Part 11 (1/2)
The sons of Mrs John Julius Pringle have come They
187 were left at school in the North A young Huger is with theh Walked, waded, rowed in boats, if boats they could find; swam rivers when boats there were none; brave lads are they One can but ady Mrs Fisher, of Philadelphia, ne Middleton, gave theet hoh McClellan's lines and burned five of his transports Jackson has been reenforced by 16,000 men, and they hope the enemy will be drawn from around Richmond, and the valley be the seat of war
John Chesnut is in Whiting's brigade, which has been sent to Stonewall Meers; Company A, No 1, we call it And she has persistently wept ever since she heard the news It is no child's play, she says, when you are with Stonewall He doesn't play at soldiering He doesn't take care of his oes to kill the Yankees
Wade Hampton is here, shot in the foot, but he knows no more about France than he does of the man in the moon Wet blanket he is just now Johnston badly wounded Lee is King of Spades They are all oncefor dear life Unless we can reenforce Stonewall, the game is up Our chiefs contrive to dao near the back destroys the , it kills the hearts of the men Then we are scant of powder
James Chesnut is awfully proud of Le Conte's powder manufactory here Le Conte kno to do it James Chesnut provides him the means to carry out his plans
Colonel Venable doesn't mince matters: ”If we do not deal a blow, a blow that will be felt, it will be soon all up with us I he Southill be lost to us We can not afford to shi+lly-shallyon the other side in New Orleans Butler holds out induceners ant to escape starvation Tennessee we one, since we abandoned her at Corinth, Fort Pillow, and Meone now
”You call a spade by that naricultural implement?” ”They call Mars Robert 'Old Spade Lee' He keeps theinian Respect so in this world Csar - call him Old Spade Csar? As a soldier, he was as much above suspicion, as he required his wife to be, as Csar's wife, you know If I re You let Mars Robert alone He knohat he is about”
”Tell us of the women folk at New Orleans; how did they take the fall of the city?” ”They are an excitable race,” theon the levee a daintily dressed lady picked her way, parasol in hand, toward hireat politeness, and her face was as placid and unmoved as in antebellum days Her first question was: ”Will you be so kind as to tell eneral order?” ”No order that I know of, madam; General Disorder prevails now” ”Ah! I see; and why are those persons flying and yelling so noisily and racing in the streets in that unsee for a shell to burst over their heads at any race, she waved her parasol and departed, but stopped to arrange that parasol at a proper angle to protect her face froar haste in her racefully as she came My informant had failed to discompose her by his fearful rations That was the one self-possessed soul then in New Orleans
189 Another woman drew near, so overheated and out of breath, she had barely time to say she had run miles of squares in her crazy terror and bewilderment, when a sudden shower caot all the questions she came to ask ”My bonnet, I must save it at any sacrifice,” she said, and so turned her dress over her head, and went off, forgetting her country's trouble and screahs at the old de Saussure house She has such a sweet face, such soft, kind, beautiful, dark-gray eyes Such eyes are a poe love-story We sat in the piazza at twelve o'clock of a June day, the glorious Southern sun shi+ning its very hottest But ere in a dense shade - nolias in full bloom, ivy, vines of I know not what, and roses in profusion closed us in It was a living wall of everything beautiful and sweet In all this flower-garden of a Columbia, that is the most delicious corner I have been in yet
Got from the Prestons' French library, fanny, with a brilliant preface by Jules Janier Now, then, I have come to the worst There can be no worse book than fanny The lover is jealous of the husband The woman is for the polyandry rule of life She cheats both and refuses to break with either But to criticize it one must be as shameless as the book itself Of course, it is clever to the last degree, or it would be kicked into the gutter It is not nastier or coarser than Mrs Stowe, but then it is not written in the interests of philanthropy
We had an unexpected dinner-party to-day First, Wade Hampton came and his wife Then Mr and Mrs Rose I re I thought odd at the tiet noas the other) ”are the only two people on this side of the water who kno to give a state dinner” Mr and Mrs James Rose: if anybody
190 body wishes to describe old Carolina at its best, let the these two people
Wade Ha Here is what he said, and he has fought so well that he is listened to: ”If we a, we are sure to lose the gae They can lose pawns ad infinitu away all that we had hoped so allantry, spirit of adventure, readiness to lead forlorn hopes”
Mrs Rose is Miss Sarah Parker's aunt Soirls tellIt seems Miss Sarah said: ”The reason I can not bear Mrs Chesnut is that she laughs at everything and at everybody” If she sawas well as laughing It was ato hear about one's self, all the same
General Preston came in and announced that Mr Chesnut was in town He had just seen Mr Alfred Huger, who came up on the Charleston train with him Then Mrs McCord came and offered to take me back to Mrs McMahan's to look him up I found one to look for me at the Prestons'
Mrs McCord proposed we should further seek for my errant husband At the door, we rams from the President of the most important nature The Governor added, ”And I have one from Jee on its heels, as it were, that I need not show you that one”
”You don't look interested at the sound of your husband's name?” said he ”Is that his name?” asked I ”I supposed it was James” ”My advice to you is to find
191 him, for Mrs Pickens says he was last seen in the company of two very handsome women, and now you may call him any name you please”
We soon met The two beautiful dames Governor Pickens threw in hbors, who live near Camden
By way of pleasant reive you a chance to be ion,” he answered gloomily ”Promotion don't really annoy many people” Mary Gibson says her father writes to theo back He thinks now that the Confederates can hold Richmond Gloria in excelsis!
