Virginia at War, 1864

William C. Davis, James I. Robertson, William C. Davis, James I. Robertson

• Publisher: The University Press of Kentucky
• Year: 2009
• ISBN:
  9780813139302
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: American Civil War History
• Index: History

The fourth book in the Virginia at War series casts a special light on vital home front matters in Virginia during 1864. Following a year in which only one major battle was fought on Virginia soil, 1864 brought military campaigning to the Old Dominion. For the first time during the Civil War, the majority of Virginia's forces fought inside the state's borders. Yet soldiers were a distinct minority among the Virginians affected by the war. In Virginia at War, 1864, scholars explore various aspects of the civilian experience in Virginia including transportation and communication, wartime literature, politics and the press, higher education, patriotic celebrations, and early efforts at reconstruction in Union-occupied Virginia. The volume focuses on the effects of war on the civilian infrastructure as well as efforts to maintain the Confederacy. As in previous volumes, the book concludes with an edited and annotated excerpt of the Judith Brockenbrough McGuire diary.

Diary of a Southern Refugee during the War, June 1863–July 1864

Judith Brockenbrough McGuire

Edited by James I. Robertson Jr.

The thirteen months in this installment of Judith McGuire’s diary give a revealing picture of a Confederacy losing the Civil War while with equal slowness falling apart internally. In July, following the battle of Gettysburg and a Union raid on her temporary home at Ashland, Mrs. McGuire wrote of the war: “Sometimes I wish I could sleep until it was over—a selfish wish enough; but it is hard to witness so much sorrow which you cannot alleviate.”

Suffering among Virginia citizens was widespread by the midway point of the conflict. In this portion of the McGuire diary are four accounts of acquaintances driven into refugee life by Union occupation of home areas. Another friend provided a narrative of a little-known but destructive raid in the Tappahannock area. Mrs. McGuire also reported a social call she made on Mrs. Robert E. Lee shortly after Gettysburg.

In late October 1863, the McGuires were forced to leave the Ashland cottage that had been their home for many months. Mrs. McGuire was extremely fortunate to obtain rooms not only in Richmond but in the home where she had lived as a young woman. She and her husband resided there through the remainder of the Civil War.

Two positive developments occurred for Mrs. McGuire during this time. When it appeared that the diary might end for lack of writing material, she found “some nice wrapping-paper” on which to make future entries. Then, in November 1863, Mrs. McGuire obtained a clerkship in the C.S. Commissary Department. Her salary was $125 monthly—at a time when a merino dress cost $150 when available.

Spring 1864 entries centered on U. S. Grant’s Overland campaign. Following the battles of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, and in the Petersburg area, Mrs. McGuire could only react each time with heartbreak at the loss of family members and beloved friends. Found here will be a lengthy account of the death and funeral of Lee’s cavalry chief, Gen. “Jeb” Stuart.

This highly sensitive and deeply devout lady never grasped the fact that the Civil War became history’s first total war—that the Union armies became as intent to break the will of the Southern people as they were dedicated to defeating Southern armies.

Some long gaps appear in this part of the diary. Mrs. McGuire apologized to herself by confessing: “[A]fter looking over commissary accounts for six hours in the day, and attending to home or hospital duties in the afternoon, I am too much wearied to write much at night.”

Diary of a Southern Refugee

June 1 [1863]—L. and B.¹ went up to Mr. Marye’s near Fredericksburg to-day, to visit their brother’s grave. They took flowers with which to adorn it. It is a sweet, though sad office, to plant flowers on a Christian’s grave. They saw my sister, who is there, nursing their wounded son.²

News from Vicksburg cheering.

5th—Our household circle has been broken to-day, by Mrs. S[tuart] and her daughter B[ella] leaving it for South Carolina. We are grieved to give them up.

