The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1875-05-04
Fact and Fancy.

uuu DAtDaTo rxtetCn1eb ORSeu upon ING
story that, in the fall of 1852, wheng the
Confederates entered Maryland, Stone
wall Jacksonsgavc orders that the United
States flags displayed in Frederick should
be taken down; that Barbara kept hers
hying; that the "rebs" hauled it down,
when the old womYn snutchcd it up and
set IL in her nttic-window, where 1t &ns
shot down by Jackson's orders, when
the old woman again seized it and de-
family waved it over her head: where
upon jackson ordered tho soldiers to let
her alone; and
"All day long that free fng tost
Over the head of the rebel host"
Hero is how Barbara did it according
to, the poet:
On that pleasant morn Of the enriy full,
When Lee marched over the mountain
wall
Over the mountains winding down,
Horse and foot, into Frederick town,
Forty flags, with their silver stars,
Forty flags, with their crimson bars,
Flappcd in the morning wind the sun
Of noon looked down, and SAW not one.
Up rose old Barbara Frietchie then,
Bowed with her fore-scOre years and ten:
Bravest of all in Frederick town,
She took up the tlas the men hauled
down. .htl 49,.
In her attic-window the staff she set,
10 show one heart was loyal yet.
As so often happens, however, in this
prosaic world of ours, fact takes issue
with fancy, and Gen. Jubal A. Early. in
letter to the Richmond Dispatch, effect
unlly disposes Of this pretty legend.
First as to the mountain wall" and
the ''forty tlngs." He says;
Gen. Lees army crossed the Potomac
short distance above Leesburg, in Lou
don County, and did not have to cross
any mountain ut all to getinto Frederick.
Then, too, if there wero "forty flags,
with their silver stars" and forty flags,
with their crimson BARS" Tapping ''in
the wind" over the ''clustered spires of
Frederick" there must have been eighty
in ali; though if the poet means to as-
sert that the flags which had the silver
stars were the same that had the GRIM
son bars, forty was goodly number to
have floating over one little town. If
the flag which Barbara picked up had
been ."hauled down." then it must have
been hauled down from standing flag
staff; and it must have been rather
''lofty" feat for her to pick that up, too,
and set it in her attic-window. But I
suppose it was an allowable poetic license
for Mr. Whittier to convert the Potomac
River into q mountain WALL" and ono
dingy old flag, hoisted probably over u
Quartermnster's Office, into
"Forty flags, with their silver stars,
. Forty flags, with their crimson bars"
! Eighty or forty, rs the case may be.
However. he ought to have accounted for
the other seventy-nine or thirty-nine,
and not left them to be trnmpled in the
dust by the rebel tread" that came up
the street with ''Stonewall jackson rid
ing ahead, even by poetic license. If
they were forty regimental flags, and
they were Tapping in the morning wind
that morning, then they must have been
Tapping oyer forty regiments, which in
continently fed on the approach of the
rebel tread, one, of them dropping it's
flag in the panic.
3Next, az to General jackson being in
the town when his'troops were. IIc was
not there. and could not have given tho
order: 3 ia
General jackson had Been severely in
jured by full Of his horse on the 5th,
and his corps reached the vicinity of
Frederick on the afternoon of the 9th of
September, 1862, under the command of
General d. II. Hill. One division, (Jnck-
sons own, under the command of Gen.
Stagke, marched through Frederick that
| evening, and camped in tho vicinity
| one brigade of the division, under com
mand Of Gen ernl (then UolonelD Bradley
T. Johnson, (n citizen Of Frederick up to
the beginning of the war,) being posted
IN the town to preserve order and pre-
vent any depredations on the citizens
The other divisions were halted md
| camped near Monocacy Junction, near
which General jackson nlso campcd und
I am very confident TINT he did NOT 20
into Frederick until the morning of the
10th, when his command marched for
the capture of Hnrper's Ferry. The
General went through Frederick, with n
cavalry escort, i'll advance of his troops.
who did not pass through the town until
lic wns some distance beyond it.
And now for the hard facts Of the case.
They knock the poem anu its basis higher
than kite:
! On the morning that we passed through
Frederick, on the expedition for the cnp-
! ture of Harper's Ferry, the two following
incidents occurred, one of which l wit
messed in person, and the other was de-
1 l. 4 L.