USA > Mississippi > Newton County > History of Newton County, Mississippi from 1834 to 1894 > Part 8
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CHAPTER XII.
PATRIOTIC WOMEN DURING THE WAR-THEIR WORK AT HOME -- TO HELP SUPPORT THE ARMY AND MAKE THE CROPS-ASSISTING TO CLOTHE THE SOL- DIERS-THEIR ATTENTION TO SICK AND WOUNDED -TRIBUTE BY MAJ. J. J. HOOD TO THE WOMEN OF THE SOUTH.
THE volunteering of the soldiers was now nearly over. By the end of the year 1862 most of the com- panies had been formed and had gone into regular service. The people saw, after the fall of Fort Don- elson and other places, that the war in all its severity and alarming proportions was upon us. No one could tell about the length of time it would last, though everything pointed to a prolonged struggle. A very grave problem now confronted the people, and that was the support of the army in the field. It now de- volved upon the few, comparatively speaking, left at home to make the supplies to feed the soldiers, and means must also be devised to clothe and shoe them. Every man and woman left at home now went to work to make something to live upon and support the army.
After the first battle at Manassas, on the 21st of July, 1861, which was a victory for the South, the peo- ple became intensely interested, and it was no trouble to get recruits for the army. Meanwhile the North, seeing they had a greater and more warlike adversary to combat than they expected, made additional calls
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for troops, and by the last of the year 1862, most of the volunteer companies had gone from this county.
The work of making something to feed the Southern army was now a matter of the greatest concern. Cut off by a strong blockade by the United States Govern- ment, it was impossible to obtain all the supplies that had heretofore been brought to Southern ports by foreign vessels. Many vessels ran this blockade from the Confederate side, and the munitions of war, medi- cine, not manufactured in the South, also many articles of food and clothing, passed through the same chan . nel, and were landed in our ports, and quite an amount of cotton and tobacco, of which the South had plenty, was sent out in return for these goods, and thus it was that a pretty lively and uncertain commerce was kept up between the Confederate States and the outside world. Cotton ran to fabulous prices, and is quoted by a cotton price-current giving the extreme prices paid from 18c2 to 1865-from 38 cents to $1.90 per pound. The latter price was only spasmodic and may have had much to do with the depreciated currency. But it is safe to say that cotton averaged through the years designated above, from 50 to 60 cents. All other goods were correspondingly high In this crisis many risks were run and many losses sustained in running the gauntlet of the Northern gunboats stationed at every Southern harbor. The want of the luxuries of life which our people had so long enjoyed, sharp- ened their wits and doubled their energies to supply at home what they had usually purchased abroad.
The county had the negroes and the older men and boys left. At this time the conscript law was in force requiring all between certain ages to report to headquarters for military instruction.
It was soon found that the supply of salt was very
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short in the country. As fast as possible the salt was brought from the cities having any, and then the peo- ple resorted to various places where salt was found by digging wells, some in this State probably near West Point, and also in Alabama, on the Bigbee river. In some instances the floors of the smoke- houses were dug up, the dirt leached and the water boiled down, thus obtaining some salt in this way for use in saving pork. By using great energy and econ- omy, and by the benefits of running the blockade, the supply of salt was made sufficient.
The farmers of the county at once turned their at- tention to the raising of grain. In the early settlement of the county wheat had been grown successfully on the fresh lands, and by preparing well and properly fertilizing it was again produced. Lands that had here- tofore been planted in cotton, were now put in corn, wheat, rye, oats, tobacco, potatoes, sorghum cane- anything that would serve to feed stock and supply bread-stuffs. From this generous planting of cereals came a large product of pork, beef and other stock, de- pendent on the use of grain. A country farm with this kind of management had more of the substantials of life upon it than it had before the war commenced.
Our women were not idle in the supply of clothing for the home-folks, and also made largely for the sol diers in the army. For two years before the war closed the Southern soldiers were largely clothed in excellent jeans suits made by the women of the South, . from Southern wool and cotton. The younger women had not learned to make cloth ; but many of the old mothers of the land had not forgotten how to use the old-time method. The familiar sound of the old wheel was heard; cotton and wool cards, though very hard to obtain, and only through the blockade, were brought
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into active service. The old country loom, with its sley and thread harness ; the old clock reel and old-time winding blades ; the old warping bars-everything that had assisted to furnish the Revolutionary soldiers with clothing-was now brought into requisition. Dye- stuffs were extensively procured from the woods ; bark of the walnut, chincapin and oak : the sumac berries and the walnut hulls, were all used with good results.
