Mrs. Munroe offered me religious books, which I declined,
being already provided with the Lamentations of Jeremiah, the Psalms of David,
the denunciations of Hosea, and, above all, the patient wail of Job. Job is my
comforter now. I should be so thankful to know life never would be any worse
with me. My husband is well, and has been ordered to join the great Retreater.
I am bodily comfortable, if somewhat dingily lodged, and I daily part with my
raiment for food. We find no one who will exchange eatables for Confederate
money; so we are devouring our clothes.
Opportunities for social enjoyment are not wanting. Miss
Middleton and Isabella often drink a cup of tea with me. One might search the
whole world and not find two cleverer or more agreeable women. Miss Middleton
is brilliant and accomplished. She must have been a hard student all her life.
She knows everybody worth knowing, and she has been everywhere. Then she is so
high-bred, high-hearted, pure, and true. She is so clean-minded; she could not
harbor a wrong thought. She is utterly unselfish, a devoted daughter and
sister. She is one among the many large-brained women a kind Providence has
thrown in my way, such as Mrs. McCord, daughter of Judge Cheves; Mary Preston
Darby, Mrs. Emory, granddaughter of old Franklin, the American wise man, and
Mrs. Jefferson Davis. How I love to praise my friends!
As a ray of artificial sunshine, Mrs. Munroe sent me an
Examiner. Daniel thinks we are at the last gasp, and now England and France are
bound to step in. England must know if the United States of America are
triumphant they will tackle her next, and France must wonder if she will not
have to give up Mexico. My faith fails me. It is all too late; no help for us
now from God or man.
Thomas, Daniel says, was now to ravage Georgia, but Sherman,
from all accounts, has done that work once for all. There will be no aftermath.
They say no living thing is found in Sherman's track, only chimneys, like
telegraph poles, to carry the news of Sherman's army backward.
In all that tropical down-pour, Mrs. Munroe sent me
overshoes and an umbrella, with the message, “Come over.” I went, for it would
be as well to drown in the streets as to hang myself at home to my own bedpost.
At Mrs. Munroe's I met a Miss McDaniel. Her father, for seven years, was the
Methodist preacher at our negro church. The negro church is in a grove just
opposite Mulberry house. She says her father has so often described that fine
old establishment and its beautiful lawn, live-oaks, etc. Now, I dare say there
stand at Mulberry only Sherman's sentinels — stacks of chimneys. We have made
up our minds for the worst. Mulberry house is no doubt razed to the ground.
Miss McDaniel was inclined to praise us. She said: “As a
general rule the Episcopal minister went to the family mansion, and the
Methodist missionary preached to the negroes and dined with the overseer at his
house, but at Mulberry her father always stayed at the ‘House,’ and the family
were so kind and attentive to him.” It was rather pleasant to hear one's family
so spoken of among strangers.
So, well equipped to brave the weather, armed cap-a-pie, so
to speak, I continued my prowl farther afield and brought up at the
Middletons'. I may have surprised them, for at such an inclement season they
hardly expected a visitor. Never, however, did lonely old woman receive such a
warm and hearty welcome. Now we know the worst. Are we growing hardened? We
avoid all allusion to Columbia; we never speak of home, and we begin to deride
the certain poverty that lies ahead.
How it pours! Could I live many days in solitary
confinement? Things are beginning to be unbearable, but I must sit down and be
satisfied. My husband is safe so far. Let me be thankful it is no worse with
me. But there is the gnawing pain all the same. What is the good of being here
at all? Our world has simply gone to destruction. And across the way the fair
Lydia languishes. She has not even my resources against ennui. She has no
Isabella, no Miss Middleton, two as brilliant women as any in Christendom. Oh,
how does she stand it! I mean to go to church if it rains cats and dogs. My
feet are wet two or three times a day. We never take cold; our hearts are too
hot within us for that.
A carriage was driven up to the door as I was writing. I
began to tie on my bonnet, and said to myself in the glass, “Oh, you lucky
woman!” I was all in a tremble, so great was my haste to be out of this. Mrs.
Glover had the carriage. She came for me to go and hear Mr. Martin preach. He
lifts our spirits from this dull earth; he takes us up to heaven. That I will
not deny. Still he can not hold my attention; my heart wanders and my mind
strays back to South Carolina. Oh, vandal Sherman! what are you at there,
hard-hearted wretch that you are! A letter from General Chesnut, who writes
from camp near Charlotte under date of February 28th:
“I thank you a thousand, thousand times
for your kind letters. They are now my only earthly comfort, except the hope
that all is not yet lost. We have been driven like a wild herd from our country.
And it is not from a want of spirit in the people or soldiers, nor from want of
energy and competency in our commanders. The restoration of Joe Johnston, it is
hoped, will redound to the advantage of our cause and the reestablishment of
our fortunes! I am still in not very agreeable circumstances. For the last four
days completely water-bound.
“I am informed that a detachment of
Yankees were sent from Liberty Hill to Camden with a view to destroying all the
houses, mills, and provisions about that place. No particulars have reached me.
You know I expected the worst that could be done, and am fully prepared for any
report which may be made.
“It would be a happiness beyond
expression to see you even for an hour. I have heard nothing from my poor old
father. I fear I shall never see him again. Such is the fate of war. I do not
complain. I have deliberately chosen my lot, and am prepared for any fate that
awaits me. My care is for you, and I trust still in the good cause of my
country and the justice and mercy of God.”
It was a lively, rushing, young set that South Carolina put
to the fore. They knew it was a time of imminent danger, and that the fight
would be ten to one. They expected to win by activity, energy, and enthusiasm.
Then came the wet blanket, the croakers; now, these are posing, wrapping
Caesar's mantle about their heads to fall with dignity. Those gallant youths
who dashed so gaily to the front lie mostly in bloody graves. Well for them,
maybe. There are worse things than honorable graves. Wearisome thoughts. Late
in life we are to begin anew and have laborious, difficult days ahead.
We have contradictory testimony. Governor Aiken has passed
through, saying Sherman left Columbia as he found it, and was last heard from
at Cheraw. Dr. Chisolm walked home with me. He says that is the last version of
the story. Now my husband wrote that he himself saw the fires which burned up
Columbia. The first night his camp was near enough to the town for that.
They say Sherman has burned Lancaster — that Sherman
nightmare, that ghoul, that hyena! But I do not believe it. He takes his time.
There are none to molest him. He does things leisurely and deliberately. Why
stop to do so needless a thing as burn Lancaster courthouse, the jail, and the
tavern? As I remember it, that description covers Lancaster. A raiding party
they say did for Camden.
No train from Charlotte yesterday. Rumor says Sherman is in
Charlotte.
SOURCES: Mary Boykin Chesnut, Edited by Isabella D. Martin
and Myrta Lockett Avary, A Diary From Dixie, p. 353-7
