April 3.—Have a very nice lady, Mrs. Fyffe, assisting mo. She is a refugee from Chattanooga. She came out of Chattanooga on a visit to some friends a few miles in the country; while she was there our army took possession of Lookout Mountain, and she found herself within our lines and cut off from her family. She tried very hard to get back, as she had left her house and in it an only child, a married daughter, very sick, but her entreaties were of no avail, Rosecrans had given orders on no account to permit any woman to cross the lines, as they were worse rebels than the men. Mrs. F. remained on the mountain, living in a house about half-way up, for some weeks, within sight of her daughter’s home, and between the firing of both armies. Finding she could not get into Chattanooga, she came South. She is now in great distress, having heard but once from her daughter since she left.
The citizens of Chattanooga have suffered all kinds of indignities from the Federals. I have been told that Mrs. Whitesides has been sent North, and that herself and family are now in prison. I knew Mrs. W. well; she was a perfect lady. I had heard her say before I left Chattanooga, that if the enemy should come there she intended remaining, as she had a family of seven children, and could not leave her home with them. She felt certain that the Federals would not molest her if she kept quiet; but it appears she has given them more credit for philanthropy than they deserved. I can not understand this, as I believed as she did about remaining quiet.
I have thought, if I should ever be so unfortunate as to be in the “enemy’s lines,” that by taking little or no notice of them I should be unmolested; as I think many of our ladies have been in fault, by giving a warm and open expression to their feelings, when silence would have much better become them, and spoken more eloquently their wrongs. “Discretion is the better part of valor,” in this as well as in other cases. When we are in the lion’s gripe, it is no sign of cowardice to use every means that wisdom can suggest to extricate ourselves. I feel confident that neither we nor our cause have ever gained any thing by walking around the flag instead of under it, or using insulting language when silence would have much better become us. A flag is nothing but a symbol, and walking around it can not take away the reality of being under it. And we much oftener lower ourselves by insulting language than the person whom we abuse.
I have been told that it was on account of Mrs. W.’s wealth that she and her children have been imprisoned, but the enemy could have taken that without such harsh measures.
