Life in Dixie during the War, 1861-1862-1863-1864-1865

Its history is the strongest human argument for an orthodox hell.

TESTIMONIALS

    State of Georgia,
    Executive Office,
    Atlanta, September 1st, 1894.

“Life in Dixie During the War,” by Miss Mary A. H. Gay, presents a striking picture of home life among our people during that dark period of our history.

While such presentation is hardly looked for in more elaborate history of those times, Miss Gay’s conception was a wise one, and the record she has given will preserve a most desirable part of the history of our section.

Her book deserves to be widely circulated.

W. J. Northen,

Governor.

“LIFE IN DIXIE DURING THE WAR.”

This handsome volume from the pen of Miss Mary A. H. Gay, whose many acts of self-denial entitle her to the name of philanthropist, will meet with a hearty welcome from her wide circle of friends. But a casual glance at the volume leads us to conclude that outside of this circle, even with the reader who will look into it as a key to the history of the “times that tried men’s souls,” it will be a book of more than passing interest. The author writes with the feelings of a partisan, but time has mellowed her recollections of these stormy times, and even the reader whose sympathies were with the other side will agree with Joel Chandler Harris in his introduction to the book. In its mechanical get-up, the book is a gem. —Atlanta Constitution, December 18, 1892.

“LIFE IN DIXIE.”

Miss Mary A. H. Gay has published a volume entitled “Life in Dixie During the War,” which should be in every Southern home. It is one of the truest pictures of the life of our people during the war that has yet been drawn. In fact, it could not be better, for it shows things just as they were. The struggles and sufferings of the Southern people during that awful period exhibited a heroism that has seldom been matched in the world’s history. Miss Gay was among them. She looked on their trials with sympathetic eyes and suffered with them. Fortunately she is gifted with the power of describing what she saw, and her book will be a classic of war literature. Its every page is interesting. The story of Dixie during the war reads like romance to the generation that has arisen since, but it should have for generations an interest as deep as that with which it is read by those who lived and acted amid the scenes it records. It shows how grand was the courage and virtue, how sublime the faith and endurance of the men and women of the South throughout that terrible ordeal. It is a book that will live, and one that will give to the world a true representation of the conduct of a noble people in affliction. Miss Gay has made numerous contributions to our literature which mark her as a woman of rare capacity and exquisite feelings, but she has done no work that is worthier of gratitude and praise than that embodied in “Life in Dixie.” —The Atlanta Journal, January 17, 1893.

“LIFE IN DIXIE.”

Miss Mary Gay’s recent book, “Life in Dixie During the War,” is rapidly winning favor with the public. Some of our most distinguished writers speak of it in very high terms as a notable contribution to our history. The Rev. Dr. J. William Jones says of it:

“‘Life in Dixie During the War’ is a charming story of home-life during those dark days when our noble women displayed a patient endurance, and active zeal, a self-denying work in the hospitals, a genuine patriotism, a true heroism which equalled the record of their fathers, husbands, sons and brothers in the army.

“But Decatur, near Atlanta, was the scene of stirring events during Sherman’s campaign against the doomed city, and Miss Gay’s facile pen vividly portrays historic events of deepest interest.

“Visits from the soldier boy to the old home, letters from the camp, visits to the camps and hospitals, the smoke and changing scenes of battle in the enemy’s lines, refugeeing, and many other events of those stirring days, are told with the vividness of an eye-witness and the pen of an accomplished writer.

“It is, in a word, a vivid and true picture of ‘Life in Dixie During the War,’ and should find a place not only in our Southern homes, but in the homes of all who desire to see a true account of the life of our noble women during those trying days.

“Rev. John William Jones.”

The Constitution, May 2nd, 1893.

The “Confederate Love Song,” by Miss Mary A. H. Gay, of Decatur, was written during the late war. It is a charming bit of verse, and forms one of a galaxy of beautiful songs from the same true pen. In 1880, Miss Gay published a volume of verses which received the unusual compliment of public demand for no less than eleven editions. The author’s life is one of the most beautiful; it is, therefore, quite natural that her poetry should partake of the simple truth and sincerity of that life, consecrated as it is, and ever has been, to the noblest work. —Atlanta Constitution.

