The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1911-05-16
AN ASHEV|LLE
/. WOMAN GAVE
FIRST REUNION
WIFE OF GENERAL RAY GATHER
ED VETERANS TOGETHER
SKETCH OF APPRECIATION OF
THE WORK SHE DID FOR THE
SOLDIERS RETURNING FROM
WAR.

The Asheville IN. Co. Citizen of the
18th says:
The movement for monuments in
each of the states which composed
the Confederacy TO the women of the
Confederacy is rapidly spreading, and
1t is believed that before many years
each of the states will have erected
such a monument together with the
one great monument to be erected by
all Of the southern states together
The movement for these memorials
will likely receive an additional impe-
tus at the coming reunion of the vet
Grams which is to be held this week
in Little Rock, Ark. In this connec-
ton the following letter recently sent
to the secretary Of the movement in
the state of Tennessee will be Of par
ticular interest to people here:
Dear Sir-FWomen Of the South
to Be Honored,' from your pen in the
April Veteran, was read just as /
came from the bedside of Mrs. Alice
Caldwell Ray, one whose life and
works are most worthy of individual
and special honor. Would 1t not cheat
the days she Is now passing through,
IL given while she lives? She would
be the last to ask 1t, yet most appre-
ciative. From childhood her mission
has been to give. Her noble father,
the late Colonel Caldwell, Of Paris,
Tenn. was very proud of the sterling
qualities she early manifested and
gave them the broad freedom they
merited. How sweet was their COM
radeship? She was the child after his
own heart, his joy, his pride, his sun
shine. Abundant means were ever at
her disposal and wisely used in good
works. Many days she followed her
brother in his rounds as physician,
maid and coachman, proudly aiding
in ministry often more needed than
how soon the lessons learned would
be needed that were given in the
confidence, love and freedom Of that
dear home in Tennessee.
Money For Soldiers.
TT was in the early sixties that
General Ray brought her, his bride.
to our hills and left her here while
he went out to battle for the cause so
dear to them. Stranger than fiction,
were 1t written, would be the story of
her life during the years OF war. The
danger she passed through, the VIC
tories she won where armed men
would have failed them, at one time
safely carrying $4,000 through dan
gers under the cushions of her stage
carriage, that the soldiers might be
paid. Lawless men OF both North and
tains, hungry and reckless as wolves
and more to be feared than armed
troops were robbing the unprotected.
With the solicitude of mother, at the
risk of even life, she carried out plans
which protected many homes from
these, but best and most needed of all
was the hope she gave, dispensing
darkness with light, sorrow with trust,
and fear with courage. Brave soldiers
~ pyaTy roOk HUNGRY foot anra vUOnnd =
ed and discouraged, journeyed back
and forth, and thousands of these were
fed from her home and from her own
stores
Mrs. Rays Dream.
when General Ray was wounded
at the battle of Chickamauga and
trying to reach home she had a very
strange dream which caused her to go
out to meet him. She had pinned a
star and eagle on his hat when> he left
her, telling him she would know him
by II. In her dream she saw a wound
ed soldier with a star and eagle on
his hat, his sleeves wet with blood.
Walking. she fastened to Asheville,
and the stage was just leaving for
Greenville; they told her all the
seats were taken and that 1t would
not be safe for her to go. Seeing her
anxiety, a physician offered to give up
his seat, and, hastily exchanging her
hat with hotel maid for her cap and
apron, they allowed her to go in this
disguise. When they had journeyed
sixty miles or more and had just ex-
changed their tired horses for eight
fresh ones, and were speeding on to-
ward Greenville they met an orderly
driving a double carriage and in 1t
lying PROSTATE, literally as she had
seen in her dream, with star and
eagle on his cap, was a wounded SOL
der. Hastily springing to the ground
without waiting for the horses to stop,