The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1893-03-22
OUR WOMEN IN THE WAR.
True Story ofthe Heroine of Confederate
Point-How a Brave Little Puritan
Wife Proved her Devotion to
her Southern Husband.
1Southern Historical Papers.

1Southern Historical Papers,
In the fall of 1857 lovely Puritan
maiden, still in her teens, was married
in Grace Church, Providence, Rhode
Island, to a Virginia youth just passed
his majority, who brought her to his
home in Norfolk, typical ancestral
homestead, where beside the "white
folks" there, was quite colony of fami-
ly servants, from the pickaninny just
able to crawl to the old gray-headed
nanny who had nursed "ole massa.'
She soon became enamored of her
surroundings and charmed with the
devotion of her colored maid, whose
sole duty it was to wait upon her young
misses. When the John Brown raid
burst upon the South, and her hus-
band was ordered to Harper's Ferry,
there was not more indignant matron
in all Virginia, and when at last seces-
sion came, the South did not contain
more enthusiasticl little rebel.
On the 18th of May, 1862, few days
after the surrender of Norfolk to the
Federals, by her father-in-law, then
mayor, amid the excitement attending
a captured city, her son Willie was
born. Cut off from her husband and
subjected to the privations and annoy
ances incident to a subjugated COM
munity, her father insisted upon her
coming with her children to his home
in Providence; hut Notwithstanding
she was in luxurious home, with all
that parental love could do for her, she
preferred to leave all these comforts to
share with her husband the dangers
and privations of the South. She vain
ly tried to persuade Stanton, Secretary
of War, to let her and her three chill
dren with a nurse return to the South;
finally he consented 10 let her 60 by
flag of truce from Washington to City
Point, but without nurse, and, as she
was unable to manage three little ones,
she left the youngest with his grand
parents, and with two Others bravely
set out for Dixie. The generous outfit
of every description which was pre-
pared for the journey and which was
carried to the place Decentralization was
ruthlessly cast aside by the inspectors
on the wharf, and no tears or entreaties
or offers of reward by the parents
availed to pass anything save a scanty
supply of clothing and other neeessar-
les. Arriving in the South, the brave
young mother refused the profer of a
beautiful home in Wilmiagten, the
occupancy ofthe grand old mansion at
|Orton," on the Cape Fear River, but
insisted upon taking up her abode
with her children and their colored
nurse in the upper room of pilots
house, where they lived until the SOL
diers Of the garrison built her cottage
one mile north of Fort Fisher on the
Atlantic beach. In both of these homes
she was occasionally exposed to the
shot and shell fired from blockaders at
belated blockade runners.
It was a quaint abode, constructed
in most primitive style with three
rooms around one big chimney, in
which North Carolina pine knots sup
Piled heat and light on winter nights.
This co ge became historic and was
famed fes the frugal but tempting
meals which its charming hostess
would prepare for her distinguished
guests. Besides the many iilustrious
Confederate army and navy officers
who were delighted to find this bit Of
sunshiny civilization on the wild sandy
beach, ensconced among the sand dunes
and struggling pines and blackjack,
many celebrated English naval officers
enjoyed its hospitality under assumed
names; Roberts, afterwards the renow-
ned Hobar. Pasha, who commanded
the Turkish navy; Murray, now. Ad-
miral Aynsley, long since retired, after
having been rapidly promoted for gall
lantry and meritorious services in the
British navy; the brave and unfortu-
nate Burgoyne, who went down in the
British ironclad Captain in the Bay Of
Biscay, and the chivalrous Hewitt,
who won the Victoria cross in the
Crimea and was knighted for bis ser
vices as ambassador to King John of
Abyssinia, and who, after commanding
the Queens yacht died lamented as
Admiral Hewitt. Besides these, there
were many genial and gallant mer-
chant captains, among them Halpin,
VINO afterwards commanded the Great
Eastern while laying ocean cables, and
famous war correspondents, the Hon.
Francis c. Lawley, NJ. P, correspon'
O6Ql Ol tue LOuOOu 4luCS, ouO At1uh
Vizitelli, of the London Illustrated
News, afterwards murdered in the
Soudan. Nor must the handsome and
plucky Tom Taylor be forgotten,
purser of the Banshee and Night Hawk,
who, by his GOODNESS and daring, es-
capped with a boats crew from the
hands of the FedeIals after capture off
the fort, and who was endeared to the
children as the "Santa Claus of the
war.
At first the little Confederate was
satisfied with pork and potatoes, corn
bread and rye coffee, with sorghum
sweetening, but after the blockade
runners made her acquaintance, the
impoverished store-room was soon
filled to overfowing, Notwithstanding
her heavy acquisitions on it for the
post hospital, the sick and wounded
! Il L.