The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-09-27
AdmiraI's Wife Fine
 Type Of Womanhood
Captain semmes' instructions to his

Captain Semmes instructions to his wife:
 His Instructions.
 Break up here. take our children to spend a month or two with my dear brother in Maryland, then go for lit- tie visit to your brothers in Cincinnati and by that time. perhaps. things may. be settled. When the fan comes, go to our country home in Alabama, there 10 await events"
 These instructions were carried out. The visit to Cumberland in Maryland was made, and Mrs. Semmes with two girls and her youngest son was with her brothers in Cincinnati, when Fort Sumter fell. Ninety days troops were called for by Mir. Lincoln. As soon as Mrs. Semmes realized that war was on in earnest. she endeavored to return to Alabama. But by this time mili- tary cordons had been established about the cities on the border States, and the general in command at Cin- cinnati refused her permission to leave, for Captain Semmes had passed the blockading squadron at New Or leans on the 18th of June, 1881. in the dauntless little Sumter. to begin his marvellous career on the ocean. and so 1t was deemed wise by the Washington government to hold his family as sort of hostage.
 Almost two years of the war. Mrs. Semmes and her little family lived most retired life in Cincinnati. shel- tered by her brothers. How full of pain and foreboding, as we'll as of pet ty trials and sometimes even of cur rish insults. If the young daughters appeared on the street. or in church. unkind and often untrue newspaper paragraphs were the result.
 gtnN fha Tnav G. paper boys would yell beneath their window: All about the capture of the Sumter and the pirate Semmes," and Mrs. Semmes would shiver, and the girls weep bitter tears.
 During these sad weary months, one solace was hers: she received occa- sionai letters from her husband, under cover of others. but none from her eldest sons, who were being tried in battle, exposed to the dread danger of shot and shell; and she,like so many thousands of other women all over the South could but wait and pray.
 At last came a happy day Tor the iso- lated family. Major General H. G. Wright, then in command in Cincinnati, in April. issued a peremptory order for Mrs. Semmes and her family to cross into the Southern lines.
 Why or wherefore. after permission to do so had been so persistently re- fused. was never known. Under the military escort of Lieutenant Pell, of General Wright's staff. Mrs. Semmes, her two eldest daughters and young son. Raphael, were taken to Baltimore. to Barnum's hotel. whore the youngest girl, who had been attending school at the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Philadelphia. joined them. Great att tention was showered upon Mrs. Semmes and her family by the gener- ous-hearted people of Baltimore, so loyal to the cause Of the South, even though under "the despot's heel" Al. "a dinner party given at the Gospitable home of Mir. Charles Dougherty. proofs of this loyalty were much in evidence, though MT. Pell. military escort, had been invited and was present. The next morning. General Schenck. com manding at Baltimore, gave orders that Mrs Semmes and her daughters should remain secluded in their rooms at the hotel until the departure of the steamer for Fortress Mohro. and MT. Pell was severely reprimanded for permitting the drinking of rebel toasts," and trea- sonable speeches in his presence, and General Schenck then proceeded to re- peat everything that had been said and done at that dinner, showing how thor ough was his "spy system"
 To Fortress Monroe by steamer and then transferred to flag of truce boat bound for City Point on the James riv- CT, and be it said here. parenthetically. that under these movements ordered by the United States government. Mrs. Semmes had been required to defray all the heavy travelling expenses. At City Point, the baggage was all safely de- livered save a box containing brandy. auinine and other medicines which was confiscated on the ground that this was contraband of war.
 Learns Conditions.
 Mrs Semmes's first introduction to the actual condition of things in the South, was on board the train going to Petersburg. Her "crowd" was hungry and calling an old darkey. who was peddling sandwiches consisting of big