A Virginia Girl in the Civil War, 1861-1865

“Drive fast to No. – Charles Street,” Milicent said to the driver. Several carriages rolled out of the depot with our own, and before we reached Mrs. Harris’s we felt that we had escaped the deputy. Once with mother and Bobby we forgot him.

CHAPTER XV

I FALL INTO THE HANDS OF THE ENEMY

Mrs. Harris kept a select and fashionable boarding-house. There were many regular boarders and a stream of people coming and going all the time. She was a Southern sympathizer, and her house was a hotbed of sedition and intrigue for both sides. Among her guests were three Yankee officers, whom I made up my mind – or, rather, my mind needed no making up – to dislike. Uniform and all, I objected to them. The day after we came Mrs. Harris was chatting with us in mother’s room.

“I must introduce you to those Federal officers who are in the house,” she remarked.

“I beg you will not!” I replied indignantly. “I will have nothing to do with them.”

“Then you will make a grave mistake, my child. That course would betray you at once. You’ve put your head into the lion’s mouth, and prudence is the better policy until you get it out again. If you meet these officers and are civil to them they may be of assistance to you when you want to go back.”

Accordingly, when our household met as usual in the parlors that evening, Captain Hosmer, Assistant Adjutant-General William D. Whipple, of Schenck’s command, and Major Brooks – also, I think, of Schenck’s command – were presented to me.

Major Brooks had such a keen, satirical way of looking at me that I immediately took a violent prejudice against him, though I tried hard to conceal it. Schenck’s adjutant I did not like much better. Captain Hosmer was objectionable on general principles as a Yankee, but he was really a handsome fellow and a most charming gentleman, and though I had hard work overcoming my prejudices sufficiently to be quite civil at first, I ended by becoming warmly attached to him. My impulse was to avoid these gentlemen and to show my colors in a passive way. I say in a passive way, because anything approaching discourtesy Dan would have condemned. On duty, he would have shot a Yankee down quickly enough; off duty, he would never have failed in politeness to a gentleman in any uniform. As I could not well appear here as a Confederate officer’s wife, I was introduced to these gentlemen as Miss Duncan. The day after our arrival we mailed Captain Locke’s picture, which he had given us for the purpose, to his sister in Harrisburg, and called to see Mr. Holliway’s mother and sisters. They were charming women, and entertained us in true Baltimore fashion.

Indeed, I soon found myself in a whirl of gaiety. Mrs. Harris’s house was a merry one. Of course, being in Baltimore, its politics were mixed, as we have said, but as far as social position and culture were concerned, the guests were above reproach. The parlors in the evening reminded one of those of a fashionable pleasure resort.

Next door was another boarding-house. Mother’s windows overlooked the entrance, and we amused ourselves – according to boarding-house custom and privilege – by watching our own and our neighbors’ callers and guests, and by nicknaming them. There was one of the next-door boarders who entertained us greatly. We dubbed him “the Professor.” He had a funny way of wearing his green goggles as if they were about to fall off his nose. He had long, snaky curls which looked very greasy and glossy, and he walked with a slight stoop, using a gold-headed cane; and he always carried a book under his arm.

In our own house were two ladies who afforded us much amusement. They were sisters, as Captain Hosmer took occasion to inform me early in our acquaintance, but they were politically so opposed to each other that they did not speak.

Mrs. Bonds was a black Republican, Mrs. Lineman a red-hot rebel. This latter fact we discovered by degrees. Women did not gossip in those days – not to talk was a necessary evil – very evil and very necessary in a boarding-house of mixed politics in Baltimore during war times.

Mrs. Harris kept a private parlor for herself and daughters, and here we poor rebels met every now and then with a little less restraint, though even here we had to be very careful. One day a note was brought me.

“Happy greetings, dear friends! Can you arrange without inconvenience to yourselves for me to call, and will you allow me that pleasure? Do not hesitate to decline if you feel so disposed. I will understand.

“L.”

There was no other signature, but we knew the hand. Thank God! He was alive and well! We took the note to Mrs. Harris. Of course we would see him if we could make a way. After a little consultation it was arranged that we receive him in the little parlor upstairs. We addressed an envelope to ourselves, put a blank sheet of paper in it, sealed it, and enclosed it in a note to the captain. The latter we did not know how to address; we were merely to give it to his messenger, who was waiting. We wrote:

“Delighted. Come to side entrance at half-past eight; present enclosed and you will be shown up.

