Dixie After the War: An Exposition of Social Conditions Existing in the South, During the Twelve Years Succeeding the Fall of RichmondAvary, Myrta Lockett
Philosophy
Dixie After the War: An Exposition of Social Conditions Existing in the South, During the Twelve Years Succeeding the Fall of Richmond
Avary, Myrta Lockett
Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877); Southern States -- Social conditions
Presently, we heard that the "Clyde" was bringing Mr. Davis, his family,
General Wheeler, Governor Vance, and others, to Fortress Monroe. And
then--will I ever forget how the South felt about that?--that Mr. Davis
was a prisoner in a damp, casemated cell, that lights were kept burning in
his face all night until he was in danger of blindness; that human eyes
were fixed on him night and day, following his every movement; that his
jailer would come and look at him contemptuously and call him "Jeff";
that sightseers would be brought to peer at him as if he were some strange
wild beast; that his feeble limbs had been loaded with chains; that he was
like to lose his life through hardships visited upon him! To us who knew
the man personally, his sensitiveness, dignity, and refinement, the tale
is harrowing as it could not be to those who knew him not thus. Yet to all
Americans it must be a regrettable chapter in our history when it is
remembered that this man was no common felon, but a prisoner of State, a
distinguished Indian-fighter, a Mexican veteran, a man who had held a seat
in Congress, who had been Secretary of War of the United States, and who
for four years had stood at the head of the Confederate States.
When they came to put chains upon him, he protested, said it was an
indignity to which as a soldier he would not submit, that the intention
was to dishonour the South in him; stood with his back to the wall, bade
them kill him at once, fought them off as long as he could--fought them
until they held him down and the blacksmiths riveted the manacles upon his
wasted limbs. Captain Titlow, who had the work in charge, did not like his
cruel task, but he had no choice but to obey orders.[6]
And this was in Fortress Monroe, where of old the gates fell wide to
welcome him when he came as Secretary of War, where guns thundered
greeting, soldiers presented arms, and the highest officer was proud to do
him honour! With bated breath we speak of Russian prisons. But how is
this: "Davis is in prison; he is not allowed to say a word to any one nor
is any one allowed to say a word to him. He is literally in a living tomb.
His position is not much better than that of the Turkish Sultan, Bajazet,
exposed by his captor, Tamerlane, in a portable iron cage." ("New York
Herald," May 26, 1865.) The dispatch seemed positively to gloat over that
poor man's misery.
A new fad in feminine attire came into vogue; women wore long, large, and
heavy black chains as decorations.
The military murder of Mrs. Surratt stirred us profoundly. Too lowly,
simple, and obscure in herself to rank with heroic figures, her execution
lifts her to the plane where stand all who fell victims to the troubled
times. Suspicion of complicity in Mr. Lincoln's murder, because of her
son's intimacy with Wilkes Booth, led to her death. They had her before a
military tribunal in Washington, her feet linked with chains.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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