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DIXIE AFTER THE WAR
[Illustration: JEFFERSON DAVIS
After his prison life
Copyright 1867, by Anderson]
DIXIE AFTER THE WAR
An Exposition of Social Conditions Existing
in the South, During the Twelve Years
Succeeding the Fall of Richmond.
by
MYRTA LOCKETT AVARY
Author of "A Virginia Girl in the Civil War"
With an Introduction by General Clement A. Evans
Illustrated from old paintings, daguerreotypes and rare photographs
New York
Doubleday, Page & Company
1906
Copyright, 1906, by Doubleday, Page & Company
Published September, 1906
All rights reserved,
including that of translation into foreign languages,
including the Scandinavian
To
THE MEMORY OF MY BROTHER,
PHILIP LOCKETT,
(_First Lieutenant, Company G, 14th Virginia Infantry,
Armistead's Brigade, Pickett's Division, C. S. A._)
_Entering the Confederate Army, when hardly more
than a lad, he followed General Robert E.
Lee for four years, surrendering at Appomattox.
He was in Pickett's immortal
charge at Gettysburg, and with
Armistead when Armistead
fell on Cemetery Hill._
The faces I see before me are those of young men. Had you not been this I
would not have appeared alone as the defender of my southland, but for
love of her I break my silence and speak to you. Before you lies the
future--a future full of golden promise, full of recompense for noble
endeavor, full of national glory before which the world will stand amazed.
Let me beseech you to lay aside all rancor, and all bitter sectional
feeling, and take your place in the rank of those who will bring about a
conciliation out of which will issue a reunited country.--_From an address
by Jefferson Davis in his last years, to the young men of the South_
INTRODUCTION
This book may be called a revelation. It seems to me a body of discoveries
that should not be kept from the public--discoveries which have origin in
many sources but are here brought together in one book for the first time.
No book hitherto published portrays so fully and graphically the social
conditions existing in the South for the twelve years following the fall
of Richmond, none so vividly presents race problems. It is the kind of
history a witness gives. The author received from observers and
participants the larger part of the incidents and anecdotes which she
employs. Those who lived during reconstruction are passing away so rapidly
that data, unless gathered now, can never be had thus at first hand; every
year increases the difficulty. Mrs. Avary's experience as author, editor
and journalist, her command of shorthand and her social connections have
opened up opportunities not usually accessible to one person; added to
this is the balance of sympathy which she is able to strike as a Southern
woman who has sojourned much at the North. In these pages she renders a
public service. She aids the American to better understanding of his
country's past and clearer concept of its present.
In connection with the book's genesis, it may be said that the author grew
up after the war on a large Virginia plantation where her parents kept
open house in the true Southern fashion. Two public roads which united at
their gates, were thoroughfares linking county-towns in Virginia and North
Carolina, and were much traveled by jurists, lawyers and politicians on
their way to and from various court sittings; these gentlemen often found
it both convenient and pleasant to stop for supper and over night at
Lombardy Grove, particularly as a son of the house was of their guild.
Perhaps few of the company thus gathered realised what an earnest listener
they had in the little girl, Myrta, who sat intent at her father's or
brother's knee, drinking in eagerly the discussions and stories. To
impressions and information so acquired much was added through family
correspondence with relatives and friends in Petersburg, Richmond,
Atlanta, the Carolinas; also, in experiences related by these friends and
relatives when hospitalities were exchanged; interesting and eventful
diaries, too, were at the author's disposal. Such was her unconscious
preparation for the writing of this book. Her conscious preparation was a
tour of several Southern States recently undertaken for the purpose of
collecting fresh data and substantiating information already possessed.
While engaged, for a season, in journalism in New York, she put out her
first Southern book, "A Virginia Girl in the Civil War" (1903). This met
with such warm welcome that she was promptly called upon for a second
dealing with post-bellum life from a woman's viewpoint. The result was the
Southern journey mentioned, the accidental discovery and presentment
(1905) of the war journal of Mrs. James Chestnut ("A Diary From Dixie"),
and the writing of the present volume which, I think, exceeds her
commission, inasmuch as it is not only what is known as a "woman's book"
but is a "man's book" also, exhibiting a masculine grasp, explained by its
origin, of political situations, and an intimate personal tone in dealing
with the lighter social side of things, possible only to a woman's pen. It
is a very unusual book. All readers may not accept the author's
conclusions, but I think that all must be interested in what she says and
impressed with her spirit of fairness and her painstaking effort to
present a truthful picture of an extraordinary social and political period
in our national life. Her work stimulates interest in Southern history. A
safe prophecy is that this book will be the precursor of as many
post-bellum memoirs of feminine authorship as was "A Virginia Girl" of
memoirs of war-time.
