 Chapter 5 of A Diary from Dixie, a diary from Dixie by Mary Chesnut, Chapter 5, Montgomery, Alabama, April 27, 1861 to May 20, 1861. Here we are once more. Honorable Robert Barnwell came with us. His benevolent spectacles gave 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 Washington. 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 Eugene is in command there, son of the Olmutz Eugene. General 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 shaking in our shoes at their great mass meetings. We are jolly as larks, all the same. Mr. Chestnut has gone with Wade Hampton to see President Davis about the legion Wade wants to get up. Footnote. 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. Footnote. The President came across the aisle to speak to me at church today. He was very cordial, and I appreciated the honor. Wigfall is black with rage at Colonel Anderson's account of the fall of Sumter. Wigfall did behave magnanimously, but Anderson does not seem to see it in that light. Catch me risking my life to save him again, says Wigfall. 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. Chestnut 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 Chestnut a howdy in the other world. What a kind welcome the old gentleman 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 breast-pin. Oh! said my guttopurcha Hemp Hill. If I had known how those bouquets were to be honored I would have been up by daylight seeking the sweetest flowers. Footnote. John Hemp Hill 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. In footnote. 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 beside Mrs. Chestnut, said the Governor, facing the music gallantly as he sank into it gracefully. Well done, old fogies. Brown said, These southern men have an awfully flattering way with women. Oh! so many are descendants of Irishmen and so the Blarney remains yet even and in spite of their gray hairs. It was a group of silver-gray flatterers. Yes, Blarney as well as Bravery came in with the Irish. At Mrs. Davis' reception, dismal news, for civil war seems certain. At Mrs. Toombs' reception Mr. Stevens came by me. Twice before we have had it out on the subject of this Confederacy, once on the cars coming from Georgia here, once at a supper where he sat next to me. Today 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 frivol fravel, but we held on. He was deeply interesting and he gave me some new ideas as to our dangerous situation. Fears for the future and not exultation at our successes pervade his discourse. Dined at the President and never had a pleasanter day. He is as witty as he is wise. He was very agreeable. He took me into dinner. The talk was of Washington, nothing of our present difficulties. A General Anderson from Alexandria, D.C. was in doleful dumps. He says the North are so much better prepared 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 gorgeously arrayed persons who fairly shine in the sun, tells me she mistook the inevitable morrow for Mr. Chestnut 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 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 we 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, passionate, 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 Honorable Robert Barnwell. His theory is all would have been right if we had taken Fort Sopter 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 Dossier 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. Edmundston came to see me. They say Virginia has no grievance. She comes out on a point of honour. Could she stand by and see her sovereign sister states invaded? Sumter Anderson has been offered a Kentucky regiment. 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 warpath 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. Ward, my gutta-percha friend's colleague from Texas. Footnote. 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. End footnote. Senator Ward in appearance is the exact opposite of Senator Hemphill. 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 a 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 unoccupied berth or sleeping place of any sort whatsoever in the gentlemen's cabin. Saloon I think they called it. He had taken a state room one hundred and ten, but he could not eject the people who had already seized it and were asleep in it. Neither could the captain. It would have been a case of revolver or eleven inch bowie knife. Near the lady's saloon the steward took pity on him. This man said he is one hundred ten, and I can find no place for him, poor fellow. There was a peep out of bright eyes. I say, steward, have you a man one hundred ten 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 number one hundred ten, and go in. Ah, said Mr. Ward, how those oories patted and pitied me and hustled me about and gave me the best birth. 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 at the collapse when the huge hoop skirts fell off, unheeded on the cabin floor. One beauty who was disbording herself near his curtain 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 at all. So much for hoary locks and their reverence-inspiring power. Russell, the wandering English newspaper correspondent, was telling how very odd some of our plantation habits were. He was staying at the house of an ex-cabinet minister, and madam 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 13th. We have been down from Montgomery on the boat to that godforsaken landing, Portland, Alabama, found everybody drunk—that is, the three men who were there—at last secured a carriage to carry us to my brother-in-law's house. Mr. Chestnut 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. Chestnut, we found three of the lone ones or to come by at Portland. So much for the core of reserves, alcoholized patriots. Saw for the first time the demoralization produced by hopes of freedom. My mother's butler, whom I talked 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 stately we had to send him a tip through his wife Hedy, 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 like 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 readyer 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 leaving friends such as Mrs. Emery 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. Footnote. Mrs. Johnston was Lydia McLean, a daughter of Lewis McLean, 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 graduated from West Point in 1829 and had served in the Blackhawk, Seminole, and Mexican wars. He resigned his commission in the United States Army on April 22, 1861. End Footnote. Mr. Mallory came for us to go to Mrs. Tomb's reception. Mr. Chestnut would not go, and I decided to remain with him. This proved a wise decision. First Mr. Hunter came. Footnote. 