Part 8 (1/2)
February 23d - While Mr Chesnut was in toas at the Prestons John Cochran and sorounds, visit the Hampton Gardens, and some friends in Columbia After the dreadful state of the public mind at the escape of one of the prisoners, General Preston was obliged to refuse his request Mrs Preston and the rest of us wanted him to say ”Yes,” and so find out who in Columbia were his treacherous friends Pretty bold people they must be, to receive Yankee invaders in the midst of the row over one enemy already turned loose amid us
General Preston said: ”We are about to sacrifice life and fortune for a fickle multitude ill not stand up to us at last” The harsh comments made as to his lenient conduct to prisoners have embittered him I told him what I had heard Captain Trenholm say in his speech He said he would listen to no criticism except from a man with a musket on his shoulder, and who had beside enlisted for the war, had given up all, and had no choice but to succeed or die
134 February 24th - Congress and the newspapers render one desperate, ready to cut one's own throat They represent everything in our country as deplorable Then coallant army at the front The spirit of our army keeps us up after all Letters from the army revive one They coht, utterly unconscious of our weak despondency
February 25th - They have taken at Nashville1of troops, we poor women think, or this would not be Mr Venable added bitterly, ”Giving up our soldiers to the ene up the cause We can not replace theenerally, and the low-country seceders The forhs and parishes, they had theood constitution, and were satisfied But they had to go - to leave all and fight for the others who brought on all the trouble, and who do not show too ht for themselves
That is the extreme up-country view The extreh out of the Union yet His inaugural address reads as one of his speeches did four years ago in the United States Senate
A letter in ain Charleston The editor was asked for the writer's naave it as Little Moses, the Governor's secretary When Little Moses was spoken to, in a great trepidation he said that Mrs Pickens wrote it, and got him to publish it; so it was dropped, for Little Moses is such an arrant liar no one can believe hi amuses Mrs Pickens, let her amuse herself
March 5th - Mary Preston went back to Mulberry with 1 Nashville was evacuated by the Confederates under Albert Sidney Johnston, in February, 1862
135 h to take her in to dinner - Toht as her father Tom was very handsome in his uniform, and Mary prepared for a nice time, but he looked as if he would so ood exa never a word
Old Colonel Chesnut came for us When the train stopped, Quashi+e, shi+ny black, was seen on his box, as glossy and perfect in his way as his blooded bays, but the old Colonel would stop and pick up the dirtiest little negro I ever saas crying by the roadside This ragged little black urchin was made to climb up and sit beside Quash It spoilt the symmetry of the turn-out, but it was a character touch, and the old gentleman knows no law but his oill He had a biscuit in his pocket which he gave this sniffling little negro, who proved to be his man Scip's son
I was ill at Mulberry and never left my room Doctor Boykin caht him up, also Teahting as they should We had only pluck and luck and a dogged spirit of fighting, to offset their weight in men and munitions of war, I wish I could ree was quaint and striking - no gra Old Colonel Chesnut, catching a word, began his litany, saying, ”Numbers will tell,” ”Napoleon, you know,” etc, etc
At Mulberry the war has been ever afar off, but threats to take the silver came very near indeed - silver that we had before the Revolution, silver that Mrs Chesnut brought from Philadelphia Jack Cantey and Doctor Boykin came back on the train with us Wade Hampton is the hero
Sweet May Dacre Lord Byron and Disraeli make their rosebuds Catholic; May Dacre is another Aurora Raby I
136 like Disraeli because I find so litter Carlyle does not hold up his hands in holy horror of us because of African slavery Lord Lyons1 has gone against us Lord Derby and Louis Napoleon are silent in our hour of direst need People call me Cassandra, for I cry that outside hope is quenched Frouered land
March 7th - Mrs Middleton was dolorous indeed General Lee had warned the planters about Combahee, etc, that they must take care of themselves now; he could not do it Confederate soldiers had coes on the plantations and officers had punished them promptly She poured contempt Upon Yancey's letter to Lord Russell2 It was the letter of a shopkeeper, not in the style of a statesman at all
We called to see Mary McDuffie3 She asked Mary Preston what Doctor Boykin had said of her husband as we ca very complimentary Mary P tried to remember, and to repeat it all, to the joy of the other Mary, who liked to hear nice things about her husband
Mary was amazed to hear of the list of applicants for promotion One delicate-minded person accompanied his demand for advancement by a request for a written description of the Manassas battle; he had heard Colonel Chesnut give such a brilliant account of it in Governor Cobb's roohtning 1 Richard, Lord Lyons, British minister to the United States fron Secretary under the Palmerston administration of 1859 to 1865
3 Mary McDuffie was the second wife of Wade Haate of the United States Navy In April, 1861, when the Norfolk Navy-yard was abandoned by the United States she was sunk Her hull was afterward raised by the Confederates and she was reconstructed on new plans, and renaress, a sailing-shi+p of 50 guns, and the cuuns, at Newport News On March 7th she attacked the Minnesota, but was ement Many features of modern battle-shi+ps have been derived fro a dark scene Our sky is black and lowering
The Judge saw his little daughter at myand he cahtful visit; not a disagreeable as spoken He abused no one whatever, for he never once spoke of any one but himself, and himself he praised without stint He did not look at h he spoke very kindly to me
March 10th - Second year of Confederate independence I write daily for my own diversion These mmoires pour servir may at some future day afford facts about these times and prove useful to more important people than I am I do not wish to do any harm or to hurt any one If any scandalous stories creep in they can easily be burned It is hard, in such a hurry as things are now, to separate the wheat from the chaff Now that I have made my protest and written down my wishes, I can scribble on with a free will and free conscience
