The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1886-08-04

ftLl " t1AN A'"ftr FA-'t'r - tt'' 80
first open. and her youngest son-a bo,
Of ls-was beside her. The moon was a
the fun. but dense clouds ob~cured it,
light. giving a sort Of spectral hue TO all
surrounding objects Soon every bush
and tree about the house seemed in mo
ton and creeping slowly down upon the
devoted dwelling. Nearer they came
dim and shadowy, till they took the form
of men. seventy in all, a. the intrepid
woman had the GOODNESS 10 count in that
p~erilous moment. Directly in front OF
her. and MT forty yards away, wa a
body Of about twenty, huddled together,
and bearing among them a felled tree,
evidently to batter down the door.
"Haltr7 she cried. "or some Of You are
dead men,
No heed was given 10 her summons.
The platoon moved forward a step or
two. when four rifles cracked m hye
souls PASSED into eternity. two sent by
one bullet. Then a yell wen up that
shook the hillside and a yolley poured
into the be~leagured dwelling. The most
of the bullets buried in the logs, but N
struck the clay filling near the doorway
and entered the body Of the boy who
stood there beside his mather. He utter
ed a sharp cry, put his hand 70 his breast
and sank down at her feet, saving only,
~Oh, mother"
She clutched him in her arms and
tried to staunch the blood which spurted
over her clothing, and then, bending over
the boy, she kissed him ON the forehead,
saying, God has called for you, my son.
He is taking from me my baby"
Il know, mother" he gasped, Z" but |
shall die like a nan"
Don't think of that or of me, now.
Think of jesus, the Savior"
Yes, mother" faltered the boy. GOOD
bve. Give the devils another shot,
mother"
Then his head fell back, and he was
gone from the sound of human conflict.
She closed his eyes and kissed again his
forehead. Then she rose, reloaded her
gun and gave the other shot othe rebels.
Meanwhile. the other two young men
had reloaded and fired twice, and the
assauliing party had fallen back, evident
" disconnected by the determined resist
ance. Half an hour followed, during
..ls.l l..o;..I ,.s4b.ro nor b..arI
anything of the enemy, and they were
beginning to think that they had been
beaten OF, when suddenly the four cor
ners of the roof above their heads were
in a blaze. The building had been fired,
and to this they could offer no resistance.
Nothing remained but TO run the gauntlet
of their enemies. Giving one look to
her dead son and one prayer TO the God
she trusted, the woman opened the door,
and followed by her sons, sprang out into
the darkness.
Dense bushes were about the house,
but they were fifty feet away, and before
they could be reached the three would
be a fair mark for more than fifty rifles.
The woman gained the underground in
safety, but the boys were shot down I'M
der the caves of the dwelling.
Il seed them fall" she said to me,
'and knowed thar wal no hope for EN-,
for them men would have took thar lives,
even if they'd surrendered. At first |
couldn't understand why the Lord had
taken them who was men, and left me
behind, who am only a woman But af-
forwards ! seed into His ways more
clearly. and ! reckon ] did more for the
right cause than any three men in all
this region for, being a woman, could
come and 90 whar a man couldn't, and
somehow the folks never seed me and
knowed what Tdgone through, but they
sided to onct with the Union, and went
TO join Cunnel Kirk when he came To
hold warm Springs. ] reckon ] sent him,
first and last, more men than he had
at amy one time in his regiment"
What the woman said was true, a. |
wa assured by a number of people who
were personally acquainted with her his
tory. But her work for the Union was
attended with a vast deal of difficulty
and danger. Often did she walk all
night through rain. mud and snow To con-
vey intelligence TO the Federal lines or
to carry food TO some outlying Union man
who was hiding in the woods, and three
times was her house burned over her
head, and she suffered TO escape with
only the clothing upon her back. But
in all this she WAS never disheartened.
When her dwelling burned down she
had it rebuilt, though never upon the
site of the first one, where her sons were
buried, and when stripped of all and left
with not enough clothing to protect her
from the weather, she cheerfully said
I" Never mind a little will do me, and the
Lord viii provide that, certainly"
With no revenge in her heart, she was
yet an ~avenging spirit to the Confedenites,
I'll llE AtiAl anu htrAIhAAAbll dltibilL
them whenever she moved, until at last
they left her unmolested, content 10 wage
with this lone woman a simply defensive
warfare. But this resolve they did not
come 10 until she lad inflicted upon them
a bloody calamity.
When she mad rebuilt her house a
fh,rI t,,... H.. ltw-,s.al g.. -.
fourth burning. To this end she applied
to Colonel Kirk, who detailed for her
protection a dozen sharpshooters, each
n armed with a revolving rifle. She
hid them away in the underground on
the rising ground in the rear of herdwell-
ing, and then, selecting a time when the
moon was al the full and the nights were
likely 10 be eloudless, she moved into
her desolate home with 4 few articles of
borrowed furniture. The first night she
was unmolested, for, though the Confed-
crates were only twenty miles away, in
telligence travels slowly in a country
destitute of mail and Geographic facilities.
But she felt sure they would come and
she was not disappointed. About the
middle of the second night she heard
approaching the steady tread of a consid-
cradle body of horsemen, and soon saw
them dismounting and lettering their
animals near the spring in the valley be-
low. Opening then her door, whence
she could he distinctly heard, she cried