6th—We have been interested lately by a visit to this village of our old friend, Mrs. T.³ of Rappahannock County. She gives most graphic descriptions of her sojourn of seven weeks among the Yankees last summer. Sixty thousand surrounded her house, under command of General Siegel.⁴ On one occasion, he and his staff rode up and announced that they would take tea with her. Entirely alone, that elegant old lady retained her composure, and with unruffled countenance rang her bell; when the servant appeared, she said to him, “Jim, tea for fourteen.” She quietly retained her seat, conversing with them with dignified politeness, and submitting as best she could to the General’s very free manner of walking about her beautiful establishment, pronouncing it “baronial,” and regretting, in her presence, that he had not known of its elegancies and comforts in time, that he might have brought on Mrs. Siegel, and have made it his head-quarters. Tea being announced, Mrs. T[hornton], before proceeding to the dining-room, requested the servant to call a soldier in, who had been guarding her house for weeks, and who had sought occasion to do her many kindnesses. When the man entered, the General demurred: “No, no, madam, he will not go to table with us.” Mrs. T[hornton] replied, “General, I must beg that you will allow this gentleman to come to my table, for he has been a friend to me when I have sadly wanted one.” The General objected no farther; the man took tea with the master. After tea, the General proposed music, asking Mrs. T[hornton] if she had ever played; she replied that “such was still her habit.” The piano being opened, she said if she sang at all she must sing the songs of her own land, and then, with her uncommonly fine voice, she sang “The Bonnie Blue Flag,” “Dixie,” and other Southern songs, with great spirit. They listened with apparent pleasure. One of the staff then suggested that the General was a musician. Upon her vacating the seat he took it, and played in grand style; with so much beauty and accuracy, she added, with a twinkle in her eye, that I strongly suspected him of having been a music-master. Since that time she has heard that he was once master of that beautiful art in Mobile. Well, he was at least a more innocent man then than now. Almost every woman of the South, or at least of Virginia, will have her tale to tell when this “cruel war is over.”⁵ The life of too many will be, alas! as a “tale that is told;” its interest, its charm, even its hope, as far as this world is concerned, having passed away.⁶ Their crown of rejoicing will be in the public weal, which their loved and lost have fought, bled, and died to establish; but their own hearts will be withered, their hearths deserted.

Mrs. G. D.,⁷ of Fredericksburg, has been giving some amusing incidents of her sudden departure from her home. She had determined to remain, but when, on the night of the bombardment, a shell burst very near her house, her husband aroused her to say that she must go. They had no means of conveyance, and her two children were both under three years of age, and but one servant (the others having gone to the Yankees), a girl twelve years old. It so happened that they had access to three straw carriages, used by her own children and those of her neighbours. They quickly determined to put a child in each of two carriages, and to bundle up as many clothes as would fill the third. The father drew the carriage containing one child, the mother the other child, and the little girl drew the bundle of clothes. They thus set out, to go they knew not whither, only to get out of the way of danger. It was about midnight, a dark, cold night. They went on and on, to the outskirts of the town, encountering a confused multitude rushing pell-mell, with ever and anon a shell bursting at no great distance, sent as a threat of what they might expect on the morrow. They were presently overtaken by a respectable shoemaker whom they knew, rolling a wheelbarrow containing a large bundle of clothes, and the baby. They were attracted by the poor little child rolling off from its elevated place on the bundle, and as Mrs. D[aniel] stopped, with motherly solicitude for the child, the poor man told his story. In the darkness and confusion he had become separated from his wife and other children, and knew not where to find them; he thought he might find them but for anxiety about the baby. Mrs. D[aniel] then proposed that he should take her bundle of clothes with his in the wheelbarrow, and put his child in the third straw carriage. This being agreed to, the party passed on. When they came to our encampment, a soldier ran out to offer to draw one carriage, and thus rest the mother; having gone as far as he dared from his regiment, then another soldier took his place to the end of the line, and so on from one soldier to another until our encampment was passed. Then she drew on her little charge about two miles farther, to the house of an acquaintance, which was wide open to the homeless. Until late the next day the shoemaker’s baby was under their care, but he at last came, bringing the bundle to safety. As the day progressed the cannon roared and the shells whistled, and it was thought advisable for them to go on to Chancellorsville. The journey of several miles was performed on foot, still with the straw carriages, for no horse nor vehicle could be found in that desolated country. They remained at Chancellorsville until the 2d or 3d of May, when that house became within range of cannon. Again she gathered up her little flock, and came on to Ashland. Her little three-years old boy explored the boarding-house as soon as he got to it, and finding no cellar he became alarmed, and running to his mother, exclaimed, “This house won’t do, mother; we all have no cellar to go into when they shell it!” Thus our children are born and reared amid war and bloodshed! It seemed so sad to me to see a bright little girl, a few days ago, of four years old, stop in the midst of her play, when she heard distant thunder, exclaiming, “Let me run home, they are firing!” Poor little child, her father has been a sacrifice; no wonder that she wanted to run to her mother when she thought she heard firing. Tales far more sad than that of Mrs. D[aniel] are told, of the poor assembled by hundreds on the roadside in groups, having no shelter to cover them, and often nothing to eat, on that dark winter’s night.

