to have peace.
Simon returned, complaining that " them niggers run
so he never got in a hundred yards of one of them. ' '
At Portland, we met a man who said: " Is it not
strange that in this poor, devoted land of ours, there are
some men who are making money by blockade-running,
cheating our embarrassed government, and skulking the
fight? "
Montgomery, July 30th. — Coming on here from Port
land there was no stateroom for me. My mother alone had
one. My aunt and I sat nodding in armchairs, for the
floors and sofas were covered with sleepers, too. On the
floor that night, so hot that even a little covering of clothes
could not be borne, lay a motley crew. Black, white, and
yellow disported themselves in promiscuous array. Chil
dren and their nurses, bared to the view, were wrapped
in the profoundest slumber. No caste prejudices were here.
Neither Garrison, John Brown, nor Gerrit Smith ever
dreamed of equality more untrammeled. A crow-black,
enormously fat negro man waddled in every now and then
to look after the lamps. The atmosphere of that cabin was
stifling, and the sight of those figures on the floor did not
make it more tolerable. So we soon escaped and sat out
near the guards.
The next day was the very hottest I have ever known.
One supreme consolation was the watermelons, the very fin
est, and the ice. A very handsome woman, whom T did not
know, rehearsed all our disasters in the field. And then, as
if she held me responsible, she faced me furiously, " And
where are our big men? " " Whom do you mean? " 'I
226
A WRETCHED JOURNEY
mean our leaders, the men we have a right to look to to save
us. They got us into this scrape. Let them get us out of
it. Where are our big men ? ' : I sympathized with her and
understood her, but I answered lightly, " I do not know
the exact size you 'want them."
Here in Montgomery, we have been so hospitably re
ceived. Ye gods ! how those women talked ! and all at the
same time ! They put me under the care of General Dick
Taylor's brother-in-law, a Mr. Gordon, who married one
of the Beranges. A very pleasant arrangement it was for
me. He was kind and attentive and vastly agreeable with
his New Orleans anecdotes. On the first of last January all
his servants left him but four. To these faithful few he
gave free papers at once, that they might lose naught by
loyalty should the Confederates come into authority once
more. He paid high wages and things worked smoothly for
some weeks. One day his wife saw some Yankee officers7
cards on a table, and said to her maid, " I did not know
any of these people had called ? ' :
' ' Oh, Missis ! ' ' the maid replied, * ' they come to see me,
and I have been waiting to tell you. It is too hard ! I can
not do it! I can not dance with those nice gentlemen at
night at our Union Balls and then come here and be your
servant the next day. I can 't ! ' ; " So, " said Mr. Gordon,
" freedom must be followed by fraternity and equality."
One by one the faithful few slipped away and- the family
were left to their own devices. Why not ?
When General Dick Taylor's place was sacked his ne
groes moved down to Algiers, a village near New Orleans.
An old woman came to Mr. Gordon to say that these ne
groes wanted him to get word to " Mars Dick " that they
were dying of disease and starvation ; thirty had died that
day. Dick Taylor's help being out of the question, Mr.
Gordon applied to a Federal officer. He found this one not
a philanthropist, but a cynic, who said : ' ' All right ; it is
working out as I expected. Improve negroes and Indians
227
July 8, 1863 PORTLAND, -ALA. July 30, 1863
off the continent. Their strong men we put in the army.
The rest will disappear/*
Joe Johnston can sulk. As he is sent West, he says,
11 They may give Lee the army Joe Johnston trained."
Lee is reaping where he sowed, he thinks, but then he was
backing straight through Richmond when they stopped his
retreating.
228
XIV
RICHMOND, VA.
August 10, 1863— September 7, 1863
0ICHMOND, Va., August 10, 1863.— To-day I had a
letter from my sister, who wrote to inquire about
her old playmate, friend, and lover, Boy kin McCaa.
It is nearly twenty years since each was married ; each now
has children nearly grown. ' ' To tell the truth, ' ' she writes,
' ' in these last dreadful years, with David in Florida, where
I can not often hear from him, and everything dismal, anx
ious, and disquieting, I had almost forgotten Boykin's ex
istence, but he came here last night ; he stood by my bedside
and spoke to me kindly and affectionately, as if we had just
parted. I said, holding out my hand, ' Boykin, you are
very pale.' He answered, ' I have come to tell you good-
by,' and then seized both my hands. His own hands were
as cold and hard as ice ; they froze the marrow of my bones.
I screamed again and again until my whole household came
rushing in, and then came the negroes from the yard, all
wakened by my piercing shrieks. This may have been a
dream, but it haunts me.
' ' Some one sent me an old paper with an account of his
wounds and his recovery, but I know he is dead."
" Stop ! " said my husband at this point, and then he read
from that day's Examiner these words: " Captain Bur-
well Boykin McCaa found dead upon the battle-field lead
ing a cavalry charge at the head of his company. He was
shot through the head."
The famous colonel of the Fourth Texas, by name John
229
Aug. 10, 1863 RICHMOND, VA. Sept. 7, 1863
Bell Hood,1 is here — him we call Sam, because his class
mates at West Point did so — for what cause is not known.
'John Darby asked if he might bring his hero to us ; bragged
of him extensively; said he had won his three stars, etc.,
under Stonewall 's eye, and that he was promoted by Stone
wall 's request. When Hood came with his sad Quixote
face, the face of an old Crusader, who believed in his cause,
his cross, and his crown, we were not prepared for such a
man as a beau-ideal of the wild Texans. He is tall, thin,
and shy ; has blue eyes and light hair ; a tawny beard, and
a vast amount of it, covering the lower part of his face, the
whole appearance that of awkward strength. Some one
said that his great reserve of manner he carried only into
the society of ladies. Major Venable added that he had
often heard of the light of battle shining in a man's eyes.
He had seen it once — when he carried to Hood orders from
Lee, and found in the hottest of the fight that the man was
transfigured. The fierce light of Hood's eyes I can never
forget.
Hood came to ask us to a picnic next day at Drury's
Bluff.2 The naval heroes were to receive us and then we
were to drive out to the Texan camp. We accused John
Darby of having instigated this unlooked-for festivity. We
were to have bands of music and dances, with turkeys,
chickens, and buffalo tongues to eat. Next morning, just
as my foot was on the carriage-step, the girls standing be
hind ready to follow me with Johnny and the Infant
Samuel (Captain Shannon by proper name), up rode John
Darby in red-hot haste, threw his bridle to one of the men
who was holding the horses, and came toward us rapidly,
clanking his cavalry spurs with a despairing sound as he
1 Hood was a native of Kentucky and a graduate of West Point.
2 Drury's Bluff lies eight miles south of Richmond on the James
River. Here, on May 16, 1864, the Confederates under Beauregard
repulsed the Federals under Butler.
230
WADE HAMPTON. '
ROBERT TOOMBS.
JOHN C. PRKSTnN.
JOHN H. MORGAN.
JOSEPH B. KERSHAW.
JAMES CHESNl'T, JR.
ANOTHER GROUP OF CONFEDERATE GENERALS.
GENERAL JOHN B. HOOD
cried : ' ' Stop ! it 's all up. We are ordered back to the
Rappahannoek. The brigade is marching through Rich
mond now. ' ' So we unpacked and unloaded, dismissed the
hacks and sat down with a sigh.
' * Suppose we go and see them pass the turnpike, ' ' some
one said. The suggestion was hailed with delight, and off
we marched. Johnny and the Infant were in citizens'
clothes, and the Straggler — as Hood calls John Darby, since
the Prestons have been in Richmond — was all plaided and
plumed in his surgeon's array. He never bated an inch of
bullion or a feather ; he was courting and he stalked ahead
with Mary Preston, Buck, and Johnny. The Infant and
myself, both stout and scant of breath, lagged last. They
called back to us, as the Infant came toddling along,
* * Hurry up or we will leave you. ' '
At the turnpike we stood on the sidewalk and saw ten
thousand men march by. We had seen nothing like this be
fore. Hitherto we had seen only regiments inarching spick
and span in their fresh, smart clothes, just from home and
on their way to the army. Such rags and tags as we saw
now. Nothing was like anything else. Most garments and
arms were such as had been taken from the enemy. Such
shoes as they had on. " Oh, our brave boys! " moaned
Buck. Such tin pans and pots as were tied to their waists,
with bread or bacon stuck on the ends of their bayonets.
Anything that could be spiked was bayoneted and held
aloft.
They did not seem to mind their shabby condition ; they
laughed, shouted, and cheered as they marched by. Not a
disrespectful or light word was spoken, but they went for
the men who were huddled behind us, and who seemed to be
trying to make themselves as small as possible in order to
escape observation.
Hood and his staff finally came galloping up, dismount
ed, and joined us. Mary Preston gave him a bouquet.
Thereupon he unwrapped a Bible, which he carried in his
231
Aug. 10, 1863 RICHMOND, VA. Sept. 7, 1863
pocket. He said his mother had given it to him. He
pressed a flower in it. Mary Preston suggested that he had
not worn or used it at all, being fresh, new, and beautifully
kept. Every word of this the Texans heard as they
marched by, almost touching us. They laughed and joked
and made their own rough comments.
September 7th. — Major Edward Johnston did not get
into the Confederacy until after the first battle of Manas-
sas. For some cause, before he could evade that potentate,
Seward rang his little bell and sent him to a prison in the
harbor of New York. I forget whether he was exchanged
or escaped of his own motion. The next thing I heard of
my antebellum friend he had defeated Milroy in Western
Virginia. There were so many Johnstons that for this vic
tory they named him Alleghany Johnston.
He had an odd habit of falling into a state of incessant
winking as soon as he became the least startled or agitated.
In such times he seemed persistently to be winking one eye
at you. He meant nothing by it, and in point of fact did
not know himself that he was doing it. In Mexico he had
been wounded in the eye, and the nerve vibrates independ
ently of his will. During the winter of 1862 and 1863 he
was on crutches. After a while he hobbled down Franklin
Street with us, we proud to accommodate our pace to that
of the wounded general. His ankle continued stiff ; so when
he sat down another chair had to be put before him. On
this he stretched out his stiff leg, straight as a ramrod. At
that time he was our only wounded knight, and the girls
waited on him and made life pleasant for him.
One night I listened to two love-tales at once, in a dis
tracted state of mind between the two. William Porcher
Miles, in a perfectly modulated voice, in cadenced accents
and low tones, was narrating the happy end of his affair.
He had been engaged to sweet little Bettie Bierne, and I
gave him my congratulations with all my heart. It was a
capital match, suitable in every way, good for her, and
232
TWO LOVE -TALES
good for him. I was deeply interested in Mr. Miles 's story,
but there was din and discord on the other hand ; old Ed
ward, our pet general, sat diagonally across the room with
one leg straight out like a poker, wrapped in red carpet
leggings, as red as a turkey-cock in the face. His head is
strangely shaped, like a cone or an old-fashioned beehive;
or, as Buck said, there are three tiers of it ; it is like a pope 's
tiara.
There he sat, with a loud voice and a thousand winks,
making love to Mary P. I make no excuse for listening.
It was impossible not to hear him. I tried not to lose a
word of Mr. Miles 's idyl as the despair of the veteran was
thundered into my other ear. I lent an ear to each conver
sationalist. Mary can not altogether control her voice, and
her shrill screams of negation, "No, no, never," etc., ut
terly failed to suppress her wounded lover's obstreperous
asseverations of his undying affection for her.
Buck said afterward : ' ' We heard every word of it on
our side of the room, even when Mamie shrieked to him that
he was talking too loud. Now, Mamie, ' ' said we afterward,
" do you think it was kind to tell him he was forty if he
was a day? "
Strange to say, the pet general, Edward, rehabilitated
his love in a day; at least two days after he was heard to
say that he was " paying attentions now to his cousin,
John Preston 's second daughter ; her name, Sally, but they
called her Buck — Sally Buchanan Campbell Preston, a
lovely girl/' And with her he now drove, rode, and hob
bled on his crutches, sent her his photograph, and in due
time cannonaded her, from the same spot where he had
courted Mary, with proposals to marry him.
Buck was never so decided in her " Nos " as Mary.
(" Not so loud, at least " — thus in amendment, says Buck,
who always reads what I have written, and makes comments
of assent or dissent.) So again he began to thunder in
a woman's ears his tender passion. As they rode down
233
Aug. 10, 1863 RICHMOND, VA. Sept. 7, 1863
Franklin Street, Buck says she knows the people on the
sidewalk heard snatches of the conversation, though she
rode as rapidly as she could, and she begged him not to talk
so loud. Finally, they dashed up to our door as if they
had been running a race. Unfortunate in love, but fortu
nate in war, our general is now winning new laurels with
Ewell in the Valley or with the Army of the Potomac.
I think I have told how Miles, still " so gently o'er me
leaning," told of his successful love while General Ed
ward Johnston roared unto anguish and disappointment
over his failures. Mr. Miles spoke of sweet little Bettie
Bierne as if she had been a French girl, just from a con
vent, kept far from the haunts of men wholly for him.
One would think to hear him that Bettie had never cast
those innocent blue eyes of hers on a man until he came
along.
Now, since I first knew Miss Bierne in 1857, when Pat
Calhoun was to the fore, she has been followed by a tale of
men as long as a Highland chief's. Every summer at the
Springs, their father appeared in the ballroom a little
before twelve and chased the three beautiful Biernes
home before him in spite of all entreaties, and he was said
to frown away their too numerous admirers at all hours of
the day.
This new engagement was confided to me as a profound
secret. Of course, I did not mention it, even to my own
household. Next day little Alston, Morgan's adjutant, and
George Deas called. As Colonel Deas removed his gloves,
he said: "Oh! the Miles and Bierne sensation — have you
heard of it? " "No, what is the row about? " " They
are engaged to be married; that's all." " Who told
you? " " Miles himself, as we walked down Franklin
Street, this afternoon." " And did he not beg you not to
mention it, as Bettie did not wish it spoken of ? " " God
bless my soul, so he did. And I forgot that part entirely."
Colonel Alston begged the stout Carolinian not to take
234
A CANNONADE AND A WEDDING
his inadvertent breach of faith too much to heart. Miss
Bettie's engagement had caused him a dreadful night. A
young man, who was his intimate friend, came to his room
in the depths of despair and handed him a letter from Miss
Bierne, which was the cause of all his woe. Not knowing
that she was already betrothed to Miles, he had proposed
to her in an eloquent letter. In her reply, she positively
stated that she was engaged to Mr. Miles, and instead of
thanking her for putting him at once out of his misery, he
considered the reason she gave as trebly aggravating the
agony of the love-letter and the refusal. ' ' Too late ! " he
yelled, * ' by Jingo ! ' : So much for a secret.
Miss Bierne and I became fast friends. Our friendship
was based on a mutual admiration for the honorable mem
ber from South Carolina. Colonel and Mrs. Myers and
Colonel and Mrs. Chesnut were the only friends of Mr.
Miles who were invited to the wedding. At the church
door the sexton demanded our credentials. No one but
those whose names he held in his hand were allowed to en
ter. Not twenty people were present — a mere handful
grouped about the altar in that large church.
We were among the first to arrive. Then came a faint
nutter and Mrs. Parkman (the bride's sister, swathed in
weeds for her young husband, who had been killed within a
year of her marriage) came rapidly up the aisle alone. She
dropped upon her knees in the front pew, and there re
mained, motionless, during the whole ceremony, a mass of
black crape, and a dead weight on my heart. She has had
experience of war. A cannonade around Richmond inter
rupted her marriage service — a sinister omen — and in a
year thereafter her bridegroom was stiff and stark — dead
upon the field of battle.
While the wedding-march turned our thoughts from her
and thrilled us with sympathy, the bride advanced in white
satin and point d'Alencon. Mrs. Myers whispered that it
was Mrs. Parkman 's wedding-dress that the bride had on.
17 235
Aug. 10, 1863 RICHMOND*, VA. Sept. 7, 1863
She remembered the exquisite lace, and she shuddered with
superstitious forebodings.
All had been going on delightfully in-doors, but a sharp
shower cleared the church porch of the curious ; and, as the
water splashed, we wondered how we were to assemble our
selves at Mrs. McFarland's. All the horses in Richmond
had been impressed for some sudden cavalry necessity a
few days before. I ran between Mr. McFarland and Sena
tor Semmes with my pretty Paris rose-colored silk turned
over my head to save it, and when we arrived at the hospi
table mansion of the McFarlands, Mr. McFarland took me
straight into the drawing-room, man-like, forgetting that
my ruffled plumes needed a good smoothing and preening.
Mrs. Lee sent for me. She was staying at Mrs. Caskie's.
I was taken directly to her room, where she was lying on the
bed. She said, before I had taken my seat: " You know
there is a fight going on now at Brandy Station 1 " x * * Yes,
we are anxious. John Chesnut 's company is there, too."
She spoke sadly, but quietly. " My son, Roony, is wound
ed; his brother has gone for him. They will soon be here
and we shall know all about it unless Roony 's wife takes
him to her grandfather. Poor lame mother, I am useless
to my children." Mrs. Caskie said: " You need not be
alarmed. The General said in his telegram that it was not
a severe wound. You know even Yankees believe General
Lee."
That day, Mrs. Lee gave me a likeness of the General in
a photograph taken soon after the Mexican War. She likes
it so much better than the later ones. He certainly was a
handsome man then, handsomer even than now. I shall
prize it for Mrs. Lee's sake, too. She said old Mrs. Chesnut
and her aunt, Nellie Custis (Mrs. Lewis) were very inti
mate during Washington's Administration in Philadelphia.
I told her Mrs. Chesnut, senior, was the historical member
1 The battle of Brandy Station, Va., occurred June 9, 1863.
236
FRANK HAMPTON'S FUNERAL
of our family; she had so much to tell of Revolutionary
times. She was one of the " white-robed choir " of little
maidens who scattered flowers before Washington at Tren
ton Bridge, which everybody who writes a life of Washing
ton asks her to give an account of.
Mrs. Ould and Mrs. Davis came home with me. Law
rence had a basket of delicious cherries. " If there were
only some ice," said I. Respectfully Lawrence answered,
and also firmly : ' l Give me money and you shall have ice. ' '
By the underground telegraph he had heard of an ice-house
over the river, though its fame was suppressed by certain
Sybarites, as they wanted it all. In a wonderfully short
time we had mint-juleps and sherry-cobblers.
Altogether it has been a pleasant day, and as I sat alone
I was laughing lightly now and then at the memory of
some funny story. Suddenly, a violent ring ; and a regular
sheaf of telegrams were handed me. I could not have
drawn away in more consternation if the sheets had been a
nest of rattlesnakes. First, Frank Hampton was killed at
Brandy Station. Wade Hampton telegraphed Mr. Chesnut
to. see Robert Barnwell, and make the necessary arrange
ments to recover the body. Mr. Chesnut is still at Wilming
ton. I sent for Preston Johnston, and my neighbor, Colonel
Patton, offered to see that everything proper was done.
That afternoon I walked out alone. Willie Mountford had
shown me where the body, all that was left of Frank Hamp
ton, was to be laid in the Capitol. Mrs. Petticola joined me
after a while, and then Mrs. Singleton.
Preston Hampton and Peter Trezevant, with myself and
Mrs. Singleton, formed the sad procession which followed
the coffin. There was a company of soldiers drawn up in
front of the State House porch. Mrs. Singleton said we had
better go in and look at him before the coffin was finally
closed. How I wish I had not looked. I remember him so
well in all the pride of his magnificent manhood. He died
of a saber-cut across the face and head, and was utterly dis-
237
Aug. 10, 1863 RICHMOND*, VA. Sept. 7, 1863
figured. Mrs. Singleton seemed convulsed with grief. In
all my life I had never seen such bitter weeping. She had
her own troubles, but I did not know of them. We sat for
a long time on the great steps of the State House. Every
body had gone and we were alone.
We talked of it all — how we had gone to Charleston to
see Rachel in Adrienne Lecouvreur, and how, as I stood
waiting in the passage near the drawing-room, I had met
Frank Hampton bringing his beautiful bride from the
steamer. They had just landed. Afterward at Mrs. Sin
gleton's place in the country we had all spent a delightful
week together. And now, only a few years have passed,
but nearly all that pleasant company are dead, and our
world, the only world we cared for, literally kicked to
pieces. And she cried, * * We are two lone women, stranded
here." Rev. Robert Barnwell was in a desperate condition,
and Mary Barnwell, her daughter, was expecting her con
finement every day.
Here now, later, let me add that it was not until I got
back to Carolina that I heard of Robert Barnwell 's death,
with scarcely a day's interval between it and that of Mary
and her new-born baby. Husband, wife, and child were
buried at the same time in the same grave in Columbia.
And now, Mrs. Singleton has three orphan grandchildren.
What a woful year it has been to her.
Robert Barnwell had insisted upon being sent to the hos
pital at Staunton. On account of his wife's situation the
doctor also had advised it. He was carried off on a mattress.
His brave wife tried to prevent it, and said : " It is only fe
ver." And she nursed him to the last. She tried to say good-
by cheerfully, and called after him : " As soon as my trouble
is over I will come to you at Staunton." At the hospital
they said it was typhoid fever. He died the second day
after he got there. Poor Mary fainted when she heard the
ambulance drive away with him. Then she crept into a
low trundle-bed kept for the children in her mother's room.
238
MR. AND MRS. ROBERT BARNWELL
She never left that bed again. When the message came
from Staunton that fever was the matter with Robert and
nothing more, Mrs. Singleton says she will never forget the
expression in Mary's eyes as she turned and looked at her.
" Robert will get well," she said, " it is all right." Her
face was radiant, blazing with light. That night the baby
was born, and Mrs. Singleton got a telegram that Robert
was dead. She did not tell Mary, standing, as she did, at
the window while she read it. She was at the same time
looking for Robert's body, which might come any mo
ment. As for Mary's life being in danger, she had never
thought of such a thing. She was thinking only of Robert.
Then a servant touched her and said : ' * Look at Mrs. Barn-
well. ' ' She ran to the bedside, and the doctor, who had come
in, said, " It is all over ; she is dead. ' ' Not in anger, not in
wrath, came the angel of death that day. He came to set
Mary free from a world grown too hard to bear.
During Stoneman 's raid 1 I burned some personal pa
pers. Molly constantly said to me, " Missis, listen to de
guns. Burn up everything. Mrs. Lyons says they are sure
to come, and they'll put in their newspapers whatever you
write here, every day. ' ' The guns did sound very near, and
when Mrs. Davis rode up and told me that if Mr. Davis
left Richmond I must go with her, I confess I lost my head.
So I burned a part of my journal but rewrote it afterward
from memory — my implacable enemy that lets me forget
none of the things I would. I am weak with dates. I do
not always worry to look at the calendar and write them
down. Besides I have not always a calendar at hand.
1 George S. Stoneman, a graduate of West Point, was now a Major-
General, and Chief of Artillery in the Army of the Potomac. His raid
toward Richmond in 1863 was a memorable incident of the war.
After the war, he became Governor of California.
239
XV
CAMDEN, S. C.
September 10, 1863— November 5, 1863
AMDEN, S. C., September 10, 1863.— It is a comfort
to turn from small political jealousies to our grand
battles — to Lee and Kirby Smith after Council and
Convention squabbles. Lee has proved to be all that my
husband prophesied of him when he was so unpopular and
when Joe Johnston was the great god of war. The very
sound of the word convention or council is wearisome. Not
that I am quite ready for Richmond yet. We must look
after home and plantation affairs, which we have sadly
neglected. Heaven help my husband through the deep
waters
The wedding of Miss Aiken, daughter of Governor Ai-
ken, the largest slave-owner in South Carolina; Julia Rut-
ledge, one of the bridesmaids; the place Flat Rock. We
could not for a while imagine what Julia would do for a
dress. My sister Kate remembered some muslin she had in
the house for curtains, bought before the war, and laid
aside as not needed now. The stuff was white and thin, a
little coarse, but then we covered it with no end of beauti
ful lace. It made a charming dress, and how altogether
lovely Julia looked in it! The night of the wedding it
stormed as if the world were coming to an end — wind, rain,
thunder, and lightning in an unlimited supply around the
mountain cottage.
The bride had a duchesse dressing-table, muslin and
lace; not one of the shifts of honest, war-driven poverty,
240
MISS AIKEN'S WEDDING
but a millionaire's attempt at appearing economical, in the
idea that that style was in better taste as placing the family
more on the same plane with their less comfortable compa
triots. A candle was left too near this light drapery and
it took fire. Outside was lightning enough to fire the
world ; inside, the bridal chamber was ablaze, and there was
wind enough to blow the house down the mountainside.
The English maid behaved heroically, and, with the aid
of Mrs. Aiken's and Mrs. Mat Singleton's servants, put the
fire out without disturbing the marriage ceremony, then be
ing performed below. Everything in the bridal chamber
was burned up except the bed, and that was a mass of cin
ders, soot, and flakes of charred and blackened wood.
At Kingsville I caught a glimpse of our army. Long-
street's corps was going West. God bless the gallant fel
lows ! Not one man was intoxicated ; not one rude word did
I hear. It was a strange sight — one part of it. There were
miles, apparently, of platform cars, soldiers rolled in their
blankets, lying in rows, heads all covered, fast asleep. In
their gray blankets, packed in regular order, they looked
like swathed mummies. One man near where I sat was
writing on his knee. He used his cap for a desk and he was
seated on a rail. I watched him, wondering to whom that
letter was to go — home, no doubt. Sore hearts for him
there.
A feeling of awful depression laid hold of me. All these
fine fellows were going to kill or be killed. Why? And a
phrase got to beating about my head like an old song, ' ' The
Unreturning Brave." When a knot of boyish, laughing,
young creatures passed me, a queer thrill of sympathy
shook me. Ah, I know how your home-folks feel, poor chil
dren! Once, last winter, persons came to us in Camden
with such strange stories of Captain - — , Morgan's man;
stories of his father, too ; turf tales and murder, or, at least,
how he killed people. He had been a tremendous favorite
with my husband, who brought him in once, leading him
241
Sept. 10, 1863 CAMDEN, «S. C. Nov. 5, 1863
by the hand. Afterward he said to me, " With these girls
in the house we must be more cautious." I agreed to
be coldly polite to . " After all," I said, " I barely
know him."
When he called afterward in Richmond I was very glad
to see him, utterly forgetting that he was under a ban. We
had a long, confidential talk. He told me of his wife and
children ; of his army career, and told Morgan stories. He
grew more and more cordial and so did I. He thanked me
for the kind reception given him in that house; told me I
was a true friend of his, and related to me a scrape he was
in which, if divulged, would ruin him, although he was in
nocent ; but time would clear all things. He begged me not
to repeat anything he had told me of his affairs, not even
to Colonel Chesnut ; which I promised promptly, and then
he went away. I sat poking the fire thinking what a cu
riously interesting creature he was, this famous Captain
— , when the folding-doors slowly opened and Colonel
Chesnut appeared. He had come home two hours ago from
the War Office with a headache, and had been lying on the
sofa behind that folding-door listening for mortal hours.
" So, this is your style of being * coldly polite/ " he
said. Fancy my feelings. " Indeed, I had forgotten all
about what they had said of him. The lies they told of
him never once crossed my mind. He is a great deal clev
erer, and, I dare say, just as good as those who malign
him."
Mattie Reedy (I knew her as a handsome girl in Wash
ington several years ago) got tired of hearing Federals
abusing John Morgan. One day they were worse than ever
in their abuse and she grew restive. By way of putting a
mark against the name of so rude a girl, the Yankee officer
said, " What is your name? " " Write * Mattie Reedy '
now, but by the grace of God one day I hope to call myself
the wife of John Morgan." She did not know Morgan,
but Morgan eventually heard the story ; a good joke it was
242
GENERAL JOHN H. MORGAN'S WIFE
said to be. But he made it a point to find her out ; and, as
she was as pretty as she was patriotic, by the grace of God,
she is now Mrs. Morgan ! These timid Southern women un
der the guns can be brave enough.
Aunt Charlotte has told a story of my dear mother.
They were up at Shelby, Ala., a white man's country,
where negroes are not wanted. The ladies had with them
several negroes belonging to my uncle at whose house they
were staying in the owner's absence. One negro man who
had married and dwelt in a cabin was for some cause partic
ularly obnoxious to the neighborhood. My aunt and my
mother, old-fashioned ladies, shrinking from everything
outside their own door, knew nothing of all this. They oc
cupied rooms on opposite sides of an open passage-way.
Underneath, the house was open and unfinished. Suddenly,
one night, my aunt heard a terrible noise — apparently as
of a man running for his life, pursued by men and dogs,
shouting, hallooing, barking. She had only time to lock her
self in. Utterly cut off from her sister, she sat down, dumb
with terror, when there began loud knocking at the door,
with men swearing, dogs tearing round, sniffing, racing in
and out of the passage and barking underneath the house
like mad. Aunt Charlotte was sure she heard the panting
of a negro as he ran into the house a few minutes before.
What could have become of him? Where could he have
hidden? The men shook the doors and windows, loudly
threatening vengeance. My aunt pitied her feeble sister,
cut off in the room across the passage. This fright might
kill her !
The cursing and shouting continued unabated. A man 's
voice, in harshest accents, made itself heard above all:
:t Leave my house, you rascals! " said the voice. " If
you are not gone in two seconds, I '11 shoot ! ' ' There was a
dead silence except for the noise of the dogs. Quickly the
men slipped away. Once out of gunshot, they began to call
their dogs. After it was all over my aunt crept across the
243
Sept. 10, 1863 CAMDEN, S. C. Nov. 5, 1863
passage. " Sister, what man was it scared them away? "
My mother laughed aloud in her triumph. " I am the
man," she said.
* ' But where is John ? ' ' Out crept John from a corner
of the room, where my mother had thrown some rubbish
over him. ' ' Lawd bless you, Miss Mary opened de do ' for
me and dey was right behind runnin' me — Aunt says
mother was awfully proud of her prowess. And she
showed some moral courage, too !
At the President's in Richmond once, General Lee was
there, and Constance and Hetty Gary came in; also Miss
Sanders and others. Constance Gary * was telling some war
anecdotes, among them one of an attempt to get up a sup
per the night before at some high and mighty F. F. V.'s
house, and of how several gentlefolks went into the kitchen
to prepare something to eat by the light of one forlorn can
dle. One of the men in the party, not being of a useful
temperament, turned up a tub and sat down upon it.
Custis Lee, wishing also to rest, found nothing upon which
to sit but a gridiron.
One remembrance I kept of the evening at the Presi
dent's: General Lee bowing over the beautiful Miss Gary's
hands in the passage outside. Miss - - rose to have her
part in the picture, and asked Mr. Davis to walk with her
into the adjoining drawing-room. He seemed surprised,
but rose stiffly, and, with a scowling brow, was led off. As
they passed where Mrs. Davis sat, Miss - — , with all sail
set, looked back and said: " Don't be jealous, Mrs. Davis;
I have an important communication to make to the Presi
dent." Mrs. Davis 's amusement resulted in a significant
* ' Now ! Did you ever ? ' '
During Stoneman's raid, on a Sunday I was in Mrs.
1 Miss Constance Gary afterward married Burton Harrison and set
tled in New York where she became prominent socially and achieved
reputation as a novelist.
244
A SCENE IN CHURCH
Randolph's pew. The battle at -Chancellorsyille was also
raging. The rattling of^ammunition wagons, the tramp of
soldiers, the everlasting slamming of those iron gates of the
Capitol Square just opposite the church, made it hard to
attend to the service.
Then began a scene calculated to make the stoutest heart
quail. The sexton would walk quietly up the aisle to de
liver messages to worshipers whose relatives had been
brought in wounded, dying, or dead. Pale-faced people
would then follow him out. Finally, the Rev. Mr. Minne-
gerode bent across the chancel-rail to the sexton for a few
minutes, whispered with the sexton, and then disappeared.
The assistant clergyman resumed the communion which
Mr. Minnegerode had been administering. At the church
door stood Mrs. Minnegerode, as tragically wretched and as
wild-looking as ever Mrs. Siddons was. She managed to
say to her husband, " Your son is at the station, dead! "
When these agonized parents reached the station, however,
it proved to be some one else 's son who was dead — but a son
all the same. Pale and wan came Mr. Minnegerode back to
his place within the altar rails. After the sacred commu
nion was over, some one asked him what it all meant, and
he said: " Oh, it was not my son who was killed, but it
came so near it aches me yet ! ' :
At home I found L. Q. Washington, who stayed to
dinner. I saw that he and my husband were intently pre
occupied by some event which they did not see fit to com
municate to me. Immediately after dinner my husband
lent Mr. Washington one of his horses and they rode off to
gether. I betook myself to my kind neighbors, the Pattons,
for information. There I found Colonel Patton had gone,
too. Mrs. Patton, however, knew all about the trouble.
She said there was a raiding party within forty miles of us
and no troops were in Richmond ! They asked me to stay
to tea — those kind ladies — and in some way we might learn
what was going on. After tea we went out to the Capitol
245
Sept. 10, 1863 CAMDEN, 9. C. Nov. 5, 1863
Square, Lawrence and three men-servants going along to
protect us. They seemed to be mustering in citizens by the
thousands. Company after company was being formed;
then battalions, and then regiments. It was a wonderful
sight to us, peering through the iron railing, watching them
fall into ranks.
Then we went to the President's, finding the family at
supper. We sat on the white marble steps, and General
Elzey told me exactly how things stood and of our imme
diate danger. Pickets were coming in. Men were spurring
to and from the door as fast as they could ride, bringing
and carrying messages and orders. Calmly General Elzey
discoursed upon our present weakness and our chances for
aid. After a while Mrs. Davis came out and embraced me
silently.
" It is dreadful," I said. " The enemy is within forty
miles of us— only forty! " " Who told you that tale? "
said she. " They are within three miles of Richmond! "
I went down on my knees like a stone. ' * You had better be
quiet," she said. " The President is ill. Women and chil
dren must not add to the trouble." She asked me to stay
all night, which I was thankful to do.
We sat up. Officers were coming and going; and we
gave them what refreshment we could from a side table,
kept constantly replenished. Finally, in the excitement,
the constant state of activity and change of persons, we for
got the danger. Officers told us jolly stories and seemed in
fine spirits, so we gradually took heart. There was not a
moment 's rest for any one. Mrs. Davis said something more
amusing than ever : * ' We look like frightened women and
children, don't we? "
Early next morning the President came down. He was
still feeble and pale from illness. Custis Lee and my hus
band loaded their pistols, and the President drove off in
Dr. Garnett's carriage, my husband and Custis Lee on
horseback alongside him. By eight o'clock the troops from
246
FEDERALS ALMOST IN RICHMOND
Petersburg came in, and the danger was over. The author
ities will never strip Richmond of troops again. We had a
narrow squeeze for it, but we escaped. It was a terrible
night, although we made the best of it.
I was walking on Franklin Street when I met my hus
band. " Come with me to the War Office for a few min
utes," said he, " and then I will go home with you."
What could I do but go ? He took me up a dark stairway,
and then down a long, dark corridor, and he left me sitting
in a window, saying he " would not be gone a second " ;
he was obliged to go into the Secretary of War's room.
There I sat mortal hours. Men came to light the gas.
From the first I put down my veil so that nobody might
know me. Numbers of persons passed that I knew, but I
scarcely felt respectable seated up there in that odd way,
so I said not a word but looked out of the window. Judge
Campbell slowly walked up and down with his hands be
hind his back — the saddest face I ever saw. He had jumped
down in his patriotism from Judge of the Supreme Court,
U. S. A., to be under-secretary of something or other — I do
not know what — C. S. A. No wonder he was out of spirits
that night !
Finally Judge Ould came ; him I called, and he joined
me at once, in no little amazement to find me there, and
stayed with me until James Chesnut appeared. In point
of fact, I sent him to look up that stray member of my
family.
When my husband came he said : ' ' Oh, Mr. Seddon and
I got into an argument, and time slipped away ! The truth
is, I utterly forgot you were here." When we were once
more out in the street, he began : ' ' Now, don 't scold me,
for there is bad news. Pemberton has been fighting the
Yankees by brigades, and he has been beaten every time;
and now Vicksburg must go! " I suppose that was his
side of the argument with Seddon.
Once again I visited the War Office. I went with Mrs.
247
Sept. 10, 1863 CAMDEN, "S. C. N<». 5, 1863
Quid to see her husband at his office. We wanted to ar
range a party on the river on the flag-of -truce boat, and to
visit those beautiful places, Claremont and Brandon. My
husband got into one of his " too careful "fits; said there
was risk in it ; and so he upset all our plans. Then I was
to go up to John Rutherford's by the canal-boat. That, too,
he vetoed " too risky," as if anybody was going to trouble
us!
October 24th. — James Chesnut is at home on his way
back to Richmond; had been sent by the President to
make the rounds of the Western armies; says Polk is a
splendid old fellow. They accuse him of having been
asleep in his tent at seven o'clock when he was ordered to
attack at daylight, but he has too good a conscience to sleep
so soundly.
The battle did not begin until eleven at Chickamauga 1
when Bragg had ordered the advance at daylight. Bragg
and his generals do not agree. I think a general worthless
whose subalterns quarrel with him. Something is wrong
about the man. Good generals are adored by their soldiers.
See Napoleon, Ca?sar, Stonewall, Lee.
Old Sam (Hood) received his orders to hold a certain
bridge against the enemy, and he had already driven the
enemy several miles beyond it, when the slow generals were
still asleep. Hood has won a victory, though he has only
one leg to stand on.
Mr. Chesnut was with the President when he reviewed
our army under the enemy's guns before Chattanooga. He
told Mr. Davis that every honest man he saw out West
thought well of Joe Johnston. He knows that the President
detests Joe Johnston for all the trouble he has given him,
1 The battle of Chickamauga was fought on the river of the same
name, near Chattanooga, September 19 and 20, 1863. The Confederates
were commanded by Bragg and the Federals by Rosecrans. It was
one of the bloodiest battles of the war ; the loss on each side, including
killed, wounded, and prisoners, was over 15,000.
248
JOE JOHNSTON'S MAGNETISM
and General Joe returns the compliment with compound
interest. His hatred of Jeff Davis amounts to a religion.
With him it colors all things.
Joe Johnston advancing, or retreating, I may say with
more truth, is magnetic. He does draw the good-will of
those by whom he is surrounded. Being such a good hater,
it is a pity he had not elected to hate somebody else than
the President of our country. He hates not wisely but too
well. Our friend Breckinridge 1 received Mr. Chesnut with
open arms. There is nothing narrow, nothing self-seeking,
about Breckinridge. He has not mounted a pair of green
spectacles made of prejudices so that he sees no good ex
cept in his own red-hot partizans.
October 27tli. — Young Wade Hampton has been here
for a few days, a guest of our nearest neighbor and cousin,
Phil Stockton. Wade, without being the beauty or the ath
lete that his brother Preston is, is such a nice boy. We lent
him horses, and ended by giving him a small party. What
was lacking in company was made up for by the excellence
of old Colonel Chesnut 's ancient Madeira and champagne.
If everything in the Confederacy were only as truly good
as the old Colonel 's wine-cellars ! Then we had a salad and
a jelly cake.
General Joe Johnston is so careful of his aides that
Wade has never yet seen a battle. Says he has always hap
pened to be sent afar off when the fighting came. He does
not seem too grateful for this, and means to be transferred
to his father 's command. He says, * ' No man exposes him
self more recklessly to danger than General Johnston, and
no one strives harder to keep others out of it." But the
business of this war is to save the country, and a commander
must risk his men 's lives to do it. There is a French saying
1 John C. Breckinridge had been Vice-President of the United States
under Buchanan and was the candidate of the Southern Democrats for
President in 1860. He joined the Confederate Army in 1861.
249
Sept. 10, 1863 CAMDEN, S. C. Nov. 5, 1863
that you can't make an omelet unless you are willing to
break eggs.
November 5th. — For a week we have had such a tran
quil, happy time here. Both my husband and Johnny are
here still. James Chesnut spent his time sauntering around
with his father, or stretched on the rug before my fire read
ing Vanity Fair and Pendennis. By good luck he had not
read them before. We have kept Esmond for the last. He
owns that he is having a good time. Johnny is happy, too.
He does not care for books. He will read a novel now and
then, if the girls continue to talk of it before him. Nothing
else whatever in the way of literature does he touch. He
comes pulling his long blond mustache irresolutely as if
he hoped to be advised not to read it — " Aunt Mary, shall
I like this thing ? ' : I do not think he has an idea what we
are fighting about, and he does not want to know. He says,
* ' My company, " ' ' My men, ' ' with a pride, a faith, and an
affection which are sublime. He came into his inheritance
at twenty-one (just as the war began), and it was a goodly
one, fine old houses and an estate to match.
Yesterday, Johnny went to his plantation for the first
time since the war began. John Witherspoon went with
him, and reports in this way : l How do you do, Mars-
ter ! How you come on ? ' ; — thus from every side rang the
noisiest welcome from the darkies. Johnny was silently
shaking black hands right and left as he rode into the
crowd.
As the noise subsided, to the overseer he said : ' ' Send
down more corn and fodder for my horses." And to the
driver, " Have you any peas? '' " Plenty, sir." " Send
a wagon-load down for the cows at Bloomsbury while I
stay there. They have not milk and butter enough there
for me. Any eggs? Send down all you can collect. How
about my turkeys and ducks? Send them down two at a
time. How about the mutton? Fat? That's good; send
down two a week."
250
A PICNIC AT MULBERRY
As they rode home, John Witherspoon remarked, " I
was surprised that you did not go into the fields to see your
crops." " What was the use? " " And the negroes; you
had so little talk with them."
' ' No use to talk to them before the overseer. They are
coming down to Bloomsbury, day and night, by platoons
and they talk me dead. Besides, William and Parish go up
there every night, and God knows they tell me enough plan
tation scandal — overseer feathering his nest ; negroes ditto
at my expense. Between the two fires I mean to get some
thing to eat while I am here. ' '
For him we got up a charming picnic at Mulberry.
Everything was propitious — the most perfect of days and
the old place in great beauty. Those large rooms were de
lightful for dancing; we had as good a dinner as mortal
appetite could crave; the best fish, fowl, and game; wine
from a cellar that can not be excelled. In spite of blockade
Mulberry does the honors nobly yet. Mrs. Edward Stock
ton drove down with me. She helped me with her taste and
tact in arranging things. We had no trouble, however.
All of the old servants who have not been moved to Blooms-
bury scented the prey from afar, and they literally flocked
in and made themselves useful.
18 251
XVI
RICHMOND, VA.
November 28, 1863— April 11, 1864
ICHMOND, Va., November 28, 1863.— Our pleasant
home sojourn was soon broken up. Johnny had to
go back to Company A, and my husband was or
dered by the President to make a second visit to Bragg 's
Army.1
So we came on here where the Prestons had taken apart
ments for me. Molly was with me. Adam Team, the over
seer, with Isaac McLaughlin's help, came with us to take
charge of the eight huge boxes of provisions I brought from
home. Isaac, Molly's husband, is a servant of ours, the only
one my husband ever bought in his life. Isaac's wife be
longed to Rev. Thomas Davis, and Isaac to somebody else.
The owner of Isaac was about to go West, and Isaac was
distracted. They asked one thousand dollars for him. He
is a huge creature, really a magnificent specimen of a col
ored gentleman. His occupation had been that of a stage-
driver. Now, he is a carpenter, or will be some day. He is
awfully grateful to us for buying him ; is really devoted to
his wife and children, though he has a strange way of show
ing it, for he has a mistress, en titre, as the French say,
which fact Molly never failed to grumble about as soon as
his back was turned. u Great big good-for-nothing thing
come a-whimpering to marster to buy him for his wife's
1 Braxton Bragg was a native of North Carolina and had won dis-
r_ tinction in the war with Mexico.
252
COLORED SERVANTS
sake, and all the time he an—" " Oh, Molly, stop that! "
said I.
Mr. Davis visited Charleston and had an enthusiastic
reception. He described it all to General Preston. Gov
ernor Aiken's perfect old Carolina style of living delighted
him. Those old gray-haired darkies and their noiseless, au
tomatic service, the result of finished training — one does
miss that sort of thing when away from home, where your
own servants think for you ; they know your ways and your
wants; they save you all responsibility even in matters of
your own ease and well doing. The butler at Mulberry
would be miserable and feel himself a ridiculous failure
were I ever forced to ask him for anything.
November 30th. — I must describe an adventure I had in
Kingsville. Of course, I know nothing of children : in point
of fact, am awfully afraid of them.
Mrs. Edward Barnwell came with us from Camden.
She had a magnificent boy two years old. Now don't ex
pect me to reduce that adjective, for this little creature is
a wonder of childlike beauty, health, and strength. Why
not ? If like produces like, and with such a handsome pair
to claim as father and mother ! The boy 's eyes alone would
make any girl's fortune.
At first he made himself very agreeable, repeating nur
sery rhymes and singing. Then something went wrong.
Suddenly he changed to a little fiend, fought and kicked
and scratched like a tiger. He did everything that was
naughty, and he did it with a will as if he liked it, while his
lovely mamma, with flushed cheeks and streaming eyes,
was imploring him to be a good boy.
When we stopped at Kingsville, I got out first, then
Mrs. Barnwell 's nurse, who put the little man down by me.
* ' Look after him a moment, please, ma 'am, ' ' she said. * * I
must help Mrs. Barnwell with the bundles, ' ' etc. She
stepped hastily back and the cars moved off. They ran
down a half mile to turn. I trembled in my shoes. This
253
Nov. 28, 1863 RICHMOND, • VA. April 11, 1864
child! No man could ever frighten me so. If he should
choose to be bad again! It seemed an eternity while I
waited for that train to turn and come back again. My lit
tle charge took things quietly. For me he had a perfect con
tempt, no fear whatever. And I was his abject slave for
the nonce.
