Page 43 - Arkansas Confederate Women

REMINISCENCES OF MRS. VIRGINIA CLEAVER.

By Mrs. Virginia C. Cleaver, of Camden.

In the fall of 1861, my husband, Capt. W. H. Cleaver,
raised a company of cavalry in Homer, Angelina county, Tex. He

was in Riley's regiment, Sibley's brigade, and went from Homer

to San Antonio, and from there he went on that ill-fated expe-

dition to New Mexico. He never returned from New Mexico.

—For many long years of anxiety and suspense many long years
—of alternate hope and doubt I watchel for his return and list-

ened for some tidings of him, but it was all in vain. I heard

he was killed by Mexicans, July 1, 1862, while crossing the Rio

Grande. His horse was shot from under him and fell. He

fought bravely for his life, standing in the river, until he fell

to rise no more.

After my husband's departure from Homer I remained a

week or so in Texas, and then returned by private conveyance

to my old home in Arkansas, where lived my widowed mother,

Myone sister and two little brothers. two older brothers joined

the army in the beginning of the war, and the third brother, a

mere boy, went a little later. My mother, Mrs. Newport Bragg,

lived four miles west of Camden, and as soldiers belonging to

both the Confederate and Federal armies were stationed in Cam-

den at different times during the war, we were in the lines of first

one army and then the other. When our boys were in possession

of Camden it was a gay town, filled with officers, their wives and
daughters. So many brave and gallant soldiers with their gray

uniforms, the bands playing "Dixie," and "The Bonny Blue

Flag," and our loved flag displayed all over the town. Gens.

Price and Marmaduke were here. Shelby and his brigade, and

many others that I cannot now recall.

We suffered many hardships and privations, but it was

all done very cheerfully. Provisions were very scarce, and it
was hard to feed our families and our servants, but we always