The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1883-01-27
An Incident Of the War.

New Haven, Ind, recently. says o cor
respondent of the Cincinnati Enquirer,
who came near being the cause of q
deal OF bloodshed at one hour of her
existence. 1t is fact well known to old
soldiers that Southern women we're
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 cxasperate 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 tho 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 S.
600 persons on the levee, attracted by
the cheering Every one expected
bloodshed and that the few Union sold
iers would be nobbed 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, and high
above her head she ilourished it. The
Southerners cheered rs 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 clenchcd fist, had
so far forgotten himself as to be about
to strike her, and would have done 50
had not Lieutenant A. C.. Gregory, 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 tactics known
to women. She threw herself on the
ground-kicked, scratched and yelled.
The situation was critical in the OK
IRENE. The crowd, numbering many
thousands, was one swaying mass Of
yelling, angry men, and all sympathiz-
Ing with the woman. A Sergeant and
private were trying togather 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. stepped toward the crowd and
shouted that be would shoot the first
man who advanced y step nearer. or
dering his men to do the same.
Thus the angry men were held at bay
for moment, and then an Indiana regi-
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-sccond Wis
cOnsin.