Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1890-11-27
JOE ROGERS MOTHER.

If Won have never been in the valley
of the Tennessee-I 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 scene
farest of ali 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
unscalhed-
Not many miles TO the north is Look
out Mountain and the battle-iields 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-
You'd that the new Sheffield and war
SCARED Corinth.
But while this corner of the great
valley saw little of Their blue coats or
gray-except, perhaps, an occasionP'
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
NJ
Stuart on their cavalry raids to the
North.
Back from the Tennessee, in cove
protected from the n0rthers by the
broad back of Monte Sano, a hardy
mountain farmer had built house of
uncut stone-a poor place at best, but
home for the sake of what was in it.
1t was not typical Southern home,
for The good wife and mother was
housokeeper dairymaid and gardener
alb in one. while the two strapping
boys, with their father, did the work
vff1iUtT vi UrnrUT T77rTTT11T0nS TG11 10 Inc
task of the negro slaves. At the near
est store, at Mavsvile. old John Rogers
was. with indiscriminate 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
colonies. So few privates escaped the
war.
Among the negroes Colonel" John
was looked upon with some disdain.
A man who worked his farm with
ont single black boy was not likely
to win the respect of "the quarters" at
the biz plantations on the river. Farm
ers who worked were "poor-ah white
trash in those days of easy Incidence.
But Colonel John thrived for all
that and never n 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, aud the first shock of war at
Fort Sumter was too lar 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 Sauo, and hus-
bands aud fathers and sous left their
homes and people went away to the
war. The valley of the Tennessee was
desolate. The negroes went ilocking
northward in search of the army of
emancipation, and The cotton was left
in the bolls to spoil. There came II
time when even food was scarce. ard
beef was worth its weight in She
strange new scrip the Confederate
government had issued.
"CoiouclN 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 90 go, aud
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 those Southern
battl1helds There were the same sad
partiugs in many Southern home,
aud 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 al Ball Run, and had
been on the Peninsula in the checker
board operations of McClellau's cam-
paign. The latest letter, scrubbed in
pencil and wLIJten in haste and read
in that little home with aching vet
thankful hearts. told Of good health
aud Confederate success. Side by side
the brother. h...l rourbt is YER puhurt.