The North requires 600,000 men to invade us. Truly we are a
formidable power! The Herald says it is useless to move with a man less than
that. England has made it all up with them, or rather, she will not break with
them. Jerome Napoleon is in Washington and not our friend.
Doctor Gibbes is a bird of ill omen. To-day he tells me eight
of our men have died at the Charlottesville Hospital. It seems sickness is more
redoubtable in an army than the enemy's guns. There are 1,100 there hors de
combat, and typhoid fever is with them. They want money, clothes, and
nurses. So, as I am writing, right and left the letters fly, calling for help
from the sister societies at home. Good and patriotic women at home are easily
stirred to their work.
Mary Hammy has many strings to her bow — a fiancé in the army, and
Doctor Berrien in town. To-day she drove out with Major Smith and Colonel Hood.
Yesterday, Custis Lee was here. She is a prudent little puss and needs no good
advice, if I were one to give it.
Lawrence does all our shopping. All his master's money has
been in his hands until now. I thought it injudicious when gold is at such a
premium to leave it lying loose in the tray of a trunk. So I have sewed it up
in a belt, which I can wear upon an emergency. The cloth is wadded and my
diamonds are there, too. It has strong strings, and can be tied under my hoops
about my waist if the worst comes to the worst, as the saying is. Lawrence
wears the same bronze mask. No sign of anything he may feel or think of my latest
fancy. Only, I know he asks for twice as much money now when he goes to buy
things.
SOURCE: Mary Boykin Chesnut, Edited by Isabella D. Martin
and Myrta Lockett Avary, A Diary From Dixie, p. 100-1
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