WAR IS PROCLAIMED
Upon leaving the Federal capital we proceeded to the home of Senator
Clay’s cousin, Doctor Thomas Withers, at Petersburg, Va. My husband’s
health, already feeble, had suffered greatly from the months of strife
which culminated in the scenes through which we had just passed, and we
had scarcely arrived in Petersburg when a serious collapse occurred. Mr.
Clay now became so weakened that fears were reiterated by all who saw
him that he could not survive. I was urged to take him at once to
Minnesota, the attending physicians all agreeing that this was the one
experiment in which lay a chance for prolonging his life. In those days
the air of that far western State was supposed to have a phenomenally
curative effect upon the victims of asthma, from which for years Mr.
Clay had suffered an almost “daily death.” In the present acute attack,
his body sick and his heart sore from our late ordeals, fearful of the
danger of delay, I at once put into execution plans for the northward
trip in which lay even a slender hope for his recovery. No one who had
witnessed my husband’s dignified withdrawal from the Senate, who had
heard his firm utterance of what was at once a challenge to arms and a
warning that Alabama would defend her decision to stand alone, would
have recognised the invalid now struggling for his life against the
dread disease. He was extremely emaciated.
“When I last saw you,” wrote John T. Morgan[21] from camp, some months
later, “your health scarcely justified the hope that you would become
one of the first Senators in a new Confederacy. I was grieved that when
we came to meet the great struggle in Alabama you were not permitted to
aid us further than by your counsels and recorded opinions. I rejoice
that you are again our representative in a Senate where the South is not
to be defended against foes within her own bosom, but to reap the
advantage of the wisdom and experience of her own statesmen.”
My brother-in-law, Hugh Lawson Clay, afterward Colonel on the staff of
our friend, General E. Kirby Smith, hurried, therefore, from Alabama to
accompany us upon the slow journey made necessary by Mr. Clay’s extreme
weakness.
In due time we arrived at the International Hotel, St. Paul. Here,
though our stay was short, we had an unpleasant experience, a single
one, due to sectional feeling. Having safely bestowed Mr. Clay in his
room, our brother made his way to the drug-store, which, as we entered,
we had observed was below the hotel, to purchase a necessary restorative
for my husband. While waiting there for the wrapping of the medicine,
two young men entering met, and one exclaimed to the other:
“Here’s a good chance! Clay, the fire-eating Senator from Alabama, is in
this house. Let’s mob him!”
My brother, both indignant and surprised, was also fearful lest they
should carry out their threat and thereby work incalculable evil to our
invalid. He turned promptly and addressed them:
“Mr. Clay, of whom you speak,” he said, “is my brother, and, it may be,
a hopeless invalid. He is here seeking health. You can molest him only
through me!”
But now a second surprise met him, for the two youths began a very duet
of apology, declaring they “had only been joking.” They meant no
offense, they said, and, in fact, themselves were democrats. Feeling,
they continued, was at high tide, and it was the fashion of the times to
denounce the South. Upon this frank acknowledgment the trio shook hands
and parted, nor did Senator Clay and I hear of the altercation until the
next day, when it was repeated to us by a kind friend, Mr. George
Culver, at whose home, in St. Paul, we lingered for several weeks. Here
the wonderful climate appreciably restored the invalid, and Mr. Clay was
soon able to move about, and added to his weight almost visibly.
In the meantime, the news of the gathering together of armies, both
North and South, came more and more frequently. Everywhere around us
preparations were making for conflict. The news from the seceding States
was inspiring. My husband’s impatience to return to Alabama increased
daily, stimulated, as it was, by the ardour of our many correspondents
from Montgomery and Huntsville, civil and military.
“I was improving continuously and rapidly,” he wrote to our friend E. D.
