Wife of a Confederate soldier stationed near Fort Sumter elects to bring him a change of clothes and some basic necessities, ends up staying a few extra days for ‘connubial dalliance.’ ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

>[Mary Chesnut](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/Fw-refugees-chestnut-full.jpg) jotted down a story about a woman she had chatted with. The woman had just returned from visiting her husband out on one of the islands. He had been gone for months and she had decided to take him some clothes. He was, she found to her dismay, now far too thin to wear them. Perhaps most disturbing to her was how jolly he was, how much he seemed to like this military life. He did, however, persuade her to stay an extra day or so, perhaps for connubial dalliance. She had not come prepared to spend the night, but, she delicately told Mrs. Chesnut, “She tied her petticoat around her neck for a nightgown.” _____________________ **Source:** Detzer, David. “The Boys on the Beach.” *Allegiance: Fort Sumter, Charleston, and the Beginning of the Civil War*. New York: Harcourt, 2002. 194. Print. **Original Source Listed:** Hampton, *A Divided Heart*, pp. 80-90. Chestnut, *Mary Chesnut’s Civil War*, pp. 36-37. _______________________ **Further Reading:** [Mary Boykin Chesnut (née Miller)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Boykin_Chesnut)