Part 18 (1/2)

320 Wade Hampton, of Joe Johnston's staff, says Hood lost 12,000 men in the battles of the 22d1 and 24th, but Brewster, of Hood's staff, says not three thousand at the utmost Now here are two people strictly truthful, who tell things so differently In this war people see the sas so oddly one does not knohat to believe

Brewster says when he was in Richmond Mr Davis said Johnston would have to be reeneral because, when he had co the War Departeneral-in-chief to be sent there over him Polk would not do, brave soldier and patriot as he was He was a good soldier, and would do his best for his country, and do his duty under whomever was put over him by those in authority Mr Davis did not once intimate to him who it was that he intended to promote to the head of the Western Army

Brewster said to-day that this ”blow at Joe Johnston, cutting off his head, ruins the scheo at once, and get Hood to decline to take this command, for it will destroy hiht under Jeff Davis's orders; no one can do that now and not lose caste in the Western Army Joe Johnston does not exactly say that Jeff Davis betrays his plans to the enemy, but he says he dares not let the President know his plans, as there is a spy in the War Office who invariably warns the Yankees in tiovernfall's way of talking Now,” added Brewster, ”I bla a overnment with open scorn and contue rate this disrespectful general”

1 On July 22d, Hood ed to return

321 August 19th - Began ave wounded men, as they stopped for an hour at the station, their breakfast Those who are able to come to the table do so The badly wounded remain in wards prepared for theeons, and we take bread and butter, beef, ham, and hot coffee to them

Oneas a woed himself not to cut his hair until peace was declared and our Southern country free Four ether All were dead but hiinia, and he left one at Kennesaw Mountain This poor creature had had one arm taken off at the socket When I reht not to remain in the army, he answered quietly, ”I ao with one foot, I can go with one ar themselves- Alabama and Mississippi, all were loud for Joe Johnston, save and except the long-haired, one-armed hero, who cried at the top of his voice: ”Oh! you all want to be kept in trenches and to go on retreating, eh?” ”Oh, if we had had a leader, such as Stonewall, this ould have been over long ago! What ant is a leader!” shouted a cripple

They were awfully smashed-up, objects of misery, wounded, maimed, diseased I was really upset, and ca unnerves ed stay about Rich to the spirits Wade Hampton has been put in command of the Southern cavalry

A Wayside incident A pine box, covered with flowers, was carefully put upon the train by soentlemen Isabella asked whose remains were in the box Dr Gibbes replied: ”In that box lies the body of a young man whose

322 family antedates the Bourbons of France He was the last Count de Choiseul, and he has died for the South” Let his memory be held in perpetual reust 22d - Hope I er describes the one at Athens The proudest ands in the other- dshabill as far as it will go, Mobile is half taken The railroad between us and Richmond has been tapped

Notes froh horse Her fianc, a maimed hero, has been abused ”You say to me with a sneer, 'So you love that man' Yes, I do, and I thank God that I love better than all the world the man who is to be my husband 'Proud of him, are you?' Yes, I am, in exact proportion to my love You say, ' I am selfish' Yes, I am selfish He is my second self, so utterly absorbed aht, that I do not think of hi else” No reply was deemed necessary by the astounded recipient of this outburst of indignation, who showed me the letter and continued to observe: ”Did you ever? She seems so shy, so timid, so cold”

Sunday Isabella took us to a chapel, Methodist, of course; her father had a hand in building it It was not clean, but it was crowded, hot, and stuffy An eloquent htful voice and wonderful fluency; nearly eloquent, and at ti one of his ser faces were turned up to h bathed in tears,over them,” etc

He then described his own conversion, and stripped hi to one's innate sense of decency He tackled the patriarchs Adam,

323 Noah, and so on down to Joseph, as ”a man whose modesty and purity were so transcendent they enabled hireatest temptation to which fallen hbor whispered ”Everybody gives up now that old Mrs Pharaoh was forty” ”Mrs Potiphar, you goose, and she was fifty!” ”That solves the riddle” ”Sh-sh!+” from the devout Isabella

At homeGave us Darwin, Herodotus, and Livy We understood hih to be sure when it was his oisdo words caust 23d - All in a ood from all quarters There is a row in New Orleans Memphis1 has been retaken; 2,000 prisoners have been captured at Petersburg, and a Yankee raid on Macon has corief

