VIRGINIA AGAIN THE BATTLE-GROUND
The day came at last when our regiments were to march. They were to
rendezvous at the head of Sycamore Street, and march down to the lower
depot. Every old man and boy, matron, maiden, and child, every family
servant, assembled to bid them God-speed.
The reigning belles and beauties of Petersburg were all there,—Alice
Gregory, Tabb Bolling, Molly and Augusta Banister, Patty Hardee, Mary
and Marion Meade, pretty Helen, and my own friend Agnes.
"We are not to cry, you know," said Agnes, laying down the law by right
of seniority.
"Of _course_ not!" said Helen, winking away her tears and smiling.
Just then the inspiring notes of "Dixie," with drum and clash of cymbal,
rent the air—the first time I had heard that battle-song.
"Forward! March!" And they were moving in solid ranks, all of us keeping
step on the sidewalk, down to the depot.
[Illustration: APPOMATTOX.]
When the men were on board, and the wheels began to move, Ben leaned
out of his window and whispered to Helen, just below him:—
"Can't I have the promise now, Helen?"
"Yes, yes, Ben—_dear_ Ben, I promise!" and as the cars rolled away she
turned and calmly announced, "Girls, I'm engaged to Ben Shepard."
"_I'm_ engaged to half a dozen of them," said one.
"That's nothing," said another, "_I'm_ engaged to the whole regiment."
Poor little Helen—but I must not anticipate.
After the soldiers left, silence and anxiety fell upon the town like a
pall. What should we do next? This was the question we asked each other;
and it was answered by one of our dear women.
"We will hold a prayer meeting in each other's houses, at four o'clock
every afternoon. We can _pray_, if we cannot fight."
This meeting was held daily throughout the years of the war—and comfort
through its influence came to many a sorrowful heart.
But the lull was of short duration. The South was sending troops to help
old Virginia.
I think Beauregard's veterans can never forget their reception in
Petersburg. We were forewarned of their coming. We sent our servants
laden with trays of refreshments, we went ourselves to the depot
with flowers. Beauregard, our idol, the gallant, dashing Beauregard,
hurriedly shook hands with us and filled his arms with our flowers;
then,—"All aboard,"—and off again, to be heard from very soon at Bull
Run.
Other regiments passed through town, and none left without being
refreshed. The railroad whistles instructed us as to numbers.
It was a happy day for me when a telegram came from my Colonel at
Norfolk: "Suppose you pay me a visit!" There could be but one answer.
When the day of my departure arrived I was at the depot of the train
which was to take me to City Point, long before the time of starting;
and when I reached the terminus of the short railroad, I was in terror
lest the Richmond boat might have gone on its way without stopping for
us. Would it never come? Surely something had happened! "Oh, Captain," I
cried for the third time, as that functionary paced to and fro in front
of his little engine, "do you think the boat—" "In a moment, lady," said
the Captain, "the boat is just coming round the Point;" and sure enough,
there she was, slowing up to pick up the happiest woman in the world.
I can imagine few journeys more delightful than a sail down the James
River on a lovely summer day. The river itself is not a clear stream of
silver like the Potomac. Every stream that enters it is yellow with the
peculiar clay of the country through which it passes. But the James is,
_par excellence_, the romantic river of our country, though not like
the beautiful Hudson, misty with the dreams of Washington Irving. The
historic James needs no imaginings to enhance its charm. Seated on the
forward deck, one glides softly over enchanted waters. Could the veil
which hides the future have been lifted from my vision on this glorious
noonday, what would have been my sensations. Here at City Point, in
the venerable ivy-clad home of the Eppes family, General Grant would in
three short years make his headquarters, and would entertain President
Lincoln, General Sherman, and Admiral Porter.
Across the river the elegant colonial house of Shirley was basking in
the summer sun. Here the Carters had lived since 1720. Here Light Horse
Harry Lee had found his sweet wife, Anne Hill Carter. Here, too, was the
fine portrait of Washington by Peale, and other Revolutionary treasures.
Next to Shirley, a little higher up the river, was Turkey Island,
where the English explorers had rejoiced to find, in great numbers, the
Christmas bird, known in the mother country as early as 1527. Here had
lived the wealthy king's councilman, William Randolph, who had come to
Virginia in the good times after King Charlie had returned to "enjoy
his own again"; and here he had built a goodly house, with a portico on
three sides, surmounted by a dome visible a great way off to navigators
of the James River, the whole surmounted by an aërial structure called
the "bird cage because many birds do hover and sing about it." Seven
years were required to complete this mansion—and all these seven years,
doubtless, its master was serving like Jacob, hoping to cage one fair
bird for himself.
