ers. He speaks
English exactly like an English gentleman, and so, in fact, does General
Polk, and all the well-bred Southerners, much more so than the ladies,
whose American accent can always be detected. General Polk and Mr
Vallandigham returned to Shelbyville in an ambulance at 6.30 P.M.

General Hardee's headquarters were on the estate of Mrs ----, a very
hospitable lady. The two daughters of the General were staying with her,
and also a Mrs ----, who is a very pretty woman. These ladies are more
violent against the Yankees than it is possible for a European to
conceive; they beat their male relations hollow in their denunciations
and hopes of vengeance. It was quite depressing to hear their
innumerable stories of Yankee brutality, and I was much relieved when,
at a later period of the evening, they subsided into music. After Bishop
Elliott had read prayers, I slept in the same room with General Hardee.

* * * * *

_29th May_ (Friday).--I took a walk before breakfast with Dr
Quintard, a zealous Episcopal chaplain, who began life as a surgeon,
which enables him to attend to the bodily as well as the spiritual wants
of the Tennessean regiment to which he is chaplain. The enemy is about
fifteen miles distant, and all the tops of the intervening hills are
occupied as signal stations, which communicate his movements by flags in
the daytime, and by beacons at night. A signal corps has been organised
for this service. The system is most ingenious, and answers admirably.
We all breakfasted at Mrs ----'s. The ladies were more excited even than
yesterday in their diatribes against the Yankees. They insisted on
cutting the accompanying paragraph out of to-day's newspaper, which they
declared was a very fair exposition of the average treatment they
received from the enemy.[38] They reproved Mrs ---- for having given
assistance to the wounded Yankees at Wartrace last year; and a sister of
Mrs ----'s, who is a very strong-minded lady, gave me a most amusing
description of an interview she had had at Huntsville with the
astronomer Mitchell, in his capacity of a Yankee general. It has often
been remarked to me that, when this war is over, the independence of the
country will be due, in a great measure, to the women; for they declare
that had the women been desponding they could never have gone through
with it; but, on the contrary, the women have invariably set an example
to the men of patience, devo