“N. & M.”

At half-past eight we were waiting in Mrs. Harris’s private parlor – there were several ladies there beside ourselves. Of all nights, why couldn’t they keep away this night? – when Mrs. Harris’s maid brought up the envelope we had addressed to ourselves.

“Show him up,” we said.

Why in the world wouldn’t those other women go? And would there be any callers in the private parlor to-night?

“Dr. Moreau!” announced Mrs. Harris’s maid.

Into the room walked the “Professor,” green goggles and all. Who in the world was he coming to see? What was he doing here any way? And on this night of all nights when we were looking for Captain Locke and wishing for as few witnesses as possible! Through the open door behind the “Professor,” we caught a glimpse of Mrs. Bonds out in the hall, following him with curious eyes. If we could only slip down-stairs and keep the captain from coming up to-night! And why didn’t the girl bring the captain in? Milicent was rising to go out into the hall, when the “Professor,” having glanced around the room, approached us.

“I was invited to call on some ladies here this evening? Am I in the wrong room?” said a perfectly strange voice, the voice you would expect to hear from a fossil.

We looked up in confusion. If we could only get him out of the way before the captain entered! He waited while we pondered how to answer.

“What ladies do you wish to see?” I asked.

“Well, this is good! Little madam, may I take this seat beside you?”

He dropped into the chair between us and we caught for an instant his old merry laugh, “nipped in the bud,” it is true, for we gave him a warning glance. Mrs. Harris was considerate and tactful, and we not only had our corner to ourselves, but attention and observation diverted from us as much as possible. We were much amused at Captain Locke’s “make-up,” and he was evidently very proud of it.

“It must be very clever for your eyes not to have seen through it,” he said. “I have been looking up at your window and watching you every day. I saw, too, that you made merry at my expense. It was a great temptation to speak to you many times, but I didn’t want to make advances nor to ask permission to call until I knew something about how the land lay over here.”

“You don’t know how anxious we have been about you, or how glad and thankful we are to see you,” we assured him. “We have been very uneasy at not hearing from you. Where is Mr. Holliway?”

“God knows!” he answered gravely. “He was afraid to follow my fortunes, I think. He left me at Frederick. He ought to be here by now, but if he is he is keeping very close.”

“He is not here,” we answered. “We have been to see his mother and sister, and they know nothing of him.”

“Then something is wrong. He had an idea that we might be tracked to Frederick very easily from Berlin, and from Frederick to this place if we came by the direct route; so he branched off into West Virginia, intending to reach Baltimore by a more round-about route than mine. Poor Holliway! he was not well, and he was nervous and unstrung over this trip from the first. He felt that I was reckless and that I was throwing away my own chance and his.”

Some one in the room came near us and we returned to generalities. Very soon after Captain Locke made his adieux, promising to call again when we could arrange it.

Captain Hosmer had sought opportunities for showing special courtesies to me, but I had rather repelled him. He was good enough, however, to ignore my bad manners and to persist in turning my music for me. We had dances very often in the evenings, I playing the same tunes for folks to dance by that I played for the Prussians and that I play for my children. One night, I had the audacity to rattle off the Virginia reel, and they danced it with spirit, every Yankee of them. My fingers were just itching to play Dixie, and I don’t know what foolhardiness I might have been guilty of if Captain Hosmer, who was turning my music, had not bent over me and said:

“I would like to have a little private talk with you, Miss Duncan. I know who you are. You are from the South and you have run the blockade. Your position is not free from danger. You are suspected. Pray be careful. When you have finished this, go upstairs and I will follow you.”

His manner was so serious that it took all the saucy daring out of me. Perhaps it saved me from playing Dixie. As soon as I could do so without attracting observation, I got Milicent to take my place, and went up-stairs to the private parlor.

I had hardly taken my seat when he came in.

“I was sorry to attack you so suddenly,” he said, “but you were so shy of me that it was my only chance.”

