 Introduction to Adairie from Dixie This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Read by Laurie Ann Walden. Adairie from Dixie As written by Mary Boykin Chesnut, wife of James Chesnut Jr., United States Senator from South Carolina, 1859 to 1861, and afterward an aide to Jefferson Davis and a Brigadier General in the Confederate Army. Edited by Isabella D. Martin and murder Lockett Avery. Introduction. The author and her book. In Mrs. Chesnut's diary are vivid pictures of the social life that went on uninterruptedly in the midst of war, of the economic conditions that resulted from blockaded ports, of the manner in which the spirits of the people rose and fell with each victory or defeat, and of the momentous events that took place in Charleston, Montgomery and Richmond. But the diary has an importance quite apart from the interest that lies in these pictures. Mrs. Chesnut was close to forty years of age when the war began, and thus had lived through the most stirring scenes and the controversies that led to it. In this diary, as perhaps nowhere else in the literature of the war, will be found the southern spirit of that time expressed in words which are not alone charming as literature, but genuinely human in their spontaneousness, their delightfully unconscious frankness. Her words are the farthest possible removed from anything deliberate, academic, or purely intellectual. They ring so true that they start echoes. The most uncompromising northern heart can scarcely fail to be moved by their abounding sincerity, surcharged, though it be, with that old southern fire which overwhelmed the army of McDowell at Bull Run. In making more clear the unyielding tenacity of the south, and the stern conditions in which the war was prosecuted, the diary has further importance. At the beginning there was no southern leader, and so far as we can gather from Mrs. Chesnut's reports of her talks with them, who had any hope that the south would win in the end, provided the north should be able to enlist her full resources. The result, however, was that the south struck something like terror to many hearts, and raised serious expectations that two great European powers would recognize her independence. The south fought as long as she had any soldiers left who were capable of fighting, and at last robbed the cradle and the grave. Nothing then remained except to wait for another generation to grow up. The north, so far as her stock of men of fighting age was concerned, had done scarcely more than make a beginning, while the south was virtually exhausted when the war was half over. Unlike the south, the north was never reduced to extremities which led the wives of cabinet officers and commanding generals to gather in Washington hotels and private drawing-rooms in order to knit heavy socks for soldiers whose feet otherwise would go bare. Scenes like these were common in Richmond, and Mrs. Chesnut often made one of the company. Nor were gently nurtured women of the north forced to wear coarse and ill-fitting shoes such as Negro cobblers made, the alternative being to dispense with shoes altogether. Gold might rise in the north to 280, but there came a time in the south when a thousand dollars in paper money were needed to buy a kitchen utensil, which before the war could have been bought for less than one dollar in gold. Long before the conflict ended, it was a common remark in the south that, in going to market, you take your money in your basket and bring your purchases home in your pocket. In the north the counterpart to these facts were such items as butter at fifty cents a pound and flour at twelve a barrel. People in the north actually thrived on high prices. Villages in small towns as well as large cities had their bloated bondholders in plenty, while farmers everywhere were able to clear their lands of mortgages and put money in the bank besides. Planters in the south, meanwhile, were borrowing money to support the Negroes in idleness at home, while they themselves were fighting at the front. Old Colonel Chestnut, 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 discharged. Mrs. Chestnut 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 Secession. Then she went to Montgomery, Alabama, where the Confederacy was organized, and Jefferson Davis was inaugurated as its president. She went to receptions where, sitting aside on sofas with Davis, Stevens, Tombs, 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 house top the first act of war committed in the bombardment of Fort Sumter. During the ensuing four years Mrs. Chestnut's time was mainly passed between Columbia and Richmond. For shorter periods she was at the Falkier White Sulphur Springs in Virginia, Flat Rock in North Carolina, Portland in Alabama, the home of her mother, Camden and Chester in South Carolina, and Lincolnton in North Carolina. In all these places Mrs. Chestnut was in close touch with men and women who were in the forefront of the social, military, and political life of the South. Those who live in her pages make up indeed a catalog of the heroes of the Confederacy, President Jefferson Davis, Vice President Alexander H. Stevens, 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 Tombs, 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 of 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. Chestnut was a woman of society in the best sense. She had love of companionship, 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 Decaturth 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 engaged in cotton planting until his death in March 1838. His daughter, Mary, was married to James Chestnut Jr., April 23, 1840, when 17 years of age. This forth her home was mainly at Mallbury, near Camden, one of several plantations owned by her father-in-law. Of the domestic life at Mallbury, a pleasing picture has come down to us, as preserved in a time-worn scrapbook and written some years before the war. In our drive of about three miles to Mallbury, 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 passed through an aromatic avenue of crab trees with the yellow jessamine 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. Birthdays, wedding days, merry Christmases, departures for school and college, and home returnings 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 gingerbread gilding. All is handsome and substantial. In the old armchair sits the venerable mother. The father is on his usual ride about the plantation, 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 spectacles, yet he is over eighty. He is a typical southern planter. From the beginning he has been one of the most intelligent patrons of the watery mission to the Negroes, taking a personal interest in them, attending the mission church and worshiping with his own people. May his children see to it that this holy charity is continued to their servants forever. James Chestnut Jr. was the son and heir of Colonel James Chestnut, whose wife was Mary Cox of Philadelphia. Mary Cox's sister married Horace Benny, the imminent Philadelphia lawyer. James Chestnut 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 thenceforth 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 Chestnut was active in public life in South Carolina after the war, insofar as the circumstances of reconstruction 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 nightly gentleman who services to his state were part of her history in her prime, tribute that did him no more than justice in recounting his public virtues. I thought there was another phase of his character which the world did not know and the press did not chronicle, that which showed his beautiful kindness and his courtesy to his own household, and especially to his dependents. Among all the preachers of the South Carolina 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 Chestnut, 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 Cipio, his father's body servant, and that he was born to his grave amid the tears and lamentations of those whom no emancipation proclamation could sever from him, and who crowd aloud, Oh my master, my master, he was so good to me, he was to all of us, we have lost our best friend. Mrs. Chestnut'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 servants had been true to her. No blangishments of freedom had drawn Ellen or Molly away from Miss Mary. Mrs. Chestnut lies buried in the family cemetery at Knight's Hill, where also sleep her husband and many other members of the Chestnut family. The Chestnut settled in South Carolina at the close of the war with France, but lived originally on the frontier of Virginia. The Virginia home had been invaded by French and Indians, and in an expedition to Fort Duquesne, the father was killed. John Chestnut removed from Virginia to South Carolina soon afterward and served in the revolution 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 non-ogenarian when the conflict closed. In a charming sketch of him in one of the closing pages of this diary occurs the following passage. Colonel Chestnut, now 93, blind and deaf, is apparently as strong as ever and certainly as resolute of will. Partly patriarch, partly grand-senure, 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 Canton still stands Mulberry. During one of the raids committed in the neighborhood by Sherman'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' independence numbered between 60 and 70, and its owner was lord of a thousand slaves. After the war, Mulberry ceased to be the author's home, she and General Chestnut building for themselves another to which they gave the name of Sarsfield. Sarsfield, of which an illustration is given, still stands in the pine land not far from Mulberry. Bloomsbury, another of old Colonel Chestnut's plantation dwellings, survived the march of Sherman and is now the 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 Chestnut plantations were Coolspring, Night's Hill, The Hermitage, and Sandy Hill. The diary, as it now exists in forty-eight thin volumes of the small corto-size, is entirely in Mrs. Chestnut's handwriting. She originally wrote it on what 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 presented to General Hood by the ladies of Richmond. Mrs. Chestnut 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 newspaper extra, issued in Chester, South Carolina and announcing the assassination of Lincoln, is reproduced in this volume. Mrs. Chestnut, 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. Chestnut's expectation that the work would someday 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 investigations led her to Columbia where, while the guest of Miss Martin, she learned of the diary's existence. Soon afterward an arrangement was made with her publishers under which the diary's owner and herself agreed to condense 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 footnotes in order that persons named or events referred to might be the better understood by the present generation. Mrs. Chestnut 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 ascendant and acquiring an education which developed and refined her natural literary gifts, she found in the throes of a great conflicted arms the impulse which wrought into vital expression in words her steadfast loyalty to the waning fortunes 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, Myrtle Lockett Avery. End of the introduction. Chapter 1 of A Diary from Dixie This LubriVox recording is in the public domain. Read Valerie Ann Walden. A Diary from Dixie by Mary Chestnut. Chapter 1. Charleston, South Carolina. November 8, 1860 to December 27, 1860. Charleston, South Carolina. November 8, 1860. 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. How do you know? The man over there has a telegram. The excitement was very great. Everybody was talking 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 prevailing exclamation? And someone cried out, Now that the black radical Republicans have the power, I suppose they will brown us all. No doubt of it. Footnote. A reference to John Brown of Harper's Ferry. In footnote. I have always kept a journal after a fashion of my own, with dates and a line of poetry or prose, mere quotations, which I understood and no one else. And I have kept letters and extracts from the papers. From today 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. At Fernandina I saw young men running up a palmetto flag and shouting a little prematurely. South Carolina has seceded. I was overjoyed to find Florida so sympathetic, but Tanny told me the young men were Gadsden's, Porters and Gordine's, names as inevitably South Carolinian, as Moses and Lazarus are Jewish. Footnote. This and other French names to be met with in this diary are of Huguenot origin. End footnote. From my window I can hear a grand and mighty flow of eloquence. Bartot and a delegation from Savannah 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 listening with pleasure. Voice, tone, temper, sentiment, language, all were perfect. I sent Tanny to see who it was that spoke. He came back saying, Mr. Alfred Eugene, the old postmaster. He may not have been the wisest or wittiest man there, but he certainly made the best after supper's speech. December 10th. We've been up to the Mulberry plantation with Colonel Colcock and Judge McGrath, who were sent to Columbia by their fellow citizens in the low country to hasten the slow movement of the wisdom assembled 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. Everywhere that I have been, people have been complaining bitterly of slow and lukewarm public leaders. Judge McGrath 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 discernable. He is depicted with accountants flaming with contending emotions, rage, disgust, and disdain. We agreed that the time had now come. We had talked so much here to four. 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 has brought on a fever that only bloodletting will cure. Footnote. A reference to what was known as the Bluffton movement of 1844 in South Carolina. It aimed at secession, but was voted down. End footnote. 