Part 20 (2/2)
XX CHESTER, S C
March 21, 1865 - May 1, 1865 CHESTER, S C, March 21,1865-Another flitting has occurred Captain Ogden came for me; the splendid Childs was true as steel to the last Surely he is the kindest of htly incredulous when I depicted the wonders of Colonel Childs's generosity So I skilfully led out the good gentleman for inspection, and he walked to the train with us He offered old; and finally offered to buy our cotton and pay us now in gold Of course, I laughed at his overflowing bounty, and accepted nothing; but I begged him to come down to Chester or Camden and buy our cotton of General Chesnut there
On the train after leaving Lincolnton, as Captain Ogden is a refugee, has had nowith his hoees contrive to live, I beguiled the ti information from him ”When people are without a cent, how do they live?” I asked ”I aees, and Confederate pay does not buy one's shoe-strings” To which he replied, ”Sponge, sponge Why did you not let Colonel Childs pay your bills?” ”I have no bills,” said I ”We have never made bills anywhere, not even at home, where they would trust us, and nobody would trust me in Lincolnton” ”Why did you not borrow his money? General Chesnut could pay him at his leisure?” ”I am by no
368 ain have any , and I waved my handkerchief in farewell to Miss Middleton, Isabella, and other devoted friends, I could only wonder if fate would ever throw enial companions, The McLeans refused to be paid for their rooms No plummet can sound the depths of the hospitality and kindness of the North Carolina people
Misfortune dogged us fro with the train We broke doithin two miles of Charlotte, and had to walk that distance; which was pretty rough on an invalid barely out of a fever My spirit was further broken by losing an invaluable lace veil, which orn because I was too poor to buy a cheaper one - that is, if there were any veils at all for sale in our region
My husband had ordered reat friends of his They established -room, a really handsome apartment; they made up a bed there and put in a washstand and plenty of water, with everything refreshi+ngly clean and nice But it continued to be a public drawing-rooht and wanted to go to bed The piano was there and the company played it
The landlady announced, proudly, that for supper there were nine kinds of custard Custard sounded nice and light, so I sent for some, but found it heavy potato pie I said: ”Ellen, this h Dover's powder did not” ”Don't you believe dat, Missis; try” We barricaded ourselves in the drawing-rooht and left the next day at dawn Arrived at the station, we had another disappointment; the train was behind ti hours; for the cars ht come at any moment, and we dared not move an inch from the spot
Finally the train rolled in overloaded with paroled
369 prisoners, but heaven helped us: a kind ent invited us, with two other forlorn woden, true to his theory, did not stay at the boarding-house as we did Soht This he explained with a grin
My husband was at the Chester station with a carriage We drove at once to Mrs Da Vega's
March 24th-I have been ill, but what could you expect? My lines, however, have again fallen in pleasant places Mrs Da Vega is young, handsoreeable, a kind and perfect hostess; and as to the house,to be desired; so very fresh, clean, war-room suddenly made into a bedroo the civilized of the earth once ain, and now I a more to see than the sky We have the third story of Dr Da Vega's house, which opens on the straight street that leads to the railroad about as Yesterday at church Isaac Hayne nestled so close to her cap-strings that I had to touch him and say, ”Sit up!” Josiah Bedon was killed in that faoons stood still to be shot down in their; tracks, having no orders to retire They had been forgotten, doubtless, and they scorned to take care of theh and airy retreat, as in Richmond, then in Columbia, and then in Lincolnton, my cry is still: If they would only leave s never could be worse with ain am I surrounded by old friends People seeood they can be to me
To-day Smith opened the trenches and appeared laden
370 with a tray covered with a snohite napkin Here was ain Mrs Pride has sent a boiled hahbor coffee already parched and ground; a loaf of sugar already cracked; candles, pickles, and all the other things one must trust to love for now Such , even if there were anything left in the shops to buy
We had a jolly luncheon Jaood con in a palace No Prince Charood enough for her”
Then Mrs Prioleau Haress, not a royal one, from Columbia here: ”Before we left home,” said she, ”Major Hamilton spread a map of the United States on the table, and showed o Woo that way?' 'Pooh, pooh! what do you knoar?' So we set out, y The 14th of February we took up our line of ht before Sherether By incessant hurrying and scurrying fro as a sort of avant-courier of the Yankee arot here last Wednesday, and here we ions Much the worse for e”
