The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1901-06-18
AConfederate
Family.
BY PAUL GRAFT


look to those who have participated II
war. The following story smacks Of thu
trials of a southern family and the hard
ships and injustice to which it was sub
jected.
Hurry, hurryp cried the captain
"Soon the fight will begin, and if we will
have to ride down the lines, it viii be nc
4 joke"
So away they went down the lines, two
miles to Resaca, across the pontoon bridge
over the river there, where the Federals
open fire on them; then on to Calhoun
where hot cavalry fight was going on.
After two days spent there anxiously
waiting for Johnston to drive back the
enemy and enable them to go home, and
finding that he was retreating and that il
was impossible for them to return through
the lines they Joined the great army OF
refugees and at last found safety in that
general asylum, southwest Georgia.
Their retreat was sorrowful. Their re-
turn was comical.
The war was over, and the southerners
! stood nation Of paupers. Not one cent
did any one have. Dazed they stood and
gazed at their heaps of Confederate mon
ey, some of it so new and crisp that 1t
seemed to mock them with their blasted
hopes.
The first thought of the refugees was
how to get home Their friends, who had
Hospitality entertained them, from being
wealthy planters were now ruined and
had not bread fer themselves, as their
negroes became demoralized and would
not work But with no money and
wretched transportation who could travel
\ T. !, 1fso ronrlo
there is found a Moses who rises up to de-
liver them. So now in the history of the
CTS the eldest daughter played the part
Of Moses and led them home.
After they had become refugees she
had for while acted as matron in hos
pital in Macon and as such ranked as a
Confederate officer. So now, on this
ground, she applied to the Federal post
commandant at cambridge for transpor-
| tation to Macon. The officer honored the
demand and furnished it, and she made
the best of her way there to interview
General Croxton, post commandant at
that point.
"Be sure" said a polite friend, ''that
you put on your best clothes so as to i'm
press the Yankees. Nothing like looking
well off,"
Il intend to-" said she. And this is how
she was dressed:
She wore what to Confederate eyes
seemed O black silk dress. True, it had
once been a green striped one, but having
been dipped in a weak solution of log.
wood the stripes only vaguely betrayed
themselves The garment was gayly
trimmed with stripes of palmetto braid,
plated by the wearer's own industrious
fingers. She had also manufactured the
gloves which covered the said fingers.
Then her head was adorned with a
wonderful bonnet. 1t was a sort of
phenix in the way in which it rose from
it's ruins, having been made over several
times into divers shapes, according as ru-
mors of fashions reached its owner. For
even in the shut in Confederacy the wom-
en-, in the midst of the multifarious duties
devolving on them, strove to follow the
fashions as they vaguely heard they were
worn in the outside world.
1t proved afterward they were misin-
formed, for while they were painfully
building up three story bonnets, with but
scanty material to build with, looking
like 'Pelion on Ossa piled" the outside
world wore little pancakes on their heads.
Strong in the rectitude of her APP
parel, Miss q. went forth to Empress"
General Croxton. How he was impress
ed, whether with amusement, wonder
or admiration, will never be known, as
he was too gentlemanly to show any
emotion.
Escorted by a boy cousin, Miss g.
sought the generals presence. Her
brother declined accompanying her.
at will never do for a big, ablebodied
fellow like me to CO." said he, land be-
sides women can do more with the
Yanks than men,"
Having thus eased his conscience, he
left her to face the foe, which she did
with great equanimity, and made her
claim for her own transportation as
Confederate officer and for her fathers
family on the plea that the Federal gov
eminent, having forced them from their
home at the point of the bayonet, so to
say, it was its business to take them
back.
Before Confederate officers obtain
transportation they surrender" said the
general, smiling. "Have you surrender
edW
This was horrid speech, for the south
ern women prided themselves on never
surrendering.
Il decline to answer that" cried she In
dignantly.
He laughed and after bantering her
little, struck by the novelty of both ap-
plications, he made out the transportation
papers for them all and gave them to her.
And so in September the scattered fam
ily rendezvoused at Ms on and started on
their trip home. The government did not
furnish very stylish transportation. They
were given freight box car, into which
they packed themselves and a scanty
supply of household goods, for news
reached them through the lines that their
house had been sacked and its contents
scattered to the four winds.
They reached Atlanta the next morning
and we're switched off on side track to
be taken in charge by the officials of the
Western and Atlantic railroad. and young
G. went out to interview these parties.
They now made the acquaintance of what
was afterward known as the ''carpetbag
gentry.
The town of Atlanta was then hardly
more than sort of camp, inhabited by
few of the old citizens, a Yankee garTf-
son and a lot of what might be called mis-
( cellaneous sdventurers.
The post commandant was an old
Dutchman of autocratic proclivities. In
deed, had he been an eastern pasha under
the Yiceroy Of Egypt he could not have
had a keener eye to exacting back
eheesh." At this time a few enterprising
parties had established little shops that
went by the name of 'sheebangs, the
contents of which could almost be stored
away in a drummer's trunk, so tiny were
they. But the Dutch pasha kept an eye
upon them and constantly levied tribute.
Seeing one in a rather fourishing condi
ton, he demanded quite a sum of back
sheesh." The owner plucked up his cour-
age and refused to pay it.
'Den," cried the Dutch pasha, Il shut
up dis sheebangi"
And it accordingly was shut.
Another source of profit was to levy
tax on every carload of refugees that
passed through the town. If they re-
fused, they were detained until they paid
it, which they finally did rather than be
turned out of the car and left in At
lanta minus funds and shelter.
Young G. now had the pleasure OF
interviewing these cormorants. After
vainly refusing, demonstrating and en-
treating he, by the advice of friendly
citizens, paid the tax, some 500, but it
seemed an enormous sum to the ruined
refugees.
In his absence one of the robber crew
came down to the car to inspect the
family and their belongings and then
calmly demanded his tribute. Mr.. G.
was fiery old man, and he scornfully
refused to pay it. A hot alteration en-
sued. 1t must be allowed that the Yam
kee, tall. raw boned man, preserved
his equanimity, which only served to ex-
asperate the other.
"Tn pay you nothingr' cried the old
man. 81 have General Croxton's trans
portation papers that take me home, and