Kentucky -- Fiction; Older women -- Fiction; Widows -- Fiction
"Elizabeth felt different from Mother about the war. She was strong
for States' rights, and when Harrison, the only son she had, went into
the army, he went with her blessin' and consent, and he made a mighty
brave soldier, too. I ricollect the day 'Lizabeth come over to tell us
about Harrison bein' promoted at the battle o' Port Gibson. You've
heard o' the battle o' Port Gibson, haven't you, honey? That was
another time when they fought all day long. I've heard Harrison say
the first gun was fired before daylight, and when they give up and
begun fallin' back, it was gittin' on towards dusk. Harrison said his
officers went down one by one, first the captain and then the
lieutenants, and when the last one fell, he up and took charge o'
things himself jest like he'd seen the captain do; and when they
found they had to give up the fight, Harrison somehow or other managed
to carry away two cannons out o' the six they'd been workin' that day,
and with these two he kind o' kept the Yankees off while the men fell
back, and if it hadn't been for that they'd 'a' been cut all to
pieces. Harrison was nothin' but a striplin', not out of his teens,
but he went into that battle a sergeant and he come out of it a
captain. 'Lizabeth was the proudest, gladdest woman you ever saw; says
she, 'I've had a hard life, but this pays me for all my troubles.'
"But what I set out to tell you was somethin' 'Lizabeth herself did,
not what Harrison did. It was along towards the close of the war, the
summer of '64. One evenin' in July a squad o' Yankee soldiers come
gallopin' along the pike about dark, and camped over in the fields
back of 'Lizabeth's house. 'Lizabeth said she went up in the garret
and looked out o' the window, and she could see 'em lightin' their
camp-fires and feedin' their horses and cookin' supper. There wasn't a
soul on the place with her except old Aunt Dicey and Uncle Jake.
'Lizabeth's brother was a slave owner, and when Harrison went to the
war he sent Aunt Dicey and her husband over to 'Lizabeth's to watch
over her and keep her company.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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