Tracy, “when Lincoln’s proclamation and that of the Governor of
Minnesota reached me, and I think I should have been entirely restored
to health in a month or two had I remained there with an easy conscience
and a quiet mind. But after those bulletins, the demonstrations against
the “Rebels” were so offensive as to become intolerable. So we left on
the 22d [April], much to the regret of the few real friends we found or
made. Many, with exceeding frankness, expressed their deep sorrow at our
departure, since I was improving so rapidly; but, while appreciating
their solicitude for me, I told them I preferred dying in my own country
to living among her enemies.”
Shortly after the breaking up of the ice in Lake Minnetonka, we bade
farewell to the good Samaritans at St. Paul and took passage on the
_Grey Eagle_. She was a celebrated boat of that day, and annually took
the prize for being the first to cut through the frozen waters. I have
never forgotten the wonders and beauties of that trip, beginning in the
still partially ice-locked lake, and progressing gradually until the
emerald glories of late April met us in the South! It was on this
journey that we caught the first real echoes of the booming guns of Fort
Sumter. The passengers on board the _Grey Eagle_ discussed the outlook
with gravity. To a friendly lady, whose sympathies were aroused on
behalf of my husband, still pale and obviously an invalid, I remember
expressing my sorrows and fears. I think I wept, for it was a time to
start the tears; but her reply checked my complainings.
“Ah, Mrs. Clay!” she said, “think how my heart is riven! I was born in
New Orleans and live in New York. One of my sons is in the Seventh New
York Regiment, and another in the New Orleans Zouaves!”
At Cairo, already a great centre of military activity for the Federals,
we caught a first gleam of the muskets of United States soldiery. A
company was drawn up in line on the river bank, for what purpose we did
not know, but we heard a rumour that it had to do with the presence on
the boat of the Southern Senator Clay, and I remember I was requested by
an oficer of the _Grey Eagle_ to place in my trunk my husband’s fine
Maynard rifle, which had been much admired by our fellow-passengers, and
which once had been shot off during the trip, to show its wonderful
carrying power. Needless to say, the possibly offending firearm was
promptly put away. After a short colloquy between the captain of the
vessel and the military officer, who appeared to catechise him, the
_Grey Eagle_ again swung out on the broad, muddy river, and turned her
nose toward Memphis. Now, as we proceeded down the important
water-course, at many a point were multiplying evidences that the
fratricidal war had begun.
Memphis, at which we soon arrived, and which was destined within a year
to be taken and held by our enemy, was now beautiful with blossoms.
Spirea and bridal wreaths whitened the bushes, and roses everywhere
shaking their fragrance to the breezes made the world appear to smile.
My heart was filled with gratitude and joy to find myself once more
among the witchery and wonders of my “ain countree”; where again I might
hear the delightful mockery of that “Yorick of the Glade,” whose
bubbling melody is only to be heard in the South land! It was a
wonderful home-coming for our invalid, too eager by much to assume his
share of the responsibilities that now rested upon the shoulders of our
men of the South. A period of complete physical weakness followed our
arrival in Mr. Clay’s native city, a busy political and military centre
in those early days.
We spent our summer in “Cosy Cot,” our mountain home, set upon the crest
of Monte Sano, which overlooks the town of Huntsville below, distant
about three miles; nor, save in the making of comparatively short trips,
did we again leave this vicinity until Mr. Clay, his health improved,
was called to take his seat in the Senate of the new Confederate
Government, at Richmond, late in the following autumn. In the meantime
Senator Clay had declined the office of Secretary of War in Mr. Davis’s
Cabinet, privately proffered, believing his physical condition to be
such as to render his assumption of the duties of that department an
impossibility. In his stead he had urged the appointment of Leroy Pope
Walker, our fellow-townsman and long-time friend, though often a legal
and political opponent of my husband.
Now, at the time of our return, Secretary Walker was at the side of our
Executive head, deep in the problems of the military control of our
forces. Communications between Huntsville and Montgomery, where the
provisional Government temporarily was established, were frequent. A
special session of Congress was sitting, and every one identified with
our newly formed Legislature at the little capital was alert and eager
in perfecting our plans for defense. We were given a side glimpse of our
President’s personal activity in the following letter received a few
days after our return to Alabama:
“MONTGOMERY, Alabama, May 10, 1861.
