CIVIL WAR ERA LETTERS

Manson Family

This letter was shared with us by Karl Plenge

Thanks Karl!

This letter was written by Sallie Manson White to Sybil Manson Ayre Watson, both daughters of F E Manson, a resident of McDonough during the Civil War.

Notes From Aunt Sallie (White) to Mother

Transcribed by Walter Vail Watson

Dear Sybil:

You once said you wished there was some way in which our family history could be pieced-out to make clear some things which occurred before your birth and recollection, so I will help all I can.

The first thing of which I have any distinct recollection was when a large wagon was driven into our Yard to collect the baggage of our three half brothers (Jimmie, Francis and Joseph handwritten in margin) who with other young men in our locality were to start for the Civil War in 1861. I was too young at the time to realize what it all meant but learned later that these men were a part of General John B. Gordon's army collected in Atlanta, Georgia, who formed a part of the men who joined General Robert E. Lee's army in Virginia. And from time to time father or mother would get letters from the front to let us know how our brothers fared. Once I recall Jimmie being at home on furlough and his wife and little son Sidney visited us at the same time. Lizzie, Jimmie's wife, lived at Forsyth, Ga. north of Macon, while he was in the army. Toward the close of the war there was a skirmish at Jonesboro, Ga. fourteen miles distant and we could hear the rumble of the cannonading between the armies. And that was the nearest that McDonough citizens got who remained at home to any of the fighting.

Perhaps you remember being told that father was a member of the Georgia legislature for a part of the time during the Civil War; and during his absence from home mother conducted family worship each day. She wouldn't have felt it right to neglect asking God's help and care, especially in troublous times like that.

One night when father was away at the Legislature and Zack was the oldest boy at home a drunken man came to one of our doors and demanded to have the door opened, but mother did not pay any attention to him and finally he got tired and went away without molesting us further.

In May of 1864 mother and Nellie [Ellen], George who was the baby, and myself went to Rose Hill in Newton County to visit our sister Elizabeth (Mrs V A Tommy - ed note Mrs V R Tommey is correct). Sister had given the name of Rose Hill to the place because of the fine roses which she delighted to have in profusion. At the rear of the house was the vegetable garden, remarkable to me from the fact that it was laid out in terraces divided by a broad walk. The upper terrace was planted in strawberries, and below that grape vines and vegetables of various kinds. And at the foot of the garden was a brook with white pebbles in it. This brook fed a fish pond near by, and that also belonged to the estate. Rose Hill was very near Covington, Ga., and during our visit there we went to Covington, and I saw a steam train for the first time. One thing I recall of our trip by carriage from McDonough to Covington was the crossing of South River over a wooden bridge with a low railing, and I was glad when we got over as it was rather a frightful experience as the water was high.

The summer of 1864 Gen. Hood, who was in command of the Confederate army in Georgia, was for a short time in Henry County and while there had his headquarters under an immense oak tree in our yard. I do not reca11 Gen. Hood's looks at all, but remember that two of his young officers, Capt. Albert and Mr. Jordan, both fell in love with sister Sue and were around the house a good deal. Capt. Albert rode a gray horse and Mr. Jordan a black horse, and when they went away each of them said if they were killed in battle they wanted Sue to have their horse. We heard later that one of them was killed but do not remember about the other. Sue had many admirers, and when she was eighteen years old she had had sixteen offers of marriage. About that time mother gave Sue the task of cutting out some shirts for father or one of our brothers, and I remember she cut either all backs or all fronts, and some more cloth had to be bought before the shirts could be made, and Sue was told that she must have been thinking of her many beaux to make such a mistake, and they teased her about it for some time after.

In the fall of 1864 Sue and Julia went to Alabama for awhile to be with some relative living there. Just before Sue and Julia left for Alabama Gen. Kilpatrick, whom Gen. Sherman had sent to reconnoitre before the latter started on the famous march "from Atlanta to the sea" camped on our grounds over night. Father was home from the Georgia Legislature at that time also; and I can recall father sitting on our front porch talking to General Kilpatrick and some of his officers. Another thing that I remember was that I was afraid of those men and that we had some fresh buttermilk and that mother made me take a pitcher of the buttermilk to them to convince me that they would not harm me. I was less than six and one half years of age at the time, so it was not strange that I did not want to go near them; specially as the negroes had teased us little folks, saying the Yankees would get us when they came.