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 Chestnut, fresh from Columbia, where he had resigned his seat in the United States Senate the day before. Said someone spitefully, Mrs. Chestnut does not look at all resigned. For once in her life, Mrs. Chestnut held her tongue. She was dumb. And 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 Piggins, insensible to fear, are very sensible in case of smallpox. Footnote. Francis W. Pickins, 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 Russia. He was a wealthy planter and had fame as an orator. End footnote. There being now an epidemic of smallpox in Columbia, they have adjourned to Charleston. In Camden we were busy in frantic with excitement, drilling, marching, 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 company, although her father was buried the day before. Edward J. Pringle writes me from San Francisco on November 30th. I see that Mr. Chestnut has resigned and that South Carolina is hastening into a convention, perhaps to secession. Mr. Chestnut is probably to be president of the convention. I 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 forever 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 disruption 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 Lownds was sitting with us today when Mrs. Kirkland brought in a copy of this 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. Footnote. The convention, which on December 20th, 1860, passed the famous Ordinance of Secession and had first met in Columbia, the state capitol. End footnote. 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. Guillier came in quietly from her marketing today and in her neat, incisive manner exploded this bombshell. Major Anderson has moved into Fort Sumter while Governor Pickens slept serenely. Footnote. Robert Anderson, major of the 1st 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. End footnote. 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 salt 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. Anderson 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 wise 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 moves. End of Chapter 1 Chapter 2 of A Diary from Dixie This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Read by Laurie Ann Walden. A Diary from Dixie by Mary Chestnut. Chapter 2 Montgomery, Alabama, February 19, 1861 to March 11, 1861. Montgomery, Alabama, February 19, 1861 The brand-new confederacy is making or remodeling its constitution. Everybody wants Mr. Davis to be general-in-chief or president. Keat and Boyce and a party preferred Howell Cobb for president. And the fire-eaters, per se, wanted Barnwell Rett. Footnote. A native of Georgia, Howell Cobb had long served in Congress and in 1849 was elected Speaker. In 1851 he was elected Governor of Georgia and in 1857 became Secretary of the Treasury in Buchanan's administration. In 1861 he was a delegate from Georgia to the Provisional Congress which adopted the Constitution of the Confederacy and presided over each of its four sessions. In Footnote. My brother Stephen brought the officers of the Montgomery Blues to dinner. Very soiled Blues, they said, apologizing for their rough condition. Poor fellows, they had been a month before Fort Piggins 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 if he might try to take it, chase or no chase, and got for his answer, no. Footnote. Andrew Barry 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. In Footnote. And now, say the Blues, we have worked like niggers and when the fun and fighting began they send us home and put regulars 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 you. We are packing a hamper of eatables for them. I am despondent once more. If I thought them in earnest 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 the purely ideal types? Mr. Toomes told us a story of General Scott and himself. He said he was dining in Washington with Scott who seasoned every dish and every glass of wine with the eternal refrain, save the Union, the Union must be preserved. Toomes 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 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 Toomes, the Union owes you seventeen thousand dollars a year. I can imagine the scorn on old Scott's face. Footnote, Robert Toomes, 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 whig being elected to Congress where he was active in the compromise 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 secession. 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. Footnote, he was a native. Find everyone 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 today Captain Ingram called. He left me so uncomfortable. He dared to express regrets that he had to leave the United States Navy. He had been stationed in the Mediterranean where he liked to be and expected to be these two years daughters of his to Florence. Then came Abraham Lincoln 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 Blank 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 and a coach drawn by four white horses. Then someone 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 someone. Governor Moore came in with the latest news, a telegram from Governor Pickens to the president that a war steamer is lying off the Charleston Bar laden with reinforcements 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 that 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 corruption 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 Brown says he is going to Washington for 24 hours. I mean to send by him to marry 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. Chestnut told him not to make himself a bone of contention. 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. Chestnut in high spirits dines today with a Louisiana delegation. Breakfasted with Constitution Brown 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. Pollards and go to a ball afterward at Judge Bibbs. The New York Herald says Lincoln stood before Washington's picture at his inauguration 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. D. Leon called fresh from Washington and says General Scott is using all his power and influence to prevent officers from the south resigning their commissions. Among other things promising that they shall never be sent against us in case of war. Captain Ingram 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 is Mr. Barnwell took me down came home and found the judge and Governor Moore waiting to go with me to the Bibs' and they say it is dull in Montgomery. Clayton, fresh from Washington was at the party and told us there was to be peace. Footnote. 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 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. In footnote. February 28. 