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 Senator serving until 1861. He supported slavery and became active in the secession movement. At the Charleston Convention in 1860, he received the next highest vote to Stephen A. Douglas for President. End Footnote. In college they called him, from his initials, RMT, Run Mad Tom Hunter. Just now I think he is the sanest, if not the wisest, president in our newborn Confederacy. I remember when I first met him. He sat next to me at some state dinner in Washington. Mr. Clay had taken me into dinner, but seemed quite satisfied that my 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 pulling down, and his hair wanted brushing. He delivered unconsciously 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 diga-clan that is not so bad. So my unexpected reception was of the most charming. Judge Frost came a little later. They all remained until the return of the crowd from Mrs. Tombs's. These men are not sanguine. I can't say without hope, exactly. They are agreed in one thing. It is worthwhile to try a while, if only to get away from New England. Captain Ingram 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 inconsistencies and contrarities make the Tombs very exciting. One never knows what tack any one of them will take at the next word. May 20th. Launched at Mrs. Davis's. Nothing 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. Chestnut opposes it violently, because this is so central a position 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. Chestnut 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 advisors in softly modulated, dulcet accents. What a rough menagerie we have here. And if nice people come to see you, up walks an irate judge who engrosses the conversation and abuses the friends of the company 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. Chestnut's three crazes. Maryland is to be made the seat of war. Old Morrow's idea of buying up 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. End of Chapter 5 Chapter 6 of A Diary from Dixie This loop of box recording is in the public domain. Read Ballory Anne Walden A Diary from Dixie by Mary Chestnut Chapter 6 Charleston, South Carolina May 25, 1861 to June 24, 1861 Charleston, South Carolina May 25, 1861 We have come back to South Carolina from the Montgomery Congress, stopping over at Mulberry. We came with RMT Hunter and Mr. Barnwell. Mr. Barnwell has excellent reasons for keeping cotton at home, but I forget what they are. Generally, people take what he says, also Mr. Hunter's wisdom, as unnatural. Not so Mr. Chestnut, who growls at both, much as he likes them. We also had Tom Lang and his wife, and Dr. 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 immeasurable, and he benignly received it, smiling behind those spectacles. Met John Darby at Atlanta and told him he was surgeon 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 remained a little too long in the medical college in Philadelphia 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, hurrying away. And I moaned, here was John Darby, like to have been killed by both sides in various coincidences. What marvelous experiences a little war begins to produce. May 27th they look for a fight at Norfolk. Beauregard 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 Ellsworth, who is 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. Footnote. 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 Zouaves 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 Ellsworth's men, then killed Jackson. In footnote. Thirty of Tom Boykin's company have come home from Richmond. They went as a rifle company armed with muskets. They were sand hill tackies, those fastidious ones, not very anxious to fight with anything anyway, I fancy. Richmond ladies had come for them in carriages, faded them, waved tankages to them, brought them dainties with their own hands, in the faith that every Carolinian was a gentleman and every man south of Mason and Dixon's line a hero. But these are not exactly descendants 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. He was gone as a private in Greg's regiment. He could not stand it at home any longer. Mr. Chestnut was willing for him to go because those sand hill 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 be privates. So he said, let the gentleman set the example, let them go in the ranks. So John Chestnut is a gentleman private. Johnny reproved me for saying, if I were a man I would not sit here and dole and drink and drivel and forget 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 soldier. You wasted it or spent it foolishly, said I. I do not know where it is 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. Lown'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 anything there but cried my eyes out. Sent Mrs. Wigfault a telegram. Where shrieks the wild sea mu? She answered sea mu at the Spotswood Hotel will shriek soon. I will remain here. June 6th Daven have had a talk concerning him today with two opposite extremes of people. Mrs. Chestnut, my mother-in-law, praises everybody good and bad. Judge not, she says. She is a philosopher. 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 on block as the French say. So nobody is the better for her good word or the worse for his bad one. In Camden I found myself in a flurry of women. Traders, they cried. Spies, they ought to be hanged. Daven is taken up. Dean and Davis are his accomplices. What has Daven 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 Chestnut comes. He is a lawyer, I said, gravely. Ladies, he will disappoint you. There will be no lynching if he goes to that meeting today. 