Just across the river, at Bermuda Hundred, lived Henry Isham, Gent:
and his wife Dame Katherine; and thither came William Randolph to smoke
with the master "a pipe of tobacco kept in a lily pot, cut on a maple
block, lighted with a coal taken with silver tongs from a brasier of
juniper"—for these were the incantations wherewith the early Virginian
wooed the subtle influences of the new gift of the gods. And as they
smoked, pretty Mary Isham played on her "cittern" to the soothing
accompaniment of the lapping waves of the river. She was a fit mate for
the young aristocrat. He could trace his lineage "from the great Earls
Murray, nay, from royalty itself"; but gentle Mary could boast on her
family tree nobler fruit than these: the Dukes of Normandy—Longue-Epée
and Sanspeur—Hugh Capet of France; the Saxon kings of England; the
Magna Charta barons; and that noble house of De Vere, which bore on its
standard the lone star, because one of their blood, hard pressed in a
battle of the Crusades, had seen in a vision a star fall from heaven and
alight upon his shield. And so it came that William and Mary Randolph
were parents of seven noble sons, and from them descended the great men
of colonial and Revolutionary Virginia—Thomas Jefferson, Richard Bland,
Chief Justice Marshall, Robert E. Lee. In all these times,—prominent in
council, in the college, in the halls of the Executive at Philadelphia,
wearing the ermine, in the presidential chair, at the bar, in the pulpit
of the Established Church, in the march, in the battle-field,—in every
place where character, wisdom, and gallant bearing were needed, we find
the descendants of William and Mary Randolph.
These were the things of which I proudly thought (for these were
my Colonel's own people) as I was slowly borne along to other
localities,—many of them where the Randolphs had lived,—all of them
linked together in one chain of historic interest. The old Randolph
mansion still existed in part, although its fine dome and pillared
porticoes had fallen into decay. As I turned my reverent eyes to this
Mecca, how would I have been cut to the heart had the future—the near
future—been revealed to me. In one short year McClellan would, before
proceeding to Harrison's Landing, rest after the disasters of the Seven
Days' Battles under the roof-tree at Turkey Island, and his gunboats
would shell the old mansion and level it to the ground when it no longer
sheltered their commander.
A bend of the river now revealed Jordan's Point, where lived in colonial
and Revolutionary days Richard Bland, the antiquary, statesman, and
patriot, over whose grave the "martial ranks of corn" were now waving,
through the stupidity of a recreant descendant. There was no house on
Jordan's Point wherein the restless ghost of pretty Cicely Jordan might
hold tryst with her many lovers, or where the wraith of the wise old
antiquary might be discerned, bending over the books "which he studieth
much." Pretty, rich, fascinating Cicely had in 1623 created so much
disturbance in the colony by her utter inability to refuse a suitor,
that she was the occasion of the famous law enacting punishment for
women who promised marriage to more than one man at a time. Here at
"Jordan's" had lived another Mary—Mary Bland—and thence Henry Lee had
borne her to Westmoreland; and Henry and Mary Lee were the grandparents
of Light Horse Harry, the father of our beloved Robert E. Lee. Here,
too, at Jordan's, Nathaniel Bacon had encamped his followers, before
leading them to avenge the outrages of the Indians.
But as I mused of these things we were passing Berkley, where lived
Giles Bland, who was executed for following Nathaniel Bacon; afterward
the home of the Harrison who signed the Declaration of Independence,
the father of "old Tippecanoe," President William Henry Harrison. If the
veil of the future had been lifted, I should have seen General McClellan
resting on the veranda here after his retreat from Malvern Hills, the
fields for miles around covered with his tents, the waters alive with
war vessels and transports.
Now, as I passed, the tired cattle, gathered under the shade of a great
oak near the river, were chewing in contentment the midday cud; and at
an outhouse within sight, a woman was setting out her newly washed milk
pails to be sweetened by the sun after her noonday dinner.
Next in interest came Westover—the fine house built by Colonel William
Byrd, to whose father my children's ancestor had sold it. "The wise
and prudent Theodorick Bland" was sleeping there, I knew, behind the
tombstone which recorded his wisdom and prudence, and on which his own
and his wife's arms were quartered, she having been the daughter of the
Colonial Governor Richard Bennett. Near him in the graveyard lay the
mortal remains of Evelyn Byrd—whose restless spirit slept not ever, but
might be seen on moonlight nights gliding among the roses.
Then "Pace's Pains," where lived the Christian Indian Chanco, who
revealed the plan for the wholesale massacre of the English in 1622,
and who saved Jamestown by a message at dawn to the authorities of the
town; and Argall's Point, where the settlers were slain in the Indian
massacre of 1619; and Jamestown, where the good Mr. Hunt stretched a
sail between two trees for an altar, consecrating the first church,
floored by the leaves and flowers of the forest and roofed by the blue
sky of heaven. And Argall's—once called Paspahegh—where Nathaniel Bacon
had halted his "tyred forlorne Body of men" to rest them before marching
on to Jamestown.
And so on and on—past Weyanoke and Brandon with its art treasures—and
Martin's Hundred, where the colonists were massacred in 1622.
