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A DIARY FROM DIXIE
A DIARY FROM DIXIE
MRS. JAMES CHESNUT, JR. From a Portrait in Oil. A DIARY FROM DIXIE, as written by MARY BOYKIN CHESNUT, wife of James Chesnut, Jr. , United States Senator from South Carolina, 1859-1861, and afterward an Aide to Jefferson Davis and a Brigadier-General in the Confederate Army Edited by Isabella D. Martin and Myrta Lockett Avary NEW YORK D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 1906 Copyright, 1905, by D. APPLETON AND COMPANY Published March, 1905...
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INTRODUCTION THE AUTHOR AND HER BOOK
INTRODUCTION THE AUTHOR AND HER BOOK
In Mrs. Chesnut’s Diary are vivid pictures of the social life that went on uninterruptedly in the midst of war; of the economic conditions that resulted from blockaded ports; of the manner in which the spirits of the people rose and fell with each victory or defeat, and of the momentous events that took place in Charleston, Montgomery, and Richmond. But the Diary has an importance quite apart from the interest that lies in these pictures. Mrs. Chesnut was close to forty years of age when the war
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I CHARLESTON, S. C. November 8, 1860-December 27, 1860
I CHARLESTON, S. C. November 8, 1860-December 27, 1860
Charleston, S. C., November 8, 1860 .—Yesterday on the train, just before we reached Fernandina, a woman called out: “That settles the hash.” Tanny touched me on the shoulder and said: “Lincoln’s elected.” “How do you know?” “The man over there has a telegram.” The excitement was very great. Everybody was talking at the same time. One, a little more moved than the others, stood up and said despondently: “The die is cast; no more vain regrets; sad forebodings are useless; the stake is life or dea
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II MONTGOMERY, ALA. February 19, 1861-March 11, 1861
II MONTGOMERY, ALA. February 19, 1861-March 11, 1861
Montgomery, Ala., February 19, 1861 .—The brand-new Confederacy is making or remodeling its Constitution. Everybody wants Mr. Davis to be General-in-Chief or President. Keitt and Boyce and a party preferred Howell Cobb [7] for President. And the fire-eaters per se wanted Barnwell Rhett. My brother Stephen brought the officers of the “Montgomery Blues” to dinner. “Very soiled Blues,” they said, apologizing for their rough condition. Poor fellows! they had been a month before Fort Pickens and not
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III CHARLESTON, S. C. March 26, 1861-April 15, 1861
III CHARLESTON, S. C. March 26, 1861-April 15, 1861
Charleston, S. C., March 26, 1861 .—I have just come from Mulberry, where the snow was a foot deep—winter at last after months of apparently May or June weather. Even the climate, like everything else, is upside down. But after that den of dirt and horror, Montgomery Hall, how white the sheets looked, luxurious bed linen once more, delicious fresh cream with my coffee! I breakfasted in bed. Dueling was rife in Camden. William M. Shannon challenged Leitner. Rochelle Blair was Shannon’s second and
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IV CAMDEN, S. C. April 20, 1861-April 23, 1861
IV CAMDEN, S. C. April 20, 1861-April 23, 1861
Camden, S. C., April 20, 1861 .—Home again at Mulberry. In those last days of my stay in Charleston I did not find time to write a word. And so we took Fort Sumter, nous autres ; we—Mrs. Frank Hampton, and others—in the passageway of the Mills House between the reception-room and the drawing-room, for there we held a sofa against all comers. All the agreeable people South seemed to have flocked to Charleston at the first gun. That was after we had found out that bombarding did not kill anybody.
