Page 180 - Arkansas Confederate Women

CRUELTIES OF 13TH KANSAS CAVALRY.

By Mrs. Jeffers, of Ozark.

My husband, Daniel Jeffers, was three years in the Con-
federate army. He left me with two small children on a farm

near Mulberry. The place was some distance from a neigh-
bor's house and many a time I gazed in silence on the sleep-

ing forms of my babes and wondered how long I should be

obliged to live that lonely life and how long I should dread

to hear a gun go off, as it made me think of my husband on the

battlefield far away, indeed, but so easily recalled.

BREAKS A YOUNG HORSE.

There was no income from the farm 'and no way to get
anything from it except I worked it myself. I plowed in the
field day after day. I broke a young horse to the plow that a
fifteen-year-old boy had failed to make work. The hardships
endured in these long years can only b3 understood by women

who went through similar experiences. Now and then, as

strength began to fail me, kind neighbors would lend a. hand

and my husband's little brother and my own would help me over

the worst work.

CRUELTIES OF BUSHWHACKERS.

The retreat of Gen. T. .C Hindman after the battle of Prai-

rie Grove left our section full of marauders of all kinds, chiefly
Federal soldiers and bushwhackers. Small bands of these inhu-

man wretches came to our homes and tortured old men and

ivomen by applying burning wood and hot coals to the soles of
fcheir feet until they told where money and other valuables were

hidden. Many times when there was nothing hidden away and
at others when some old man or woman would not tell where
treasure was secreted, many cruelties were practiced. In a
neighbor's house these villains poured hot coals down a lady's