O praise the Lord, O my soul! Here is good news enough to
make me happy for a month! Brother is so good about that! Every time he hears
good news on our side, he tells it just as though it was on his side, instead
of on ours; while all bad news for us he carefully avoids mentioning, unless we
question him. So to-day he brought in a budget for us.
Lee has crossed the Potomac on his way to Washington with
one hundred and sixty thousand men. Gibbes and George are with him. Magruder is
marching on Fort Jackson, to attack it in the rear. One or two of our English
ironclads are reported at the mouth of the river, and Farragut has gone down to
capture them. O Jimmy! Jimmy! suppose he should be on one of them? We don't
know the name of his ship, and it makes us so anxious for him, during these
months that we have heard nothing of his whereabouts.
It is so delightful to see these frightened Yankees! One has
only to walk downtown to be satisfied of the alarm that reigns. Yesterday came
the tidings of the capture of Brashere City by our troops, and that a brigade
was fifteen miles above here, coming down to the city. Men congregated at
corners whispering cautiously. These were evidently Confederates who had taken
the oath. Solitary Yankees straggled along with the most lugubrious faces,
troubling no one. We walked down to Blineau's with Mrs. Price, and over our
ice-cream she introduced her husband, who is a true blue Union man, though she,
like ourselves, is a rank Rebel. Mr. Price, on the eve of making an immense
fortune, was perfectly disconsolate at the news. Every one was to be ruined;
starvation would follow if the Confederates entered; there was never a more
dismal, unhappy creature. Enchanted at the news, I naturally asked if it were
reliable. “Perfectly! Why, to prove how true, standing at the door of this
salon five minutes ago, I saw two young ladies pass with Confederate flags,
which they flirted in the face of some Federal officers, unrebuked!” Verily,
thought I, something is about to happen! Two days ago the girls who were “unrebuked”
this evening would have found themselves in jail instead.
SOURCE: Sarah Morgan Dawson, A Confederate Girl's
Diary, p. 393-4
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