No successor can be more comprehensive, as a glance at the table of
contents will show. The tragedy, pathos, corruption, humour, and
absurdities of the military dictatorship and of reconstruction, the
topsy-turvy conditions generally, domestic upheaval, negroes voting, Black
and Tan Conventions and Legislatures, disorder on plantations, Loyal
Leagues and Freedmen's Bureaus, Ku Klux and Red Shirts, are presented with
a vividness akin to the camera's. A wide interest is appealed to in the
earlier chapters narrating incidents connected with Mr. Lincoln's visit to
Richmond, Mr. Davis' journeyings, capture and imprisonment, the arrest of
Vice-President Stephens and the effort to capture General Toombs. Those
which deal with the Federal occupation of Columbia and Richmond at once
rivet attention. The most full and graphic description of the situation in
the latter city just after the war, that has yet been produced, is given,
and I think the interpretation of Mr. Davis' course in leaving Richmond
instead of remaining and trying to enter into peace negotiations, is a
point not hitherto so clearly taken.
As a bird's-eye view of the South after the war, the book is expositive of
its title, every salient feature of the time and territory being brought
under observation. The States upon which attention is chiefly focussed,
however, are Virginia and South Carolina, two showing reconstruction at
its best and worst. The reader does not need assurance that this volume
cost the author years of well-directed labour; hasty effort could not have
produced a work of such depth, breadth and variety. It will meet with
prompt welcome, I am sure, and its value will not diminish with years.
CLEMENT A. EVANS.
_Atlanta, Ga._
CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER I. THE FALLING CROSS 3
CHAPTER II. "WHEN THIS CRUEL WAR IS OVER" 9
CHAPTER III. THE ARMY OF THE UNION: THE CHILDREN AND THE FLAG 15
CHAPTER IV. THE COMING OF LINCOLN 29
CHAPTER V. THE LAST CAPITAL OF THE CONFEDERACY 47
CHAPTER VI. THE COUNSEL OF LEE 67
CHAPTER VII. "THE SADDEST GOOD FRIDAY" 77
CHAPTER VIII. THE WRATH OF THE NORTH 89
CHAPTER IX. THE CHAINING OF JEFFERSON DAVIS 101
CHAPTER X. OUR FRIENDS, THE ENEMY 107
CHAPTER XI. BUTTONS, LOVERS, OATHS, WAR LORDS, AND PRAYERS FOR
PRESIDENTS 123
CHAPTER XII. CLUBBED TO HIS KNEES 139
CHAPTER XIII. NEW FASHIONS: A LITTLE BONNET AND AN ALPACA SKIRT 147
CHAPTER XIV. THE GENERAL IN THE CORNFIELD 155
CHAPTER XV. TOURNAMENTS AND STARVATION PARTIES 167
CHAPTER XVI. THE BONDAGE OF THE FREE 179
CHAPTER XVII. BACK TO VOODOOISM 201
CHAPTER XVIII. THE FREEDMEN'S BUREAU 209
CHAPTER XIX. THE PRISONER OF FORTRESS MONROE 219
CHAPTER XX. RECONSTRUCTION ORATORY 229
CHAPTER XXI. THE PRISONER FREE 237
CHAPTER XXII. A LITTLE PLAIN HISTORY 247
CHAPTER XXIII. THE BLACK AND TAN CONVENTION: THE "MIDNIGHT
CONSTITUTION" 253
CHAPTER XXIV. SECRET SOCIETIES: LOYAL LEAGUE, WHITE CAMELIAS,
WHITE BROTHERHOOD, PALE FACES, KU KLUX 263
CHAPTER XXV. THE SOUTHERN BALLOT-BOX 281
CHAPTER XXVI. THE WHITE CHILD 297
CHAPTER XXVII. SCHOOLMARMS AND OTHER NEWCOMERS 311
CHAPTER XXVIII. THE CARPET-BAGGER 325
CHAPTER XXIX. THE DEVIL ON THE SANTEE (A RICE-PLANTER'S STORY) 341
CHAPTER XXX. BATTLE FOR THE STATE-HOUSE 353
CHAPTER XXXI. CRIME AGAINST WOMANHOOD 377
CHAPTER XXXII. RACE PREJUDICE 391