Miss Gay’s Book, “Life in Dixie During the War.” – Editor “Sunny South:” Permit me to say a few words through the columns of your widely read and popular paper about Miss Mary A. H. Gay’s “Life in Dixie During the War,” the second and enlarged edition of which book has just been issued from the press.

The fact that a second and enlarged edition has been called for is proof that the merits of this genuine Southern story has been appreciated by our people. Not only has the author in her book perpetuated interesting and historically valuable material of merely local character, but, to the careful reader, she also presents matter that goes to the deep moral, social and political roots of the cause of the people of the South, that grew and flowered into the crimson rose of war, which the South plucked and wore upon her heart during four of the most tragic yet glorious years recorded in history.

But the chief charms of the book are its simple, earnest, homely style, its depth of womanly and loyal feeling, and the glimpses we get of the homes and hearts of our people during these years of patient suffering and “crucifixion of the soul;” and along with the passion and the pain, we are presented with pictures of our people’s frequently laughable “makeshifts” to supply many of the common necessaries of life and household appliances of which the stress and savage devastation deprived nearly every Southern family. Above all we are impressed by the more than Spartan heroism, the tender love, the unwavering loyalty, the devoted, self-sacrificing spirit of our noble Southern womanhood, of which this book speaks so eloquently in its naive simplicity, and of which traits of character, the modest author herself is a living and universally beloved example.

The book deserves a place in the hearts and homes of our people. Surely the patriotic motives that inspired its author to write it is the only passport it needs to public favor and patronage.

Charles W. Hubner,

“Sunny South,” Atlanta, Ga., November 3, 1894.

A WAR STORY

Even in these piping times of peace (peace as far as our own borders are concerned, at any rate) – there is a relish in a war story. And when the scene is laid right here in Georgia, in Decatur, in Atlanta; when familiar names come up in the course of the narrative, and familiar events are pictured by an honest eye-witness; when all through the little volume you feel the truthfulness of the writer, and know that the incidents she narrates happened just so; when, too, you see the writer herself – see her to be an old lady now, who really was a heroine in her young days; and then read the simple, personal narrative – now stirring, as the battle-guns sound – now touching, as some dear one falls; with all this combination of interest, a war story claims and holds the attention.

Such is the little book, called “Life in Dixie,” written by Miss Mary Gay, and telling of those stirring times in and about Atlanta, back yonder in the sixties.

There are some vivid pictures in that modest little volume, as well as some interesting facts. Miss Gay was in the thick of the strife, and tells what she saw in those dark days.

Among the well-known characters, associated with the recorded events, we find Mrs. L. P. Grant, Mr. and Mrs. Posey Maddox, Dr. J. P. Logan and many others.

A most interesting fact disclosed in those pages is the surprising one that two sisters of Mrs. Abraham Lincoln married Alabama officers in the Confederate army; there is recorded the public presentation, by those two ladies, of an elegant silk banner made for a gallant young company in Georgia’s daughter-State. Thus conspicuous were those women in the Southern Confederacy, while their sister and her dearest interests lay on the other side.

Another matter of history which will be interesting to the present generation of readers, however much we may have read of the mammoth prices for the necessaries of life in those hard days, is the following list of articles, with the cost thereof in Confederate money, bought by Miss Gay, after a ride of forty miles to obtain them:

One bushel of meal, $10.00; four bushels of corn, $40.00; fifteen pounds of flour, $7.50; four pounds of dried apples, $5.00; one and a half pounds of butter, $6.00; a bushel of sweet potatoes, $6.00; three gallons of syrup, $15.00; for shoeing the horse, $25.00; for a night’s lodging for self and horse, at Mrs. Born’s, $10.00.

Then, the vehicle in which the trip for these supplies was made!

It was contrived by “Uncle Mack,” a dusky hero of those times. “It was a something he had improvised which baffled description,” writes Miss Gay, “and which, for the sake of the faithful service I obtained from it, I will not attempt to describe. Suffice it to say that it carried living freight over many a bridge; and in honor of this, I will call it a wagon.”

