Part 14 (1/2)

Then ent to the President's, finding the family at supper We sat on the white s stood and of our i to and fro es and orders Calmly General Elzey discoursed upon our present weakness and our chances for aid After a while Mrs Davis came out and embraced me silently

”It is dreadful,” I said ”The enemy is within forty miles of us - only forty!” ”Who told you that tale?” said she ”They are within three miles of Richmond!” I went down on my knees like a stone ”You had better be quiet,” she said ”The President is ill Women and children ht, which I was thankful to do

We sat up Officers were coave them what refreshment we could from a side table, kept constantly replenished Finally, in the excitee of persons, we forgot the danger Officers told us jolly stories and seeradually took heart There was not ahtened wo the President came down He was still feeble and pale from illness Custis Lee and my husband loaded their pistols, and the President drove off in Dr Garnett's carriage, ht o'clock the troops froer was over The authorities will never strip Richain We had a narrow squeeze for it, but we escaped It was a terrible night, although we made the best of it

I alking on Franklin Street when I met my husband ”Come with me to the War Office for a few o hoo? He took , dark corridor, and he left one a second”; he was obliged to go into the Secretary of War's rooas Froht know me Numbers of persons passed that I knew, but I scarcely felt respectable seated up there in that odd way, so I said not a word but looked out of theJudge Campbell sloalked up and doith his hands behind his back - the saddest face I ever saw He had jue of the Supre or other - I do not knohat - C S A No wonder he was out of spirits that night!

Finally Judge Ould came; him I called, and he joined me at once, in no little amazement to find me there, and stayed with me until James Chesnut appeared In point of fact, I sent him to look up that stray member of my family

When uot you were here” When ere once an: ”Now, don't scoldthe Yankees by brigades, and he has been beaten every tio!” I suppose that was his side of the arguain I visited the War Office I ith Mrs

248 Ould to see her husband at his office We wanted to arrange a party on the river on the flag-of-truce boat, and to visit those beautiful places, Clareot into one of his ”too careful” fits; said there was risk in it; and so he upset all our plans Then I was to go up to John Rutherford's by the canal-boat That, too, he vetoed ”too risky,” as if anybody was going to trouble us!

October 24th - James Chesnut is at home on his way back to Richmond; had been sent by the President to make the rounds of the Western armies; says Polk is a splendid old fellow They accuse hi been asleep in his tent at seven o'clock when he was ordered to attack at daylight, but he has too good a conscience to sleep so soundly

The battle did not begin until eleven at Chicka and his generals do not agree I think a general worthless whose subalterns quarrel with hienerals are adored by their soldiers See Napoleon, Csar, Stonewall, Lee

Old Saainst the enemy, and he had already driven the eneenerals were still asleep Hood has won a victory, though he has only one leg to stand on

Mr Chesnut ith the President when he reviewed our ara He told Mr Davis that every honest ht well of Joe Johnston He knows that the President detests Joe Johnston for all the trouble he has given hiht on the river of the saa, Septe and the Federals by Rosecrans It was one of the bloodiest battles of the war; the loss on each side, including killed, wounded, and prisoners, was over 15,000

249 and General Joe returns the compliment with coion With hi, or retreating, I ood-will of those by whoood hater, it is a pity he had not elected to hate somebody else than the President of our country He hates not wisely but too well Our friend Breckinridge1 received Mr Chesnut with open ar, about Breckinridge He has not reen spectacles ood except in his own red-hot partizans

October 27th - Young Wade Hauest of our nearest neighbor and cousin, Phil Stockton Wade, without being the beauty or the athlete that his brother Preston is, is such a nice boy We lent hi hi in company was made up for by the excellence of old Colonel Chesnut's ancient Madeira and chaood as the old Colonel's wine-cellars! Then we had a salad and a jelly cake

General Joe Johnston is so careful of his aides that Wade has never yet seen a battle Says he has always happened to be sent afar off when the fighting carateful for this, and means to be transferred to his father's comer than General Johnston, and no one strives harder to keep others out of it” But the business of this war is to save the country, and a commander1 John C Breckinridge had been Vice-President of the United States under Buchanan and was the candidate of the Southern Democrats for President in 1860 He joined the Confederate Army in 1861

250 that you can't s

November 5th - For a e have had such a tranquil, happy time here Both my husband and Johnny are here still Ja around with his father, or stretched on the rug before ood luck he had not read them before We have kept Esood time Johnny is happy, too He does not care for books He will read a novel now and then, if the girls continue to talk of it before hi else whatever in the way of literature does he touch He co blond mustache irresolutely as if he hoped to be advised not to read it - ”Aunt Mary, shall I like this thing?” I do not think he has an idea e are fighting about, and he does not want to know He says, ”My company,” ”My men,” with a pride, a faith, and an affection which are sublime He caan), and it was a goodly one, fine old houses and an estate to match

Yesterday, Johnny went to his plantation for the first tian John Witherspoon ith him, and reports in this way: ”How do you do, Marster! How you co the noisiest welco black hands right and left as he rode into the crowd