These materials were used in the manufacture and dyeing of the suits so much criticised by the Yankees as butter-nut suits, and black, home-made wool hats, which the Southern prisoners wore. A beautiful black jeans was made by using a dye of logwood and blue- stone; both of these ingredients were contrabands of war and were hard to obtain. There was a splendid gray jeans made, and that was a prevailing color. It could be made so as to dispense with dye-stuffs alto- gether, by using the black wool from the sheep's back and the white wool from same. and carding together, making a beautiful gray. This black wool could be deepened in color a few shades by using walnut bark or walnut hulls, and set with copperas, and would make a suit very attractive. Then by using material to dye the wool blue, a lighter gray would be obtained, which made good uniforms for officers. Good oak tanned leather, made by the farmers and the country tan-yards, supplied the shoes for the soldiers. .
Thus it was that the old men and the women, and boys too young to go to the war made the crops, with the great help of the slaves, who, be it said to their credit, conducted themselves exceedingly well, and did a large work and stayed at home with their owners. with very few exceptions until after the close of the war. This was not all. Many have been the good women whose husbands were in the army, who had no
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slaves to assist them. The little boys were too small to plow and make a crop. They put their hands to the plow and hoe and made and gathered the stuff, sup- ported the family and helped to sustain the army. Some of these good and industrious women sometimes failed to make support; in that event they were sup- ported by generous farmers or appropriations made by the county to aid them. The Athenian women, it is said, in a great emergency used their beautiful long hair to make rigging for vessels.
"The women of Poland stripped the jewels from their delicate fingers and snowy necks and cast them into the famished treasury of their bleeding country. Our grandmothers-God bless them-having no jewels, stripped their beds of their covers, moulded their pew- ter spoons into bullets and sent their sons with Wash- ington to fight the battles of the Revolution." A sub- limer spectacle still do we see in the Confederate women. They plied their willing hands to the raw material of the country and made warm and comfortable clothing. They devoted themselves to continuous toil in the fields, to make something for themselves and little ones, besides sending their husbands and sons to fight the battles of the Southern cause. Not only were the women active and watchful at home; zealous in the cause of Southern freedom and Southern rights; but when occasion required they were those ever watchful guardians around the sick and dying in every form which presented itself in the great struggle. If it were hospital service, or if it were just after a great battle, these good women could always be seen wending their way to administer substantial aid to the living or Chris- tian comfort to the dying.
In every age of the world, wherever great emer- gencies are to be met, where great sacrifices are to be
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made, "woman, who was last at the Cross and first at the sepulcher," has been found bearing the burdens of those engaged in the great struggle. Sympathizing with her tears and affection, animating and inspiring with her ever sanguine temperament, encouraging when needed by her smiles of approval, and dying when occasion required it, on the altar of church or State.
TRIBUTE TO THE WOMEN OF THE SOUTH, BY MAJ. J. J. HOOD.
Major Hood, whose trenchant pen has wielded a potent influence in everything pertaining to patriotic impulses and true devotion to the Southern cause, and is particularly facile in his tribute to the women of the South, has kindly furnished the subjoined article which will be seen to be a fitting tribute to the noble qualities and sublime heroism of our women during the war period :
"It is not my purpose to recall the many thrilling scenes of camp and march, and battle, and to graphi- cally portray in brilliant word-painting, the glorious deeds of the heroes of the lost cause-those who stood to the last undaunted amidst the many trying storms of shot and shell and the terrible carnage that shook the foundations of the Confederacy. I aim not to laud these heroic men whose valor is admired and applauded by all nations. But I write of those who cannot speak for themselves, those whose modesty and silence is and has ever been their crowning glory; these true, patriotic, noble, self-sacrificing heroines, who though they faced not the enemy, most keenly felt the shock of battle-for every ball that struck their defenders went crushing into their hearts !
