Gone With the Wind Chapter 14 Summary

How It All Goes Down

  • Update on the progress of the war: It's not going well for the Confederates.
  • Folks in Atlanta are waiting for news from Lee at Gettysburg.
  • The casualty lists are posted, but Ashley isn't on it. Much rejoicing.
  • But then Scarlett realizes other folks she knows have been killed, like Raif Calvert and LaFayette Munroe, who had been engaged to Cathleen Calvert. And the three remaining Tarleton boys.
  • Scarlett asks Rhett why there should be a war over slavery, and he tells her the war doesn't have anything to do with slavery. (An aside: Latter-day Confederate sympathizers like Margaret Mitchell like to argue that the war was about things like state's rights instead of slavery, because if it was about slavery, well, then the Confederates were fighting on the wrong side.)
  • Melanie says she wants a baby, and thinks she could bear Ashley dying if she just had a child.
  • She says she's been jealous of Scarlett; Scarlett says "Fiddle-dee-dee," which is one of her pet phrases when she's cranky at somebody.