Father had returned to Milledgeville (then the Capitol) before General Sherman started from Atlanta for Savannah. We had word that the army was coming, and father had some of the negroes build a corn crib in a swamp in the plantation about a mile from the house, and it was back from the road, too, so, when the Yankees came, they did not find the corn, and we had that to fall back on after they had passed through Henry County. A large dry goods box was filled with hams and bacon taken from our supply usually kept in the smoke house, and put in a hole in the garden, the earth packed so hard above it that no one would think of looking for anything eatable there. Our house was on the top of a high hill, and we could see a long distance toward the west and the road from Atlanta. The day Sherman came the soldiers could be seen sometime before they reached the house. Mother, Jennie Beck (who was father's oldest granddaughter - ed note Elizabeth's oldest daughter Virginia from first husband), Parish, Ellen and I were eating dinner when we were startled by a man on a gray horse looking in the window at us. And to this day (1927) I remember that he had a florid complexion and a long beard. Naturally we did not eat any more dinner, but it did not take the soldiers long to finish the sweet potatoes, mutton, etc. which I remember was cooked for our dinner that day. And before officers could station men at the outside doors, some of the stragglers always with an army entered and began to take things; some new shirts had been made for father and one of the men took a pillow case from one of the beds and put the shirts in it, and by the time he reached the bottom of the stairs an officer met him and ordered him to take it back and put it where he got it.

Before the army came I had a hand in hiding some of our valuable clothing. Between the ceiling in the dining room and the roof was quite a large space and mother had the base boards removed from the room upstairs nearest the dining room and I was small enough to crawl through, and they handed me the articles to be stored away and the soldiers little dreamed of anything of value being over their heads when they were in the dining room. The base board was put back in place and no intruder was any the wiser that it had even been moved. The soldiers helped themselves to the many bushels of sweet potatoes which had been put under a shed in the garden for winter use, and they also shot down all the poultry they could find. Fortunately for us an old hen and a few young chicks hid in some weeds, and after the soldiers had gone to their camps to the south and east of us Parrish found the hen and took her and the chicks to one of the upstairs rooms where they remained until after the army had gone on.

In our smoke house there were several barrels of molasses fresh made on the place, and the army must have been well sweetened for awhile. I remember they took anything that would hold molasses to carry it to their camps. They made such a sticky mess when they in some cases left it running. When father knew the army was to come through Henry County he made arrangements with a friend Mr. Findley, who owned land a few miles from our home, to have our live stock driven there where there was a dense swamp in which to hide them. Brother Zack with some of the older negroes undertook to carry out father's orders - so they were away from home when the army arrived. Zack and the boys had driven the live stock into one swamp when Zack decided that another swamp across the road would make a better place in which to hide them. He had no means of knowing how far away the army was, so made the mistake of being met by the army in the road, so they captured all the livestock. They also induced some of the young negroes men to go along with them. One of them went as far as Washington with the army and afterward found his way home to Georgia again. So we lost all of our stock except a young colt and an old horse which the army did not consider worth taking with them.

That first day the army encamped around our home we did not have any supper. The men who helped themselves to the sweet potatoes left some small ones (which we called strings). So the following morning mother sent us children to get these small potatoes, and they were cooked in the fireplace in mother's room and we expected to breakfast on them. But one of the men (the day before one of the officers had placed a man as guard at each of our outside doors) and we were supposed to be safe from any molestation after that so long as the army was around). . . But the smell of the sweet potatoes was too much for the guard stationed near that door, so he walked in and took them for his own breakfast. So mother and the rest of us had to do without. And mother was so indignant over the occurrence that she immediately reported the man to the army headquarters, and the result was that another soldier was put on as guard and the potato thief was punished for the offense by being hung up by his thumbs for a certain length of time. The three days while the army was near us was the only time I can recall that we went hungry, as we did not dare touch the hidden supply of food until we were sure they had gone on.

It seems that the army left one barrel of molasses with the idea of taking it along with them. And the day they were making ready to move on two of the soldiers took that barrel with the idea of loading it on one of their commissary wagons. For some reason they must have been called away just as they got the barrel near their camp in a low place near which was a gulley. So it happened that brother Zack had got back from the job of trying to hide the live stock and no doubt was chagrined at losing them all. So when he saw the soldiers had left the barrel of molasses he, with the help of some of the negro boys, rolled it down in the gully out of sight. So, by Zack's quick action we had one barrel of molasses after all. I have often wondered what the men thought who made a failure of carrying off that barrel of molasses.

A neighbor of ours had a pig in a pen, hoping to get the benefit of it when fattened. But the Yankees wanted it too, and killed it. It was a black pig, and in their haste they did not try to remove the hair from the carcass before cutting it up to carry away with them. A daughter of the family who was indignant about the loss of the pig was watching, and when the man who was on the job, turned his back for a moment she grabbed a ham and thrust it - black hide up - in a large iron pot near by, and the butcher did not discover what she had done as the room was rather qloomy at the time and he probably thought one of his companions had taken it to their camp. So, by the quick action of Miss Amanda her people had some of the pig after all. She also came to our home and brought a part of that ham to mother and the rest of us, as she knew we had lost so much in the way of food by the invasion of the army.

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By Linda Blum-Barton