At Mrs Izard's met a clever Mrs Calhoun Mrs Calhoun is a violent partizan of dick Taylor; says Taylor does the work and Kirby Sets the credit for it Mrs Calhoun described the behavior of some acquaintance of theirs at Shreveport, one of that kind whose faith removes mountains Her love for and confidence in the Confederate army were supreme Why not! She knew so many of the men who composed that dauntless band When her husband told her New Orleans had surrendered to a foe whom she despised, she did not believe a word of it He told her to ”pack up his traps, as it was time for him to leave Shreveport” She then determined to run down to the levee and see for herself, only to find the Yankee gunboats having it all their oay She made a painful exhibition of herself First she fell on her knees and prayed; then 1 General Forrest ust of this year

324 she got up and danced with rage; then she raved and dashed herself on the ground in a fit There was patriotism run mad for you! As I did not know the poor soul, Mrs Calhoun's fine acting was somewhat lost on me, but the others enjoyed it

Old Edward Johnston has been sent to Atlanta against his will, and Archer has been eneral and, contrary to his earnest request, ordered not to his beloved Texans but to the Army of the Potomac

Mr C F Hampton deplores the untimely end of McPherson1 He was so kind to Mr Ha last winter, and drank General Hampton's health then and there Mr Hampton has asked Brewster, if the report of his death prove a mistake, and General McPherson is a prisoner, that every kindness and attention be shown to hi that General Haeneral on our side

Grant can hold his own as well as Sherman Lee has a heavy handful in the ne He has worse odds than any one else, for when Grant has ten thousand slain, he has only to order another ten thousand, and they are there, ready to step out to the front They are like the leaves of Vallaust 29th - I takeMost persons prefer afternoon, but I dislike to give up o down in e all laden with provisions Mrs Fisher and old Mr Bryan generally go with me Provisions are colad to be a hospital nurse once h, but at heart I felt a coward and a skulker I think I kno ht There 1 General McPherson was killed before Atlanta during the sortie raduate of West Point, and under Sherman coing of duty It will not do now to send provisions and pay for nurses So out, ”Go, you shabby creature; you can't bear to see what those fine fellows have to bear”

Mrs Izard was staying with ed Molly to keep everything dead still and not let Mrs Izard be disturbed until I got home About ten I drove up and there was a roake the dead Molly's eldest daughter, who nurses her baby sister, let the baby fall, and, regardless of Mrs Izard, as I ay, Molly was giving the nurse a switching in the yard, accompanied by howls and yells worthy of a Comanche! The small nurse welcomed my advent, no doubt, for in two seconds peace was restored Mrs Izard said she syave the uproar

I have excellent servants; no s behind ht as to household matters, and they are so kind, attentive, and quiet They must knohat is at hand if Sher here - ”Freedon, unless it be increased diligence and absolute silence, as certain in their action and as noiseless as a law of nature, at any rate e are in the house

That fearful hospital haunts , such loathsome wounds, such distortion, with stumps of limbs not half cured, exhibited to all Then, when I was so tired yesterday, Molly was lookingthat her baby's neck was broken, and howling cries of vengeance The poor little careless nurse's dark face had an ashen tinge of gray terror She was crouching near the ground like an ani at her as she rolled away All this was ate It takes these half-Africans but a e ani person She tried so to et it all and rest

Septe at Atlanta,1 and our fate hanging in the balance Atlanta, indeed, is gone Well, that agony is over Like David, when the child was dead, I will get up from my knees, ash my face and comb my hair No hope; ill try to have no fear

At the Prestons' I found the for the Doctor on his way to Richht, for our day is done, read Duht to sympathize with us We are not as barbarous as this, even if Mrs Stoord be taken Brutal men with unlimited power are the same all over the world See Russell's India - Bull Run Russell's They say General Morgan has been killed We are hard as stones; we sit un Are we stupefied?

September 19th - My pink silk dress I have sold for 600, to be paid for in instals and butter from home for two hundred dollars a month Does it not sound well -four hundred dollars a ularly But in what? In Confederate money Hlas!