The first night their beauty sleep was rudely broken into at Alston with a cry, ”Move on, the Yanks are upon us!” So they hurried on, half-awake, to Winnsboro, but with no better luck There they had to lighten the shi+p, leave trunks, etc, and put on all sail, for this time the Yankees were only five miles behind ”Whip and spur, ride for your life!” was the cry ”Shery,” said she; ”for you know that e got to Lancaster Sherman was expected there, and he keeps his appointments; that is, he kept that one Two san to think of the Red Sea expedition But we lost no time, and soon ere in Cheraw, clearly out of the track We thanked God for all his ed to our bosoms fond hopes of a bed and bath so much needed by all, especially for the children
”At twelve o'clock General Hardee himself knocked us up ord to 'March! march!' for 'all the blue bonnets are over the border' In mad haste we made for Fayetteville, when they said: 'God bless your soul! This is the seat of war now; the battle-ground where Sherman and Johnston are to try conclusions' So we harked back, as the hunters say, and cut across country, ai for this place Clean clothes, arment and washed it and dried it by our ca and comfortable all that time in Lincolnton
To-day Stephen D Lee's corps s of theseThey would have war voice was powerful, mellow, clear, distinct, pathetic, sweet So, I sat down, as woe strea Music? Away, away! Thou speakest tolife I have not found, and I shall not find There they go, the gay and gallant few, doo of the flower of Southern pride, to be killed, or worse, to a prison They continue to prance by, light and jaunty They march with as airy a tread as if they still believed the world was all on their side, and that there were
372 no Yankee bullets for the unwary What will Joe Johnston do with theh the curtain has not fallen on the last scene Cassandra croaks and makes oing down When that style of enthusiasm is on the wane, the rapidity of its extinction isout of a candle; ”one ht; it is the snow-flake on the river that is referred to I as as much mixed as do the fine ladies of society
Lee and Johnston have each fought a drawn battle; only a few more dead bodies lie stiff and stark on an unknown battle-field For we do not so much as knohere these drawn battles took place
Teddy Barnwell, after sharing with me my first luncheon, failed o down to the train and see Isabella pass by One ith Isabella worth a thousand ordinary ones! So, she has gone by and I've not seen her
Old Colonel Chesnut refuses to say grace; but as he leaves the table audibly declares, ”I thank God for a good dinner” When asked why he did this odd thing he said: ”My way is to be sure of a thing before I return thanks for it” Mayor Goodwyn thanked Sherman for proan
I received the wife of a post-office robber The poor thing had done no wrong, and I felt so sorry for her Who would be a wo, faithful woman? She hath hard measures still when she hopes kindest And all her beauty only rates!
March 29th - I akened with a bunch of violets from Mrs Pride Violets always rearden of paradise part of my life Then, it all caht now
373 Thursday - I find I have not spoken of the box-car which held the Preston party that day on their way to York from Richmond In the party were Mr and Mrs Lawson Clay, General and Mrs Preston and their three daughters, Captain Rodgers, and Mr Portlish earl, and connected financially and happily with Portnorance I may not state Mr Porter son Then there was Cellie and her baby and wet-nurse, with no end of servants, male and fe the fortune of war We were there but a short ti that brief visit of ours, was said to have eaten three luncheons, and the number of his drinks, toddies, so called, were counted, too Mr Ports They were, however, run over by the train, and e meat of unduly and before their time
General Lee says to the men who shi+rk duty, ”This is the people's hen they tire, I stop” Wigfall says, ”It is all over; the gains he can step over into Mexico
I ao by every day Theymore than surrender It is very late, and the wind flaps my curtain, which seewith Mrs Pride, Colonel McCaw passed us! He called out, ”I do hope you are in comfortable quarters” ”Very comfortable,” I replied ”Oh, Mrs Chesnut!” said Mrs Pride, ”how can you say that?” ”Perfectly comfortable, and hope it may never be worse with me,” said I ”I have a clean little parlor, 16 by 18, with its bare floor well scrubbed, a dinner-table, six chairs, and - well, that is all; but I have a charh My world is now thus divided into two parts - where Yankees are and where Yankees are not”