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. Chestnut did come and gave a more definite account of poor Daven's precarious situation. They had intercepted reasonable letters of his at the post office. I believe it was not a very black treason after all. At any rate, Mr. Chestnut spoke for him with might and main at the meeting. It was composed, the meeting, of intelligent men with cool heads. And they banished Daven to Fort Sumter. The poor music master can't do much harm in the case mates there. He may thank his stars that Mr. Chestnut gave him a helping hand. In the red hot state our public mind now is in there will be a short shift for spies. Judge Withers said that Mr. Chestnut 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 Daven 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 peas, pen, paper, prejudices. I dread some of those after-dinner stories. After 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 cannot 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 specimens 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. Handsome youths, whose size and muscle he admired so much as they prowled around the mill's house would not relish hard work in the fields between May and December. Negroes stand a tropical or semi-tropical sun at Noonday better than white men. In fighting it is different. Men will not then mind sun or rain or wind. Major Emery, when he was ordered west, placed his resignation in the hands of his Maryland brothers. After the Baltimore row the brothers of Maryland declined to secede. Mrs. Emery, who at least is two-thirds of that co-partnership, being old Franklin's granddaughter and true to her blood, tried to get it back. The president refused to point blank though she went on her knees. That I do not believe. The Franklin race are stiff-necked and stiff-need, not much given to kneeling to God or man from all accounts. Footnote, William H. Emery served in Charleston Harbor during the nullification troubles of 1831 to 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 of the United States Army and took an active part in the war on the side of the North. End footnote. If Major Emery comes to us, won't he have a good time? Mrs. Davis adores Mrs. Emery. No wonder I fell in love with her myself. I heard of her before I saw her in this wise. Little Banks told me the story. She was dancing at a ball when some bad accident maker for the evening news rushed up and 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. Emery, it was all a hoax. The Major is alive. She cried. You were always running about with your bad news and turned her back on him to 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 Major's arms before Waterloo. And I have been busy too. My husband has gone to join Beauregard somewhere beyond Richmond. I feel blue-black with melancholy. But I hope to be in Richmond 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 ungrond 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 in the world. When Beauregard's report of the capture of Fort Sumter was printed, Willie Anchrom said, How is this? Tom Anchrom and Ham Boykin's names are not here. We thought from what they told us that they did most of the fighting. Colonel Magruder has done something splendid on the peninsula. Bethel is the name of the battle. 300 of the enemy killed, they say. Footnote. John Bankhead Magruder was a graduate who had served in the Mexican War and afterward, while stationed at Newport, Rhode Island, had become famous for his entertainments. When Virginia 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 Federals lost and killed and wounded about a hundred. Among them, Theodore Wendtrop of New York, author of Cecil Dream. The Confederate losses were very slight. In footnote. Our people, Southerners, I mean, continued 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 Velopieg said in the street today, 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 Beauregard to change the name of the stream near Manassas Station. Bull's run is so unrefined. Beauregard answered, let us try and make it as great a name as your South Carolina cowpins. Footnote. The battle of the cowpins in South Carolina was fought on January 17, 1781. The British, under Colonel Tarleton, being defeated by General Morgan with a loss to the British of 300 killed and wounded 200 prisoners. In footnote. Mrs. Chestnut, born in Philadelphia, cannot see what right we have to take Mount Vernon from our northern sisters. 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 Mount Vernon if we can. No comfort in Mr. Chestnut's letter from Richmond. Unutterable confusion prevails and discord already. In Charleston a butcher has been clandestinely supplying the Yankee fleet outside the bar with beef. They say he gave the information which led to the capture of the savanna. They will hang him. Mr. Pettigrew 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 it would seriously do Mr. Davis any good. Mr. Pettigrew is too clever to think himself one of the righteous whose prayers avail so overly much. Mr. Pettigrew's disciple, Mr. Bryan, followed his example. Mr. Pettigrew has such a keen sense of the ridiculous he must be laughing in his sleeve at the hubbub this untimely trade of independence has raised. Looking out for a battle at Manassas Station I am always ill. The name of my disease is a longing to get away from here to Richmond. June 19th. In England Mr. Gregory and Mr. Lindsay 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 Hayward 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 Sandhills. So I lost that good opportunity of the very nicest court to Richmond. Tried to rise above the agonies of everyday life. Red Emerson, too restless. Manassas on the brain. Russell's letters are filled with rubbish about our wanting an English prince to reign over us. He actually intimates that the noisy arming, drumming, marching, proclaiming 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 Intelligencer of Philadelphia. Footnote. 