From the Phillip Phillips Papers, Library of Congress. Reprinted and annotated
in A Southern Woman’s Story (1959), Bell I. Wiley, ed.
Richmond. 13 September.
1863.
As I am confined to my room, my
dear sister, I think that I had better fill up the leisure time by answering my
letters, and yours comes first upon the list I have been quite sick with no
actual disease but only what the English call “a low state.” I think that during
the intense summer heats, being so much in the gangrenous and Typhus wards, that
the infected air may have induced this state-with all the precautions of
cleanliness and ventilation the air will become close when each bed is only
allowed a certain number of feet Dr. McCaw sent me a furlough but I had no where
to go, for if even I had the means to pay the enormous board charged I could not
go alone. I am all right again, I believe, for the cool weather has set in. Our
surgeon Dr. Habersham went off and so did my assistant, Miss Ball, so that
double work fell on me. I suggested to the surgeon in chief to make me surgeon
in charge, on the ground that Toney Lumpkin’s mother had been a Colonel and his
Aunt, a justice of the peace, but nothing came of it
I have not seen Eugene for some
time, but heard that they were all studying very hard., I met him on Main Street
looking very nicely in his undress uniform, which I believe he removed all
Creation to get I would not give him too much money if I were you. He gets more
than enough to support himself, fifty dollars a month, ten of which goes to his
mess bill. All his clothing he gets at government price and I have his washing
done for him. They charge three dollars a dozen here and as I am entitled to
have mine done at one dollar at the Hospital, I extend the permission to his.
This leaves him fifty dollars a month clear, quite enough for a boy of his age.
It is all that I get and I make it answer, though I pay full price for all
wearing apparel. I have told him to come to me for all the sewing and mending
he wants done, and you need not tell him anything on the subject, as if I
object to do what he might ask, I should have no delicacy in telling him so.
I am more than surprised at the
desponding tone of your letters – you ought to be with the Army and hear the
soldiers talk – I would like anybody to tell them that they had been beaten at Gettysburg, or anywhere else,
they will laugh in your face. They have been obliged, they allow, to fall back
before superior forces at times, but never where there have been any equality of
numbers. I have never had a doubt of the final end, even if, as you say
“LaGrange should become a frontier town.” I live almost in the Army and find
every man willing to fight to the end-they are Patient, enduring and brave and
such material cannot fail. There has been a cabinet of war sitting at the
President’s for the last week, resulting in Gen. Lee being sent with a large
part of the Army to Tennessee. Meade, they say, has but one effective corps and
Pickett’s division can keep that in check here. I went to town to pay a visit at
the Aarwick’s and a gentleman stopping to hand me out of an awkward ambulance
proved to be Gen. Lee. He looked much older and greatly worn.
I shall lose very kind and devoted
friends by Davis appointing Gilmer a Major General, and sending him to
Charleston. I have spent every evening with them for five months, and shall have
no place to go now. I live a mile and a half from the city proper. As a sett off
Mrs. Lawton has come in as Lawton has been made Quarter Master General, but she
lives where all my other friends live, at the extreme West End, it makes the
prospect of the coming winter very gloomy for me, for though I have an ambulance
is against orders for it to leave the Hospital after eight o’clock which
precludes all spending the evening out Gen. Gilmer writes very hopefully from
Charleston, he says that the enemy will certainly take Sumter. Gregg. Moultrie
and Simpkins, as they have already taken Wagner; but the inner line of defenses
is very strong, time is of the greatest importance, to strengthen the city, as
the call of Beauregard for negroes to work had not been properly complied with.