He stretched himself out lazily at full length. Then he
pointed downward. " Those are great legs," said he sol
emnly, looking at his own. I immediately joined him in ad
miring them enthusiastically. Near him he spied a bundle.
' ' Pussy cat tied up in that bundle. ' ' He was up in a sec
ond and pounced upon it. If we were to be taken up as
thieves, no matter, I dared not meddle with that child. I
had seen what he could do. There were several cooked
sweet potatoes tied up in an old handkerchief — belonging
to some negro probably. He squared himself off comfort
ably, broke one in half and began to eat. Evidently he had
found what he was fond of. In this posture Mrs. Barnwell
discovered us. She came with comic dismay in every fea
ture, not knowing what our relations might be, and whether
or not we had undertaken to fight it out alone as best we
might. The old nurse cried, " Lawsy me! " with both
hands uplifted. Without a word I fled. In another mo
ment the Wilmington train would have left me. She was
going to Columbia.
We broke down only once between Kingsville and Wil
mington, but between Wilmington and Weldon we con
trived to do the thing so effectually as to have to remain
twelve hours at that forlorn station.
The one room that I saw was crowded with soldiers.
Adam Team succeeded in securing two chairs for me,
upon one of which I sat and put my feet on the other.
Molly sat flat on the floor, resting her head against my chair.
I woke cold and cramped. An officer, who did not give his
name; but said he was from Louisiana, came up and urg^d
me to go near the fire. He gave me his seat by the fire,
254
BY RAIL TO RICHMOND
where I found an old lady and two young ones, with two
men in the uniform of common soldiers.
We talked as easily to each other all night as if we had
known one another all our lives. We discussed the war, the
army, the news of the day. No questions were asked, no
names given, no personal discourse whatever, and yet if
these men and women were not gentry, and of the best sort,
I do not know ladies and gentlemen when I see them.
Being a little surprised at the want of interest Mr.
Team and Isaac showed in my well-doing, I walked out to
see, and I found them working like beavers. They had been
at it all night. In the break-down my boxes were smashed.
They had first gathered up the contents and were trying
to hammer up the boxes so as to make them once more avail
able.
At Petersburg a smartly dressed woman came in, looked
around in the crowd, then asked for the seat by me. Now
Molly's seat was paid for the same as mine, but she got up
at once, gave the lady her seat and stood behind me. I am
sure Molly believes herself my body-guard as well as my
servant.
The lady then having arranged herself comfortably in
Molly's seat began in plaintive accents to tell her melan
choly tale. She was a widow. She lost her husband in the
battles around Richmond. Soon some one went out and a
man offered her the vacant seat. Straight as an arrow she
went in for a flirtation with the polite gentleman. Another
person, a perfect stranger, said to me, ' ' Well, look yonder.
As soon as she began whining about her dead beau I knew
she was after another one." " Beau, indeed! " cried an
other listener, ' ' she said it was her husband. " " Husband
or lover, all the same. She won't lose any time. It won't
be her fault if she doesn't have another one soon."
But the grand scene was the night before: the cars
crowded with soldiers, of course ; not a human being that I
knew. An Irish woman, so announced by her brogue, came
255
Nov. 28, 1863 RICHMOND, VA. April 11, 1864
in. She marched up and down the car, loudly lamenting
the want of gallantry in the men who would not make way
for her. Two men got up and gave her their seats, saying
it did not matter, they were going to get out at the next
stopping-place.
She was gifted with the most pronounced brogue I ever
heard, and she gave us a taste of it. She continued to say
that the men ought all to get out of that; that car was
" shuteable " only for ladies. She placed on the vacant
seat next to her a large looking-glass. She continued to ha
rangue until she fell asleep.
A tired soldier coming in, seeing what he supposed to
be an empty seat, quietly slipped into it. Crash went the
glass. The soldier groaned, the Irish woman shrieked. The
man was badly cut by the broken glass. She was simply a
mad woman. She shook her fist in his face ; said she was a
lone woman and he had got into that seat for no good pur
pose. How did he dare to? — etc. I do not think the man
uttered a word. The conductor took him into another car
to have the pieces of glass picked out of his clothes, and she
continued to rave. Mr. Team shouted aloud, and laughed
as if he were in the Hermitage Swamp. The woman's un
reasonable wrath and absurd accusations were comic, no
doubt.
Soon the car was silent and I fell into a comfortable
doze. I felt Molly give me a gentle shake. ' Listen, Mis
sis, how loud Mars Adam Team is talking, and all about ole
marster and our business, and to strangers. It 's a shame. ' '
" Is he saying any harm of us? " " No, ma'am, not that.
He is bragging for dear life 'bout how ole ole marster is
and how rich he is, an' all that. I gwine tell him stop." Up
started Molly. " Mars Adam, Missis say please don't talk
so loud. When people travel they don't do that a way."
Mr. Preston's man, Hal, was waiting at the depot with a
carriage to take me to my Richmond house. Mary Preston
had rented these apartments for me.
256
NO MORE FESTIVITIES
I found my dear girls there with a nice fire. Everything
looked so pleasant and inviting to the weary traveler. Mrs.
Grundy, who occupies the lower floor, sent me such a real
Virginia tea, hot cakes, and rolls. Think of living in the
house with Mrs. Grundy, and having no fear of * ' what Mrs.
Grundy will say. ' '
My husband has come ; he likes the house, Grundy 's, and
everything. Already he has bought Grundy 's horses for
sixteen hundred Confederate dollars cash. He is nearer to
being contented and happy than I ever saw him. He has
not established a grievance yet, but I am on the lookout
daily. He will soon find out whatever there is wrong about
Gary Street.
I gave a party; Mrs. Davis very witty; Preston girls
very handsome ; Isabella 's fun fast and furious. No party
could have gone off more successfully, but my husband de
cides we are to have no more festivities. This is not the
time or the place for such gaieties.
Maria Freeland is perfectly delightful on the subject
of her wedding. She is ready to the last piece of lace, but
her hard-hearted father says " No." She adores John
Lewis. That goes without saying. She does not pretend,
however, to be as much in love as Mary Preston. In point
of fact, she never saw any one before who was. But she is
as much in love as she can be with a man who, though he is
not very handsome, is as eligible a match as a girl could
make. He is all that heart could wish, and he comes of
such a handsome family. His mother, Esther Maria Coxe,
was the beauty of a century, and his father was a nephew
of General Washington. For all that, he is far better look
ing than John Darby or Mr. Miles. She always intended to
marry better than Mary Preston or Bettie Bierne.
Lucy Haxall is positively engaged to Captain Coffey,
an Englishman. She is convinced that she will marry him.
He is her first fancy.
Mr. Venable, of Lee's staff, was at our party, so out of
257
Nov. 28, 1863 RICHMONET, VA. April 11, 1864
spirits. He knows everything that is going on. His de
pression bodes us no good. To-day, General Hampton sent
James Chesnut a fine saddle that he had captured from the
Yankees in battle array.
Mrs. Scotch Allan (Edgar Allan Poe's patron's wife)
sent me ice-cream and lady-cheek apples from her farm.
John R. Thompson,1 the sole literary fellow I know in
Richmond, sent me Leisure Hours in Town, by A Country
Parson.
My husband says he hopes I will be contented because
he came here this winter to please me. If I could have been
satisfied at home he would have resigned his aide-de-camp-
ship and gone into some service in South Carolina. I am a
good excuse, if good for nothing else.
Old tempestuous Keitt breakfasted with us yesterday.
I wish I could remember half the brilliant things he said.
My husband has now gone with him to the War Office.
Colonel Keitt thinks it is time he was promoted. He wants
to be a brigadier.
Now, Charleston is bombarded night and day. It fairly
makes me dizzy to think of that everlasting racket they are
beating about people's ears down there. Bragg defeated,
and separated from Longstreet. It is a long street that
:nows no turning, and Rosecrans is not taken after all.
November 30th. — Anxiety pervades. Lee is fighting
[eade. Misery is everywhere. Bragg is falling back be
fore Grant.2 Longstreet, the soldiers call him Peter the
Slow, is settling down before Knoxville.
1 John R. Thompson was a native of Richmond and in 1847 became
editor of the Southern Literary Messenger. Under his direction, that
periodical acquired commanding influence. Mr. Thompson's health
failed afterward. During the war he spent a part of his time in Rich
mond and a part in Europe. He afterward settled in New York and
became literary editor of the Evening Post.
2 The siege of Chattanooga, which had been begun on September
21st, closed late in November, 1863, the final engagements beginning
258
LEE AND MEADE
General Lee requires us to answer every letter, said Mr.
Venable, and to do our best to console the poor creatures
whose husbands and sons are fighting the battles of the
country.
December 2d. — Bragg begs to be relieved of his com
mand. The army will be relieved to get rid of him. He
has a winning way of earning everybody's detestation.
Heavens, how they hate him ! The rapid flight of his army
terminated at Ringgold. Hardie declines even a temporary
command of the Western army. Preston Johnston has been
sent out post-haste at a moment's warning. He was not
even allowed time to go home and tell his wife good-by or,
as Browne, the Englishman, said, ' * to put a clean shirt into
his traveling bag." Lee and Meade are facing each other
gallantly.1
The first of December we went with a party of Mrs.
Quid's getting up, to see a French frigate which lay at
anchor down the river. The French officers came on board
our boat. The Lees were aboard. The French officers were
not in the least attractive either in manners or appearance,
but our ladies were most attentive and some showered bad
French upon them with a lavish hand, always accompanied
by queer grimaces to eke out the scanty supply of French
words, the sentences ending usually in a nervous shriek.
" Are they deaf? " asked Mrs. Randolph.
on November 23d, and ending on November 25th. Lookout Moun
tain and Missionary Ridge were the closing incidents of the siege.
Grant, Sherman, and Hooker were conspicuous on the Federal side and
Bragg and Longstreet on the Confederate.
1 Following the battle of Gettysburg on July 1st, 2d, and 3d, ofj
this year, there had occurred in Virginia between Lee and Meade/
engagements at Bristoe's Station, Kelly's Ford, and Rappahannockj
Station, the latter engagement taking place on November 7th. The
author doubtless refers here to the positions of Lee and Meade at Mine
Run, December 1st. December 2d Meade abandoned his, because (as
he is reported to have said) it would have cost him 30,000 men to carry
Lee's breastworks, and he shrank from ordering such slaughter.
259
Nw. 28, 1863 RICHMOND, VA. April 11, 1864
The French frigate was a dirty little thing. Doctor
Garnett was so buoyed up with hope that the French were
coming to our rescue, that he would not let me say " an
English man-of-war is the cleanest thing known in the
world. " Captain said to Mary Lee, with a foreign
contortion of countenance, that went for a smile, " I's
bashlor. " Judge Ould said, as we went to dinner on our
own steamer, " They will not drink our President's health.
They do not acknowledge us to be a nation. Mind, none
of you say * Emperor,' not once." Doctor Garnett inter
preted the laws of politeness otherwise, and stepped for
ward, his mouth fairly distended with so much French, and
said: " Vieff 1'Emperor." Young Gibson seconded him
quietly, "A la sante de I'Empereur." But silence pre
vailed. Preston Hampton was the handsomest man on
board — ' ' the figure of Hercules, the face of Apollo, ' ' cried
an enthusiastic girl. Preston was as lazy and as sleepy as
ever. He said of the Frenchmen : * ' They can 't help not
being good-looking, but with all the world open to them, to
wear such shabby clothes ! ' :
The lieutenant's name was Rousseau. On the French
frigate, lying on one of the tables was a volume of Jean
Jacques Rousseau's works, side by side, strange to say, with
a map of South Carolina. This lieutenant was courteously
asked by Mary Lee to select some lady to whom she might
introduce him. He answered: " I shuse you," with a bow
that was a benediction and a prayer.
And now I am in a fine condition for Hetty Gary's star
vation party, where they will give thirty dollars for the
music and not a cent for a morsel to eat. Preston said con
tentedly, ' ' I hate dancing, and I hate cold water ; so I will
eschew the festivity to-night."
Found John R. Thompson at our house when I got home
so tired to-night. He brought me the last number of the
Cornhill. He knew how much I was interested in Trol-
lope's story, Framley Parsonage.
260
STONEWALL JACKSON'S WAYS
December 4th. — My husband bought yesterday at the
Commissary's one barrel of flour, one bushel of potatoes,
one peck of rice, five pounds of salt beef, and one peck of
salt — all for sixty dollars. In the street a barrel of flour
sells for one hundred and fifteen dollars.
December 5th. — Wigfall was here last night. He began
by wanting to hang Jeff Davis. My husband managed him
beautifully. He soon ceased to talk virulent nonsense, and
calmed down to his usual strong common sense. I knew it
was quite late, but I had no idea of the hour. My husband
beckoned me out. "It is all your fault," said he.
* ' What ? ' " ' ' Why will you persist in looking so interested
in all Wigfall is saying? Don't let him catch your eye.
Look into the fire. Did you not hear it strike two ? ' '
This attack was so sudden, so violent, so unlocked for,
I could only laugh hysterically. However, as an obedient
wife, I went back, gravely took my seat and looked into the
fire. I did not even dare raise my eyes to see what my hus
band was doing — if he, too, looked into the fire. Wigfall
soon tired of so tame an audience and took his departure.
General Lawton was here. He was one of Stonewall 's
generals. So I listened with all my ears when he said:
' ' Stonewall could not sleep. So, every two or three nights
you were waked up by orders to have your brigade in
marching order before daylight and report in person to the
Commander. Then you were marched a few miles out and
then a few miles in again. All this was to make us ready,
ever on the alert. And the end of it was this: Jackson's
men would go half a day's march before Peter Longstreet
waked and breakfasted. I think there is a popular delusion
about the amount of praying he did. He certainly pre
ferred a fight on Sunday to a sermon. Failing to manage
a fight, he loved best a long Presbyterian sermon, Calvin-
istic to the core.
' He had shown small sympathy with human infirmity.
He was a one-idea-ed man. He looked upon broken-down
261
. 28, 1863 RICHMOND", VA. A^U n, 1864
men and stragglers as the same thing. He classed all who
were weak and weary, who fainted by the wayside, as men
wanting in patriotism. If a man's face was as white as
cotton and his pulse so low you scarce could feel it, he
looked upon him merely as an inefficient soldier and rode
off impatiently. He was the true type of all great soldiers.
Like the successful warriors of the world, he did not value
human life where he had an object to accomplish. He
could order men to their death as a matter of course. His
soldiers obeyed him to the death. Faith they had in him
stronger than death. Their respect he commanded. I
doubt if he had so much of their love as is talked about
while he was alive. Now, that they see a few more years
of Stonewall would have freed them from the Yankees,
they deify him. Any man is proud to have been one of the
famous Stonewall brigade. But, be sure, it was bitter hard
work to keep up with him as all know who ever served un
der him. He gave his orders rapidly and distinctly and
rode away, never allowing answer or remonstrance. It
was, ' Look there — see that place — take it ! ' When you
failed you were apt to be put under arrest. When you re
ported the place taken, he only said, ' Good ! ' :
Spent seventy-five dollars to-day for a little tea and
sugar, and have five hundred left. My husband 's pay never
has paid for the rent of our lodgings. He came in with
dreadful news just now. I have wept so often for things
that never happened, I will withhold my tears now for a
certainty. To-day, a poor woman threw herself on her dead
husband's coffin and kissed it. She was weeping bitterly.
So did I in sympathy.
My husband, as I told him to-day, could see me and
everything that he loved hanged, drawn, and quartered
without moving a muscle, if a crowd were looking on; he
could have the same gentle operation performed on himself
and make no sign. To all of which violent insinuation he
answered in unmoved tones: " So would any civilized man.
262
HOOD'S POPULARITY
Savages, however — Indians, at least — are more dignified in
that particular than we are. Noisy, fidgety grief never
moves me at all ; it annoys me. Self-control is what we all
need. You are a miracle of sensibility; self-control is what
you need. " "So you are civilized ! " I said. ' ' Some day I
mean to be."
December 9th. — ' ' Come here, Mrs. Chesnut, ' ' said Mary
Preston to-day, " they are lifting General Hood out of his
carriage, here, at your door." Mrs. Grundy promptly had
him borne into her drawing-room, which was on the first
floor. Mary Preston and I ran down and greeted him as
cheerfully and as cordially as if nothing had happened
since we saw him standing before us a year ago. How he
was waited upon ! Some cut-up oranges were brought him.
" How kind people are," said he. " Not once since I was
wounded have I ever been left without fruit, hard as it is
to get now." " The money value of friendship is easily
counted now," said some one, " oranges are five dollars
apiece. ' '
December 10th. — Mrs. Davis and Mrs. Lyons came. We
had luncheon brought in for them, and then a lucid ex
planation of the chronique scandaleuse, of which Beck J.
is the heroine. We walked home with Mrs. Davis and met
the President riding alone. Surely that is wrong. It must
be unsafe for him when there are so many traitors, not to
speak of bribed negroes. Burton Harrison * says Mr. Davis
prefers to go alone, and there is none to gainsay him.
My husband laid the law down last night. I felt it to
be the last drop in my full cup. * i No more feasting in this
house," said he. " This is no time for junketing and mer
rymaking. " " And you said you brought me here to enjoy
the winter before you took me home and turned my face to
1 Burton Harrison, then secretary to Jefferson Davis, who married
Miss Constance Gary and became well known as a New York lawyer.
He died in Washington in 1904.
263
Nov. 28, 1863 RICHMOND,* VA. April 11, 1864
a dead wall." He is the master of the house; to hear is
to obey.
December 14th. — Drove out with Mrs. Davis. She had
a watch in her hand which some poor dead soldier wanted
to have sent to his family. First, we went to her mantua-
maker, then we drove to the Fair Grounds where the band
was playing. Suddenly, she missed the watch. She remem
bered having it when we came out of the mantua-maker 's.
We drove back instantly, and there the watch was lying
near the steps of the little porch in front of the house. No
one had passed in, apparently ; in any case, no one had
seen it.
Preston Hampton went with me to see Conny Gary. The
talk was frantically literary, which Preston thought hard
on him. I had just brought the St. Denis number of Les
Miserables.
Sunday, Christopher Hampton walked to church with
me. Coming out, General Lee was seen slowly making his
way down the aisle, bowing royally to right and left. I
pointed him out to Christopher Hampton when General Lee
happened to look our way. He bowed low, giving me a
charming smile of recognition. I was ashamed of being so
pleased. I blushed like a schoolgirl.
We went to the White House. They gave us tea. The
President said he had been on the way to our house, coming
with all the Davis family, to see me, but the children be
came so troublesome they turned back. Just then, little Joe
rushed in and insisted on saying his prayers at his father's
knee, then and there. He was in his night-clothes.
December 19th. — A box has come from home for me.
Taking advantage of this good fortune and a full larder,
have asked Mrs. Davis to dine with me. Wade Hampton
sent me a basket of game. We had Mrs. Davis and Mr. and
Mrs. Preston. After dinner we walked to the church to see
the Freeland-Lewis wedding. Mr. Preston had Mrs. Davis
on his arm. My husband and Mrs. Preston, and Burton
264
GENERAL BUCKNER
December 24th. — As we walked, Brewster reported a
row he had had with General Hood. Brewster had told
those six young ladies at the Prestons' that " old Sam "
was in the habit of saying he would not marry if he could
any silly, sentimental girl, who would throw herself away
upon a maimed creature such as he was. When Brewster
went home he took pleasure in telling Sam how the ladies
had complimented his good sense, whereupon the General
rose in his wrath and threatened to break his crutch over
Brewster 's head. To think he could be such a fool — to go
about repeating to everybody his whimperings.
I was taking my seat at the head of the table when the
door opened and Brewster walked in unannounced. He
took his stand in front of the open door, with his hands in
his pockets and his small hat pushed back as far as it could
get from his forehead.
" What! " said he, "you are not ready yet? The gen
erals are below. Did you get my note? " I begged my
husband to excuse me and rushed off to put on my bonnet
and furs. I met the girls coming up with a strange man.
The flurry of two major-generals had been too much for me
and I forgot to ask the new one's name. They went up to
dine in my place with my husband, who sat eating his din
ner, with Lawrence's undivided attention given to him,
amid this whirling and eddying in and out of the world mil
itant. Mary Preston and I then went to drive with the
generals. The new one proved to be Buckner,1 who is also
a Kentuckian. The two men told us they had slept together
the night before Chickamauga. It is useless to try: legs
can't any longer be kept out of the conversation. So Gen
eral Buckner said : ' ' Once before I slept with a man and he
lost his leg next day. ' ' He had made a vow never to do so
1 Simon B. Buckner was a graduate of West Point and had served in
the Mexican War. In 1887 he was elected Governor of Kentucky and,
at the funeral of General Grant, acted as one of the pall-bearers.
19 267
Nov. 28, 1863 RICHMOND, * VA. April 11, 1864
again. ' ' When Sam and I parted that morning, we said :
' You or I may be killed, but the cause will be safe all the
same.' '
After the drive everybody came in to tea, my husband
in famous good humor, we had an unusually gay evening.
It was very nice of my husband to take no notice of my con
duct at dinner, which had been open to criticism. All the
comfort of my life depends upon his being in good humor.
Christmas Day, 1863. — Yesterday dined with the Pres-
tons. Wore one of my handsomest Paris dresses (from
Paris before the war). Three magnificent Kentucky gen
erals were present, with Senator Orr from South Carolina,
and Mr. Miles. General Buckner repeated a speech of
Hood 's to him to show how friendly they were. ' ' I prefer a
ride with you to the company of any woman in the world,"
Buckner had answered. ' ' I prefer your company to that of.
any man, certainly," was Hood's reply. This became the
standing joke of the dinner; it flashed up in every form.
Poor Sam got out of it so badly, if he got out of it at all.
General Buckner said patronizingly, " Lame excuses, all.
Hood never gets out of any scrape — that is, unless he can
fight out." Others dropped in after dinner; some without
arms, some without legs ; von Borcke, who can not speak be
cause of a wound in his throat. Isabella said: " We have
all kinds now, but a blind one." Poor fellows, they laugh
at wounds. " And they yet can show many a scar."
We had for dinner oyster soup, besides roast mut
ton, ham, boned turkey, wild duck, partridge, plum pud
ding, sauterne, burgundy, sherry, and Madeira, There is
life in the old land yet!
At my house to-day after dinner, and while Alex
Haskell and my husband sat over the wine, Hood gave
me an account of his discomfiture last night. He said
he could not sleep after it; it was the hardest battle he
had ever fought in his life, ' * and I was routed, as it were ;
she told me there was no hope ; that ends it. You know at
268
SUW ARROW GRANT
Petersburg on my way to the Western army she half -prom
ised me to think of it. She would not say ' Yes, ' but she did
not say ' No ' — that is, not exactly. At any rate, I went off
saying, ' I am engaged to you, ' and she said, * I am not en
gaged to you. ' After I was so fearfully wounded I gave it
up. But, then, since I came, ' ' etc.
' * Do you mean to say, ' ' said I, ' i that you had proposed
to her before that conversation in the carriage, when you
asked Brewster the symptoms of love? I like your audac
ity. " " Oh, she understood, but it is all up now, for she
says, 'No!' "
My husband says I am extravagant. " No, my friend,
not that/' said I. " I had fifteen hundred dollars and I
have spent every cent of it in my housekeeping. Not one
cent for myself, not one cent for dress nor any personal
want whatever. ' ' He calls me * ' hospitality run mad. ' '
January 1, 1864. — General Hood's an awful flatterer —
I mean an awkward flatterer. I told him to praise my hus
band to some one else, not to me. He ought to praise me
to somebody who would tell my husband, and then praise
my husband to another person who would tell me. Man
and wife are too much one person — to wave a compliment
straight in the face of one about the other is not graceful.
One more year of Stonewall would have saved us.
Chickamauga is the only battle we have gained since Stone
wall died, and no results follow as usual. Stonewall was
not so much as killed by a Yankee : he was shot by his own
men ; that is hard. General Lee can do no more than keep
back Meade. •" One of Meade's armies, you mean," said I,
" for they have only to double on him when Lee whips one
of them."
General Edward 'Johnston says he got Grant a place —
esprit de corps, you know. He could not bear to see an old
army man driving a wagon; that was when he found him
out West, put out of the army for habitual drunkenness.
He is their right man, a bull-headed Suwarrow. He don't
269
Nov. 28, 1863 RICHMONEf, VA. April 11, 1864
care a snap if men fall like the leaves fall ; he fights to win,
that chap does. He is not distracted by a thousand side
issues ; he does not see them. He is narrow and sure — sees
only in a straight line. Like Louis Napoleon, from a battle
in the gutter, he goes straight up. Yes, as with Lincoln,
they have ceased to carp at him as a rough clown, no gentle
man, etc. You never hear now of Lincoln's nasty fun ; only
of his wisdom. Doesn't take much soap arid water to wash
the hands that the rod of empire sway. They talked of Lin
coln's drunkenness, too. Now, since Vicksburg they have
not a word to say against Grant's habits. He has the dis
agreeable habit of not retreating before irresistible veterans.
General Lee and Albert Sidney Johnston show blood and
breeding. They are of the Bayard and Philip Sidney order
of soldiers. Listen: if General Lee had had Grant's re
sources he would have bagged the last Yankee, or have had
them all safe back in Massachusetts. " You mean if he
had not the weight of the negro question upon him? '
11 No, I mean if he had Grant's unlimited allowance of the
powers of war — men, money, ammunition, arms."
Mrs. Ould says Mrs. Lincoln found the gardener of the
White House so nice, she would make him a major-general.
Lincoln remarked to the secretary: " Well, the little
woman must have her way sometimes. ' '
A word of the last night of the old year. l ' Gloria Mun-
di ' ' sent me a cup of strong, good coffee. I drank two cups
and so I did not sleep a wink. Like a fool I passed my
whole life in review, and bitter memories maddened me
quite. Then came a happy thought. I mapped out a story
of the war. The plot came to hand, for it was true. Johnny
is the hero, a light dragoon and heavy swell. I will call it
F. F.'s, for it is the F. F.'s both of South Carolina and
Virginia. It is to be a war story, and the filling out of the
skeleton was the best way to put myself to sleep.
January 4th. — Mrs. Ives wants us to translate a French
play. A genuine French captain came in from his ship on
270
NORTH CAROLINA WANTS PEACE
the James River and gave us good advice as to how to make
the selection. General Hampton sent another basket of
partridges, and all goes merry as a marriage bell.
My husband came in and nearly killed us. He brought
this piece of news: " North Carolina wants to offer terms
of peace ! ' ! We needed only a break of that kind to finish
us. I really shivered nervously, as one does when the first
handful of earth comes rattling down on the coffin in the
grave of one we cared for more than all who are left.
January 5th. — At Mrs. Preston's, met the Light Bri
gade in battle array, ready to sally forth, conquering and to
conquer. They would stand no nonsense from, me about
staying at home to translate a French play. Indeed, the
plays that have been sent us are so indecent I scarcely know
where a play is to be found that would do at all.
While at dinner the President's carriage drove up with
only General Hood. He sent up to ask in Maggie Howell's
name would I go with them 1 I tied up two partridges be
tween plates with a serviette, for Buck, who is ill, and then
went down. We picked up Mary Preston. It was Mag
gie's drive; as the soldiers say, I was only on " escort
duty." At the Prestons', Major Venable met us at the door
and took in the partridges to Buck. As we drove off Mag
gie said: " Major Venable is a Carolinian, I see." " No;
Virginian to the core. ' ' * But, then, he was a professor in
the South Carolina College before the war." Mary Preston
said : ' i She is taking a fling at your weakness for all South
Carolina."
Came home and found my husband in a bitter mood. It
has all gone wrong with our world. The loss of our private
fortune the smallest part. He intimates, " with so much
human misery filling the air, we might stay at home and
think." " And go mad? " said I. " Catch me at it! A
yawning grave, with piles of red earth thrown on one side ;
that is the only future I ever see. You remember Emma
Stockton? She and I were as blithe as birds that day at
271
Nov. 28, 1863 RICHMOND), VA. April 11, 1864
Mulberry. I came here the next day, and when I arrived
a telegram said : ' Emma Stockton found dead in her bed. '
It is awfully near, that thought. No, no. I will not stop
and think of death always."
January 8th. — Snow of the deepest. Nobody can come
to-day, I thought. But they did! My girls, first; then
Constance Gary tripped in — the clever Conny. Hetty is
the beauty, so called, though she is clever enough, too; but
Constance is actually clever and has a classically perfect
outline. Next came the four Kentuckians and Preston
Hampton. He is as tall as the Kentuckians and ever so
much better looking. Then we had egg-nog.
I was to take Miss Gary to the Semmes's. My husband
inquired the price of a carriage. It was twenty-five dollars
an hour! He cursed by all his gods at such extravagance.
The play was not worth the candle, or carriage, in this in
stance. In Confederate money it sounds so much worse
than it is. I did not dream of asking him to go with me
after that lively overture. ' ' I did intend to go with you, ' '
he said, " but you do not ask me." " And I have been
asking you for twenty years to go with me, in vain. Think
of that ! " I said, tragically. We could not wait for him to
dress, so I sent the twenty-five-dollar-an-hour carriage back
for him. We were behind time, as it was. When he
came, the beautiful Hetty Gary and her friend, Captain
Tucker, were with him. Major von Borcke and Preston
Hampton were at the Gary's, in the drawing-room when
we called for Constance, who was dressing. I challenge
the world to produce finer specimens of humanity than these
three : the Prussian von Borcke, Preston Hampton, and
Hetty Gary.
We spoke to the Prussian about the vote of thanks
passed by Congress yesterday — " thanks of the country to
Major von Borcke." The poor man was as modest as a
girl — in spite of his huge proportions. " That is a compli
ment, indeed! " said Hetty. " Yes. I saw it. And the
272
A CHARADE PARTY
happiest, the proudest day of my life as I read it. It was
at the hotel breakfast-table. I try to hide my face with
the newspaper, I feel it grow so red. But my friend he has
his newspaper, too, and he sees the same thing. So he looks
my way — he says, pointing to me — ' Why does he grow so
red ? He has got something there ! ' and he laughs. Then
I try to read aloud the so kind compliments of the Congress
— but — he — you — I can not — He puts his hand to his
throat. His broken English and the difficulty of his enun
ciation with that wound in his windpipe makes it all very
touching — and very hard to understand.
The Semmes charade party was a perfect success. The
play was charming. Sweet little Mrs. Lawson Clay had a
seat for me banked up among women. The female part of
the congregation, strictly segregated from the male, were
placed all together in rows. They formed a gay parterre,
edged by the men in their black coats and gray uniforms.
Toward the back part of the room, the mass of black and
gray was solid. Captain Tucker bewailed his fate. He was
stranded out there with those forlorn men, but could see us
laughing, and fancied what we were saying was worth a
thousand charades. He preferred talking to a clever wom
an to any known way of passing a pleasant hour. ' ' So do
I, ' ' somebody said.
On a sofa of state in front of all sat the President and
Mrs. Davis. Little Maggie Davis was one of the child ac
tresses. Her parents had a right to be proud of her ; with
her flashing black eyes, she was a marked figure on the
stage. She is a handsome creature and she acted her part
admirably. The shrine was beautiful beyond wrords. The
Semmes and Ives families are Roman Catholics, and under
stand getting up that sort of thing. First came the ' ' Palm
ers Gray, ' ' then Mrs. Ives, a solitary figure, the loveliest of
penitent women. The Eastern pilgrims were delightfully
costumed ; we could not understand how so much Christian
piety could come clothed in such odalisque robes. Mrs.
273
Nov. 28, 1863 RICHMOND; VA. April 11, 1864
Ould, as a queen, was as handsome and regal as heart could
wish for. She was accompanied by a very satisfactory
king, whose name, if I ever knew, I have forgotten. There
was a resplendent knight of St. John, and then an Amer
ican Indian. After their orisons they all knelt and laid
something on the altar as a votive gift.
Burton Harrison, the President's handsome young sec
retary, was gotten up as a big brave in a dress presented to
Mr. Davis by Indians for some kindness he showed them
years ago. It was a complete warrior's outfit, scant as that
is. The feathers stuck in the back of Mr. Harrison's head
had a charmingly comic effect. He had to shave himself as
clean as a baby or he could not act the beardless chief,
Spotted Tail, Billy Bowlegs, Big Thunder, or whatever his
character was. So he folded up his loved and lost mus
tache, the Christianized red Indian, and laid it on the altar,
the most sacred treasure of his life, the witness of his most
heroic sacrifice, on the shrine.
Senator Hill, of Georgia, took me in to supper, where
were ices, chicken salad, oysters, and champagne. The
President came in alone, I suppose, for while we were talk
ing after supper and your humble servant was standing be
tween Mrs. Randolph and Mrs. Stanard, he approached,
offered me his arm and we walked off, oblivious of Mr. Sen
ator Hill. Remember this, ladies, and forgive me for re
cording it, but Mrs. Stanard and Mrs. Randolph are the
handsomest women in Richmond; I am no older than they
are, or younger, either, sad to say. Now, the President
walked with me slowly up and down that long room, and
our conversation was of the saddest. Nobody knows so well
as he the difficulties which beset this hard-driven Confed
eracy. He has a voice which is perfectly modulated, a com
fort in this loud and rough soldier world. I think there is
a melancholy cadence in his voice at times, of which he is
unconscious when he talks of things as they are now.
My husband was so intensely charmed with Hetty Cary
274
PRIVATE THEATRICALS
that he declined at the first call to accompany his wife home
in the twenty-five-dollar-an-hour carriage. He ordered it
to return. When it came, his wife (a good manager)
packed the Carys and him in with herself, leaving the other
two men who came with the party, when it was divided into
* ' trips, ' ' to make their way home in the cold. At our door,
near daylight of that bitter cold morning, I had the pleas
ure to see my husband, like a man, stand and pay for that
carriage ! To-day he is pleased with himself, with me, and
with all the world ; says if there was no such word as ' ' fas
cinating " you would have to invent one to describe Hetty
Gary.
January 9th. — Met Mrs. Wigfall. She wants me to take
Halsey to Mrs. Randolph 's theatricals. I am to get him up
as Sir Walter Raleigh. Now, General Breckinridge has
come. I like him better than any of them. Morgan also is
here.1 These huge Kentuckians fill the town. Isabella says,
" They hold Morgan accountable for the loss of Chatta
nooga. " The follies of the wise, the weaknesses of the
great ! She shakes her head significantly when I begin to
tell why I like him so well. Last night General Buckner
came for her to go with him and rehearse at the Carys' for
Mrs. Randolph's charades.
The President's man, Jim, that he believed in as we all
believe in our own servants, " our own people," as we call
them, and Betsy, Mrs. Davis 's maid, decamped last night.
It is miraculous that they had the fortitude to resist the
temptation so long. At Mrs. Davis 's the hired servants all
have been birds of passage. First they were seen with gold
galore, and then they would fly to the Yankees, and I am
sure they had nothing to tell. It is Yankee money wasted.
1 John H. Morgan, a native of Alabama, entered the Confederate
army in 1861 as a Captain and in 1862 was made a Major-General. He
was captured by the Federals in 1863 and confined in an Ohio peni
tentiary, but he escaped and once more joined the Confederate army.
In September, 1864, he was killed in battle near Greenville, Tenn.
275
Nov. 28, 1863 RICHMOND, VA. April 11, 1864
I do not think it had ever crossed Mrs. Davis 's brain that
these two could leave her. She knew, however, that Betsy
had eighty dollars in gold and two thousand four hundred
dollars in Confederate notes.
Everybody who comes in brings a little bad news — not
much, in itself, but by cumulative process the effect is de
pressing, indeed.
January 12th. — To-night there will be & great gathering
of Kentuckians. Morgan gives them a dinner. The city of
Richmond entertains John Morgan. He is at free quarters.
The girls dined here. Conny Gary came back for more
white feathers. Isabella had appropriated two sets and
obstinately refused Constance Gary a single feather from
her pile. She said, sternly : * * I have never been on the stage
before, and I have a presentiment when my father hears of
this, I will never go again. I am to appear before the foot
lights as an English dowager duchess, and I mean to rustle
in every feather, to wear all the lace and diamonds these
two houses can compass " —(mine and Mrs. Preston's).
She was jolly but firm, and Constance departed without any
additional plumage for her Lady Teazle.
January 14th. — Gave Mrs. White twenty-three dollars
for a turkey. Came home wondering all the way why she
did not ask twenty-five; two more dollars could not have
made me balk at the bargain, and twenty-three sounds odd.
January 15th. — What a day the Kentuckians have had !
Mrs. Webb gave them a breakfast; from there they pro
ceeded en masse to General Lawton's dinner, and then came
straight hero, all of which seems equal to one of Stonewall 's
forced marches. General Lawton took me in to supper. In
spite of his dinner he had misgivings. " My heart is
heavy/' said he, " even here. All seems too light, too care
less, for such terrible times. It seems out of place here in
battle-scarred Richmond." " I have heard something of
that kind at home," I replied. " Hope and fear are both
gone, and it is distraction or death with us. I do not see
276
BURTON HARRISON
how sadness and despondency would help us. If it would
do any good, we would be sad enough. ' '
We laughed at General Hood. General Lawton thought
him better fitted for gallantry on the battle-field than play
ing a lute in my lady 's chamber. When Miss Giles was elec
trifying the audience as the Fair Penitent, some one said :
" Oh, that is so pretty! " Hood cried out with stern re-
proachf ulness : ' * That is not pretty ; it is elegant. ' '
Not only had my house been rifled for theatrical proper
ties, but as the play went on they came for my black velvet
cloak. When it was over, I thought I should never get
away, my cloak was so hard to find. But it gave me an
opportunity to witness many things behind the scenes — that
cloak hunt did. Behind the scenes! I know a little what
that means now.
General Jeb Stuart was at Mrs. Randolph's in his cav
alry jacket and high boots. He was devoted to Hetty Gary.
Constance Gary said to me, pointing to his stars, " Hetty
likes them that way, you know — gilt-edged and with stars. ' '
January 16th. — A visit from the President's handsome
and accomplished secretary, Burton Harrison. I lent him
Gountry Clergyman in Town and Elective Affinities. He
is to bring me Mrs. Norton's Lost and Saved.
At Mrs. Randolph's, my husband complimented one of
the ladies, who had amply earned his praise by her splendid
acting. She pointed to a young man, saying, " You see
that wretch ; he has not said one word to me ! ' : My hus
band asked innocently, * ' Why should he ? And why is he
a wretch? '; " Oh, you know! ': Going home I explained
this riddle to him; he is always a year behindhand in
gossip. " They said those two were engaged last winter,
and now there seems to be a screw loose; but that sort of
thing always comes right." The Carys prefer James Ches-
nut to his wife. I don't mind. Indeed, I like it. I do, too.
Every Sunday Mr. Minnegerode cried aloud in anguish
his litany, "from pestilence and famine, battle, murder,
277
Nov. 28, 1863 RICHMOND, V*A. April 11, 1864
and sudden death," and we wailed on our knees, "Good
Lord deliver us/' and on Monday, and all the week long,
we go on as before, hearing of nothing but battle, murder,
and sudden death, which are daily events. Now I have a
new book; that is the unlooked-for thing, a pleasing inci
dent in this life of monotonous misery. We. live in a huge
barrack. We are shut in, guarded from light without.
At breakfast to-day came a card, and without an in
stant's interlude, perhaps the neatest, most fastidious man
in South Carolina walked in. I was uncombed, unkempt,
tattered, and torn, in my most comfortable, worst worn,
wadded green silk dressing-gown, with a white woolen
shawl over my head to keep off draughts. He has not been
in the war yet, and now he wants to be captain of an engi
neer corps. I wish he may get it ! He has always been my
friend; so he shall lack no aid that I can give. If he can
stand the shock of my appearance to-day, we may reason
ably expect to continue friends until death. Of all men,
the fastidious Barny Heywood to come in. He faced the
situation gallantly.
January 18th. — Invited to Dr. Haxall's last night to
meet the Lawtons. Mr. Benjamin * dropped in. He is a
friend of the house. Mrs. Haxall is a Richmond leader of
society, a ci-devant beauty and belle, a charming person
still, and her hospitality is of the genuine Virginia type.
Everything Mr. Benjamin said we listened to, bore in mind,
and gave heed to it diligently. He is a Delphic oracle, of
the innermost shrine, and is supposed to enjoy the honor of
Mr. Davis 's unreserved confidence.
1 Judah P. Benjamin, was born, of Jewish parentage, at St. Croix
in the West Indies, and was elected in 1852 to represent Louisiana
in the United States Senate, where he served until 1861. In the Con
federate administration he served successively from 1861 to 1865 as
Attorney-General, Secretary of War, and Secretary of State. At the
close of the war he went to England where he achieved remarkable
success at the bar.
278
LAMAR AND GEORGE ELIOT
Lamar was asked to dinner here yesterday; so he came
to-day. We had our wild turkey cooked for him yesterday,
and I dressed myself within an inch of my life with the best
of my four-year-old finery. Two of us, my husband and I,
did not damage the wild turkey seriously. So Lamar en
joyed the rechauffe, and commended the art with which
Molly had hid the slight loss we had inflicted upon its
mighty breast. She had piled fried oysters over the turkey
so skilfully, that unless we had told about it, no one would
ever have known that the huge bird was making his second
appearance on the board.
Lamar was more absent-minded and distrait than ever.
My husband behaved like a trump — a well-bred man, with
all his wits about him ; so things went off smoothly enough.
Lamar had just read Romola. Across the water he said it
was the rage. I am sure it is not as good as Adam Bede or
Silas Marner. It is not worthy of the woman who was to
" rival all but Shakespeare's name below." " What is the
matter with Romola? " he asked. " Tito is so mean, and
he is mean in such a very mean way, and the end is so re
pulsive. Petting the husband's illegitimate children and
left-handed wives may be magnanimity, but human nature
revolts at it. ' ' ' ' Woman 's nature, you mean ! ' : * * Yes,
and now another test. Two weeks ago I read this thing
with intense interest, and already her Savonarola has faded
from my mind. I have forgotten her way of showing Sa
vonarola as completely as I always do forget Bulwer's
Rienzi."
" Oh, I understand you now! It is like Milton's
devil — he has obliterated all other devils. You can't fix
your mind upon any other. The devil always must be of
Miltonic proportions or you do not believe in him ; Goethe 's
Mephistopheles disputes the crown of the causeway with
Lucifer. But soon you begin to feel that Mephistopheles
to be a lesser devil, an emissary of the devil only. Is
there any Cardinal Wolsey but Shakespeare's? any Mira-
279
Nov. 28, 1863 RICHMOND, VA. April 11, 1864
beau but Carlyle's Mirabeau? But the list is too long of
those who have been stamped into your brain by genius.
The saintly preacher, the woman who stands by Hetty and
saves her soul; those heavenly minded sermons preached
by the author of Adam Bede, bear them well in mind while
I tell you how this writer, who so well imagines and depicts
female purity and piety, was a governess, or something of
that sort, and perhaps wrote for a living ; at any rate, she
had an elective affinity, which was responded to, by George
Lewes, and so she lives with Lewes. I do not know that she
caused the separation between Lewes and his legal wife.
They are living in a villa on some Swiss lake, and Mrs.
Lewes, of the hour, is a charitable, estimable, agreeable,
sympathetic woman of genius. ' '
Lamar seemed without prejudices on the subject; at
least, he expressed neither surprise nor disapprobation. He
said something of " genius being above law," but I was not
very clear as to what he said on that point. As for me I
said nothing for fear of saying too much. " You know
that Lewes is a writer," said he. " Some people say the
man she lives with is a noble man. " " They say she is kind
and good if — a fallen woman." Here the conversation
ended.
January 20th. — And now comes a grand announcement
made by the Yankee Congress. They vote one million of
men to be sent down here to free the prisoners whom they
will not take in exchange. I actually thought they left all
these Yankees here on our hands as part of their plan to
starve us out. All Congressmen under fifty years of age
are to leave politics and report for military duty or be con
scripted. What enthusiasm there is in their councils!
Confusion, rather, it seems to me ! Mrs. Ould says * ' the
men who frequent her house are more despondent now than
ever since this thing began."
Our Congress is so demoralized, so confused, so de
pressed. They have asked the President, whom they have
280
GAIETY IN THE MIDST OF WAR
so hated, so insulted, so crossed and opposed and thwarted
in every way, to speak to them, and advise them what to do.
January 21st. — Both of us were too ill to attend Mrs.
Davis 's reception. It proved a very sensational one. First,
a fire in the house, then a robbery — said to be an arranged
plan of the usual bribed servants there and some escaped
Yankee prisoners. To-day the Examiner is lost in wonder
at the stupidity of the fire and arson contingent. If they
had only waited a few hours until everybody was asleep;
after a reception the household would be so tired and so
sound asleep. Thanks to the editor's kind counsel maybe
the arson contingent will wait and do better next time.
Letters from home carried Mr. Chesnut off to-day.
Thackeray is dead. I stumbled upon Vanity Fair for my
self. I had never heard of Thackeray before. I think it
was in 1850. I know I had been ill at the New York Hotel,1
and when left alone, I slipped down-stairs and into a book
store that I had noticed under the hotel, for something to
read. They gave me the first half of Pendennis. I can re
call now the very kind of paper it was printed on, and the
illustrations, as they took effect upon me. And yet when
I raved over it, and was wild for the other half, there were
people who said it was slow ; that Thackeray was evidently
a coarse, dull, sneering writer ; that he stripped human na
ture bare, and made it repulsive, etc.