The horse, which the author herself captured to draw this remarkable vehicle, was equally remarkable, and his subsequent history is one of the most interesting bits of narrative in the book. I wish I could give it all in Miss Gay’s own words, but my space does not admit of that.

But there is not a child in your household who would not be interested in the account of how the poor starved horse was lassoed and secured – how he was fed and strengthened, and cared for, and finally harnessed up with ropes and pieces of crocus sacks; how the letters, “U. S.” were found branded on each of his sides, causing his mistress to name him “Yankee”; how she grew to love him so that she deemed that name ill-fitting, and decided to re-christen him “Johnnie Reb.,” which she did one day with effective ceremonial by a brook-side; how he rendered invaluable service to his mistress many and many a time, and was a treasured member of the little family that passed such stormy times in the war-stricken village of Decatur; all this is worth reading, told, as it is, with a gentle humor, and a strict truthfulness which is the chief charm of that historic picture. For it is historic. And it were well for the rising generation to read its vivid portrayals of that period.

And though Miss Gay was evidently an ardent secessionist, and is now, I fancy, one of the altogether unreconstructed few, her book contains records of more than one kindness received at the hands of officers of the United States army – kindness proffered, too, in the face of her fearless avowal of opinion.

Some parts of the book (I will add, if the gentle author will allow me) seem somewhat too bitter towards our brethren of the North. But this criticism is from the standpoint of one who knew not the horrors of that dreadful war. If I had seen the desolation and destruction which followed it in the wake of Sherman’s army, as Miss Gay saw it and suffered by it (through mother and brother and friends, as well as through personal privation), – if I had thus suffered, doubtless I, too, would be unable to look impartially upon these Federal leaders and their actuating motives – unable to see that, though Sherman was a most unmerciful conqueror, he was not altogether a fiend.

But there is only a touch of this severe judgment in Miss Gay’s little book. The greater portion of it is simply historic – a faithful chronicling of events experienced by the writer herself, who was a veritable heroine in those days of horrors.

Miss Gay is to be congratulated upon the fact that “Life in Dixie” is entering upon its second edition. Let me suggest that you get it for your children, you parents. The rising generation should learn of the stirring events which happened right here in Atlanta thirty years ago.

The story will hold their attention and interest throughout – the soldier-brother who fell in the strife, the faithful black Toby sketched so tenderly, the perilous trip of Miss Gay herself, as she carried the blankets and overcoats through the enemy’s ranks to the boys in gray – all this will vastly entertain those young folks, at the same time it teaches them of the Battle of Atlanta, and the concurrent events. – Emel Jay[6 - “Emel Jay” is Miss Mary L. Jackson, daughter of the late Hon. James Jackson, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia.], in The Atlanta Journal, November 24th, 1894.

“Life in Dixie During the War” is the title of a volume just perused which transcends in interest, truth and beauty all the historical tomes and garlanded fiction to which that epoch has given birth. It embraces the personal experiences and observations of a woman, gifted far beyond the ordinary, who came in contact with the sadness, the bloodshed and the misery of the unhappy struggle. A loved brother laid down his life on the bloodiest battle-field, friends parted and vanished from her, and wealth was swallowed in the maw of destruction.

She tells her story – for story it is – with an exquisite grace, and with a woman’s tenderness and sympathy for the people she loved and the cause she adored. Her language is lofty upon occasion, her memories perhaps too keen, her gentleness possibly too exclusive to her own, but her work is done with a fidelity and consistency beyond comparison. The scene is Decatur, Ga., but threads, visible or invisible, reach to every hamlet and entwine every heart in the evanished Confederacy. The heroism of men, the daring of boys, the endurance of women, alike are painted with a skill that requires no color.

Those who wish to embalm their recollections of home-life during the war, and those who desire to know what it was, should read this book. It is one of the records of the past that should be in every library. It is beautifully printed, neatly cloth-bound, and contains 300 pages. —The Tampa Daily Times, January 17, 1895.

FROM THE OTHER SIDE

A UNION SOLDIER’S TRIBUTE TO A SOUTHERN WOMAN’S BOOK