{"id":14045,"date":"2022-03-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-11T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dotcw.com\/?p=1847"},"modified":"2021-03-05T09:36:19","modified_gmt":"2021-03-05T15:36:19","slug":"how-it-was-in-arkansas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/how-it-was-in-arkansas\/","title":{"rendered":"How it was in Arkansas."},"content":{"rendered":"

March 11, 1862<\/em>.\u2014The serpent has entered our Eden. The rancor and excitement of New Orleans have invaded this place. If an incautious word betrays any want of sympathy with popular plans, one is \u201ctraitorous,\u201d \u201cungrateful,\u201d \u201ccrazy.\u201d If one remains silent, and controlled, then one is \u201cphlegmatic,\u201d \u201ccool-blooded,\u201d \u201cunpatriotic.\u201d Cool-blooded! Heavens! if they only knew. It is very painful to see lovable and intelligent women rave till the blood mounts to face and brain. The immediate cause of this access of war fever has been the battle of Pea Ridge. They scout the idea that Price and Van Dorn have been completely worsted. Those who brought the news were speedily told what they ought to say. \u201cNo, it is only a serious check; they must have more men sent forward at once. This country must do its duty.\u201d So the women say another company must<\/em> be raised.<\/p>\n

We were guests at a dinner-party yesterday. Mrs. A. was very talkative. \u201cNow, ladies, you must all join in with a vim and help equip another company.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMrs. L.,\u201d she said, turning to me, \u201care you not going to send your husband? Now use a young bride\u2019s influence and persuade him; he would be elected one of the officers.\u201d \u201cMrs. A.,\u201d I replied, longing to spring up and throttle her, \u201cthe Bible says, \u2018When a man hath married a new wife, he shall not go to war for one year, but remain at home and cheer up his wife.\u2019\u201d \u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, H.,\u201d I questioned, as we walked home after crossing the lake, \u201ccan you stand the pressure, or shall you be forced into volunteering?\u201d \u201cIndeed,\u201d he replied, \u201cI will not be bullied into enlisting by women, or by men. I will sooner take my chance of conscription and feel honest about it. You know my attachments, my interests are here; these are my people. I could never fight against them; but my judgment disapproves their course, and the result will inevitably be against us.\u201d<\/p>\n

This morning the only Irishman left in the village presented himself to H. He has been our woodsawyer, gardener, and factotum, but having joined the new company, his time recently has been taken up with drilling. H. and Mr. R. feel that an extensive vegetable garden must be prepared while he is here to assist or we shall be short of food, and they sent for him yesterday.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, Mike, you are really going to be a soldier?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, sor; but faith, Mr. L., I don\u2019t see the use of me going to shtop a bullet when sure an\u2019 I\u2019m willin\u2019 for it to go where it plazes.\u201d<\/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":"

March 11, 1862.\u2014The serpent has entered our Eden. The rancor and excitement of New Orleans have invaded this place. If an incautious word betrays any want of sympathy with popular plans, one is \u201ctraitorous,\u201d \u201cungrateful,\u201d \u201ccrazy.\u201d If one remains silent, and controlled, then one is \u201cphlegmatic,\u201d \u201ccool-blooded,\u201d \u201cunpatriotic.\u201d Cool-blooded! Heavens! if they only knew. It […]<\/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-14045","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\/14045","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=14045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14045\/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=14045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}