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J5l^_^_

BARBARA FRITCHIE

BY THE SAME AUTHOR.

What we Really Know about Shake
speare. i2mo, cloth. Price, gi.25.
The Life of Dr. Anandabai Joshee, a
Kinswoman of the Pundita RaiDabai.
i2mo, cloth. Price, $1.00.
Letters Home from Colorado, Utah,
AND California, izmo. Price» £1.50.
ROBERTS BROTHERS,

BAR1;ARA FRITCHIE.
FROII ^ PHOTOGRAPH BY I;YERL\.

y
BARBARA FRITCHIE

a ^tttDt

BY
CAROLINE H. BALL
author of
'the college, market, and court," "what we really know
about SHAKESPEARE," " THE LIFE OF ANANDABAI JOSHEE "
" LETTERS HOME FROM COLORADO, UTAH, AND
CALIFORNIA," ETC., ETC.

Honor to her, and let a tear
Fall for her sake on Stonewall's bier
J. G. Whittier

BOSTON
ROBERTS BROTHERS
1892

Cofy'right, 1S9S,
By Roberts Brothers.

John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, U.S..\.

PREFACE.

(History of the Poem, and the reason why these pages
have been written.)
TN December, 1862, a great-nephew
of John Caspar Fritchie, returning
to Washington after an extended bridal
tour, went to Frederick to visit his rela
tives, and arrived just in time to attend
Barbara Fritchie's funeral.
The account of the funeral, published
in the local Union paper, naturally stim
ulated the memories of the German resi
dents, and Barbara's various exploits
were related.
The story of September 6th interested
her nephew, and on returning to his
Georgetown home he repeated it to a
brother.

8 PREFACE.
This brother, a well-known real-estate
agent in Washington, was on intimate
terms with Mrs. Southworth the novelist.
Mrs. Southworth was just recovering
from a severe illness, and her friend
told her the story as he heard it. The
statement was informal. Nothing was
known or said about Jackson's ordering
his troops to fire. The troops fired ;
Barbara waved the flag which the firing
threw down, reproaching the men for
their disloyalty, and the stern voice of
the general cried, " March on ! "
The vivid imagination of Mrs. South-
worth saw the possibilities of this touch
ing story, and she wrote her letter to
Whittier. Whittier was fired by its no
ble suggestions; and ignorant of Fred
erick, of its local possibilities, of the
constant irregular firing upon the flag
which went on in its streets and neigh
borhood, gave his imagination full play.
It was natural that he should think

PREFACE. 9
that the general who gave the order to
'•' March on ! " was at his post when the
disturbance began. Hardly had the bal
lad been printed before the truth of the
story began to be questioned in Mary
land and Virginia ; and as the rumors
of denial grew louder and louder, Miss
Dix, from her post in the hospitals, wrote
to the poet, reafiirming the facts.
The two parties misunderstood each
other. What irritated the Southerners
was the assertion that their favorite
general ordered his men to fire on an
aged woman. The Northerner, proud of
the courageous Barbara, and indifferent
to Jackson, supposed it was the woman's
heroism that offended, and so nothing
was established ; and quite lately Whit
tier told a friend residing in Baltimore
that he very much regretted the ballad,
as he now doubted the story, and that it
was the only thing he had ever written

10 PREFACE.
for the truth of which he could not
vouch. Here the fishermen of Marblehead step
up to remind him of Ffloyd Ireson !
But Whittier has no occasion to regret
his ballad. Noble-hearted Stonewall
Jackson neither loses nor gains by the
story, and would willingly spare a laurel-
leaf in the brave old German's honor.
In 1876, fourteen years after the
events related, I went to Frederick, and
satisfied myself that the story was true
as regarded Barbara. I interviewed
Valerius Ebert, in whose possession I
found her flag, the photographer Byerly,
Mrs. Handshew, and other connections
of Caspar Fritchie ; but I relied chiefly
upon Dr. Lewis H. Steiner, late librarian
of the Enoch Pratt Library, for the de
tails which filled out the story.
In March, 1878, 1 published the story,
as I understood it, in a magazine printed

PREFACE. 11
at Springfield, Massachusetts, and called
" Sunday Afternoon."
Owing to the facts that feelings were
still exasperated, and Dr. Steiner's home
still in Frederick, I was not at liberty to
give his authority as freely as I may do
now. My dear friend died suddenly in
Baltimore last winter, and his son has,
I believe, succeeded to his post.
The magazine had a limited circula
tion, but it reached Valerius Ebert,
whose voluminous letters were submitted
to Dr. Steiner, and returned, with anno
tations. It also reached John Williams,
a soldier in Burnside's corps ; and his
testimony is incorporated into the fol
lowing sketch. It is valuable because
it shows the story of September 6th cur
rent among the Rebels in Frederick a
few days after it occurred.
In 1887, Henry Nixtorf, a German
Unionist, — mentioned more than once in

12 PREFACE.
my story, — published his " Recollections
of Barbara," through W. T. Delaplaine,
of Frederick. Although it contains some
interesting anecdotes, this volume adds
nothing to our positive knowledge, ex
cept the statement that the flag fluttered
from her '•' west window " as long as
Barbara lived.
There the matter seemed likely to rest,
until Mrs. Jackson published, last winter,
the Memoir of her husband, in which she
denies distinctly that there is any founda
tion for the ballad. She asserts that she
makes this statement — and she does it
in evident good faith — after a thor
ough inquiry in the city of Frederick.
Soon after this, Dr. Steiner passed away,
and I was at liberty to speak more
freely. With the world in general, Mrs. Jack
son's statement, mistakenly supposed to
refer to Barbara, will seem authorita-

PREFACE. 13
tive ; but Mrs. Jackson wished only to
lift from her husband's brow the " blush
of shame," with which the poet's imagi
nation had remanded him to the " Legion
of Honor."
In investigating the whole subject
again, I have interviewed by letter or in
person all those whom I originally con
sulted. Mrs. Handshew is still living,
but too advanced in years to recall her
story. I have got such information as
I needed from the two brothers who
originally told it, and at their suggestion
I have had the local newspapers searched.
During the Civil War there were two
newspapers published in Frederick. An
exhaustive examination of the columns
of the Union paper has been made by
Miss Diehl, of Frederick, extending over
three years ; but it has yielded only the
account of Barbara's funeral, of which I
copy here the conclusion : —

14 PREFACE.
"Barbara removed to this city when a
child. She remembered the signing of the
Declaration of Independence, and the scenes
of the Eerolutionary War ; she was familiar
Tvith the career of Washington, and shared
the popular joy on the announcement of
peace. " In the quiet of domestic life she literally
grew up with the nation's growth, and partici
pated in its passing history ; in middle age
she witnessed the War of 1812 ; and when the
sands of life ran low, she justly regarded the
Eebellion, which now hangs like a cloud over
the hopes of freemen, as the saddest expe
rience of her protracted life.
" To one thus strangely identified with the
origin and growth of the Republic, loyalty
necessarily became a deep-seated sentiment ;
and when the Rebels were expelled from this
city, on the memorable 12th of September, this
venerable lady, as a last act of devotion, stood
at her front door and waved the glorious star-
spangled banner in token of welcome to our
deliverers. On Sunday last her mortal re
mains were interred in the cemetery of the
Evangelical Reformed Church, of which she

PREFACE. 15
was a consistent and exemplary member for
more than forty years." ^
I have corresponded with the present
pastor of the church here alluded to, and
it does not seem likely that any more
detailed account of the events of Septem
ber 6 th will ever be accessible, unless,
as has frequently happened in matters
of greater moment, some dead soldier's
diary should reveal it to posterity. Bar
bara Fritchie did not preserve the Ger
man spelling of her name, and I spell it
here as it is spelled on her monument in
the graveyard at Frederick.
CAROLINE HEALEY BALL.
1626 Eighteenth Street, N.W.,
Washington, D. C.
1 From the " Weekly Examiner," Dee. 27, 1862.

BAEBAEA FEITCHIE.

PART I.

