While Mr. Chesnut was in town I was at the Prestons. John
Cochran and some other prisoners had asked to walk over the grounds, visit the
Hampton Gardens, and some friends in Columbia. After the dreadful state of the
public mind at the escape of one of the prisoners, General Preston was obliged
to refuse his request. Mrs. Preston and the rest of us wanted him to say “Yes,'”
and so find out who in Columbia were his treacherous friends. Pretty bold
people they must be, to receive Yankee invaders in the midst of the row over
one enemy already turned loose amid us.
General Preston said: “We are about to sacrifice life and
fortune for a fickle multitude who will not stand up to us at last.” The harsh
comments made as to his lenient conduct to prisoners have embittered him. I
told him what I had heard Captain Trenholm say in his speech. He said he would
listen to no criticism except from a man with a musket on his shoulder, and who
had beside enlisted for the war, had given up all, and had no choice but to
succeed or die.
SOURCE: Mary Boykin Chesnut, Edited by Isabella D. Martin
and Myrta Lockett Avary, A Diary From Dixie, p. 133
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