Just returned from Richmond. B's situation still precarious,
and I am obliged to stay with him a great deal. I see a number of officers and
other gentlemen in his room; they seem to be in fine spirits about the country.
Our President's Message has been enthusiastically received. It is a noble
production, worthy of its great author. I think the European public must
contrast it with the Northern “Message” most favourably to us.
Several friends have just arrived from Yankeedom in a vessel
fitted out by the Northern Government to receive the exchanged prisoners. About
six hundred women and children were allowed to come in it from Washington. They
submitted to the most humiliating search, before they left the wharf, from men
and women. The former searched their trunks, the latter their persons. Mrs.
Hale, of California, and the wife of Senator Harlan, of Iowa, presided at
the search. Dignified and lady-like! One young friend of mine was bringing five
pairs of shoes to her sisters; they were taken as contraband. A friend brought
me one pound of tea; this she was allowed to do; but woe betide the bundle of
more than one pound! Some trunks were sadly pillaged if they happened to contain
more clothes than the Northern Government thought proper for a rebel to
possess. No material was allowed to come which was not made into garments. My
friend brought me some pocket- handkerchiefs and stockings, scattered in
various parts of the trunk, so as not to seem to have too many. She brought her
son, who is in our service, a suit of clothes made into a cloak which she wore.
Many a gray cloth travelling-dress and petticoat which was on that boat is now
in camp, decking the person of a Confederate soldier; having undergone a
transformation into jackets and pants. The searchers found it a troublesome
business; not the least assistance did they get from the searched. The ladies
would take their seats, and put out first one foot and then the other to the
Yankee woman, who would pull off the shoes and stockings — not a pin would they
remove, not a String untie. The fare of the boat was miserable, served in tin
plates and cups; but, as it was served gratis, the “Rebs” had no right to
complain, and they reached Dixie in safety, bringing many a contraband article,
notwithstanding the search.
The hated vessel “Harriet Lane,” which, like the Pawnee, seemed
to be ubiquitous, has been captured near Galveston by General Magruder. Its
commander, Captain Wainwright, and others were killed. Captain W. was most
intimately connected with our relatives in the “Valley,” having married in
Clarke County. He wrote to them in the beginning of the war, to give them
warning of their danger. He spoke of the power of the North and the impotency
of the South. He thought that we would be subjugated in a few months — little
did he anticipate his own fate, or that of his devoted fleet.
SOURCE: Judith W. McGuire, Diary of a Southern
Refugee, During the War, p. 183-5
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