arbara, receiving in her
narrow sphere no other political influences than these, should find
herself at the age of seventeen the most eager of feminine sympathizers
with Secession? She burned to emulate Mrs. Greenhow, Belle Boyd, and
other enterprising Amazons who early in the war distinguished themselves
as spies or carriers for the Rebels. She almost blamed herself as
recreant, because she read with a shudder the account of that Southern
damsel who bade her lover bring back, as the most precious gift he could
lay at her feet, a Yankee scalp. She tried to persuade herself that
those little mementos, carved from Yankee bones, which were so
fashionable at one time among the _elite_ of the "Secesh" aristocracy,
would not shock her own sensitive heart.

Barbara's mother had done much to encourage these sentiments in her
daughter. A match between Barbara and Colonel Pegram of South Carolina
was one of that mother's pet projects. Mrs. Dinwiddie was of "one of the
first families of Virginia"; in which she was not singular. She had been
brought up to regard the Old Dominion as the lawful dictatress of the
legislation of the American continent; as sovereign, not only over her
own borders, but over the Congress and especially the Treasury of the
United States. The tobacco-lands of her father having given out through
that sagacious system of culture which Slavery applies, and
negro-raising for the supply of the slave-market farther south being in
a temporary condition of paralysis, the lady had so far descended from
her pedestal of ancestral pride as to encourage the addresses of Mr.
Daniel Dinwiddie, a Baltimore merchant, and himself "of excellent
family," though he had tarnished his hereditary honors by condescending
to engage in trade. Two children were the fruits of the alliance which
ensued,--our Barbara, and Mr. Culpepper Dinwiddie, who became eventually
a major in the Rebel army.

What a _dies irae_ it was for poor Mrs. Dinwiddie, that day that "Beast
Butler" rode at a slow walk through the streets of Baltimore, smoking
his cigar, and swaying to and fro carelessly on his horse! The poor
lady was ready to cuff Mr. Dinwiddie's ears, because that worthy citizen
sat down to his mutton and claret that day at dinner as coolly as if
nothing had happened. Barbara wept, and sang "My Maryland" and the
"Bonnie Blue Flag" till she made herself hoarse. She then glanced at a
photograph of Colonel Pegram, and thought how well he looked