I had learned to like and to trust him; he was honest and kind, and I told him my situation frankly. Of course I didn’t explain Captain Locke.

“It is not so bad as it might be,” he said, “But you must have a care about your associates. People in this house are always more or less under observation, and arrest on charge of treason is not an unknown thing in it.”

“I am married – ” When I came to that part of my confession the captain looked surprised indeed.

“Didn’t you guess from the dignity I have displayed that I was a matron?”

“I never dreamed it! I don’t mean that you were not dignified,” he added quickly, and in some confusion.

“My husband is a staff-officer in the rebel army,” I added proudly.

“Lucky fellow!”

“I think he is a lucky fellow to be a staff-officer in the rebel army.”

“To be your husband, I meant.”

“I wonder if he would agree with you there!” We were on a subject very interesting to me now.

“I will show you his picture in the morning,” I volunteered.

“Better not,” Captain Hosmer said promptly.

I suppose I must have shown how hurt I was, for he added quickly: “Of course I’ll be glad to see his picture. Don’t forget to bring it down at breakfast.”

But he had frozen me for the time being. I could not talk about Dan to him when I saw it bored him to listen, so we went back to the original subject of our conversation. Among other persons he spoke of Mrs. Lineman.

“I see that you are inclined to form an intimacy there. Mrs. Lineman is in perfect sympathy with the South, but, as you know, her sister is not. They do not speak now, but family differences are frequently made up. Then confidences ensue. And Mrs. Bonds is really a political spy for the North. She thinks the mystery about you is deeper than it is, and you will do well to be on your guard before her and my brothers in arms whom you meet in this house. Major Brooks already has suspicions about you.”

“I don’t like him,” I said viciously.

“Disguise that fact a little better if you can. I don’t think any of the gentlemen whom you meet here are malicious, or that they will go out of their way to harm you, but it is good policy to temper your cold civility toward them with a little more warmth.”

“You are very good,” I said humbly, “and I really mean to act according to your advice.”

He smiled. “You are not good at playing the hypocrite, are you?”

“I must improve. But I really must tell you – I don’t need to be a hypocrite with you, you know – I believe Major Brooks is malicious.”

He laughed outright. “Be careful not to offend him, then. Ah, I am afraid my first lesson in diplomacy will only have skin-deep results.”

The next morning I did not forget Dan’s picture. I brought it down with me, and slipped it into Captain Hosmer’s hand as I passed behind him to my seat at the breakfast table. I was very much pleased later when he told me what a fine fellow he thought Dan must be, and that he thought the picture very handsome. Then I talked about Dan again until he was bored – when I shut up. After this I saw a great deal of Captain Hosmer. He was always so thoroughly well-bred that his attentions were very agreeable to me in spite of his uniform, and I formed a warm personal friendship and attachment for him. We were also seeing a good deal of Captain Locke.

I thought him very reckless in visiting us as he did, and I told him so frankly. He had doffed his disguise, wig and all, and appeared now every day, and sometimes oftener, at Mrs. Harris’s in his own proper person, dressed in citizen’s clothes. He came openly to the parlor in the daytime immediately after breakfast or lunch; and he was always there after dinner when the parlors were thronged. Several times he had joined the dance, selecting, by the way, Mrs. Bonds for a partner more than once. In fact, he singled this lady out for a number of pleasant courtesies. I could not keep him out of the way of the Yankee officers, and Major Brooks was always starting up at us somewhere like a Banquo’s ghost. His eyes got sharper and sharper until I thought they would cut me in two. In halls and by-ways I was always coming upon him and always getting out of his way, and I was always surprising a cynical little grin on his face. One day I encountered him on the first landing of the stairway, squarely face to face. He addressed me, wishing me good morning gruffly, and standing in such a position that I could not pass him without rudeness unless he moved to one side. He did not move, and I was at bay.

“I know who you are, Miss Duncan,” he said mischievously. “You are a good rebel now, aren’t you?”

“Yes, I am a good rebel, as you call it. I’m a Virginian – and a rebel like Washington was, and like Lee is.”

“I thought so. And you ran the blockade to get here.”

“That’s so, too. I got across at Berlin.”

“I wish you’d tell me how.”

