{"id":21442,"date":"2023-05-09T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-09T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dotcw.com\/?p=1888"},"modified":"2021-03-07T08:58:13","modified_gmt":"2021-03-07T14:58:13","slug":"vicksburg-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/vicksburg-17\/","title":{"rendered":"Where Dora Miller resists the attempt of a flunky officer to requisition the house she lives in for Pemberton’s headquarters. ."},"content":{"rendered":"

May 9th, 1863<\/em>.\u2014This morning the door-bell rang a startling peal. Martha being busy; I answered it. An orderly in gray stood with an official envelope in his hand.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho lives here?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. L.\u201d<\/p>\n

Very imperiously\u2014\u201dWhich Mr. L.?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. H. L.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIs he here?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere can he be found?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the office of Deputy ______.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going there. This is an order from General Pemberton for you to move out of this house in two hours. He has selected it for headquarters. He will furnish you with wagons.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWill he furnish another house also?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course not.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHas the owner been consulted?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has not; that is of no consequence; it has been taken. Take this order.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI shall not take it, and I shall not move, as there is no place to move to but the street.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThen I\u2019ll take it to Mr. L.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cVery well, do so.\u201d<\/p>\n

As soon as Mr. Impertine walked off I locked, bolted, and barred every door and window. In ten minutes H. came home.<\/p>\n

\u201cHold the fort till I\u2019ve seen the owner and the general,\u201d he said, as I locked him out.<\/p>\n

Then Dr. B.\u2019s remark in New Orleans about the effect of Dr. C.\u2019s fine presence on the Confederate officials there came to my mind. They are influenced in that way, I thought; I look rather shabby now, I will dress. I made an elaborate toilet, put on the best and most becoming dress I had, the richest lace, the handsomest ornaments, taking care that all should be appropriate to a morning visit; dressed my hair in the stateliest braids, and took a seat in the parlor ready for the fray. H. came to the window and said:<\/p>\n

\u201cLandlord says, \u2018Keep them out. Wouldn\u2019t let them have his house at any price.\u2019 He is just riding off to the country and can\u2019t help us now. Now I\u2019m going to see Major C, who sent the order.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next came an officer, banged at the door till tired, and walked away. Then the orderly came again and beat the door\u2014same result. Next, four officers with bundles and lunch-baskets, followed by a wagon-load of furniture. They went round the house, tried every door, peeped in the windows, pounded and rapped, while I watched them through the blind-slats. Presently the fattest one, a real Falstaffian man, came back to the front door and rung a thundering peal. I saw the chance for fun and for putting on their own grandiloquent style. Stealing on tiptoe to the door, I turned the key and bolt noiselessly, and suddenly threw wide back the door, and appeared behind it. He had been leaning on it, and nearly pitched forward with an \u201cOh! what\u2019s this?\u201d Then seeing me as he straightened up, \u201cAh, madam!\u201d almost stuttering from surprise and anger, \u201care you aware I had the right to break down this door if you hadn\u2019t opened it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat would make no difference to me. I\u2019m not the owner. You or the landlord would pay the bill for the repairs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy didn\u2019t you open the door?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHave I not done so as soon as you rung? A lady does not open the door to men who beat on it. Gentlemen usually ring; I thought it might be stragglers pounding.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell,\u201d growing much blander, \u201cwe are going to send you some wagons to move; you must get ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWith pleasure, if you have selected a house for me. This is too large; it does not suit me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, I didn\u2019t find a house for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou surely don\u2019t expect me<\/em> to run about in the dust and shelling to look for it, and Mr. L. is too busy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, madam, then we must share the house. We will take the lower floor.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI prefer to keep the lower floor myself; you surely don\u2019t expect me<\/em> to go up and down stairs when you are so light and more able to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

“He walked through the hall, trying the doors. \u201cWhat room is that?\u201d\u2014\u201dThe parlor.\u201d \u201cAnd this?\u201d\u2014\u201dMy bedroom.\u201d \u201cAnd this?\u201d\u2014”The dining-room.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, madam, we\u2019ll find you a house and then come and take this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you, colonel. I shall be ready when you find the house. Good morning, sir.\u201d<\/p>\n

I heard him say as he ran down the steps, \u201cWe must go back, captain; you see I didn\u2019t know they were this kind of people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course the orderly had lied in the beginning to scare me, for General Pemberton is too far away from Vicksburg to send such an order. He is looking about for General Grant. We are told he has gone out to meet Johnston; and together they expect to annihilate Grant\u2019s army and free Vicksburg forever. There is now a general hospital opposite this house and a small-pox hospital next door. War, famine, pestilence, and fire surround us. Every day the band plays in front of the small-pox hospital. I wonder if it is to keep up their spirits? One would suppose quiet would be more cheering.<\/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":"

May 9th, 1863.\u2014This morning the door-bell rang a startling peal. Martha being busy; I answered it. An orderly in gray stood with an official envelope in his hand. \u201cWho lives here?\u201d \u201cMr. L.\u201d Very imperiously\u2014\u201dWhich Mr. L.?\u201d \u201cMr. H. L.\u201d \u201cIs he here?\u201d \u201cNo.\u201d \u201cWhere can he be found?\u201d \u201cAt the office of Deputy ______.\u201d […]<\/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-21442","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\/21442","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=21442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21442\/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=21442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}