From the news brought by one or two persons who managed to
reach here yesterday, I am more uneasy about mother and the girls. A gentleman
tells me that no one is permitted to leave without a pass, and of these, only
such as are separated from their families, who may have left before. All
families are prohibited to leave, and furniture and other valuables also. Here
is an agreeable arrangement! I saw the “pass,” just such as we give our
negroes, signed by a Wisconsin colonel. Think of being obliged to ask
permission from some low plowman to go in or out of our own house! Cannon are
planted as far out as Colonel Davidson's, six of them at our graveyard, and one
or more on all the other roads. If the guerrillas do not attempt their capture,
I shall take it upon myself to suggest it to the very next one I see. Even if
they cannot use them, it will frighten the Yankees, who are in a state of
constant alarm about them. Their reason for keeping people in town is that they
hope they will not be attacked so long as our own friends remain; thereby
placing us above themselves in the scale of humanity, since they acknowledge we
are not brute enough to kill women and children as they did not hesitate to do.
Farragut pleads that he could not restrain his men, they
were so enraged when the order was once given to fire, and says they would strike
a few houses, though he ordered them to fire solely at horses, and the clouds
of dust in the street, where guerrillas were supposed to be. The dust was by no
means thick enough to conceal that these “guerrillas” were women, carrying
babies instead of guns, and the horses were drawing buggies in which many a
sick woman was lying.
A young lady who applied to the Yankee general for a pass to
come out here, having doubtless spoken of the number of women here who had
fled, and the position of the place, was advised to remain in town and write to
the ladies to return immediately, and assure them that they would be respected
and protected, etc., but that it was madness to remain at Greenwell, for a
terrific battle would be fought there in a few days, and they would be exposed
to the greatest danger. The girl wrote the letter, but, Mr. Fox, we are not
quite such fools as to return there to afford you the protection our petticoats
would secure to you, thereby preventing you from receiving condign punishment
for the injuries and loss of property already inflicted upon us by you. No! we
remain here; and if you are not laid low before you pass the Comite
Bridge, we can take to the woods again, and camp out, as many a poor woman is
doing now, a few miles from town. Many citizens have been arrested, and after
being confined a while, and closely questioned, have been released, if the
information is satisfactory. A negro man is informing on all cotton burners and
violent Secessionists, etc.
Sunday night. The girls have just got back, riding in a mule
team, on top of baggage, but without either mother or any of our affairs. Our
condition is perfectly desperate. Miriam had an interview with General Williams,
which was by no means satisfactory. He gave her a pass to leave, and bring us
back, for he says there is no safety here for us; he will restrain his men in
town, and protect the women, but once outside, he will answer neither for his
men, nor the women and children. As soon as he gets horses enough, he passes
this road, going to Camp Moore with his cavalry, and then we are in greater
danger than ever. Any house shut up shall be occupied by soldiers. Five
thousand are there now, five more expected. What shall we do? Mother remained,
sending Miriam for me, determined to keep us there, rather than sacrifice both
our lives and property by remaining here. But then — two weeks from now the
yellow fever will break out; mother has the greatest horror of it, and we have
never had it; dying is not much in the present state of our affairs, but the
survivor will suffer even more than we do now. If we stay, how shall we live? I
have seventeen hundred dollars in Confederate notes now in my “running-bag,”
and three or four in silver. The former will not be received there, the latter
might last two days. If we save our house and furniture, it is at the price of
starving. I am of opinion that we should send for mother, and with what money
we have, make our way somewhere in the interior, to some city where we can
communicate with the boys, and be advised by them. This is not living. Home is
lost beyond all hope of recovery; if we wait, what we have already saved will
go, too; so we had better leave at once, with what clothing we have, which will
certainly establish us on the footing of ladies, if we chance to fall among
vulgar people who never look beyond. I fear the guerrillas will attack the town
to-night; if they do, God help mother!
General Williams offered Miriam an escort when he found she
was without a protector, in the most fatherly way; he must be a good man. She
thanked him, but said “she felt perfectly safe on that road.” He bit his
lip, understanding the allusion, and did not insist. She was to deliver a
message from parties in town to the first guerrillas they met, concerning the
safest roads, and presently six met them, and entered into conversation. She
told them of the proffered escort, when one sprang forward crying, “Why didn't
you accept, Miss? The next time, ask for one, and if it is at all
disagreeable to you, I am the very
man to rid you of such an inconvenience! I'll see that you are not annoyed
long.” I am glad it was not sent; she would have reproached herself with murder
forever after. I wonder if the General would have risked it?
SOURCE: Sarah Morgan Dawson, A Confederate Girl's
Diary, p. 53-7