January 22d. — At Mrs. Lyons 's met another beautiful
woman, Mrs. Penn, the wife of Colonel Penn, who is mak
ing shoes in a Yankee prison. She had a little son with her,
barely two years old, a mere infant. She said to him,
" Faites comme Butler. " The child crossed his eyes and
made himself hideous, then laughed and rioted around as
if he enjoyed the joke hugely.
1 The New York Hotel, covering a block front on Broadway at
Waverley Place, was a favorite stopping place for Southerners for
many years before the war and after it. In comparatively recent times
it was torn down and supplanted by a business block.
281
Nov. 28, 1863 RICHMOND,. VA. April 11, 1864
Went to Mrs. Davis 's. It was sad enough. Fancy hav
ing to be always ready to have your servants set your, house
on fire, being bribed to do it. Such constant robberies, such
servants coming and going daily to the Yankees, carrying
one's silver, one's other possessions, does not conduce to
home happiness.
Saw Hood on his legs once more. He rode off on a fine
horse, and managed it well, though he is disabled in one
hand, too. After all, as the woman said, " He has body
enough left to hold his soul. " * * How plucky of him to ride
a gay horse like that. " " Oh, a Kentuckian prides himself
upon being half horse and half man ! ' ' il And the girl who
rode beside him. Did you ever see a more brilliant beauty ?
Three cheers for South Carolina ! ! "
I imparted a plan of mine to Brewster. I would have a
breakfast, a luncheon, a matinee, call it what you please,
but I would try and return some of the hospitalities of this
most hospitable people. Just think of the dinners, suppers,
breakfasts we have been to. People have no variety in war
times, but they make up for that lack in exquisite cooking.
" Variety? " said he. " You are hard to please, with
terrapin stew, gumbo, fish, oysters in every shape, game,
and wine — as good as wine ever is. I do not mention juleps,
claret cup, apple toddy, whisky punches and all that. I
tell you it is good enough for me. Variety would spoil it.
Such hams as these Virginia people cure ; such home-made
bread — there is no such bread in the world. Call yours a
* cold collation.' ! " Yes, I have eggs, butter, hams, game,
everything from home; no stint just now; even fruit."
* ' You ought to do your best. They are so generous and
hospitable and so unconscious of any merit, or exceptional
credit, in the matter of hospitality. " * ' They are no better
than the Columbia people always were to us." So I fired
up for my own country.
January 23d. — My luncheon was a female affair exclu
sively. Mrs. Davis came early and found Annie and Tudie
282
AT TWO RECEPTIONS
making the chocolate. Lawrence had gone South with my
husband; so we had only Molly for cook and parlor-maid.
After the company assembled we waited and waited. Those
girls were making the final arrangements. I made my way
to the door, and as I leaned against it ready to turn the
knob, Mrs. Stanard held me like Coleridge's Ancient Mari
ner, and told how she had been prevented by a violent at
tack of cramps from running the blockade, and how provi
dential it all was. All this floated by my ear, for I heard
Mary Preston's voice raised in high protest on the other
side of the door. ' * Stop ! ' ' said she. ' ' Do you mean to
take away the whole dish? " "If you eat many more of
those fried oysters they will be missed. Heavens! She is
running away with a plug, a palpable plug, out of that
jelly cake! ':
Later in the afternoon, when it was over and I was safe,
for all had gone well and Molly had not disgraced herself
before the mistresses of those wonderful Virginia cooks,
Mrs. Davis and I went out for a walk. Barny Heyward and
Dr. Garnett joined us, the latter bringing the welcome
news that " Muscoe Russell's wife had come."
January 25th. — The President walked home with me
from church (I was to dine with Mrs. Davis). He walked
so fast I had no breath to talk ; so I was a good listener for
once. The truth is I am too much afraid of him to say very
much in his presence. We had such a nice dinner. After
dinner Hood came for a ride with the President.
Mr. Hunter, of Virginia, walked home with me. He
made himself utterly agreeable by dwelling on his friend
ship and admiration of my husband. He said it was high
time Mr. Davis should promote him, and that he had told
Mr. Davis his opinion on that subject to-day.
Tuesday, Barny Heyward went with me to the Presi
dent's reception, and from there to a ball at the McFar-
lands'. Breckinridge alone of the generals went with us.
The others went to a supper given by Mr. Clay, of Ala-
20 283
Nov. 28, 1863 RICHMOND, VA. April 11, 1864
bama. I had a long talk with Mr. Ould, Mr. Benjamin, and
Mr. Hunter. These men speak out their thoughts plainly
enough. What they said, means " We are rattling down
hill, and nobody to put on the brakes." I wore my black
velvet, diamonds, and point lace. They are borrowed for
all " theatricals," but I wear them whenever they are
at home.
February 1st. — Mrs. Davis gave her " Luncheon to La
dies Only " on Saturday. Many more persons there than
at any of these luncheons which we have gone to before.
Gumbo, ducks and olives, chickens in jelly, oysters, lettuce
salad, chocolate cream, jelly cake, claret, champagne, etc.,
were the good things set before us.
To-day, for a pair of forlorn shoes I have paid $85.
Colonel Ives drew my husband's pay for me. I sent Law
rence for it (Mr. Chesnut ordered him back to us; we need
ed a man servant here). Colonel Ives wrote that he was
amazed I should be willing to trust a darky with that great
bundle of money, but it came safely. Mr. Petigru says you
take your money to market in the market basket, and bring
home what you buy in your pocket-book.
February 5th. — When Lawrence handed me my hus
band's money (six hundred dollars it was) I said: " Now I
am pretty sure you do not mean to go to the Yankees, for
with that pile of money in your hands you must have known
there was your chance. ' ' He grinned, but said nothing.
At the President 's reception Hood had a perfect ovation.
General Preston navigated him through the crowd, hand
ling him as tenderly, on his crutches, as if he were the
Princess of Wales 's new-born baby that I read of to-day.
It is bad for the head of an army to be so helpless. But old
Bliicher went to Waterloo in a carriage, wearing a bonnet
on his head to shade his inflamed eyes — a heroic figure,
truly; an old, red-eyed, bonneted woman, apparently, back
in a landau. And yet, " Bliicher to the rescue! "
Afterward at the Prestons', for we left the President's
284
ONE OF SHERIDAN'S PLAYS
at an early hour. Major von B or eke was trying to teach
them his way of pronouncing his own name, and reciting
numerous travesties of it in this country, when Charles
threw open the door, saying, " A gentleman has called for
Major Bandbox." The Prussian major acknowledged this
to be the worst he had heard yet.
Off to the Ives's theatricals. I walked with General
Breckinridge. Mrs. Clay's Mrs. Malaprop was beyond our
wildest hopes. And she was in such bitter earnest when she
pinched Conny Gary's (Lydia Languish's) shoulder and
called her " an antricate little huzzy," that Lydia showed
she felt it, and next day the shoulder was black and blue.
It was not that the actress had a grudge against Conny, but
that she was intense.
Even the back of Mrs. Clay's head was eloquent as
she walked away. " But," said General Breckinridge,
!< watch Hood; he has not seen the play before and Bob
Acres amazes him." W^en he caught my eye, General
Hood nodded to me and said, " I believe that fellow Acres
is a coward." " That's better than the play," whispered
Breckinridge, " but it is all good from Sir Anthony down
to Fag."
Between the acts Mrs. Clay sent us word to applaud.
She wanted encouragement; the audience was too cold.
General Breckinridge responded like a man. After that
she was fired by thunders of applause, following his lead.
Those mighty Kentuckians turned claqueurs, were a host in
themselves. Constance Gary not only acted well, but
looked perfectly beautiful.
During the farce Mrs. Clay came in with all her feath
ers, diamonds, and fallals, and took her seat by me. Said
General Breckinridge, ' * What a splendid head of hair you
have." " And all my own," said she. Afterward she said,
they could not get false hair enough, so they put a pair of
black satin boots on top of her head and piled hair over
them.
285
Nov. 28, 1863 RICHMOND, VA. April 11, 1864
We adjourned from Mrs. Ives's to Mrs. Quid's, where
we had the usual excellent Richmond supper. We did not
get home until three. It was a clear moonlight night — al
most as light as day. As we walked along I said to General
Breckinridge, " You have spent a jolly evening." * I do
not know, ' ' he answered. ' * I have asked myself more than
once to-night, ' Are you the same man who stood gazing
down on the faces of the dead on that awful battle-field?
The soldiers lying there stare at you with their eyes wide
open. Is this the same world ? Here and there ? '
Last night, the great Kentucky contingent came in a
body. Hood brought Buck in his carriage. She said she
1 ' did not like General Hood, ' ' and spoke with a wild excite
ment in those soft blue eyes of hers — or, are they gray or
brown ? She then gave her reasons in the lowest voice, but
loud and distinct enough for him to hear: ' Why?
He spoke so harshly to Cy, his body-servant, as we got out
of the carriage. I saw how he hurt Cy's feelings, and I
tried to soothe Cy 's mortification. ' '
' ' You see, Cy nearly caused me to fall by his awkward
ness, and I stormed at him," said the General, vastly
amused. " I hate a man who speaks roughly to those who
dare not resent it," said she. The General did own himself
charmed with her sentiments, but seemed to think his
wrong-doing all a good joke. He and Cy understand each
other.
February 9th. — This party for Johnny was the very
nicest I have ever had, and I mean it to be my last. I sent
word to the Carys to bring their own men. They came
alone, saying, * ' they did not care for men. " " That means
a raid on ours, ' ' growled Isabella. Mr. Lamar was devoted
to Constance Gary. He is a free lance; so that created no
heart-burning.
Afterward, when the whole thing was over, and a suc
cess, the lights put out, etc., here trooped in the four girls,
who stayed all night with me. In dressing-gowns they
286
A FALSE ALARM
stirred up a hot fire, relit the gas, and went in for their sup
per; rechauffe was the word, oysters, hot coffee, etc. They
kept it up till daylight.
Of course, we slept very late. As they came in to
breakfast, I remarked, " The church-bells have been going
011 like mad. I take it as a rebuke to our breaking the Sab
bath. You know Sunday began at twelve o'clock last
night." " It sounds to me like fire-bells," somebody said.
Soon the Infant dashed in, done up in soldier's clothes:
* ' The Yankees are upon us ! " said he. ' * Don 't you hear
the alarm-bells 1 They have been ringing day and night ! ' '
Alex Haskell came; he and Johnny went off to report to
Custis Lee and to be enrolled among his " locals," who are
always detailed for the defense of the city. But this time
the attack on Richmond has proved a false alarm.
A new trouble at the President's house: their trusty
man, Robert, broken out with the smallpox.
We went to the Webb ball, and such a pleasant time we
had. After a while the P. M. G. (Pet Major-General) took
his seat in the comfortable chair next to mine, and declared
his determination to hold that position. Mr. Hunter and
Mr. Benjamin essayed to dislodge him. Mrs. Stanard said :
4 ' Take him in the flirtation room ; there he will soon be cap
tured and led away, ' ' but I did not know where that room
was situated. Besides, my bold Texan made a most unex
pected sally : * ' I will not go, and I will prevent her from
going with any of you. ' ' Supper was near at hand, and Mr.
Mallory said: " Ask him if the varioloid is not at his
house. I know it is. " I started as if I were shot, and I took
Mr. Clay's arm and went in to supper, leaving the P. M. G.
to the girls. Venison and everything nice.
February 12th. — John Chesnut had a basket of cham
pagne carried to my house, oysters, partridges, and other
good things, for a supper after the reception. He is going
back to the army to-morrow.
'James Chesnut arrived on Wednesday. He has been
287
Nov. 28, 1863 RICHMOND, VA. April 11, 1864
giving Buck his opinion of one of her performances last
night. She was here, and the General's carriage drove up,
bringing some of our girls, They told her he could not
come up and he begged she would go down there for a mo
ment. She flew down, and stood ten minutes in that snow,
Cy holding the carriage-door open. " But, Colonel Ches-
nut, there was no harm. I was not there ten minutes. I
could not get in the carriage because I did not mean to
stay one minute. He did not hold my hands — that is, not
half the time — Oh, you saw ! — well, he did kiss my hands.
Where is the harm of that? " All men worship Buck.
How can they help it, she is so lovely.
Lawrence has gone back ignominiously to South Caro
lina. At breakfast already in some inscrutable way he
had become intoxicated; he was told to move a chair, and
he raised it high over his head, smashing Mrs. Grundy's
chandelier. My husband said : " Mary, do tell Lawrence to
go home; I am too angry to speak to him." So Lawrence
went without another word. He will soon be back, and
when he comes will say, ' ' Shoo ! I knew Mars Jeems could
not do without me. ' ' And indeed he can not.
Buck, reading my journal, opened her beautiful eyes in
amazement and said: " So little do people know them
selves! See what you say of me! " I replied: " The girls
heard him say to you, ' Oh, you are so childish and so
sweet ! ' Now, Buck, you know you are not childish. You
have an abundance of strong common sense. Don 't let men
adore you so — if you can help it. You are so unhappy
about men who care for you, when they are killed. ' '
Isabella says that war leads to love-making. She says
these soldiers do more courting here in a day than they
would do at home, without a war, in ten years.
In the pauses of conversation, we hear, ' ' She is the no
blest woman God ever made! " " Goodness! " exclaims
Isabella. ' * Which one ? ' ' The amount of courting we hear
in these small rooms. Men have to go to the front, and they
288
CUPID ON CRUTCHES
say their say desperately. I am beginning to know all
about it. The girls tell me. And I overhear — I can not
help it. But this style is unique, is it not ? ' ' Since I saw
you — last year — standing by the turnpike gate, you know —
my battle-cry has been: ' God, my country, and you! '
So many are lame. Major Venable says : " It is not ' the
devil on two sticks/ now; the farce is ' Cupid on
Crutches."7.
General Breckinridge 's voice broke in: " They are my
cousins. So I determined to kiss them good-by. Good-by
nowadays is the very devil ; it means forever, in all proba
bility, you know; all the odds against us. So I advanced
to the charge soberly, discreetly, and in the fear of the
Lord. The girls stood in a row — four of the very prettiest
I ever saw. ' ' Sam, with his eyes glued to the floor, cried :
" You were afraid — you backed out." " But I did noth
ing of the kind. I kissed every one of them honestly, heart
ily."
February 13th. — My husband is writing out some res
olutions for the Congress. He is very busy, too, trying
to get some poor fellows reprieved. He says they are good
soldiers but got into a scrape. Buck came in. She had on
her last winter's English hat, with the pheasant's wing.
Just then Hood entered most unexpectedly. Said the blunt
soldier to the girl : ' ' You look mighty pretty in that hat ;
you wore it at the turnpike gate, where I surrendered at
first sight." She nodded and smiled, and flew down the
steps after Mr. Chesnut, looking back to say that she meant
to walk with him as far as the Executive Office.
The General walked to the window and watched until
the last flutter of her garment was gone. He said: " The
President was finding fault with some of his officers in
command, and I said : ' Mr. President, why don't you come
and lead us yourself ; I would follow you to the death. ' ' '
1 f Actually, if you stay here in Richmond much longer you
will grow to be a courtier. And you came a rough Texan."
289
Nov. 28, 1863 RICHMOND, VA. April 11, 1864
Mrs. Davis and General McQueen came. He tells me
Muscoe Garnett is dead. Then the best and the cleverest
Virginian I know is gone. He was the most scholarly man
they had, and his character was higher than his require
ments.
To-day a terrible onslaught was made upon the Presi
dent for nepotism. Burton Harrison's and John Taylor
Wood's letters denying the charge that the President's cot
ton was unburned, or that he left it to be bought by the Yan
kees, have enraged the opposition. How much these people
in the President's family have to bear! I have never felt
so indignant.
February 16th. — Saw in Mrs. Howell's room the little
negro Mrs. Davis rescued yesterday from his brutal negro
guardian. The child is an orphan. He was dressed up in
little Joe's clothes and happy as a lord. He was very anx
ious to show me his wounds and bruises, but I fled. There
are some things in life too sickening, and cruelty is one of
them.
Somebody said : ' ' People who knew General Hood be
fore the war said there was nothing in him. As for losing
his property by the war, some say he never had any, and
that West Point is a pauper's school, after all. He has
only military glory, and that he has gained since the war
began. ' '
" Now," said Burton Harrison, " only military glory!
I like that ! The glory and the fame he has gained during
the war — that is Hood. What was Napoleon before Toulon 1
Hood has the impassive dignity of an Indian chief. He has
always a little court around him of devoted friends. Wig-
fall, himself, has said he could not get within Hood 's lines. ' '
February 17th. — Found everything in Main Street
twenty per cent dearer. They say it is due to the new cur
rency bill.
I asked my husband : ' ' Is General Johnston ordered to
reenforce Polk? They said he did not understand the or-
290
SHERMAN
der." "After five days' delay," he replied. ''They
say Sherman is marching to Mobile.1 When they once get
inside of our armies what is to molest them, unless it be
women with broomsticks'? ': General Johnston writes that
" the Governor of Georgia refuses him provisions and the
use of his roads. ' ' The Governor of Georgia writes : * ' The
roads are open to him and in capital condition. I have fur
nished him abundantly with provisions from time to time,
as he desired them." I suppose both of these letters are
placed away side by side in our archives.
February 20th. — Mrs. Preston was offended by the story
of Buck's performance at the Ive's. General Breckinridge
told her " it was the most beautifully unconscious act he
ever saw. ' ' The General was leaning against the wall, Buck
standing guard by him " on her two feet." The crowd
surged that way, and she held out her arm to protect him
from the rush. After they had all passed she handed him
his crutches, and they, too, moved slowly away. Mrs. Davis
said: " Any woman in Richmond would have done the
same joyfully, but few could do it so gracefully. Buck is
made so conspicuous by her beauty, whatever she does can
not fail to attract attention. ' '
Johnny stayed at home only one day; then went to his
plantation, got several thousand Confederate dollars, and
in the afternoon drove out with Mrs. K . At the Bee
Store he spent a thousand of his money; bought us gloves
and linen. Well, one can do without gloves, but linen is
next to life itself.
Yesterday the President walked home from church with
me. He said he was so glad to see my husband at church ;
had never seen him there before ; remarked on how well he
1 General Polk, commanding about 24,000 men scattered throughout
Mississippi and Alabama, found it impossible to check the advance of
Sherman at the head of some 40,000, and moved from Meridian south
to protect Mobile. February 16, 1864, Sherman took possession of
Meridian.
291
Nov. 28, 1863 RICHMOND, VA. April 11, 1864
looked, etc. I replied that he looked so well " because you
have never before seen him in the part of ' the right man in
the right place/ ! My husband has no fancy for being
planted in pews, but he is utterly Christian in his creed.
February 23d. — At the President's, where General Lee
breakfasted, a man named Phelan told General Lee all he
ought to do; planned a campaign for him. General Lee
smiled blandly the while, though he did permit himself a
inild sneer at the wise civilians in Congress who refrained
from trying the battle-field in person, but from afar dic
tated the movements of armies. My husband said that, to
his amazement, General Lee came into his room at the Exec
utive Office to * ' pay his respects and have a talk. " " Dear
me! Goodness gracious!" said I. " That was a compli
ment from the head of the army, the very first man in the
world, we Confederates think."
February 24th. — Friends came to make taffy and stayed
the livelong day. They played cards. One man, a soldier,
had only two teeth left in front and they lapped across each
other. On account of the condition of his mouth, he had
maintained a dignified sobriety of aspect, though he told
some funny stories. Finally a story was too much for him,
and he grinned from ear to ear. Maggie gazed, and then
called out as the negro fiddlers call out dancing figures,
' * Forward two and cross over ! ' ' Fancy pur faces. The
hero of the two teeth, relapsing into a decorous arrange
ment of mouth, said: " Cavalry are the eyes of an army;
they bring the news ; the artillery are the boys to make a
noise ; but the infantry do the fighting, and a general or so
gets all the glory. ' '
February 26th. — We went to see Mrs. Breckinridge,
who is here with her husband. Then we paid our respects
to Mrs. Lee. Her room was like an industrial school : every
body so busy. Her daughters were all there plying their
needles, with several other ladies. Mrs. Lee showed us a
beautiful sword, recently sent to the General by some Mary-
292
AT MRS. LEKS
landers, now in Paris. On the blade was engraved, ' ' Aide
ioi et Dieu t'aidera." When we came out someone said,
* ' Did you see how the Lees spend their time ? What a re
buke to the taffy parties! "
Another maimed hero is engaged to be married. Sally
Hampton has accepted John Haskell. There is a story that
he reported for duty after his arm was shot off ; suppose in
the fury of the battle he did not feel the pain.
General Breckinridge once asked, * ' What 's the name of
the fellow who has gone to Europe for Hood 's leg ? ' : ' Dr.
Darby." " Suppose it is shipwrecked? " "No matter;
half a dozen are ordered. ' ' Mrs. Preston raised her hands :
* ' No wonder the General says they talk of him as if he were
a centipede ; his leg is in everybody 's mouth. ' '
March 3d. — Hetty, the handsome, and Constance, the
witty, came ; the former too prudish to read Lost and Saved,
by Mrs. Norton, after she had heard the plot. Conny was
making a bonnet for me. Just as she was leaving the house,
her friendly labors over, my husband entered, and quickly
ordered his horse. ' * It is so near dinner, ' ' I began. ' ' But
I am going with the President. I am on duty. He goes to
inspect the fortifications. The enemy, once more, are with
in a few miles of Richmond." Then we prepared a lunch
eon for him. Constance Gary remained with me.
After she left I sat down to Romola, and I was absorbed
in it. How hardened we grow to war and war 's alarms !
The enemy 's cannon or our own are thundering in my ears,
and I was dreadfully afraid some infatuated and fright
ened friend would come in to cheer, to comfort, and inter
rupt me. Am I the same poor soul who fell on her knees
and prayed, and wept, and fainted, as the first gun boomed
from Fort Sumter ? Once more we have repulsed the en
emy. But it is humiliating, indeed, that he can come
and threaten us at our very gates whenever he so pleases.
If a forlorn negro had not led them astray (and they
hanged him for it) on Tuesday night, unmolested, they
293
Nov. 28, 1863 RICHMOND, VA. April 11, 1864
would have walked into Richmond. Surely there is horrid
neglect or mismanagement somewhere.
March 4th. — The enemy has been reenforced and is
on us again. Met Wade Hampton, who told me my hus
band was to join him with some volunteer troops ; so I hur
ried home. Such a cavalcade rode up to luncheon! Cap
tain Smith Lee and Preston Hampton, the handsomest, the
oldest and the youngest of the party. This was at the Pres-
tons'. Smith Lee walked home with me; alarm-bells ring
ing; horsemen galloping; wagons rattling. Dr. H. stopped
us to say ' * Beast ' ' Butler was on us with sixteen thousand
men. How scared the Doctor looked ! And, after all, it was
only a notice to the militia to turn out and drill.
March 5th. — Tom Fergurson walked home with me. He
told me of Colonel Dahlgren's 1 death and the horrid memo
randa found in his pocket. He came with secret orders to
destroy this devoted city, hang the President and his Cab
inet, and burn the town ! Fitzhugh Lee was proud that the
Ninth Virginia captured him.
Found Mrs. Semmes covering her lettuces and radishes
as calmly as if Yankee raiders were a myth. While
" Beast " Butler holds Fortress Monroe he will make
things lively for us. On the alert must we be now.
March 7th. — Shopping, and paid $30 for a pair of
gloves; $50 for a pair of slippers; $24 for six spools of
thread; $32 for five miserable, shabby little pocket hand
kerchiefs. When I came home found Mrs. Webb. At her
hospital there was a man who had been taken prisoner by
Dahlgren 's party. He saw the negro hanged who had mis-
1 Colonel Ulric Dahlgren was a son of the noted Admiral, John H.
Dahlgren, who, in July, 1863, had been placed in command of the South
Atlantic Blockading Squadron and conducted the naval operations
against Charleston, between July 10 and September 7, 1863. Colonel
Dahlgren distinguished himself at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville,
and Gettysburg. The raid in which he lost his life on March 4, 1864,
was planned by himself and General Kilpatrick.
294
DAHLGREN'S RAID
led them, unintentionally, in all probability. He saw Dahl-
gren give a part of his bridle to hang him. Details are mel
ancholy, as Emerson says. This Dahlgren had also lost a
leg.
Constance Gary, in words too fine for the occasion, de
scribed the homely scene at my house ; how I prepared sand
wiches for my husband; and broke, with trembling hand,
the last bottle of anything to drink in the house, a bottle I
destined to go with the sandwiches. She called it a Hector
and Andromache performance.
March 8th. — Mrs. Preston's story. As we walked home,
she told me she had just been to see a lady she had known
more than twenty years before. She had met her in this
wise: One of the chambermaids of the St. Charles Hotel
(New Orleans) told Mrs. Preston's nurse — it was when
Mary Preston was a baby — that up among the servants in
the garret there was a sick lady and her children. The maid
was sure she was a lady, and thought she was hiding from
somebody. Mrs. Preston went up, knew the lady, had
her brought down into comfortable rooms, and nursed her
until she recovered from her delirium and fever. She had
run away, indeed, and was hiding herself and her children
from a worthless husband. Now, she has one son in a Yan
kee prison, one mortally wounded, and the last of them
dying there under her eyes of consumption. This last had
married here in Richmond, not wisely, and too soon, for he
was a mere boy; his pay as a private was eleven dollars a
month, and his wife's family charged him three hundred
dollars a month for her board; so he had to work double
tides, do odd jobs by night and by day, and it killed him by
exposure to cold in this bitter climate to which his constitu
tion was unadapted.
They had been in Vicksburg during the siege, and dur
ing the bombardment sought refuge in a cave. The roar of
the cannon ceasing, they came out gladly for a breath of
fresh air. At the moment when they emerged, a bomb burst
295
Nov. 28, 1863 RICHMOND, VA. April 11, 1864
there, among them, so to speak, struck the son already
wounded, and smashed off the afm of a beautiful little
grandchild not three years old. There was this poor little
girl with her touchingly lovely face, and her arm gone. This
mutilated little martyr, Mrs. Preston said, was really to her
the crowning touch of the woman 's affliction. Mrs. Preston
put up her hand, * l Her baby face haunts me. ' '
March llth. — Letters from home, including one from
my husband 's father, now over ninety, written with his own
hand, and certainly his own mind still. I quote: " Bad
times; worse coming. Starvation stares me in the face.
Neither John's nor James's overseer will sell me any corn."
Now, what has the government to do with the fact that on
all his plantations he made corn enough to last for the
whole year, and by the end of January his negroes had
stolen it all? Poor old man, he has fallen on evil days,
after a long life of ease and prosperity.
To-day, I read The Blithedale Romance. Blithedale
leaves such an unpleasant impression. I like pleasant,
kindly stories, now that we are so harrowed by real life.
Tragedy is for our hours of ease.
March 12th. — An active campaign has begun every
where. Kilpatrick still threatens us. Bragg has organized
his fifteen hundred of cavalry to protect Richmond. Why
can't my husband be made colonel of that? It is a new
regiment. No ; he must be made a general !
" Now," says Mary Preston, " Doctor Darby is at the
mercy of both Yankees and the rolling sea, and I am anx
ious enough; but, instead of taking my bed and worrying
mamma, I am taking stock of our worldly goods and try
ing to arrange the wedding paraphernalia for two girls. ' '
There is love-making and love-making in this world.
What a time the sweethearts of that wretch, young Shake
speare, must have had. What experiences of life 's delights
must have been his before he evolved the Romeo and Juliet
business from his own internal consciousness; also that de-
296
POETS AS LOVERS
licious Beatrice and Rosalind. The poor creature that he
left his second best bedstead to came in second best all the
time, no doubt ; and she hardly deserved more. Fancy peo
ple wondering that Shakespeare and his kind leave no prog
eny like themselves! Shakespeare's children would have
been half his only ; the other half only the second best bed
stead 's. What would you expect of that commingling of
materials? Goethe used his lady-loves as school-books are
used: he studied them from cover to cover, got all that
could be got of self-culture and knowledge of human nature
from the study of them, and then threw them aside as if of
no further account in his life.
Byron never could forget Lord Byron, poet and peer,
and mauvais sujet, and he must have been a trying lover;
like talking to a man looking in the glass at himself. Lady
Byron was just as much taken up with herself. So, they
struck each other, and bounded apart.
[Since I wrote this, Mrs. Stowe has taken Byron in hand.
But I know a story which might have annoyed my lord
more than her and Lady Byron's imagination of wicked
ness — for he posed a fiend, but was tender and kind. A
clerk in a country store asked my sister to lend him a
book, he " wanted something to read; the days were so
long. " " What style of book would you prefer ? ' ' she said.
11 Poetry." " Any particular poet? " " Brown. I hear
him much spoken of." " Browm'wgr? " " No; Brown —
short — that is what they call him. " " Byron, you mean. ' '
" No, I mean the poet, Brown."]
' ' Oh, you wish you had lived in the time of the Shake
speare creature ! ' : He knew all the forms and phases of
true love. Straight to one's heart he goes in tragedy or
comedy. He never misses fire. He has been there, in slang
phrase. No doubt the man 's bare presence gave pleasure to
the female world ; he saw women at their best, and he ef
faced himself. He told no tales of his own life. Compare
with him old, sad, solemn, sublime, sneering, snarling, fault-
297
Nov. 28, 1863 RICHMOND, VA. April 11, 18Gi
finding Milton, a man whose family doubtless found " les
absences delicieuses." That phrase describes a type of man
at a touch ; it took a Frenchwoman to do it.
' ' But there is an Italian picture of Milton, taken in his
youth, and he was as beautiful as an angel." " No doubt.
But love flies before everlasting posing and preaching — the
deadly requirement of a man always to be looked up to
— a domestic tyrant, grim, formal, and awfully learned.
Milton was only a mere man, for he could not do without
women. When he tired out the first poor thing, who did
not fall down, worship, and obey him, and see God in him,
and she ran away, he immediately arranged his creed so
that he could take another wife ; for wife he must have, a
la Mohammedan creed. The deer-stealer never once
thought of justifying theft simply because he loved venison
and could not come by it lawfully. Shakespeare was a bet
ter man, or, may I say, a purer soul, than self -upholding,
Calvinistic, Puritanic, king-killing Milton. There is no
muddling of right and wrong in Shakespeare, and no phari-
saical stuff of any sort. ' '
Then George Deas joined us, fresh from Mobile, where
he left peace and plenty. He went to sixteen weddings and
twenty-seven tea-parties. For breakfast he had everything
nice. Lily told of what she had seen the day before at the
Spottswood. She was in the small parlor, waiting for some
one, and in the large drawing-room sat Hood, solitary, sad,
with crutches by his chair. He could not see them. Mrs.
Buckner came in and her little girl who, when she spied
Hood, bounded into the next room, and sprang into his lap.
Hood smoothed her little dress down and held her close to
him. She clung around his neck for a while, and then,
seizing him by the beard, kissed him to an illimitable extent.
" Prettiest picture I ever saw," said Lily. " The soldier
and the child."
John R. Thompson sent me a New York Herald only
three days old. It is down on Kilpatrick for his miserable
298
FOURTEEN GENERALS AT CHURCH
failure before Richmond. Also it acknowledges a defeat
before Charleston and a victory for us in Florida.
General Grant is charmed with Sherman's successful
movements ; says he has destroyed millions upon millions of
our property in Mississippi. I hope that may not be true,
and that Sherman may fail as Kilpatrick did. Now, if we
still had Stonewall or Albert Sidney Johnston where Joe
Johnston and Polk are, I would not give a fig for Sherman's
chances. The Yankees say that at last they have scared up
a man who succeeds, and they expect him to remedy all that
has gone wrong. So they have made their brutal Suwarrow,
Grant, lieutenant-general.
Doctor at the Prestons ' proposed to show me a man
who was not an F. F. V. Until we came here, we had never
heard of our social position. We do not know how to be
rude to people who call. To talk of social position seems
vulgar. Down our way, that sort of thing was settled one
way or another beyond a peradventure, like the earth and
the sky. We never gave it a thought. We talked to whom
we pleased, and if they were not comme il faut, we were
ever so much more polite to the poor things. No reflection
on Virginia. Everybody comes to Richmond.
Somebody counted fourteen generals in church to-day,
and suggested that less piety and more drilling of com
mands would suit the times better. There were Lee, Long-
street, Morgan, Hoke, Clingman, Whiting, Pegram, Elzey,
Gordon, and Bragg. Now, since Dahlgren failed to
carry out his orders, the Yankees disown them, disavow
ing all. He was not sent here to murder us all, to hang
the President, and burn the town. There is the note-book,
however, at the Executive Office, with orders to hang and
burn.
March 15th. — Old Mrs. Chesnut is dead. A saint is gone
and James Chesnut is broken-hearted. He adored his moth
er. I gave $375 for my mourning, which consists of a black
alpaca dress and a crape veil. With bonnet, gloves, and all
21 299
Nov. 28, 1863 RICHMOND, VA. April 11, 1864
it eame to $500. Before the blockade such things as I
have would not have been thought "fit for a chamber-maid.
Everybody is in trouble. Mrs. Davis says paper money
has depreciated so much in value that they can not live
within their income ; so they are going to dispense with their
carriage and horses.
March 18th. — Went out to sell some of my colored
dresses. What a scene it was — such piles of rubbish, and
mixed up with it, such splendid Parisian silks and satins.
A mulatto woman kept the shop under a roof in an out-of-
the-way old house. The ci-devant rich white women sell
to, and the negroes buy of, this woman.
After some whispering among us Buck said : ' ' Sally is
going to marry a man who has lost an arm, and she is proud
of it. The cause glorifies such wounds. ' ' Annie said meekly,
" I fear it will be my fate to marry one who has lost his
head/' " Tudy has her eyes on one who has lost an eye.
What a glorious assortment of noble rnartj^rs and heroes ! ' '
" The bitterness of this kind of talk is appalling."
General Lee had tears in his eyes when he spoke of his
daughter-in-law just dead — that lovely little Charlotte
Wickham, Mrs. Roony Lee. Roony Lee says " Beast " But
ler was very kind to him while he was a prisoner. The
" Beast " has sent him back his war-horse. The Lees are
men enough to speak the truth of friend or enemy, fearing
not the consequences.
March 19th. — A new experience: Molly and Lawrence
have both gone home, and I am to be left for the first time
in my life wholly at the mercy of hired servants. Mr. Ches-
nut, being in such deep mourning for his mother, we see no
company. I have a maid of all work.
Tudy came with an account of yesterday's trip to Pe
tersburg. Constance Gary raved of the golden ripples in
Tudy's hair. Tudy vanished in a halo of glory, and Con
stance Gary gave me an account of a wedding, as it was
given to her by Major von Borcke. The bridesmaids were
300
RETURNED PRISONERS
dressed in black, the bride in Confederate gray, homespun.
She had worn the dress all winter, but it had been washed
and turned for the wedding. The female critics pronounced
it " flabby-dabby." They also said her collar was only
" net," and she wore a cameo breastpin. Her bonnet was
self-made.
March 24th. — Yesterday, we went to the Capitol grounds
to see our returned prisoners. We walked slowly up and
down until Jeff Davis was called upon to speak. There I
stood, almost touching the bayonets when he left me. I
looked straight into the prisoners ' faces, poor fellows. They
cheered with all their might, and I wept for sympathy, and
enthusiasm. I was very deeply moved. These men were
so forlorn, so dried up, and shrunken, vrith such a strange
look in some of their eyes ; others so restless and wild-look
ing ; others again placidly vacant, as if they had been dead
to the world for years. A poor woman was too much for
me. She was searching for her son. He had been expected
back. She said he was taken prisoner at Gettysburg. She
kept going in and out among them with a basket of provi
sions she had brought for him to eat. It was too pitiful.
She was utterly unconscious of the crowd. The anxious
dread, expectation, hurry, and hope which led her on
showed in her face.
A sister of Mrs. Lincoln is here. She brings the fresh
est scandals from Yankeeland. She says she rode with
Lovejoy. A friend of hers commands a black regiment.
Two Southern horrors — a black regiment and Lovejoy.
March 31st. — Met Preston Hampton. Constance Cary
was with me. She showed her regard for him by taking his
overcoat and leaving him in a drenching rain. What boy
ish nonsense he talked ; said he was in love with Miss Dab-
ney now, that his love was so hot within him that he was
waterproof, the rain sizzed and smoked off. It did not so
much as dampen his ardor or his clothes.
April 1st. — Mrs. Davis is utterly depressed. She said
301
Nov. 28, 1863 RICHMOND, VA. April 11, 1864
the fall of Richmond must come ; she would send her chil
dren to me and Mrs. Preston. We begged her to come to us
also. My husband is as depressed as I ever knew him to be.
He has felt the death of that angel mother of his keenly,
and now he takes his country 's woes to heart.
April llth. — Drove with Mrs. Davis and all her infant
family; wonderfully clever and precocious children, with
unbroken wills. At one time there was a sudden uprising
of the nursery contingent. They laughed, fought, and
screamed. Bedlam broke loose. Mrs. Davis scolded,
laughed, and cried. She asked me if my husband would
speak to the President about the plan in South Carolina,
which everybody said suited him. ' ' No, Mrs. Davis, ' ' said
I. " That is what I told Mr. Davis," said she. " Colonel
Chesnut rides so high a horse. Now Browne is so much
more practical. He goes forth to be general of conscripts
in Georgia. His wife will stay at the Cobbs 's. ' '
Mrs. Ould gave me a luncheon on Saturday. I felt that
this was my last sad farewell to Richmond and the people
there I love so well. Mrs. Davis sent her carriage for me,
and we went to the Quids ' together. Such good things were
served — oranges, guava jelly, etc. The Examiner says Mr.
Ould, when he goes to Fortress Monroe, replenishes his
larder; why not? The Examiner has taken another fling
at the President, as, " haughty and austere with his
friends, affable, kind, subservient to his enemies." I won
der if the Yankees would indorse that certificate. Both
sides abuse him. He can not please anybody, it seems. No
doubt he is right.
My husband is now brigadier-general and is sent to
South Carolina to organize and take command of the re
serve troops. C. C. Clay and L. Q. C. Lamar are both
spoken of to fill the vacancy made among Mr. Davis 's aides
by this promotion.
To-day, Captain Smith Lee spent the morning here and
gave a review of past Washington gossip. I am having
302
FAREWELL TO RICHMOND
such a busy, happy life, with so many friends, and my
friends are so clever, so charming. But the change to that
weary, dreary Camden! Mary Preston said: " I do think
Mrs. Chesnut deserves to be canonized; she agrees to go
back to Camden." The Prestons gave me a farewell din
ner; my twenty-fourth wedding day, and the very pleas-
antest day I have spent in Richmond.
Maria Lewis was sitting with us on Mrs. Huger's steps,
and Smith Lee was lauding Virginia people as usual. As
Lee would say, there * * hove in sight ' ' Frank Parker, rid
ing one of the finest of General Bragg 's horses ; by his side
Buck on Fairfax, the most beautiful horse in Richmond,
his brown coat looking like satin, his proud neck arched,
moving slowly, gracefully, calmly, no fidgets, aristocratic
in his bearing to the tips of his bridle-reins. There sat
Buck tall and fair, managing her horse with infinite ease,
her English riding-habit showing plainly the exquisite pro
portions of her figure. " Supremely lovely," said Smith
Lee. " Look at them both," said I proudly; " can you
match those two in Virginia? " " Three cheers for South
Carolina! " was the answer of Lee, the gallant Virginia
sailor.
303
XVII
CAMDEN, S. C.
May 8, 1864— June I, 1864
AMDEN, S. C., May 8, 1864.— My -friends crowded
around me so in those last days in Richmond, I for
got the affairs of this nation utterly ; though I did
show faith in my Confederate country by buying poor
Bones 's (my English maid's) Confederate bonds. I gave
her gold thimbles, bracelets ; whatever was gold and would
sell in New York or London, I gave.
My friends in Richmond grieved that I had to leave
them — not half so much, however, as I did that I must
come away. Those last weeks were so pleasant. No battle,
no murder, no sudden death, all went merry as a marriage
bell. Clever, cordial, kind, brave friends rallied around
me.
Maggie Howell and I went down the river to see an
exchange of prisoners. Our party were the Lees, Mallorys,
Mrs. Buck Allan, Mrs. Ould. We picked up Judge Ould
and Buck Allan at Curl's Neck. I had seen no genuine
Yankees before ; prisoners, well or wounded, had been Ger
man, Scotch, or Irish. Among our men coming ashore was
an officer, who had charge of some letters for a friend of
mine whose fiance had died ; I gave him her address. One
other man showed me some wonderfully ingenious things
he had made while a prisoner. One said they gave him ra
tions for a week ; he always devoured them in three days, he
could not help it; and then he had to bear the inevitable
agony of those four remaining days ! Many were wounded,
304
LITTLE JOE DAVIDS DEATH
some were maimed for life. They were very cheerful. We
had supper — or some nondescript meal — with ice-cream
on board. The band played Home, Sweet Home.
One man tapped another on the shoulder : ' ' Well, how
do you feel, old fellow? " " Never was so near crying in
my life — for very comfort."
Governor Cummings, a Georgian, late Governor of Utah,
was among the returned prisoners. He had been in prison
two years. His wife was with him. He was a striking-
looking person, huge in size, and with snow-white hair, fat
as a prize ox, with no sign of Yankee barbarity or starva
tion about him.
That evening, as we walked up to Mrs. Davis 's carriage,
which was waiting for us at the landing, Dr. Garnett
with Maggie Howell, Major Hall with me, suddenly I heard
her scream, and some one stepped back in the dark and
said in a whisper. " Little Joe! he has killed him
self! ': I felt reeling, faint, bewildered. A chattering
woman clutched my arm: " Mrs. Davis 's son? Impossible.
Whom did you say? Was he an interesting child? How
old was he? ': The shock was terrible, and unnerved as
I was I cried, * ' For God 's sake take her away ! ' :
Then Maggie and I drove two long miles in silence ex
cept for Maggie 's hysterical sobs. She was wild with 'ter
ror. The news was broken to her in that abrupt way at the
carriage door so that at first she thought it had all hap
pened there, and that poor little Joe was in the carriage.
Mr. Burton Harrison met us at the door of the Execu
tive Mansion. Mrs. Semmes and Mrs. Barksdale were there,
too. Every window and door of the house seemed wide
open, and the wind was blowing the curtains. It was light
ed, even in the third story. As I sat in the drawing-room, I
could hear the tramp of Mr. Davis 's step as he walked up
and down the room above. Not another sound. The whole
house as silent as death. It was then twelve o'clock; so I
went home and waked General Chesnut, who had gone
305
May 8, 1864 CAMDEN, S. C. June 1, 1864
to bed. We went immediately back to the President's,
found Mrs. Semmes still tkere, but saw no one but her.
We thought some friends of the family ought to be in the
house.
Mrs. Semmes said when she got there that little Jeff
was kneeling down by his brother, and he called out to her
in great distress : * * Mrs. Semmes, I have said all the pray
ers I know how, but God will not wake Joe. ' '
Poor little Joe, the good child of the family, was so gen
tle and affectionate. He used to run in to say his prayers at
his father's knee. Now he was laid out somewhere above us,
crushed and killed. Mrs. Semmes, describing the accident,
said he fell from the high north piazza upon a brick pave
ment. Before I left the house I saw him lying there, white
and beautiful as an angel, covered with flowers ; Catherine,
his nurse, flat on the floor by his side, was weeping and wail
ing as only an Irishwoman can.
Immense crowds came to the funeral, everybody sympa
thetic, but some shoving and pushing rudely. There were
thousands of children, and each child had a green bough or
a bunch of flowers to throw on little Joe 's grave, which was
already a mass of white flowers, crosses, and evergreens.
The morning I came away from Mrs. Davis 's, early as it
was, I met a little child with a handful of snow drops.
' ' Put these on little Joe, ' ' she said ; * ' I knew him so well, ' '
and then she turned and fled without another word. I did
not know who she was then or now.
As I walked home I met Mr. Reagan, then Wade Hamp
ton. But I could see nothing but little Joe and his broken
hearted mother. And Mr. Davis 's step still sounded in rny
ears as he walked that floor the livelong night.
General Lee was to have a grand review the very day we
left Richmond. Great numbers of people were to go up by
rail to see it. Miss Turner McFarland writes : * ' They did
go, but they came back faster than they went. They found
the army drawn up in battle array." Many of the brave
306
A COOL RECEPTION
and gay spirits that we saw so lately have taken flight, the
only flight they know, and their bodies are left dead upon
the battle-field. Poor old Edward Johnston is wounded
again, and a prisoner. Jones 's brigade broke first ; he was
wounded the day before.
At Wilmington we met General Whiting. He sent us to
the station in his carriage, and bestowed upon us a bottle of
brandy, which had run the blockade. They say Beauregard
has taken his sword from Whiting. Never ! I will not be
lieve it. At the capture of Fort Sumter they said Whiting
was the brains, Beauregard only the hand. Lucifer, son of
the morning! How art thou fallen! That they should
even say such a thing!