June 7—We are living in fear of a Yankee raid. They have a large force on York River, and are continually sending parties up the Pamunky and Mattapony Rivers, to devastate the country and annoy the inhabitants.⁸ Not long ago a party rode to the house of a gentleman on Mattapony; meeting him on the lawn, the commander accosted him: “Mr. R.,⁹ I understand you have the finest horses in King William County.” “Perhaps, sir, I have,” replied Mr. R[oane]. “Well, sir,” said the officer, “I want those horses immediately.” “They are not yours,” replied Mr. R[oane], “and you can’t get them.” The officer began to curse, and said he would burn every house on the place if the horses were not produced. Suiting the action to the word, he handed a box of matches to a subordinate, saying, “Burn!” In half an hour, Mr. R[oane] saw fourteen of his houses in a light blaze, including the dwelling, the kitchen, corn-houses, and barn filled with grain, meat-house filled with meat, and servants’ houses. Scarcely any thing was saved, not even the family clothes. But he did not get the horses, which were the objects of his peculiar wishes; the faithful servants had carried them away to a place of safety. How strange it is that we can be so calm, surrounded as we are by danger!

8th—We have had a cavalry fight near Culpeper Court-House.¹⁰ We drove the enemy back, but I am afraid that our men won no laurels, for we were certainly surprised most shamefully.

16th—The morning papers gave a telegram from General Lee, announcing that General [Jubal A.] Early’s Brigade had taken Winchester by storm.¹¹ So again Winchester and all that beautiful country, Clarke [County], etc., are disenthralled.

21st—We hear of fights and rumours of fights. It is said that Ewell’s Division captured 6,000 prisoners at Winchester, and that General Edward Johnson went to Berryville and captured 2,000 that were on their way to reinforce Millroy.¹² They have driven the enemy out of the Valley, so that now we have possession of it once more. Our cavalry have been as far as...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Land Operations in Virginia in 1864: The Tightening Noose
• Politics in Civil War Virginia: A Democracy on Trial
• A “Patriotic Press”: Virginia’s Confederate Newspapers, 1861–1865
• Clinging to Patriotism: The Fourth of July in Civil War Virginia
• Trains, Canals, and Turnpikes: Transportation in Civil War Virginia, 1861–1865
• “We are all good scavengers now”: The Crisis in Virginia Agriculture during the Civil War
• The Struggle to Learn: Higher Education in Civil War Virginia
• Words in War: The Literature of Confederate Virginia
• Rehearsing Reconstruction in Occupied Virginia: Life and Emancipation at Fort Monroe
• Diary of a Southern Refugee during the War, June 1863–July 1864
• Selected Bibliography
• Index