The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1884-06-06
ARMY SKETCHES.
AHsroire Of the War

uSPaIpHleut, hud ~ WAS bieie she gov
acquainted with her husband; but
it. L think she is entitled to q pension"
This is what General Philip Fl. Sheri-
ian said toa newspaper writer the other
day. Recently while standing in Win
chester, Va, on the mound that marks
the site of old Fort Loudon OF French
and Indian memory, and viewing thence
the ruins of the redoubts from behind
which the union general Milroy, poured
hot shot into the battle-scarred town
that had long reigned as queen of the
valley, and seeing the magnificent man
sion that Judge Pendleton had erected
on the very spot where the union soldiers
RACED to the ground the palatial resi-
dence Of Ex-senator Mason, the rebel
emissary, whose capture, together with
that Of Slidell, almost involved us in
war with England, my attention was
directed to a house where formerly lived
Miss Rebecca Wright, the young Quak-
err girl who rendered such signal service
to Gen. Sheridan and the union cause
that Early was sent "whirling up the
valley" and Senator Simon Cameron
declared that the dashing ca~valryman
| ought to make her his wife. Though
Sheridan failed to act affirmatively upon
this proposition, he interested himself
in various projects in her behalf, as de-
tailed in this article, and still declares
with more force than elegance that she
is entitled to a pension"
The service she rendered the union
cause was the furnishing at the risk Of
her W life, of information upon which
the bloody battle of Winchester was
fought and won on September 10, 1864.
The true story of what Miss Wright
| did and how she was rewarded for it
has been published, though gar
bled partial accounts of it have APP
peared in the public prints.
Sheridan assumed command of the
union forces in the Shenandoah Valley
on August 4th, 1864. Gen. Early's
confederate troops occupied Winches-
ter and Martinsburg andheld possession
of that good, broad highway that
Thomas Buchanan Read has immortal
lied in verse. In his official report of
this famous campaign in the
valley addressed to Breyet Maj.
Gen. John 4 Rawlins. chief
of staff C'Rebellion Record, Vol. XII,
PIP. 71S), Sheridan says: "As I have
learned beyond doubt from my scouts
that Kershaw's division, which consist
ed of four brigades, was to be ordered
back to Richmond l had for two weeks
patiently awaited its withdrawal"
Then, becoming inpatient, he turned to
Gen. Crook, now famous as q humane
and successful Indian fighter, ana in.
.quired if he knew any n In Winches-
ter who would be willing to furnish the
desired information. Cook had been
fighting in the valley for a considerable
while prior to Sheridan's arrival
and was well acquainted in and out Of
Winchester.
He knew farorably q widow named
Rachel Wright and her daughter Re-
becca. They kept . boarding house on
Main street, in Winchester. They were
of Quaker origin. Whenever hostilities
were sufficiently suspended to permit
they attended the Friends Meeting
House, about a mile from Winchester;
but Notwithstanding their profession of
the tenets OF Fox and Penn, and their
consequent aversion to,a resort to arms,
they were staunch adherents of the
union and looked with fond anticipa-
tion to the time when the stars and
staipes would triumph finally though of
necessity they were compelled
to suppress their feeling of
loyalty to the government. Gen.
Crook said to Sheridan that he
thought this Quaker Girl ouldfurnish
any information in her power. So an
old darkey, who had a pass to go in and
out of town for the purpose of selling
garden vegetables there, and who
thought that "Linkum's sogers am a
sight better dan dem Early slaye-beat-
ers, !" lett Sheridan's Headquarters one
day early in September with his wagon
filed with vegetables and his mouth
loaded with a tin-foil wad, inside of
which was a note written OF tissue paper
to Rebecca Wright.
She promptly replied and on the 14th
of September again sent word-still
using the darkey's mouth for a mali
hag-that she had learned from some of
the rebel officers who boarded at her
mothers house that Kershaw's four brig
AIDES would start for Richmond on the
morrow, passing through Winchester
on their way.
This int lligence decided Sheridon to
attack EARLY. -Four days later inches-
ter vas again in the possession of the
Union troops, the rebels had been sent
"whir1ing up the valley" and Sheridan
had himself thanked the plucky Quak-
or girl whose loyalty had made possible
q victory that virtually broke the back
bone Of rebel resistance in that fertile
valley, so long the storehonse Of South
ern supplies. In the official report
quoted above the following appears:
Son the night of the 18th I received re-
liable information that Kershaw's divis-
ion was marching through Winchester
and in the direction Of Front Royal"
"That reliable" information was
hone other than what Rebecca Wright
heard from the rebel officers in her
mothers parlor. and which she promptly
conveyed to Sheridan via the darkey's
pcath.
Sheridan did not forget his fair bene-
f~actress in the distressing times that
followed. The hungry rebel hordes had
pretty well depleted the of
man and soil in the immediate vicinity
of Winchester and far up and down the
beautiful pike that for many a year
prior tothe war had maintained its pre-
eminence among Americans most mag
nificent highways, pillage and devasta-
ton had followed in the tracks Confede- !!
rate and Union troops alike Indeed,
/ was told by the old gentleman who is
the local historian of the town