" I desire to put on record a few feeble words in be-
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half of the glorious womanhood of the South, whose tenacity to the cause was a miracle of patriotic devo- tion, and whose terrible sacrifices in every way,. have been the marvel and the admiration of the world. Shut out from the world, practically, at home without pro. tection, subjected to want and privation, the loneli- ness and suffering of fearful suspense that was cruel in the extreme, they never murmured, never ceased in their devotion to the cause and never failed in duty. In many a country 'home women endured, day after day,''crucifixion of the soul,' yet heroically, patient- ly toiled, hoped and prayed on. Startled by flying rumors, tortured by suspense, weary with unwonted labor, they never dreamed of leaving the post of duty or of neglecting the interests confided to their care. Many of them superintended all farm work-and aided materially in furnishing supplies to our army. They were the sentinels at our homes-and no human in- terest was more faithfully guarded ; no comforter had they save their God, no resource but unwearied prayer and hope. Unyielding, thus they stood behind our glorious armies, and were their inspiration from Fort Sumter-with its brilliant flame of hope-to the cruel, humiliating end at Appomattox, where all was shadow and darkness."
" Nay, tell it as you may, It never can be told, And sing it as you will It never can be sung.
Nay; no singer yet has sung Song to tell how hearts had bled Where our soldier's home among Wept eyes waiting for the dead !"
Edward Everett, speaking of the Crimean war, asks pertinently, who carried off the acknowledged palm
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of that tremendous contest ? Not emperors and kings, nor generals, nor admirals, nor engineers launching from impenetrable fortresses, and blazing entrench. ments, the three-bottled-thunders of war. No, but an English girl, cultured, refined, appearing upon that dread stage of human action and suffering, in no higher character than that of nurse. Florence Nightingale's noble display of energetic benevolence, mingled with all the tenderness of woman's love, encircled her brow with the only enduring wreath of the Crimean war-a wreath that will preserve in perfect bloom, when all the laurels of the Alma and Inkerman, and the Mala- koff have faded !
" And yet, with this glowing tribute to one who is a . perpetual honor to her sex, I do not hesitate to assert, that there were thousands in the late war more heroic and self-sacrificing, more devoted and attentive, whose names are scarcely known-wives and daughters of heroes, worthy the cause. Noble, cultivated, great women, who made sacrifices, holy sacrifices, and per- formed trying duties which have eclipsed Florence Nightingale with all her deserved and justly won lau- rels !
"The women of the South, under the watchful care and tender training, and through the stimulus of the chiv- alrous sentiment peculiar to the warm, generous Southern heart, were fair, delicate, cultivated and re- fined-yet in times of great mental and soul-strain these women had strength in self-abnegation, deprivation and the numberless terrible sacrifices incident to civil war. Their patriotism was more enthusiastic than that of the men ; the sacrifices they made transcended theirs, because they were sacrifices of the heart, whilst the immolation they made on the altars of Southland of husbands, brothers and sons, were more trying than
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facing the destructive fire of the enemy. This patriot- ism was not simply the outcome of sentiment only, but a pure, steady flame, which from the beginning to the end of the war, burned brightly upon the altars of sac- rifice which they set up all over the land.
""' The power behind the throne ' never ceased to be felt. Its spirit pervaded every breast of the living barricades which opposed the invaders, nerved every arm to battle for the right, inspired to valorous deeds which dazzled the world and glorified our cause.
" I heard a prominent gentleman say that a distin- guished officer read a letter from a lady friend of his to his men before going into battle, and that it was more inspiring than any words of his. Its eloquent, thrilling, patriotic words moved his men to most he- roic action. Lord Nelson, sailing into Trafalgar bay with his ringing words, 'England expects every man to do his duty ;' Napoleon among the pyramids, with their forty centuries of glorious achievements looking down upon him, could not have thrilled and electrified their armies more than the burning, inspiring words of this heroic Southern woman !
"It thrills me now, when I contemplate. through ret- rospection, what I have seen of the matchless women of the South, making sacrifices, enduring hardships and performing holy duties, to which facing the fiery thunderbolts of the enemy were a blessed mercy. Nothing but their superior moral worth, their exalted spiritual power and strength of patriotic womanhood, could have sustained them in those trying, crushing emergencies. To the noble and heroic who were sick and wounded during the war, and who had the care and ceaseless attention of these messengers of mercy in hospital, camp, and on the terrible field of carnage ; who had their pity, tears, prayers in their last expiring
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moment, it were a benediction of devotion and love only a little less than the constancy and love of wo- man at the cross when the great Pan was dying and dead.