“... Mr. Davis seems just now only conscious of things left undone,
and to ignore the much which has been achieved. Consequently, his
time seems all taken up with the Cabinet, planning (I presume)
future operations.... Sometimes the Cabinet depart surreptitiously,
one at a time, and Mr. Davis, while making things as plain as did
the preacher the virtues of the baptismal, finds his demonstrations
made to one weak, weary man, who has no vim to contend. To make a
long story short, he overworks himself and all the rest of mankind,
but is so far quite well, though not fleshily inclined.
“There is a good deal of talk here of his going to Richmond as
commander of the forces. I hope it may be done, for to him military
command is a perfect system of hygiene.... There have been some here
who thought, with a view to the sanitary condition, that the
Government had better be moved to Richmond, and also that it would
strengthen the weak-fleshed but willing-spirited border States....
This is a very pretty place, and, were not the climate as warm as is
the temperament of the people, it would be pleasant; but nearly all
my patriotism oozes out, not unlike Bob Acres’ courage, at the
pores, and I have come to the conclusion that Roman matrons
performed their patriotism and such like duties in the winter. I
wish your health would suffice for you to come and see the Congress.
They are the finest-looking set of men I have ever seen collected
together—grave, quiet and thoughtful-looking men, with an air of
refinement which makes my mind’s picture gallery a gratifying
pendant to Hamlin, Durkee, Doolittle, Chandler, etc....
“The market is forlorn, but then we give our best and a warm
welcome. If you are able to come and make us a visit, we will have
the concordances of Washington and Montgomery.... Mrs. Mallory is in
town on a short visit, Mrs. Fitzpatrick and the Governor, Mrs.
Memminger, Constitution Brown and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Toombs (the
latter is the only person who has a house). I could gossip on _ad
infinitum_....”
In Huntsville a feeling of diligence in preparation was everywhere
evident. Our historic little town was not only in the direct line of
travel between larger cities, and therefore a natural stopping place for
travellers; but, by reason of the many legal and political lights
residing there, and because of its being the county seat of one of the
most affluent counties in northern Alabama, was, and is, a town of
general interest throughout the State. Almost in an unbroken line, the
United States Senators of northern Alabama have been citizens of my
husband’s native town.
Situate among the low hills that separate the higher points of the
Cumberland range, Huntsville smiles up at the sky from a rare
amphitheatre, hollowed in the cedar-covered mountains. It is in the
heart of one of the most fertile portions of the Tennessee Valley.
Within an hour’s swift ride, the Tennessee flood rolls on its romantic
way, and as near in another direction is the forked Flint River, every
bend along its leafy edges a place of beauty. Up hill and down dale,
ride wherever one will, may be seen the hazy tops of mountains,
disappearing in the blue ether, and intervening valleys yellow with corn
or white with cotton, or green with the just risen grain. In the summer
the sweetness of magnolia and jasmine, of honeysuckle and mimosa, scents
the shady avenues along which are seen, beyond gardens and magnolia
trees, the commodious town houses of the prosperous planters. Among
these affluent surroundings a high public spirit had been nourished.
Here the first State Legislature of Alabama was convened and that body
met which formed the State Constitution. The simple structure in which
those early statesmen gathered (being, in general, representatives from
the families of Virginia and the Carolinas) stood yet intact in the
early part of 1903. The first newspaper printed in Alabama, yclept the
_Madison Gazette_, was published in Huntsville, and Green Academy
(taking its name from the rich sward that surrounded it), a renowned
institution of learning, was long a famous feature of Twickenham Town,
by which name Huntsville was once known.
