January 31, 1864
Such weather as we have had for the past ten days! Maderia could not surpass it. I have been much out of doors, transplanting, pruning, & getting ready for Spring work. Have been frequently to Hascosea & to father’s & had Sue & Father here with me.
All continues quiet along our lines. Gilmore keeps up his barbarous shelling of Charleston without inflicting much damage on ought save the character of his country, but that is lost beyond redemption. Troops are being massed at Goldsboro & Kinston under secret orders. What it portends we know not. Rumour has it we are to attack New Berne to forestall the Yankee attack on Wilmington. Per contra, another says that the Yankees are collecting a heavy force there, that Meade is in command, & that N C is to be the seat of the War & that the Summer Campaign opens here. God avert it. A party of Yankees came up to Windsor in Bertie last Thursday & committed the usual excesses, taking off with them the Episcopal Clergyman, the Cashier of the Bank, and a leading merchant, all non combattants. This is not War but sheer barbarity. When will it end? A band of Yankees from Butler’s command came up the James & destroyed every out house, the crops, & provisions on the Brandon estate owned by Mrs Devereux’s relatives. This seems the more wanton as it was spared by McClellan in his famous “change of base,” as well as by the British in the Revolution, and there seems no reason for it now beyond the fact that Butler is in command. Seven members of the Signal Corps were there captured.
This afternoon came brother in better spirits than usual. He is on his way to Harrell’sville to look after a lot of Bacon left there by the carelessness of somebody. The Yankees came up & set fire to it, but fortunately for us the flames skimmed over on the surface only & almost the whole amount has been saved in good condition. The Advance is again in safely with a valuable cargo, run in in the teeth of the Blockaders. This is our N C vessel & Capt Crossan deserves well of the State for his boldness & skill in so often bearding the Yankee Lion successfully.
Letters from my neice, Mrs T. D. Jones, give me an account of what herself, mother, & sisters underwent from the hands of the Yankees & their allies, armed negroes — make my blood boil in my veins. On leaving us on the 1st of Dec she went at once to her Sister Mrs Wood’s house where her Mother & Brother were, the latter at home on a sick furlough with a wounded foot.
“Early the next morning,” I quote her own words, “Ma, Sallie, & I were awakened about daylight by men’s voices talking loudly in the house. . . . Soon one of the little servants came up & told us that the house was full of Yankees & that they were looking for Joshua. You may be sure we were quickly up and then, Aunt Kate, before we could get any of our clothing on we heard the report of a gun & a shout of ‘we’ve got him! we’ve got him!’ Mama & I rushed out just as we were, in our night dresses & bare feet, expecting to see our poor J killed. Oh! Aunt Kate, I cannot tell you the horror of that moment! When we got out on the piazza we saw J running across a field which was just over the road from the house & two Yankees in hot pursuit. They fired on him four times but the brave little fellow never halted until compelled to do so by his lame foot & the rapid gaining on him of his yelling pursuers. They treated him very roughly after his surrender; & allowed him but five minutes to get ready to go with them.
They were the roughest, most brutal looking set of men I ever saw: It seems that they came to Hertford in the night . . . there they found one of sister Mary’s servants who told them about J being a ranger & who gladly piloted [them] out to Sister Mary’s. . . . J was asleep when one of the negro girls ran in & told him the yard was full of Yankees. He sprang up & dressed as quickly as possible taking his gun with him & attempted to escape, but as he reached back, they burst open the front door of the house. They saw & halted him but he did not stop; they ran after him but he slipped under the house & they lost sight of him. They looked around for him a while & then rushed into Sister Mary’s room where she was all undressed & told her that she had a Guerilla hid in her house & if she did not tell them where he was they would burn the house down. She had not seen him that morning and of course could not tell them. Whilst they were in the house poor J thought it would be a good time to try & get off, for he knew that the negroes all saw him go under there & was afraid that they would inform on him, as they doubtless would have done, so he crept out & was just climbing the fence into the field when one of the wretches saw & fired at him. He fell over into the field & they thought he was killed, but he had only stumbled & he soon sprang up & ran. Then began the chase & at last the ungracious surrender. He hated it so bad, Aunt Kate, & I was so proud of him! I wish you could have seen how nobly he acted after his surrender. I know you would have admired him….
J & his hateful captors were hardly out of sight before a whole troop of armed negroes came up, the most impudent set that you can imagine, Aunt Kate. Sister Mary’s nurse who left her a year ago came up with them. She was dressed very finely & was exceedingly insolent & abusive. She went into the house followed by a guard of armed men (negroes) & told Sister M that she left a bed & some clothing when she went away & that she intended to have others in the place of them. She then went to Sister M’s bed & commenced rolling it up, sheets, blankets, & all. Sister M stopped her & told her that she must not take that bed. She dropped it & ran up stairs, tore one of the beds there off the stead, tied it up in a quilt, & gave it to two of her escort who carried it down stairs & put it in a cart ready for moving. She then went to the wardrobe where the bed linen was kept, helped herself to two prs of blankets, 2 prs of sheets, 2 white Marseilles quilts, two bed quilts, napkins, pillow cases, etc. She also took Ma’s cloak & shawl, sister M’s shawl, two easy chairs, in short everything she could possibly carry off. In the meantime the negroes belonging to the farm were packing up & getting ready to go with them and as a matter of course stealing everything they could find. They were very abusive, cursing us, & calling us by our names. They called Mr Wood “Charles” whenever they spoke of him. The house was filled with armed negroes from early in the morning until two o’clock in the afternoon & they were like wild things, Aunt Kate, running about & peeping into every crack & corner & cursing most dreadfully whenever they could not find things to steal. One of the wretches told me that he knew me, that I was Pattie Skinner, & that he was coming back to marry me soon! I said the wicked. . . then, Aunt Kate, it was more than I could stand! When they left, every negro on the land went with them & Sister M was left entirely without help save what we could do for her. Nearly every negro in Hertford left also.
One of my Cousins, Sally Harvey, was slapped in the face by one of their own servants because she tried to keep her from taking her dresses! The print of the negroe’s hand was on my cousin’s face for several days!
Poor Mr Snowden, our clergyman, was robbed of a bed & nearly all his bed clothing. They did not leave him enough to cover comfortably with. His daughter’s clothes, dresses, & underclothing were nearly all taken & if he dared to say a word he was cursed. All that from his own servants, Aunt Kate! Just before the Yankees left Hertford the Rangers attacked them & drove them to their boats. They shelled the town but did very little injury. A lighter containing about fifty negroes got aground & the Yankees were in such a hurry to get off that they could not wait for it. So of course they were captured by the Rangers & the lighter burned. Two of Sister M’s women with their children were on board; they were immediately sent over the lines. . . . We have not heard from Joshua since his capture. We hear he has been sent to New Berne. We are very anxious about him.”
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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