Boys plowing in old house field. We are needing rain.
Everything looks pleasant, but the state of our country is very gloomy. General
Lee has surrendered to the victorious Grant. Well, if it will only hasten the
conclusion of this war, I am satisfied. There has been something very strange
in the whole affair to me, and I can attribute it to nothing but the hand of
Providence working out some problem that has not yet been revealed to us poor,
erring mortals. At the beginning of the struggle the minds of men, their wills,
their self-control, seemed to be all taken from them in a passionate antagonism
to the coming-in President, Abraham Lincoln. Our leaders, to whom the people
looked for wisdom, led us into this, perhaps the greatest error of the age. “We
will not have this man to rule over us!” was their cry. For years it has been
stirring in the hearts of Southern politicians that the North was enriched and
built up by Southern labor and wealth. Men's pockets were always appealed to
and appealed to so constantly that an antagonism was excited which it has been
impossible to allay. They did not believe that the North would fight. Said
Robert Toombes: “I will drink every drop of blood they will shed.” Oh, blinded
men! Rivers deep and strong have been shed, and where are we now? — a ruined,
subjugated people! What will be our future? is the question which now rests
heavily upon the hearts of all.
This has been a month never to be forgotten. Two armies have
surrendered. The President of the United States has been assassinated, Richmond
evacuated, and Davis, President of the Confederacy, put to grief, to flight.
The old flag has been raised again upon Sumter and an armistice accepted.
SOURCE: Dolly Lunt Burge, A Woman's Wartime Journal,
p. 46-8
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