CHAPTER XXXIII. MEMORIAL DAY AND DECORATION DAY. CONFEDERATE
SOCIETIES 405
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
JEFFERSON DAVIS _Frontispiece_
FACING PAGE
THE RUINS OF MILLWOOD 6
MRS. JEFFERSON DAVIS 10
THE WHITE HOUSE 32
THE GOVERNOR'S MANSION, Richmond 36
ST. PAUL'S CHURCH 48
THE LAST CAPITOL OF THE CONFEDERACY 52
THE OLD BANK, Washington, Ga. 56
GENERAL AND MRS. JOHN H. MORGAN 62
THE LEE RESIDENCE, Richmond 68
MRS. ROBERT E. LEE 72
MRS. JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON 80
LIBBY PRISON 92
MRS. DAVID L. YULEE 110
MISS MARY MEADE 120
MRS. HENRY L. POPE 128
MRS. WILLIAM HOWELL 134
MRS. ANDREW GRAY 134
MISS ADDIE PRESCOTT 168
MRS. DAVID URQUHART 174
MRS. LEONIDAS POLK 180
MRS. ANDREW PICKENS CALHOUN 196
FORTRESS MONROE 222
HISTORICAL PETIT JURY 238
MRS. AUGUSTA EVANS WILSON 248
MME. OCTAVIA WALTON LE VERT 248
MRS. DAVID R. WILLIAMS 268
MISS EMILY V. MASON 304
MRS. WADE HAMPTON 346
RADICAL MEMBERS OF THE LEGISLATURE OF SOUTH CAROLINA 354
THE SOUTHERN CROSS 364
MRS. REBECCA CALHOUN PICKENS BACON 406
MRS. ROGER A. PRYOR 412
WINNIE DAVIS, the Daughter of the Confederacy 416
THE FALLING CROSS
CHAPTER I
THE FALLING CROSS
"The Southern Cross" and a cross that fell during the burning of Columbia
occur to my mind in unison.
With the Confederate Army gone and Richmond open to the Federal Army, her
people remembered New Orleans, Atlanta, Columbia. New Orleans, where
"Beast Butler" issued orders giving his soldiers license to treat ladies
offending them as "women of the town." Atlanta, whose citizens were
ordered to leave; General Hood had protested and Mayor Calhoun had plead
the cause of the old and feeble, of women that were with child; and of
them that turned out of their houses had nowhere to go, and without money,
food, or shelter, must perish in woods and waysides. General Sherman had
replied: "I give full credit to your statements of the distress that will
be occasioned, yet shall not revoke my orders, because they were not
designed to meet the humanities of the case. You cannot qualify war in
harsher terms than I will. War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it." "The
order to depopulate Atlanta was obeyed amid agonies and sorrows
indescribable," Colonel J. H. Keatley, U. S. A., has affirmed.
There are some who hold with General Sherman that the most merciful way to
conduct war is to make it as merciless and horrible as possible, and so
end it the quicker. One objection to this is that it creates in a
subjugated people such hatred and distrust of the conquering army and
government that a generation or two must die out before this passes away;
and therefore, in a very real sense, the method does not make quick end of
conflict.
Richmond remembered how Mayor Goodwin went to meet General Sherman and
surrendered Columbia, praying for it his pity and protection. General
Sherman had said: "Go home and sleep in peace, Mr. Mayor. Your city shall
be safe." Mayor Goodwin returned, praising General Sherman. By next
morning, the City of Gardens was almost swept from the face of the earth.
The rabble ("my bummers," General Sherman laughingly called his men set
apart for such work), pouring into the town, had invaded and sacked homes,
driving inmates--among these mothers with new-born babes--into the
streets; they had demolished furniture, fired dwellings.
