Bluff about seven miles below Richmond, and a sort of an excursion
steamer enabled visitors to inspect the fortifications. In the
neighborhood of Drury’s Bluff further down the River was the Howlett
House, historical for being at various periods first in the Confederate
lines and then in the Union. Upon a visit I paid to it in Company with
Col. Herbert of the 17th Virginia Regiment and the Rev. Mr. Perkins, the
Chaplain, we obtained a magnificent view of the surrounding country and
of both armies, our own and the Union. Dutch Gap was in the distance and
Butlers Tower was in front of us and down on the river shore below us
were thousands of shells that had been fired by the Union batteries and
had failed to explode. In returning from the Howlett House to the
station of the 17th Virginia, sharpshooters in the Union lines began
firing at us and the bullets threw up the dirt around us in a lively
fashion. I feel convinced the sharpshooters were trying to see how near
they could come to us without hitting us, my companions however
preferred to get down below the raise in the ground. The same spirit of
play I think must have actuated the batteries that were continually
firing shells that went clear over the fortifications and way behind,
possibly a mile or so. The fortifications were constructed in a very
formidable way. The front of the raised earth was a labyrinth of brush
and sharpened stakes pointing outward. Inside of the fortifications were
deep ravines cut in the earth, turning and twisting with pillars of
earth at intervals, so as to permit the sentries to approach the
breastworks without exposure. The quarters of the soldiers were usually
dugouts, covered with raised wooden tops. The sleeping bunks were below
the ground and each location had a fire place. One of my nights was
spent in one of these with a corporal of one of the companies of the
17th Virginia. His room mate was absent. Before entering he handed me a
copy of David Copperfield and this was my first introduction to the
delights of Dickens’ works. The corporal also offered me a flour
biscuit, the only one he had; as I knew the meaning of it to him I
declined. During the night we were aroused by a night attack at the
front a few hundred yards away, which compelled my room mate to go
there. I had never heard so many bullets whistle over head before and
the sound was more intense from the stillness of the night, the attack,
however, was of short duration.
The most interesting scene in camp life was the church service on Sunday
night. The soldiers were in winter quarters and a good sized frame
tabernacle had been erected with seats around on boards very much like a
circus. The auditorium was crowded, of course exclusively with soldiers
and a more impressive service and a more deeply interested and serious
set of men I never saw. The two opposing lines, Confederate and Union,
had been so long fixed at this point and they were respectively so
securely intrenched that matters looked quite permanent and these
conditions led to interchange of friendly relations between the two
sides leading to exchange of newspapers, tobacco, etc. The slenderness
of the Confederate soldier’s equipment was constantly in evidence and
the contrast with his bounteously supplied enemy made his situation
often pathetic. Upon one occasion during this visit of mine to the 17th
Virginia the quartermaster’s wagon came around to dole out a few
articles and among the things given was a cotton shirt to a middle aged
member of a Norfolk Company which excited the jealousy and anger of a
young man in the same company who declared that the older was not
entitled to the shirt and did not need it and that he had money hidden
away. The scarcity of food in Richmond several times led to distressing
scenes, resulting in some instances to public riots, in which women
seemed to take the leading part. Their outcry for bread gave to these
affairs the designation of “bread riots” and several of a very serious
nature took place during the closing years of the war resulting in
considerable destruction of property in an effort on the part of the mob
to break into stores and resulting also in great suffering and
excitement before the disturbances were quelled.
It was an experience not possessed by many to have seen from time to
time pass through Richmond the Confederate soldiers that composed the
entire army of General Lee. Added to this however it was my fortune
after the war to see the entire armies of General Grant and General
Sherman pass through Richmond on their march to Washington. They all
passed one point where I was stationed, namely, at Broad and First
streets on their way up Broad street and out the Brook Turnpike. There
were three features that were prominent in connection with these Union
armies, one was the well dressed, well kept appearance of the soldiers,
another the vast number of their bands of music in marked contrast with
scarcely any in our army and another the great number of horses the
cavalrymen possessed, some had three and four horses each, and I
concluded that the South through which the Union armies passed, must
have been pretty well denuded of its horses.
