April 16, 1863, Peoria Morning Mail (Illinois)
Letter from the Hon. Mrs. F.
A few days ago, one Mrs. Fulgum, from Richmond, Virginia, was arrested at the outposts, and a number of letters for rebels in Nashville were taken from her person. She gave the Provost Marshal some unsealed letters, probably to avoid suspicion, but one sealed and directed to “Mrs. Anna Hays, Nashville, care of ex-Mayor R. B. Cheatham, or Robert T. Smiley, Esq.” was found in her custody. Upon perusal, this letter was smart and interesting. Your readers will certainly enjoy those portions which I have copied for the public. The writer is the wife of a notorious ex-member of Congress of the United States, and a member of the present Confederate Congress. Her son, Capt. H. S. ‘F., is Adjutant General on the staff of the rebel Major General McCown.
Richmond, Va., Feb. 6, 1863.
“My Dear Anna–I have an opportunity offered this morning for conveying a letter to you and enclose it gladly. * * * My little boy is named ‘Malvern.’ His papa called him after the battleground of Malvern Hill, where our braves fought so nobly. He begins to play, and tries to talk. He spits at the Yankee pictures, and makes very wry faces at Old Abe’s picture. He is a great boy, and the best and prettiest baby I ever saw. He is much petted by the members of Congress who know him. Mr. F. is very much engaged in the House during the day. * * * * *
“We are boarding at Mrs. Johnson’s, on Governor street, just opposite Governor Letcher’s mansion. It is a large boarding house, high prices and starvation within. Such living never was known before on earth. Tell grandma the poorest hut in the western district of Tennessee is a palace compared with this, so far as fare goes. We have to cook almost everything we eat in our own room. In our ‘larder,’ the stock on hand is a boiled bacon ham, which we gave only eleven dollars for; three pounds of pure Rio coffee we gave four dollars per pound for, and one pound of green tea at seventeen dollars per pound; two pounds of brown sugar at two dollars and seventy-five cents per pound; one bushel of fine apples, about the size of a good common marble, which were presented to me by a member of Congress from Missouri; one pound of butter, about six months old, at two dollars per pound, and six sweet potatoes at fifty cents. We have to give a dollar for a very small slice of pound cake, at the confectioneries. I forgot to say I had a present of a fine jar of pickles and a piece of cheese from a member also. Well, so much for the way we live. You see the board is three dollars, each, per day, for F. and I, and half price for the servant, and then we get nothing on earth to eat. Yesterday, for dinner, we had nothing on the table but two eggs and a slice of cold baker’s bread, and a glass of water. Well, linen such as we gave one dollar for at home, when I left, sells here at six dollars, and the commonest domestic two dollars, calico two or three collars per yard of the most indifferent kind. You may well believe I got but little. Richmond is strictly a Jewish city–all making fortunes out of the war, and having less sympathy for our dear old Tennessee, and Nashville in particular, than some Yankees have; for they have learned to respect us, whereas these Virginians are the most horridly envious creatures that ever called themselves men.
“The women are far below the standard of Nashville ladies, either in elegance or refinement. There is seldom a lady seen who shows the gift of high-born gentility here. Such have generally abandoned this city and retired to the country to keep recluse, so that the mongrel race reigns supreme on the street and at all frequented parts of the city. Still we have some very delightful acquaintances, who show their hearts and homes are near the sun. * * * We find Gov. Letcher’s family real types of the Old Dominion gentry. He has a daughter just your size. * * * There are about a dozen unmarried members here who promised me to vote the capital where I wished if I would provide them a ‘chance’ with my little queens. They all agree the Nashville girls are the belles deservedly of the Southern Confederacy. * * * You have heard, I reckon, that Mr. Harris the minister, married a Miss Emily Johnson, of Jackson, Miss. She is worth a million in her own right. He drives his coupe, and is quite a dasher, and declares he never courted any girl in Tennessee. He has quit preaching and is very clever and hospitable in his house. Don’t let any one see this, but you may read it to them, except _____; I don’t want the Yanks to hear what I say.”
The Honorable Mrs. F., having more to say, added another sheet of letter paper, of which the following is rather racy:
* * * “Joe Pickett is here from Memphis. He is courting a Miss M____n, a great belle–ugly and rich. * * * Gen. Price is here on business. He is a fine gentleman and very handsome. * * * Tell them (the writer’s children–Correspondent Commercial.) Mrs. Jeff. Davis is not pretty, but a fine looking woman–dresses badly, in no taste. She is not much liked here, and is said to control “Jeffie,” as she calls her husband. She has several children. She takes but little notice of them. They go about with their clothes tossed on in any way and every style. ‘She has the public affairs to attend to.’ Ask Aunt Kitty what she thinks of that.
“The President looks careworn and troubled. He is very thin, and looks feeble and bent. He prays aloud in church, and is a devout Episcopalian. Dr. Wheat and Mrs. Wheat are here. They came on to have the remains of Robert Wheat removed to this place. Mrs. Wheat is most heart-broken. She has lost her two oldest sons in the war.
“Ever your devoted friend and aunt,
“Chattie.”
The italics are those of the Honorable Mrs. F.