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. Chestnut, the author's mother-in-law. End footnote. He offers Lincoln his life and fortune, all that he has put at Lincoln's disposal to conquer us. Queer, we only want to separate from them, and 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. Chestnut 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 Gibbs's who first fired. But it was Anderson who fired the train which blew up the Union. He slipped into Fort Sumter that night when we expected to talk it all over. A letter 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 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 general 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 general to become familiar with the topography of the country and 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 columns which were advancing upon him. Neither Johnston nor Beauregard considers Harper's Ferry as very important and a strategic point of view. I think at most probable that the next battle he 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 confidence that we will defeat the enemy whenever and wherever we meet in general engagement. Although the majority of the people just around here are with us, still there are many who are against us. God bless you. Yours, James Chestnut, Jr. Mary, Hammy, and myself are off for Richmond. Reverend Mr. Minority of the Methodist persuasion goes with us. We are to be under his care. War Cloud lowering. Isaac Hain, 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. We are to be at the head of affairs himself. If he cannot 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 mill's 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 walking and candles flashing, tramping a feat, 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. Someone was screaming aloft, that is, from the top of the stairway, hoarsely like a boson in a storm. Old Colonel Chestnut was storming at the sleepy Negroes looking for fire candles and closets and everywhere else. I dressed and came upon the scene of action. What is it, any news? No, no, only mama smells a smell, she thinks something is burning somewhere. 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, giving orders to the busy crowd who were hunting the smell of fire. Old Mrs. Chestnut 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 tolerate 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 hysterically. The bombardment of Fort Sumter was nothing to this. After this alarm enough to wake the dead, the smell was found. A family had been boiling soap. 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 painted the air, at least to Mrs. Chestnut's nose. Two hundred yards or more away. Yesterday some of the negro men on the plantation were found with pistols. I have never before seen alt about any negro to show that they knew we had a war on hand in which they have any interest. Mrs. John Decesur bade me good-bye and God bless you. I was touched. Camden 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. End of Chapter 6 Chapter 7 of A Diary from Dixie This Lubrivox recording is in the public domain. Read by Laurie Ann Walden. A Diary from Dixie by Mary Chestnut Chapter 7 Richmond, Virginia June 27, 1861 to July 4, 1861 Richmond, Virginia June 27, 1861 Mr. Menardy 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 imminent persons who turned up on every hand to use freely on all matters of state. Mr. Lawrence Keat joined us en route. With him came his wife and baby. We don't think alike, but Mr. Keat is always original and entertaining. Already he pronounces 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. Chestnut's vote for Jeff Davis. He says Mr. Chestnut over-persuaded the judge and those two turned the tide, at least with the South Carolina delegation. We wrangled as we always do. He says how will Cobb's common sense might have saved us. Too quiet, unobtrusive Yankee schoolteachers 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 school mistresses returning from whence they came. Soldiers everywhere. They seem to be in the air and certainly to fill all space. Keat quoted a funny Georgia man who says we try our soldiers to see if they are hot enough before we enlist them. If when water is thrown on them they do not sis, they won't do, their patriotism is too cool. To show they were wide awake and sympathizing enthusiastically 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 people who were in the rooms engaged for us had not departed at the time they said they were going. We were 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 accidentally 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. Wartime said he nobody is fussy now when I go back to Manassas tomorrow you will be awfully sorry you snubbed me about those slippery things up there. So he smoked the pipe of peace for I knew that his remarks were painfully true. As soon as he was once more under the enemy's guns I would repent and sack cloth and ashes. Captain Ingram came with Colonel Lamar. The latter 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 FFV crowd before the spots would. Virginia has no grievance she raises her strong arm to catch the blow aimed at her weaker sisters. He liked it well however that we knew his speech by heart. Footnote Lucius Quintus Cincinnati's Lamar a native of Georgia and of Huguenot descent who got his classical names from his father. His father got them from an uncle with 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 regiment. He served in Congress after the war and was elected to the United States Senate in 1877. In 1885 he became Secretary of the Interior in 1888 a justice of the United States Supreme Court. In footnote This spots would is a miniature world. The war topic is not so much avoided as that everybody has some personal dignity to take care of and everybody else is indifferent to it. I mean the personal dignity of Altui. In this wild confusion everything likely and unlikely is told you and then everything is as flatly 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 republics pose. 