My husband and Mr. Covey got out at Florence to pro
cure for Mrs. Miles a cup of coffee. They were slow about
it and they got left. I did not mind this so very much, for
I remembered that we were to remain all day at Kingsville,
and that my husband could overtake me there by the next
train. My maid belonged to the Prestons. She wTas only
traveling home with me, and would go straight on to Colum
bia. So without fear I stepped off at Kingsville. My old
Confederate silk, like most Confederate dresses, had seen
better days, and I noticed that, like Oliver Wendell
Holmes 's famous " one-hoss shay," it had gone to pieces
suddenly, and all over. It was literally in strips. I became
painfully aware of my forlorn aspect when I asked the tele
graph man the way to the hotel, and he was by no means re
spectful to me. I was, indeed, alone — an old and not too re
spectable-looking woman. It was my first appearance in
the character, and I laughed aloud.
A very haughty and highly painted dame greeted me
at the hotel. " No room," said she. " Who are you? "
I gave my name. ' ' Try something else, ' ' said she. ' ' Mrs.
Chesnut don 't travel round by herself with no servants and
no nothing. ' ' I looked down. There I was, dirty, tired, tat
tered, and torn. " Where do you come from? " said she.
307
May 8, 1864 CAMDEN, S. C. June 1, 1864
" My home is in Camden." " Come, now, I know every
body in Camden." I sat down meekly on a bench in the
piazza, that was free to all wayfarers.
11 Which Mrs. ChesnuU " said she (sharply). "I
know both. " "I am now the only one. And now what is
the matter with you ? Do you take me for a spy ? I know
you perfectly well. I went to school with you at Miss Hen
rietta de Leon's, and my name was Mary Miller." * The
Lord sakes alive! and to think you are her! Now I see.
Dear! dear me! Heaven sakes, woman, but you are
broke! ': " And tore," I added, holding up my dress.
' ' But I had had no idea it was so difficult to effect an entry
into a railroad wayside hotel. ' ' I picked up a long strip of
my old black dress, torn off by a man 's spur as I passed him
getting off the train.
It is sad enough at Mulberry without old Mrs. Chesnut,
who was the good genius of the place. It is so lovely here
in spring. The giants of the forest — the primeval oaks,
water-oaks, live-oaks, willow-oaks, such as I ha,ve not seen
since I left here — with opopanax, violets, roses, and yellow
jessamine, the air is laden with perfume. Araby the Blest
was never sweeter.
Inside, are creature comforts of all kinds — green peas,
strawberries, asparagus, spring lamb, spring chicken, fresh
eggs, rich, yellow butter, clean white linen for one's beds,
dazzling white damask for one 's table. It is such a contrast
to Richmond, where I wish I were.
Fighting is going on. Hampton is frantic, for his lag
gard new regiments fall in slowly ; no fault of the soldiers ;
they are as disgusted as he is. Bragg, Bragg, the head of
the War Office, can not organize in time.
John Boykin has died in a Yankee prison. He had on a
heavy flannel shirt when lying in an open platform car on
the way to a cold prison on the lakes. A Federal soldier
wanted John 's shirt. Prisoners have no rights ; so John
had to strip off and hand his shirt to him. That caused
308
OLD MRS. CHESNUT
his death. In two days he was dead of pneumonia — may be
frozen to death. One man said : ' ' They are taking us there
to freeze. ' ' But then their men will find our hot sun in Au
gust and July as deadly as our men find their cold Decem
bers. Their snow and ice finish our prisoners at a rapid
rate, they say. Napoleon's soldiers found out all that in
the Russian campaign.
Have brought my houseless, homeless friends, refugees
here, to luxuriate in Mulberry's plenty. I can but remem
ber the lavish kindness of the Virginia people when I was
there and in a similar condition. The Virginia people do
the rarest acts of hospitality and never seem to know it is
not in the ordinary course of events.
The President's man, Stephen, bringing his master's
Arabian to Mulberry for safe-keeping, said : ' ' Why, Missis,
your niggers down here are well off. I call this Mul
berry place heaven, with plenty to eat, little to do, warm
house to sleep in, a good church."
John L. Miller, my cousin, has been killed at the head
of his regiment. The blows now fall so fast on our heads
they are bewildering. The Secretary of War authorizes
General Chesnut to reorganize the men who have been hith
erto detailed for special duty, and also those who have been
exempt. He says General Chesnut originated the plan and
organized the corps of clerks which saved Richmond in the
Dahlgren raid.
May 27th. — In all this beautiful sunshine, in the still
ness and shade of these long hours on this piazza, all comes
back to me about little Joe; it haunts me — that scene in
Richmond where all seemed confusion, madness, a bad
dream! Here I see that funeral procession as it wound
among those tall white monuments, up that hillside, the
James River tumbling about below over rocks and around
islands; the dominant figure, that poor, old, gray-haired
man, standing bareheaded, straight as an arrow, clear
against the sky by the open grave of his son. She, the be-
309
May 8, 1864 CAMDEN, S. C. June 1, 1864
reft mother, stood back, in her heavy black wrappings, and
her tall figure drooped. The flowers, the children, the pro
cession as it moved, comes and goes, but those two dark,
sorrow-stricken figures stand ; they are before me now !
That night, with no sound but the heavy tramp of his
feet overhead, the curtains flapping in the wind, the gas
flaring, I was numb, stupid, half -dead with grief and ter
ror. Then came Catherine's Irish howl. Cheap, was that.
Where was she when it all happened? Her place was to
have been with the child. Who saw him fall ? Whom will
they kill next of that devoted household ?
Read to-day the list of killed and wounded.1 One long
column was not enough for South Carolina's dead. I see
Mr. Federal Secretary Stanton says he can reenforce Su-
warrow Grant at his leisure whenever he calls for more. He
has just sent him 25,000 veterans. Old Lincoln says, in his
quaint backwoods way, " Keep a-peggin'." Now we can
only peg out. What have we left of men, etc., to meet these
" reenforcements as often as reenforcements are called
for? " Our fighting men have all gone to the front; only
old men and little boys are at home now.
It is impossible to sleep here, because it is so solemn
and still. The moonlight shines in my window sad and
white, and the soft south wind, literally comes over a bank
of violets, lilacs, roses, with orange-blossoms and magnolia
flowers.
Mrs. Chesnut was only a year younger than her hus
band. He is ninety-two or three. She was deaf ; but he re
tains his senses wonderfully for his great age. I have al
ways been an early riser. Formerly I often saw him saun
tering slowly down the broad passage from his room to hers,
in a flowing flannel dressing-gown when it was winter. In
1 During the month of May, 1864, important battles had been fought
in Virginia, including that of the Wilderness on May 6th-7th, and the
series later in that month around Spottsylvania Court House.
310
MKS. -JAMES CIIKSXUT, SK.
From a Portrait in Oil by Gilbert Stuart.
THE OLD COLONEL'S GRIEF
the spring he was apt to be in shirt-sleeves, with suspenders
hanging down his back. He had always a large hair-brush
in his hand.
He would take his stand on the rug before the fire in her
room, brushing scant locks which were fleecy white. Her
maid would be doing hers, which were dead-leaf brown, not
a white hair in her head. He had the voice of a stentor, and
there he stood roaring his morning compliments. The peo
ple who occupied the room above said he fairly shook the
window glasses. This pleasant morning greeting ceremony
was never omitted.
Her voice was " soft and low " (the oft-quoted). Phil
adelphia seems to have lost the art of sending forth such
voices now. Mrs. Binney, old Mrs. Chesnut's sister, came
among us with the same softly modulated, womanly, musi
cal voice. Her clever and beautiful daughters were criarcl.
Judge Han said : ' * Philadelphia women scream like ma
caws. ' ' This morning as I passed Mrs. Chesnut 's room, the
door stood wide open, and I heard a pitiful sound. The
old man was kneeling by her empty bedside sobbing bit
terly. I fled down the middle walk, anywhere out of reach
of what was never meant for me to hear.
June 1st. — We have been to Bloomsbury again and hear
that William Kirkland has been wounded. A scene oc
curred then, Mary weeping bitterly and Aunt B. frantic as
to Tanny's danger. I proposed to make arrangements for
Mary to go on at once. The Judge took me aside, frowning
angrily. " You are unwise to talk in that way. She can
neither take her infant nor leave it. The cars are closed by
order of the government to all but soldiers."
I told him of the woman who, when the conductor
said she could not go, cried at the top of her voice, " Sol
diers, I want to go to Richmond to nurse my wounded hus
band." In a moment twenty men made themselves her
body-guard, and she went on unmolested. The Judge said
I talked nonsense. I said I would go on in my carriage if
311
May 8, 1864 CAMDEN, S. C. June 1, 1864
need be. Besides, there would be no difficulty in getting
Mary a " permit. "
He answered hotly that in no case would he let her go,
and that I had better not go back into the house. We were
on the piazza and my carriage at the door. I took it and
crossed over to see Mary Boykin. She was weeping, too, so
washed away with tears one would hardly know her. " So
many killed. My son and my husband — I do not hear a
word from them."
Gave to-day for two pounds of tea, forty pounds of cof
fee, and sixty pounds of sugar, $800.
Beauregard is a gentleman and was a genius as long as
Whiting did his engineering for him. Our Creole general
is not quite so clever as he thinks himself.
Mary Ford writes for school-books for her boys. She is
in great distress on the subject. When Long-street's corps
passed through Greenville there was great enthusiasm;
handkerchiefs were waved, bouquets and flowers were
thrown the troops ; her boys, having nothing else to throw,
threw their school-books.
312
XVIII
COLUMBIA, S. C.
July 6, 1864— January 17, 1865
, S. C., July 6, 1864.—At the Prestons'
Mary was laughing at Mrs. Lyons 's complaint — the
person from whom we rented rooms in Richmond.
She spoke of Molly and Lawrence's deceitfulness. They
went about the house quiet as mice while we were at home ;
or Lawrence sat at the door and sprang to his feet whenever
we passed. But when we were out, they sang, laughed,
shouted, and danced. If any of the Lyons family passed
him, Lawrence kept his seat, with his hat on, too. Mrs.
Chesnut had said : " Oh ! " so meekly to the whole tirade,
and added, ' ' I will see about it. ' '
Colonel Urquhart and Edmund Rhett dined here ; charm
ing men both — no brag, no detraction. Talk is never pleas
ant where there is either. Our noble Georgian dined here.
He says Hampton was the hero of the Yankee rout
at Stony Creek.1 He claims that citizens, militia, and lame
soldiers kept the bridge at Staunton and gallantly repulsed
Wilson's raiders.
At Mrs. S.'s last night. She came up, saying, " In
New Orleans four people never met together without dan
cing." Edmund Rhett turned to me: "You shall be
pressed into service. " ' ' No, I belong to the reserve corps —
1 The battle of Stony Creek in Virginia was fought on June 28-29,
1864.
313
July 6, 1864 COLUMBIA, S. C. Jan. 17, 1865
too old to volunteer or to be drafted as a conscript. ' ' But I
had to go.
My partner in the dance showed his English descent ; he
took his pleasure sadly. " Oh, Mr. Rhett, at his pleasure,
can be a most agreeable companion! " said someone. " I
never happened to meet him, ' ' said I, ' ' when he pleased to
be otherwise. ' ' With a hot, draggled, old alpaca dress, and
those clod-hopping shoes, to tumble slowly and gracefully
through the mazes of a July dance was too much for me.
* l What depresses you so ? "he anxiously inquired. ' ' Our
carnival of death." What a blunder to bring us all to
gether here ! — a reunion of consumptives to dance and sing
until one can almost hear the death-rattle !
July 25th. — Now we are in a cottage rented from Doctor
Chisolm. Hood is a full general. Johnston 1 has been re
moved and superseded. Early is threatening Washington
City. Semmes, of whom we have been so proud, risked the
Alabama in a sort of duel of ships. He has lowered the flag
of the famous Alabama to the Kearsarge.2 Forgive who
may ! I can not. We moved into this house on the 20th of
1 General Johnston in 1863 had been appointed to command the
Army of the Tennessee, with headquarters at Dalton, Georgia. He was
to oppose the advance of Sherman's army toward Atlanta. In May,
1864, he fought unsuccessful battles at Resaca and elsewhere, and in
July was compelled to retreat across the Chattahoochee River. Fault
was found with him because of his continual retreating. There were
tremendous odds against him. On July 17th he was superseded by
Hood.
2 Raphael Semmes was a native of Maryland and had served in the
Mexican War. The Alabama was built for the Confederate States at
Birkenhead, England, and with an English crew and English equipment
was commanded by Semmes. In 1863 and 1864 the Alabama destroyed
much Federal shipping. On June 19, 1864, she was sunk by the
Federal ship Kearsarge in a battle off Cherbourg. Claims against Eng
land for damages were made by the United States, and as a result the
Geneva Arbitration Court was created. Claims amounting to $15,500,-
000 were finally awarded. This case has much importance in the his
tory of international law.
314
THE ALABAMA SUNK
July. My husband was telegraphed to go to Charleston.
General Jones sent for him. A part of his command is on
the coast.
The girls were at my house. Everything was in the
utmost confusion. We were lying on a pile of mattresses
in one of the front rooms while the servants were reducing
things to order in the rear. All the papers are down on the
President for this change of commanders except the Georgia
papers. Indeed, Governor Brown's constant complaints, I
dare say, caused it — these and the rage of the Georgia peo
ple as Johnston backed down on them.
Isabella soon came. She said she saw the Preston sis
ters pass her house, and as they turned the corner there was
a loud and bitter cry. It seemed to come from the Hampton
house. Both girls began to run at full speed. " What is
the matter? " asked Mrs. Martin. " Mother, listen; that
sounded like the cry of a broken heart," said Isabella;
" something has gone terribly wrong at the PrestonsV
Mrs. Martin is deaf, however, so she heard nothing and
thought Isabella fanciful. Isabella hurried over there, and
learned that they had come to tell Mrs. Preston that Willie
was killed — Willie ! his mother 's darling. No country ever
had a braver soldier, a truer gentleman, to lay down his
life in her cause.
July 26th. — Isabella went with me to the bulletin-board.
Mrs. D. (with the white linen as usual pasted on her chin)
asked me to read aloud what was there written. As I slowly
read on, I heard a suppressed giggle from Isabella. I know
her way of laughing at everything, and tried to enunciate
more distinctly — to read more slowly, and louder, with
more precision. As I finished and turned round, I found
myself closely packed in by a crowd of Confederate soldiers
eager to hear the news. They took off their caps, thanked
me for reading all that was on the boards, and made way
for me, cap in hand, as I hastily returned to the carriage,
which was waiting for us. Isabella proposed, ' ' Call out to
22 315
July 6, 1864 COLUMBIA, S. C. Jan. 17, 1865
them to give three cheers for Jeff Davis and his generals. ' '
" You forget, my child, that we are on our way to a fu
neral."
Found my new house already open hospitably to all
comers. My husband had arrived. He was seated at a pine
table, on which someone had put a coarse, red table-cover,
and by the light of one tallow candle was affably entertain
ing Edward Barnwell, Isaac Hayne, and Uncle Hamilton.
He had given them no tea, however. After I had remedied
that oversight, we adjourned to the moonlighted piazza.
By tallow-candle-light and the light of the moon, we made
out that wonderful smile of Teddy's, which identifies him
as Gerald Grey.
We have laughed so at broken hearts — the broken hearts
of the foolish love stories. But Buck, now, is breaking her
heart for her brother Willie. Hearts do break in silence,
without a word or a sigh. Mrs. Means and Mary Barnwell
made no moan — simply turned their faces to the wall and
died. How many more that we know nothing of !
When I remember all the true-hearted, the light-hearted,
the gay and gallant boys, who have come laughing, singing,
and dancing in my way in the three years now past ; how I
have looked into their brave young eyes and helped them
as I could in every way and then saw them no more forever ;
how they lie stark and cold, dead upon the battle-field, or
moldering away in hospitals or prisons, which is worse — I
think if I consider the long array of those bright youths
and loyal men who have gone to their death almost before
my very eyes, my heart might break, too. Is anything
worth it — this fearful sacrifice, this awful penalty we pay
for war?
Allen G. says Johnston was a failure. Now he will wait
and see what Hood can do before he pronounces judgment
on him. He liked his address to his army. It was grand
and inspiring, but every one knows a general has not time
to write these things himself. Mr. Kelly, from New Or-
316
SHERMAN BEFORE ATLANTA
leans, says Dick Taylor and Kirby Smith have quarreled.
One would think we had a big enough quarrel on hand for
one while already. The Yankees are enough and to spare.
General Lovell says, * ' Joe Brown, with his Georgians at his
back, who importuned our government to remove Joe Johns
ton, they are scared now, and wish they had not. ' '
In our democratic Republic, if one rises to be its head,
whomever he displeases takes a Turkish revenge and defiles
the tombs of his father and mother; hints that his father
was a horse-thief and his mother no better than she should
be; his sisters barmaids and worse, his brothers Yankee
turncoats and traitors. All this is hurled at Lincoln or
Jeff Davis indiscriminately.
August 2d. — Sherman again. Artillery parked and
a line of battle formed before Atlanta. When we asked
Brewster what Sam meant to do at Atlanta he answered,
' ' Oh — oh, like the man who went, he says he means to stay
there! " Hope he may, that's all.
Spent to-day with Mrs. McCord at her hospital. She is
dedicating her grief for her son, sanctifying it, one might
say, by giving up her soul and body, her days and nights, to
the wounded soldiers at her hospital. Every moment of her
time is surrendered to their needs.
To-day General Taliaferro dined with us. He served
with Hood at the second battle of Manassas and at Freder-
icksburg, where Hood won his major-general's spurs. On
the battle-field, Hood, he said, " has military inspiration."
We were thankful for that word. All now depends on that
army at Atlanta. If that fails us, the game is up.
August 3d. — Yesterday was such a lucky day for my
housekeeping in our hired house. Oh, ye kind Columbia
folk! Mrs. Alex Taylor, nee Hayne, sent me a huge bowl
of yellow butter and a basket to match of every vegetable
in season. Mrs. Preston's man came with mushrooms fresh
ly cut and Mrs. Tom Taylor's with fine melons.
Sent Smith and Johnson (my house servant and a car-
317
July 6, 1864 COLUMBIA, S. C. Jan. 17, 1865
penter from home, respectively) to the Commissary's with
our wagon for supplies. They made a mistake, so they said,
and went to the depot instead, and stayed there all day. I
needed a servant sadly in many ways all day long, but I
hope Smith and Johnson had a g*od time. I did not lose
patience until Harriet came in an omnibus because I had
neither servants nor horse to send to the station for her.
Stephen Elliott is wounded, and his wife and father
have gone to him. Six hundred of his men were destroyed
in a mine ; and part of his brigade taken prisoners : Stone-
man and his raiders have been captured. This last fact
gives a slightly different hue to our horizon of unmitigated
misery.
General L — - told us of an unpleasant scene at the
President's last winter. He called there to see Mrs. Mc
Lean. Mrs. Davis was in the room and he did not speak to
her. He did not intend to be rude ; it was merely an over
sight. And so he called again and tried to apologize, to
remedy his blunder, but the President was inexorable, and
would not receive his overtures of peace and good-will.
General L— - is a New York man. Talk of the savagery
of slavery, heavens! How perfect are our men's manners
down here, how suave, how polished are they. Fancy one
of them forgetting to speak to Mrs. Davis in her own draw
ing-room.
August 6th. — Archer came, a classmate of my husband's
at Princeton; they. called him Sally Archer then, he was so
girlish and pretty. No trace of feminine beauty about this
grim soldier now. He has a hard face, black-bearded and
sallow, with the saddest black eyes. His hands are small,
white, and well-shaped ; his manners quiet. He is abstracted
and weary-looking, his mind and body having been dead
ened by long imprisonment. He seemed glad to be here,
and James Chesnut was charmed. " Dear Sally Archer, "
he calls him cheerily, and the other responds in a far-off,
faded kind of way.
318
FARRAGUT IN MOBILE BAY
Hood and Archer were given the two Texas regiments
at the beginning of the war. They were colonels and Wig-
fall was their general. Archer's comments on Hood are:
" He does not compare intellectually with General Johns
ton, who is decidedly a man of culture and literary attain
ments, with much experience in military matters. Hood,
however, has youth and energy to help counterbalance all
this. He has a simple-minded directness of purpose al
ways. He is awfully shy, and he has suffered terribly, but
then he has had consolations — such a rapid rise in his pro
fession, and then his luck to be engaged to the beautiful
Miss ."
They tried Archer again and again on the heated con
troversy of the day, but he stuck to his text. Joe Johnston
is a fine military critic, a capital writer, an accomplished
soldier, as brave as Caesar in his own person, but cautious to
a fault in manipulating an army. Hood has all the dash
and fire of a reckless young soldier, and his Texans would
follow him to the death. Too much caution might be fol
lowed easily by too much headlong rush. That is where the
swing-back of the pendulum might ruin us.
August 10th. — To-day General Chesnut and his staff de
parted. His troops are ordered to look after the mountain
passes beyond Greenville on the North Carolina and Ten
nessee quarter.
Misery upon misery. Mobile 1 is going as New Orleans
went. Those Western men have not held their towns as we
held and hold Charleston, or as the Virginians hold Rich
mond. And they call us a " frill-shirt, silk-stocking chiv
alry," or " a set of dandy Miss Nancys." They fight des
perately in their bloody street brawls, but we bear privation
and discipline best.
August 14th. — We have conflicting testimony. Young
1 The battle of Mobile Bay, won under Farragut, was fought on
August 5, 1864.
319
July 6, 1864 COLUMBIA, S. C. Jan. 17, 1865
Wade Hampton, of Joe Johnston's staff, says Hood lost
12,000 men in the battles of the 22d x and 24th, but Brews-
ter, of Hood's staff, says not three thousand at the utmost.
Now here are two people strictly truthful, who tell things
so differently. In this war people see the same things so
oddly one does not know what to believe.
Brewster says when he was in Richmond Mr. Davis said
Johnston would have to be removed and Sherman blocked.
He could not make Hardee full general because, when he
had command of an army he was always importuning the
War Department for a general-in-chief to be sent there
over him. Polk would not do, brave soldier and patriot as
he was. He was a good soldier, and would do his best for
his country, and do his duty under whomever was put over
him by those in authority. Mr. Davis did not once intimate
to him who it was that he intended to promote to the head
of the Western Army.
Brewster said to-day that this " blow at Joe Johnston,
cutting off his head, ruins the schemes of the enemies of the
government. Wigf all asked me to go at once, and get Hood
to decline to take this command, for it will destroy him if
he accepts it. He will have to fight under Jeff Davis 's or
ders ; no one can do that now and not lose caste in the West
ern Army. Joe Johnston does not exactly say that Jeff
Davis betrays his plans to the enemy, but he says he dares
not let the President know his plans, as there is a spy in the
War Office who invariably warns the Yankees in time. Con
sulting the government on military movements is played
out. That's Wigf all's way of talking. Now," added
Brewster, " I blame the President for keeping a man at
the head of his armies who treats the government with
open scorn and contumely, no matter how the people at
large rate this disrespectful general.'*
1 On July 22d, Hood made a sortie from Atlanta, but after a battle
was obliged to return.
320
GRANT BEFORE RICHMOND
August 19th. — Began my regular attendance on the
Wayside Hospital. To-day we gave wounded men, as they
stopped for an hour at the station, their breakfast. Those
who are able to come to the table do so. The badly wounded
remain in wards prepared for them, where their wounds are
dressed by nurses and surgeons, and we take bread and but
ter, beef, ham, and hot coffee to them.
One man had hair as long as a woman's, the result of a
vow, he said. He had pledged himself not to cut his hair
until peace was declared and our Southern country free.
Four made this vow together. All were dead but himself.
One was killed in Missouri, one in Virginia, and he left one
at Kennesaw Mountain. This poor creature had had one
arm taken off at the socket. When I remarked that he was
utterly disabled and ought not to remain in the army, he
answered quietly, " I am of the First Texas. If old Hood
can go with one f ootr I can go with one arm, eh ? ' !
How they quarreled and wrangled among themselves —
Alabama and Mississippi, all were loud for Joe Johnston,
save and except the long-haired, one-armed hero, who cried
at the top of his voice : l ' Oh ! you all want to be kept in
trenches and to go on retreating, eh? " " Oh, if we had
had a leader, such as Stonewall, this war would have been
over long ago! What we want is a leader! " shouted a
cripple.
They were awfully smashed-up, objects of misery,
wounded, maimed, diseased. I was really upset, and came
home ill. This kind of thing unnerves me quite.
Letters from the army. Grant's dogged stay about
Richmond is very disgusting and depressing to the spirits.
Wade Hampton has been put in command of the Southern
cavalry.
A Wayside incident. A pine box, covered with flowers,
was carefully put upon the train by some gentlemen. Isa
bella asked whose remains were in the box. Dr. Gibbes re
plied : "In that box lies the body of a young man whose
321
July 6, 1864 COLUMBIA, S. C. Jan. 17, 1865
family antedates the Bourbons of France. He was the last
Count de Choiseul, and he has died for the South." Let
his memory be held in perpetual remembrance by all who
love the South!
August 22d. — Hope I may ne^er know a raid except
from hearsay. Mrs. Huger describes the one at Athens.
The proudest and most timid of women were running madly
in the streets, corsets in one hand, stockings in the other —
deshabille as far as it will go. Mobile is half taken. The
railroad between us and Richmond has been tapped.
Notes from a letter written by a young lady who is rid
ing a high horse. Her fiance, a maimed hero, has been
abused. " You say to me with a sneer, * So you love that
man.' Yes, I do, and I thank God that I love better than all
the world the man who is to be my husband. ' Proud of
him, are you 1 ' Yes, I am, in exact proportion to my love.
You say, ' I am selfish.' Yes, I am selfish. He is my sec
ond self, so utterly absorbed am I in him. There is not a
moment, day or night, that I do not think of him. In point
of fact, I do not think of anything else." No reply was
deemed necessary by the astounded recipient of this out
burst of indignation, who showed me the letter and contin
ued to observe: " Did you ever? She seems so shy, so
timid, so cold."
Sunday Isabella took us to a chapel, Methodist, of
course; her father had a hand in building it. It was not
clean, but it was crowded, hot, and stuffy. An eloquent
man preached with a delightful voice and wonderful flu
ency; nearly eloquent, and at times nearly ridiculous. He
described a scene during one of his sermons when " beau
tiful young faces were turned up to me, radiant faces
though bathed in tears, moral rainbows of emotion playing
over them," etc.
He then described his own conversion, and stripped him
self naked morally. All that is very revolting to one's in
nate sense of decency. He tackled the patriarchs. Adam,
322
PETERSBURG
Noah, and so on down to Joseph, who was " a man whose
modesty and purity were so transcendent they enabled him
to resist the greatest temptation to which fallen man is ex
posed." " Fiddlesticks ! that is played out ! " my neighbor
whispered. " Everybody gives up now that old Mrs. Pha
raoh was forty. " ' * Mrs. Potiphar, you goose, and she was
fifty!" " That solves the riddle." " Sh-sh! " from the
devout Isabella.
At home met General Preston on the piazza. He was
vastly entertaining. Gave us Darwin, Herodotus, and Livy.
We understood him and were delighted, but we did not know
enough to be sure when it was his own wisdom or when wise
saws and cheering words came from the authors of whom
he spoke.
August 23d. — All in a muddle, and yet the news, con
fused as it is, seems good from all quarters. There is a row
in New Orleans. Memphis1 has been retaken; 2,000 prison
ers have been captured at Petersburg, and a Yankee raid on
Macon has come to grief.
At Mrs. Izard's met a clever Mrs. Calhoun. Mrs. Cal-
houn is a violent partizan of Dick Taylor; says Taylor
does the work and Kirby Smith gets the credit for it. Mrs.
Calhoun described the behavior of some acquaintance of
theirs at Shreveport, one of that kind whose faith removes
mountains. Her love for and confidence in the Confederate
army were supreme. Why not 1 She knew so many of the
men who composed that dauntless band. When her hus
band told her New Orleans had surrendered to a foe whom
she despised, she did not believe a word of it. He told her
to " pack up his traps, as it was time for him to leave
Shreveport." She then determined to run down to the
levee and see for herself, only to find the Yankee gunboats
having it all their own way. She made a painful exhibition
of herself. First, she fell on her knees and prayed; then
1 General Forrest made his raid on Memphis in August of this year.
323
July 6, 1864 COLUMBIA, S. C. Jan. 17, 1865
she got up and danced with rage; then she raved and
dashed herself on the ground in a fit. There was patriotism
run mad for you ! As I did not know the poor soul, Mrs.
Calhoun's fine acting was somewhat lost on me, but the
others enjoyed it. ^
Old Edward Johnston has been sent to Atlanta against
his will, and Archer has been made major-general and, con
trary to his earnest request, ordered not to his beloved
Texans but to the Army of the Potomac.
Mr. C. F. Hampton deplores the untimely end of Mc-
Pherson.1 He was so kind to Mr. Hampton at Vicksburg
last winter, and drank General Hampton's health then and
there. Mr. Hampton has asked Brewster, if the report of his
death prove a mistake, and General McPherson is a pris
oner, that every kindness and attention be shown to him.
General McPherson said at his own table at Vicksburg that
General Hampton was the ablest general on our side.
Grant can hold his own as well as Sherman. Lee has a
heavy handful in the new Suwarrow. He has worse odds
than any one else, for when Grant has ten thousand slain,
he has only to order another ten thousand, and they are
there, ready to step out to the front. They are like the
leaves of Vallambrosa.
August 29th. — I take my hospital duty in the morning.
Most persons prefer afternoon, but I dislike to give up my
pleasant evenings. So I get up at five o'clock and go down
in my carriage all laden with provisions. Mrs. Fisher and
old Mr. Bryan generally go with me. Provisions are com
monly sent by people to Mrs. Fisher 's. I am so glad to be a
hospital nurse once more. I had excuses enough, but at
heart I felt a coward and a skulker. I think I know how
men feel who hire a substitute and shirk the fight. There
1 General McPherson was killed before Atlanta during the sortie
made by Hood on July 22d. He was a native of Ohio, a graduate of
West Point, and under Sherman commanded the Army of the Tennessee.
324
ATLANTA LOST
must be no dodging of duty. It will not do now to send
provisions and pay for nurses. Something inside of me
kept calling out, " Go, you shabby creature; you can't bear
to see what those fine fellows have to bear. ' '
Mrs. Izard was staying with me last night, and as I
slipped away I begged Molly to keep everything dead still
and not let Mrs. Izard be disturbed until I got home.
About ten I drove up and there was a row to wake the dead.
Molly 's eldest daughter, who nurses her baby sister, let the
baby fall, and, regardless of Mrs. Izard, as I was away,
Molly was giving the nurse a switching in the yard, accom
panied by howls and yells worthy of a Comanche! The
small nurse welcomed my advent, no doubt, for in two sec
onds peace was restored. Mrs. Izard said she sympathized
with the baby 's mother ; so I forgave the uproar.
I have excellent servants; no matter for their short
comings behind my back. They save me all thought as to
household matters, and they are so kind, attentive, and
quiet. They must know what is at hand if Sherman is not
hindered from coming here — " Freedom! my masters! "
But these sphinxes give no sign, unless it be increased dili
gence and absolute silence, as certain in their action and as
noiseless as a law of nature, at any rate when we are in the
house.
That fearful hospital haunts me all day long, and is
worse at night. So much suffering, such loathsome wounds,
such distortion, with stumps of limbs not half cured, ex
hibited to all. Then, when I was so tired yesterday, Molly
was looking more like an enraged lioness than anything else,
roaring that her baby 's neck was broken, and howling cries
of vengeance. The poor little careless nurse's dark face
had an ashen tinge of gray terror. She was crouching near
the ground like an animal trying to hide, and her mother
striking at her as she rolled away. All this was my welcome
as I entered the gate. It takes these half -Africans but a
moment to go back to their naked savage animal nature.
325
July 6, 1864 COLUMBIA, S. C. Jan. 17, 1865
Mrs. Izard is a charming person. She tried so to make me
forget it all and rest.
September 2d. — The battle has been raging at Atlanta,1
and our fate hanging in the balance. Atlanta, indeed, is
gone. Well, that agony is over. .Like David, when the
child was dead, I will get up from my knees, will wash my
face and comb my hair. No hope; we will try to have no
fear.
At the Prestons ' I found them drawn up in line of battle
every moment looking for the Doctor on his way to Rich
mond. Now, to drown thought, for our day is done, read
Dumas 's Maitres d'Armes. Russia ought to sympathize
with us. We are not as barbarous as this, even if Mrs.
Stowe's word be taken. Brutal men with unlimited power
are the same all over the world. See Russell 's India — Bull
Run Russell's. They say General Morgan has been killed.
We are hard as stones; we sit unmoved and hear any bad
news chance may bring. Are we stupefied ?
September 19th. — My pink silk dress I have sold for
$600, to be paid for in instalments, two hundred a month
for three months. And I sell my eggs and butter from home
for two hundred dollars a month. Does it not sound well
—four hundred dollars a month regularly. But in what?
In Confederate money. Helas!
September 21st.— Went with Mrs. Rhett to hear Dr.
Palmer. I did not know before how utterly hopeless was
our situation. This man is so eloquent, it was hard to listen
and not give way. Despair was his word, and martyrdom.
He offered us nothing more in this world than the martyr's
crown. He is not for slavery, he says ; he is for freedom, and
the freedom to govern our own country as we see fit. He is
against foreign interference in our State matters. That is
what Mr. Palmer went to war for, it appears. Every day
1 After the battle, Atlanta was taken possession of and partly burned
by the Federals.
326
PRESIDENT DAVIS IN COLUMBIA
shows that slavery is doomed the world over; for that he
thanked God. He spoke of our agony, and then came the
cry, " Help us, 0 God! Vain is the help of man." And
so we came away shaken to the depths.
The end has come. No doubt of the fact. Our army has
so moved as to uncover Macon and Augusta. We are going
to be wiped off the face of the earth. What is there to pre
vent Sherman taking General Lee in the rear? We have
but two armies, and Sherman is between them now. l
September 24th. — These stories of our defeats in the val
ley fall like blows upon a dead body. Since Atlanta fell I
have felt as if all were dead within me forever. Captain
Ogden, of General Chesnut's staff, dined here to-day. Had
ever brigadier, with little or no brigade, so magnificent a
staff? The reserves, as somebody said, have been secured
only by robbing the cradle and the grave — the men too old,
the boys too young. Isaac Hayne, Edward Barnwell,
Bacon, Ogden, Richardson, Miles are the picked men of
the agreeable world.
October 1st. — Mary Cantey Preston's wedding day has
come and gone and Mary is Mrs. John Darby now. Maggie
Howell dressed the bride 's hair beautifully, they said, but it
was all covered by her veil, which was of blond-lace, and
the dress tulle and blond-lace, with diamonds and pearls.
The bride walked up the aisle on her father 's arm, Mrs. Pres
ton on Dr. Darby 's. I think it was the handsomest wedding
party I ever saw. John Darby 2 had brought his wedding
1 During the summer and autumn of 1864 several important battles
had occurred. In addition to the engagements by Sherman's army
farther south, there had occurred in Virginia the battle of Cold Harbor
in the early part of June; those before Petersburg in the latter part of
June and during July and August ; the battle of Winchester on Septem
ber 19th, during Sheridan's Shenandoah campaign, and the battle of
Cedar Creek on October 19th.
2 After the war, Dr. Darby became professor of Surgery in the Uni
versity of the City of New York; he had served as Medical Director in
the Army of the Confederate States and as Professor of Anatomy and
327
July 6, 1864 COLUMBIA, S. C. Jan. 17, 1865
uniform home with him from England, and it did all honor
to his perfect figure. I forget the name of his London
tailor — the best, of course! " Well/' said Isabella, " it
would be hard for any man to live up to those clothes. ' '
And now, to the amazement of us all, Captain Chesnut
(Johnny) who knows everything, has rushed into a flirta
tion with Buck such as never was. He drives her every day,
and those wild, runaway, sorrel colts terrify my soul as
they go tearing, pitching, and darting from side to side of
the street. And my lady enjoys it. When he leaves her, he
kisses her hand, bowing so low to do it unseen that we see
it all.
Saturday. — The President will be with us here in Colum
bia next Tuesday, so Colonel McLean brings us word.
I have begun at once to prepare to receive him in my small
house. His apartments have been decorated as well as Con
federate stringency would permit. The possibilities were
not great, but I did what I could for our honored chief ; be
sides I .like the man — he has been so kind to me, and his wife
is one of the few to whom I can never be grateful enough for
her generous appreciation and attention.
I went out to the gate to greet the President, who met
me most cordially; kissed me, in fact. Custis Lee and
Governor Lubbock were at his back.
Immediately after breakfast (the Presidential party
arrived a little before daylight) General Chesnut drove
off with the President's aides, and Mr. Davis sat out on
our piazza. There was nobody with him but myself. Some
little boys strolling by called out, " Come here and look;
there is a man on Mrs. Chesnut 's porch who looks just like
Jeff Davis on postage-stamps." People began to gather at
once on the street. Mr. Davis then went in.
Mrs. McCord sent a magnificent bouquet — I thought, of
Surgery in the University of South Carolina; had also served with dis
tinction in European wars.
328
THE OLD LIFE DIES ROYALLY
course, for the President ; but she gave me such a scolding
afterward. She did not know he was there ; I, in my mis
take about the bouquet, thought she knew, and so did not
send her word.
The President was watching me prepare a mint julep
for Custis Lee when Colonel McLean came to inform us that
a great crowd had gathered and that they were coming to
ask the President to speak to them at one o'clock. An im
mense crowd it was — men, women, and children. The
crowd overflowed the house, the President 's hand was nearly
shaken off. I went to the rear, my head intent on the din
ner to be prepared for him, with only a Confederate com
missariat. But the patriotic public had come to the rescue.
I had been gathering what I could of eatables for a month,
and now I found that nearly everybody in Columbia was
sending me whatever they had that they thought nice
enough for the President's dinner. We had the sixty-year-
old Madeira from Mulberry, and the beautiful old china,
etc. Mrs. Preston sent a boned turkey stuffed with truffles,
stuffed tomatoes, and stuffed peppers. Each made a dish
as pretty as it was appetizing.
A mob of small boys only came to pay their respects to
the President. He seemed to know how to meet that odd
delegation.
Then the President 's party had to go, and we bade them
an affectionate farewell. Custis Lee and I had spent much
time gossiping on the back porch. While I was concocting
dainties for the dessert, he sat on the banister with a cigar
in his mouth. He spoke very candidly, telling me many a
hard truth for the Confederacy, and about the bad time
which was at hand.
October 18th. — Ten pleasant days I owe to my sister.
Kate has descended upon me unexpectedly from the moun
tains of Flat Rock. We are true sisters; she understands
me without words, and she is the cleverest, sweetest woman
I know, so graceful and gracious in manner, so good and un-
329
July 6, 1864 COLUMBIA, S. C. Jan. 17, 1865
selfish in character, but, best of all, she is so agreeable. Any
time or place would be charming with Kate for a compan
ion. General Chesnut was in Camden; but I could not
wait. I gave the beautiful bride, Mrs. Darby, a dinner,
which was simply perfection. I* was satisfied for once in
my life with my own table, and I know pleasanter guests
were never seated around any table whatsoever.
My house is always crowded. After all, what a number
of pleasant people we have been thrown in with by war's
catastrophes. I call such society glorious. It is the wind-
up, but the old life as it begins to die will die royally. Gen
eral Chesnut came back disheartened. He complains that
such a life as I lead gives him no time to think.
October 28th. — Burton Harrison writes, to General Pres
ton that supreme anxiety reigns in Richmond.
Oh, for one single port ! If the Alabama had had in the
whole wide world a port to take her prizes to and where
she could be refitted, I believe she would have borne us
through. Oh, for one single port by which we could get at
the outside world and refit our whole Confederacy ! If we
could have hired regiments from Europe, or even have im
ported ammunition and food for our soldiers !
* * Some days must be dark and dreary. ' ' At the mantua-
maker 's, however, I saw an instance of faith in our future :
a bride's paraphernalia, and the radiant bride herself, the
bridegroom expectant and elect now within twenty miles of
Chattanooga and outward bound to face the foe.
Saw at the Laurens's not only Lizzie Hamilton, a per
fect little beauty, but the very table the first Declaration of
Independence was written upon. These Laurenses are
grandchildren of Henry Laurens, of the first Revolution.
Alas ! we have yet to make good our second declaration of
independence — Southern independence — from Yankee med
dling and Yankee rule. Hood has written to ask them to
send General Chesnut out to command one of his brigades.
In whose place?
330
HOOD'S PLANS
If Albert Sidney Johnston had lived ! Poor old General
Lee has no backing. Stonewall would have saved us from
Antietam. Sherman will now catch General Lee by the rear,
while Grant holds him by the head, and while Hood and
Thomas are performing an Indian war-dance on the fron
tier. Hood means to cut his way to Lee ; see if he doesn 't.
The ' ' Yanks ' ' have had a struggle for it. More than once
we seemed to have been too much for them. We have been
so near to success it aches one to think of it. So runs the
table-talk.
Next to our house, which Isabella calls " Tillytudlem, "
since Mr. Davis 's visit, is a common of green grass and very
level, beyond which comes a belt of pine-trees. On this open
space, within forty paces of us, a regiment of foreign de
serters has camped. They have taken the oath of allegiance
to our government, and are now being drilled and disci
plined into form before being sent to our army. They are
mostly Germans, with some Irish, however. Their close
proximity keeps me miserable. Traitors once, traitors for
ever.
Jordan has always been held responsible for all the fool
ish proclamations, and, indeed, for whatever Beauregard
reported or proclaimed. Now he has left that mighty chief,
and, lo, here comes from Beauregard the silliest and most
boastful of his military bulletins. He brags of Shiloh ; that
was not the way the story was told to us.
A letter from Mrs. Davis, who says: " Thank you, a
thousand times, my dear friend, for your more than mater
nal kindness to my dear child. ' ' That is what she calls her
sister, Maggie Howell. " As to Mr. Davis, he thinks the best
ham, the best Madeira, the best coffee, the best hostess in
the world, rendered Columbia delightful to him when he
passed through. We are in a sad and anxious state here
just now. The dead come in ; but the living do not go out
so fast. However, we hope all things and trust in God as
the only one able to resolve the opposite state of feeling into
23 331
July 6, 1864 COLUMBIA, S. C. Jan. 17, 1865
a triumphant, happy whole. I had a surprise of an unusu
ally gratifying nature a few days since. I found I could
not keep my horses, so I sold them. The next day they were
returned to me with a handsome anonymous note to the
effect that they had been bought by a few friends for me.
But I fear I can not feed them. Strictly between us, things
look very anxious here/'
November 6tk. — Sally Hampton went to Richmond with
the Rev. Mr. Martin. She arrived there on Wednesday. On
Thursday her father, Wade Hampton, fought a great bat
tle, but just did not win it — a victory narrowly missed.
Darkness supervened and impenetrable woods prevented
that longed-for consummation. Preston Hampton rode
recklessly into the hottest fire. His father sent his brother,
Wade, to bring h,im back. Wade saw him reel in the saddle
and galloped up to him, General Hampton following. As
young W^ade reached him, Preston fell from his horse, and
the one brother, stooping to raise the other, was himself shot
down. Preston recognized his father, but died without
speaking a word. Young Wade, though wounded, held his
brother's head up. Tom Taylor and others hurried up. The
General took his dead son in his arms, kissed him, and hand
ed his body to Tom Taylor and his friends, bade them take
care of Wade, and then rode back to his post. At the head of
his troops in the thickest of the fray he directed the fight for
the rest of the day. Until night he did not know young
Wade's fate; that boy might be dead, too! Now, he says,
no son of his must be in his command. When Wade recov
ers, he must join some other division. The agony of such a
day, and the anxiety and the duties of the battle-field — it is
all more than a mere man can bear.
Another letter from Mrs. Davis. She says: " I was
dreadfully shocked at Preston Hampton's fate — his un
timely fate. I know nothing more touching in history than
General Hampton's situation at the supremest moment of
his misery, when he sent one son to save the other and saw
332
WADE HAMPTON'S TWO SONS FALL
both fall; and could not know for some moments whether
both were not killed/'
A thousand dollars have slipped through my fingers al
ready this week. At the Commissary 's I spent five hundred
to-day for candles, sugar, and a lamp, etc. Tallow can
dles are bad enough, but of them there seems to be an end,
too. Now we are restricted to smoky, terrabine lamps —
terrabine is a preparation of turpentine. When the chim
ney of the lamp cracks, as crack it will, we plaster up the
place with paper, thick old letter-paper, preferring the
highly glazed kind. In the hunt for paper queer old let
ters come to light.
Sherman, in Atlanta, has left Thomas to take care of
Hood. Hood has thirty thousand men, Thomas forty thou
sand, and as many more to be had as he wants ; he has only
to ring the bell and call for them. Grant can get all that
he wants, both for himself and for Thomas. All the world
is open to them, while we are shut up in a bastile. We
are at sea, and our boat has sprung a leak.
November 17th. — Although Sherman 1 took Atlanta, he
does not mean to stay there, be it heaven or hell. Fire and
the sword are for us here; that is the word. And now I
must begin my Columbia life anew and alone. It will be a
short shrift.
Captain Ogden came to dinner on Sunday and in the
afternoon asked me to go with him to the Presbyterian
Church and hear Mr. Palmer. We went, and I felt very
1 General Sherman had started from Chattanooga for his march
across Georgia on May 6, 1864. He had won the battles of Dalton,
Resaca, and New Hope Church in May, the battle of Kennesaw Moun
tain in June, the battles of Peach Tree Creek and Atlanta in July, and
had formally occupied Atlanta on September 2d. On November
16th, he started on his march from Atlanta to the sea and entered Sa
vannah on December 23d. Early in 1865 he moved his army north
ward through the Carolinas, and on April 26th received the surrender
of General Joseph E. Johnston.
