Bragg begs to be relieved of his command. The army will be
relieved to get rid of him. He has a winning way of earning everybody's
detestation. Heavens, how they hate him! The rapid flight of his army
terminated at Ringgold. Hardie declines even a temporary command of the Western
army. Preston Johnston has been sent out post-haste at a moment's warning. He
was not even allowed time to go home and tell his wife good-by or, as Browne,
the Englishman, said, “to put a clean shirt into his traveling bag.” Lee and
Meade are facing each other gallantly.1
The first of December we went with a party of Mrs. Ould's
getting up, to see a French frigate which lay at anchor down the river. The
French officers came on board our boat. The Lees were aboard. The French
officers were not in the least attractive either in manners or appearance, but
our ladies were most attentive and some showered bad French upon them with a
lavish hand, always accompanied by queer grimaces to eke out the scanty supply
of French words, the sentences ending usually in a nervous shriek. “Are they
deaf?” asked Mrs. Randolph.
The French frigate was a dirty little thing. Doctor Garnett
was so buoyed up with hope that the French were coming to our rescue, that he
would not let me say “an English man-of-war is the cleanest thing known in the world.”
Captain said to Mary Lee, with a foreign contortion of countenance, that went
for a smile, “I's bashlor.” Judge Ould said, as we went to dinner on our own
steamer, “They will not drink our President's health. They do not acknowledge
us to be a nation. Mind, none of you say ‘Emperor,’ not once.” Doctor Garnett
interpreted the laws of politeness otherwise, and stepped forward, his mouth
fairly distended with so much French, and said: “Vieff l'Emperor.” Young Gibson
seconded him quietly, “À
la santé de
I'Empereur.” But
silence prevailed. Preston Hampton was the handsomest man on board — “the
figure of Hercules, the face of Apollo,” cried an enthusiastic girl. Preston
was as lazy and as sleepy as ever. He said of the Frenchmen: “They can't help
not being good-looking, but with all the world open to them, to wear such shabby
clothes!”
The lieutenant's name was Rousseau. On the French frigate,
lying on one of the tables was a volume of Jean Jacques Rousseau's works, side
by side, strange to say, with a map of South Carolina. This lieutenant was
courteously asked by Mary Lee to select some lady to whom she might introduce
him. He answered: “I shuse you,” with a bow that was a benediction and a
prayer.
And now I am in a fine condition for Hetty Cary's starvation
party, where they will give thirty dollars for the music and not a cent for a
morsel to eat. Preston said contentedly, “I hate dancing, and I hate cold
water; so I will eschew the festivity to-night.”
Found John R. Thompson at our house when I got home so tired
to-night. He brought me the last number of the Cornhill. He knew how much I was
interested in Trollope's story, Framley Parsonage.
_______________
1 Following the battle of Gettysburg on July 1st,
2d, and 3d, of this year, there had occurred in Virginia between Lee and Meade
engagements at Bristoe's Station, Kelly's Ford, and Rappahannock Station, the
latter engagement taking place on November 7th. The author doubtless refers
here to the positions of Lee and Meade at Mine Run, December 1st. December 2d
Meade abandoned his, because (as he is reported to have said) it would have
cost him 30,000 men to carry Lee's breastworks, and he shrank from ordering such
slaughter.
SOURCE: Mary Boykin Chesnut, Edited by Isabella D. Martin
and Myrta Lockett Avary, A Diary From Dixie, p. 259-60
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