Now we are in a cottage rented from Doctor Chisolm. Hood is
a full general. Johnston 1 has been removed and superseded. Early is
threatening Washington City. Semmes, of whom we have been so proud, risked the
Alabama in a sort of duel of ships. He has lowered the flag of the famous
Alabama to the Kearsarge.2 Forgive who may! I can not. We moved into
this house on the 20th of July. My husband was telegraphed to go to Charleston.
General Jones sent for him. A part of his command is on the coast.
The girls were at my house. Everything was in the utmost
confusion. We were lying on a pile of mattresses in one of the front rooms
while the servants were reducing things to order in the rear. All the papers
are down on the President for this change of commanders except the Georgia
papers. Indeed, Governor Brown's constant complaints, I dare say, caused it — these
and the rage of the Georgia people as Johnston backed down on them.
Isabella soon came. She said she saw the Preston sisters
pass her house, and as they turned the corner there was a loud and bitter cry.
It seemed to come from the Hampton house. Both girls began to run at full
speed. “What is the matter?” asked Mrs. Martin. “Mother, listen; that sounded like
the cry of a broken heart,” said Isabella; “something has gone terribly wrong
at the Prestons’.”
Mrs. Martin is deaf, however, so she heard nothing and
thought Isabella fanciful. Isabella hurried over there, and learned that they
had come to tell Mrs. Preston that Willie was killed — Willie! his mother's
darling. No country ever had a braver soldier, a truer gentleman, to lay down
his life in her cause.
_______________
1 General Johnston in 1863 had been appointed to
command the Army of the Tennessee, with headquarters at Dalton, Georgia. He was
to oppose the advance of Sherman's army toward Atlanta. In May, 1864, he fought
unsuccessful battles at Resaca and elsewhere, and in July was compelled to
retreat across the Chattahoochee River. Fault was found with him because of his
continual retreating. There were tremendous odds against him. On July 17th he
was superseded by Hood.
2 Raphael Semmes was a native of Maryland and had
served in the Mexican War. The Alabama was built for the Confederate States at
Birkenhead, England, and with an English crew and English equipment was
commanded by Semmes. In 1863 and 1864 the Alabama destroyed much Federal
shipping. On June 19, 1864, she was sunk by the Federal ship Kearsarge in a
battle off Cherbourg. Claims against England for damages were made by the
United States, and as a result the Geneva Arbitration Court was created. Claims
amounting to $15,500,000 were finally awarded. This case has much importance in
the history of international law.
SOURCE: Mary Boykin Chesnut, Edited by Isabella D. Martin
and Myrta Lockett Avary, A Diary From Dixie, p. 314-5
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