The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1911-10-05
ROMANCE OR REALITY?
Who Is She Who Poses AS "A
Southern Lady,?

1eW lQClQeulS dUOuI IllS lSoiu, oo
it is called here, which means about
the close of the War Between the
States, our Civil war. | was four
years old at the time, and some of
the occurrences were deeply i'm
printed on my mind.
My father was a surgeon in the
Confederate army and, therefore,
after hostilities had ceased. had to be
very quiet until public affairs were
adjusted. My home was in Williams
burg county. S c. and | lived in a
large three-story house. on large
plantation. My parents owned 400
slaves and many thousand acres of
land. My three eldest sisters were
just about grown. One bright morn
ing in April, 1865, as one of my little
sisters and myself were playing under
the shade of the beautiful oaks on
our lawn, we saw soldiers pouring in
the gates from both sides of the
house. Of course they were North
ern soldiers. Mother was so worried,
she Immediately gathered us all into
one room and then went out and
asked the commanding officer for
protection from the soldiers. We
had heard that the Yankees were
burning as they went along. and
mother was afraid our house would
be burned. The officer assured her
the house should be saved, but he
told her to let the young ladies come
out and save some of the things
which were being plundered by the
negroes, who were carrying off eve
rything they could. Mother was
afraid to let the girls 60 out, but
the officer assured her they should
not be molested, and he went with
me backward and forward until they
saved a great many valuable articles.
| am sorry l don't know the name of
that officer and another one, as they
were real gentlemen.
After the Yankees went off that
afternoon mother thought it would
not be safe for us to stay at home,
and resolved to 60 that night on a
forty-mile journey to the home of
some relatives.
My father, riding his beautiful
horse, and a faithful slave, Lewis,
riding on old Gray Billy" would
come out of their place of conceal
ment every now and then to get pro-
visions and also to see how things
were. He came up just as the Yam
kees left, and l remember mother
begging him to 60 back for fear he
would be captured.
That night all the children had
been sleeping some time when | was
awakened by my old nanny" an
old mulatto woman, who dressed me
in three or four frocks. / asked what
was the matter, but she not answer
ing, and taking me by the hand, led
me to the door and put me on Gray
Billy, in front of Lewis, and, bidding
him take good care of me, we rode
off.
| thinkI must have fallen asleep,
for the next thing | remember was
that Lewis had come to standstill
and seemed to be listening. We
were in the midst of swamp. and
he was looking out for fear of meet
ing some of the Yankees.
He carried me to the home of
some kind friends, who took charge
of me until the others came in two
carriages drawn by negro men, and
those same friends lent US horses to
carry US to our journeys end. Our
own horses had been taken from US
Chose friends lived mile from our
home).
We travelled all night and went
along slowly, as the roads were
rough and heavy. remember |
would look out and in my childish
imagination would picture fairy cas-
ties and all kinds of beautiful i'm
ages in the moonlight. Oh, how