Mr. Chesnut, having missed the Secessionville1
fight by half a day, was determined to see the one around Richmond. He went off
with General Cooper and Wade Hampton. Blanton Duncan sent them for a luncheon
on board the cars, — ice, wine, and every manner of good thing.
In all this death and destruction, the women are the same —
chatter, patter, clatter. “Oh, the Charleston refugees are so full of airs;
there is no sympathy for them here!” “Oh, indeed! That is queer. They are not
half as exclusive as these Hamptons and Prestons. The airs these people do give
themselves.” “Airs, airs,” laughed Mrs. Bartow, parodying Tennyson's Charge of
the Light Brigade. “Airs to the right of them, Airs to the left of them, some
one had blundered.” “Volleyed and thundered rhymes but is out of place.”
The worst of all airs came from a democratic landlady, who
was asked by Mrs. President Davis to have a carpet shaken, and shook herself
with rage as she answered, “You know, madam, you need not stay here if my
carpet or anything else does not suit you.'”
John Chesnut gives us a spirited account of their ride
around McClellan. I sent the letter to his grandfather. The women ran out screaming
with joyful welcome, as soon as they caught sight of our soldiers' gray
uniforms; ran to them bringing handfuls and armfuls of food. One gray-headed
man, after preparing a hasty meal for them, knelt and prayed as they snatched
it, as you may say. They were in the saddle from Friday until Sunday. They were
used up; so were their horses. Johnny writes for clothes and more horses. Miss
S. C. says: “No need to send any more of his fine horses to be killed or
captured by the Yankees; wait and see how the siege of Richmond ends.” The
horses will go all the same, as Johnny wants them.
_______________
1 The battle of Secessionville occurred on James
Island, in the harbor of Charleston, June 16, 1862.
SOURCE: Mary Boykin Chesnut, Edited by Isabella D. Martin
and Myrta Lockett Avary, A Diary From Dixie, p. 191-2
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