Houses of worship were not spared. The Methodist Church, at whose altar
the Sabbath before Rev. William Martin had administered the Sacrament to
over four hundred negroes, was burned. So was the Ursuline Convent. This
institution was a branch of the order in Ohio; it sheltered nuns and
students of both sections; Protestant and Catholic alike were there in
sanctuary. One Northern Sister had lost two brothers in the Federal Army.
Another was joyously hoping to find in Sherman's ranks one or more of her
five Yankee brothers. The shock of that night killed her. A Western girl
was "hoping yet fearing" to see her kinsmen. Guards, appointed for
protection, aided in destruction. Rooms were invaded, trunks rifled.
Drunken soldiers blew smoke in nuns' faces, saying:
"Holy! holy! O yes, we are holy as you!" And: "What do you think of God
now? Is not Sherman greater?" Because of the sacred character of the
establishment, because General Sherman was a Catholic, and because he had
sent assurances of protection to the Mother Superior, they had felt safe.
But they had to go.
"I marched in the procession through the blazing streets," wrote the
Western girl, "venerable Father O'Connell at the head holding high the
crucifix, the black-robed Mother Superior and the _religieuses_ following
with their charges, the white-faced, frightened girls and children, all in
line and in perfect order. They sought the Catholic church for safety, and
the Sisters put the little ones to sleep on the cushioned pews; then the
children, driven out by roystering soldiers, ran stumbling and
terror-stricken into the graveyard and crouched behind gravestones."
One soldier said he was sorry for the women and children of South
Carolina, but the hotbed of secession must be destroyed. "But I am not a
South Carolinian," retorted the Western girl, "I am from Ohio. Our Mother
Superior was in the same Convent in Ohio with General Sherman's sister and
daughter." "The General ought to know that," he responded quickly. "If you
are from Ohio--that's my state--I'll help you." For answer, she pointed to
the Convent; the cross above it was falling.
They recur to my mind in unison--that cross, sacred alike to North and
South, falling above a burning city, and the falling Southern Cross,
Dixie's beautiful battle-flag.
Two nuns, conferring apart if it would not be well to take the children
into the woods, heard a deep, sad voice saying: "Your position distresses
me greatly!" Startled, they turned to perceive a Federal officer beside a
tombstone just behind them. "Are you a Catholic," they asked, "that you
pity us?" "No; simply a man and a soldier." Dawn came, and with it some
Irish soldiers to early Mass. Appalled, they cried: "O, this will never
do! Send for the General! The General would never permit it!"
At reveille all arson, looting and violence had ceased as by magic, even
as conflagration had started as by magic in the early hours of the night
when four signal rockets went up from as many corners of the town. But the
look of the desolated city in the glare of daylight was indescribable.
Around the church were broken and empty trunks and boxes; in the entrance
stood a harp with broken strings.
General Sherman came riding by; the Mother Superior summoned him; calmly
facing the Attila of his day, she said in her clear, sweet voice:
"General, this is how you keep your promise to me, a cloistered nun, and
these my sacred charges." General Sherman answered: "Madame, it is all the
fault of your negroes, who gave my soldiers liquor to drink."
General Sherman, in official report, charged the burning of Columbia to
General Hampton, and in his "Memoirs" gives his reason: "I confess that I
did so to shake the faith of his people in him"; and asserts that his
"right wing," "having utterly ruined Columbia," passed on to Winnsboro.
Living witnesses tell how that firing was done. A party of soldiers would
enter a dwelling, search and rifle; and in departing throw wads of burning
paper into closets, corners, under beds, into cellars. Another party would
repeat the process. Family and servants would follow after, removing wads
and extinguishing flames until ready to drop. Devastation for secession,
that was what was made plain in South Carolina; if the hotbed of "heresy"
had to be destroyed for her sins, what of the Confederate Capital,
Richmond, the long-desired, the "heart of the Rebellion"?
[Illustration: THE RUINS OF MILLWOOD
Millwood was the ancestral home of General Hampton, and was burned by
Sherman's orders. The property is now owned by General Hampton's sisters.]
"WHEN THIS CRUEL WAR IS OVER"