In the early days of the township’s existence, a hot contest continued
for years to wage between the followers of two of its richest settlers
as to the future appellation of the pretty place. The friends of Colonel
Pope, who had contributed from the very centre of his plantation the
square upon which was built the County Court House, for a time overbore
the opposing parties and named the town in honour of the birthplace of
the immortal poet; but, though this choice was ratified by legislative
act, the adherents of the pioneer, John Hunt, refused to yield their
wishes. Mr. Hunt had discovered the site of the town while still the
valley was part of the Territory of Mississippi. Lured by the deer he
was stalking, he had come upon the big spring, gushing with limpid
waters. Here he pitched his tent, and, gathering others about him, he
fostered the building of the town which, until the contest that arose
with the aristocratic Colonel Pope, was known as Huntsville. For two
years, until the original name was restored by a second act of
Legislature, the little city was known as “Twickingham Town,” and to
many of its old families this name remains so dear that among themselves
it still continues to be affectionately applied.
Half the youth of Alabama in that early day delved in the classics under
the guidance of the studious professors of Green Academy. It was
situated in a large plot of ground which commanded a view of the
mountain. Its site was given to the town by Judge William Smith (the
warm friend of Andrew Jackson) on the condition that it should be used
only for a building for educational purposes forever. This distinguished
judge was, I think, the only man until Roscoe Conkling to refuse a seat
on the Supreme Court Bench of the United States.[22]
The charms and fascinations and general winsomeness of the girls of the
lovely vale, even in that early period, in a measure may be imagined
from the references to them in the following letter, written to Clement
C. Clay, Jr., by this time entered at the State University at
Tuscaloosa:
“FEBRUARY 2, 1833.
“_My Dear Clement_: Richard Peete, Jere Clemens, Richard Perkins,
Withers Clay, John E. Moore[23] and myself are in a class reading
Horace and _Graeca Majora_. Clio is nearly broken up, and I fear it
will never be revived, as the members do nothing but walk with the
girls, nor do they appear to think of anything else. The girls in
this town are the most jealous little vixens that ever breathed. I
would advise you as a friend (for I have gone through the fiery
ordeal, and should know something of the character of woman) to keep
a respectful distance from the fair ones; for, if you mingle with
them at all, you will be persuaded to mingle with them more and
more. How much I would give if they would never harass me more!”
The roll of Huntsville’s prominent men includes a peculiarly large
number of names that have been potent in State and National capitals, in
civil and in military life. Scarcely a stone in its picturesque “God’s
Acre” but bears a name familiar to the Southern ear. From under the low
hill on which the columned Court House and historic National Bank
building stand, the Big Spring gushe, which has had its part in swelling
the city’s fame. Where its source lies none can say, though myths are
plenty that tell of subterranean caves through which it passes, and
which gleam with stalactite glories. Trickling freely from the sides of
the mountain beyond are numerous medicinal springs, and silver streams
thread their way among the valleys; but nowhere within the Tennessee
region exists a flow that at all may be compared with Huntsville’s “Big
Spring.” If Hygeia still exercises her functions, her modern home is
surely here. The flow of clear limestone water as it issues from the
rocks is wonderfully full and seemingly boundless. Since the founding of
the town the spring has supplied all the needs of the residents, and
that of armies camped about it. So late as 1898 its splendid daily yield
of twenty-four million gallons influenced the present Government to
locate in and about the pretty city, while awaiting the development of
the Cuban War, an army of twenty thousand men.
In the sixties the spring was already famous. From time immemorial the
pool below it had served the same purpose for the negroes about as did
the River Jordan for the earlier Christians, and a baptism at the Big
Spring, both impressive and ludicrous, was a sight never to be
forgotten. The negroes came down the hill, marching with solemn steps to
weird strains of their own composing, until they reached the edge of the
stream that forms below the spring. Here the eager candidates for
immersion were led into the water, when, doused for a moment, they would
come up again shrieking shrilly a fervent Hallelujah! As a rule, two
companions were stationed near to seize the person of the baptised one
as it rose, lest in a paroxysm of religious fervour he should harm
himself or others. As the baptisms, always numerous, continued, the
ardour of the crowd of participants and onlookers was sure to augment,
until a maniacal mingling of voices followed, that verged toward
pandemonium. The ceremony was as strange and blood-curdling as any rite
that might be imagined in the interior of the Dark Continent.
