Solitude

This entry is from Mary Chesnut's Civil War, edited by C. Van Woodward

May 2, 1865 (Camden, SC, from the roadside below Blackstock)

Since we left Chester -- solitude. Nothing but tall blackened chimneys to show that any man ever trod this road before us.

This is Sherman's track. It is hard not to curse him.

I wept incessantly at first. "The roses of these gardens are already hiding the ruins, " said Mr. C. "Nature is a wonderful renovator." He tried to say something.


Then I shut my eyes and made a vow. If we are a crushed people, crushed by aught, I have vowed never to be a whimpering pining slave.

From the book A Diary from Dixie, as Written by Mary Boykin Chesnut