MONTGOMERY, Ala. — 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 taking Fort Sumter.
Baltimore is in a blaze. They say Colonel Ben Huger is in
command there — son of the “Olmutz” Huger. General Robert E. Lee, son of Light
Horse Harry Lee, has been made General-in-Chief of Virginia. With such men to
the fore, we have hope. The New York Herald says, “Slavery must be extinguished,
if in blood.” It thinks we are shaking in our shoes at their great mass
meetings. We are jolly as larks, all the same.
Mr. Chesnut has gone with Wade Hampton1 to see
President Davis about the legion Wade wants to get up. The President came
across the aisle to speak to me at church to-day. He was very cordial, and I
appreciated the honor.
Wigfall is black with rage at Colonel Anderson's account of
the fall of Sumter. Wigfall did behave magnanimously, but Anderson does not
seem to see it in that light. “Catch me risking my life to save him again,”
says Wigfall. “He might have been man enough to tell the truth to those New
Yorkers, however unpalatable to them a good word for us might have been. We did
behave well to him. The only men of his killed, he killed himself, or they
killed themselves firing a salute to their old striped rag.”
Mr. Chesnut was delighted with the way Anderson spoke to him
when he went to demand the surrender. They parted quite tenderly. Anderson
said: “If we do not meet again on earth, I hope we may meet in Heaven.” How
Wigfall laughed at Anderson “giving Chesnut a howdy in the other world!”
What a kind welcome the old gentlemen gave me! One, more
affectionate and homely than the others, slapped me on the back. Several
bouquets were brought me, and I put them in water around my plate. Then General
Owens gave me some violets, which I put in my breastpin.
“Oh,” said my “Gutta Percha” Hemphill,2 “if I had
known how those bouquets were to be honored I would have been up by daylight
seeking the sweetest flowers!” Governor Moore came in, and of course seats were
offered him. “This is a most comfortable chair,” cried an overly polite person.
“The most comfortable chair is beside Mrs. Chesnut,” said the Governor, facing
the music gallantly, as he sank into it gracefully. Well done, old fogies!
Browne said: “These Southern men have an awfully flattering
way with women.” “Oh, so many are descendants of Irishmen, and so the blarney
remains yet, even, and in spite of their gray hairs!'” For it was a group of
silver-gray flatterers. Yes, blarney as well as bravery came in with the Irish.
At Mrs. Davis's reception dismal news, for civil war seems
certain. At Mrs. Toombs's reception Mr. Stephens came by me. Twice before we
have had it out on the subject of this Confederacy, once on the cars, coming
from Georgia here, once at a supper, where he sat next to me. To-day he was not
cheerful in his views. I called him half-hearted, and accused him of looking
back. Man after man came and interrupted the conversation with some
frivle-fravle, but we held on. He was deeply interesting, and he gave me some
new ideas as to our dangerous situation. Fears for the future and not
exultation at our successes pervade his discourse.
Dined at the President's and never had a pleasanter day. He
is as witty as he is wise. He was very agreeable; he took me in to dinner. The
talk was of Washington; nothing of our present difficulties.
A General Anderson from Alexandria, D. C, was in doleful
dumps. He says the North are so much better prepared than we are. They are
organized, or will be, by General Scott. We are in wild confusion. Their army
is the best in the world. We are wretchedly armed, etc., etc. They have ships
and arms that were ours and theirs.
Mrs. Walker, resplendently dressed, one of those gorgeously
arrayed persons who fairly shine in the sun, tells me she mistook the
inevitable Morrow for Mr. Chesnut, and added, “Pass over the affront to my
powers of selection.” I told her it was “an insult to the Palmetto flag.” Think
of a South Carolina Senator like that!
Men come rushing in from Washington with white lips, crying,
“Danger, danger!” It is very tiresome to have these people always harping on
this: “The enemy's troops are the finest body of men we ever saw.” “Why did you
not make friends of them,” I feel disposed to say. We would have war, and now
we seem to be letting our golden opportunity pass; we are not preparing for
war. There is talk, talk, talk in that Congress — lazy legislators, and rash,
reckless, headlong, devil-may-care, proud, passionate, unruly, raw material for
soldiers. They say we have among us a regiment of spies, men and women, sent
here by the wily Seward. Why? Our newspapers tell every word there is to be
told, by friend or foe.
A two-hours' call from Hon. Robert Barnwell. His theory is,
all would have been right if we had taken Fort Sumter six months ago. He made
this very plain to me. He is clever, if erratic. I forget why it ought to have
been attacked before. At another reception, Mrs. Davis was in fine spirits.
Captain Dacier was here. Came over in his own yacht. Russell, of The London
Times, wondered how we had the heart to enjoy life so thoroughly when all the
Northern papers said we were to be exterminated in such a short time.
_______________
1 Wade Hampton was a son of another Wade Hampton,
who was an aide to General Jackson at the battle of New Orleans, and a grandson
of still another Wade Hampton, who was a general in the Revolution. He was not
in favor of secession, but when the war began he enlisted as a private and then
raised a command of infantry, cavalry, and artillery, which as “Hampton's
Legion” won distinction in the war. After the war, he was elected Governor of
South Carolina and was then elected to the United States Senate.
2 John Hemphill was a native of South Carolina,
who had removed to Texas, where he became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of
the State, and in 1858 was elected United States Senator.
SOURCE: Mary Boykin Chesnut, Edited by Isabella D. Martin
and Myrta Lockett Avary, A Diary From Dixie, p. 47-50
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