333
July 6, 1864 COLUMBIA, S. C. Jan. 17, 1865
youthful, as the country people say; like a girl and her
beau. Ogden took me into a pew and my husband sat afar
off. What a sermon ! The preacher stirred my blood. My
very flesh crept and tingled. A red-hot glow of patriotism
passed through me. Such a sernlbn must strengthen the
hearts and the hands of many people. There was more ex
hortation to fight and die, a la Joshua, than meek Chris
tianity.
November 25th. — Sherman is thundering at Augusta 's
very doors. My General was on the wing, somber, and full
of care. The girls are merry enough ; the staff, who fairly
live here, no better. Cassandra, with a black shawl over her
head, is chased by the gay crew from sofa to sofa, for she
avoids them, being full of miserable anxiety. There is
nothing but distraction and confusion. All things tend to
the preparation for the departure of the troops. It rains all
the time, such rains as I never saw before; incessant tor
rents. These men come in and out in the red mud and
slush of Columbia streets. Things seem dismal and
wretched to me to the last degree, but the staff, the girls,
and the youngsters do not see it.
Mrs. S. (born in Connecticut) came, and she was ra
diant. She did not come to see me, but my nieces. She
says exultingly that " Sherman will open a way out at last,
and I will go at once to Europe or go North to my relatives
there/' How she derided our misery and " mocked when
our fear cometh. ' ' I dare say she takes me for a fool. I sat
there dumb, although she was in my own house. I have
heard of a woman so enraged that she struck some one over
the head with a shovel. To-day, for the first time in my
life, I know how that mad woman felt. I could have given
Mrs. S. the benefit of shovel and tongs both.
That splendid fellow, Preston Hampton; " home they
brought their warrior, dead," and wrapped in that very
Legion flag he had borne so often in battle with his own
hands.
334
WAITING FOR SPRING
A letter from Mrs. Davis to-day, under date of Rich
mond, Va., November 20, 1864. She says : * ' Affairs West
are looking so critical now that, before you receive this, you
and I will be in the depths or else triumphant. I confess I
do not sniff success in every passing breeze, but I am so
tired, hoping, fearing, and being disappointed, that I have
made up my mind not to be disconsolate, even though
thieves break through and steal. Some people expect an
other attack upon Richmond shortly, but I think the ava
lanche will not slide until the spring breaks up its winter
quarters. I have a blind kind of prognostics of victory for
us, but somehow I am not cheered. The temper of Congress
is less vicious, but more concerted in its hostile action."
Mrs. Davis is a woman that my heart aches for in the
troubles ahead.
My journal, a quire of Confederate paper, lies wide
open on my desk in the corner of my drawing-room. Every
body reads it who chooses. Buck comes regularly to see
what I have written last, and makes faces when it does not
suit her. Isabella still calls me Cassandra, and puts her
hands to her ears when I begin to wail. Well, Cassandra
only records what she hears ; she does not vouch for it. For
really, one nowadays never feels certain of anything.
November 28th.— We dined at Mrs. McCord's. She is
as strong a cordial for broken spirits and failing heart as
one could wish. How her strength contrasts with our weak
ness. Like Doctor Palmer, she strings one up to bear
bravely the worst. She has the intellect of a man and the
perseverance and endurance of a woman.
We have lost nearly all of our men, and we have no
money, and it looks as if we had taught the Yankees how to
fight since Manassas. Our best and bravest are under the
sod ; we shall have to wait till another generation grows up.
Here we stand, despair in our hearts (" Oh, Cassandra,
don't! " shouts Isabella), with our houses burning or about
to be, over our heads.
335
July 6, 1864 COLUMBIA, S. C. Jan. 17, 1865
The North have just got things ship-shape; a splendid
army, perfectly disciplined, with new levies coming in day
and night. Their gentry do not go into the ranks. They
hardly know there is a war up there.
December 1st. — At Coosawhatchie Yankees are landing
in great force. Our troops down there are raw militia, old
men and boys never under fire before ; some college cadets,
in all a mere handful. The cradle and the grave have been
robbed by us, they say. Sherman goes to Savannah and not
to Augusta.
December 3d. — Isabella and I put on bonnets and
shawls and went deliberately out for news. We determined
to seek until we found. Met a man who was so ugly, I could
not forget him or his sobriquet ; he was awfully in love with
me once. He did not know me, but blushed hotly when Isa
bella told him who I was. He had forgotten me, I hope, or
else I am changed by age and care past all recognition. He
gave us the encouraging information that Grahamville had
been burned to the ground.
When the call for horses was made, Mrs. McCord sent
in her fine bays. She comes now with a pair of mules, and
looks too long and significantly at my ponies. If I were not
so much afraid of her, I would hint that those mules would
be of far more use in camp than my ponies. But they will
seize the ponies, no doubt.
In all my life before, the stables were far off from the
house and I had nothing to do with them. Now my ponies
are kept under an open shed next to the back piazza. Here
I sit with my work, or my desk, or my book, basking in our
Southern sun, and I watch Nat feed, curry, and rub down
the horses, and then he cleans their stables as thoroughly as
Smith does my drawing-room. I see their beds of straw com
fortably laid. Nat says, " Ow, Missis, ain't lady's busi
ness to look so much in de stables." I care nothing for his
grumbling, and I have never had horses in better condition.
Poor ponies, you deserve every attention, and enough to
336
HOOD AND THOMAS
eat. Grass does not grow under your feet. By night and
day you are on the trot.
To-day General Chesnut was in Charleston on his way
from Augusta to Savannah by rail. The telegraph is still
working between Charleston and Savannah. Grahamville
certainly is burned. There was fighting down there to-day.
I came home with enough to think about, Heaven knows!
And then all day long we compounded a pound cake in
honor of Mrs. Cuthbert, who has things so nice at home.
The cake was a success, but was it worth all that trouble ?
As my party were driving off to the concert, an omnibus
rattled up. Enter Captain Leland, of General Chesnut 's
staff, of as imposing a presence as a field-marshal, handsome
and gray-haired. He was here on some military errand and
brought me a letter. He said the Yankees had been re
pulsed, and that down in those swamps we could give a
good account of ourselves if our government would send
men enough. With a sufficient army to meet them down
there, they could be annihilated. " Where are the men to
come from? " asked Mamie, wildly. " General Hood has
gone off to Tennessee. Even if he does defeat Thomas
there, what difference would that make here? "
December 3d. — We drank tea at Mrs. McCord 's; she
had her troubles, too. The night before a country cousin
claimed her hospitality, one who fain would take the train
at five this morning. A little after midnight Mrs. McCord
was startled out of her first sleep by loud ringing of bells ;
an alarm at night may mean so much just now. In an in
stant she was on her feet. She found her guest, who
thought it was daylight, and wanted to go. Mrs. McCord
forcibly demonstrated how foolish it was to get up five
hours too soon. Mrs. McCord, once more in her own warm
bed, had fallen happily to sleep. She was waked by feeling
two ice-cold hands pass cautiously over her face and person.
It was pitch dark. Even Mrs. McCord gave a scream in her
fright. She found it was only the irrepressible guest up
337
July 6, 1864 COLUMBIA, S. C. Jan. 17, 1865
and at her again. So, though it was only three o'clock, hi
order to quiet this perturbed spirit she rose and at five
drove her to the station, where she had to wait some hours.
But Mrs. McCord said, " anything for peace at home."
The restless people who will not let others rest!
December 5th. — Miss Olivia Middleton and Mr. Fred
erick Blake are to be married. We Confederates have in
vented the sit-up-all-night for the wedding night; Isabella
calls it the wake, not the wedding, of the parties married.
The ceremony will be performed early in the evening ; the
whole company will then sit up until five o'clock, at which
hour the bridal couple take the train for Combahee. Hope
Sherman will not be so inconsiderate as to cut short the
honeymoon.
In tripped Brewster, with his hat on his head, both
hands extended, and his greeting, " Well, here we are! "
He was travel-stained, disheveled, grimy with dirt. The
prophet would have to send him many times to bathe in
Jordan before he could be pronounced clean.
Hood will not turn and pursue Sherman. Thomas is at
his heels with forty thousand men, and can have as many
more as he wants for the asking. Between Thomas and
Sherman Hood would be crushed. So he was pushing — I
do not remember where or what. I know there was no com
fort in anything he said.
Serena 's account of money spent : Paper and envelopes,
$12.00 ; tickets to concert, $10.00 ; tooth-brush, $10.00 ; total,
$32.00.
December 14th. — And now the young ones are in bed
and I am wide awake. It is an odd thing; in all my life
how many persons have I seen in love? Not a half-dozen.
And I am a tolerably close observer, a faithful watcher
have I been from my youth upward of men and manners.
Society has been for me only an enlarged field for character
study.
Flirtation is the business of society; that is, playing at
338
BATTLE OF NASHVILLE
love-making. It begins in vanity, it ends in vanity. It is
spurred on by idleness and a want of any other excitement.
Flattery, battledore and shuttlecock, how in this game flat
tery is dashed backward and forward. It is so soothing to
self-conceit. If it begins and ends in vanity, vexation of
spirit supervenes sometimes. They do occasionally burn
their fingers awfully, playing with fire, but there are no
hearts broken. Each party in a flirtation has secured a
sympathetic listener, to whom he or she can talk of himself
or herself — somebody who, for the time, admires one ex
clusively, and, as the French say, excessivement. It is a
pleasant, but very foolish game, and so to bed.
Hood and Thomas have had a fearful fight, with car
nage and loss of generals excessive in proportion to num
bers. That means they were leading and urging their men
up to the enemy. I know how Bartow and Barnard Bee
were killed bringing up their men. One of Mr. Chesnut's
sins thrown in his teeth by the Legislature of South Caro
lina was that he procured the promotion of Gist, " State
Rights " Gist, by his influence in Richmond. What have
these comfortable, stay-at-home patriots to say of General
Gist now? " And how could man die better than facing
fearful odds," etc.
So Fort McAlister has fallen ! Good-by, Savannah !
Our Governor announces himself a follower of Joe Brown,
of Georgia. Another famous Joe.
December 19th. — The deep waters are closing over us
and we are in this house, like the outsiders at the time of the
flood. We care for none of these things. We eat, drink,
laugh, dance, in lightness of heart.
Doctor Trezevant came to tell me the dismal news. How
he piled on the agony! Desolation, mismanagement, de
spair. General Young, with the flower of Hampton's cav
alry, is in Columbia. Horses can not be found to mount
them. Neither the Governor of Georgia nor the Governor
of South Carolina is moving hand or foot. They have given
339
July6, 1864 COLUMBIA, S. C. Jan. 17, 1865
up. The Yankees claim another victory for Thomas.1 Hope
it may prove like most of their victories, brag and bluster.
Can't say why, maybe I am benumbed, but I do not feel
so intensely miserable.
December 27th. — Oh, why did.we go to Camden? The
very dismalest Christmas overtook us there. Miss Rhett
went with us — a brilliant woman and very agreeable. ' * The
world, you know, is composed, ' ' said she, * ' of men, women,
and Rhetts " (see Lady Montagu). Now, we feel that if
we are to lose our negroes, we would as soon see Sherman
free them as the Confederate Government ; freeing negroes
is the last Confederate Government craze. We are a little
too slow about it; that is all.
Sold fifteen bales of cotton and took a sad farewell look
at Mulberry. It is a magnificent old country-seat, with old
oaks, green lawns and all. So I took that last farewell of
Mulberry, once so hated, now so beloved.
January 7th. — Sherman is at Hardieville and Hood in
Tennessee, the last of his men not gone, as Louis Wigfall
so cheerfully prophesied.
Serena went for a half-hour to-day to the dentist. Her
teeth are of the whitest and most regular, simply perfection.
She fancied it was better to have a dentist look in her mouth
before returning to the mountains. For that look she paid
three hundred and fifty dollars in Confederate money.
' ' Why, has this money any value at all ? " she asked. Lit
tle enough in all truth, sad to say.
Brewster was here and stayed till midnight. Said he
must see General Chesnut. He had business with him.
His " me and General Hood " is no longer cornic. He
described Sherman's march of destruction and desolation.
' ' Sherman leaves a track fifty miles wide, upon which there
1 Reference is here made to the battle between Hood and Thomas
at Nashville, the result of which was the breaking up of Hood's army
as a fighting force.
340
SHERMAN'S DESOLATE TRACK
is no living thing to be seen," said Brewster before he de
parted.
January 10th. — You do the Anabasis business when you
want to get out of the enemy 's country, and the Thermopy
lae business when they want to get into your country. But
we retreated in our own country and we gave up our moun
tain passes without a blow. But never mind the Greeks ; if
we had only our own Game Cock, Sumter, our own Swamp
Fox, Marion. Marion 's men or Sumter 's, or the equivalent
of them, now lie under the sod, in Virginia or Tennessee.
January 14th. — Yesterday I broke down — gave way to
abject terror under the news of Sherman's advance with no
news of my husband. To-day, while wrapped up on the
sofa, too dismal even for moaning, there was a loud knock.
Shawls on and all, just as I was, I rushed to the door to find
a telegram from my husband : * ' All well ; be at home Tues
day." It was dated from Adam's Run. I felt as light-
hearted as if the war were over. Then I looked at the date
and the place — Adam's Run. It ends as it began — in a run
— Bull's Run, from which their first sprightly running as
tounded the world, and now Adam's Run. But if we must
run, who are left to run? From Bull Run they ran full-
handed. But we have fought until maimed soldiers, women,
and children are all that remain to run.
To-day Kershaw's brigade, or what is left of it, passed
through. What shouts greeted it and what bold shouts of
thanks it returned ! It was all a very encouraging noise, ab
solutely comforting. Some true men are left, after all.
January 16th. — My husband is at home once more — for
how long, I do not know. His aides fill the house, and a
group of hopelessly wounded haunt the place. The drilling
and the marching go on outside. It rains a flood, with
freshet after freshet. The forces of nature are befriending
us, for our enemies have to make their way through swamps.
A month ago my husband wrote me a letter which I
promptly suppressed after showing it to Mrs. McCord. He
341
July 6, 1864 COLUMBIA, S. C. Jan. 17, 1865
warned us to make ready, for the end had come. Our re
sources were exhausted, and the means of resistance could
not be found. We could not bring ourselves to believe it,
and now, he thinks, with the railroad all blown up, the
swamps made impassable by the freshets, which have no time
to subside, so constant is the rain, and the negroes utterly
apathetic (would they be so if they saw us triumphant?), if
we had but an army to seize the opportunity we might do
something; but there are no troops; that is the real trouble.
To-day Mrs. McCord exchanged $16,000 in Confederate
bills for $300 in gold — sixteen thousand for three hundred.
January 17th. — The Bazaar for the benefit of the hos
pitals opens now. Sherman marches constantly. All the
railroads are smashed, and if I laugh at any mortal thing it
is that I may not weep. Generals are as plenty as blackber
ries, but none are in command.
The Peace Commissioner, Blair, came. They say he
gave Mr. Davis the kiss of peace. And we send Stephens,
Campbell, all who have believed in this thing, to negotiate
for peace. No hope, no good. Who dares hope 1
Repressed excitement in church. A great railroad
character was called out. He soon returned and whis
pered something to Joe Johnston and they went out
together. Somehow the whisper moved around to us
that Sherman was at Branchville. " Grant us patience,
good Lord/' was prayed aloud. " Not Ulysses Grant, good
Lord," murmured Teddy, profanely. Hood came yester
day. He is staying at the Prestons ' with Jack. They sent
for us. What a heartfelt greeting he gave us. He can
stand well enough without his crutch, but he does very slow
walking. How plainly he spoke out dreadful words about
1 1 my defeat and discomfiture ; my army destroyed, my
losses, " etc., etc. He said he had nobody to blame but him
self. A telegram from Beauregard to-day to my husband.
He does not know whether Sherman intends to advance on
Branchville, Charleston, or Columbia
342
HOOD'S MEMORIES
Isabella said: " Maybe you attempted the impossible,"
and began one of her merriest stories. Jack Preston touched
me on the arm and we slipped out. " He did not hear a
word she was saying. He has forgotten us all. Did you no
tice how he stared in the fire? And the lurid spots which
came out in his face and the drops of perspiration that
stood on his forehead? ' * Yes. He is going over some
bitter scene ; he sees Willie Preston with his heart shot away.
He sees the panic at Nashville and the dead on the battle
field at Franklin." " That agony on his face comes again
and again," said tender-hearted Jack. " I can't keep him
out of those absent fits. ' '
Governor McGrath and General Winder talk of prep
arations for a defense of Columbia. If Beauregard can't
stop Sherman down there, what have we got here to do it
with? Can we check or impede his march? Can any one?
Last night General Hampton came in. I am sure he
would do something to save us if he were put in supreme
command here. Hampton says Joe Johnston is equal, if
not superior, to Lee as a commanding officer.
My silver is in a box and has been delivered for safe
keeping to Isaac McLaughlin, who is really my beau-ideal
of a grateful negro. I mean to trust him. My husband
cares for none of these things now, and lets me do as I
please.
Tom Archer died almost as soon as he got to Richmond.
Prison takes the life out of men. He was only half-alive
when here. He had a strange, pallid look and such a vacant
stare until you roused him. Poor pretty Sally Archer:
that is the end of you.1
1 Under last date entry, January 17th, the author chronicles events of
later occurrence; it was her not infrequent custom to jot down happen
ings in dateless lines or paragraphs. Mr. Blair visited President Davis
January 12th; Stephens, Hunter and Campbell were appointed Peace
Commissioners, January 28th.
343
XIX
9
LINCOLNTON, N. C.
February 16, 1865— March 15, 1865
HINCOLNTON, N. C., February 16, 1865.— A change
has come o'er the spirit of my dream. Dear old
quire of yellow, coarse, Confederate home-made pa
per, here you are again. An age of anxiety and suffering
has passed over my head since last I wrote and wept over
your forlorn pages.
My ideas of those last days are confused. The Martins
left Columbia the Friday before I did, and Mammy, the
negro woman, who had nursed them, refused to go with
them. That daunted me. Then Mrs. McCord, who was to
send her girls with me, changed her mind. She sent them
up-stairs in her house and actually took away the staircase ;
that was her plan.
Then I met Mr. Christopher Hampton; arranging to
take off his sisters. They were flitting, but were to go only
as far as Yorkville. He said it was time to move on. Sher
man was at Orangeburg, barely a day's journey from Co
lumbia, and had left a track as bare and blackened as a fire
leaves on the prairies.
So my time had come, too. My husband urged me to go
home. He said Camden would be safe enough. They had
no spite against that old town, as they have against Charles
ton and Columbia. Molly, weeping and wailing, came in
while we were at table. Wiping her red-hot face with the
cook's grimy apron, she said I ought to go among our own
black people on the plantation ; they would take care of me
better than any one else. So I agreed to go to Mulberry or
344
THE FLIGHT FROM COLUMBIA
the Hermitage plantation, and sent Lawrence down with a
wagon-load of niy valuables.
Then a Miss Patterson called — a refugee from Tennes
see. She had been in a country overrun by Yankee invad-\
ers, and she described so graphically all the horrors to be*
endured by those subjected to fire and sword, rapine and
plunder, that I was fairly scared, and determined to come
here. This is a thoroughly out-of -all-routes place. And yet
I can go to Charlotte, am half-way to Kate at Flat Rock,
and there is no Federal army between me and Richmond.
As soon as my mind was finally made up, we tele
graphed to Lawrence, who had barely got to Camden in the
wagon when the telegram was handed to him ; so he took the
train and came back. Mr. Chesnut sent him with us to take
care of the party.
We thought that if the negroes were ever so loyal to us,
they could not protect me from an army bent upon sweep
ing us from the face of the earth, and if they tried to do so
so much the worse would it be for the poor things with
their Yankee friends. I then left them to shift for them
selves, as they are accustomed to do, and I took the same
liberty. My husband does not care a fig for the property
question, and never did. Perhaps, if he had ever known
poverty, it would be different. He talked beautifully about
it, as he always does about everything. I have told him
often that, if at heaven's gate St. Peter would listen to him
a while, and let him tell his own story, he would get in, and
the angels might give him a crown extra.
Now he says he has only one care — that I should be
safe, and not so harassed with dread ; and then there is his
blind old father. ' ' A man, ' ' said he, * * can always die like
a patriot and a gentleman, with no fuss, and take it coolly.
It is hard not to envy those who are out of all this, their dif
ficulties ended — those who have met death gloriously on the
battle-field, their doubts all solved. One can but do his
best and leave the result to a higher power. ' '
345
Feb. 16, 1865 LINCOLNTON, N. C. March 15, 1865
After New Orleans, those vain, passionate, impatient lit
tle Creoles were forever committing suicide, driven to it by
despair and " Beast " Butler. As we read these things,
Mrs. Davis said: " If they want to die, why not first kill
1 Beast ' Butler, rid the world of .their foe and be saved the
trouble of murdering themselves? ' That practical way
of removing their intolerable burden did not occur to them.
I repeated this suggestive anecdote to our corps of generals
without troops, here in this house, as they spread out their
maps on my table where lay this quire of paper from which
I write. Every man Jack of them had a safe plan to stop
Sherman, if—
Even Beauregard and Lee were expected, but Grant had
double-teamed on Lee. Lee could not save his own — how
could he come to save us ? Read the list of the dead in those
last battles around Richmond and Petersburg l if you want
to break your heart.
I took French leave of Columbia — slipped away with
out a word to anybody. Isaac Hayne and Mr. Chesnut
came down to the Charlotte depot with me. Ellen, my
maid, left her husband and only child, but she was willing
to come, and, indeed, was very cheerful in her way of look
ing at it.
" I wan' travel 'roun' wid Missis some time — stid uh
Molly goin ' all de time. ' '
A woman, fifty years old at least, and uglier than she
was old, sharply rebuked my husband for standing at the
car window for a last few words with me. She said rudely :
* ' Stand aside, sir ! I want air ! ' ' With his hat off, and his
grand air, my husband bowed politely, and said: " In one
moment, madam ; I have something important to say to my
wife."
She talked aloud and introduced herself to every man,
1 Battles at Hatchen's Run, in Virginia, had been fought on February
5, 6, and 7, 1865.
346
AN EXILE
claiming his protection. She had never traveled alone be
fore in all her life. Old age and ugliness are protective in
some cases. She was ardently patriotic for a while. Then
she was joined by her friend, a man as crazy as herself to
get out of this. From their talk I gleaned she had been for
years in the Treasury Department. They were about to
cross the lines. The whole idea was to get away from the
trouble to come down here. They were Yankees, but were
they not spies?
Here I am broken-hearted and an exile. And in such a
place! We have bare floors, and for a feather-bed, pine
table, and two chairs I pay $30 a day. Such sheets ! But
fortunately I have some of my own. At the door, before I
was well out of the hack, the woman of the house packed
Lawrence back, neck and heels : she would not have him at
any price. She treated him as Mr. F. 's aunt did Clenman
in Little Dorrit. She said his clothes were too fine for a
nigger. " His airs, indeed." Poor Lawrence was humble
and silent. He said at last, " Miss Mary, send me back to
Mars Jeems." I began to look for a pencil to write a note
to my husband, but in the flurry could not find one. ' * Here
is one," said Lawrence, producing one with a gold case.
11 Go away," she shouted, " I want no niggers here with
gold pencils and airs. ' ' So Lawrence fled before the storm,
but not before he had begged me to go back. He said, * ' if
Mars Jeems knew how you was treated he'd never be will
ing for you to stay here. ' '
The Martins had seen my, to them, well-known traveling
case as the hack trotted up Main Street, and they arrived at
this juncture out of breath. We embraced and wept. I
kept my room.
The Fants are refugees here, too; they are Virginians,
and have been in exile since the second battle of Manassas.
Poor things ; they seem to have been everywhere, and seen
and suffered everything. They even tried to go back to
their own house, but found one chimney only standing
24 347
Feb. 16, 1865 LINCOLNTON, N. C. March 15, 1865
alone ; even that had been taken possession of by a Yankee,
who had written his name upon it.
The day I left home I had packed a box of flour, sugar,
rice, and coffee, but my husband would not let me bring it.
He said I was coming to a lahd of plenty — unexplored
North Carolina, where the foot of the Yankee marauder was
unknown, and in Columbia they would need food. Now I
have written for that box and many other things to be sent
me by Lawrence, or I shall starve.
The Middletons have come. How joyously I sprang to
my feet to greet them. Mrs. Ben Rutledge described the
hubbub in Columbia. Everybody was flying in every di
rection like a flock of swallows. She heard the enemy's
guns booming in the distance. The train no longer runs
from Charlotte to Columbia. Miss Middleton possesses her
soul in peace. She is as cool, clever, rational, and enter
taining as ever, and we talked for hours. Mrs. Reed was in
a state of despair. I can well understand that sinking of
mind and body during the first days as the abject misery of
it all closes in upon you. I remember my suicidal tenden
cies when I first came here.
February 18th. — Here I am, thank God, settled at the
McLean's, in a clean, comfortable room, airy and cozy.
With a grateful heart I stir up my own bright wood fire.
My bill for four days at this splendid hotel here was $240,
with $25 additional for fire. But once more my lines have
fallen in pleasant places.
As we came up on the train from Charlotte a soldier took
out of his pocket a filthy rag. If it had lain in the gutter
for months it could not have looked worse. He unwrapped
the thing carefully and took out two biscuits of the species
known as ' ' hard tack. ' ' Then he gallantly handed me one,
and with an ingratiating smile asked me "to take some."
Then he explained, saying, " Please take these two; swap
with me ; give me something softer that I can eat ; I am very
weak still." Immediately, for his benefit, my basket of
348
TAKEN FOR MILLIONAIRES
luncheon was emptied, but as for his biscuit, I would not
choose any. Isabella asked, ' * But what did you say to him
when he poked them under your nose ? ' ' and I replied, * ' I
held up both hands, saying, * I would not take from you
anything that is yours — far from it ! I would not touch
them for worlds.' :
A tremendous day 's work and I helped with a will ; our
window glass was all to be washed. Then the brass andi
rons were to be polished. After we rubbed them bright how
pretty they were.
Presently Ellen would have none of me. She was scrub
bing the floor. " You go — dat's a good missis — an' stay to
Miss Isabella 's till de flo ' dry. ' ' I am very docile now, and
I obeyed orders.
February 19th. — The Fants say all the trouble at the
hotel came from our servants ' bragging. They represented
us as millionaires, and the Middleton men servants smoked
cigars. Mrs. Reed's averred that he had never done any
thing in his life but stand behind his master at table with
a silver waiter in his hand. We were charged accordingly,
but perhaps the landlady did not get the best of us after all,
for we paid her in Confederate money. Now that they
won't take Confederate money in the shops here how are
we to live? Miss Middleton says quartermasters' families
are all clad in good gray cloth, but the soldiers go naked.
Well, we are like the families of whom the novels alwaj^s say
they are poor but honest. Poor? Well-nigh beggars are
we, for I do not know where my next meal is to come from.
Called on Mrs. Ben Rutledge to-day. She is lovely, ex
quisitely refined. Her mother, Mrs. Middleton, came in.
* ' You are not looking well, dear ? Anything the matter ? ' '
'' No — but, mamma, I have not eaten a mouthful to-day.
The children can eat mush; I can't. I drank my tea, how
ever. ' ' She does not understand taking favors, and, blush
ing violently, refused to let me have Ellen make her some
biscuit. I went home and sent her some biscuit all the same.
349
Feb. 16, 1865 LINCOLNTON, N. C. March 15, 1865
February 22d. — Isabella has been reading my diaries.
How we laugh because my sage divinations all come to
naught. My famous " insight into character " is utter fol
ly. The diaries were lying on the hearth ready to be
burned, but she told me to hold 7m to them ; think of them
a while and don't be rash. Afterward when Isabella and I
were taking a walk, General Joseph E. Johnston joined us.
He explained to us all of Lee's and Stonewall Jackson's
mistakes. We had nothing to say — how could we say any
thing? He said he was very angry when he was ordered to
take command again. He might well have been in a gen
uine rage. This on and off procedure would be enough to
bewilder the coolest head. Mrs. Johnston knows how to be
a partizan of Joe Johnston and still not make his enemies
uncomfortable. She can be pleasant and agreeable, as she
was to my face.
A letter from my husband who is at Charlotte. He came
near being taken a prisoner in Columbia, for he was asleep
the morning of the 17th, when the Yankees blew up the rail
road depot. That woke him, of course, and he found every
body had left Columbia, and the town was surrendered by
the mayor, Colonel Goodwyn. Hampton and his command
had been gone several hours. Isaac Hayne came away with
General Chesnut. There was no fire in the town when they
left. They overtook Hampton's command at Meek's Mill.
That night, from the hills where they encamped, they saw
the fire, and knew the Yankees were burning the town, as
we had every reason to expect they would. Molly was left
in charge of everything of mine, including Mrs. Preston's
cow, which I was keeping, and Sally Goodwyn 's furniture.
Charleston and Wilmington have surrendered. I have
no further use for a newspaper. I never want to see an
other one as long as I live. Wade Hampton has been made
a lieutenant-general, too late. If he had been made one and
given command in South Carolina six months ago I believe
he would have saved us. Shame, disgrace, beggary, all
350
THE BURNING OF COLUMBIA
have come at once, and are hard to bear — the grand smash !
Rain, rain, outside, and naught but drowning floods of tears
inside. I could not bear it ; so I rushed down in that rain
storm to the Martins'. Rev. Mr. Martin met me at the
door. " Madam," said he, " Columbia is burned to the
ground." I bowed my head and sobbed aloud. " Stop
that ! " he said, trying to speak cheerfully. ' ' Come here,
wife," said he to Mrs. Martin. " This woman cries with
her whole heart, just as she laughs." But in spite of his
words, his voice broke down, and he was hardly calmer than
myself.
February 23d. — I want to get to Kate, I am so utterly
heart-broken. I hope John Chesnut and General Chesnut
may at least get into the same army. We seem scattered
over the face of the earth. Isabella sits there calmly read
ing. I have quieted down after the day's rampage. May
our heavenly Father look down on us and have pity.
They say I was the last refugee from Columbia who was
allowed to enter by the door of the cars. The government
took possession then and women could only be smuggled in
by the windows. Stout ones stuck and had to be pushed,
pulled, and hauled in by main force. Dear Mrs. Izard,
with all her dignity, was subjected to this rough treatment.
She was found almost too much for the size of the car win
dows.
February 25th. — The Pfeifers, who live opposite us here,
are descendants of those Pfeifers wrho came South with Mr.
Chesnut 's ancestors after the Fort Duquesne disaster. They
have now, therefore, been driven out of their Eden, the
valley of Virginia, a second time. The present Pfeifer is
the great man, the rich man par excellence of Lincolnton.
They say that with something very near to tears in his eyes
he heard of our latest defeats. "It is only a question of
time with us now," he said. " The raiders will come, you
know. ' '
In Washington, before I knew any of them, except by
351
Feb. 16, 1863 LINCOLNTON, N. C. March 15, 1865
sight, Mrs. Davis, Mrs. Emory, and Mrs. Johnston were al
ways together, inseparable friends, and the trio were point
ed out to me as the cleverest women in the United States.
Now that I do know them all well, I think the world was
right in its estimate of them. *
Met a Mr. Ancrum of serenely cheerful aspect, happy
and hopeful. " All right now," said he. " Sherman sure
to be thrashed. Joe Johnston is in command. ' ' Dr. Darby
says, when the oft-mentioned Joseph, the malcontent, gave
up his command to Hood, he remarked with a smile, " I
hope you will be able to stop Sherman ; it was more than I
could do." General Johnston is not of Mr. Ancrum 's way
of thinking as to his own powers, for he stayed here several
days after he was ordered to the front. , He must have
known he could do no good, and I am of his opinion.
When the wagon, in which I was to travel to Flat Rock,
drove up to the door, covered with a tent-like white cloth,
in my embarrassment for an opening in the conversation I
asked the driver's name. He showed great hesitation in
giving it, but at last said : * ' My name is Sherman, ' ' adding,
' * and now I see by your face that you won 't go with me.
My name is against me these times. ' ' Here he grinned and
remarked : ' * But you would leave Lincolnton. ' '
That name was the last drop in my cup, but I gave him
Mrs. Glover's reason for staying here. General Johnston
had told her this ' ' might be the safest place after all. ' ' He
thinks the Yankees are making straight for Richmond and
General Lee's rear, and will go by Camden and Lancaster,
leaving Lincolnton on their west flank.
The McLeans are kind people. They ask no rent for
their rooms — only $20 a week for firewood. Twenty dollars !
and such dollars — mere waste paper.
Mrs. Munroe took up my photograph book, in which I
have a picture of all the Yankee generals. ' ' I want to see
the men who are to be our masters," said she. ' Not
mine " I answered, " thank God, come what may. This
352
RUIN IN SHERMAN'S PATH
was a free fight. We had as much right to fight to get out
as they had to fight to keep us in. If they try to play the
masters, anywhere upon the habitable globe will I go,
never to see a Yankee, and if I die on the way so much the
better. ' ' Then I sat down and wrote to my husband in lan
guage much worse than anything I can put in this book.
As I wrote I was blinded by tears of rage. Indeed, I nearly
wept myself away.
February 26th. — Mrs. Munroe offered me religious
books, which I declined, being already provided with the
Lamentations of Jeremiah, the Psalms of David, the denun
ciations of Hosea, and, above all, the patient wail of Job.
Job is my comforter now. I should be so thankful to know
life never would be any worse with me. My husband is
well, and has been ordered to join the great Retreater. I
am bodily comfortable, if somewhat dingily lodged, and I
daily part with my raiment for food. We find no one who
will exchange eatables for Confederate money; so we are
devouring our clothes.
Opportunities for social enjoyment are not wanting.
Miss Middleton and Isabella often drink a cup of tea with
me. One might search the whole world and not find two
cleverer or more agreeable women. Miss Middleton is brill
iant and accomplished. She must have been a hard student
all her life. She knows everybody worth knowing, and she
has been everywhere. Then she is so high-bred, high-heart
ed, pure, and true. She is so clean-minded ; she could not
harbor a wrong thought. She is utterly unselfish, a devoted
daughter and sister. She is one among the many large-
brained women a kind Providence has thrown in my way,
such as Mrs. McCord, daughter of Judge Cheves; Mary
Preston Darby, Mrs. Emory, granddaughter of old Frank
lin, the American wise man, and Mrs. Jefferson Davis. How
I love to praise my friends !
As a ray of artificial sunshine, Mrs. Munroe sent me an
Examiner. Daniel thinks we are at the last gasp, and now
353
Feb. 16, 1865 LINCOLNTON, N. C. March 15, 1865
England and France are bound to step in. England must
know if the United States of America are triumphant they
will tackle her next, and France must wonder if she will
not have to give up Mexico. My faith fails me. It is all too
late ; no help for us now from God* or man.
Thomas, Daniel says, was now to ravage Georgia, but
Sherman, from all accounts, has done that work once for all.
There will be no aftermath. They say no living thing is
found in Sherman's track, only chimneys, like telegraph
poles, to carry the news of Sherman's army backward.
In all that tropical down-pour, Mrs. Munroe sent me
overshoes and an umbrella, with the message, ''Come over."
I went, for it would be as well to drown in the streets as to
hang myself at home to my own bedpost. At Mrs. Munroe 's
I met a Miss McDaniel. Her father, for seven years, was
the Methodist preacher at our negro church. The negro
church is in a grove just opposite Mulberry house. She
says her father has so often described that fine old estab
lishment and its beautiful lawn, live-oaks, etc. Now, I
dare say there stand at Mulberry only Sherman's sentinels
— stacks of chimneys. We have made up our minds for the
worst. Mulberry house is no doubt razed to the ground.
Miss McDaniel was inclined to praise us. She said:
" As a general rule the Episcopal minister went to the
family mansion, and the Methodist missionary preached to
the negroes and dined with the overseer at his house, but at
Mulberry her father always stayed at the ' House,' and
the family were so kind and attentive to him." It was
rather pleasant to hear one's family so spoken of among
strangers.
So, well equipped to brave the weather, armed cap-a-pie,
so to speak, I continued my prowl farther afield and
brought up at the Middletons '. I may have surprised them,
for ' ' at such an inclement season ' ' they hardly expected a
visitor. Never, however, did lonely old woman receive such
a warm and hearty welcome. Now we know the worst. Are
354
JOE JOHNSTON A LAST HOPE
we growing hardened ? We avoid all allusion to Columbia ;
we never speak of home, and we begin to deride the certain
poverty that lies ahead.
How it pours ! Could I live many days in solitary con
finement? Things are beginning to be unbearable, but I
must sit down and be satisfied. My husband is safe so far.
Let me be thankful it is no worse with me. But there is the
gnawing pain all the same. What is the good of being here
at alH Our world has simply gone to destruction. And
across the way the fair Lydia languishes. She has not even
my resources against ennui. She has no Isabella, no Miss
Middleton, two as brilliant women as any in Christendom.
Oh, how does she stand it ! I mean to go to church if it
rains cats and dogs. My feet are wet two or three times a
day. We never take cold ; our hearts are too hot within us
for that.
A carriage was driven up to the door as I was writing.
I began to tie on my bonnet, and said to myself in the glass,
' ' Oh, you lucky woman ! ' ' I was all in a tremble, so great
was my haste to be out of this. Mrs. Glover had the car
riage. She came for me to go and hear Mr. Martin preach.
He lifts our spirits from this dull earth ; he takes us up to
heaven. That I will not deny. Still he can not hold my at
tention; my heart wanders and my mind strays back to
South Carolina. Oh, vandal Sherman ! what are you at
there, hard-hearted wretch that you are ! A letter from Gen
eral Chesnut, who writes from camp near Charlotte under
date of February 28th :
1 c I thank you a thousand, thousand times for your kind
letters. They are now my only earthly comfort, except the
hope that all is not yet lost. We have been driven like a
wild herd from our country. And it is not from a want of
spirit in the people or soldiers, nor from want of energy
and competency in our commanders. The restoration of
Joe 'Johnston, it is hoped, will redound to the advantage
of our cause and the reestablishment of our fortunes! I
355
Feb. 16, 1865 LINCOLNTON, N. C. March 15, 1865
am still in not very agreeable circumstances. For the last
four days completely water-bound.
" I am informed that a detachment of Yankees were
sent from Liberty Hill to Camden with a view to destroying
all the houses, mills, and provisions about that place. No
particulars have reached me. You know I expected the
worst that could be done, and am fully prepared for any re
port which may be made.
" It would be a happiness beyond expression to see you
even for an hour. I have heard nothing from my poor old
father. I fear I shall never see him again. Such is the fate
of war. I do not complain. I have deliberately chosen my
lot, and am prepared for any fate that awaits me. My care
is for you, and I trust still in the good cause of my coun
try and the justice and mercy of God. ' '
It was a lively, rushing, young set that South Carolina
put to the fore. They knew it was a time of imminent dan
ger, and that the fight would be ten to one. They expected
to win by activity, energy, and enthusiasm. Then came the
wet blanket, the croakers ; now, these are posing, wrapping
Caesar's mantle about their heads to fall with dignity.
Those gallant youths who dashed so gaily to the front lie
mostly in bloody graves. Well for them, maybe. There
are worse things than honorable graves. Wearisome
thoughts. Late in life we are to begin anew and have la
borious, difficult days ahead.
We have contradictory testimony. Governor Aiken has
passed through, saying Sherman left Columbia as he found
it, and was last heard from at Cheraw. Dr. Chisolm walked
home with me. He says that is the last version of the story.
Now my husband wrote that he himself saw the fires which
burned up Columbia, The first night his camp was near
enough to the town for that.
They say Sherman has burned Lancaster — that Sher
man nightmare, that ghoul, that hyena ! But I do not be
lieve it. He takes his time. There are none to molest him.
356
STILL OF SHERMAN'S MARCH
He does things leisurely and deliberately. Why stop to do
so needless a thing as burn Lancaster court-house, the
jail, and the tavern? As I remember it, that descrip
tion covers Lancaster. A raiding party they say did for
Camden.
No train from Charlotte yesterday. Rumor says Sher
man is in Charlotte.
February 29th. — Trying to brave it out. They have
plenty, yet let our men freeze and starve in their prisons.
Would you be willing to be as wicked as they are? A
thousand times, no ! But we must feed our army first — if
we can do so much as that. Our captives need not starve
if Lincoln would consent to exchange prisoners; but men
are nothing to the United States — things to throw away.
If they send our men back they strengthen our army, and
so again their policy is to keep everybody and everything
here in order to help starve us out. That, too, is what Sher
man 's destruction means — to starve us out.
Young Brevard asked me to play accompaniments for
him. The guitar is my instrument, or was; so I sang and
played, to my own great delight. It was a distraction.
Then I made egg-nog for the soldier boys below and came
home. Have spent a very pleasant evening. Begone, dull
care; you and I never agree.
Ellen and I are shut up here. It is rain, rain, everlast
ing rain. As our money is worthless, are we not to starve ?
Heavens! how grateful I was to-day when Mrs. McLean
sent me a piece of chicken. I think the emptiness of my
larder has leaked out. To-day Mrs. Munroe sent me hot
cakes and eggs for my breakfast.
March 5th. — Is the sea drying up ? Is it going up into
mist and coming down on us in a water-spout? The rain,
it raineth every day. The weather typifies our tearful de
spair, on a large scale. It is also Lent now — a quite con
venient custom, for we, in truth, have nothing to eat. So
we fast and pray, and go dragging to church like drowned
rats to be preached at.
357
Feb. 16, 1865 LINCOLNTON, N. C. March 15, 1865
My letter from my husband was so — well, what in a
woman you would call heart-broken, that I began to get
ready for a run up to Charlotte. My hat was on my head,
my traveling-bag in my hand, and Ellen was saying
" Which umbrella, ma'am?" '.'Stop, Ellen," said I,
* ' someone is speaking out there. ' ' A tap came at the door,
and Miss McLean threw the door wide open as she said in a
triumphant voice : * ' Permit me to announce General Ches-
nut." As she went off she sang out, " Oh, does not a
meeting like this make amends ? ' :
We went after luncheon to see Mrs. Munroe. My hus
band wanted to thank her for all her kindness to me. I was
awfully proud of him. I used to think that everybody had
the air and manners of a gentleman. I know now that these
accomplishments are things to thank God for. Father
O'Connell came in, fresh from Columbia, and with news
at last. Sherman's men had burned the convent. Mrs.
Munroe had pinned her faith to Sherman because he was a
Roman Catholic, but Father O'Connell' was there and saw
it. The nuns and girls marched to the old Hampton house
(Mrs. Preston's now), and so saved it. They walked be
tween files of soldiers. Men were rolling tar barrels and
lighting torches to fling on the house when the nuns came.
Columbia is but dust and ashes, burned to the ground.
Men, women, and children have been left there homeless,
houseless, and without one particle of food — reduced to
picking up corn that was left by Sherman 's horses on picket
grounds and parching it to stay their hunger.
How kind my friends were on this, my fete day ! Mrs.
Rutledge sent me a plate of biscuit ; Mrs. Munroe, nearly
enough food supplies for an entire dinner ; Miss McLean a
cake for dessert. Ellen cooked and served up the mate
rial happily at hand very nicely, indeed. There never was
a more successful dinner. My heart was too full to eat, but
I was quiet and calm ; at least I spared my husband the trial
of a broken voice and tears. As he stood at the window,
358
A TALE OF HORROR
with his back to the room, he said : ' ' Where are they now —
iny old blind father and my sister ? Day and night I see
her leading him out from under his own rooftree. That
picture pursues me persistently. But come, let us talk of
pleasanter things." To which I answered, " Where will
you find them? "
He took off his heavy cavalry boots and Ellen carried
them away to wash the mud off and dry them. She brought
them back just as Miss Middleton walked in. In his agony,
while struggling with those huge boots and trying to get
them on, he spoke to her volubly in French. She turned
away from him instantly, as she saw his shoeless plight, and
said to me, ' * I had not heard of your happiness. I did not
know the General was here." Not until next day did we
have time to remember and laugh at that outbreak of
French. Miss Middleton answered him in the same lan
guage. He told her how charmed he was with my surround
ings, and that he would go away with a much lighter heart
since he had seen the kind people with whom he would leave
me.
I asked my husband what that correspondence between
Sherman and Hampton meant — this while I was preparing
something for our dinner. His back was still turned as he
gazed out of the window. He spoke in the low and steady
monotone that characterized our conversation the whole
day, and yet there was something in his voice that thrilled
me as he said : ' ' The second day after our march from Co
lumbia we passed the M. 's. He was a bonded man and not
at home. His wife said at first that she could not find for
age for our horses, but afterward she succeeded in procur
ing some. I noticed a very handsome girl who stood beside
her as she spoke, and I suggested to her mother the pro
priety of sending her out of the track of both armies.
Things were no longer as heretofore; there was so much
straggling, so many camp followers, with no discipline, on
the outskirts of the army. The girl answered quickly, ' I
359
Feb. 16, 186.5 LINCOLNTON, N. C. March 15, 1865
wish to stay with my mother. ' That very night a party of
Wheeler's men came to our camp, and such a tale they told
of what had been done at the place of horror and destruc
tion, the mother left raving. The outrage had been com
mitted before her very face, she naving been secured first.
