The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-01-14
WoMAN;; eNcnnrv
The Widow Of the
 SOuth'S Dead ChfeftaM.

The heart of the south, beating in sor- row for It's dead chieftain, goes out with tenderest sympathies to her who followed with him the beloved flag of the Confed- eracy
 History does not recall romance more beautiful. one in which are combined so many clements that linked the passing years together thanV that of the now silent hero and of her who cheered him on to victory, or comforted him in defeat; who shared with him the cold of Vir- ginias winters, and who braved with dauntless courage the dangers of war.
 On the long, silent journey from their winter home among the magnolias to the marble corridors of Georgia's capitol what memories must have passed them selves upon her aching heart The snows of the winter of 61 covered the fair earth with a cruel shrowd but what were the discomforts of that time compared with the sorrow of a day when woman weeps beside a fiag-draped bier?
 Mrs Gordon followed her husband from l the outbreak of the war to AppotomattoX. She endured with matchless fortitude the real dangers of warfare. Young, accus- toned to every luxury known to the aris- tocratic women of the old south, the in- congruites of camp life in contrast were great enough to have deterred her in her purpose, but the greater the hardships the more intense the suffering only strengthened her determination not to leave her husband
 In General Gordon's "Reminiscences of the Civil War" are related many incl dents of Mrs. Gordons remarkable cour- age. She was only seventeen at the !, time of her marriage. and he twenty one She was the daughter of General Hugh A. Haralson of LaGrange, Ga, one of the most distinguished of southerners. While the surviving soldiers of a just cause pause with dimming eyes beside the silent form they will recall perhaps a winters day when that now silent figure led his men on to a fight with a courage never surpassed, while sitting within sound of the battles roar was the girl wife of the Confederate leader Major John Sutherland Lewis describes the inci- dent as follows:
 "The battle in which Mrs Gordon's husband was then engaged was raging near the city with great fury. The canon- ade was rolling around the horizon like some vast earthquake on huge crashing wheels. Whether the threads of welded sympathy were twisted more closely as the tremendous peris gathered around l him it was evident that her anxiety be- came more and more intense with each passing moment. She asked me to ac- company her to a hill a short distance away There she listened, in silence Pale and quiet, with clasped hands, she i sat. statue like. with her face toward the 1 field of battle. Her self-control was won derful, only the quick drawn sigh from ] the bottom of the heart revealed the depth of emotion that was struggling l there The news of her husbands safety afterward and the joy of meeting him later produced the inevitable reaction. 1 The intensity of the mental strain to which she had been subjected had over- 1 tasked her strength and when the ex- eessive tension had been relaxed she was well nigh prostrated, but brief repose enabled her to bear up with a sublime fortitude through the protracted and try ing experiences which followed the seven days battles around Richmond"