Have been looking at Mrs. O'Dowd as she burnished the “Meejor's
arms” before Waterloo. And I have been busy, too. My husband has gone to join
Beauregard, somewhere beyond Richmond. I feel blue-black with melancholy. But I
hope to be in Richmond before long myself. That is some comfort.
The war is making us all tenderly sentimental. No casualties
yet, no real mourning, nobody hurt. So it is all parade, fife, and fine
feathers. Posing we are en grande tenue. There is no imagination here to
forestall woe, and only the excitement and wild awakening from every-day
stagnant life are felt. That is, when one gets away from the two or three
sensible men who are still left in the world.
When Beauregard's report of the capture of Fort Sumter was
printed, Willie Ancrum said: “How is this? Tom Ancrum and Ham Boykin's names
are not here. We thought from what they told us that they did most of the
fighting.”
Colonel Magruder1 has done something splendid on
the peninsula. Bethel is the name of the battle. Three hundred of the enemy killed,
they say.
Our people, Southerners, I mean, continue to drop in from
the outside world. And what a contempt those who seceded a few days sooner feel
for those who have just come out! A Camden notable, called Jim Velipigue, said
in the street to-day: “At heart Robert E. Lee is against us; that I know.” What
will not people say in war times! Also, he said that Colonel Kershaw wanted
General Beauregard to change the name of the stream near Manassas Station.
Bull's Run is so unrefined. Beauregard answered: '”Let us try and make it as
great a name as your South Carolina Cowpens.”2
Mrs. Chesnut, born in Philadelphia, can not see what right
we have to take Mt. Vernon from our Northern sisters. She thinks that ought to
be common to both parties. We think they will get their share of this world's
goods, do what we may, and we will keep Mt. Vernon if we can. No comfort in Mr.
Chesnut's letter from Richmond. Unutterable confusion prevails, and discord
already.
In Charleston a butcher has been clandestinely supplying the
Yankee fleet outside the bar with beef. They say he gave the information which
led to the capture of the Savannah. They will hang him.
Mr. Petigru alone in South Carolina has not seceded. When
they pray for our President, he gets up from his knees. He might risk a prayer
for Mr. Davis. I doubt if it would seriously do Mr. Davis any good. Mr. Petigru
is too clever to think himself one of the righteous whose prayers avail so
overly much. Mr. Petigru's disciple, Mr. Bryan, followed his example. Mr.
Petigru has such a keen sense of the ridiculous he must be laughing in his
sleeve at the hubbub this untimely trait of independence has raised.
Looking out for a battle at Manassas Station. I am always
ill. The name of my disease is a longing to get away from here and to go to
Richmond.
_______________
1 John Bankhead Magruder was a graduate of West
Point, who had served in the Mexican War, and afterward while stationed at
Newport, R. I., had become famous for his entertainments. When Virginia seceded,
he resigned his commission in the United States Army. After the war he settled
in Houston, Texas. The battle of Big Bethel was fought on June 10, 1861. The
Federals lost in killed and wounded about 100, among them Theodore Winthrop, of
New York, author of Cecil Dreeme. The Confederate losses were very slight.
2 The battle of the Cowpens in South Carolina was
fought on January 17, 1781; the British, under Colonel Tarleton, being defeated
by General Morgan, with a loss to the British of 300 killed and wounded and 500
prisoners.
SOURCE: Mary Boykin Chesnut, Edited by Isabella D. Martin
and Myrta Lockett Avary, A Diary From Dixie, p. 62
