Natchez on the Mississippi by Harnett Thomas Kane

Author:Harnett Thomas Kane [Kane, Harnett Thomas]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Military, Wars & Conflicts (Other), United States, 20th Century, Civil War Period (1850-1877)
ISBN: 9781787201903
Google: xgJkDQAAQBAJ
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
Published: 2016-10-27T03:02:56+00:00

Work lasted so long that the town made bets it would never end. Five years went by, and final details were incomplete when the couple moved in. By this time they had six children. So ended the contest between the two girls who had once turned their rings so that their father would not know they had ornaments. By now old David had grown tired as he eyed the façade of Homewood, and his expression showed resignation. But the young people were enjoying it to the hilt. On the galleries of Homewood, or in the glassed observatory above, the elders watched the red-coated figures on steeds that sped over hill and plain. The children found the upstairs hallways so big they could play tag in them and seldom get caught.

* * * * *

The sands were running low. The year 1860 ended; in all the talk of war “King David” Hunt sat gloomily silent. For him life had lost part of its savor. His boys, of whom he had expected a great deal, had died early. Approaching eighty, David spoke with grimness: “The full ears are taken, but the over-ripe shock is allowed to remain. As men shouted secession, he gritted his teeth. “We’ll see one of the bloodiest of wars,” his voice trembled. “This country may become uninhabited.” The family urged him to get rid of his property outside the South, in Cincinnati. “I won’t,” he snapped. “Someday it may be our asylum.”

“King David” lived to see the secession against which he voted. Then, at last, they took his home-made cherry tree coffin out of the attic. At the beginning of the war his family did not suffer greatly; David Hunt’s program of self-sufficiency kept them supplied. But then the fields lay bare and the quarters silent. The elegant, impractical George Marshall of Lansdowne went off to serve with distinction; his brother-in-law, William Balfour of Homewood, became a major. Their wives, those daughters of David, met war’s stresses in different fashions.

The gay Catherine Balfour grew agitated as the Federals approached Natchez, and prepared to leave. Charlotte, always matter-of-fact, argued with her in vain. Catherine set out by carriage with her children, moving restlessly about for a year. The privations of the flight took the lives of four of the young ones. She returned to discover that, despite her fears of what would happen to the house, it had been spared. And her sister, the determined Charlotte of Lansdowne, had a close brush with violence on the homefront, but had stood her ground.

A younger Hunt, riding one day along the road, saw that someone had tossed out pieces of cups and saucers. He looked away, then quickly back. It was Lansdowne’s celebrated china, the delicate white with borders of apricot shade. Applying the whip, he raced on. At the house he found the women near hysteria. George Marshall, recovering slowly from injuries at Shiloh, stood speechless. A little earlier, Union raiders had stalked in. Leaving her husband, Charlotte met them. The leader demanded keys to the storage room, and she refused.

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