PART I.
Chapter I.
Alpha
Chapter II.
Alabama
Chapter III.
Buckner Hospital, Gainesville, Alabama
Chapter IV.
Ringgold
Chapter V.
Newnan, Georgia
Chapter VI.
Omega
Chapter VII.
Confederate Women
Chapter VIII.
An Incident of the Battle of the Wilderness
Chapter IX.
Fenner’s Louisiana Battery
Chapter X.
“Bob Wheat”
Chapter I.
Nelly
Chapter II.
Brave Boys
Chapter III.
The Young Color-Bearer
Chapter IV.
Bravery honored by a Foe
Chapter V.
Sally’s Ride
Chapter VI.
High Price for Needles and Thread
Chapter VII.
Bunny
Chapter VIII.
Beauregard
Chapter I.
“My Boys”
Chapter II.
The Confederate Reunion at Dallas
Chapter III.
Camp Nichols
Chapter IV.
The March of Time
Chapter V.
A Woman’s Record
INTRODUCTORY.
Among those who early espoused the Southern Cause, few, perhaps, were more in earnest than my husband and myself. Our patriotism was at the very outset put to a crucial test. The duties of a soldier and a civilian became incompatible. Being in ill health, it was thought best that I should go to my mother at the North for awhile. My husband, after preliminary service with the “Minute Men” and the State troops, as a member of Company A, Crescent Rifles, was, with this company, regularly mustered into the Confederate service in April, 1861, and left for Pensacola, Florida, where the Crescent Rifles, with the Louisiana Guards, Orleans Cadets, Shreveport Guards, Terrebonne Rifles, and Grivot Guards, were organized into the Dreux Battalion. It was then supposed that “the affair” would be “settled in ninety days.”
From my house of refuge I watched eagerly the course of events, until at last all mail facilities were cut off, and I was left to endure the horrors of suspense as well as the irritating consciousness that, although sojourning in the home of my childhood, I was an alien, an acknowledged “Rebel,” and as such an object of suspicion and dislike to all save my immediate family. Even these, with the exception of my precious mother, were bitterly opposed to the South and Secession. From mother I received unceasing care, thorough sympathy, surpassing love. During this troubled time a little babe was born to me,—a tiny babe,—who only just opened its dark eyes upon the troubled face of its mother to close them forever.