The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1895-04-24
wheel came within an inch Of running
over his head, and when we got to the
bridge the floor was gone-not plank

was on lt-nothlng but the sleepers.
| and not soul on Mr.. Steel's place.
for they, too, had run away. 1t was
the only bridge that was left on the
long river, and there wasn't ferry
for miles and miles. I remember how
helpless and forlorn we felt until Mr.
Sanders overlook us there with his
team, and you and Tip and Mr.. San
ders and his teamsters counted the old
planks that were scattered on the
bank and saw there were enough to
cross on, and all hands went to work
and laid two rows, end to end, just
wide enough apart for the wheels to
run on, and then pulled all the wagons
and the rockaway over by hand and
Tip swan the mules and horses across
and you walked the plank with the
baby in your arms, and then came back
for me and the children, and we all
got over somehow, but I wouldn't try
it again for million dollars"
"You had got hardened to trouble, -
said I. "You expected trouble all
those long and weary years and when
it came you faced it bravely. be-
lieve that the women Of the war en-
dured their trials with more courage
than the men. They never surrender
ed nor asked for quarter, and if it had
been their fight they would have been
fighting yet. They may talk about
the daughters of the old revolution,
but they make no more sacrifices for
their country than our women did in
our unhappy struggle for Southern
rights.
"And that night" said I, .'we
drove about ten miles in the dark
hunting for human habitation and
found none, for they had been burned,
and we camped in an old school-house,
that had fireplace but no floor, and
the feas were awful. There was an
old log stable by the school-house and
the two oldest boys tied the mules
and the horse in these and slept in
the troughs with their loaded guns,
for there were still some lawless scouts
and deserters in the country who
would rather steal mule than to find
one estrayed. The next day We made
for home. We passed Cass station,
that had been burned, and the car.
cases of dead horses were lying all
round. The buzzards had picked them
to their skin and bones. There were
some wrecks of wagons and caisons
lying around, and iron tires and axles
were piled up all about. When We
reached Cassville We hardly knew
where we were, for the town was ut
terly destroyed. Thele was nothing
left but chimneys and college walls
not human being nor domestic,
animal-not dog, nor cat, nor bird
nor rabbit"
A year before it was the most beau
tiful town in north Georgia, the seat
of culture and schools and Churches
and colleges. All the evening it
showed a blizzard, but We got home
that night about 9 o'clock and drove
up to the front gate of relative who
was too old to run away and stayed to
weather the horrors of war. When L
knocked at the door he came, and be-
fore he unlocked and unbarred said in
a cautious voice: "Who is it, and
what do you want?" It took some
time to assure him Of our identity and
to gain admission for the tired wife
and little children. Next day We
found our once beautiful home wreck.
Everything we had left in the house
was gone. The fence around it was
gone. The shrubbery was destroyed,
but the dwelling was there, and we
moved in. For weeks we slept on the
floor in borrowed beds, but we went to
work and patched up what we could,
and were happy in our desolation.
That was the aftermath of war. 1t
is seldom that we recall it, for it
seems like a sacred history and always
brings up sad memories-memories of
the dead whom We loved and lost.
When my wife counts up her age she
says: ''I am tempted to say with OLD
Jacob, Few and evil have been the
days Of the years of my pilgrimage,
but I still count the war ten years and
the reconstruction period ten more,
and that makes me an old woman.
But it don 't-not gray hair yet,
and passed her off as my daughter
coming from Florida. My pass was
issued to myself and daughter by mis-
take. The conductor on the Jackson
Vile, Tampa and Key West Railroad
looked at me and at her as she sat
opposite; then at the pass again and
then at me and at her and punched
the pass and went on, satisfied, though
/ think he thought she was an ancient
sort of girl. BILL ARP.
q A-G-