August 4th
Vicksburg has fallen, Port Hudson followed of course, the Mississippi is in possession of our foe, Charleston is beseiged with a large force, Naval and land. Lees advance was not a success, he has returned after a direful battle at Gettysburg Pennsylvania, in which we lost 15 thousand & retreated. There have been riots in New York opposing the draft. And now we are to have a fast day on the 30th and in the mean time Charleston holds out. Lee is ready to fight, Johnston is some where in the West with his Army, and people generally feel very much depressed. This in the public state of affairs.—
In our private matters things are equally adverse. Papa has had all his negroes carried off in a recent raid on Pon Pon Heyward Manigault’s too; Papa’s house was sacked by his own negroes his Mill burnt and he lies ill at Adams Run. Charlotte is there attending him, and very much tried by her losses, & charge of Papa: he refuses to move. Mr Grimball is in Charleston and yesterday’s letter from him fills us with distress, it gives the account of the death of his sister Mrs Wilkins a truly good woman, a deplorable loss to her daughters. She died on the 3d August of Dysentary after an illness of some days.
Charleston closely beseeged and Morris’s Island partly in posession of the enemy is now considered the key to Charleston harbour & it is said there was culpable neglect all through the winter, when the Military, & belles, were dancing & flirting, balls lasting until day light, dancing the German waltze. It is said the officers from New Orleans expressed themselves struck with the fast style of the young ladies. At a Christmas party at Col. Fergusons, where a gay collection of young people were assembled, Miss Helen Singleton was dressed as a bride in Mrs Sam F’s wedding dress, Captain Tom Ferguson acting as groom, and the bridesmaids all in order, with groomsmen to match. A Magistrate reading out the Episcopal Marriage service & the old Col. giving the bride away. This in the consideration of many people was a real wedding, and Col. F. is greatly to be blamed. In the biography of Miss Edgerton’s father he is said at a gay party in Ireland to have jumped over a broomstick with one of the young ladies, and they were pronounced man & wife, her friends were very much incensed and had a divorce procured so that he was divorced before he was married. In this State divorce is not allowed.—
We are now in the midst of severe disasters and the losses so terrible Gen. Johnston Petigrew was shot retreating in the rear guard of Lees army into Virginia & died at Bunker Hill: the Lord’s hand is laid heavily on us may we cry mightily unto him (& be heard);—as the simple Ninivites did in their threatened destruction.—
William & Arthur have been at Battery Wagner exposed to the fierce fire of the foe as yet unhurt. W. says the smell from the imperfectly buried Yankees is dreadful. Why did they not throw them to the sharks waiting outside, the water in the wells is tainted with their wretched carcases.—
Berkley is on Johns Island with a part of his Artillery Lewis at the out posts on Johns Island & Arthur on Johns Island eaten up by Muskeetoes & calling wildly for a net & a servant.—