May 20.—I left Mobile in the steamer Florida for New Orleans this morning at eight o’clock. She was crowded with passengers, in uniform. In my cabin was a notice of the rules and regulations of the steamer. No. 6 was as follows: “All slave servants must be cleared at the Custom House. Passengers having slaves [...]
May 19th.—The heat out of doors was so great that I felt little tempted to stir out, but at 2 o’clock Mr. Magee drove me to a pretty place, called Spring Hill, where Mr. Stein, a German merchant of the city, has his country residence. The houses of Mobile merchants are scattered around the rising [...]
May 18th.—An exceedingly hot day, which gives bad promise of comfort for the Federal soldiers, who are coming, as the Washington Government asserts, to put down rebellion in these quarters. The mosquitoes are advancing in numbers and force. The day I first came I asked the waiter if they were numerous. “I wish they were [...]
May 16th.—The reveille of the Zouaves, note for note the same as that which, in the Crimea, so often woke up poor fellows who slept the long sleep ere nightfall, roused us this morning early, and then the clang of trumpets and the roll of drums beating French calls summoned the volunteers to early parade. [...]
May 14th. Down to our yacht, the Diana, which is to be ready this afternoon, and saw her cleared out a little—a broad-beamed, flat-floored schooner, some fifty tons burthen, with a centre-board, badly caulked, and dirty enough—unfamiliar with paint. The skipper was a long-legged, ungainly young fellow, with long hair and an inexpressive face, just [...]
May 13th.—I was busy making arrangements to get to Pensacola, and Fort Pickens, all day. The land journey was represented as being most tedious and exceedingly comfortless in all respects, through a waste of sand, in which we ran the chance of being smothered or lost. And then I had set my mind on seeing [...]
May 12th.—Mr. Forsyth had been good enough to invite me to an excursion down the Bay of Mobile, to the forts built by Uncle Sam and his French engineers to sink his Britishers—now turned by “C. S. A.” against the hated Stars and Stripes. The mayor and the principal merchants and many politicians—and are not [...]
May 11th.—At early dawn the steamer went its way through a broad bay of snags bordered with driftwood, and with steam-trumpet and calliope announced its arrival at the quay of Mobile, which presented a fringe of tall warehouses, and shops alongside, over which were names indicating Scotch, Irish, English, many Spanish, German, Italian, and French [...]
Note: This particular diary entry–a document written in 1861–includes terms and topics that may be offensive to many today. No attempt will be made to censor or edit 19th-century material to today’s standards. May 10th.—The cabin of one of these steamers, in the month of May, is not favorable to sleep. The wooden beams [...]
Note: This particular diary entry—a document written in 1861—includes terms and topics that may be offensive to many today. No attempt will be made to censor or edit 19th-century material to today’s standards. May 9th.—My faithful Wigfall was good enough to come in early, in order to show me some comments on my letters [...]
May 8th.—I tried to write, as I have taken my place in the steamer to Mobile to-morrow, and I was obliged to do my best in a room full of people, constantly disturbed by visitors. Early this morning, as usual, my faithful Wigfall comes in and sits by my bedside, and passing his hands through [...]
May 9th. [7th1]—To-day the papers contain a proclamation by the President of the Confederate States of America, declaring a state of war between the Confederacy and the United States, and notifying the issue of letters of marque and reprisal. I went out with Mr. Wigfall in the forenoon to pay my respects to Mr. Jefferson [...]
Note: This particular diary entry–a document written in 1861–includes terms and topics that may be offensive to many today. No attempt will be made to censor or edit 19th-century material to today’s standards. May 6th.—I forgot to say that yesterday before dinner I drove out with some gentlemen and the ladies of the family [...]
May 5th.—Very warm, and no cold water, unless one went to the river. The hotel baths were not promising; This hotel is worse than Mill’s House or “Willard’s. The feeding and the flies are intolerable. One of our party comes in to say that he could scarce get down to the hall on account of [...]
May 4th.—In the morning I took a drive about the city, which is loosely built in detached houses over a very pretty undulating country covered with wood and fruit-trees. Many good houses of dazzling white, with bright green blinds, verandas, and doors, stand in their own grounds or gardens. In the course of the drive [...]
May 3rd.—I bade good-by to Mr. Green, who with several of his friends came down to see me off, at the terminus or “depót” of the Central Railway, on my way to Montgomery–and looked my last on Savannah, its squares and leafy streets, its churches, and institutes with a feeling of regret that I could [...]
May 2nd.—Breakfasted with Mr. Hodgson, where I met Mr. Locke, Mr. Ward, Mr. Green and Mrs. Hodgson and her sister. There were in attendance some good-looking little negro boys and men dressed in liveries, which smacked of our host’s Orientalism, and they must have heard our discussion, or rather allusion, to the question which would [...]
May Day.—Not unworthy of the best effort of English fine weather before the change in the calendar robbed the poets of twelve days, but still a little warm for choice. The young American artist Moses, who was to have called our party to meet the officers who were going to Fort Pulaski, for some reason [...]
April 30th.—At 1 ·30 P.M. a small party started from Mr. Green’s to visit the cemetery of Bonaventure, to which every visitor to Savannah must pay his pilgrimage; difficiles aditus primos habet—a deep sandy road which strains the horses and the carriages; but at last “the shell road” is reached—a highway-several miles long, consisting of [...]
April 29th.—This morning up at six A.M., bade farewell to our hostess and Barnwell Island, and proceeded with Trescot back to the Pocotaligo station, which we reached at 12 ·20. On our way Mr. Heyward and his son rode out of a field, looking very like a couple of English country squires in all but [...]
Note: This particular diary entry–a document written in 1861–includes terms and topics that may be offensive to many today. No attempt will be made to censor or edit 19th century material to today’s standards. April 28th.—The church is a long way off, only available by a boat and then a drive in a carriage. [...]
Note: This particular diary entry—a document written in 186—includes terms and topics that may be offensive to many today. No attempt will be made to censor or edit 19th century material to today’s standards. April 27th.—Mrs. Trescot, it seems, spent part of her night in attendance on a young gentleman of color, who was [...]
Note: This particular diary entry–a document written in 1861–includes a term that is offensive to many today. No attempt will be made to censor or edit 19th-century material to today’s standards. April 26th.—Bade good-by to Charleston at 9:45 A.M. this day, and proceeded by railway, in company with Mr. Ward, to visit Mr. Trescot’s [...]
April 25th.—Sent off my letters by an English gentleman, who was taking despatches from Mr. Bunch to Lord Lyons, as the post-office is becoming a dangerous institution. We hear of letters being tampered with on both sides. Adams’s Express Company, which acts as a sort of express post under certain conditions, is more trustworthy; but [...]
April 24th.—In the morning we found ourselves in chopping little sea-way for which the “Nina” was particularly unsuited, laden as she was with provisions and produce. Eyes and glasses anxiously straining seawards for any trace of the blockading vessels. Every sail scrutinized, but no ‘stars and stripes’ visible. Our captain–a good specimen of one of [...]