The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-05-01
A FEW INCIDENTS
 OF THE CIVIL WAR.

| When General Sherman was on his ia nous march to the sea he with his large l army camped for ten days in and around ! tho little village of Gaylesvflle, Cherokee County. Ala. This village of four or five hundred inhabitants is located on the beautiful Chattooga River. about eight miles from the Georgia line It's position | is in one of the most picturesque DOT | tions of North Alabama.
 I The valley. between the river and q chain of high hills. called Dirtcellar Mountain. running for many miles ai- | most parallel with the river. is very fer | tile. The valley varies in width from two
 to six miles. becoming more. and more narrow until it forms junction with l the naytgable river Coosa, six miles be- | low Gaylesviie.
 The planters in this valley had been accustomed to raising their own supplies, with much to spare The hills furnished fine grazing for their large herds of cat tie. and fine ffocks of sheep: while the fat porkers would lie lazily in the mud
 ho;es along fthe margin of the river. and spring branches. This region abounds in fine never-failing springs of clear cold
 water. Some of them copious enough to singly furnish an army the size of General Sherman's. Just beyond the ridge Is another valley watered by Lit tle River" The width of this valley is about the same as Chattooga Valley. and equally as fertile. It lies between Shin
 bone Ridge and Lookout Mountain.
 The scenery of all this portion of Cherokee County is grand. and Is espe- cia,ly lovely at this season (October) in
 which General Sherman camped here:
 when the leaves of the wooded hills. mountains and valleys present all the
 Iax. Saf fhA rof hnxrr I cf1n Gsonnral Sherman thought that this region was too much like the land flowing with milk and honey for him to pass hurriedly by and that he had best tarry a while, where his soldiers and their horses could rest and be we'll fed.
 My father, MT F. L. Brandon. my brother-in-law, D. F. Smyer, and Dr. Mo Elrath, then owned very fine set of grist mills at Gaylesville, which furnished a large region of country with a superior quality of meal and flour, besides ship ping thousands of pounds. One of Gen eral Shermans first acts, when he came, was to turn out our millers, who had been excused from the Confederate arr my. and detailed by our government to attend to those mills.
 He, sherman, Immediately took pos- session and installed some of his own millers, and sent out in every direc- ton hundreds of wagons to rob the people of their wheat and corn, to feed his vast army, and their thousands of horses. -.
 His millers were kept constantly grinding day and night for the ten days that they camped in and around GayIesville.
 His foragers daily traversed the valleys. robbing the farmers of their nice fat cattle, hogs. sheep. poultry, egg, sorghum, dried fruit, pickles. po- tatoes turnips and peas. Even the on- ions and pumpkins were taken. In fact everything that could be eaten was hauled to the different parts of their camping ground, which covered hundreds of acres. They seemed to desire to take everything away from the farmers that they could subsist upon, regardless of widows, orphans, old age and infancy. One of our neigh bors told me that the cattle and hogs that did not seem quite fat, or not in a condition to be eaten, they shot down and left them lying dead in the field. What they could not use they wanted to destroy. So 1t really did look to our people as if starvation was staring them in the face. None of them. or at least very few, had been fortunate enough to save a sufficiency to live on till the next crop could be made. Most