“To show how this order was executed, the same writer tells a story of how he witnessed with his own eyes General Lee and a surgeon of his command repairing the damage to a farmer’s fence. Colonel McClure, of Philadelphia, a Union soldier himself, bears witness to the good conduct of Lee’s ragged rebels in that famous campaign. He tells of hundreds of them coming to him and asking for a little bread and coffee, and others who were wet and shivering asking permission to enter a house, in which they saw a bright fire, to warm themselves until their coffee should be ready. Hundreds of similar instances could be given, substantiated by the testimony of men on both sides, to show the splendid humanity of that great invasion. Blessed be the good God, who, if in His wisdom denied us success, yet gave to us and our children the rich inheritance of this great example.
“Major General Halleck, the commander-in-chief, under the President, of the armies of the Union, on the 18th of December, 1864, dispatched as follows to Sherman, then in Savannah: ‘Should you capture Charleston, I hope that by some accident the place may be destroyed; and if a little salt should be sown upon its site it may prevent the growth of future crops of nullification and secession.’ On December 27th, 1864, Sherman made the following answer: ‘I will bear in mind your hint as to Charleston, and don’t think “salt” will be necessary. When I move, the 15th corps will be on the right of the right wing, and their position will bring them naturally into Charleston first, and if you have watched the history of the corps you will have remarked that they generally do their work up pretty well. The truth is, the whole army is burning with insatiable desire to wreak vengeance upon South Carolina. I almost tremble at her fate; but feel that she deserves all that seems to be in store for her… I look upon Columbia as quite as bad as Charleston.’ Therefore Columbia was burned to ashes. And though he knew what was in store for South Carolina, so horrible that he even trembled, he took no steps to avert it, for he felt that she deserved it all. Did she, indeed? What crime had she committed that placed her outside the protection of the law of civilized nations? What unjust, or barbarous, or brutal conduct had she been guilty of to bring her within the exceptions laid down by the writers on the laws of war as authorizing extraordinary severity of punishment? They are not even imputed to her. South Carolina’s crime, and the crime of all the seceding States, was that of a construction of the constitution of the United States differing from that of General Sherman and the 15th corps – which ‘always did up its work pretty well.’ Happily the Divine Goodness has made the powers of recuperation superior to those of destruction; and though their overthrow was so complete that ‘salt’ was not needed as the type of utter desolation, Marietta and Atlanta are thriving and prosperous cities.”
Governor Vance does not wish to confine himself, in quoting, to Southern testimony. There are plenty of honest and truthful soldiers in the Federal army, who served in its ranks, to tell all we want and more. This is what one of them says, writing to the “Detroit Free Press” of that campaign: “One of the most devilish acts of Sherman’s campaign was the destruction of Marietta. The Military Institute and such mills and factories as might be a benefit to Hood could expect the torch, but Sherman was not content with that; the torch was applied to everything, even the shanties occupied by the negroes. No advance warning was given. The first alarm was followed by the crackling of flames. Soldiers rode from house to house, entered without ceremony and kindled fires in garrets and closets, and stood by to see that they were not extinguished.” Again he says: “Had one been able to climb to such a height at Atlanta as to enable him to see for forty miles around, the day Sherman marched out, he would have been appalled at the destruction. Hundreds of houses had been burned; every rod of fence destroyed; nearly every fruit tree cut down, and the face of the country so changed that one born in that section could scarcely recognize it. The vindictiveness of war would have trampled the very earth out of sight, had such a thing been possible.”
One cold and drizzly night in the midst of this marching General Sherman found shelter and warmth beneath the roof of a comfortable plantation home.
“In looking around the room,” he says, “I saw a small box, like a candle box, marked ‘Howell Cobb,’ and, on inquiring of a negro, found we were at the plantation of General Howell Cobb, of Georgia, one of the leading rebels of the South, then a General in the Southern army, and who had been Secretary of the Treasury in Mr. Buchanan’s time. Of course we confiscated his property, and found it rich in corn, beans, peanuts, and sorghum molasses. Extensive fields were all around the house. I sent word back to General Davis to explain whose plantation it was, and to instruct him to spare nothing. That night huge bonfires consumed the fence-rails, kept our soldiers warm, and the teamsters and men, as well as slaves, carried off an immense quantity of corn and provisions of all sorts.”