"PVERYBODY in America knows the
story of " The Man without a Coun
try," and remembers how its author was
beset with inquiries as to the real name
and origin of the hero, Philip Nolan,
who was born and lived in the imagina
tion of Edward Everett Hale alone.
The experience is not peculiar. If in
literature any author is so venturesome
as to make use of a fact, its probability
is at once questioned. If he give the
rein to imagination, he is as speedily
called upon for names and dates.
No one could help observing this in
the Centennial year, for among the

18 BARBARA FRITCHIE.
many foreigners who visited Philadel
phia, a large number travelled to Freder
ick to ascertain the whereabouts of
Barbara Fritchie ; and during that sum
mer the Northern papers teemed with
descriptions of the localities connected
with the purely ideal story of " Evange
line." Standing in the little cottage
attached to the Quaker almshouse in
Philadelphia, which was pulled down
that very summer, I saw a lady take
an old engraving from the shivering
wall and murmur, "I wish I knew
whether Evangeline ever saw this ! "
The author of the ideal may well be
moved by any such tribute to his power ;
but the man who idealizes the historic
must needs be vexed by the treatment
the world bestows upon his effort.
For myself, I offer no thanks to him
who attempts to turn William Tell into
a solar myth. He is mine, and I will

BARBARA FRITCHIE. 19
not give him up. So is the blind Homer
of tradition, whether he were a poet in
his own right, or merely a wandering
harper who collected and chanted the
epics of the past.
Moved by such feelings, in November,
1875, I published in the '•' New York In
dependent " a vindication of the truth of
Whittier's story, drawn from antecedent
probability, quoting in my own support a
journal published by Dr. Lewis H. Steiner,
of the Sanitary Commission, before the
publication of Whittier's ballad. I had
heard soldiers of both armies assert that
they had seen old Barbara wave the flag ;
and as I did not know, at the time these
assertions were made, that the story
would ever be seriously questioned, as
indeed I did not guess any question to
be possible, it seemed best to restate
the supposed facts in the lifetime of the
author, and so challenge final confir
mation or denial.

20 BARBARA FRITCHIE.
My article did very little good. In
the following May the Philadelphia
" Press " contained another on the oppo
site side. The poiut of this paper was
different from any I had attempted to
meet. The "Press" denied that a bullet
or volley of bullets cut away Barbara's
staff; and this is certainly true. But
does anybody care whether it did or
no ? What I would assert is, that this
gray-haired woman, ninety-five years and
nine months old, stirred by the approach
of the Rebel army, mounted the short
stairway which led to her attic, and
waved her flag in the face of the advanc
ing foe. It was the dim dawn of a Sep
tember morning. No sympathetic Rebels
had crept out into the narrow street.
Only a few convalescents from the hos
pital watched the advance from the
bridge. The sight of Barbara raised the
coarse ire of some of the men, and their

BARBARA FRITCHIE. 21
lifted guns and uplifted voices were
lowered at Stonewall Jackson's stern
command. Why is it that human hearts are so
dead to the heroic? One would think
that at the first glimpse of this noble
story every eye would gleam, every
bosom would throb with exulting sym
pathy ! The ballad belongs to that class
of poems which the world will never
willingly let die. How does it happen,
then, that so many persons are anxious
to disprove, not merely the waving of
the flag, but the very existence of
Barbara Fritchie ?
I will give a double answer to this
question. I will tell the story as I
understand it, as simply as if it had
never been doubted ; and then I will ex
plain the state of things among her own
relatives and townspeople, which made
its denial possible in Frederick itself, —

22 BARBARA FRITCHIE.
Frederick, lifted into sudden illumination
for Barbara's sake.
Many a time and oft had I desired to
go to Frederick. Partly because it was
a lovely little gem, set in a circle of his
toric hills, like Nazareth of old. Partly
because Judge Taney was buried at the
Jesuit Novitiate there, and I, a Protes
tant Abolitionist, had a tender feeling
for this Catholic Southerner, now he
was no longer able to fulminate un
righteous decisions, because he asked
when dying to be laid next his mother
Monica, whose body had been moulder
ing for more than fifty years in that
cemetery. In Frederick also, under the
shade of lovely cypresses, rested the body
of Francis S. Key, author of the " Star-
Spangled Banner ; " and here also I meant
to trace the fast-vanishing footsteps of
Whittier's Barbara.
But when I was ordered into the

BARBARA FRITCHIE. 23
mountains of Maryland for my health,
I forgot all these things. Ill of a low
malarial fever, I went dreamily about
the old town, gazing at the queer roofs
where the shingles had a double lap
which made them look like old Dutch
tiles. Each shingle bound down not
merely the one beneath it, but that on
its own left ; and the shadows ran up
and down as well as across the roof.
Dr. Steiner said that these shingles were
of oak and hand-made, being thinned
with a spoke-shave or a drawing knife
towards both overlapping edges.
One day I was making a call in the
friendly neighborhood, when I heard a
bright young voice carolling to itself :
" Round about them orchards sweep,
Apple and peach tree, fruited deep."
" What ! " I exclaimed, " a saucy young
rebel like you singing the story of
Barbara Fritchie?"

24 BARBARA FRITCHIE.
" There never was a Barbara," she
pouted ; " but the poet loved our Mary
land! "
I went home and told this story. I
was staying with dear friends, reputed
Unionists. No one thought of blaming
them because their sympathies were more
than half with the land and people
among whom they had been reared,
rather than with the troops who had
pillaged and oppressed them. I found
that they too doubted the existence of
Barbara, and then I spurred myself to
inquire. It is pleasant to remember that
one of the unbelieving ladies of the
household went herself to Mrs. Handshew,
and asked the questions which have
made it possible to write this story.
I began to hear of relics, of the close-
hidden flag, of oaken bits cut from the
plank of the iron-wood stretcher over
which Caspar Fritchie used to strain his

BARBARA FRITCHIE. 25
skins. One night the delicate hand of
a Southern lady sawed a bit of oak in
two, and so divided for me her few
inches of the door-sill over which Bar
bara's resolute foot had so often
journeyed. In the spring of 1876 there was living
in Frederick a Mrs. Handshew, or more
properly Handschuh. As far as I have
been able to ascertain, Barbara had no
blood-relatives living when she died ;
but Mrs. Handshew had been with her
for some time, and nursed her in her last
sickness. She was a niece of Barbara's
husband, Caspar Fritchie.
Barbara left all her personal property
to this woman, except her father's Bible ;
that she gave to a Mrs. Mergardt. This
Bible is an ordinary quarto, very thick,
and of a form familiar to most persons
half a century ago. It is bound in calf ;
the sides are oak boards, and it was

26 BARBARA FRITCHIE.
printed in German by Christoph Sauer,
Germantown, Pa., in 1743. It is in good
preservation, and the only writing in it
is to be found on the inside of the front
cover, where the following sentence is
written in German : " This Bible belongs
to Niclaus Hauer, born in Nassau-Saar-
brucken, in Dillendorf, Aug. 6, 1733, who
left Germany May 11, 1754, and arrived
in Pennsylvania October 1, of the same
year." This inscription tells all that can now
be known of the father of Barbara Frit
chie. She never had a child, and no one
of her husband's relatives knows her
mother's name.
Barbara was born in Lancaster, Pa.,
where her father first settled, on the
3d of December, 1766, or one hundred
and twenty-five years ago. He moved
his family to Frederick much later. I
could not ascertain the exact date, but

BARBARA FRITCHIE. 27
from his connection with the Fritchies
it seems certain that it was before the
close of the Revolutionary War.
On the 6th of May, 1806, when she
was nearly forty years of age, Barbara
married John Caspar Fritchie, who was
fourteen years younger than herself.
The service was performed in Frederick
City by the Rev. Mr. Wagner, of the
German Reformed Church. It would not
have been at all singular if Barbara had
never married ; for although she was an
active, capable woman, mistress of many
generous enthusiasms, she had, as all con
fess, a sharp tongue. In his Report to the
Sanitary Commission, printed in 1862, Dr.
Steiner publishes a diary of the Rebel
occupation of Frederick. Jackson's corps
were recruiting, and under date of Tues
day, September 9th, he says, " A clergy
man tells me that he saw an aged
crone come out of her house, as certain

28 BARBARA FRITCHIE.
Rebels passed by, trailing the American
flag in the dust. She shook her long,
skinny hands at the traitors, and
screamed, at the top of her voice, ' My
curses be upon you and your officers for
degrading your country's flag ! ' Ex
pression and gesture were worthy of Meg
Merrilies." When Dr. Steiner sent me his report,
he marked this passage, and told me
privately that this was Barbara, three
days after Jackson's men had fired on
her flag. It is not likely that her spirit
was less bold in her early youth, and
I was a little curious to know why, if
she married at that mature age, it must
needs be a boy fourteen years younger
than herself. I could learn only one
central fact, — a fact honorable to Bar
bara and her family, and in keeping with
what we know of her later life. The
father of Caspar Fritchie had been a

