Although Sherman1 took Atlanta, he does not mean
to stay there, be it heaven or hell. Fire and the sword are for us here; that
is the word. And now I must begin my Columbia life anew and alone. It will be a
short shrift.
Captain Ogden came to dinner on Sunday and in the afternoon
asked me to go with him to the Presbyterian Church and hear Mr. Palmer. We
went, and I felt very youthful, as the country people say; like a girl and her
beau. Ogden took me into a pew and my husband sat afar off. What a sermon! The
preacher stirred my blood. My very flesh crept and tingled. A red-hot glow of
patriotism passed through me. Such a sermon must strengthen the hearts and the
hands of many people. There was more exhortation to fight and die, à la Joshua, than
meek Christianity.
_______________
1 General Sherman had started from Chattanooga
for his march across Georgia on May 6, 1864. He had won the battles of Dalton,
Resaca, and New Hope Church in May, the battle of Kennesaw Mountain in June,
the battles of Peach Tree Creek and Atlanta in July, and had formally occupied
Atlanta on September 2d. On November 16th, he started on his march from Atlanta
to the sea and entered Savannah on December 23d. Early in 1865 he moved his
army northward through the Carolinas, and on April 26th received the surrender
of General Joseph E. Johnston.
SOURCES: Mary Boykin Chesnut, Edited by Isabella D. Martin
and Myrta Lockett Avary, A Diary From Dixie, p. 333-4
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