Once, upon the occasion of a visit of two New York friends, one
candidate for baptism, a black man, a veritable Goliath, broke loose
from those who tried to hold him and ran up the hill in his ecstasy,
bellowing like a wounded buffalo. The sounds were enough to excite
unmixed horror in the unaccustomed listener, but the appearance of the
enthusiast to me was more comical than terrifying; for, being in his
stockings, and these conspicuous by reason of their enormous holes, his
heels, revealed at every step, appeared as they flashed up the acclivity
like the spots on a bull-bat’s wings. When this sable son of Anak took
the field, the spectators scattering right and left, my friends turned
toward me as if panic-stricken. They paused but a brief moment, then,
“standing not upon the order of their going,” they, too, fled from the
possible charge of the half-crazed enthusiast. It was no uncommon thing
at such baptisms for the candidates to suffer from an attack of “Jerks,”
a kind of spasm which resulted from their excited imaginations. I have
seen the strength of four stout men tested to its utmost to hold down
one seemingly delicate negress, who, fired by the “glory in her soul,”
was now become its victim, jerking and screaming in a manner altogether
horrible to witness.
Above the spring and about the picturesque Square and Court House, in
the spring and early summer of ’1, the gay-hearted youth of Madison
County, thronging to the county seat, met in companies to drill and
prepare themselves for service in the war now upon us. Already, by the
early part of June, Alabama had “contributed to the Confederacy about
20,000 muskets and rifles,” though she retained of these, “for her own
immediate protection and defense, only four thousand! I hope,” wrote
Governor A. B. Moore, in sending this information to Mr. Clay, “that
volunteer companies throughout the State will put the rifles and
double-barrelled shot-guns in order, and drill them until called into
actual service.”
The youths and men of Madison County needed small urging. They were
heart and soul for the conflict that at last must be waged to preserve
the homes of their fathers, the heritages that were to be theirs, and
their right to independent government. These were the incentives of our
soldiers, allied to each other, regiment by regiment, by blood and long
association. There was no need for alien hirelings to swell our ranks.
The questions at issue were vital, and every Southern man who could bear
arms sprang eagerly to assume them.
Upon our arrival in Huntsville we found the city alive with preparations
for defense, our mail heavy with reports from every quarter of the
South, of friends and kinsmen who had entered the army, and many
exhilarated by the battles already won. An idea may be gathered of the
confluent interests that bound together our Southern army, by a mention,
as an example, by no means unique, of the ramifications of the two
families represented by Senator Clay and myself. My husband’s uncle,
General Withers, was already in command at Mobile; his brother, Hugh
Lawson Clay, was in Lynchburg, recruiting; his cousin, Eli S. Shorter,
was enrolled as Colonel in the C. S. A., besides whom there were
enlisted numerous cousins of the Withers, Comer, and Clayton families.
Thirty-nine cousins of my own, bearing the name of Williams, were in the
field at one time, and innumerable Arlingtons, Drakes and Boddies,
Hilliards, Tunstalls and Battles served the beloved cause in various
capacities in civil and military life.
[Illustration:
L. Q. C. LAMAR
1862
]
These conditions knit neighbourhoods as well as regiments very closely
together, and largely go to furnish an explanation of our long struggle
against the numerically superior armies of our invaders. Our victories
in those early days were great, though the blood spilled to gain them
was precious; but the sound of mourning was stilled before the greater
need for encouragement to the living. “Beauregard and Johnston have
given the fanatics something to meditate upon,” wrote a cousin in July
of ’1. “A despatch says that our loss was three thousand, theirs seven
thousand. Steady Beauregard and brave Johnston! We owe them our
gratitude!”
