28 chapters
5 hour read
Selected Chapters
28 chapters
A VIRGINIA GIRL IN THE CIVIL WAR
A VIRGINIA GIRL IN THE CIVIL WAR
A VIRGINIA GIRL IN THE CIVIL WAR 1861-1865 BEING A RECORD OF THE ACTUAL EXPERIENCES OF THE WIFE OF A CONFEDERATE OFFICER COLLECTED AND EDITED BY MYRTA LOCKETT AVARY NEW YORK D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 1903 Copyright, 1903 By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY Published February, 1903...
20 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
This history was told over the tea-cups. One winter, in the South, I had for my neighbor a gentle, little brown-haired lady, who spent many evenings at my fireside, as I at hers, where with bits of needlework in our hands we gossiped away as women will. I discovered in her an unconscious heroine, and her Civil War experiences made ever an interesting topic. Wishing to share with others the reminiscences she gave me, I seek to present them here in her own words. Just as they stand, they are, I be
3 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER I HOME LIFE IN A SOUTHERN HARBOR
CHAPTER I HOME LIFE IN A SOUTHERN HARBOR
Many years ago I heard a prominent lawyer of Baltimore, who had just returned from a visit to Charleston, say that the Charlestonians were so in the habit of antedating everything with the Civil War that when he commented to one of them upon the beauty of the moonlight on the Battery, his answer was, “You should have seen it before the war.” I laughed, as everybody else did; but since then I have more than once caught myself echoing the sentiment of that Charleston citizen to visitors who exclai
8 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER II HOW I MET DAN GREY
CHAPTER II HOW I MET DAN GREY
“Have you met Dan Grey?” Charlie Murray and I were galloping along a country road. “I haven’t, Charlie. I met his brother Dick in Norfolk, and didn’t like him at all.” “Well, Nell, you’d like Dan—everybody does. I wonder you haven’t met him. Dan never fails to meet every pretty girl that comes here.” I had heard that before. Indeed, I had heard a great deal about Dan Grey that made me long to get even with him. Everybody had a way of speaking as if Petersburg wasn’t Petersburg with Dan Grey left
8 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER III THE FIRST DAYS OF THE CONFEDERACY
CHAPTER III THE FIRST DAYS OF THE CONFEDERACY
Soon after my marriage my brother-in-law moved to Baltimore, and my mother decided to go with Milicent and her little boy. I had never really been separated from them before; I was only seventeen, a spoiled child, but though I loved them dearly, after the first I scarcely missed them. I had my husband, and ah! how happy we were—how glad we both were that I had met Dan Grey! We did not go to housekeeping at once. In the first place, I did not know anything about housekeeping and I didn’t want Dan
13 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER IV THE REALITIES OF WAR
CHAPTER IV THE REALITIES OF WAR
When Dan recovered I returned to Norfolk, and there I stayed for some time, getting letters from him, taking care of uncle and developing a genius for housekeeping. One day I was out shopping when I saw everybody running toward the quay. I turned and went with the crowd. We saw the Merrimac swing out of the harbor—or did she crawl? A curious looking craft she was, that first of our ironclads, ugly and ominous. She had not been gone many hours when the sound of guns came over the water followed b
10 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER V I MEET BELLE BOYD AND SEE DICK IN A NEW LIGHT
CHAPTER V I MEET BELLE BOYD AND SEE DICK IN A NEW LIGHT
The tallow candles were lighted on each side of my bureau—the time came when I remembered those two tallow candles as a piece of reckless and foolish extravagance—when there was a rap at my door and Mrs. Rixey entered to ask if I would share my room with a lady who had come unexpectedly. A heavy snow was falling, and the wind was blowing it into drifts. The idea of sending anybody out in such weather was not to be thought of for a moment, so saying yes I hurried through with my dressing and went
6 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER VI A FAITHFUL SLAVE AND A HOSPITAL WARD
CHAPTER VI A FAITHFUL SLAVE AND A HOSPITAL WARD
Not long after this I had to give up my room to Governor Bailey of Florida and his family. They had come on in search of their son, whom they had for months believed to be dead, and who, they had only recently learned, was alive and in the mountains near Culpeper Court-house. It seems that young Bailey had been shot at the battle of Cedar Mountain and left on the field for dead. An old negro, his body-servant, had carried him off by stealth to a hut in the woods, and there, with such simple reso
8 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER VII TRAVELING THROUGH DIXIE IN WAR TIMES
CHAPTER VII TRAVELING THROUGH DIXIE IN WAR TIMES
Our troops had to get out of winter quarters before they were well settled in them. I am not historian enough to explain how it was, but the old familiar trip “On to Richmond” had been started again, Burnside directing it. Every new Federal commander-in-chief started for Richmond as soon as he was in command. There was a popular song called “Richmond is a Hard Road to Travel.” They always found it so, though they got there eventually. The cavalry, as usual, were on the wing first. General Rooney
11 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER VIII BY FLAG OF TRUCE Milicent tells how she got from Baltimore to Dixie.
