Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1934-10-04
"reminiscences Of County
During Civil War Days

galleries were used as Doctors quart
ers and for medical supplies.
"My uncle's church, Bridge Street
Presbyterian was one of the largest,
and there, for months, my aunt and
went every day, she with dainties and
with paper and pencil with which
wrote letters to friends and relatives
of the wounded. 1t was an exciting
summer.
"Afterward Mount Pleasant was
chosen as site for base hospital.
Large and well equipped it was al
most little city in ITSELF
The little lady stopped talking and
gazed absently across the street. l
knew she was seeing again those
long rows of wounded soldiers earger-
ly awaiting their turn for few words
with the pretty country lass with her
ready smile and willing pen.
"But you were not always in the
city," I prompted. "Some of your war
recollections must be- of this neigh
borhood. Was there not some fighting
around here?"
mot so much fighting" she return
ed, "but plenty of soldiers, officers and
war machinery. The marching army
often raided our bee hives and
orchards too, which was not so pleas
ant.
"The old Darne home, here in
Jamestown, which stood where Mr..
Ricketts, home is now located, was
headquarters for the officers of
crack regiment, The New York Ninth
while at the crest of the long Seneca
Fill was encamped another regiment.
The top of the hill was fortified and
cannons wers trained on the river to
prevent an attack from that direction.
In this Seneca encampment typhoid
broke out. My mother, with other
ladies of the community used to taka
the sick men such delicacies as they
could, that their illness might be made
little more hearable.
"You see, I lived at Seneca with
my parents then.
Il remember one warm spring
morning about four o'clock, the out
post of the Confederate Army in Vir-
ginia and the Union forces on our side
of the river met unexpectedly in the
road outside our home at Seneca.
eve were awakened by the sharp
snap, snap of gun fire, the sound of
galloping horses, and the shouts of
the officers.
1--WE hurried into our clothing and
the firing having subsidized, we ventur-
ed out. Across the road in front of
our home, lay five Confederate soldi-
iers dead or dying. One, recall vivid
ly, handsome young Virginian lying
In the grass. His pale, stern, young
face was quiet in death, his hands out !
stretched and on one slender finger a |
ring of curious workmanship. ),
1--WE gazed upon these dead men
sorrowfully, they were in the flower
of their youth. War was getting to be
rather dreadful to us.
"No-one returned for the dead, so
my father placed their bodies in an
old warehouse and later buried them
behind our home. A few weeks later
the sister of the young Virginian
came to Seneca. My father identified
her brothers grave. She had the body
exhumed and on his finger was the
ring of curious workmanship by which
his sister satisfied herself of his ident-
ity. Then the sad procession left, the
sister taking her brothers body home
for burial.
Later we received word from her,
telling of her safe arrival and thank
ing US for our kindness.
"But / mustn't forget Porte Crayon,
the artist and novelist, who came with
the army to write war sketches and
get pictures. He drew one of the old
OOAhC AVhtkC, Al 0dIIlCStOWu. IlcY
were published in Harper's monthly
magazine to which my father sub
scribed for fifty years."
The little lady paused once more,
this time to receive her Evening
Star" which was just being brought
through the town.
"Your husband" l suggested. al
suppose he was too young to have
been enlisted?"
"Yes, he was too young" she re-
piled, "but he was a Southerner and
with the Confederate Army just the
same, for they had need even of the
young boys. He belonged to a signal
corp. On one occasion when his divis-
ion had advanced and then had been
forced to retreat, he found himself
alone and within the Union lines. His
horse had been shot from under him.
He had loosened the saddle from the
dead animal and was carrying it, in
the hope of finding a riderless horse,
az he attemutQd to w0rlr his UNIV ho IL,