"I have seen these cultivated Christian women under all the cruel trials of war, subjected to the blasting, fiery wrath of internecine strife ; I have seen her with watchful, unflagging attention by the side of the sick and wounded, performing trying and unpleasant du- ties, and often risking her life ; I have seen her by the hard cot of the dying soldier, in the soft and wonder- ful tenderness of touch, of her sympathy, unceasing attention and love ; I have known of her burying the dead-of her standing over the graves of our fallen comrades, 'where no soldier discharged his farewell shot' during the last sad funeral rites.
"In our own city here you have one of the noble women of Virginia, wife of a distinguished divine whom he first met over the grave of his brother. Surely if there was anything that would touch and com- mand the admiration and love of man, it would be to behold a strange, beautiful and patriotic woman giving Christian sepulture to a brother.
" When Stuart made his celebrated raid around Mc- Clellan's army, he lost but one man killed-Captain . Lataine, of Louisiana. The enemy refused him burial service. Mrs. Page (all honor to her name) with an old servant and some young ladies visiting her, read the service over his grave and gave him burial. The artist, Washington, of Virginia, made this scene the subject of a fine painting, representing an open grave, the heroic dead soldier upon his bier, and standing on one side the sad and attentive darkies ; on the other side the young ladies, with bowed heads, sad faces and tearful eyes, whilst at the head of the grave stands
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Mrs. Page, with prayer-book in hand, and eyes raised heavenward, in the holy and touching act of perform- ing the last sad rites. It is a scene so full of pathos, so full of eloquent impress, that we cannot look upon it and contemplate it in all its suggestiveness without being moved to tears.
"I have seen her grandly majestic, as she stood with- out murmuring by the precious, holy altars, where lay in glorious state the bodies of her priceless sons-later, weeping bitter, cruel tears of anguish and despair- and yet glorifying the sacrifice ! I have seen her in the thralldom of intense suspense, when the flashing bolts of war shook the foundations of her hope, and she trembled in breathless agony under the blaze of the fiery conflict, fearful of the fate of her loved! I have seen this hope rise heavenward, hovering above the mad whirl of wild battle fury and havoc, and rest there like a star of benediction, serene in its heroic confidence ! I have seen this glorious hope trailing, bleeding, broken and dead 'neath the battle-chariot wheels of the triumphant enemy and victor ! 'And when the end came, when the bravest soldiers returned, wretched and despairing, even weeping bitter tears within the faithful arms that sheltered them, the faces which bent above them still bravely smiled. Beloved voices whispered of encouragement and hope ; patient . hearts assumed burdens under which men fainted and failed.'
"I have seen her since the final ruin and wreck, in the trying humility of defeat, with everything reversed, doing the work of menials, encouraging the crushed manhood of the land in building up the waste places, never complaining, never tiring, always true, always glorious, always divine! I have seen her at the graves of our fallen, another Rizpah over the bodies of slain,
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warding off the vultures of hate ! I have seen her annually on our memorial occasions, at the tomb of valor, Confederate alone in her mourning and mem- ories, with her tears and floral offerings doing womanly homage to knightly chivalry ! I have seen her glori- fied in heroism and immortalized through devotion to cause and duty. I have seen her with proud head erect 'midst the ruins of her home, and the debris of wrecked prostrate States-still unflinching and unbending as she walked with almost 'unsandaled feet' the hot lava beds of sectional bitterness and oppression underly- ing these ruins ! And yet, whether in the days when she wore 'midst the splendor of the South's prosperity and glory, her crown of diamonds, or now 'midst the broken columns and ruins of her dear Southland, her crown of thorns, she has towered always a proud, peerless, matchless queen. Well can it be said of her-
' Though thy heart was seared and wounded, Though thy eyes were dimned with tears ; Though in sack-cloth and in ashes Thou grieved o'er thy children's biers, Like the captive queen Thusneida, 'Mid the scoffing of the rabble Thou wast proud and peerless still.'
