New-York tribune., 1911-12-09
A Virginia Woman'S Memories of
the Civil War.
RECoLLECTIONs GRAVE AND CAV
5y Mrs Burton Harrison. Svo. pp. SS6.
Charles Scribners Sons

Y - \
BY Mrs. Burton Harrison Svo. M, $N;
charles Scribners Sons.
Mrs. Constance Cary Harrison has
mace an admirable contribution to the
group Of volumes I'm which various
southern women. contemporaries Of her
own, have set down their "reminiscences
the Civil War. Nothing Of Northern
origin can be ranked with this group.
The women Of the North did indeed
see their dearest and dearest depart 70
swell the fists of dead and wounded in
righteous war, but they were spared
the personal sufferinss and doprivations,
Che fears and horrors that blackened
the days and wrung the hearts of their
Southern sisters, and that, vividly re-
membcred. have made many a dra-
matte narrative. These narratives are
ds historically valuable as they are wo-
ful. and if they display. now and again
too sentimental insistence upon the
exceeding "knightlness" Of the Southern
man and the Incompatible loveliness OF
The Southern maidon, that IS an inno-
cent poetic pose that may we'll be for
given.
1t is in her poignant "reminiscences of
wartime Incidents and in her sketches of
the Virginia of her childhood and girl
hood that we find Mrs. Harrison most
interesting; pleasant as are her pages
on her later experiences in New York
and her wanderings abroad, they are
negligible as compared with those given
TO earlier memories. a part of the
happy, prosperous. dgnifed, often
stately Virginia life of the days before
the war was little Constance Cary, a
child whom the idolized Henry Clay had
lifted in his arms and kissed. He was
"dreadfully old and ugly" thought the
small girl Customs and habits Of
thought belonging to the English COL
ony still fingered in Virginia then. and
in some of the old mansions lived quaint
characters who almost seemed to be in
many ways survivors from the
eighteenth century. When the war came
ell the leisured and carelessly joyous
phases Of existence in that region van
ished. The Southern woman entered
upon four years Of nervous strain.
trouble and loss. Those who found
themselves near the scene OF opening
hostilities fastened to save what they
could of their cherished colonial heir
looms. Mrs. Cary, her daughter tells us,
when obliged C. leave her old home,
Vaucluse, buried In the cellar the family
silver, packed in two large travelling
trunks. The house was burned, the great
trees cut down for breastworks. and the
ial To, l,,-
2 federal camp. When, four years later,
Mrs. Cary returned 10 search for her
silver the men she brought TO dig were
At first unable TO find the spot where
the cellar had been. and for long time
they dug in vain. ANY idle soldier
prodding the ground might have struck
the boxes. she argued, and there was
little hope. Just as she was about Civ
ing the order 10 stop work one OF the
men cried out. holding up teaspoon
black as jet, Soon the earth was coV-
cred with dark objects from around
which the boxes had rotted. Candelabra,
urn. tea set. tankards, bowls, dishes
and the complete service Of small SILVER
were recovered. not a salt spoon MISS
ing"
In tho month before the battle at
Manassas Mrs. Cary and her daughter
were near the Confederate headquarters
and the former then began hcr N"iha"'S
service as volunteer nurse in the miI-
tsrv bosuitals. That first Confederate
success. Mrs. Harrison records, was due
90 woman i'm Washington, who sent
r.s~ssneer TO Beauregard with the m
formation he needed as TO the movement
of the Northern troops. From th&t mo
uent until the end of the war lie III the
Soutb became q thing of ardent eNCite-
nnent and hcadlong devotion So1neuiiIle''
70 rarely. there was an element or huih'r
in the stern aspect OF war as "Ilhes"
,be visit to the front Of JEFFERSON bdNlS
with his staff. his Secretary oil Na' anu
sovoraI other non -combatants. The pat
.1a ~ Mcchanicsvine had just begun ana
General Lee was annoyed at the uh-
necessary presence of the head ot MS
government:
Fading the cavalcadc and looking IKE
the god Of way indignant ne e%sro,i7 ,i'7,.t ..
with the President salute WIN ie iue ms o
1rtgld reserve OF anything Ike Welcolic VI
cordialitv. Then. without allowance on & ~
portunity for a word from the PteSl1tnt,, tt,o
tho general. IOOkulE Aioh o. Ai'ti' q
aesemblage at large asked IN lohc Vi
irritation. - e ,,eoulo and
what they are doing here -, 80.
NJ one moved or spoke. nut az tSc9
woe rnon the President, eVerybod! PEI
fectIv understood that this was an % %oToel
Tor him to retire 10 place OIL saLetS
u,hile the roar Of the guns, the ratIlinS
Sre of muskctry and the brisue ol a dl. odt-
lie in progress with troops contnuia9Lli,l
Arriving across the bridge to 30 INTO aclloiL
~reat on The President twisted IN ms
saddle. quito taken aback AT such sreeI
Ing. the general regarding him now WIN
eisnces of growing severity. Atter q PAIN
f,,l pause the President said deprecatihSy
.sTt is not my army, general
"It certainly Is not my army. Mr. FIeS-
;dent.' was the prompt reply and TINS is
no place for it
whereupon the non-combatants with
drew in as good order as possible with
a polite farewell from the stunned head
of the ConfederaCy.
AS the war went on and supplies OF
all kinds grew shorter in the South her
soldiers learned 10 rough it in FASHION
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