The Tupelo journal. (Tupelo, Miss.) 1876-1924, 1906-07-13

On leaving the old Georgia
farmer who was ruined by the
Federal army, as detailed in our
last article, Capt. Allen and l,
accompanied by Private Junior,
of Texas, moved on toward the
rear guard of the enemy hoping
to pick up some straglers.
give you in detail another little
Incident illustrative of the utter
destruction Of the country. It
will enable you to more readily
understand what mean by the
condition of the country than
any words | might use. Nov
ing on a short distance from our
old host of a night, we passed a
farmhouse by the roadside and
stopped to make some inquiries,
and found the dear women anx-
ious to tell of their ruin and des-
olation. They spoke of the fact
that the army Of invasion had
burned all the mills everywhere
at all in reach. rendering it i'm
possible for them to get any
corn ground into meal. l no
ticed while we were listening to
the women tell off. that some
one had turned over a large ash
o11m full of ashes. It was an
immense concern, so large it
could not be replaced without
taking all the ashes out of it. AT:
ter telling of her utter ruin and
desolation, she fixed her eyes on
the old fallen gum as it lay in its
wreck and ruin, like the hulk of
some old ship stranded on the
shore, and while the tears came
to her eyes, she said, But, |
could have done better if they
had left me my ash gum!" To
you this may seem laughable, as
it did to me at the first. But
what she meant was that by the
destruction of her ash gum the
enemy had deprived her of the
means Of making lie hominy, the
staff OF life where no mills exis-
ted. When I came to think OF
it in thatligl ]: felt that it was
really a pathetic scene. No one
can tell what an Bsh gum could
be to a poor woman having moth
ing to eat but a little corn and
no mill on which to grind it. The
men of this home were in the
Southern army fighting for what
they conceived to be their rights,
while woe and want Stared their
women in the face. Such wo-
men, think, deserved to see
their sons and husbands come
home conquerors. But while this
could not be, they came as he
roes, and their heroism is the
common heritage of the whole
country.
Right here | think a proper
occasion to say something OF
Capt. Allen. He is no more in
the land of the living, and l feel
free to have my say in reference
to him. Capt. Allen was not
everything he might have been
and should and could have been.
Rut who was or is? When we
are at any time thinking and es-
pecially speaking of another's
failures, let us turn the Arays
of self consciousness inward and
see our own selves as others see
as. | never knew Capt. R. H:
Allen till during the war and
when | first saw him it was in
Tupelo and in 1863. He was
quartermaster for Col. lnge's
Regiment of Cavalry. After
wards he was captured and re-
NAMED in the hands of the en-
emy till some time in the fall of
1864. When he came back to
his command his place was filled
by another, and he, not being
anxious to find a bomb proof
position, shouldered a gun and
buckled on a pistol and went to
the front Capt. Allen was rath-
er a taciturn man in company,
having but little to say general
ly, but ready at all times to con-
tend for his principles, whether
political or religious. Allen was
of ordinary height, rather slen-
der in make when | first knew
him, dark, but not black hair,
high and we'll rounded forehead,
intelligent and expressive eyes,
straight and handsome in his
bearing, with a kind of far away
dreamy look. In the midst Of
danger he was calm and self pos
sessed, never losing his head, as
the saying goes, and never find
ing the man or set of men whom
he was afraid to face at odds. ]
have been with him when the cir
cumstances were such as to try