How peacefully the old river glided between its banks. Now and then
voices reached us from the shores, or we paused at a busy landing to
leave a mail-bag, or to deliver packages and barrels for the dwellers
inland; or the gang-plank would be lowered for some planter going home
to his family, and soon pulled up, the great paddle-wheels churning the
thick muddy water into a creamy froth, as we were off again.
As late evening drew on the river became dark, but less silent. We
passed numbers of little skiffs with a single wing and a red eye astern,
in which the fisherman was hurrying home, sometimes singing as he
sailed. Overhead the homing birds flapped their heavy wings.
A sense of peace and calm stole over me. War? Oh, surely, surely not!
Something would prevent it. Surely, blood would not be shed because of
those insulting words in the Senate and House. God was our Father—the
Father of all. Were we not children of His covenant—His blessing
promised to the third and fourth generation? Was not the blood of the
saints in our veins?
If the veil could have been lifted, if one had said, "Behold, I shew
you a vision—you may yet avert its fulfilment," how merciful would that
have been! Could this have been vouchsafed me, I might have had unrolled
before me, that fourteenth day of June,—just three years away,—when
the man who was now drilling a small company of volunteers in Galena
would be in these waters, crossing the James at the head of 115,000 men,
sweeping for two days and nights over three lines of pontoons, marching
horse, foot, artillery, and train, straight to the spot whence I had
come in the morning of this day, going on their victorious way to lay
siege to Richmond and Petersburg, and destined to overwhelm us in the
end.
And now it was quite dark on the river. Phantom ships flashed now and
then out of the darkness, and were swallowed up again. Was that the
_Goodspeed_, or the _Susan Constant_, or perhaps the _Discovery_? Hark!
was that a war-whoop?
[Illustration: WESTOVER.]
Only the warning whistle of our own boat, as I discovered upon awaking.
Before me stood the dignified old colored woman who held the proud
position of stewardess of our boat, and beside her a young assistant who
gently removed and began to fold the shawl I had tucked around my knees.
"Honey," said the old dame, "ain't you 'fraid you'll ketch cole out
here so late?—it's time for you to go to bed. The cap'n sent me for you.
Yo' state-room is nice an' cool now. The potehole been open ever since
sundown."
I was awake and dressed by sunrise next day, our boat having arrived
after midnight at the wharf in Norfolk—and in due time the clanking of
spurs announced my Colonel! Very fine did he look in his uniform, with
my eagles bristling on each shoulder.
There was to be a dress-parade that day, in the afternoon, and he
desired me to join the ladies of the hotel in the drawing-room after
breakfast and present with his compliments an invitation to the parade.
"Do you know when and where I can see the ladies of this hotel?" I asked
my smiling colored chambermaid.
"Lor', lady, dey ain't fur off," she said. "Dey mostly sets all day in
de shady side of de po'ch pickin' lint. Dey certainly makes a heap o'
muss. Nobody can't say nuthin' to 'em; cause deyse guests of de hotel.
An' 'tain't one bit o' use. Nobody gwine to git hurt, an' if dey does,
what's de use of all dat sticky cotton?"
I found a number of ladies engaged in the veranda, but not as she had
suggested. They were very glad to meet me, and accepted my invitation.
They were making square bags out of bunting for cartridges. A gentle,
blue-eyed woman joined us and asked for work. But when it was explained
to her, she colored, her lips quivered. "Oh, I can't! I can't!"
she begged. "Let me roll bandages for wounds! I can't help with the
cartridges! You see, all my people live in Pennsylvania. My husband is
going to fight them, I know; but don't ask me to make the cartridges."
My Colonel came himself with his staff in the afternoon to escort us
to his headquarters at the Marine Hospital. On our way we passed an
abandoned house, on the walls of which grew the most glorious specimen
of fuchsia I ever beheld. I had always heard that this was a marine
plant, and I now saw to what perfection it could be brought in the sea
air. It reached to the second story and was covered with a shower of
great scarlet and blue bells. "Dixie colors," said one of the ladies.
We gathered gorgeous bunches and fastened them in our white dresses.
The parade ground was a lovely stretch of green, and beyond, the blue
waters of the sea sparkled in the afternoon sun, each little wave gemmed
with a diamond and set in sapphire.
A siege gun had just been mounted, and there was to be practice-firing
at a buoy for a mark.
I was standing with my group of friends when a handsome officer
approached with a military salute and invited me to honor his company by
firing their first gun. I went forward with him, and he put the lanyard
in my hands.
"Wait for the word of command, Madam," he said.
[Illustration: LOWER BRANDON.]
"And then what?" I inquired.
"Oh, then _pull_ steadily," and with that he stepped back.
"Make ready! Fire!"
I pulled the lanyard—but I was unprepared for the result. The great gun
backed, leaped in the air and sent a mighty roar across the waters,—the
first cannon fired by the Third Virginia Volunteers. I received the
congratulations and thanks of the Captain, and returned to my place—to
be told that my eyes were congested by the concussion, and that I must
return home and bathe and bandage them at once. Evidently I was not fit
for artillery service.