GDG- Mary McAllister

[Ginny Gage]

July 3, 2004

Next day a couple of men came in and called for something to eat.  Martha
had baked pie and she brought one into the hall to the table there.  She set
it down, with a knife, and said, ³Now you cut it the best way you can.²  He
cut it and said, ³You eat a piece.²  She said, ³Do you think it is poison?
The women here don¹t poison people.² But he would not eat it; he was afraid
it was poisoned.  I went over to the warehouse and saw the head knocked in
of my barrel of molasses.  They were dipping in anything they could get,
into this barrel ­ crocks and buckets and anything, and I went for some,
too.  They were the hardest (toughest) looking men you could see.  I said,
³Don¹t knock that barrel over, it is mine.²  They said, ³You damn old b____,
you go to the house.²  That was the only thing that ever came near an
insult.  Then they said to this rebel that we had for a safe guard, ³What
are you doing?  I guess you are sneaking around.  I guess we will shoot
you.²  These (soldiers) looked like tramps.  It was after this that this
guard got so lippy, but the officer I called took Mr. Rebel out and said (to
me), ³If any other comes in here and annoys you, send up to Middle Street
where I have my headquarters.  I will see that you are not molested.² Then
he gave me his name. Cobeans lived at the corner. I knew they had cows in
the stable, but the family had gone to the country.  On the morning of the
second day¹s battle I said, ³I believe I will go milk those cows.²  But
though some women had already milked the cows, they gave me part of a bucket
of milk.  Just at Cobean¹s gate lay a dead man, and there were wounded men
on the hard pavement.  ³Oh,² they said, ³give us a little milk.²  Well, by
the time they all had some, I had hardly a pint left.  I gave it out as I
came along.  Martha said, ³Did you get any milk?²  ³Yes,² I said, ³a
little.²  Indeed we had not much of anything, and we were hungry. But I
drank a strong tea and ate water crackers which I had hid in the attic and
the wounded men could take a few of these.  And so we had to live along
until the country people began to bring things in after the battle. A man
kept a little store in Mrs. King¹s room, but he left town and the rebels
tore off his old bay window on the first evening of the battle.  Mrs. King
was scared, for she was in the house with her mother and her little
children.  We got scared, for then they had (at that time there was) a
thoroughfare from the alley.  At night, when it was quiet, there was a rebel
patrol on the street.  It was a cloudy, ugly night and Mrs. King said, ³We
will go over there and ask them to give us a guard.² So we went to the
church there they had headquarters in the yard.  I do not think they were in
the basement, for that is where they took off the limbs of the wounded ones.
Mrs. King said, ³Is there an officer among you?²  That minute they sat down
their guns and were polite. One says, ³Come out, Captain!² ³Well,² Mrs. King
said (to him), ³your men are breaking our doors down, and I have an old
mother that is very feeble, and little children, and we want a guard.  And
this one (meaning me) is just as bad off.  They have no one but themselves.²
He said, ³Are any of you boys willing to guard these women?²  Two stepped
front and said, ³We will go.²  They all laughed and said, ³You have a snap
of it.²  They began to lay their blankets down in front of our door and Mrs.
King asked them if they had had anything to eat and they said they had not.
So she went in and got the biscuits and bread she had and gave to them.  It
was very damp and I invited them to lay their blankets inside the hall.  No,
they said, they would rather not.  I think they were a little suspicious
right away.  We began to talk a little.  They said, ³Well, now, we are
Pennsylvanians, too, born and bred in Pennsylvania.²  I said, ³Is that
possible?²  ³Yes,² they said, ³we were both educated in Washington College,
Pa., and if you had lived in the South you would have been as we are.²  They
were nice men.  You could tell that they were gentlemen, and we were not
molested anymore.  This was the way we had to sleep ­ Martha and four
children lay crossways on a bed in the front room because every other place
was full of wounded.  I sat on a chair with a skirt folded to lay on the
window sill, with the window hoisted.  There I slept for three nights, with
my head on my arms. The wounded men in our house told us on the afternoon of
the third:  ³We know our cannons.  We know our men, and those cannons, and
we are getting the better of them.  Don¹t be scared, for we believe they are
whipped.²  That night Lee¹s wagons began to go out (of town).  Our rebel
guards had come each night and lay at our door and I heard them all night
long.  The evening of the third day Mrs. King brought out a lot of biscuits
again and she said to them, ³Now eat some.²  They said they had had a right
good supper.  ³Well, then,² she said, ³put them in your knapsacks. You can
eat them on your retreat.²  ³Oh,² they said, ³we are not going to retreat.²
There was some talk about (General) McClellan coming with a big army.  ³Why,
yes,² Mrs. King said, ³McClellan will be here before morning with a big
army!²  They took the biscuits and put them in their knapsacks and lay down
to rest.  I went in the house and was at my post there when these wagon
trains began to go out.  I wakened Martha and said, ³I believe the rebels
are retreating.²  ³Oh, if it is only true,² she said, ³for I am hardly able
to go it.²  After a while a man came running down the street and he wakened
these guards and he said, ³Get up, get up, we are retreating!²  I felt like
saying goodbye to them, but it would have seemed like mockery.

Ginny Gage