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 and used incredible 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 remained incredulous too. Brewster says the war specks are growing in size. Nobody at the north or in Virginia believes we are in earnest. They think we are sulking and that Jeff Davis and Stevens are getting up a very pretty little comedy. The Virginia delegates were insulted at the peace conference. Brewster said, kicked out. Footnote. Alexander H. Stevens, the imminent statesman of Georgia who before the war had been conspicuous in all the political movements of this time and in 1861 became vice president of the Confederacy. After the war he again became conspicuous in Congress and wrote a history entitled The War Between the States. In footnote. The judge thought Jefferson Davis rude to him when the latter was secretary of war. Mr. Chestnut persuaded the judge to forego his private wrong for the public good and so he voted for him. But now his old grudge has come back against venomousness. What a pity to bring the spights 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. Dying today with Mr. Hill from Georgia and his wife. Footnote. Benjamin H. 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 resolution 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 the Congress and opposed the reconstruction policy of that body. In 1877 he was elected United States Senator from Georgia. End Footnote. After he left us she told me he was the celebrated individual who for Christian scruples refused to fight a duel with Stevens. Footnote. Governor Herschel V. Johnson also declined and doubtless for similar reasons to accept a challenge from Alexander H. Stevens who though endowed with the courage of a gladiator was very small and frail. End Footnote. 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 today with a lady who fervently wished her husband would go down to Pensacola and be shot. I was done 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 and all save kindness. Brewster says Lincoln passed through Baltimore disguised and at night and that he did well for just now Baltimore 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. Chestnut 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 3. 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 panagyric upon himself, 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. I and the farther away they send us from this Congress the better I will like it. Footnote. It was at this Congress that Jefferson Davis on February 9, 1861 was elected president and Alexander H. Stevens vice president of the Confederacy. The Congress continued to meet in Montgomery until its removal to Richmond in July 1861. End footnote. Saw Jerry Clemens and Nick Davis social curiosities. They are anti-succession leaders. Then George Sanders and George D's. 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. They're devils they are. They have dash and courage enough but science only could take that fort. They shoot their heads. March 4 the Washington Congress has passed peace 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 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. Footnote. Stephen R. Mallory was the son of a shitmaster 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. End footnote. 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 magnificently 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 stern 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. Stern 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 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. Magnanimous of them for it is their opportunity. March 5th. We sit on the balcony to see our confederate flag go up. Roars of canon et cetera, et cetera. Miss Sanders complained, so said Captain Ingram, of the deadness of the mob. It was utterly spiritless, she said. No cheering or so little and no enthusiasm. Captain Ingram 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 Ingram 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 rescue of Costa. Costa, 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, come see in peace or come see in war or to tread but one measure is young lock and bar. Lincoln's aim is to seduce the border states. The people, the natives, I mean, are astounded that I calmly affirm an all truth in 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. Chestnut has gone with a list of names to the President. Detreville, 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 of the United States Supreme Court has resigned. Lord, how he must have hated to do it. How other men who are resigning high positions must hate to do it. Footnote, John Archibald Campbell, who had settled in Montgomery and was appointed Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court by 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 to secede. End footnote. 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. Decisors, former president of the United States Supreme Court. I remember him on his box driving a handsome pair of bays dressed sumptuously in blue broadcloth and brass buttons. A stout, respectable, fine-looking middle-aged mulatto. He was very high and mighty. Night after night we used to meet him as fiddler and chief of all our parties. He sat in solemn dignity, making faces over his bow and patting his foot 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 weak and well-fed person. How majestically he scraped his foot at 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. I ran away this stately yellow gentleman from wife and children, home in comfort. My Molly asked him, why, Miss Liza was good to you, I know. I wonder who owns him now. He looked for Lorne. Governor Moore brought in to be presented to me the president of the Alabama Convention. It seems I had known him before. He had danced with me at a dancing school ball when I was in short frocks 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 better 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 stent 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. We are abusing Yankees' heartening. Footnote. Mrs. Chestnut'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 nullification, 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. Footnote. March 10th. Mrs. Childs was here tonight, Mary Anderson 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. Brown 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 $12,000 every year from their salary of $20,000. Mr. Brown said Mr. Buchanan's farewell was far more imposing than Lincoln's inauguration. The people were so amusing, so full of Western stories. Dr. Boykin behaved strangely. All day he had been driving about with us, and never was man in finer spirits. Tonight 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? 