Yankee scouts are very busy around us to-day. They watch
this river, and are evidently fearing a flank movement upon them. Wagons
passing to Dr. N's for corn, guarded by Lancers, who are decidedly the worst
specimens we have seen. Compared with them, the regulars are welcome guests. It
is so strange that Colonel Rush, the son of a distinguished man, whose mother
belonged to one of the first families in Maryland, the first-cousin of James M.
Mason, and Captain Mason of our navy, of Mrs. General Cooper and Mrs. S. S.
Lee, should consent to come among his nearest of kin, at the head of ruffians
like the Lancers, to despoil and destroy our country! I suppose that living in
Philadelphia has hardened his heart against us, for the city of Brotherly Love
is certainly more fierce towards us than any other. Boston cannot compare with
it. This is mortifying, because many of us had friends in Philadelphia, whom we
loved and admired. We hope and believe that the Quaker element there is at the
foundation of their illwill.
SOURCE: Judith W. McGuire, Diary of a Southern
Refugee, During the War, p. 147-8
