The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-10-09
DOMESTIC LIFE IN WAR.
The Thrilling Experiences of a Get
tSsburg Woman.

The Thrilling Experiences of a Get
tSsburg Woman.
We have read of the horrors Of life III
beleaguered cities. We were thrilled when
we heard Of thousands of helpless people
fleeing from Santiago de Cuba, but the
experience of a household upon the very
field of battle has not yet been told. The
story of a Gettysburg woman gives vivid
picture Of the intimate horrors of war.
AT Waterloo a chateau in the midst of
the armies was furnished by the English,
but the inhabitants adj fed to a neighbor-
ing forest save the gardener who hid In
the celf<r, where the soldiers discovered
| him, and with blows of the sword COM
PEELED him to draw water for them from
the we'll.
At Gettysburg the residents had no time
to flee This overgrown Pennsylvania
Dutch village, asleep among her fat farms,
was rudely awakened on the LIST OF july,
| 1861 by the meeting in her streets of two
| contendiug armies. The town was not be
| sieged, it was merely an incident of the
| battle as was the Peach Orchard" and
the Devils Den" 1t fell within the Con-
| federate fins, and during the entire bat
tie was held by Southern regiment
As the battle of Lookout mountain was
| fought above, the heads of the people of
| the plains, SO in a more real sense the
| battle of Gettysburg was fought above the
| heads OF the residents of the town, for
| they lived in their cellars like moles in
| their burrows during the three days
| fighting.
Just before the battle my married
daughter died in our house. 1t became of
| the greatest necessity that she should be
buried, but we could not venture from the
| house TO seek an undertaker-we dared not
| even go to the cemetery. We wrapped her
| in a blanket and carried her to the gar
| den in the night, where hastily and fear
| fully, in such a shallow grave as my aged
| father could dig, we buried her. We
thought it a cruel thing to thrust her I'M
| derground without a coffin TO ho.d her
| body. or a priest to speed her soul, but
| in the days that came Immediately after
we saw the streets strewn with dead who
were not buried at all. She left new
| horn baby, and the care of this motheriess
infant and our fear that It's cries would
attract the attention of the enemy TO our
| retreat in the cellar. added TO the horror
| of those days. But We soon found that
the Confederates did not make war upon
women and children.
my two brothers were fighting on the
union side, but they could not commum-
| cate with us, and we did not even know
| they were there.
|
| Southern army entered town is 10 speak
| mildly. Rough, ragged men appeared on
the streets, they took the chickens and
pigs from the barns, and then they enter
ed the houses and laid their hands on all
the food. Our house was searched again
and again. What one overlooked the 9th
er found They were very polite. They
always said:
by your leave, madam, but they took
everything just the same. l managed to
hide a sack of flour behind the fire-board
in a bedroom and a ham in the cellar
but the difficulty was to do any COOK
ing 1 steathily fried a little ham during
the intervals of firing, but once when
incautiously brought the whole ham up tc
the kitchen to slice it, a soldier entered
and carried it awas. They even took the
half-b baked bread from the oven. l said
IF you must take it, wait until II Is
done: it is all dough yet
"'Ah' said this courteous, half-starvet
soldier If 1 wait until it is done, some
other fellow will get it, and he nigh
have added: I may be dead by the time
the bread is baked
"'You are not as much afraid of th'
"rebels" as you thought you would be
; ! said one of them to me one day, for m!
heart was really filled with compa ssioI
for these dirty, hungry young fellows
who took possession of the kitchen an,
5 gorged themselves with half-baked bread
No" / said / am not afraid of you
} but think l would be afraid of the Lou
{ isiana Tigers The kitchen was file
t with an uproar of delighted laughter a
( they cried out:
! "-'You need not fear any longer, mad
' anne; we are the Tigers And thel
e the cannon doomed and the guests rushe
out with their mouths filed with no
! | dough- and l. their unwilling hostess, has
r tened to hide in the cellar again.
For three days we lived in the Gel
! lar crouching in the darkness, terrific
2 by the battle, which roared above GU
V ! heads Our house was shot throug
/ and through; shells burst against II
stone walls, and hand-to-hand conflict
] took place in its garden. Once tw
r | union soldiers, hard pursued BY tn