I told him how. I sat down on the stairs to talk, and my enemy sat down beside me. Captain Hosmer came in, looked up, and saw the confidential and apparently friendly situation, laughed, and went on to breakfast.

“I don’t call that running the blockade,” he said. “I call that storming it. I didn’t think it possible to cross at Berlin or, indeed, at any other point. Our line at the Potomac has been greatly strengthened and the rules are very rigid and inspection most thorough.”

“I managed to cross at Berlin because you had such a nice provost marshal there. He knew two little women couldn’t do any harm.”

“Humph! He doesn’t know women as I do, then!”

“Perhaps he had always known only very lovely ladies,” I said with the softness of a purring cat.

He grinned. “You’ll be wanting to run back soon, I dare say.”

“I reckon I will. I wish you’d help me. Can’t you tell me how?”

He laughed outright. “You are cool!” he said.

“You know what my duty is?” he added after a pause.

“Yes,” I answered. “To fight on the right side, but I’m afraid you’ll never do that. Now, I have been wanting to play Dixie ever since I’ve been here, and I’m afraid of nobody but you. To-night I mean to play it.” But I did not. That afternoon a card was brought up to Milicent and me. Major Littlebob, U. S. A., was sorry to disturb us, but would we please step down a minute. “Major Brooks came in with him,” said the servant who brought the message.

“Major Brooks is going to have us arrested,” I thought in terror. Milicent also was frightened by the message and by a call from an unknown officer of the United States army who came accompanied by Major Brooks. Mother followed us in fear and trembling to the parlor door as we went in to behold – Milicent’s own curly-headed Bobby, all rigged out in Major Brooks’s regimentals! There he was, all swallowed up in sash, sword, and hat of a United States major of cavalry; beside him was the major, laughing merrily. Milicent, in her relief, bent over and kissed again and again the fairest, softest, cutest, sweetest Major Littlebob that ever wore the regimentals of the U. S. A.; and it is needless to say that after this we were never again afraid of Major Brooks.

“So, the whole purpose of your running the blockade was a visit to your mother?” Major Brooks had asked.

“And to accompany my sister. And – to buy a few things – needles, pins, and so forth,” I added in confusion.

Again the major laughed at my expense. Should I confide the Confederate uniform to him and Captain Hosmer? I decided to draw the line at this, as I had drawn it at Captain Locke. Of course, Captain Locke’s story was his, not mine, and the uniform – well, the uniform was Dan’s, or, rather, I hoped it would be. It was never out of my mind. I would have failed in half my mission if I did not buy it and get it across the Potomac to Dan. To buy shoes, gloves, ribbons, etc., was an easy matter, but to buy, a Confederate uniform in Yankeeland, that was a more delicate affair. It was Captain Locke who helped me out. He told me where I could buy it, and offered to get it for me himself, but he was taking so many risks on his own account that I was determined he should take none on mine. He directed me to a tailoring establishment on the corner of Charles and St. Paul’s Streets. The head of this establishment sympathized with the South and had supplied many Southern uniforms, and his store had a convenient double entrance, one on St. Paul’s and one on Charles Street. One morning I went in at the Charles Street entrance. I had chosen an early hour, and I found no one in but the tailor.

“I want to buy a Confederate uniform,” I said. “Captain Locke referred me – ”

“Walk straight on out at the other door,” he whispered. “I see two soldiers coming in from the Charles Street side.”

Without looking behind me I walked straight on as if I had merely passed through the store to get to the other sidewalk. I heard some one coming rapidly behind me, and then I was joined by Captain Hosmer.

“What are you in such a hurry for?” he asked. “Wait a minute and I can walk home with you. I have a commission to execute back here.”

Accordingly I returned to the store with him, was introduced to the friend accompanying him, and after a few moments walked home between the two. But the tailor had given me a hint – I was to come still earlier next day.

The next morning, however, he signaled me to pass on as I was about to enter. At last one morning I caught him alone long enough to get my uniform.

“I have to be very careful lately,” he apologized for waving me off the previous day. “These Yankees suspect me and are always on the lookout. Now we will get the uniform in a hurry. I have several pieces of fine Confederate cloth just in that I will show you. Is your husband a private?”

“Oh, no-o!” I exclaimed indignantly.

