A Virginia Girl in the Civil War, 1861-1865: being a record of the actual experiences of the wife of a Confederate officer
John Locke · en
After leaving the saucy and peremptory adjutant we were shown into the
handsomest ambulance I have ever seen. I suppose the one we had been
using was returned to Harper’s Ferry or left at Winchester for the
horses to rest until Captain Goldsborough’s return. At any rate, we
were in new quarters, and very elegant ones they were. The sides and
seats were cushioned and padded, and it was really a luxurious coach.
It was drawn by four large black horses with coats like silk. There
was a postilion on the seat, and beside him sat a small boy who kept
peeping behind us and into the woods on all sides, and as far ahead
as possible. I didn’t know what he was trying to see or find out,
but I came to the conclusion that he was there to “peep” on general
principles.
As soon as we were seated we asked Captain Goldsborough what
upon earth that impertinent adjutant meant by referring to us as
“prisoners,” and ordering us about so.
Whereupon he explained with much embarrassment and many apologies that
we were really prisoners--that General Kelly could not have sent us
through without the formality of putting us under arrest.
“I wish,” he said in an aside to me, “that I didn’t have to release
you.”
Of course we were perfectly satisfied to be General Kelly’s prisoners
under such circumstances. In fact, we charged Captain Goldsborough to
tell him how nice we thought it was to be put under arrest by him.
We withdrew our charges against the adjutant, and even acknowledged
that there was kindness in the pert little Yankee’s telling us to
“holler for Jeff Davis and we’d get sent on quick enough.”
Six miles from Winchester we met the detachment of cavalry to which
Milroy’s adjutant had referred. It was a magnificent-looking body of
men, handsomely uniformed and mounted. As they were about to dash past
us Captain Goldsborough halted them, gave an order, and instantly
thirty riders wheeled out of line and surrounded the ambulance,
the others riding on without a break in their movements. Captain
Goldsborough had gotten out of the ambulance some minutes before we
met the detachment of cavalry, and was sitting with the driver, having
sent the little boy inside. It sounds rather a formidable position
for a Southern woman, a blockade-runner, in a Yankee ambulance, and
surrounded by thirty Yankees armed to the teeth; but I was never safer
in my life. The little boy was in a state of terror that would have
been amusing if it had not been pitiful.
“What are all these men around the ambulance for?” I asked. He didn’t
look as if he could get his wits together at once.
“Are they afraid we will get away?” I continued.
“Oh, no’m! no’m!” he answered, his eyes as big as saucers. “There’s
been lots of fightin’--an’ there’s rebels all along here in the
woods--and they’d come out and take this here ambulance an’ these here
horses--an’ we all, an’ you all, an’ all of us!”