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 someone said in an undertone, the age of chivalry is not past, O.E. Americans. What do you mean? That man was once nominated by President Buchanan for a foreign mission, but some senator stood up and read a paper printed by this man abusive of a woman and signed his name in full. After that the Senate would have none of him. His chance was gone forever. March 11. In full conclave tonight the drawing room crowded with judges, governors, senators, generals, congressmen. They were exalting John C. Calhoun's hospitality. He allowed everybody to stay all night who chose to stop at his house. An ill-mannered person, on one occasion, refused to attend family prayers. Mr. Calhoun said to the servant, settle 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. Footnote. John C. Calhoun had died in March 1850. End footnote. The latest news is counted good news. That is, the last man who left Washington tells us that Seward is in the ascendancy. He is thought to be a friend of peace. The man did say, however, that that serpent Seward is in the ascendancy 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. Ledgerd spoke to Mrs. Lincoln in behalf of a doorkeeper 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. Ledgerd thought the twenty thousand and little enough it is was given to the president of these states to enable him to live in proper style and to maintain an establishment of such dignity as befits the head of a great nation. It is an infamy to economize with the public money and to put it into one's private purse. Mrs. Brown 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. The 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 care-worn and unhappy. He believes in clairvoyance, magnetism and all that. Certainly there was some terrible foreboding of this kind on his part. Tuesday. Tuesday is positive. Fort Sumter is to be released and we are to have no war. After all, far too good to be true. Mr. Brown 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 presides over that August body, put James Chestnut in the chair and came down to talk to us. He told us why the pay of Congressman 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 the 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, and 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 a vulgar. Here I interposed. But Stephen A. Douglas said one day to Mr. Chestnut, Lincoln is the hardest fella to handle I have ever encountered yet. Mr. Scott is from California and said Lincoln is an utter American specimen, coarse, rough, and strong. He is a kind creature, as pleasant tempered as he is clever and if this country can be joked and laughed out of its rights he is the kind-hearted fella 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 and people at the south. The speaker advanced upon us in great wrath. Mrs. Scott apologized and made some smooth, polite remark though evidently much embarrassed. But the vinegar 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. Someone in the other room giggled and we were quiet as mice. Nobody wanted to hurt her feelings. She was one against so many. If I were at the north I should expect them to belabor us and should hold my tongue. We separated north from south because of incompatibility of temper. We are divorced because we have hated each other so. If we could only separate a separation à l'agréable as the French say it and not have a hard 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. A man fussed gotten up by that Charleston clique. Mr. Tombs asked him to show his passports for a man who uses such language is a suspicious character. End of Chapter 2 Chapter 3 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 3 March 26, 1861 to April 15, 1861 Charleston, South Carolina 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 horror Montgomery Hall how white the sheets looked luxurious bed linen once more delicious fresh cream with my coffee I breakfasted in bed dueling was rife in Camden William M. Shannon challenged Lightner Rachelle Blair was Shannon's second and Artemis Goodwin was Lightner's my husband was writing hard all day to stop the foolish people Mr. Chestnut finally arranged the difficulty there was a court of honor and no duel Mr. Lightner 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 arrest the belligerents Dr. Boykin and Joe Kershaw aided Mr. Chestnut to put an end to the useless risk of life footnote Joseph B. Kershaw a native of Camden, South Carolina who became famous in connection with the Kershaw Brigade and its brilliant record at Bull Run Fredericksburg, Chickamauga Spotsylvania and elsewhere throughout the war end footnote John Chestnut is a pretty soft-hearted slave owner he had two Negroes arrested for selling whiskey to his people on his plantation and buying stolen corn from them the culprits in jail sent for him he found them this snowy 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 arm holes 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 Hayward 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 crowding here and inhabitants are wanted old Colonel Chestnut said one day wife you must feel that you have not been useless in your day and generation you have now 27 great-grandchildren footnote Colonel Chestnut, 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 campaign the head of the family being killed at Fort Duquesne Colonel Chestnut 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 Chestnut in footnote Wednesday I have been mobbed by my own house servants 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 scattered 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 or her heritage lack anything, she said I lack everything what a cornmeal, bacon, milk and molasses would that be 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? there now then she doubled herself up laughing they all shouted Mrs. Wee is crazy for you to stay home Armstead my butler said he hated the hotel besides he heard a man there abusing Marster but Mr. Clyburn took it up and made him stop short Armstead said he wanted Marster to know Mr. Clyburn 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 Manning flew in to beg me to reserve a seat by me for a young lady under his charge Plas Odom said my husband 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 I am the young lady he is always the handsomest man alive now that poor William Tabor 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 clicks are not formed yet principally bent upon displacing one another but the Yankees those dreadful Yankees oh never mind we are going to take care of home folks first how will you like to rusticate go back and mind your own business if I only knew what that was what was my own business footnote John Lawrence Manning was a son of Richard I. Manning a former governor of South Carolina the self-elected governor of that state in 1852 was a delegate to the convention that nominated Buchanan and during the war of succession served on the staff of General Beauregard in 1865 he was chosen United States Senator from South Carolina but was not allowed to take his seat in footnote our round table consists of the judge, Langdon Chavis Trescott 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 Chavis and my husband have feelings and ideas in common Mr. Pettigrew said of the brilliant Trescott he is a man without indignation Trescott and I laugh at everything footnote Langdon Chavis son of Langdon Chavis an imminent 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 accomplished in 1857 