House" became the center of a society
which, as Mrs. Pryor and others insisted, was really aristocratic. The
first families of Virginia became hosts to the statesmen who had
gathered there from all the Southern States; there were "heroes from
the wars" to grace the salons of Mrs. Stannard, Mr. William H.
McFarland, banker to the new government, and others who, but for the
disastrous turn of the conflict, would have become well-known figures in
history. The social life which was adorned by the presence of Mrs.
Jefferson Davis, Mrs. James Chesnut, and Mrs. Joseph E. Johnston was,
however, after one short winter of pleasure and buoyant expectation,
overcast with sorrow and even scattered abroad by the close approach of
the armies of the North, the hated Yankees who had not been expected to
fight.

The serious and all-absorbing business of the South was therefore to
repel invasion. Armies ranging from 5000 to 15,000 troops were stationed
at Norfolk, Williamsburg, Fredericksburg, northern Virginia, Harper's
Ferry, Cumberland Gap, Bowling Green and Columbus, Kentucky, and even in
Missouri. General A. S. Cooper, of New Jersey, became adjutant-general
and the senior officer in the Confederate Army; Robert E. Lee organized
and drilled the Virginia forces; Joseph E. Johnston, his rival in the
old United States Army, commanded at Harper's Ferry; and Beauregard, the
hero of Fort Sumter, was at the head of the army which was expected to
resist and defeat the first invasion from Washington. Behind these
various gatherings of soldiers were hundreds of thousands of others,
waiting to be supplied with arms and ready to learn the ways of war.
Editors, preachers, and orators heralded with unanimous voice the new
nation, and predicted speedy recognition by the powers of Europe and a
permanent peace with their long-time rivals. Three months, six months,
or a year were the various estimates of the duration of the war for
independence. Some planters followed the counsel of President Davis and
planted corn and wheat instead of the accustomed cotton and tobacco, in
order to be able to feed their armies and "their people," but others
were so certain that another autumn would reopen the channels of
commerce to all that they continued their large acreage in their
favorite staples. It was not to be a long struggle like that which
Washington had led. The conditions were different. Both England and
France would intervene when the cotton famine began