After the war the President’s house was used as head quarters for the
general in command of the Union troops in Richmond. And as my father was
the only Homeopathic physician in Richmond and very many Federal
officers with their families preferred homeopathy and employed him I had
favorable opportunities for knowing certain things about which some
confusion subsequently existed. This knowledge enabled me to correct a
statement some years since that was circulated extensively through the
public press with reference to General Lee. It had been declared by
General Adam Badeau that immediately upon the close of the war when
General Lee returned to Richmond he and his family were the recipients
of aid from General Grant who practically provided for the support of
General Lee’s family. I knew all the circumstances which gave a
plausible foundation for this story. My father, as I have stated, was
Mrs. Lee’s physician; he was also the physician among other Federal
officers of General Peter Michie, the Federal quartermaster general. An
offer courteously and with delicacy was made to General Lee of any aid
the temporary situation of his family might require. General Lee however
was under no necessity of availing himself of this aid and none in
consequence was given. General Lee had devoted friends, able and willing
to render any aid that might have been needed to whom he would naturally
have looked for aid had such been required. He was at that time, as I
have stated, living in the house of Mr. John Stewart, a wealthy
Scotchman who had settled long before the war in Richmond. Whatever may
have been the arrangement for rent I understand that Mr. Stewart
declined to accept anything in settlement, and as a Scotchman can not be
made to recede from his position no doubt no rent was paid.
One of the incidents to the rehabilitation of Richmond after the
evacuation and the accompanying disastrous fire was the great influx of
mercantile firms from the North with every kind of goods imaginable. Why
they should have rushed in thus with their oceans of merchandise to sell
to impoverished Confederates was to me a mystery. As might be imagined
prices fell very low and large numbers of the new comers failed
completely. Another incident of the new order of things was the flooding
of the City with counterfeit money, particularly small notes for
fractional amounts of a dollar, some of the counterfeits being wretched
productions. Another feature was the way in which architects and
builders from the North stepped in to help rebuild the burned district,
resulting in better buildings than before, but with in many cases no
commensurate profit to the builders. At that time was first introduced
into Richmond the ground rent system that prevails so extensively in
Baltimore and Philadelphia. The first house under this system was built
on a lot where had stood the house from which salt orders had been
issued during the war. The salt mines belonged to and were worked by the
State and a system of free distribution was inaugurated in consequence
of the scarcity and the necessity of salt so that each householder
depending upon the size of his family was entitled to receive
gratuitously a certain quantity weekly for which an order was issued to
him.
The most gruesome sight during the war was to see the vast numbers of
wounded Confederate soldiers brought into Richmond in the trains. This
was constantly occurring and was most noticeable during the great
battles in the neighborhood of Fredericksburg. The attention given to
the wounded appeared to be scant before reaching Richmond. And they were
brought down on the Richmond and Fredericksburg Railroad and unloaded on
Broad street to be taken to the hospitals very much as they were taken
from the field of battle. How they were able to pass through the
suffering they must have endured before reaching the hospital was a
miracle, only to be accounted for by the life of exposure to the open
air, endurance and their strong vitality.
Blockade running was carried on as an extensive business all through the
war, but reached its highest state of accomplishment in the closing year
before the fall of Richmond. It was of a two fold character; one, of
ships with Wilmington, North Carolina, as the port and the other of
individuals who crossed the Potomac at night usually landing at
Leonardtown, Charles County, Maryland. The ships took out cargoes of
cotton, as this was about the only article, unless it was tobacco, left
to be exported from the Southern Confederacy and they brought in return
a miscellaneous cargo, not very extensive and not very large, most of
the cotton shipments winding up as credits abroad in many cases for
agents of the Confederate government, in other cases for individuals,
either singly or as syndicates. For it became common in Richmond for a
number of gentlemen to form a combination and make a shipment of cotton
by a blockade runner for the profit it furnished. Almost all the ships
that ran the blockade in and out of Wilmington flew the British flag and
were English boats. Blockade running on the Potomac was another
consideration. Its ordeal can best be illustrated by an attempt made by
my mother and a friend of hers under unusual favorable circumstances.