September 21st - Went with Mrs Rhett to hear Dr Palmer I did not know before how utterly hopeless was our situation This ive way Despair was his word, andmore in this world than the martyr's crown He is not for slavery, he says; he is for freedoovern our own country as we see fit He is against foreign interference in our State matters That is what Mr Palmer went to war for, it appears Every day 1 After the battle, Atlanta was taken possession of and partly burned by the Federals

327 shows that slavery is doomed the world over; for that he thanked God He spoke of our agony, and then came the cry, ”Help us, O God! Vain is the help of man” And so we came away shaken to the depths

The end has come No doubt of the fact Our ar to be wiped off the face of the earth What is there to prevent Sher General Lee in the rear? We have but two armies, and Sherman is between them now1 September 24th-These stories of our defeats in the valley fall like blows upon a dead body Since Atlanta fell I have felt as if all were dead within den, of General Chesnut's staff, dined here to-day Had ever brigadier, with little or no brigade, so nificent a staff? The reserves, as so the cradle and the grave-theIsaac Hayne, Edward Barnwell, Bacon, Ogden, Richardson, Miles are the picked reeable world

October 1st-Mary Cantey Preston's wedding day has coie Howell dressed the bride's hair beautifully, they said, but it was all covered by her veil, which was of blond-lace, and the dress tulle and blond-lace, with diamonds and pearls The bride walked up the aisle on her father's arm, Mrs Preston on Dr Darby's I think it was the handsoht his wedding 1 During the summer and autumn of 1864 several iements by Sherinia the battle of Cold Harbor in the early part of June; those before Petersburg in the latter part of June and during July and August; the battle of Winchester on Septen, and the battle of Cedar Creek on October 19th

2 After the war, Dr Darby becaery in the University of the City of New York; he had served as Medical Director in the Army of the Confederate States and as Professor of Anatoery in the University of South Carolina; had also served with distinction in European wars

328 uniforland, and it did all honor to his perfect figure I forget the name of his London tailor - the best, of course! ”Well,” said Isabella, ”it would be hard for any man to live up to those clothes”

And now, to the amaze, has rushed into a flirtation with Buck such as never was He drives her every day, and those wild, runaway, sorrel colts terrifyfrom side to side of the street And my lady enjoys it When he leaves her, he kisses her hand, bowing so low to do it unseen that we see it all

Saturday - The President will be with us here in Colus us word I have begun at once to prepare to receive him in my small house His apartency would perreat, but I did what I could for our honored chief; besides I like the man - he has been so kind to rateful enough for her generous appreciation and attention

I went out to the gate to greet the President, who met me most cordially; kissed me, in fact Custis Lee and Governor Lubbock were at his back

Immediately after breakfast (the Presidential party arrived a little before daylight) General Chesnut drove off with the President's aides, and Mr Davis sat out on our piazza There was nobody with hi by called out, ”Come here and look; there is a man on Mrs Chesnut's porch who looks just like Jeff Davis on postage-staather at once on the street Mr Davis then went in

Mrs McCord sent a ht, of

329 course, for the President; but she gaveafterward She did not knoas there; I, in ht she knew, and so did not send her word

The President atching me prepare a mint julep for Custis Lee when Colonel McLean caathered and that they were co to ask the President to speak to them at one o'clock An immense crowd it was - men, women, and children The crowd overflowed the house, the President's hand was nearly shaken off I went to the rear, my head intent on the dinner to be prepared for him, with only a Confederate commissariat But the patriotic public had co what I could of eatables for a month, and now I found that nearly everybody in Coluht nice enough for the President's dinner We had the sixty-year-old Madeira from Mulberry, and the beautiful old china, etc Mrs Preston sent a boned turkey stuffed with truffles, stuffed tomatoes, and stuffed peppers Each

A mob of small boys only came to pay their respects to the President He seeation

Then the President's party had to go, and we bade them an affectionate farewell Custis Lee and I had spentdainties for the dessert, he sat on the banister with a cigar in hisme many a hard truth for the Confederacy, and about the bad time which was at hand

October 18th - Ten pleasant days I owe to my sister Kate has descended upon me unexpectedly from the mountains of Flat Rock We are true sisters; she understands me without words, and she is the cleverest, sweetest woood and