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V MONTGOMERY, ALA. April 27, 1861-May 20, 1861
V MONTGOMERY, ALA. April 27, 1861-May 20, 1861
Montgomery, Ala., April 27, 1861 .—Here we are once more. Hon. Robert Barnwell came with us. His benevolent spectacles give him a most Pickwickian expression. We Carolinians revere his goodness above all things. Everywhere, when the car stopped, the people wanted a speech, and we had one stream of fervid oratory. We came along with a man whose wife lived in Washington. He was bringing her to Georgia as the safest place. The Alabama crowd are not as confident of taking Fort Pickens as we were of
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VI CHARLESTON, S. C. May 25, 1861-June 24, 1861
VI CHARLESTON, S. C. May 25, 1861-June 24, 1861
Charleston, S. C., May 25, 1861 .—We have come back to South Carolina from the Montgomery Congress, stopping over at Mulberry. We came with R. M. T. Hunter and Mr. Barnwell. Mr. Barnwell has excellent reasons for keeping cotton at home, but I forget what they are. Generally, people take what he says, also Mr. Hunter’s wisdom, as unanswerable. Not so Mr. Chesnut, who growls at both, much as he likes them. We also had Tom Lang and his wife, and Doctor Boykin. Surely there never was a more congenia
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VII RICHMOND, VA. June 27, 1861-July 4, 1861
VII RICHMOND, VA. June 27, 1861-July 4, 1861
Richmond, Va., June 27, 1861 .—Mr. Meynardie was perfect in the part of traveling companion. He had his pleasures, too. The most pious and eloquent of parsons is human, and he enjoyed the converse of the “eminent persons” who turned up on every hand and gave their views freely on all matters of state. Mr. Lawrence Keitt joined us en route . With him came his wife and baby. We don’t think alike, but Mr. Keitt is always original and entertaining. Already he pronounces Jeff Davis a failure and his
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VIII FAUQUIER WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, VA. July 6, 1861-July 11, 1861
VIII FAUQUIER WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, VA. July 6, 1861-July 11, 1861
Fauquier White Sulphur Springs, Va., July 6, 1861 .—Mr. Brewster came here with us. The cars were jammed with soldiers to the muzzle. They were very polite and considerate, and we had an agreeable journey, in spite of heat, dust, and crowd. Rev. Robert Barnwell was with us. He means to organize a hospital for sick and wounded. There was not an inch of standing-room even; so dusty, so close, but everybody in tip-top spirits. Mr. Preston and Mr. Chesnut met us at Warrenton. Saw across the lawn, bu
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IX RICHMOND, VA. July 13, 1861-September 2, 1861
IX RICHMOND, VA. July 13, 1861-September 2, 1861
Richmond, Va., July 13, 1861 .—Now we feel safe and comfortable. We can not be flanked. Mr. Preston met us at Warrenton. Mr. Chesnut doubtless had too many spies to receive from Washington, galloping in with the exact numbers of the enemy done up in their back hair. Wade Hampton is here; Doctor Nott also—Nott and Glyddon known to fame. Everybody is here, en route for the army, or staying for the meeting of Congress. Lamar is out on crutches. His father-in-law, once known only as the humorist Lon
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X CAMDEN, S. C. September 9, 1861-September 19, 1861
X CAMDEN, S. C. September 9, 1861-September 19, 1861
Camden, S. C., September 9, 1861 .—Home again at Mulberry, the fever in full possession of me. My sister, Kate, is my ideal woman, the most agreeable person I know in the world, with her soft, low, and sweet voice, her graceful, gracious ways, and her glorious gray eyes, that I looked into so often as we confided our very souls to each other. God bless old Betsey’s yellow face! She is a nurse in a thousand, and would do anything for “Mars Jeems’ wife.” My small ailments in all this comfort set m
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XI COLUMBIA, S. C. February 20, 1862-July 21, 1862
XI COLUMBIA, S. C. February 20, 1862-July 21, 1862
Columbia, S. C., February 20, 1862 .—Had an appetite for my dainty breakfast. Always breakfast in bed now. But then, my Mercury contained such bad news. That is an appetizing style of matutinal newspaper. Fort Donelson [63] has fallen, but no men fell with it. It is prisoners for them that we can not spare, or prisoners for us that we may not be able to feed: that is so much to be “forefended,” as Keitt says. They lost six thousand, we two thousand; I grudge that proportion. In vain, alas! ye ga
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XII FLAT ROCK, N. C. August 1, 1862-August 8, 1862
XII FLAT ROCK, N. C. August 1, 1862-August 8, 1862
Flat Rock, N. C., August 1, 1862 .—Being ill I left Mrs. McMahan’s for Flat Rock [91] . It was very hot and disagreeable for an invalid in a boarding-house in that climate. The La Bordes and the McCord girls came part of the way with me. The cars were crowded and a lame soldier had to stand, leaning on his crutches in the thoroughfare that runs between the seats. One of us gave him our seat. You may depend upon it there was no trouble in finding a seat for our party after that. Dr. La Borde quot
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XIII PORTLAND, ALA. July 8, 1863-July 30, 1863
XIII PORTLAND, ALA. July 8, 1863-July 30, 1863