After this crime the fiends moved on. There were only
seven of them. They had been gone but a short time when
Wheeler's men went in pursuit at full speed and overtook
them, cut their throats and wrote upon their breasts:
' These were the seven! '
"But the girl? "
11 Oh, she was dead! "
" Are his critics as violent as ever against the Presi
dent? " asked I when recovered from pity and horror.
" Sometimes I think I am the only friend he has in the
world. At these dinners, which they give us everywhere,
I spoil the sport, for I will not sit still and hear Jeff Davis
abused for things he is no more responsible for than any
man at that table. Once I lost my temper and told them it
sounded like arrant nonsense to me, and that Jeff Davis
was a gentleman and a patriot, with more brains than the
assembled company." " You lost your temper truly,"
said I. ' ' And I did not know it. I thought I was as cool
as I am now. In Washington when we left, Jeff Davis
ranked second to none, in intellect, and may be first, from
the South, and Mrs. Davis was the friend of Mrs. Emory,
Mrs. Joe Johnston, and Mrs. Montgomery Blair, and others
of that circle. Now they rave that he is nobody, and never
was." " And she? " I asked. " Oh, you would think to
hear them that he found her yesterday in a Mississippi
swamp! " " Well, in the French Revolution it was worse.
When a man failed he was guillotined. Mirabeau did not
die a day too soon, even Mirabeau."
He is gone. With despair in my heart I left that rail
road station. Allan Green walked home with me. I met his
wife and his four ragged little boys a day or so ago. She
360
RUMORS FROM COLUMBIA
is the neatest, the primmest, the softest of women. Her
voice is like the gentle cooing of a dove. That lowering
black future hangs there all the same. The end of the war
brings no hope of peace or of security to us. Ellen said I
had a little piece of bread and a little molasses in store for
my dinner to-day.
March 6th. — To-day came a godsend. Even a small
piece of bread and the molasses had become things of the
past. My larder was empty, when a tall mulatto woman
brought a tray covered by a huge white serviette. Ellen
ushered her in with a flourish, saying, " Mrs. McDaniers
maid. ' ' The maid set down the tray upon my bare table,
and uncovered it with conscious pride. There were fowls
ready for roasting, sausages, butter, bread, eggs, and pre
serves. I was dumb with delight. After silent thanks to
heaven my powers of speech returned, and I exhausted my
self in messages of gratitude to Mrs. McDaniel.
" Missis, you oughtn't to let her see how glad you was,"
said Ellen. " It was a lettin' of yo'sef down."
Mrs. Glover gave me some yarn, and I bought five dozen
eggs with it from a wagon — eggs for Lent. To show that I
have faith yet in humanity, I paid in advance in yarn for
something to eat, which they promised to bring to-morrow.
Had they rated their eggs at $100 a dozen in " Confed-
erick ' ' money, I would have paid it as readily as $10. But
I haggle in yarn for the millionth part of a thread.
Two weeks have passed and the rumors from Columbia
are still of the vaguest. No letter has come from there, no
direct message, or messenger. " My God! " cried Dr.
Frank Miles, " but it is strange. Can it be anything so
dreadful they dare not tell us? '' Dr. St. Julien Ravenel
has grown pale and haggard with care. His wife and chil
dren were left there.
Dr. Brumby has at last been coaxed into selling me '
enough leather for the making of a pair of shoes, else I
should have had to give up walking. He knew my father
361
Feb. 16, 1865 LINCOLNTON, N. C. March 15, 1865
well. He intimated that in some way my father helped him
through college. His own money had not sufficed, and so
William C. Preston and my father advanced funds sufficient
to let him be graduated. Then my uncle, Charles Miller,
married his aunt. I listened in ra*pture, for all this tended
to leniency in the leather business, and I bore off the leather
gladly. When asked for Confederate money in trade I
never stop to bargain. I give them $20 or $50 cheerfully
for anything — either sum.
March 8th. — Colonel Childs came with a letter from my
husband and a newspaper containing a full account of Sher
man's cold-blooded brutality in Columbia. Then we walked
three miles to return the call of my benefactress, Mrs. Mc-
Daniel. They were kind and hospitable at her house, but
my heart was like lead; my head ached, and my legs were
worse than my head, and then I had a nervous chill. So I
came home, went to bed and stayed there until the Fants
brought me a letter saying my husband would be here to
day. Then I got up and made ready to give him a cheerful
reception. Soon a man called, Troy by name, the same who
kept the little corner shop so near my house in Columbia, and
of whom we bought things so often. We had fraternized.
He now shook hands with me and looked in my face piti
fully. We seemed to have been friends all our lives. He
says they stopped the fire at the Methodist College, perhaps
to save old Mr. McCartha's house. Mr. Sheriff Dent, being
burned out, took refuge in our house. He contrived to find
favor in Yankee eyes. Troy relates that a Yankee officer
snatched a watch from Mrs. McCord's bosom. The soldiers
tore the bundles of clothes that the poor wretches tried to
save from their burning homes, and dashed them back into
the flames. They meant to make a clean sweep. They
were howling round the fires like demons, these Yankees
in their joy and triumph at our destruction. Well, we have
given them a big scare and kept them miserable for four
years — the little handful of us.
362
"NOT A BEGGAR"
A woman we met on the street stopped to tell us a pain
ful coincidence. A general was married but he could not
stay at home very long after the wedding. When his baby
was born they telegraphed him, and he sent back a rejoic
ing answer with an inquiry, ' ' Is it a boy or a girl ? ' : He
was killed before he got the reply. Was it not sad? His
poor young wife says, ' ' He did not live to hear that his son
lived." The kind woman added, sorrowfully, " Died and
did not know the sect of his child. " " Let us hope it will
be a Methodist/' said Isabella, the irrepressible.
At the venison feast Isabella heard a good word for me
and one for General Chesnut's air of distinction, a thing
people can not give themselves, try as ever they may. Lord
Byron says, Everybody knows a gentleman when he sees
one, and nobody can tell what it is that makes a gentleman.
He knows the thing, but he can't describe it. Now there are
some French words that can not be translated, and we all
know the thing they mean — gracieuse and svelte, for in
stance, as applied to a woman. Not that anything was said
of me like that — far from it. I am fair, fat, forty, and
jolly, and in my unbroken jollity, as far as they know, they
found my charm. ' ' You see, she doesn 't howl ; she doesn 't
cry ; she never, never tells anybody about what she was used
to at home and what she has lost. ' ' High praise, and I in
tend to try and deserve it ever after.
March 10th. — Went to church crying to Ellen, ll It is
Lent, we must fast and pray." When I came home my
good fairy, Colonel Childs, had been here bringing rice and
potatoes, and promising flour. He is a trump. He pulled
out his pocket-book and offered to be my banker. He stood
there on the street, Miss Middleton and Isabella witnessing
the generous action, and straight out offered me money.
" No, put up that," said I. " I am not a beggar, and I
never will be ; to die is so much easier. ' '
Alas, after that flourish of trumpets, when he came with
a sack of flour, I accepted it gratefully. I receive things I
25 363
Feb. 16, 1865 LINCOLNTON, N. C. March 15, 1865
can not pay for, but money is different. There I draw a
line, imaginary perhaps. Once before the same thing hap
pened. Our letters of credit came slowly in 1845, when we
went unexpectedly to Europe and our letters were to fol
low us. I was a poor little, inoffensive bride, and a British
officer, who guessed our embarrassment, for we did not tell
him (he came over with us on the ship), asked my hus
band to draw on his banker until the letters of credit should
arrive. It was a nice thing for a stranger to do.
We have never lost what we never had. We have never
had any money — only unlimited credit, for my husband's
richest kind of a father insured us all manner of credit.
It was all a mirage only at last, and it has gone just as we
drew nigh to it.
Colonel Childs says eight of our Senators are for recon
struction, and that a ray of light has penetrated inward
from Lincoln, who told Judge Campbell that Southern land
would not be confiscated.
March 12th. — Better to-day. A long, long weary day in
grief has passed away. I suppose General Chesnut is some
where — but where? that is the question. Only once has he
visited this sad spot, which holds, he says, all that he cares
for on earth. Unless he comes or writes soon I will cease, or
try to cease, this wearisome looking, looking, looking for
him.
March 13th. — My husband at last did come for a visit
of two hours. Brought Lawrence, who had been to Cam-
den, and was there, indeed, during the raid. My hus
band has been ordered to Chester, S. C. We are surprised
to see by the papers that we behaved heroically in leaving
everything we had to be destroyed, without one thought of
surrender. We had not thought of ourselves from the he
roic point of view. Isaac McLaughlin hid and saved every
thing we trusted him with. A grateful negro is Isaac.
March 15th. — Lawrence says Miss Chesnut is very proud
of the presence of mind and cool self-possession she showed
364
MULBERRY AND THE HERMITAGE
in the face of the enemy. She lost, after all, only two bot
tles of champagne, two of her brother's gold-headed canes,
and her brother's horses, including Claudia, the brood
mare, that he valued beyond price, and her own carriage,
and a fly-brush boy called Battis, whose occupation in life
was to stand behind the table with his peacock feathers and
brush the flies away. He was the sole member of his dusky
race at Mulberry who deserted " Ole Marster " to follow
the Yankees.
Now for our losses at the Hermitage. Added to the
gold-headed canes and Claudia, we lost every mule and
horse, and President Davis 's beautiful Arabian was cap
tured. John 's were there, too. My light dragoon, Johnny,
and heavy swell, is stripped light enough for the fight now.
Jonathan, whom we trusted, betrayed us ; and the plantation
and mills, Mulberry house, etc., were saved by Claiborne,
that black rascal, who was suspected by all the world. Clai
borne boldly affirmed that Mr. Chesnut would not be hurt
by destroying his place; the invaders would hurt only the
negroes. " Mars Jeems," said he, " hardly ever come
here and he takes only a little sompen nur to eat when he
do come. ' '.
FfiS£T- .continuing, I sent for St. Julien Ravenel. We
had a wrangle over the slavery question. Then, he fell foul
of everybody who had not conducted this war according to
his ideas. Ellen had something nice to offer him (thanks
to the ever-bountiful Childs!), but he was too angry, too
anxious, too miserable to eat. He pitched into Ellen after
he had disposed of me. Ellen stood glaring at him from the
fireplace, her blue eye nearly white, her other eye blazing
as a comet. Last Sunday, he gave her some Dover's pow
ders for me ; directions were written on the paper in which
the medicine was wrapped, and he told her to show these to
me, then to put what I should give her into a wine-glass
and let me drink it. Ellen put it all into the wine-glass and
let me drink it at one dose. " It was enough to last you
365
Feb. 16, 1865 LINCOLNTON, N. C. March 15, 1865
your lifetime," he said. " It was murder." Turning to
Ellen: " What did you do with the directions? " "I
nuwer see no d'rections. You nuvver gimme none." " I
told you to show that paper to your mistress." " Well, I
flung dat ole brown paper iri de fire. What you makin' all
dis fuss for ? Soon as I give Missis de physic, she stop fret-
tin' an' flingin' 'bout, she go to sleep sweet as a suckling
baby, an' she slep two days an' nights, an' now she heap
better." And Ellen withdrew from the controversy.
" Well, all is well that ends well, Mrs. Chesnut. You
took opium enough to kill several persons. You were wor
ried out and needed rest. You came near getting it — thor
oughly. You were in no danger from your disease. But
your doctor and your nurse combined were deadly. ' ' May
be I was saved by the adulteration, the feebleness, of Con
federate medicine.
A letter from my husband, written at Chester Court
House on March 15th, says : * * In the morning I send Lieut.
Ogden with Lawrence to Lincolnton to bring you down. I
have three vacant rooms ; one with bedsteads, chairs, wash-
stands, basins, and pitchers; the two others bare. You
can have half of a kitchen for your cooking. I have also at
Dr. Da Vega's, a room, furnished, to which you are in
vited (board, also). You can take your choice. If you can
get your friends in Lincolnton to assume charge of your
valuables, only bring such as you may need here. Perhaps
it will be better to bring bed and bedding and the other
indispensables. ' '
366
XX
CHESTER, S. C.
March 21, 1865— May 1, 1865
(HESTER, S. C., March 21} 1865.— Another flitting has
occurred. Captain Ogden came for me; the splen
did Childs was true as steel to the last. Surely
he is the kindest of men. Captain Ogden was slightly in
credulous when I depicted the wonders of Colonel Childs 's
generosity. So I skilfully led out the good gentleman for
inspection, and he walked to the train with us. He offered
me Confederate money, silver, and gold ; and finally offered
to buy our cotton and pay us now in gold. Of course, I
laughed at his overflowing bounty, and accepted nothing;
but I begged him to come down to Chester or Camden and
buy our cotton of General Chesnut there.
On the train after leaving Lincolnton, as Captain Ogden
is a refugee, has had no means of communicating with his
home since New Orleans fell, and was sure to know how
refugees contrive to live, I beguiled the time acquiring in
formation from him. " When people are without a cent,
how do they live? " I asked. " I am about to enter the
noble band of homeless, houseless refugees, and Confeder
ate pay does not buy one 's shoe-strings. ' ' To which he re
plied, " Sponge, sponge. Why did you not let Colonel
Childs pay your bills? " " I have no bills, " said I. " We
have never made bills anywhere, not even at home, where
they would trust us, and nobody would trust me in Lincoln-
ton. " " Why did you not borrow his money? General
Chesnut could pay him at his leisure? " " I am by no
367
March 21, 1865 CHESTER, S. C. May 1, 1865
means sure General Chesmit will ever again have any
money," said I.
As the train rattled and banged along, and I waved my
handkerchief in farewell to Miss Middleton, Isabella, and
other devoted friends, I could only wonder if fate would
ever throw me again with such kind, clever, agreeable, con
genial companions? The McLeans refused to be paid for
their rooms. No plummet can sound the depths of the hos
pitality and kindness of the North Carolina people.
Misfortune dogged us from the outset. Everything
went wrong with the train. We broke down within two
miles of Charlotte, and had to walk that distance; which
was pretty rough on an invalid barely out of a fever. My
spirit was further broken by losing an invaluable lace veil,
which was worn because I was too poor to buy a cheaper
one — that is, if there were any veils at all for sale in our
region.
My husband had ordered me to a house in Charlotte
kept by some great friends of his. They established me in
the drawing-room, a really handsome apartment ; they made
up a bed there and put in a washstand and plenty of water,
with everything refreshingly clean and nice. But it con
tinued to be a public drawing-room, open to all, so that I
was half dead at night and wanted to go to bed. The piano
was there and the company played it.
The landlady announced, proudly, that for supper there
were nine kinds of custard. Custard sounded nice and
light, so I sent for some, but found it heavy potato pie. I
said: " Ellen, this may kill me, though Dover's powder did
not." " Don't you believe dat, Missis; try." We barri
caded ourselves in the drawing-room that night and left the
next day at dawn. Arrived at the station, we had another
disappointment; the train was behind time. There we sat
on our boxes nine long hours ; for the cars might come at
any moment, and we dared not move an inch from the spot.
Finally the train rolled in overloaded with paroled pris-
368
A WISH TO LIVE IN PEACE
oners, but heaven helped us : a kind mail agent invited us,
with two other forlorn women, into his comfortable and
clean mail-car. Ogden, true to his theory, did not stay at
the boarding-house as we did. Some Christian acquaint
ances took him in for the night. This he explained with a
grin.
My husband was at the Chester station with a carriage.
We drove at once to Mrs. Da Vega's.
March 24th. — I have been ill, but what could you ex
pect? My lines, however, have again fallen in pleasant
places. Mrs. Da Vega is young, handsome, and agreeable,
a kind and perfect hostess ; and as to the house, my room is
all that I could ask and leaves nothing to be desired; so
very fresh, clean, warm, and comfortable is it. It is the
drawing-room suddenly made into a bedroom for me. But
it is my very own. We are among the civilized of the earth
once more.
March 27th. — I have moved again, and now I am looking
from a window high, with something more to see than the
sky. We have the third story of Dr. Da Vega's house,
which opens on the straight street that leads to the railroad
about a mile off.
Mrs. Bedon is the loveliest of young widows. Yesterday
at church Isaac Hayne nestled so close to her cap-strings
that I had to touch him and say, ' * Sit up ! ' : Josiah Bedon
was killed in that famous fight of the Charleston Light Dra
goons. The dragoons stood still to be shot down in their
tracks, having no orders to retire. They had been forgotten,
doubtless, and they scorned to take care of themselves.
In this high and airy retreat, as in Richmond, then in
Columbia, and then in Lincolnton, my cry is still : If they
would only leave me here in peace and if I were sure things
never could be worse with me. Again am I surrounded by
old friends. People seem to vie with each other to show how
good they can be to me.
To-day Smith opened the trenches and appeared laden
369
March 21, 1865 CHESTER, S. C. May 1, 1865
with a tray covered with a snow-white napkin. Here was
my first help toward housekeeping again. Mrs. Pride has
sent a boiled ham, a loaf of bread, a huge pancake ; another
neighbor coffee already parched and ground; a loaf of
sugar already cracked; candles, pickles, and all the other
things one must trust to love for now. Such money as we
have avails us nothing, even if there were anything left in
the shops to buy.
We had a jolly luncheon. James Lowndes called, the
best of good company. He said of Buck, " She is a queen,
and ought to reign in a palace. No Prince Charming yet;
no man has yet approached her that I think half good
enough for her."
Then Mrs. Prioleau Hamilton, nee Levy, came with the
story of family progress, not a royal one, from Columbia
here : " Before we left home," said she, " Major Hamilton
spread a map of the United States on the table, and showed
me with his finger where Sherman was likely to go. Wom
anlike, I demurred. * But, suppose he does not choose to
go that way ? ' ' Pooh, pooh ! what do you know of war ? '
So we set out, my husband, myself, and two children, all in
one small buggy. The 14th of February we took up our line
of march, and straight before Sherman 's men for five weeks
we fled together. By incessant hurrying and scurrying
from pillar to post, we succeeded in acting as a sort of
avant-courier of the Yankee army. Without rest and with
much haste, we got here last Wednesday, and here we mean
to stay and defy Sherman and his legions. Much the worse
for wear were we. ' '
The first night their beauty sleep was rudely broken into
at Alston with a cry, " Move on, the Yanks are upon us! "
So they hurried on, half-awake, to Winnsboro, but with no
better luck. There they had to lighten the ship, leave
trunks, etc., and put on all sail, for this time the Yankees
were only five miles behind. " Whip and spur, ride for
your life! " was the cry. " Sherman's objective point
370
SHERMAN AND JOHNSTON
seemed to be our buggy," said she; " for you know that
when we got to Lancaster Sherman was expected there, and
he keeps his appointments ; that is, he kept that one. Two
small children were in our chariot, and I began to think of
the Red Sea expedition. But we lost no time, and soon we
were in Cheraw, clearly out of the track. We thanked God
for all his mercies and hugged to our bosoms fond hopes of
a bed and bath so much needed by all, especially for the
children.
" At twelve o'clock General Hardee himself knocked us
up with word to l March ! march ! ' for ' all the blue bon
nets are over the border. ' In mad haste we made for Fay-
etteville, when they said : l God bless your soul ! This is the
seat of war now; the battle-ground where Sherman and
Johnston are to try conclusions. ' So we harked back, as the
hunters say, and cut across country, aiming for this place.
Clean clothes, my dear ? Never a one except as we took off
garment by garment and washed it and dried it by our
camp fire, with our loins girded and in haste. ' ' I was snug
and comfortable all that time in Lincolnton.
To-day Stephen D. Lee's corps marched through — only
to surrender. The camp songs of these men were a heart
break ; so sad, yet so stirring. They would have warmed the
blood of an Icelander. The leading voice was powerful,
mellow, clear, distinct, pathetic, sweet. So, I sat down, as
women have done before, when they hung up their harps by
strange streams, and I wept the bitterness of such weeping.
Music ? Away, away ! Thou speakest to me of things which
in all my long life I have not found, and I shall not find.
There they go, the gay and gallant few, doomed; the last
gathering of the flower of Southern pride, to be killed, or
worse, to a prison. They continue to prance by, light and
jaunty. They march with as airy a tread as if they still be
lieved the world was all on their side, and that there were
371
March 21, 1865 CHESTER, S. C. May 1, 1865
no Yankee bullets for the unwary. What will Joe Johnston
do with them now?
The Hood melodrama is over, though the curtain has not
fallen on the last scene. Cassandra croaks and makes many
mistakes, but to-day she believes that Hood stock is going
down. When that style of .enthusiasm is on the wane, the
rapidity of its extinction is miraculous. It is like the snuff
ing out of a candle; " one moment white, then gone for
ever." No, that is not right; it is the snow-flake on the
river that is referred to. I am getting things as much
mixed as do the fine ladies of society.
Lee and Johnston have each fought a drawn battle ; only
a few more dead bodies lie stiff and stark on an unknown
battle-field. For we do not so much as know where these
drawn battles took place.
Teddy Barnwell, after sharing with me my first lunch
eon, failed me cruelly. He was to come for me to go down
to the train and see Isabella pass by. One word with Isa
bella worth a thousand ordinary ones! So, she has gone
by and I Ve not seen her.
Old Colonel Chesnut refuses to say grace; but as he
leaves the table audibly declares, ' ' I thank God for a good
dinner." When asked why he did this odd thing he said:
' * My way is to be sure of a thing before I return thanks for
it." Mayor Goodwyn thanked Sherman for promised pro
tection to Columbia; soon after, the burning began.
I received the wife of a post-office robber. The poor
thing had done no wrong, and I felt so sorry for her. Who
would be a woman? Who that fool, a weeping, pining,
faithful woman? She hath hard measures still when she
hopes kindest. And all her beauty only makes ingrates !
March 29th. — I was awakened with a bunch of violets
from Mrs. Pride. Violets always remind me of Kate and
of the sweet South wind that blew in the garden of para
dise part of my life. Then, it all came back : the dread un
speakable that lies behind every thought now.
372
FLIGHT IN A BOX -CAR
Thursday. — I find I have not spoken of the box-car
which held the Preston party that day on their way to
York from Richmond. In the party were Mr. and Mrs.
Lawson Clay, General and Mrs. Preston and their three
daughters, Captain Rodgers, and Mr. Portman, whose
father is an English earl, and connected financially and
happily with Portman Square. In my American ignorance
I may not state Mr. Portman 's case plainly. Mr. Portman
is, of course, a younger son. Then there was Cellie and her
baby and wet-nurse, with no end of servants, male and fe
male. In this ark they slept, ate, and drank, such being the
fortune of war. We were there but a short time, but Mr.
Portman, during that brief visit of ours, was said to have
eaten three luncheons, and the number of his drinks, tod
dies, so called, were counted, too. Mr. Portman 's contribu
tion to the larder had been three small pigs. They were,
however, run over by the train, and made sausage meat of
unduly and before their time.
General Lee says to the men who shirk duty, " This is
the people's war; when they tire, I stop." Wigfall says,
li It is all over; the game is up." He is on his way to
Texas, and when the hanging begins he can step over into
Mexico.
I am plucking up heart, such troops do I see go by every
day. They must turn the tide, and surely they are going
for something more than surrender. It is very late, and the
wind flaps my curtain, which seems to moan, " Too late."
All this will end by making me a nervous lunatic.
Yesterday while I was driving with Mrs. Pride, Colo
nel McCaw passed us! He called out, " I do hope you are
in comfortable quarters." " Very comfortable," I replied.
" Oh, Mrs. Chesnut! " said Mrs. Pride, " how can you say
that ? ' ' * ' Perfectly comfortable, and hope it may never be
worse with me," said I. "I have a clean little parlor, 16
by 18, with its bare floor well scrubbed, a dinner-table, six
chairs, and — well, that is all ; but I have a charming lookout
373
March 21, 1865 CHESTER, S. C. May 1, 1865
from my window high. My world is now thus divided into
two parts — where Yankees are and where Yankees are not. ' '
As I sat disconsolate, looking out, ready for any new
tramp of men and arms, the magnificent figure of General
Preston hove in sight. He was mounted on a mighty steed,
worthy of its rider, followed by his trusty squire, William
Walker, who bore before him the General's portmanteau.
When I had time to realize the situation, I perceived at
General Preston's right hand Mr. Christopher Hampton
and Mr. Portman, who passed by. Soon Mrs. Pride, in some
occult way, divined or heard that they were coming here,
and she sent me at once no end of good things for my tea-
table. General Preston entered very soon after, and with
him Clement Clay, of Alabama, the latter in pursuit of his
wife 's trunk. I left it with the Rev. Mr. Martin, and have
no doubt it is perfectly safe, but where? We have written
to Mr. Martin to inquire. Then Wilmot de Saussure ap
peared. " I am here," he said, " to consult with General
Chesnut. He and I always think alike." He added, em
phatically: " Slavery is stronger than ever." " If you
think so," said I, " you will find that for once you and
General Chesnut do not think alike. He has held that sla
very was a thing of the past, this many a year. ' '
I said to General Preston : * * I pass my days and nights
partly at this window. I am sure our army is silently dis
persing. Men are moving the wrong way, all the time.
They slip by with no songs and no shouts now. They have
given the thing up. See for yourself. Look there. ' ' For a
while the streets were thronged with soldiers and then they
were empty again. But the marching now is without tap
of drum.
March 31st. — Mr. Priolcau Hamilton told us of a great
adventure. Mrs. Preston was put under his care on the train.
He soon found the only other women along were " strictly
unfortunate females," as Carlyle calls them, beautiful and
aggressive. He had to communicate the unpleasant fact to
374
MISS CHESNUT AND THE YANKEE
Mrs. Preston, on account of their propinquity, and was lost
in admiration of her silent dignity, her quiet self-posses
sion, her calmness, her deafness and blindness, her thor
oughbred ignoring of all that she did not care to see. Some
women, no matter how ladylike, would have made a fuss
or would have fidgeted, but Mrs. Preston dominated the sit
uation and possessed her soul in innocence and peace.
Met Robert Johnston from Camden. He has been a pris
oner, having been taken at Camden. The Yankees robbed
Zack Cantey of his forks and spoons. When Zack did not
seem to like it, they laughed at him. When he said he did
not see any fun in it, they pretended to weep and wiped
their eyes with their coat-tails. All this maddening deri
sion Zack said was as hard to bear as it was to see them ride
off with his horse, Albine. They stole all of Mrs. Zack's
jewelry and silver. When the Yankee general heard of it
he wrote her a very polite note, saying how sorry he was
that she had been annoyed, and returned a bundle of Zack 's
love-letters, written to her before she was married. Robert
Johnston said Miss Chesnut was a brave and determined
spirit. One Yankee officer came in while they were at break
fast and sat down to warm himself at the fire. " Rebels
have no rights/' Miss Chesnut said to him politely. " I
suppose you have come to rob us. Please do so and go.
Your presence agitates my blind old father." The man
jumped up in a rage, and said, " What do you take me for
— a robber ? ' : " No, indeed, ' ' said she, and for very shame
he marched out empty-handed.
April 3d. — Saw General Preston ride off. He came to
tell me good-by. I told him he looked like a Crusader on
his great white horse, with William, his squire, at his heels.
Our men are all consummate riders, and have their servants
well mounted behind them, carrying cloaks and traps — how
different from the same men packed like sardines in dirty
railroad cars, usually floating inch deep in liquid tobacco
juice.
375
March 21, 1865 CHESTER, S. C. May 1, 1865
For the kitchen and Ellen's comfort I wanted a pine
table and a kitchen chair. A woman sold me one to-day for
three thousand Confederate dollars.
Mrs. Hamilton has been disappointed again. Prioleau
Hamilton says the person into whose house they expected
to move to-day came to say she could not take boarders for
three reasons: First, " that they had smallpox in the
house." " And the two others? " " Oh, I did not ask for
the two others! ''
April 5th. — Miss Middleton's letter came in answer to
mine, telling her how generous my friends here were to me.
' We long," she says, " for our own small sufficiency of
wood, corn, and vegetables. Here is a struggle unto death,
although the neighbors continue to feed us, as you would
say, ' with a spoon.' We have fallen upon a new device.
We keep a cookery book on the mantelpiece, and when the
dinner is deficient we just read off a pudding or a creme.
It does not entirely satisfy the appetite, this dessert in im
agination, but perhaps it is as good for the digestion. ' '
As I was ready to go, though still up-stairs, some one
came to say General Hood had called. Mrs. Hamilton
cried out, * ' Send word you are not at home. " " Never ! ' '
said I. " Why make him climb all these stairs when you
must go in five minutes ? ' ' " If he had come here dragging
Sherman as a captive at his chariot wheels I might say ' not
at home,' but not now." And I ran down and greeted him
on the sidewalk in the face of all, and walked slowly beside
him as he toiled up the weary three stories, limping gallant
ly. He was so well dressed and so cordial ; not depressed in
the slightest. Pie was so glad to see me. He calls his re
port self-defense; says Joe Johnston attacked him and he
was obliged to state things from his point of view. And
now follow statements, where one may read between the
lines what one chooses. He had been offered a command in
Western Virginia, but as General Lee was concerned because
he and Joe Johnston were not on cordial terms, and as the
376
RICHMOND FALLS
fatigue of the mountain campaign would be too great for
him, he would like the chance of going across the Missis
sippi. Texas was true to him, and would be his home, as it
had voted him a ranch somewhere out there. They say Gen
eral Lee is utterly despondent, and has no plan if Richmond
goes, as go it must.
April 7th. — Richmond has fallen and I have no heart
to write about it. Grant broke through our lines and Sher
man cut through them. Stoneman is this side of Danville.
They are too many for us. Everything is lost in Richmond,
even our archives. Blue black is our horizon. Hood says
we shall all be obliged to go West — to Texas, I mean, for
our own part of the country will be overrun.
Yes, a solitude and a wild waste it may become, but, as
to that, we can rough it in the bush at home.
De Fontaine, in his newspaper, continues the old cry.
' ' Now Richmond is given up, ' ' he says, ' ' it was too heavy
a load to carry, and we are stronger than ever." " Strong
er than ever ? ' : Nine-tenths of our army are under ground
and where is another army to come from? Will they wait
until we grow one ?
April 15th. — What a week it has been — madness, sad
ness, anxiety, turmoil, ceaseless excitement. The Wigfalls
passed through on their way to Texas. We did not see
them. Louly told Hood they were bound for the Rio
Grande, and ir-tended to shake hands with Maximilian, Em
peror of Mexico. Yankees were expected here every min
ute. Mrs. Davis came. We went down to the cars at day
light to receive her. She dined with me. Lovely Winnie,
the baby, came, too. Buck and Hood were here, and that
queen of women, Mary Darby. Clay behaved like a trump.
He was as devoted to Mrs. Davis in her adversity as if they
had never quarreled in her prosperity. People sent me
things for Mrs. Davis, as they did in Columbia for Mr.
Davis. It was a luncheon or breakfast only she stayed for
here. Mrs. Brown prepared a dinner for her at the sta-
377
March 21, 1B65 CHESTER, S. C. May 1, 1865
tion. I went down with her. She left here at five o'clock.
My heart was like lead, but we did not give way. She was
as calm and smiling as ever. It was but a brief glimpse of
my dear Mrs. Davis, and under altered skies.
April 17th. — A letter from Mrs. Davis, who writes:
" Do come to me, and see how we get on. I shall have a
spare room by the time you arrive, indifferently furnished,
but, oh, so affectionately placed at your service. You will
receive such a loving welcome. One perfect bliss have I.
The baby, who grows fat and is smiling always, is chris
tened, and not old enough to develop the world's vices or to
be snubbed by it. The name so long delayed is Varina
Anne. My name is a heritage of woe.
" Are you delighted with your husband? I am de
lighted with him as well as with my own. It is well to lose
an Arabian horse if one elicits such a tender and at the
same time knightly letter as General Chesnut wrote to my
poor old Prometheus. I do not think that for a time he
felt the vultures after the reception of the General's letter.
" I hear horrid reports about Richmond. It is said
that all below Ninth Street to the Rocketts has been burned
by the rabble, who mobbed the town. The Yankee per
formances have not been chronicled. May God take our
cause into His own hands. ' '
April 19th. — Just now, when Mr. Clay dashed up-stairs,
pale as a sheet, saying, " General Lee has capitulated," I
saw it reflected in Mary Darby's face before I heard him
speak. She staggered to the table, sat down, and wept
aloud. Mr. Clay's eyes were not dry. Quite beside her
self Mary shrieked, " Now we belong to negroes and Yan
kees ! ' ' Buck said, ' ' I do not believe it. ' '
How different from ours of them is their estimate of us.
How contradictory is their attitude toward us. To keep the
despised and iniquitous South within their borders, as part
of their country, they are willing to enlist millions of men
at home and abroad, and to spend billions, and we know
378
LEE'S SURRENDER
they do not love fighting per se, nor spending money. They
are perfectly willing to have three killed for our one. We
hear they have all grown rich, through * ' shoddy, ' ' whatever
that is. Genuine Yankees can make a fortune trading jack-
knives.
* ' Somehow it is borne in on me that we will have to pay
the piper, ' ' was remarked to-day. ' ' No ; blood can not be
squeezed from a turnip. You can not pour anything out
of an empty cup. We have no money even for taxes or to
be confiscated. "
While the Preston girls are here, my dining-room is
given up to them, and we camp on the landing, with our one
table and six chairs. Beds are made on the dining-room
floor. Otherwise there is no furniture, except buckets of
water and bath-tubs in their improvised chamber. Night
and day this landing and these steps are crowded with the
elite of the Confederacy, going and coming, and when night
comes, or rather, bedtime, more beds are made on the floor
of the landing-place for the war-worn soldiers to rest upon.
The whole house is a bivouac. As Pickens said of South
Carolina in 1861, we are " an armed camp."
My husband is rarely at home. I sleep with the girls,
and my room is given up to soldiers. General Lee's few,
but undismayed, his remnant of an army, or the part from
the South and West, sad and crestfallen, pass through
Chester. Many discomfited heroes find their way up these
stairs. They say Johnston will not be caught as Lee was.
He can retreat; that is his trade. If he would not fight
Sherman in the hill country of Georgia, what will he do
but retreat in the plains of North Carolina with Grant,
Sherman, and Thomas all to the fore ?
We are to stay here. Running is useless now; so we
mean to bide a Yankee raid, which they say is imminent.
Why fly? They are everywhere, these Yankees, like red
ants, like the locusts and frogs which were the plagues of
Egypt.
26 379
March 91, 1865 CHESTER, S. C. May 1, 1865
The plucky way in which our men keep up is beyond
praise. There is no howling, and our poverty is made a
matter of laughing. We deride our own penury. Of the
country we try not to speak at all.
April 22d. — This yellow Confederate quire of paper,
my journal, blotted by entries, has been buried three days
with the silver sugar-dish, teapot, milk-jug, and a few
spoons and forks that follow my fortunes as I wander.
With these valuables was Hood's silver cup, which was
partly crushed when he was wounded at Chickamauga.
It has been a wild three days, with aides galloping
around with messages, Yankees hanging over us like a
sword of Damocles. We have been in queer straits. We
sat up at Mrs. Bedon's dressed, without once going to bed
for forty-eight hours, and we were aweary.
Colonel Cadwallader Jones came with a despatch, a
sealed secret despatch. It was for General Chesnut. I
opened it. Lincoln, old Abe Lincoln, has been killed, mur
dered, and Seward wounded! Why? By whom? It is
simply maddening, all this.
I sent off messenger after messenger for General Ches
nut. I have not the faintest idea where he is, but I know
this foul murder will bring upon us worse miseries. Mary
Darby says, " But they murdered him themselves. No
Confederates are in Washington. " " But if they see fit to
accuse us of instigating it 1 ' ' li Who murdered him ? Who
knows? " " See if they don't take vengeance on us, now
that we are ruined and can not repel them any longer/'
The death of Lincoln I call a warning to tyrants. He
will not be the last President put to death in the capital,
though he is the first.
Buck never submits to be bored. The bores came to tea
at Mrs. Bedon's, and then sat and talked, so prosy, so
wearisome was the discourse, so endless it seemed, that we
envied Buck, who was mooning on the piazza. She rarely
speaks now.
380
AN ARMISTICE AGREED
UPON!!!
Lincoln Assassinated and
Se ward Mortally Wound
ed in Washington!!
GBEENSBOBO, April 19, 1865.
GENERAL ORDBB No. 14.
It is announced to the Army that a suspension of arms has been
agreed upon pending negotiations between the two Governments.
During its continuance the two armies arc to occupy their pre
sent position.
By command of Qeneral Johnston :
[SIGNED,] ARCHER ANDERSON,
Liout. Col. and A. A. O.
Official Copy : ISAAC HAYSE.
WASHINGTON, April 12, 1865.
To MAJOB-GENBBAL SHEBUAN :
President. Lincoln was murdered, about ten o'clock last night, in hia
private box at Ford's Theatre, in this city, by an assassin, who thai
him in the head with a pistol baU. At the same hour Mr. Se ward's
house was entered by another assassin, who stabbed the Secretary in
several places. It is thought he may possiby recover, but his son
Fred may possibly die of the wounds he received.
The assassin of the President leaped from the private box, bran
dishing his dagger and exclaiming : " Sic Semper Tyrannis—ViR-
oruiA is UEVESGED !" Mr. Lincoln fell senseless from his seat, and
continued in that condition until 22 minutes past 10 o'clock this
morning, at which time he breathed his last.
Vice President Johnson now becomes President, and with take
the oath of office and assume the duties to-day.
[SIGNED,] E. M. STANTON
TO THE CITIZENS OP CHESTER.
CHESTEB, S. C., April 22, 1865.
FLOUR and MEAL given out to the citizens by order of Major
MITCHELL, Chief Commissary of South Carolina, to be returned
when called for. is Ixuily wanted to ration General Johnston's army.
Please return tho same at once.
E. M. GRAHAM. Agent Subsistence Dep't.
HEADQUARTERS RESERVE FORCES S. C.
CHESTEBVILLE, APRIL 20, 1865.
The ISriga lier-Generil Commanding has been informed that, ID View of th»
approach of the enemy, » Urge qaiamy of supplies of Ttrioui kinds were gi«e
out by the rarious OoTaram:at oifioera at this past to the ciliseas of the place, lie
now cally upon, and earnestly request* all ouitens, who miy htrj suit stores in
their yoaaeadion, to return ihsm to the several Department] to which they belong.
Ttie stores are much nee IsJ »t this time fjr tho ujo of soUitrs, passing through th«
place, and for the sick at iho Hospital.
By command of Brig. Gen Chesnul:
M. R OI.ARK, Mijor an I A A. General.
A NEWSPAPER EXTRA.
LINCOLN'S DEATH
April 23d. — My silver wedding-day, and I am sure the
unhappiest day of my life. Mr. Portman came with Chris
topher Hampton. Portman told of Miss Kate Hampton, who
is perhaps the most thoroughly ladylike person in the world.
When he told her that Lee had surrendered she started
up from her seat and said, " That is a lie." " Well, Miss
Hampton, I tell the tale as it was told me. I can do no
more. ' '
No wonder John Chesnut is bitter. They say Mulberry
has been destroyed by a corps commanded by General Lo
gan. Some one asked coolly, " Will General Chesnut be
shot as a soldier, or hung as a senator? " " I am not of
sufficient consequence," answered he. " They will stop
short of brigadiers. I resigned my seat in the United States
Senate weeks before there was any secession. So I can not
be hung as a senator. But after all it is only a choice be
tween drumhead court martial, short shrift, and a linger
ing death at home from starvation."
These negroes are unchanged. The shining black mask
they wear does not show a ripple of change ; they are
sphinxes. Ellen has had my diamonds to keep for a week
or so. When the danger was over she handed them back to
me with as little apparent interest in the matter as if they
had been garden peas.
Mrs. Huger was in church in Richmond when the news
of the surrender came. Worshipers were in the midst of
the communion service. Mr. McFarland was called out to
send away the gold from his bank. Mr. Minnegerode 's Eng
lish grew confused. Then the President was summoned,
and distress of mind showed itself in every face. The night
before one of General Lee's aides, Walter Taylor, was mar
ried, and was off to the wars immediately after the cere
mony.
One year ago we left Richmond. The Confederacy has
double-quicked down hill since then. One year since I
stood in that beautiful Hollywood by little Joe Davis 's
381
March 21, 1865 CHESTER, S. C. May 1, 1865
grave. Now we have burned towns, deserted plantations,
sacked villages. ' ' You seem resolute to look the worst in the
face," said General Chesnut, wearily. " Yes, poverty, with
no future and no hope." li But no slaves, thank God! "
cried Buck. " We would be the sdbrn of the world if the
world thought of us at all. You see, we are exiles and pau
pers." " Pile on the agony." " How does our famous
captain, the great Lee, bear the Yankees' galling chain? "
I asked. ' * He knows how to possess his soul in patience, ' '
answered my husband. " If there were no such word as
subjugation, no debts, no poverty, no negro mobs backed by
Yankees ; if all things were well, you would shiver and feel
benumbed," he went on, pointing at me in an oratorical
attitude. " Your sentence is pronounced— Camden for
life."
May 1st. — In Chester still. I climb these steep steps
alone. They have all gone, all passed by. Buck went with
Mr. C. Hampton to York. Mary, Mrs. Huger, and Pinck-
ney took flight together. One day just before they began to
dissolve in air, Captain Gay was seated at the table, half
way between me on the top step and John in the window,
with his legs outside. Said some one to-day, " She showed
me her engagement ring, and I put it back on her hand.
She is engaged, but not to me. " " By the heaven that is
above us all, I saw you kiss her hand." " That I deny."
Captain Gay glared in angry surprise, and insisted that
he had seen it. " Sit down, Gay," said the cool captain in
his most mournful way. ' * You see, my father died when I
was a baby, and my grandfather took me in hand. To him
I owe this moral maxim. He is ninety years old, a wise old
man. Now, remember my grandfather's teaching forever-
more — ' A gentleman must not kiss and tell.' '
General Preston came to say good-by. He will take his
family abroad at once. Burnside, in New Orleans, owes
him some money and will pay it. ' l There will be no more
confiscation, my dear madam, ' ' said he ; * ' they must see
that we have been punished enough. " * ' They do not think
382
A STORY OF JOE JOHNSTON
so, my dear general. This very day a party of Federals
passed in hot pursuit of our President. ' '
A terrible fire-eater, one of the few men left in the world
who believe we have a right divine, being white, to hold
Africans, who are black, in bonds forever ; he is six feet two ;
an athlete ; a splendid specimen of the animal man ; but he
has never been under fire; his place in the service was a
bomb-proof office, so-called. With a face red-hot with rage
he denounced Jen0 Davis and Hood. " Come, now," said
Edward, the handsome, " men who could fight and did not,
they are the men who ruined us. We wanted soldiers. If
the men who are cursing Jeff Davis now had fought with
Hood, and fought as Hood fought, we 'd be all right now. ' '
And then he told of my trouble one day while Hood was
here. " Just such a fellow as you came up on this little
platform, and before Mrs. Chesnut could warn him, began
to heap insults on Jeff Davis and his satrap, Hood. Mrs.
Chesnut held up her hands. ' Stop, not another word.
You shall not abuse my friends here! Not Jeff Davis be
hind his back, not Hood to his face, for he is in that room
and hears you.' : Fancy how dumfounded this creature
was.
Mrs. Huger told a story of Joe Johnston in his callow
days before he was famous. After an illness Johnston 's
hair all fell out; not a hair was left on his head, which
shone like a fiery cannon-ball. One of the gentlemen from
Africa who waited at table sniggered so at dinner that
he was ordered out by the grave and decorous black butler.
General Huger, feeling for the agonies of young Africa, as
he strove to stifle his mirth, suggested that Joe Johnston
should cover his head with his handkerchief. A red silk one
was produced, and turban-shaped, placed on his head.
That completely finished the gravity of the butler, who fled
in helplessness. His guffaw on the outside of the door be
came plainly audible. General Huger then suggested, as
they must have the waiter back, or the dinner could not go
on, that Joe should eat with his hat on, which he did.
383
XXI
CAMDEN, S. C.
May 2, 1865— August 2, 1865
AMDEN, S. C., May 2, 1865.— Since we left Chester
nothing but solitude, nothing but tall blackened
chimneys, to show that any man has ever trod this
road before. This is Sherman's track. It is hard not to
curse him. I wept incessantly at first. The roses of the
gardens are already hiding the ruins. My husband said Na
ture is a wonderful renovator. He tried to say something
else and then I shut my eyes and made a vow that if we
were a crushed people, crushed by weight, I would never be
a whimpering, pining slave.
We heard loud explosions of gunpowder in the direction
of Camden. Destroyers were at it there. Met William
Walker, whom Mr. Preston left in charge of a car-load of
his valuables. General Preston was hardly out of sight be
fore poor helpless William had to stand by and see the car
plundered. " My dear Missis! they have cleaned me out,
nothing left, ' ' moaned William the faithful. We have nine
armed couriers with us. Can they protect us ?
Bade adieu to the staff at Chester. No general ever had
so remarkable a staff, so accomplished, so agreeable, so well
bred, and, I must say, so handsome, and can add so brave
and efficient.
May 4th. — Home again at Bloomsbury. From Chester
to Winnsboro we did not see one living thing, man, woman,
or animal, except poor William trudging home after his sad
disaster. The blooming of the gardens had a funereal effect.
384
ROSES ABOVE THE RUINS
Nature is so luxuriant here, she soon covers the ravages of
savages. No frost has occurred since the seventh of March,
which accounts for the wonderful advance in vegetation.