BARBARA FRITCHIE. 29
Tory, sentenced by the laws of Maryland
to be " hung, drawn, and quartered, his
estates being confiscated."
The first part of this sentence was
executed. Owing to the intercession of
friends, probably of Niclaus Hauer him
self, the confiscation was remitted, and
whatever property he had was given to
his widow to aid her in bringing up her
children. Caspar was born in 1780, and
it is likely that his mother died early,
for Barbara is said to have " brought up "
a brother and sister of her husband.
Caspar Fritchie became a somewhat
noted person in that locality. He was
a glove-maker; and if Barbara did not
own the little cottage in which they
lived, he must have bought it and fitted
it up for his trade soon after his mar
riage. It not only stood upon the very
edge of the creek which crosses the
principal street of the town and separates

30 BARBARA FRITCHIE.
tiny Frederick City from the Bentztown
road, but the shop in which he worked
overhung the creek, so that when he
trimmed his skins, the clippings were
swept through a trap into the creek it
self. A sort of wooden balcony led back
from the street across the end of the
house to this shop, the balcony also pro
jecting over the water. I am particular
in describing this, because the fact that
the house overhung the creek is the one
circumstance which made her defiance
of the Confederate army possible, even
though that " army never passed through
Frederick." Maryland, Kentucky, Penn
sylvania, and Ohio all wanted the gloves
which Caspar Fritchie made for riding,
driving, and hunting. He was an ex
cellent workman, and well known to his
best customers, the gentry of the neigh
boring counties. He died in his seven
tieth year, Nov. 10th, 1849, thirteen

BARBARA FRITCHIE. 31
years before the wife who was so much
older than he that she might have been
his mother. His death left Barbara
very well off, but she did not change
her simple way of living.
Every afternoon she might be seen
sitting in the window of her little cot
tage, knitting-needles in hand. She
wore a black satin gown, with a clear
starched muslin kerchief crossed over her
breast. She had a lady-like, quiet air.
Long before anybody had heard of a
photograph, Barbara Fritchie had her
daguerreotype taken. This picture
shows her between fifty and sixty years
of age, wearing a close cap and the
costume which I have described, and
which she never changed. She looks
very much like the traditional New
England grandmother, reared under the
shadows of the Puritan church ; and the
first feeling that I had about the face,

32 BARBARA FRITCHIE.
was that it was very familiar, and not at
all German.
Stern and somewhat cold she looked ;
but her eye was clear and true, and one
saw in a moment how a little fun or a
warm love might melt down the harsh
lines. She had living with her at this time
and until her death, her niece, Harriet
Yorner, more properly Jahner, born on
the 4th of May, 1797. Barbara's first
trouble after her husband's death grew
out of her patriotic devotion to the
Union. Caspar Fritchie's will was drawn up
by Dr. Albert Ritchie, of Frederick, who
was also his executor. Barbara had only
a life tenure in the estate, and after Dr.
Ritchie's death in 1857, the laws of
Maryland devolved the duties of admin
istration upon his three nephews, the
acting administrator being Valerius Ebert,

BARBARA FRITCHIE. 33
who turned out what Barbara called an
" arrant Rebel." Every time she re
ceived her dividends, they had some
sharp words. She had entered the last
decade of her century, and she wished to
Hve in peace ; so she went to one of the
oldest and most respected of the German
residents, the father of the late Dr.
Lewis H. Steiner, afterwards well known
in the Army of the Potomac as an active
inspector under the Sanitary Commission,
and at the last the highly prized libra
rian of the Enoch Pratt Library in Balti
more. The older Steiner was a shrewd
business man, and the " arrant Rebel ''
asserts that Barbara had made savings
which she wished him to invest, " this be
ing no part of the administrator's duty."
At all events, he was a conspicuous
member of Barbara's own church, — a
ruling elder. She begged him to take
her power of attorney and receive her

34 BARBARA FRITCHIE.
money. Now, Frederick is a small city,
and even in 1876 it had many
cliques. Its people are Northern as well
as Southern, German as well as English
born, Protestant as well as Catholic.
Mr. Steiner was very unwilling to inter
fere, but he could not well refuse, so he
continued to transact Barbara's business
until his death.
Some time before the breaking out of
the war, he had a stroke of paralysis, from
which he entirely recovered. Lewis, who
was either at college or the medical
school, and who had so far known very
little of his townspeople, was sent for to
attend him. The first time Mr. Steiner
was able to walk out, he told Lewis that
he had some money that must be paid
to Frau Fritchie, and asked him to make
out a receipt for her to sign.
"Frau Fritchie" suggested to the
young student one of the old German

BARBARA FRITCHIE. 35
women whom he had often seen hoe
ing in their gardens, and ignorant of
letters, so he not only made out the
receipt, but signed it in such a way as
to leave room for Barbara's "mark."
When his father ushered him into the
presence of the black satin gown and
starched neckerchief, he must have been
a little startled ; but his heart did not
fail him. He courteously presented the
pen. Barbara took it, pushed back her
gold spectacles, and looked at the signa
ture. " Bless you, honey," she exclaimed,
bending a humorous look on the young
fellow, " bless you ! I wrote my name
as well as that long before you were
born ! " and drawing her pen through
Lewis's signature, she wrote her name
firmly beneath.
I drew this story out of my friend
by asking whether he had not an auto
graph of Barbara. " I have had a great

36 BARBARA FRITCHIE.
many," he said; "but I have kept only
this one, and nothing would induce me
to part with that ; " and then he showed
me the receipt in question. I think it
was framed, and hanging on the wall
of his study.
In this way our Barbara lived, doing
her own work, with only Harriet Yorner
to help, until the war broke out, when
she must have^ been nearly ninety-five
years old. Then she found enough to
do in cheering and helping sick sol
diers and despairing Unionists. She
went in and out of her own door many
times a day. If she found it difficult
to get up or down for the litter of idle
soldiers that cumbered the steps, she
was still strong enough to strike right
and left with her stout cane, shouting,
in Shakspearian fashion, "Off! off! you
lousy Rebels ! "
In the winter of 1861 and 1862, when

BARBARA FRITCHIE. 37
things looked badly enough for the cause
of the Union, she went about helping
and cheering. Henry Nixtorf, a Lu
theran, well known for sturdy piety and
patriotism, would tell with tears in his
eyes how, after every bit of bad news,
she would come into his shop, and strik
ing the ground with her cane, cry out,
" Never mind, Harry, we must conquer
sometime I " This winter Barbara
bought a small silk flag, about eigh
teen inches by twelve, not too heavy
for her aged arm to hold, while the
breeze that waved it, stirred also her
own memories of seventy-six. " It will
never happen," she was heard to say,
" that one short life like mine shall
see the beginning and the end of a
nation like this."
Harriet Yorner was sixty-five years
old when Barbara bought her flag, and
she was very timid, shrinking from the

38 BARBARA FRITCHIE.
sight of soldiers of either party. She
had reason enough to do so. The in
habitants of cities like New York or
Boston have very little idea what the
residents of the little town of Frederick
were called upon to endure that winter.
Soldiers of both armies were constantly
in the way ; a shot drew nobody to the
window, but drove timid people to their
hiding-places. Skirmishes and duels
were frequent in the narrow streets
which hands could almost stretch
across. It was just before sunrise on Satur
day, September 6th, 1862, that the
advance guard of Lee's army, under
Stonewall Jackson, came down the
Bentztown road. I do not mean that
the advance entered Frederick, — it cer
tainly did not ; but Stonewall Jackson
did. A little while before the troops
came within sight of Barbara's window.

