Old Times in Dixie Land
d with me, but leaving my children at home in the care of their grandmother. In a letter dated May 11th, 1856, my husband writes: "I bought a house yesterday, at public auction, which I think
. You will surely be pleased with the place after it is arranged. I dined with Mr. Christian Roselius yesterday and he congratulated me on the purchase; says it is delightful to live out of town. Bouligny is in the city of Jefferson, almost
isappointment. I have read your letter while my colleagues are reading opinions, and now I take some of the precious time of the State to try to console you. The more I see of the house and its neighborhood the better I like it. You t
hose I have loved and lost. So extensive are the surrounding grounds, abounding in flowers, fruit-trees and gardens, that it has been called "the Merrick Farm." Now that Napoleon Avenue is
: "If it please heaven to give us a long life I hope it may never be our misfortune to move many times." Heaven seemed to have been propitious to my wish,
is period came so vitally into my life, these recollections would be incomplete without it; besides, personal records are the side-lights of history and, in their measure, the truest pictures of the times. Years enough have elapsed to make a trustworthy historical perspect
, Mississippi, Texas, Arkansas and Tennessee; for whatever may have been personally believed respecting the right of secession, it is probable the majority of Whigs and some Democrats doubted its expediency. The most solemn, heart-breaking hour in the history of the States was that in which men, shaken with sobs, signed the ordinance which severed them from the Union. Up to that hour the fi
kinder in that instance to Union people among us than the Yankees sometimes were to "copperhead traitors" at the North. A very few Union men among us went over the other side of the Mason and Dixon line; a few more remained quietly at
ng: "The war cry is abroad; blood is to be spilled, the nation is to be involved in the bitterest of all wars. It may be that your son, David, and one of my boys may meet in deadly conflict. And when we have cut each other's throats, destroyed co
ll is at stake. Without slavery the best sugar plantation in Louisiana would be worthless. The British thought our forefathers
us unkind in asking you to continue your college duties. You have ever been true and filial without having it exacted. Persist in these relations, my dear boy. Write us freely and tell us in perfect confidence whatever you think and feel. Do not act hastily. We do not refuse your request
is is good news. With Virginia added to the Southern Confederacy we ought to carry the day. It is a pity the border States are so dilatory. Try to be content where you are until
en in aid of the English fund for officers' wives and families, called for by the present war in South Africa. It has been noted that after the States seceded a Union woman could not be found in the entire South. However that may be, I am told on authority that while Jackso
ghts Guards' every night. This Frenchman, whose name I cannot spell, says in two weeks more he will be equal to a captain's duties; but his father says he must understand the movements of a brigade, battalion and regiment, as well as that of company drill; he must know something and become qualified for e
ntil incapacitated by an extraordinary wound through the head receiv
o spend the whole period of the war with my family on the Atchafalaya river at this plantation, having only occasional visits from my husband, who found it necessary to take the greater portion of his slaves to a safer place in another part o
bear arms. But this was not Mr. Merrick's opinion, nor that of many others. The men we called Yankees had fought bravely for their own indepen
rs. J. Q. A. Fellows told me she counted thirteen wagon loads of furniture taken out, and had she known me then as she afterwards did, she would have saved many valuable things for me. I owned an excellent miscellaneous library, a new piano, valuable carri
in daily and hourly contact with the troops. When Brig.-Gen. Grover ascertained that my household consisted of women alone, he had his tent pitched very near the dwelling, informing me himself that he did this to secure our safety, and assuring me that we should be unmolested inside the enclosure o
w books to read and mail to bring us letters, newspapers or magazines, there yet came into our lives an intenser interest in what was before us so constantly-this
othing talked of here but war. God help me, but it is hard! I nursed these boys and they are part of myself; life would be utterly barren without them. But I ca
per's book? He says, 'Go out of the Union to-day and we will scourge you back to-morrow, an
go if the way opens, but I do not see that it is my duty to set them free right here and now, though the time may be approaching for th
come to them as a birthright, but also a responsibility which could not be laid aside except in a manner that would secure the future good of the slave, with proper consideration for what was justly due the master and his posterity in the settlement of the great question. If politicians on both sides, who cared more for party control and for the money valu
he Almighty Father, and sleeping the sleep of the just, though often awakened by the sound of guns and to the sight of Federal blue-coats drawn up in battle-line with gleaming bayonets. There was fasting and prayer everywhere during all
en-as the assaulted Boers are doing to-day. If they sink beneath the unlimited resources of the British, will the triumph of might now be the triumph of right and of human liberties? Three and one-half decades have softened the shadow of prejudice and the high lights of self-interest. It is well for the whole nation that slavery has been abolished and the Union preserved. How much loss will be revealed by time in the sacrifices of the rights of Stat
ntering the yard stooped and pulled a rose which he gaily pinned on his coat. "See," said one of the girls at the window, "that mean Yankee is taking our flowers!" "It is a good sign," I replied, "that he will never do us any greater harm. He has a kind expression on his blond young face and in his honest blue eyes;" and this fair-faced boy proved a valuable protector on many occ