Do the records of civilized warfare furnish a parallel to this petty and mercenary wreaking of spite upon the helpless home of a gallant foeman?
The General furnished us with proof of how worthy of their selection his staff-officers proved during that memorable raid. While camped that night on Cobb’s plantation, Lieutenant Snelling, who was a Georgian commanding his escort, received permission to visit his uncle, who lived some six miles away.
“The next morning,” says the General, “he described to me his visit. The uncle was not cordial by any means to find his nephew in the ranks of the host that was desolating the land, and Snelling came back, having exchanged his tired horse for a fresher one out of his uncle’s stables, explaining that surely some of the ‘bummers’ would have got the horse had he not.” It was the eternal fitness of things that the staff-officers of this prince of free-booters should be renegades capable of stealing from their nearest kin.
The unfailing jocosity of this merry marauder breaks out in his recital of a negro’s account of the destruction of Sandersville: “First, there came along some cavalrymen, and they burned the depot; then came along some infantrymen, and they tore up the track and burned it, and, just before they left, they sot fire to the well!” The well, he explains, was a boxed affair into which some of the debris was piled, and the customary torch was applied, making the negro’s statement literally true. This was one of the incidents to leaving the pretty town of Sandersville a smoking mass of ruins.
But why enumerate further details of an unresisted movement which cost Sherman one hundred and three lives, and the State of Georgia one hundred million dollars, twenty millions of which he frankly states he carried off, and eighty millions of which he destroyed? It began in shame at Atlanta – it passed with a gathering burden of infamy to Savannah. Starvation, terror, outrage hung upon its flanks and rear. Its days were darkened by the smoking incense from unparalleled sacrifices upon the altar of wantonness; its nights were lurid with flames licking the last poor shelter from above the heads of subjugated wives and children.
Its history is the strongest human argument for an orthodox hell.
TESTIMONIALS
State of Georgia,Executive Office,Atlanta, September 1st, 1894.
“Life in Dixie During the War,” by Miss Mary A. H. Gay, presents a striking picture of home life among our people during that dark period of our history.
While such presentation is hardly looked for in more elaborate history of those times, Miss Gay’s conception was a wise one, and the record she has given will preserve a most desirable part of the history of our section.
Her book deserves to be widely circulated.
W. J. Northen,
Governor.
“LIFE IN DIXIE DURING THE WAR.”
This handsome volume from the pen of Miss Mary A. H. Gay, whose many acts of self-denial entitle her to the name of philanthropist, will meet with a hearty welcome from her wide circle of friends. But a casual glance at the volume leads us to conclude that outside of this circle, even with the reader who will look into it as a key to the history of the “times that tried men’s souls,” it will be a book of more than passing interest. The author writes with the feelings of a partisan, but time has mellowed her recollections of these stormy times, and even the reader whose sympathies were with the other side will agree with Joel Chandler Harris in his introduction to the book. In its mechanical get-up, the book is a gem. —Atlanta Constitution, December 18, 1892.
“LIFE IN DIXIE.”
Miss Mary A. H. Gay has published a volume entitled “Life in Dixie During the War,” which should be in every Southern home. It is one of the truest pictures of the life of our people during the war that has yet been drawn. In fact, it could not be better, for it shows things just as they were. The struggles and sufferings of the Southern people during that awful period exhibited a heroism that has seldom been matched in the world’s history. Miss Gay was among them. She looked on their trials with sympathetic eyes and suffered with them. Fortunately she is gifted with the power of describing what she saw, and her book will be a classic of war literature. Its every page is interesting. The story of Dixie during the war reads like romance to the generation that has arisen since, but it should have for generations an interest as deep as that with which it is read by those who lived and acted amid the scenes it records. It shows how grand was the courage and virtue, how sublime the faith and endurance of the men and women of the South throughout that terrible ordeal. It is a book that will live, and one that will give to the world a true representation of the conduct of a noble people in affliction. Miss Gay has made numerous contributions to our literature which mark her as a woman of rare capacity and exquisite feelings, but she has done no work that is worthier of gratitude and praise than that embodied in “Life in Dixie.” —The Atlanta Journal, January 17, 1893.