Congress at the North is down on us They talk largely of hanging slave-owners They say they hold Port Royal, as we did e took it originally froines, who fled before us; so we are to be exterminated and improved, l'Indienne, from the face of the earth
Medea, when asked: ”Country, wealth, husband, children, all are gone; and nohat remains?” answered: ”Medea remains” ”There is a ti the ashes and drinking in the full bitterness of complicated er to be instructed in all the wiles of society He wanted to try his hand at a flirtation, and requestedwhatever: he was so very fresh ”Dance with her,” he was told, ”and talk with her; ith her and flatter her; dance until she is warm and tired; then propose to walk in a cool, shady piazza It in your promenade sloarm up to your work; draw her ar”
”Heavens, what is that - break her wing?” ”Why, you do not know even that? Put your arm round her waist and kiss her After that, it is all plain sailing She comes dohen you call like the coon to Captain Scott: 'You need not fire, Captain,' etc”
The aspirant for fame as a flirt followed these lucid directions literally, but when he seized the poor girl and kissed her, she uplifted her voice in terror, and screamed as if the house was on fire So quick, sharp, and shrill were her yells for help that the bold flirt sprang over the banister, upon which grew a strong clih, and ran toward the college, taking a bee line He was so o hoirl's brother challenged hi felloho had led the freshht An explanation and an apology at every turn hushed it all up
Noe all laughed at this foolish story rave and preoccupied, and was asked: ”Why are you so unmoved? It is funny” ”I like e and I have kissed irl, but never a one scrome yet”
Last Saturday was the bloodiest we have had in
139 proportion to numbers1 The ene to arard at Columbus, Miss Old Abe truly took the field in that Scotch cap of his
Mrs McCord,2 the eldest daughter of Langdon Cheves, got up a co it at her own expense She has the brains and energy of a entleman, who is dissatisfied: ”This Government (Confederate) protects neither person nor property” Fancy the scornful turn of her lip! Sodon!” she replied coolly, ”he is a pure patriot; he has no a Confederate soldiers ditch through his garden and ruin him at their leisure”
Cotton is five cents a pound and labor of no value at all; it coroes to have them fed and clothed, which latter can not be done Cotton osnaburg at 37 1/2 cents a yard, leaves no chance to clothe the the bloodsuckers disgorge their ill-gotten gains We, poor fools, who are patriotically ruining ourselves will see our children in the gutter while treacherous dogs ofby in their coaches - coaches that were acquired by taking advantage of our necessities
This terrible battle of the shi+ps - Monitor, Merrimac, etc All hands on board the cuallantly and fired a round as she sank The Congress 1 On March 7 and 8, 1862, occurred the battle of Pea Ridge in Western Arkansas, where the Confederates were defeated, and on March 8th and 9th, occurred the conflict in Hampton Roads between the warshi+ps Merriress, and Monitor
2 Louisa Susanna McCord, whose husband was David J McCord, a lawyer of Columbia, who died in 1855 She was educated in Philadelphia, and was the author of several books of verse, including Caius Gracchus, a tragedy; she was also a brilliant pa She fired on our boats as they went up to take off her wounded She was burned The worst of it is that all this will arouse them to more furious exertions to destroy us They hated us so before, but ho?
In Coluaily step into Jeff Davis's shoes with a firm conviction that they would do better in every respect than he does The norance of these critics! It is pleasant to hear Mrs McCord on this subject, when they begin to shake their heads and tell us what Jeff Davis ought to do
March 12th - In the naval battle the other day we had twenty-five guns in all The enemy had fifty-four in the cuunboats, filled with rifled cannon Why not? They can have as many as they please ”No pent-up Utica contracts their powers”; the whole boundless world being theirs to recruit in Ours is only this one little spot of ground - the blockade, or stockade, which hems us in with only the sky open to us, and for all that, how tender-footed and cautious they are as they draw near
An anonymous letter purports to answer Colonel Chesnut's address to South Carolinians now in the arood” He knows lots of people whose fathers were notorious Tories in our war for independence andtheir country Their sons have the best places, and they are cowards and traitors still Naiven, of course
Floyd and Pillow1 are suspended from their coinia from 1850 to 1853, became Secretary of War in 1857 He was first in command at Fort Donelson Gideon J Pillow had been a Major-General of volunteers in the Mexican War and was second in command at Fort Donelson He and Floyd escaped fro General Buckner to make the surrender
141 because of Fort Donelson The people of Tennessee demand a like fate for Albert Sidney Johnston They say he is stupid Can huo further than this Tennessee madness?
I did Mrs Blank a kindness I told the women when her name came up that she was childless now, but that she had lost three children I hated to leave her all alone Women have such a conteoodness I took away her ”reproach a and fu Fro hi into the aro Mr Chesnut answers: ”Wait until you have saved your country before you make preachers and scholars When you have a country, there will be no lack of divines, students, scholars to adorn and purify it” He says he is a one-idea et every possible man into the ranks
Professor Le Conte1 is an able auxiliary He has undertaken to supervise and carry on the powder- enterprise - the very first attempted in the Confederacy, and Mr Chesnut is proud of it It is a brilliant success, thanks to Le Conte
Mr Chesnut receives anonye as seditious They say he is a dangerous and disaffected person His abuse of Jeff Davis and the Council is rabid Mr Chesnut laughs and throws the letters into the fire ”Disaffected to Jeff Davis,” says he; 1 Joseph Le Conte, who afterward arose to eology He died in 1901, while he was connected with the University of California His work at Colue scale,the raphy published in 1903, are several chapters devoted to his life in the South