November 21, 1862
Thursday night
At home again & again alone. On Monday I went up on horse back to Fathers & met Sue on the road coming to see me. Lee has crossed the Blue Ridge unmolested after all the vaunts of the Northern Press that McClellan had him cut off and held all the Gaps! They held no such thing. Snickers & other important ones were in our possession. Still his position was a dangerous one & we are doubly thankful that our headquarters are now at Culpepper Court House where we can watch & fall upon them when & where our General thinks best. McClellan was removed because he would not advance although positively ordered to do so. The Democratic party at the North are indignant & in fact say that it has made McClellan the next President. Burnside must advance or resign, as he was placed in command solely to do so. If he fails he is lost, but should he succeed! Ah! Then what will be our fate? But my trust is in God! He giveth Victory!
On Tuesday Sue & I rode over to Montrose to give brother a call. Found him in the field & as usual dolefully dismal. A wild rumour is running through the country to the effect that an order has been issued to burn all the Cotton in this section by the 25th, but I do not believe it. If so it is a renunciation of this part of the country & I do not believe the authorities insane as yet tho they do keep Gen French in command.
Came home & found the mail awaiting us. Mr Randolph, Sec of War, has resigned; cause said to be a disagreement with the President who wishes to curtail his power & make all the appointments himself. I do not believe it. I think it is only one of the Examiner’s slanders. I do not like that paper. It has not respect enough for the “the powers that be,” – ignores the fact altogether that they are “ordained of God.” There has been a dash of Cavalry into Fredericksburg capturing some woolen cloth manufactured there for the Army. Our Cavalry stationed there seemed to have behaved badly as they could have cut them off & captured the whole of them had they been on the alert & not feared they were the Vanguard of a host who followed at their heels.
On Wednesday came down here, weighted & marked 22 bales of Cotton, & sent them off to Halifax in obedience to orders from Mr E. I know he intended trying to sell them, so perhaps he has done so, or the order may be true. Sue was with me. We had lunch & chatted pleasantly together & got back just in time for dinner – found Mr E awaiting us. He brought Mary & her children down with him, much to the surprise of everyone, as we fear that our condition is not secure enough for father to undertake the care of another female & two children. In case of a Yankee raid he will have his hands full!
Mr Leary had been at father’s during our absence & to our sorrow we learned that my nephew Thomas Jones had been captured by a Co of Buffalos whilst collecting clothing for his men. He had succeeded in getting a large quantity when they laid their hands upon him. I hope he will soon be released as we have a surplus of prisonners, but God be with & help him. Mr L gave us a hope that he would be retaken, as our men were after them, but it was only a hope, as our troops do not seem to be successful in that quarter. They want leaders. News from Fredericksburg that a few days after the cavalry expedition (which was but a handful & for the purpose of reconnaissance, which we should not have allowed & could have prevented) a large body of troops advanced & occupied Falmouth on the opposite side of the river. A brisk Artillery fight was going on, but without much effect on either side. It is surmised that Burnside intends him “On to Richmond” by that route.
Mr E was successful in his application to the Gov. He promised to send Maj Winder down to examine the River & to report on the possibility of its being obstructed, sot the carriage went immediately back for him & we came home the next morning, Thursday, on horseback. In due time he arrived, a gentlemanly quiet person who made a most agreeable impression on me, & this morning early they were off, intending to go first to Hamilton & see what the Confederate authorities were doing & act accordingly, so as not to clash with them. Brother went down yesterday with a gang of free negroes, who he called “Falstaff’s ragged Regt,” to report to eh Engineer in command of the defences projected by Gen Gwynn. I hope they will be successful. That grounding of their Gun boats at Williams Bar was a most excellent thing for us & will I hope deter them from any future attempts this way. Mary met a Lady who had been detained some months in Maryland by the Abolition authorities & refused permission to come South to her husband, one Capt Kennedy. She gave her a most terrible picture of the oppression & tyranny exercised by the Northern Governt, spies everywhere, arrests, searching for clothing & supplies for the Confederate Army, insults to women, imprisonment without charges & the writ of Habeas Corpus suspended – seizure of private papers & all the machinery of a despotic government suddenly developed full grown & in its most odious form!
One story I must insert. From the lower part of Maryland which is staunch to the South large quantities of clothing & particularly socks have been sent over into Va for the Confederate Army by the ladies acting on their own part & as their feelings dictated. This has excited the wrath of the Lincoln Governt and active measures have been taken to seize & confiscate them.
At one retired farm house to which they rode up in a hot Sept afternoon the young ladies of the family were taking their siesta, the father was out, & the only person visible on the premises was an old lady of nearly seventy who sat in the passage knitting & dozing. The soldiers came up unawares to her & the first thing she saw was a US officer in full uniform coming into the door whilst his men filled the piazza. Rising up she immediately advanced to meet him, & he, it is supposed, thinking from her promptness & calmness that there were others to back her in order to strike terror into their hearts drew out his sword with a flourish & said “by authority of the US Government I come,” when she cooly patted him on the should & said “Put up your sword honey! I wouldn’t hurt you for the world!” He then seeing that she was alone proceeded with what face he could to explain that he was sent out to search for & seize socks which he heard were intended for the Confederate Army & observing her knitting said” And what are doing Madam?” “Knitting socks for the Confederate Soldiers! Honey! Knitting socks for the Confederate soldiers.” “Well, Madam it is my duty to seize all such.” “Well, Honey! To be sure! I suppose you do not want the needles too” & suiting the action to her word she pulled out the needles deliberately one by one, stuck them into her cap, broke off the ball of yarn, rolled up the half knit sock, & politely handed it to him! That unfinished sock was all the gallant officer got for his afternoon’s work.
At Mr Contee’s the ladies seeing the soldiers approach bundled up their shirts & pantaloons, cleared up the workroom, & calling a faithful negro gave them in charge to him and from being as busy as bees they were as idle as drones when the officer entered, & whilst he was searching the housethe servant succeeded in getting the negroes dressed up in the clothes, some of them with 2 prs of pantaloons on! On returning from their fruitless expedition they remarked that “they had no where seen such well dressed well cared for slaves as Mr Contee’s!” Ah, tyranny, you have need of Argus eyes when it is the aim of so many to out wit you.
Well I will go to bed for it is late & I have been hard at work all day. Let me see, I got Mr E off, then prepared 6 doz candle wicks & attended to the moulding 2 doz candles. I lapped thread or yarn with my own hands for three yds of cloth for a pair of soldiers pants, hanked 6 boaches of cotton, knit two fingers & a thumb of a pr of fine white yarn gloves for dress parade for Col Clarke & then after dinner commenced a soldier’s sock, read the paper, took a nap, drank tea, finished the sock to Dolly’s delight & wonderment, wrote my journal, & now with a sense of “something accomplished – something done” think I have “earned a night’s repose.”
The paper reports a large force supposed to be the whole of the Abolition Army lying before Fredericksburg. Lee, the Examiner says, is ready for them. A skirmish on the Blackwater on Tuesday the guns of which we heard, in which we repulsed them, supposed to be Foster & the troops he had here. No particulars of our losses. I will leave Mr Johnston’s treatments of a Fed officer until tomorrow – so to bed, this time in earnest.
Source: Edmondston, Catherine Ann Devereux, 1823-1875, Journal of a Secesh Lady: The Diary of Catherine Ann Devereux Edmondston 1860-1866. Crabtree, Beth G and Patton, James W., (Raleigh, NC: North Carolina Division of Archives and History, 1979). http://nc-historical-publications.stores.yahoo.net/478.html
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