Part 12 (2/2)
XIII PORTLAND, ALA
July 8, 1863 - July 30, 1863 PORTLAND, Ala, July 8, 1863 - My mother ill at her home on the plantation near here - where I have coo back first to my trip ho on a row of coffins s, with their feet drawn up tailor-fashi+on to keep them out of the wet Thus does war harden people's hearts
Met Jaton He only crossed the river with me and then went back to Rich our troops into Pennsylvania: wanted all we could spare sent West to haood, or to do the Yankees any harm The Coriolanus business is played out
As we came to Camden, Molly sat by me in the cars She touched me, and, with her nose in the air, said: ”Look, Missis” There was the inevitable bride and groo and lolling against each other which I had seen so often before I was rather astonished at Molly's prudery but there was a touch 1 Cleha of Northern sympathizers with the South He was arrested by United States troops in May, 1863, court- well received in the South, he went to Canada, but after the war returned to Ohio
217 in this scene which was new The irl should brush his cheek with those beautiful long eyelashes of hers Molly becaed in her blue-black modesty that she kept her head out of thenot to see! When ere detained at a little wayside station, this woman made an awful row about her room She seemed to know me and appealed to me; said her brother-in-laas adjutant to Colonel K - , etc
Molly observed, ”You had better go yonder,you” The woman drew herself up proudly, and, with a toss, exclaimed: ”Husband, indeed! I'm aThat is ain, ever, ever!” Absolutely tears came into her eyes Molly, loaded as she ith shawls and bundles, stood wine-on in the kyars! O, Lord, I should a let it go 'twas er as I am”
Here I was at home, on a soft bed, with every physical co catechism there, due to the curiosity of stay-at-home people in a narroorld
In Richmond, Molly and Lawrence quarreled He declared he could not put up with her tantrums Unfortunately I asked him, in the interests of peace and a quiet house, to bear with her teood and useful He was shabby enough to tell her what I had said at their next quarrel The awful reproaches she overwhelmed me with then! She said she ”was mortified that I had hue cauests were required to carry ”passes,” and, in changing his coat Lawrence forgot his pass Next day Lawrence wasto tears ”Coentleers and hed and jeered so she could not stand without holding on to the rence disregarded her
218 and called to me at the top of his voice: ”Please, ma'am, ask Mars Jeems to come take me out of this I ain't done nothin'”
As soon as Mr Chesnut came home I told him of Lawrence's sad fall, and he went at once to his rescue There had been a fight and a disturbance at the ball The police had been called in, and when every negro was required to show his ”pass,” Lawrence had been taken up as having none He was terribly chopfallen when he ca behind Mr Chesnut He is always so respectable and well-behaved and stands on his dignity
I went over to Mrs Preston's at Columbia Carao to my mother, as ill at her hohters were going, and so I joined the party I telegraphed Mr Chesnut for Lawrence, and he replied, forbidding reeable, fever would be the inevitable result Miss Kate Hampton, in her soft voice, said: ”The only trouble in life is when one can't decide in which way duty leads Once know your duty, then all is easy”
I do not knohether she thought it o tobutdrama under our very noses, before our eyes A party had come to Colu of truce, etc Colonel Goodwyn asked me to look around and see if I could pick out the suspected crew It was easily done We were all in a sadly ood clothes in three years, and now our only resource was to turn the, patching, etc
Neardress of bright yellow; she wore a profusion
219 of curls, had pink cheeks, was delightfully airy and easy in her manner, and was absorbed in a flirtation with a Confederate ray uniform and two stars, had a very Yankee face, fresh, clean-cut, sharp, utterly unsunburned, florid, wholesome, handsome What more in compliment can one say of one's enemies? Two other women faced this ood clothes One of these women was a German She it ho had betrayed them I found that out afterward
The handsomest of the three women had a hard, Northern face, but all were in splendid array as to feathers, flowers, lace, and jewelry If they were spies ere they so foolish as to brag of New York, and compare us unfavorably with the other side all the time, and in loud, shrill accents? Surely that was not the way to pass unnoticed in the Confederacy
A man came in, stood up, and read fro”1 I felt as if I had been struck a hard blow on the top of my head, and my heart took one of its queer turns I was utterly unconscious: not long, I dare say The first thing I heard was exclamations of joy and exultation froreat AHe had a greyhound face, eager and inquisitive when awake, but noas as one of the seven sleepers
Colonel Goodrote on a blank page of my book (one of De Quincey's - the note is there now), that the sleeper was a Rich surrendered on July 4, 1863 Since the close of 1862, it had again and again been assaulted by Grant and Sherman It was co in command at the time of the surrender John C Peraduate of West Point, and had served in the Mexican War
220 Finally, hot and tired out, we arrived at West Point, on the Chattahoochee River The dusty cars were quite still, except for the giggling flirtation of the yellon and her major Two Confederate officers walked in I felt mischief in the air One touched the s to Yellon The major turned quickly Instantly, every drop of blood left his face; a spasht And at once I fully sorry for him He was marched out of the car Poor Yellon's color was fast, but the whites of her eyes were lurid Of the three wo worse to woh-minded Confederates, than send them out of the country But e read soon afterward of the execution of a omery the boat waited for us, and in my haste I tumbled out of the omnibus with Dr Robert Johnson's assistance, but nearly broke h up in the nineties, and they gave s of et out of that oven Surely, go where weunder the bluff with the sun looking doill give one a foretaste, aloes The planks of the floor burned one's feet under the bluff at Selma, where we stayed nearly all day - I do not knohy
Met Ja, and charged it all to Jeff Davis in his wrath, which did not seem exactly reasonable to me At Portland there was a horse for Jae sent for o seven miles on horseback before he reached my sister Sally's, and then Sally was to send back On that lonely riverside Molly and I remained with dismal swamps on every side, and immense plantations, the white people
