A Woman's Wartime Journal: An account of the passage over a Georgia plantation of Sherman's army on the march to the sea, as recorded in the diary of Dolly Sumner LuntLunt, Dolly Sumner
History
A Woman's Wartime Journal: An account of the passage over a Georgia plantation of Sherman's army on the march to the sea, as recorded in the diary of Dolly Sumner Lunt
Lunt, Dolly Sumner
Georgia -- Biography; Georgia -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Personal narratives; Lunt, Dolly Sumner, 1817-1891; Sherman's March to the Sea -- Personal narratives; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Personal narratives, Confederate
Imagine yourself in a low white house standing in a grove of gigantic
oaks surrounded by the cottonfields. Imagine yourself in a large
comfortable room in this house, in an old rocking chair by the window.
From the window you may see the white well-house, its roof mottled
with the shadows of branches above; beyond, the garden and the road,
and far away in the red fields negroes and mules at work. Then look
down at the large book resting in your lap and read.
JULIAN STREET.
New York,
MARCH, 1918.
A WOMAN'S WARTIME JOURNAL
A WOMAN'S WARTIME JOURNAL
JANUARY 1, 1864.
A new year is ushered in, but peace comes not with it. Scarcely a
family but has given some of its members to the bloody war that is
still decimating our nation. Oh, that its ravages may soon be stopped!
Will another year find us among carnage and bloodshed? Shall we be a
nation or shall we be annihilated?... The prices of everything are
very high. Corn seven dollars a bushel, calico ten dollars a yard,
salt sixty dollars a hundred, cotton from sixty to eighty cents a
pound, everything in like ratio.
* * * * *
JULY 22, 1864.
[_The day of the battle of Atlanta_]
We have heard the loud booming of cannon all day. Mr. Ward [the
overseer] went over to the burial of Thomas Harwell, whose death I
witnessed yesterday. They had but just gone when the Rev. A. Turner,
wife, and daughter drove up with their wagons, desiring to rest
awhile. They went into the ell [a large back room] and lay down, I
following them, wishing to enjoy their company. Suddenly I saw the
servants running to the palings, and I walked to the door, when I saw
such a stampede as I never witnessed before. The road was full of
carriages, wagons, men on horseback, all riding at full speed. Judge
Floyd stopped, saying: "Mrs. Burge, the Yankees are coming. They have
got my family, and here is all I have upon earth. Hide your mules and
carriages and whatever valuables you have."
Sadai [Mrs. Burge's nine-year-old daughter] said:
"Oh, Mama, what shall we do?"
"Never mind, Sadai," I said. "They won't hurt you, and you must help
me hide my things."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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