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 James Louis Pettigrew 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 to 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 and footnote 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 today he said your conversation reminds me of a flashy second rate novel how? by the quantity of French you sprinkle over it do you wish to prevent us from understanding 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 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 exasperating so the judge glared at him and an unabated rage turned to talk with Mr. Chavis who found it hard to keep a calm countenance on the battery with the Rutledge's Captain Hartstein was introduced to me he has done some heroic things brought home some ships and is a man of mark afterward he sent me a beautiful bouquet not half so beautiful however as Mr. Robert Cordeine's which already occupied the place of honour on my center table what a dear delightful place is Charleston a lady who shall be nameless because of her story came to see me today 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 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' tent but she managed things she tied her petticoat around her neck for a nightgown April 2nd 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, swallowtail 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 thus he insisted on my going too and we captured Mr. Chestnut and Governor Means the latter presented me with a book a photo book in which I am to pillory all the celebrities footnote 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 end footnote Dr. Gibbs 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 his 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 desude 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 Tabor'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 Chevis so quiet so intelligent so very sensible with all there never was a pleasanter person or a better man than he while we were at table Judge Wittner, Tom Frost and Isaac Hain 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 Rutledge's 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 stopped us footnote James H. Adams was a graduate of Yale who in 1832 strongly opposed nullification and in 1855 was elected Governor of South Carolina in footnote he had heard of my saying he looked like Marshal Pellissier and he came to say that at last I had made a personal remark which pleased him for once in my life when we came home Mrs. Isaac Hain and Chancellor Carol called to ask us to join their excursion to the island forts tomorrow with them was William Haskell last summer at the White Sulphur he was a pale slim student from the university today he is a soldier stout and robust a few months in camp with soldiering in the open air has worked this wonder camping out provides 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 republicans were invited and came and stared at their entertainers and their 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 condemned to meet their despised enemy I had a letter from the Gwynns today they say Washington 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 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 Carroll 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 Rutledge's are there such roses anywhere else in the world I am now allowed banging at my door I get up in a pet and throw it wide open oh said John Manning standing there smiling radiantly pray excuse the noise I made I mistook the number I 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 Trad Street Rutledge's the handsome ex-governor doing the honors gallantly 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 today fortunately for the men the beautiful Mrs. Joe Hayward 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 Hayward 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 worshipper was struck dumb because I said so far he has only been a captain of artillery or engineers or something I did not see him Mrs. Wigfall did and reproached my laziness in not coming out footnote 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 academy 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 In footnote last Sunday at church beheld one of the peculiar local sites old Negro mamas going up to the communion in their white turbans and kneeling devoutly around the chancel rail the morning papers say Mr. Chestnut made the best shot on the island at target practice no war yet thank God likewise they tell me Mr. Chestnut has made a capital speech in the convention not one word of what is going on now out of the fullness of the heart the mouth speaketh says the psalmist not so here our hearts are in dullful 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 on avidance and thereby hangs peace or war weekfall 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 Ingram comments in his rapid way words tumbling over each other out of his mouth now Charlotte 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 11th hour men are rewarded the half-hearted are traitors in this row footnote Lewis Tresavent 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 defender 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 end footnote April 3 met the lovely Lucy Holcomb now Mrs. Governor Pickens last night at Isaac Haynes' I saw Miles now begging in dumb show for three violets she had in her breastpin she is a consummate actress and he well up in the part of 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 anything oh oh today at the breakfast table there was a tragic bestowal of heartsees on the well-known inquirer who once more says in austere tones who is the flirt now and so we fool-own into the crowd ahead of us and after heartsees cometh through April 4 Mr. Haynes said his wife moaned over the hardness of the chaperoned seats at St. Andrew's hall at a Cecilia ball 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 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 the long men they hugging the wall footnote 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 in footnote while we were at supper at the Haynes's wig fall was sent for to address a crowd before the mill's house 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 supper was a consolation pate de foie gras salad, biscuit glace and champagne frappé a ship was fired into yesterday and went back to sea is that the first shot how can one settle down to anything the heart is in one's mouth all the time any moment the cannon may open on us the fleet come in April 6 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 U.G. came for us and we went on the planter to take a look at Morris Island and its present inhabitants mrs. wigfall and the chevus girls I am never seasick in Colonel Whiting also John Rutledge of the Navy Dan Hamilton and William 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 creature 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 Maxi Gregg supplemented his report by stating all the deficiencies 