The trip from Richmond to the Potomac had to be made by private
conveyance of some sort for there were no public vehicles or way of
getting them and for entertainment en route reliance would have to be
placed on such friendly housing and entertainment as could be secured
from the inhabitants of the country through which one passed. There were
no hotels or taverns, and as the inhabitants were not over well
supplied, were in constant apprehension of the questionable strangers
who made a business of blockade running, it can be conceived what
difficulties must be encountered by any one who adopted this method of
passing through the lines. It would have been easier perhaps to have
gone by a flag of truce. A well known Southerner who is now in a
prominent position in New York City had attention attracted to him by
two occurrences that took place in his younger days. He was a general in
the Confederate army and he resigned and joined the army as a private,
that was quite sensational. Again he went out one day in front of the
outer line of breastworks near Petersburg to exchange newspapers or some
other thing as was the custom during the interims of fighting and two
soldiers from the Union lines came out half way to meet him. When they
reached midway between the breastworks on each side each Union soldier
took him by the arms and marched him into their own lines. That was more
sensational still and was susceptible of several constructions. The
incident subjected him to undoubtedly unjust criticism and the true
construction was that the Union soldiers had violated the conventional
arrangement under which the belligerents exchanged small articles, but
it indicated that the Union side were not averse to “receiving” all that
came and that going by flag of truce would have been less difficult on
the Union side than on the Confederate and that persons on a peaceful
mission, particularly ladies need not have selected the hardships of a
Potomac blockade running to have gotten through the lines.
My two sisters had been left North to attend school on my father’s
exchange as a state prisoner and my mother’s mission was to visit them.
My father’s official and professional relations secured for the trip
from the Confederate government a covered ambulance, two mules and a
colored driver. They were also supplied by personal friends with letters
of introduction to persons at whose houses they expected to stop on the
route to the Potomac. The trip was to occupy about three days and the
point of destination was as usual opposite Leonardtown, Charles County,
Maryland. The first day was spent in a tiring, uninteresting ride over
bad roads and the day’s journey terminated at the hospitable house of
Muscoe Garnett near Newton in King and Queen County at whose house I
subsequently spent a delightful summer, the next day’s journey similar
in character terminated at the equally hospitable home of the Warings on
the Rappahannock River in Essex County, where I also some years after
visited. The third day’s journey, just like the two proceeding, brought
them to the Potomac in Westmoreland County at the Wirt House. The
following day arrangements were made for effecting a crossing of the
river and this was termed “running the blockade.” Success required the
trip to be at night, without moon or stars, with good weather and smooth
water, a rather difficult combination where the river was several miles
wide and Union patrol boats constantly on the lookout for blockade
runners. At the appointed time, with conditions satisfactory, their boat
cleared the shore, when suddenly the moon came out, a patrol boat was
made out in the distance and the sail boat was compelled in consequence
to return, with no further chance of success that night. After several
days of waiting and constant unwillingness on the part of the boatman to
make the venture, in which at every attempt, he ran the risk of losing
both his boat and his liberty, they were fain to abandon the attempt,
this being a common experience in blockade running. And they were
compelled to return again to Richmond. Successful blockade running
across the Potomac was usually done by two only, the boatman and one
passenger, usually a man, a woman blockade runner added to the
difficulties and lessened a successful issue. Two women would constitute
almost insuperable difficulties and it had better been left unattempted.
It was easier to go by ship from Wilmington to Nassau, the usual
rendezvous of blockade runners and then from that point by a ship to New
York; for blockade running in and out of Wilmington was common and easy.
While personal travel through the lines was as shown difficult and full
of excitement and trials, communication by letter was easy and frequent.
This was by way of flag of truce boat. Every letter however was opened,
read and stamped as inspected and if it was free from suspicion and
about personal matter only it reached its destination. Any suspicious
circumstances however such as ambiguity of expression, or anything of
hidden meaning which might convey information regarded as detrimental to
the government subjected the letter to oblivion.
After the war closed the condition of the Confederate graves in
Hollywood cemetery was so deplorable that a general call was extended to
all ex-Confederate soldiers in Richmond to volunteer to put them in
condition. At the time appointed great numbers assembled at the Cemetery
for the purpose, including very many old cadets. Each particular
division of the graves had a certain number assigned to it and there
fell to the cadets a plot in the lower ground comprising several hundred
graves. Each one of the cadets was furnished a hoe and the task that at
once confronted us was how we were to distinguish the precise location
of each grave. None of these graves were marked and all any of us knew
was that wherever there was any indication of the grave, there had been
placed the remains of a Confederate soldier. It seems to me that however
loving our motive, we had better left undone our volunteer task, for all
the workers in common solved their difficulty in identifying exact
outlines of graves by raising at regular and even intervals the little
mounds that were supposed to cover the places of interment, so that if
any indications previously existed as to the precise location of any
grave whereby some one familiar with the surroundings would have
identified it, these were effectually destroyed by this service in
putting in decent order the burial places of the dead. And it was
utterly impossible thereafter to tell the exact resting place of any
whose grave was unmarked, the condition of very nearly all.