Beauregard seems to have got a little above himself and transmitted all his
orders thro’ Jordan, a man who was, or rather had made himself, so obnoxious to
the citizens that they paid no attention to his demands.[1]
I hear from what the newspapers say is reliable authority, that at the time of
the first attack Ripley[2]
and Jordan were so engaged in blockade running that the safety of their expected
cargoes were uppermost in their minds, instead of the safety of the city. Ripley
has made a million they say and Jordan half as much. Gen. Gilmer counts a great
deal upon the high equinoctial winds at this season among the clumsy and
unmanageable Monitors and also upon those three iron clad steamers now receiving
their armament in France. The splendid guns, firing six hundred and seventy
five pounds, have been mounted in the battery in the city, and also a mortar
throwing a shell weighing four hundred and twenty five pounds. Gen. Gilmer
pronounced all the defenses at Savannah and in the harbor useless as they were
constructed with mud, through which the new projectiles go without difficulty –
they are cutting them down and building them of sand, he thinks in time.
I wish that Fanny would accept
Kate Campbell’s invitation and come for a time to Richmond.[3]
I would give her half my room with pleasure, whenever she would come to me, and
it is quite as nice as at any hotel, it is away from the Hospital to which she
need not come unless she wished to do so, and even then my office, parlor,
kitchen and laundry are pretty far from the wards, with which she would not be
brought into contact. I have a sweetheart for her, though I am not much of a
match maker, he is a nephew of Gen. Lee one of the Shirley Carters of Brentford,
the oldest Virginia family extant that is also his name and a sweet fellow he
is, about twenty six. I have talked to him (for he comes to see me almost daily)
about Fanny till he is half in love with her, and I think he could win any
girl’s heart. Ask Lena if she will not give me Fanny’s Daguerreotype
I gave her last winter. I hope that she will not refuse me
such a trifle, particularly as she was indebted to my generosity for it.
The feelings here against the
Yankees exceeds anything I could imagine, particularly among the good
Christians. I spent an evening among a particularly pious sett. One lady said
she had a pile of Yankee bones lying around her pump so that the first glance on
evening her eyes would rest upon them. Another begged me to get her a Yankee
Skull to keep her toilet trinkets in. All had something of the kind to say – at
last I lifted my voice and congratulated myself at being born of a nation, and
religion that did not enjoin forgiveness on its enemies, that enjoyed the
blessed privilege of praying for an eye for an eye, and a life for a life, and
was not one of those for whom Christ died in vain, considering the Present state
of feeling. I proposed that till the war was over they should all join the
Jewish Church, let forgiveness and peace and good will alone and put their trust
in the sword of the Lord and Gideon. It was a very agreeable evening, and all
was taken in good part. I certainly had the best of the argument, and the
gentlemen seconded me ably. Yesterday some of the gentlemen came out, among
them Major Coxe, who asked me after either you or the girls, he is a very fine
looking, rather dissipated looking man.
I paid a visit yesterday about
which I would like to consult you, not about the visit but the results, as you
are acquainted with one of the parties – the friend I called on spoke very
kindly of the life of exertion and self-sacrifice she fancied I was leading,
dilated very strongly upon the sinfulness and scandal making of any woman who
would or could say anything reflecting upon me- and to make a long story short
I found that Mrs. L-y was the mischief maker. She brought no charges it seems
against me only that small and mean style of surmising which is worse than damning with faint praise. “She knew what brought me to
Richmond, no one could tell her
anything about me if I lived
alone I had my reasons” – all this is very bad and very malicious, my life is
irreproachable now as it morally always has been; there is nothing in the past
or the Present to touch it; my time is past from morning till night by the
bedside of the sick and dying, fulfilling to the extent of my capability the
duties of my position, never considering my personal comfort, living what to
most women would be a life of self abnegation and sacrifice, but which is
neither to me. Every one I come in contact with has respected and made much of
me and here comes this woman pretending to know something wrong in my former
life and present motives. It is like a small but poisonous sting. Would you
advise me to see her and speak to her of the mischief she does, or not to notice
the matter? You know my life is a little peculiar. I am entirely independent and
alone, perhaps younger and more attractive than the very old and very
unattractive women who fill these positions and the world might put any
construction upon the matter they pleased. She said that she had heard from my
sister that my work was entirely a matter of choice, but I immediately
contradicted this (as the choice of such a life would naturally be considered an
absurdity) and said I had no means and it was a necessity. Who would suppose or
believe that days passed among fever wards and dying men, in a hospital away
from the city, with no comforts and every privation, was voluntary! I dared not
aspire to that!