“LIFE IN DIXIE.”
Miss Mary Gay’s recent book, “Life in Dixie During the War,” is rapidly winning favor with the public. Some of our most distinguished writers speak of it in very high terms as a notable contribution to our history. The Rev. Dr. J. William Jones says of it:
“‘Life in Dixie During the War’ is a charming story of home-life during those dark days when our noble women displayed a patient endurance, and active zeal, a self-denying work in the hospitals, a genuine patriotism, a true heroism which equalled the record of their fathers, husbands, sons and brothers in the army.
“But Decatur, near Atlanta, was the scene of stirring events during Sherman’s campaign against the doomed city, and Miss Gay’s facile pen vividly portrays historic events of deepest interest.
“Visits from the soldier boy to the old home, letters from the camp, visits to the camps and hospitals, the smoke and changing scenes of battle in the enemy’s lines, refugeeing, and many other events of those stirring days, are told with the vividness of an eye-witness and the pen of an accomplished writer.
“It is, in a word, a vivid and true picture of ‘Life in Dixie During the War,’ and should find a place not only in our Southern homes, but in the homes of all who desire to see a true account of the life of our noble women during those trying days.
“Rev. John William Jones.”
The Constitution, May 2nd, 1893.
The “Confederate Love Song,” by Miss Mary A. H. Gay, of Decatur, was written during the late war. It is a charming bit of verse, and forms one of a galaxy of beautiful songs from the same true pen. In 1880, Miss Gay published a volume of verses which received the unusual compliment of public demand for no less than eleven editions. The author’s life is one of the most beautiful; it is, therefore, quite natural that her poetry should partake of the simple truth and sincerity of that life, consecrated as it is, and ever has been, to the noblest work. —Atlanta Constitution.
Miss Gay’s Book, “Life in Dixie During the War.” – Editor “Sunny South:” Permit me to say a few words through the columns of your widely read and popular paper about Miss Mary A. H. Gay’s “Life in Dixie During the War,” the second and enlarged edition of which book has just been issued from the press.
The fact that a second and enlarged edition has been called for is proof that the merits of this genuine Southern story has been appreciated by our people. Not only has the author in her book perpetuated interesting and historically valuable material of merely local character, but, to the careful reader, she also presents matter that goes to the deep moral, social and political roots of the cause of the people of the South, that grew and flowered into the crimson rose of war, which the South plucked and wore upon her heart during four of the most tragic yet glorious years recorded in history.
But the chief charms of the book are its simple, earnest, homely style, its depth of womanly and loyal feeling, and the glimpses we get of the homes and hearts of our people during these years of patient suffering and “crucifixion of the soul;” and along with the passion and the pain, we are presented with pictures of our people’s frequently laughable “makeshifts” to supply many of the common necessaries of life and household appliances of which the stress and savage devastation deprived nearly every Southern family. Above all we are impressed by the more than Spartan heroism, the tender love, the unwavering loyalty, the devoted, self-sacrificing spirit of our noble Southern womanhood, of which this book speaks so eloquently in its naive simplicity, and of which traits of character, the modest author herself is a living and universally beloved example.
The book deserves a place in the hearts and homes of our people. Surely the patriotic motives that inspired its author to write it is the only passport it needs to public favor and patronage.
Charles W. Hubner,
“Sunny South,” Atlanta, Ga., November 3, 1894.
A WAR STORY
Even in these piping times of peace (peace as far as our own borders are concerned, at any rate) – there is a relish in a war story. And when the scene is laid right here in Georgia, in Decatur, in Atlanta; when familiar names come up in the course of the narrative, and familiar events are pictured by an honest eye-witness; when all through the little volume you feel the truthfulness of the writer, and know that the incidents she narrates happened just so; when, too, you see the writer herself – see her to be an old lady now, who really was a heroine in her young days; and then read the simple, personal narrative – now stirring, as the battle-guns sound – now touching, as some dear one falls; with all this combination of interest, a war story claims and holds the attention.
Such is the little book, called “Life in Dixie,” written by Miss Mary Gay, and telling of those stirring times in and about Atlanta, back yonder in the sixties.