(^meH OF House andCity OF Frederick FROM MEMORY

BARBARA FRITCHIE. 41
the general dropped out of the line,
and entering the town, thrust a little
note under the door of a friend a few
squares away. The note was simply
to tell Dr. Ross, the Presbyterian min
ister, that he would meet him at church
the next day. How he regained his
position at the head of his command no
one now living certainly knows, but it is
not likely that he could penetrate the
file crowding down the narrow road.
Dr. Steiner asserted that he spurred his
horse up a wide alley to Patrick Street,
and that he was met by a townsman as
he did so. Crossing the bridge built
over the creek, he must have passed
directly under Barbara's window. If
the rudeness of his soldiers ever drew
his attention, it was at this point, and
here must his voice have rung out,
" March on ! " in the ears of his start
led men. So much for the general's

42 BARBARA FRITCHIE.
part in the matter, by which I indi-
cate the least he could have done.
How did it happen that the army did
not enter Frederick, if the general did ?
The question is easily answered. The
creek which ran by the end of Barbara's
house, and which in the olden time swept
away the trimmings of Caspar's skins,
forms the boundary between Frederick
City and Frederick County, of which
county that little town is only the
nucleus. Just across the creek is a
narrow lane called the " Benztown road,"
which makes an angle with the creek at
the bridge, and then sweeps along nearly
in a line with it.
For quite a distance before the army
^reached the bridge, it must have been
visible from the attic window on the
west side of Barbara's house. It is not
likely that she had been asleep that
night. Everybody knew that the troops

BARBARA FRITCHIE'S HOUSE
Fr.iin a Pliotograph taken by Byerly just before the house was taken down in iSr.S

BARBARA FRITCHIE. 43
were on their way. She would be one
of the first to look out for Stonewall
Jackson. It has been said that she was
not able to leave her room at this time.
This was entirely untrue ; but if it had
been otherwise, does not every woman
know what sort of strength it was that
would have carried her up that short
flight of stairs in the dim light of that
September morning, leaning on her well-
known staff ?
The house consisted of a single storey,
with some attic chambers over it. Its
stairs were easy. The flag was already
in the window, as her friends assert, and
had been there ever since the previous
winter ; and what happened while the
old woman stood beside it, soldiers on
both sides, men in the Confederate ad
vance, and a few Union soldiers from
the hospital, have already told.
Harriet Yorner was saying her prayers

44 BARBARA FRITCHIE.
on the lower floor, with her face hidden
behind Barbara's own bed, and got
roundly scolded for her cowardice later,
as she herself told Mrs. Handshew. Bar
bara was only doing as she had done
ever since the war began. The Unionists
of English descent were absolutely igno
rant of and indifferent to the German
population. It would be hard to tell
what occasioned the bitter feeling which
existed between the two races, if it were
not for the fact that the Hessian mer
cenaries taken prisoner by our troops
during the War of the Revolution were
sent to Frederick. Some of them mar
ried there ; and however their de
scendants may fare in the future, the
Hessians were hated then, and the early
German residents shared their fate.
A few shots more or less made so little
difference to Barbara that she was not
likely to tell the story. In those excit-

BARBARA FRITCHIE. 45
ing hours, one anxiety soon drove out
another. That she stood by her flag,
was insulted for doing it, as was certain
to be the case in those days, and that
the general himself came to the rescue,
would seem sufficiently certain to who
ever investigated the story on the spot,
in the spring of 1876.
Who could have witnessed the scene
besides the actors in it ? Only the few
convalescents from the hospital to whom
I have alluded ; for the houses of the citi
zens were not yet open, nor was Barbara
visible to any one within the city limits.
The story was told to Miss Dix in the
hospital at Frederick, and on her return
to Washington she confirmed it in a
letter to Whittier.
Engelbrecht, the mayor of the little
town at a later period, lived in a house
on Patrick Street, directly opposite
Barbara.

46 BARBARA FRITCHIE.
Prof. Samuel Tyler, the author of a
Life of Chief Justice Taney, addressed
some inquiries to the mayor as to the
truth of this story.
In a letter dated June 30th, 1875,
Engelbrecht replied in substance that he
was at his own window when General
Lee passed the front of Mrs. Fritchie's
house, where his whole army halted
while the advance under Jackson passed
down the Bentztown road, and he saw
neither Barbara nor her flag. Why
should he ? This was on Wednesday,
September 10th, when the Confederates
were leaving the town. Barbara con
fronted the advance on Saturday, Sep
tember 6 th, as it passed on to its en
campment. Nor could Engelbrecht have
seen her under any circumstances in his
own house. The side window in the attic
from which she waved her flag fronted
the Bentztown road, and was invisible
to any one at Engelbrecht's.

BARBARA FRITCHIE. 47
Professor Tyler, in communicating this
to Miss Boyle, asserted that Stonewall
Jackson did not pass Barbara's house,
— and I willingly admit that he did not,
on the 10th of September ; but the pro
fessor then goes on to say that on that
day he left the following note under the
Rev. Mr. Ross's door on Second Street :
Regret not being permitted to see Dr.
and Mrs. Ross, but could not expect to have
that pleasure at so unseasonable an hour.
T. J. Jackson.
Sept. 10, 1862, 5.15 a.m.
The note bore every sign of having
been written in extreme haste. It was
under this very door that General Jack
son left another note on Saturday, Sep
tember 6th, to say that he would be at
church the following day ; and this note
Dr. Steiner saw an hour or two after it
was written.
Now, Tyler's statement has nothing in

48 BARBARA FRITCHIE.
the world to do with our story. This
was Wednesday, and it was on Saturday
that the whole affair took place. Miss
Dix stated that Barbara's flag waved
from the attic window as long as the
Rebel army occupied Frederick. This
would not have been possible if it had
been the large flag, of which people
commonly think ; but as the window did
not front the town, and the flag was so
small, it might easily have done so. Bar
bara had no reason to go to her front win
dow on the day the army left. Her attic
commanded a complete view, not only of
the advance, but of the army that fol
lowed, — a privilege not shared, I believe,
by any other house within the town.
On Sunday, Sept. 7th, 1862, Stonewall
Jackson attended service at the Presby
terian church in Frederick, where Dr.
Steiner saw him ; " and I am sure," added
the Doctor, in a letter to myself, " that he
worshipped with relish ! "

BARBARA FRITCHIE. 49
I saw every one in Frederick who
could be supposed to know anything of
the incident. Every one believed that
the flag had been fired upon, but it
is certain that no bullet struck the staff.
It is possible that one may have lodged
under the eaves ; but although door-sill
and window-sill were cut into blocks
and treasured as relics, no one thought
of the bullet when the house was pulled
down. It is probable that Barbara's
story and Mrs. Quantrell's were con
founded by rumor, for the staff of Mrs.
Quantrell's flag was cut away.
Two days after, Lee's army moved to
the west. On Friday, September 12th,
Burnside's army entered the very streets
of Frederick. The advance under Reno
crossed the bridge over the creek, enter
ing between Barbara's house and one
opposite, where an old German clergy
man, the Rev. Joseph Trapnell, himself

oO BARBARA FRITCHIE.
over ninety years of age, was waving
his flag.
Barbara stood in the doorway of her
house with Harriet Yorner and Mrs.
Handshew. A younger member of the
partv, catching a glimpse of Mr. Trap
nell, brought Barbara's flag from the
house. Somewhat reluctantly, Barbara
accepted and waved it. It was much
more like ker to shake her flag in the
face of the advancing foe than to parade
her good-will when a friendly army
entered. The groups in the two houses attracted
the attention of General Reno. He saw
at one glance the advanced age and the
deep emotion of the two who held the
fla^s. He halted between them. "Behold
the spirit of seventy-six ! " he cried out
to his men; and they answered by a
mighty shout, which echoed along the
street.

BARBARA FRITCHIE. 51
This little incident, which has never
been questioned in Frederick or out of
it, spread the fame of the two old people
throughout the town. It took place in
full day, and was witnessed by both par
ties. The talk about it led the few jJer-
sons who knew what had occurred on Sep
tember 6th to , speak of that also. The
battle of " South Mountain " brought
many wounded men into the hospital,
and so the story slowly travelled. What
ever friends or relatives might know,
they were little likely to boast of then,
for outrage followed quick on loyalty.
The close of September! and the weeks
that came after brought more than one
event likely to shatter aged nerves.
The 3d of December, which completed
Barbara Fritchie's ninety-sixth year,
found her in bed, which she had not
quitted for a month, and where she was
nursed by Mrs. IJandshew and Harriet
Yorner.

