The Columbus journal., 1882-08-16
HOW SHE CANE TO MARRY
YANKEE.

Talking with a friend of mine, whom
1 was visiting, about the civil war,
said to her:
81 have often wondered how a woman
Of such strong Southern principles As
yours ever came to marry a Federal
soldier"
She laughed, and. glancing toward q
motheriy looking black woman who sat
near the fire, nursing . rosy baby, re-
piled:
"You had better ask NANNY.
think she is responsible for that piece OF
work"
= Deed if / is" said NANNY, "I'se
not ashamed of it, kase it's bout de bes'
work ebber dom. You better tell her
bout it, honey"
-"There is not much to TELL" said my
friend. "You already know hat all Of
my relatives are Southern people, and
that two of my uncles were killed in
battle, one a. Malvern Hill, and the
other at G~esty Sburg. We-that is, my
grandparents and myself, with a married
daughter, whose husband was in the
army, and her two small children-were
the only whites left on the plantation.
1 had always lived with my grandpa.
rents, as my own parents had died
while l was yet an infant. Now l was
seventeen; and, as I had passed all of
my life, except one winter in New Or
leans and q couple summers at a Vir-
ginia watering-place, ON the plantation,
with few companions, my governess
being a Southern lady, I knew little
about the world, and less about our own
Northern States than any other part of
Il. Of course l hated the Yankees, and
s all the blame for the unhappy state
of affairs upon them.
? IL will not 60 into the particulars Of
ON troubles. We shared them in com.
mon with all our friends, and rather
gloried in them, as proof of our devotion
to the aus But I tell you, by the
time the winter 'sixty-four and five ar.
rived we were having pretty hard times.
Everything we could spare, in the shape
Of bedding, clothing, carpets and cook,
ing utensils had gone to the army or hos
PITFALLS, and the necessaries we had re
tained were wearing out, with no way
that we could see of replacing them. !
should have suffered for clothing had il
not been that my dead mothers ward.
robe had been sacredly kept for me, and
] found it fitted me without little alters.
ton. But I was not going to tell you Of
our trials, only of how 1 happened b
find my Federal soldier.
We'll, it vas one evening during tbts
winter of which I speak that NANNY,
Who with her husband, Ben, had been
deeping at the house for q long time,
took q notion that she would 90, for the
night, to her old cabin at the quarters.
Nearly all of our slaves had left us, and
the few who remained, with the excep,
ton of Ben, nanny and Liza-grand,
mothers maid-were old and almos,
worthless, so far as work was con,
eerned, 50 the quarters were almost de-
serted.
II did not want nanny to 20, but
as she seemed determined, / ceased Cd.
position, and after she Left the house, ]
shut it up for the night, aad went to my
own room, upstairs. Before l Wa
ready for bed, Liza came up for me, say.
ing nanny was at tho dining-room
door, wanting me. I ran down, and,
opening it, found her standing there,
evidently very much frightened and e1.
cited.
40, what Is it, mammy?' I cried.
"For in those days the least thing out
a the ordinary was cause of alarm; and
though our plantation, lying - it did in
= secluded part of the country, wa sell
Com visited by either of the armies, still
ws had not been entirely exempt from