A Belle of the Fifties Memoirs of Mrs. Clay of Alabama, covering social and political life in Washington and the South, 1853-1866. Put into narrative form by Ada Sterling

By the early spring of ’6 the faces of old friends began to reappear in the Northern cities. New York, which I necessarily visited at times during those eventful months, when no...

When my husband’s parents were members of the Congressional circle in Washington—1829–’35—the journey to the capital from their home in northern Alabama was no light undertaking...

My infant days were spent in North Carolina among the kinsmen of my mother. I do not remember her, save that she was young and fair, being but twenty when she died. She was the...

To minister to my husband’s aged parents dulled in some degree my own alarms, yet the wildest rumours continued to multiply as to the probably early trial and certainly awful fa...

Our “mess” at Brown’s Hotel shortly became so well-known, because of the interest attaching to so many of its members, that the enterprising proprietress of (what afterward beca...

Upon leaving the Federal capital we proceeded to the home of Senator Clay’s cousin, Doctor Thomas Withers, at Petersburg, Va. My husband’s health, already feeble, had suffered g...

While few, I think, perceived it clearly at that early day, yet in the spring of ’2 the fortunes of the Confederacy were declining. Many of our wisest men were already doubtful...

In the winter of ’9 and ’0 it became obvious to everyone that gaiety at the capital was waning. Aside from public receptions, now become palpably perfunctory, only an occasional...

Writing to my father-in-law, ex-Governor Clay, on Christmas night, 1856, of the deep inward excitement of the times, I said: “We feel a little as Fanny Fern says Eugénie felt wh...

To estimate at anything like their value ante-bellum days at the capital, it must be borne in mind that the period was one of general prosperity and competitive expenditure. Whi...

Upon my return from the Fort on the 30th of January I redoubled my pleadings for Mr. Clay’s release, both by correspondence and by visits to the White House. The President’s bea...

By the autumn of 1864 the Southern States found themselves ravaged of everything either edible or wearable. Food was enormously high in cities and in locations which proved temp...

Armed with General Grant’s letter, my hopes at once rose high. It seemed to my eager and innocent mind that an ally so really great could not fail to convince the President and...

The classes of Washington society in the fifties were peculiarly distinct. They were not unlike its topography, which is made up of many small circles and triangles, into each o...

Mr. Johnson kept his word. Late in December I found myself on my way to Baltimore with the President’s autographed permit in hand, that would admit me to my husband’s prison. I...

In that period of social activity it was no uncommon thing for society women to find themselves completely exhausted ere bedtime arrived. Often so tired was I that I have declar...

Upon leaving the home of General Toombs, we proceeded directly to that of Senator Hill, where shortly were gathered ex-Secretary of our Navy and Mrs. Mallory, Mr. and Mrs. Semme...

Early in the season of 1857–’8, our friend Mrs. Senator Gwin announced her intention of giving a ball which should eclipse every gathering of the kind that had ever been seen in...

The advent of Lord and Lady Napier was practically coincident with the installation of Miss Harriet Lane at the White House, and, in each instance, the _entrée_ of Miss Lane and...

The South was now sadly crippled. Our bulwarks were demolished and our granaries emptied, our most fertile valleys occupied by the Northern army, and Confederate money was depre...

My memories would be incomplete were I to fail to include in them a description of plantation life that may be taken as a type of the beautiful homes of the South in that long a...

Dawn found us haggard and ill. Our night ride to Augusta was a fatiguing one. Of our party, only the children slept. The air in the car was of the foulest, and the discomforts o...

Our stay in Macon, where it had been my intention to remain but a few weeks, lengthened into months; for, upon his arrival in Richmond, Senator Clay found the conditions such as...

From the hour of my arrival in the capital, Friday, November 17th, my misgivings gave place to courage. I went directly to Willard’s, which, being near the Executive Mansion and...

Richmond, as seen from the hill, with the James River flowing by, its broad, level streets, full foliaged trees, and spacious homes, is a beautiful city. Rich in historic associ...

By the second day after the incarceration of Mr. Davis and Mr. Clay we were a heartsick company, and I was glad when, in the late afternoon of the twenty-fourth of May, our sail...

On the twenty-first of January, 1866, a few days after my last conversation with President Johnson, I found myself a second time within the ramparts of America’s most formidable...

Upon leaving Savannah I proceeded by boat to Augusta, reaching that city on the fifteenth of June, going thence to Macon, escorted to Atlanta by Colonel Woods. During the last h...

I was in Richmond at my husband’s side when Dahlgren’s raid was made. Early one morning the cry of danger came. We were still at breakfast, when Senator Henry, of Tennessee, hur...

By September I had reopened correspondence with many Washington friends. As will have been seen by a perusal of certain preceding letters, the question of giving me permission t...

Mr. Crittenden, of Kentucky, and another, to show the peculiar estimate in which Mr. Holt was then held. “I know little,” wrote Mr. Robinson, in June of ’5, “either of the perso...

Old Friends and New—Mme. Le Vert and Other Famous Personages Return to the Capital—General Lee is Lionised—I Secure the Liberty of the Fort for My Husband, and Indulge in a Litt...

We Have an All-Night Ride to Augusta—Our Party of Prisoners Augments—I am Made Responsible for My Husband’s Appearance and We Go Visiting—We Return to Captivity—I Board the Boat...

Conflicting Advice Reaches Me from the Capital—Also Sad News from Huntsville—Our Brother Tells of Political Opposition to the President—Soldiers and Citizens Desire the Presence...

Cost of Clothing—Scarcity of Necessities—Memphis in Yankee Hands—Revival of Spinning and Weaving—A Salt Famine—Senator Hammond’s Sagacity—Potato Coffee and Peanut Chocolate—Mrs....

