My war archon is beset for commissions, and somebody says
for every one given, you make one ingrate and a thousand enemies.
As I entered Miss Mary Stark's I whispered: “He has promised
to vote for Louis.” What radiant faces. To my friend, Miss Mary said, “Your
son-in-law, what is he doing for his country?” “He is a tax collector.” Then spoke
up the stout old girl: “Look at my cheek; it is red with blushing for you. A
great, hale, hearty young man! Fie on him! fie on him! for shame! Tell his
wife; run him out of the house with a broomstick; send him down to the coast at
least.” Fancy my cheeks. I could not raise my eyes to the poor lady, so
mercilessly assaulted. My face was as hot with compassion as the outspoken Miss
Mary pretended hers to be with vicarious mortification.
Went to see sweet and saintly Mrs. Bartow. She read us a
letter from Mississippi — not so bad: “More men there than the enemy suspected,
and torpedoes to blow up the wretches when they came. Next to see Mrs. Izard.
She had with her a relative just from the North. This lady had asked Seward for
passports, and he told her to “hold on a while; the road to South Carolina will
soon be open to all, open and safe.” To-day Mrs. Arthur Hayne heard from her
daughter that Richmond is to be given up. Mrs. Buell is her daughter.
Met Mr. Chesnut, who said: “New Madrid1 has been
given up. I do not know any more than the dead where New Madrid is. It is bad,
all the same, this giving up. I can't stand it. The hemming-in process is
nearly complete. The ring of fire is almost unbroken.”
Mr. Chesnut's negroes offered to fight for him if he would
arm them. He pretended to believe them. He says one man can not do it. The
whole country must agree to it. He would trust such as he would select, and he
would give so many acres of land and his freedom to each one as he enlisted.
Mrs. Albert Rhett came for an office for her son John. I
told her Mr. Chesnut would never propose a kinsman for office, but if any one
else would bring him forward he would vote for him certainly, as he is so
eminently fit for position. Now he is a private.
_______________
1 New Madrid, Missouri, had been under siege
since March 3, 1862.
SOURCE: Mary Boykin Chesnut, Edited by Isabella D. Martin
and Myrta Lockett Avary, A Diary From Dixie, p. 146-7
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