Another personal defeat Little Kate said: ”Oh, Cousin Mary, why don't you cultivate heart? They say at Kirkwood that you had better let your brains alone a while and cultivate heart” She had evidently caught up a phrase and repeated it again and again for ood of loving any one with your whole heart is to give that person the power to hurt you
June 24th - Mr Chesnut, having ht by half a day, was determined to see the one around Richmond He went off with General Cooper and Wade Hampton Blanton Duncan sent them for a luncheon on board the cars, - ice, wine, and every
In all this death and destruction, the women are the saees are so full of airs; there is no sympathy for them here!” ”Oh, indeed! That is queer They are not half as exclusive as these Haive thehed 1 The battle of Secessionville occurred on James Island, in the harbor of Charleston, June 16, 1862
192 Mrs Bartow, parodying Tennyson's Charge of the Light Brigade ”Airs to the right of them, Airs to the left of them, some one had blundered” ”Volleyed and thundered rhymes but is out of place”
The worst of all airs came from a democratic landlady, as asked by Mrs President Davis to have a carpet shaken, and shook herself with rage as she answered, ”You know,else does not suit you”
John Chesnut gives us a spirited account of their ride around McClellan I sent the letter to his grandfather The woht sight of our soldiers' gray uniforray-headeda hasty meal for them, knelt and prayed as they snatched it, as you may say They were in the saddle from Friday until Sunday They were used up; so were their horses Johnny writes for clothes and more horses Miss S C says: ”No need to send any more of his fine horses to be killed or captured by the Yankees; wait and see how the siege of Richo all the saot to tell of Mrs Pickens's reception for General Hampton My Mem dear, described it all ”The Governess ” (”Tut, Meht name for her - she is not a teacher” ”Never mind, it is the easier to say than the Governor's wife” ”Madaested ”Why? That is worse than the other!”) ” his hand upon her shoulder instead ”That is the way to greet heroes,” she said Her blue eyes were aflame, and in response poor Wade srin of embarrassment and annoyance He is a simple-mannered man, you know, and does not want to be made much of by women
The butler was not in plain clothes, but wore, as the
193 other servants did, , one ne and Russian tea, the latter from a samovar made in Russia Little Moses was there Now for us they have never put their servants into Russian livery, nor paraded Little Moses under our noses, but I ne set before us left nothing to be desired ”How did General Hampton bear his honors?” ”Well, to the last he looked as if he wished they would let him alone”
Met Mr Ash up behind McClellan And here co of war He thinks we have so ic movements and so may circumvent them
Mrs Bartow's story of a clever Miss Toombs So many men were in love with her, and the courtshi+p, while it lasted, of each one was as exciting and bewildering as a fox-chase She liked the fun of the run, but she wanted so more than to know a reed, but she must love him, too Hoas she to tell? Yet she must be certain of it before she said ”Yes” So, as they sat by the lamp she would look at hi to spend the long winter evenings forever after sitting here darning your old stockings?” Never, echo answered No, no, a thousand times no So, each had to make way for another
June 27th - We went in a body (half a dozen ladies, with no man on escort duty, for they are all in the army) to a concert Mrs Pickens came in She was joined soon by Secretary Moses and Mr Follen Doctor Berrien ca could be reat success, for though the audience was altogether feram from Mr Chesnut, ”Safe in Richmond”; that is, if Richmond be safe, with all the power of the United States of Ae not a word froraphs his wife, ”Stay where you are; terrible battle1 looked for here”
Decca is dead That poor little darling! Immediately after her baby was born, she took it into her head that Alex was killed He ounded, but those around had not told her of it She surprised theone since Alex was killed?” She could not read for a day or so before she died Her head was bewildered, but she would not let any one else touch her letters; so she died with several unopened ones in her bosoleton, Decca's mother, fainted dead away, but she shed no tears We went to the house and saw Alex's don Cheves Annie ith us She said: ”This is the saddest thing for Alex” ”No,” said his ood ” Annie, in utter aood already” ”Yes, seven years ago the death of one of his sisters that he dearly loved made him a Christian That death in our family orth a thousand lives”
One needs a hard heart now Even old Mr Shand shed tears Mary Barnwell sat as still as a statue, as white and stony ”Grief which can relieve itself by tears is a thing to pray for,” said the Rev Mr Shand Then caram from Hampton, ”All well; so far we are successful” Robert Barnwell had been telegraphed for His answer ca across the 1 Malvern Hill, the last of the Seven Days' Battles, was fought near Richmond on the James River, July 1, 1862 The Federals were commanded by McClellan and the Confederates by Lee
195 Chickahominy” Said Alex's mother: ”My son, Alex, idly ”Go on; what else does Ha of the army, Stonewall the other”
Annie Hampton came to tell us the latest news - that we have abandoned Ja Morris Island ”And now,” she says, ”if the enemy will be so kind as to wait, ill be ready for them in two months”
Rev Mr Shand and that pious Christian woman, Alex's e and lustrous blue eyes of hers) agreed that the Yankees, even if they took Charleston, would not destroy it I think they will, sinner that I am Mr Shand remarked to her, ”Madam, you have two sons in the army” Alex's mother replied, ”I have had six sons in the army; I now have five”
There are people here too s in the newspapers One laughs at squibs in the papers now, in such times as these, with the wolf at our doors Men safe in their closets writing fiery articles, denouncing those who are at work, are beneath conteht to speak now, as Trenhol rain ent to that poor child's funeral -to Decca's They buried her in the little white frock she hen she engaged herself to Alex, and which she again put on for her bridal about a year ago She lies now in the churchyard, in sight of myIs she to be pitied? She said she had had ”months of perfect happiness” How , dreary lives and then happiness never comes to meet them at all It seems so near, and yet it eludes them forever
June 28th - Victory!! Victory heads every telegram