1 January
This is New Years Day. I feel most thankful for all the unmerited mercies, we have had troubles, & losses, but how much worse they might have been. Through all this dreadful war we have as yet been spared, how long that may be, O! Lord thou knowest.
We have had a most plentiful day, for breakfast, buttered eggs, hot rolls, butter, & sausages, tea, white sugar. For dinner a Turkey, ham, soup, stewed Beef, rice, a Batter pudding, and sauce, for Tea short cake.—
We visited the Wilkinses, found them as usual, I sent her a present of some Beef, & 4 quarts of Peas this morning,—& Mrs Irwin a cup of sugar Loaf, some tea, a quarter of a lb, & some spices. She sent me a piece of butter.
The Porters to day had a sale of their furniture, and are going off tomorrow. morning they all came over to bid us farewell & we kissed, and had kind words of adieu. Mrs Atkinson, a lady from George Town the Mother of Mrs Porter, is a fine looking woman. She lost one of her sons in the 2d battle of Manassas. Old Mrs Porter is a very artistic old girl, and gives the impression of acting for effect. Mr Porter seems to have the affection of his congregation.—I hope we shall soon be able to move ourselves.—
The nearest neighbor we have on our side of the College is a Mrs Owens whose husband drinks deplorably, & is the boldest deserter to be found. He ought to be in Columbia with the conscritps from here, walks up & down in his uniform, and waits to be arrested. Sometimes he is brought home in a cart, perfectly drunk, sometimes he crawls in on all fours, they have a farm, a horse, & until lately 2 negroes hired, he paid the wages so irregularly that they have been recalled. The wife has 5 little children, takes in work, is a Mantua maker, spins, weaves, dyes, clothes children, & husband, is pretty, young & cheerful looking, always well dressed, the farm has a bunch of sage, & 3 or 4 cabbages, to keep them well and fat, but she buys corn & Beef, and they look very well indeed, even the drunken husband.—
This morning the young men from the College rode about the Village, dressed up fantastically, one an old woman, one a lady in a riding dress, the rest in different ways, they came up here, Gabriella was very much amused with them.
Mrs H Stevens has returned, but is kept at home by a cold. Col. Clement Stevens has lost his wife, & 2 children from Dyptheria. Mrs Bee, the wife of our Gen who died on the first field of Manassas, has lost both her children of the same disease. This is Pendleton where these deaths took place.—
Berkley writes that his Christmas passed very pleasantly, they had a fine breakfast, of Opossum, Partridges, corn bread, & butter. A dinner with company.—In the Evening Theatricals burlesque on the Ghost Scene in Hamlet. The dying scene of Lady Macbeth, and then a piece called the stolen pig, a man comes to the Captain of the Company complaining of having lost a pig, & says his negro, Cuffy, saw who took it. The Court Martial is arranged and the whole company called out, and Cuffy is made to point to the man who stole the pig. The part of the negro is played by Simons; and to the great delight of the negroes present, composed of teamsters, & servants there was music between the acts. Berkley lead the Orchestra, which consisted of 2 Violins, a triangle, bones, a drum. The end of the play is that the man is sentenced to death, and dies like Othello.
John has had a very tedious time with a boil on his leg, preventing his enjoying the dancing & ladies society he has found so pleasant in Mobile.—
Received a nice letter from Papa he writes in better spirits.—
This war has been the death of a great many old ladies, Mrs Pinckney, Mrs Hamilton, (Mrs. Bowen added in pencil) We heard this evening that Mrs Wragg, the wife of Dr W. who had his house just completely fixed up, before the fire, and lost it, after passing through the summer in Pendleton, has been taken to Charleston in a confirmed melancholy.—
When the war is ended we will hear of many terrible private calamities that are now lost sight of in view of the great struggle going on.—
Old Miss Toomer, the Aunt of old Mrs Porter, has to be left up here with Miss Charlotte Toomer, she is 82 & bed ridden. There are still vestages of great beauty, she shewed us her minature taken when 19, a very sweet picture. Is fond of society, and now dying of consumption. It seems in early life she was a gay heedless girl, and exposed herself to scandalous remarks on account of her free manners with a Col. Byrn, & so with all her gifts of beauty & sprightliness, hers has been a lost life.—She now tells her friends to pray that she may be taken away. The nature of her illness makes her room very disagreeable; poor old lady how sad a speticle.—