CHAPTER VIII BY FLAG OF TRUCE Milicent tells how she got from Baltimore to Dixie.
The War Department of the United States issued a notice that on such a date a flag-of-truce boat would go from Washington to Richmond, and that all persons wishing to go must obtain passes and come to that city by a certain date. I had not heard from my sister, Mrs. Grey, for some time. We were very anxious about her, and I determined to seize this opportunity to get to her. I was fortunate in making one of a party of three ladies, one of whom was Mrs. Montmorency, the widow of an English office
6 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER IX I MAKE UP MY MIND TO RUN THE BLOCKADE
CHAPTER IX I MAKE UP MY MIND TO RUN THE BLOCKADE
Late one day we saw an ambulance driving up to the gate through the pouring rain. A few minutes after, Patsy, the housemaid, came in to say that the adjutant had sent for his wife and her sister. We supposed that the two men with the ambulance were rough and common soldiers—one of them, in fact, the one who had given the message to Patsy, was a negro driver—and sent them around to the kitchen to warm and dry themselves. Very soon Aunt Caroline, the cook and a great authority, came in hurriedly a
7 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER X I CROSS THE COUNTRY IN AN AMBULANCE AND THE PAMUNKEY ON A LIGHTER
CHAPTER X I CROSS THE COUNTRY IN AN AMBULANCE AND THE PAMUNKEY ON A LIGHTER
As we traveled along farther and farther from Dan, I kept on crying softly to myself now and then, turning my face from Milicent. Presently her arm stole around me. “Do you feel so badly, darling?” “I hate to leave Dan—I can’t bear it!” “Then we’ll turn back, Nell.” And our astonished driver and escort received orders to turn back toward camp. “But in a few days,” I sobbed, “Dan—will—be—gone. And you—will be—gone. And I can’t stand that!” And to the further confusion of escort, driver, and mules
9 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XI THE OLD ORDER
CHAPTER XI THE OLD ORDER
We found fresh straw and hot bricks in the bottom of our ambulance when we were ready to leave the next morning, an excellent luncheon and two bottles of wine. Soon after we started the wind changed, the clouds disappeared, and the sun came out. By the time we reached the Chickahominy there was sunshine in plenty—and wind, too. Not a boat was in sight, and no figure on either bank of man or beast. I thought the lieutenant and the driver would split their lungs hallooing, but there was no respons
8 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XII A DANGEROUS MASQUERADE
CHAPTER XII A DANGEROUS MASQUERADE
The night of our third day found us at the wagoner’s cottage on the top of the Blue Ridge Mountains. As we climbed our slow and painful way up to the ruddy little light that beckoned us from its wild and eerie perch, moonlight and starlight fell upon snow-capped cliffs and into deep valleys, touching them into solemn, mystical beauty. It was as if we had lost ourselves in the clear, white stillness of the enchanted Snow Kingdom that had enthralled and terrified us in the happy days of fairy tale
11 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XIII A LAST FAREWELL
CHAPTER XIII A LAST FAREWELL
Mr. Holliway opened it to admit the Dutchman. “Shentlemen,” he began earnestly, “tey haf got te leetle Chew poy trunk mit giffin’ him visky, unt he haf tolt everyding. I pe your vrent. You mus’ get avay pefore mitnight.” “The little Jew knows nothing to tell,” said the captain. “His drunken babble is not worth attention. We can not leave my sisters.” “How you help tem by stayin’? I gif you my vort dat tey vill get to Paltimore all right. I hates to see tem Yankees takes you up in mine house.” Mi
3 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XIV THE LITTLE JEW BOY AND THE PROVOST’S DEPUTY
CHAPTER XIV THE LITTLE JEW BOY AND THE PROVOST’S DEPUTY
