Page 57 - Arkansas Confederate Women

FEDERAL RAIDERS.

By Mrs. Laura A. Wooten, of Corsica/na.

My veins are chilled when I think of the privations endured

during the civil war period. I* married E. C. Brazel, 18 miles

south of Camden two years before the war began. Our home

was a farm. My husband joined General Tappan Grinstead's

Aregiment and was made first lieutenant in 1861. little girl

had been born to us and six months after my husband's depart-

ure a little boy came. My father, Rev. William Winburne of

the Little Rock conference died in December, 1862, and my

mother came to live with me. Her house and all its contents were

destroyed by fire and she had the misfortune of breaking her arm

in her efforts to escape.

FEDERAL SOLDIERS PLUNDER.

Three weeks after the fire, the enemy came and took every
horse that mother and I had. They took our meat and plundered
the house generally. Mother remonstrated a little, telling them
that she was a poor widow with two girls to take care of and they
called her a liar! They then turned their attention to me,

asking where my husband was. I replied that he was in the

Confederate army where I wanted him to be.

DID NOT EVEN SPARE THE BLIND.

They spread general devastation. One incident will do to

Myexplain all. father-in-law Brazel was totally blind. They

went to his home, took every horse, stripped the beds, stole the

dishes from the pantry and then went to the smoke house 'and

after taking the meat emptied three or four barrels of flour on

the floor and mixed in a barrel of molasses. They ordered our

negro cook to prepare dinner and tried to induce her to run
away with them. She refused. Then they plundered her house

and took things of no earthly use to them.

I hope that there will be no more war in my lifetime. The

incidents that I have narrated are only a few of those that