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 COPY OF A LETTER WRITTEN BY A 
 NORTH CAROLINA GIRL DURING 
 SHERMAN'S RAID 
 
 
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 THE LIBRARY OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF 
 
 NORTH CAROLINA 
 
 THE COLLECTION OF 
 NORTH CAROLINIANA 
 
 Cp970.73 
 
 F87c 
 
 00032726818 
 
 FOR USE ONLY IN 
 THE NORTH CAROLINA COLLECTION 
 
 
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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2013 
 
 http://archive.org/details/copyofgenuineletOOfren 
 
oien Burnlo, March 2l t ia66. 
 
 Hy ^>ear fouain, 
 
 Well Pat tie, I have seen the Yankies at last, 
 
 and I earnestly pray hesr-en that I nay never see thaw again. The 91 , 
 
 of March trill ever he remeabered hy me. The vagabonds appeared here 
 k 
 
 early on that morning, we had no idea they were * within fifty miles of 
 
 here, it ac<?raed that day that heaven had forever turned from ua. There 
 
 waa a hundred and fifty wen in the first aquad that cawt* here, and auch 
 
 a yell as the* gave when they rode in the gate, raortal ne^er heard. 1 
 
 wa»j not frightened one hit, it seemed aa though my -v^ry soul had turned 
 
 one and I knew felt nor eared for anything. 
 
 Papa ran to the swamp as soon «e he aaw them coding, and th 
 were almost frantic with rage when they. found he had left and started 
 in the woods to find him and swore hy all the saints in heaven that 
 
 lay would kill hl» if they found him. You can imagine what agony we 
 suffered on hia and Willie's account who was with hiat. The rascals all 
 came in, and in loss than ten minutes the house was stripped of almost 
 every thing. Pa had the night before fortunately concealed his two 
 watches and your Jewelry in a very nice place, soraewhere about the house, 
 I did not know where, pnd the Yankiea of course concluded as there was 
 ao much in the house thera raust be soma watches too. One of them cmae 
 to me to know where they were, I of course refused to tell, he then 
 
 lately presented' a pistol to ny head and swore he would 
 life if I did not tell him, but I was as firm as a rock h I 
 «».;' completely in his power, I defied him to touch me, finding at last 
 
. 
 
 that twaa utterly ueolass to try to got anything out of me, ha went off 
 
 shearing, • Z waa tha d at rebel ha had ever aeon, which I conaiderad 
 
 waa vary much of n eonplimont. 
 
 There was no officer with the firat men that nana, and our 
 drooping apirita were revived about ona o'clock by the eight of a Yankie 
 officer. Ha came in the house and introduced himaelf as Lt. ?raoht, 
 ( juaer nana isn't it?) "nana and I lmnediatoly appealed to hixa for pro- 
 tection and ha soon had order res-ored in tha house, and gave us a guard. 
 I think ho wais retry much of a gentleman, * T e waa vary kind to me, that 
 was something I did not expect, I did not think there waa a gentlermn 
 in the whole Yankie Array, but now I know there ia ona if no ™ore. 
 cane too lat' to save any of our property that the Yanks** wanted. 
 
 ?y carries' 9ft ovary earthly thing w« had to eaC, did no* le&va a 
 grain of corn or coffee, or anything that would auataln life one day, 
 they found all our silver' and took every knife, fork and apoon we had in 
 the world. 
 
 25 thousand nen paoacd here and I assure you I could not sea 
 acrons the road for three Whole days for the men. Thoy aet the Pine 
 Woods on firo all around us. Tell Aunt Jennie they aet ii rfirs all the 
 roaln she aaw, and turned day into night. I hope to graolous Pat, that 
 you May never go through all the agony 1 did in that one week. They 
 carried off a great many of our clothes, hevo not left mo a cloak or 
 shawl of any kind, tore the silk you gave Jennie all to flinders and 
 carriea off my beat dresses end two of Mamma* a alike. Have not one 
 blanket in the house, have only a half dosen quilts. Every one of our 
 darkies went and Ka and I have had to do all of the waohing and iron; 
 and acouring. I have done all the cooking. The houae is so dirty I don't 
 t^ink we will gat it clear in ton nonths. The Yankiea burned our barn 
 
and swore they would "burn the house over our heads, but JJrovidence 
 saved it, X can't toll you now how. 
 
 We have not honrd from Archie in no re than a month, have an 
 idea he is with the Boys Array. The I4th. Yankio Array Corps, one that 
 was here, has been cut all to pieces so I hear, I hope they will not 
 » spare one of "hen. 
 
 The •Yanks* were just about to find the watches, and Harm took 
 them t:o Lt. Bracht and ho took care of then for us as long as he stayed, 
 he was h re all Thursday and that night and guarded the houtie for us. I 
 sat up in the parlor and played on the piano, and sang for the Yankies 
 till twelve o'clock Thursday nl^ht. The first that oame compelled mo to 
 9t«3f fe.r tb«p>., v»ut I vowed I would play nothing bo* Southern Honrs and 
 I know you would have been surprised if you could have looked in and 
 seen how cooly Z was sitting there surrounded by ray moat deadly eneniea, 
 singing the *>onnio Blue Flag* and "tJixie - with all my wight, X an confi- 
 dent that I never in all my life sang so wall. X breathed all the fire 
 in ay soul into those two songs. 
 
 v oll Pat, X must close by telling you that the Yankies na-ver 
 caught Papa and that we are not quite starved to death, though we came 
 very near it, we went five days without a mouthful of bread. You will 
 excuse the paper I know as it is all the Yankies left in the hou«e, and 
 tin a wonder they left this. Oh how X do hate the -vary name of Yankiel 
 They can nn'var prosper. May the chilling blight of heaven fall on their 
 dark and doomed souls, tfay all the powers of earth and heaven combine to 
 destroy them, may their lantt be one vaBt scene of ruin and desolation 
 
as ours in. This is the Vleseing of the innocent and injured one, I 
 forgive them? May heaven n«T«r« 
 
 '.fell Mary not to be uneasy about us, we will try to keep from 
 starving. 1 heard <*rora Uncle Archie's folks and they are well, ^rlte 
 soon, and don't for mercy' a sake let anyone see this horrlhly written 
 letter. 
 k Nellie 
 
 March 2Int,I96t5. 
 
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