Chronological History of the American Civil War

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very handsome --- lost both legs --- then his life at Chattanooga. I began trying to get back home. I was in Cousin Lucius Polk’s. Once I had my little trunk packed on the porch and some friends of mine from Jackson, Tennessee came by for me in an old conveyance. Cousin Lucius said he would command me as one of his own daughters and I could not go and must not. I obeyed him with bitter tears. The ladies were six months getting home. My husband in Chattanooga, Knox in Bolivar. I had been from home 15 months. I had to take the risks. So, Mr. Matthews, who had married my father’s sister Aunt Sally, told me he would be on the west side of the Tennessee River near Clifton on a certain date and would take me home. I got Uncle Gardner Dobbins to promise to take me to Clifton --- about two days trip from his home near Columbia. He had a high old barouche with steps that let down and two blind horses. My trunk was strapped on and I was just saying goodbye to Aunt Emily and family, when we looked up the hill and saw Yankee soldiers coming down. The trunk was hastily taken off --- the barouche and horses hurried away and we awaited them. They did not stop long by Mr. Dobbins could not leave his unprotected family with Yanks in Columbia (he lived about three miles out). He went over to a neighbor and persuaded a young man named Gordon to come over and drive me. I started off as a big storm was coming up and spent the night at Mt. Pleasant at a doctor’s house. Cousin Lucius’s family doctor. He gave me letters to a Mr. Porter and I spent the second night there. He directed me to a friend of his in Clifton who would carry me across the River Tennessee there. So, I was taken care of in Clifton by good Southern folks and the next morning this good man drew his canoe up out of the river and put Mamie and me and my poor little trunk in and rowed across the river. No passing across from one side to the other was permitted but this good Southerner said I should go across despite gunboats which piled up and down. On the west side I found Mr. Matthews in his little one-horse spring wagon. I kneeled and kissed the good West Tennessee sand and soon was in the wagon with my trunk and baby. But not long did I stay. The road was so bad and poor Perley, the old horse, so worn out, I preferred walking. A good Southern woman on horseback carried Mamie and I trudged along for many miles. Roaming bands of bushwhackers were everywhere. A Confederate who had been taken by the Yankees, held on a gunboat for two weeks, made to take the oath of allegiance to the United States. He said he would help any Southerner as long as he lived --- immediately went with us and showed us how to avoid these bands. Slept that night in a house in a room with a woman and man and six children and an ole grandmother. Yanks came by in the night and asked if she had seen any Confederates. She went to the door and answered that she had not. Southerners came by later and asked the same question and she gave them the same answer. Our old horse and wagon were hidden out in the woods. My little trunk under the bed. I, fully clothed, slept with Mamie in a bed made on the side of the room. Pretty hard at that. So, we plodded on. Peter Perley only able to make 24 miles a day. Mr. Matthews had come up with him from Mobile, Alabama bringing letters from our boys to their parents all along the road. The little cart was full of them and he remembered everywhere he had to leave them. We passed through Lexington, Tennessee, just a half hour after they had a fight there. The windows of the uptown section were all shot up and broken but we came though untouched. So, we jogged on until we reached the Hatchie River then Mr. Huell, whom we met going to his home with a great carbuncle on his neck, told us that the ferry boat was tied up for the night and we could not cross. I called him and told him who I was, and he said, “You shall cross.” “I can get across the river and bring the boat over”, which he did. I slept in my father’s house that night and saw Knox from whom I had been away from for fifteen months. He did not know me, but he was so dear and beautiful. I was nearly worn out, but youth can soon recuperate, and I did.