University of Mississippi, University P. O., Miss.
Their home being destroyed during the war in a skirmish which took place in their garden, and in which several men were killed, Mr. and Mrs. Dorsey removed to Texas. They afterwards returned to Louisiana; and in 1875, upon the death of Mr. Dorsey, Mrs. Dorsey made her home at “Beauvoir,” her place in Mississippi. Here she spent her time in writing, and also acted as amanuensis to Jefferson Davis in his great work, “Rise and Fall of the Confederacy.” At her death, which occurred at New Orleans, whither she had gone for treatment, she left “Beauvoir” by will to Mr. Davis and his daughter Winnie.
Her “Life of Allen” is of great historical and biographical merit.
WORKS.
Recollections of Henry Watkins Allen, of Louisiana.
Lucia Dare, [novel].
Atalie, or a Southern Villeggiatura.
Agnes Graham, [novel].
Panola, a Tale of Louisiana.
A CONFEDERATE EXILE ON HIS WAY TO MEXICO, 1866.
(From Recollections of Henry W. Allen, Ex-Gov. of Louisiana.[26])
The people wept over Allen’s departure. They followed him with tears and blessings, and would have forced on him more substantial tokens of regard than words of regret. They knew he had no money—his noble estates had long been in possession of the enemy; hundreds of hogsheads of sugar had been carried off from his plundered sugar-houses; his house was burned, his plantation, a wide waste of fallow-fields, grown up in weeds. He had nothing but Confederate and State money. One gentleman begged him to accept $5,000, in gold, as a loan, since he refused it as a gift. Allen accepted five hundred. With this small amount, his ambulance and riding-horses, he started to Mexico. His journey through Texas was a complete ovation, instead of a hegira. Everybody, rich and poor, vied with each other in offering him attention and the most eager hospitality. The roof was deemed honored that sheltered his head for the night. He stopped at Crockett, to say “goodbye.”
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