Page 94 - Arkansas Confederate Women
P. 94
Sketch of Mrs. Sophia Kannady 83
that four Texas soldiers came one day and told me they wanted
something to eat. Dinner was over and I told them I did not
believe I had anything for them, but I got them up a dinner
and they ate heartily. When they got ready to leave they
laid five dollars in gold upon the table. I refused to take it.
They insisted, and told me that had they known I would take
no pay for the meal they would not have come. I did not take
it, however, and told them that I never charged anybody for
a meal.
Those were awful times too, after the battles of Elk Horn
and Prairie Grove. Generals McCulloch and Mcintosh were
killed at Elk Horn, and General Steen was killed at Prairie
Grove. General McCulloch's body was brought to Fort Smith
and then sent to Texas. Generals Mcintosh and Steen were
buried here in what is now the National Cemetary.
"I believe the greatest danger I was in during the war, was
when Mr. Kannady and I were captured by Captain Hart and
his gang of Federal bushwhackers as we were returning from
Texas. This was in January, 1863. We had gone to Texas
earlier in the year, and on our way home we were captured
near Big Creek, about twenty miles from Fort Smith. On
the day before, Hart and his gang killed Col. DeRosey- Carrol
and Mr. Sam Richardson. It was raining very hard at the
time and was very cold. Hart lifted me off of my horse. He
was a fine looking man, and while he robbed us of our team,
provisions and everything else we had, he did not cause me to
be searched, nor did he take my horse. There was a house near
the place where we were captured, and as it was raining hard
I wanted to go to it. Hart told me I might go, but when I
requested that Jerre might go with me, he said no. After that
I would not leave Jerre's side, for from the way they acted
and from what they said I was satisfied they intended to kill him.
Some of Hart's men said they were going to hang Jerre, and I
am certain they would have done so, had it not been for a negro
who interceded for his life. I believe he would have hung both
of us but for this negro. This negro, by the way, had been at
the battle of Oak Hill, where he was wounded. I had in my