Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-11-20
JOE ROGERS MOTHER.

JUL GIO LII > VI " I1LlG.
If you have never been in the valley
of the Tennessee mean that part of
the famous valley that stretches south
westward from the great Sand Mount
ain to the picturesque table lands of
Mount Sano-yOu have missed a scene
fairest OF all in that country of fair
scenes. | will not attempt to describe
it. | can not do it Justice. No one
can. 1t is the paradise of North Ala
bama and in the heart Of that far
Southern district, devastated by war,
and vet, thanks to its protecting bull
wark of mountains, its pleasant homes
and well titled lands, escaped almost
unscathed.
Not many miles to the north is Look
out Mountain and the battle-tields of
Mission Ridge and Chickamauga. Fur
Their to the south and west, on the same
great trunk line that passes within the
shadow of the heights on which Hooker
fought the battle in the Clouds" is
that already famous young city of
phenomenal growth. Decatur. and be-
yond that the new Sheffield and war
SCARED Corinth.
But while this corner of the great
valley saw little of either blue coats or
gray-eXcept, perhaps, an occasional
foraging party that chance led away
from the railroad and into the garden
land between the big hills-the valley
gave its best blood for the cause of the
Confederacy, and sons and brothers
left the cotton unpicked in the field to
join Bragg and his gathering hosts
across the border line of Tennessee, or
to follow the fortunes of Morgan or
Stuart on their cavalry raids to the
North.
Back from the Tennessee, in a cove
protected from the nOrtherS by the
broad back of Monte Sano, a hardy
mountain farmer had built a house of
uncut stone-a poor place at best, but
a home for the sake of what was in it,
1t was not a typical Southern home
for the good wife and mother was
housekeeper, dairymaid and gardener
all in one while the two strapping
boys, with their father, did the work
which on other plantations fell to the
task of the negro slaves. AT the near
est store at Maysville, old John Rogers
was, with indscriminate courtesy,
dubbed Colonel" Why, he never
knew. Perhaps no one else did. Even
before the war military titles were
popular in Dixie. Now they are all
colonels. SO few privates escaped the
war.
Among the negroes Colonel" John
was looked upon with some disdain.
A man who "worked' his farm with
out single black boy was not likely
to win the respect of 1.-THE quarters" at
the bic plantations on the river. Farm
erS who worked were 'Door-ah white
trash in those days of easy Incidence.
But Colonel" John thrived for all
that, and never a home in all the broad
valley was happier in the little cove
under the shadow of Monte Sano.
News travels slowly in the country.
In those days few newspapers found
their way into the Tennessee Valley of
Alabama, and the first shock of war at
Fort Sumter was too far away to affect
the tranquility of the people by the
great river. Then came the frantic
call for troops by the government at
Montgomery, and the great valley was
at last awakened to the horrors of war.
A recruiting office was opened at
Huntsville, ten miles away, on the
other side of Monte Sano, and bus
bands and fathers and sons left their
homes aud people went away to the
war. The valley of the Tennessee was
desOlate. The negroes went hOcking
northward in search of the army of
emancipation, and the cotton was left
in the bolls to spoil. There came a
time when even food was scarce, and
beef was worth its weight in the
strange new scrip the Confederate
government had issued
Colonel John Jared worse than
many, although for months after the
boys of the lower valley had gone
away into Tennessee his sons yielded
to the wish of the old folks and stayed
at home. The time came however.
when honor compelled them to 90, and
they went; but the eyes of the aged
mother were wet with tears and the
face of the white-haired Colonel"
John was strangely old when they
babe their boys good-by.
There are brave hearts here at home
who remember those sad farewells
when the boys in blue went far away
to fight and die on these Southern
battletieiis. There were the same sad
partin@s in many Southern home,
and the war left hundreds of decimated
families in that fair valley.
Months passed, and then years.
Occasionally letters from the absent
soldier boys came to the old folks in
the cove, but they were few and very
far between. They had gone north
and enlisted in the Army of Virginia.
They had been at Bull Run, and had
been on the Peninsula in the checker
board operations of McClellan's cam
paign. The latest letter, scribbled in
pencil and Written in haste. and read
in that little home with aching yet
thankful hearts, told of good health
and Confederate success. Side by side
the brothers had fought, as yet unhurt.
Now they were to 90 with Lee into the
land of promise-the rich, corn-grow-
ing valleys of Pennsylvania.
Gettysburg came. and the Army OF
Virginia, rudely awakened from its
victorious security, was hurled back
across Maryland and into Virgnia
again by the military genius of Meade.
In the carnage of the first day the older
brother was killed. The younger
while retreating with his decimated
regiment from an unsuccessful charge
was taken prisoner. In company with
several other Alabama soldiers, young
Rogers, even then mere boy, was
brought to Philadelphia, and from
there sent to Fort Delaware as pris
oner of war. There he remained un: