The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1896-05-29
A HEROIC WOMAN.
NOTABLE WOMAN OF TIE. CIVIL
CONFLICT-THE SISTER OF GEN
JOHN MORGAN AND THE WIFE j.
OF GEN. \. Z. HILL.

lives 50 crowded with dramatic incidents
~ Mrs. Alexander Forsythe, of Chicago
sister of Gen. John. John Morgan, whose
daring raid made him conspicuous on
two continents.
For four years Mrs. Forsythe lived
under the smoke of the cannon, being Il
soldiers wife who went through the en-
tire war with her husband. Thrice
welded and thrice widowed, twice the
mother of a poSthumous child and again
on the last day of the war left desolate
with tiny babe i'll her arms, her expe-
rience as wife and mother, says the Chi,
cagO News, is almost unprecedented.
After the death of her first husband,
Calvin McClung, she married Gen. 4. 7.
Hill one of the most distinguished generals
in the Confederate army-a man whose
name was OH the dying lips of Stouewall
Jackson and Robert f. Lee. AS a bride
she went to the front with her husband
and was actively interested in luis
company, the Invincibles, 18th Virginia.
Among other things she presented the
company with handsome silk flag, but
during an engagement the color hearer's
arm was shot off, and the flag, gripped
in the bloody hand, was captured by u
Union soldier. Mrs. Hill promptly made
another and it is now hanging in tile
White House at Richmond, Gen. Hill
was killed the last day of the war at the
fall of Petersburg. Gen. Lee matle a
charge and recovered his body, and a few
moments after the general had parted
from his wife he was brought hack to
her, shot through the heart, his wedding
ring still on his finger and his cape cover
ing his dead face.
That night the army retleated i'm haste
and Mrs. Hill was the last woman TO
pass the pontoon at Petersburg, 1t was
an awful journey, for the roads s.lyese
choked with the disarganized Sd a:
sometimes they were in the enemy IS lines
and again in their own, but all through
that dreadful night Mrs, Hill sat in the
ambulence by her dead husbands body.
holding her laby and little daughter in
her arms. She buried Gen. Hill at
GOuchland, Va, laying him away IN the
uniform he wore when he fell. After
ward the body was removed to Holly
wood, but few years ago Mayor Ginter
donated the spot in Richmond where
Gen. Hill organized his first company,
and his body was taken there and Il
splendid monument erected to his men,
Ory. His youngest daughter, Miss Lucy
Lee Hill, the babe of the retreating army.
is now a beautiful woman and was one
of the board of lady managers at the
Worlds Fair from Kentucky. She is
Gen. Lees granddaughter, and his tears
fell on her baby face as he held her in
his arms at the baptismal font.
Some years after Gen. Hills tt.ath.
Mrs. Hill married Dr. Alexander For
sythe. Since his death she came to
Chicago and now resides ut lOl Pine
street. She was noted beauty i'm her
youth and her cOrdiality endears her to
friends new and Old The home ile of
the Morgan family was singularly happy
for there We're sin soHs and six daughters
to fill the hospitahle home with merry-
making. Gen, Morgan was thc eldest
child, lie was passionately fond of
children and Mrs. ForSythe says that Oh
Sunday mornings he used to take a
quantity of bread and an immense bright
tin pan full of molasses aud gather all
the plantation picaninnies OH the lawn
and let them sop the sweet stuff to
their hearts content In the winter the
poor, both white and black, had the
freedom of his great wood yard back of
his factory.
The betrayal and death Of I.eN Nor:
gan are never msnHttiE%!nsed! msnHttiE%!n I'D! ip lhe family
circles, and the h0rrowing details were
carefully withheld from the grief=stricken
mother. The general was on his way tu
visit his wife, to whom he hat not long
been Hiatriod. Worn with travel. he
stopped for the night at Il lonely farm
house. The people were ardent South
ern sympathizers and personal friends.
but the daughter had IL sweetheart in
the Union army. After ,he iaMily ~:
tired she stole ON, saidled a horse and
rode to tlle nearest camp with the start-
ling news that Gen, Mbl%an w"-
at her m0tlIer's hr- ''' ''.',l
WIS w,h' ~'he AS Ut" H'sh'
and stormy and his retreat OBJ
scure, Gen. Morgan felt perfectly secure
and slept soundly until Il movement in
the yard aroused him. He sprang out