As the noise subsided, to the overseer he said: ”Send down more corn and fodder for my horses” And to the driver, ”Have you any peas?” ”Plenty, sir” ”Send a wagon-load down for the cows at Bloomsbury while I stay there They have not s? Send down all you can collect How about my turkeys and ducks? Send theood; send doeek”

251 As they rode home, John Witherspoon reo into the fields to see your crops” ”What was the use?” ”And the negroes; you had so little talk with them”

”No use to talk to the down to Blooht, by platoons and they talk ht, and God knows they tellhis nest; negroes ditto atto eat while I a picnic at Mulberry Everything was propitious - the reat beauty Those large rooood a dinner as ame; wine from a cellar that can not be excelled In spite of blockade Mulberry does the honors nobly yet Mrs Edward Stockton drove doith s We had no trouble, however All of the old servants who have not been moved to Bloomsbury scented the prey from afar, and they literally flocked in and made themselves useful

252

XVI RICHMOND, VA

November 28,1863 - April 11,1864 RICHMOND, Va, November 28, 1863 - Our pleasant hoo back to Company A, and my husband was ordered by the President to 's Army1 So we came on here where the Prestons had taken apartments for me Molly ith hlin's help, cae boxes of provisions I brought from home Isaac, Molly's husband, is a servant of ours, the only one ed to Rev Thomas Davis, and Isaac to soo West, and Isaac was distracted They asked one thousand dollars for hinificent specientlee- driver Now, he is a carpenter, or will be so hih he has a strange way of showing it, for he has a mistress, en titre, as the French say, which fact Molly never failed to gruood-for-nothing thing co towas a native of North Carolina and had won distinction in the ith Mexico

253 sake, and all the time he an - ” ”Oh, Molly, stop that!” said I

Mr Davis visited Charleston and had an enthusiastic reception He described it all to General Preston Governor Aiken's perfect old Carolina style of living delighted hiray-haired darkies and their noiseless, auto-one doeswhen away from home, where your own servants think for you; they know your ways and your wants; they save you all responsibility even inThe butler at Mulberry would be miserable and feel himself a ridiculous failure were I ever forced to ask hi

Novesville Of course, I know nothing of children: in point of fact, am awfully afraid of them

Mrs Edward Barnwell canificent boy two years old Now don't expect me to reduce that adjective, for this little creature is a wonder of childlike beauty, health, and strength Why not? If like produces like, and with such a handsome pair to claiirl's fortune

At first he ing Then soed to a little fiend, fought and kicked and scratched like a tiger He did everything that was naughty, and he did it with a will as if he liked it, while his lovelyhiot out first, then Mrs Barnwell's nurse, who put the little man down by me ”Look after him a moment, please, ma'am,” she said ”I must help Mrs Barnith the bundles,” etc She stepped hastily back and the cars moved off They ran down a half mile to turn I trembled in hten ain! It seemed an eternity while I waited for that train to turn and cos quietly For me he had a perfect contempt, no fear whatever And I was his abject slave for the nonce

He stretched hith Then he pointed doard ”Those are great legs,” said he sole them enthusiastically Near him he spied a bundle ”pussy cat tied up in that bundle” He was up in a second and pounced upon it If ere to be taken up as thieves, no matter, I dared not meddle with that child I had seen what he could do There were several cooked sweet potatoes tied up in an old handkerchief - belonging to soro probably He squared hian to eat Evidently he had found what he was fond of In this posture Mrs Barnwell discovered us She ca what our relations ht it out alone as best we ht The old nurse cried, ”Lawsy me!” with both hands uplifted Without a word I fled In anotherto Colusville and Wilton and Weldon we contrived to do the thing so effectually as to have to remain twelve hours at that forlorn station

The one room that I saas croith soldiers Ada two chairs for me, upon one of which I sat and puther head against ive his nao near the fire He gave me his seat by the fire,

255 where I found an old lady and two young ones, with two men in the uniform of coht as if we had known one another all our lives We discussed the war, the ariven, no personal discourse whatever, and yet if these entry, and of the best sort, I do not know ladies and gentle a little surprised at the want of interest Mr Tea, I walked out to see, and I found theht In the break-down athered up the contents and were trying to hammer up the boxes so as toa smartly dressed woman came in, looked around in the crowd, then asked for the seat by ot up at once, gave the lady her seat and stood behind uard as well as ed herself coan in plaintive accents to tell her melancholy tale She was aShe lost her husband in the battles around Richmond Soon soht as an arrow she went in for a flirtation with the polite gentleer, said toabout her dead beau I knew she was after another one” ”Beau, indeed!” cried another listener, ”she said it was her husband” ”Husband or lover, all the same She won't lose any time It won't be her fault if she doesn't have another one soon”

But the grand scene was the night before: the cars croith soldiers, of course; not a hu that I knew An Irish woue, came

256 in She allantry in the ave her their seats, saying it did not -place

She was gifted with the ave us a taste of it She continued to say that the et out of that; that car was ”shuteable” only for ladies She placed on the vacant seat next to her a large looking-glass She continued to harangue until she fell asleep