29th: I have been this morning to witness the opening of
Congress, and hear the President's message. It was an admirable one, worthy of
his reputation. It gives such a fair and lucid statement of matters, as they
now stand, that I am sure it will do good abroad, if not at home. . . . This afternoon I went with Mrs. Chesnut to
call on Mrs. Davis. I am going tomorrow to her reception. . . . You allude to reports given in the
Northern papers of the Fort Sumter affair. It is only what might have been
expected of them, that they would garble and misrepresent the truth; but I must
confess that Major Anderson's silence, and the disingenuous bulletin he sent to
Cameron have surprised me. He takes care not to tell the whole truth, and
any one to read his statement would suppose he had only come out on those
conditions, whereas, he surrendered unconditionally — the U. S. Flag
was lowered without salute while your father was in the fort. This was
seen, not only by your father, but by the thousands who were on the watch, and
it was only owing to General Beauregard's generosity (misplaced, it seems, now)
that he was allowed to raise it again, and to salute it on coming out of the
Fort, and take it with him. . . . And this
conduct too, after the kind and generous treatment he met with from the
Carolinians. Judge Ochiltree is here and tells me Tom is a private in a company
that Capt. Bass has raised in Marshall. .
. . The drums are beating here all the time, and it really makes me heartsick
when I think about it all.
I don't think though that the military enthusiasm can be
very high at the North as I see they are offering $20 additional pay to
volunteers a month. That fact speaks volumes. I suppose it is to be accounted for
in the anxiety to get rid of the mob population who might be troublesome
at home.
SOURCE: Louise Wigfall Wright, A Southern Girl in
’61, p. 50-1
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