Yesterday Anna and I spent the day with Lilly, and the rain
in the evening obliged us to stay all night. Dr. Perkins stopped there, and
repeated the same old stories we have been hearing, about the powder placed
under the State House and Garrison, to blow them up, if forced to evacuate the
town. He confirms the story about all the convicts being set free, and the town
being pillaged by the negroes and the rest of the Yankees. He says his own
slaves told him they were allowed to enter the houses and help themselves, and
what they did not want the Yankees either destroyed on the spot, or had it
carried to the Garrison and burned. They also bragged of having stopped ladies
on the street, cut their necklaces from their necks, and stripped the rings
from their fingers, without hesitation. It may be that they were just bragging
to look great in the eyes of their masters; I hope so, for Heaven help them if
they fall into the hands of the Confederates, if it is true.
I could not record all the stories of wanton destruction
that reached us. I would rather not believe that the Federal Government could
be so disgraced by its own soldiers. Dr. Day says they left nothing at all in
his house, and carried everything off from Dr. Enders's. He does not believe we
have a single article left in ours. I hope they spared Miriam's piano. But they
say the soldiers had so many that they offered them for sale at five dollars
apiece! We heard that the town had been completely evacuated, and all had gone
to New Orleans except three gunboats that were preparing to shell, before
leaving.
This morning Withers's battery passed Mr. Elder's on their
way to Port Hudson, and stopped to get water. There were several buckets served
by several servants; but I took possession of one, to their great amusement.
What a profusion of thanks over a can of water! It made me smile, and they
smiled to see my work, so it was all very funny. It was astonishing to see the
number of Yankee canteens in the possession of our men. Almost all those who
fought at Baton Rouge are provided with them. In their canvas and wire cases,
with neat stoppers, they are easily distinguished from our rough, flat, tin
ones. I declare I felt ever so important in my new situation as waiting-maid!
There is very little we would not do for our soldiers,
though. There is mother, for instance, who got on her knees to bathe the face
and hands of a fever-struck soldier of the Arkansas, while the girls held the
plates of those who were too weak to hold them and eat at the same time.
Blessed is the Confederate soldier who has even toothache, when there are women
near! What sympathies and remedies are volunteered! I always laugh, as I did
then, when I think of the supposed wounded man those girls discovered on that
memorable Arkansas day. I must first acknowledge that it was my fault; for seized
with compassion for a man supported by two others who headed the procession, I
cried, “Oh, look! he is wounded!” “Oh, poor fellow!” screamed the others, while
tears and exclamations flowed abundantly, until one of the men, smiling
humorously, cried out, “Nothing the matter with him!” and on nearer view, I
perceived it was laziness, or perhaps something else, and was forced to laugh
at the streaming eyes of those tender-hearted girls.
SOURCE: Sarah Morgan Dawson, A Confederate Girl's
Diary, p. 184-7
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