I Send General Grant’s Letter to Mr. Johnson—And Beg to Be Allowed to Visit Fortress Monroe—I Begin to Feel the Strength of a Concealed Enemy—I Refuse to Go to Mr. Stanton, and...

A Bit of Family History—Plantation Scenes in North Carolina and Alabama—A Caravan of the Early Thirties—“De Year de Stars Fell”—I Partially “Scalp” My Cousin—The Strange Experie...

Gayety Begins to Wane in the Capital—A Wedding in Old St. John’s—Lord Lyons Replaces the Napiers—Anson Burlingame Rescues Me from a Dilemma—Political Climax—Scenes in the Senate...

Richmond in ’62—John A. Campbell Gives an Opinion on Confederate Money—An Exodus from the Capital—Mrs. Roger A. Pryor Rebukes a Contemptuous Lady—Our Mail a Pandora’s Box—News o...

President Johnson Issues a Permit on His Own Responsibility—I Leave Washington for Fortress Monroe—And Meet with Kindness on the Way—Dr. Craven Admonishes Me to Look for No Favo...

We Hear Discouraging News of the Nation’s Prisoners—Denunciation of Joseph Holt and His Witnesses by the Reverend Stuart Robinson—He Exposes the “Infamous Perjuries of the Burea...

I Go with Senator Clay to Minnesota—“Let’s Mob the Fire-eater”—We See Our First Federal Soldiers at Cairo—Echoes of Sumter—Once More in the Blossomy South—In Picturesque Huntsvi...

Miss Lane Becomes Lady of the White House—Her Influence on Washington Life—The Coming of Lord and Lady Napier—Their Hospitality—They Give a Ball to Lords Cavendish and Ashley—Mr...

We Arrive in Richmond, Where We Meet Many Old Friends—An Evening at the Mallorys’—We Establish Our Mess at Mrs. Du Val’s—Some of Our Heroes—We Feast on Oysters and Terrapin—Gree...

President Johnson Is Kind but Vacillating—Straws That Show a Veering of the Wind—Colonel Rhett Talks with Mr. Bennett, and the _Herald_ Grows Curious as to the Mysteriously Deta...

Arrival at Willard’s—Expecting Enemies, I Find Many Old Friends—General Ihrie, of Grant’s Staff, Calls On Me—Also a Nameless Lady—Judge Hughes and Judge Black Counsel Me—I Visit...

Journey to the Capital—An Early “Congressional Limited”—A Stump Orator of Alabama, the “Maker of Senators”—Arrival at the Capital—The Night Clerk Refuses Us Accommodations at th...

Aspect of Fashionable Society of the Pierce and Buchanan Administrations—Perditas of the Period—Low Necks and Lace Berthas—Kind Offices of American Consuls—Mr. Thomson and Miss...

We Go to Lagrange—A Nest of “Rebels”—We Hear of President Johnson’s Proclamation Concerning Mr. Clay—My Husband Resolves to Surrender—He Telegraphs to General Wilson—We Proceed...

I Arrive in Macon After Various Discomforts—My Baggage Is “Examined” by General Baker—A Curious Oversight of the Government’s Agents—I Am Rescued from a Dilemma by John A. Wyeth...

Public Recreation—Flights to New York—Jenny Lind—Charlotte Cushman—Mrs. Gilbert and the Comedian Brougham in “Pocahontas”—Mr. Thackeray—Dr. Maynard—Blind Tom at the White House—...

Our Mess at Historic Brown’s Hotel and at the Ebbitt House—Mrs. Pugh and the Baron Hulseman—The Boy Henry Watterson—Congressmen Clopton, Curry, Dowdell, L. Q. C. Lamar, and Shor...

On Board the _Clyde_—I Find a Guard at My Door—An Unknown Hands Me the Daily Papers—The News—I Write to Thirteen Distinguished Men—To Joseph Holt—A Friendly Soldier Posts My Let...

Communications Are Reopened with Washington—Duff Green Makes Application to the President on My Behalf—I Hear from Mrs. Davis of Her Misfortunes—I Borrow $100 and Start for the...

Again at the Fortress—My Husband’s Cell and Room in Carroll Hall—Some of the Comforts of Fortress Monroe and of Mr. Clay’s Position—I am Told of Some of His Experiences—A Statem...

A Typical Plantation—Senator Hammond’s Little Republic on Beech Island—Its General Influence—The Mill and the Miller—My Cousin, Mrs. Paul Hammond, Writes a Description of “Redcl...

Society of Supreme Court Circles—Chief Justice Taney—Judge Campbell—Professors Henry and Maury—A Visit to the Latter’s Observatory—Thomas Hart Benton—George Wallace Tones: His R...

A Memory of Dahlgren’s Raid—Mr. Clay Accepts a Mission to Canada—Mr. Lamar’s Ideas on National Friendships—My Husband Takes His Departure—Troubled Petersburg and Still More Trou...

Mrs. Gwin’s Fancy Ball—To the White House for Inspection—Aunt Ruthy Partington Presents Herself to Mrs. Gwin—Mrs. Pendleton is Mystified—Senator Gwin and “My Boy Ike”—Lord and L...

Detained in Macon—General Tracy Tells of Conditions at Vicksburg—Senator Clay Writes of Grave Conditions in Richmond—A War-time Dinner with President Davis—My Sister and I Turn...

Washington in 1856—Secret Visit of President Pierce—Personal Recollections of Him—Secretaries Marcy, Cushing, and Dobbin—Incidents of the Latter’s Kindness of Heart—Secretary of...