Part 1 (2/2)

MYRTA LOCKETT AVARY

xxii-a A PAGE OF THE DIARY IN FACSIMILE

1

I CHARLESTON, S C

November 8, 1860 - December 27, 1860

CHARLESTON, S C, 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 ra at the same time One, a little more moved than the others, stood up and said despondently: ”The die is cast; no s are useless; the stake is life or death” ”Did you ever!” was the prevailing exclamation, and some one cried out: ”Now that the black radical Republicans have the power I suppose they will Brown 1 us all ” No doubt of it

I have always kept a journal after a fashi+on of my oith 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 to-day forward I will tell the story in htful and eventful years that have just passed Those delights have fled and one's breath is taken away to think what events have since crowded in Like the woman's record in her journal, we have had ”earthquakes, as usual” - daily shocks

1 A reference to John Brown of Harper's Ferry

2 At Fernandina I saw younga little prematurely, ”South Carolina has seceded!” I was overjoyed to find Florida so sy men were Gadsdens, Porchers, and Gourdins, 1 names as inevitably South Carolinian as Moses and Lazarus are Jewish

Frohty flow of eloquence Bartow and a delegation fro-roo is pretty hard on a tired traveler Suddenly I foundwith pleasure Voice, tone, tee, all were perfect I sent Tanny to see who it was that spoke He caer, the old postmaster” He may not have been the wisest or wittiest man there, but he certainly made the best aftersupper speech

December 10th - We have been up to the Mulberry Plantation with Colonel Colcock and Judge Magrath, ere sent to Columbia by their fellow-citizens in the low country, to hasten the slow movement of the wisdoe 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 co bitterly of slow and lukewarrath is a local celebrity, who has been stretched across the street in effigy, showing hi is in vivid colors, the canvas huge, and the rope hardly discernible He is depicted with a countenance flaust, and disdain We agreed that the time 1 This and other French nain

3 had now come We had talked so much heretofore Let the fire-eaters have it out Massachusetts and South Carolina are always cohts

As a woman, of course, it is easy for me to be brave under the skins of other people; so I said: ”Fight it out Bluffton 1 I has brought on a fever that only bloodletting will cure” My companions breathed fire and fury, but I dare say they were a themselves with my dismay, for, talk as I would, that I could not hide

At Kingsville we encountered Janed his seat in the United States Senate the day before Said soned” For once in her life, Mrs Chesnut held her tongue: she was duotten into the very air, she was offering up her life to the cause

We have had a brief pause The men who are all, like Pickens, 2 ”insensible to fear,” are very sensible in case of s now an epidemic of small-pox in Columbia, they have adjourned to Charleston In Ca, h blue cockades Red sashes, guns, and swords were ordinary fireside accorand parade of the houard a woman, the wife of aabout to see the drilling of this new coh her father was buried the day before

Edward J Pringle writes me from San Francisco on Novened 1 A reference to as known as ”the Bluffton movement” of 1844, in South Carolina It aimed at secession, but was voted down

2 Francis W Pickens, Governor of South Carolina, 1860-62 He had been elected to Congress in 1834 as a Nullifier, but had voted against the ”Bluffton movement” From 1858 to 1860, he was Minister to Russia He was a wealthy planter and had fa into a Convention, perhaps to secession Mr Chesnut 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”

Dece with us to-day, when Mrs Kirkland brought in a copy of the Secession Ordinance I wonder if rehite as hers She said after a th be” How grateful ere for this pious ejaculation of hers! They say I had better take my last look at this beautiful place, Counboats

We mean business this time, because of this convocation of the notables, this convention1 In it are all our wisest and best They really have tried to send the ablest ood men and true) South Carolina was never more splendidly represented Patriotisret having left Washi+ngton

Dece to-day, and in her neat, incisive manner exploded this bombshell: ”Major Anderson 2 has moved into 1 The Convention, which on December 20, 1860, passed the famous Ordinance of Secession, and had first met in Columbia, the State capital

