The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1907-03-07
things that she did when part
of great army camped on the
farm. A little stream known as

OF great army camped on the
farm. A little stream known as
Conococheague creek coursed
through the farm, driving two
mills from it's power.
When the first advance was
made out, the father rushed the
horses and cattle over bridge
and tethered them IN ravine,
and his daughter, following her
own instinct, pulled up the boards
of the bridge aud one by one sent
them floating down the stream.
She says that at no time was
she or any of the smaller chill.
dren mlstreated, save that they
had to give up their comfortable
heds and sleep on buffalo robes
spread out in the potato bins in
the basement, but the provision
ing of the confederate larder was
not so pleasant. The soldiers
cut down the cherry trees and
ate the fruit from the branches
that they had cut eff. They dug
up everything in the gardens and
the horses were turned loose on
the growing corn. She and the
other children were fed from the
rations of the men who were oc
cupying the place.
1t was not until Gen. Lees
men, defeated at Gettysburg,
were retreating back to Mary.
land and Virginia over the same
route, that Kittie Mitchell deter
mined to recover some animals to
take the place of those that had
been taken from her father. To
accomplish this she hit on an odd
, plan for a girl in her teens. One
day when some of the cOlOred
men who had been attached to
the com mlssary department of
Gen. Lees officers, were making
tracks for the other side of the
t Potomac, she stopped one OF them
5 and asked him if he wouldn't like
to escape. That was before the
colored people had been freed.
3 The colored man took to the Idea
. at once. He was riding a good
!. animal. He was told that he
F.. could hide IN an old cistern to
p. which she guided him, and then
D when there was no danger of be
t ing recaptured he could make of
+. and lose himself in the northern
1 territory. He had thrown the
C reins of his horse to Miss Klttie
r as he disappeared in the subter.
e ranean depths.
5 That colored man never again
i set eyes on that horse. Neither
did any of a dozen more badly
t frightened cooks whose masters
/, had met dea'h on the field and
b who were making tracks for Vir
n glnia. At one time, Mrs. Allen
says, the old cistern was well
d nigh filled, and so was the old
Q smokehouse. She had a horse
from each one OF her passengers
over the underground railway,
d but later on all save one were
:, taken away from her. She man
e aged to save some of the vehicles
Y of the farm by taking off wheel
n and hiding it in the mill race.
I. The horse that she saved caus
e ed her one of the most interest
l Ing episodes of the thrilling ex
k perence. A cavalry company
n that had belonged to the 18th Hi
l. nois; so 1T was afterward founo
g out, camped near the Mitchell
If farm. One of the officers had 9
little black mourt that he had
e tethered to a tree. 1t is related
r. that that the officer had intended
70 to ship the animal to Illinois. HI
If had been saved from a surrender
le at Harpers Ferry and was highl,
e prIzed. The farmers daughter
It who was guarding her mother
4 less and all but fatherless sisters
l. and brothers, could only remem
Vt ber that the war had robbed then
lie Of nearly everything they had il
sr the world, and the night Will,
y she was leading away that llttl
lie black horse, she did not know o
sr care whether he had belonged +
le a federal or confederate.
Or The Mitchell barn was one 0