Betty, the handsome, and Constance, the witty, came; the
former too prudish to read Lost and Saved, by Mrs. Norton, after she had heard
the plot. Conny was making a bonnet for me. Just as she was leaving the house,
her friendly labors over, my husband entered, and quickly ordered his horse. “It
is so near dinner,” I began. “But I am going with the President. I am on duty.
He goes to inspect the fortifications. The enemy, once more, are within a few
miles of Richmond.” Then we prepared a luncheon for him. Constance Cary
remained with me.
After she left I sat down to Romola, and I was absorbed in
it. How hardened we grow to war and war's alarms! The enemy's cannon or our own
are thundering in my ears, and I was dreadfully afraid some infatuated and
frightened friend would come in to cheer, to comfort, and interrupt me. Am I
the same poor soul who fell on her knees and prayed, and wept, and fainted, as
the first gun boomed from Fort Sumter? Once more we have repulsed the enemy.
But it is humiliating, indeed, that he can come and threaten us at our very
gates whenever he so pleases. If a forlorn negro had not led them astray (and
they hanged him for it) on Tuesday night, unmolested, they would have walked
into Richmond. Surely there is horrid neglect or mismanagement somewhere.
SOURCE: Mary Boykin Chesnut, Edited by Isabella D. Martin
and Myrta Lockett Avary, A Diary From Dixie, p. 293-4
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