"As I behold her erect form, tried in the hot and seething crucible of war, purified and illumitated with moral and heroic splendor, the only beautiful thing 'midst this Southern waste and ruin, reverently I thank God, that he spared us at least, as a glorious, sustain- ing compensation for our great sacrifices, our "divine gallery" of noble womanhood !
" With the millions of heroic women of the past con- fronting me, crowned and imposing, I can point the young womanhood of the land to examples no purer. no higher, no more heroic, than to the thousand 8
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heroines of our own loved Southland. Matchles women, women that would be brilliant gems in the heroic crown of any land and age. Women that are a revelation of human possibilities and perfection, and that are a nobleness of heroic grandeur! Women that are in every sense worthy to be the mothers, wives and daughters of that grand army of immortals who wreathed the four years of the Confederacy with im- perishable lustre and glory.
No historian can faithfully recount the story of the war and leave untouched the glorious record made by Southern women. The work is so closely interwoven with the stirring incidents and actions of that eventful period, that it cannot be ignored, and it will prove the most brilliant page in that thrilling history.
"We are building monuments continuaily to the illus- trious men who wrote history with their swords. We are doing all in our power to perpetuate their names and fame, but who has raised, or will raise a monu- ument sometime, somewhere, to commemorate the vir- tues, the self-abnegation, the noble sacrifice, the sub- lime patriotism of the noblest women of the earth ?
" 'If from every wreath that ever adorned the brow of a hero, the brightest laurels were plucked, all would not form one offering too resplendent to lay at the feet' of those in whose behalf I have written these weak and inadequate words.
" The Confederate Government was born in war, cul- . minated in the fiery flames of war, and died in war. It was purely a government of of war, and of all the glor- ious results of its brief four years of brilliant achieve- ment, sublime dramatic action and heroic splendor, the greatest legacy it has left us is the glorious lesson of heroic sacrifice, trying self-abnegation, and unyielding patriotism of its matchless, peerless womenhood !"
CHAPTER XIII.
COL. GRIERSON'S RAID THROUGH THE STATE, INCLUD- ING NEWTON COUNTY-GEN. SHERMAN'S MARCH FROM VICKSBURG TO MERIDIAN-HIS RETURN FROM MERIDIAN.
WHILE Grant's and Pemberton's forces were contend- ing for Vicksburg, a raid was made through the State by Col. Grierson, commanding three regiments of cav- alry, carrying a few small pieces of artillery. They entered on the northern border of the State and trav- eled nearly centrally through the State. The raid came into this county near Union, on the 24th day of April, 1863, came directly from Union to Decatur, and then to the town of Newton. They marched very rapidly. As a general thing they were well mounted. They took the farmers of the county greatly by sur- prise, and whatever property was exposed, they appro- priated as far as they needed it. They mostly took horses and mules and whatever they needed as sup- plies, feeding themselves and their horses very boun- tifully. They would take the best horses on a planta- tion and usually leave nearly as many as they took off, of stock that was completely broken down and unfit for their use. They needed the best of stock to make the forced marches, anticipating an attack at any time. In some instances they were fired upon by citizens and a few were killed on the march. Mr. R. C. Payne, just across the Newton line north of Union,
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shot and killed one of the soldiers. This was done by Mr. Payne without a moment's reflection. As the enemy could not see the man who did the killing, they burned his house and probably a mill belonging to him. They did not burn anything at Decatur, only appropriated whatever they wished of the people's provisions and horses. The same thing prevailed all along the road until they reached the town of Newton. At that place they burned the depot and all that was in it. They burned one or two store houses and prob- ably one hospital building. They found also some army stores loaded on a car at Newton which they de- stroyed. Then they went south to Jasper county. At the town of Garlandsville some resistance was made and one man shot and some other slight damage done. They fared remarkably well at that place ; the people had plenty for them to eat and fine horses and good mules and they made a heavy impressment on whatever they wanted. They went southwest to Raleigh, in Smith county, thence to Westville, in Simpson county, crossed Pearl river at Georgetown ; they struck the I. C. railroad at Hazlehurst, went south to Brookhaven; then they made the shortest route to Baton Rouge. This `raid was confronted by Wirt Adams' Cavalry in the southwestern portion of the State, but no serious conflict came off between them. Grierson was not disposed to fight a force equal to his, but his purpose was to make the raid and he did it without much loss to his command and not greatly damaging the counties in the State through which he passed.
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