The Washington weekly post., 1900-03-27
DAUGHTER Lives In Washington.

Mrs Mary QuantreIl. who is described
! by Mr. Nixdorff as the woman from whom
| the flag was torn. is said 10 be the real
heroine of the incident by many other
people. though all agree that Stonewall
Jackson was not the officer who ordered
| the troops to desist. The only surviving
daughter of Mrs. Mary Quantrell lives in
Washington. She Is Mrs. virgie Quantrell
| Brown. a clerk in the Post-office Depart
ment, living at 734 Seventh street north
east. Last week she described the flag
| incident. as told by her mother. and hand
| ed down as q legend of Frederick. She
said:
MY mother was standing on the front
porch when the Confederate troops came
| marching out West Patrick street, leaving
| Frederick. The house OF old Barbara
| Frietchie was some distance away from
| our house, on the same street Gen. Jack
| son did not pass by either our house or
Barbara's. but made a detour and entered
| the street near the outskirts Of the town.
My mother was very patriotic. and whe',
the troops came by playing Maryland,
My Maryland she cried out that Mary
land had not Joined the South. but was
still in the Union. So she rushed in and
brought out small Union flag. and fas-
| tened the staff to the porch. Gen. Lee
came by in his carriage. and sent one of
his staff officers, Gen. Hill, to ask her TO
take down the flag. Mother refused to do
so. and Gen. Hill very politely said:
Well. madam. Gen. Lee wants Il as a
souvenir Will you not give it up%
Mother replied. No. sir. I will not
He ther said. Well. madam, if you side
with the North. why don't you take II in
and make an apron of it? Quick as a
flash mother cried, I will, when / am In
need OF clothes as much as your men are
The general laughed and rode off. but
some soldiers, who heard mother say this,
sprang up and cut at the staff with their
bayonets. They hacked it in two. and
tore down the flag, but mother hurriedly
put out second one.
That, too, shared the fate of the first.
and so mother desisted. Cen Hill heard
the shouting, and came back to see what
was the matter. When he was told. he
ordered the soldiers to leave mother alone,
and threatened the offending ones with
arrest
That evening, old Barbara Frietchie
put out big Unicn flag when Gen. Burn
side entered Frederick, and as the gen.
eral passed by her house, he publicly
complimented her on her patriotism. That
night several newspaper correspondents
came to mother and wanted to know II
she was the heroine of the flag incident
about which all Fro 1erick was talking
but father was away from home. and
mother was afraid of newspaper notoriety.
so she begged the correspondents to say
nothing about II. They went down the
street, and heard every one talking of
Barbara Frietchie's flag and how Burn
side publicly complimented her, so they
concluded she was the real heroine, and
1t was printed that way. All Frederick
knew that mother was the real heroine,
but after Whittier wrote his poem, and
made Barbara famous, her relatives
claimed that the old dame Barbara was
the one who had the flag torn from her
hands. Mother did not wish to be involv-
ed in an attempt to belittle the deed Of
one who was then dead, for Barbara died
soon af,erward, so she let the matter drop.
But all Frederick knows the real truth
Of the natter"