As I sat disconsolate, looking out, ready for any new traure of General Preston hove in sight He was hty steed, worthy of its rider, followed by his trusty squire, William Walker, who bore before him the General's portmanteau When I had time to realize the situation, I perceived at General Preston's right hand Mr Christopher Hampton and Mr Portman, who passed by Soon Mrs Pride, in so here, and she sent s for my tea-table General Preston entered very soon after, and with him Clement Clay, of Alabama, the latter in pursuit of his wife's trunk I left it with the Rev Mr Martin, and have no doubt it is perfectly safe, but where? We have written to Mr Martin to inquire Then Wilmot de Saussure appeared ”I am here,” he said, ”to consult with General Chesnut He and I always think alike” He added, eer than ever” ”If you think so,” said I, ”you will find that for once you and General Chesnut do not think alike He has held that slavery was a thing of the past, this many a year”
I said to General Preston: ”I pass hts partly at thisI a the wrong way, all the tiiven the thing up See for yourself Look there” For a while the streets were thronged with soldiers and then they were e noithout tap of drureat adventure Mrs Preston was put under his care on the train He soon found the only other wo were ”strictly unfortunate feressive He had to communicate the unpleasant fact to
375 Mrs Preston, on account of their propinquity, and was lost in adnity, her quiet self-possession, her cal of all that she did not care to see Some women, no eted, but Mrs Preston dominated the situation and possessed her soul in innocence and peace
Met Robert Johnston fro been taken at Camden The Yankees robbed Zack Cantey of his forks and spoons When Zack did not seehed at him When he said he did not see any fun in it, they pretended to weep and wiped their eyes with their coat-tails All thisderision Zack said was as hard to bear as it was to see them ride off with his horse, Albine They stole all of Mrs Zack's jewelry and silver When the Yankee general heard of it he wrote her a very polite note, saying how sorry he was that she had been annoyed, and returned a bundle of Zack's love-letters, written to her before she was married Robert Johnston said Miss Chesnut was a brave and determined spirit One Yankee officer came in while they were at breakfast and sat down to warhts,” Miss Chesnut said to him politely ”I suppose you have coitates e, and said, ”What do you take me for - a robber?” ”No, indeed,” said she, and for very shame he marched out empty-handed
April 3d - Saw General Preston ride off He caood-by I told hireat white horse, with William, his squire, at his heels Our men are all consummate riders, and have their servants wellcloaks and traps - how different from the same men packed like sardines in dirty railroad cars, usually floating inch deep in liquid tobacco juice
376 For the kitchen and Ellen's comfort I wanted a pine table and a kitchen chair A woman sold me one to-day for three thousand Confederate dollars
Mrs Haain Prioleau Hamilton says the person into whose house they expected to move to-day came to say she could not take boarders for three reasons: First, ”that they had smallpox in the house” ”And the two others?” ”Oh, I did not ask for the two others!”
April 5th - Miss Middleton's letter caenerous ,” she says, ”for our own setables Here is a struggle unto death, although the neighbors continue to feed us, as you would say, 'with a spoon' We have fallen upon a new device We keep a cookery book on the mantelpiece, and when the dinner is deficient we just read off a pudding or a creme It does not entirely satisfy the appetite, this dessert in iestion”
As I was ready to go, though still up-stairs, some one came to say General Hood had called Mrs Hamilton cried out, ”Send word you are not at home” ”Never!” said I ”Why o in fiveSherht say 'not at horeeted him on the sidewalk in the face of all, and walked slowly beside hiallantly He was so well dressed and so cordial; not depressed in the slightest He was so glad to see me He calls his report self-defense; says Joe Johnston attacked his from his point of view And now follow statements, where one may read between the lines what one chooses He had been offered a coinia, but as General Lee was concerned because he and Joe Johnston were not on cordial tern would be too great for hi across the Mississippi Texas was true to him, and would be his home, as it had voted him a ranch somewhere out there They say General Lee is utterly despondent, and has no plan if Richo it must
April 7th - Richmond has fallen and I have no heart to write about it Grant broke through our lines and Sherh them Stoneman is this side of Danville They are toois lost in Richmond, even our archives Blue black is our horizon Hood says we shall all be obliged to go West - to Texas, I mean, for our own part of the country will be overrun