There are some vivid pictures in that modest little volume, as well as some interesting facts. Miss Gay was in the thick of the strife, and tells what she saw in those dark days.
Among the well-known characters, associated with the recorded events, we find Mrs. L. P. Grant, Mr. and Mrs. Posey Maddox, Dr. J. P. Logan and many others.
A most interesting fact disclosed in those pages is the surprising one that two sisters of Mrs. Abraham Lincoln married Alabama officers in the Confederate army; there is recorded the public presentation, by those two ladies, of an elegant silk banner made for a gallant young company in Georgia’s daughter-State. Thus conspicuous were those women in the Southern Confederacy, while their sister and her dearest interests lay on the other side.
Another matter of history which will be interesting to the present generation of readers, however much we may have read of the mammoth prices for the necessaries of life in those hard days, is the following list of articles, with the cost thereof in Confederate money, bought by Miss Gay, after a ride of forty miles to obtain them:
One bushel of meal, $10.00; four bushels of corn, $40.00; fifteen pounds of flour, $7.50; four pounds of dried apples, $5.00; one and a half pounds of butter, $6.00; a bushel of sweet potatoes, $6.00; three gallons of syrup, $15.00; for shoeing the horse, $25.00; for a night’s lodging for self and horse, at Mrs. Born’s, $10.00.
Then, the vehicle in which the trip for these supplies was made!
It was contrived by “Uncle Mack,” a dusky hero of those times. “It was a something he had improvised which baffled description,” writes Miss Gay, “and which, for the sake of the faithful service I obtained from it, I will not attempt to describe. Suffice it to say that it carried living freight over many a bridge; and in honor of this, I will call it a wagon.”
The horse, which the author herself captured to draw this remarkable vehicle, was equally remarkable, and his subsequent history is one of the most interesting bits of narrative in the book. I wish I could give it all in Miss Gay’s own words, but my space does not admit of that.
But there is not a child in your household who would not be interested in the account of how the poor starved horse was lassoed and secured – how he was fed and strengthened, and cared for, and finally harnessed up with ropes and pieces of crocus sacks; how the letters, “U. S.” were found branded on each of his sides, causing his mistress to name him “Yankee”; how she grew to love him so that she deemed that name ill-fitting, and decided to re-christen him “Johnnie Reb.,” which she did one day with effective ceremonial by a brook-side; how he rendered invaluable service to his mistress many and many a time, and was a treasured member of the little family that passed such stormy times in the war-stricken village of Decatur; all this is worth reading, told, as it is, with a gentle humor, and a strict truthfulness which is the chief charm of that historic picture. For it is historic. And it were well for the rising generation to read its vivid portrayals of that period.
And though Miss Gay was evidently an ardent secessionist, and is now, I fancy, one of the altogether unreconstructed few, her book contains records of more than one kindness received at the hands of officers of the United States army – kindness proffered, too, in the face of her fearless avowal of opinion.
Some parts of the book (I will add, if the gentle author will allow me) seem somewhat too bitter towards our brethren of the North. But this criticism is from the standpoint of one who knew not the horrors of that dreadful war. If I had seen the desolation and destruction which followed it in the wake of Sherman’s army, as Miss Gay saw it and suffered by it (through mother and brother and friends, as well as through personal privation), – if I had thus suffered, doubtless I, too, would be unable to look impartially upon these Federal leaders and their actuating motives – unable to see that, though Sherman was a most unmerciful conqueror, he was not altogether a fiend.
But there is only a touch of this severe judgment in Miss Gay’s little book. The greater portion of it is simply historic – a faithful chronicling of events experienced by the writer herself, who was a veritable heroine in those days of horrors.
Miss Gay is to be congratulated upon the fact that “Life in Dixie” is entering upon its second edition. Let me suggest that you get it for your children, you parents. The rising generation should learn of the stirring events which happened right here in Atlanta thirty years ago.
The story will hold their attention and interest throughout – the soldier-brother who fell in the strife, the faithful black Toby sketched so tenderly, the perilous trip of Miss Gay herself, as she carried the blankets and overcoats through the enemy’s ranks to the boys in gray – all this will vastly entertain those young folks, at the same time it teaches them of the Battle of Atlanta, and the concurrent events. – Emel Jay6, in The Atlanta Journal, November 24th, 1894.