52 BARBARA FRITCHIE.
" Behold the spirit of seventy-six ! "
exclaimed General Reno; but he little
knew how truly he spoke so far as re
garded Barbara. When the Revolution
ary War opened, she was old enough to
enter into and understand it. When it
ended, she was a woman grown. When
Washington visited Frederick in 1791,
Barbara sent some dainty teapot to be
used in his behalf ; and when the town
of Frederick held funeral services in his
honor, nearly ten years after, she was
one of the pall-bearers, so early in her
history had her steadfast patriotism be
come conspicuous.
All her life long she talked of the Bos
ton tea-party and the success of the col
onists, with loving pride, and the events
of the Civil War kept the subject con
stantly in her mind. The glorious mem
ory of what she had lived through
stimulated her faith that the Union

BARBARA FRITCHIE. 53
must survive. "We have seen darker
times," she said frequently to Henry
Nixtorf; and it is he who asserts that
her flag floated from her west window
until she died ; nor does he believe that
it was taken in between the 6th and
the 10th of September. We have pretty
conclusive evidence that it was still float
ing when, on the 13th of September, Mrs.
Handshew went down into the flower-
garden and left her to her encounter
with the Union officer.
An account of this incident and of
what occurred on the previous day, dif
fering somewhat from that given to me
by Mrs. Handshew fifteen years after, I
will condense from a newspaper printed
soon after the war closed.
" The troops were passing all day,"
Mrs. Handshew said. " I sent my daugh
ter across the bridge to bring Aunt Bar
bara away ; but she found her nodding and

54 BARBARA FRITCHIE.
laughing with the soldiers, and she
asked Julia to hand her a flag which lay
between the leaves of her Bible." It was
a little flag of twisted silk not two feet
long. It had no staff, — which may have
helped out the story of September 6th,
and Barbara waved it like a handkerchief.
" How old is grandmother ? " said Reno ;
and when some one answered ninety-six,
he reined in his horse, and three loud
cheers startled the air. He dismounted
and entered the house, and when he took
his seat, Barbara served him with wine
made by her own hands. The next day —
the very day on which Reno met his fate
at South Mountain — the Handshews,
who seemed to have lived just across the
bridge, spent the day with Barbara.
They went down into the garden to at
tend to some of her flowers, and when
she locked the door after them, they
charged her not to open it until they
returned.

BARBARA FRITCHIE. 55
" When we went back," said Mrs. Hand-
shew, " she met us quivering with excite
ment. ' I could n't help it, he would
have it ! ' she exclaimed. ' I did n't want
to give it, but he was a gentleman. He
had straps on his shoulders, and a gold
watch and chain.' At last she was per
suaded to own that she had answered a
knock. Then an officer entered, and
pleaded so earnestly for a little cotton
flag that lay beside her that she could not
refuse it.
" ' He would have it,' she kept repeat
ing, 'but it wasn't the one — '"
What did Barbara mean when she said
" that it was n't the one " ? Probably
that the officer had asked for the flag
that she had waved on September 6th,
which was still fast m the west window
upstairs. This anecdote shows us that
Barbara had three flags, — one which told
the story of her loyalty to every man or

56 BARBARA FRITCHIE.
child that crossed the bridge, and which
was finally bought by Valerius Ebert ;
one laid securely between the pages of
her Bible, and held as sacred as the book
itself ; and a common cotton toy which
was always in sight. It is probable that
the officer was a convalescent at the hos
pital, about to rejoin his troops. If he
be still living, these pages may fall into
his hands. Is it too much to ask that
he should speak?
Just opposite Barbara's house, and near
the creek, a clear spring bubbled up ; and
as she went to and from ^Mrs. Handshew's.
the soldiers crowded round her. If they
were her " own men," her glasses and
dippers were always ready; but if they
were the ¦• gray coats," her gold-headed
cane stirred among them as if they had
been dead lea,ves. and they scattered in
aU directions, driven by the curses that
she did not spare.

BARBARA FRITCHIE. 57
On the 18th of December, 1862, three
months and a half after her trembling
hand had shut the attic window down
upon her little flag, she peacefully
breathed her last. In the graveyard of
the Evangelical Reformed Church the
curious traveller will find two marble
headstones, surrounded by a wall of ever
greens, bearing the inscriptions : —
John C. Feitchib,
Died Nov. 10, 1849, aged 69 years.
Baebaea Teitchib,
Died Dec. 18, 1862, aged 96 years.
When the funeral was over, and the
Rebels were rid of "Brave Barbara," the
"mayor and corporation" had a double
reason for trying to get possession of the
little house in which she had lived. In
the first place, and in spite of what has
been said to the contrary, so many in-

58 BARBARA FRITCHIE.
quiries had already been made concern
ing Barbara that they were glad to cut
them short by saying, with apparent
truth, " There is not a house in town
which ever belonged to any such
person." On the other hand, the little creek
was a dangerous foe to the town, and
had more than once swamped the cellars
and lower storeys of the houses in its
neighborhood in a way that not only
threatened disease and death, but that
induced worthy citizens to consider their
taxes and the amount to be paid yearly
to retrieve personal losses. So the cor
poration bought Barbara's house, and
pulled it down.
Fortunately for us, Barbara had one
relative who was not ashamed of her,
and who knew very well that her little
flag had been waved in the sight of the
whole world, although she might not
have suspected it.

BARBARA FRITCHIE. 59
This was a certain John D. Byerly,
photographer, who called his workshop
at 29 North Market Street, Frederick, a
studio, and refused to send anything out
of it that did not please him. If nobody
knew anything of Miss Dix's story at
the time of Barbara's death, how did it
happen that this rhan made haste to
copy the old daguerreotype ?
?! have said that Barbara left all her
personal property to Mrs. Handshew. If
she gave her the flag with all the rest,
there was one man in town shrewd
enough to offer its price.
Mr. Byerly knew where to find it, and
in spite of the Southern sympathies of
its owner, he borrowed it, set it in the
west window where it had waved from
the time that Barbara bough|; it until
shortly before her death, and photo
graphed the little house before the cor
poration pulled it down.

60 BARBARA FRITCHIE.
When it was levelled, about two thirds
of the lot was dug away, so that the
wicked creek might find room enough
for its sudden vagaries ; and on the re
maining third a small tinshop was erected,
which was still standing in 1878. Har
riet Yorner survived her old friend. She
died at the age of seventy-seven, on the
1st of May, 1874. Her story, as con
nected with that of Barbara, rests on the
word of Mrs. Handshew, who was living
when I went to Frederick. Harriet was
buried in the quiet yard at Frederick,
where her body was laid beside those of
Barbara and Caspar.
If my story be true, what were the
motives to the various contradictions
and denials connected with it ?
How peremptory these were, the fol
lowing anecdote will show : —
In the month of May, 1876, I went
into a druggist's shop in Frederick to

BARBARA FRITCHIE. 61
get a little quinine. It was Sunday
morning, and while I waited, a stranger
sauntered in, wearing the gray morning
coat of the conventional Englishman.
" Will you tell me, sir," he asked of
the druggist, " whether a woman named
Barbara Fritchie ever lived in this
town ? "
" Certainly," was the answer.
" Ah ! " responded the Englishman,
stroking his whiskers with an air of
relief, " there is evidently a mystery.
I asked at the hotel : they said there
was no such person here. I replied that
she might be dead, but there must be
a grave, relatives, or at least the house
in which she had lived ; but the landlord
angrily denied that there was any such
thing. I determined not to leave town
without inquiring on the street, and as
it is Sunday and the shops are shut, I
must trouble you." The druggist ex-

62 BARBARA FRITCHIE.
plained. The traveller could not wait
for Dr. Steiner, who had not risen, and
it ended in my leading him to the bridge
and into the solemn shadow of the ever
greens at the cemetery while the drug
gist put up my powders.
The owner of the hotel turned out upon
inquiry to have been a personal enemy
of Barbara. I think it is not difficult for
the reader to see how little likely Bar
bara was to boast of her defiance to her
friends, or tell of it in any way to her
husband's nephews. As far as she was
concerned, she contented herself, accord
ing to Mrs. Handshew, by scolding Har
riet Yorner for her cowardice. The denial
was given partly in ignorance, and partly
in unsympathizing disgust, while the
Anti-Union feeling was still strong.
Once given, it must be adhered to.
If it be asked wjiy the leading Union
ists of the town said nothing about it.

