The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1883-02-24
AN INCIDENT OF THE WAR.

There was funeral of woman near
New Haven, Ind, recently, says cor
respondent of the Cincinnati Enquirer,
who came near being the cause of
deal of bloodshed at one hour of her
existence. 1t is fact we'll known to
old soldiers that Southern women were
very loyal to the Southern cause, and
that their loyalty often led to difficulties
between them and the Federal soldiers.
Margaret Wilson was an Albanian by
birth, and firm believer in Southern
rights. When the Union force occu-
pied Memphis she was to be seen'at al
most all hours of the day engaged in
something which would exasperate the
Yankees.
One day in the summer Of 1868 many
prisoners were arriving in Memphis
from Arkansas, and were being guarded
on the levee by some men of the Fifty
fourth Ohio. Mrs. Wilson came down
in sight Of the prisoners and their
guards, having with her little rebel
flag, which she waved over her head.
The prisoners saw it and began to cheer
it. The Captain saw the cause of this
sudden outbreak of loyalty, and going
up to the woman, ordered her not to
display that flag again. But no sooner
had he turned from her than she pulled
the little piece Of painted muslin from
her bosom, where she had thrust it
when the Captain came up, and -four
ished it again. The Captain turned TO
her, trembling with excitement and an
ger, and told her if she dared to show
her flag again he should arrest her.
By this time there were probably 81
900 persons on the levee, attracted by
the cheering. Every one expected blood
shed 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
before out came the little flag, andhigh
above her head she fourished it. The
Southerners cheered as if his horned
majesty himself had arrived in their
midst. The Captain turned to the OF
Tending 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 not Lieutenant A. c. Gre
CORY, of the Thirty second Wisconsin,
seized his arm.
Lieutenant Gregory, who had Just
come up with about thirty men, then
undertook to arrest the offender, and
she resisted with all the tactic known to
women. She threw herself on the
ground kicked, scratched and yelled.
| The situation was critical in the extreme.
The crowd, numbering many thousands,
was one swaying mass of yelling, angry
men, and all sympathizing with the
woman. A Sergeant and private were
trying to gather the woman up IN some
shape in order to carry her, while the
mob was closing in on every side. The
Lieutenant, drawing his revolver, step
ped toward the crowd and shouted that
he would shoot the first man who ad-
vanced a step nearer, ordering his men
| to do the same.
Thus the angry men were held at pay
for moment, and then an Indiana regl-
ment came hurrying forward, and, at
the point of the bayonet, cleared their
way to their comrades, who had the
offender now pretty well in hand. Mrs:
Wilson was taken to headquarters, and
the next morning was sent outside OF
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 Wis
Consin.