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 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 on the sofa where I sat. He talked for nearly an hour. He laughed at our faith in our own powers. We are like the British. We are like the Southerners equal to three Yankees at least. We will have to be equivalent to a dozen now. After his experience of the fighting qualities of Southerners in Mexico he believes that we will do all that can be 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 it was a 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 is a veteran of North Carolina in some way and has got arms and clothes and ammunition for her husband's regiment. There was some joke. The regimental breeches were all wrong but a tailor righted that. Hind part before or something odd. Footnote 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 called Joseph E. Johnston. In footnote. Captain Hartstein came today with Mrs. Bartow. Colonel Bartow is colonel of a Georgia regiment now in Virginia. He was the mayor of Savannah who helped to wake the patriotic echoes the live long night under my sleepless head into the small hours in Charleston in November last. His wife is a charming person, witty and wise, and muslin apron with pink bows on the pockets. They 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 some nor does, nor than I do laughs at the compliment New England paces. 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 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 lighthearted because 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 lighthearted as the jeunesse d'array. June 29th Mrs. Preston, Mrs. Wigfall, Mary Hammy and I drove in a fine open carriage to see the Shop 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. Chestnut 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 Leigh 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 think I will wait for a wounded man to make my first effort as sister of charity. Mr. Lamar sent for me. As everybody 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. Brown 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 president called something of what I was saying and asked me to repeat what I did although I was scared to death. Madam, 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. Silence ensued of the most profound. Uncle H gave me $300 for his daughter Mary's expenses making four in all that I have of hers. He would pay me $100 and she said he owed my husband for a horse. I thought it an excuse to lend me money. I told him I had enough and despair for all my needs until my colonel came home from the wars. Then Alston, the governor's son is here, came to see me, does not show much of the wit of the pedigrees. Pleasant person however. Mr. Brewster and Wigfall came at the same time. The former, chafing at Wigfall's anomalous position here, gave him fiery advice. Mr. Wigfall was calm and full of common sense. A brave man and without 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 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 so, 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 athlete Sumner had stood on his manhood in 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 battlefield and it was the worst 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, an 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 Courthouse we could come to see you frequently when 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 Courthouse. Read the story of Solouk, the Haitian man. He has wonderful interest just now. Foutnut, Faustin et Lysolouk, a negro slave of Haiti who, having been freed, took part in the insurrection against the French in 1803 and rose by excessive steps until in August 1849 by the unanimous action of the parliament he was proclaimed emperor. In footnote. 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 presents the London Times and the Times reflects the sentiment of the English people. How we 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 battlefield, Kirkwood, near Camden, we have an immense respect for the Maryland line. Footnote. 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 Rodin defeated General Green. In footnote. When our militia in that fight ran away, Colonel Howard and the Marylanders held their own against Rodin, Cornwallis and the rest. And everywhere around are places named for a dowdy captain killed in our defense. Kirkwood, DeKalb, etc. The last, however, was a Prussian Count. A letter from my husband written June 22 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 regiment of cavalry and daily expect a battalion of flying artillery from Richmond. We have sent forward seven regiments of infantry and rifles toward Alexandria. Our outposts have felt the enemy several times, and in every instance the enemy recoils. General Johnston has had several 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 ammunition. General Johnston's command, in the very face of overwhelming numbers, have only 30 rounds each. If they had been well provided in this respect, they could and would have defeated Cadwalador and Patterson with great ease. I find the opinion prevails throughout the army that there is great imbecility and shameful neglect in the war department. 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 guys. Noise of drums, trap 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 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 arguing, but he is very much averse to it. We are consequently frightened by our own audacity, but we are willful women. And so we go. End of Chapter 7 Chapter 8 of Adairi from Dixie. This Loubervox recording is in the public domain. Adairi from Dixie by Mary Chesnut. Chapter 8 Folqueer Whitesulfer Springs, Virginia July 6, 1861 to July 11, 1861 Folqueer Whitesulfer Springs, Virginia 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. Reverend Robert Barnwell 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 Warrington. Saw across the lawn, but did not speak to them, some of Judge Campbell's family. There they wander, disconsolate, 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 sympathy with. Judge Campbell's is one of the hardest cases. July 7. 