One of the most disastrous results of the war was the effect on the
education of the men of the South. With few exceptions all the young men
at college or school old enough to volunteer did so, with the resulting
loss of four years of the best period of their life for studying. At the
close of the war, the necessities of some were such that providing for
themselves or their families effectually removed from them the
possibilities of further education. Others again struggled under most
adverse conditions and with many privations to acquire the requisite
means to complete their education, working on farms and engaging in
manual labor that always theretofore had been relegated exclusively to
the negro slaves. In many cases the period for accomplishing the result
dragged on for years after the close of the war and even as late as
1871, six years after the close of the war there was in the same law
class with me at the University of Virginia, a number of ex-Confederate
soldiers and among the nineteen of us who received the degree of B. L.
were two, one of whom had been a Captain and the other a Major in the
Confederate army.
The condition of the ex-Confederates residing in the country was
measurably better than those in the cities and towns, for the former
could at the least scrape together in one way or another some sort of a
living. In the towns and cities however through the South the struggle
to obtain a footing was more intense, and among the methods adopted to
furnish employment to ex-Confederates was one of almost national
character involving what was then regarded as a very large capital with
prospects supposed to be brilliant both in furnishing extensive
employment for competent men and securing great financial returns for
its promoters and subscribers, and that was the establishment of the
Southern Express Company. General Joseph E. Johnson was made president
of the company and almost every officer and employee from the highest to
the lowest was an ex-Confederate soldier. These two pleas, employment of
ex-Confederates and great financial returns, particularly the former
were the basis upon which the subscriptions to the stock were generally
secured. An additional incentive was that only a small cash payment
(usually ten per cent of the subscription) was required from the
stockholders. The balance it was supposed would likely be made up from
profits. From the start liberal salaries were paid and assiduously
drawn. Nearly all the transportation business was done on credit, the
railroads and transportation companies being exceedingly liberal in
this, with the rapid result from inexperience in such business and
competition against an old established company and its skilled
employees, that the Southern Express Company soon ceased to do business,
owing a vast amount of debts to its employees for unpaid salaries and to
transportation companies for unpaid freight. The sequel resulted in an
assignment by the company for the benefit of creditors and an
administration of its assets in the Chancery Court of Richmond, where
the stockholders were assessed their unpaid subscriptions, resulting in
a crop of suits to collect them that extended through many states of the
Union, particularly Virginia, Maryland, Missouri and New York.
The war had a very slight effect on the negro’s character as a slave in
the South, so far as he was capable of comprehending and entertaining
any sympathies, most of the slaves had a vague idea that success to the
Union Army meant freedom for the slave and hence naturally they felt no
ill toward this result, neither did they entertain ill will towards
those who had held them in slavery, for contrary to the general
impression of the North the negro slaves were treated with the greatest
consideration, not harshly, but just the reverse. Any master who omitted
to properly clothe and feed his slaves, to assiduously care for them in
sickness and old age and to treat them justly and humanely was not only
ostracised by his neighbors and acquaintances but his family suffered
seriously in social position so that no slaveholder was to be found who
could weather the trials to which an acknowledged brutal master was
subjected. This tenderness for the slave was so pronounced that all
persons who occupied a dominant position with reference to him, such as
the overseer or slave dealer were regarded as occupying an inferior
position and were excluded from social relations with the slave holders,
not from an imagined superiority of the latter, as sometimes alleged,
but purely from the “offensiveness” of their occupation. And I believe
it can be said with the endorsement of all who knew that the negro as a
whole was better cared for, and healthier and happier in slavery than in
freedom.
The hotels in Richmond that remained in operation clear up until the
evacuation by the Confederate troops were the Spotswood at the corner of
Main street and 8th street, the American on Main street opposite the
Post Office, and the Powhatan at the corner of Broad and 11th streets.
The Spottswood was the leading hotel and there the higher Confederate
officers stopped when in Richmond. It was burned shortly after the war
closed. The American was a popular hotel, well patronized by Confederate
soldiers, officers and men, and always crowded. It was burned in the
fire at the evacuation. The Powhatan was patronized to a certain extent
by Confederate soldiers, the generality of its patrons were members of
the Legislature.