Page 122 - Arkansas Confederate Women

Narrow Escape From Federal Prison 105

we were all aroused one night about 1 o'clock by a succession of

guns, fired through our windows, facing the south. My mother,

sister Fannie and myself came near being hit several times. As

quick as we could we pulled the children all out of bed and with

them crawled under the beds, for all of us slept in one room,

Myas we were afraid to sleep in different ones. mother's five

children, my half brothers and sisters were all small, and needed

almost constant care. At this juncture a loud scream from

Julia, the cook, fell on our ears, as the kitchen door burst

open and she fell fainting across it. We had no matches nor

lamps, and only by the rays of the cold autumn moon could

we discover the blood streaming from her mouth and her al-

most lifeless form, she being enciente, we felt sure she was dead

from some awful wound received when the shots were fired.

We dragged her in and after a hard rubbing she finally came

to and told us how six big burly soldiers had assaulted her. She

also said they had Hester, my mother's householdgirl at that

time, beating her on the head. Just then Hester came almost
lifeless to our room, where Julia had been taken. One eye was

closed and four front teeth knocked out, while blood covered

her face so that she was almost unrecognizable. At this sight,

my mother and myself ran in hot haste to Capt. McCrary's,

provost marshal's office, where we related in an almost inco-

herent way what had happened. He snatched his hat and ran

ahead of us to our home. I had forgotten to mention that

Col. Bitter had been removed to Little Rock, with all his regi-

ment except Capt. McCrary's company of Iowans, and in jus-

tice to the captain and the majority of his men I would state

that these rough drunken soldiers who had so outraged us and

our servants were raw recruits from the low-down foreigners,

with one or two half-breeds.

When we arrived home everything was quiet and Capt. Mc-

Crary was issuing orders to a corporal to place a guard around

our house, which he did, and it was kept there every night for

a couple of weeks, as I remember, after which time my mother

put a bed in her parlor and Capt. McCrary occupied it until

he left. He was a perfect gentleman and deplored the outrages

of some of the Federals.