BARBARA FRITCHIE. 63
I would reply that the incident oc
curred at a time and place when no one
but Jackson and his men could be ex
pected to know of it. To Jackson it was
but one of a hundred similar incidents
and small disturbances connected with his
march, the only peculiarity being the ex
treme age of the woman. Six days after
Barbara's achievement, the wife of one
of the prominent Union men in Frederick
unfurled her national flag — a much
bigger one than Barbara's — just as
Stewart's men dashed by her house.
" It was pleasant and fitting," Dr.
Steiner says in his diary, " that a member
of the Washington family should so have
welcomed the incoming Union troops."
But there was a still stronger reason.
When I asked the niece of Admiral
Goldsborough, who divided her oaken
relic with me, why she, a Union woman,
had never heard this story, she- answered

64 BARBARA FRITCHIE.
at once, " Because we never had anything
to do with the Hessians." The prejudice
which separated the old Union residents
from the Germans seemed to have been
stronger than that which divided them
from their Rebel neighbors.
I once heard a Union officer assert in
a railway car that he had seen a shot
fired at Barbara's flag. It was in Novem
ber, 1868, between Baltimore and Wash
ington ; and I was on my way to the
colored schools at Beaufort. His state
ment was not made in controversy. It
was perfectly simple. He described the
position of the house accurately, railing
somewhat profanely because the corpo
ration had so unnecessarily destroyed the
house, instead of widening the creek on
the side of the Bentztown road. I listened
intently and looked at him with great
interest, but did not ask his name, be
cause at that time I did not know that

BARBARA FRITCHIE. 65
it was possible to doubt the story. Both
Harriet Yorner and Barbara died before
it was questioned.
Who are the persons who have denied
this story over their own name ?
1. Mayor Engelbrecht, an honest man
and a Unionist, but one who made a
mistake in the time alluded to. It was
on Wednesday, September 10th, not Sat
urday, the 6th, that he stood all day
at his upper window watching the main
body of Lee's army as it passed. But if
it had been on the 6th, he could not have
seen Barbara, for her own house would
have been interposed between herself
and him.
2. A certain Samuel Tyler, lawyer,
and author of the Life of Judge Taney,
who died in 1878. He relied first upon
the mayor's statement, and next upon
the fact that Jackson's forces " did not
enter Frederick." He started with the
6

66 BARBARA FRITCHIE.
mistaken idea that Barbara was said to
wave her flag from the front window,
and so had no motive for telling us how
close the Bentztown road came to Bar
bara's side window, or for recalling the
fact that Stonewall Jackson attended
church in the town the next day.
3. A Bangor paper, dated, I think,
Jan. 26, 1876, denies the story on the
authority of " one of the family." Upon
inquiry this turned out to be the "arrant
Rebel " with whom Barbara would have
nothing to do.
4. A more elaborate denial was made
by a writer calling himself " Karl Ed
mund," in the Philadelphia " Press " on
the 18th of May, 1876.
As his letter was written after a visit
to the spot, it is ,as well to advert to his
objection that Dr. Steiner did not pub
licly stand by the story. That a Ger
man Unionist living in Frederick City

BARBARA FRITCHIE. 67
should feel it unnecessary to take sides
on this matter in the midst of far more
important duties, will surprise no one
who has been there long enough to rec
ognize the vestiges of the old feud, or to
sympathize with the social predicament
in which the close of the war found
some of its best citizens.
The story was certainly told while
Barbara lived. It was openly gossiped
over in the hospitals as soon as death
released her from annoyance. It became
public in the following year.
Karl Edmund suggests that a Mrs.
Quantrell, " now in Washington," might
have been the true heroine. Such a per
son may have waved a flag on the 10th
of September, when Lee went out of
town, or when Burnside entered ; but
no house in Frederick but Barbara
Fritchie's had a window that confronted
Jackson's advance on the 6th.

68 BARBARA FRITCHIE.
5. The most important denial is one
said to have been given recently by a
member of Jackson's staff residing at
Hagerstown. If the reader will turn to
the account of Jackson's absence of a
few moments only from the head of the
advance, he will see that it need not
have been observed by any of his staff.
The officer is of course correct when
he denies that Jackson gave the order
to " Fire ! " As no one now knows at
what part of the column the disturbance
occurred, it may easily have escaped the
notice of any one man.
The whole story turns on local pecu
liarities that have been wholly ignored
in the telling.
No one asks how it was that a story
to which there were so few witnesses
became instantly linked to Barbara's
name. Jackson's men remained in the
neighborhood four days. The few sol-

BARBARA FRITCHIE. 69
diers or hospital patients who witnessed
the scene had many opportunities to ask
who lived in the little house overhang-
ing the creek. Everybody could tell,
and the story was never doubted till it
became hopelessly entangled in double
dates and mixed motives.
The poem is historically true to the
spirit of the loyal woman who gave
it being. In several minor respects it
errs, for the history of the 6th of
September had not then been written.
" All that day through Frederick street
sounded" no "tread of marching feet,"
and the marching in the coimtt/ ceased
at an early hour. It was not noon,
but daybreak, when Barbara mounted
to her attic. Stonewall Jackson never
ordered his men to fire on the flag
held in an aged woman's hand. He
was not at the "head" of his advanc
ing column. The moment he reached

70 BARBARA FRITCHIE.
it, he did indeed give the order to
" March on ! "

So far I had told the story in my
article of April, 1878. When I wrote
to Whittier, asking for a copy of Miss
Dix's letter, he was not able to find
it ; and although Mrs. Southworth's
seems to have been printed soon after
the ballad was written, I have seen only
that portion of it which is quoted by
Karl Edmund in May, 1876.
It was Mrs. Southworth who first told
the story to Whittier, and she did not
attribute to Stonewall Jackson the orders
to "halt and fire" which make part of
Whittier's poem. If she thought, not
living in Frederick, that such an order
had been given, it was natural that she
should have supposed a " volley " fol
lowed, and that Jackson gave the order ;
although we have every reason to sup-

BARBARA FRITCHIE. 71
pose that only one or two irregular shots
were fired. Miss Dix's whole soul ex
ulted in the story, for she was quite
capable herself of the action it recorded,
and was glad to confirm it. Whittier,
knowing nothing of the details, told the
story in his most heroic mood ; and the
song will live longer than the facts.
Up to the time that I published the
result of my investigations, Valerius
Ebert, who was that nephew of Caspar
Fritchie from whom Barbara refused to
receive her dividends, had made no public
statement concerning Barbara. In April
and May, 1878, I received several letters
from this nephew, chiefly filled with
slanderous charges against Dr. Steiner.
When I humorously reported these to the
Doctor, he replied, after characterizing
the man somewhat broadly, as follows :
" Once, during the occupancy of our
place by some United States cavalry

72 BARBARA FRITCHIE.
under General Stahel, at the request of
his distressed wife I rescued Ebert from
the rough hands of some of the troops.
Of course he is grateful ! I am sorry
he has a poor opinion of me ! "
Some time after, a copy of " The Jour
nal," a Sunday newspaper printed at
Evansville, Ind., on April 14th, 1878, was
sent me. In this, a letter from Valerius
Ebert asserts that at the time Lee's
advance entered Frederick, Barbara was
lying in her bed, a helpless invalid
within a few weeks of her death.
Now, we know this is not true, for
six days after the advance, Reno's men
cheered her upon her front porch, where
she again waved a flag, and " was seen
of many."
His next assertion is that Ebert never
had a sharp word with his aunt; and
against that we must set the statement of
Dr. Lewis H. Steiner and his father, to

BARBARA FRITCHIE. 73
whom Barbara went for relief, — well-
known persons both of them. Then
comes the amazing assertion that, as a
politician. Aunt' Barbara " was never de
monstrative." Every German resident in
Frederick knew better than that. Noth
ing would be gained by copying Ebert's
letters to me, and I pass on to one of
greater interest.
The April number of " Sunday After
noon," in which I published my first
account of Barbara Fritchie, was issued
about the 10th of March, 1878, according
to the very reprehensible modern prac
tice of anticipating the proper date, —
a practice which will make newspapers
and magazines historically worthless to
the succeeding generations. Soon after
that date, I received the following letter
from one of Burnside's men. It answers
very fully the statement that the main
fact of Barbara's story was never heard
of in Frederick during her life : — •

74 BARBARA FRITCHIE.

No. 712 Rhode Island Avenue,
Washington, D. C, March 16, 1878.
Madam, — I have read this day with great
interest your capital article in the April
number of the " Sunday Afternoon," entitled
"The Truth about Barbara Fritchie." I
also remember reading your article on the
same subject published in the " Independent "
sometime in 1875. And now, let me tell
you what I know about this famous act of
" Dame Barbara's : " —
On the 18th of September, 1862, the day
after the battle of Antietam (and twelve
days after Barbara is said to have confronted
the advance), I happened to be in Frederick
City with several of my comrades belonging
to Burnside's Ninth Army Corps. We were
in search of a glass of beer, and were shown
a little house where it was said that we
could procure it. We entered, and found a
very pretty Irish girl in charge ; and after
some " persuasive logic " she introduced us
to a barrel of lager, and we had a good time.
I remember very well her telling me the
story about Barbara Fritchie and the flag.

