Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1884-05-30
!. ARMY SKETCHES.
Z =
A Heroine Of the war

/ A Heroine of the War .S f.
well l got her place in the treasur,
department, and it was there she go,
acquainted with her husband; but, .- -
it, I think she is entitled to q pension. !"
This is what General Philip Fl. Sheri-
lan 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 SCARED town
that had long reigned rs 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 Elk Senator Mason, the rebel
emissary, whose capture, together with
that of Slidell, almost involved us in
war with England, my attention was
directed to house where formerly lived
Miss Rebecca Wright, the young Quak-
er 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 cavalryman
ought to make her his wife. Though
Sheridan failed to act atfirmatively 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 pension
cause was the furnishing at the risk Of
her own life, of information upon which
the bloody battle of Winchester was
fought and won on September IS, 1864.
The trle story Of what Miss Wright
did and how she was rewarded for it
has never been published, though gar
oICA pal tlctl tNu1uo VI AZ uGfC u5"
pea1ed in the public prints.
Sheridan assumed command of the
union forces in the Shenandoah Valley
on August 18th, 1864. Gen. Early's
confederate troops occupied Winches-
ter and Martinsburg and held possession
Of that good, broad highway that
Thomas Buchanan Read has INN ortal-
lied in verse. In his official report of
this famous campaign in tho
valley addressed to Brevet Maj.
Gen. John \ Raw|ins. chief
Of staff { rebellion Record" Vol. XII,
PIP. 71s), Sheridan says: "As have
learned beyond doubt from my scouts
that Kcrsllaws division, which consist
ed of four b1igades, was to be ordered
back to Richmond I had for two weeks
patiently awaited its withdrawal. )"
Then, becoming impatient, he turned to
Gen. Crook, now famous as humane
and successful Indian fighter, and in
CURED if ho knew any one'in Winches-
ter who would be willing to furnish the
desired information. Cook had been
ii yhting in the valley for q considerable
while prior to Sheridan's arrival
and was we'll acquainted in and out Of
Winchester.
He knew favorably a widow named
Rachel Wright and her daughter Re-
loccca. They kept a boarding house on
Main street, in Winchester. They were
Of Quaker origin, Whenever hostilities
we're sufficiently suspended to permit
they attended the Friends Meeting
House, about mile from Winchester;
but notwithstanding their profession Of
tho tcnets of Fox and Penn, and their
consequent aversion to 4 resort to arms,
they were stauncl adhelents of the
union and looked with fond anticipa-
ton 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 would furnish
any information in her power. So an
old darke.7 who had pass to 60 in and
out Of town for the purpose OF selling
garden vegetables there, and who
thought that "Linkunl's sogers am a
sight better dan dem Early slave beat
els, lott Sheridan's headquarters one
day early in September with his wagon
filled with vegetables and his mouth
loaded with tin-foil wad, inside OF
which was {, note written on tissue paper
to Rebecca Wright,
She promptly replied and on the 14th
Of September again sent word-still
using the darkey's mouth for mail
bag-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 liigence decided Sheridon to
attack Early. Four days later Winches-
ter was again in the possession Of the
Union troops, the rebels had been sent
"wl1irling up the valley" end Sheridan
had himself thanked the plucky Quak~
er girl whose loyalty had made possible
81 victory that virtually broke the back
bone of rebel resistance in that fertile
valley, so long the storehouse of South
ern supplies. In the official report
quoted above the following appears:
."On the night of the 18th 1 received re-
liable information that Kersltaw's divis-
ion was marching through Winchester
and in the direction of Front Royal"
"That '*reliable" information was
none 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
p,c~ath.
Sheridan did not forget his fair bene-
factress in the distressing times that
followed. The hungry rebel hordes had
pretty we'll depleted the resources Of