Yes! we owed them gratitude and we gave it to them and to every man in
the ranks. The women at home knitted and sewed, sacrificed and prayed,
and wept, too, especially the aged, as they packed away the socks and
underwear and such comforts for the young men in the field as might be
pressed into a soldier’s knapsack. “I met Mr. Lamar’s mother,” wrote my
sister from Macon, late in May, “and spoke to her of her son’s having
gone to Montgomery. She had not heard of it before and burst into tears!
This is her fourth and last son gone to the war!”
From Huntsville had gone out the gallant E. D. Tracy, who, now at
Harper’s Ferry, wrote back most thrilling accounts of military
proceedings in that important section of our Confederate States:
“I continue entirely well,” began a letter dated from Camp, near
Harper’s Ferry, June 8, 1861: “And, while I perfectly agree with, since
conversing with, General Smith, in regard to our situation, am in good
spirits. I trust I am ready to die _when my hour comes_, as becomes a
Christian soldier and gentleman; until that hour, I am proof against
shell and shot. If the enemy attacks us ‘we’ll memorise another
Golgotha’ and achieve a victory, or martyrdom. Our men believe the post
to be impregnable and are anxious for fight; if they were better
informed, I have no idea that their courage would be in the least
abated.
“From the arrival of troops during the last few days, I conclude that it
is the purpose of Government to hold Harper’s Ferry. At one time I think
that point was undecided, and am glad to believe that it is now settled
as stated. The moral effect of an evacuation of a place believed to be a
Gibraltar would be terribly disastrous to our cause; it would encourage
our enemies, depress our troops, and disappoint the expectation of the
world. Better that we perish in making a gallant defense than that such
consequences should be risked.”
My sister, Mrs. Hugh Lawson Clay, who had joined her husband in
Lynchburg, wrote buoyantly, yet gravely, from that troubled centre: “I
wrote you a long, long letter last Saturday,” begins one epistle from
her, “but Mr. Clay would not let me send it, because, he said, I told
too much. He was afraid it might be read by other eyes than yours.... I
look hourly to hear the result of an awful battle. I cannot but fear,
for we cannot hope to gain such victories often as the one at Bethel
Church.... Here we hear everything, for there are persons passing all
the time to and from Winchester and Manassas Junction. So many men from
this place are stationed there that mothers and sisters manage to hear
every day. Mr. Tracy wrote in his last that he fully expected to be in a
big battle. His men were eager for the fight, and he would be sure to
write as to the result, if it did not result in a termination of his
life’s candle!”
[Illustration:
MRS. PHILIP PHILLIPS
of Washington, D. C.
]
As the time drew near for the opening of Congress in Richmond, Mr.
Clay’s health, spurred to a better state by an eager patriotism, eager
to express itself in the forum if debarred from the field, became
appreciably restored, and preparations were begun for an absence of a
few months from Huntsville. Anxious as everyone was throughout the
South, and feeling the strain even of victory, now flowing toward us and
again ebbing to our enemies, my husband and I had few misgivings
concerning the safety of the home we were leaving. A hundred greater
dangers surrounded Richmond (as it was thought), that lay so near to the
Federal lines and was the prize above all others which we looked to see
grappled for. Yet our field lay there, and, in anticipation, it seemed a
pleasant and an active one, for already it was peopled with throngs of
our former friends.
“I almost imagined myself in Washington,” wrote Mrs. Philip Phillips,
now returning from the Federal capital, where for months she had been a
prisoner. “There are so many dear, old friends [in Richmond]—Mrs.
Mallory, Mrs. Joe Johnston, and others—awaited us at the Spottswood
Hotel. I spent an evening with Mrs. Davis, who received me with great
feeling.... We have a terrible struggle before us. The resources of
Lincoln’s army are great, and a defensive war will prove our greatest
safeguard, but, it is presumption in speaking thus; only, having come so
recently from the seat of war, my ideas, founded upon practical
knowledge of what is going on at the North, may derive some value. I
brought on from Washington, sewed in my corsets, a programme of the war
sent to me by a Federal officer, many of whom are disaffected. The
capitalists of the North demand a decisive blow, else they will not back
the Government.”