BARBARA FRITCHIE. 75
We were very much interested, and under
the inspiring influences of the moment, the
writer paid his compliments to the great
" Stonewall," after which the pretty maiden
shouted, " Bully for Jackson ! " I at once
retorted, " If you say that again, I '11 kiss
you ! " But I did n't, for she hastily with
drew, leaving "the boys" in command.
On our -way to the front we called to see,
and did see, Barbara Fritchie's house; and
I am willing to make affidavit to the same.
But you have told " the truth, the whole
truth, and nothing but the truth."
Very respectfully, John Williams.
Caroline H. Dall, care of " Sunday Afternoon,"
Springfield, Mass.
Now, it is obvious that the value of
a letter like the above depends upon
the character of the man who wrote it.
At the time I received it, I had no
thought of publishing it. Since the
issue of the " Life of Stonewall Jackson,"
I have seen the necessity of reasserting

76 BARBARA FRITCHIE.
all that part of the story that relates
to Barbara's heroism, of explaining how
the poet, naturally ignorant of the his
tory of the day and the character of
Stonewall Jackson, most innocently at
tributed to him an order, which, under
no circumstances, could he have been
induced to give.
I think it probable that, however well
the story was known, Jackson was never
credited with the order to " Fire ! "
until after the ballad was published, in
October, 1863. I therefore determined to
find John Williams, who had heard the
story twelve days after the incident oc
curred, and ascertain exactly what was
said about the general when the little
Irish girl told the story. But, alas ! I
found only his grave.
The War Department could not help
me, because I could not properly define
his position. It then occurred to me

BARBARA FRITCHIE. 'J'J
that fourteen years was not a very long
time, and that I might trace him from
the house where he had lived in 1878.
His family were remembered, and it was
easy for me to find his widow, who has
recently married a second time. The
little sketch of his life which follows, I
took down from her lips and from papers
in her possession : —
John Williams was born in Cornwall,
at St. Just, a parish in the western part
of Penzance. He reached this country
in time to receive a certificate of citi
zenship in Jackson, Michigan, in 1860,
and on the breaking out of the war,
enlisted in the Eighth Michigan In
fantry and served as quartermaster.
In 1865, after the war ended, he seems
to have entered the service of, the Freed-
man's Bureau. He went to the Caro-
linas, and finally to Jackson, Miss.,
carrying teachers to the colored schools.

78 BARBARA FRITCHIE.
He finally settled in Mississippi, and be
came "reader and librarian" to the Mis
sissippi Senate, — a title which his widow
insisted upon, although it sounded oddly
to my New England ears. The office
corresponds to our " clerk of the sen
ate." He came to Washington in 1877,
and obtained a clerkship in the Treas
ury, where he remained until his death
in 1886, at the early age of fifty-seven.
Some resolutions, passed by his com
panions in the Sixth Auditor's Office,
were framed and hanging on the wall.
They spoke of his careful and accurate
habits. His death was instantaneous.
He fell as he left his room in the morn
ing; and the resolutions stated that
no unfinished work was left on his desk
the night before, and that his papers
were as carefully filed as if he had
known what was to happen. They
spoke also of his generous heart, his

BARBARA FRITCHIE. 79
genial smile and ready wit. I found
his wife very proud of his college educa
tion, his wide reading, and personal re
finement. The Senate of Mississippi
passed resolutions at the time of his
death, which were sent to his brother,
a prosperous citizen of Penzance. I
have thought it worth while to recapi
tulate his story, because it gives the
impression of a man who could be
trusted. If I could find the Union officer who
said he saw the shot fired at the flag, I
think the evidence of Barbara's heroism
would now satisfy a court of justice.
Caeoline Healet Dall.
1526 Eighteenth Street, N. W.,
Washington, March, 1892.

80 BARBARA FRITCHIE.

PART II.
BARBARA'S HOME AND ITS NEIGHBORHOOD
IN 1876.
I HAVE said that it was the niece of
Admiral Goldsborough who divided for
me the bit of oak that had been cut
for her from Barbara Fritchie's thresh
old ; and when I name her, many a
United States soldier will rouse himself
to read, and many a Northern mother
of dead sons will breathe a blessing
choked by sobs. It was she who talked
to me of Frederick. Quaint, indeed, I
found the old tovm. It really seemed
to consist of but two streets hardly a
mile long, crossing each other at right
angles, and so making a market square
in the centre, and intersected in odd

BARBARA FRITCHIE. 81
ways by narrow lanes, through one of
which Stonewall Jackson was seen to
spur his horse on the morning of Sept.
6th, 1862.
A few miles away flows the Potomac,
hidden by a low mountain wall between
which and the town were the broad
pastures and orchards "fruited deep."
Fair, indeed, it was "as a garden of
the Lord." The conical summit of the
" Sugar Loaf " cuts the clear blue sky,
and showed no remnant of the Stars and
Stripes that once floated aloft. The
Presbyterians still called their congre
gation together by a sharp-voiced tri
angle, and every quarter of an hour the
old town clock rang out the time, telling
by repeated strokes how many quarters
had glided away.
On the outskirts you can still trace
the barracks built for Braddock's men,
and used as a prison during the Revolu-

82 BARBARA FRITCHIE.
tionary War. As I dwelt on these
things. Miss Goldsborough said, —
" But you ought to go to the Novitiate.
Father McElroy is the oldest Jesuit in
the world."
So it happened that the next day I
went over to the Novitiate. When I was
shown into the dusky ante-chamber to
await the coming of the priest, I was
stirred to the very depths ; for out of
its dim shadows I seemed to see ap
proaching the form of a long lost friend.
I lost him out of the dancing-school
and the old dining-room in Bowdoin
Square, where we had studied our Greek
verbs together.
Joseph Coolidge Shaw went to Europe
from Harvard College. When he be
came a Jesuit priest at Rome, he sent
home a portrait of himself in a priest's
robes, and after his death his family
sent it to the institution which had

BARBARA FRITCHIE. 83
sheltered his last hours. His life had
been one of fearless truth, mingled with
the sweetest devotion and self-denial.
If I had ever known that he died here,
I had lost sight of the fact. The
darkness of the alcove in which the pic
ture hung, hid the frame and the back
ground. I seemed, as I entered, to
encounter the living form that I had
loved. Father McElroy had long been blind ;
but even to his consciousness my per
turbed feeling was soon revealed. He
asked for an explanation, and when I
gave it, sent for the nurse who had
tended my friend in his last illness,
who went with me to the grave which
I had never expected to see, and told
me many a lovely anecdote of the steps
which led to it. Father McElroy could
not talk long enough of one who had
been a favorite pupil, and while we
pondered, the hours sped.

84 BARBARA FRITCHIE.
The old Father had been born in 1781.
He had just celebrated his ninety-fifth
birthday. For three years he had been
totally blind ; but with what a cheerful
voice he answered my inquiries ! " ' The
Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken
away.' So much may I say with holy
Job!" and then he went on to tell
me of the beautiful October days which
he had seen in Frederick, with gay sun
shine glinting through the bright-col
ored leaves.
He had been a dear friend of Cheve-
rus, and sat at his side at that his
toric Boston dinner whe^ the bishop,
finding himself opposite to William El-
lery Channing, bowed to him and said :
" You see, they have set orthodox and
heterodox over against each other!"
Father McElroy gave Father Byrne
a key that he might take me into the
church opposite the Novitiate. " When

BARBARA FRITCHIE. 85
I came here in 1803," he went on to
say, " we had but one bishop in the
United States. This church, which I
built, was only the second in the country,
and for a long time the handsomest.
In 1823 all the bishops came to conse
crate it. There were only eight. Now
we have more than sixty, and the Catho
lics constitute one seventh of the popu
lation of the United States. Then there
were three millions of people in the
country ; noiu there are forty. Never in
the world has the Church seen such an
increase as this ! "
The church which Father McElroy
built is indeed a fine one. It was he
who secured its precious pictures. The
altar is of white marble, and a magnifi
cent painting of the Crucifixion hangs
above it.
Father McElroy was three years a
chaplain in the Mexican War, attached

86 BARBARA FRITCHIE.
to Taylor's command. At its close he
was sent to Boston, where he built the
Jesuit College and the Church of the
Immaculate Conception. It was not till
he was nearly blind that he was allowed
to come back to the city of his love. He
died in the summer of 1877, at the age
of ninety-seven.
It was a sunny Sabbath afternoon
when — a few days later — I drove out
over South Mountain. Braddock's road
crossed mine almost at a right angle.
A spring is still shown where his men
stopped to drink. The hillsides are cov
ered with chestnuts hung with vines.
From the latter the Germans make a
very fair claret. From the cemetery
where Francis Key's body was laid, one
may look far down the road which leads
to Washington. It is a broad highway,
traversing the distance with a mighty
sweep. As I looked, I felt as if the

BARBARA FRITCHIE. 87
poet's dry bones must have put on their
flesh when the Rebel army marched into
Frederick !
Old De Vol, who had charge of the
cemetery, had been on the spot all
through the war. He saw Burnside en
ter, — the sun gleaming on his bayonets,
cavalry skirmishing along the road, and
the artillery throwing shells from the
rear over both armies. I could see it
all as I listened and looked down the
turnpike, threading the beautiful hills
on the way to Georgetown ! When you
are on the spot. Harper's Ferry also
seems to be only a suburb of Frederick.
Certainly, John Brown and dear old
Barbara have long since shaken hands !
Makch 14, 1892.