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 solemnly 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 from table I demanded his approval of my self-control under such trying circumstances. I was not as calm and forbearing as I thought myself. Brewster answered with emphasis Do you always carry brick bats like that in your pocket ready for the first word that offends 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 in comfortable quarters limited, excellent 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 Warrington and then heard that General Johnston was in full retreat and that a column was advancing upon Beauregard. So we came back all for Lorne. If our husbands are taken prisoners then are they soldiers or traders? Mrs. Olde read us a letter from Richmond how horrified they are there at Joe Johnston's retreating and the enemies of the war department accuse Walker of not sending 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 waist pull all the hair away from our ears but cannot 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 Illinoisans saying Lincoln objects to some man oh he is too interruption that is a horrid style of man or woman the interruption 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 pleasanter 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 mosquitoes and a want of neatness and a want of good things to eat drove us away enrichment the girls say it is perfectly delightful we found it so too but the bickering and quarrelling have begun there at table today we heard Mrs. Davis's ladies described in 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 bruster 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 a couple on the Piazza they lifted their eyes and comet was the only word you heard bruster 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 opposite to us she seemed so gentle and refined and so uncertain of everything Mr. Bruster called her Ms. Albina McClush when a new book was mentioned Sarah Fina have I perused that volume Mary Hammie having a fiancée 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 11th we did hear canon today the woman who slandered mrs. davis's republican court of which we are honourable members by saying they were not young that they wore gaudy colours and dressed badly I took an inventory today 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 with her worst suspicions she exhibited unholy joy as she reported 706 soldiers in the hospital at call pepper and that Beauregard had sent a flag of truth to Washington what a night we had Maria had seen suspicious persons hovering about all day and mrs. Preston a ladder which could easily be placed so as to reach our rooms Mary Hammie saw light glancing about among the trees and all heard guns so we sat up consequently I am writing in bed today 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 movement now than when I last wrote to you it is true however that the enemy is advancing slowly in our front and we are preparing to receive him he comes in great force for more than three times our number the spy so-called gave us a parting shot said Beauregard 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 come first to Richmond to see and hear everything there then they equip them and send them out of the country by way of Norfolk to see everything there but after all what does it matter they have no need for spies our newspapers keep no secrets hid the thoughts of our hearts are all revealed everything with us is open and above board 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 practice alas End of Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Part 1 of Adairi from Dixie this loop of vox recording is in the public domain read by Laurie Ann Walden Adairi from Dixie by Mary Chestnut Chapter 9 Richmond, Virginia July 13, 1861 to September 2, 1861 Part 1 Richmond, Virginia July 13, 1861 Part 1 Now we feel safe and comfortable we cannot be flanked Mr. Preston met us at Warrington Mr. Chestnut 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 Dr. Knot also Knot and Glidden known to fame Everybody is here en route for the army for the meeting of Congress Lamar is out on crutches His father-in-law, once known only as the humorist Longstreet author of Georgia Scenes now a staid Methodist who has outgrown the follies of his youth born off today They say Judge Longstreet has lost the keen sense of fun that illuminated his life in days of yore Footnote Augustus Baldwin Longstreet had great distinction in the South as a lawyer, clergyman teacher, journalist, and author and was successively president of five different colleges His Georgia Scenes a series of humorous papers enjoyed great popularity for many years in Footnote 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 Today in the drawing room saw a vivendiere in the 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 read a plan 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 Six soldiers, not wounded ones There were quite two hundred they said lying about as best they might on the platform Robert Barnwell 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 Footnote, Reverend Robert Barnwell nephew of Honorable Robert Barnwell established in Richmond a hospital for South Carolinians In footnote Just now I happened to look up and saw Mr. Chestnut with a smile on his face watching me from the passageway I flew across the room and as I got halfway 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. Chestnut here on some army business July 14th Mr. Chestnut remained closeted with the President and General Lee all the afternoon The news does not seem pleasant At first he is not inclined to tell me any of it He satisfied himself with telling me how sensible 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 description of the War Council I wanted to know what is in the wind now July 16th I arrived today at the President's table Joe Davis, the nephew asked me if I liked white port wine I said I did not know all that I had 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 anyone 