The Dutchman went with them to show them the way he said they must take. His wife came in and gossiped with us. According to her account, it was a miracle that we had passed through the provost’s hands as well as we had. “If de vimmins had peen dere, dey vould haf pult your close off, unt dey vould haf search you all ofer. I ton’t know as you haf anyding you not vant dem to see, but if you haf anyding, tey pe zhure to fint it. Te vimmins tat haf to pe dere to-tay vas gone avay somevare. If she h
5 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XV I FALL INTO THE HANDS OF THE ENEMY
CHAPTER XV I FALL INTO THE HANDS OF THE ENEMY
Mrs. Harris kept a select and fashionable boarding-house. There were many regular boarders and a stream of people coming and going all the time. She was a Southern sympathizer, and her house was a hotbed of sedition and intrigue for both sides. Among her guests were three Yankee officers, whom I made up my mind—or, rather, my mind needed no making up—to dislike. Uniform and all, I objected to them. The day after we came Mrs. Harris was chatting with us in mother’s room. “I must introduce you to
17 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XVI THE FLOWER OF CHIVALRY
CHAPTER XVI THE FLOWER OF CHIVALRY
In the meantime we were growing more and more uneasy about Captain Locke. We felt that he was suspected and covertly watched, but he laughed at our fears. He and I had begun to discuss ways and means of getting back to Virginia. One day, as usual, he was sitting beside me in the parlor after dinner, and, as usual, we were talking together in low tones, and again, as usual, the parlors were full. At one end of the room sat Major Brooks and Colonel Whipple, honoring us now and then with the covert
12 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XVII PRISONERS OF THE UNITED STATES
CHAPTER XVII PRISONERS OF THE UNITED STATES
The officer who had examined our trunks the previous day took the trunks to the depot in a wagon, mother and I going in a hack. After we got on the train, our officer, Lieutenant Martin, joined us, and made himself very agreeable. The beginning of that journey was most pleasant. The scenery along the road to Harper’s Ferry is at all times beautiful, and as we drew nearer to the ferry our car ran by the side of the Potomac, so that from one window we looked across the river to the Virginia Height
18 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XVIII WITHIN OUR LINES
CHAPTER XVIII WITHIN OUR LINES
After leaving the saucy and peremptory adjutant we were shown into the handsomest ambulance I have ever seen. I suppose the one we had been using was returned to Harper’s Ferry or left at Winchester for the horses to rest until Captain Goldsborough’s return. At any rate, we were in new quarters, and very elegant ones they were. The sides and seats were cushioned and padded, and it was really a luxurious coach. It was drawn by four large black horses with coats like silk. There was a postilion on
15 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XIX MY COMRADE GENERAL JEB STUART
CHAPTER XIX MY COMRADE GENERAL JEB STUART
One day General Stuart asked me in a teasing way: “You wouldn’t really like to see Dan Grey, would you?” “Oh, but I would, general,” I said, in too dead earnest to give raillery for raillery. “I don’t believe you really want to see Dan Grey.” “Well, I don’t, then,” a bit sullenly. “What a pity! You might see him now, if you really wanted to.” I wouldn’t notice such a frivolous remark. Dinner over, we went out on the veranda, as usual, and General Stuart dropped into a chair beside me. “I really
11 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XX “WHOSE BUSINESS ’TIS TO DIE”
CHAPTER XX “WHOSE BUSINESS ’TIS TO DIE”
In forty-eight hours we knew that the surmise of the orderly was correct—there was enough fighting. The first cannon-ball which tore through the air at Brandy was only too grave assurance of the fact. All day men were hurrying past the house, deserters from both armies getting away from the scene of bloodshed and thunder as quickly as possible. Then came the procession of the dead and wounded, some in ambulances, some in carts, some on the shoulders of friends. In the afternoon we began to hear
15 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XXI RESCUED BY THE FOE Milicent’s arrest in Washington as related by herself.