“Life in Dixie During the War” is the title of a volume just perused which transcends in interest, truth and beauty all the historical tomes and garlanded fiction to which that epoch has given birth. It embraces the personal experiences and observations of a woman, gifted far beyond the ordinary, who came in contact with the sadness, the bloodshed and the misery of the unhappy struggle. A loved brother laid down his life on the bloodiest battle-field, friends parted and vanished from her, and wealth was swallowed in the maw of destruction.
She tells her story – for story it is – with an exquisite grace, and with a woman’s tenderness and sympathy for the people she loved and the cause she adored. Her language is lofty upon occasion, her memories perhaps too keen, her gentleness possibly too exclusive to her own, but her work is done with a fidelity and consistency beyond comparison. The scene is Decatur, Ga., but threads, visible or invisible, reach to every hamlet and entwine every heart in the evanished Confederacy. The heroism of men, the daring of boys, the endurance of women, alike are painted with a skill that requires no color.
Those who wish to embalm their recollections of home-life during the war, and those who desire to know what it was, should read this book. It is one of the records of the past that should be in every library. It is beautifully printed, neatly cloth-bound, and contains 300 pages. —The Tampa Daily Times, January 17, 1895.
FROM THE OTHER SIDE
A UNION SOLDIER’S TRIBUTE TO A SOUTHERN WOMAN’S BOOK
Evanston, Ill., December 30th, 1895.
Mary A. H. Gay:
Dear Madam: Allow me to thank you for giving to the world inside home life in the South during the war. All histories of the war that have been written have been confined to battles and movements of armies, which are so likened to the histories of other wars that when you have read one you may say that you have read them all. But yours gives a local and romantic description of real life, and I feel like congratulating you and calling the scenes in which you played so important a part the heyday of your existence. I take it you were the daughter, pampered and cuddled child, of rich and influential people, and had it not been for the war you would have been raised with much pomp, arrogance and importance of family, which, in the very nature of your surroundings, would have destroyed all the finer and nobler traits which want and misery have developed into a grand, noble, self-sacrificing and heroic woman. And although you portray the scenes freighted with misery, want and desolation, yet they were halcyon days to one like you, romantic, energetic, patriotic and self-sacrificing, and now, as you are passing down the shady lane of life, you live in the memories of the past, the part you played in the heroic struggle, and the noble womanhood developed; and the assurance that you did well your part in the great tragedy strews roses and garlands along the path of your declining years.
“I follow you through all these stirring scenes; I sit beside you in your hours of gloom and blighted hopes; I follow you beside the ox-cart that drew its freight of human misery; I walk with you into the woody retreats and sit beside you upon the banks of the limpid stream and mix my tears with yours; I tramp with you over the scenes of desolation; I sorrow with you over the death of Toby; I mourn with you over the sudden death of noble Thomie; I sit beside the death-bed of your sainted mother and mingle my tears with yours; I gladly accompany you on your weary tramp with your much-loved ‘Yankee’ or Johnnie Reb; I gather with you the leaden missiles of death to buy food for starving friends and fellow-sufferers; I pass with you through all the scenes that are freighted with hope, love, despair and expectation; I am your friend and sympathizer in all your misfortunes, and yet I am one of those ‘accursed’ Yankee soldiers who have been the bane of your life.
“The strange blending of pathos and diplomacy on pages 91 and 92 may be said to be amusingly expressive. Chapter 13 is intensely interesting, dramatic and romantic; still I see no reason that I should speak of these isolated passages, for the whole book is equally interesting, and would foreshadow for it a large sale in the North if properly handled. As to the mechanical construction of the book, I am much pleased with your language, as it is free from Carlylism and ostentatious English, which mars so much of the writings of many of our modern authors. I hold that when a book is overloaded with this disgusting use of the dictionary it is what Goldsmith terms ‘display of book learned skill.’
“The book was kindly sent me by a lady friend in Atlanta, Mrs. Delbridge, and I hope when I visit Atlanta again I may have the pleasure of meeting the authoress that nature has endowed with such wonderful power of description.”
