The ladies are postponing all engagements until their lovers
have fought the Yankees. Their influence is great. Day after day they go in
crowds to the Fair ground where the 1st S. C. Vols, are encamped, showering
upon them their smiles, and all the delicacies the city affords. They wine them
and cake them — and they deserve it. They are just from taking Fort Sumter, and
have won historic distinction. I was introduced to several of the privates by
their captain, who told me they were worth from $100,000 to half a million
dollars each. The Tribune thought all these men would want to be captains!
But that is not the only hallucination the North labors under, judging from
present appearances; by closing our ports it is thought we can be subdued by
the want of accustomed luxuries. These rich young men were dressed in coarse
gray homespun! We have the best horsemen and the best marksmen in the world,
and these are the qualities that will tell before the end of the war. We fight
for existence — the enemy for Union and the freedom of the slave. Well, let the
Yankees see if this “new thing” will pay.
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's
Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 33
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