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 today Maxi 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. Wigfahl says we are mismatched she should pair with my cool, quiet self-poised Colonel and her stormy petrol is but a male reflection of me April 8th yesterday Mrs. Wigfahl and I made a few visits at first house they wanted Mrs. Wigfahl to settle a dispute why she indeed 55 fancy her face more than 10 years bestowed upon her so freely then Mrs. Gibbs asked me if I had ever been in Charleston before says Charlotte Wigfahl to pay me for my snigger when that false 50 was flung in her teeth and she thinks this is her native heath and her name is McGregor she said it all came upon us for breaking the Sabbath for indeed it was Sunday Alan Green came up to speak to me at dinner and all his soldiers togery it sent a shiver through me tried to read Margaret Fuller a-sole but could not it was too full of war news and we are all so restless went to see Miss Pinkney one of the last of the old world Pinkneys she inquired particularly about a portrait of her father Charles Coatsworth Pinkney which she said had been sent by him to my husband's grandfather 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 he was one of the most missed men of the day footnote Charles Coatsworth Pinkney was a Brigadier General in the Revolution 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 offer of United States Minister to France he was the Federalist candidate for Vice President in 1800 and for President in 1804 other distinguished men in this family were Thomas, Charles Henry Lawrence and Charles Coatsworth Pinkney the second end footnote we came home and soon Mr. Robert Gordine 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 Madam your country is invaded your country is invaded when I had breath to speak I asked what does he mean he meant this there 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. Chestnut then came in and confirmed the story Wigfall next entered 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 immediately 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 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 unhappy enough suddenly loud shooting was heard we ran out cannon after cannon roared we met Mrs. Ellen 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 regiment Anderson will hear as well as the seventh regiment now you go back and be quiet fighting in the streets has not begun yet so we retired Dr. Gibbs calls Mrs. Ellen Green to be seated there was no placidity today with cannon bursting and Allen on the island no sleep for anybody last night the streets were alive with soldiers men shouting, marching, singing Wigfall the stormy petrol is in his glory the only thoroughly happy person I see today things seem to have settled down a little one can but hope still Lincoln or Seward has made such silly advances and then far sillier drawings back there may be a chance for peace after all things are happening so fast my husband has been made an aid to 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 tonight depends upon Anderson and the fleet outside the Herald says that this show of war outside of the bar is intended for Texas John Manning came in with his sword in 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 instructions Mr. Chestnut is finishing a report he had to make to the convention Mrs. Hain called she had, she said, but one feeling for those who are not here Jack Preston, Willie Austin the take life easies as they are called with John Green the big brave have gone down to the island volunteered as privates 700 men were sent over ammunition wagons were rumbling along the streets all night Anderson is burning blue lights signs and signals for the fleet outside I suppose today at dinner there was no illusion 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 quartet Judge Withers, Langdon Chavis and Trescott our two ex-governors died 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 Lord and Red Sash from somewhere and brought it for Colonel Chestnut 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 Sumter then everything began to go wrong now they have intercepted a letter from him urging them to let him surrender 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 yesterdays 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 died with us today 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. Chestnut returned his interview with Colonel Anderson had been deeply interesting but Mr. Chestnut was not inclined to be communicative he wanted his dinner he felt for Anderson and had telegraphed to President Davis for instructions what answer to give Anderson etc he has now gone back to Fort Sumter 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 the likelihood of fighting and he to be left behind I do not pretend to go to sleep how can I if Anderson does not accept terms it for 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 a feed in the corridors all seemed hurrying one way I put on my double gown and a shawl and went to it was to the house top 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 bursting toward the fort if Anderson was obstinate Colonel Chestnut 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 was for destruction the women were wild there on the house top prayers came from the women and implications from the men and then a shell would light up the scene tonight they say the forces are to attempt to land we watched up there and everybody wondered that Fort Saunter did not fire a shot today Miles and Manning Colonel's now, AIDS de Beauregard dined with us matter 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 house top 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 us 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 of a famous battery which is made of railroad iron Mr. Pettigrew 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 he claps his hands and cries boom boom her mind is distinctly occupied by three things Lieutenant Hamilton whom she calls Randolph the baby and the big gun and it refuses to hold more prior of Virginia spoke from the Piazza of the Trostin Hotel I asked what he said an irreverent woman replied 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 Chestnut 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 Langdonchevus 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 Luisa Hamilton's baby we hear nothing can listen to nothing boom boom goes the cannon all the time the nervous strain is awful alone 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 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 reaction 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. Wigfall and I ask why because he hates the Yankees we are told you'll think that well of him not by one word or look can we detect any change in the demeanour of these negro servants Lawrence sits at our door sleepy and respectful and profoundly indifferent 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 it's not as loud before them as if they were chairs in tables they make no