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 in 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. Chestnut 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 uncertain sound to the northern side while his fatherland is wavering and undecided split in half by factions Mrs. Wigfall 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. Davis 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 today when my husband went off Things do look so black When he comes up here he rarely brings his body servant, a negro man Lawrence has charge of all Mr. Chestnut's things watch, 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 he will pack off to the Yankees in freedom with all that Fiddlesticks, he is not going to leave me for anybody else After all, what can he ever be better 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 What he won't with anything more if he was free Don't he live just as well Mrs. McClain, Mrs. Joe Johnston, Mrs. Wigfall 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 respect yourself until you can make other people do it July 19th Beauregard telegraphed yesterday they say to General Johnston calm 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 Ewells and Long Streets encountered the foe and repulsed him 600 prisoners have been sent here I arose as the scriptures say and washed my face and anointed my head and went downstairs at the foot of them stood General Cooper radiant one finger nervously 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 driven back the enemy if not defeated him with killed in prisoners et cetera, et cetera Klingman came to tell their particulars and Colonel Smith one of the trio with Garnett, McClellan who were sent to Europe to inspect and report on military matters poor Garnett is killed there was cowardice 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 do not understand but it was a fatal business Mrs. McClain says she finds we do not believe a word of any news that 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. Chestnut was forced to give up his amateur aideship to come and attend to his regular duties in the Congress Keat has come in he says Bonham's battle was a skirmish of outposts Joe Davis Jr. said we 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 New Sautre was evident we rallied visibly South Carolina troops pass every day they go by with a gay step Tom Taylor and John Rett bowed to us from the horses as we leaned out of the windows 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 Wigfall's aideship no mistake today I was too ill to move out of my bed so they all sat in my room July 22nd 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 footnote, 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 in footnote Joe Johnston led the right 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 Bea and Colonel Bartow Kirby Smith is wounded or killed footnote, 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 his commission in the United States Army after the secession of Florida in footnote I had no breath to speak she went on in that desperate calm way to which people but take 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 telegrams still I said nothing I was stunned then I was so grateful 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 300 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 complete victory you heard everywhere we had been such anxious wretches the revulsion of feeling was almost too much to bear today 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 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 something 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 before 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 Tuesday witnessed for the first time a military funeral as that March came wailing up they say Mrs. Bartow fainted the empty saddle and the lead 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 bedside and mingled our tears for those noble spirits John Darby, Theodore Barker and James Lownd today 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 Thompson 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 24 here Mr. Chestnut opened my door and walked in out of the fullness of the heart the mouth speaketh I had to ask no questions he gave me an account of the battle as he saw it walking up and down my room he was originally seating himself on a windowsill 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 called Beauregard Eugene and Johnston Marlborough Mr. Chestnut 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 semi-tropical lands in the drawing room Colonel Chestnut was the bell 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 themselves Mr. Barnwell Mr. Hunter Mr. Cobb Captain Ingram etc Wilmot Desessure says Wilson of Massachusetts a senator of the United States came to Manassas en route to Richmond with his dancing shoes ready for a festive scene which was to celebrate a triumph footnote 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-president of the United States on the ticket with Ulysses S. Grant in footnote 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 in a few years they brought me a Yankee soldiers portfolio from the battlefield the letters had been franked by Senator Harlan footnote James Harlan United States senator from Iowa from 1855 to 1865 in 1865 he was appointed secretary of the interior in footnote 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, literally 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 warhorse who sensed the battlefield from afar his enthusiasm was contagious they called for Colonel Chestnut and he gave them a capital speech too as public speakers say sometimes it was the proudest moment of my life I did not hear a great deal of it for always when anything happens 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 today the president told us at dinner that Mr. Chestnut's eulogy of Bartow in the Congress was highly praised men liked it two eminently satisfactory speeches in 24 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 battle 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 held the Yankees in check