This seems providential to these starving people. In this
climate so much that is edible can be grown in two months.
At Winnsboro we stayed at Mr. Robertson's. There we
left the wagon train. Only Mr. Brisbane, one of the gener
al 's couriers, came with us on escort duty. The Robertsons
were very kind and hospitable, brimful of Yankee anec
dotes. To my amazement the young people of Winnsboro
had a May-day celebration amid the smoking ruins. Irre
pressible is youth.
The fidelity of the negroes is the principal topic. There
seems to be not a single case of a negro who betrayed his
master, and yet they showed a natural and exultant joy at
being free. After we left Winnsboro negroes were seen in
the fields plowing and hoeing corn, just as in antebellum
times. The fields in that respect looked quite cheerful. We
did not pass in the line of Sherman's savages, and so saw
some houses standing.
Mary Kirkland has had experience with the Yankees.
She has been pronounced the most beautiful woman on this
side of the Atlantic, and has been spoiled accordingly in all
society. When the Yankees came, Monroe, their negro man
servant, told her to stand up and hold two of her children
in her arms, with the other two pressed as close against her
knees as they could get. Mammy Selina and Lizzie then
stood grimly on each side of their young missis and her
children. For four mortal hours the soldiers surged
through the rooms of the house. Sometimes Mary and her
children were roughly jostled against the wall, but Mammy
and Lizzie were stanch supporters. The Yankee soldiers
taunted .the negro women for their foolishness in standing
by their cruel slave-owners, and taunted Mary with being
glad of the protection of her poor ill-used slaves. Monroe
meanwhile had one leg bandaged and pretended to be lame,
385
May 2, 1865 CAMDEN, S. C. Aug. 2, 1865
so that he might not be enlisted as a soldier, and kept mak
ing pathetic appeals to Mary.
1 ( Don 't answer them back, Miss Mary, ' ' said he. ' ' Let
'em say what dey want to ; don 't answer 'em back. Don 't
give 'em any chance to say you are impudent to 'em. ' '
One man said to her : * ' Why do you shrink from us and
avoid us so ? We did not come here to fight for negroes ; we
hate them. At Port Royal I saw a beautiful white woman
driving in a wagon with a coal-black negro man. If she had
been anything to me I would have shot her through the
heart." " Oh, oh! " said Lizzie, " that's the way you talk
in here. I '11 remember that when you begin outside to beg
me to run away with you. ' '
Finally poor Aunt Betsy, Mary's mother, fainted from
pure fright and exhaustion. Mary put down her baby and
sprang to her mother, who was lying limp in a chair, and
fiercely called out, " Leave this room, you wretches! Do
you mean to kill my mother ? She is ill ; I must put her to
bed. ' ' Without a word they all slunk out ashamed. ' ' If I
had only tried that hours ago, ' ' she now said. Outside they
remarked that she was ' * an insolent rebel huzzy, who thinks
herself too good to speak to a soldier of the United States, ' '
and one of them said : ' ' Let us go in and break her mouth. ' '
But the better ones held the more outrageous back. Monroe
slipped in again and said: " Missy, for God's sake, when
dey come in be sociable with 'em. Dey will kill you."
" Then let me die."
The negro soldiers were far worse than the white ones.
Mrs. Bartow drove with me to Mulberry. On one side
of the house we found every window had been broken,
every bell torn down, every piece of furniture destroyed,
and every door smashed in. But the other side was intact.
Maria Whitaker and her mother, who had been left in
charge, explained this odd state of things. The Yankees
were busy as beavers, working like regular carpenters, de
stroying everything when their general came in and stopped
386
AGAIN AT MULBERRY
them. He told them it was a sin to destroy a fine old house
like that, whose owner was over ninety years old. He would
not have had it done for the world. It was wanton mischief.
He explained to Maria that soldiers at such times were ex
cited, wild, and unruly. They carried off sacks full of our
books, since unfortunately they found a pile of empty sacks
in the garret. Our books, our letters, our papers were after
ward strewn along the Charleston road. Somebody found
things of ours as far away as Vance 's Ferry.
This was Potter's raid.1 Sherman took only our horses.
Potter's raid came after Johnston's surrender, and ruined
us finally, burning our mills and gins and a hundred bales
of cotton. Indeed, nothing is left to us now but the bare
land, and the debts contracted for the support of hundreds
of negroes during the war.
J. H. Boykin was at home at the time to look after his
own interests, and he, with John de Saussure, has saved
the cotton on their estates, with the mules and farming uten
sils and plenty of cotton as capital to begin on again. The
negroes would be a good riddance. A hired man would be a
good deal cheaper than a man whose father and mother,
wife and twelve children have to be fed, clothed, housed,
and nursed, their taxes paid, and their doctor's bills, all
for his half-done, slovenly, lazy work. For years we have
thought negroes a nuisance that did not pay. They pretend
exuberant loyalty to us now. Only one man of Mr. Ches-
nut's left the plantation with the Yankees.
When the Yankees found the Western troops were not at
Camden, but down below Swift Creek, like sensible folk
they came up the other way, and while we waited at Chester
1 The reference appears to. be to General Edward E. Potter, a native
of New York City, who died in 1889. General Potter entered the Federal
service early in the war. He recruited a regiment of North Carolina
troops and engaged in operations in North and South Carolina and
Eastern Tennessee.
387
May 2, 1865 CAMDEN, S. C. Aug. 2, 1865
for marching orders we were quickly ruined after the sur
render. With our cotton saved, and cotton at a dollar a
pound, we might be in comparatively easy circumstances.
But now it is the devil to pay, and no pitch hot. Well, all
this was to be.
Godard Bailey, editor, whose prejudices are all against
us, described the raids to me in this wise : They were regu
larly organized. First came squads who demanded arms
and whisky. Then came the rascals who hunted for silver,
ransacked the ladies' wardrobes and scared women and
children into fits — at least those who could be scared.
Some of these women could not be scared. Then came
some smiling, suave, well-dressed officers, who " regretted
it all so much." Outside the gate officers, men, and bum
mers divided even, share and share alike, the piles of
plunder.
When we crossed the river coming home, the ferry man
at Chesnut's Ferry asked for his fee. Among us all we
could not muster the small silver coin he demanded. There
was poverty for you. Nor did a stiver appear among us
until Molly was hauled home from Columbia, where she was
waging war with Sheriff Dent 's family. As soon as her foot
touched her native heath, she sent to hunt up the cattle.
Many of our cows were found in the swamp ; like Marion 's
men they had escaped the enemy. Molly sells butter for us
now on shares.
Old Cuffey, head gardener at Mulberry, and Yellow
Abram, his assistant, have gone on in the even tenor of their
way. Men may come and men may go, but they dig on for
ever. And they say they mean to " as long as old master
is alive." We have green peas, asparagus, lettuce, spinach,
new potatoes, and strawberries in abundance — enough for
ourselves and plenty to give away to refugees. It is early
in May and yet two months since frost. Surely the wind
was tempered to the shorn lamb in our case.
Johnny went over to see Hampton. His cavalry are or-
388
STORIES OF RAIDS
dered to reassemble on the 20th — a little farce to let them
selves down easily ; they know it is all over. Johnny, smil
ing serenely, said, ' * The thing is up and forever. ' '
Godard Bailey has presence of mind. Anne Sabb left a
gold card-case, which was a terrible oversight, among the
cards on the drawing-room table. When the Yankee raid
ers saw it their eyes glistened. Godard whispered to her :
* * Let them have that gilt thing and slip away and hide the
silver. " ' ' No ! " shouted a Yank, ' * you don 't fool me
that way ; here 's your old brass thing ; don 't you stir ; fork
over that silver. ' ' And so they deposited the gold card-case
in Godard 's hands, and stole plated spoons and forks, which
had been left out because they were plated. Mrs. Beach
says two officers slept at her house. Each had a pillow-case
crammed with silver and jewelry — " spoils of war," they
called it.
Floride Cantey heard an old negro say to his master:
' ' When you all had de power you was good to me, and I '11
protect you now. No niggers nor Yankees shall tech you.
If you want anything call for Sambo. I mean, call for Mr.
Samuel ; dat my name now. ' '
May 10th. — A letter from a Pharisee who thanks the
Lord she is not as other women are ; she need not pray, as
the Scotch parson did, for a good conceit of herself. She
writes, ' ' I feel that I will not be ruined. Come what may,
God will provide for me. ' ' But her husband had strength
ened the Lord 's hands, and for the glory of God, doubtless,
invested some thousands of dollars in New York, where
Confederate moth did not corrupt nor Yankee bummers
break through and steal. She went on to tell us : "I have
had the good things of this world, and I have enjoyed them
in their season. But I only held them as steward for God.
My bread has been cast upon the waters and will return
to me."
E. M. Boykin said to-day: " We had a right to strike
for our independence, and we did strike a bitter blow.
389
May 2, 1865 CAMDEN, S. C. Aug. 2, 1865
They must be proud to have overcome such a foe. I dare
look any man in the face. There is no humiliation in our
position after such a struggle as we made for freedom
from the Yankees." He is sanguine. His main idea is
joy that he has no negroes to support, and need hire only
those he really wants.
Stephen Elliott told us that Sherman said to Joe
Johnston, " Look out for yourself. This agreement
only binds the military, not the civil, authorities. ' ' Is our
destruction to begin anew? For a few weeks we have had
peace.
Sally Reynolds told a short story of a negro pet of Mrs.
Kershaw 's. The little negro clung to Mrs. Kershaw and
begged her to save him. The negro mother, stronger than
Mrs. Kershaw, tore him away from her. Mrs. Kershaw
wept bitterly. Sally said she saw the mother chasing the
child before her as she ran after the Yankees, whipping him
at every step. The child yelled like mad, a small rebel
blackamoor.
May 16th. — We are scattered and stunned, the remnant
of heart left alive within us filled with brotherly hate. We
sit and wait until the drunken tailor who rules the United
States of America issues a proclamation, and defines our
anomalous position.
Such a hue and cry, but whose fault? Everybody is
blamed by somebody else. The dead heroes left stiff and
stark on the battle-field escape, blame every man who stayed
at home and did not fight. I will not stop to hear excuses.
There is not one word against those who stood out until the
bitter end, and stacked muskets at Appomattox.
May 18th. — A feeling of sadness hovers over me now,
day and night, which no words of mine can express. There
is a chance for plenty of character study in this Mulberry
house, if one only had the heart for it. Colonel Chesnut,
now ninety-three, blind and deaf, is apparently as strong as
ever, and certainly as resolute of will. Partly patriarch,
390
COL. JAMES CIIESNl'T, Sll.
From a Portrait in Oil by Gilbert Stuart.
COLONEL CHESNUT AT NINETY-THREE
partly grand seigneur, this old man is of a species that we
shall see no more — the last of a race of lordly planters who
ruled this Southern world, but now a splendid wreck. His
manners are unequaled still, but underneath this smooth
exterior lies the grip of a tyrant whose will has never been
crossed. I will not attempt what Lord Byron says he could
not do, but must quote again : ' * Everybody knows a gen
tleman when he sees him. I have never met a man who
could describe one. ' ' We have had three very distinct speci
mens of the genus in this house — three generations of gen
tlemen, each utterly different from the other — father, son,
and grandson.
African Scipio walks at Colonel Chesnut 's side. He is
six feet two, a black Hercules, and as gentle as a dove in all
his dealings with the blind old master, who boldly strides
forward, striking with his stick to feel where he is going.
The Yankees left Scipio unmolested. He told them he was
absolutely essential to his old master, and they said, " If
you want to stay so bad, he must have been good to you
always. ' ' Scip says he was silent, for it ' * made them mad
if you praised your master."
Sometimes this old man will stop himself, just as he is
going off in a fury, because they try to prevent his at
tempting some feat impossible in his condition of lost fac
ulties. He will ask gently, ' ' I hope that I never say or do
anything unseemly! Sometimes I think I am subject to
mental aberrations. ' ' At every footfall he calls out, ' * Who
goes there? " If a lady's name is given he uncovers and
stands, with hat off, until she passes. He still has the old-
world art of bowing low and gracefully.
Colonel Chesnut came of a race that would brook no in
terference with their own sweet will by man, woman, or
devil. But then such manners has he, they would clear any
man's character, if it needed it. Mrs. Chesnut, his wife,
used to tell us that when she met him at Princeton, in the
nineties of the eighteenth century, they called him " the
391
May 2, 1865 CAMDEN, S. C. Aug. 2, 1865
Young Prince." He and Mr. John Taylor,1 of Columbia,
were the first up-country youths whose parents were
wealthy enough to send them off to college.
When a college was established in South Carolina, Colo
nel John Chesnut, the father of the aforesaid Young Prince,
was on the first board of trustees. Indeed, I may say that,
since the Revolution of 1776, there has been no convocation
of the notables of South Carolina, in times of peace and
prosperity, or of war and adversity, in which a representa
tive man of this family has not appeared. The estate has
been kept together until now. Mrs. Chesnut said she drove
down from Philadelphia on her bridal trip, in a chariot and
four — a cream-colored chariot with outriders.
They have a saying here — on account of the large fami
lies with which people are usually blessed, and the subdivi
sion of property consequent upon that fact, besides the ten
dency of one generation to make and to save, and the next
to idle and to squander, that there are rarely more than
three generations between shirt-sleeves and shirt-sleeves.
But these Chesnuts have secured four, from the John Ches
nut who was driven out from his father's farm in Virginia
by the French and Indians, when that father had been
killed at Fort Duquesne,2 to the John Chesnut who saunters
i ~~"
1 John Taylor was graduated from Princeton in 1790 and became a
planter in South Carolina. He served in Congress from 1806 to 1810,
and in the latter year was chosen to fill a vacancy in the United States
Senate, caused by the resignation of Thomas Sumter. In 1826 he was
chosen Governor of South Carolina. He died in 1832.
2 Fort Duquesne stood at the junction of the Monongahela and Alle-
ghany Rivers. Captain Trent, acting for the Ohio Company, with
some Virginia militiamen, began to build this fort in February, 1754.
On April 17th of the same year, 700 Canadians and French forced him
to abandon the work. The French then completed the fortress and
named it Fort Duquesne. The unfortunate expedition of General
Braddock, in the summer of 1755, was an attempt to retake the fort,
Braddock's defeat occurring eight miles east of it. In 1758 General
Forbes marched westward from Philadelphia and secured possession
392
CHESNUTS AND KERSHAWS
along here now, the very perfection of a lazy gentleman,
who cares not to move unless it be for a fight, a dance, or a
fox-hunt.
The first comer of that name to this State was a lad
when he arrived after leaving his land in Virginia; and be
ing without fortune otherwise, he went into Joseph Ker
shaw 's grocery shop as a clerk, and the Kershaws, I think, so
remember that fact that they have it on their coat-of-arms.
Our Johnny, as he was driving me down to Mulberry yes
terday, declared himself delighted with the fact that the
present Joseph Kershaw had so distinguished himself in
our war, that they might let the shop of a hundred years
ago rest for a while. * ' Upon my soul, ' ' cried the cool cap
tain, " I have a desire to go in there and look at the Ker
shaw tombstones. I am sure they have put it on their mar
ble tablets that we had an ancestor one day a hundred
years ago who was a clerk in their shop." This clerk be
came a captain in the Revolution.
In the second generation the shop had so far sunk that
the John Chesnut of that day refused to let his daughter
marry a handsome, dissipated Kershaw, and she, a spoiled
beauty, who could not endure to obey orders when they were
disagreeable to her, went up to her room and therein re
mained, never once coming out of it for forty years. Her
father let her have her own way in that ; he provided ser
vants to wait upon her and every conceivable luxury that
she desired, but neither party would give in.
I am, too, thankful that I am an old woman, forty-two
my last birthday. There is so little life left in me now to be
embittered by this agony. ' i Nonsense ! I am a pauper, ' '
says my husband, " and I am as smiling and as comfortable
as ever you saw me." " When you have to give up your
horses? How then? "
of the place, after the French, alarmed at his approach, had burned it.
Forbes gave it the name of Pittsburg.
393
May 2, 1865 CAMDEN, S. C. Aug. 2, 1865
May 21st. — They say Governor Magrath has absconded,
and that the Yankees have said, " If you have no visible
governor, we will send you one. " If we had one and they
found him, they would clap him in prison instanter.
The negroes have flocked to the Yankee squad which has
recently come, but they were snubbed, the rampant freed-
men. " Stay where you are," say the Yanks. " We have
nothing for you." And they sadly " peruse " their way.
Now that they have picked up that word " peruse," they
use it in season and out. When we met Mrs. Preston's
William we asked, ' ' Where are you going ? " " Perusing
my way to Columbia," he answered.
When the Yanks said they had no rations for idle ne
groes, John Walker answered mildly, " This is not at all
what we expected." The colored women, dressed in their
gaudiest array, carried bouquets to the Yankees, making
the day a jubilee. But in this house there is not the slightest
change. Every negro has known for months that he or she
was free, but I do not see one particle of change in their
manner. They are, perhaps, more circumspect, polite, and
quiet, but that is all. Otherwise all goes on in antebellum
statu quo. Every day I expect to miss some familiar face,
but so far have been disappointed.
Mrs. Huger we found at the hotel here, and we brought
her to Bloomsbury. She told us that Jeff Davis was travel
ing leisurely with his wife twelve miles a day, utterly care
less whether he were taken prisoner or not, and that General
Hampton had been paroled.
Fighting Dick Anderson and Stephen Elliott, of Fort
Sumter memory, are quite ready to pray for Andy Johnson,
and to submit to the powers that be. Not so our belligerent
clergy. * ' Pray for people when I wish they were dead ? ' '
cries Rev. Mr. Trapier. * ' No, never ! I will pray for Pres
ident Davis till I die. I will do it to my last gasp. My chief
is a prisoner, but I am proud of him still. He is a spectacle
to gods and men. He will bear himself as a soldier, a pa-
394
DAVIS AND LINCOLN
triot, a statesman, a Christian gentleman. He is the mar
tyr of our cause. ' ' And I replied with my tears.
' * Look here : taken in woman 's clothes ? ' ' asked Mr.
Trapier. ' ' Kubbish, stuff, and nonsense. If Jeff Davis has
not the pluck of a true man, then there is no courage left on
this earth. If he does not die game, I give it up. Some
thing, you see, was due to Lincoln and the Scotch cap that
he hid his ugly face with, in that express car, when he
rushed through Baltimore in the night. It is that escapade
of their man Lincoln that set them on making up the wom
an 's clothes story about Jeff Davis."
Mrs. W. drove up. She, too, is off for New York, to sell
four hundred bales of cotton and a square, or something,
which pays tremendously in the Central Park region, and
to capture and bring home her belle fille, who remained
North during the war. She knocked at my door. The day
was barely dawning. I was in bed, and as I sprang up,
discovered that my old Confederate night-gown had to be
managed, it was so full of rents. I am afraid I gave undue
attention to the sad condition of my gown, but could no
where see a shawl to drape my figure.
She was very kind. In case my husband was arrested
and needed funds, she offered me some " British securi
ties " and bonds. We were very grateful, but we did
not accept the loan of money, which would have been
almost the same as a gift, so slim was our chance of repay
ing it. But it was a generous thought on her part ; I own
that.
Went to our plantation, the Hermitage, yesterday. Saw
no change; not a soul was absent from his or her post. I
said, " Good colored folks, when are you going to kick off
the traces and be free ? ' In their furious, emotional way,
they swore devotion to us all to their dying day. Just the
same, the minute they see an opening to better themselves
they will move on. William, my husband's foster-brother,
came up. i i Well, William, what do you want ? ' ' asked my
2? 395
May 2, 1865 CAMDEN, S. C. Aug. 2, 1865
husband. " Only to look at you, marster; it does me
good."
June 1st. — The New York Herald quotes General Sher
man as saying, " Columbia was burned by Hampton's
sheer stupidity. ' ' But then wh*o burned everything on the
way in Sherman's march to Columbia, and in the line of
march Sherman took after leaving Columbia ? We came, for
three days of travel, over a road that had been laid bare by
Sherman's torches. Nothing but smoking ruins was left in
Sherman's track. That I saw with my own eyes. No liv
ing thing was left, no house for man or beast. They who
burned the countryside for a belt of forty miles, did they
not also burn the town? To charge that to " Hampton's
stupidity " is merely an afterthought. This Herald an
nounces that Jeff Davis will be hanged at once, not so much
for treason as for his assassination of Lincoln. " Stan-
ton," the Herald says, " has all the papers in his hands to
convict him."
The Yankees here say, ' * The black man must go as the
red man has gone ; this is a white man 's country. ' ' The ne
groes want to run with the hare, but hunt with the hounds.
They are charming in their professions to us, but declare
that they are to be paid by these blessed Yankees in lands
and mules for having been slaves. They were so faithful
to us during the war, why should the Yankees reward them,
to which the only reply is that it would be by way of pun
ishing rebels.
Mrs. Adger 1 saw a Yankee soldier strike a woman, and
she prayed God to take him in hand according to his deed.
Elizabeth K. Adger, wife of the Rev. John B. Adger, D.D., of
Charleston, a distinguished Presbyterian divine, at one time a mission
ary to Smyrna where he translated the Bible into the Armenian tongue.
He was afterward and before the war a professor in the Theological
Seminary at Columbia. His wife was a woman of unusual judgment
and intelligence, sharing her husband's many hardships and notable
experiences in the East.
396
RUIN IN SHERMAN'S TRACK
The soldier laughed in her face, swaggered off, stumbled
down the steps, and then his revolver went off by the con
cussion and shot him dead.
The black ball is in motion. Mrs. de Saussure's cook
shook the dust off her feet and departed from her kitchen
to-day — free, she said. The washerwoman is packing
to go.
Scipio African us, the Colonel's body-servant, is a sol
dierly looking black creature, fit to have delighted the eyes
of old Frederick William of Prussia, who liked giants. We
asked him how the Yankees came to leave him. " Oh, I
told them marster couldn 't do without me nohow ; and then
I carried them some nice hams that they never could have
found, they were hid so good. ' '
Eben dressed himself in his best and went at a run to
meet his Yankee deliverers — so he said. At the gate he met
a squad coming in. He had adorned himself with his watch
and chain, like the cordage of a ship, with a handful of
gaudy seals. He knew the Yankees came to rob white peo
ple, but he thought they came to save niggers. ' ' Hand over
that watch! " they said. Minus his fine watch and chain,
Eben returned a sadder and a wiser man. He was soon in
his shirt-sleeves, whistling at his knife-board. " Why?
You here? AVhy did you come back so soon? " he was
asked. ;' Well, I thought may be I better stay with ole
marster that give me the watch, and not go with them that
stole it." The watch was the pride of his life. The iron
had entered his soul.
Went up to my old house, " Kamschatka." The Tra-
piers live there^now. In those drawing-rooms where the
children played Puss in Boots, where we have so often
danced and sung, but never prayed before, Mr. Trapier
held his prayer-meeting. I do not think I ever did as much
weeping or as bitter in the same space of time. I let my
self go; it did me good. I cried with a will. He prayed
that we might have strength to stand up and bear our bitter
397
May 2, 1865 CAMDEN, S. C. Aug. 2, 1865
disappointment, to look on our ruined homes and our deso
lated country and be strong. And he prayed for the man
" we elected to be our ruler and guide." We knew that
they had put him in a dungeon and in chains.1 Men watch
him day and night. By orders of Andy, the bloody-minded
tailor, nobody above the rank of colonel can take the benefit
of the amnesty oath, nobody who owns over twenty thou
sand dollars, or who has assisted the Confederates. And
now, ye rich men, howl, for your misery has come upon you.
You are beyond the outlaw, camping outside. Howell Cobb
and R. M. T. Hunter have been arrested. Our turn will
come next, maybe. A Damocles sword hanging over a
house does not conduce to a pleasant life.
June 12th. — Andy, made lord of all by the madman,
Booth, says, " Destruction onty to the wealthy classes."
Better teach the negroes to stand alone before you break up
all they leaned on, 0 Yankees ! After all, the number who
possess over $20,000 are very few.
Andy has shattered some fond hopes. He denounces
Northern men who came South to espouse our cause. They
may not take the life-giving oath. My husband will remain
quietly at home. He has done nothing that he had not a
right to do, nor anything that he is ashamed of. He will not
fly from his country, nor hide anywhere in it. These are his
words. He has a huge volume of Macaulay, which seems to
absorb him. Slily I slipped Silvio Pellico in his way. He
looked at the title and moved it aside. " Oh," said I, " I
only wanted you to refresh your memory as to a prisoner's
life and what a despotism can do to make its captives
happy! ':
1 Mr. Davis, while encamped near Irwinsville, Ga., had been cap
tured on May 10th by a body of Federal cavalry under Lieutenant-
Colonel Pritchard. He was taken to Fortress Monroe and confined
there for two years, his release being effected on May 13, 1867, when he
was admitted to bail in the sum of $100,000, the first name on his bail-
bond being that of Horace Greeley.
398
CUT OFF FROM THE WORLD
Two weddings— in Camden, Ellen Douglas Ancrum to
Mr. Lee, engineer and architect, a clever man, which is the
best investment now. In Columbia, Sally Hampton and
John Cheves Haskell, the bridegroom, a brave, one-armed
soldier.
A wedding to be. Lou McCord's. And Mrs. McCord
is going about frantically, looking for eggs " to mix and
make into wedding-cake," and finding none. She now
drives the funniest little one-mule vehicle.
I have been ill since I last wrote in this journal. Sere
na's letter came. She says they have been visited by bush
whackers, the roughs that always follow in the wake of an
army. My sister Kate they forced back against the wall.
She had Katie, the baby, in her arms, and Miller, the brave
boy, clung to his mother, though he could do no more.
They tried to pour brandy down her throat. They knocked
Mary down with the butt end of a pistol, and Serena they
struck with an open hand, leaving the mark on her cheek
for weeks.
Mr. Christopher Hampton says in New York people
have been simply intoxicated with the fumes of their own
glory. Military prowess is a new wrinkle of delight to
them. They are mad with pride that, ten to one, they
could, after five years ' hard fighting, prevail over us, handi
capped, as we were, with a majority of aliens, quasi foes,
and negro slaves whom they tried to seduce, shut up with us.
They pay us the kind of respectful fear the British meted
out to Napoleon when they sent him off with Sir Hudson
Lowe to St. Helena, the lone rock by the sea, to eat his
heart out where he could not alarm them more.
Of course, the Yankees know and say they were too many
for us, and yet they would all the same prefer not to try us
again. Would Wellington be willing to take the chances of
Waterloo once more with Grouchy, Bliicher, and all that
399
May 2, 1865 CAMDEN, S. C. Aug. 2, 1865
left to haphazard ? Wigfall said to old Cameron * in 1861,
" Then you will a sutler be, and profit shall accrue."
Christopher Hampton says that in some inscrutable way in
the world North, everybody ' ' has contrived to amass fabu
lous wealth by this war. ' '
There are two classes of vociferous sufferers in this com
munity: 1. Those who say, " If people would only pay me
what they owe me ! ' ! 2. Those who say, * ' If people would
only let me alone. I can not pay them. I could stand it if
I had anything with which to pay debts. ' '
Now we belong to both classes. Heavens ! the sums peo
ple owe us and will not, or can not, pay, would settle all our
debts ten times over and leave us in easy circumstances for
life. But they will not pay. How can they?
We are shut in here, turned with our faces to a dead
wall. No mails. A letter is sometimes brought by a man on
horseback, traveling through the wilderness made by Sher
man. All railroads have been destroyed and the bridges
are gone. We are cut off from the world, here to eat out our
hearts. Yet from my window I look out on many a gallant
youth and maiden fair. The street is crowded and it is
a gay sight. Camden is thronged with refugees from the
low country, and here they disport themselves. They call
the walk in front of Bloomsbury " the Boulevard."
H. Lang tells us that poor Sandhill Milly Trimlin is
dead, and that as a witch she had been denied Christian
burial. Three times she was buried in consecrated ground
in different churchyards, and three times she was dug up
by a superstitious horde, who put her out of their holy
ground. Where her poor, old, ill-used bones are lying now
I do not know. I hope her soul is faring better than her
body. She was a good, kind creature. Why supposed to be
a witch? That H. Lang could not elucidate.
1 Simon Cameron became Secretary of War in Lincoln's Administra
tion, on March 4, 1861. On January 11, 1862, he resigned and was
made Minister to Russia.
400
SANDHILL WOMEN
Everybody in our walk of life gave Milly a helping
hand. She was a perfect specimen of the Sandhill ' ' tack-
ey ' ' race, sometimes called * ' country crackers. ' ' Her skin
was yellow and leathery, even the whites of her eyes were
bilious in color. She was stumpy, strong, and lean, hard-
featured, horny-fisted. Never were people so aided in
every way as these Sandhillers. Why do they remain
Sandhillers from generation to generation ? Why should
Milly never have bettered her condition?
My grandmother lent a helping hand to her grandmoth
er. My mother did her best for her mother, and I am sure
the so-called witch could never complain of me. As long as
I can remember, gangs of these Sandhill women traipsed in
with baskets to be filled by charity, ready to carry away
anything they could get. All are made on the same pattern,
more or less alike. They were treated as friends and neigh
bors, not as beggars. They were asked in to take seats by
the fire, and there they sat for hours, stony-eyed, silent,
wearing out human endurance and politeness. But their
husbands and sons, whom we never saw, were citizens and
voters ! When patience was at its last ebb, they would open
their mouths and loudly demand whatever they had come
to seek.
One called Judy Bradly, a one-eyed virago, who played
the fiddle at all the Sandhill dances and fandangoes, made
a deep impression on my youthful mind. Her list of re
quests was always rather long, and once my grandmother
grew restive and actually hesitated. * Woman, do you
mean to let me starve? " she cried furiously. ]Vly grand
mother then attempted a meek lecture as to the duty of
earning one's bread. Judy squared her arms akimbo and
answered, li And pray, who made you a judge of the world?
Lord, Lord, if I had 'er knowed I had ter stand all this
jaw, I wouldn't a took your ole things," but she did take
them and came afterward again and again.
June 27th. — An awful story from Suniter. An old gen-
401
May 2, 1865 CAMDEN, S. C. Aug. 2, 1865
tleman, who thought his son dead or in a Yankee prison,
heard some one try the front door. It was about midnight,
and these are squally times. He called out, " What is
that? " There came no answer. After a while he heard
some one trying to open a window and he fired. The house
was shaken by a fall. Then, after a long time of dead
silence, he went round the house to see if his shot had done
any harm, and found his only son bathed in his own blood
on his father's door-step. The son was just back from a
Yankee prison — one of his companions said — and had been
made deaf by cold and exposure. He did not hear his
father hail him. He had tried to get into the house in
the same old way he used to employ when a boy.
My sister-in-law in tears of rage and despair, her ser
vants all gone to " a big meeting at Mulberry/' though
she had made every appeal against their going. " Send
them adrift," some one said, " they do not obey you, or
serve you; they only live on you." It would break her
heart to part with one of them. But that sort of thing
will soon right itself. They will go off to better them
selves — we have only to cease paying wages — and that is
easy, for we have no money.
July 4th. — Saturday I was in bed with one of my worst
headaches. Occasionally there would come a sob and I
thought of my sister insulted and my little sweet Williams.
Another of my beautiful Columbia quartette had rough ex
periences. A raider asked the plucky little girl, Lizzie Ham
ilton, for a ring which she wore. ' ' You shall not have it, ' '
she said. The man put a pistol to her head, saying, * ' Take
it off, hand it to me, or I will blow your brains out."
" Blow away," said she. The man laughed and put down
his pistol, remarking, " Yota knew I would not hurt you."
" Of course, I knew you dared not shoot me. Even Sher
man would not stand that."
There was talk of the negroes where the Yankees had
been — negroes who flocked to them and showed them where
402
WHY WRITE MORE?
silver aud valuables had been hid by the white people.
Ladies '-maids dressed themselves in their mistresses' gowns
before the owners' faces and walked ofi'. Now, before this
every one had told me how kind, faithful, and considerate
the negroes had proven. I am sure, after hearing these
tales, the fidelity of my own servants shines out brilliantly.
1 had taken their conduct too much as a matter of course.
In the afternoon I had some business on our place, the Her
mitage. John drove me down. Our people were all at
home, quiet, orderly, respectful, and at their usual work.
In point of fact things looked unchanged. There was noth
ing to show that any one of them had even seen the Yan
kees, or knew that there was one in existence.
July 26th. — I do not write often now, not for want of
something to say, but from a loathing of all I see and hear,
and why dwell upon those things?
Colonel Chesnut, poor old man, is worse — grows more
restless. He seems to be wild with " homesickness." He
wants to be at Mulberry. When there he can not see the
mighty giants of the forest, the huge, old, wide-spreading
oaks, but he says he feels that he is there so soon as he hears
the carriage rattling across the bridge at the Beaver Dam.
I am reading French with Johnny — anything to keep
him quiet. We gave a dinner to his company, the small
remnant of them, at Mulberry house. About twenty idle
negroes, trained servants, came without leave or license and
assisted. So there was no expense. They gave their time
and labor for a good day 's feeding. I think they love to be
at the old place.
Then I went up to nurse Kate Withers. That lovely girl,
barely eighteen, died of typhoid fever. Tanny wanted his
sweet little sister to have a dress for Mary Boykin's wed
ding, where she was to be one of the bridesmaids. So Tanny
took his horses, rode one, and led the other thirty miles in
the broiling sun to Columbia, where he sold the led horse
and came back with a roll of Swiss muslin. As he entered
403
May 2, 1865 CAMDEN, S. C. Aug. 2, 1865
the door, he saw Kate lying there dying. She died praying
that she might die. She was weary of earth and wanted to
be at peace. I saw her die and saw her put in her coffin.
No words of mine can tell how unhappy I am. Six young
soldiers, her friends, were her* pall-bearers. As they
marched out with that burden sad were their faces.
Princess Bright Eyes writes: " Our soldier boys re
turned, want us to continue our weekly dances." Another
maiden fair indites: " Here we have a Yankee garrison.
We are told the officers find this the dullest place they were
ever in. They want the ladies to get up some amusement
for them. They also want to get into society. ' '
From Isabella in Columbia: " General Hampton is
home again. He looks crushed. How can he be otherwise ?
His beautiful home is in ruins, and ever present with him
must be the memory of the death tragedy which closed for
ever the eyes of his glorious boy, Preston! Now! there
strikes up a serenade to General Ames, the Yankee com
mander, by a military band, of course. . . . Your last
letters have been of the meagerest. What is the matter ? ' '
August 2d. — Dr. Boykin and John Witherspoon were
talking of a nation in mourning, of blood poured out like
rain on the battle-fields — for what? " Never let me hear
that the blood of the brave has been shed in vain! No;
it sends a cry down through all time."
404
INDEX
ADAMS, JAMES H., 26.
Adger, Mrs. John B., 396.
Aiken, Gov. William, his style of
living, 253.
Aiken, Miss, her wedding, 240-
241.
Alabama, the, surrender of, 314.
Alabama Convention, the, 15.
Alexandria, Va., Ellsworth killed
at, 58.
Allan, Mrs. Scotch, 258.
Allston, Ben, his duel, 66; a call
from, 73.
Allston, Col., 234.
Allston, Washington, 46.
Anderson, Gen. Richard, 49, 225.
Anderson, Major Robert, 5; his
mistake, 34; fired on, in Fort
Sumter, 35; when the fort sur
rendered, 39; his flagstaff, 43;
his account of the fall of Fort
Sumter, 48; offered a regi
ment, 50, 119.
Antietam, battle of, 213.
Archer, Capt. Tom, a call from,
113; his comments on Hood,
318; his death, 343.
Athens, Ga., the raid at, 322.
Atlanta, battle of, 326.
Auze*, Mrs. — , her troubled life,
179.
BAILEY, GODARD, 388, 389.
Baldwin, Col. — , 84.
Baltimore, Seventh Regiment in,
41 ; in a blaze, 47.
Barker, Theodore, 112.
Barnwell, Edward, 316.
Barn well, Mrs. Edward, 208; and
her boy, 253-254.
Barnwell, Mary, 194, 316.
Barnwell, Rev. Robert, estab
lishes a hospital, 83; back in
the hospital, 172; sent for to
officiate at a marriage, 185, 194;
his death, 238.
Barnwell, Mrs. Robert, her death,
239.
Barnwell, Hon. Robert W., sketch
of, 10, 47; on Fort Sumter,
50, 57, 77; at dinner with, 98;
and the opposition to Mr. Davis,
104; on fame, 106; on democ
racies, 110, 160; as to Gen.
Chesnut, 163.
Barren, Commodore Samuel, 101 ;
an anecdote of, when a middy,
120-122; a prisoner, 124.
Bartow, Col. — 2; and his wife,
71; killed at Bull Run, 87;
eulogized in Congress, 90.
Bartow, Mrs. — , hears of her
husband's death, 87-88; her
husband's funeral, 88; a call on,
146, 162; in one of the de
partments, 166; her story of
Miss Toombs, 193, 199, 204;
goes to Mulberry, 386.
Beauregard, Gen. P. G. T., 28;
a demigod, 31; in council with
the Governor, 33, 34; leaves
Montgomery, 50; at Norfolk,
58; his report of the capture of
Fort Sumter, 62; and the name
405
INDEX
Bull Run, 63; faith in him,
77; a horse for, 80; in Rich
mond, 83-84; his army in want
of food, 97; not properly sup
ported, 99; half Frenchman,
102; letters from, 107, 131; at
Columbus, Miss., 139; flanked
at Nashville, 156; and Shiloh,
163; at Huntsville, 165; fight
ing his way, 174; retreating,
175; evacuates Corinth, 178,
in disfavor, 183; and Whiting,
307.
Bedon, Josiah, 369.
Bedon, Mrs. — , 369.
Benjamin, Judah P., 278, 287.
Berrien, Dr. — , 100, 193.
Berrien, Judge, 166.
Bibb, Judge, 9.
Bierne, Bettie, her admirers, 232,
234; her wedding, 235.
Big Bethel, battle of, 81 ; Magru-
der at, 196.
Binney, Horace, his offer to Lin
coln, 64; quoted, 128, 311.
Blair, Rochelle, 21.
Blake, Daniel, 214.
Blake, Frederick, 338.
Blake, Walter, negroes leave him,
199.
Bluffton, movement, the, 3.
Bonaparte, Jerome Napoleon, goes
to Washington, 98; described,
102; disappointed in Beaure-
gard, 128.
Boykin, A. H., 35.
Boykin, Dr., 17, 18, 21, 135, 404.
Boykin, E. M., 161, 389.
Boykin, Hamilton, 171.
Boykin, James, 220.
Boykin, J. H., 387.
Boykin, Col. John, 121 ; his death
in prison, 308.
Boykin, Kitty, 22.
Boykin, Mary, 312, 403.
Boykin, Tom, his company, 58,
135.
Bradley, Judy, 401.
Bragg, Gen. Braxton, joins Beau-
regard, 139, 147; a stern dis
ciplinarian, 203; at Chicka-
mauga, 248, 252; defeated at
Chattanooga, 258; asks to be
relieved, 259; one of his horses,
303.
Brandy Station, battle of, 236.
Breckinridge, Gen. John C., 249;
in Richmond, 275; at the Ives
theatricals, 285-286, 289.
Brewster, Mr. — , 10; at Fau-
quier WThite Sulphur Springs,
77; remark by, 79; a talk with,
82; quoted, 108, 122; criticism
of, 124; and Hood's love-affair,
266-267; on Joe Johnston's re
moval, 320, 338.
Bright, John, his speeches in be
half of the Union, 109.
Brooks, Preston, 74.
Brown, Gov., of Georgia, 315.
Brown, John, of Harper's Ferry, 1.
Browne, "Constitution," going to
Washington, 9.
Browne, Mrs. — , on spies, 206;
describes the Prince of Wales,
207.
Brumby, Dr. — , 361.
Buchanan, James, 16, 207.
Buckner, Gen. Simon B., 131; in
I Richmond, 267-268, 275.
Bull Run, objection to the name,
63; battle of, 85-90. See Ma-
nassas.
Burnside, Gen. Ambrose E., cap
tures Roanoke Island, 132;
money due from, to Gen. Pres
ton, 159.
Burroughs, Mrs. — , 189.
Butler, Gen. B. F., his Order No.
28, 164-165; at New Orleans,
406
INDEX
183, 202; threatening Rich
mond, 294; kind to Roony
Lee, 300; at New Orleans, 346.
Byron, Lord, as a lover, 297;
quoted, 391.
/-"1ALHOUN, JOHN C., anec-
V_y dote of, 17.
Calhoun, Mrs. — , 323.
Camden, S. C., excitement at, 3;
dwelling in, 21 ; the author's ab
sence from, 22; the author in,
42-46; battle of, 75; a romance
in, 120-121; return to, 127-130,
240-251; Gen. Chesnut in, 250;
a picnic near, at Mulberry, 251;
return to, 304; the author in,
384-404.
Cameron, Simon, a proclamation
by, 92, 400.
Campbell, Judge John A., his
resignation, 14; his family, 77,
247.
Cantey, Mary, 183.
Cantey, Zack, 375.
Capers, Mrs. — , 26.
Carlyle, Thomas, and slavery in
America, 136.
Carroll, Chancellor, 27.
Carroll, Judge, 204.
Gary, Constance, 263; a call on,
264; a call from, 272; a call for,
272; as Lady Teazle, 276, 277;
as Lydia Languish, 285; makes
a bonnet, 293; describes a wed
ding, 300; and Preston Hamp
ton, 301.
Gary, Hetty, 244, 260, 272; Gen.
Chesnut with, 274.
Chancellorsville, battle of, 213,
245.
Charleston, the author in, 1-5;
Secession Convention adjourns
to, 3; Anderson in Fort Sumter,
5 ; war steamer off, 9 ; return to,
21-41 ; Convention at, in a snarl,
26; a ship fired into at, 31;
soldiers in streets of, 33; An
derson refuses to capitulate at,
35; the fort bombarded, 36;
Bull Run Russell in, 40; re
turn to, from Montgomery, 57-
67; thin-skinned people in, 60;
its condition good, 163; bom
bardment of, 174; under bom
bardment, 258; surrender of,
350.
Chase, Col. — , 6.
Chattanooga, siege of, 258.
Chesnut, Col. James, Sr., sketch
of, XVII; looking for fire, 66;
and Nellie Custis, 93, 122; his
family, 127; anecdote of, 135;
his losses from the war, 158;
his old wines, 249; a letter from,
296; and his wife, 310; refuses
to say grace, 372; sketch of,
390-392; illness of, 403.
Chesnut, Mrs. James, Sr., praises
everybody, 59; and Mt. Ver-
non, 63; anecdote of, 66-67;
silver brought from Philadel
phia by, 135; sixty years in the
South, 170, 236; her death,
299; and her husband, 310-311,
391.
Chesnut, Gen. James, Jr., his
death described, XVIII; his
resignation as U. S. Senator, 3,
4, 9; with Mr. Davis, 14, 19;
averts a duel, 21, 26; at target
practice, 29; made an aide to
Beauregard, 34; goes to demand
surrender of Fort Sumter, 34;
his interview with Anderson, 35;
orders Fort Sumter fired on, 36;
asleep in Beauregard's room,
37; describes the surrender, 39;
with Wade Hampton, 47; his
interview with Anderson, 48;
407
INDEX
goes to Alabama, 52; opposed
to leaving Montgomery, 55, 57;
and Davin the spy, 60; letter
from, 63; and the first shot at
Fort Sumter, 65; letter from,
at Manassas Junction, 65; in
Richmond, 69; a letter from,
74-75; orders to move on, re
ceived by, 80; receiving spies
from Washington, 82; with
Davis and Lee, 83; his servant
Lawrence, 84; his account of
the battle of Bull Run, 88;
speech by, 90; carries orders at
Bull Run, 106; returns to Co
lumbia, 126; on slavery, 130;
news for, from Richmond,
132; criticized, 134; his ad
dress to South Carolinians, 140;
asked to excuse students from
military service, 141 ; his mili
tary affairs, 143, 144; negroes
offer to fight for, 147; attacked,
148; reasonable and consider
ate, 151; his adventure with
Gov. Gist, 153; illness of, 155;
offered a place on staff of Mr.
Davis, 157; and the fall of New
Orleans, 159; finds a home for
negroes, 160; on a visit to his
father, 161; as to Charleston's
defenses, 163; promotion for,
163; at dinner, 166, 167; called
to Richmond, 171; his self-
control, 173; and the negroes,
181; returns to Columbia, 190;
off to Richmond, 191, 194; let
ter from, on the Seven Days'
fighting, 197; hears the Con
federacy is to be recognized
abroad, 201 ; staying with Pres
ident Davis, 202; his character
in Washington, 204; with Gen.
Preston, 207; his busy life, 215;
in Wilmington, 216; at Miss
Bierne's wedding, 235; an an
ecdote of, 242; when a raiding
party was near Richmond, 245;
at the war office with, 247; a
tour of the West by, 248; at
home reading Thackeray's nov
els, 250; visits Bragg's army
again, 252; contented, but op
posed to more parties, 257; re
ceives a captured saddle from
Gen. Wade Hampton, 258; man
ages Judge Wigfall, 261; his
stoicism, 262; opposed to feast
ing, 263; in good humor, 268;
in a better mood, 271; de
nounces extravagance, 272 ; and
Hetty Gary, 274; popularity of,
with the Carys, 277; with Col.
