A diary from Dixie, :: :: University of Virginia Library

FAUQUIER WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, VA.,
July 6, 1861.—Mr. Brewster came here with us. The
cars were jammed with soldiers to the muzzle. They
were very polite and considerate, and we had an agreeable
journey, in spite of heat, dust, and crowd. Rev. Robert
Barnwell was with us. He means to organize a hospital for
sick and wounded. There was not an inch of standing-room
even; so dusty, so close, but everybody in tip-top
spirits.

Mr. Preston and Mr. Chesnut met us at Warrenton.
Saw across the lawn, but dit not speak to them, some of
Judge Campbell's family. THere they wander disconsolate,
just outside the gates of their Paradise: a resgined
Judge of the Supreme Court of the United States; resigned,
and for a cause that he is hardly more than half in sympathy
with, Judge Campbell's is one of the hardest cases.

July 7th.—This water is making us young again. How
these men enjoy the baths. They say Beauregard can stop
the way with sixty thousand; that many are coming.

An antique female, with every hair curled and frizzed,
said to be a Yankee spy, sits opposite us. Brewster solemnly
wondered "with eternity and the judgement to come
so near at hand, how she could waste her few remaining
minutes curling her hair." He bade me be very polite, for
she would ask me questions. When we were walking away

from table, I demanded his approval of my self-control
under such trying circumstances. It seems I was not as
calm and forbearing as I thought myself. Brewster answered
with emphasis: Do you always carry brickbats
like that in your pocket ready for the first word that offends
you! You must not do so, when you are with spies
from the other side." I do not feel at all afraid of spies
hearing anything through me, for I do not know anything.

But our men could not tarry with us in these cool
shades and comfortable quarters, with water unlimited, excellent
table, etc. They have gone back to Manassas, and
the faithful Brewster with them to bring us the latest news.
They left us in excellent spirits, which we shared until they
were out of sight. We went with them to Warrenton, and
then heard that General Jolnston was in full retreat, and
that a column was advancing upon Beauregard. So we
came back, all forlorn. If our husbands are taken prisoners,
what will they do with them? Are they soldiers or
traitors?

Mrs. Ould read us a letter from Richmond. How horrified
they are there at Joe Johnston's retreating. And the
enemies of the "War Department accuse Walker of not sending
General Johnston ammunition in sufficient quantities;
say that is the real cause of his retreat. Now will they
not make the ears of that slow-coach, the Secretary of War,
buzz?

Mrs. Preston's maid Maria has a way of rushing in—
"Don't you hear the cannon!" We fly to the windows,
lean out to our waists, pull all the hair away from our ears,
but can not hear it. Lincoln wants four hundred millions
of money and men in proportion. Can he get them? He
will find us a heavy handful. Midnight. I hear Maria's
guns.

We are always picking up some good thing of the rough
Illinoisan's saying. Lincoln, objects to some man—" Oh,
he is too interruptions"; that is a horrid style of man or

woman, the interruptions. I know the thing, but had no
name for it before.

July 9th.— Our battle summer. May it be our first and
our last, so called. After all we have not had any of the
horrors of war. Could there have been a gayer, or pleasanter,
life than we led in Charleston. And Montgomery,
how exciting it all was there! So many clever men and
women congregated from every part of the South. Mosquitoes,
and a want of neatness, and a want of good things
to eat, drove us away. In Richmond the girls say it is perfectly
delightful. We found it so, too, but the bickering
and quarreling have begun there.

At table to-day we heard Mrs. Davis's ladies described.
They were said to wear red frocks and flats on their heads.
We sat mute as mice. One woman said she found the
drawing-room of the Spotswood was warm, stuffy, and
stifling. "Poor soul," murmured the inevitable Brewster,
"and no man came to air her in the moonlight stroll, you
know. Why didn't somebody ask her out on the piazza to
see the comet?" Heavens above, what philandering was
done in the name of the comet! When you stumbled on a
couple on the piazza they lifted their eyes, and "comet"
was the only word you heard. Brewster came back with
a paper from Washington with terrific threats of what
they will do to us. Threatened men live long.

There was a soft, sweet, low, and slow young lady opposite
to us. She seemed so gentle and refined, and so uncertain
of everything. Mr. Brewster called her Miss Albina
McClush, who always asked her maid when a new book was
mentioned, " Seraphina, have I perused that volume?"

Mary Hammy, having a fiancé in the wars, is inclined
at times to be sad and tearful. Mrs. Preston quoted her
negro nurse to her: "Never take any more trouble in
your heart than you can kick off at the end of your toes."

July 11th.—We did hear cannon to-day. The woman
who slandered Mrs. Davis's republican court, of which we

are honorable members, by saying they—well, were not
young; that they wore gaudy colors, and dressed badly—I
took an inventory to-day as to her charms. She is darkly,
deeply, beautifully freckled; she wears a wig which is
kept in place by a tiara of mock jewels; she has the fattest
of arms and wears black bead bracelets.

The one who is under a cloud, shadowed as a Yankee
spy, has confirmed our worst suspicions. She exhibited unholy
joy, as she reported seven hundred sick soldiers in the
hospital at Culpeper, and that Beauregard had sent a
flag of truce to Washington.

What a night we had! Maria had seen suspicious persons
hovering about all day, and Mrs. Preston a ladder
which could easily be placed so as to reach our rooms.
Mary Hammy saw lights glancing about among the trees,
and we all heard guns. So we sat up. Consequently, I am
writing in bed to-day. A letter from my husband saying,
in particular: "Our orders are to move on," the date, July
10th. "Here we are still and no more prospect of movement
now than when I last wrote to you. It is true, however,
that the enemy is advancing slowly in our front, and
we are preparing to receive him. He comes in great force,
being more than three times our number."

The spy, so-called, gave us a parting shot: said Beauregard
had arrested her brother in order that he might take a
fine horse which the aforesaid brother was riding. Why?
Beauregard, at a moment's notice, could have any horse in
South Carolina, or Louisiana, for that matter. This man
was arrested and sent to Richmond, and "will be acquitted
as they always are," said Brewster. "They send them
first to Richmond to see and hear everything there; then
they acquit them, and send them out of the country by way
of Norfolk to see everything there. But, after all, what
does it matter? They have no need for spies: our newspapers
keep no secrets hid. The thoughts of our hearts are all
revealed. Everything with us is open and aboveboard.

"At Bethel the Yankees fired too high. Every daily
paper is jeering them about it yet. They'll fire low enough
next time, but no newspaper man will be there to get the
benefit of their improved practise, alas!"