deserve credit beyond words or it would all have been over before the Joe Johnston contingent came it is another case of the 11th hour scrape the 11th 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 it first there will be no war those who foresaw evil were called ravens ill foreboaters now the same sanguine people all cry the war is over the very same who were packing the leave Richmond 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 circumspect those who say very little but that little shows they think the war barely begun Mr. Reeves and Mr. Sudden have just called Arnoldus van der Horst came to see me at the same time he said there was no great show of victory 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 Washington 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 cessation of all news about nine messengers with bulletins came on foot or on horseback wounded, weary, draggled foot sore, panic stricken spreading in their path on every hand terror and dismay that was our opportunity Wigfall can see nothing that could have stopped us and when they explain why we did not go to Washington I understand it all less than ever yet here we will dilly-dally in Congress or rate in Generals Parade until they in the north get up an army three times as large as McDowell's which we have just defeated Trescott says this victory will be our ruin it lulls us into a fool's paradise of conceit at our superior valor and the shameful farce of their flight will wake every inch of their manhood it was the very Philip 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 mortal 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 her to nation like the north John Waddes 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. Vinnable 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 master make haste and eat this was in the thickest of the fight under the heaviest of the enemies guns the federal congressman 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 diggin's Richmond was for trade he was tired of the old concern and would like to take the oath and settle here in the Yankee army for whom were they Jeff Davis no doubt and the ringleaders tell that to the marines we have outgrown the handcuff business on this side of the water Dr. Gibbs says he was at a country house near Manassas 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 probably 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 basis that here, Bill, Tom disarmed this man he is our prisoner the Negroes came running and the man surrendered without more ado another federal was drinking at the well a Negro girl said you go in and see Mrs the man went in followed crying triumphantly look here, Mrs. I got a prisoner too this lady sent in her two prisoners and Beauregard complimented her on her pluck and patriotism and her presence of mind these Negroes were rewarded by their owners now if slavery is 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, inscrutable in their way and past finding out our Negroes were not right 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 Chestnut's intimacy with Nellie Custis in the old Philadelphia days Mrs. Lee being Nellie Custis's niece I had not known the head of the Lee family he was somewhere with the army then last summer at the White Soffer were Rooney Lee and his wife that sweet little Charlotte Wickham and I spoke of Rooney with great praise Mrs. Isard said don't waste 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 bread now Mrs. Standard 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. Standard 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. Standard was an ecstasy of pleasurable excitement I felt that she had bagged a big fish for just then they abounded enrichment Mrs. Standard accused him of being ambitious etc he remonstrated and said his tastes were of the simplest he only wanted a Virginia 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 because 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 Blucher he came on the field in the nick of time as Blucher at Waterloo and now we are as the British who do not remember Blucher it is all Wellington so every individual man I see won the battle from Kershaw up and down all the 11th hour men won the battle turned the tide the Marilanders, Elsie and Company won never hears of as little as one hears of Blucher in the English stories of Waterloo Mr. Vinnable 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 our hearts we believe every Confederate soldier to be a hero son pure as son reproach hope for the best today things must be on a pleasanter footing all over the world met the president in the corridor he took me by both hands have you breakfasted? said he come in and breakfast with me alas I had had my breakfast at the public dining room where I had taken my breakfast with Mr. Chessnut 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 Chessnut would be apt to know his whereabouts I ran to Mrs. Wigfall's room who told me she was sure he could be found with his regiment in camp but Mr. Chessnut 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 the northern papers say we hung and quartered a zoo of cut him into four pieces and that we tie prisoners to a tree and bayonet them in other words we are savages 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 hospitals for the enemies sick and wounded in order to see for myself why did we not follow the flying foe across the Potomac that is the question of the hour in the drawing room with those of us who are not contending as to who took Ricketts battery Alan Green for one took it Alan told us that finding a portmanteau with nice clean shirts he was so hot and dusty he stepped behind a tree and put on a clean Yankee shirt 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 about 15,000 effective men and all and then the Tribune tries to inflame and invent them against us by telling lies as to our treatment of prisoners they say when they come against us next it will be an 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 Recrimination well let them abuse one another to their hearts content End of Chapter 9 Part 1