Page 95 - Arkansas Confederate Women

84 Confederate Women of Arkansas

pocket a revolver in which there were two loads, and I intended,
if Jerre had been hung, to kill Hart and then kill myself. Jerre

recognized several of the men in Hart's gang. They lived in

the Vache Gras country, and before he left for Texas Jerre
had supplied their families with meal and bacon to keep them
from starving while their husbands were bushwhacking. The

man who boasted to the negro that "Jerre Kannady would never
see Fort Smith again" was a man to whom Mr. Kannady had,

some time before, issued provisions. This shows what kind of

people they were.

"After Hart had decided not to hang my husband he placed
us in a house belonging to a man named Coffey, who lived about

five miles from Big Creek, where we were kept from Tuesday

until the following Friday. Several Confederate soldiers whom

Hart had captured were there at the same time. Hart did not
harm these men, but when he went away put them upon parole.
Some time during the last night we stayed at Coffey's some-
body came to the house and told Jerre that he had better get
away from there as soon as he could, and the next morning

we left. Jerre hired two ponies, and these, with my horse and

the horse of the faithful negro, got us back to Fort Smith.

There were ten inches of snow on the ground when we started.

A few days after this, Hart was captured at Smedley's mill and

brought to Fort Smith, where he was tried, convicted and
hanged.

"Jerre was very busy with his mills and blacksmith shop

for a long time after the war began. Among the things he
made were one thousand knives for Standwatie's Cherokee
Brigade. These knives were made of large files and had wooden
handles. I have one of them now. He also made about two-
thousand powder horns, and I don't know how many drinking
cups. The cups were made of horns sawed into proper size,
with wooden bottoms. He also made a great many pipes, and

there is no telling what he did make. There was a good supply
of iron in the shop and the mills were stocked with looms,
spinning wheels, and other articles which had been made there,
when the Federals came in, all of which the Federals seized.