Page 239 - Arkansas Confederate Women

212 Confederate Women of Arkansas

WOMAN'S DEVOTION.

General D. H. Maury, in Southern Historical Papers.

The history of Winchester is replete with romantic and glo-
rious memories of the late war. One of the most intereseting-
of these has been perpetuated by the glowing pencil of Oregon
Wilson, himself a native of this valley, and the fine picture he
has made of the incident portrayed by him has drawn tears from
many who loved their Southern country and the devoted women
who elevated and sanctified by their heroic sacrifices the cause
which, borne down for a time, now rises again to honor all who

sustained it.

That truth, which is stranger than fiction, is stronger, too.
The simple historic facts which gave Wilson the theme of his
great pictures, a cut of which appears on another page of this
book, gains nothing from the romantic glamour his beautiful
art has thrown about the actors in the story.

In 1864, General Eamseur, commanding a Confederate
force near Winchester, was suddenly attacked by a Federal
force under General Averell. and after a sharp encounter was
forced back through the town. The battlefield was near the
residence of Mr. Eutherford, about two miles distant, and the
wounded were gathered in his house and yard. The Confederate
surgeons left in charge of these wounded men appealed to the
women of Winchester (the men had all gone off to the war) to
come out and aid in dressing the wounds and nursing the
wounded. As was always the way of these Winchester women,

—they promptly responded to this appeal, and on the day of

July, more than twenty ladies went out to Mr. Rutherford's
to minister to their suffering countrymen. There were more
than sixt}r severely wounded men who had been collected from
the battlefield and were lying in the house and garden of Mr.
Eutherford. The weather was warm, and those out of doors
were as comfortable and as quiet as those within. Amongst
them was a beardless boy named Randolph Eidgely; he was se-
verely hurt; his thigh was broken by a bullet and his suffer-
ings were very great; his nervous system was shocked and un-
strung, and he could find no rest. The kind surgeon in charge