Page 183 - Arkansas Confederate Women

HEROISM OF MRS. N. J. MORTON STAPLES, OF

PRAIRIE GROVE.

By Mrs. D. H. Torhett.

Our Chapter is honored by numbering among its mem-
bers several women who lived in this, Washington county, .Ar-

kansas, during the war between the states, and no one suffered
more than they. For the most part they were women who
stayed at home and cared for their families as best they could,
fed, sewed for and aided the soldiers.

One of these grand old women was Mrs. N. J. Morton Sta-
ples. Her home was on the dividing line between the armies of
the North and South when the battle of Prairie Grove was

fought. During the battle the family took refuge in the cellar

of their home. I mention incidentally that my father, Dr. Joel
H. Blake, was surgeon in this battle and has told me that the
women were a very great help to them in caring for the sol-
diers. After the battle, about sundown the women of this home

went out on the battlefield among the wounded and dead. They
carried in the wounded of both sides until their two rooms and
porch were filled with men torn by shot and shell. All night
they worked to relieve the sufferings of those who wore the blue
as well as their own beloved grey. They tore up sheets and pil-
low slips for bandages, made hot, nourishing drinks of herbs,
and gave freely of their scanty store. Two soldiers died that
nighty one in a blue uniform of the rank of captain. The other
in a homespun suit of grey. The next morning those who were
still living were taken to the old Presbyterian church and cared

for until they were able to go away.

WOMEN DIGGING A GRAVE WITH A BROKEN HOE.

This same Mrs. Staples together with a younger woman,
with only boards and a broken hoe to dig with, dug a grave and

buried a relative, a man too old and infirm to be in the army.
The Federal scouts had burned his home and shot him. These

brave girls worked till their hands were blistered and bleeding.