Drove with Mrs. Davis and all her infant family; wonderfully
clever and precocious children, with unbroken wills. At one time there was a
sudden uprising of the nursery contingent. They laughed, fought, and screamed.
Bedlam broke loose. Mrs. Davis scolded, laughed, and cried. She asked me if my
husband would speak to the President about the plan in South Carolina, which
everybody said suited him. “No, Mrs. Davis,” said I. “That is what I told Mr.
Davis,” said she. “Colonel Chesnut rides so high a horse. Now Browne is so much
more practical. He goes forth to be general of conscripts in Georgia. His wife
will stay at the Cobbs's.”
Mrs. Ould gave me a luncheon on Saturday. I felt that this
was my last sad farewell to Richmond and the people there I love so well. Mrs.
Davis sent her carriage for me, and we went to the Oulds' together. Such good
things were served — oranges, guava jelly, etc. The Examiner says Mr. Ould,
when he goes to Fortress Monroe, replenishes his larder; why not? The Examiner
has taken another fling at the President, as, “haughty and austere with his
friends, affable, kind, subservient to his enemies.” I wonder if the Yankees
would indorse that certificate. Both sides abuse him. He can not please
anybody, it seems. No doubt he is right.
My husband is now brigadier-general and is sent to South
Carolina to organize and take command of the reserve troops. C. C. Clay and L.
Q. C. Lamar are both spoken of to fill the vacancy made among Mr. Davis's aides
by this promotion.
To-day, Captain Smith Lee spent the morning here and gave a
review of past Washington gossip. I am having such a busy, happy life, with so
many friends, and my friends are so clever, so charming. But the change to that
weary, dreary Camden! Mary Preston said: “I do think Mrs. Chesnut deserves to
be canonized; she agrees to go back to Camden.” The Prestons gave me a farewell
dinner; my twenty-fourth wedding day, and the very pleasantest day I have spent
in Richmond.
Maria Lewis was sitting with us on Mrs. Huger's steps, and
Smith Lee was lauding Virginia people as usual. As Lee would say, there “hove
in sight” Frank Parker, riding one of the finest of General Bragg's horses; by
his side Buck on Fairfax, the most beautiful home in Richmond, his brown coat
looking like satin, his proud neck arched, moving slowly, gracefully, calmly,
no fidgets, aristocratic in his bearing to the tips of his bridle-reins. There
sat Buck tall and fair, managing her horse with infinite ease, her English
riding-habit showing plainly the exquisite proportions of her figure. “Supremely
lovely,” said Smith Lee. “Look at them both,” said I proudly; “can you match
those two in Virginia?” “Three cheers for South Carolina!” was the answer of
Lee, the gallant Virginia sailor.
SOURCE: Mary Boykin Chesnut, Edited by Isabella D. Martin
and Myrta Lockett Avary, A Diary From Dixie, p. 302-3
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