Portland, Ala., July 8, 1863 .—My mother ill at her home on the plantation near here—where I have come to see her. But to go back first to my trip home from Flat Rock to Camden. At the station, I saw men sitting on a row of coffins smoking, talking, and laughing, with their feet drawn up tailor-fashion to keep them out of the wet. Thus does war harden people’s hearts. Met James Chesnut at Wilmington. He only crossed the river with me and then went back to Richmond. He was violently opposed to se
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XIV RICHMOND, VA. August 10, 1863-September 7, 1863
XIV RICHMOND, VA. August 10, 1863-September 7, 1863
Richmond, Va., August 10, 1863 .—To-day I had a letter from my sister, who wrote to inquire about her old playmate, friend, and lover, Boykin McCaa. It is nearly twenty years since each was married; each now has children nearly grown. “To tell the truth,” she writes, “in these last dreadful years, with David in Florida, where I can not often hear from him, and everything dismal, anxious, and disquieting, I had almost forgotten Boykin’s existence, but he came here last night; he stood by my bedsi
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XV CAMDEN, S. C. September 10, 1863-November 5, 1863
XV CAMDEN, S. C. September 10, 1863-November 5, 1863
Camden, S. C., September 10, 1863 .—It is a comfort to turn from small political jealousies to our grand battles—to Lee and Kirby Smith after Council and Convention squabbles. Lee has proved to be all that my husband prophesied of him when he was so unpopular and when Joe Johnston was the great god of war. The very sound of the word convention or council is wearisome. Not that I am quite ready for Richmond yet. We must look after home and plantation affairs, which we have sadly neglected. Heaven
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XVI RICHMOND, VA. November 28, 1863-April 11, 1864
XVI RICHMOND, VA. November 28, 1863-April 11, 1864
Richmond, Va., November 28, 1863 .—Our pleasant home sojourn was soon broken up. Johnny had to go back to Company A, and my husband was ordered by the President to make a second visit to Bragg’s Army [104] . So we came on here where the Prestons had taken apartments for me. Molly was with me. Adam Team, the overseer, with Isaac McLaughlin’s help, came with us to take charge of the eight huge boxes of provisions I brought from home. Isaac, Molly’s husband, is a servant of ours, the only one my hu
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XVII CAMDEN, S. C. May 8, 1864-June 1, 1864
XVII CAMDEN, S. C. May 8, 1864-June 1, 1864
Camden, S. C., May 8, 1864 .—My friends crowded around me so in those last days in Richmond, I forgot the affairs of this nation utterly; though I did show faith in my Confederate country by buying poor Bones’s (my English maid’s) Confederate bonds. I gave her gold thimbles, bracelets; whatever was gold and would sell in New York or London, I gave. My friends in Richmond grieved that I had to leave them—not half so much, however, as I did that I must come away. Those last weeks were so pleasant.
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XVIII COLUMBIA, S. C. July 6, 1864-January 17, 1865
XVIII COLUMBIA, S. C. July 6, 1864-January 17, 1865
Columbia, S, C., July 6, 1864 .—At the Prestons’ Mary was laughing at Mrs. Lyons’s complaint—the person from whom we rented rooms in Richmond. She spoke of Molly and Lawrence’s deceitfulness. They went about the house quiet as mice while we were at home; or Lawrence sat at the door and sprang to his feet whenever we passed. But when we were out, they sang, laughed, shouted, and danced. If any of the Lyons family passed him, Lawrence kept his seat, with his hat on, too. Mrs. Chesnut had said: “Oh
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XIX LINCOLNTON, N. C. February 16, 1865-March 15, 1865
XIX LINCOLNTON, N. C. February 16, 1865-March 15, 1865
Lincolnton, N. C., February 16, 1865 .—A change has come o’er the spirit of my dream. Dear old quire of yellow, coarse, Confederate home-made paper, here you are again. An age of anxiety and suffering has passed over my head since last I wrote and wept over your forlorn pages. My ideas of those last days are confused. The Martins left Columbia the Friday before I did, and Mammy, the negro woman, who had nursed them, refused to go with them. That daunted me. Then Mrs. McCord, who was to send her
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XX CHESTER, S. C. March 21, 1865-May 1, 1865
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 men. Captain Ogden was slightly 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 me Confederate money, silver, and gold; and finally offered to buy our cotton and pay us now in gold. Of course, I laughe
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XXI CAMDEN, S. C. May 2, 1865-August 2, 1865
XXI CAMDEN, S. C. May 2, 1865-August 2, 1865
Camden, S. C., May 2, 1865 .—Since we left Chester nothing but solitude, nothing but tall blackened chimneys, to show that any man has ever trod this road before. This is Sherman’s track. It is hard not to curse him. I wept incessantly at first. The roses of the gardens are already hiding the ruins. My husband said Nature is a wonderful renovator. He tried to say something else and then I shut my eyes and made a vow that if we were a crushed people, crushed by weight, I would never be a whimperi
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