88 BARBARA FRITCHIE.

PART III.
THE BALLAD.
(The words in italics are intended to indicate assertions
that are mistaken.)
Up from the meadows rich with corn,
Clear in the cool September morn,
The clustered spires of Erederick stand
Green-walled by the hills of Maryland.
Eound about them orchards sweep,
Apple and peach tree fruited deep.
Fair as a garden of the Lord
To the eyes of the famished rebel horde;
• On that pleasant morn of the early fall
When Lee marched over the mountain wall, —
Over the mountains, winding down,
Horse and foot into Frederick town.

BARBARA FRITCHIE. 89
Forty flags with their silver stars,
Forty flags with their crimson bars,
Flapped in the morning wind ; the sun
Of noon looked down and saw not one.
Up rose old Barbara Frietchie then,
Bowed with her fourscore years and ten;
Bravest of all in Frederick town,
She took up the flag the men hauled down;
In her attic-window the staff she set,
To show that one heart was loyal yet.
Up the street came the rebel tread,
Stonewall Jackson riding ahead.
Under his slouched hat left and right
He glanced; the old flag met his sight.
" Halt / " — the dust-hrown ranks stood fast ;
"Fire / " — out blazed the rifle blast.
It shivered the window pane and sash ;
It rent the banner with seam and gash.
Quick as it fell from the broken staff,
Dame Barbara snatched the silken scarf ;

90 BARBARA FRITCHIE.
She leaned far out on the window-sill.
And shook it forth with a royal will.
" Shoot, if you must, this old gray head,
But spare your country's flag," she said.
A shade of sadness, a blush of shame,
Over the face of the leader came;
The nobler nature within him stirred
To life at that woman's deed and word.
"Who touches a hair of yon gray head
Dies like a dog ! March on! " he said.
All day long through Frederick street
Sounded the tread of marching feet ;
All day long that free flag tost
Over the heads of the rebel host.
Ever its torn folds rose and fell
On the loyal winds that loved it well;
And through the hill gaps sunset light
Shone over it with a warm good-night.
Barbara Frietchie's work is o'er,
And the rebel rides on his raids no more.

BARBARA FRITCHIE. Ql
Honor to her ! and let a tear
Fall for her sake on Stonewall's bier.
Over Barbara Frietchie's grave,
Flag of freedom and union wave !
Peace and order and beauty draw
Eound thy symbol of light and law;
And ever the stars above look down
On thy stars below in Frederick town.
John Geeenleaf Whittier.

92 BARBARA FRITCHIE.

COMMENT ON THE ITALICS.
Whether forty flags flapped in the
morning air was of little importance ;
the point to be made is that Barbara did
not raise her flag at noon. She went
up to the window, where it had flut
tered for months, because that was the
only window that commanded the ad
vance, and it was at five o'clock in the
morning. The troops came, not up the street, but
along the Bentztown road ; and as I
say elsewhere, Stonewall Jackson was
not at their head. Trusting to the quiet
of the town, he had left them, to do
an errand of his own.
The irregular firing set up by the
angry soldiers did not shiver either pan£

BARBARA FRITCHIE. 93
or sash or staf; it simply dislodged the
staff, when Barbara seized it and waved
it, with the noble words the poet quotes.
All that follows, until we come to
Jackson's order, " March on ! " is of
course unhistoric, and later the flag must
not be described as torn.
When I first got to the bottom of the
facts, I thought the poet might conform
to history by altering a few lines of the
ballad. But I soon saw that this could
not be done.
We must leave the ballad as it is.
Stonewall Jackson will not suffer, and
Barbara would have confronted him and
a " volley " from his troops with the im
mortal courage Whittier describes.
C. H. D.
Note. — Mrs. Jackson's denial will be found in
the " Life and Letters of Gen. T. J. Jackson," issued
by her through the Harpers, in New York, 1891.

94 BARBARA FRITCHIE.

I'ENVOI.
When I corrected the first proof of
this little volume, I hoped to carry it
happily to Whittier, in the beautiful
home at Hampton Falls, where he has
passed, as he lately said, "the happiest
summer of his life." With that home
my childish steps had been familiar. In
its old garden, made sacred now by his
vanishing presence, I had found, long
years ago, the reddest currants, and
picked the ripest plums.
Alas ! I have brought, not my com
pleted work, — but let me drop one
leaf into this open grave : I cannot
drop a flower. Why have we gathered
in this old orchard with our hearts
aflame ? Why have gentle and simple
crowded the Amesbury streets and looked

BARBARA FRITCHIE. 95
searchingly into the faces of the incom
ing crowd, to see if we are worthy of
the noble company we have kept?
The heart of New England has been
moved as never before.
During the last ten years this genera
tion has parted with almost all those
who made our common life beautiful
and dear.
Statesmen, soldiers, orators, poets, and
lovers of mankind, precious to the com
mon heart, have passed behind the veil.
Our tears are even now falling for one
whom Whittier loved, — Curtis, the
gracious, the serene, the all-helpful, who
never touched his pen save to move a
human soul or right a public wrong.
So bitterly and so often have we sor
rowed that we have grown callous to
our pain.
Why, then, does this last parting touch
us to the quick ?

96 BARBARA FRITCHIE.
It was the glorious function of Whit
tier to lift us nearer to the Infinite
Spirit, to keep us intent upon our im
mortal destiny, and to fill us with that
love of Beauty which is the love of God.
Every line of his is instinct with spiritual
life ; and it is so of no set purpose, only
because it was not in him to withhold
himself. " He has entered into eternal life."
Did some one whisper that ? Nay, he
was born into that life ! Its " clouds
of glory " encompassed his first conscious
being ; he knew from the beginning his
infinite inheritance, — " Because I live,
ye shall live also." We feel this in his
verse and in his life. It is an open les
son. What has been deepest in our
selves has responded to his inspired
touch. We loved him because he glori
fied life, exalted duty, and brought us
face to face with God. This is the in-

BARBARA FRITCHIE. 97
evitable function of any artist, be he
poet or painter, who is to leave an im
mortal memory. Vice, crime, and the
loathsome slime of distorted lives are
transient. He who lives to depict these,
whether with pen or brush or chisel,
shall pass from human consciousness as
they pass.
The Immortal is the uplifting, the
All-Holy alone. We are told that we
have had honest politicians, honest law
yers, honest merchants, honest preachers ;
but in Whittier we had that " noblest
work of God," — an honest man. His in
tegrity was vital. It did not appertain
to any function, to any casual occupa
tion or utterance. It was the man him
self, and met in its entirety every
emergency of our national or individual
life. He thought exactly and promptly ;
as he thought he spoke ; as he spoke
he lived ; and for his thought he could

98 BARBARA FRITCHIE.
easily have died, had God asked him
to do so.
This is my leaf. Let it fall, not only
into this open grave, but, folded in my
words may it not also fall into some
young, warm, human hearts, — hearts
that are not yet old enough to miss
those who have been the glory of our
generation, but which the future may
kindle into a divine emulation ?
' ' Here let me pause, my quest forego :
Enough for me to feel and know
That He in whom the cause and end.
The past and future, meet and blend,
Guards not archangel feet alone,
But deigns to guide and keep my own."
What of our friend ? What cheer hath he ?
" Where lingers he this weary while ?
Over what pleasant fields of heaven
Dawns the sweet sunrise of his smile ?
" Still, on the lips of all we question,
The finger of Grod's silence lies :
Will the lost hands in ours be folded.
Will the shut eyelids ever rise ?

BARBARA FRITCHIE. 99
" 0 friend! no proof beyond this yearning.
This outreach of our hearts we need;
God will not mock the hope He giveth.
No love He prompts shall vainly plead ! "
Amesbury, Mas8., Sept. 10, 1892.

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