Four Years in Rebel Capitals An Inside View of Life in the Southern Confederacy from Birth to Death

This volume aspires neither to the height of history, nor to the depths of political analysis; for it may still be too early for either, or for both, of these. Equally has it resisted temptation to touch on many topics--not strictly belonging inside the Southern Capitals--still vexed by political agitation, or personal interest. These, if unsettled by dire arbitrament of the sword, must be left to Time and his best coadjutor, "sober second-thought."

Campaigns and battles have already surfeited most readers; and their details--usually so incorrectly stated by the inexpert--have little to do with a relation of things within the Confederacy, as they then appeared to the masses of her people. Such, therefore, are simply touched upon in outline, where necessary to show their reaction upon the popular pulse, or to correct some flagrant error regarding that.

To the vast majority of those without her boundaries--to very many, indeed, within them--realities of the South, during the war, were a sealed book. False impressions, on many important points, were disseminated; and these, because unnoted, have grown to proportions of accepted truth. A few of them, it may not yet be too late to correct.

While the pages that follow fail not to record some weaknesses in our people, or some flagrant errors of their leaders, they yet endeavor to chronicle faithfully heroic constancy of men, and selfless devotion of women, whose peers the student of History may challenge that vaunting Muse to show.

To prejudiced provincialism, on the one side, they may appear too lukewarm; by stupid fanaticism on the other, they may be called treasonable. But--written without prejudice, and equally without fear, or favor--they have aimed only at impartial truth, and at nearest possible correctness of narration.

Indubitably the war proved that there were great men, on both the sides to it; and, to-day, the little men on either--"May profit by their example. If this be treason, make the most of it!"

The sole object kept in view was to paint honestly the inner life of the South; the general tone of her people, under strain and privation unparalleled; the gradual changes of society and character in the struggling nation--in a clear, unshaded outline of things as they were.

Should this volume at all succeed in giving this; should it uproot one false impression, to plant a single true one in its place, then has it fully equaled the aspiration of

THE AUTHOR.

MOBILE, ALA., June 25, 1890.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

PAGE.

CHAPTER I.--The Forehead of the Storm 11-20

Washington City in 1861. Her two Social Circles. Was she a new Sodom? Lobbyists and Diplomats. Eve of the Storm. Echo from Charleston Harbor. A Dinner and a Ball. Popular Views of the Situation. Buchanan's Policy and the "Peace Congress". Separation a Certainty. Preparations for the Hejira. Precautions for Lincoln's Inauguration. Off for Dixie.

CHAPTER II.--The Cradle of the Confederacy 21-29

Through Richmond, the Carolinas and Georgia. Wayside Notes. The Masses Willing but Unprepared. Where were the Leaders? The First Capital. A New Flag. Hotels and their Patrons. Jefferson Davis. The Man and the Government. Social Matters. The Curbstone Congress. Early Views of the Struggle. A Notable "Mess."

CHAPTER III.--Congress and Cabinet 30-35

Bloodless Revolution. Glances at the Congress. Its Personnel and its Work. Party Hacks in Place. Wind vs. Work. What People said of the Solons. The New Cabinet. Heads of Departments Sketched. The President's Advisers. Popular Opinion. The First Gun at Sumter.

CHAPTER IV.--"The Awakening of the Lion ." 36-41

Sumter's Effect on Public Feeling. Would There be a Long War--or any? Organizing an Army. The Will of the People. How Women Worked. The Camps a Novel Show. Mr. Davis handles Congress. His Energy and Industry. Society and the Strangers. Joy over Virginia's Secession.

CHAPTER V.--A Southern River Boat Race 42-48

An Alabama Steamer. General Van Dorn. What River Travel is. A Calliope and its Master. Banter for a Race. Excitement of all on Board. A Close Shave. Neck and Neck. How a Race is Won. A Unique Toast.

CHAPTER VI.--Boat Life Afloat and Aground 49-53

Time-killers on the River. Negro Boat-hands. Cotton Loading from Slides. Overboard! "Fighting the Tiger". Hard Aground! Delay and Depression. Admiral Raphael Semmes. News of the Baltimore Riot. Speculation as to its Results.

CHAPTER VII.--Mobile, the Gulf City 54-58

Echo from Maryland. Alabama's Preparation. Mobile's Crack Corps. John Forsyth on the Peace Commissioners. Mobile Society. Pleasure-lovers and Their Pleasures. A Victim of the Tiger. Two Moral Axioms.

CHAPTER VIII--New Orleans, the Crescent City 59-68

Location and Commercial Importance. Old Methods of Business. Relations of Planter and Factor. A typical Brokerage House. Secure Reliance on European Recognition and the Kingship of Cotton. Yellow Jack and his Treatment. French Town and America. Hotels of the day. Home Society and "The Heathen". Social Customs. Creole Women's Taste. Cuffee and Cant. Early Regiments and Crack Companies. Judges of Wine. A Champion Diner.