2 Robert Anderson, Major of the First Artillery, United States Army, who, on November 20, 1860, was placed in coht of Dece an attack, he had raduate of West Point and a veteran of the Black Hawk, Florida, and Mexican Wars

4a THE OLD BAPTIST CHURCH IN COLUMBIA, SC

Here First Met the South Carolina Secession Convention

5 Fort Sumter, while Governor Pickens slept serenely” The row is fast and furious now State after State is taking its forts and fortresses They say if we had been left out in the cold alone, we o, and wouldourselves We needed a little wholesoame, 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 ant a row are in high glee Those who dread it are glue: ”Captain Hu just before dinnertime Ours was run up in its place You know the arsenal is in sight What is the next uide us We stand in need of wise counsel; soe The talk is: 'Fort Suest forts' How in the nae? I shudder to think of rash moves”

6

II MONTGOMERY, ALA

February 19, 1861 - March 11, 1861 MONTGOMERY, Ala, February 19, 1861 - The brand-new Confederacy isits Constitution Everybody wants Mr Davis to be General-in-Chief or President Keitt and Boyce and a party preferred Howell Cobb 1 for President And the fire-eaters per se wanted Barnwell Rhett

My brother Stephen brought the officers of the ”Montgoizing for their rough condition Poor fellows! they had been a month before Fort Pickens and not allowed to attack it They said Colonel Chase built it, and so were sure it was iraphed to Governor Moore 2 if he ot for his answer, ”No” ”And now,” say the Blues, ”we have worked like niggers, and when the fun and fighting begin, they send us hoia, 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 Adia to the Provisional Congress which adopted the Constitution of the Confederacy, and presided over each of its four sessions

2 Andrew Bary Moore, elected Governor of Alabama in 1859 In 1861, before Alabama seceded, he directed the seizure of United States forts and arsenals and was active afterward in the equipment of State troops

7 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 theht 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 Washi+ngton

Cecil's saying of Sir Walter Raleigh that he could ”toil terribly” was an electric touch Above all, let the orous While I was reflecting on what kind of ht to choose, I fell on Clarendon, and it was easy to construct ain, so the men need not be purely ideal types

Mr Toombs 1 told us a story of General Scott and hiton with Scott, who seasoned every dish and every glass of ith the eternal refrain, ”Save the Union; the Union must be preserved” Toombs remarked that he knehy the Union was so dear to the General, and illustrated his point by a steaers were struggling in the water a wo, ”Oh, save the red-headed 1 Robert Tooia, who early acquired fame as a lawyer, served in the Creek War under General Scott, beca 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 ress 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

8 man!” The red-headedhim noticed with surprise how little interest in hi appeals seemed to feel He asked her ”Why did you make that pathetic outcry?” She answered, ”Oh, he owes me ten thousand dollars” ”Now General,” said Toombs, ”the Union owes you seventeen thousand dollars a year!” I can iine the scorn on old Scott's face

February 25th - Find every one working very hard here As I dozed on the sofa last night, could hear the scratch, scratch of ht

After church to-day, Captain Ingraharets that he had to leave the United States Navy Ha had been stationed in the Mediterranean, where he liked to be , and expected to be these two years, and to take those lovely daughters of his to Florence Then came Abraham Lincoln, and rampant black Republicanism, and he must lay down his life for South Carolina He, however, does not ear 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 shi+p and send hie - was loudly abusive of Congress He said: ”They have trampled the Constitution underfoot They have provided President Davis with a house” He was disgusted with the folly of parading the President at the inauguration in a coach drawn by four white horses Then some one said Mrs Fitzpatrick was the only lady who sat with the Congress After the inaugural she poked Jeff Davis in the back with her parasol that he ht turn and speak to her ”I ah,” said some one

Governor Moore caram

9 from Governor Pickens to the President, ” that a war stea off the Charleston bar laden with reenforcements for Fort Sumter, and what must we do?” Answer: ”Use your own discretion!” There is faith for you, after all is said and done It is believed there is still some discretion left in South Carolina fit for use