Lamar at dinner, 279; promo
tion for, 280; his pay, 284; at
church, 292; going to see the
President, 293; made a briga
dier-general, 302, 305; his re
turn to South Carolina, 307;
his work in saving Richmond,
309; called to Charleston, 315;
his new home in Columbia, 316;
his friend Archer, 318-319;
returns to Columbia, 330; in
Charleston, 337; says the end
has come, 341; urges his wife
to go home, 344-345; an anec
dote of, 346; escapes capture,
350; a letter from, 355; in Lin-
colnton, 359; ordered to Ches
ter, S. C., 364; letter from, 366;
his cotton, 367; and slavery,
374; receives news of Lincoln's
assassination, 380; fate of, 381.
Chesnut, Mrs. James, Jr., the
author, importance of her diary,
XIII; how she wrote it, XV;
her early life, XVI; her home
described, XX ; history of
her diary, XXI; in Charleston,
408
INDEX
1-5; on keeping a journal, 1;
visits Mulberry, 2; her hus
band's resignation as Senator,
3; in Montgomery, 6-20; on
the political outlook, 7; hears
a story from Robert Toombs,
7; at dinners, etc., 9-11; calls
on Mrs. Davis, 12; sees a wom
an sold at auction, 13; sees
the Confederate flag go up, 14;
at the Confederate Congress, 18;
in Charleston, 21-41; at Mul
berry again, 21; a petition to,
from house-servants, 22; her
father-in-law, 22; goes to the
Charleston Convention, 23; one
of her pleasantest days, 26; her
thirty-eighth birthday, 27; a
trip by, to Morris Island, 31;
her husband goes to Anderson
with an ultimatum, 35; on a
housetop when Sumter was
bombarded, 35-36; watching
the negroes for a change, 38 ; in
Camden, 42-46; the lawn at
Mulberry, 43; her photograph-
book, 43; a story of her maid
Maria, 45; at Montgomery, 47-
56; a cordial welcome to, 48;
a talk by, with A. H. Stephens
and others, 49-54; a visit to
Alabama, 52; at luncheon with
Mrs. Davis, 55; in Charleston,
57-67; goes to Richmond, 62,
66; letter to, from her husband,
65; in Richmond, 68-76; in
cidents in the journey. 68-69;
a talk by, with Mrs. Davis, 71 ;
at the Champ-de-Mars, 72; at
Mr. Davis's table, 73; letters to,
from her husband, 74, 75; at
White Sulphur Springs, 77-81;
in Richmond, 82-126; has a
glimpse of war, 83; weeps at
her husband's departure, 84;
409
the battle of Bull Run, 85-91;
Gen. Chesnut's account of the
battle, 88; describes Robert E.
Lee, 93-94; at a flag presen
tation, 96; her money-belt, 101;
goes to a hospital, 107, 108; an
unwelcome caller on, 111; knit
ting socks, 113; her fondness
for city life, 124; leaving Rich
mond, 125; in Camden, 127-
130; her sister Kate, 127; a
letter to, from old Col. Chesnut,
127; illness of, 128; a hiatus
in her diary, 130; in Columbia,
131-209; a visit to Mulberry,
134; illness of, 135; reading
Uncle Tom's Cabin, 142; her
influence with her husband
in public matters, 145; over
hears her husband attacked, A
148; her husband and her call
ers, 151-153; her husband's
secretary, 154; depressed, 157;
anniversary of her wedding,
158; at the Governor's, 160; as
to love and hatred, 162; her
impression of hospitality in
different cities, 166-167; at
Mulberry, 169; a flood of tears,
173; illness of, 180; a call on,
by Governor Pickens, 181;
knows how it feels to die, 182;
at Decca's wedding, 184-185;
Gen. Chesnut in town, 190; a
letter to, from her husband,
197; assisting the Wayside Hos
pital, 205-206; goes to Flat
Rock, 210; illness of, 210; in
Alabama, 216-228; meets her
husband in Wilmington, 216;
a melancholy journey by, 220-
221; finds her mother ill, 221;
Dick, a negro whom she taught
to read, 224; her father's body-
servant Simon, 225; in Mont-
INDEX
gomery, 226-227; in Richmond,
229-239; asked to a picnic by
Gen. Hood, 230; hears two love-
tales, 232-233; at Miss Bierne's
wedding, 235; receives from
Mrs. Lee a likeness of the Gen
eral, 236; burns some personal
papers, 239; in Camden, 240-
251; sees Longstreet's corps
going West, 241; a story of her
mother, 243; at church during
the battle of Chancellorsville,
244-245; to the War Office
with her husband, 247; a tran
quil time at home, 250; a pic
nic at Mulberry, 251; in Rich
mond, 252-303; lives in apart
ments, 252; an adventure in
Kingsville, 255-257; gives a
party, 257; criticized for ex
cessive hospitality, 263; with
Mrs. Davis, 264; drives with
Gen. Hood, 265-267, 271; three
generals at dinner, 268; at a
charade party, 273-274; an ill-
timed call, 278; Thackeray's
death, 282; gives a luncheon-
party, 282-283; at private
theatricals, 285; gives a party
for John Chesnut, 286; goes to
a ball, 287; a walk with Mr.
Davis, 291; selling her old
clothes, 300; her husband
made a brigadier-general, 302;
in Camden, 304; leaving Rich
mond, 304; Little Joe's funer
al, 306; experiences in a jour
ney, 307-308; friends with her
at Mulberry, 309; writes of
her mother-in-law, 310-311;
at Bloomsbury again, 311; in
Columbia, 313-343; at home
in a cottage, 314-316; attend
ance of, at the Wayside Hos
pital, 321, 324, 325; at Mary
Preston's wedding, 327; enter
tains President Davis, 328-329;
a visit to, from her sister, 329;
letters to, from Mrs. Davis, 331,
332, 335; her ponies, 336; dis-
^ress of, at Sherman's advance,
341 ; her husband at home, 341 ;
hi Lincolnton, 344-366; her
flight from Columbia, 344-347;
her larder empty, 361; refuses
an offer of money, 363; her
husband ordered to Chester,
364; losses at the Hermitage,
364; illness of, 364; in Ches
ter, 367-383; incidents in a
journey by, 367-369; a call
on, from Gen. Hood, 376; on
Lincoln's assassination, 380; in
Camden, 384-404; goes to Mul
berry, 386; sketch by, of her
father-in-law, 390-392; goes to
the Hermitage, 395; illness of,
399; no heart to write more,
403.
Chesnut, Capt. John, a soft-heart
ed slave-owner, 21 ; enlists as a
private, 58; his plantation, 64;
letter from, 132; negroes to
wait on, 163, 187; and McClel-
lan, 192; in Stuart's command,
198; one of his pranks, 202;
goes to his plantation, 250;
joins his company, 252, 287; a
flirtation by, 328, 351, 381.
Chesnut, John, ST., 392.
Chesnut, Miss, her presence of
mind, 364; bravery shown by,
375.
Chesnut family, the, 22.
Chester, S. C., the author in, 367-
383; the journey to, 367-369;
news of Lincoln's assassination
in, 380.
Cheves, Edward, 199.
Cheves, Dr. John, 172.
410
INDEX
Cheves, Langdon, 24; a talk with,
26; farewell to, 37.
Chickahominy, battle on the, 177;
as a victory, 180; another bat
tle on the, 196.
Chickamauga, battle of, 248.
Childs, Col. — , 362, 363, 364; his
generosity, 367.
Childs, Mrs. Mary Anderson, 16.
Chisolm, Dr. — , 314.
Choiseul, Count de, 322.
Clay, C. C., a supper given by,
283, 302, 374.
Clay, Mrs. C. C., as Mrs. Malaprop,
285.
Clay, Mrs. Lawson, 273.
Clayton, Mr. — , 2; on the Gov
ernment, 110.
Clemens, Jere, 12.
Cobb, Howell, desired for Presi
dent of the Confederacy, 6,
18; his common sense, 68; ar
rest of, 398.
Cochran, John, a prisoner in
Columbia, 133.
Coffey, Capt. — , 257.
Cohen, Mrs. Miriam, her son in
the war, 166; a hospital anec
dote by, 176; a sad story told
by, 178; her story of Luryea,
183.
Colcock, Col. — , 2.
Cold Harbor, battle of, 196.
Columbia, Secession Convention
in, 2; small-pox in, 3; pleas
ant people in, 166; dinner in,
167; Wade Hampton in, 187;
the author in, 131-209; Gov
ernor and council in, 132; a trip
from, to Mulberry, 135; crit
ics of Mr. Davis in, 140; hos
pitality in, 166; people coming
to, from Richmond, 169; Wade
Hampton in, wounded, 187-
193; Prof. Le Conte's powder-
factory in, 187; the Wayside
Hospital in, 205; called from,
to Alabama, 218; the author
takes a cottage in, 314-316;
President Davis visits, 328-329;
burning of, 351, 358, 361, 362,
396.
Confederate flag, hoisting of, at
Montgomery, 14.
Congress, the, burning of, 140.
Cooper, Gen. — , 85, 103, 149.
Corinth, evacuated, 178.
Cowpens, the, battle of, 63.
Coxe, Esther Maria, 257.
Cumberland, the, sinking of, 139.
Cummings, Gen., a returned pris
oner, 200.
Curtis, George William, 200.
Custis, Nellie, 93, 236.
Cuthbert, Capt. George, wounded,
211; shot at Chancellorsville,
213.
Cuthbert, Mrs. George, 337.
DACRE, MAY, 135.
Dahlgren, Admiral John H.,
294.
Dahlgren, Col. U., his raid and
death, 294.
Daniel, Mr., of The Richmond
Examiner, 109.
Darby, Dr. John T., surgeon of the
Hampton Legion, 57; false re
port of his death. 88, 205; with
Gen. Hood, 230; goes to Eu
rope, 293, 296; his marriage,
327.
Da Vega, Mrs. — , 369.
Davin, — , as a spy, 59.
Davis, President Jefferson, 6, 8;
when Secretary of War, 11;
elected President, 12; no se-
ceder, 29; and Hampton's Le
gion, 147; a dinner at his house,
28
411
INDEX
49; a long war predicted by, 53;
his want of faith in success, 71 ;
on his Arabian horse, 72; at
his table, 73; the author met
by, 82; goes to Manassas, 86;
speech by, 90; the author asked
to breakfast with, 95; presents
flag to Texans, 96; as a recon-
structionist, 104; ill, 124; criti
cism of, 129; his inauguration,
132; his address criticized, 134;
a defense of, 140; Gen. Gonzales
complains to, 148; abuse of,
150; and Butler's "Order No.
28," 165; on the battle-field,
202 ; wants negroes in the army,
224; a reception at his house,
246; ill, 246; in Charleston,
253; riding alone, 263; as a
dictator, 265; his Christmas
dinner, 268; a talk with, 274;
Congress asks for advice, 280; a
walk home with, 283; attacked
for nepotism, 290; walks home
from church with the author,
291; speaks to returned pris
oners, 301; when Little Joe
died, 305; his Arabian horse,
309; and Joe Johnston's re
moval, 326; in Columbia, 328-
329; on his visit to Columbia,
331; praise of, 360; when Lee
surrendered, 381; traveling lei
surely, 394; capture of, 395,
398.
Davis, Jefferson, Jr., 306.
Davis, Mrs. Jefferson, a call on, 12;
at one of her receptions, 49;
a talk with, 53; at lunch with,
55; adores Mrs. Emory, 61;
the author met by, 69 ; her en
tourage, 76; her ladies de
scribed, 79; brings news of
Bull Run, 86; announces to
Mrs. Bartow news of her hus
band's death, 88; in her draw
ing-room, 90; "a Western wom
an," 102; a landlady's airs to,
192; says that the enemy are
within three miles of Richmond,
346; a call from, 263; a drive
with, 264; at the Semmes' cha
rade, 273; her servants, 275; a
reception by, 281; a call on,
282; gives a luncheon, 284;
her family unable to live on
their income, 300; depressed,
301; a drive with, 302; over
looked in her own drawing-
room, 318; letters from, 331,
332, 335; in Chester, 377; a
letter from, 378.
Davis, "Little Joe," 264; his
tragic death, 305; his funeral,
306, 309.
Davis, Nathan, 148; a call from,
152, 210.
Davis, Nick, 12.
Davis, Rev. Thomas, 252.
Davis, Varina Anne (" Winnie,
Daughter of the Confederacy"),
378.
Deas, George, 12, 298.
De Leon, Agnes, back from Egypt,
110.
De Leon, Dr., 9.
Derby, Lord, 136.
Douglas, Stephen A., 12; his
death, 60.
Drayton, Tom, 148.
Drury's Bluff, battle of, 230.
Duncan, Blanton, anecdote of,
150, 208.
ELIOT, GEORGE, 279.
Elliott, Stephen, 318.
Ellsworth, Col. E. E., his death
at Alexandria, 58.
Elmore, Grace, 155.
412
INDEX
Elzey, Gen. — , tells of the dan
ger of Richmond, 246.
Emancipation Proclamation, the,
153, 199.
Emerson, R. W., the author read
ing, 64.
Emory, Gen. William H., his
resignation, 61.
Emory, Mrs. William H., Frank
lin's granddaughter, 61, 84; a
clever woman, 352.
Eustis, Mrs. — , 124.
FAIR OAKS OR SEVEN
PINES, battle of, 171.
Farragut, Admiral D. G., cap
tures New Orleans, 158, 319.
Fauquier White Sulphur Springs,
77.
Fernandina, Fla., 2.
Fitzpatrick, Mrs. — , 8, 53.
Floyd, John D., at Fort Donel-
son, 140.
Ford, Mary, 312.
Forrest, Gen. Nathan B., 323.
Fort Donelson, surrender of, 131,
140.
Fort Duquesne, 392.
Fort McAlister, 339.
Fort Moultrie, 42.
Fort Pickens, 47.
Fort Pillow, given up, 177.
Fort Sumter, Anderson in, 5, 8;
if it should be attacked, 9 ; folly
of an attack on, 12; and An
derson, 29; surrender of, de
manded, 34; bombardment of,
35; on fire, 38; surrender of,
39; those who captured it, 42;
who fired the first shot at, 65.
Freeland, Maria, 257.
Frost, Henry, 147.
Frost, Judge — , 54.
Frost, Tom, 26.
AILLARD, MRS. — , 173.
Garnett, Dr. — , his broth
er's arrival from the North,
107, 260.
Garnett, Mary, 9.
Garnett, Muscoe Russell, 144.
Garnett, Gen. R. S., killed at
Rich Mountain, 119.
Gay, Captain, 382.
Georgetown, enemy landing in,
165.
Gibbes, Dr. — , 26; reports inci
dents of the war, 93; bad news
from, 100.
Gibbes, Mrs. — , 32.
Gibbes, Mrs. Hampton, 170.
Gibson, Dr. — , 117.
Gibson, Mrs., her prophecy, 169;
her despondency, 174.
Gidiere, Mrs. — , 4.
Gist, Gov., 152; an anecdote of,
153.
Gladden, Col. — , 156.
Gonzales, Gen. — , his farewell to
the author, 125; complains of
want of promotion, 148.
Goodwyn, Artemus, 21.
Goodwyn, Col. — , 218, 350.
Gourdin, Robert, 25, 32.
Grahamsville, to be burned, 336.
Grant, Gen. U. S. , and the surrender
of Fort Donelson, 131 ; at Vicks-
burg, 219; a place for, 269; his
success, 270; pleased with Sher
man's work, 299 ; reenforcements
for, 310; before Richmond, 322,
333; closing in on Lee, 346;
Richmond falls before, 377.
Greeley, Horace, quoted, 116.
Green, Allen, 32, 95, 360.
Green, Mrs. Allen, 33.
Green, Halcott, 171, 203.
Greenhow, Mrs. Rose, warned the
Confederates at Manassas, 176;
in Richmond, 201, 204.
413
INDEX
Gregg, Maxcy, 31.
Grundy, Mrs., 257.
HALLECK, GEN., being re-
enforced, 165; takes Cor
inth, 178.
Hamilton, Jack, 36.
Hamilton, Louisa, her baby, 36,
211.
Hamilton, Prioleau, 374.
Hamilton, Mrs. Prioleau, 370.
Hammy, Mary, 66, 76; her fiance,
79; many strings to her bow,
100; her disappointment, 118;
in tears, 124.
Hampton, Christopher, 161, 264;
leaving Columbia, 344, 399.
Hampton, Frank, his death and
funeral, 237; a memory of, 238.
Hampton, Mrs. Frank, 40, 42;
on flirting with South Carolin
ians, 118, 173.
Hampton, Miss Kate, 218; anec
dote of, 381.
Hampton Legion, the, Dr. Darby
its surgeon, 57; ift a snarl, 85;
at Bull Run, 105.
Hampton, Preston, 40, 237, 260,
264, 272; his death in battle,
332.
Hampton Roads, the Merrimac
in, 164.
Hampton, Sally, 293, 332; mar
riage of, 399.
Hampton, Gen. Wade, of the
Revolution, 39, 43, 47.
Hampton, Mrs. Wade, the elder,
43.
Hampton, Gen. Wade, his Legion,
, 47; in Richmond, 82; wounded,
87; the hero of the hour, 135,
150; shot in the foot, 171; his
wound, 180; his heroism when
wounded, 181; in Columbia,
187; at dinner, 189-190; and
his Legion, 191 ; a reception to,
192; sends a captured saddle
to Gen. Chesnut, 258; a basket
of partridges from, 271, 313;
£ghts a battle, in which his two
sons fall, 332; tribute of, to Joe
Johnston, 343; made a lieu
tenant-general, 350; correspond
ence of, with Gen. Sherman,
359; home again, 404.
Hampton, Mrs. Wade, 136.
Hampton, Wade, Jr., 249; wound
ed in battle, 332.
Hardee, Gen. William J., 371.
Harlan, James, 90.
Harper's Ferry, to be attacked,
58; evacuated, 65.
Harris, Arnold, brings news from
Washington, 91.
Harrison, Burton, 246, 263, 264;
at a charade, 274; defends Mr.
Davis, 290, 305, 330.
Hartstein, Capt., 25.
Haskell, Alexander, 198, 268.
Haskell, John C., 293, 399.
Haskell, Mrs. — , 196.
Haskell, William, 27.
Haxall, Lucy, 257.
Haxall, Mrs., 278.
Hayne, Mrs. Arthur, 146.
Hayne, Isaac, 26, 66, 316, 346,
369.
Hayne, Mrs. Isaac, 27; when her
son died, 202.
Hayne, Paul, 176; his son and
Lincoln, 202, 208.
Hemphill, John, 48.
Hermitage, the, 365.
Hey ward, Barn well, as an escort,
64, 212, 278, 283.
Heyward, Henrietta Magruder,
212.
Heyward, Joseph, 212.
Heyward, Mrs. Joseph, 28, 39.
414
INDEX
Heyward, Savage, 22.
Hill, Benjamin H., refusal of,
to fight a duel, 11, 13; in Rich
mond, 274.
Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 144.
Hood, Gen. John B., 100; de
scribed, 230; with his staff,
231 ; at Chickamauga, 248; calls
on the author, 263; a drive
with, 265; his love-affairs, 266-
269; a drive with, 271 ; fitted for
gallantry, 277; on horseback,
282; drives with Mr. Davis,
283; has an ovation, 284; at a
ball, 287; his military glory,
290; anecdote of, 298; a full
general, 314; his address to the
army, 316; losses of, before At
lanta, 320; his force, 333; off
to Tennessee, 337; losses of, at
the battle of Nashville, 337, 340;
in Columbia, 342; his glory
on the wane, 372; a call from,
376; his silver cup, 380; abuse
of, 383.
Hooker, Gen. Joseph B., 162, 213.
Howell, Maggie, 76, 304, 327.
Howell, Mrs., 265.
Huger, Alfred, 2.
Huger, Gen. Benjamin, 383.
Huger, Mrs., 381, 394.
Huger, Thomas, 31 ; his death, 186.
Humphrey, Capt., 5.
Hunter, R. M. T., at dinner with,
53, 57, 144; a walk home with,
283, 398.
JNGRAHAM, CAPT. — , 8, 10,
-L 14, 42, 54; says the war has
hardly begun, 99, 147.
Ives, Col. J. C., 284.
Ives, Mrs. J. C., 273; her theatri
cals, 285.
Izard, Mrs. — , 26; quoted, 93,
146 ; tells of Sand Hill patriots,
209, 351.
Izard, Lucy, 212.
TACKSON, GEN. "STONE-
*J WALL/' at Bull Run, 89,
170; his movements, 172; his
influence, 175; his triumphs,
179; following up McClellan,
193; faith in, 196; killed, 213;
promoted Hood, 230; described
by Gen. Lawton, 261-262; la
ments for, 269.
Jameson, Mr. — , 54.
James Island, Federals land on,
181; abandoned, 195.
Johnson, President Andrew, 394,
398.
Johnson, Mrs. Bradley T., as a
heroine, 71.
Johnson, Herschel V., 11.
Johnson, Dr. Robert, 220.
Johnston, Gen. Albert Sidney,
131, 140; killed at Shiloh, 156,
182.
Johnston, General Edward, a
prisoner in the North, 232;
help he once gave Grant, 269.
Johnston, Gen. Joseph E., his
command, 75; evacuates Har
per's Ferry, 65; retreating, 78;
to join Beauregard, 84, 85; at
Bull Run, 91; at Seven Pines,
171; wounded, 180; his hero
ism as a boy, 184; sulking, 228;
as a great god of war, 240;
thought well of, 248; his care
for his men, 249; made com-
mander-in-chief of the West,
265; orders to, 290; suspended,
314; cause of his removal, 315,
317, 320; a talk with, 350; in
Lincolnton, 352; a drawn bat-
415
INDEX
tie by, 372; not to be caught,
379 ; anecdote of, 383.
Johnston, Mrs. Joseph E., 53, 86;
and Mrs. Davis, 102, 350; her
cleverness, 352.
Johnston, Robert, 375.
Jones, Col. Cadwallader, 380.
Jones, Gen. — , 315.
Jordan, Gen., an outburst from,
KEARSARGE, the, 314.
Keitt, Col. Lawrence, op
posed to Mr. Davis, 68; seek
ing promotion, 258.
Kershaw's brigade in Columbia,
341.
Kershaw, Joseph, and the Ches-
nuts, 393.
Kershaw, Gen. Joseph B., and his
brigade, 21; anecdote of, 63;
his regiment praised, 95; his
piety, 101; his independent re
port on Bull Run, 107.
Kershaw, Mrs. Joseph B., 390.
Kilpatrick, Gen. Judson, 294;
threatening Richmond, 296 ;
his failure before Richmond,
298.
King, Judge, 211.
Kingsville, 3; an adventure in,
253.
Kirkland, Mary, 385.
Kirkland, Mrs. — , 4.
Kirkland, William, 311.
Kirkwood Rangers, the, 106.
L
A BORDE, DR. — , 210.
Lamar, Col. L. Q. C., in
Richmond, 70; a talk with, 72;
on the war, 73; on crutches, 82,
144; asked to dinner, 278; his
talk of George Eliot, 279-280;
and Constance Gary, 286;
spoken of, for an aideship, 302.
Lancaster, 356.
Lane, Harriet, 18.
haurens, Henry, his grandchil
dren, 330.
Lawrence, a negro, unchanged,
38; fidelity of, 101, 112; quar
rels of, with his wife, 217, 237;
sent home, 288.
Lawton, Gen. Alexander R., talks
of " Stonewall Jackson," 261 ; a
talk with, 276.
Le Conte, Prof. Joseph, 141; his
powder manufactory, 187.
Ledyard, Mr. — , 18.
Lee, Custis, 100, 246, 328.
Lee, Fitzhugh, 294.
Lee, Light Horse Harry, 94.
Lee, Gen. Robert E., made Gen-
eral-in-chief of Virginia, 47, 63;
with Davis and Chesnut, 83;
seen by the author for the first
time, 93; warns planters, 136;
criticism of, 188; faith in, 197;
warns Mr. Davis on the battle
field, 202; and Antietam, 213;
wants negroes in the army, 224 ;
a likeness of, 236; faith in him
justified, 240; at Mr. Da vis's
house, 244; fighting Meade,
258; at church, 264; in Rich
mond, 265; if he had Grant's
resources, 270; a sword for,
292; instructed in the art of
war, 292; his daughter-in-law's
death, 300; a postponed re
view by, 306; without back
ing, 331 ; a drawn battle by,
372; despondent, 377; capitu
lation of, 378 ; part of his army
in Chester, 379.
Lee, Mrs. Robert E., 93, 124, 236;
a call on, 292.
416
INDEX
Lee, Roony, 93; wounded, 236;
Butler kind to, 300.
Lee, Capt. Smith, a walk with,
294, 302, 303.
Lee, Stephen D., 371.
Legree, of Uncle Tom's Cabin, dis
cussed, 114-116.
Leland, Capt., 337.
Leon, Edwin de, sent to Eng
land, 172.
Levy, Martha, 211.
Lewes, George Henry, 280.
Lewis, John, 257.
Lewis, Major John Coxe, 265.
Lewis, Maria, her wedding, 264,
303.
Lincoln, Abraham, his election,
1; at his inauguration, 9; in
Baltimore, 12, 13; his inau
gural address, 14; his Scotch
cap, 18; described, 19, 33; as a
humorist, 71; his army, 76;
anecdote of, 78; his emancipa
tion proclamation, 153, 199;
his portrait attacked by Paul
Hayne's son, 202; his regrets
for the war, 203, 270; assassina
tion of, 380, 396.
Lincoln, Mrs. Abraham, vulgarity
of, 12; her economy, 16, 18,
270; her sister in Richmond,
381.
Lincolnton, the author in, 344-
366; an exile in, 347; taken for
a millionaire in, 349; Gen.
Chesnut in, 358-359.
Lomax, Col., 6.
Longstreet, A. B., author of
Georgia Scenes, 82.
Longstreet, Gen. James, his army
going West, 241; separated
from Bragg, 258; failure of, 265.
Lowe, Sir Hudson, 399.
Lowndes, Charles, 211.
Lowndes, Mrs. Charles, 4.
Lowndes, James, a call from, 112,
370.
Lowndes, Rawlins, 211.
Lowndes, Mrs. — , 59.
Lubbock, Gov. — , 328.
Luryea, Albert, his death, 175.
Lyons, Lord, 136.
Lyons, Mrs., 239, 281, 313.
Lyons, Rachel, 208.
MAGRATH, JUDGE, 2, 394.
Magruder, Gen. John B.,
wins battle of Big Bethel, 62,
196; public opinion against,
201; in Columbia, 204.
Mallory, Stephen R., 13; meets
the author in Richmond, 69,
147.
Mallory, Mrs. S. R., 27.
Malvern Hill, battle of, 194, 214.
Manassas, a sword captured at,
101. See Bull Run.
Manassas Junction, letter from
Gen. Chesnut at, 65.
Manassas Station, 63; looking for
a battle at, 64.
Manning, Gov. John, sketch of,
23; at breakfast, 25, 27; news
from, 32, 34; an aide to Beaure-
gard, 36; under fire, 38; his
anecdote of Mrs. Preston, 168.
Marshall, Henry, 161.
Martin, Isabella D., 155, 268;
quoted, 275; to appear in a
play, 276; on war and love-
making, 288; when Willie Pres
ton died, 315; takes the author
to a chapel, 322; a walk with,
336, 343, 350, 363; letter from,
404.
Martin, Rev. William, and the
Wayside Hospital, 206; at Lin
colnton, 351.
Martin, Mrs. William, 315.
Mason, George, 103.
417
INDEX
Mason, James M., at dinner with,
98; as an envoy to England,
116-117, 125; on false news,
104.
McCaa, Col. Burwell Boykin, his
death in battle, 229, 373.
McClellan, Gen. George B., ad
vancing for a battle, 65; su
persedes Scott, 98 ; as a coming
king, 119; said to have been
removed, 153; his force of men
on the Peninsula 158; his army,
164; at Fair Oaks, 171; his
lines broken, 187; followed by
"Stonewall" Jackson. 193; pris
oners taken from, 196; belief
in his defeat, 198; destruction
of his army expected, 200; his
escape, 201 ; and Antietam, 213.
McCord, Cheves, 177.
McCord, Mrs. Louisa S., and her
brother, 139; her faith in South
ern soldiers, 175; of patients in
the hospital, 182; a talk with,
199; on nurses, 203, 239; at her
hospital, 317; sends a bouquet
to President Davis, 328; a din
ner with, 335; her horses, 336;
her troublesome country cousin,
337.
McCullock, Ben, 50.
McDowell, Gen. Irvin, defeated
at Bull Run, 91.
McDuffie, Mary, 136.
McFarland, Mrs., 236.
McLane, Col., 329.
McLane, Mrs., 85-86.
McLane, — , 92.
McMahan, Mrs., 210.
Meade, Gen. George G., fighting
Lee, 258-259; his armies, 269.
Means, Gov. John H., 26, 33; a
good-by to, 207, 214.
Means, Mrs. — , 37.
Means, Stark, 37.
Memminger, Hon. Mr., letter
from, 164.
Memphis given up, 177; retaken,
323.
Merrimac, the, 136, 139, 140;
•ailed the Virginia, 148; sunk,
164.
Meynardie, Rev. Mr., 66; as a
traveling companion, 68, 101.
Middleton, Miss, 348, 349; de
scribed, 353, 359; a letter from,
376.
Middleton, Mrs. — , 136, 154.
Middleton, Mrs. Tom, 26.
Middleton, Olivia, 338.
Miles, Col. — , an aide to Beaure-
gard, 36; an anecdote by, 43,
54, 125.
Miles, Dr. Frank, 361.
Miles, William A., his love-affairs,
232-234.
Miller, John L., 309.
Miller, Stephen, 6.
Miller, Stephen Decatur, sketch of,
16; his body-servant, Simon,
225.
Miller, Mrs. Stephen Decatur, 216;
ill in Alabama, 221; her return
with the author, 226; an anec
dote of her bravery, 243.
Milton, John, as a husband, 298.
Minnegerode, Rev. Mr., his church
during Stoneman's raid, 245;
his prayers, 277.
Mobile Bay, battle of, 319.
Moise, Mr. — , 178.
Monitor, the, 137, 139, 140.
Montagu, Lady Mary, 142.
Montgomery, Ala., the author in,
6-20; Confederacy being or
ganized at, 6; speeches in Con
gress at, 12; Confederate flag
raised at, 15; the author in, 47-
56; a trip from Portland, Ala.,
to, 52; removal of Congress
418
INDEX
from, 55; society in, 166; hospi
tality in, 166; the author in,
220, 226-228.
Montgomery Blues, the, 6.
Montgomery Hall, 21.
Moore, Gen. A. B., 6; brings news,
8, 10, 15.
Morgan, Gen. John H., an anec
dote of, 208; his romantic mar
riage, 242; in Richmond, 275;
a dinner by, 276; his death re
ported, 326.
Morgan, Mrs. John H., her ro
mantic marriage, 242.
Mormonism, 143.
Morris Island, 31; being fortified,
195.
Moses, Little, 134.
Mt. Vernon, 63.
Mulberry, a visit to, 2, 21; por
trait of C. C. Pinckney at, 32;
the author at, 42; a stop at, 57;
the author ill at, 127, 135; hos
pitality at, 169; a picnic at, 251 ;
in spring, 308; Madeira from,
329; a farewell to, 340; fears
for, 354; reported destruction
of, 381; results of attack on,
386; a dinner at, 403.
-\J-APIER, LORD, 176.
-A-N Napoleon III, 136.
Nashville, evacuation of, 134.
Nelson, Warren, 143.
Newbern, lost, 144.
New Madrid, to be given up, 146.
New Orleans, taken by Farragut,
158-159; a story from, 178;
men enlisting in, 188; women
at, 188.
New York Herald, the, quoted,
9, 13, 18, 34, 43, 100; criticism
by, 281, 298.
New York Tribune, the, quoted,
89, 96, 107.
Nickleby, Mrs., 131.
Norfolk, burned, 164.
Northrop, Mr. — , abused as com
missary-general, 97.
Nott, Henry Deas, on the war,
103.
OGDEN, CAPT. — , 327, 333,
367.
Orange Court House, 74.
Ordinance of Secession, passage
of, 4.
Ossoli, Margaret Fuller, 32.
Ould, Judge, 247.
Ould, Mrs., a party of hers, 259,
274, 280; gives a luncheon, 302.
Owens, Gen. — , 48.
T3ALMER, DR. — , 326.
J- Palmetto Flag, raising the, 2.
Parker, Frank, 303.
Parkman, Mrs., 235.
Patterson, Miss — , 345.
Pea Ridge, battle of, 139.
Pemberton, Gen. John C., 219,
247.
Penn, Mrs. —,281.
Petersburg, an incident at, 255;
prisoners taken at, 323.
Petigru, James L., his opposition
to secession, 24, 36; refuses to
pray for Mr. Davis, 63, 284.
Pettigrew, Johnston, offered a
brigadier-generalship, 145, 171,
173.
Phillips, Mrs., 201.
Pickens, Gov. Francis W., "in
sensible to fear," 3; and Fort
Sumter, 5; a telegram from, 9;
a fire-eater, 29; orders a signal
fired, 33; a call from, 151, 181;
has telegram from Mr. Davis,
190; serenaded, 204.
Pickens, Mrs. Francis W., 29,
419
INDEX
134, 149; her reception to Gen.
Wade Hampton, 192-193.
Pillow, Gideon J., at Fort Donel-
son, 140.
Pinckney, Cha les C., 32.
Pinckney, Miss — , 32.
Pizzini's, 111.
Poe, Edgar Allan, 258.
Polk, Gen. Leonidas, and Sher
man, 291, 298.
Pollard, Mr. — , dinner at home of,
9.
Porcher, Mr. — , drowned, 107.
Portland, Ala., a visit to, 52.
Portman, Mr. — , 373.
Port Royal, 137.
Potter, Gen. Edward E., 387.
Preston, Jack, 343.
Preston, Gen. John S., at War-
renton, 82; as to prisoners in
Columbia, 133; ruined by the
fall of New Orleans, 159 ; on gos
siping, 162; his entertain
ments, 168, 207; with Hood at
a reception, 284, 323; return of
his party from Richmond, 373;
on horseback, 374; a good-by
from, 375; going abroad, 382.
Preston, Mrs. John S., 39; goes to
Manassas, 69, 94; quoted, 130,
143; a dinner wi^h, 157; a ball
given by, 167; her fearlessness,
168; a call with, 180; at a con
cert, 193; an anecdote by, 295-
296.
Preston, Mary C., goes to Mul
berry, 134, 136, 143; a drive by,
with Mr. Venable, 150; with
Gen. Chesnut, 159; a talk with,
162; gives Hood a bouquet,
231; made love to, 233, 256;
greets Gen. Hood, 263, 283,
296; her marriage, 327; a din
ner to, 330.
Preston, Sally Buchanan Camp
bell, called "Buck," 150, 167;
made love to, 233, 266; why she
dislikes Gen. Hood, 286; men
who worship, 288; and Gen.
Hood, 289, 291; on horseback,
363.
Preston, Miss Susan, 36.
Preston, Willie, 43; his death,
315.
Preston, William C., 105, 362.
Pride, Mrs. — , 370, 372, 373.
Prince of Wales, the, his visit to
Washington, 207.
Pringle, Edward J., letter from,
4,27.
Pringle, Mrs. John J., 186.
Pryor, Gen. Roger A., 37.
"OACHEL, MADAM, in Char-
-Lt leston, 238.
Randolph, Gen. — , 147.
Randolph, Mrs. — , described,
105; and Yankee prisoners,
107; her theatricals, 275.
Ravenel, St. Julien, 365.
Reed, Wm. B., arrested, 113.
Reynolds, Mrs. — , 22.
Rhett, Albert, 165.
Rhett, Mrs. Albert, 147.
Rhett, Barn well, desired for Pres
ident of the Confederacy, 6 ; as
a man for president, 104.
Rhett, Barnwell, Jr., 148.
Rhett, Burnet, to marry Miss
Aiken, 21 .
Rhett, Edmund, 150,. 313-314.
Rhett, Grimke", 200.
Rice, Henry M., 205.
Rich Mountain, battle of, 119.
Richmond, going to, 66; the au
thor in, 68-76; return to, from
White Sulphur Springs, 82-126;
a council of war in, 83; when
Bull Run was fought, 85-89;
Robert E. Lee seen in, 93-94;
420
INDEX
at the hospitals in, 108-111;
women knitting socks in, 113;
agreeable people in, 120; Gen.
Chesnut called to, 157; hospi
tality in, 167; a battle near, 171,
174; the Seven Days' fighting
near, 197-198; return to, 229-
239; Gen. Hood in, 229-231; a
march past in, 231; a funeral
in, 237; during Stoneman's
raid, 239, 247; at Mr. Da vis's
in, 244; the enemy within three
miles of, 246; at the War-Office
in, 247-248; return to, 252-
303; the journey to, 252-256;
to see a French frigate near,
259; Gen. Hood in, 265-269,
271; merriment in, 272-277,
282-287; a huge barrack, 278;
almost taken, 293-294; Dahl-
gren's raid, 294; Kilpatrick
threatens, 296, 298; fourteen
generals at church in, 299; re
turned prisoners in, 301 ; a fare
well to, 302-304; Little Joe
Da vis's death in, 305-306;
anxiety in, 330; fall of, 377.
Roanoke Island, surrender of, 132.
Robertson, Mr. — , 385.
Rosecrans, Gen. William S., 248;
at Chattanooga, 258.
Russell, Lord, 136.
Russell, William H., of the Lon
don Times, 40, 50; criticisms by,
52; his criticisms mild, 60; rub
bish in his letters, 64; attacked,
66; abuses the South, 74; his
account of Bull Run, 96, 113;
his criticisms of plantation
morals, 114; on Bull Run, 117;
his "India," 208.
Rutledge, Mrs. Ben., 348.
Rutledge, John, 31.
Rutledge, Julia, 240.
Rutledge, Robert, 14.
Rutledge, Sally, 212.
Rutledge, Susan, 5.
SANDERS, GEORGE, 12.
Saussure, Mrs. John de, 15;
a good- by from, 67.
Saussure, Wilmot de, 89, 107, 109.
Scipio Africanus, a negro, 391, 397.
Scott, Gen. Winfield, anecdote of,
7 ; and officers wishing to resign,
10; on Southern soldiers, 182.
Scott, Mrs. Winfield, 19.
Secession in South Carolina, 2;
the Convention of, 3; support
for, 5.
Secession ville, battle of, 191.
Seddon, Mr. J. A., 247.
Semmes, Admiral R., 236; a cha
rade-party at his house, 272-
273; and the surrender of the
Alabama, 314.
Semmes, Mrs., her calmness, 294.
Seven Days' Battle, last of the,
194; Gen. Chesnut's account of,
197.
Seven Pines, battle of, 171.
Seventh Regiment, of New York,
the, in Baltimore, 41.
Seward, William H., 17, 33, 104;
quoted, 146 ; reported to have
gone to England, 203; at
tempted assassination of, 380.
Shakespeare, William, as a lover,
296-297.
Shand, Nanna, 158.
Shand, Rev. Mr., 194, 195.
Shannon, William M., 21.
Shannon, Capt. — , a call from,
106.
Sharpsburg. See Antietam.
Sherman, Gen. William T., at
Vicksburg, 219; marching to
Mobile, 291; his work in Mis
sissippi, 299; between Lee and
Hood, 327; to catch Lee in the
421
INDEX
rear, 331; his march to the sea,
333; at Augusta, 334; going to
Savannah, 336; desolation in
his path, 340-341; marching
constantly, 342; no living thing
in his path, 354-355, 356,
357; burning of Columbia, 358,
362; correspondence with Gen.
Hampton, 359; promise of pro
tection by, to Columbia, 372;
at the fall of Richmond, 377;
ruin in his track, 384; remark
of, to Joe Johnston, 390; ac
cuses Wade Hampton of burn
ing Columbia, 396.
Shiloh, battle of, 156.
Simms, William Gilmore, 43, 145.
Singleton, Mrs., 184, 194, 237; her
orphan grandchildren, 238.
Slidell, Mrs. — , 149.
Smith, Gen. Kirby, wounded, 87,
90; as a Blucher, 94, 317, 323.
Somerset, Duke of, his son in
Richmond, 203.
Soulouque, F. E., his career in
Hayti, 74.
South Carolina, the secession of,
2, 4; attack on, 10; a small
State, 70.
Spotswood Hotel, the, 59; the
author at, 69; a miniature
world, 70; the drawing-room of,
79.
Spottsylvania Court House, bat
tles around, 310.
Stanard, Mr. — , 94.
Stan ton, Edwin M., 310.
Stark, Mary, 95, 146.
St. Cecilia Society, the, balls of,
30.
St. Michael's Church, and the fir
ing on Fort Sumter, 35.
Stephens, Alexander H., 10;
elected Vice-President, 12; his
fears for the future, 49.
Stockton, Philip A., his clandes
tine marriage, 120-122.
Stockton, Mrs. Edward, 251.
Stockton, Emma, 272.
Stoneman, Gen. G. S., his raid,
239, 244, 245; before Atlanta,
317, 377.
Stony Creek, battle of, 313.
Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 143, 189.
Stuart, Gen. Jeb, his cavalry, 187,
277.
Sue, Eugene, 46.
Sumner, Charles, 74.
Sumter, S. C., an awful story from,
401, 402.
npABER, WILLIAM, 26.
JL Taliaferro, Gen. — , 317.
Taylor, John, 392.
Taylor, Gen. Richard, 227.
Taylor, Willie, 165.
Team, Adam, 252? 254, 256.
Thackeray, W. M., quoted, 110;
on American hostesses, 168; his
death, 281.
Thomas, Gen. George H., his
forces, 333; and Gen. Hood,
338; wins the battle of Nash
ville, 339, 340.
Thompson, John R., 258, 260, 298.
Thompson, Mrs. John R., 204.
Togno, Madame — , 151.
Tompkins, Miss Sally, her hospital,
111.
Toombs, Robert, an anecdote
told by, 7, 20; thrown from his
horse and remounts, 97, 101;
as a brigadier, 108; in a rage,
132; his criticisms, 171; de
nounced, 179.
Toombs, Mrs. Robert, a recep
tion given by, 48, 53 ; a call on,
112.
Toombs, Miss — , anecdote of, 193.
422
INDEX
Trapier, Gen. — , 148.
Trapier, Rev. Mr., 394, 397.
Trenholm, Capt. — , 133. *
Trescott, William H., 24, 29, 70;
says Bull Run is a victory lead
ing to ruin, 92; his dinners, 153.
Trezevant, Dr. — , 198, 339.
Trimlin, Milly, 400-401.
Tucker, Capt., 273.
Tyler, Miss, 14.
JTNCLE TOM'S CABIN, 142,
U 184.
Urquhart, Col. — , 313.
-\ T ALLANDIGH AM, CLEM-
V ENT B., 216.
Velipigue, Jim, 63.
Venable, Col., 36, 40; reports a
brave thing at Bull Run, 92;
on the Confederate losses at
Nashville, 134; his comment
on an anecdote, 138; on toler
ation of sexual immorality, 143,
144; an aide to Gen. Lee, 172,
187; describes Hood's eyes, 230,
257; quoted, 289.
Vicksburg, gunboats pass, 205;
surrender of, reported, 219, 220;
must fall, 247; a story of the
siege of, 295.
Virginia, and secession, 5.
von Borche, Major — , 268, 272;
his name, 285.
WALKER, JOHN, 394.
Walker, William, 384.
Walker, Mrs.— ,49, 112.
Wallenstein, translations of, 162.
Ward, Matthias, an anecdote by,
51.
Washington, city of, deserted, 27;
alarming news from, 49; why
not entered after Bull Run, 90;
how news of that battle was
received in, 91; Confederates
might have walked into, 103;
state dinners in, 166.
Washington, George, at Trenton,
237.
Washington, L. Q., letters from,
158, 164, 245.
Watts, Col. Beaufort and Fort
Sumter, 42; a touching story
of, 43, 147.
Wayside Hospital, the, 205; the
author at, 321.
Weston, Plowden, 160.
West Point, Ga., 220.
Whitaker, Maria, and her twins,
45, 386.
Whiting, Col. — , 31.
Whiting, Gen. — , 307.
Whitner, Judge, 26.
Wigfall, Judge L. T., 29; speech
by, 30; angry with Major An
derson, 48, 69; and Mr. Brew-
ster, 7.3; quoted, 91; with his
Texans, 96; an enemy of Mr.
Davis, 102; reconciled with Mr.
Davis, 104; still against Mr. Da
vis, 261; and Joe Johnston's
removal, 320; going to Texas,
373; on the way to Texas, 377;
remark of, to Simon Cameron,
400.
Wigfall, Mrs. L. T., 28; a visit
with, 32; talk with, about the
war, 33; a telegram to, 59;
quoted, 84; a drive with, 96;
a call on, 266, 275.
Wilderness, the battle of the, 310.
Williams, Mrs. David R. (the au
thor's sister, Kate), 127, 329,
351, 399.
Williams, Mrs. John N., 129.
Williamsburg, battle at, 161, 171.
Wilson, Henry, at Manassas, 89.
423
INDEX
Winder, Miss, arrested, 113.
Withers, Judge — ,21, 60.
Withers, Kate, death of, 403.
Witherspoon, John, 250, 404.
Witherspoon, Mrs. — , found dead,
129.
YANCEY, WILLIAM L., talk
from, 120; letter from, to
Lord Russell, 136.
"Yankee Doodle, "20.
Yorktown, siege and evacuation
oi> 161.
424
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