The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1888-07-10
DURING THE SIEGE.
The Career Of q Belle of Two
Armies.
A BUBBLE OF THE WAR.
How Pink and White Gree Met
Her Fate.
For The Constitution.

| For The Constitution.
She was not the daughter Of the regiment.
| One regiment would have been too insignif-
can't to attract her attention.
I She fell in love. first with one army and then
with the other and thus became the sweet
heart of the gray and the blue.
Sometime before the opening of the siege q
! dashing woman, with bold black eyes and q
| pink and White complexion, made her appear
ance in Atlanta She had husband little
man with little store and big case of dys-
| pepsia.
| AT first the fair stranger appeared to be q
| model wife. She was apparently devoted to
| her husband, and it was plain that he was her
adoring slave. She made daily visits to the
store, and was frequently seen driving about
the city with and without her husband. 1t did
not take long for certain handsome officers to
find out that this woman was as impu'sive
and daring as she was beautiful Before she
had been here month she had a host Of adj
mirers, and her name was familiar to every
regiment and company in the Army Of the
| Tennessee.
| The sickly husband prospered in business,
thinner and weaker, while his wife every day
grew moro blooming, until she looked like
big red rose. The siege affected the invalid SO
| seriously that he went 10 the country for rest
| and quiet. His wife convinced him thatit was
| necessary for her to remain to take care of his
| property. In short time she converted every
| thing that could be sold into money aud then
she began to enjoy herself without thinking of
| the consequences. Little cared this spirited
! beauty for the enemy's shot and shell. While
| other women were covering down in the dark
and damp bombproofs, she was riding around
the inner line Of breastworks chatting with her
military friends.
Every night her house was q blaze Of light,
! ard crowd Of colonels and majors were there
to ltlay cards and drink vino Until the small
hours of the morning.
Soldiers and citizens knew nothing of the
antecedents of this Dalilah md her exiled hus-
band A gay, pretty woman, with a graceful,
| willowy figure--a charmer who could slug like
| bird, dance like o queen of the ballet, and
drink like fish was a sensation in those days,
| and nobody cared to ask who she was or
| whence she came.
| She was patriotic, generous and kind-hearted.
| There was nothing that she would not do for
the sick and wounded soldiers, and she was
always about tho hospitals, distributing delica-
| cies to the half famished sufferers.
OF course the citizens had their eyes On the
belle OF the siege, and they looked at her in no
| very pleasant way. 1t seemed to them that
| the reckless and goddess woman could bring
nothing but evil with her, and if they could
| have had their way they would have ordered
her to leave the city. But she had made her.
self virtually part of the army, and had le-
,,in nf IN c hpr In hat N
in her behalf.
SO this radiant bubble on the fiery pillows of
war continued to float and dance on the crest
of the flaming waves that rolled surging aud
resurgent in and around the doomed city AS
the siege approached its height her follies and
exploits became SO reckless that she was
spoken of as q shameless, as well as anotorious
woman.
Her failure to follow the fortunes of the
confederates when they left the city was never
understood
The citizens predicted that she would not be
long in making friends with Sherman's stern
troopers, and they were right She was well
supplied with money, and her cellar had
enough wine and brandy in it to make a whole
regiment drunk. Some of the federal officers
made her acquaintance and were entertained
at her house the day of their arrival in tho city.
She had loved the confedeTates but she was
passionaey devoted TO the invaders. If she
had held back one winsome grace single
subtle witchery, she brought it into full play
upon the strangers
Perhaps the stirring scenes through which
she had passed made the woman desperate or
insane. Something in the atmosphere of war
kindlcd q fire in her veins, and she started on
her downward path with headlong speed as
soon as she had given herself up TO her new
friends. In the old days she had been protect
cd by the men in gray. But Sherman's rude
soldiers were different. They regarded her as
part of the booty of a captured city, and held
that she belonged 70 them by right.
zxs
50 mob Of colonels and majors devoured
her dinners, and made her pay her losses at
cards, and then, when they found that she
had spent her money and was growing less en-
tertaining, they disappeared and left her TO
the captains and lieutenants who in few
weeks turned her over TO their men.
A beautiful and helpless woman at tho
mercy Of an army Of eighty thousand sol
dersl
1t will be said that she lad sinned that she
had brought her fate upon herself.
No matter how the moraists choose TO put
II, IL was a shame that this weak and suffering
NICLllil Wdb lclL W w hiyhhN HHphb W " otb VI
rufians, without one voice or one hand being
raised to defend her.
go
Down into the deepest depths Of degreda-
ton this unhappy creature was dragged by the
hcartless fends around her.
Between drink and misery she became
sometimes stupcGed, sometimes half-crazed.
Her servants loft her BECAUSE she had no
money. An officer took possession Of her
house and cast her out.
a fow short months before She had been
pretty little woman with husband 20 ward
oil every danger Her mad course had loft
fer without friend or a dollar, and when she
looked in the glass there was nothing in her
bloated face 10 remind her Of q onco happy
past
Talk about the fortunes q the damned