Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1882-12-20
APOCHRYPHAL REMIsfs.
CEECE
OF q Fair Rebel Woman Defy
ing u Federal Regiment
in Memphis.

The following story Is going the
rounds Of the press. There may have
been some foundation for it,but what
ever really happened has no doubt
been greatly exaggerated and colored;
There vas q funeral Of q woman
near New Haven, Ind, the LIST of
December; who came near being the
cause Of a deal of bloodshed at one
hour of her existence. 1t is a fact
well known to old soldiers that South
ern women we're very loyal to the
Southern cause. and that their loyalty
often led to difficulties between Fede
raj soldiers doing duty in Southern
citiessand the inhabitants. 1t was so
in the case Of the woman just buried,
Margaret Wilson by name,an Alabam-
ian by birth, and 4 firm believer in
Southern rights. When the Union
forces occupied Memphis she was to
be seen at almost all hours of the day
engaged in something that would ex-
asperate the Yankees.
0ae day in the summe Of 1868
many prisoners we're arriving in Mem
phis from ATkansaw, aud were being
guarded on the levee. by some men OF
the Fifty-fOurth Ohio, commanded By
q certain Captain whose nan has
slipped the writ,r's memory. Mrs
Wilson came down 10 sight OF the
prisoners and their guards. having
With her a little rebel flag, which she
waved over her head. The prisoners
saw it and began to cheer it. Any
who have ever heard a real, live, en-
thusisstic, hair lifting yell come from
the threats OF real, live. enthusiastic
soldiers of the lost cause will know
what a noise was on the Memphis
leYee at that moment. The Captain
saw the of this sudden out
break Of loyalty, and going up to
the woman, ordered her not to display
that flag again. But no sooner
had he retired from her than she
pulled the little piece of painted mus
lin FROM her bosom. where she had
thrust it when the Captain came up,
and hourished il again. The Captain
turned to her, trembling with excite
ment and anger, and told her if she
dared to show her flag again he would
arrest her. By this time there werc
probably 5000 persons On the levee, at
tracted there by the cheering. Every
one expected bloodshed, and that the
few Union soldiers would be mobbed
and killed before assistance could
come. The Captain bestowed some
vigorous words on the offending
woman, and again turned to leave
her. He had not gone ten steps be-
fore out came the little flag, and high
above her head she hourished it. The
Southerners cheered as if his horned
majesty himself had arrived in their
midst. The Captain turned TO the
offending woman, white with anger.
and, rushing up to her with clenched
fist, had so far forgotten himself as to
be about to strike her, and would
have done so had rot Lieutenant A G.,
Gregory, of the Thirty second Wis
eonsln, then on provost duty, seized
his arm and restrained him from
violence. Lieutenant Gregory, who
had just come up with thirty men,
then undertook to arrest the offender.
and she resisted with all the tactics
known to women. She threw herself
on the ground, kicked. scratched and
yelled. Now the situation was crit,
cal in the extreme. The crowd, num-
bering May thousands, was one
sEaying mass Of yelling, angry men.
and all sympathizing with the
woman. A sergeant aud a private
were trying 10 gather the woman M
in some shape in order to carry
her, while the mob was closing in on
every side. The Lieutenant, drawing
his revolver, stepped towards the
crowd, aud shouted that he would
shoot the first man who advanced a
step nearer, and ordered his men to do
the same.
Thus the angry men we're held at
bay Tor = moment, and then an Indiana
regiment came hurrying forward. and,
at the point Of the bsyonet, cleared
their gay TO their comrades, who had
the offender now pretty we'll in hand.
Mrs. Wilson was taken to headuuar.
ters, and the next morning was sent
outside the Union lines. She passed
through many scenes during the war.
but she was never so near to causing
death as on that morning. when the
Memphis mob surrounded Lieutenant
Gregory and his thirty men OF the
Thirty second Wisconsin.