{"id":11094,"date":"2021-01-28T04:00:47","date_gmt":"2021-01-28T09:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dotcw.com\/?p=1824"},"modified":"2021-03-05T07:44:16","modified_gmt":"2021-03-05T13:44:16","slug":"secession-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/secession-4\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThe city was very lively and noisy this evening with rockets and lights in honor of secession.\u201d\u2014Dora Richards Miller\u2019s War Diary"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jan. 28, Monday<\/em>.\u2014Sunday has now got to be a day of special excitement. The gentlemen save all the sensational papers to regale us with at the late Sunday breakfast. Rob opened the battle yesterday morning by saying to me in his most aggressive manner, \u201cG., I believe these are your sentiments\u201d; and then he read aloud an article from the \u201cJournal des Debats\u201d expressing in rather contemptuous terms the fact that France will follow the policy of non-intervention. When I answered: \u201cWell, what do you expect? This is not their quarrel,\u201d he raved at me, ending by a declaration that he would willingly pay my passage to foreign parts if I would like to go. \u201cRob,\u201d said his father, \u201ckeep cool; don\u2019t let that threat excite you. Cotton is king. Just wait till they feel the pinch a little; their tone will change.\u201d I went to Trinity Church. Some Union people who are not Episcopalians go there now because the pastor has not so much chance to rail at the Lord when things are not going to suit: but yesterday was a marked Sunday. The usual prayer for the President and Congress was changed to the \u201cgovernor and people of this commonwealth and their representatives in convention assembled.\u201d<\/p>\n

The city was very lively and noisy this evening with rockets and lights in honor of secession. Mrs. F., in common with the neighbors, illuminated. We walked out to see the houses of others gleaming amid the dark shrubbery like a fairy scene. The perfect stillness added to the effect, while the moon rose slowly with calm splendor. We hastened home to dress for a soir\u00e9e, but on the stairs Edith said, \u201cG., first come and help me dress Phoebe and Chloe [the negro servants]. There is a ball to-night in aristocratic colored society. This is Chloe\u2019s first introduction to New Orleans circles, and Henry Judson, Phoebe\u2019s husband, gave five dollars for a ticket for her.\u201d Chloe is a recent purchase from Georgia. We superintended their very stylish toilets, and Edith said, \u201cG., run into your room, please, and write a pass for Henry. Put Mr. D.\u2019s name to it.\u201d \u201cWhy, Henry is free,\u201d I said.\u2014”That makes no difference; all colored people must have a pass if out late. They choose a master for protection and always carry his pass. Henry chose Mr. D., but he\u2019s lost the pass he had.\u201d When the pass was ready, a carriage dashed up to the back-gate and the party drove off in fine style.<\/p>\n

At the soir\u00e9e we had secession talk sandwiched everywhere; between the supper, and the music, and the dance; but midnight has come, and silence, and a few too brief hours of oblivion.<\/p>\n

\n

Note: To protect Mrs. Miller\u2019s job as a teacher in post-civil war New Orleans, her diary was published anonymously, edited by G. W. Cable, names were changed and initials were generally used instead of full names\u2014<\/em>and even the initials differed from the real person\u2019s initials. (Read Dora Richards Miller\u2019s biographical sketch<\/a>.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jan. 28, Monday.\u2014Sunday has now got to be a day of special excitement. The gentlemen save all the sensational papers to regale us with at the late Sunday breakfast. Rob opened the battle yesterday morning by saying to me in his most aggressive manner, \u201cG., I believe these are your sentiments\u201d; and then he read […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":98518,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-11094","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-war-diary-of-a-union-woman-in-the-south"},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Dora-Richards-Miller.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11094\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}