The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-05-16

there of dissertation and pillage of Gods temple are too awful to relate. The 1 sacreligious wretches used the prayer
 books for kindling; the alter cushions for pillows and wrested the sacramentaI
 plate with violence from the venerable
 preacher. The city was doomed.
 Uncle called up his servants (how faith
 ful they were), and had water drawn,
 and every available vessel filled and
 placed in the upper hall ready for use.
 and none too soon. With a child in my
 arms, looking out upon the dark night,
 l saw a rocket go up. My first thought
 was, they are rejoicing over the fall of
 our city with fireworks, but another, and l then another told me too surely that they were signals for something to begin.
 A blaze lighted up the darkness in the
 east-another to the west-then came the l cry of horror Our city is on fire! And
 as I looked again, a sheet of flames i seemed to encircle the horizon As the
 neighboring houses caught fire, every eff i fort was made to save ours.
 The men servants got out on the roof and spread carpets which were kept wet ! by buckets of water passed up through the scuttle. My grandmother, then 80 years old, handed water along the line for more than two hours. It caught fire so often from the flying brands, that we moved out everything except the heavy furniture and piled it up in the back garden lot. l took the children, leaving Dag our nurse to do heavier work and crossed through several yards | to Mir. Trumb's house out of the way of the flames. Aunt had her box of silver there As I sat in a rocking chair l with three frightened children on my lap, 1 a party of Federal soldiers rushed in; the room was full of people seeking shel- l ter, but they scattered at once. I got 1 up to follow, but remembering the box threw my shawl over it. As I hurried out I met MT. c. coming out looking for us, and told him where to find it. He | picked it up, saying Here's my papers," and was off before they noticed him, for they were busy rummaging through everything. Tn a very short time that pretty home was in flames, and how Mir T., in language less elegant than pro- fane, said: 'Yes, the audacious scamps
 
 piano while the roof was in a blaze, and
 my rings gone, I'm about to cry over that, they broke it off by finger it wasn't valuable, only 1t was my mothers, and the fellow, confound him, said, Rebels have no business with rings except in their noses "
 We passed the remainder of that mem orable night on the vacant lot where all our earthly possessions were piled. The Federal soldiers passed continually, drop ping articles that they had taken from somewhere else. My grandmother seeing one of them forcing trunk open, said: Do not trouble those things. You do not want them. They are clothes belong ing to my great-grandchildren.' In an instant he dropped it and taking off his cap, said: "Yes, yes, grandma, if those are baby clothes, I will not touch them, for I left my baby at home"
 Morning dawned at last and found us among the few who were not homeless The next two days were days of op- pressive fear. Apprehensions of every kind, from every quarter, and the ap- proach of night increased our dread, ex- pecting every hour to be driven forth by fire or pillage, we took the precaution to double up' by putting on two of every article of clothing and filling our pockets with extras. We must have looked very full funny, but realizing only the danger of the moment, we had no sense for the ridiculous. We put on the children as many clothes as they could bear and tied change of garments, rolled knapsacll fashion on their backs
 On the second day we started at the sight of ragged, emaciated Confederate soldier approaching the house under guard. He was Tom, Susie's lover. At home on a sick furlough, they took him prisoner and brought him on long march, They granted him permission to bid her gooy-by. It was their last fare we'll for he was left on the roadside to die.
 After the city was evacuated by the Federal army. then came the danger from stragglers, for we had no protection. Uncle and MT. Harper acted as our picket guard, patroling the premises all night with muskets. MT. c. stood sentinel on the front porch Carrie offered to re- lieve him, and shOuldered her muslet like a veteran. Our Sehtlnel was never cndl- lenged or there is no telling what she might have done.
 These were not times for regular meals. We sat down to eat. trembling, expecting the return of the enemy. Today a gentle man friend came in and said, For God sake give me a little of meat to grease my insdes. T have had nothing to eat but hominy with mustard for my COW was driven off, and everything stolen ex cept a bag of grits and thev didn't take that because they didn't know how to cook it." We shared with him.
 After many days, a Confederate soldier was again seen on the street and we rushed to him. shaking his hand almost off in the exuberance of joy at seeing him, then weeping when he told us of "Our Lost Cause" His name was Gil- lard.