The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1896-05-19
BREATHED THE SMOKE OF BATTLE.
A NOTABLE WOMAN oFTHE CIVIL
CONFLICT.
The Sister OF Gen. John Morgan and
the Wife OF Gen. A. p. Hill.

Y
the Wife OF Gen. A. p. Hill.
Few American women have ha6
their lives SO crowded with dramatic
incidents as Mrs. Alexander Forsythe
OF Chicago, sister OF Gen. John Nor
gan, whose daring raid made him con
spicuous on two continents.
For four years Mrs. Forsythe lived
under the smoke of the cannon, being
soldiers wife who went through the
welded and thrice widowed, twice the
mother of posthumous child and
again on the last day of the war left
desolate with tiny babe in her arms,
her experience as wife and mother,
Gays the Chicago News, is almost un-
precedentcd.
After the death OF her first husband,
Calvin McClung, she married Gen. A.
p. Hill, one of the most distinguished
generals in the Confederate army, q
man whose name was on the dying lips
of Stonewall Jackson and Robert e..
Lee. AS bride she went to the front
with her hus band and was actively in
terested in his company, the Invinci-
bles, 18th Virginia. Among other
things she presented the company
with u handsome silk flag, but during
an engagement the color-b bearers arm
was shot OF, and the flag, gripped in
the bloody hand, was captured by q
Union soldier. Mrs. Hill promptly
made another and it is now hanging
in the White House at Richmond.
Gen. Hill was killed the last day of
the war at the fall OF Petersburg. Gen.
Lee made charge and recovered his
body, and n few moments after the
general had parted from his wife he
as brought back to her, shot through
the heart, his wedding ring still on
his finger and his cape covering his
dead face.
That night the army retreated in
haste and Mrs. Hill was the last wo-
man to pass the pontoon at Petersburg.
1t was an awful journey, for the roads
were choked with the disorganized
troops; sometimes they were in the
enemy's lines and again in their own,
but all through that dreadful night
Mrs. Hill sat in the ambulance by her
dead husbands body, holding her baby
and little daughter in her arms. She
buried Gen. Hill at Gouchland, Va,
laying him away in the uniform he
wore when he fell. Afterward the
body was removed to Hollywood, but a
few years ago Mayor Ginter donated
the spot in Richmond where Gcn. Hill
body was taken there and splendid
monument erected to his memory.
His youngest daughter, Miss Lucy
Lee Hill, the babe of the retreating
army, is now q beautiful woman and
was one Uf the board of lady managers
at the Worlds Fair from Kentucky.
She is Gen. Lees god-daughter, and
his tears fell on her baby face as he
held her in his arms at the baptismal
font.
Some years after Gen. Hills death,
Mrs. Hill maj Tried DR.. Alexander For
sythe. Since his death she came to
street. She was q noted beauty in
her youth and her cordiality endears
her to friends new and old. The homo
life Of the Morgan family was singu
larly happy, for there were six sous
and six daughters to fill the hospitable
home with merrymaking. Gen. Nor
gan was the eldest child. He was
passionately fond Of children and Mrs.
Forsythe says that on Sunday mornings
he used to take a quantity of bread
and an immense bright tin pan full of
molasses and gather all the plantation
pickaninnies on the lawn and let them
"sop" the sweet stuff to their hearts
content. In the winter the poor, both
black and white, had the freedom of
his great wood yard back of his factory.
The betrayal and death of Gen. Nor
gan are never mentioned in the family
circles, and the borrowing details
were carefully withheld from the
grief.stricken mother. The general
was on his way to visit his wife, to
whom he had not long been married
Worn with travel, he stopped for the
night at lonely farm house. The
nonnlo uoro orlapt SOuthorp curpno-
thizers and personal friends, but the
daughter had sweetheart in the
Union army. After the family retired
she stole out, saddled a horse and rode
to the nearest camp with the startling
news that Gen. Morgan was asleep at
her mothers home. AS the night was
wild and stormy and his retreat OBJ
scure, Gen. Morgan felt perfectly
secure and slept soundly until a move
ment in the yard aroused him. He
sprang out of bed and rushed out of
the house in his night clothes. He
was Immediately surrounded and shot.
Before his heart ceased beating his
unclothed body was flung across a
horse and taken to camp. On the way
the country was aroused by the sol
diers' exultant cries:
"We have killed Morgan, the great
Confederate rebel
1t is q matter of history that from
the girl who betrayed him to the men
who shot him every one has suffered a
violent death. Mrs. Forsythe's young
est brother, Francis Key Morgan,
named after his cousin, author of "The
Star-Spangled Banner" Inherited the
fearless spirit When Ia he climbed
into the cupola of the old academy at
Lexington and unfurled the Copfeder-
ate flag. The city swarmed with
Union soldiers and it would have gone
hard for the lad had he not been
spirited away in closed carriage.
About this time Gen. Morgan sent q
trusty Irish boy with letters to his
mother. His bridal reins were full OF
gold dollars and he succeeded in run
ming the blOckades safely. But after
his arrival the news reached the sol
diers, who searched the house and
captured him. That night Francis
crept under the carelessly guarded
tents, cut the little fellows bonds and
the two escaped in the darkness.