Page:Memorials of a Southern Planter.djvu/228

 220 ", 16th August, 1864.

..." Tommy and I belong to an organization composed of citizens exempt by age,—a fine looking body of gentlemen. Tommy, I think, is the only member under fifty years of age."

", 18th September, 1864.

..." I write now to say, as you may well imagine, that our troubles are not ended, the Yankees still struggling to reach our abode, poor as it now is. We cannot now pretend to know the immediate objects of Sherman, but think it prudent to suppose that, either immediately or ultimately, Macon will become an object of interest with him. Under this view of the subject I have concluded to leave here on Wednesday, the 21st inst. I will take the family and the establishment of servants to Burleigh. . . . Nothing; could be more injudicious than an attempt on your part to reach us. The trains are all in the hands of the government, private travel excluded, except by freight boxes, on freight trains. Occasionally a few beg themselves into the express car, a close box, and this was the manner of my getting Mrs. Governor Brown off. We will have to go by the freight train, if at all, and I believe I shall succeed in this."

From the day that General Johnston was relieved from the command of the Army of Northern Georgia Thomas had no hope for the Confederacy, and he now wished to take his family back to Burleigh while it could get be done.

He had never liked Jefferson Davis, and now he was confirmed in his view of his character, that he would brook no rival to his face. Thomas Dabney had never been introduced to Mr. Davis, although he had been several times in his company. When friends proposed