sign are they stolidly stupid or wiser than we are silent and strong biting their time so tea and toast came also came Colonel Manning read 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 officer 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 dough's blood that sometimes spoiled all 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 someone called come out there is a crowd coming a mob it was indeed but it was headed by Colonel's chestnut and Manning the crowd was shouting and showing these two as messengers of good news in Beauregard's headquarters Fort Sumter had surrendered those upon the house tops shouted to us the fort is on fire that had been the story once or twice before when we had calmed down Colonel Chestnut who had taken it all quietly enough if anything more unruffled than usual in his serenity told us how the surrender came 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 rode over Wigfall went in through a porthole when Colonel Chestnut arrived shortly after and was received at the regular entrance 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 confusion our flag is flying there fire engines have been sent for 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. Preston, Mrs. Joe Hayward and I drove around the battery footnote Carolyn 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 end footnote we were in an open carriage 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 the correspondent of the London Times was there they took him everywhere one man got out Thackeray to converse with him on equal terms Thackeray 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 footnote William Howard Russell a native of Dublin who served as correspondent 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 honorary secretary to the Prince of Wales during the Prince's visit to India end footnote Mrs. Frank Hampton and I went to see the camp of the Richland troops footnote the Sally Baxter of the recently published Thackeray Letters to an American Family end footnote South Carolina College had volunteered to a boy Professor Venable the mathematical intends to raise a company from among them for the war a permanent company this is a grand frolic no more for the students at least even the stade and severe of aspect Klingman 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 awesome 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 joke Mrs. Frank Hapton knows already what civil war means her brother was in the New York Seventh Regiment 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 End of Chapter 3 Chapter 4 of A Diary from Dixie this LibriVox recording is in the public domain read by Laurie Ann Walden A Diary from Dixie by Mary Chestnut Chapter 4 Camden, South Carolina April 20, 1861 to April 23, 1861 Camden, South Carolina April 20, 1861 Home again at Mulberry and those last days of my stay in Charleston I did not find time to write a word and so we took Fort Sumter resolved we, Mrs. Frank Camden and others in the passageway of the mill's 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 Charleston 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 and groups in our rooms away from the haunts of men Captain Ingram 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, Chestnut, 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 Buford Watts told me this story and many more of the jeunesse d'oré under fire they took their fire easily as they do most things they had cotton bag bomb proofs at Fort Maltry and when Anderson's shot knocked them about someone called out cotton is falling then down went the kitchen chimney loaves of bread flew out and they cheered gaily shouting breadstuffs are rising Willie Preston fired the shot which broke Anderson's flagstaff 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 Sims 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 canon he was asked no sir Mars Anderson ain't daresn't hit me he no master wouldn't allow it footnote William Gilmore Sims the southern novelist was born in Charleston in 1806 he was the author of a great many volumes dealing with southern life long time they were widely read in footnote I have been sitting idly today looking out upon this beautiful lawn wondering if this can be the same world I was in a few days ago after the smoke in the den of the battle a calm April 22 arranging my photograph book on the first page Colonel Watts here goes a sketch of his life romantic enough surely Buford Watts was a blood gentleman to the tips of his fingers chivalry incarnate he was placed in charge of a large amount of money and 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 bedside locked himself in and slept the sleep of the righteous low 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 purpose the money had vanished it was a damaging story 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 Wainscott 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 Buford 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 suffered those many years in silence many men looked a scant's 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 20 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 Grandison might have done it was hard not to laugh at the purple and green shades of his over black hair he came at one time to show me the sword presented to Colonel Shelton for killing the only Indian who was killed in the Seminole war we bagged Osceola and mykonopy under a flag of truce that is they were snared not shot on the wing to go back to my night 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 learned that it is a much greater liberty to shake hands with the lady than to kiss her hand I have kissed the Empress of Russia's hand 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 rains up his warsteed and bows low as ever now I will bid farewell for a while as a fellow did to all the pomp pride and circumstance of glorious war and come down to my domestic strife 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's 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 James wants us free and it is only old master holds hard he ain't going to free anybody any way you see and then came the story of her troubles now Miss Mary you see me married to James Whitaker yourself I was a good and faithful wife to him and we were comfortable 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 Mrs. and master are so good to you now let us look up something for the twins the twins are named John and James the latter for her false loon of a husband Maria is one of the good colored women she deserved a better fate in her honest matrimonial attempt but they do say she has a trying temper James was tried and he failed to stand the trial April 23rd note the glaring inconsistencies of life our shadow lane locked up Eugene's Sue and returned even Washington Austin'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 particular 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 not happen at 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 commandments end of chapter 4