“I thought not,” he said suavely. “What is his rank?”

“He is a captain of cavalry now. That is – he was when I left home. But I haven’t heard from him since. He may be major or colonel by now. Can’t you fix up a uniform that would do for him if he is a captain or a colonel or a major when I get back, or – that would do for a general?”

“Certainly, certainly, madam. Very wise of you to think of that.”

He showed me several pieces of very fine and beautiful cloth of Confederate gray, and I made my selection.

“The question is, how are you to get it across the line. In what way will you carry it?”

“Ah, that I don’t know. Captain Locke advised me to consult you.”

The tailor, who seemed to have had a liberal experience in such matters, considered for a moment.

“Are other ladies going with you?”

“My mother.”

“It is easy then. I will cut this cloth into lengths that will be all right for the tailor who makes the uniform. You and your mother can make it into two Balmoral skirts. That’s the way you get your cloth home. Now for the buttons and gold lace. Will you travel in the wrap you have on?”

“In one like it; I shall pack this in my trunk. The inspectors will not be so likely to condemn this if they find it in a trunk as they would be to condemn a new one. So I will get a new cloak South; mother will wear another.”

“I see.” He was impressed with the scheme and made a mental note of it. “Send me your cloaks and I’ll fix the buttons all right.”

Cloaks of the period were long, sacque-like affairs, double-breasted and with two rows of buttons. The tailor changed the buttons on our cloaks for Confederate brass buttons covered with wadding, and then with cloth like the wrap. The gold lace was to be folded flat and smooth. Mother was to rip the lining from the bottom of her satchel, lay the lace on the bottom, and carefully paste the lining back. We wanted to take Dan some flannel shirts, and again fashion favored us. Ladies wore wide plaid scarfs passed around their necks and falling in long ends in front. We got seven yards of fine soft flannel in a stylish plaid and cut it in two lengths. Mother, being quite tall, could wear a longer scarf than myself, so, between us, we managed to carry around our necks two good shirts for Dan.

CHAPTER XVI

THE FLOWER OF CHIVALRY

In the meantime we were growing more and more uneasy about Captain Locke. We felt that he was suspected and covertly watched, but he laughed at our fears.

He and I had begun to discuss ways and means of getting back to Virginia. One day, as usual, he was sitting beside me in the parlor after dinner, and, as usual, we were talking together in low tones, and again, as usual, the parlors were full. At one end of the room sat Major Brooks and Colonel Whipple, honoring us now and then with the covert and curious observation to which I could never become hardened. Captain Hosmer was walking restlessly up and down the floor, and casting uneasy glances toward us. He was too much of a gentleman to catechize me about my friend, but I knew he was not only curious but concerned in regard to my intimacy with Captain Locke.

Captain Locke was saying to me that he was in favor of our taking some schooner going down the bay and landing somewhere in Gloucester County, when I became so painfully conscious that the eyes of the enemy were upon us that I could not attend to what he was saying.

“What is the matter with you?” he asked. “You are not thinking at all of what I am saying. I reckon your mind is on Dan Grey.”

“I am thinking about you,” I said, on the verge of tears. “If you are not more careful, you won’t get back home at all, I’m afraid.”

“Why?” he asked innocently, and as if he were the most prudent person in the world.

“Only what Milicent and I have been telling you all along. You come here openly and boldly in the presence of all these Yankees. You visit us, and we feel responsible for any misfortune that might come to you through it. It is well known now, I think, by everybody in the house that we are Southerners and blockade-runners. No one in the house except ourselves and Mrs. Harris knows who you really are. Don’t you suppose people wonder?”

He had been introduced several times to ladies as Mr. Moore, but we had not introduced him generally. We did not know what to do with him. For ourselves, we felt safe by this time, but I never sat on that sofa by Captain Locke’s side without the fear in my heart that a sergeant-at-arms might walk in and lay hands on his shoulder.

“Don’t you see,” I went on, “how Captain Hosmer is watching you?”

For Hosmer was watching him with a scrutiny which could be felt in spite of all his courteous efforts at concealment. “And can’t you see with what suspicious looks those officers across the room regard you?”

“That’s so. You must introduce me to some of these people.”