Eugene says you mentioned
something about black and white gingham at 4.50 a yard, but that I do not intend
to give. I am going on a shopping expedition next week. I had to give fifty
dollars a pair for leather shoes and what is worse wear them, with the
thermometer at 96. I think prices are better for the purchaser here than
anywhere else. I had quite a present yesterday. I had made a black cravat for
Eugene and it was lying upon my table when Major Mason of the Army came in and
took it, saying he wanted one. I let him keep it and a few hours afterwards he
sent me five new novels and twenty pounds of coffee, telling me he knew I was
too honest and scrupulous to drink the Hospital coffee. The only luxuries now
hat gentlemen can send me is tea and coffee and at the present rates his gifts
cost him over one hundred dollars. Shall I send you some?
I am sure I have not the slightest
idea of what you mean when you say “Emma is learning something.” Is anything
wrong with her husband? As for Fanny’s[4]
engagement I do not wonder she broke it off, but only that it was on, he was
such a dirty wriggling little tobacco chewer, she would prize a little notoriety
much, from a morbid vanity and will not mature into any of the nobler
attributes of womankind I think. Fanny Cohen makes no secret I believe of her
partial engagement.
Do tell me if you ever heard of a
young man named Napier Bartlett of the Washington Volunteers,[5]
a very ugly but remarkably intelligent person, from New Orleans. The reason I
wish to know is that I met him casually and did him some little favors in the
way of my profession which he seems very grateful for. He writes me very often,
very clever shrewd rather brilliant letters from camp which I have not
answered; and sends me books, one or two which he has written – one, a very
pretty little novellette called “Claribel, a tale of the war.” Please answer
this as I am rather curious, fancying him rather a self made man.
If you are in earnest about being
willing to preserve me some peaches if sugar was not so high, I should like a
very small jar. I have over twenty pounds of sugar, being a part of my monthly
rations, and I could either send it to you, or sell it for ten dollars a pound
here and send you the money. I don’t want many. If convenient please remember
me. Thank dear Fanny a thousand times for her offer concerning her shawl, but
tell her the Quarter Master General has promised to let me have some woollen
cloth at government prices, as soon as any comes in; which will answer. I
received her letter, and will answer soon. I wish I could see Lena’s baby, is
it really such a little beauty? I hope that she is pleased, she was always so
anxious for it.
I must say goodbye as the Doctor
has just come to lance a great abcess I have on my arm that has almost crazed
me. You don’t know how courageous the constant sight of amputations make one –
you look upon anything less as trifling. Do give my kindest remembrances to all
your household and write me soon. My greatest pleasure is the letters I get.
Sincerely yours
Phebe
My paper is miserable but I really cannot afford better, so
will have to make up in agreeability for all defects.
[1]
The reference is to Col. Thomas Jordan, Beauregard’s chief of staff.
[2]
Gen. R. S. Ripley, who earlier had been in command at Charleston, was at
this time subordinate to Gen. P. G. T. Beauregard and at odds with both
Beauregard and Jordan. The report about blockade running apparently was one
of the many wild rumors to which the Confederacy was subjected.
[3]
The Fanny here mentioned was Fanny Phillips, Phoebe’s niece, who later
married Charles Hill. Kate Campbell was the daughter of Assistant Secretary
of War John A. Campbell.
[5]
Napier Bartlett after the war wrote an account of his war experiences,
published in New Orleans in 1874 under the title A Soldier’s Story of the
War, Including the Marches and Battles of the Washington Artillery and of
Other Louisiana Troops.