Most respectfully,
Charles Aikin.
Published in The Atlanta Constitution January 5th, 1896.
“LIFE IN DIXIE DURING THE WAR,
is the title of one of the best series of sketches that has been written about the ‘late unpleasantness.’ It contains the record of one woman’s experience during the five years of warfare between the North and the South. The author, Miss Mary A. H. Gay, of Decatur, Georgia, one of the most graceful writers in the South, has handled the subject in a masterful manner. ‘Truth is stranger than fiction,’ and the work abounds in truth. The volume ought to be on sale at every news-stand in the South. The book has been described as containing ‘a living picture of those trying times – not to stir up bitter feelings and hatred, but a history, and such history as cannot be obtained in any other form.’ Miss Gay was in the thick of the strife, ‘and in a modest way shows herself a heroine worthy of any romance.’ Her pen describes scenes that bring tears for the pain and suffering, and laughter at the ‘makeshifts’ resorted to by those noble people in the hour of actual need. ‘Some parts of the narrative may be judged as rather bitter towards the enemy by those who know not the horrors of that war. But let such critics put themselves in the wake of Sherman’s army and suffer as the writer, and they will feel more charitable towards her who, in recalling those experiences, finds it hard to love all her enemies. There is only a touch of this old-time bitterness, however; most of the book is simply historic, and Miss Gay does not hesitate to record many kindnesses received at the hands of Federal officers.’ Such a valuable contribution to the history of the war should be prized. It is a vivid chronicle, and the rising generation should learn of those stirring events. They will read with unflagging interest to the end of the narrative. We wish for it a wide circulation.” —The Arkansas Gazette, March 10th, 1896.
LIFE IN DIXIE DURING THE WAR
BY MARY A. H. GAY, DECATUR, GA
We endorse most heartily the praise bestowed on this modest volume by the general press. Within the same scope we do not believe a truer or more sympathetic picture of the ghastly war time has ever been written. It is not fiction, but a faithful presentation of one woman’s experience during the five years that bounded the war between the States.
The writer was in the very thick of the strife, and while with admirable modesty she has endeavored to keep herself out of her book, it is clear that she was one of the heroic and indefatigable women who brought into scenes of suffering the ministry of tenderness. The recital of events as they were, brings humor into the book, whose tenor in the main, however, is necessarily sad.
By those to whom the war is simply a tale that is told, there are parts of the book in which the writer will be accused of undue bitterness. However, no such critics, we think, will be found among the people to whom the war was a reality. Miss Gay records, without hesitation, many kindnesses received at the hands of the Federal officers.
Texas soldiers of Granbury’s brigade, Cleburne’s division, and Hood’s corps, figure conspicuously and by name in the book. Miss Gay visited Hood’s headquarters twice while the brigade was encamped in Georgia, the last time just before they left Georgia for the fatal march into Tennessee. The night-scene she describes near Jonesboro, where they were encamped, is most graphic and pathetic. Miss Gay is the woman who collected the money to have the soldiers who fell at Franklin, Tennessee, reburied, when she heard that the owners of the battlefield said their graves should be ploughed over. She collected $7,000, and her name is engraved on the silver plate on the entrance gate at the McGavock cemetery, which she so largely helped to build. —The Richmond Times, Feb. 16, 1896.
LIFE IN DIXIE DURING THE WAR
The following deserved complimentary notice of the book, “Life in Dixie During the War,” written by Miss Mary A. H. Gay, of Georgia, we clip from the New York Times: “Joel Chandler Harris’ brief introduction to Miss Gay’s reminiscences of the civil war tells of the authenticity of this simple story, and how a book of this character is of that kind from whence ‘history will get its supplies.’ The dark days are described with absolute fidelity, and this is a quality we may look for in vain ‘in more elaborate and ambitious publications.’ Think of the strangeness of things, the breaks in families, when the author tells how, at the presentation of a flag, the banner was made for a company of Confederate soldiers by Miss Ella Todd and Mrs. White, of Lexington, Kentucky, the sisters of Mrs. Abraham Lincoln, the wife of the great President.