221 few or none In ht when he forbadeat this little riverside inn- a white man who had a store opposite, and oh, how drunk he was! Hot as it was, Molly kept up a fire of pine knots There was neither lamp nor candle in that deserted house The drunken man reeled over now and then, lantern in hand; he would stand with his idiotic, drunken glare, or go sole in his politeness He nearly fell over us, but I sprang out of his way as he asked, ”Well, et the headache of that night and the fright, My temples throbbed with dumb misery I sat upon a chair, Molly on the floor, with her head resting against et to me, and I kept my hand on her ”Missis,” said she, ”now I do believe you are scared, scared of that poor, drunken thing If he was sober I could whip hiht, and drunk as he is I kin throw him over the banister, ef he so much as teches you I don't value hi heart frohed It seee came by ten o'clock, and then, with the coachhtlanes, swamps of pitchy darkness, with plantations on every side
The house, as we drew near, looked like a graveyard in a nightue and phantom-like were its outlines
I found my mother ill in bed, feeble still, but better than I hoped to see her ”I knew you would co, with outstretched hands Then I went to bed in that silent house, a house of the dead it seemed I supposed I was not to see my sister until the next day But she caone to bed She kissed me quietly, without a tear She was thin and pale, but her voice was calm and kind
222 As she lifted the candle over her head, to showon the wall, I saw that her pretty brown hair hite It fully hard not to burst out into violent weeping She looked so sweet, and yet so utterly brokenhearted But as she ithout emotion, apparently, it would not become me to upset her by my tears
Next day, at noon, Hetty, ht my breakfast to my bedside Such a breakfast it was! Delmonico could do no better ”It is ever so late, I know,” to which Hetty replied: ”Yes, ould not let Molly wake you” ”What a splendid cook you have here” ”My daughter, Tenah, is Miss Sally's cook She's well enough as tio, but when our Miss Mary comes to see us I does it myself,” and she courtesied down to the floor ”Bless your old soul,” I cried, and she rushed over and gave
She is my mother's factotum; has been her ht fro with her own mother and all her brothers and sisters She has been pampered until she is a rare old tyrant at ti better than any one else, and my mother leans on her heavily Hetty is dick's wife; dick is the butler They have over a dozen children and take life very easily
Sally caan at once in the same stony way, pale and cold as ice, to tell me of the death of her children It had happened not teeks before Her eyes were utterly without life; no expression whatever, and in a composed and sad sort ofshe had read and wanted rown up to be a lovely girl She was between thirteen and fourteen, you know Baby Kate had ray eyes; she was evidently to be the beauty of the fae it is that here was one of one and you
223 have never seen her at all She died first, and I would not go to the funeral I thought it would killdown, stupid with grief when Aunt Charlotte came to me after the funeral with this news: 'Mary has that awful disease, too' There was nothing to say I got up and dressed instantly and went to Mary I did not leave her side again in that long struggle between life and death I did everything for her with rave I went to her funeral, and I caed her to be comforted; I would bear it all without one word if God would only spare me the one child left roenty years older, cold, hard, careworn With the sao over all the details of Mary's illness ”I had not given up hope, no, not at all As I sat by her side, she said: 'Mamma, put your hand on my knees; they are so cold' I put my hand on her knee; the cold struck to my heart I kneas the coldness of death” Sally put out her hand onShe fell forward in an agony of weeping that lasted for hours The doctor said this reaction was a blessing; without it she one , the little girl, the last of theht child of three or four, crawled into my bed ”Now, Auntie,” she whispered, ”I want to tell you all about Mamie and Katie, but they watch me so They say I must never talk about them Katie died because she ate blackberries, I know that, and then Aunt Charlotte read Mamie a letter and that one to God, but I know the people saved a place between theround for me”
Uncle William was in despair at the low ebb of patriotism out here ”West of the Savannah River,” said he,
224 ”it is property first, life next, honor last” He gave ift! For s Armstead makes for me, and they hurt ; they are large enough and do not pinch anywhere I have absolutely a respectable pair of shoes!!
Uncle Williaroes are abjectly wretched Neither side now cares a fig for these beloved negroes, and would send them all to heaven in a hand-basket, as Custis Lee says, to win in the fight
General Lee and Mr Davis want the negroes put into the army Mr Chesnut and Major Venable discussed the subject one night, but would they fight on our side or desert to the eneo to the enemy, because they are comfortable as they are, and expect to be free anyway
When ere children our nurses used to give us tea out in the open air on little pine tables scrubbed as clean as milk-pails Sometimes, as dick would pass us, with his slow and consequential step, ould call out, ”Do, dick, come and wait on us” ”No, littleenough to put your legs under your pa's ht him to read as soon as I could read myself, perched on his knife-board He won't look atfreedom in the air He was always very ambitious I do not think he ever troubled himself much about books But then, asin front of his sideboard, has heard all subjects in earth or heaven discussed, and by the best heads in our world He is proud, too, in his way Hetty, his wife, complained that the other men servants looked finer in their livery ”Nonsense, old woman, a butler never demeans himself to wear livery He is always in plain clothes” Soro in whoo about in their black , and yet on all other subjects except the war they are the ht yptian Sphinx, so inscrutably silent is he He did deign to inquire about General Richard Anderson ”He wasmaster once,” said he ”I alill like him better than anybody else”
When dick married Hetty, the Anderson house was next door The two fareed to sell either dick or Hetty, whichever consented to be sold Hetty refused outright, and the Andersons sold dick that he nanimous on the Andersons' part, for Hetty was only a lady's-maid and dick was a trained butler, on who-room education, and, of course, if they had refused to sell dick, Hetty would have had to go to theratitude when she found he illing to leave thenity, but that does not interfere with his work at all