CHAPTER XXI RESCUED BY THE FOE Milicent’s arrest in Washington as related by herself.
I passed May and a part of the summer of 1863 in fruitless efforts to get a pass to Virginia. This was when the Civil War was at its whitest heat, and I was in the city of Baltimore, where a word was construed into treason, and messages and letters were contrived to and from the South only by means of strategy. One by one my plans failed. Then came the battle of Gettysburg, and as I heard of our reverses I felt an almost helpless lethargy stealing over me—as if I should never see Nell or mother
18 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XXII WITH DAN AT CHARLOTTESVILLE
CHAPTER XXII WITH DAN AT CHARLOTTESVILLE
Milicent always came as a soul comes. The day after we got the batch of letters the door opened softly, and there she stood, holding Bobby by the hand. She had come so quietly that we did not know it until she stood in our midst. But Bobby was a veritable piece of flesh and blood. As soon as he saw it was grandma and auntie, he made a bound for us, and overwhelmed us with his noisy and affectionate greetings, while his mother submitted to being loved and kissed, and in her quiet way loved and ki
9 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XXIII “INTO THE JAWS OF DEATH”
CHAPTER XXIII “INTO THE JAWS OF DEATH”
One lovely morning mother sat at an upper window shelling peas for dinner. The window commanded a view of the Petersburg heights and beyond. Presently she stopped shelling peas, and gazed intently out of the window. “What is that on the heights, Nellie?” she asked, and then, “What men are those running about on the hill beyond?” I came to the window and looked out. The hills looked blue. With a sinking heart I got the field-glass and turned it southeast. The hills swarmed with soldiers in Federa
15 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XXIV BY THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH
CHAPTER XXIV BY THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH
Not long after they left, mother and I came in from a round of calls one day to find a telegram awaiting me: “Dan wounded, but not dangerously. Come. “ Gus. ” I hurried into my room and changed my dress—to be careful of wearing apparel had become a pressing necessity—while mother went out to see about trains. We found there was no Petersburg train till next day; there might be one at seven in the morning. I was up at daybreak, got a cup of tea and a biscuit, looked at mother as she lay asleep, a
12 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XXV THE BEGINNING OF THE END
CHAPTER XXV THE BEGINNING OF THE END
While I was at Hicksford I stayed at General Chambliss’s. I was very happy there. Dan’s camp was not far off, and he came to see me very often and every morning sent his horses to me. In my rides I used frequently to take the general’s little son, Willie, along as my escort, and one morning, when several miles distant from home and with our horses’ heads turned homeward, who should ride out from a bend in the road and come toward us but two full-fledged Yankees in blue uniform and armed to the t
15 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XXVI HOW WE LIVED IN THE LAST DAYS OF THE CONFEDERACY
CHAPTER XXVI HOW WE LIVED IN THE LAST DAYS OF THE CONFEDERACY
Though the last act of our heroic tragedy was already beginning I was so far from suspecting it that I joined mother at the Arlington, prepared to make a joke of hardships and wring every possible drop of pleasure out of a winter in Richmond, varied, as I fondly imagined, by frequent if brief visits from Dan. The Arlington was kept on something like the European plan, not from choice of landlady or guests but from grim necessity. Feeding a houseful of people was too arduous and uncertain an unde
12 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter