EROE liiiiiiiiiiii kND g-iss ES¥€) Book p- 'iC^ Gop}TightN". COPYRIGHT DEPOSrr. / ^■^11 orders for (his book '^^^Id he addressed to the auth FEBNANBO G. CARTLANU, Poughkeepsie, N. Y. ) 'J L,'^ ■A ^ SOUTHERN HEROES OR THE FRIENDS IN WAR TIME BY FERNANDO G. CARTLAND WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY BENJAMIN F. TKUEBLOOD, IL. D. ' LIFT IN Christ's name his cross against the sword." CAMBRIDGE prtntfD at ttjr Hitergine prcs^sf 1895 iP^ Er5"40 Copyright, 1895, By FERNANDO G. CARTLAND. All rights reserved. The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A. Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghtou and Company. TO ABBIE F. CARTLAND THIS WORK IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED BY HER HUSBAND PREFACE. In presenting this volume to the public, the writer would say that he has been only one o£ many who have for a long time realized the importance of pre- serving, in book form, a record of certain facts con- cerning the sufferings of Friends in the South, during the war of 1861-65. Others have begun the work, but from various causes they have thus far failed to complete it. As years have passed, the opportunities for gaining reliable information have become less and less favor- able, on account of the death of some of those who, " for conscience toward God, endured grief, suffering wrongfully." To delay longer would make the task of writing such a book still more difficult. \, This work has therefore been undertaken with the desire to preserve for coming generations this portion of a hitherto unwritten history. To all those who have so kindly aided in the pre- paration of the manuscript, the writer would hereby express his appreciation and gratitude ; and it is his hope that the deeply interesting nature of the subject may induce the critical reader to pass lightly over the numerous defects which may be discovered in the work. / PREFACE. Above all, he desires that the book may be an in- strument in the hand of God to convince the minds of many of the reasonableness of peace and the un- righteousness of war. ANALYTICAL CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Peaceable reign of Christ. — Slowness of Christians to accept Christ's teachings. — Early Christians. — Non-resistants in all ages. — Charles V. of Germany saw its foolishness. — George Fox teaching peace ; remarkable effect. — Im- prisoned. — Pall Mall Gazette's opinion of him. — His followers everywhere have maintained the doctrine. — Whitefield. — Mason and Slidell taken from British ves- sel. — Liability of war. — Friends' petitions for peace. — Acknowledgment of A. Lincoln. — Speeches at Peace Congress at Chicago. — Hugh Price Hughes' opinion of the Friends. — Behring Sea trouble. — Five Christian nations have had 75 wars in 80 years. — More than two hundred controversies settled by arbitration. — Opinions of Prince Albert, General Grant, General Lee. — Inter- view of Generals Scott and Lee at AVashington. — Num- ber killed and wounded in war of '61. — Secretary's report of cost of war of '61. — Edward L. Fox's return of prize money. — Lukens Iron and Steel Company. — Exjjendi- tures of different countries for education and war. — Yorkshire Quarterly Meeting's minute. — European coun- tries' burden. — Krupp Gun ; cost and expense of firing ; destructive power. — Other recent inventions. — Cost to United States in 1893 on account of war measures. — Pensions. — Military training. — Boys' brigades . . . 1-23 CHAPTER IL Arrival of Friends in America. — Sent back to England. — Returned witli others. — Established churches from North Carolina to Georgia. — Settlement of Rliode Island, Penn- sylvania and Carolina by Friends. — Landing of William viii ANALYTICAL CONTENTS. Penn. — Ilis peaceful government. — Duponceaii's ad- dress in 1821. — Henry Phillips, first Friend settled in Carolina. — Williant Edmondson, first Friend preacher in Carolina. — Appearance of his congregations. — John Archdale appointed Governor. — His letter to George Fox concerning improved condition of Indians. — Prophetic spirit of Friend ministers. — Mahlon Hockett preaching. — Joseph Hoag's two visions concerning civil war. — Abolition of slavery. — Eli Jones' speech in Maine legis- lature 24-39 CHAPTER III. Founders of the Government expected slavery to be abol- ished. — Opinion of Washington, Jefferson, Patrick Henry, James Madison. — Population of Virginia compared with New York. — North Carolina and Massachusetts. — Charleston once an importing city. — Southern States' early advantages. — Small number of Southern slave- holders. — Attention given to politics. — Offices in govern- ment largely filled by them. — Small renumeration for labor in the South. — Slaves' contempt for poor whites. — Free schools not advocated by slaveholders. — Danger- ous to speak against slavery. — Jesse Whalen banished. — Daniel AVorth imprisoned. — Slaves forbidden to read. — Preachers taught they had no souls. — U. S. laws framed for slaveholders. — Northern men liable to im- prisonment for aiding slaves. — Col. Uteley fined in the United States courts. — " The Philanthropist." — First abolition society, 1785. — First anti-slavery society, 1833. — Society for gradual emancipation, 18G3. — Slaveholders form a manumission and colonization society. — Fi'iends withdrew. — Virginia legislature favors it. — American Colonization Society formed in Washington. — INIanagers all slaveholders. — Popidar, North and South. — Formed colony in Africa. — Negroes kidnapped there. — School- teacher sells children. — 8000 slaves promised in four months at Moravia. — Appropriations of United States, Maryland and Vii-ginia, for the society's use. — Wilber- force deceived. — AA'illiam Allen's opinion concerning it. — Op])osod to abolition society. — Liberation of slaves by Friends. — Prophetic voice of preachers warning Friends to fiec the judgments of the Almighty 40-68 ANALYTICAL CONTENTS. ix CHAPTER IV. Stringent laws against slaves. — Laws in Washington. — Wasliington one of the greatest slave markets. — Slave- factory of Franklin and Arinfield. — Loss of the "Big Comet " with 160 slaves. — Northern men not all aboli- tionists. — Persecntion of George Thompson. — Garrison mobbed and imprisoned. — Anti-slavery society in Haver- hill. — Attempt to mob Mr. May and John G. Whittier. Attempt to establish colored school in New Haven. — Teacher imprisoned. — Office of the " Philantlu-ojiist " in Cincinnati ransacked. — Mott sisters. — Josephine Grif- fith. — Laura Haviland. — Kentucky kidnappers offer $3000 for her head. — Stealing colored people from Raisin Valley, Mich. — Thomas Garret. — Bold delivery of captives. — Shrewd management in liberating a colored woman. — Fined !$3000. — John Fairchild. — Shipping slaves from Washington and Baltimore. — Narrow escapes. — Liberated slaves from every Southern State. — Finally shot. — Fear of negro insurrection by southern whites. — Reign of terror at Natchez. — Negroes whipped and hung every Saturday. — Large amounts offered for their free- dom. • — Case of Eliza Garner. — Attempt to kill her child. — Tried in Cincinnati, but given back to her owner, and taken south. — Jumps overboard and drowns her babe , 69-94 CHAPTER V. Levi Coffin. — Early home. — Coffles of slaves. — Carolina corn-husking. — First slave freed by. — Removal West. — Underground railroad. — His house a union station. — Threatened with hanging and shooting. — Largest com- pany of fugitives entertained by him. — Flight of slaves through the cornfield. — Pursued and some shot. — Cared for. — Sent on their way. — - Continued pursuit. — Safely hidden. — Man came to help Levi Coffin fight. — Origin of the term "Underground Railroad." — Tried. — Evidence of slaves not accepted. — Case dismissed. — Colored Jim. — Thousands of refugees landed in Canada. — First paper published advocating free - labor goods. — John Woolman's journal. — Read by Levi Coffin. — Abstains from using product of slave-labor. — Opens in Cincinnati X ANALYTICAL CONTENTS. free-labor goods store. — Emancipation proclamation ruins Untlergroiuul Railroad. — Levi Coffin visits England, Scotland and France. — Large and successful meetings. — Rapid advancement of freed people. — Death of Levi Coffin 95-116 CHAPTER VI. Location of Friends in the South. — Order of churcli govern- ment. — Friends North and South divided only by geogra- phical lines. — No Friends voted for secession. — Popular votes in North Carolina against it. — Influence of Friends prevents passage of a law requiring every citizen above 16 years of age to renounce all allegiance to tlie United States. — Minute of North Carolina Yearly Meeting. — Committee of Friends visits the Confederate Congress. — Passage of law exempting Friends and Dunkards from service. — Ishani Cox willing to fight single-handed all the true Friends in the Northern army. — Abraliam Lin- coln and others of his cabinet descendants of Friends. — Called " the Quaker war-cabinet." — Secretary Stanton's proposition to relieve Friends. — Conference of the yearly meetings' committees in Baltimore. — Account given by Francis T. King. — Visit of Eliza P. Gnrney to Abraham Lincoln. — Her letter. — His reply. — Elizabeth L. Com- stock's service. — Her appeal from army chaplains to Abraham Lincoln. — His authority obtained for whatever service she desired. — Request to pray for him . — Death three days after 117-138 CHAPTER VII. Confederate Government's act relating to non-combatants. — Minutes of North Carolina Yearly Meeting relative thereto. — Great temptation to purchase religious liberty. — Severe test to which Friends were put. — Parties at- temping to leave arrested and brouglit back. — Many hard- ships undergone by those endeavoring to escape. — Many besides Friends hiding in caves and woods. — Passage of conscript law. -^ Formation of companies of home guards. — Friends much reduced by emigration. — Those left mostly in rural districts. — Many did not approve severe treatment of non-combatants. — Governor Worth's letter. — Experience of Jesse Buckner. — Experience of a nou- k ANALYTICAL CONTENTS. xi combatant Methodist liberated by efEorts of Friends.— Minnte of North Carolina Yearly Meeting . . . 139-153 CHAPTER VIII. Southern prisons. — Those responsible for their management passed away. — Most if not all met violent death. — Letter from T. H. Mann. — J. H. Winder declared he killed more Yankees in prison than the army did in battle. — Shooting by Wirz of prisoners. — G. N. Gidney's terrible experience. — Reports of Southern officials relative to con- dition of prison and hospitals. — Description of Salisbury prison. — No wish to cast unjust reflections. — Prison guards composed largely of boys, careless of human life. Order of Gen. Winder concerning the murder of help- less prisoners. — Men put in dead-house while they were livino-. — An instance. — Rude way of handling bodies. — Kind of food given the prisoners. — Vermin cover the ground. — Efforts to dig tunnels. — Escaped men caught by bloodhounds. — Official reports of Wirz. — Wicked- ness among the prisoners. — Organization of police force. — Hanging of culprits. — Order of Wirz to shoot pris- oners. — Salisbury cemetery 154-177 CHAPTER IX. Holly Spring neighborhood. — Description of meeting-house and o-raveyard. — All men between 18 and 35 ordered to appear at the court-house. — Generation after generation taught principles of peace. — Some of the Friends answered the call ; stated their objections to war. — Told the army was no place for religion. —First draft. — Some Friends included. — Some went West. — Their guide captured and shot. — Forty-three names given of Friends drafted from this place. — Proposed to serve the Prince of Peace and not the god of war. — Laws of nations violated in arresting those who had been furnished substitutes. — 17 year old boy's experience. — The "Bull Pen," where they punished old men and women. — One mother hung. — Levi Cox. —United States postmaster. — Gideon Macon taken to the army. — Refuses to take a gun, or place as cook. — Bucked down. — Process described. — Army re- treats. — Orders to hang him. — Yankees appear. — Hurried on. — Luprisoned at Petersburg. — J. J. Allen's xii ANALYTICAL CONTENTS. experience. — Southern pulpits used for war purposes. — Ahijah Macon conscripted. — Efforts of schoolmate to get him released. — Convinced that he would be released by death. — Directions as to his own burial. — Taken to the army. — Only cane-seed ineal to eat. — Died in the hospital. — Isaiah Macon, remarkably sensitive. — Captured by home guard. — Not allowed to sec his wife and children. — In the battle of Winchester. — Put into front to stop bullets. — Men shot all around him. — Took no part in battle. — Taken prisoner. — Died in Point Look- out prison 178-194 CHAPTER X. Arrest of Hinshaw brothers and Barker brothers. — Hurried march, 32 miles, to railroad station. — Thomas Hinshaw's wife follows with food and clothing. — She cares for the farm. Men packed in freight-cars like cattle. — No food or drink for 34 hours. — Would not accept military equip- ments or clothing. — Offered release upon payment of §500. — Plead religious liberty. — Freedom to obey Christ should not be purchased with money. — Would suffer cheerfully the penalty. — Lieutenant determined to break them in. — Soldiers ordered to run them through. — Tied behind wagon. — Must help load fodder or be pitched into the river. — Welcomed back by the men of their company. — Tried to get them to run away. — A furlough granted for fifteen days. — Efforts made to have them pay the tax and not return. — Great trial, but they went back. — No military duty ever required. — Regiment engaged at Gettysburg. — All officers of the regiment above the lieu- tenant killed. — Repeatedly ordered to tlie front. — Made up their minds not to go unless guarded. — Taken pris- oners. — Solomon Frazier arrested. — Taken to Salisbury prison. — Would not act as guard. — Bucked down. — Suspended by hands. — Heavy piece of wood tied around his neck. — Pierced with bayonet. — Gagged with bayonet. — Raised upon a cross in imitation of Christ. — In a bar- rel shirt. — Must now take a gun or die. — Kept prisoner imtil surrender of Salisbury. — Jesse Milton Blair. — Taken to army near Petersburg. — Given coarse corn- bread and sorghum molasses. — Refuses a gun. — Soldier ordered to knock him down. — Refuses to march in drill. k ANALYTICAL CONTENTS. xui — Pierced with bayonet. — Hung up by his thumbs for two hours. — Given one hundred lashes on bare back. — Strap fastened around his neck and hung to the limb of a tree. — Becomes unconscious. — Taken to hospital. — Visited by Joseph Hockett. — Retreat of Lee's army. — Return home. — Marlborough meeting. — Arrest of mem- bers. — Letter from S. W. Loflin, and J. A. Hill. — Lof- lin's persecution. — Kept from sleep 36 hours. — Pierced with bayonets. — Court-martialed. — Sentence of death. — Army summoned. — Soldiers detailed. — Prayed for them. — Soldiers refuse to shoot. — Sent to Windsor hos- pital. — Long illness and death 195-213 CHAPTER XL Back Creek neighborhood. — Deep River. — Meeting-house described. — Amusing story. — Experience of Jones brothers. — Original discharge from Confederate army. — Deep Creek neighborhood. — Letter of Isham Cox. — Lewis Caudle in battle. — New Garden meeting. — Isaac Harvey ; discouraged ; takes a gun ; disowned by the Church. — One of the first killed in battle. — Only in- stance of the kind. — Spring meeting. — John Newlin's six sons. — Error in exemption laws. — Four Woody brothers' experience. — Three Hobson brothers attempt to go West. — Arrested by sheriff. — Start again. — Taken to the army, — Mahlon Thompson and Joshua Kemp ; cross the mountains. — Arrested by army officers. — Taken to battle at Fredericksburg. — Assist the wounded. — Cane Creek. — Joseph Dixon, a Friend elder. — Attempt to hang him. — Prays for his enemies. — Robbed and released. — Hanging of Micajah Mc- Pherson. — Murder of Joseph Dixon's son. — Account of Joseph Dixon's last day on earth 214-230 CHAPTER XIL William B. Hockett. — Conscripted. — Returned home. — Vision. — Wife's encouragement. — Taken to Greensboro. — Said Christianity and war as far apart as Heaven and Hell. — Quotations from diary. — Assigned to 21st North Carolina. — Before Colonel Kirkland. — Refuses to pay out. — Refuses a gun. — Asked whether he would rather be shot that night or the next morning. — Chooses neither. xiv ANALYTICAL CONTENTS. — Sent to the wagon yard. — Refuses to take a soldier's place. — Reported to the Colonel. — Copy of prayer written that night. — Taken out to be shot. — Soldiers detailed. — Prayed, " Father, forgive them." — Men could not shoot. — Attempt to make him carry a gun, and walk in drill. — Officer's attempt to ride over him. — — Horse will not step on him. — Struck on the head with gun. — Soldiers ordered to run him through. — Gun placed against his back. — Soldier will not shoot. — Left by the roadside. — Walks into camp with gun tied to him. — Battle of Gettysburg. — Refuses to cook or carry water. — Cares for sick Dunkard who will not fight. — Terrible scenes of battle. — Taken prisoner. — Placed in Fort Delaware. — Visited by Robert Pearsall Smith and others. — Paper prepared for government authorities. — Extracts from journal. — Liberated by order of Secretary of War. — Among Philadelphia Friends. — Sent West. — Retui'ns to North Carolina. — Found, as had been promised, all well 231-253 CHAPTER XIII. Himelius and Jesse Hockett. — Conscripted. — Ordered to take a gun or accept work. — Declined on account of re- ligious scruples. — Told they may embrace such religion as they please when the war is over. — Sent to prison. — Sent home. — Again conscripted. — Refuse to take gun or walk in drill. — Soldiers run bayonets through their clothing. — Sent to Kinston. — Bible discussion. — Re- fused food or drink until they obeyed Gen. Ransom's orders. — Give up food brought from home. — H. M. Hockett's account of their experience. — Argument with preachers. — Remarkably preserved. — Need of any earthly thing little felt. — Plot to release them. — Ran- som's sentence revoked by Governor Vance. — Letters written by H. M. Hockett to his wife and father. — Gen- eral Daniel proposes to place them where they will serve as breastworks to stop bullets. — General Daniel soon killed in battle. — Made to march the streets of Kinston with logs tied to them. — II. M. Hockett tried by court- martial. — Offered a lawyer. — Pleads his own case. — Visits from Friend ministers. — Called with others to receive sentence. — Some branded with hot iron. — He ANALYTICAL CONTENTS. xv sentenced to six months' hard labor, bound with ball and chain. — Officers recommend clemency. — Jefferson Davis declines to sign recommendation. — Jesse Hockett cruelly pierced with bayonets. — Taken to Fort Caswell. — Colonel Jones very kind. — Manacled with chain attached to heavy ball. — Much interest in the Christian prisoner. — Religious discussion with soldiers and officers. — Kind- ness of officers and men. — Not required to do any work. — Sent back to Wilmington. — Sleeps with his guard. — Placed behind the iron doors in Wilmington. — Brother Jesse brought to him from Kinston. — Kindness of Major Sparrow. — Sent to Goldsboro. — Visited by wife and son. — Given liberty of the city. — Prison seems like mission fields. — Discharged. — Women plough the fields, and support the families 254-285 CHAPTER XIV. Centre meeting. — Members arrested. — None made to fight. — Springfield meeting. — First Bible School. — Only one continued during the war. — School enrolled three hundred. — A. U- Tomlinson & Sons' Tannery and Shoe Factory keep many men out of army. — Friends sent to Salisbury prison. — F. S. Blair conscripted when only 17 years old. — Friends' horses taken while riding from meeting. — Persons liable to arrest for unguarded speech. — Rufus P. King. — Conscripted. — Attached to Petti- grew's brigade. — Under Captain Jennings. — Sickness and death of Captain Jennings. — Rufus's care of him. — Return home. — Converted. — Joined the Methodist Church. — Conscientious scruples against fighting. — De- tailed as nurse. — At Gettysburg. — Prayer for dying lieutenant. — Night spent in trying to relieve the wounded and dying upon the battle-field. — Next day's terrible work. — Wounded and dying by the roadside. — Cap- tured. — Imprisoned at Point Lookout. — Closed many eyes in death. — Sent by ship to Savannah. — Again taken from home. — Returned to camp. — Way being opened, he went over to the Yankees. — Would not swear. — Passed outside of the army. — Found a home at Mill Creek, Indiana. — Taken to a Bible School. — Learned to read. — Received into Friends' Church. — Sent to school. — Recorded as minister. — Travels in different lauds 286-298 xvi ANALYTICAL CONTENTS. CHAPTER XV. Tennessee. — A few Fi'iends remaiiiiug. — All refusing to be registered ordered treated as deserters. — Of 1000 men iu Blunt County only 20 appeared for registration. — In Green County about 20 Friends subject to con- scription. — Five paid gold. — Account of James F. Beals. — Cave discovered by J. Beals. — Made habitable. — Fourteen Friends secreted. — Kept for nearly a year. — Some escape West, some captured. — A boy of 19 years dwelt in a cave of his own making. — Friendsville. — William Forster's grave. — William J. Hackney. — Ar- ranged to secrete men in cave near his house. — 50 men soon hidden in it. — Started on tlie Underground Railroad West. — Cave again filled. — Over 2000 men thus cared for. — Under suspicion. — General Burnside wishes to appoint William Hackney a staff officer. — Would re- ceive no remuneration for his service to the government. — Confiscation of property of Union sympathizers. — Case of AVilliam Morgan. — Attempt to shoot Riley T. Lee. — Soldiers destroy poor woman's property. — Lost Creek meeting. — Soldiers destroy building and library. — Women compelled to cook for them. — Property taken without recompense 299-315 CHAPTER XVI. Tilghman Ross Vestal unwilling to shed blood. — Con- scripted. — Sent home. — Again conscripted. — Among his relatives prominent Friends. — Letter from Major Venable. — Letter from T. R. Vestal to John B. Cren- shaw. — Sentenced to be punished until he bear arms. — Said he was a Christian and could not fight. — Knocked down repeatedly. — Given in charge of another officer. — Pierced with a bayonet 17 times. — Sent to Richmond. — Imprisoned. — Sent to Salisburj'. — Terribly beaten for trying to remove vermin from liis own person. — Liber- ated by intervention of Friends. — Account quoted from " Nashville Banner " by Brigadier-General Maney . . 316-326 CHAPTER XVII. Virginia. — Friends' meetings established. — No more wel- come than in Boston. — Extravagant stories believed. — ANALYTICAL CONTENTS. xvii Copy of an act for the suppression of the Quakers. — Nothing prevents them from coming. — By patient suffer- ing conquer unrighteous laws. — Large tracts of land taken by Friends. — Become slaveholders. — In 1817 all Virginia Friends free their slaves. — Large emigration of Friends. — Winchester. — Washington's headquarters. — Banishment of Philadelphia Friends to Winchester. — General Morgan. — Afraid in time of battle. — Winches- ter taken by the contending forces 76 times. — All men between 16 and 60 out to fight the Yankees. — Robert Griffith and Governor Halliday. — Aaron Griffith's letter taken from the mail. — Made cause of complaint. — He imprisoned. — Mill robbed. — Factory robbed. — Ma- chinery taken away. — Liberated by Southern officer. — House frequently visited by soldiers. — Doors barred. — Attempt to obtain entrance by claiming to be Friends. — Old-fashioned meeting-house, overlooking Shenandoah Valley. — Quarterly meeting. — John Scott preaching. — Battle going on the same time. — Terrible shock of battle. ■ — Francis T. King present. — Congregation quiet. — Two days' journey to get around the army. — Friend Griffith could not return for over three months. — Futile attempt to take his sister's horse.- — Jesse Wright's house frequently shot over by both armies. — Officers and men of both armies entertained there. — His sons escape. — Jesse Wright passes picket lines to care for the dead. — On his return arrested and put in jail. — Remained three days. — Joseph M. Jolliffe. — His vote only one cast for Lincoln in Frederick County. — Left home. — Attempt of wife and children to flee with retreating army. — Re- turn home. — Battle fought around their house. — None of the family hurt. — Dreadful scenes. — Friend Jolliffe before General Early. — Released and admonished to pray for the Confederacy. — General Breckinridge's headquarters in Jolliffe's yard. — Elizabeth Comstock and other Friends visit General Sheridan 327-344 CHAPTER XVIII. Small meetings in Virginia. — Nathaniel Crenshaw liber- ates many slaves. — John B. Crenshaw's time given to assisting unfortunates. — Assists North Carolina Yearly Meeting's committees. — He edits the " Southern Friend." XX ANALYTICAL CONTENTS. ernment. — General Sherman's estimate of damage. — William Cox. — Battle of Bentonsville watched from windows. — Women and children under beds. — Bullets rained upon the house. — Accounts given by wife and daughter. — Isaac Cox visited by soldiers. — Robbed. — Visit of soldiers to L. J. Moore's. — Sausage man astride a horse. — Everything taken. — Jesse HoUowell. — His wife instructs aristocratic neighbors in the art of carding, spinning and weaving. — Men and women shoe- makers. — End of the war near. — Slaveholders think their property safer in Friends' houses. — Soldiers know no difference. — Robbed of horses, buggies and every- thing. — Description by his son. — United States issues rations to citizens. — Visited by Friends from Baltimore Association. — Account of their arrival. — Time of sur- render of the Confederate forces 415-427 CHAPTER XXIII. Purpose of this Book. — Visit to Southern battle-fields. — Awfulness of war seen. — Description of Fredericks- burg. — St. Mary's Heights. — Confederate and Federal cemeteries. — 12,000 graves marked " unknown." — Five bloody battles. — George Whitefield's curse on Fredericks- burg. — Remarkable fulfillment. — London " Times' " account of the battle of Fredericksburg. — Account as given by the Richmond " Examiner." — The Irish brigade. — Number of Union men lost. — Discouraging outlook. — Stone River. — "Fighting Joe" Hooker takes command. — Army defeated at Chancellorsville. — Abraham Lincoln greatly distressed. — Meade takes command. — Officers refuse to take their men into action at Mine Run. — Battle of the Wilderness. — Deadly hand-to-hand conflict. — No cavalry, no artillery. — No victory for either side. — 70 men claim the promise of God in Psalm xci. 7. — All spared. — Spottsylvania, most deadly and fiercest battle of the war. — Grant goes South and Fredericksburg rests from the sound of battle. — Dreadfid loss at Cold Harbor. — Soldiers refuse to renew the attack. — Com parison of Esdraelon with the plain below St. Mary's Heights. — The curse of King David on the plain of Esdraelon 428-442 ANALYTICAL CONTENTS. xxi CHAPTER XXIV. Francis T. King. — His conversion. — Business Life. — Peace principles. — Retires from business. — Philan- thropist. ^- Influence among officials. — Advice against Maryland's secession. — Excitement in the city. — Pass- ing of troops to Washington. — First bloodshed. — Quiet gathering of Friends to worship. — Frequently visits Washington. — Visit to Point Lookout prison. — Excellent condition of same. — Liability of the South being aban- doned by Friends. — Keeps himself informed as to this condition. — Conceived the idea of helping them at home. — Organization of Baltimore Association. — Letter to John B. Crenshaw. — Friends North and South not divided. — Condition and location of Friends' meetings. — Visited by John Scott and Joseph Moore. — Joseph Moore appointed as superintendent for Baltimore Associ- ation. — Friends' boarding-school continued through the war. — Normal school started. — Visited by Governor. — Work of repairing old schoolhouses and building new. — Travels of superintendent. — More attention given to coloi'ed children than white. — Professor Moore called to presidency of Earlhara College. — Allen Jay appointed in his place. — Institutes and conferences held. — Much at- tention given to Bible schools. — Minutes from the records of Baltimore meetings. — Appeal for aid liberally re- sponded to. — First Normal School ever held in North Carolina. — Model farm. — Growth of the schools. — Large sums spent. — Schools and colleges still being maintained. — Increase of membership in North Carolina. — Number of meeting-houses built. — Better condition of farms. — Per cent of population who can read and write largely increased. — Interest in education more general. — Guilford College. — Normal School becomes a State institution. — Friends no longer a dependent body. — Aid in missionary and general church work 443-480 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Friends' Meeting-House at New Garden, N. C. Erected in 1791 Frontispiece. Dr. Nereus Mendenhall 118 John Carter ISHAM Cox John B. Crenshaw } ....... 12G Allen U. Tomlinson J A Friends' Meeting "of the olden time" . . . 214 William B. Hockett 232 H. M. Hockett 254 EuFus P. King 290 Francis T. Kino 448 INTRODUCTION. The annals of Christianity contain numberless in- stances of cruel persecution heroically and patiently endured, but it is doubtful if any of these in any age have been more striking and painfully instructive than those recorded in the pages of this book. To most of us, persecution on account of loyalty to Chris- tian principle, at least in its more cruel physical aspects, seems to belong to a far-away past age, or to dark and barbarous countries. We should refuse to believe the stories of inhuman treatment recorded in the chapters of " Southern Heroes," if the evidence were not so overwhelming. How is it possible that such things can have happened here in a country which has made civil and religious liberty its boast for a century ? The account must be wrong, we are tempted to say. It must have been long ago and in some other country that these dreadful deeds were done. No ; they were done here, within the memory of livino- men. The witnesses are so numerous that no one can doubt. Some of the sufferers still live and bear in their bodies the " marks " of the fearful ordeal. No one can tell when the line of martyrs for the sake of religious freedom and civil liberty will be ended. Human wickedness is still the same in spirit that it has heretofore been, and martyrdom does not xxvi INTRODUCTION. always come in the same form. It is permitted, how- ever, to hope that in civilized lands there will never again be material for the writing of such a book as this. Plowever that may be, it is well that this story, or series of stories, has been written down. It is highly instructive from many standpoints. It is a part of the history of our country's struggles for and progress toward real freedom, the depth of whose meaning has as yet been but imperfectly understood. It is also an instructive illustration, not so ancient as to have lost any of its force, of the power of Chris- tianity to transform men and to lift them above the selfish and cowardly weakness which yields quickly to worldly enticements, slavishly " follows the crowd," or cowers before the threats and the lash of tyran- nous authority. The Southern Friends, some of whom the reader will come to know and admire, have given us not only a remarkable exhibition of steadfast loyalty to prin- ciple in the midst of great trials, but also an extra- ordinary manifestation of divine protection and care in time of peril. It is, of course, theoretically pos- sible to account for all their marvelous deliverances from violent death by the mere doctrine of chances. But no one who believes in the providences of God and understands anything of the ordinary course of unregenerate human nature, especially when hardened by a long training in brutality, will be able to accept any such trivial explanation of these remarkable facts as that offered by the theory of chance. If God ever interfered in behalf of true and faithful men, he inter- INTRODUCTION. xxvii f ered in behalf of these ; and his signal protection and deliverance of them, under such varied circum- stances of peculiar danger, may fairly be taken as an evidence of his approval not only of their loyalty to what they believed to be right but also of the prin- ciples themselves for which they suffered. There are in the annals of the Friends other instances of like extraordinary deliverance in connection with the main- tenance of their peace principles, but in none of these cases did political hatred, selfish prejudices, military tyranny and pure maliciousness so combine to render the danger exceptionally great as in the examples now before us. The deliverance of the Friends in the South was for this reason all the more marked, and the protective value of peace principles when faithfully practiced brought into all the greater prominence. There is another feature of the ease of these South- ern peace-men which makes it, if possible, still more interesting and instructive, viz., their thorough patri- otism and loyalty to the Union. It has often been charged that non-resistant peace-men are bad patriots, real enemies to their country. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The reader of the following pages will discover that there were no finer exhibi- tions of loyalty and genuine love of country during the fierce struggle of the civil war than those made by the Southern Friends. Their patriotism was an intelligent and discriminating one, founded ou princi- ple, and no blast from the hot furnace of persecution was able in the least to make it yield. They were the foes of secession and disunion as much as of slavery. xxviii INTRODUCTION. When the storm of war was about to break and all other voices were growing silent, they continued to the last moment to utter their protest against the mad course on which the South was entering. When the tides of strife and persecution were surging about them, their lips were generally sealed through pru- dence, but no amount of suffering or enticement could force them open in behalf of rebellion. The reader will be inclined to think that they did as much in their own way to weaken and cripple the rebellion, to bring on the overthrow of slavery and to save the Union as any other body of men of equal numbers in any part of the land. It is right, therefore, to record their names, every one of them, in the catalogue of oflr truest national heroes. The author of this work has had exceptional oppor- tunities of learning the exact nature of the facts which he records, and his statements of the character and ex- tent of the sufferings and trials not only of those whom he mentions but also of the whole body of the Friends in the South may be credited as in every instance substantially correct. Though making no pretense of general historical knowledge or literary culture, he has succeeded in bringing together in a simple and natural way, which must please every reader, the chief events of this hitherto unwritten portion of the history of the great struggle which a generation ago shook our national structure to its very foundation. B. F. T. Boston, August, 1895. SOUTHERN HEROES. CHAPTER I. " Shall the sword devouj- forever ? " ' ' Put up the sword ! " The voice of Christ once more Speaks, m the pauses of the cannon's roar, O'er fields of corn by fiery sickles reaped And left dry ashes ; over trenches heaped With nameless dead ; o'er cities starving slow Under a rain of fire ; through wards of woe Down which a groaning diapason runs From tortured brothers, husbands, lovers, sons Of desolate women in their far-off homes, Waiting to hear the step that never comes. 0, men and brothers ! let that voice be heard. War fails, try peace ; put up the useless sword ! Whittier. When tlie advent of Christ was announced to the shepherds upon Judea's plains, suddenly there ap- peared unto them a multitude of the Heavenly Host, proclaiming the Gospel of Peace in the joyful song, " Glory to God in the highest, and on earth Peace, good will toward men." The King of kings descended to earth that " the kingdoms of this world might become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ." " He came not to conquer by force of arms, but by the power of love 2 SOUTHERN HEROES. untl truth to establish His kingdom amono- men." With a chosen few He went from place to place, preaching His Gospel, speaking- as never man spake ; and yet, as one having authority, He commanded : " Thou shalt not kill ; " " Put up thy sword into the sheath ; " " Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you." Strange indeed to the Roman soldier who asked, " What shall we do ? " was John's reply, " Do violence to no man," The Jews were slow to comprehend the law of their King, " I say unto you, resist not evil," The law of love was to take the place of the old-time saying, " An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth." Although our Saviour taught so plainly the duty of non-resistance, few received his teaching; and even now, while admitting the beauty of it, many, in their worldly wisdom, question or deny its practicability. To these He would say, " The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God." So fully has the war system been accepted as a necessity, in some ages, that to be a minister of Jesus Christ, and an officer or soldier in the army at the same time, was not considered, by the church in gen- eral, an inconsistency. Notwithstanding the slowness of Christians to accept the doctrine of non-resistance, " Rev, Col, Barton " would sound strange in the ears of this generation, and the titles seem hardly fitting to the same man ; yet Colonel Barton, of the seven- teenth century, was a regularly ordained minister in the church. SOUTHERN HEROES. 3 Christian nations have so far seen the incompat- ibility of war and Christianity, that ministers of the gos^^el are now ahnost universally exempt from mili- tary duty. Thomas Clarkson says : " In the first two centuries, when Christianity was the purest, there are no Christian soldiers on record. The war degeneracy of the church began very early in the third century, and went so far in the fourth, that under and after Constantino the Great, Christians engaged in war, as they generally have ever since." In all ages of the Christian era, however, there have been those who, accepting the teaching of our Saviour, have had the boldness to declare, " I am a Christian, therefore I cannot fight." Charles V. of Germany, in his declining years, re- signed his high office in favor of his son, and under- took as a pastime to so regulate a number of watches as to have them perfectly agree. After a great deal of patient effort he is said to have remarked, as he laid down his tools, " What a fool I have been to shed so much innocent blood in trying to make men think alike, when I cannot make a few watches agree in keeping time." More than two hundred years ago, during the time of Charles I. of England, when all churches believed in war and practiced it, there appeared in that coun- try a youth who had spent much time in retirement, studying his Bible, and prayerfully seeking to know the truth of God as there revealed. During the days of that iron-hearted puritan soldier, Oliver Cromwell, he taught and preached with wonderful clearness and 4 SOUTHERN HEROES. power a doctrine new to the people of that day, who had almost lost sight of the spiritual teachings of the Son of God. He taught that Jesus Christ not only died to atone for our sins, but as a living Saviour de- signs to keep us from sinning, and that those who accept Him as their guide may be led into all the truth. He taught that it is not lawful for a Christian to fight, as our Saviour forbade it ; and he sought, with remarkable success, to turn men to the light, and from dependence upon forms and ceremonies to the power of Christ, in which they might live free from the power of Satan. His teaching produced a remarkable effect upon the age in which he lived, and great was the opposition he aroused. Priests and stated ministers thought him opposed to their systems of religion, as he called them from their empty professions to a life of holiness. They were sometimes angered, and stirred up the rude people to abuse him, and the magistrates to imprison him, — which they were not slow to do. Many believed him to be opposed to the government, because he would not swear allegiance to it. He woidd neither take up arms in its defense, nor against it. While in prison, the officials offered him a command in the army, and the soldiers clamored for him as their leader. Although he would have thus been re- leased from a filthy prison, where he was confined with thirty felons, he replied, " I know whence all wars arise, even from lusts, according to James's doc- trine ; but I live in the virtue of that life and power that takes away the occasion for all war. I am in love with all men, and cannot fight against any." SOUTHERN HEROES. 5 He was often in prison on account of zealously pre- senting the truth, yet Carlyle says of him, " There is in broad Europe one free man, — George Fox, the greatest of the moderns. He looks heavenward from his earth and dwells in an element of mercy and wor- ship." The " Pall Mall Gazette " says of him, " Of the four great characters of the seventeenth century, Cromwell, Milton, Bunyan and Fox, the last has had the greatest influence upon the world, and been the least recognized by the world." At the time of his death his followers numbered many tens of thousands, — in England alone nearly a hundred thousand, — and were scattered over the civilized world. With wonderful zeal and indomi- table courage he visited the people, not only of Eng- land, but of Ireland, France, Germany, Holland, Scot- land, America, Barbadoes, Jamaica, and many other parts, and pressed upon them the truth of God. He planted churches in all these nations, as did his fol- lowers in many others. So clearly did he impress the doctrine and duty of non-resistance, that wherever Friends have existed they have been known as being opposed to all wars and fightings. In this, with the exception of a few Schwenkfeldians, Mennonites, and Dunkards, they have stood alone as a Christian org-anization. Thousrh small in numbers in comparison with others, their light has been steadily shining. Individuals of other churches have in many cases come to agree with them, and upon many minds the light of this Gospel truth is dawnins:. 6 SOUTHERN HEROES. Whitefield wrote, " The Quakers have, I think, left us an example of patient suffering ; and have done more by their bold, unanimous, and persevering testi- mony than if they had taken up arms in the king- dom." The disturbance of good feeling between Great Britain and the United States of America in 1861, on account of the taking of Mason and Slidell from the English mail steamer Trent, by Commander Wilkes of the United States war-shij) San Jacinto, at one time assumed such serious proportions that a war between the two countries seeined imminent. England loaded the Great Eastern and sent ten thousand troops from her shores to be landed in Canada. The Great East- ern being unable to make harbor in Canadian waters, the United States consented for her to enter Portland harbor, Maine, and ship the soldiers by rail to Can- ada. Nevertheless, such was the fear that war might be declared, that Friends in England memorialized the English Government in the interest of peace and arbi- tration. This memorial was forwarded by Friends to America, and presented to Abraham Lincoln by a delegation from Baltimore. Francis T. King, one of the delegation, has left us a very interesting account of this matter, which we here quote : MASON AXD SLIDELL. On the 8th of 11th month, 1861, Captain Wilkes, of the U. S. stearaer San Jacinto, intercepted the British steamer Trent, and took from her Mason and Slidell and their sec- retaries, who were on their way from Havana to England as envoys of the Confederacy. SOUTHERN HEROES. 1 On the 30th of the same month, Earl Russell wrote to Lord Lyons, the British Minister at Washington, saying that they presumed Captain Wilkes acted without instruc- tions, as it was a violation of international law, and that England could not allow such an affront to pass without full reparation. Through an accident, the Atlantic cable was not working at the time, and everything was in susjDense. The Assistant Secretary of State said afterwards, that had it been work- ing we would have had war with England, as the excite- ment was intense, and there would have been no time for reflection on either side. London Meeting for Sufferings, under date of 12th month 9th, presented a memoi'ial to Lord Palmerston, First Lord of the Treasury, and Earl Russell, Secretary of State for Foreign Affaii-s, in which they plead for peace between the two countries, in language that will always be appropri- ate. "There are, perhaps," they said, " no two independent nations on the face of the earth so closely united together as England and America, by the combined ties of blood, of language, of religion, of constitutional freedom, and of com- mercial interest ; and no two nations between whom a war would be a more open scandal to our common Christianity, or a more serious injury to the welfare and progress of the human race." After earnestly pleading for arbitration, If correspondence should not effect the happy and peaceful termination of the dispute, they add : " We would further suggest that after the vast sacrifices which England has made for the abolition of the slave trade and slavery in our own possessions and by other countries, which has been an object so consistently prompted through life by the statesmen whom we are now addressing, it would be deeply humiliating if, by being in- 8 SOUTHERN HEROES. volved In this war, our country should ultimately find itself in active cooperation with the South and slavery, against the North and freedom." In conclusion they say, " May He who still ruleth in the earth grant that the impending scourge of war may be averted from the kindred nations on each side of the Atlan- tic, and from the waters of that ocean, which should unite rather than divide them." A copy of this memorial was sent by London Meeting for Sufferings to Baltimore Representative Meeting, with the request that it be handed to President Lincoln, with the as- surance of their sincere desire and efPort to maintain peace between the two countries. James Carey and mysellwere appointed to take the memorial to Washington, which we did just previous to Secretary Seward's reply to Earl Rus- sell's letter. When we arrived at the White House, we found the ante- rooms crowded with senators, congressmen, and ofiicers of the army and navy. It was a time of intense excitement and anxiety, and these feelings were shown In the faces of every one present. We waited about two hom-s, and had almost despaired of an interview, when Senator Sherman came out of the President's room. We told him that we were very anxious to see the President, as we had a commu- nication from Friends in England about the matter of the Trent. He quickly said, " You have ? I will see the Pres- ident," and In a few minutes, to the surprise of the officials around us, who had been waiting longer than ourselves, we were Invited In. It was the first time I had ever seen President Lincoln. He was sitting before an open wood fire. In a large easy chair, with that sad, yet strong countenance, which, once seen, was never forgotten. He rose and shook hands with SOUTHERN HEROES. 9 us cordially, and readily assented to our reading the paper from England, to which he listened attentively. In making a few remarks, we stated that the appeal would have the support of able Friends in Parliament, among whom was John Bright. The President's countenance lighted up at the mention of that name, and turning to the senator he said, " Sherman, did you know that John Bright was a Quaker ? " " Oh, yes ! " " Well, I did not before. I read all his speeches, and he knows more of American politics than most of the men at the other end of the avenue (point- ing towards the Capitol). I appreciate liis great work for us in our struggle at home." Turning again to us he said, " Give me your address, and I will send you an acknow- ledgment of the appeal. These are the first words of cheer and encouragement we have had from across the water." About two weeks elapsed, and we received the following letter : Executive Mansion, Washington. January 7, 18G2. Gentlemen, — It gives me great pleasure to acknow- ledge the receipt, through you, of the memorial of the Eng- lish Friends in relation to the matter in question between the government of Great Britain and that of the United States of America. Although I trust that any fears entertained of serious de- rangement of amicable relations have been without founda- tion, I cannot but gratefully appreciate your prompt and generous suggestions in the interests of peace and humanity. I have the honor to be With great respect. Your obedient servant, A. Lincoln. To Francis T. King and others. 10 SOUTHERN HEROES. Secretary Seward happily and promptly settled the Trent controversy in a long and able letter, at the close of which he said, " If I decide this case (the right of search) in favor of my own government, I must disavow its most cherished principles and reverse and forever abandon its essential pol- icy, and the countiy cannot afford the sacrifice. The pris- oners will be cheerfully liberated." Many of the forty-two speakers at the Peace Con- gress at Chicago in 1893, representing different na- tionalities, referred to the fact that Friends had been the first to call the attention of their people to the principles of peace and arbitration, Hugh Price Hughes, the distinguished Methodist of London, at the Ecumenical Council at Washing- ton, in 1892, said, " The Society of Friends, small in numbers though it is, by its teachings on the subject of war, has done the world more good than all the sol- diers that have ever been engaged in battle." The Peace committees of the yearly meetings of Friends, the American Peace Society, the Peace Soci- ety of London, the Peace Association of Friends in America, the Universal Peace Union, the Ecclesiasti- cal Peace Conference, with kindred organizations, by their publications, speakers, and various untiring efforts, have done much for the education of public sentiment on this subject. The Women's Christian Temperance Union accepts this as a part of its work " For God and Home and Every Land." With its girdle of Christian influence around the world, it is endeavoring to show all governments tliat there is a better way than to sacrifice fathers, brothers, husbands, SOUTHERN HEROES. 11 and sons, in attempts to settle national difficulties by war. Evidences of the growtli of public sentiment in favor of peace is seen in tlie fact that the legislative bodies of England, Sweden, Italy, Belgium, Holland, Roumania, Switzerland, and the United States of America, have severally passed resolutions in favor of arbitration, as being the true policy of nations ; and the day is dawning when "Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." In the adjustment of the Behring Sea difficulty be- tween the United States and England, there is posi- tive proof that grave and serious questions may, by submitting them to a court of arbitration, be most satisfactorily settled, and the bonds between nations strehsfthened rather than weakened. Other nations may see by this, as well as by their settlement of the Alabama Claims and other differences, that the two leading nations of the world are learning that it is wiser to settle differences by arbitration than by war. Notwithstanding the fact that the five so-called Christian nations, — England, France, Russia, Austria and Prussia, — have been engaged in seventy-five or more wars during the past eighty years, and the United States in three, besides Indian skirmishes, more than two hundred claims have been settled by arbitration within the same time, — some of them of so serious a natiu-e as would ordinarily have been con- sidered justifiable grounds for war. With Prince Albert originated the idea of a World's 12 SOUTHERN HEROES. Fair, which was first held in the Crystal Palace, at London. Pie is said to have had in mind the thought that by thns bringing together men of different na- tionalities, the feeling of brotherhood would be in- creased, and thereby the day of universal peace would be hastened. General Grant, in an address to a Philadelphia so- ciety, after his return from a voyage around the world, said : " Though I have been trained as a soldier and have partici})ated in many battles, there never was a time when, in my opinion, some way could not have been found of preventing the drawing of the sword. I look forward to an epoch when a court recognized by all nations will settle international differences, in- stead of keeping large standing armies, as is done in Europe." Presidents Hayes and Garfield did not hesitate to declare their concurrence in the same opinions, and Gen. Robert E. Lee, on the occasion of his resigning his position in the United States Army, at the time of the outbreak of the war of 1861, in writing to his sis- ter in Virginia, said, " I cannot draw the sword against my native State, although I'see no need for this state of things." The world is gradually learning to recognize the wisdom of Christ's teaching, and the sentiment of Christian nations is much in advance of that of a century ago ; far in advance of what it was on that day when "To arms, to arms!" was heard all over the United States of America, and the strength of this country rushed to the conflict as a horse rushes to battle. SOUTHERN HEROES. 13 On the 27tli of April, 1861, two men of national fame, wlio had long been personal friends, educated to the same calling and to love the same flag, met in the city of Washington. For two hours they were in private consultation. Then General Scott and Gen- eral Lee took their leave of each other and went forth with sad hearts to the command of two armies, in which were opposed brothers, fathers, and sons, in deadly combat. As we look upon America to-day, at peace with all the world, we can hardly conceive it possible that such a conflict could again take place, a conflict in which it is estimated that on the Northern side alone seven hundred thousand men were killed in battle, maimed for life, or died from disease. Allowing the Southern loss to have been equal, and some estimate it to have been greater, we have one million four hun- dred thousand men — the strength of our land — sac- rificed to the god of war. It is estimated that one of every ten men engaged was either killed or wounded, and one of every sixty-five was killed on the field. June 10, 1880, the Secretary of the Treasury of*the United States presented to the Senate a statement of the expenses gi-owing out of the war on account of the Northern army, from July 1, 1861, to June 30, 1879, and he gave the amount as $6,796,798,508, which he said was sufficient to have purchased every slave in the South at five times his market value ; and the expense was still being continued. Allowing the Soi fch an equal amount for expense and loss, we have as a cost of the war over $13,500,000,000, without 14 SOUTHERN HEROES. taking into account the value of wasted country, har- vests destroyed, and homes, villages, and towns given to the flames. No estimate has been or can be made of the suffer- ings and the anguish of anxious women bereft of their loved ones, and of the struggle for bread by those who were robbed of strong arms and the means of support by the cruel hand of war. General Sher- man well said, " War is cruel, and you cannot refine it ! " It is the perfection of cruelty. Many, who talk of the ground taken by the advo- cates of peace as impolitic, say that the principle cannot be maintained in the face of trial, whether it be one of danger to property or to life. Many in- stances given in these j)ages show that that principle may be held dearer than life. We admit that the opportunity for making money too often stands in the way of obedience to conscientious convictions, yet there are many cases of faithfulness to the dictates of conscience in spite of apparent moneyed interest. Two of these it may be well to record here, as the decisions were made in the face of an apparent sacri- fice of large gains. In 177G, when America was struggling for inde- pendence from British ride, France extended to her such aid as to result in war between herself and Eng- land. Dr. Joseph Fox, a Friend, was pai't owner of the Greyhound and the Brilliant, two cutters used in trading along the Cornish coast. Custom allowed the owners of such cutters to arm them and prey upon the enemy, taking prizes. Dr. Fox's partners pro- SOUTHERN HEROES. 15 posed thus to fit out and use their vessels. Fox pro- tested in vain, and the partners refused either to buy or allow him to sell his interest. He was powerless to prevent their iniquity, but not obliged to be par- taker of its results, and declared that he would not* The vessels were successful in cajjturing a number of prizes, and Fox's partners, remembering his declara- tion, tried to retain all the profits ; but he insisted that they should pay over his share to him, which they finally did. This he placed at interest in 1778. In 1783 peace was made, and the next year he sent his son. Dr. Edward L. Fox, to Paris to advertise for the owners of the plundered property. The proceeding was so entirely new that the French authorities sus- pected something wrong, and he had to secure liberty from the French ministers to advertise the matter. They required a formal declaration that his object was in truth what he represented it to be, and threat- ened him with severe punishment if he practiced any deception. Applications were made for the greater part of the funds, and all the claims were found to be well founded. The recipients caused the facts to be published in the " Gazette," wishing, they said, " to give the publicity which it merits to this trait of generosity and equity, which does honor to the So- ciety of the Quakers, and proves their fidelity to the principles of peace and unity by which they are dis- tinguiohed." After thus disposing of $7350, there remained 1600 which coidd not be refunded. This amount could not be applied as desired, owing to the recurrence of hostilities, and was put on interest until 16 SOUTHERN HEROES. 1818. The amount was then deposited in the treas- ury of the Invalid Seaman's Society, for the relief of non-combatants of the merchant service. In confirmation of the above story we quote the following- from " Lloyd's Evening Post," of Paris, March 9, 1785 : " The principles of peace and quiet- ness which characterize the Society of Quakers for- bid them from taking any part in wars, ancf do not even suffer them to partake of any profit that may arise from such a source. One of these peaceable peoj)le was inevitably concerned in some privateers which his partners would fit out during the late wai', notwithstanding all his remonstrances and opposition. Having received his share of the profits, he has sent his son to this city to endeavor to find out the owners of the vessels taken, by the above ' Letters of Marque,' and restore to them the part he has received of those prizes. For this purpose he has published the names of all the vessels taken by the privateers fitted out by his father's house, and desires the owners or their agents to apply to Dr. Edward Long Fox, Hotel d'York, Rue Jacob, Paris." Since the year 1861, a large iron company made application to the Lukens Iron and Steel Co., of Coatsville, Pa., for ten thousand tons of protective armor plate for government war vessels. This order was positively declined by the president of the com- pany. Dr. Charles Huston, a Friend, on the ground of his peace principles. Dr. Huston said, " War only decides which of the combatants has the sui)erior strength, and it is more expensive than arbitration, as well as destructive to life and property." SOUTHERN HEROES. 17 The work was declined with the full knowledge that if accepted it would lead to heavy government orders. Later on, an agent of the government called on Dr. Huston to get a large amount of work done for military purposes. This was the only mill east of the Allegheny Mountains where it could be done. The agent tried to persuade Dr. Huston to accept it, telling him that he should name his own price and have continued patronage. The reasons were kindly given for not accepting the order, and the Lukens Iron and Steel Co. neither roll iron plate nor do other work for war purposes. They continue, however, to have a good patronage, and during 1893 and 1894, while the other mills were having little or no work, and many of them were closed, the business of the Lukens Iron and Steel Co. went steadily on. How much the influence of Friends may have had to do in bringing about the favorable showing of the United States in the following comparison, we will not undertake to say. A leading New York paper published the following article, taken from the New Orleans " Times-Democrat " : " There is no better proof of the essential barbarism of even the most civilized nations of the world than is afforded by a comparison of the money they expend for the main- tenance of physical supremacy as against the expendi- ture for mental improvement. Though it be assumed that ' brain is better than brawn,' there is no evi- dence that statesmen so regard it. The amount per capita expended by various goverments for military and educational purposes is set down as follows : 18 SOUTHERN HEROES. Military. Educational. France §4.00 $0.70 England 3.72 63 HoUand 3.58 64 Saxony 2.38 36 Wiirtemberg 2.38 38 Bavaria ....... 2.38 40 Prussia 2.04 50 Denmark ...... 1.76 94 Italy 1.52 36 Belgium 1.38 46 Austria 1.36 32 Switzerland ...... 82 84 United States 39 1.35 " The citizens of some of the European countries are so burdened with taxation for war purposes that they complain of the heavy draft upon their resources, and in various ways express their dissatisfaction. A recent minute of the Yorkshire Quarterly Meet- ing of Friends, held at York, England, January, 1894, says: "The meeting is deeply impressed with the suffering caused to the nations of Europe by the bur- densome weight of military expenditures. The reck- less squandering of national resources has already brought some European states to bankruptcy, and others to' a condition of grave financial embarrass- ment. In this country about fifty out of every sev- enty-five pounds raised by parliamentary taxation is already devoted to war-like expenditui'e, past or pres- ent. (Signed) William Harvey, Clerk." The following statements taken from an article in the " Boston Post," of June 6, 1894, give us some idea of the enormous expenditure in European countries for war purposes: SOUTHERN HEROES. 19 " To be In a state of preparation for war costs the taxpayers of continental Europe $700,000,000 a year. This is $60,000,000 more than it cost nine years ago, and it takes no account of either the value of the time of the men kept under arms, or the incidental cost to the states of building or "acquiring railroads, mainly for purposes of military defense. The magnitude of the latter item is referred to by Dr. Mulhall in an article in the " North American Review," in which he shows that since 1885 the governments of continental Europe have built or purchased more than 16,000 miles of railway, at an apparent cost of $1,680,000,- 000. That is to say, that in 1885 the mileage and capital cost of state railways in Europe were 37,560 miles, and $3,755,000,000. They had risen in 1898 to 58,830 miles and $5,455,000,000. Add to this ex- penditure $80,000,000 for state telegraph lines, and $1,140,000,000 for armaments, and the enormous increase in nine years of $2,900,000,000 in the pub- lic debt of the states of continental Europe will be accounted for. " The armaments, for which large sums have been used, cannot be said to be additions to the national wealth, but it will be seen that since 1885 they have entailed an expenditure, partly raised by taxation and partly by borrowing, of $2,660,000,000. Even this does not include the amount of the interest charge- able to this portion of the public debt, and it provides no guarantee that in the next nine years the cost of military preparation may not be as much more." The Krupp gun which was exhibited at the World's 20 SOUTHERN HEROES. Fair at Chicago is 48 feet long, 17 inches bore, and weighs 140 tons. The carriage weighs 150 tons. The whole cost $195,000. It requires 904 pounds of pow- der for one charge. At 33 cents a pound, the cost of a charge would be $298.32. The armor-piercing shell, weighing 2513 pounds, at 40 cents per pound, costs $1005.20. This makes, according to the war department estimate, $1303.52 for once firing the gun. Sixty firings are its limit, or $78,211.20. Add to this the original cost, $195,000, and you have the net cost of $273,211.20, for sixty rounds ; or $4553.52 for each shot, without adding cost of handling or equipments. It throws a steel-pointed projectile five feet long, weighing, as we have seen, over a ton, a distance of twenty miles or more ; and at nine miles it has been made to pass through a steel armor plate 24 inches thick. Besides this projectile, this gun shoots steel schrapnels, filled with small bullets, 3000 in each. This shell, charged with an explosive substance, bursts and the balls are hurled with great velocity in every direction, so that besides the destructive power of the steel fragments is that of 3000 bullets. Few regi- ments contain 1000 effective men, so that in this one shell you have the power of destroying a whole bri- gade. A quick-firing gun of that exhibit fires forty shots a minute, using fuse-shell, cast-iron ring shell, steel schrapnels, or case shot. There are 180 balls in each schrapnel. Forty shots can be fired in a minute, which would give 7200 bullets besides the fragments SOUTHERN HEROES. 21 of forty shells, to be sent every minute among human beings. To receive such a fire would soon destroy an army. Since the exhibition at Chicago of those wonderful machines for the destruction of human life, showing that the inventive genius of man is still at work on this line, news has been received from London (Janu- ary 6, 1894), that Arch Duke Salvator has perfected an automatic mitrailleuse that will fire from 450 to 460 shots per minute. Smokeless powder can be used in all weathers, and thus the presence of an am- bushed enemy is not revealed. Forty thousand rounds have been fired from the barrel of one of these new guns without its showing any defect. Those interested in naval warfare have been much gratified with experiments made with a recently com- pleted dynamite gun, weighing, with its carriage, fifty- two tons, throwing a quarter of a ton of dynamite a mile and a half with great accuracy, and so con- structed that it will explode upon striking the water or any other substance. It is operated by electricity, and one projectile is said to be sufficient to destroy three war ships at once. On one trial it is said to have thrown an acre of the Atlantic Ocean into the air. Another recent invention is claiming the attention of war men. One Mr. Turpin has produced an auto- matic chariot, firing automatically 25,000 bullets at one time. This invention renders the approach of an enemy impossible. Liquefied gas may be used in the machine. Projectiles are hurled with tremendous 22 SOUTHERN HEROES. force to great distances, and from any height, the ap- paratus being such as to afford buoyancy. The in- ventor claims that his weapon will be so destructive that war will cease for want of soldiers. Add to these a machine recently perfected for pour- ing burning petroleum from balloons upon cities and towns, with such effect as to destroy them by fire, and we may well conclude that war will cease because of its utter destructiveness. The United States has recently had a test made, at the Sandy Hook proving station, of four of the big- gest projectiles ever made by this government. The first shot went through an obstruction of thirteen and a half inches of steel armor plate, four feet of solid oak plank, and thirty-seven feet of sand. These four shots cost the government -$17,000. The total cost to the United States Government dur- ing the year 1893 on what may be called the war power, including pensions, the army, and the navy, was upwards of $239,000,000, far more than haK the entire expenditures of the government. The total number of persons furnished by the dif- ferent Northern States to the various calls of Abra- ham Lincoln was 2,759,049, Of these, President Cleveland's proclamation in 1894 stated that 969,544 were still on the pension rolls, and the number had increased 3552 since the year before. The amount paid in pensions during the year 1893, nearly thirty years after the close of the war, was 8139,804,401.05. If our government does not soon call a halt in her military expenditures, such groanings as those of the SOUTHERN HEROES. 23 European nations may soon be heard on this side of the Atlantic, by the people who now so proudly boast of their freedom from conscription and taxation for keeping up the war system. We must believe that the advanced civilization of the nineteenth century will forbid our going to much greater lengths in this direction, notwithstanding the efforts of military men to introduce army tactics into our schools, and of preachers and Bible school teach- ers to introduce boys' brigades into our churches and Bible schools. The engines of death have been brought to such wonderful perfection and extensive capabilities that to go to war means the utter destruction of one or both armies. This is so fidly realized by the military men themselves, that they hesitate as never before to de- clare war and thus bring into action these machines for the slaughter of men by thousands. They, too, are coming to realize, from the very certainty of suc- cess in the destruction of human life, that to go to war is not Christ-like but barbarous. CHAPTER II. O Spirit of that early day, So pure and strong and true, Be with us in the narrow way Our faithful fathers knew. Give strength the evil to forsake. The cross of Truth to bear, And love and reverent fear to make Our daily lives a prayer. Whittier. In 1656, twelve years after George Fox had begun his ministry in England, a number of his followers attempted to land in America ; but the New England puritans were unwilling that the doctrines of Fox should be taught in their midst. They therefore sent the Friends back to England by the same ship in which they had come. The Friends soon returned, however, bringing others with them, this time to stay. Notwithstanding severe persecution and the death of four of their number, who were hung on Boston Common on account of their religion, they made many converts. Churches were established from New England to Georgia. Many of these have ever since been main- tained, sometimes with ministers, sometimes without ; but whether flourishing or waning, the Friends every- where steadily upheld their distinctive views concern- ing war. They were the first in America to teach SOUTHERN HEROES. 25 the doctrine of religious liberty and o£ non-resistance. They have had no small part in the education of public sentiment and in the framing of laws which place the United States among the foremost nations of the world, respecting, as it does, liberty of con- science, the sacredness of human life, and the equal rights of all. The colony of Rhode Island was settled largely by Friends. Roger Williams welcomed them to his " Providence Plantation," and the government of the colony was, for many years, mostly under their con- trol. They kept no standing army and had no mili- tary displays. The Indians were treated justly, and, having their confidence, the Friends were in no dan- ger of massacre as were their military neighbors, who constantly suffered loss of life and property on account of warlike measures. William Penn landed at Newcastle on the Dela- ware on the 24th of October, 1682, and proceeded to the site where now stands Philadelphia. Here he made that famous treaty of peace and justice with the Indians, the only treaty, says Voltaire, which " was never sworn to and never broken." Pennsyl- vania, while under the rule of Friends, from 1682 to 1754, presents a picture of what has well been called " The Golden Age " of that State. " During these seventy years," writes Clarkson, the abolitionist, " while William Penn's principles pre- vailed and the Quakers had the principal share in the government, there was no spot on the globe where, number for number, there was such virtue or so 26 SOUTHERN HEROES. much happiness as among the people of Pennsyl- vania." Taking into account the time and the extent of territory, it is without parallel in the history of mankind as an example of Christian government. " Of all the colonies that every existed," says Pro- fessor Ebeling, " none was ever founded on so philan- thropic a plan ; none so deej)ly impressed with the character of its founder ; none ever practiced in a greater degree the principle of toleration, liberty, and peace ; and none rose and flourished more rapidly." The language on this subject of the eloquent Du- ponceau, in his address before the Pennsylvania His- torical Society, in 1821, is very striking. He says : " Let it not be imagined that the annals of Pennsyl- vania are not sufficiently interesting to call forth the talents of an eloquent historian. It is true that they exhibit none of those striking events which the vul- gar mass of humanity considers alone worthy of being transmitted to posterity. " No ambitious rival warriors occupy the stage, nor are strong emotions excited by the frequent descrip- tions of blood, murder, and devastation. But what country on earth ever presented such a spectacle as this fortunate commonwealth held out to view for the space of nearly one hundred years, — realizing all that fable ever invented or poetry ever sang of an imaginary golden age ? Happy country, whose un- paralleled innocence already communicates to thy history the interest of romance I " Should Pennsylvanians hereafter degenerate, they will not need, like the Greeks, a fabulous Arcadia to SOUTHERN HEROES. 27 relieve the mind from the prospect of their crimes and follies and to doom their own vices by the fancied virtues of their forefathers. Pennsylvania once realized what never existed before, except in fabled story. Not that her citizens were entirely free from the passions of human nature, for they were men and not angels, but it is certain that no country on earth ever exhibited such a scene of happiness, innocence, and peace as was witnessed here during the first century of her existence." Friends were among the earliest settlers of North Carolina. The first of whom we have any account were Henry Phillips and his family, who settled on the banks of Albemarle Sound, about 1665. They went from New England, where he and his wife had been convinced of the principles of Friends. William Edmundson came from England with George Fox in the early part of 1672. They landed in Maryland, George Fox going to New England and William Edmundson to Carolina, which was then a wilderness. William Edmundson had much diffi- culty in crossing swamps and fording or swimming rivers. Often at night he found no shelter except such as the forest afforded. Upon reaching the home of Henry Phillips he was received with tears of rejoicing. They had not seen a Friend for seven years, and William Edmundson was the first minister of the Gospel who had ever come to Carolina. Meetings were held at the home of Henry Phillips, and many of the inhabitants attended. " These had 28 SOUTHERN HEROES. little or no religion," says the preacher, " for they came and sat down in meetings smoking their pipes ; yet several of them were tendered and received the testimony." Tradition in that neighborhood says, " They sat looking earnestly at the preacher, their elbows on their knees, their faces in their hands, their pipes in their months, and their hats on their heads." The territory which now constitutes North and South Carolina had at that time about three thousand European settlers. These were very much scattered, there being scarcely a hamlet to be seen in the whole province. There were no roads. Paths from house to house were marked by "blazed trees." There seems to have been no religious sect in the country before the coming of William Edmundson. No won- der that Henry Phillips and his wife wept at the coming of their brother in the Gospel. Friends were the first to form a relipious or^ani- zation in Carolina, and their numbers rapidly in- creased by immigration and convincement. The governor of the province became so obnoxious to them and to the people in general, on account of his attempts to force the constitutionals upon them, that they deposed him, and John Archdale, a Friend, was aj)pointed in his place. So much power was given to Governor Archdale that it was deemed best to make a record that no such authority should be claimed by any of his successors. He was deeply interested in the welfare of the people, including the Indians. SOUTHERN HEROES. 29 January 25, 1688, he wrote to George Fox, " We, at present, have peace with all the nations of the In- dians. The Tuscarora King seems to be a very wise man, as to natural parts. Some of the Indians living near me are so civilized as to come into English hab- its and have cattle of their own. I look upon this outward civilization as a good preparation for the Gospel, which God, in His season, without doubt will cause to dawn upon them." The rule of Governor Archdale, like that of Wil- liam Penn, was solely for the good of his people, and under it they prospered. The rights ^^f the Indians were considered, and the Gospel was preached to them. There were no wars or massacres in Carolina, as in the settlements of Jamestown, Va., and some other parts of this country. To this day the name of John Archdale is held in loving remembrance by the descendants of the people whom he so wisely governed, and one of the prettiest villages in the " Old North State " is named " Arch- dale " in memory of him. No liquor saloon is allowed to exist in the town, and the people live in peace and prosperity under the care of their Quaker mayor. A spirit of discernment and prophecy seems to have characterized the ministry of many preachers among Friends, and Mahlon Hockett was noted for speaking to that which was in the minds of others, and telling them of their misdeeds. On one occasion two ungodly men were discussing the manner in which they should spend the Sabbath morning, when one of them said, " Let 's go and hear what old Mah- 30 SOUTHERN HEROES. Ion has to say to-day." Accordingiy they went to Springfiekl meeting. Soon after they entered, Mah- lon, fastening his eyes upon them, arose and said, " AA^ell, let 's go and hear what okl Mahlon has to say to-day." He thus gained their attention, and pro- ceeded to preach a sermon which was blessed to the good of their souls. On another occasion a woman entered, while he was preaching. He stopped a moment, looked at her, and remarked, " Go and carry home that filling, and thou shalt have peace of mind." He then proceeded with his subject. The woman took home the filling, which she had stolen from a neighbor for whom she had been weaving, confessed her sin, and became a changed character. Two of the most remarkable prophecies concerning the civil war in this country were made by Joseph Hoag. He was born of Presbyterian parents, in New York, in 1762. He became a Friend and minister, and settled at Monkton, Vt. In 1820 he was trav- eling with a companion, on horseback, visiting the meetings of Friends in Pennsylvania. As they were riding he suddenly stopped his horse ; looking around him and then down to the ground, he said to his friend, " My horse's feet are wading in blood, even to the fetlocks." Upon this very ground, forty-three years later, was fought the terrible battle of Gettys- burg, July 1, 2, and 3, 1863. Joseph Hoag's wonderful vision concerning the civil war and the abolition of slavery was widely published long before the war, but it should have a place here. SOUTHERN HEROES. 31 VISION OF JOSEPH HOAG. " In the year 1803, probably the eighth or ninth month, I was alone in the fields and observed that the sun shone clear, but that a mist eclipsed the bright- ness of its shining. As I reflected upon the singu- larity of the event, my mind was drawn into silence the most solemn I ever remember to have witnessed, for it seemed as if all my faculties were laid low and unusually brought into deep solemnity. I said to my- self, ' What can all this mean ? I do not recollect ever before to have been sensible of such feelings,' and I heard a voice from Heaven say, ' This that thou seest which dims the brightness of the sim, is a sign of the present and coming times. I took the forefathers of this country from a land of oppression ; I planted them here among the people of the forest ; I sustained them ; and while they were humble I blessed and fed them, and they became a numerous people ; but they have now become proud and lifted up, and have forgotten Me who nourished and pro- tected them in the wilderness, and are running into every abomination and evil practice of which the old countries are guilty ; I have taken quietude from the land, and suffered a dividing sjsirit to come among them. Lift up thine eyes and behold.' " And I saw them dividing in great heat. This division began in the church upon points of doctrine. It commenced in the Presbyterian Society and went through the various denominations, and in its progress and close its effect was nearly the same. Those who 32 SOUTHERN HEROES. dissented went off with hiffli heads and tauntinof language, and those who kept to the oi'iginal senti- ment appeared exercised and sorrowful. And when this dividing spirit entered the Society of Friends it raged in as high a degree as any I had before discov- ered ; and as before, those who separated went away with lofty looks and taimting, censuring language, while those who kept to the ancient principles retired by themselves. " It next api^eared in the lodges of Free Masons, and it broke out like a volcano, insomuch that it set the country in an uj^roar for a length of time. Then it entered politics throughout the United States, and it did not stop until it produced civil war, and an abundance of human blood was shed in the combat. The Southern States lost their power, and slavery was annihilated from their borders. " Then a monarchical power arose, took the govern- ment of the States, established a national religion, and made all societies tributary to its support. I saw them take property from Friends to large account. I was amazed at all this, and heard a voice proclaim, 'This power shall not always stand, but with this power I will chasten My church until they return to the f aithf idness of their forefathers. Thou seest wliat is coming on thy native land for their iniquity and the blood of Africa, the remembrance of which has come up before Me. This vision is yet for many days.' " I had no idea of writing it down, for many years, until it became such a burden that for my own re- SOUTHERN HEROES. 33 lief I have written it. — Joseph Hoag, Monkton, Vt., 1843." The clause relative to the monarchical form of gov- ernment is thought by many not to be a part of the vision as first related by him. His son, Lindley M. Hoag, an eminent minister, told the writer that his father believed that the present form of government would not endure, and having failed to write the vision until many years had passed by, he may have confused in his mind the opinion with the vision. His eldest son, Joseph D. Hoag, also gave this testimony. William Dean, an aged Friend and former neighbor of Joseph Hoag, who also heard him relate the vision, has confirmed this statement, as have also many others ; so it seems but just to give this explanation in connection with this part of the vision. This was indeed a remarkable prophecy, and there is no other way to account for it but to acknowledge, as the venerable minister expressed it, that he " heard a voice from Heaven." Joseph Hoag died long before the war of 1861, but he fully believed that it was coming, and most mi- nutely has the vision been fulfilled. Divisions have occurred in the churches, and in the order he pre- dicted. The Free Masons have partaken of a divid- ing spirit, which did, indeed, enter into politics and much human blood was shed. Slavery was abolished and property in large amounts was taken from Friends. Truly we have been chastened for the blood of 34 SOUTHERN HEROES. Africa and for the iniquity of slavery, which began in America by the purchase of twenty negroes from a Dutch trading ship, by the English settlers at James- town, Virginia, in 1G20 ; and which was legally ended January 1, 18G3, by the Emancipation Proclamation of Abraham Lincoln. An amusing as well as interesting story, which has a bearing upon our subject, is told of a minister among Friends of more recent date. Owing to his popularity and activity in the temper- ance work, Eli Jones was elected by a large majority to the State Legislature of Maine, in 1854. The election was very unexpected to him, as he had not sought the place ; but having been chosen largely on account of his temperance principles, he said he would see what he could do " to help put new teeth into the old law," and much credit is due to him for the existence of the " Maine Liquor Law." When the time came to be sworn in as a member of the House, Eli Jones alone kept his seat while the others swore to do their duty. Then he arose and "affirmed" to the governor that he would faithfidly perform the duties of his office. Although he worked on important committees and was diligent in other duties of his office, he never ad- dressed the House. Some of the members who knew his ability arranged a plan to call forth a speech from him. In the course of the session it became necessary to appoint a ]Major-General to the second division of the Maine militia. In 1838, Maine had undertaken by for('e of arms to assert her right to a region near SOUTHERN HEROES. 35 her northern boundary, claimed by both her and Can- ada. There was much mustering of troops at the capital, and fully ten thousand soldiers marched through the deep snow and fierce cold to drive the enemy from Aroostook County. Though they were brave and ready for battle, happily no blood was shed, and peace was wisely made. But the " Aroostook War " became famous as a subject of banter, and many jokes were made at the expense of the officers. The old nursery rhyme was quoted : " The King of France, with twice ten thousand men, Marched up the hill, and then — marched down again." Primarily for these two reasons, — to urge Eli Jones to his feet, and to joke the former officers by appointing a Quaker, an avowed peace advocate, — he was unanimously chosen to fill the vacancy of Major- General. The nomination was so entirely unexpected by Eli Jones that he was at first perplexed by the situation. He saw that much was at stake, and that wisdom and caution were needed. Having his horse at Augusta, he drove that night to his home at Dirigo, fifteen miles away, chiefly, perhaps, to discuss the situation with his beloved Sibyl and the Friends most suitable for counsel. After talking far into the night with his brother-in-law, James Van Blarcom, he walked the floor alone until the new day was dawning. Upon reaching Augusta again, he found the occa- sion far more important than he had anticipated. The news had spread that the Quaker was to speak in regard to his appointment, and the Hall of the Repre- 36 SOUTHERN HEROES. sentatives was crowded. Not only were most of the members of the Senate present, but many other citi- zens. The subject of the appointment was introduced, and Eli Jones sj^oke in substance as follows : " Whatever my ambitions may have been in times past, my aspirations have never embraced such an office as this as an object of desire. I can assure the House that my election as Major-General was an honor wholly unexpected. It is true that when the governor announced to the House the existence of the vacancy, a member privately remarked to me, ' I shall vote for you ; ' but I replied, declining the honor, and proposed to return the compliment. " To my mind there is something ominous in this occurrence. I regard it as one of the develojjments of the times. AVho of us, when assembled ten years ago, in quiet and retired places, to affix our signa- tures to pledges of abstinence from intoxicating drinks, would have believed that in 1855 we should be elected to the seats we now occupy, amid the over- whelming rejoicings of the people, and pledged to the suj)port of the Maine Law? Who that at that time had visited the plantations of the South and seen the slave toiling under the lash of the taskmaster, would have believed that in 1855 the people of the larger portion of this great land would have roused with stern determination to subdue the encroachments of the slave power, and have pledged themselves never to cease their labors until the wrongs of slavery should be ameliorated, — nay, more^ until slavery itself should be abolished ? SOUTHERN HEROES. 37 " Still more wonderful ! Who would have believed that the State of Maine, which a few years since glo- ried in an Aroostook expedition, and was noisy with military training and the noise of arms, would, in 1855, exhibit the spectacle of a peaceable member of the Society of Friends being elected to the post of Major-General of a division of the militia, and that, too, by the representatives in their legislative capa- city? " But I have endeavored to regulate my own con- duct by the principle that legislation should not go very far in advance of public sentiment, and it seems to me that this election may possibly be ahead of that sentiment. I therefore submit this suggestion in all candor. " It is generally understood that I entertain peculiar views in respect to the policy of war. If, however, I am an exponent of the views of the Legislature on that subject, I will cheerfully undertake to serve the State in the capacity indicated. With much pleasure I shall stand before the militia of the second division and give such orders as I think best. The first would be, ' Ground arms.' The second would be, ' Right about face ; beat your swords into plowshares and your spears into pruning-hooks, and learn war no more.' I should then dismiss every man to his farm and to his merchandise, with an admonition to read daily at his fireside the New Testament, and ponder upon its tidings of ' Peace on earth, good will toward men.' " If, on the other hand, it should be determined 38 SOUTHERN HEROES. that my election is a little in advance of the times, I am willing, as a ^ood citizen, to bow to the majesty of the law, and, as a member of the Legislature, to con- sult its dignity and decline the exalted position ten- dered me by the House, — and I will now decline it. With pleasure I now surrender to the House this trust and the honor, and retire to private life." This speech was delivered amid interruptions of loud applause, and made a great sensation throughout the State ; and not in Maine only, but it was com- mented on by many of the newspapers, and appeared in the columns of English journals. Pictures of the fighting Quaker were made, with the' orders to his troops printed below. It even came put in an African journal, so that what seemed an un- important jileasantry on the part of the members of the Legislature of Maine, gave Eli Jones an opportu- nity to preach peace to a very extended audience, and to make his voice heard far beyond the little State capital. From this time, Eli Jones was regarded with much respect by all the members, and he received encouragement and support in whatever he desired to accomplish. At the close of the legislative session he called upon the governor to thank him for his kindness and his help in different ways. He remarked to the governor that he had been in rather a peculiar place during the winter, and had felt somewhat like a " speckled bird."' The governor said to him, " Mr. Jones, what you call being a ' speckled bird ' has given you more influence than anything else could possibly have done." SOUTHERN HEROES. 39 Whatever he may have accomplished in other lines during his term of office, Eli Jones gave a clear testi- mony concerning the Christian teaching respecting peace, temperance, and oaths, and returned to his home m China, Maine, thoroughly resj^ected by all with whom he had been associated. CHAPTER III. Up now, for freedom ; not in strife Like that your sterner fathers saw, — The awful waste of human life, The glory and the guilt of war ; But break the chain, the yoke remove. And smite to earth oppression's rod With those mild arms of Truth and Love Made mighty through the living God. Whittiee. There is undoubted proof that, while recognizing the right of States to enact their own laws, our fore- fathers, in the founding of this government, fully- expected that slavery would be abolished by all her citizens. That the framers of the Declaration of In- dependence so intended, is clear from its own state- ments. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and many others of the founders of this Union, expressed them- selves clearly upon this subject ; and George Wash- ington, in a letter to John F. Mercer, September 9, 1786, said: "I never mean, unless some particular cir- cumstance should compel me to it, to possess another slave by purchase, — it being among my first wishes to see some plan adopted by which slavery in this country may be abolished by law." Again, he says, in a letter to Sir John Sinclair : " There are, in Penn- SOUTHERN HEROES. 41 sylvania, laws for the gradual abolition of slavery, which neither Virginia nor Maryland have at present; but nothing is more certain than that they must have them, and at a period not remote." In a letter to Charles Pinckney, at that time governor of South Car- olina, he writes, March 17, 1792 : " I must say that I lament the decision of your Legislature upon the sub- ject of importing slaves after March, 1793. I was in hopes that motives of policy as well as other good rea- sons, supported by the direful effects of slavery which at this moment are presented, would have operated to produce a total prohibition of the importation of slaves, wherever the question came to be agitated, in any State that might be interested in the measure." By will, General Washington freed all his slaves except the dower negroes. His wife, on learning of her husband's will, immediately gave up her dower, and the slaves were all at once liberated. Thomas Jefferson freed all his slaves by will, and says : " The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one part and degrading submission on the other. Our children see this and learn to imitate it. The parent storms, the child looks on, catches the lineaments of wrath, puts on the same airs in the circle of smaller slaves, gives a loose rein to the worst passions, and thus nursed, educated, and daily exercised in tyranny, cannot but be stamped by it with odious peculiarities. The man must be a prodigy who can retain his mor- als and manners undepraved by such circumstances. 42 SOUTHERN HEROES. With the morals of the people their industry is also destroyed ; for in a warm climate no man will labor for himself who can make another labor for him. This is so true that, of the proprietors of slaves, only a very small proportion, indeed, are ever seen to labor. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, — a con- viction in the minds of the people that their liberties are the gift of God, and that they are not to be vio- lated except by His wrath ? " Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just ; that His justice cannot sleep for- ever ; that, considering numbers, nature, and natural means only, a revolution in the wheel of fortune or exchange of the situation is among possible events ; that it may become probable by a supernatural inter- ference. The Almighty has no attribute which can take sides with us in such a contest." Again he says : " We must wait with patience the workings of an overruling Providence, and hope that this is jjreparing the deliverance of these our brethren. When the measure of their tears shall be full, when their groans shall have involved Heaven itself in darkness, doubt- less a God of justice will awaken to their distress. Nothing is more certainly written in the book of Fate than that this people shall be free." The eloquent Patrick Henry said, in 1773: "It would rejoice my very soul that every one of my fellow beings was emancipated. We ought to lament and deplore the necessity of holding our fellow men SOUTHERN HEROES. 43 in bondage. Believe me, I shall honor the Quakers for their noble efforts to abolish slavery." Many more quotations from these and others of the fathers of our country could be given, showing that they hoped for and expected the freedom of all slaves within the United States. We will add only one more, and this from one of the fathers of the Con- stitution. James Madison, in the convention that drafted the Constitution, said that he thought it " wrong to admit into the Constitution the idea that there could be property in man." He also stated that where slavery existed, the republican theory became still more falla- cious. " We have seen the mere distinction of color made, in the more enlightened period of time, a ♦ ground for the most oppressive dominion ever exer- cised by man over man." The Southern States failed to meet the expectation of their wisest statesmen, and reaped the bitter fruit of their sowing. A few comparisons of the statistical tables will show that slavery was not a profitable institution. Virginia contained a fifth of the population of the whole country at the close of the last century. Ac- cording to the first census, taken in 1790, New York had 340,920 inhabitants; Virginia had 748,308, or more than twice the population of New York State. Sixty years afterwards, in 1850, New York had a population of 3,097,394 ; and Virginia, only 1,421,661, — less than half as many as New York. Althouo'h Massachusetts had less than one sixth 44 SOUTHERN HEROES. the area of North Carolina, in comj)aring their statis- tics we find that Massachusetts had a decided advan- tage. And so we might go on with the fifteen slave States, showing by comparison with free States that the jDCople who depended upon their own industries were the most prosperous in every direction. The goods of foreign manufacture purchased by Philadelphia used to come largely from Charleston merchants, who were large importers ; and the Quaker dames of that now famous city watched for the fresh importation of their fine silks, etc., by the merchants of their Southei'n neighbor. Charleston is now so far outstripped in the race, as to have been almost unknown, for decades past, as a source of supply for imported goods. When the Southern States started in the race with their Northern sisters, the advantages were al- most wholly in their favor, — climate, water-power, and mineral resources. Slavery has undoubtedly been the cause of their falling so far behind in the race for supremacy, in merchandise, in arts, in mechanics, in manufactures, in shipping, in mining, and in agricul- ture itself, which they finally boasted of as their spe- cialty, claiming cotton as king. But as a fact, accord- ing to the reports on agriculture for the year 1850, the hay crop of the Northern States by itself exceeded in value by three and a half million dollars the value of all the cotton, tobacco, rice, hay, hemp, and cane sugar produced by the fifteen slave States combined. A small proportion only of the citizens of the South were really slave-owners. In 1850, 347,525 are re- SOUTHERN HEROES. 45 ported as nominal slaveholders, though this number includes those who hired slaves. Those o\vning them in more than one county were counted according to the number of counties in which they owned them. By carefully considered statistics it is estimated that in the fifteen slave States, having an entire popula- tion of 9,612,979, less than 200,000 were slave-own- ers ; yet at this time they held 3,200,364 slaves. The free negroes were not considered citizens nor allowed to vote. There were 228,136 of them in the slave States, — more in number than the slaveholders. The slaveholders gave a great deal of attention to politics, and it is evident that the South was wholly under their control, and to a great extent the United States was governed by them. Laws were made in the special interest of this class, and no citizen not in accord with this system could hold an office within the gift of the Southern people. By far the majority of the prominent offices in the United States were given to Southern men. From the time of Washing- ton's election until that of Abraham Lincoln, in 1861, seventy-two years, eighteen presidential elec- tions took place. Of the candidates chosen, twelve were Southern slaveholders. No Northern man had ever been reelected to the presidency, but five South- ern men had been. Southern men occupied the presi- dential chair forty-eight and a quarter of the seventy- two years, or more than two thirds of the time. Upon examination of the records, we find that much the larger proportion of the United States offices have been held by Southern men, and thus legislation, not 46 SOUTHERN HEROES. only in the Southern States, but also in the North, was made largely in the interest of this very small minority of her citizens. Such was the effect upon the interests of the labor- ing white man in the South that he could obtain as a farm laborer only about seven or eight dollars per month and food, while the slave hired out by his master and for his master's benefit would be allowed ten dollars or more, with food, lodging, clothing, and medical attendance. In 1856 the North Carolina Railroad Company paid white men twelve dollars a month, while the slave-owners received for slave labor sixteen dollars for every slave so employed, regardless of efficiency. Tidy, industrious white girls had diffi- culty in securing positions in private families at forty dollars a year, board and lodging included, while negro slave girls of corresponding ages but in every way inferior were in brisk demand at sixty-five or seventy dollars, including food, clothes, and medical attendance. As a result of all this even the negroes had come to look down upon the poor whites, and the self-respect of the latter was reduced to a low state. By the time the war began, many of the poor white people had so far lost their ambition as to look for or exj^ect little more than an animal existence. The free school, connnon in the Northern States, had little place in the South at this time. The slave holders had no interest in the education of the free colored people or of the poor whites. A very large proportion of the popidation could neither read nor SOUTHERN HEROES. 47 write, and many of the poor white people possessed but little money from one year's end to another. So jealously was the system of slavery guarded that it became dangerous to have anything to say against it. For selling Hinton Rowen Helper's " Impending Crisis," a book written by a North Carolinian, show- ing from a financial standpoint the evil effects of slavery, Jesse Whalon of Guilford County, N. C, was banished, and Daniel Worth was imprisoned in Greensboro, N. C. A company of men took him from the jail and after getting out of the town it was proposed to hang him. To this proposal all were agreed except one John A. Gilmore, who, by his posi- tive opposition and determination to save the life of the preacher, prevailed upon them to desist. An aged worthy citizen, remembering the facts, told the writer that with one exception all of these men had come to a violent death, and he was an outcast from society and the writer knows not his end. John Gil- more became an honorable Christian citizen, and died respected by all who knew him and honored by his country. The evil effects of slavery became more and more apparent to the American people as time advanced. The corruptions and demoralizing effects upon white as well as black grew with the practice. The hard- ened condition and cruelty of many of the Southern- ers, as manifested during the war, was the result of havino; become accustomed to acts of "man's inhuman- ity to man," in the treatment of the African negro. "With a few exceptions the slaves were forbidden to 48 SOUTHERN HEROES. read, and many preachers tauglit that they had no soul. In sjiite of these facts the negroes acquired some knowledge of the Scripture. Of this they made good use, and there was much genuine piety among them. The Lord condescended in marked manner to teach them by His Holy Spirit. They believed that He " talked with them by the way " and helj)ed them to bear their heavy burdens. The more determined the Southern peoj)le became to extend the limits of the slave territory and shape the laws of the government to protect this Southern interest, the more rapidly grew the feeling of opj)osi- tion and the more universal became the opinion that slavery was a national sin and ought not to be toler- ated. * In 1851 the laws were so framed in the interest of the slaveholders that anywhere in the United States to harbor a fugitive slave, receive him into one's house, feed him, or in any way aid him, was to subject one's self to a heavy fine and imprisonment. No wonder that Thomas Jefferson said, when speaking of slavery, " I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just." John Wesley, who had lived in Georgia, called it " the sum of all villainies." Soon after the beginning of the war. Col. U. L. Utely, of the United States Army, while encamped with his regiment in Kentucky, was visited by Judge Robertson of the United States Court, who demanded of him a negro boy who had taken refuge within the camp. Colonel Utely promptly refused to surrender him, although ordered by his superior officer to do so. SOUTHERN HEROES. 49 He denied the jurisdiction of liis superior in this case, and told the judge to go and get his boy if he could, but that he would not arrest or deliver him. The Colonel was sued in the United States Court in Kentucky ; judgment was obtained against him for $1500 and costs, which judgment was transferred from the court in Kentucky to the United States Court in Wisconsin. Colonel Utely's home and property were in Wisconsin, and a lieu was created thereupon while he was serving the United States as a colonel in her army. Eventually, by special act of Congress, $1000 was appropriated to partially pay this Southern slaveholder for a boy of color, worth in the slave market not more than $500, for he had been so abused and overworked that he was but a dwarf. Colonel Utely paid the balance, about $700, to be free from the judgment. Such unrighteous laws many recognized as con- flicting with the laws of God. Long before the war, men and women whose hearts were touched and their interest aroused as they learned of the ill-treatment of this opjjressed people began to agitate the question of liberty for the slaves. As early as 1816, Charles Osborne, a Friend, pub- lished the " Philanthropist," at Mt. Pleasant, Ohio. This was the first anti-slavery paper printed in America. From this office went Osborne's son and a journeyman printer named Benjamin Lundy, also a Friend, to East Tennessee, where they published the " Genius of Universal Emancipation." It was after- wards published by him in Baltimore. 50 SOUTHERN HEROES. The Greensboro " Patriot," started by William Swain in 1821, and still issued at Greensboro, N. C, advocated the gradual emancipation of the slave. He was greeted with a storm of abuse, but he boldly pub- lished his sentiments, and often gave the threatening letters which he received a conspicuous place in the " Patriot." The first society ever formed to work for the grad- ual abolition of slavery, was organized in New York, January, 1785, with John Jay as its president. The next was in Pennsylvania, in 1787, with Franklin as its president. They gradually midtiplied, and held conventions. In 1827 one was held in Baltimore, where ten different States were represented. North , Carolina was represented by forty branch societies. The convention petitioned Congress for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, and encouraged the education of the people of color. The first real anti-slavery society in the United States was formed in Indiana, in 1833. Arnold Buf- fum and other Friends were among the twelve organ- izers. But seventeen yeai's previous to this, early in the year 1816, a society was formed in North Caro- lina for the gradual manumission of the slaves. Its first meeting was held at Centre, a Friends' commu- nity, ten miles from Greensboro. Several well known slaveholders belonged to it. Meetings were held at New Garden, Guilford County, and other neighbor- hoods of Friends, where they could not have been held a few years later. One was held in Randolph County, at the home of General Gray, who was a large slave- SOUTHERN HEROES. 51 holder. The minutes o£ the first society have lately been discovered, and are now at Guilford College, N. C. At a meeting held in General Gray's barn, Ran- dolph County, N. C, the question of changing the name of the society from " Emancipation " to " Man- umission and Colonization Society " v^^as discussed and voted upon. The more pronounced abolitionists dis- covered that this change was intended, not only to send the manimiitted slaves to Liberia, but to make that a condition of their freedom, and also to banish all free colored people from their midst, as they " were considered a dangerous class in a slaveholding dis- trict." The Friends and many others strongly op- posed this. While they had no objection to allowing the freed people to go to Africa if they chose, they were not willing to compel them to do so. The oppo- nents of the change were, however, outvoted by a small majority, and they withdrew from the society. The Friends reorganized at New Garden, where they continued to hold meetings until most of them re- moved to non-slaveholding States. In 1816, the Legislature of Virginia passed a reso- lution requesting the governor to correspond with the President of the United States " for the purpose of obtaining a territory on the coast of Africa or at some other place not within the United States or territorial government of the United States, to serve as an asy- lum for such persons of color as are now free and may desire the same, and for those who may hereafter be emancipated within the commonwealth." 52 SOUTHERN HEROES. "Within a few days there was held at Washin^^on, D. C, a meeting of Southern men to take this subject into considei-ation. The " American Colonization So- ciety " was organized, with Judge Washington as its president. There were seventeen vice-presidents, only five of whom were from free States ; and a board of managers, every one of whom was a slaveholder. The only articles of the constitution relating to its object are I. and II. The first says : " This society shall be called the American Society for Colonizing the Free People of Color of the United States." Ar- ticle II. : " The object to which its attention is to be exclusively directed is to promote and execute a plan for the colonizing, with their consent, the free people . of color residing in our country, in Africa or such other place as Congress shaU deem most expedient ; and the Society shall act to effect this object in coop- eration witli the general government and such of the States as may adopt regulations on this subject." "VVe will take note that it was earlier in this same year (181G) that our Friends in North Carolina who were interested in the manumission of slaves refused to become incorporated with the " Manumission and Colonization Society," because they discovered that the intent was really to banish the free colored people from the slaveholding States. The organization grew rapidly in favor with the slaveholders, but they did not see fit to free any of their slaves. In fact, there were but few, if any, freed by the leaders of the society. The i)resident of the society did sell, to be taken to the New Orleans mar- ket, fifty-four of his slaves at one time. SOUTHERN HEROES. 53 The hold which the society secured upon the confi- dence of the people, North and South, is a remarkable example of the willingness of mankind to believe what people tell them. Never, perhaps, has any voluntary society received in an equal degree the applause and patronage of both church and state. Men of all par- ties, all religions, and of no religion, officers of the government, without regard to politics, — all united in this so-called " religious movement." Nor were its advocates confined to the United States. Churchmen and philanthopists of Europe joined with those of America in aiding 200,000 slaveholders to remove from their midst the free colored people, whom they considered a dangerous class of citizens. There was undoubtedly a deep-rooted conviction in the minds of the people that slavery is a sin, and any measure which gave ever so remote a promise of free- dom from the system was gladly received by all, if it did not arouse the opposition of the slaveholders or conflict with their will. This scheme of the American Colonization Society was acceptable to our Southern slaveholders, and gave promise of remov- ing the blacks, who were so troublesome an element in America. Few stopped to think of the magnitude of the un- dertaking. First, the free colored people, numbering nearly 320,000, must be made to consent to go ; then about 2,500,000 slaves must be freed " by the consent of their masters," and their consent must be obtained to be transported to Liberia. We must also take into account the rapid natural increase of these millions. 54 SOUTHERN HEROES. and the immense number smuggled into this country every year. According to a Mr. Middleton, on the floor of Congress, in 1819, there were 13,000 Africans smuf^gled into the United States annually ; and a Vir- ginia gentleman, a Mr. Wright, estimated the number at 15,000. Our people had faith in the Colonization Society, and whatever it proposed to do, the people in general thought was to be accomplished at some time. To be sure, they were not promised that all this should be done at once ; the society even admitted that it would probably be a generation, and it might be a century, before America would be free. In the " African Repository," the official organ of the society, a Mr. Fitzhughes, a vice-president, states as follows : " We have never supposed that the society's plan could be accomplished in a few years ; on the contrary, we have boasted that it will demand a cen- tur}^ for its fulfillment." Yet the contributions of a confiding people were continued to this " missionary society," which reported a great work going on in Af- rica, in the civilizing and christianizing of that dark continent by these American-Africans, who in their o\\ii land were considered "a dangerous element," and not allowed to read the Bible ; and where it was a crime for any one to furnish them with the Word, "the entrance of which giveth light," punishable in North Carolina by thirty-nine laslies, if the person was colored, and a fine of $!200 if he was white. In Georgia, if a white person taught a free negro or slave to read or write, the crime was punishable by a fine SOUTHERN HEROES. 55 of $500 and imprisonment, at the discretion of the court. This law was enacted in 1829, during the palmy days of the " missionary society." Any meet- ing of the colored people, free or slave, was forbidden by law ; yet it was claimed that they were doing a great work in Africa toward christianizing the peo- ple and abolishing the slave trade ! In an issue of the "African Repository," July, 1830, we find the following : " In fact, the Colonization So- ciety proposes the only means by which this accursed trade can ever be stopped ; and indeed this colony of Liberia, which this society has planted, has already freed about 250 miles of the coast from the ravages of these enemies of the human race." Under date of September 10, 1830, a letter from A. D. Willcome, their agent, states : " I hope the board will adopt some more effectual measure for suppressing the slave trade within the territory of Li- beria. Since the death of Don Miguel of Bassa, Peter Blanco, a Spanish slave-trader, for some years a resi- dent in the Gallinas, has opened a slave-factoi-y at Grand Cape Mount. Such a thing ought not to be, as it is only forty-five miles from here. I am sorry to remark that this abominable traffic is being carried on with the utmost activity all along the coast. Cap- tain Parker, during his trading at the Gallinas of about three weeks, saw no less than nine hundred shipped." In 1832, the British Parliament published the fol- lowing facts : Chief Justice Jeffcott of Sierra Leone, in 1830, delivered a charge to the grand jury, in 56 SOUTHERN HEROES. wliic'li he deelared that he had received creditable in- fomuitiou that persons in the colony were engaged in aiding and abetting the slave-trade. He asserted that the colony, established for the express jiiirpose of sup- pressing this vile traffic, was made the means for car- rying it on. He also asserted that 22,000 Africans had been located within that colony within ten years, but now there could not be found more than 17,000 or 18,000 there. The British government appointed a commission to inquire into the truth of the statement, and it rej)orted on the 26th of October of the same year that they " could but conclude that the nefarious system of kid- napping had prevailed in the colony to a much greater extent than was even alluded to in the charge of the chief justice. The records of the colony show that eight, ten, or fifteen vessels have at the same time en- gaged in the odious traffic, almost within reach of the guns of Liberia ; and as late as 1825 there were exist- ing contracts for 8000 slaves, to be furnished within four months, within eight miles of Moravia." In the English " Monthly Review " for May, 1833, we find stated : " One of the schoolmasters in Sierra Leone has been tried for selling some of his scholars. There were lately upwards of one hundred liberated Africans who were kidnapped from Sierra Leone and conveyed to a place near the banks of the river Pan- gos. Here they were detained until an opportunity occurred for reshipping them as slaves." We quote the following from a letter from Rev. J. B. Pinucy, March 7, 1834 : " Let them, the friends of SOUTHERN HEROES. 57 the society in America, know that to extol knowledge and promote sound piety, a quire of paper is at pres- ent worth more than a Bible. Bibles and tracts have been sent here, and either used for waste paper or made food for worms. Why ? Not because the peo- ple despise either, but because we have not a reading population." Nine years before this, in 1825, the society states in its eighth official report : " The colony is already to the African tribes like a city set upon a hill, which cannot be hid. A thousand barbarians who have long made merchandise of their brethren and been regarded themselves as the objects of a bloody and accursed traffic, come within its gates and are taught the doc- trines of immortality, — the religion of the Son of God." These statements were made to American citizens, doubtless for the purpose of keeping up the " mission- ary work " and deceiving many honest people, when in fact they had then sent but 242 of their "mission- aries," wretched as they were, to take care of the " thousand barbarians." But such was the effect of these publications and speeches, and the confidence of the people in the American Colonization Society, that for the accomplishment of its purpose the Congress of the United States appropriated 8130,000 ; the State of Maryland, $200,000 in 1832 ; and Virginia, 118,000 yearly for five years. From 1820 to 1834, 1266,000 was expended in this work, according to their re- ports. Auxiliary societies were formed in many of the 68 SOUTHERN HEROES. Northern States, and newspapers throughout the land advertised and praised its work. Many were the de- vices for increasing the resources of the society. When Maryland appropriated its 1200,000, it ap- pealed to "the benevolence of the North." The appeal was founded upon two solemn declarations : first, that " it aimed at the extirpation of slavery in Maryland, by colonization ; " and second, that it con- templated "founding a nation on the principles of temperance." Yet Henry Clay, a vice-president of the society, de- clared in the South : " From its origin and throughout the whole period of its existence, it has constantly dis- claimed all intention whatever of interfering in the smallest degree with the rights of property or the ob- ject of emancipation, gradual or immediate." It is undoubtedly a fact that the society had for its object, not the liberating of the slaves or the betterment of their condition, but the removal from their midst of what tliey called " a dangerous class of citizens." While the law required that it must be with the person's consent that he was removed, it was very easy to find a way to muhe him consent if he objected, and evidences of torture, whipping and coercion are not wanting. Section XII. of the laws of Maryland pro- vided as follows : " If any free negro or mulatto shall be convicted of any crime, committed after the passage of this act, which may not by the laws of this State be punished by hanging by the neck, such free negro or mulatto may, at the discretion of the court, be sen- tenced to the penalties and punishments provided by SOUTHERN HEROES. 59 law, or be banished from the State, or be transported into some foreign country." This coidd be done at the expense of the Colonization Society. They confess to having sent 3162 persons of color to their colony in sixteen years. At their estimate of $30 each, this would have cost 89-4,860. TVe may note also that if the estimate of their statesman, Mr. Wright, is correct, during this time 240,000 slaves had been brought to Southern ports from Africa, More likely than not, many of the " dangerous class of colored people " had been converted by their sea voyage into first class slaves, worth a thousand dol- lars each. How long would it have taken for the American Colonization Society to have removed from the shores of the sunny Southland its colored population I Surely no one need make an apology for believing in the society, when Wdberforce could thus express himself, which he did in a letter to Mr. Cresson, one of their agents : " You have gladdened my heart by convincing me that, sanguine as had been my hopes of the happy effects to be produced by your institution, all my anticipations are scanty and cold compared to the reality." But good men of America and England finally awoke to the real truth. After ha%'ing avowed its cause, upon seeing its true nature, AVilberf orce says : " Our objections to it are chiefiy these : while we believe its pretexts to be delusive, we are convinced that its real effects are of the most dangerous nature. It takes its root from a cruel prejudice and alienation GO SOUTHERN HEROES. in the whites of America against the colored people, slave or free. This being its source, the effects are what might be expected : that it fosters and increases the spirit of caste already so unhappily predominant ; that it widens the breach between the two races ; ex- poses the colored people to practical persecution in order to force them to emigrate ; and finally, is calcu- lated to swallow up and divert that feeling which America, as a Christian and free country, cannot but entertain, — that slavery is alike incompatible with the laws of God and man, whether of the enslaver or the enslaved. We must be understood to utterly repudiate the principles of the American Colonization Society." Having once lent its columns to this interest, the editor of the " Christian Observer " finally expressed himself thus : " The unchristian prejudice of color, which alone has given birth to the Colonization Society, though varnished over with other more plea- surable pretenses and veiled under a profession of Christian regard for the temporal interests of the negro, which is belied by the whole course of its rea- sonings and the spirit of its measures, is so detestable in itself that I think it ought not to be tolerated, but on the contrary ought to be denounced and opposed by all humane and especially by all pious people in this country." The following is an extract from a letter written by William Allen of London, known widely as a Quaker philanthropist : " Having heard thy exposition of the origin and main object of the American Colonization SOUTHERN HEROES. 61 Society, at the meeting on the 13th inst., at Exeter Hall, and having read their own printed documents, I hardly know how adequately to express my surprise and indignation that my correspondents in North America should not have informed me of the real principles of the society, and also that Elliott Cresson, knowing, as he must have known, the abominable sen- timents that it has printed and published, should have condescended to become its agent." In a latter dated 7/15, 1833, a Massachusetts clergyman says : " It is a scheme in which I was once deeply interested. I have spoken and written and preached and taken contributions in its behalf. I did not then understand the real nature of the scheme. I meant well in espousing it, but I now see my error and my sin ; and though it was a sin of ignorance, I desire to repent of it." The societies formed for the direct abolition of the slaves were the objects of censure by the American Colonization Society ; and with the powerful influence it exerted both North and South, it was hard work for the smaller organizations to get a start. But the abominable work of this society was not to continue. The selfish motives of its managers were finally dis- covered, and the work of the society came to an end. Abraham Lincoln was not the first to issue an emancipation proclamation, liberating the Southern slaves. Friends early began to see the sin of slavery. In 1711, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting condemned the importation of slaves. In 1740, North Carolina Yearly Meeting began the agitation of the question of 62 SOUTHERN HEROES. freeing them. In 1743, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting adopted a query asking if Friends were careful not to encourage the importation of slaves or buy them after they were imported, although in 1688 they had refused to consider the subject of the unchristian nature of slavery. In 1758, they appointed John Woolman and others to labor witli Friends on this account, at the request of Germanto^vn Friends under the leading of Francis Daniel Pastorius, who, with other Germans, had been induced by William Penn to con>c to Penn- sylvania. In 1776, the reports of one quarterly meeting show that they had manumitted 125 slaves, and then the yearly meeting concluded that those who refused to take the advice of Friends in this matter should be disowned. In 1783, the minutes of the yearly meeting state : " There are no slaves among us, except a few cases difficultly circumstanced." The same year, at the re- conunendation of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, Eng- lish Friends presented to the House of Commons a petition against the African slave-trade, which was signed by 273 English Friends. Southern Friends moved cautiously in this matter, for much besides monetary interest was at stake. Care was needed that their members should be edu- cated in regard to the sin of slavery lest, as was the case with most other churches, there might be a divi- sion among themselves and a sejiaration from their brethren in the North upon this question. Many did not see with their leaders at once, but jjatience and SOUTHERN HEROES. 63 perseverance were needed on tlie part of the more ad- vanced. Before any decided action could be taken, there must be a degree of unity. In 1758, North Carolina Yearly Meeting issued a minute making provisions for negroes to hold meet- ings for worship, and in 1770 they issued another, in which the importation of slaves from Africa was declared iniquitous, and purchasing them from trad- ers and dealers was disapproved, although they were allowed to purchase them from neighbors to prevent the separation of husbands from wives or children from parents. In 1786, Friends became so united as to the sin of slavery that they adopted a clause of discipline for- mally condemning the entire system. The Yearly Meeting of Friends in Virginia had done this a few months before. For years committees were under appointment to advise with Friends in relation to the subject of manumitting their slaves, to aid in preparing needed legal papers, and sometimes to furnish money for their removal. Laws had been passed which forbade the freeing of slaves within a slave State, so these committees gave legally prepared receipts for the blacks, and thus often became the masters of many persons and families. When a suflScient number was o-athered, they went with them to a free State, or to Liberia. Friends Nicholson and White of Belvidere, N. C, made several journeys with such companies. As they were the legal owners, the law could not pre- vent their taking the slaves ^way, and when they 64 SOUTHERN HEROES. arrived at the place chosen, they did what they could to put the negroes in a way for seK-suj)port. Edmund Peele, a prominent Friend of Rich Square, N. C, at one time liberated 125 of his own slaves, took them to Liberia, Africa, at his own expense, gave each $25 with which to start in his new home, and began his changed life with such reduced resources as proved his action to have been a sacrifice for prin- ciple, which was really very great. Yet greater was the inheritance of Christian character which he left his worthy children. It was of far more value than all the slaves he could have given them. So successful was the labor of the Friends in the education of their members on this subject, that very few were disowned, and in 1818 we find on their records this brief minute : " None held as slaves." The Methodist and Moravian churches, who had formerly been non-slaveholding, gradually yielded to the influences around them, leaving the Friends alone in all the South to bear witness against the sin of slav- ery. This they did in various ways. The legislatures of North Carolina and Tennessee were memorialized almost yearly from 1787 until 1834. Their protest was sometimes given a second reading, and, though never acted upon, it could but have an influence which was not wholly lost. At least it was well understood that while ministers were pleading for slavery and church members were so generally practising it, there was one religious body in their midst which could not, for conscience' sake, participate in what the law, com- mon custom, and even religious opinion so fully sanctioned. SOUTHERN HEROES. 65 Aside from tlie pecuniary loss to Friends in liber- ating so many slaves on whom tliey depended for labor, we may note the fact that to labor with one's own hands, through the blighting influence of slavery, was considered degrading ; and he who thus labored was looked upon as being " no better than a nigger." So difficult was it to obtain free labor, either black or white, that Friends had to content themselves with less income, and also to take a lower social standing than they would otherwise have had. While the Friends were considering what to do and how to act under their trying circumstances, the pro- phetic voice of their preachers was heard, telling them of the judgments of the Almighty that were coming upon the Southland because of the cry of her bond- men, and warning them to flee lest they be partakers of the chastisement. One minister in particular visited every meeting of Friends in Georgia, South Carolina, and lower North Carolina, preaching a day of vengeance and warning the Friends to escape. The result was that the entire body of Friends in that region, and many from the other parts of North Caro- lina and from Virginia and Maryland emigrated to Ohio, Indiana, and other Western States. There were no vestibule trains for them then ; no freight cars for their goods ; no cattle cars for their stock. In the canvas-covered wagons, now so seldom seen, except in some parts of North Carolina, were closely packed the bedding, furniture, provisions, feed for the horses, and the few other absolute necessities for along journey, most of the way through a wilderness 66 SOUTHERN HEROES. country. The pot for boiling the family food is tied under the axle-tree ; the frying pan handle is thrust between an outside strip and the wagon bed ; the axe is in its place on the wagon hounds ; the feed box for the horses is fastened to the hind end of the waaon bed, where the canvas cover extends a little over the heads of the horses while they eat their well-earned grain, or stand during a storm, a little sheltered from its fury. The old homestead has been sold ; the hearthstone around which the children for generations have gathered is forsaken, and with a lingering look upon the familiar scenes of what has been their home, the women and children are helped into the wagon, the horses hitched up and the journey begun. They often moved in bodies ; whole meetings gathered at a place and time previously agreed upon, and then, as a caravan, together made their way west, cutting through forests or bridging streams in their wearisome journey from slavery's land to the land of freedom. On the First day of the week they and their horses rested from their labors, and gathered within their corral of wagons for protection from wild beasts. Here they held their meetings to worship God, sitting around their camp-fires in the midst of the primeval forest ; and God was as willing to manifest his pres- ence and grant his blessing to those who worshipped Him, under the blue canopy of heaven, as when they were in their now forsaken homes. Here the minister's voice might be listened to, not only by his little flock, SOUTHERN HEROES. 67 but by the wild beasts without the enclosure, whose voices might in turn be heard during the silence of the meeting. We can imagine them gathering about their camp-j&res each evening, after the supper had been cooked and eaten and the horses fed and curried, sometimes talking with grave faces of the uncertainty of the new life upon which they were entering, yet steadfast in their belief that the same Lord who led His people through the wilderness and gave them a good land would bless them and multiply them in the land to which they were going for conscience' sake. Upon arrival at the neighborhood chosen for their settlement, they would sometimes form almost the same community of people, and name their town and meeting the same as that which they had left in the Southland, and with courageous heart begin the work of restoring their lost fortunes, with a spirit of freedom and happiness. Many of the leading members of church and state of the Western country to-day are descendants of this worthy ancestry. The active membership of the Yearly Meetings of Ohio, Indiana, Western Iowa, Kansas, Wilmington, Oregon, and California is com- posed largely of native Southerners or their de- scendants. At one time before the war it looked as though there would be none left of the 25,000 Friends in these Southern States ; and North Carolina Yearly Meeting, considering the subject of the rapid diminu- tion of her members, yet rejoicing in the prosperity of her children in their new homes, said : " We grate- 68 SOUTHERN HEROES. fully record our sense of the blessings which thus rewarded the faithfulness of one generation in the prosperity of the next, and overruled their straitened position in their own land for the spreading abroad of their tents, and we trust to the honor of Him who setteth the poor on high from his affliction, and maketh him families like a flock." CHAPTER IV. What gives the wheat-field blades of steel ? What points the rebel cannon ? What sets the roaring rabble's heel On the old star-spangled pennon ? What breaks the oath of the men o' the South ? What whets the knife for the Union's life ? Hark to the answer, — Slavery. Whittier. As we liave learned, many laws were enacted in tlie United States to suit the supposed interests of the slaveholders, and were framed with a special view to keep the slave " in the eye of the law " as property, with no more rights nor privileges than any other animal, — hardly as many. The laws of South Carolina provided that a slave might be required to work fifteen hours per day. If a slave were killed in a " sudden heat or passion," or " by undue correction," the murderer had to pay a fine or be imprisoned for six months ; but if a slave In any way resisted a white man when under punishment or otherwise, or should strike a white man, he must suffer such punishment as the justice might see fit, and in some States the second or third offense was punishable by death. In Mississippi there were thirty-eight offenses, the violation of any one of which was punishable by 70 SOUTHERN HEROES. death ; in Virginia there were seventy-one. It was left for the magistrates to determine the penalty without the trouble or cost of further trial. Some of the States had more severe laws than others, but all slave States and many Northern ones had laws very prejudicial against the slave or free colored person. Most of these laws were in operation in the District of Columbia, under the direct control of the United States government. Such was the slaveholders' power in Congress that the capital of this great nation was one of the greatest slave marts in this or any other country. Here any colored person might be cast into prison upon real or feigned suspicion of being a slave, and unless claimed by a white man as his slave, or able there to prove his freedom, he was sold for life as a slave to pay his jail fees. In many cases this law was carried into effect, and the United States became a party to the great sin of robbing an American citizen of his liberty for no crime or offence against her laws, but because in his ignorance and misfortune he was unable to prove that his mother was a free woman when he was born. Within the ten miles square constituting the Dis- trict of Columbia, there were six thousand human beings held as slaves in the year 1835, and this num- ber rapidly increased. According to law, any of the jails in this district were to be opened to receive the slaves of the trader while he was waiting to gather liis proposed number for sale there or to be shijiped, and be they few or many, they were fed and cared for SOUTHERN HEROES. 71 until the owner called for them. County jails and prisons generally were practically the free hotels for lodging and feeding the slave as he was being moved around the country, except it may have been a small fee to the jailer. Thus the slaveholder was saved much of the expense for their food and lodging while he was in town, as well as the bother of keeping them and the danger of their escape. We find that, in the city of Washington, for four hundred dollars men were licensed to deal in human flesh, and under the shadow of the Capitol of this free comitry, coffles were made up from her prisons and started on their long march South. The daily papers gave much space to such advertisements as this : '"'■Cash for two hundred negroes. We will give cash for two hundred likely young negroes of both sexes, families included. Persons wishing to dis- pose of their slaves will do well to give us a call, as we will give higher prices in cash than any other purchasers who are now in or may hereafter come to this market. All communications will meet attention. We can at all times be found at our residence on Seventh Street, immediately south of the Centre Market House. Joseph W. Neal & Co. Washington, D. C, Sept. 13, 1834." Other firms advertised for slaves by the hundred, and if it is a question what they did with them, we will remind the reader that he might find in the same paper advertised as sailing regularly for New Orleans the packets Brig and Tribune, and the brig 72 SOUTHERN HEROES. Uncas, captains Smith and Bouse, leaving every thirty days during the shipping- season. These were regular slavers, as much as any that sailed from the shores of Africa with their cargoes of human flesh. Per- haps it was a less dangerous business, but it was more expensive. The following is from a letter written by a Mr. Leavitt, January 23, 1834, published in a New York newspaper : " I visited the slave-factory of Franklin and Armfield at Alexandria, and was informed by one of the principals of the firm that the number of slaves carried from the District of Columbia last year was about one thousand, but it would be much greater this year. He expected that their house alone would ship at least eleven or twelve hundred. They have two vessels of their own constantly employed carrying slaves to New Orleans." Mr. Leavitt went on board the Tribune and was shown over her by the captain. He saw the arrange- ments for stowing away the slaves in the hold, which was divided into two apartments. The after hold, he says, would hold about eighty women ; the other, about one hundred men. They were stowed away on platforms as close as they could well be. In 1831, the Big Comet, a brig belonging to this company, was wrecked on Abaco, one of the Bahamas, with one hundred and sixty slaves on board. Every effort made by the anti-slavery societies to rid the national capital of the sin of slavery and the slave-trade was promptly met by the counter influence of the American Colonization Society ; and the inter- SOUTHERN HEROES. 73 ests of officers in the government were in so many cases allied with the system, that it seemed as impos- sible to accomplish what they wished to do, as it now does to the temperance workers to rid the govern- ment of its connection with the liquor interest, which is so closely guarded by the legal cloak. But as " nothing was more certainly written in the book of fate than that tliis people should be free," as Jefferson said, so in some unlooked for manner, it may be, the strength of the people's voice will be felt, and we may have the bonds of another class of slaves broken, and the sons of America may continue to rise in the strength and grandeur of the nobler workman- ship of God's hand, filling the place in the home, in the nation, that belongs to an enlightened Christian manhood. Northern men were not all abolitionists before the war. Many who really wished the slaves free were unwilling to incur the displeasure of the slaveholders and their friends. As late as 1835, Boston sentiment was such that George Thompson, an Englishman, was not permitted to plead the cause of the slave in that city. An in- cendiary hand-bill, offering a reward of one hundred dollars for his seizure, with a view to tarring and feathering him, was freely distributed, and but for his absence from the city, his life would probably have been taken by the violent mob which gathered in consequence. He had many narrow escapes in other places, being repeatedly mobbed, and was finally obliged to leave the country. 74 SOUTHERN HEROES. With great care he was secreted on board a British ship and sent to England. Returning in 1850, he did address large audiences in Boston and elsewhere, but still encountered mobocratic violence. William Lloyd Garrison was awakened to the sin of slavery by Benjamin Lundy, and was inspired in his crusade for immediate emancipation by Elizabeth Heyrick, an English Friend who wrote a stirring- pamphlet in favor of that doctrine. He was im- prisoned in Baltimore, mobbed and dragged through the streets of Boston, and five thousand dollars was offered for his arrest and conviction by the State of Georgia. WendeU Phillips, the gifted orator, was mobbed, pelted with rotten eggs, and threatened with hanging for taking up the cause of the oppressed slave. In April, 1834, an anti-slavery society was organ- ized in Haverhill, Mass., with John Greenleaf Whit- tier as its corresponding secretary. The opposition was as strong here as in Boston or any other part of New England. In 1835, John G. Whittier had arranged for Rev. Samuel J. May to lecture in the Chi'istian chapel in HaverhiU. Mr. May says : " I had spoken about fifteen minutes when the most hideous cries and yells from a crowd of men who had surrounded the house, startled us, and then came heavy missiles and stones against the doors and the blinds of the windows. I persisted in speaking for a few minutes, hoping that the blinds and doors were strong enough to stand the siege ; but presently a heavy stone broke through one of the blinds, shat- SOUTHERN HEROES. 75 ' tered a pane of glass, and fell on the head of a lady sitting- near the centre of the hall. She uttered a shriek, and fell bleeding into the arms of her sister. The panic-stricken audience arose en masse and made a rush for the doors." Mr. May escaped by walking through the crowd between two ladies, one of them Mr. Whittier's sister. A loaded cannon was being drawn to the place by an infuriated mob, and would doubtless have been used to slay the people who had gathered to consider the question of freedom for the Southern slave. This same evening, John G. Whittier was with George Thompson of England holding an anti-slavery meeting at Concord, N. H. They were mobbed and beaten. Whittier was obliged to seek refuge in the house of a friend named Kent, who, though not an abolitionist, told the mob that they could have Whit- tier only over his dead body. Whittier, becoming anxious for his friend George Thompson, who had sought refuge in another house, borrowed a hat and went in search of him. Cannon were brought and it looked as though they would be killed ; but with the aid of a horse and buggy which were furnished them at a back way, they escaped to a distant inn, where they took breakfast. Little suspecting the identity of his guests, the landlord talked freely of the disturb- ance, and spoke of Whittier as " an ignorant sort of fellow," using many other expressions not very com- plimentary to either of them. He was much sur- prised to hear Whittier say, just before stejiping into the buggy, after George Thompson was seated, " Well, 76 SOUTHERN HEROES. this is my friend George Thompson, and I am John G. Whittier." Stepping quickly into the buggy, he drove rapidly away, leaving the landlord to look and wonder. For two weeks he kept his friend hidden about the farm. Durins: the excitement in Boston, when William Lloyd Garrison was imprisoned in jail for a night, to save him from the fury of the mob, John G. Whit- tier went to see him. Such was the excitement and antipathy aroused against him as an abolitionist, that he said he would have felt safer that night in jail with William Lloyd Garrison. In 1831 an attempt was made to establisn a school in New Haven, Conn., for the education of the colored people; but it was promptly stopped by the mayor, aldermen, and common council, upon their own re- sponsibility. In 1832 a refined Christian lady, a Miss Crandall of Canterbury, Conn., as school teacher, was applied to by a pious colored woman for admission to the school, saying that she wanted to gain enough know- ledge to teach the colored children. Miss Crandall admitted her, but was soon informed that the woman must be dismissed. She then determined to open a school for colored children. She was ari'ested, and a " town meeting " was held to consider the subject. The clerk of the meeting made a speech in which he said if the school went into operation their children would be ruined forever, and property no longer safe. He said that they had a law which should prevent that school from going into operation. The civil authori- SOUTHERN HEROES. 77 ties and selectmen of Canterbury appealed to the Col- onization Society for their help, and Miss Crandall was sent to jail. WiUiam Lloyd Garrison said that this work was but one of the genuine flowers of the Colonization Society's garden. In 1838 the office of the " Philanthropist," an abo- lition paper published by Achilles Pugh, a Friend, in Cincinnati, was ransacked by a mob. Much valuable property was destroyed. In 1844 another mob, stirred up by slaveholders and their sympathizers, was suf- fered by the authorities to enter the press rooms and office and destroy the presses and office furniture, and completely ruin his business, while the officials of the city looked on with apparent approval. Abigail and Lydia Mott, sisters, and members of the Society of Friends, became interested in emanci- pation. Their home in Albany, N. Y., was opened to those engaged in active work. They made the sub- ject a study and arranged for public speeches upon it, bearing much of the expense. Their counsel was often sought by William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, Edmund Quincy and many others. William Lloyd Garrison speaks of these sisters as " abolition- ists, vigilant, uncompromising, well-balanced, clear in vision, sound in judgment, discerners of spirits, and many-sided reformers." Josephine Griffin, lifting her voice for freedom, in Ohio and Michigan, faced mobs whose violent demon- strations would have alarmed less fearless advocates. At Ann Arbor, Michigan, on one occasion she stood for more than an hour before a howling, angry, threat- 78 SOUTHERN HEROES. eiiing mob, before she could get them sufficiently quiet to listen to her appeal for the oppressed slave. These facts show a little of the public sentiment which reformers, even in the Northern States, were obliged to face. Laura Haviland, now a minister among Friends in Chicago, rejoices in the distinction of having, with her husband, formed in 1839 the first school in America, except Oberlin, where colored and white could be received as students, upon equal terms. This school was situated at Raisin Valley, Michigan, where a settlement of colored people had been formed. Some of them were runaway slaves, who, after ha ring lived there in peace and happiness for some time, were aroused one night from their slumber by the demands of a group of men from Kentucky, who had come to claim as their jjroperty and to return to bondage these citizens of a free State. Several of these poor colored jjeople were captured after a hard fight, and taken hm-riedly away ; but the citizens of Raisin Valley were not ready to allow such a summary withdrawal of any of their number by an armed force. Warrants were quickly issued and a posse, led by an abolitionist officer, were soon in pursuit, and all the invaders were placed under arrest. Among them was a preacher who claimed as his share a black man in the company who had been wounded before his capture. At the coming of the invaders, the wife of the latter had hur- riedly left her bed to arouse the neighbors. In the bed she had left her baby. The preacher, seeing the baby, claimed it as his property, — worth two or three SOUTHERN HEROES. 79 hundred dollars in the slave market, — and took it away with him. The officer in charge of the rescuing party made the preacher get off of the horse which he was riding and allow the wounded man to ride. Not satisfied with thus humiliating him, he aroused the people by the way, calling them to " Come and see the preacher negro-stealer," who still carried the baby in his arms. So terribly did the officer taunt him and stir up the people to ridicule him, that the preacher actually cried in the street and begged to be relieved of the baby. By law the child followed the condition of the col- ored mother, and as the mother of this child was un^' questionably a free woman, it was a clear case of kid- napping on the part of the negro hunters. They were put in jail and allowed to send for coun- sel, and while they were waiting for trial the colored people were consigned to the care of the Underground Railroad. The Kentuckians were very glad to be allowed to go home after paying costs ; but they did not depart without expressing their opinion of " that woman abolitionist, Laura Haviland, the negro stealer," whom they charged with being the cause of all their troubles. The sum of $3000 was offered for her head by slaveholders, yet she has outlived many if not all of those who sought her life, and now, in her eighty-sixth year, is actively engaged in holding revival meetings and preaching the Gospel of Peace. Thomas Garrett, a merchant of Wilmington, Dela- ware, was another friend of the slave, whose interest in and efforts for the freedom of the nesrro won for 80 SOUTHERN HEROES. liiia tlic curses of the slaveholders and an offer of $2500 for his body, dead or alive. lie was known by some as the " Fighting Quaker," and while he was not really a fighter, nor do we know of his ever hav- ing in this respect departed from the " views of Friends," yet fighting men had great respect for his physical j^owers, and were often made to think it most prudent to avoid an occasion for conflict. On one occasion some slaveholders had secured a fugitive. lie was in a room bound with ropes, and several men were guarding him. On learning of the case Thomas Garrett hastened to the room and started directly for the captive. Knives and pistols were at once drawn and his life was threatened ; but looking calmly at the men he said, " Put these things away ; none but cowards use such," and showing a little of his muscular power by pushing aside those in his way, he proceeded to cut the cords that bound the poor man, and actually led him away and sent him to Can- ada by the Underground Railroad. Thomas Garrett's home was well known to be a station on this road to freedom. One day a woman closely pursued by policemen and slaveholders was seen by an Irishman running towards him as he stood in an alley near the gate of Thomas Garrett's back yard. While he did not profess to be an abolitionist, but rather the contrary, his warm Irish heart was touched with sympathy for this fleeing woman. Open- ing the gate he told her to enter, saying, " You find Thomas Garrett and you are safe sure." She was seen from the house and hurriedly taken upstairs, fed SOUTHERN HEROES. 81 and comforted. The slaveholders thought her as good as captured. Leaving a guard to watch the place, they went for a warrant to search the house. Thomas and his wife were entertaining a party of guests in the parlors. In order that those outside might see within, Thomas opened the blinds and stirred the fire in the grate, making a bright light. Mrs. Garrett then asked to be excused for a little while and went upstaii's. Soon after Thomas also excused him- self, and with hat in hand called loudly at the foot of the stairway, " Is thee ready, wife ? " In answer to this call a woman appeared, clad in plain bonnet and cloak, veiled, and ready for a walk. She took his arm and they passed the policeman standing guard near the door. Thomas spoke pleasantly to him and jocosely to the boy watching by the gate ; they walked several blocks, passing a number of his acquaintances and policemen who were looking for the slave. When the house of a certain negro was reached, they en- tered. Thomas soon after left by the back door, re- turned home by another way, and entering the rear of bis own home met his wife waiting for him in her chamber, and together they returned to the parlor. In speaking of the matter afterwards, Thomas said he thought the police had a better night's sleep than if they had caught the poor creature, and she would be better off in Canada. Finally Thomas Garrett was brought before the court. When returning from a business trij) into lower Delaware, he had overtaken two colored men, who asked for a ride, and whose request was granted 82 SOUTHERN HEROES. cheerfully. They got out at a crossing in the city, but some one had seen them, and Thomas was indicted before the grand jury for " aiding and abetting run- away slaves." He was fined $3000, and when the judge had finished his long charge. Friend Garrett said, " Is thee done ? " The judge replied that he was, and then Thomas said, " I mean no disrespect to thee, for thee is doing the duty of thy office, according to thy idea of it, but I must say that I shall feel in con- science bound to do this same thing again when way opens." Thomas Garrett lived to rejoice in the Eman- cipation Proclamation, passing away in 1871, in the seventy-fifth year of his age. John Fairchild, who was brought up in Virginia amid the evil influences and luxuries of slavery, not- withstanding his personal interests, became firmly convinced that slavery was a sin against the colored man. As to sin against God, he seemed to think lit- tle, for he was a wicked man ; but he boldly under- took the cause of the oppressed slave, and worked for many years with as little regard to sin against their owners as against God. When quite young he decided to find a home in some place where there were no slaves, and accord- ingly went to Ohio. Wishing to take with him one of his uncle's colored boys, to whom he had become much attached, he advised the slave to steal one of his master's horses and start one night in advance of him. This was done, and with Bill traveling as his servant, he reached Ohio and went on to Canada. There John found so many colored people whose SOUTHERN HEROES. 83 wives, husbands, children, or friends were still in bondage, and whom they wished him to aid in their escape, that he listened to their pleading and agreed to undertake the work, in full knowledge of its danger. To effect his purpose he went to the homes of slave- owners with a body-servant, sometimes as a dealer looking for purchases, abusing niggers and denoun- cing abolitionists in the presence of his host, but secretly carrying on his mission with the blacks. If horses were needed, the negroes took them ; if pistols and knives were thought necessary, John furnished them. He said that the negroes had earned the horses, therefore it was no injustice to take them. Sometimes he was arrested, but in some manner he always man- aged to escape. At one time he suffered much from exposure and abuse, during a cold winter, in a prison in Kentucky, but by outside aid he escaped before his trial, which would doubtless have sent him to the pen- itentiary. He then went to Cincinnati, where he lay ill for a long time as a result of his imprisonment and exposure. The president of the Underground Railroad, Levi Coffin, visited him during his sickness and endeavored to persuade him to give up his hazardous way of work- ing, risking his life and the lives of others as he did, advising him very strongly to go to his home in Can- ada and never cross the Mason and Dixon line again. But Fairchild swore most positively that he would liberate a slave for every day he had lain in prison. After resting a few weeks he disappeared. He was soon afterwards heard of crossing^ the Ohio River with 84 SOUTHERN HEROES. twenty-eight fugitives from Kentucky. Committing them to the care of the Underground Raih-oad, he re- turned to the South, and soon reported in Detroit, Michigan, with thirty more from Mississippi. Hav- ino" the names of some in Baltimore and Washington whose friends were anxious to have him liberate them, he finally consented to undertake it. He visited Phil- adelphia and purchased wigs and powder, for which he expended 880, and used them to convert the light colored slaves of Baltimore and Washington into re- spectable looking white citizens. One of them was so dark as to make it too much of a risk for the whole enterprise to take him along, and the man had to be left. Without being suspected, John Fairchild suc- ceeded in shipping two companies west as first-class passengers. Some members of the third party which he started were missed by their owners, and informa- tion that they were on the train was somehow obtained. They w^ere on a fast express to Pittsburg. An engine was attached to a single coach and chase was given by the owners. The express had a good start, however, and though the slave-owners were determined to suc- ceed, they could not overtake the train until just be- fore it arrived at Pittsburg. Finding themselves pursued, the passengers did not see fit to await the stopping of the train in the station, but all jumped off just before the train was stopped, and quickly scat- tered through the city to safe hiding-places. They were hotly pursued by their owners, but were not taken, and in due time made their way to Canada. One moonlight night, with a large company of fugi- r SOUTHERN HEROES. 85 tives, John Faircliild was crossing a bridge. Armed men were lying in ambusli at each end of it, and to- gether began firing at the negroes as they were about midway of the bridge. Fairchild promptly gave the order, " Charge to the front." And charge they did, firing as they went. The men in ambush " scattered like scared sheep." When asked by Levi Coffin, to whom he related the incident, if any one was hurt, he showed him several bullet holes in his clothing, a slight flesh wound on his arm, and another on a ne- gro's leg. He said : " You see, we were in close quar- ters, but my men were plucky. We shot to kill, and we made the devils rmi." Upon hearing him give this account, our peace-lov- ing Friend, Levi Coffin, remonstrated with him for trying to kill people, telling him that it was better to suffer wrong than to do wrong ; that we shoidd love our enemies. " Love the devil ! " was the characteris- tic reply ; " slaveholders are all devils, and it is no harm to kill the devil. I do not intend to hurt people if they keep out of my way, but if they step between me and liberty, they must look out for the conse- quences. When I undertake to conduct slaves out of bondage, it is my duty to defend them, even to the last drop of my blood." Levi Coffin says : " It was useless to preach peace to John Fairchild. He would fight for the fugitive as long as life lasted." Getting his men together before starting, Fairchild would give them to understand that there was to be no turning back. It was " liberty or death." If 86 SOUTHERN HEROES. pursued, they must fight if needful. He exacted from each one promises of positive obedience to himself. No one must turn back, but be ready to fight till death ; and if any one should turn coward, he would shoot him down. Fairchild, in turn, would promise to remain with them until they were free, or die in the attempt to free them. John Fairchild followed this work for more than twelve years, liberating slaves from every slave State in the Union, making many happy in being freed from bondage and united with their loved ones, and finding his reward in their happiness, for he was often needy and in rags ; but the colored people had un- bounded confidence in him and love for him, and would readily do what they could to supply his neces- sities when they knew of them. The best of fighters sometimes find themselves un- able to " fight their way out," and the career of John Fairchild was undoubtedly ended by the bullet of some Southerner. In 1861 he closed up his business in Indiana, where he thought to settle down and give up his hazardous work, according to the advice of Levi Coffin, but the recollection of slaves under the lash, and the pleading of their friends for his help to release them, doubtless proved too much for him to withstand. The people of the neighborhood thought he had gone to Canada, until they saw printed in a Tennessee paper, an account of an " insurrection " on the Cumberland river. It was stated that a body of armed slaves was about to rise and destroy the white inhabitants. The neighborhood was alarmed, and SOUTHERN HEROES. 87 great excitement prevailed. A small army of men was gathered, and they went to hunting and hanging, or shooting down all slaves whom they found with weapons, or suspected of being in any way connected with the insurrection. A small company was met who undertook to defend themselves, but it was useless ; they were shot down by the overwhehning majority of whites. The paper stated that " among the slain was found one white man, a stranger to all, name im- known, but supposed to be the instigator of the insur- rection, and leader of the negroes." John Fairchild has never since been heard from. " They that take the sword shall perish by the sword." Some degree of respect was shown by slaveholders for public sentiment, when in the North. The hor- rors of the system were kept as mvich as possible out of sight ; but " down South," where for many years the absolute control of the slaves was unquestioned, and public sentiment had become so hardened by the oft- repeated tale and scene of suffering and death, there was frequently no check to the cruelty of masters, except their moneyed interest in the slaves, and this was often sacrificed to gratify their angry passion. The slave had no rights before the law, but was as other chattels. There was for years, before the civil war, constant fear on the part of the whites lest the negroes should attempt to free themselves. Slight reasons were often made excuses for the cry, " Negro insurrection," and then, without trial, and sometimes without pro- vocation, the helpless negroes were whipped to death, 88 SOUTHERN HEROES. shot clown, sawn asunder, or hung, according to the whim of the tyrant into whose hands they had fallen. At Natchez, Mississippi, in 18G0 and 1861, the half- grown colored lads, in imitation of the whites, amused themselves by forming companies and marching, with sticks for guns. This was not objected to, or much noticed until two colored men were heard conversing upon what their masters had said : " If Abraham Lincoln was elected, he would free all the slaves." They declared that if this was so, they would go to the Yankees and help do it. This was reported by the men who overheard it, and, coupled with the train- ing of the boys, a story of insurrection was widely circidated. Negroes were said to be armed and train- ino- for the murdering of the whites. A meeting of citizens was called, and speeches of the wildest char- acter were made, calculated to excite the people to enmity and fear of the blacks. A committee of one hundred men was appointed, — men mostly known for their recklessness and cruelty, — who eagerly undertook to put down the insurrection by whipping or hanging all those who exj)ressed in their prayers or otherwise any desire for freedom, or any dissatis- faction with their lot. Men were chosen to watch by night and listen at the cabins of the slaves for any word on this subject. At their meetings these men woiild report, and any slaves reported were seized, questioned as to any expression they might have heard of this kind, and freedom was promised them if they would give infor- mation against any ; but after it was obtained, the SOUTHERN HEROES. 89 promise, having been made " only to a nigger," was never kept. It was soon known that, once in the hands of the vigilance committee, whipping and hanging was their fate, if the whipjjing did not cause death before they could be gotten to the gallows, which was sometimes the case. For many weeks Saturday was hanging day at Natchez, and truly it was a " reign of terror." First, the culprit was taken to a small two-roomed building. In each of these two rooms were two iron rings, fastened to the heavy oak floor, to which the slaves were securely bound. On each side stools were placed, on which the white men sat, and in turn applied the lash to the bare flesh. After this the victims were taken to a wagon, and sometimes as many as ten or a dozen were taken to the gallows and hung at the same time. No trial was considered necessary, no evidence required except the statement of the vigi- lance committee, that they had in some way com- plained of their lot. Valuable servants were some- times arrested and large amounts of money offered for their release. It is reliably stated that Joseph Rey- nolds offered $100,000 for the release of two valuable and favorite servants. Miss Mary Dunbar offered 'flO,000 for the release of one of her three slaves, whom the committee had taken ; but the victims were never released, and these servants were whipped and hung, as was also a child twelve years old. Mrs. Haviland, in her " Woman's Life Work," is authority for the above, and she gives the names of the owners of two hundred and nine slaves who were 90 SOUTHERN HEROES. hung in Natchez during the " reign of terror," proof of which she obtained in that city. More than four hundred were said to have thus perished. Some of the owners and better class of citizens protested and tried to turn the tide, but the fear aroused was so great, and the brutal element had gained such control, that they seemed powerless to arrest the flow of blood until Natchez was occupied by government troojis. The full extent of the cruel practices of slavery is little considered by the majority of those who think it is an evil. The field hands, in their long, weary day's work, followed by the overseers and pressed to their utmost exertion by the fear of the terrible lash, have called forth our utmost sympathy ; but there was a class of slaves whose sufferings were of a different and more acute character than that caused by the sting of the whip. A white woman, with enough of the colored blood in her veins to cause a tinge of the eye, or to give a tell-tale shade to the nail, was a slave to the passions of the most depraved, coarse, and brutal owners. She was placed upon the block for sale, her charms discussed by the vulgar, and her person sold to the highest bidder. This was the most costly class of slaves. They often brought from $1500 to '13000, and sometimes more. The girl was helpless to evade her doom, powerless to resist the will of her master, yet often hoping, longing, praying for a door of escape. What such a life was to many of them may be faintly seen from the following story of Margaret Garner. In January, 1855, a company of slaves belonging to SOUTHERN HEROES. 91 one neighborhood had escaped to Cincinnati. On arrival there they separated, as a number of them wished to see a colored man with whom they were acquainted, and they made several inquiries for his house. This led to their being easily traced by their pursuers. Kite, the colored man, received them kindly ; but the house was soon surrounded by a company of United States troops and slaveholders. Those within barred the doors and windows, and refused to admit the hunters, resolving to fight till death rather than be taken back to slavery. The company was composed of an old man, his wife, and four children. Robert's wife was about half white, a bright, agreeable looking woman, twenty- two or twenty-three years old. The two older children were pretty, wooUy-headed mulatto boys. The two younger were girls, — one a three-year-old, with fair white skin, the other a rosy-cheeked baby. All were now within this room, surrounded by men claiming them as their property, notwithstanding the fact that the claimant in the company outside was the reputed father of some, if not all, of these children. The two colored men were armed and fought bravely for liberty. The window was battered down, and a deputy marshal, attempting to enter, was met with a pistol bullet that made a flesh wound in his arm, causing his hasty retreat. Within this cabin were represented several thousand dollars in human flesh, and the owner is claiming it by the law of the United States. What matters to him the wounding of her officers ? He demands of the law, as slaves, his 92 SOUTHERN HEROES. children. Tlie clooi' is battered down, the officers rush in, and though several shots are fired and another United States officer is wounded, the colored men are soon overpowered and dragged out of the house. Seeing her husband dragged away, and knowing too well the fate in store for herself and these little ones, should they be taken back to slavery, Margaret seized a kitchen knife and quickly killed the little daughter with one stroke, by cutting her tlu'oat. She then seized the babe to take its life also, loving her children too much to allow them to grow up, if by any means she could prevent it, to what she well knew would be their fate as white girl slaves. The men prevented her from carrying out her design, which was not only to kill the babe, but the other children and herself. The whole party was taken to jail, and suit entered in the United States court for possession. The trial lasted two weeks, and created much excitement. It was proved that the fugitives had been allowed to visit the city before at various times, and by law were free. Margaret Garner had been there as nurse girl before the children were born, and, being a free woman, the children were also free ; but it was ruled that, by returning to a slave State, they had become slaves, and were such at the time of their escape. An effort was made by John J. Joliff, their coun- sel, to wrest them from the United States custody upon the charge of murder, under the law of Ohio. The warrants were issued, and the attorney for the fugitives pressed the serving of them, saying that, SOUTHERN HEROES. 93 strange as it might seem for him to be pressing such a charge, every one of his clients said they would " go sin^ins: to the gallows rather than to return to slavery." The United States law provided that no warrant should in any event be served upon a fugitive when remanded to the custody of his former owner. Not even a warrant for murder could prevent his being returned to bondage. The attorney, Joliff, said the fugitive slave law was unconstitutional, and, as a part and parcel of his argument, he wished to show the effects of carrying it out. It had driven a frantic mother to murder her own child rather than see it carried back to the seething hell of American slavery. This law was of such an order that its execution required that human hearts should be wrung and human blood spilled. " It is for the court to decide whether the fugitive slave law overrides the law of Ohio to such an extent that a fugitive slave cannot be arrested, even for murder." The fugitives were finally indicted for murder, but by provision of the slave law they could not be tried, and the United States court gave them back to their owners and allowed them to be taken to Kentucky. On board a steamer they started South ; but not all of them returned, for the mother, still holding in her arms the rosy-cheeked baby girl, which had attracted much attention at the trial on account of its white skin and unusual brightness, watched for a favorable opportunity and sprang overboard. Immediate efforts were made to save them, but what the mother had 94 SOUTHERN HEROES. failed to do with the knife was accomplished other- wise, and the babe was dead. The mother was rescued from the longed-for death, and taken to that which seemed to her so much worse. It is but just to say that the slaveholders gener- ally were not of that inhuman type which is depicted in this recital of the horrors of slavery. There were a great many kind-hearted ones who were the victims of the system, who were born under its blighting in- fluences, and knew no way to free themselves from it without making a greater effort or sacrifice than many of them were prepared to do. Many would not allow their slaves to be whipped, and treated them kindly. When this was the case, the slaves wfere in many instances better provided for than when obliged to care for themselves, and many preferred to remain with such masters after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued. CHAPTER V. Champion of those who groan beneath Oppression's iron hand, — In view of penury, hate, and death, I see thee fearless stand. Then onward with a martyr's zeal, And wait thy sure reward When man to man no more shall kneel, And God alone be Lord. Whittier. We will here introduce to our readers Levi Coffin, the President of the Underground Railroad. He was born in Guilford County, N. C, of Quaker parents and Nantucket ancestry. His father's farm was on the Salisbury road, near the Friends' meeting- house at New Garden, six miles from Greensboro. In this vicinity was fought the battle of Guilford Court House, between General Greene and Lord Corn- wallis, near the close of the war of the Revolution. Many of the soldiers slain in this battle were buried in the Friends' buryiug-ground, near their meeting- house, which was used as a hospital for the wounded. The houses of two Friends in the neighborhood, whose farms joined, were occupied by the officers of the opposing armies. The road passing this meeting-house was traveled for many years by slave-traders going South with 96 SOUTHERN HEROES. tlieir human merchandise. The slaves were driveu in what were called " coffles," two slaves being fas- tened on each side of a heavy chain, thus making- four abreast. A little behind these were four more, and so on until all were thus fastened together. They were followed by a white man on horseback, carrying a long whip, which he sometimes used with as little mercy as a cruel driver might now show in driving cattle. A wagon followed containing supplies. Day after day in this manner the journey was continued, until the destination was reached or a sale was made. These coffles were never seen going North. The owners of the rice swamps and cane and cotton fields of the extreme Southern States required more slaves than they could raise, and they depended mostly upon Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and Kentucky to supply the deficiency. The work of the more Southern States and often the greater cruelty in the treatment of the slaves shortened the years of labor, " as they toiled 'mid the cotton and the cane." Slaves from the upper States dreaded to be sold South more than anything else that could happen to them. When about seven years of age, Levi Coffin was with his father by the roadside and saw a coffle of slaves pass. His father pleasantly addressed them with the words, " Well, boys ! why do they chain you ? " One of them replied : " They have taken us away from our wives and children, and they chain us lest we should make our escape and go back to them." The boy was much impressed with the de- SOUTHERN HEROES. 97 jected api^earance of the company, and with the sad words that he heard, and asked his father many questions concerning them. His father explained as best he conld the sad meaning of slavery, and thus Levi Coffin took his first lessons as an abolitionist, A few years later he was at a corn husking, where the neighbors, white and colored, were assembled to " shuck the corn," which had been broken from the stalk in the field and piled in the yard. At sev- eral points surrounding the pile, posts were set in the ground with flat stones placed on the top, and here the resinous pine knots, or " light-wood," were burned, shedding a bright light all around. The white people began at one end of the pile, the colored at the other ; and with much story-telling, song, joke, and laughter they worked until the golden ears were stowed away. On this occasion, while the white people were at supper, Levi remained with the colored folks. Among them he found one named Stephen, who had been free born and apprenticed to a Friend named Lloyd, living near Philadelphia. He was engaged in helping drive a flock of sheep to Baltimore, and while asleep in the negro house of a tavern, he was seized, gagged, bound, hurriedly placed in a covered carriage, and taken to Virginia, where he was sold to a man named Holland. Holland, who was now on his way South, had stopped over a few days at his home, which was in this neighborhood. Levi reported the case to a trusty negro, who agreed to take Stephen the next night to 98 SOUTHERN HEROES. the home of Levi's father, and give him an oppor- tunity to hear Stephen's story. After listening to it, Friend Coffin wrote at once to Edward Lloyd con- cerning the matter. In about two weeks' time Lloyd arrived, having traveled many weary miles by stage- coach, but he found that Stephen had been taken further South. The next day, Lloyd attended the meeting of Friends at New Garden and informed them of the circumstances. George Swain and Henry Macy agreed to accompany him in pursuit of the boy. Friends contributed money for the expenses, as well as a horse and saddle and other necessary equip- ments for the journey. They found Stephen in Georgia, where he had been sold. The purchaser gave bonds to deliver him when proof should be given that his mother was a free woman at the time of his birth, and in due time our friends returned and Stephen was ready to testify against his kid- napper, who had been arrested and given bonds to appear for trial ; but rather than meet Stephen in court and abide the judgment, he forfeited the bond. This was Levi Coffin's first experience in the lib- eration of slaves. In his father's woods he often met the limited negro, and " many times," he says, " I sat in the thicket while they devoui'ed my bounty, as I listened to their tales about hard masters and cruel treatment, or in language glowing with native elo- quence, they spoke of the glorious hope of freedom which had animated their spirits in darkest hours and sustained them under the lash." SOUTHERN HEROES. 99 During his young manhood he was often engaged in some way for the benefit of the slaves. He organ- ized a school for them, which was at first encouraged by some of the slaveholders, but was afterwards closed, as they considered it dangerous for the slaves to be educated. He often examined, in person or by proxy, coffles of slaves ; and it is surprising how many he found among them who had been kidnapped, although kidnapping was said to be strongly opposed by slaveholders. Many were released as a result of his efforts. He married the daughter of a neighboring Friend, and in September, 1826, moved to Indiana, where he began business as a merchant and manufacturer of linseed oil. There was quite a settlement of free colored people at the place, whose parents, if not they themselves, had been settled there by the committees of North Carolina Yearly Meeting. These colored people were often called upon to harbor and forward those who had escaped from their masters, but on account of their inability to manage properly, the owners sometimes regained possession of the fugitives. Levi Coffin tried to interest his neighbors in this subject, but met with little encouragement at first. Even if they wished to help, they were afraid of the penalty of the law. Levi told them that when a boy in North Carolina he had read in the Bible that it is right to take in the stranger and administer to him in distress, and he believed that it is always safe to do right ; that the Bible, in bidding us to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, said nothing about 100 SOUTHERN HEROES. color, and that he should try to follow out its teach- ings. The colored people soon came to understand that in him they had a friend, and that a stranger knock- in c: at his door would be admitted. Without adver- tising it in the newspapers, it soon became known by those interested in aiding the fugitive, that if his house could be reached safety was assured, and fugi- tive slaves began arriving before he had lived a year in his new home. The Underground Railroad was not a deliberately organized institution, with capital stock publicly sub- scribed and officers annually elected at large salaries. Trains did not run from certain public j^laces on schedule time, yet they made good connections. The collection of fares was no part of the conductor's busi- ness. It was his duty to receive all who came to him fleeing from the laud of bondage, in pursuit of " lib- erty and happiness." If needful, they must be warmed, fed or clothed, then conveyed to the next most suitable station on the I'oad to Canada, without charge. They were, with a degree of caution, passed from one friendly hand to another. Sometimes they were kept in schoolhouse lofts where, perhaps for days, they were the unobserved listeners to the chil- dren's recitations. Sometimes they were hidden in hay mows, straw ricks, or between feather beds in some good housewife's chamber, and in all sorts of ways kept from the eager eyes of their pursuers. Levi Coffin's house soon became a Union station for those coming by various lines from the South, con- SOUTHERN HEROES. 101 verging at Newjiort, Indiana. Some of his friends became much concerned for him. They said that his business interests would suffer, that his very life was in danger, and that his duty toward his family and friends demanded that he shoidd cease his connection with so hazardous and disrepvitable a business. Levi and " Aunt Kate " had long before counted the cost. They knew all the dangers better than their advisers. They had deliberately and intelligently reached the conclusion that the pathway of duty was plain before them, and they steadfastly pursued the right, leaving business interests, personal safety, and all with Him who, they believed, had called them to this special work. When his views and practices became generally known, his business interests did suffer for a time, for men declared that they would not patronize such a man ; but others came to him, and his business pros- pered. He needed an increased income. Horses and wagons must be always at hand to convey guests ten, twenty, thirty, or forty miles on short notice, as they were likely to appear at any time for passage on the Underground Railroad. At this station it sometimes occurred that several trains arrived in the course of one night. At no time on retiring were Levi Coffin and his wife sure of an uninterrupted rest. The gentle tap might be heard at any hour of the night, and when heard, Levi would silently open the door, give a whispered invitation to come in, and, leaving the sitting room door open, re- turn to his wife and tell her of the hungry company 102 SOUTHERN HEROES. needing refreshments. After the passengers had entered, the doors were closed and the wmdows cur- tained, that no spy from the outside might see what was going on within. Lamps were lighted, fires built, and soon the smell of hot coffee and cooking would indicate that a satisfying portion was in preparation for the ragged, hungry, shivering travelers. When warmed and fed they were put away to rest as cir- cumstances would permit. Levi Coffin was often threatened with hanging, shooting, and the burning of his property, bi;t he feared not, and often said, " Barking dogs never bite." On one occasion a letter was received from Ken- tucky which stated that on a certain night an armed body of men was coming to Newport to burn the town. Levi Coffin's store, porkhouse, and dwelling were to be the first fired, and if they were successful in getting him they intended that his life should pay for the crimes he had committed against Southern slavehold- ers. He was advised to leave town. Most of the in- habitants were Friends and non-combatants ; they raised no resisting force to meet the invaders, placed no pickets outside the town, but retired to rest as usual. None showed any fear except one poor labor- ing man who had built a little cabin in the woods a mile and a half from town. Upon hearing the spring- time music of the frogs he thought that the Kentuck- ians were coming, and hastened to towTi to give the alarm. Levi Coffin states that the largest company of fugi- tives ever seated at his table at one time was com- SOUTHERN HEROES. 103 posed of seventeen men, women and children, varying in color from tlie light midatto to the coal black negro. They were from Kentucky, and the next night after reaching the Ohio side of the river, when near a road, they heard the sound of horses' feet, and soon saw their pursuers close upon them. Hurriedly entering a large cornfield across the road, they ran for liberty and life, closely jjursued by fifteen or twenty armed men. The negroes scattered in the wilderness of tall, full-bladed, bottom-land Indian corn, which afforded a good shelter. The pursuers called to them to stop or they would be shot. Some recognized the voices of their master, but did not incline to obey. They had a taste and a hope of liberty, and these were al- ready giving them a spirit of independence. Several shots were fired, which they heard cutting the friendly maize around them. They ran several miles before stopping to collect their company. All could not be easily found, but it was very important for them to leave the cornfield before day; it was now nearly morning. They entered the woods near by and secreted them- selves in the bushes. Soon they heard the sound of wood-chopping, which again alarmed them, but by careful observation they discovered that the chopper was a friendly negro. He conducted them to a safe hiding-place and furnished them with food, as the bundles of clothing and food with which they had started had been lost during their hurried fliaht. They were afterwards conducted to a station on the Underground Railroad, where their lost companions 104 SOUTHERN HEROES. soon appeared. Two of tliem were wounded, one with shot in his back, the other with a bullet wound several inches long, in his side. Two covered wagons were appropriated to their use, and early one morning " Aimt Kate," of " Uncle Tom's Cabin " fame, was called to the door. Upon asking who was there, she was told, " All Kentucky." " Well, bring all Ken- tucky in," was the ready response. Breakfast was soon ready and they were told to eat all they wanted, for they were among friends and in no danger of being captured in that neighborhood of abolitionists. They were soon at their ease, and " did all eat and were filled." In this case Levi Coffin called some of the neigh- bors in to see this valuable lot of property, the worth of which he estimated to be at least .117,000. They remained for two days. The shot were taken out of the man's back, and the wounded side was dressed. Needed clothing was furnished, and all wei'e sent on their way rejoicing to the house of John Bond, twenty miles away. The next morning a messenger came from Rich- mond, Indiana, with word that fifteen Kentuckians were there hunting fugitives. Levi Coffin quickly sent this message to John Bond with word that the colored people better be scattered. Thinking it safe to travel in that country by day, John had sent them forward immediately upon their arrival, lie now mounted a horse, pursued and overtook them, and had them secreted with different Friends, where they re- mained in hiding for several weeks, until the hunters SOUTHERN HEROES. 105 had given up the chase. They were then forwarded to Canada. Meanwhile, the Kentuckians had hired a lot of roughs to aid them in fuiding their property, who formed parties and started out in different directions. The i)arty searcliing the town of Newport entered one or two at a time to avoid suspicion, and inquired of the children in the streets if any fugitive slaves had been in town lately. They were told that a lot of them had been at Levi Coffin's, but had gone on to Canada. This information was given at the meeting of the com- pany shortly afterward, and two divisions were sent to the lakes to watch for the crossing of the fleeing slaves into Canada. The slaveholders hired more men, with whom they proposed to search every Friends' community in that region. All their efforts proved futile, so that, discouraged and angry, they swore they would burn Levi Coffin out, shoot him at sight, or hang him to a limb, if it cost $10,000. A friend of Levi Coffin's who overheard the threats, and thought that they started for Newport, mounted a horse, and with pistols in his pockets hur- riedly rode to give Levi warning and help him to fight. He called Levi out of bed and excitedly told his story. Levi replied that if they had really in- tended to do such a thing they would never have told of it ; and added : " Now, thee put up thy pistols. We have no vise for them here, as we do not depend upon firearms for protection." The well-meaning visitor was persuaded to retire, and Levi went to bed and to sleep. 106 SOUTHERN HEROES. Soon the hunters returned South, but before going they conferred an honorable and lasting title upon our friend. They said they could get no trace of their slaves on top of the ground, after they reached Levi Coffin's house ; and declared that there must be an underground railroad of which he was president. This story they took pleasure in repeating several times in the city, as a good joke, and it became the talk about town, so that when Levi went to Richmond he was asked by his friends if he knew of his late promotion, and was told of the title given him. Levi said this was the first he had heard about an underground rail- road, and it was doubtless the origin of the term. Levi Coffin then expressed his willingness to act in any capacity to further the interests of the road, and by universal consent retained the title, often receiv- ing letters so addressed. For thirty years he served faithfully, and no one complained of him for embez- zlement of funds or for neglecting in any way the duties of his office. But the Emancipation Proclamation ruined the business of the road. At a called meeting of inter- ested parties, held at Cincinnati, amid speech-making and much rejoicing, the president resigned his high office, and the company disbanded with much good feeling, thinking the business of the road forever at an end. Of this we shall learn more later. Although the threats to shoot and hang our friend and burn his property were never carried out, these hunters made arrangements with their landlord and sympathizer at Richmond to prosecute him, and he SOUTHERN HEROES. 107 was summoned before the court, charged with " aiding and abetting runaway slaves." He promptly con- fessed that a party of seventeen colored people had stopped at his home. They were hungry and he had fed them, as his Master had bidden him do. They said they were slaves fleeing from their masters, but the word of a slave was not accepted as evidence in that court. The testimony of other witnesses corre- sponded with that of Levi Coffin. The judge said : " Gentlemen, I think Mr. Coffin knows more about the fugitive slave law than you do. The case is dis- missed." On one occasion slave-hunters passed Levi Coffin's door, when fourteen slaves they were searching for were secreted in the house. He sent a man to ascer- tain which way they went, promptly forwarded his guests in another direction, and they safely reached Canada. In this company was a man who had been over the road before, but had returned to his master in the South. One morning he appeared before him, hat in hand, and addressed him with the following words : " Good mornin', massa. I 'se ready to go to work now; done had 'nough o' freedom. Th' ab'litionists is an awful set o' folks. Works a nigger mos' to deaff and never pays him nuffin. Canady 's a awful cold country ; not fit for a nigger to live in, nohow." His master was no less surprised than rejoiced to see Jim, and told him he hoped he would now make a good missionary among his people and the neighbors. This Jim promised to be. He obtained the perfect confi- 108 SOUTHERN HEROES. dence of his master, would amuse and gratify him by telling the colored people, in his presence, of the ter- rible things he met with while in the North ; and the darkies appeared as though they woidd not for the world undertake to live in such a country and among such a people as Jim had described. Yet he did such faithful " missionary work " that this company of thir- teen was willing to leave the " Sunny South " and the homes their masters had provided, and go with him to the cold Northland and trust themselves to those dreadful abolitionists. Jim said he hoped the dear Lord would forgive him for telling so many lies to his master. Amherstburg, near the head of Lake Erie, in Can- ada, was the principal landing-place of fugitives for the western routes. It was estimated that as early as 1844 more than forty thousand of these refugees had reached Her Majesty's dominions. This number in- creased rapidly from that time until 1861. Many of them arrived in a most deplorable condition, with scarcely anything but the free air with which to begin their new life. At this place there was formed a set- tlement of colored people, but a home for new arrivals was needed. Isaac J. Rice, a noble, self-sacrificing Presbyterian minister, left the church of which he was pastor, in Ohio, where he had fine prospects, to obey what he believed to be the call of God ; and here he fed, taught, and nursed those homeless, suffering peo- ple until homes could be provided for them. The col- ored people in Canada formed aid-societies, and did much for the relief of the new-comers. SOUTHERN HEROES. 109 The " Philanthropist," of Cincinnati, was the first paper published in the United States that advocated the propriety of abolitionists' using only free-labor goods. Soon afterwards the " Free Labor Advocate " appeared. It was published at Newport, Indiana, and edited by Benjamin Stanton, a Friend minister. John Woolman, of New Jersey, was doubtless the first man to advocate the practice and carry it out. He was a devoted servant of God, and a minister in the Society of Friends. His Journal well repays care- ful reading now, as we look back upon this pure man, taught of God. In all his ways he was consistent with the truth which he advocated. He was many years in advance of his day, and held out the light for other generations to see. He took up the cause of the op- pressed slave when almost none of his brethren could see with him. He visited the slaveholders in the South, and lovingly pleaded for their bondmen. Read the " Life of John Woolman," and you will appreciate the remark of Spurgeon concerning it, — " A rare gem in English literature ; " or that of Charles Kingsley, — " Eead Woolman's Journal and love the Quakers." Our friend Levi Coffin read this work at the time of the agitation of this subject, and became convinced that he could no longer be consistent with his work and words unless he, too, abstained from using and dealing in the products of slave labor. Accordingly he went to Philadelphia and New York to examine the market for free-labor goods. In Philadelphia he was satisfied by the character of such men as Enoch 110 SOUTHERN HEROES. ^ Lewis, Abraham Pennock, Samuel Rhoades, George W. Taylor, and others, who were engaged in selling this class of merchandise, that the movement was founded upon principle. He found a cotton factory, managed by G. W. Taylor, that was manufacturing at a loss cotton grown by Friends in North Carolina. He bought as good an assortment of these goods as he could get, and then went to New York, where he found a grocery business conducted by Robert Liud- ley Murray, Lindley M. Hoag, and others. This was the outgrowth of the Free Labor Association of Friends of New York Yearly Meeting, which in 1851 had eighty-five members, who mostly belonged to that meeting. He purchased groceries at higher prices than the same grade of goods could be purchased for elsewhere, but men sometimes pay for principle. The subject grew in the minds of Friends, and in 184G a convention was held in Friends' meeting-house at Salem, Indiana, for all interested in the subject of free labor. For two days those in attendance dis- cussed ways and means to carry out their conscien- tious convictions, and, realizing the necessity of divid- ing the burden, which would be too heavy for any one person to bear, they made up a capital stock of three thousand dollars, to be loaned to a suitable person for five years, without interest, to enable him to open, at Cincinnati, a wholesale depository of free-labor goods. They appointed a committee to secure some one to take charge of the business, and that committee promptly agreed upon Levi Coffin. At first he de- clined, but no other satisfactory person could be found SOUTHERN HEROES. Ill to take the place, and he finally yielded to the earnest appeals of various persons interested in the cause, sold out his business in Newport, Indiana, and moved to Cincinnati, Ohio. He very soon found, in response to circulars issued, that orders were more abundant than were the goods to fill them. His acquaintance in the South enabled him to purchase free-labor cotton, which he arranged to have manufactured, and for ten years this business was kejDt up. He then retired from mercantile life. As at Newport, so at Cincinnati, our Friend found •that few white peoj^le were ready to harbor fugitives, and the colored citizens were often lacking in ability to evade the pursuing owners. Though he hoj3ed to be relieved from this duty upon his removal to the city, he found himself, on the contrary, more than ever engaged in it. For more than twenty years in Newport, Indiana, and for about ten years in Cincin- nati, Ohio, his home was the refuge of tlie fleeing slave. On an average for each of the twenty years, one hundred and six fugitives were received, cared for, and foi'warded from this station ; and more than three thousand in all were fed at his table. Many of them were clothed and shod, the sick were nursed, medical attendance was provided, and sometimes the stay of the slaves was prolonged to weeks and months. In all this time he never lost a passenger. It was generally known in the town in which he lived, as well as by many of the slaveholders, that he enter- tained the fugitives, and yet his house was never searched. He boldly declared that if they did search 112 SOUTHERN HEROES. it, the law must be strictly followed, or the penalty would be vigorously enforced. His business relations gave him influence, and kept many in fear of his displeasure. For years a ladies' sewing society met weekly at his house, and made and repaired garments for men, women, and children. Often the fugitives arrived, after weeks of travel and exposure, while trying to make their way to freedom, led by the north star from some extreme Southern State, and losing their way on some dark nights when the friendly star was hidden. They dare not take a public highway, for fear of being seen by unfriendly - white men, so that, with wornout shoes, — if, indeed, they had any, — and with clothing torn and ragged from contact with briers, perhaps wounded by shot or bullets from their pursuers, or torn by the blood- hounds, wretched, suffering, and miserable, they ar- rived at the home of the " Good Samaritan." The Southern slaveholders had become too agrjrres- sive, in the pressure of their peculiar institution, upon the United States. The requirements made of North- ern citizens were more than they were willing to meet, and the breach between the Northern and Southern sections grew wider. John C. Calhoun and other Southern politicians taught their people that secession from the United States government was the right of the individual States, and such was the influence brought to bear, that when election came, it was al- most a " Solid South." When Abraham Lincoln was elected and the Southern candidate defeated, they were disappointed, and unwilling to abide the result ; hence SOUTHERN HEROES. 113 the firing upon the United States flag at Fort Sum- ter. Civil war and the Emancipation Proclamation of Abraham Lincoln followed, freeing nearly four mil- lion slaves, many of whom hardly knew their right hand from the left. They were a vast company of homeless children, for even ' the oldest were but chil- dren in understanding. Yet now they were no longer under the care of interested owners, who had at least a pecuniary interest in them, and they became the ob- jects of the world's charity. Societies for their relief sprang up all over the Northern States, and soon became organized for the distribution of the gifts of a sympathetic people. Everything that must be used by individuals, by households, and by schools, was needed ; and it was wonderful how these things were supplied, Levi Cof- fin was a leader in this work, and visited the South a number of times to arrange for the free transportation of goods and the distribution of the gifts of the great West. He went to England in the interest of this labor of love, bearing with him letters from many prominent men in church and state, and readily gained access to the wealthy and generous people of that dear old country. A "London Freedmen's Relief Society" was formed, with prominent men of England as its officers. He worked under its auspices, and told to many large congregations the story of the wrongs, sufferings, and needs of this people. He visited Scotland, France, and many other parts 114 SOUTHERN HEROES. of Europe in the interest of this cause, and most nobly did Europe respond to the appeal. Banks charged no commission, railroads no tariff, steamships no freight, and all seemed to do what they could to atone for the common sin toward this helpless people, who, no longer slaves, were in need of much training and education to fit them to become intelligent citi- zens, competent to cast a vote upon the affairs of the nation. Although the United States government gave them the elective franchise long before they were prepared for it, very many of them have set them- selves to work and are fast becoming competent for their new duties, notwithstanding adverse criticisms and unfavorable comments upon them. Certain it is that the colored schools and colleges of the Southern States, the rapid advancement of many of the freed people, the important positions some of them have filled and do now fill so well, and the steady acqui- sition of comparative wealth by many others, all go to show a wonderful development in a people who emerged from the barbarism of Africa, and then for generations were kept in bondage and ignorance. That they are capable of mastering much and are worthy of a higher position than to be under the lash, the following facts, gathered from different sources (presumably correct) furnish abundant proof : There is 13,500,000 taxable property now held by them in the Southern States. Since their freedom a former slave of Jefferson Davis has translated the Bible into the Sweetzer tongue, which is spoken by SOUTHERN HEROES. 115 250,000 Africans. It was stated recently that there are 25,530 negro schools in the South, where 2,250,000 negroes have learned to read, and most of them to write. In these colored schools there are 238,000 j)upils and 20,000 negro teachers. There are 150 schools for their advanced education, and seven col- leges are administered by negro presidents and facul- ties ; while of these jDresidents three were formerly slaves. There are 154 negro editors, 250 lawyers, 740 physicians, and 247 negroes from the South who have been and now are educating themselves in Euro- pean universities. In addition to this, many churches have been formed among them, and thousands of colored men are engaged in the ministry. Where in the history of mankind has such a rapid development and advance been shown by any people in the space of thirty years ? Levi Coffin believed in the education of the colored race, and spent nearly " threescore years and ten " in their service, working in every way he could for their freedom and enlightenment. He has gone to his rest, having passed from works to rewards in the seventy -ninth year of his age, with his work well done. His funeral was attended by many of Cincinnati's best people, and the tears of both black and white indicated the place he held in the hearts of all classes. Rev. Dr. Rust, Secretary of the Freedmen's Aid Society, said : " It would take less bravery to go up to the cannon's mouth than to do the work he did. He walked through the streets hooted at and threat- 116 SOUTHERN HEROES. ened by mobs, and the battle-field has scarcely such illustrations of heroism as he exhibited every day." The amount of work he accomplished without gun, pistol, or knife was much greater than that of John Faircliild, and greater than any one person could have done with weapons ; and the ultimate good to those for whom he labored was far beyond that of any one who trusted in his own wisdom for guidance and in fire-arms for defense. His life was the life of the righteous, his last days peaceful and happy, and his end triumphant. CHAPTER VI. The Quaker of the olden time ! — How calm and firm and true, Unspotted by its wrong and crime, He walked the dark earth through. The lust of power, the love of gain. The thousand lures of sin Around him, had no power to stain The purity within. Whittieb. At the beginning of the war, most of the Friends in North Carolina were located in the central and northwestern parts of the State, in Iredell, Yakdin, Surrey, Davie, Guilford, Randolph, Alamance, and Chatham counties. There were, however, six small churches in Wayne, Northampton, and Perquimans counties, in the eastern part of the State, but the meetings were all so connected by sending reports from one meeting to another, by the attendance of delegates and members generally upon the services of the superior meetings, that they were more or less personally acquainted with each other all over the State, and to a certain extent with Friends in other States. It may not be out of place here to give our readers the order of church government of the Friends, that a clearer understanding may be had of the reason 118 SOUTHERN HEROES. why Friends from the South generally knew where to o-o after crossin"- Mason and Dixon's line, and so readily found homes, friends, and business in the North and West. The Friends' business meetings of primary charac- ter are called " preparative meetings," and may be composed of one or more congregations or meetings for worship. These meetings are held on a week day, once a month. The business that pertains to the local meeting only may be settled here. Any busi- ness that may require the attention of a superior meeting is " prepared " and forwarded by the rep- resentatives, or delegates, appointed to attend the monthly meeting, which is usually held the following- week. This monthly meeting is composed of the members of one or more preparative meeting's (usually of more than one), and is a meeting of record. In some cases, where the monthly meeting is composed of only one meeting, the preparative is not held. If the busi- ness of these meetings is of a nature to claim the attention of a superior one, it is forwarded by dele- gates or the clerk to the monthly or quarterly meet- ing. The monthly meeting is a legally constituted body, with power to hold property through trustees. It appoints officers in the church, but forwards some of its appointments to superior meetings for their information and approval. The principal officers of the Friends' churches are elders and overseers, and both men and women are appointed to these stations. Men and women are DR. NEREUS MEXDENHALL SOUTHERN HEROES. 119 acknowledged as ministers when they have given evi- dence of having been called by the Great Head of the Church to preach the Gospel. The ministers, elders, and overseers have the gen- eral oversight of the flock. Care is had that those appointed as elders shall be persons gifted with a discerning spirit and shall be so well versed in the Scriptures as to be able to judge wisely of the minis- try and exercise a degree of care over the ministers. TJie quarterly meetings are composed of two or more monthly meetings, and to it representatives are appointed by the monthly meetings. Answers to queries from the discipline of the society, pertaining to the life and conduct of the members of the monthly meetings represented, are read, and any other business which may have come from the monthly meetings, or has been otherwise properly introduced, is here considered. These quarterly meetings are of general interest, and usually last two or three days. On the first day there is a meeting for ministers, elders, and usually for the overseers also ; the next day a meeting for worship is held for all who wdll attend ; and follow- ing this is the quarterly meeting for business. All these meetings, except the first class, are open to all the members alike, with equal privileges of being heard upon any question. Instead of a presi- dent or chairman, the clerk serves as the officer of the meeting, and usually has an assistant to aid in reading or writing. He or she obtains the judgment of the meeting by the sentiment expressed ; not 120 SOUTHERN HEROES. always by the majority of those who speak, but sometimes by taking into consideration the qualifica- tions of the speaker, his degree of experience and ability to judge. Should there be a decided diver- sity of ojDinion upon any subject, and any doubt in the clerk's mind as to a satisfactory conclusion, the matter is left over for consideration in a subsequent meeting. It is not customary in Friends' meetings to arrive at conclusions by vote, although it occasionally is done in some parts of the country. Concessions are often made in order to promote harmony. Should there be business that affects interests beyond those of the quarterly meeting, or of too great importance to decide, it is forwarded by dele- gates with minutes from the records to the yearly meeting. The quartei-ly meeting also forwards to the yearly meeting the j)reparative and monthly meet- ings' answers to the queries, in order that the yearly meeting may have an understanding of the general condition of the subordinate meeting's. These yearly meetings are of wide interest ; they are usually composed of thousands of members, and are held for about one week. Their decisions upon all questions that come before them are final. Some yearly meetings meet altogether in joint session of men and women, the women being represented at the clerk's table and having equal rights with the breth- ren. Other yearly meetings have separate sessions of men and women, and these send their conclusions to each other by messengers ; but the tendency of all the yearly meetings in America, except Philadelphia, SOUTHERN HEROES. 121 is toward tlie plan of having one meeting of men and women, in whicli there is no respect of sex. Each yearly meeting has a standing representative committee composed of some of its most experi- enced members, to act for it during the recess of the yearly meeting. This committee meets five times in Philadelphia, twice a year at specified times in most of the yearly meetings and in some but once, but is subject to be called together by the clerk should any " suffering case " arise. Hence the name, " Meeting for Sufferings," applied to this meeting, though it is now called by most yearly meetings "the Kepre- sentative Meeting." To this meeting is referred the care of real estate, trust funds, and other matters which may be more fully discussed and easily settled by the smaller body than in the large yearly meet- ing. The proceedings are recorded and read in the yearly meeting, whose approval, when given, con- firms the acts of the representative meeting. Occasionally conferences have been held, consist- ing of representatives, including both men and women, from every Orthodox yearly meeting in the world. For days they meet and discuss questions of importance to the church in general, and recommen- dations are agreed upon to be submitted to the different yearly meetings. The conclusions of this conference, however, are not binding upon any of the yearly meetings, except such as by their own actions choose to make them so. The deliberations of the conference are carefully recorded, and printed volumes of them are sent to the meetings and to 122 SOUTHERN HEROES. many of the active members, so that all may be informed of the subjects considered, of the addresses given, and the conclusions reached. The yearly meetings (Orthodox) now number, with Philadelphia, thirteen in the United States, one in Canada, one in England, and one in Ireland, with half-yearly and quarterly meetings in Australia and many other parts of the world. These meetings, except Philadeli)hia, are connected by a chain of correspondence in the form of annual epistles, addressed by each to all the others and to London Yearly Meeting, We see by this digression the relation of the members to each other, and also that a Friend is in touch with his brethren the world over. There has ever existed such a bond of union and sympathy between them that a member of the Friends' Church is at once recognized by his fellow- members as a person worthy of credit and of assist- ance if necessary. Friends in the South were, during the Civil War, only divided from their Northern brethren by geo- graphical lines and military law. Having crossed Mason and Dixon's line, they had only to find a com- munity of Friends to find a home and all things need- f id. Especially welcome were they in the West, for many living there, or their ancestry, had moved from the South on account of slavery. In many cases they were related to those fleeing on account of war, and cordially welcomed them to their homes. South Caro- lina seceded from the Union December 20, 1860, and Virginia promptly followed on April 18, 1861. North SOUTHERN HEROES. 123 Carolina, tliougli geographically situated between the two, was loyal to the Union by a large majority. One county, Randolph, which had within it a strong Quaker element, gave only forty-five votes for secession and 2570 against it. At first the people freely expressed their opposition to secession, but speakers from South Carolina and elsewhere were sent through the State, from her mountains to seaboard, appealing to the people, " in view of their best interests," to secede. It was stated that her sister States, Virginia and South Carolina, had gone out, and that if North Carolina refused to do so they would make her soil their fighting ground and compel her to secede. In fact, they declared that there was no alternative, she must secede. Taken at so great a disadvantage, wifli uneasy slaveholders and politicians urgently pressing their demands. Governor Ellis finally declared North Carolina seceded from the Union, May 20, 1861, and the " Old North State," the first in a declaration of independence of British rule, was now almost compelled to join in a secession from the United States. . Among all her citizens not a Friend was found to vote for secession. They had already emancijDated their slaves, they were loyal to the principles of peace, and they most firmly believed in " Union forever." In the twelfth month of this year, 1861, there was presented to the legislature of North Carolina an act called " an ordinance concerning test oaths and sedi- tion," by which every free male person in the State, above sixteen years of age, was required to appear 124 SOUTHERN HEROES. publicly and renounce all allegiance to the government of the United States, and also to agree to support, maintain and defend the independent government of the Confederate States. The alternative was ban- ishment within thirty days. The reader will at once see the peculiar bearing of this statute upon Friends within the State. They were opposed to slaveiy and war, they had been loyal to the United States, and had voted against secession, and they had no unity with a new government which they believed would perpetuate slavery. Allen U. Tomlinson and Isham Cox sjjent much time in labor- ing with the members of this legislature, showing them the effect of such a law upon their people. When the bill finally came to a hearing, the Honor- able William A. Graham of Orange County, N. C, and Eugene Grissom of Raleigh, members of the legislature, took up their cause. They were acquainted with many Friends, and respected them, and they were informed of the principles of Friends on these subjects. When the bill came before the House, they made able speeches opposing its passage, in which Governor AYilliam Graham said : " It would amount to a decree of wholesale expatriation of the Quakers, and on the expulsion of such a people from our midst the whole civilized world would cry ' shame.' " North Carolina Yearly Meeting records say that " The act fell to the ground, but not so the hostility that was capable of suggesting it. In the excitement that now prevailed throughout the State, in the effort SOUTHERN HEROES. 125 to promote volunteering, Friends were in various ways exposed to much anxiety. Many left the State, though every means was now used to prevent this, and several parties of emigrants were arrested and brought back. A few Friends were occasionally included in the military drafts, but obtained their release upon various grounds without much difficulty. It was not until the summer of 1862 that the great and general trial came. " By the passage of a conscription act in the Con- federate Congress, in the seventh month of this year, every man between eighteen and thirty-five years of age was required to enter the army. This act was amended as early as 1863, and made to include all between the ages of eighteen and forty-five. In 1864, all between seventeen and fifty were included. Finally all males from sixteen to sixty were enrolled ; four- teen-year-old boys and men over sixty were sometimes used for home guards. " In the fourth month, 1862, Friends petitioned both the State assembly and the Confederate Con- gress for relief. The State government first passed an act of exemption, releasing them from State mili- tary duty upon the payment of $100 each ; and on the eleventh of tenth month a similar bill was passed by the Congress at Richmond, which exempted all who were members with Friends at that time, upon the payment of $500. " Unlike our Friends in the Northern States, it was not on the few that the trial came, but on the many, and in another more important respect our position 126 SOUTHERN HEROES. differed widely from theirs. In our own case, the existing government and the officers who executed its will were far from having sympathy with us. We were still loyal at heart to the government of the United States, and though submitting passively to a temporary usurpation, this was little merit in a com- munity that called for the utmost zeal in the new cause. We testified against slavery, and in the fresh effort to establish it firmly, this was no small offense. Above all, we could not fight, and with the spirit of war so rampant in our midst that the preaching of the Gospel of Peace gave way in almost every place of worship to a call to arms, the hatred and malice aroused fell with much violence upon us." •The members of the committee of Friends ap- pointed to visit the Confederate Congress were Isham Cox, John B. Crenshaw, Nereus Mendenhall, John Carter, and Allen U. Tomlinson, men of ability and of good standing in their respective commimities, and well known as Friends in all the country, John B. Crenshaw, a minister, living in Richmond, Va., was personally acquainted with many leading men of the Confederate government. Nereus Mendenhall was well known as one of the most learned men in North Carolina, and was a prominent educator. Isham Cox, a minister, and for many years a leader in the yearly meeting, was well known and esteemed in the church and country. John Carter was a prominent business man, as was Allen U. Tomlinson. These five proceeded to the Confederate Congress as representatives of the Friends, to enter their protest JOHN CARTER ISHAM COX JOHN H. ( RHXSIIAW i^' *^. ALLEN U. TOMLINSON SOUTHERN HEROES. 127 against these unrighteous laws, and to plead for the relief of their brethren. Speaking of the occasion, John B. Crenshaw said : " It being a warm summer night, the meeting was arranged for the evening, and we were requested to have seats out on the Capitol grounds to avoid the heat from the lights inside the Capitol building. The committee was comjDosed of some of the ablest men in the Confederate Congress, most of them men who had served in the Congress of the United States. Mr. Miles, of South Carolina, was chairman. It was the feelintr of the delegates that Nereus Mendenhall was preeminently the man to present our case. It seemed impossible, almost, to secure his consent, owing to his natural reserve. Finally, Chairman Miles said : V^ ' Gentlemen, the committee is ready. Please state your case.' A dead silence followed. In a few min- utes, fearing the committee would not understand or appreciate our holding a silent Quaker meeting then and there, I reached over and gently touched Nereus. He arose slowly, and when fully aroused and warmed up to his subject I thought I never heard such an exposition of the doctrines of Friends on the subject of war. Other members of the delegation followed, but the ground had been covered so thoroughly that there was little left for us to say." This same delegation visited Jefferson Davis, and while he received them with courtesy, he remarked that he regretted to learn that there was within the limits of the Southern Confederacy a body of people unwilling not only to fight, but if needful to die in defense of their country. 128 SOUTHERN HEROES. The result of the labors of this delegation was the passage of a law exempting Friends and Dunkards from service in the Confederate army upon the pay- ment of $500, or upon the performance of certain services in connection with hospitals, etc. To Nereus Mendenhall's argument, perhaps more than any other one thing, was due the passage of this law. One of the committee said to this delegation of Friends : " Doubtless your peoj^le are in the Northern army fighting us, and why should you not join us in fighting them ? " To this Isham Cox replied : " I am not afraid to agree to fight, single handed, every true Friend in the Northern army." Such was his confi- dence in the adherence of his Northern brethren to the principles of non-resistance, that he had no idea of a true Friend's being in the army, and he was care- ful to use the word true. Some members there were, however, whose education against slavery had been so much more thorough than their education against war, that they thought themselves justified in going to war for the abolition of slavery. These, as a rule, were promptly diso^vned by their meetings, in whose judgment, however desirable it might be to abolish slavery, war was contrary to the commands of Christ. They judged that we should not do evil that good may come, and that a man could not be a true Friend and go to war. It may be well in this connection to take a look at the situation in which Friends in the Northern States were placed. In the government were many who were familiar with the views of Fi*iends, and who knew SOUTHERN HEROES. 129 them to be unyielding in their testimony to the prin- ciples of " peace on earth, good-will to men." Abraham Lincoln, himself a descendant of Friends and acquainted with their religious views, was always ready to receive them when they came to him on any account, saying : "I know they are not seeking an office." Secretary Stanton's mother was a minister among Friends, and lived in Ohio during the war. Attorney-General Bates and Salmon P. Chase were also said to have been connected with Friends ; and H. W. Halleck, at one time General-in-chief of the armies, remained a member of the meeting at New- port, Rhode Island, during the war, by an oversight caused by his removal to the West. Lincoln's cabinet was called " the Quaker War Cabinet," and they were very lenient to Friends who were opposed to fighting on conscientious grounds. Abraham Lincoln was visited by a delegation of Friends in the early days of the war. He and many members of the Cabinet so sympathized with them in their trying position that they were exempted from the first draft, but the Senate and House of Represent tatives of the United States, judging it unjust to others, would not permit this to be continued, al- though memorialized on the subject by the Baltimore Friends. Secretary Stanton advised the Friends, in view of the large draft of men anticipated, to hold a general conference of all their yearly meeting committees to consider a proposition from him which, he believed, would satisfy them and relieve him and the govern- 130 SOUTHERN HEROES. ment. He proposed to create a siDecial fund for the benefit of the colored refugees, and to exempt drafted Friends from military service upon the payment of $300 into this fund, said payment not to be, as in other cases, to the district provost-marshal, but to his fiscal agent at Washington, to be credited to the col- ored people, and that Friends should have the dis- bursement of it through their own agents and labor- ers, lie expressed deep interest in the matter, and was willing to accept this as the only legal mode in his power for their relief. This conference of the committees of the yearly meetings was held in Baltimore. They sent a delega- tion to Washington during the session of Congress. This delegation succeeded in having Congress engraft in the enrollment bill a clause very much like the proposition of Secretary Stanton, declaring Friends to be non-combatants, and assigning those who might be drafted to hospital or freedmen's service, or ex- empting them from all active military service upon the payment of t|300 into a fund for the relief of the sick and wounded. In the June following, the bill was materially amended and this clause was stricken out, but it was restored before the final pas- sage of the bill. The Friends felt confident of the good feeling of Congress toward them, and that un- conditional exemption would have been granted them, but for the fear of serious embarrassment to the gov- ernment. Among the papers of Francis T. King the following accoimt of this matter has been found, and is interesting in this connection : SOUTHERN HEROES. 131 " At a meeting of tlie committees of the represen- tative meetings of New York, New England, Ohio, Indiana, Western, and Baltimore, in conference at Baltimore 12th month 7 th, 1863, twenty-five persons were present. After a time of waiting upon the Lord, they organized and passed unanimously the following minute : " ' We believe it right for us first to record our united sense and judgment that Friends continue to be solemnly bound unswervingly to maintain our ancient faith and belief that war is forbidden in the Gospel ; and that as followers of the Prince of Peace we can- not contribute to its support or in any way participate in its spirit ; that to render other service as an equiva- lent for, or in lieu of, requisitions for military pur- poses is a compromise of a vital principle which we feel conscientiously bound to support under all cir- cumstances, and notwithstanding any trials to which we may be subjected. " ' We greatly appreciate the kindness evidenced at all times by the President and the Secretary of War, when we have applied to them for relief from suffer- ing for conscience' sake, and honor them for their clearly manifest regard for religious liberty.' " After speaking of civil government as a divine ordi- nance, they close their minutes by saying : " Friends can discharge the duties of good citizenship without infringing upon their principles of peace, and we de- sire to impress upon them the duty of embracing every right opportunity for the exercise of Christian benevolence toward their sufferino- fellow-creatures." 132 SOUTHERN HEROES. A committee of three Frientls, one each from New England, Indiana, and Baltimore, was appointed to go to Washington without delay and confer with the Sec- retary of War upon his proposition to exempt Friends from military service. The interview was readily ob- tained, and the committee heard his proposition, to grant relief by the payment of a sum which would go to the aid of the freedmen. He stated his views ably and cogently, and while he showed great courtesy and kindness, he also manifested much firmness and decision. Eliza P. Gurney of Burlington, N. J., the widow of Joseph John Gurney, was a Friend minister of deep spirituality, refined tastes, and much ability. Her sympathies were enlisted for Abraham Lincoln dur- ing the dark days of the war, and she felt constrained in the love of the Gosjiel to visit him. It was on a rainy morning of the first day of the week in 1862, that she and her friends were introduced into the pri- vate apartments of the President, who received them very cordially. John M. Whitall, of Philadelphia, one of the party says : " It was a time not soon to be forgotten. I cannot possibly describe the scene; the solemnity of the silence, and the impressive address of our friend, during which the tears ran down tlie cheeks of our honored President. During the earnest prayer for the nation and himself, he seemed much affected, and as we arose to go he re- tained the hand of Eliza P. Gurney and made a most beautiful response to what had been said. This re- sj^onse began and ended with the words, ' I am glad of this interview.' " SOUTHERN HEROES. 133 More tlian a year after, Abraham Lincoln sent Eliza P. Gurney a request to write him a letter, which she did, and so highly did he prize that letter, that it was found in his breast pocket at the time of the fatal shot of J. Wilkes Booth, nearly two years afterwards. Below is a copy of the letter : " Eaklham Lodge, S/IS, 1863, "To THE President of the United States. " Esteemed friend, Abraham Lincoln : Many times, since I was privileged to have an interview with thee nearly a year ago, my mind has turned toward thee with feelings of sincere and Christian interest ; and as our friend Isaac Newton offers to be the bearer of a paper messenger, I feel inclined to give thee the assurance of my continued hearty sympathy in all thy heavy burthens and responsibilities, and to express not only my own earnest prayer, but, I be- lieve, the prayer of many thousands whose hearts thou hast gladdened by thy praiseworthy and success- ful efforts ' to burst the bands of wickedness, and let the oppressed go free,' that the Almighty Ruler of the universe may strengthen thee to accomplish all the blessed purposes which in the unerring council of His will and wisdom, I do assuredly believe He did de- sign to make thee instrumental in accomplishing when He appointed thee thy present post of vast responsi- bility, as the Chief Magistrate of this great nation. " Many ai-e the trials incident to such positions, and I verily believe thy conflicts and anxieties have not been few. May the Loi-d ' hear thee in this day of trouble, the name of the God of J>acob defend thee, send 134 SOUTHERN HEROES. thee help from liis sanctuary, and strengthen thee out of Zion.' The Lord fulfil thy petitions that are put up in the name of the Prince of Peace, of the increase of whose government and peace there shall never be an end. " I can hardly refrain f I'om expressing my cordial approval of thy late excellent proclamation appointing a day of thanksgiving for the sparing and preserving mercies, which in the tender loving-kindness of our God and Saviour have been so bountifully showered upon us ; for though, as a religious people, we do not set apart especial seasons for returning thanks, either for spiritual or temporal blessings, yet, as I humbly trust, our hearts are filled with gratitude to our Almighty Father that His delivering arm of love and power has been so manifestly round about us ; and I rejoice in the decided recognition of an all-wise and sujierintcnding Providence, which is so marked a feature in the aforesaid document, as well as the im- mediate influence and guidance of the Holy Spirit, which perhaps never in any previous state paper has been so fully recognized before. "Especially did my inmost heart respond to thy desire ' that the angry feeling which has so long sus- tained this needless and cruel war may be subdued, and the hearts of the insurgents changed, and the whole nation be led through paths of repentance and submission to the divine will, back to the perfect en- joyment of union and fraternal peace.' May the Lord in his infinite compassion hasten the day. " I will not occupy thy time unduly, but, in a feel- SOUTHERN HEROES. 135 ing of true Christian sympathy aud Gospel love, com- mend thee and thy wife and your two dear children to the preserving care of the unslumbering Shepherd, who, in his matchless mercy, gave his life for the sheep, who is alone able to keep us from falling, and finally, when done with the unsatisfying things of mutability, to give us an everlasting inheritance among all them that are sanctified through the Eter- nal Spirit of God. " Resj)ectfully and sincerely, thy assured friend, "Eliza P. Gueney." During the next year President Lincoln sent to Eliza P. Gurney the following acknowledgment of her visit and letter : Executive Mansion, " Washington, September 4, 1864. "To Eliza P. Gurney. " My Esteemed Friend : I have not forgotten — probably never shall forget — the very impressive occasion when yourself and friends visited me on a Sabbath afternoon two years ago. Nor has your kind letter, written nearly a year later, even been forgot- ten. In all it has been your purpose to strengthen my reliance upon God. I am much indebted to the good Christian people of the country for their con- stant prayers and consolations, and to no one of them more than to yourself. " The purposes of the Ahnighty are perfect and must prevail, though we erring mortals may fail to accu- rately perceive them in advance. We hoped for a happy termination of this terrible war long before 136 SOUTHERN HEROES. this, but God knows best and has ruled otherwise. We shall yet acknowledge His wisdom and our own error therein, and meanwhile we must work earnestly in tlie best light He gives us, trusting that so working still conduces to the great ends He ordains. Surely He intends some great good to follow this mighty convulsion, which no mortal could make and no mor- tal could stay. "Your people, the Friends, have had and are having a very great trial. On principle and faith, opposed to both war and oppression, they can only practically oppose oppression by war. In this dilemma some have chosen one horn of the dilemma, and some the other. For those appealing to me on conscientious grounds I have done, and shall do, what I could and can, in my own conscience under my oath to the law. That you believe this I doubt not, and believing it, I shall stiU receive for our country and myself your earnest prayers to our Father in Heaven. "Your sincere friend, " A. Lincoln." This promise Abraham Lincoln faithfully kept, and the Northern Friends had no just grounds for complaint. The three hundred dollars was accepted for hospital supplies, hospital service was furnished, and where any conscience was not free to accept either or it seemed inexpedient, they were "paroled until called for, and^ were never called for." Many Friends, however, volunteered to nurse the sick and wounded, and some even went upon the battlefields SOUTHERN HEROES. 137 in this mission, and ministered to those of both armies, in Christ's name. Many a poor soklier boy died the happier because of these loving ministrations. One instance may be inserted here, owing to the connection it has with " him whom the workl deHghts to honor," showing as it does his true Christian spirit. Elizabeth L. Corn- stock, well known throughout this country and Eng- land as a minister among Friends, spent much time in the name of her Master in visiting the hospitals and army prisons during the war. It was a loving ser- vice, rendered without recompense from government, state, or church. Much liberty was granted her by the officers, as her visits were hailed by the suffering boys with delight. Even Mosby, the guerrilla chief, at one time gave her an escort of his men, when she was on an errand of love. Some army chaplains, of more seK-importance per- haps than piety, had refused to admit her to pray with the soldier boys in one of the army hospitals. Elizabeth was not accustomed to being thwarted in any mission she undertook in the name of her Lord, so she immediately proceeded to the White House. Abraham Lincoln was not a stranger to her, nor she to him. He heard her story, and immediately, seat- ing himself at the desk near at hand, he wrote : " Give Mrs. Comstock access to all hospitals, and to all inmates with whom she desires to hold religious services. "A. Lincoln." 138 SOUTHERN HEROES. Handing it to her he said: " Now, Mrs. Comstock, I want you to pray with me." They knelt together, and as, with folded hands and closed eyes, she looked up to the All-wise Father, she felt laid upon hers the hand of one of the greatest, and yet one of the most humble men who ever called God his Father. As she fervently prayed for the country and its President, pouring out her whole soul to God for him, she felt his hand trembling like a leaf as it lay upon her own. As they rose from their knees he thanked her, saying : " I feel helped and strengthened by your prayers." She went her way to pray with the sick and dying soldiers. Three days after, Abraham Lincoln's work for suf- fering humanity was over. CHAPTER VII. The levelled gun, the battle brand, We may not take ; But, calmly loyal, we can stand And suffer with our suffering land For conscience' sake. Whittier. We have learned that the appeal to the Confederate Congress was so far considered by that body as to re- sult in the passage of an act exempting Friends from military service, if they were at that time members of the Friends' church, upon the payment of five hundred dollars each. The following is a copy of the act : " LAWS EELATING TO NON-COMBATANTS." " Orders from the Adjutant and Inspector General's oface, 1862. Sec. VII. — Friends, Dunkards, Naza- renes, and Mennonites. — All persons of the above denominations, in regular membership therein on the 11th day of October, 1862, shall be exempt from en- rollment on furnishing a substitute, or on presenting to the enrolling officer a receipt from a bonded quar- termaster for the tax of five hundred dollars imposed by act of Congress, and an affidavit by the bishop, presiding elder or other officer whose duty it is to pre- serve the records of membership in the denomination 140 SOUTHERN HEROES. to which the party belongs, setting forth distinctly the fact that the party, on the 11th day of October, 1862, was in regular membership with such denomination. The affidavit must be taken and certified before a jus- tice of the peace or other officer appointed by the law of his State to administer oaths, and his authority to administer oaths must be certified by the clerk of a court of record, under the seal of the court. " All assistant-quartermasters to whom the said tax is tendered will receipt for it, and pay the same into the treasury of the Confederate States without un- reasonable delay. The enrolling officer will receive the receipt and forward it to the commandant of con- scripts, by whom it will be forwarded to the quarter- masfer-general, who will charge the assistant - quar- termaster with the amount received by him." The first meeting of North Carolina Yearly Meet- ing of Friends, following the passage of this bill, was held at New Garden, Guilford County, in 1862. It took this subject into consideration and made the fol- lowing minute expressing its united judgment: " We have had the subject under serious consider- ation, and while in accordance with our last yearly meeting we do pay all taxes imposed on us as citizens and property-holders in common with other citizens, remembering the injunction, 'tribute to whom tri- bute is due, custom to whom custom,' yet we cannot conscientiously pay the specified tax, it being imposed upon us on account of our principles, as the price ex- acted of us for religious liberty. Yet we do appre- ciate the good intentions of those members of Con- SOUTHERN HEROES. 141 gress who had it iu their hearts to do something for our relief ; and we recommend that those parents who have, moved by sympathy, or those young men who, dreading the evils of a military camp, availed them- selves of this law, shall be treated in a tender manner by their monthly meetings." Notwithstanding this declaration of the yearly meet- ing, many of the members did, sooner or later, pay the exemption tax ; and the yearly meeting, having officially cleared itself of responsibility, was not dis- posed to censure those who felt freedom of conscience so to do. We may recognize how great a temptation it was thus to purchase freedom from prison and severe suf- fering, when we consider that, on account of the de- preciation in the value of Confederate money, the tax demanded was finally not more than the price of a barrel of flour or even of a pair of boots. There were, however, many Friends who would not purchase their liberty, even at so small a cost. Their con- sciences were unyielding, and rather than disobey what they understood to be God's command to them, they chose to suffer persecution, yea, death itself. Upon these, therefore, and upon those who joined Friends' meetings after the exemption act was jjassed the trial came most severely ; and the test to which the principles of Friends were put in this particular exceeded in severity any ever known, — even that of the great Irish rebellion in 1684, during which the lives of only two Friends were taken, and they had sacrificed their principles and resorted to arms. 142 SOUTHERN HEROES. When the news of the first conscription act passed by the North Carolina legislature reached the Friends, there was not a little anxiety among them, for they knew that a trial of their faith was at hand, and it is no wonder if there was much questioning as to what it was really best to do. Many who coidd do so imme- diately left their homes for the West. They crossed the mountains in small parties, or in some instances alone. But the authorities soon discovered this mi- gration, and instead of banishing the Friends who stood steadfast to their principles, as had before been threatened, they took prompt measures to prevent them from leaving home and sent soldiers in pursuit of those who had already gone. Several parties were thus arrested and brought back. Many hardships were undergone by those who endeavored to make their way westward across mountains and streams and through forests. They avoided as much as possible the sight of unfriendly man, and lived for days, weeks, and even months in caves near some good Samaritan's, who brought food for their sustenance and informed them when it was safe to proceed on their way. The writer has listened to many thrilling accounts of such journeys, as he has sat by the large open fire in the homes of some of these people, in days of peace, when the dark war cloud had rolled away and there was no more fear of the face of man. But the recollections of those sad days are so unpleasant that it is with difficulty that these people can be induced to write or tell of their experiences. They say they wish to for- get them, and it is an evidence of a Christian spirit SOUTHERN HEROES. 143 that tliey never speak with feelings of bitterness or hatred toward those who hunted and persecuted them. As has been said, the Friends hardly knew at first what to do. In its records, North Carolina Yearly Meeting says : " There was naturally for a time some unsettlement and much uncertainty ; but very soon, we believe, there was experienced a deeper ' rooting for the storm,' and those whose faith was really over- thrown were few indeed." It was not only Friends but many others who were hiding in the woods and caves of the earth, who, from loyalty to the United States government or other causes, were unwilling to go into the Southern army. This fact very soon led to the formation of companies of " home guards," whose business it was to search for, arrest and send to the army all men of legal age who could not produce exemption papers ; so that wherever such men went it was necessary to have the papers with them, and Friends were often arrested and caused much inconvenience by neglecting to se- cure exemption papers and carry them with them. Many very good people have said that the spirit of the martyrs no longer exists in the Christian church ; but the spirit of our early days and a willingness to suffer for Christ's sake do still live and only need a suitable occasion to be drawn out. The occasion was offered in those days and the proof was abundant, not only that men and women were willing to suffer even unto death, for their principles, but that " Our God is faithful." In the experience of those Friends, and of others who were conscientious in their position in 144 SOUTHERN HEROES. favor of peace, not only did He support them by his presence and power, but not one of all those who steadily refused to bear arms was permitted to come to a violent death. Before entering upon the record of individual cases of suffering for the jsrinciples of peace, it is best to re- mind the reader that the other Christian bodies re- ferred to in the foregoing act of the Confederate Con- gress were each very few in number. As we have learned, the Friends had become much reduced in numbers by emigration, and those who were left were largely residents of rural districts, and took little part in public affairs ; consequently the people in general and the officers of the Government and of the army knew very little of the grounds of their faith or of the cause of their unwillingness to fight for their country. Being ignorant of this, the people were im- prepared to enter into sympathy with them, and often misjudging their motives, were more severe in their treatment of the Friends than they otherwise would have been. In recording these facts the writer wishes to be un- derstood as doing simply the duty of a historian, with- out prejudice or coloring of facts. He knows well that there were many good men in the South who did not approve of the severe treatment of non-combat- ants, but were often powerless to prevent it. As an instance of this, we gladly give place to the following letter from the governor of North Carolina, wlio was of Nantucket Quaker descent : SOUTHERN HEROES. 145 " Raleigh, November 3, 1864. "John B. Crenshaw, — Yours of the 29tli ult. was received by yesterday's mail, but the numbers of the ' Southern Friend,' which you said you would mail to me, containing the law touching such cases as those in relation to which I wrote you, have not come to hand. I regret it, as I would gladly excuse from war all whom I may believe conscientious in their scruples against bearing arms ; and my duties, public and pri- vate, have been so pressing that I have neglected to keep properly posted. " I learn since I wrote you that Ahijah Macon died in or near Richmond, and that his body was sent home for interment a few days ago. From what I know of his father and mother, I do not doubt that the young man was sincere in his religious professions, and that he died adhering to them. I pray that harsh treatment may not have accelerated his death. " Since I wrote you, I accidentally saw the report of the county enrolling officer, recommending the rev- ocation of Charles Macon's certificate. I have no doubt it has been forwarded ere this to the Secretary of War, or arbitrarily revoked by some unfeeling sub- ordinate. I believe him to be a good young man, and hope, from the fact stated in your letter (that there is no power to revoke certificates granted prior to the law of 1864), that he may be relieved. He has other brothers in the same situation. I would will- ingly aid him if I knew how to act ; and in this or in any other meritorious case will gladly cooperate with you in what I believe to be your truly Christian efforts 14G SOUTHERN HEROES. to relieve tlie oppressed. Those from whom you have derived your information in rehitiou to my views and feelings on this subject, have not misconceived them. "• The rejiort of the enrolling officer to which I re- fer rests entirely upon hearsay from persons enter- taining malignant feelings ; and not even this hearsay imputes to the young man any conduct, since the date of his certificate, inconsistent with his religious pro- fession. It rests solely upon the ground that he left the county, or concealed himself, to evade the draft, before he joined the Quakers, and the general decla- ration that his whole family is ' disloyal.' " Yours very respectfully, "Jonathan Worth." Jesse Buckner, of Chatham County, N. C, is said by Ilimelius Ilockctt to have been " a man of zeal and earnest, good motives." At the beginning of the war he was a Baptist, and a colonel in the militia. He had never given the principles of peace much consid- eration, and, like many others, thoughtlessly partook of the spirit around him. The position which he occupied was one of prominence, and gave him an opportunity to do miich for the promotion of the war. He began very early to raise volunteer companies, and was surprised to find that no Friends would volunteer or join in any military parade. Their refusal to do so led him to examine tlie doctrines which they held, and he was brought to sympathize with them so far as to hesitate to order the captains of his different com- panies to enroll Friends. This doubtless stirred up a SOUTHERN HEROES. 147 feeling of dissatisfaction on the part of others, and in the fall of 1861 he was superseded in office by an am- bitious and less scrupulous neighbor. The conviction grew upon him that war is contrary to the Gospel, and that to slay one's fellowman is a sin. One dark night as he was going to attend a politi- cal meeting, he lost his way, for that district of the country is heavily covered with forests, and in some parts the road passes for miles through woods, with no house in sight. The position of the Friends, and the unrighteousness of war, were the subjects of his thoughts, and much of the time pressed upon him. He came to a " big road," and crossed it to the steps of a building, which he soon discovered was the Friends' meeting-house at Spring. He seated himself to rest, and he states that there, alone in the darkness of the night, meditating upon Friends' principles, the serious condition of the country, and the awfulness of war, he became satisfied that it was his duty to unite himself with the people who worshiped in that house. This he resolved to do, but delayed for a time. On the 6th of March, 1862, he was drafted, but re- solved that he would not fight ; he " bushwhacked," that is, he left his home and lived as best he could in caves, woods, and bushes. After " lying out " in this manner for five months, principally in an adjoining county, longing for knowledge of home and the loved ones there, he ventured to return, and was for some time unmolested. He applied to be admitted into membership with Spring meeting. He was received, and, as the law had been passed exempting Friends 148 SOUTHERN HEROES. from service upon payment of $500, he thouglit that by paying this sum he would be relieved from any further demands for military service. The money was accepted, and he received his exemption papers ; but his decided course had aroused the enmity of some of his neighbors, who thought that he should no more be excused than they. His presence in their midst was a continual cause of jealousy, and it resulted in a strong determination to have him conscripted. Early in the next year his exemption papers were declared void by a sub-officer, he was arrested and sent to Camp Holmes, near Kaleigh, and then on to Wilmington, where he suffered much abuse. But the spirit of the Lord Jesus had been given him, and he had learned to obey the injmiction, " I say unto you, resist not evil." Meeldy he endured persecution, and as on one occasion a man struck him, he actually turned the other cheek to be struck also ; but the sol- dier's heart was not equal to giving a second blow. Friends did all they could to have him released. Petitions were sent to the authorities on his behalf, but without avail, and when he found that this course was hopeless he concluded that if an opportunity occurred he would avail himself of it and make his escape. This he soon did, and started on a journey of a hundred and seventy-five miles to his home, which, after much suffering from exposure, hunger, weari- ness and anxiety, he finally reached, foot-sore and ex- hausted. He was welcomed by his family, but with fear and trembling. He was allowed only one night of rest and rejoicing with them, for the vigilant eye SOUTHERN HEROES. 149 of the " home guard " had seen him, and early in the morning he was captured and taken back to Wil- mington, where his treatment was more severe than before. Under the conviction that he had made a mistake in endeavoring to escape, he became even more hum- ble and resigned to his fate, whatever it might be, and submitted with wonderful meekness to the indignities and abuse of the soldiers. Before long he was taken very sick, and the officer, fearing he would not live, and wishing to be rid of him, procured his discharge and sent him home. But Jesse Buckner was not to be freed, either by sickness or death, from bearing his testimony to the Prince of Peace. Others were watching for his recov- ery besides the anxious Friends around his bedside. A deep-seated enmity and determination to let nothing but death rob them of their full satisfaction seemed to have possessed the minds of some of his neighbors, who had resolved that he shoidd be kejDt in the army. As soon as he was able to walk, he was again con- scripted and taken to jail, where he was kept a week, and then taken from camp to camp as a prisoner. At each new place the trying experiences were repeated, from the attempt to force him to bear arms; but amid sneers and taunts and cruel treatment, he persevered. When the officers and men came to understand the grounds of his objections, many treated him kindly. For nearly three long years, — the last the most severe, — Jesse Buckner endured privations, peril and hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, being 150 SOUTHERN HEROES. driven from place to place, from camp to camp, often at the point of the bayonet, because he had acknow- ledged liimseK to be a soldier whose weapons were not carnal. Putting his trust in the Captain of his Sal- vation, he held out faithfully until Sherman demanded the surrender of Johnston's army and he was no longer under the command of Johnston's subordinates. J. G. of County, N. C, was a Methodist, who was much afraid of being taken to the army. He concluded to escape by crossing the mountains, and if possible to make his way to the West. After nearly two months he reached Tennessee on his way to In- diana, but he felt that his course was not the right one as it did not bring peace of mind. He therefore returned home to await whatever might befall him. He had not long to wait, for in about two weeks the officers arrested him and took him to Camp Holmes, near Raleigh. In a few days, with other conscripts, he was sum- moned before the officers, and all were ofPered bounty money if they would volunteer. All but three of the company accepted the money. These three now became the objects of the officers' attention. They were pre- sented with a paper which they were asked to sign, and were assured that they could have no money or clothing unless they signed it. This they refused to do, and were adroitly told that they would soon have need of both, and that if they did not come to want they could do much good by giving to those who did. They refused all these offers and met all arguments with the assertion that " AU war is opposed to tbe SOUTHERN HEROES. 151 spirit and teachings of the Gospel and to the mission of the Christian." They said that his weapons were not carnal but spiritual. After a time, bundles of clothing were tossed to them, with many offensive epithets. They were now plainly told that they must either fight or be shot, and that the men behind them were ordered to shoot them if they did not fire in battle. J. G. replied : " You have me in your power, and may inflict on me any punishment you will. I cannot do more than submit to what you inflict. My hands are clean of the blood of all men, and I intend to keep them so, cost what it may." In vain the officers attempted to force the bounty money upon them ; but failing, one of them came for- ward and said : " Boys, I want to give you some good advice. Take your clothing and money and go along ; obey your officers and do right ; or else you will be put under the sharp officers of Colonel S , who will have you shot into strings if you do not obey. Just put away your Quaker notions and do right. What regiment will you be sent to ? " They refused to make any choice, and J. G. was ordered to Rich- mond, Virginia. But Friends' attention had been called to this Quaker-Methodist, whose loyalty to his Master's com- mands had been so conspicuously manifested. A committee from the meeting for sufferings proceeded to Richmond to see what they could do for his release, and before his arrival at that city he was met with the good news that he was a free man. The efforts of the 152 SOUTHERN HEROES. committee had in some way induced the officials to recognize him as a Friend, " within the meaning of the law," and he proceeded to make it so in fact by soon after attaching himself to that church. In this connection it may be well to insert an extract from a pamphlet published by North Carolina Yearly Meeting in 1868. " It was in the midst of such commotions that many were led to very serious thoughts upon the incon- sistency of war and fighting with the loving and quiet spirit of a disciple of Jesus. Decided first upon this point and then led on to the consideration of others, many sought admission to our Society. The whole number of these, including those members of their families who were often received with them, was about six hundred. " There were many other grounds upon which the more quiet citizens of our State were opposed to the war, but such motives could rai-ely have been the inducement for them to unite with us, nor did such a step allow of much hope of escape from suffering. Only those who were actually members at the time the exemption act was passed were allowed the benefit of it. It is, however, true that through the leniency of some officers in the Confedei'ate War Deiiartmcnt, this act was sometimes so construed as to cover other cases. But for this, special application had to be made, and such influences brought to bear as few could hope to secure, while the release was actually obtained only after a lengthened period of trial had tested the reality of their convictions. SOUTHERN HEROES. 153 "Thus it fell out that the storm burst with the greatest violence upon some who were in many ways the least prepared to meet it. By their old associates those who adopted such views were regarded as lacking the excuse of early training, and in their family circles the suffering they endured had often to be shared more or less by those who did not partake of the con- victions that occasioned it. But He whose streno-th is given according to our need prepared many of these faithful men to suffer cheerfully for his name's sake and to endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. " In the great multitude that swelled the two vast armies arrayed against each other, there could not have been found instances of more lofty heroism, of calmer courage, and of more fearless, unshrinking endurance of death, and of agonies beyond those of death, than were exhibited by that little band who made up another army and followed, as their only captain, the Prince of Peace. " No hope of higher honors lured them on, no exult- ing nation gave them its gratitude. Reviled and persecuted, their Heavenly Leader sustained them with one sure promise, ' Great is your reward in Heaven.' " CHAPTER VIII. " O wild birds flying from the South, What saw and heard ye, gazing down ? " " We saw the mortar's up-turned mouth, The sickened camp, the blazing town I We heard the starving prisoner's sighs. And saw, from line and trench, your sons Follow our flight with homesick eyes Beyond the battery's smoking guns." Whittier. Many of the peace-loving people who were unwill- ing to bear arms were thrust into Southern prisons prepared for United States soldiers, and there treated as prisoners of war by the Confederate officials. As we shall have occasion to follow a number of our Friends to these prisons, it will be well to give our readers some account of the management and condi- tion of them, — not with any feeling of prejudice against the Southern people, among whom the writer has lived for about twenty years, identified with them and interested in the rapid development of the re- sources of the South and in her recovery from the terrible devastation of the war. Those who were di- rectly responsible for the condition of things in con- nection with these prisons have nearly all passed away, and most if not all of the managers of them came to a violent death. We have no wish to reflect SOUTHERN HEROES. 155 unkindly upon any, but honestly to record tlie facts pertaining to the subject before us, and in some degree to give the reader an impartial account of the work and results of the war. The principal prisons for the Yankee soldiers dur- ing the war were Libby and Danville in Virginia, Salisbury in North Carolina, Florence in South Caro- lina, Millen and Andersonville in Georgia. The last named was the farthest from the seat of war and usu- ally had the largest number of prisoners. T. H. Mann, the author of " That Yankee in An- dersonville," states in a private letter to the writer that " Brigadier-General J. H. Winder, as Commis- sary-General of the Confederacy, had full charge and control of all prisoners of war. The lack of provi- sions, shelter, medicine, and all was believed to be the direct result of orders from him. There is no evidence that he acted under the orders or advice, or even sought the advice, of any authority higher than his own ; nor was he ever made to answer for his treatment of prisoners until he was suddenly called to judgment. The hundreds of complaints of General Winder's inhumanity that were made on all sides to the Confederate authorities at Richmond were simply referred to Winder without comment or advice from them. Wirz and Barret were his willing tools, who even added to Winder's orders cruelties of their own invention. The commanders of other stockades were under the necessity of doing badly, if they were not in full sympathy with Winder's policy ; but the fact remains that to Winder belongs the disgrace of Belle 156 SOUTHERN HEROES. Isle, Andersonville, Florence, and Salisbury, with all their horrors." J. II. Winder is said to have declared that he killed more Yankees in prisons than the army killed in battle. On January 1, 1865, he dropped dead at Florence, S. C, as he was about to enter a tent for a dinner prepared with great care for himself and offi- cers. He was " struck dead by the hand of God," as the soldier boys in blue believed, because of his inhu- man treatment of those under his care. Davis was sentenced to be himg, but died in prison. Barret is said to have been shot by a cavahyman who had been his prisoner. Captain Wirz was tried by a United States military commission and executed in August, 1865. On the 27th of November, 1863, W. S. Winder, the son of J. II. Winder, selected the site for Anderson- ville "prison pen." On February 15, 1864, the first company of prisoners was sent there, and he took charge of them in April. He had been in charge of the prisons at Richmond, Va., and his treatment of the jioor unfortunates at that place had been so cruel that Burroughs, the editor of the " Richmond Exami- ner," upon noticing in the paper that he had gone to Andersonville, said : " Thank God that Richmond is at last rid of old Winder. May God have mercy upon those to whom he has been sent." Captain Henry Wirz commanded the stockade. He was a native of Switzerland, a physician, and a resident of Louisiana before the war. He was a des- perate character and seemed to study to increase SOUTHERN HEROES. 157 ratlier than to relieve the sufferings of those under his charge. So recldess was he of human life that he hesitated not to kill prisoners outright upon the slightest provocation, sometimes without provocation. T. H. Mann, who was an eye-witness, says : " On one occasion he rode into the stockade accompanied by two or three attendants, who were also on horse- back. The object of his visit was to demand that the chief of the ' Union League ' be delivered up to him. Of the crowd that collected about him probably not one in fifty knew that such a league existed, and of the actual members of the league but few knew who the chief was. Wirz was very soon informed to this effect, and the statement seemed to arose the demon in him, for he swore fearfully at the crowd that gathered about him. He soon turned to retire from the prison yard, and when nearly within the gateway drew his heavy revolver and fired the contents, six bidlets, into the crowd of emaciated, starving men who had collected about him. Without stopping to discover the effect of his shooting he put spurs to his horse, sprang through the gate and galloped away. Two men were killed outright by his shots, and several others were wounded." G. M. Gidney of Poughkeepsie, N. Y., states that he was imprisoned in Salisbury for two months ; in Florence, S. C, for many weeks ; and he spent four months in Andersonville prison, Georgia, under Cap- tain Wirz. He says that the descriptions and state- ments given in this chapter in regard to these prisons, the prisoners, and their keepers, are correct ; that the 158 SOUTHERN HEROES. condition was past description, and that in no par- ticular is this account exaggerated. Mr. Gidney states that it was not only once but many times that AVirz came within the stockade and deliberately shot the prisoners. Sometimes, if they were too weak to get from before his horse, he would shoot them, tell- ing them he would " help them to move on." Mr. Gidney asserts that fresh beef was issued to the prisoners only once during the four months that he was there. He escaped from the prison three times by different means, and each time he was over- taken by the bloodhounds sent after him and obliged to climb trees for safety, as the hounds would have torn him to pieces could they have reached him. The third time he made his escape with his companions, after two months' hard work tunneling their way beyond the pickets, and they found themselves breath- ing tlie air of freedom ; but the next day a cow, attempting to cross the line of the tunnel, broke through the thin crust of earth above it and fell in, thus revealing to the authorities the escape of the prisoners. The dogs were at once sent in pursuit, followed by men as eager as for a fox-chase. For four days Gidney was hidden under a dead hollow tree, where he was fed b}^ the colored people, who passed food through an opening in the trunk. On the eleventh day after his escape he heard the cry of the bloodhounds near him, and was obliged to climb a tree for preservation. lie was captured and returned to Wirz, who said he was glad to see him, — would rather see him than any other prisoner who SOUTHERN HEROES. 159 had escaped. " Well ! I am here," was the reply. " You cannot treat me any worse than you have done, unless you starve or shoot me." " Oh, no ! " said Wirz, " I '11 not shoot you ; I '11 punish you." Calling his aids, he ordered them to put Gidney and two other men in close confinement and allow them no food until he said so. After Gidney had been left in the small enclosure with his fellow-prisoners, he told them that it was doubtless Wirz's intention to starve them to death, but still it was their duty to live as long as they could. " There are signs of rats here, and we must catch them to eat." This his compan- ions said they could not do. On the fifth day of their confinement, one of his companions died. On the seventh day, the other was so weak as to be unable to turn himself or to speak, and was almost gone, when Gidney was unexpectedly called out of his prison. He had been exchanged for some Confederate prisoner of war, and an officer out- ranking Wirz was to be obeyed by him. Weighing only sixty-two pounds of the usual one hundred and forty, Gidney staggered to the light and thus escaped the death Wirz had intended for him. He had eaten raw five rats during the seven days of his confinement, which his companions were unwilling to do and there- fore perished. As the writer listened to this tale of horror he could not but notice that tears filled the eye of the narrator as he recalled those days of suffering, though thirty long years had intervened. Lest we be charged with partiality in presenting 160 SOUTHERN HEROES. from one side only witnesses as to the condition of these military prisons, — the side of the sufferers, — we will quote from a report of one of the officials of the Southern Confederacy whose duty it was to in- spect the state of affairs at Anderson ville. He was Lieut.-Col. D. T. Chandler, and his report was made August 5, 1864. When we have read this report we have not only the case of Andersonville before us, but of all the others. The writer mingled for nearly twenty years with the people of Virginia, North Caro- lina, Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia, and Ken- tucky, and this intercourse has given him a knowledge of the general facts concerning these prisons, as they were narrated to him by citizens and by the prisoners themselves ; and the stories concerning those impris- oned in different places all agree. Captain Bennett, in immediate charge at Florence, George Clark in charge at Salisbury, and Wirz at Andersonville, were all under the inhuman orders of Winder, and were his aids in the terrible purpose to reduce, by exposure and starvation, the number of their prisoners. In the summer of 1864, Lieut.-Col. D. T. Chandler officially inspected Andersonville prison, and in his report to the Confederate Government he says : " Send no more prisoners to that i)en. Remove all prisoners above 15,000, — that is, 20,000 to 25,000 prisoners ought to be provided for elsewhere." He further says : " There is lU) medical attendance provided within the stockade. Small quantities of medicine are placed in the hands of certain prisoners of each squad or SOUTHERN HEROES. 161 division, and the sick are brought out by sergeants at ' sick call,' to the medical officers who attend at the gate. The crowd at these times is so great that only the strongest can get access to the doctors, the weaker ones being unable to force their way through the press ; and the hospital accommodations are so limited that the beds (so-called) have all, or nearly all, two occupants each. Large numbers who would other- wise be received are necessarily sent back to the stock- ade. Many (twenty yesterday) are carted out daily who have died from unknown causes, and whom the medical officers have never seen. The dead are hauled out daily by tjie wagon load, and are buried without coffins, their hands in many instances being first mutilated with an axe in the removal of any finger rings they may have. " The sanitary condition of the prisoners is as wretched as can be, the principal causes of mortality being scurvy and chronic diarrhoea. Nothing seems to have been done and but little effort made, if any, to arrest it by procuring proper food. The ration is one third of a pound of bacon and one and one fourth pounds of unbolted corn meal, with fresh beef at rare intervals and occasionally rice. When to be ob- tained (very seldom), a small quantity of molasses is substituted for the meat ration. A little weak vine- gar, unfit for use, has sometimes been issued. " The arrangements for cooking and baking have been wholly inadequate, and though additions are now being completed, it will still be impossible to cook for the whole number of prisoners. Raw rations have to 162 SOUTHERN HEROES. be issued to a very large proportion, who are entirely unprovided with proper utensils and furnished with so limited a supply of fuel that they are compelled to dig with their hands in the filthy marsh before-mentioned for roots, etc. No soap or clothing has ever been issued. " The present hospital arrangements are only in- tended for the accommodation of the sick of ten thou- sand men, and are totally insufficient both in character and extent for the present needs, — the number of prisoners being now more than three times as great. The number of cases requiring treatment is in an in- creased ratio. " My duty requires me to recommend a change in the officer in command of the post, Brigadier-General J. H. Winder, and the substitution in his place of some one who unites both energy and good judgment with some feeling of humanity and consideration for the welfare and comfort (so far as is consistent with their safe-keeping) of the vast number of unfortu- nates placed under his control ; some one who at least will not advocate deliberately and in cold blood the propriety of leaving them in their present condi- tion until their number has been sufficiently reduced by death to make the present arrangement sufficient for their accommodation ; who will not consider it a matter of self-laudation and boasting that he has never been inside the stockade, — a place the horror of which it is difficult to describe and which is a dis- grace to civilization, the condition of which might, by the exercise of a little energy and judgment, even with SOUTHERN HEROES. 163 the limited means at his command, be considerably improved." As in the mouth of two or tliree witnesses every word shall be confirmed, we will venture to introduce one other report, also on file at Washington. There was in the South a volume called "A Keport on the Treatment of Prisoners of War." In this were recorded several reports of Confederate surgeons and inspectors to the Confederate authorities, on the condition of hospitals and prisons. It is impossible on account of the horrible nature of the details to quote generally from them. The following, which is the report of J. Crews Pelot, Assistant-Surgeon, C. S. A., September 5, 1864, inasmuch as it does not refer to the appearance and sufferings of the prisoners nor to the worst features of their surroundings, may properly be quoted without omission. It gives an idea of the destitution in the hospital, where it would be supposed special efforts would have been made to alleviate hunger and distress. u giR^ _ As officer of the day, for the past twenty- four hours I have inspected the hospital and found it in as good condition as the nature of the circum- stances will allow. A majority of the bunks are still unsupplied with bedding, while in a portion of the division the tents are entirely destitute of either bunks, bedding, or straw, the patients being com- pelled to lie upon the bare ground. " I would earnestly call attention to the article of diet. The cornbread from the bakery, being made 164 SOUTHERN HEROES. up witliont sifting, is wholly unfit for the sick, and often (in the last twenty-four hours) upon examination the inner part is found to be perfectly raw. The meat (beef) received by the patients does not amount to over two ounces a day, and for the past three or four days no flour has been issued. The cornbread cannot be eaten by many, for to do so would be to in- crease the disease of the bowels from which a large majority are suffering, and it is therefore thrown away. All the rations received by way of sustenance is two ounces of beef and half a pint of rice soup per day. Under these circumstances all the skill that can be brought to bear upon their cases by the medical officer will avail nothing. " Another point to which I feel it my duty to call your attention is the deficiency of medicines. We have little more than indigenous barks and roots with which to treat the numerous forms of disease to which our attention is called. For the treatment of wounds, ulcers, etc., we have literally nothing except water. Our wards, some of them, are filled with gangrene, and we are compelled to fold our arms and look quietly upon its ravages, not even having stimulants to support the system under its depressing influences, — this article being so limited in supply that it can be issued only for cases under the knife. " I would respectfully call your attention to the above facts, hoping that something may be done to alleviate the sufferings of the sick. J. Crew^s Pelot, Assistant-Surgeon, C. S. A." SOUTHERN HEROES. 165 No wonder that T. H. Mann, who has been quoted above, states that " between February, 18G4, and No- vember of the same year nearly every other man who entered the gates of Andersonville left his bones there." And reliable authority states that between July 1st and November 1st, 1864, 12,000 men died there. Of one company of sixty men captured to- gether, thirteen only lived to escape the prison. The ordinary men averaged only three months of this terrible treatment. Three out of every four taken to hospital died. In September, 1861, one man of every three in the prison died. Salisbury, N. C, is situated in Roanoke County, on the line of the North Carolina Railroad from Rich- mond to Charlotte, where the Western North Caro- lina Railway, from Tennessee and Asheville, connects with the former. We may be more explicit in our description of the prison at this place, as here more of the Friends were confined than at the other prisons. A number of native Southern men, property holders, intelligent citizens, whose only offense was their testi- mony to the principles of " Peace on earth and good- will toward men," were confined as prisoners of war in these military prisons, and treated in such an inhviman manner as has caused the civilized world to cry " Shame I " Perhaps so-called civilized warfare has never produced an exposition of greater disregard for the life and bodily necessities of helpless prisoners, unless it was when Napoleon ordered all his own sick and wounded soldiers at Acre to be killed with opium. War is indeed cruel, and you cannot refine it ; de- 166 SOUTHERN HEROES. moralizing man until the better nature is crushed, and he, becoming hardened by contact with suffering and death, pays little heed to the means he might use for the relief and life of his fellowmen. The reader should again be reminded that, in re- cording these sorrowful facts, it is with no party or sectional spirit that it is done, and with no wish to stir up ill feeling in any on account of those things which so many wish to forget. These things are the outgrowth of slavery and war, which bring the bad passions of men, and too often bad men, to the front, without reference to nationality or section. With no wish to cast unjust reflections upon any, but for truth's sake, and to present from the standpoint of one op- posed to all war the truth as it is revealed in the light of history, the writer ventures to recite that only for which he has luidoubted authority. This is done with the hope that many readers may be con- vinced, if they are not already so, that wars and fight- ings are contrary to the precepts and spirit of the GosjDel, and that the day may be hastened when " nations shall not learn war any more." Were the young men of our day to learn more of the horrors of war and its results, and had they less before them of its tinsel and so-called glory, they would be less ready to undertake the fearful calling. In 1861 Salisbury had about two thousand inhabi- tants, — colored and white, — six churches, one bank, two newspapers, two iron foundries, a gas-works, and several cotton mills. Here is now located the famous colored college, the fruit of the work of Dr. Price, the SOUTHERN HEROES. 107 " colored orator ; " and largely owing to his labors, no town of its size has more colored schools or better facilities for the education of the colored people than has the Salisbury of to-day. Just a little southwest of the railway station once stood a large brick building designed for a cotton fac- tory. Near by it were three smaller ones, and sur- rounding the group were about three acres of clear ground. Here the Confederate authorities placed what has since been known as Salisbury prison for Union prisoners of war. The grounds around the buildings were enclosed by a stockade of pine logs twenty feet long, hewn flat on two sides and placed endwise in the earth ten feet deep close against one another. It was needful to sink them deep, not only to insure firmness to the wall thus made but also to prevent the prisoners from digging under them. Planks two and a half inches thick were fastened against the stockade on the outside, so as to form a smooth surface seven feet high. Here the rampart for the guards was built, three feet wide, with sheltered stands at intervals of about one hundred feet. Thirty men at once were required to stand guard over these walls, night and day. About three feet from the inside of this wall there was a ditch three or four feet deep and four feet wide, except where the wagons crossed it at the two gates. Connected with this ditch was one from the outside, and these served to carry off the filth from the prison yard ; but very insufficient indeed they were for that purpose. 168 SOUTHERN HEROES. The lower part of this ditch was often lined with starving men, who sifted through their fingers the filth coming from above, seeking in it some bit of food that might possibly be found. Pieces of wood that were sometimes obtained by digging in the earth were often chewed by the prisoners for the nourish- ment they contained, and were then carefully saved for fuel to aid in cooking the raw rations that might be issued. This ditch also served as a dead-line. In some other prisons a rope was used for this purpose, and in some a slight rail or a ploughed furrow was employed. The prisoner who laid his hand on the rope, at- tempted to cross the line, or in any way encroached upon the dead-line, was immediately shot ; and many a poor prisoner, tired of life under such circum- stances, sick, suffering and discouraged, seeing no other hope of relief from his terrible situation, de- liberately went to his death by this means. It was well understood by the guards that if they shot a prisoner they would be given a month's furlough, and the circumstances of the shooting would not be inquired into. They were under positive orders to shoot those who in any way encroached upon the dead-line. The guard was composed largely of boys from twelve to sixteen years of age, with a few men too old for field service. The prisoners complained mostly of these boys, who seemed very careless of human life, and often shot prisoners ten or fifteen feet from the dead-line. SOUTHERN HEROES. 169 General Winder issued orders to keep cannon trained upon tlie prison yards, ready for instant use. On the 27th of July, before the fall of Atlanta, he issued the following order: "The officers on duty and in charge of the battery of Florida artillery at the time, will, upon receiving notice that the enemy have approached within seven miles of this post, open fire upon the stockade with grape-shot, without refer- ence to the situation beyond their lines of defense. It is better that the last Federal be exterminated than be permitted to burn and plunder the property of loyal citizens, as they will do, if allowed to escape from prison." There were at this time 34,000 help- less prisoners at Andersonville, whom Wirz would have thus deliberately murdered. The old cotton factory at Salisbury was used as a hospital and cook-house, two of the smaller buildings as lodging rooms for some special cases, and the third as a dead-house. In the latter the poor men were often placed before they were dead. Reduced as they were by starvation and exposure, they were sometimes easily overcome by the cold nights, and, in the morn- ing, because motionless and helpless, were taken for dead. Their clothing was taken off, though some- times the under garments were left, any vahiables about them were appropriated, and the body was put in the dead-house, to be taken away when the dead- wao'on shoidd come for its load of corpses, — which was every morning. One case in which a man was thus placed in the dead-house, while still alive, has come to the know- 170 SOUTHERN HEROES. ledge of the writer through the account of an eye- witness of undoubted reliability, and, shocking as it is, it is only one evidence of the many barbarities of war, which degrades mankind and causes men to forget that they all are brethren. On one occasion a gentleman of fine appearance and well dressed was brought to Salisbury prison. He was evidently used to the comforts of life, and unaccustomed to exposure and hardship. He was soon overcome by the treatment he received. One morning, soon after his arrival, he was taken for dead, stripped of most of his clothing, the buttons were cut from the remainder, and he was placed in the dead-house. As they put him into the wagon a Yan- kee doctor, who was among the prisoners, discerned signs of life in him, and requested the men in charge to put him back, which they refused to do. The doc- tor explained the matter to the guard, and called upon him to leave the still living prisoner. They then rudely threw him upon the ground, but were finally compelled by the guards to put him in the house. The Yankee doctor gave him such attend- ance as he could, and called upon a prison physician for assistance. The man finally recovered and lived to escape from the prison. The custom of handling the bodies was rude in the extreme, and is only another illustration of the demoralizing and brutalizing effects of the war system. As the dead-wagon was driven into the yard each morning, the driver called loudly : " Bring out your dead." Two men grasped each a hand and SOUTHERN HEROES. Ill a foot of tlie supposed corpse, often swinging it, to obtain united force, and then threw it, as we have seen dressed hogs thrown into a wagon ; and precisely as we have seen men handle these with a hook, if occa- sion required, the driver or assistant would hook the body under the jaw and drag it into place in the wagon. The load was taken to the trench, a quarter of a mile away on the hillside. Here a ditch had been dug, six to seven feet wide, and the emaciated bodies, with no tender hands, no casket or winding sheet, were placed crosswise in the ditch side by side. Others were placed upon top of these, and thus tier upon tier was formed until the ditch was nearly filled, and then they were rudely covered from the sight of men. On his arrival at the prison camp the prisoner was searched for any valuables he might have, and unless he managed to secrete them in some way from the eager eyes of the searchers, they were taken from him. Any extra blanket or clothing he might have was taken away, and he was turned loose within the stockade, as cattle might be, to find shelter and make his bed as best he could. Few of the nine thou- sand men in the prison could do better than lie upon the bare ground, of which there was only about three acres. Some did dig caves and cover them- selves with sticks and the earth which they dug out. Some made bricks of the dirt and built what they thought were quite comfortable houses ; but the bricks were only sun-dried, and when the rains came the houses fell, in some instances burying the inmates. 172 SOUTHERN HEROES. Sometimes two, three, or four prisoners would join their blankets and coats, and make of these a shelter from the chilling dews and rains. Frequent attempts to dig a way out of the prison-pen were made by the men, but they were seldom successfid. The food of the prisoners was usually Indian corn- bread and soup. The meal was made of maize, ground with the cob and unsifted. The soup some- times contained vegetables, and the beef, if any was issued, was of the poorest possible kind. On some occasions the prisoners were not given a particle of food for three or four days together. At other times one pint of this meal and two ounces of bacon (if there was any) per man were dispensed daily. The men had no means of cooking it. Occasionally a pint of unground corn was given to each man. The younger men could grind it in small quantities with their teeth, but some whose teeth were poor were hardly bestead. Those whose teeth were loosened by scurvy would often swallow them with the bread, and their gums would frequently be broken and bleeding. A small amount of poor water could be obtained from wells in the prison yard, and some was also secured by the prisoners being allowed to go out- side the yard and carry it within in barrels. Meat was an object of importance, and became the subject of many bitter disputes and sometimes of (uiar- rels. Often after the death of a man, those in the squad would keep him secreted for several days before notifying the officials, in order to draw his rations, whif'h would then be divided among those in the SOUTHERN HEROES. 173 secret. When meat was issued, it became the custom for one in each squad to place the pieces in a row, and then one of the men woukl place his finger upon a piece, and another man, standing with his back to the man who touched the meat, would call the num- ber of the man who was to receive it ; thus a difficult question of choice was settled. There was plenty of meat in the vicinity. At Anderson ville, it is stated by a prisoner, that, for three months, no meat what- ever was issued, and the last six months it was issued not more than six times. The opportunities for cleanliness were so insufficient that many became reckless of the care of their own persons. Vermin were so numerous as actually to cover the ground, and anywhere within the prison they could be seen crawling, if one stood and looked for them. In his testimony before the Congressional com- mittee, Thomas A. Pillsbury, of the 16th Connec- ticut, stated that rations were withheld for three days because Lieut. Bennett of Florence was unable to find out which one of the prisoners had been dig- ffing- a certain tunnel. " The man who dug the tun- nel," T. A. Pillsbury says, "went out and told him, and then we received our rations." At all these prisons some excuse was often found for neglecting to issue any rations for two or three days at a time, and this was always followed by a largely increased mortality. Eestless and suffering, it is no wonder that many of the prisoners tried to escape. Patiently, night after 174 SOUTHERN HEROES. night, would some of them work, with perhaps the remains of a ease knife, a part of a tin canteen or any such article, digging, digging, little by little, the small number in the secret taking turns, in the almost hope- less task of tunneling a way to freedom. Sometimes they succeeded in keeping their secret from the spies that were sent among them and from the prisoners outside the circle, and by this or other means effected their escape from the confines of the prison. With silent step and silent rejoicings they would start for the land of freedom. But Southern men had learned that bloodhounds could track the colored man in his attempts to escape to the land of the free, and so if successful in passing the guards the escaped prison- ers generally found themselves pursued by tlie ter- rible beasts, were often caught and taken back to the prison. In an official report of Wirz, of Andersonville, for the month of August, 1864, he says : " The prison- ers numbered 31,678, of whom 1699 were in hospital during the month, 2993 died, 23 were sent to other places, 21 were exchanged, 30 escaped, four of whom were recaptured ; but the depletion from death and other causes was more than made good by the receipt of 3078 new prisoners, so that on August 30 tliere were 31,693 in the prison, 2220 of whom were in the hospital." lie further says: "Perhaps twenty-five more prisoners escaped during the month, but were taken by the dogs before the daily return was made up, and for that reason were not in the list of escaped or recaptured." SOUTHERN HEROES. 175 It would appear from this report that fifty-five men escaped from Audersonville during that mouth, twenty-nine of whom were captured by the dogs. Seven men were placed in stocks within sight of the prisoners, and never released from their painful posi- tion until relieved by death, and it was nearly two weeks before the last one died. As there were so many men in so small a space — the average was 33 2-10 square feet per man in August, 1864, including swamp and entire yard, much of which could not be used, — many of them the most depraved and wicked, it was necessary to organize a police force and a court within the prison, for the officials gave themselves no concern as to what rascality went on among the prisoners. A man known to have a few dollars was the object of the envious wicked men, and human life was actually so cheap in their eyes as to tempt some to murder for a dollar or two. Two men were known to have been murdered and thrown into a well, that the murderers might secure about three dollars that had belonged to their victims. This police and detective force arrested a large number of culprits, who were tried before a court, and six men were convicted of their crimes and hung within the prison yard. One of the con- demned meu escaped from his captors as they were about to mount the scaffold, causing some commotion, and being afraid of an assault upon the stockade, Wirz, through fear and lack of judgment, ordered the cannon, which were already charged with grape and canister, fired upon the thronging prisoners. 176 SOUTHERN HEROES. Had the captain in charge, who coukl see the cause of the commotion, been obedient to the order, thou- sands must have been killed. As it was, Wirz's command caused such a stampede that the arms and legs of many were broken, and some were said to have been killed. The visitor now finds at the entrance of the United States cemetery at Salisbury a neat brick cottage, where once lived, and may yet live, a one-armed vet- eran, employed by the United States government to care for this city of the dead ; and faithfully did he care for the graves of those who suffered in the Salis- bury prison. Long rows of white-painted head- boards, upon which, in black lettering, are the words "unknown," "unknown," "unknown," with a little slab opposite, now mark the ditch where were rudely laid away forever the bodies of the soldiers from Northern homes. There are besides many stones with names and dates ; and on the hill the United States has placed a monument to the memory of her sons. Never will the writer forget one clear spring morn- ing, a few years after the surrender, when he had traveled much in the South without a sight of the dear old Stars and Stripes. Weeks and months he had passed without seeing the " red, white, and blue ; " but this morning on looking out of a hotel window in Salisbury, he saw waving in the moi-ning sunliglit a large United States flag, the sight of which filled his soul with feelings of patriotism such as a peace-loving Friend might safely indulge. There, in the heart of SOUTHERN HEROES. Ill the land which had been so recently under the Con- federate government and so long the land of slavery, the writer bowed before the God of all grace and thanked Him that the terrible struggle was ended ; that slavery, the curse of the South and of all our land, was a thing of the past ; and that the dear old flag could once more be unfurled in the balmy breezes of the Southland, and be recognized as the flag of " Our Country." CHAPTER IX. God'3 ways seem dark, but soon or late They touch the shining hills of day ; The evil cannot brook delay ; The good can well afford to wait. Give ermined knaves their hour of crime ; Ye have the future, grand and great, The safe appeal of Truth to time. Whittier. *' He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty." " A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand, but it shall not come uigh thee." — Psalm xci. 1 and 7. Ten miles east of Ashboro, the county seat of Randolph County, N. C, there is a settlement known in all that region as " Holly Spring neighborhood." The name " Holly Spring " was given to the Friends' meeting there which was established in the early his- tory of the country. The name was suggested by the remarkably fine spring, now near the meeting- house, where all comers have found a generous pool of excellent water, under the shadow of evergreen, prickly-leaved holly - bushes. The residents were mostly Friends, — farmers from generation to genera- tion, living their quiet lives with little to interfere with the daily routine of duty. At the time of which we write, the Friends' meeting- house was the only place of worship for miles around. SOUTHERN HEROES. 179 It was built with a low ceiling, and with raised seats along the front of the room for the ministers and elders. Through the centre of the building were shutters, which, when closed, formed a partition, sep- arating the men's and women's meetings. A plain meeting-house it was, with no cushioned seats or easy chairs. Ancient as it was (for a new one has now taken its place), it was the successor of one built of logs within the same " clearing." Near by, directly in front of the house, is a large burial-ground, where the whole community for genera- tions past has been permitted to bury its dead. In the old i)art only the mound shows the place where some loved one was laid away a century and more ago. Other graves are marked by the never-decaying jjine- knot, standing upright in the red earth, washed by the rains of decades past, but still marking the head of the grave of some former resident of Holly Spring neighborhood. Of later time (and some of them dated a century ago), we find the low slate, perhaps from Wales, or the common field stone, with initial and date rudely cut upon it. Some of the graves are covered by shingled roofs large enough to prevent the rain from falling upon them. Near the meeting-house the graves are marked by the modern marble slab. Many of those whose bodies had been laid away in this silent resting place had, by their faithful lives and teaching, done much toward moulding the charac- ter of those who were living in this neighborhood when the war broke out. Generation after generation had been taught that the Prince of Peace was their law- 180 SOUTHERN HEROES. giver. Not only did the members of tliis little church partake of the views of Friends, but many in the community around, having all their lives attended this meeting- and mingled with them, were Friends except in membership. Soon after Governor Early declared that North Carolina was seceded from the Union, orders w^ere sent here for every man between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five to appear before the officers at Ashboro and be enrolled. Many of these people did not feel willing to appear ; some went the other way ; some answered the call and explained to the officers the grounds of their objections to war. One officer told them that the army was no place for religion ; that the military authorities had nothing to do with that question. They wanted men to fight the Yankees, and men they must have. The first draft in North Carolina was made in 1861. The Friends generally kept about their usual occupa- tions, although expecting to be called for, and when the soldiers came, many of them were pursuing their peaceful callings. Levi Cox, Thomas Hinshaw, Amos Hinshaw, Calvin Cox, Michael Cox, J. J. Allen, Hezekiah Allen, and his three brothers, William, Clarkson, and Franklin, were drafted. Levi Cox and his father owned a grist-mill. Levi was miller, and on this account he was liberated. The difficulty of procuring supplies of various kinds, on accoimt of the early blockade of the Southern ports, made it needful for the Confederate government to SOUTHERN HEROES. 181 manufacture many articles. Among these was salt, and for this purpose works were established near Wil- mington, N. C. Here Michael Cox, Thomas and Amos Hinshaw and Clarkson Allen were assigned to duty. This they recognized as a legitimate business, but, claiming that their time was of more value at home, they each paid fifteen dollars for others to take their places for one month, and were allowed to return home. Clarkson Allen and Amos Hinshaw immediately started for the West, and after eighty-five days of privation, exposure and danger they succeeded in crossing the mountains and reaching Indiana. On one occasion their colored guide was captured and shot. Amos Hinshaw saw it done from his hiding-place, but knowing that any attempt to save his noble guide would result in the loss of two more lives, he could do nothing better than to remain quiet. Calvin Cox's father was not a Friend, but as he was unwilling to have his son taken to the war, if there was any way to prevent it, he hired a substitute for him. Allen was released on account of his poor health. In 1862 this quiet neighborhood was again invaded by soldiers searching for men. The conscript act was being rigorously enforced, and they took away Isaac and Enoch Cox ; Thomas Hinshaw the second time : his other brother, Jacob ; also their cousins, Cyrus and Nathaniel Barker, who were brothers ; Nathaniel Cox, Jeremiah Pickett and his brother Simon ; John and Milton Cox; three brothers, Charles J., Adonijah 182 SOUTHERN HEROES. aud William Stout ; Anson and Solomon Cox ; J. Allen the second time ; John Allen, Jeremiah Littler, John Barker and Nathan Allen. In March, 1863, the homes of this jieaceful people were again visited by the home guard, seeking for more men to go to the front. William and John C. Willis, Charles and Ahijah Macon, Newton J. Silar and three brothers, Gideon, Isaiah and A. M. Ma- con, were taken. The age limit for enrollment having been again ex- tended, the soldiers once more came to Holly Spring in June, 1863, and at this time Eli Macon, Neri and Seth Cox, Eli Cox and his brother Harmon, Yancey Cox, and others whose names have not been seciu*ed, were arrested and taken to the army. We have now given the names of forty-three men from this neighborhood, and mostly members of this little country church. It would involve too much re- petition to follow each of them through their varied experiences, but they were all of one mind. They had long lived in peace at their homes, endeavoring with humility to serve the Prince of Peace, and they were forbidden by religious conviction to serve a cause that seemed to them unrighteous, or to quarrel with a people against whom they had no grievance. Two of the brothers Stout and John Allen secreted them- selves for a time, then made their escape, and went West. Calvin Cox, we may remember, had been re- presented in the army for some months by a substi- tute, and according to the usual laws of nations could not be taken meanwhile as a soldier. But, as we have SOUTHERN HEROES. 183 learned, the Confederate government wanted men, and decided to have them, to fight the Yankees ; so they were not scrupulous as to the laws of other nations, or their own, if men could be obtained by vio- lating them. Hence, after vainly pressing his claim, Calvin Cox paid the tax and received his exemption pajjers the second time. This was not an isolated case. About thirty of these Friends paid the tax at one time or another. Yancey Cox, who was only seventeen years old and weighed but eighty-four pounds, was taken from his widowed mother, but the officers tried in vain to make a soldier of this boy. He refused to take a gun or to wear military clothing. To bring him to subordina- tion he was made to march until the blood ran from his feet through the toes of his wornout shoes. He was pierced in the thigh with a bayonet, and to this day carries the scar of the wound thus made. An opportunity having occurred for him to escape in com- pany with twenty-seven others, Yancey seized it. When approaching their old homes this group of neighbors waded the Haw river and entered the dense forest for a hiding-place. Wet and shivering with the cold, they buried themselves in the leaves for warmth. Yancey aided the others to cover themselves until he alone was left, and then he too buried himself in a leafy mound. For a year these men remained in hiding, getting food as best they could, and many were the friendly hands extended for their relief. Knowing that there were men in the neighboi'hood who were " lying out," the home guard undertook in 184 SOUTHERN HEROES. vain to extort from their friends a confession of their ■ hiding-place. Just across Deep river from the settlement, and not far from the Friends' meeting-house, was what the people of the neighborhood called the " Bull-Pen," a rendezvous for the home guard. An old school- house was used as a prison for the parents of these men of legal age, whom the guards could not find. By confinement, punishment and torture they en- deavored to extort from these aged people information as to the hiding-places of their sons. Oftentimes the poor father and mother were as ignorant of this as the soldiers were, but the sons, after learning of the pun- iskment of their parents, would sometimes voluntarily come forward to relieve them from imprisonment and suffering, and allow themselves to be taken to the front, where they would escape at the first oppor- tunity. Levi Cox, who lives near there, says the soldiers placed the hands or fingers of the aged men and women between the lower rails of the fence, and with its crushing weight upon them would wait to be told what they wished. In order to increase the pressure upon the fingers or hands, the cruel soldiers would climb upon the fence and seat themselves. Failing thus to secure the desired information, they would sometimes tie a rope aroimd the waist of the women and hang them to a tree. One mother who would ere- long have given birth to another child was so hung in order to make her reveal the hiding-place of her boy, and she died as a result of this cruelty. SOUTHERN HEROES. 185 Tlie mother and sister o£ Yancey Cox were taken to this place and severely punished in order to induce them to tell where he was, but in vain, and the boy kept himself secreted until after the surrender of Richmond. Men able to work were so scarce that many crops of wheat were lost for want of hands to save them. Levi Cox worked thirty-two days cutting grain and securing food for women whose husbands were in the army or were " lying out," though he was warned re- peatedly that he would be shot as a deserter for leav- ing his post at the mill ; and he was finally compelled to remain there. At the breaking out of the civil war, Levi Cox was a United States postmaster, and had about three dol- lars of United States money in his possession. On going one day to pay his taxes he was asked if he had said, as reported, that he would not pay that money into the Confederate treasury. He replied that he had not said so. " Well, if you had, I would shoot you right here," was the reply. Gideon Macon was taken from home as a conscript by the soldiers. He was passed from one guard-house to another as a prisoner, was scoffed at and jeered on the way, and told of the dreadful things that woidd happen to him if he would not fight. He was finally sent to Lee's army, and was immediately called upon to take a gun, which was handed to him ; but he de- clined to do so. Upon ascertaining his determination not to receive the weapon, he was ordered to the rear to take a soldier's place as cook. He explained that 186 SOUTHERN HEROES. he could not for conscience' sake take a soklier's place; that cooking of itself was needful, and he would not object to doing his own ; hut to take this man's place w^ould be doing a soldier's work, and he might as well do the fighting as the cooking. He could take no part in any duties of a soldier. The law of force is the law of war, and the officers, knowing perhaps no better way, thought that by pun- ishing him they could compel this man of peace to do their bidding ; but sometimes human power fails, and although they punished him all they knew how with- out killing him, he was, through silent suffering, the heroic conquerer. A severe punishment called " bucking-down " was practiced in the army, and in Gideon's case this was first resorted to. As we shall have occasion to use this term repeatedly, it is best here to describe the manner of doing it, that the reader may form some idea of the terrible punishment thus meted to innocent men. The man who is condemned to this trying ordeal is made to sit down on the ground ; his wrists are firmly bound together by strong cord or withes ; drawing up the knees his arms are pressed over them until a stout stick can be thrust over the elbows, un- der the linees, and thus the man's feet and hands are rendered useless for the time being. He can neither crawl nor creep. For hours Gideon Macon thus suf- fered, enduring not only the i)ain of body but the taunts of men who thought to ridicide and shame him into a surrender of his principles. The next day General Lee was so closely pressed by SOUTHERN HEROES. 187 the Northern army that he was obliged to fall back. As they were retreating, the officers tried to make Gideon take a gun, but he was no more willing to take it when retreating than when advancing, and re- fused to touch it, at which the general in command of the division was very angry. His orders were not only disregarded, but openly disobeyed before his sub- ordinates, and this must not be permitted in an army whose success depends upon complete obedience. With fearful oaths the officer informed him that he would be immediately hung if he did not take the gun. Gideon could not be frightened. Death had no terror for him then, and fearing to disobey God more than men, he chose to keep a good conscience, and looking calmly at the general, he told him that he was in his power so far as God permitted that power to be exercised. He was not afraid to die, but would not disobey God's command. The general then peremp- torily ordered men to hang him to a certain tree. He was not aware of the close proximity of the Northern army, and before the order could be obeyed the men detailed were compelled to rush on for their own safety, and Gideon was hurried along with them. Refusing to accept any occupation of a military character, even to carry the officers' baggage, they abused him, kicked and beat him cruelly, but the man of peace could no more retaliate than he could fight the Yankees, and he meekly endured all for Jesus' sake. Having arrived at Petersburg he was put in the jail, where he underwent great hardships. 188 SOUTHERN HEROES. Not only was personal abuse inflicted upon liim, but the necessities of comfort and cleanliness were refused him. Even water to wash with he was deprived of for three weeks. Upon the disbanding of General Lee's army, after the surrender at Appomattox, our suffering prisoner was liberated, having endured months of cruel torture and imprisonment. He returned to the quiet of his home at Holly Spring to enjoy its blessings and a conscience void of offense toward God and man. J. J, Allen was first drafted and then conscripted, but he managed to evade his captors, and for twenty- two months hid in the woods. Much of this time Levi Cox placed a pan with provisions in it by a cer- tain post in his fence each night at a certain hour. It was emptied and another man was fed in the same way at another hour ; and for over a year these two men came regularly to the same place at different hours of the night, ignorant of each other's coming. They were finally much surprised upon seeing each other accidentally, as they were going the same way, one having been delayed owing to fear of detection. The father and mother of our friend Allen were arrested by the home guard, taken to the "Bull- Pen," and severely punished to make them reveal the whereabouts of their son. He finally surrendered in order to secure their release, was taken to Ashboro and required to stand guard as a soldier. This he refused to do, and was sent to Raleigh with Gideon Macon. He there refused any military employment, money, or equipments. At length, seeing a way to SOUTHERN HEROES. 189 escape, he succeeded in doing so and made his way to Indiana. William Stout paid the tax, but securing his re- lease on the ground of his profession as a practising physician, he claimed that the five hundred dollars that he had paid as a tax should be returned, and entered suit for the same against the Confederate government. After much litigation, his lawyer suc- ceeded in obtaining the money, saying that it was the most difficult case he had ever had to prosecute, and that his share, one half the amount, paid him but poorly for his trouble. This is the only case of which we have ever heard in which the Confederate States of America was sued at law. During the exciting times incident to the beginning of the war. Southern ministers used their pulpits to fire the hearts of their hearers with the spirit of war. They encouraged the men to enter the army at once, and to drive from the Southern homes and country the invading Yankee. Many speakers declared that the Yankee could not fight ; that one Southern man was well known to be worth ten Northern ones, and could easily whip that many ; that the Northerners would not stand before them ; and that the blood spilled in gaining Southern independence could easily be wiped up with a pocket-handkerchief. Ahijah Macon, a young man of Holly Spring neighborhood, and a brother of Gideon Macon, was conscripted, and by these arguments was persuaded to accept a gun as a volunteer. He had not then become a member of the Friends' church, and really 190 SOUTHERN HEROES. knew no way of escaping military service ; but he soon saw his mistake. Serving out the time for which he had enlisted, he obtained an honorable discharge, as ho supposed, for the war. While in the army he had improved the opportunity to consider the teach- ings of the Friends and compare them with the New Testament, so that he had become fully convinced by careful study and the scenes through which he had passed that they were right. On his return home he sought admission to the meeting at Holly Spring and became a member, thinking that now, without fear of draft or conscription, he would be permitted to enjoy the privilege of living peaceably \\^th all men and worshiijing God according to the dictates of his own conscience. But the Confederate government needed men to take the place of those who had fallen in battle, and he was available. His discharge from the army was disregai'ded, also his exemption papers, which he had received by paying the tax of five hun- dred dollars, and a sergeant was ordered to arrest him. This sergeant had been his schoolmate and life- long friend, and loved Macon so much that he would gladly have been relieved from this service or have done something to aid him to escape the army. But the laws of war take no notice of personal friendships when in conflict with the stern commands of superior officers, and the sergeant must obey, or the penalty sure and dreadful be suffered. So he took his friend prisoner, and then set to work at once to secure his release. His efforts were futile, but if not able to secure his freedom, he was in a position to protect SOUTHERN HEROES. 191 him from abuse, and faithfully did, so long as they were together. Soon after his arrest, our friend became convinced that he would be released by death. He had a strong- impression that his days were now numbered, and while in good health he told his father of his convic- tions and fully informed him of his wishes. He gave his last messages to his brothers and sisters, and also directions as to his own burial. He was hurried on to Richmond and immediately required to take a gun and fight. But he was in no mood for fighting, so they put him under guard, and for food gave him only cane-seed meal. This was followed by severe illness, and he was removed to a hospital in Rich- mond, where he soon passed away, having laid down his life for the Gospel of Peace. He was a good sol- dier of Jesus Christ, and was early permitted a dis- charge and a reward more glorious than ever comes on account of victories won in battle. The third of the Macon brothers, Isaiah, had been a remarkably sensitive lad. Surrounded always by the peaceful and quiet influences of this rural district, he was very much shocked by any tale of horror, and the sight of blood so affected him that he would rather be excused from killing the fowls needed for his din- ner. Averse by nature as well as by principle to the barbarities of war, he had entertained hopes that he would be exempted, because he was engaged in the manufacture of iron. He was received into member- ship with Holly Spring Friends soon after the war began, but after the passage of the exemption law, 192 SOUTHERN HEROES. and the government officials wonld not overlook such a cliance to make a soldier. One day, when away from home, he was arrested. The tender feelings of the home guard had long since been seared as with a hot iron, or entirely crushed by the many sad scenes incident to this cruel and soul-destroying business. They paid no heed to his earnest pleas to be allowed to go once more and see his wife and little ones, to bid them farewell before he should be taken from them forever. The loved ones at home were left to learn what had become of him as best they could, and he was hurried to Raleigh, N. C, and thence in a few days to the army in the Valley of Virginia. The battle of Winchester occurred immediately after his arrival, and the officers said : " If Macon will not fight, put him in the front to stop bullets for those who will." Taken almost directly from his quiet country home, this soldier of Jesus Christ, without sword or gun, was compelled to move immediately into that dreadful scene of carnage from which his sensitive nature so recoiled, and to listen to the fierce shouts and fearful oaths of the combatants around him ; then to the dreadful groans of wounded men and horses ; to see the gaping wounds made by shell, shot and sword ; to see the flowing blood and paling cheek. The neces- sity of seeing and hearing all this, while taking no part in it, made him the more impressible. Hemmed in by the soldiers of his regiment, he could not escaj^e if he would. His comrades were falling all around him from the leaden hail poured into their ranks by SOUTHERN HEROES. 193 the Northern soldiers. He moved about as best he could, and others fell in the places which he had just left. But he stopped no bullets. He had nothing to do but to trust in God and await the end of the terri- ble scene. He seemed to possess a charmed life. His comrades fell all around him, their places being filled by others, who wondered at the strange sight, — a man with plain citizen's dress, having neither pistol, sword, nor gun, and no military cap nor coat, calmly filling his place in battle line, but taking no part in battle. There was no time for questioning or consideration. Action was required of every man. The enemy was j)ressing too closely ; the line wavered at the terrible onslaught ; they could not hold their ground ; the order was given, " Ketreat." Our friend Macon knew no enemies, nor was he disposed to run from the Yankees ; and as his com- pany turned to flee, he calmly lay down upon the ground, preferring, doubtless, to fall in the hands of the Northern men rather than continue his con- nections with those who had so harshly treated him. He had not long to wait. The Northern soldiers soon discovered him, and were surprised indeed to find a man attired like a citizen under such circum- stances. Peaceful amid it all, no shot had he fired, no part had he taken. He was not an enemy, and yet the laws of war required that he should be captured as a prisoner, and he was soon in Point Lookout prison, where in a few days he died, doubtless from mental 194 SOUTHERN HEROES. suffering caused by his being taken from his loved ones, and by the terrible scenes of battle. No violent death was his ; but a calm, peaceful passing away from scenes of strife and the noise of battle to the place prepared for him by the Prince of Peace in " His Father's House." CHAPTER X. Let us not weakly weep Nor rashly threaten. Give us grace to keep Our faith and patience ; wherefore should we leap On one hand into fratricidal fight, Or, on the other, 3rield eternal right ? Whittieb. Two brothers, Thomas and Amos Hinshaw, and two Barker brothers, Cyrus and Nathan, their cousins, were conscripted at the same time and together taken to High Point, N. C, then the nearest railroad station to their home, thirty-two miles away. These men were obliged to make a hurried march before the gun and bayonet. Thomas Hinshaw's wife knew that he would need food and clothing, so she quickly prepared them and started on foot to overtake the company, which she did near her father's home, two miles dis- tant, where she took leave of her husband and returned to her home and little ones, who were now dependent on her efforts for support. Faithfully she ploughed the fields, hoed the crops, and cared for the home. Our Friends with many other conscrij)ts were hur- ried away to Camp French, near Black Water, Va. At Weldon more men were taken on board, and they were so packed, like cattle in freight cars, that they could only rest themselves by sitting on one another's knees. They were not furnished with food or water 196 SOUTHERN HEROES. for nearly twenty-four hours. The food which was brought by Thomas Hinshaw's wife was generously shared with his friends, and was a great help to them. Our four Friends refused to make choice of any part of the service, and were consigned to the 5 2d North Carolina regiment, General Pettigrew's brigade. They were at once offered equipments and required to drill, but were unanimous in declaring their peaceful principles. The officers, really desirous of favoring them, entreated them to pay the commutation tax, and told them their money should be used for civil j)urposes only ; but they plead that religious liberty was one of the principles of their forefathers, that freedom of conscience was the inherent right of men, that war and fighting are contrary to the commands of Christ, and that liberty of conscience and freedom to obey Christ should not be purchased with money. Thoy would therefore suffer cheerfully the penalty of the law, which they could not, for conscience' sake, obey. The colonel, knowing that ai-gument with such men was useless, turned them over to Captain James M. Kincade, who hardly knew what to do with them, and for some time did nothing. Their quiet and consistent course won his esteem, and many of the men also learned to love them and respect their scruples. But the lieutenant under whose immediate charge they were placed was determined that they should obey his orders, and he thought he could " break them in." It became necessary to clear a space of ground for camp- ing, and the lieutenant ordered his men to compel these men to assist in the work. They were accustomed SOUTHERN HEROES. 197 to clearing ground, and had done much of it for them- selves and neighbors, but it was for growing corn and wheat and not for military purposes ; and while the work itself would have been a relief, they could not conscientiously do it ; and, besides, it was on a Sab- bath morning. The lieutenant was very harsh and ordered his men to compel them with guns and bayonets to assist in the work, and to run their bayonets through them if they did not obey. The men really respected the Friends and were slow to move. Some said that they had no guns, others that they had no bayonets. Finally the lieutenant called two men out and sharply ordered them to place their bayonets against the Friends and press steadily until they moved ; but these men did not have the heart to thrust a bayonet into unarmed, peaceable men, so they evaded the order, though they made a show of obedience, and wounded the Friends, though slightly. The captain then appeared, took the lieutenant aside and reproached him for such cruelty, and told the Friends that they might remain quiet for a time. These Friends said that as they trusted in the Lord He often turned the hearts of their commanders, and even this lieutenant became very kind and considerate of their feelings. All sorts of work were offered them, and although they had no objection to doing work of almost any kind, they would not do it as military service. On one occasion they were ordered to help bring in some corn fodder. There were two objections to this ; it 198 SOUTHERN HEROES. was not only military work, but they had to steal the fodder, and of course they declined to obey. They were first tied together and then tied to the back of a cart, to force them to run or be dragged three or four miles on a very cold day. Orders were given to " pitch them into the river " if they would not assist in loading the fodder. Such orders were more easily Sfiven than executed. The wagon-master was at first very fierce and angry, but as he watched them meekly following the cart through mud and water, he relented, sympathized with and admired them. He was heard to remark : " I declare I cannot help respecting men who stand up f»r their principles in that way." No one attempted to " pitch them into the river," although they had no hand in loading the fodder, but walked back as they had come, behind the cart. They found upon returning to camp that they had a warm welcome by the men of their company, who refused to have any further hand in their punishment ; and such a feeling was apparent among the men that no further attempt was ever made to punish them, nor to make them do any military service. They were required to accompany the regiment for eight months, but were not required to drill. Their presence in the army was a continual testi- mony against war ; their Christian spirit a wonderful evidence of the love of the Lord Jesus Christ ; their meekness and gentleness under the most trying cir- cumstances a practical illustration of the grace of God ; and their evident readiness to die in keeping SOUTHERN HEROES. 199 his conirnandments was an evidence of the highest possible faith and obedience. It became more and more a question what to do with the Quakers, and the wish was repeatedly expressed in their hearing, that they would run away. They were given to understand that no one would pursue them ; but they would not run away from home tfj. evade the officers of the army, neither would they run away from the army to go home. They were not of the runaway kind. After four months, they received furloughs for fifteen days, and on the back of these was written: " These men ai-e of no manner of use in the army." While at home the attempt was made to persuade them to pay the tax, but it was unavailing. Thomas Ilinshaw says : " It was a great temptation for us, dreading as we did to return to the camp. On the second of third month, 1863, we again took leave of our dear families and friends at home, which, I think, was as hard a trial as we have ever had to experience. The officers and men all seemed glad to see us and gave us a cordial welcome. No military duty was required of us, not even to answer to roll-call." Wearied by the continued inactivity of camp life, they longed for some honoral^le relief. The battle of Gettysburg, which saved Philadelphia and perhaps the Union, bringing though it did suffering and death to so many, brought release to our little army of peace men. Thomas Hinshaw says : " In the beginning of the engagement we were ordered to the front, but we had 200 SOUTHERN HEROES. no business there. The second morning orders came for all who could walk to go to the battle-field. So many had been killed the day before that they needed every man. The colonel, lieutenant-colonel, major, sergeant-major and all the captains of the regiment having been either killed, or wounded, our lieutenant was in command, and we were taken before him. He said he knew we would not fight, but he thought we would have to go to the regiment, which was then in line of battle. He said he could not blame us so much for not fighting, and that we might go just where we pleased, so far as he was concerned ; but afterwards said that part of the company was wounded and we might go to the hospital and stay with them until the fight was over. The wounded had been moved and he told, us to follow them. We came to a bridge, but were not allowed to cross without passes." While at the bridge the guards came to take every man to the front, and they were taken among several hundred others that were trying to cross the bridge and get farther from the line of battle. Having concluded not to go to the front unless under guard, our Friends dropped back and the guard closed up just in front of them. They were arrested again, but the second time they escaped. Again orders were given that all men, except cooks and those detailed, should be taken to the front. The officer commanded them to move on at once, but privately told the guard that they need not take them. Adhering to their resolution not to go unless guarded, they were again spared. As the end of this day approached, our Friends SOUTHERN HEROES. 201 began to look about for a place to spend the night. They sought the camping-place of the night before, and on reaching it tliey found a number of soldiers who, like themselves, thought to spend the night there. News soon came that the regiment to which they belonged was retreating. The men they found at the camp hurriedly departed to follow, " but we did not feel bound to follow them," says Thomas, " or think it our duty to do so. We therefore turned to the right and traveled some distance. The next morning, which was the Sabbath, we went to a house and inquired if any of the Society of Friends lived in that neighborhood ; and being informed that there were some, we went to a house, as directed, and found a family of Friends, who were very kind to us. We found that we were between the two picket lines, and not feeling very well satisfied to run to or from either of them, we stayed at the Friend's house nearly a week. The Union cavalry then took us as prison- ers of war. We were taken to Harrisburg on the 11th, to Philadelphia on the 13th, and on the 15th of ninth month we were placed in Fort Delaware." Here we will leave them until we take up the story of William Hockett, with whom they were released. Solomon Frazier lived in Randolph County, N. C. His farm was on Deep river, a little beyond Col- traine's mill, from Centre meeting-house. All his life he had been associated with the Friends and accepted their views concerning war. He did not, however, become a member until after the passage of the exemption act. He had paid #100 to be ex- 202 SOUTHERN HEROES. empted from the duty of home guard, yet when the call came to enroll all men between forty- five and fifty years of age, he received several written orders to appear at the court-house, but laid them aside and went on with his work. One evening in December, 1864, ten armed men came to his house, arrested him, and marched him to Archdale (then Bush Hill), where they left him under guard to spend the night with his brother. He was then taken to Salisbui-y and required to act as guard for the prisoners ; but he would not serve, so he was made prisoner in Salis- bury prison. He was a large, strong man, and they thought he might do effective work fighting the Yankees, but how to get him to do it was the question. First, the bucking-down was resorted to for two hours ; then they made him carry a heavy pole for three hours ; at night they tied him up as they would a horse or a mule. Next morning he was suspended by his hands, instead of his thumbs, whether on account of his weight or not we cannot say. In this painful position he was kept for three hours. They tied a gun to his right arm and a heavy piece of wood to his neck. Unable to stand longer under the weight of the wood, he sat down, resting one end of it upon the ground. A soldier immediately pierced him with a bayonet. They then bucked him down again, and while in this pain- ful position, he says that they proceeded to gag him with a bayonet. This was done by throwing his head back and putting the bayonet in his mouth, the sharp edge pressing the lips as it was tied tightly to the SOUTHERN HEROES. 203 back of liis head. In this doubly trying position, bucked and gagged, they kept him for the remainder of the day. As if determined to exhaust every means of j)un- ishment, they tied his arms to a beam fastened, to a post, like a cross, and raised him upon it in imitation of the Christ for whom he suffered. They then put upon him what they called a barrel-shirt. They put a barrel over his head, and the barrel, not being large enough to slip down to the ground, rested in such a way as to fasten both arms and legs ; and there he was left to stand for hours. Solomon Frazier was so meek, and endured all their persecutions with such patience, that the captain under whose charge he was, got very angry, swore at him with most terrible oaths, and told him it was use- less to contend further ; he must now take a gun or die. While the officer was tying a gun to his arm, Solomon remarked to him : " If it is thy duty to inflict this punishment upon me, do it cheerfully ; don't get angry about it." The captain then left him, saying to his men : " If any of you can make him fight, do it ; I cannot." Two young men now volunteered to make a soldier of this Quaker, little knowing the nature of the ma- terial which they had to work upon. Coming up to him with their guns, they told him that they were going to take him off and shoot him. He replied : " It is the Sabbath and as good, a day to die as any." They took him before Colonel Brooks, who inclined to be merciful, and was also disposed to get clear of 204 SOUTHERN HEROES. so troublesome a case. He advised him to consult a lawyer, and if possible to procure exemption ; but assured him positively that he must take a gun or die. Two days' respite from persecution were given him, when he was called up and required to take a gun. Upon refusing, the gun was tied to his arm and a strap fastened around his neck, by which he was drao-o-ed around all day. He was made to run around in a circle, much as we have seen horsemen train horses. The next day they again resorted to the bucking, with no better success. Isham Cox, a prominent minister among the Friends, visited the prison at this time, remonstrated with the officials for practicing such cruelty, and ex- plained more fully to their understanding the grounds of Solomon's faith. Hearing this they concluded that it was useless to try to make a soldier of him, and ceased to persecute him, though he was retained as a prisoner until the surrender of Salisbury, four months afterwards. He was then restored to his family, and he still lives on the same farm from which he went at the time of his conscription, on the banks of Deep river, where he rejoices in the peaceful condition of the Sunny Southland, and in the fact that he did what he could to hasten the day when the sword shall be beaten into the plowshare and the spear into the pruning-hook. Jesse Milton Blair lived not far from Solomon Frazier's home. He was arrested about Christmas, 1864, and taken to Richmond, Va. ; thence to the army near Petersburg. He was put in an old tobacco- SOUTHERN HEROES. 205 factory, where were many rude men, boisterously drinkins: and carousing. For food he was furnished with coarse corn bread and molasses, made from sorghum grown in the neighborhood. The next morning he was told that he must take a gun and drill. This he declined to do. Upon ascer- taining his position, the officer sternly ordered the men to knock him down with the gun. As the soldier moved to obey, the officer said : " Hold ; you might kill him the first blow. Knock him down with your fist." This the soldier did. When he got up the soldier said : " Now I reckon you are willing to take a gun." He replied : " No ; I have conscientious scruples against bearing arms." A gun was strapped to his wrists and he was or- dered to march, and on refusing to do so was cruelly pierced with a bayonet. They then took the straps with which the gun had been tied to his arms and fastened his thumbs so that he could move his hands about two feet apart. They then cut off the limb of a tree near by and, lifting him up, put the strap over the stump of this limb, thus hanging 'him by the thumbs. He was suspended so that his feet just touched the ground. It was a cold day in December ; it was snowing and sleeting ; yet for two hours they allowed this man to suffer in this way. Meantime the officer walked around smoking a cigar, occasion- ally asking Jesse Blair if he would fight. Finally a stone was placed under his feet and he was allowed to stand upon it long enough to answer whether or not he would now obey orders. But Jesse was still 206 SOUTHERN HEROES. faithful, so the officer said to the men around him : " Well, we will give him a whipping." With the gun still tied to him, he was led to the place chosen for the terrible castigation. The officer ordered away all the men but one, and then commanded Jesse to re- move his clothes. He says : " I was slow about taking off my clothes ; I reckon you would have been." The officer hurriedly and rudely bared his back to the waist and then said : " Now you must take one hun- dred lashes on your bare back or fight." " I reckon I shall have to take them," was the reply. One hun- dred good-sized hickory switches were gathered and laid in bundles of ten each. Jesse was made to reach around a tree and his hands were fastened too-ether, thus tightening the muscles of the shoulders ; and the cruel work of trying to whip him into a soldier began. One switch was used for each stroke and then tossed aside, another being handed the officer, who paused frequently to ask if Jesse would obey his captain. But our Friend replied that he recognized the author- ity of no other captain save Jesus Christ, and his orders were, " Thou shalt not kill ; " and that he should do nothing to advance the interests of the war. Jesse tried to keep account of the strokes as they fell heavily on his back ; but the suffering became so severe that he was unable to do so. All the switches were used, and as he was untied Jesse reached his hand behind him, finding the flesh badly cut and the blood flowing freely down his body. Still our heroic, suffering Friend refused to take the gun offered him. The enraged officer said : " I am just going to hang SOUTHERN HEROES. 207 you and be done with it, and then they will not send any more of the d — d Quakers here unless they mean to fight." Jesse had enlisted under the banner of the Prince of Peace, and would not turn traitor nor renounce his Master's cause, — no, not for his life ; and so he meekly went with his persecutor to the tree selected upon which to hang him. One end of that same leather strap was now fastened around the neck of our unresisting soldier of the Cross, and the other end thrown over a large limb, which was bent down and the strap fastened to it. As the limb was re- leased it gradually resumed nearly its normal posi- tion, raising Jesse with it clear of the ground. He was now suspended by the neck, his body turning in the air and the strap twisting, reminding him, as he afterwards said, of the twisting of strings he had seen cats hung by when he was a boy. He soon became too weak to answer their questions, and could only respond to their demands to take a gun by a slight negative movement of the head. Finally the officer and his men j)ulled down the limb, unfastened the strap, and Jesse fell helpless upon the ground. When the officer found that he could not stand he called for camphor, and Jesse heard him say : " He may die and we cannot get to punish him any more." He was carried to the barracks and laid upon some straw. A doctor was called, who on the second day told him that he was about to be very sick. He was soon taken in an ambulance to the camp near Petersburg, then by steamer to Richmond, 208 SOUTHERN HEROES. where he was for a long time unable to turn himself in bed or help himself in any way. One day he thought he heard a familiar voice, and upon listening heard his own name called. Then he heard clearly the words : " Is there any one here by the name of J. M. Blair?" Summoning all his strength he succeeded in turning himself enough to see across the room the familiar face of his friend Joseph Hockett, a Friend minister from his own meeting at Springfield. He feebly answered the call and the eager searcher was soon by the side of his rude hospital couch. Touched as only loving hearts can be by the bond of suffering and sympath}^ the tvip brothers, so united in Christian faith and love, wept together. Thirty years and more have passed since their tears mingled upon that couch of suffering. The min- ister's fountain of tears is forever dried, and only rejoicing is known by him, for he has been gathered from the earthly to the heavenly home ; yet at the memory of that visit and expression of Christian love under such circumstances of trial and suffering, when there had been " no eye to pity and no hand to save," — except the Omnipotent One, — Jesse's heart was moved with deep emotion as he told the story of that manifestation of brotherly love, and his eye was filled with tears and his heart with gratitude. Three long months he lay in that liospital, and was then sent, in March, 1865, to the camp. But the Confederacy was weakening ; the army was moving southward ; and Jesse, emaciated, weak and feeble. SOUTHERN HEROES. 209 walked with it toward his home. For three days and nights he was entirely without food. On arriving at a farmhouse they found a quantity of corn locked in a crib. Wliile the soldiers rested on their arms, the farmer was asked for the key. He knew that he would receive nothing for his corn, and was naturally slow to give it to them. He was told that they would have the corn if they had to tear down the building to get it, and finally he threw the key to them. Three ears of corn were given to each man. Jesse M. Blair picked off a few kernels and ate them raw. He said afterwards that they " tasted mighty sweet." As the men were parching their corn, the Yankee soldiers rushed upon them, and all who could rushed away. Jesse saved his corn and ate it as he went. The next day Lee surrendered to Grant, but Jesse kept on his way homeward, wearily tramping day after day, living as best he could from the scanty provisions kindly furnished him by those along the way. Finally the long journey was completed, and he rested with the loved ones whom he had not seen for so long, recounting to them his experiences and the trials he had undei'gone for the testimony of peace. Now, more than threescore and ten years of age, he sits in the chimney-corner of his Southern home, and with the buffetings and trials of his life in the background and the bright rays of the setting sun already lighting the pathway to the land beyond, he is able to say, as he rests in the blessed hope of the Gospel of Jesus Christ : " The hand of my God is good upon me." 210 SOUTHERN HEROES. Marlboro meeting of Friends is in the western part of Randoli)h County, N. C. It was organized many years ago, a church in the wilderness, but the princi- ples of peace had been firmly planted and carefully cultivated. The people listened regularly to the query from their discipline, from quarter to quarter, from year to year, generation after generation : " Are Friends clear of bearing arms or other military matters ? " It was important to have this, as well as other subjects queried after, answered " clear." When the time came that many of the members were taken to the army by force of arms, these queries were still read, and the overseers were expected to produce answers for absent members as well as for those at home. Jesse Hill, William Hill, D. W. Milliken, Clark Milliken, William F. Ball, John R. Beckerdike, Seth W. Loflin, and others of their members were taken for soldiers ; but they could not in duty to their Lord be soldiers in this sense. As soldiers of Jesus Christ they expected to be loyal, and had accepted the Bible teaching, " Ye cannot serve two masters." The fol- lowing letter, written to their meeting at home, is of interest : " 0th month, Gth day, 1864. "To THE Society of Friends of Marlboro AND Springfield Meetings: You are no doubt wondering where we are and what we are doing. We are in the intrenchments near Petersburg, in Com- pany F, 27th regiment. Wc have thus far refused to take any part in military duty, for which we are SOUTHERN HEROES. 211 receiving severe punishment; such as being tied up by the thumbs, deprived of sleep, etc. They say we must suffer until we drill. We still expect, by the grace of God and the help of your prayers, to be faith- ful to our profession. " We are sorry to have to ask Friends to be at so much trouble for us, but our condition is a sad one. We think that if some one could come and give a little more explanation, something could be done for us. We want the authorities of the meeting or some one to write to the Secretary of War immediately. " We still have our certificates and other papers that we brought from home. " Yours in bonds of love, S. W. LOFLIN, J. A. Hill." Others of the members of this meeting suffered severely for their principles, but we will now follow our friend Seth W. Loflin in his time of trial. He had been a member with the Friends but a short time, when he was arrested as a conscript and sent to camp near Petersburg, Va. He was at once ordered to take up arms, which he refused to do, say- ing that the weapons of the Christian were not carnal, and that he was a Christian and forbidden to fio-ht. The officers evidently thought that by prompt and severe measures he could be made to yield his con- scientious scruples, but they knew not of what spirit he was. First they kept him without sleep for thirty-six 212 SOUTHERN HEROES. hours, a soldier standing by with a bayonet to pierce him, should he fall asleep. Finding that this did not overcome his scruples, they proceeded for three hours each day to buck him down. He was then sus- pended by his thumbs for an hour and a half. This terrible ordeal was passed through with each day for a week. Then, thinking him conquered, they offered him a gun ; but he was unwilling to use the weapon. Threats, abuse and persecution were alike unavailing, and in desperate anger the Colonel ordered him court- martialed. After being tried for insubordination he was ordered shot. Preparations were accordingly made for the execution of this terrible sentence. The army was summoned to witness the scene, and soldiers were detailed. Guns, six loaded with bullets and six without, were handed to twelve chosen men. Seth Loflin, as calm as any man of the immense number surrounding him, asked time for prayer, which, of course, could not be denied him. The supposition was natural that he wished to pray for himself. But he was ready to meet his Lord ; and so he prayed not for himself but for them : " Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Strange was the effect of this familiar prayer upon men used to taking human life and under strict mili- tary orders. Each man, however, lowered his gun, and they resolutely declared that they would not shoot such a man, thereby braving the result of disobeying military orders. But the chosen twelve were not the only ones whose hearts were touched. He who hold- eth our lives in his hand melted the hearts of the SOUTHERN HEROES. 213 officers as well, and the sentence was revoked. He was led away to j^rison, where for weeks he suffered uncomplainingly from his severe punishments. He was finally sent to Windsor Hospital at Rich- mond, Va., where he was taken very sick, and after a long", severe illness, during which his Christian spirit and patience won the hearts of all around him, he quietly passed away, leaving a wife and seven children. A letter was written to his wife by one of the officers, an extract from which may be a fitting close to the account of this worthy man's suffering. " It is my painful duty to inform you that Seth W. Loflin died at Windsor Hospital, at Richmond, on the 8th of December, 1864. He died as he had lived, a true, humble and devoted Christian ; true to his faith and religion. . . . We pitied and sympathized with him. . . . He is rewarded for his fidelity, and is at rest." CHAPTER XI. For who that leans on His right arm Was ever yet forsaken ? What righteous cause can suffer harm If He its part has taken ? Though wild and loud And dark the cloud, Behind its folds His hand upholds The calm sky of to-morrow ! Whittier. • Men are so constituted that those of similar tastes, habits, callings antl religious beliefs are very sure, as a rule, to form themselves into lodges, leagues, guilds, societies and even communities. The Friends are apt to gather into rather distinctive neighborhoods ; not absolutely so, as do the Shakers, neither do they have all things in common as does that body, but for privi- leges of fellowship and convenience of meeting to worship God, they natiu^ally gather in neighborhoods. The Friends make it the habit of their lives to go up to the house of the Lord at least twice a week. They care for the education of their children, and in the South, where the public school system had been very deficient and general education much neglected, they had a schoolhouse near every meeting- house. "We have already learned of Holly Spring and W -5 = :^ SOUTHERN HEROES. 215 Marlboro neighborhoods. West of Ashboro and south of Marlboro is a community called Back Creek neioh- borhood. The zealous home guard, anxious for others to go to the front, were hunting here for con- scripts and endeavoring to secure every man who could possibly be made to serve the Confederacy. We have the names of twenty-nine of the Friends gathered by these hunters at different times, from this little country church. For one of them a relative sent a substitute ; some were assigned to the salt-works ; some paid for substitutes to work there ; but sooner or later twenty-two paid the tax. Much suffering was experienced by exposure from " lying out " and per- secutions of various kinds, before relief could be ob- tained. Much property was taken from William Low and other Friends, — horses, cattle and provisions, without recompense. Deep River neighborhood is situated about thirty- five miles north of Back Creek, and here, since about 1695, the Friends have met regularly twice a week. First there was a log house ; then a frame building with ^veather-boards fastened on with wrought nails, each hammered out by the blacksmith's hand. The floor was fastened down with oak pins. This house was used as a hospital for wounded soldiers durino- the Revolution, and blood-marks were said to have been visible on its walls when it gave place to a more modern brick structure. The large house had at one time been too small for the congregation assembling there, and wing-like sheds had been added to each end of the buildino-. 216 SOUTHERN HEROES. with doors from the outside. Three logs were cut from the end walls of the main building to make an opening and connection with the large audience room. When not needed, these openings were closed by board shutters hung from the top with large wooden hinges. The seats were so arranged that the congre- gation would be mainly at the preacher's right and left. There had been no provision made for heating, as it was thought at that time to be unnecessary ; but of later times the more aggressive Friends wanted a fire "during meeting-time." The objections of the con- servative Friends were so far overcome that a stove was placed in the main meeting-room. Stovepipe was not abundant in those early days, and as little as pos- sible must be used ; so a hole was cut through the thin wooden ceiling and the pipe extended through that into the loft. At each end of the gable a clapboard was removed, and a draft thus created. There seemed to be no fear of sparks igniting the roof. This was the only means ever provided for heating the house. An amusing story is told of the experience of one person on the first meeting-day after the objectionable stove had been introduced. An elderly Friend who had been opposed to the innovation was manifestly uncomfortable during; meetinof-time. So warm was he that he perspired freely. When meeting was over he complained of the heat from that stove having been so oppressive, and said that he had never suffered so much from the cold in meeting as he had that day from the heat. He was much surprised when told SOUTHERN HEROES. 217 that there had been no fire in the stove. No further complaint was heard concerning the innovation. But, primitive or progressive, they were of one mind concerning war, and the teachings of Mahlon Hockett, Jeremiah Hubbard and many others there had ever been that the friends of Jesus must keep his commandments, and that He told them to love their enemies. At the time of which we write there was no need of the wooden shutters being opened into the added wings of the meeting-house, for by death and emigra- tion most of the members had been removed. Still there were too many left to be overlooked by the Con- federate authorities. Thirteen men were arrested, seven of whom were exempted upon payment of the five hundred dollar tax, and three for other reasons. There were three brothers named Jones who had been all their lives under the Friends' teaching, but had not been received into membership until after the passage of the exemption act. In 1863 they were all con- scripted. Still they remained quietly at home, not even hiding In the woods. Their protest against bearing arms was of course unheeded, and they were sent to Orange Court House, Va., where they were ordered Into the ranks, but refused to obey. The officer, thinking to make short work of it, immedi- ately clubbed the gun offered to J. M. Jones, and knocked him down, cutting a long gash in his head, from which the blood flowed freely. Upon attempt- ing to rise he was struck again, a terrible blow cut- ting his ear nearly off. But still friend Jones had no 218 SOUTHERN HEROES. inclination to fight, nor would he take the gun in his hand. Persisting in his refusal, he was again knocked down, and for some time lay bleeding. Becoming convinced that he would sooner be killed than bear arms, the officer sent him to prison and began to try to conquer the second hero, A. Jones, who had wit- nessed the abuse and the blood of his brother. They took the bayonet in his case, and pressing it into the flesh an inch or more, concluded that though they run it through him he would never surrender ; so they sent him to prison also and tried the third. Their success with the other two had not been very flatter- ing, and they began less resolutely, evidently with less hope of conquering. Although they punished him severely, they did not wound him as they had his brothers. Soon after this the three brothers were sent to the Rapidan, under General Scales's command, where new trials awaited them. Here the American officers exhausted their means of punishment and turned their victims over to a cruel German, who made his boast that he "could make soldiers of them Quakers." Various kinds of abuse and threats of death were alike unavailing, and the scruples of our soldiers of the Army of Peace could not be overcome. They could suffer or die, but by no means be conquered. The starving process was then begun, and they were ordered to be kept in close confinement for three days and nights, without food or water. It was made a court-martial offense for any one to give them relief. There was a Kentucky soldier, how- • SOUTHERN HEROES. 219 ever, whose sympathy for them was so great that he nobly risked punishment in order to furnish them with water. The three days being ended, they were of the same opinion still, and the bucking-down was resorted to. Weakened by starvation and other trials, they were in no condition, physically, to endnre the terrible ordeal of this, and the added strain of three to four hours in the heat of the Southern sun. The mind of the youngest gave way, and he became quite delirious. He was sent to the hospital for treatment, and on recovering was sent again to camp. The committee from the meeting for sufferings, being informed of the arrest of these brothers, under- took to secure their release ; but the wheels of official authority revolve slowly. Sometimes, however, they can be made to move, and after a long time the com- mittee succeeded in obtaining an ordbr for their dis- charge. The following are copies of the original papers issued : CONFEDEBATE StATES OF AmERICA, War Department, Richmond, Va., January 19, 1864. Mr. John B. Crenshaw, Richmond, Va. Sir, — You are respectfully informed that the Ad- jutant and Inspector-General has been directed to authorize the discharge of J. M., A. W., & D. H. Jones, members of the " Society of Friends," as recommended, and on the conditions prescribed. Your obedient servant, James A. Seddon, Secretary of War. 220 SOUTHERN HEROES. Adjutant and Inspector-General's Office, Richmond, January 22, 1864. (Extract) Special Orders, \ No. 18. ) XXVII. The following - named privates being members of the Society of Friends, and each having paid into the treasury the sum of five hundred dol- lars as required by law, will be discharged the service of the Confederate States. Jackson M. Jones, Co. — , 13th N. C. Vols. By command of the Secretary of War, Jno. Withers, Assistant Adjutant-General. Private Jackson M. Jones, Through Mr. Crenshaw. Adjutant and Inspector-General's Office, Richmond, January 22, 1864. (Extract) Special Orders, I No. 18. J XXVII. The following - named privates being members of the Society of Friends, and each having paid into the treasury the sum of five hundred dol- lars as required by law, will be discharged the ser- vice of the Confederate States. Anderson W. Jones, Co. — , 13th N. C. Vols. By command of the Secretary of W^ar, Jno. Withers, Assistant Adjutant-General. Private Anderson W. Jones, Through Mr. Crenshaw. / SOUTHERN HEROES. 221 About forW miles west of the Deep River neigh- borhood is Deep Creek meeting-house, in Yadkin County, N. C. The Friends here coidd more easily cross the lines tlian those who lived in the lower counties, and maite their way west over the moun- tains. Many did so, and there were few left who were liable to be conscripted. By diligent searching the officers found sixteen members of these three little churches, — Forbush and Deep Creek in Yadkin County and Hunting Creek in Iredell County, — who were liable to mil-tary duty. Stephen Hobsun was in the iron business. The supply from Pen^isylvania and other places was cut off from the South, and home production must be encouraged ; so nine of the Friends were detailed to work in the minos. James Hutchinson paid the tax without leaving' home. Thomas A. Benbow was taken to Raleigii and kept in camp for about three months. Refusir. ^ to do any military duty, he was allowed to pay the tax and go home, Enoch Crisco, who had been received after the passage of the law, was released upoi^ the payment of the tax. In a letter to John B. Crer i;liaw, dated 6th month 23d, 1864, Isham Cox says : " I went to States villa some time ago to see the enrolling officer in behalf of fourteen young men who had, since |",he passage of the exemption act, joined our society at Deep Creek, in Yadkin County, but failed to get his approval, though he referred them to Colonel Mallett, who refused to notice them until the local officers had passed upon them. I anticipate \ 222 SOUTHERN HEROES. going up next week to give the enrolMng officer an- other trial, and if I fail again, the pr^rties are anxious that I should appeal to the BureOcU of Conscription, if, by it, there would be any hope of success. Please give me thy views relating thereto. ^ ISHAM Cox." These young men were taken from home and en- dured much suffering. One of them, Lewis Caudle, was taken to the front, terribly pe^fsecuted, and with a gun tied to him, he was made to enter battle and stand amid the contending forces ; but he would take no part in the terrible conflict. No bullet reached him, although many around him were slain. The Southern forces were oblig-ed to retrciat, but Lewis did not care to go with them, so he lay down upon the battlefield, with the wounded, dying ■ and dead around him. Falling asleep, he lay thei-e until morning. His comrades being gone, he saw fto reason why he should remain in the army, and so l|)egan his long and lonesome march to his mountain home. He reached it in due time, and was not obliged t;o return ; nor was he further molested. Isham Cox j^ad John B. Cren- shaw induced the officers to accept the $500 tax foi' him. At New Garden, six miles west of Greensboro, Guilford County, a Friends' meeting had been held, and for more than a century the yearly meeting an- nually held its seven days' session there. The mem- bership of the local church had become much reduced by emigration, and there were really very few Friends SOUTHERN HEROES. 223 to claim the attention of the home guard or any- body else. Nine men of legal age for the war were found amons: them. For two of them substitutes were furnished by their friends, who were not mem- bers ; but, notwithstanding this, they were required to pay the tax or go to war, so they paid the tax. One, Isaac Harvey, after having been for some weeks in camp, enduring the hardships and trial of his faith and loyally bearing his testimony, became discouraged and began to doubt his Lord's care and faithfulness. He yielded to the demands made by the authorities, accepted the bovmty money and military equipments, and, trusting in carnal weapons rather than in the mighty weapons of the soldier of Jesus Christ, he entered the ranks of the Confederate army. He was promptly disowned by his meeting at home as soon as it became known. Soon afterwards he entered a battle. He was one of the first, if not the first, to be killed. This was the only instance that has come to our knowledge of a Southern Friend abandoning his principles, and we believe there was no other. The result of this one case makes even more striking the remarkable preservation from violent death of all those who, under such trying circumstances, main- tained their allegiance to the Prince of Peace, and for whom He so remarkably cared. In Chatham County, N. C, there were a number of Friends' meetings. Spring meeting we have already alluded to, in giving the experiences of Jesse Buckner. The neighbors at whom he wondered, 224 SOUTHERN HEROES. when lie was a military colonel, because they would not train in the company, did not entirely escape per- secution. Nathaniel Woody, an elder, sitting at the head of Spring meeting, was drafted early in the war. When ordered to appear at Graham, the county seat of Chatham County, he answered to his name, and then told the officer that he could not bear arms, giv- ing his reasons. Being very near the age limit, he was released. James Lindley, of South Fork meeting, was drafted, and his friends, not members, hired a substitute for him. Jesse Osborn was conscripted and taken to the army, but he would take no part in the military ser- vice. He became sick and was taken to the hos- pital in Kichmond, where he soon died. John Newlin was a cotton manufacturer, owning factories at Saxapahaw. As he had six sons of legal age for conscription, he paid the government |3000 for their exemption. It was soon discovered that the law exempted Friends between the ages of seventeen and eighteen and forty-five and fifty, and not as Friends had petitioned, and understood the War Department to grant, from seventeen to fifty. Friends were very sure that they had made the matter clear, and that the Secretary of War understood it; but however that may have been, the army officers claimed as soldiers all between the ages of eighteen and forty- five, and Friends were put to much trouble on that account. Many were taken into the army and abused severely after they had paid the tax in good faith, and had received exemption papers from the War Department. SOUTHERN HEROES. 225 Two sons of our friend Newlln were taken. He entered his protest, and with the assistance of John B. Crenshaw and others the department was finally induced to correct the papers. Thus the original agreement was carried out, much to the relief of many who had been conscripted and were suffering for their testimony. Zeno Woody was conscripted, but was taken very sick, and was sent to the hospital at Raleigh. He was kept here for several weeks and then sent home on sick furlough. James and Mahlon Woody were conscripted and taken to Richmond, where they were required to choose what part of the Confederate ser- vice they would enter. They did not choose any part, and were imprisoned. Prison fare did not agree with these men, accustomed as they were to outdoor life and plenty to eat, and they were taken sick. They were sent to the hospital, and their father went there to wait upon them. After some weeks they were also given a furlough. William Woody was taken to the army, where he promptly accepted the gun offered him, and went with it to the Yankees. He gave the gun to them and went on to Indiana, without performing any mili- tary service. James Newlin went to the salt-works. Zeno and James Woody were again arrested, but their father paid the tax for them and his two other sons, amounting to $2000. Three brothers from this county. Miles, William and Stephen Hobson, concluded, soon after the begin- ning of the war, to make their way, with their fam- 226 SOUTHERN HEROES. ilies, by wagon, to Indiana. They had disposed of their effects, and one bright morning they left their homes, sacred to them from lifetime associations, but where they could no longer live in undisturbed pos- session. At night they had made a goood day's jour- ney toward the West ; preparations had been made to sleep in the wagon by the roadside ; suj^per had been cooked, and they were enjoying it as only wagoners can, when the sheriff of the county and a posse of men surrounded them, claiming to have orders for the arrest of the whole party on account of some remarks Stephen had made against the Southern Confederacy. They were all taken back and Stephen was bound over to appear at court when called to answer the charge ; but we do not learn that he was ever called for. Joseph John Hobson and James Woody, who were of the party, were also bound to appear at court on a certain day, but not being summoned, Joseph started west again, with other Friends, and they all succeeded in reaching their destination. Stephen Hobson, who had been arrested while on his way west, was conscripted and sent to the army, although he had jjald his $500 for exemption. He was sent to camp near Drury's Bluff, Va., from which place he was released, after months of trial, pre- sumably on account of having had a broken arm and thigh. Mahlon Thompson and Joshua Kemp thought to make their way across the mountains, and after avoid- ing as much as possible contact with mankind and enduring much from exposure, they were just about SOUTHERN HEROES. 227 crossing tlie Tennessee line, where they thought they would be safe, when they were surprised by the ap- pearance of army officers. They were arrested and sent directly to the army, and marched at once into the battle of Fredericksburg. They would not take guns or do any military work, but seeing the need of helping the wounded, they voluntarily engaged in carrying them from the battlefield, risking their own lives ; but neither of them was wounded. Being found " of no manner of use " as soldiers, they were finally released upon the payment of $500 each. In the neighborhood of Cane Creek, Chatham County, lived Joseph Dixon, a man too old to be conscripted, well known in the county, and of good estate. He owned a grist mill, and one day while he was at work there about forty mounted men came up who professed to be searching for disloyal men. The miller, Alexander Russell, had two sons who were fearing conscription, and " lying out." The men at once seized Russell, tied a rope round his neck and rode off to the woods, pulling him after them. Hearing the screams of the miller's wife and children, Joseph Dixon walked out of the mill to remonstrate with the men. They immediately put him under guard and marched him to an old barn about a mile away. They asked him if he knew where Russell's boys were, and, upon receiving a negative reply, they swore they would make him know. Four of the men took him inside the barn, tied a rope around his neck, made him step on a box, threw the rope over a beam and proceeded to draw him up, saying : " You are a d — d 228 SOUTHERN HEROES. Quaker anyway, and by your people refusing to fight and keeping so many out of the war you are the cause of the defeat of the South." As they tightened the rope they said to him : " Now, you have only five minutes to live ; if you have any prayers to offer, be quick about it." The good old man told them that he was innocent and could adopt the language of his Saviour : " Father, forgive them ; they know not what they do." They then searched his pockets and found about thirty dollars in bank bills, which they took away. They told him they would not hang him just then, but they compelled him to get under the horse- trough in the stable, and threatened to shoot him if he looked up. They then brought in the miller and hung him three times. Joseph could plainly hear him strangling the third time. He then promised to try to get his boys to come from their hiding-place, and was released. After the miller was gone Joseph Dixon was told that they were going to bring some more " Tories " and hang them, and declared that they would shoot him if he left the stable. They went directly to Micajah McPherson's, a good Methodist man, and hung him by the neck until he was unconscious. They left him for dead, but some one cut him down in time to save his life. The next night, having found one of the miller's sons, John Burgess, they hung him and remained near until they were sure he was dead, and then told his friends that they might take the body to bury it. Such was the condition of things in many parts of SOUTHERN HEROES. 229 the South near the close of the war. Human life was easily taken because men had become accustomed and hardened to bloodshed. Many such instances as the above could be cited, but care is needed not to multiply cases of the same nature, lest we become monotonous and the reader wearied of the recital. AVe will consider the last days of our friend Joseph Dixon, as the closing scene of this chapter. He lived not far from the creek before named, near the Friends' meeting-house of the same name, Cane Creek. His children settled aroimd him, taking their share of church and public responsibilities, while he and his lovino- wife, Rebecca, looked after their own home and needs and did what they could for the interests of the church. Their house was the home of the ministers visiting the neighborhood. Many Friends from the North were led to visit their brethren in the South, bearing not only good tidings of peace but " metallic sympathy " for the building up of the ruined homes and schools, and aiding the unfortunate in various ways. None welcomed more cordially those who came in the name of the Lord than did Joseph and Eel:)ecca Dixon, and none aided them in their mission of love more readily than they did. For several years Joseph was permitted to see prosperity attending the once persecuted and impoverished company of Friends at Cane Creek. But he was growing old ; his work was done, and well done. The time had come for him to go to the Father whom he had served in his day and generation, for whom he had not refused to die, and 230 SOUTHERN HEROES. whom he was now ready to meet face to face. One morning he arose, stirred the coals in the okl firephxce, removed the ashes, and putting on dry wood soon had a cheerful fire for Rebecca to dress by. She soon came and sat down beside him, and turning calmly and lovingly to her he said: "Rebecca, my time has come to go home. My work on earth is done, and the Lord has called for me. To-night I shall be with him in glory." In telling the writer of it afterwards, Rebecca said : " That day was the happiest we ever spent, and it was spent in the full belief that it was our last on earth together." During the day he performed his regular tasks, and in the afternoon he shaved, dressed, and lay down to die. His two sons soon came in, but he had calmly resigned his spirit to God who gave it. At the funeral a large concourse of people gathered, and many were ready to tell of the Christian character and good works of Uncle Joseph, whom God loved and took unto himself, as a shock of corn fully ripe. CHAPTER XII. " O brother ! if thine eye can see, Tell how and when the end shall be, What hope remains for thee and me." Then Freedom sternly said : " I shun No strife nor pang beneath the sun, When human rights are staked and won." Whittier. " Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all." About twelve miles from Greensboro, Guilford County, N. C, on liis farm near the Friends' meeting- house, lived, with his wife and little ones, a man named William B. Hockett. He had never known any other dwelling-place but this and his boyhood home, almost in sight, where his father then lived. His devoted wife and their two children were the joy of his heart. He was at peace with God and man, and had made it the rule of his life to meet with his friends twice each week for public worship, crossing for this purpose the little stream between his home and the old log meeting-house upon the hill. He was thirty-six years old at the time of which we write, and on the 28th day of 2d month, 1863, he wrote in his Journal kept at that time, and now by his kindness in the hands of the writer : " This is my birthday. May this day be spent more to the glory of God and the 232 SOUTHERN HEROES. spreading of His truth than my former years have been, is the jjrayer of my heart." The condition of the country was a cause of sorrow to him. In one place he has written : " When I review the past year and see that the rulers of the land have plunged us into a war with all its horrors, my heart is troubled and my prayers are i)ut up for the deliverance of my people. The rulers have turned aside and set a stumbling-block in the way of the in- nocent. Our opposers mock and scoff at us, but we look to Thee, O Lord, and to Thee alone for help ! Thou art our shepherd and shield, our comfort and stay!" AVilliam Hockett was first conscripted 9th month 27th, 1862, and taken to Greensboro, the county-seat of his county. He was furloughed home until the first of the next month, when he presented himself to the authorities, according to promise. A second time he was allowed to return home, and then he went as'ain to Greensboro, and from there was sent to Ea- leis'li. Through the influence of Colonel Coble he was furloujrhed home from here until called for. As we have seen, he was concerned for the welfare of his country. He was trusting in God, and although he was as yet permitted to remain at home, he was aware of his liability to be arrested upon any day. Several times he had answered the summons of the military authorities to appear at Greensboro and Ra- leigh, but was allowed to return home, probably on account of his being hard of hearing. He has re- corded in his journal that some time before the time WILLIAM B. HOCKETT SOUTHERN HEROES. 233 came for him to go to the army " I was shown a vision that I would be carried off to the war and have to suffer many things. The thought of leaving my wife with a bahe in her arms and family unprovided for distressed me very much, and I plead that the way might be made for me to stay with them." But he adds : "I was clearly shown that it was the will of the Lord that I should leave all, and that he would be a husband to my wife and a father to my children, and that they should lack nothing in my absence ; that if I was obedient to manifest duty, I should return with the reward of peace and find all well. This made me cry : ' Not my will, but Thine, O Lord, be done ! ' My dear partner strengthened me, saying : ' Be faith- ful, William, for I would rather hear of thy dying a martyr for Christ's sake than that thou shoidd sin against him by staying with me.' So on the eighth day of sixth month, 1863, we bade each other fare- well." Before he was taken away a neighbor said to him : " You have no hope now of escajaing the war unless you pay out. You have a young horse there for which I will give you iSOO. I will turn the horse over to the government and get my money back, and you can give the money to the officers and remain quietly at home." But William's conscience would not allow him to do this. On the 30th of May he was conscripted by the Raleigh guard and taken to a Methodist meeting- house called the " Tabernacle," which was used as a rendezvous for conscripted men. Here he was fur- 234 SOUTHERN HEROES. loughed until June 8th, 1863, when he reported at Greensboro according to orders. lie was offered the i)rivilege of " paying out," which he told the officers he could not conscientiously do, as the money was to be used to carry on war, and the servant of God should not fight nor uphold fighting. He said : " I believe true Christianity and war as far apart as Heaven and Hell." He was promptly sent to Camp Holmes, Kaleigh, where he was offered clothing, which he refused. He was assigned to the 21st N. C. regiment, supposed to be stationed then in the northern part of Virginia. Starting the next morning he arrived at Petersburg 'the following day just before daylight and was hurried on to Richmond. In company with thirty other con- scripts he was marched over to the North Carolina Soldiers' Home. " Here," he says, " I found time to write to my wife," and he makes this record in his diary : " I have been closely tried to-day, but the Lord has spoken peace to my soul this evening, which fills my heart with joy unspeakable. Praise to His ex- cellent name, henceforth and forever ! " AYilliam Hockett and his companions, none of whom he knew except A. C. Swain, were now hurried on to join the great division of the Southern army that had invaded Pennsylvania under General Lee. They had left Culpepper Court House on their way to join their regiment, and in his diary is the brief entry : " My companion, A. C. Swain, and some others left us, stepped into the bushes, and I have not seen them since." Long afterwards he learned that they escaped to Indiana, and there they remained. SOUTHERN HEROES. 285 On Second-da;^, the fifteenth, he wrote : " On the march before sunrise. We are conducted by Major Wharton. Arrived at Springville. Here I gave a watch for a pint of milk." " Third-day, the 16th of 6th month. Went about six or eight miles and met some wounded soldiers, who said the Southern troops had taken Winchester and the Yankees were fleeing." " Fourth-day, the 17th. I ate the last bread I brought from home and bought three small loaves for 15 cents. Afternoon. Went on to Winchester and camped in an orchard. It is said that last First- day was a terrible time here, as the fight began at seven o'clock and lasted all day. The Federalists were overpowered and the South holds the place. Our regiment is said to be five or six miles from here." " 6th month 18th. They took us before the authorities and assigned us to companies. Mine is company M, 21st North Carolina regiment, Early's division, Ewell's corps. Here they armed all the rest of the men and attempted to arm me, but I steadily refused to take any weapons ; so after threatening me to no purpose they let me off, only requiring me to go with them." " Sixth month 19th. My company is mostly made up of men from Guilford County, N. C. Eli Coble is in my squad. He and I tent together and he is very obliging to me. The army is a very trying place for a Christian to be in, because there are so many things that we cannot for conscience' sake do that must be done if the war goes on. So we are con- 236 SOUTHERN HEROES. stantly beset on every side. Nothing but the all-sup- porting arm of God can hold us or save us from fall- ing by temptation. My company is very kind to me. I spent the day in reading my Bible, mostly. There were others that had their Testaments out to-day. I hope the Lord has a remnant even here that may be saved. O the love I have for these poor conscript soldiers ! Many of them would give all they have in the world to get out of the war, but the fear of man is greater than the fear of God. It seems as though they cannot believe that God will protect them." " Second-day, the 23d of 6th month. This evening I was before Colonel Kirkland. He asked me what I wanted. I told him that I desired a discharge or release t^om the army that I might go home. He wanted to know how much money I would give him to let me off. I told him I could not give him any, but if he saw proper to release me I would give him goodwill. He asked me if I was not worth f 500. I told him that my property was worth that or more. He said the authorities of North Carolina had sent me out there as a man capable of making a soldier, and that I would have to comply with orders or he would order me shot, and said I might take a gun and go into the ranks, or he would order me shot that evening or the next morning, and I might take my choice. I told him that I would not take a gun nor march in the drill, so he said : ' Which will you choose, to be shot evening or morning ? ' I told him I should choose neither, but if my God whom I served permitted him to take my life I would submit to it ; I SOUTHERN HEROES. 237 would die a martyr for Christ's sake. He said lie liad full power, without permission, to kill nie if I did not comply. I told him I did not deny that he had, so far as the power of man extended, but there was a power above man's, and he could not remove a hair of my head without my Heavenly Father's notice, etc. He wanted to know if I was a good workman. I told him that I was counted a passable hand. He said I was the very man for him and he had the very place to put me ; it was to go to the wagon-yard and work there. It would not be hard work, and he wanted to hear a good report from Captain Vogler. I told him that I would receive no appointment to work at any- thing that was to carry on war. He ordered me to say no more but to go to the wagons, and sent a man to take me to Captain Vogler of the wagon train. He told me to go and mow grass for the horses, but I refused on conscientious grounds. They said that I should be shot. I said that my God told me not to do so, and that I feared Him more than what they could do. So when they found that I would not com- ply they sent me back to camp, saying that they had no use for such a fellow. They then reported me to the colonel, who said that he would have me shot that night or the next morning." Kecorded in the journal on the eve of the 23d is the following prayer, which evinces his resignation to God's will even under the most trying circumstances, and when it looked to hiin that he was likely to lay down his life for his testimony to the Prince of Peace : 238 SOUTHERN HEROES. " O Lord, my Heavenly Father, my prayer is that Thy name may be glorified and not my will be done. But if it be Thy will that I should lay down my life, be Thou pleased to pardon all my sins, for Thy dear Son's sake, and take away the fear of man, and leave me not in the hour of trial, but support me by Thy arm of power ; for my hope is in Thee, that Thou wilt control the raging of men as Thou didst in the days of old when Thou protectedst Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the midst of the fiery furnace, or the prophet Daniel in the lion's den. If it be Thy will, O Lord, Thou canst deliver me from those who seek my life, and enable me to proclaim thy wonderful works to the sons and daughters of men. All praise is due to Thee and to Thee alone ! " Be pleased to be near and comfort and protect my dear wife and children in their lonely condition, that they may bo enabled to press forward and not faint by the way, but put their trust in Thee, who alone can save. O Lord, comfort my aged father, whose heart yearns for his dear son. " O God, here am L My heart is resigned. Come life, come death. Thy will be done, not mine." Here the journal states : " I requested my tent- mate that if my life was taken from me he would let my dear wife know what had become of me. He agreed to do so." " Gth month 24th. I was ordered out and recpiired to fall in line with the company and drill, but I refused. They tried to make me, and I sat down on the ground. They reminded me of the orders to shoot SOUTHERN HEROES. 239 me, but I told them my God said to fear not them that kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul ; but rather to fear Him that is able to destroy both soul and body in Hell. The company was then or- dered to fall back eight paces, leaving- me in front of them. They were then ordered by Colonel Kirkland to ' Load ; Present arms ; Aim,' and their guns were pointed directly at my breast. I raised my arms and prayed : ' Father, forgive them ; they know not what they do.' Not a gun was fired. They lowered them without orders, and some of the men were heard to say that they 'could, not shoot such a man.' The order was then given, ' Ground arms.' " The officers having consulted together, the cap- tain soon came to me with two men, brinoins: a g^un and a cartridge-box with thirty rounds of ammu- nition. The captain said : ' Now take these and join ranks.' Refusing to do so, the soldiers tied them on me and strapped the gun to my back, and the captain ordered me to rise and walk in drill ; but I refused. " An officer then swore he would ride over me, and made many efforts to do so, but failed, for his horse coidd not be. made to step on me. At one time he carefully placed his foot between my arm and my side, without in the least injuring me. The captain struck me on the back of the head with the heavy end of a gun, and although I was stunned by the blow I soon got over it and never felt it afterwards. The captain ordered two men to take me to the ranks forty or fifty yards away, but I did not feel free to walk in that direction." 240 SOUTHERN HEROES. They dragged him to the end of the line and let him go, and he sat down again. The captain called two men and declared that he must walk in the drill or they wonld kill him. Then William Hockett kneeled and prayed that the Lord would not lay this sin to their charge, but grant him strength to bear all these afflictions for His Name's sake. The captain ordered the men to fix bayonets. One replied that he had no bayonet. The other obej^ed and was ordered to run him through if he would not get up and go into the drill. This man put the bayonet against William Hockett's back and began to push. Others took his arms and tried to persuade him to go for- ward. They said they did not wish to hurt him but they must obey orders or be shot themselves. The captain then ordered the man with a gun to " blow a ball through him." The muzzle of the gun was placed against him, and the soldier pressed but did not shoot. Finally the man with a bayonet pretended to run it through him, but the bayonet only passed through his clothing and by his side with- out injuring him. The captain then left, saying he was not yet done with him, and the men took him half a mile to Waynesboro, where he was left. The army and wagon trains all passed him, but the rear guards were under orders to pass none, and upon coming to our friend told him that they' did not wish to hurt him, but they were under orders to take all on to camp and were obliged to do so. Considering that he had been faithful in bearing his testimony, and that SOUTHERN HEROES. 241 he was not required to walk in the drill, he walked on to camp with the gun still tied upon his back. When the irun was removed he would not take care of it, whereupon the soldiers made some threats, but did not punish him. They tried instead to induce him to run away. He told them to give him papers to show that he had his liberty and he would willingly leave them. The second morning the soldiers again attempted to make him carry the gun. He told them he would not do it, and they threw it into a wagon. When they camped at noon the captain of the wagon train found out that William had not been carrying it and told the man who threw it into the wagon to go and make him carry it ; that he would not have it in the wagon. The man attempted to compel William to carry the weapon, but he said he would not walk one step with it on ; that the soldier knew it was wrong to try to make him carry it. The soldier said yes, he knew it was wrong, and then added : " Well, come along then : I will carry it." William was never again asked to carry a gun. On the 28th of 6th month he wrote : " Oh ! how I wish I was at home to go with my dear wife to Centre meeting to-day to worship the Lord in spirit and in truth. But the Lord's will, not mine, be done." In the evening he writes : " I have spent the day in reading my Bible, and in silent waiting upon the Lord. My heart is sick, seeing the roguery our men are up to ; taking horses, cattle and provisions of all kinds. Nothing that they see escapes their grasp. An abundance of things is taken, and they are thrown 242 SOUTHERN HEROES. away because the men cannot carry them. I have nothing- to do but cook my own rations and keep up with the wagon train." On the second of July orders were given that he shoukl go to cooking. The battle of Gettysburg was being fought, and the captain told him he would buck him down if he did not help. William Hockett was reading his Bible, and paid no attention to the orders. The captain then left him, but sent orders that he must carry water or he would have him sent to the front ranks in the battle where the fighting was being done. But William declined this service also, as it would release a man to fight. The captain now told him he would release him from both services if he woidd carry two buckets of water, but William would do no military service. A short time after he had refused to obey the order to cook, a wagon arrived in which was a sick man, whom the captain referred to William for care, as he sat on his blanket reading his Bible. The poor, suf- fering, emaciated passenger said he was from For- sythe County, N. C, and was kejit with the wagon train because he refused to fight, on conscientious grounds. He was probably a Dunkard. His health was broken down, and he was hungry and thirsty. ; he was in a pitiable condition, and William at once made way for him to lie down on his blanket. The captain was watching him as he so kindly re- ceived and provided for the stranger. The man asked him to go to the camp and get him some water. William declined to go thither for it, but took his SOUTHERN HEROES. 243 canteen and cup, went to the spring and filled them. The stranger then ask(;d him to go to the camp and get him some food ; hut William declined to do this also, giving as a reason that he had refused to cook for the camp, and the soldiers might not be willing to allow him cooked food. lie willingly gave him what food he had, however, and after some hesitation the hungry man ate it, upon being told that more rations would be issued that night. AVhen the wagon moved on he went with it, cheered and refreshed, and Wil- liam never saw him again. Rations were issued that night, ])ut not to William. They told him that as he would not cook he should not eat. He replied : " Well, I shall be fed in some way." The soldiers were under orders to be ready to march at a moment's notice. The order came just as one man had his cake spread on the pan over the coals to bake for his supper, and he was unable to wait for it to be baked. William got the cake as he passed, and though it was a little too well baked on one side it served very well for his supper. In the morning, as the troops were marching to another camp, they passed a small house near the road. It was getting well along in the day and Wil- liam was beginning to feel the need of his breakfast and to wonder where it would come from, when he came opposite this house. Suddenly the window was opened and a woman threw a large loaf of bread directly at him. He caught it in his hands. She hur- riedly closed the window and neither of them spoke. Was it an accident that he, the only one of all that 244 SOUTHERN HEROES. marching host that needed bread, should be provided for in this strange manner? William thought of the Lord feeding Elijah by the use of a raven, and con- cluded that He had used this woman, jjerhaps uncon- sciously to her, as a means of supj)lying his need. This bread lasted him until he was captured and fed by the Union soldiers. On the second of July he writes : " We have heard the roaring of cannon all day. They have been fight- ing two days at Gettysburg. I have not heard the particulars." Next day he says : " The cannon are still to be heard. About noon they began fighting in earnest. There is a constant roaring of cannon al- most like thunder. What an awful thing it is ! Lord, have mercy on me ; my mind is stayed on Thee. The fight continued until about midnight, and it is said to have been the hardest fight they have yet had." William Hockett seems to have been on some account at the hospital, and concerning what he saw he says : " July 3d. It is a sight I never wish to behold again. Hundreds of people wounded in nearly every part of the body ; calling for friends to come and soothe their afflictions. Some dying, some already dead and lying out in the yard until holes can be dug to put them in. This is only one of the many horri- ble pictures of war. There were cases of whom hojjcs of recovery were entertained. Those of whom there were no hopes were left on the battlefield to pine away and die. There has been a heavy loss on both sides in killed and wounded." SOUTHERN HEROES. 245 How lieavy it was our friend then had no know- ledge. Much as he saw, he had no idea that on the Northern side the loss was 23,216 men, and on the Southern side 36,000, making, during this terrible three days' battle, a loss of over 59,000 men, bleed- ing and dying because " the rulers of the land had plunged us into a war with all its horrors." " Seventh month 4th. Orders came for the wag-on train to start for Virginia. Got to within six and a half miles of Hagerstown, and I told the captain that I was not able to walk ; that he could draw me or leave me as he chose. He chose the latter, so I went to a man's house and stayed all night and was kindly treated." " Seventh month 5th. Packed up to start, and the Union cavalry came along and took me prisoner." He was marched around with others all day and most of the night, and then on to a camp at Boons- boro, and the next day to Frederick City, where about two thousand prisoners were gathered. In the even- ing they were put into cars and taken to Baltimore, where they were placed in Fort McHenry. Here he writes on the eighth of July : " This is a trying j)lace for a civil man. Both Northern and Southern men contend that they are right, when, in my opinion, they are both wrong. The bitter oaths that are continually sounding in my ears are disgust- ing to me." From Baltimore, William Hockett was taken to Fort Delaware, of which he says : " It is a solid- looking place, but has too much the appearance of 246 SOUTHERN HEROES. war to be attractive to me. Here there are some ten thousand prisoners from all parts of the Southern Confederacy, and the place is anj^thing but desirable. Lord, be Thou pleased to keep me from the evils they are plunging into. I have not seen a man here whom I know." " Seventh-day, 11th. I have been very sick for a day or two. I have read the New Testament through since I left home about a month since." "Thirteenth. My health seems to be improving. 1 met to-day Carney BoUen, who told me that the four Holly Spring boys were in his regiment and com- pany, and were well when he left." " Fifteenth. Have been quite sick, but walked out in the open ground to get fresh air. While there an- other company of prisoners was brought in. The four Holly Spring boys were among them. I stepped up and spoke to them, which surprised them very much, as they thought I was at home. We were glad to see each other." We can imagine these five men meeting so far fi'om home and under such strange circumstances, as lifetime acquaintances and personal friends, of the same faith and having had similar experiences in bearing their testimony. As they recounted to each other their trials and sufferings, they must have re- joiced and praised the Lord together for His marvel- ous care of them, and the grace given them to hold out faithful. The next day they were visited by two Friends from Wilmington, Delaware, Samuel Hilles and AVil- SOUTHERN HEROES. 247 liam Corse. These Friends brought them presents of oranges, lemons and bread, which were gladly re- ceived. These had only a few hours before heard that some of their Southern brethren were " sick and in prison," and they visited them as soon as possible. The day following, Robert Pearsall Smith, of Phila- deli)hia, who was connected with the Christian Com- mission, heard of them at the hospital, and at once went to see if he could do anything for them. The journal refers to these visits. According to 11. P. Smith's advice, they prepared a paper to be laid before the authorities, in which they set forth the circumstances and their convictions, and asked to be discharged from the place. William Ilockett had just had his pocket book and all his money stolen. He says : " Robert Pearsall Smith gave us some money and blankets furnished by Friends at the city. He said his mother was a Friend, and that he ' held somewhat that way,' and could sympathize with us." " Seventh month 21st. Had just sent out and bought some bread and molasses when a basket of provisions and medicine was sent in from our friend, T. W. Beasley, who was not allowed to come in to see us. We now have something to eat and to dis- tribute among the needy." " Seventh month 23d. My companions and I have all things in common as one family. Have bought some butter, bread and molasses to-day." " Seventh month 24th. Last night we were robbed of nearly everything except what we had on." " Seventh month 25th. My companions are very 248 SOUTHERN HEROES. much out of heart. Some of them are sick. We are told that the general at the fort says we shall not be discharged unless we will join some Union company ; that we can't send for any money from our friends, neither shall they come to see us ; so our case does look gloomy. " I told my comrades that I was reminded of what David Frazier said in his preaching at Centre meeting just before I left home. When speaking of trials that some one there woidd soon have to undergo, he said : ' Then recollect that the darkest time of night is just before the break of day.' I told them for all we knew this was the time, and just then an officer , came walking along inquiring for the Quakers. Being pointed out to him, he read from a paper in his hand : ' Thomas Hinshaw, Jacob Hinshaw, Nathan Barker, Cyrus Barker, William B. Hockett. Are you here ? ' ' All here except Thomas Hinshaw.' ' Where is he ? ' ' Gone to the boat after water.' lie turned around and said : ' Follow me.' Immediately we obeyed, and as we came to the gate Thomas was there, and or- dered through with us. Our guide stepped in the office and got the order from the quartermaster to the general at the fort to discharge us and send us to Philadelphia. He then brought us in before the general, who read the order and then took down five ' oaths of allegiance to the Union,' and presented each with one to sign ; but for conscience' sake we could not take them in their full form. The gen- eral told us we might take them as they were or remain there until the war ended, for we woidd not SOUTHERN HEROES. 249 be discharged. He said we professed to be a law- abiding people. We told liiiii that we were, and when we, for conscience' sake, could not comply with the law, we submitted to the penalty, and that we were willing to be bound in that respect ; but if the law reqviired things of us that came into conflict with our religious feelings, we peaceably submitted to the penalty, if it was death, rather than wound our con- science. " After consulting some officers he altered the oaths to ' affirmations,' striking out such jDarts as we objected to, but leaving us bound not to go into or correspond with the disloyal States without liberty from the Secretary of War. We then signed and qualified to them. He then gave us a passj)ort to the boat at Newcastle and a transport to Philadelphia on the cars. Tenderly bidding us farewell, he said : ' Don't be too late for the cars.' We were on time." Ascertaining that these papers permitted it, our friends accepted an invitation to stop at Samuel Hilles's home in Wilmington, Delaware, who, with other Friends, was gone to Washington on their behalf, but returned next day. These released prisoners made no small stir in the city of Wilmington as they appeared on the streets the day after their arrival. It was the day when the Friends held their mid-week meeting, and the North Carolina conscripts went joyfully to the worship of God in company with them. After the meeting was over, numbers of Friends were anxious to entertain the strangers and to listen to their remarkable stories. 250 SOUTHERN HEROES. The visitors finally separated, and as guests went to different houses. For a few days they continued their visits among Friends, and the journal of William Hockett says : " Went to Joseph Tatnall's. He gave me five dollars, which I divided with my companions. Then we went to Samuel and Margaret Hilles's, who are like a father and mother to us." They were taken by Samuel Hilles to Philadelphia, where they were entertained by Thomas Evans. Here they learned that the Philadelphia Meeting for Suf- ferings had appointed Thomas Evans, Samuel Hilles, and James R. Graves to visit the President and Sec- • retary of War on their account. The journal con- tinues : " They, under God's help, have effected our release, for which we feel truly thankful. We praise and adore Almighty God for His mercies so bounti- fully bestowed upon us poor unworthy creatures. Let all honor and praise be ascribed to the Lord, and none to us, for we are unprofitable servants ; we have only done our duty, and it was through and by the ability which God gave that we were enabled to do this." The Philadelphia Friends kindly furnished each of these five men with a trunk full of clothing and fifty dollars in cash, and with a ticket to their friends in Indiana. The wives and children of Thomas and Jacob Hinshaw made their way to them, in the course of the year, and the account of their journeyings in those troublesome times was an interesting story, as recently given to the writer by Thomas Hinshaw's wife. After the surrender, William Hockett and his SOUTHERN HEROES. 251 friends returned to their Southern homes, and on the farm where his wife so faithfully toiled for herself and the little ones, in his absence, they still live, en- joying the goodness and mercy of the Lord and the blessed hope of that eternal rest, into which some of their companions in trial, and their little ones, so faithfully cared for, have already entered. On the fifth of June, 1865, under the shade of a big oak tree, in front of his house, where he had bidden his wife and children good-by two years before, to answer the call of the Raleigh guards, William B. Hockett was privileged again to clasp in his arms his wife and little ones. With joyful hearts thanksgiving was offered to Almighty God for His faithfulness in keeping them amid the scenes and pri- vations of those years of separation ; for William was not the only one to suffer trial. To his wife those years had been a time of earnest toil, care and anxiety. Not only had she labored for the support of herself and her little children, but solicitude for her husband had daily weighed upon her heart. Tidings came from him but seldom, and she could only leave him in the hands of her Heavenly Father while she carried on the farm, spun and wove, working by day and night, anxiously waiting and wondering how and when the end would come. Johnston's army had spent many weeks in the neighborhood of her home, and had on two occasions filled her yard from morning until evening ; but not a chicken had been taken without leave. Whilst the wagons and cattle of the army were passing, her own 252 SOUTHERN HEROES. cattle got loose and started away with the army herds. The colored boy whom she employed went after them, and when the captain of the train was told the cir- cumstances, he ordered his men to help turn the straying- cattle. A neighbor told the trusting wife that her horse was in too good condition ; that the army was needing horses, and hers would surely be taken. The army was all day passing her house, and the excited horse was racing back and forth between the barn and the road in full view, but he was not taken. Although the neighborhood had been ran- sacked for miles around for horses, and scarcely one of any value had been left, this fine young horse, for which William Hockett had refused the five hun- dred dollars to purchase his freedom, had been spared through the providence of God and the care of the neighbors, who on some occasions had hid it in the woods and bushes. Says the journal : " The Lord laiew the corn that was planted would have to be ploughed, or it would not grow, and the promise was that my wife should not want during my absence." William Hockett quietly took up once more the duties of home life, and happily have he and his wife lived on the old home-j)lace. Their little children of the war time, and others whom God has given them, are grown to manhood and womanhood, and some of them are settled in homes of their own. The baby who was so tenderly cared for in those trying years has gone on to the home above, leaving three of her own children to battle with life. In their declining years, William and his wife, SOUTHERN HEROES. 253 under the shade of the ohl oak tree that casts a little longer shadow now, often recount the memories of those times and the blessings they have received from God. As regularly as in those earlier days before the war, they cross the stream still flowing between their home and the new meeting-house on the hill, to " wor- ship God in spirit and in truth." William has been recorded a minister of the gospel among the Friends, and in the evening of life is doing what his hands find to do, to hasten the day when righteousness shall reign in the earth, and the sound of battle shall no more be heard in any land. CHAPTER XIII. God bless ye, brothers ! — in the fight Ye' re waging now, ye cannot fail. For better is your sense of right Than kingcraft's triple mail. Whittier. HiMELius and Jesse Hockett were brothers of William B. Hockett. They were settled near the old homestead at Centre, always attended the same meet- ing, and had accepted the doctrines of Friends. On the fourth of April, 18G2, they were drafted, sent to Raleigh, and tlience to Woldon, N. C. They were assigned to Capt. Kirkman\s comjiany, hut for some days were not required to perform any military duty. Himelius Hockett says : " The captain well under- stood our principles. He was a very kind man, dis- posed to favor us, and it was by his kindness that we were thus far excused from service." The conduct of the brothers excited the curiosity of the soldiers, and they had opportunity to explain their religious prin- ciples, which were well received by many. The colonel soon sent orders, however, that every man able for duty should be drilled. This brought the brothers be- fore him, and he gave them the choice of one of three things, to take a gun, accept work, or be shot. But they said they must upon conscientious grounds decline >. ^ h*m ^- If. M. IIOCKETT SOUTHERN HEROES: 255 to do any work that aided in carrying on war. The colonel replied that it was no time for religions scru- ples ; that they were in the war and must fight out o£ it ; that it was the duty of every man alike to aid in the defense of his country and property ; that it would be time enough for people to embrace such a religion as they pleased when the war was over. He told them that they were liable to be shot for disobedience, and if they did not obey him he would report them to the highest authority. They replied that they were com- manded to fear God, who is able to destroy both soul and body, rather than man who, when he hath de- stroyed the body, hath no more that he can do. They were then taken to prison and told to make up their minds what part of the service they would enter. Much interest, from various motives, was shown by the men concerning the grounds of their objections and as to what would be the fate of the Christian prisoners. After coming to understand their position, many of the soldiers spoke words of encouragement to the Friends. One Baptist brother took up their defense, and argued that the Friends were right and where his own church ought to be upon the subject. The colonel was informed by the brothers that they could not accept any of his propositions, and that, as was their Christian privilege, they would sufPer the penalty, whatever it might be. They were then kept in prison for several days, expecting hourly to be called out for trial ; but with others they were dis- charged, it having been proved that the number of men required from their township had been made up 256 SOUTHERN HEROES. by volunteers. They were accordingly sent home, only to be conscripted soon after. We will now let Himelius M. Hockett tell their story in his own words, as he has kindly sent it to the writer. " We were notified of our conscription and ordered to camp, but we did not choose to go, and remained quietly about our own affairs. Soon, however, the militia colonel appeared and took us from our work in the fields to the camp at Raleigh. We stated our reasons for not answering the summons, and told the officers we went as prisoners and not as soldiers. " Arriving in Raleigh April 4th, 1863, we, with a neighbor named Reynolds, were ordered to go at once to get wood for the use of the camp. This we declined to do, for we considered that by so doing we would commit ourselves to further military requirements. The officers then ordered soldiers to drive us into the service with bayonets, swearing that they would make examples of such men before they woidd have their orders disobeyed. We told them we meant no disre- spect to them as men or officers, but that it was in obedience to a higher authority that we felt that we must refuse to obey orders that conflicted with the laws of God. " We were left in camp over night, and the next morning were ordered to similar work, but declining, were told that they would soon bring us out of our religious notions. Tlae enrolling officer of the com- pany told us that over f 20,000 had been paid to him for Quaker taxes by Orthodox Quakers, and they would subdue us before they had done with us. SOUTHERN HEROES. 257 " I then told my brother that they were in no con- dition to hear truth, and it woukl be like castins; pearls before swine to rejjly to them. We meekly let them go on with their tirades of abuse until they pretty well exhausted themselves. Noticing our composure, one said : ' I reckon you think you are persecuted for righteousness' sake, don't you ? ' Every man was then ordered into line to march to the adjutant-general's office to be assigned to his jjlace in the army. We declined to march in line, and for this the soldiers were ordered to run us through with their bayonets. They ran the glittering steel through our clothing without inflicting the least damage to our persons, in a way that seemed strange to us. We told them we would go to the office as prisoners, but not in military drill. This we were allowed to do, and we did it with such coolness that one of the officers was heard to remark : ' That fellow is no coward and might make a splendid field officer if he only had the right dispo- sition in him.' "We were assigned with Wenlock Eeynolds and another Friend to a battery of artillery. Military clothing was given us but we declined it. We were sent at once to Kinston and placed in a battery of horse-artillery. Next day we were all three ordered to drill with the rest, but refusing to take arms, we were told by the lieutenant to consider ourselves under arrest for disobeying orders. Much curiosity was aroused among the men, many of whom could not seem to realize that religion had anything in it to jus- tify exemption from military duty, in a case of neces- 258 SOUTHERN HEROES. sity like this ; and one said : ' He that protecteth not his house hath denied the faith and is worse than an infideh' To this I replied that the Scripture did not read in that way. He insisted that he had quoted it correctly, but, taking a New Testament from my pocket, I soon proved him wrong. He said that ' provide ' meant the same as ' protect,' anyway. I told him to apply to the dictionary and he would find the meaning very different ; that we believed it our duty to 'provide things honest in the sight of all men,' but when called upon to protect, in the sense in which he used the word, it was contrary to the pre- cepts of Christ, who with his disciples taught that we should ' resist not evil,' ' do violence to no man,' ' they that take the sword shall perish with the sword,' 'be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good,' etc. One man called out : ' That man is right ; it is as he says,' and thereupon they grew divided among themselves, and the officers became angry and ordered us up to the general's headquarters. " General Ransom had been informed of our po- sition, and meeting us at the gate of his office said that he was a man of decision and would have 'no equivocations nor prevarications ' from us ; as to our religion, we should not bring that up, for he knew as much about that as he cared to know. His decision was already made. We could go on duty under arms, pay the tax settled upon, or go to the salt-works, and he would give us as much time as we wanted to make our decision, but under the following circmnstances : to be shut up in prison under guard, without one mor- SOUTHERN HEROES. 259 sel of anything to eat or drink, or any communication with any one until we complied with his orders. " We were then taken to the provost-marshal's office to receive the execution of our sentence. He advised us to pay the tax, as it was a great privilege which thousands would gladly avail themselves of. We told him that to us it was not a matter of dollars and cents ; that this had no bearing with us ; it was a matter of principle, in which our religious liberty was interfered with. Wenlock Reynolds concluded, however, to pay the tax and was discharged. But my brother and I could not feel free to do so and went to the prison to share alike our fate. " The captain of the guard seemed at first harsh and rough in his manner, but a little incident, small though it may seem, took hold of his feelings. After committing us to the room and charging the guard in our presence to keep us with all diligence, he told them not to allow any communication between us and any one else, nor to allow us to have a morsel of any- thing to eat or drink, as the general had ordered. We were impressed that it would be right to make a full sm-render and to trust wholly to a kind Providence, so we told him we had some cakes and cheese in our valises, that had been fvirnished us by our wives at home. We then opened the valises and showed him before the giiards what we had, and told him if it was right to execute such a sentence, he could take them. ' O ! ' he said, ' I guess you might keep that,' and he seemed very tender, but looking at the guards who were looking at him, there seemed no way for him to 260 SOUTHERN HEROES. evade the command he had received and given, and so they took the food away. This circumstance undoubt- edly had its effect in opening the way for future results. " The captain did all he could for us, and thought we had better yield a little, even at some compromise of principle. He said that Ransom was a hard gen- eral and would see us perish before he would reverse his decision. "Numbers became interested, and Walter Dunn, the provost-marshal, came in to see us ; he labored hard to persuade us that we were in error in trying to keep to principles that our own ^jhurch did not contend for : that he had taken pains to inform himself and we were about all who were giving the authorities trouble because of religion ; he said Wenlock Rey- nolds had paid the tax, and why couldn 't we ; that we were not subordinate to the decisions of our church at large. I then took from my pocket a copy of the last yearly meeting's minutes and showed him the recorded decisions of that body. He paused for a while, and then said that we could not see alike, and it was better to compromise these little prejudices, or opinions, especially when calamities were upon us. I told him we had no right to compromise with wrong ; we ought to obey God rather than man ; and we should not do violence to an enlightened conscience. All his argu- ments were, answered in a way that was interesting, if not satisfactory to him, and he then began to inquire into our condition as prisoners, concerning which he manifestly felt anxious. He asked if we had not SOUTHERN HEROES. 261 partaken of food or drink since we were put in jail, and we were able to answer him that we had not, which he seemed to wonder at, asking over and over particularly. It may be that he suspected the guards had been feeding us, for we had now been over four days without food or water, and there was a growing feeling of anxiety concerning us. " The evening before the visit of the marshal, while we were feeling somewhat thirsty, cojiious show- ers of rain fell, and we could have caught water from the windows as it fell from the eaves of the building. My first thought was, * that water is providentially sent,' but I felt restraitied from taking any of it. Arousing my brother, who had fallen asleep, I asked him about it, and he said he thought we had better not. So we went to sleep again. Had we kept the cakes and cheese or caught the water, we could not have given the answers we did to the officer's ques- tions, and this fact seemed more to impress him in our favor than anything else. " One day a sergeant came in, saying we were the worst men on earth ; that we were committing suicide by willfully starving ourselves to death, and we would go to hell for it. I told him that he could make no such thing appear unless he could make it appear that we refused to eat, and that it was martyrdom we were sufferinfj instead of committins; suicide. At this he hung his head and went away. " The chaplains and others were admitted to con- vince us of our supposed error and induce us to change our position. We seldom, if ever, had the 262 SOUTHERN HEROES. second disagreeable interview witli the same person. Their abuse was received with meekness, and they afterwards rewarded us with kindness. " We felt remarkably preserved during this isola- tion from human aid, and felt but little the need of any earthly thing. " The night before our release, Colonel Eaton came to our prison with half a pint of water and one spoon- ful of sugar in it, saying : ' I have come to relieve you from this punishment. I have a little water and sugar which I am happy to furnish you.' I told him if given in a Christian spirit he would be blessed in the deed. He seemed much affected and very tender, and said he hoped ever to live in the spirit of doing to others as he would be done by. " The next morning, fully five days after our con- finement, a small amount of food was given us with the statement that the doctors said they must allow us but little, as much food would endanger our lives. It seemed singular that after passing such a sentence they should be so anxious to save our lives, but we soon ascertained that there was more anxiety than we supposed, and while we were favored to possess our souls in patience, the officers were much troubled on our account. We found, too, that the citizens were becoming so aroused that a plot was on foot to release us by a mob if we were not soon relieved. " A Baptist minister by the name of Thorne was admitted to our room soon after the sentence of star- vation had been revoked. He seemed to be in the last stages of consumption, and said he did not expect SOUTHERN HEROES. 263 to live long, but wanted to encourage us to be faith- ful ; that he had sympathized with us during our harsh treatment, and appreciated and endorsed our peace principles ; that their church originally advo- cated peace princijiles and ought to to-day, but by giving away gradually to some disaffected members, they had drifted into a form of discipline which left their members at liberty. (Cabot Powell, the Baptist before alluded to, corroborated this statement, and so did Charles Spurgeon in his lecture on George Fox.) Our friend then told us that he had become so inter- ested in our case that he had sent a letter by private messenger to Governor Vance, and had instructed the messenger to wait in person for a reply and return with it the same night. The governor, by executive authority, had revoked and set aside the sentence of General Ransom." The following letter written by Himelius M. Hock- ett at the time of his imprisonment has been found by the writer among a package of papers, and will doubtless interest the reader : KiNSTON, N. C, 4/10, 1863. " Deae wife and children : Having the chance to send home a few lines, rather unexpectedly, I have concluded to write, though under circumstances which I fear will prove tr3dng to you. I am in good health and have been quite well, for me, nearly ever since I left home. Jesse is not quite so well. He has taken cold and has a troublesome cough, though we hope it will prove nothing serious. 264 SOUTHERN HEROES. " We are assigned to Captain Bunting's Wilming- ton horse-artillery company, stationed at Kinston. We were brought here last Fourth-day and remained in camj) until this morning. On being required to drill we refused, and were sent up to the town one mile this side of the battery to appear before General Kansom. He told us he would hear no plea about religion, as the laws had made provisions and he was bound to execute them ; that he shovdd put us in a room upstairs and we should not have one drop of water nor one morsel of food ; neither should we com- municate with any one except authorities until we agreed to go on duty or pay the five hundred dollar tax. "Second-day, the 13th. We missed the opportu- nity of sending letters home and are still in prison, having been three days and nights without one mor- sel of sustenance, either bread or water, and the cap- tain, who visits us daily, says that we will find General Ransom's orders carried out, for he will see us dead and buried before he will give way one particle. We, however, do not think it safe to give way to his demands, having a Master, even Christ, to whom it is our duty to yield ourselves servants to obey. " Now read the tenth, eleventh and twelfth chaj)- ters of Hebrews, and they will set forth our faith and whereunto we must come, to become servants of the living and eternal God, who has bought us with a price aud is able to redeem us from all suffering and bondage in his own time and pleasure, when he is pleased to say it is enough. SOUTHERN HEROES. 265 " Whatever may be our fate, we feel perfectly re- signed to God's blessed will, which is a duty all Chris- tians must come unto, and we have felt that we coidd give up all things in the earth for His sake, near and dear as they seem to us. Such has been our comfort after three days of starving that we have rested many times, perfectly at ease, not knowing the need of any- thing ; yea, have felt that the bread from heaven had not been withheld from us. We sometimes feel the River of Life to be flowing so near that we can hardly desire to return to such freedom as the world can give. " Third - day, the 21st. Having been prevented from sending you a letter by the last mail, we now embrace the opportunity. We went four and a half days without a morsel of food or drink. By this time it pleased the Lord to touch the hearts of the people, and we were given one half pint of sugar and water the first night, and the next morning we received bread and other victuals, as we were able to bear it, it having been five days since we had eaten anything at all. We are now recruited and feel quite well. We have been quite well with very little exception ever since we left home. We were placed in the care of Captain Baxter of the ninth regiment, Company H, who is detailed at this place with his company to keep the prisoners, and who merits our grateful thanks for his kindness to us. He kept us under guard for some days and then told us he should take the guard away only when we had occasion to walk out of doors, also that we might walk where we 266 SOUTHERN HEROES. pleased over the house. In short, we are treated with a great deal of sympathy by all the soldiers in Bax- ter's comj)any. " Do not be discouraged, but look forward with an eye of faith, my dearest ones, and I humbly trust that better days will soon arise. Bless and kiss the chil- dren for me, and tell them, — oh, how much I love them ! " Direct your letter to Kinston, Lenoir Co., N. C. "H. M. HOCKETT." To Rachel Hockett. Following their release from starvation, General Ransom on recovering from his illness returned to his command, and our Friends were again severely tried as the following letter, written to their father, will show : Kinston, N. C, Fifth mo., 25th, 1863. " Dp:ar Father : We have not received any ac- count from you since we wrote you last, which we expected to have done this evening ; neither have we received any account of the box which you pro])osed to send us. We suggest that you send no such thing without a pilot, which, perhaps, would not pay at pres- ent, as you could afford us but little relief in all probability by coming. " We must inform you tliat our sufferings have been greatly increased since we last addressed you. Gen- eral Ransom has returned. Last Fifth-day we were taken out with the other prisoners and required to clean up the streets about his quarters, which we re- SOUTHERN HEROES. 267 fused to do ; and we were harassed about the streets with logs of wood tied on our shoulders for about two hours, and then ordered to the guard-house with about forty others in the same house. Next day we were taken out and required to do some service, which we declined, and we were treated in the same way again amid the scoffs of many spectatoi-s. Then they ordered us separated. Jesse was taken down to tlie old jail and I to the guard-house, which is a large old store- room, full of vermin and almost every offensive thing, with one open door and two windows in the east. Owing to the crowded and filthy condition of the room it is a noisome and unhealthy place. The weather being diy and hot it is difficult to breathe in here of an evening. The prisoners are all falling away owing to the scant fare and confinement. " I have not seen Jesse since Sixth-day morning, nor heard from him since Seventh-day morning. The jail is said to be a worse room for hot weather than this, and desperate for filth. " I do not think it is so much the general's orders as the ambitions of a few young officers under him that cause us to be used as we are. They all insist that we should pay out. We are told that the two generals, Hill and Ransom, declare their intention of keeping us till the war ends, at all events, and we have little hope of getting off short of that. We can only rely upon the mercy and power of God to sustain us, though I do not see that we can do much for the credit of our Society in such a place of confusion as this, as there is continual rioting, fiddling, dancing, 268 SOUTHERN HEROES. swearing and drinking, — frequently among the offi- cers. " But enougli of this ! I have written in great con- fusion, but hope to be able to write to better satisfac- tion next time. " H. M. HOCKETT." Returning to the journal we find the following : " While we were enjoying comparative quiet within our prison, horrible tragedies were going on without. Two men were sentenced by court-martial to be shot for desertion. As we sat by the window we saw the doomed men march down the street to the place of execution, surrounded by a seemingly thoughtless multitude. The infantry and cavalry were there to witness the awful spectacle, that the lesson of obedi- ence to military authority might be impressed upon the soldiers. "On the fifteenth of Fifth month our old guard was removed and we were placed under the care of General Daniel, who ordered us before him and sternly demanded whether we were ready to comply with his requisitions. We answered in the negative, and told him if it was wrong at first it was wrong now. He said he was a man of few words and wished to know no more about our creed than he already knew, but as we were so conscientious he would respect our scru- ples thus far ; he would not arm us nor require us to take any one's life, but woidd put us in a position to save the lives of those who were loyal to our cause by placing us in the front of the next battle, where we SOUTHERN HEROES. 269 would serve as breastworks to stop bullets. We told him that we would prefer to suffer wrong rather than to do wrong and the responsibility would not be on us, after which he thoughtfully replied : ' No, I suppose the responsibility will not be on you.' " At this moment I looked upon him with pity rather than with feelings of resentment for any treat- ment we had received, realizing that the time for ' an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth ' was passed away. " General Daniel was soon ordered to assist Gen- eral Lee, and before the time came for us to act as ' breastworks to stop bullets ' he was killed in battle. " On the 21st we were ordered to clear up the yard and cultivate flowers for the preservation of health, as the officers told us, and they said that this coidd in no way interfere with our scruples. We at once saw their motive, which was to have us commit ourselves to their authority. We told them that they had no right to demand of us, who were prisoners, such ser- vice as would lead directly to military requirements. The under-officer was much enraged, and after a time told us that he had reported us to headquarters, and that we were ordered to be shot that day at two o'clock ; that until that time we were to ' pack logs.' The soldiers then brought some logs and required us to take them up and carry them, which was a punish- ment frequently imposed for various offenses. We told them that we felt under no obligations to impose self-punishment, and could not do so. The soldiers 270 SOUTHERN HEROES. tied tliem to us and marched us up and down the street. " There was with us at that time a man named Blackmore, a Baptist, who refused to bear arms for the same reason as ourselves. He was soon after re- moved, and we understood that he died in camp. " As we were marched up and down the street an army-officer stepped up to us and asked why our con- sciences did not extend into our legs, saying : ' I see you carry the logs, and it would be much easier to carry a musket.' I replied that we compromised no principle ; that we went up and down the street as prisoners, not as soldiers ; that there was no example in Scripture where the apostles or disciples of Christ refused to go when taken as prisoners by the ruling- authorities ; on all occasions they endured the penalty where they could not conscientiously submit to the laws, but that they always asserted the duty and right to obey God rather than men. His countenance changed and he walked away, and I never saw him again. "At our first appearance many wicked expressions were heard, such as ' wearing the yoke ', ' bearing the cross of Christ,' etc., but this was soon changed, and when the logs were removed it was done with tender hands. Our pardon was asked by some who had been the most unkind. So these punishments intended as scourges seemed more like jewels. No more was said of the shooting, which was to have taken place at two o'clock. " Amid all, the Lord favored us to possess our souls SOUTHERN HEROES. 271 in patience, and our feeling of kindness caused every one to wonder, and we believe was the means of con- vincing many, both soldiers and citizens. " Soon after this, the officers separated us. My brother, Jesse D. Hockett, was sent to the old city jail, where he was kept for some time in the dungeon, a dark and doleful place for a man. I was kept among other prisoners. On one occasion I was allowed to visit Jesse, after which he was returned to the guard- house. Our health was now very j^oor. " On the eleventh of Sixth month, 1863, I was summoned to appear for trial by court-martial. I appeared on the thirteenth. The charges read were : ' Positive disobedience to orders when required to take arms and dinll.' " The judge-advocate asked me if I wished a law^- yer to plead my case. I told hini I did not wish it. He said my case was a grave one, and I had better have a lawyer. One could be had for f 100. I told him if allowed to speak for myself that was all the de- fense I asked. He said I could have that privilege. I then asked if that was the only charge there was against me. They said it was. I then asked if I gave no reason for refusing to drill. The lieutenant had been called to prove tliat I refused to drill. He was now called again to answer my cpiestion, and he said that I did ; that it was on account of religious scruples. I then told them that was no more than I had a constitutional right to do. They replied that the military code made no such provision. I said that was very likely, but the constitution was jjotent over 272 SOUTHERN HEROES. all laws of government, and no law could be rightfully enacted inconsistent therewith. The constitution as it then was secured to every man the right to liberty of conscience. I then asked if it was not known that I came into camp as a prisoner on account of religious scruples ; if ever there was a charge against me for not answering at roll-call except when reported on the sick list, or if I had ever attempted in any way to es- cape the custody of the authorities that held me. To this he replied : ' I never knew of any cause of com- plaint outside of the charges preferred against you.' " Among the many intriguing, ironical questions asked me was this : ' How was it that William Penn, one of the most distinguished men of your sect, so successfully fought the Indians in defense of his rights, if you cannot fight on the defensive ? ' It had been his understanding that Penn won great victories over the Indians. I told him if such was the case, he had been grossly misinformed ; that neither William Penn nor any of his religious adherents had ever been re- sponsible for one drop of Indian blood ; that he resorted to no carnal weapons, but overcame his ene- mies by the spirit that overcomes evil with good. I further told them that the State of North Carolina was first largely settled by Friends ; that the Indians regarded them as the peaceable sons of Penn and there was no war with them. After an extended in- terview, which seemed to interest all parties, I was returned to my prison-quarters to await the decision of the court-martial. This tribunal was composed of officers selected from a Georgia brigade who were very SOUTHERN HEROES. 273 little acquainted with Friends or tlieir principles. But they seemed more ready to hear and learn than many of larger acquaintance with them, but whose jealousy and prejudice in war times ran higher. During the trial I felt that there was much sympathy on their part with me, and all the courtesy was extended to me that could be shown toward a prisoner, although fre- quent allusions were made by the members of the court to the stringency of the laws they were under and the oath they had taken, " On the 22d inst. we were kindly visited by our dear friends, William Cox (a Friend minister) and Lazarus Pearson, by whom we sent letters home. Hitherto we had been denied the privilege of receiv- ing or sending letters unless they were examined by military officers. " On the 2Gth our dear friend, Needham Perkins (a Friend minister), also visited us and furnished us with a good supply of tracts, which we distributed among the soldiers. They seemed to appreciate them and gladly read them, while those sent from Charles- ton teaching that war was right were carelessly thrown away or used in lighting their pipes. " On the 3d of Seventh month, 1863, we fell into the hands of a new provost-guard, and had a repetition of former experiences. We received this day an accept- able and cheering letter from W. T. Cox. I was taken sick on the 7th, and for several days remained very ill, during which time my brother was badly abused and punished severely for refusing to do mili- tary service. 274 SOUTHERN HEROES. " Ou the 3d of Eighth month I was called out on dress-parade to receive with others the sentence of the court-martial. For desertion some were to have the letter D branded indelibly on their bodies, three inches broad. This was done in my presence with a hot iron, accompanied by the screams of the unhappy victims. There were similar jiunishments for other offenses. At last my turn came. I was sentenced to six months' hard labor in one of the military forts, bound with heavy ball and chain. Some of the sol- diers who had a high regard for and deep sympathy with me said they believed the sentence of the court- martial was in my case grossly perverted. They had overheard a conversation of the officers, from which tliey gathered that no sentence had been jjassed on me, and that clemency had been recommended. I was informed that all the officers accorded with this until it reached Jefferson Davis, who refused to sign the decision and recommended that examples be made of all offenders, by adequate punishment. " A prisoner who was tried by the same court- martial, the next day after my trial, told me on his return to prison that they were going to clear me. I asked why, and he replied : ' The first question they asked me was, " Are you a Quaker ? " I told them I was not, to which one of them said : " I am glad of that, for I never want anything more to do with them on this account." ' " They claimed to have charges against my brother, but he was never summoned before this tribunal. " On the 6th of Eighth month a new guard was SOUTHERN HEROES. 275 appointed, and on the 7th we were ordered to assist in unloading- ordnance ears for the government, and the officers ordered that we shoukl be pierced four inches deep with bayonets if we refused. On declin- ing to do this service my brother was pierced cruelly with bayonets, while I was hung up by the thumbs almost clear of the ground. After I had remained in this suffering position for some time, the corporal was told that he had no orders to tie up either of us, but to pierce us with bayonets, and that he had better obey orders. So I was untied and pierced with a bayonet, though slightly, perhaj)s on account of having already suffered unauthorized punishment. " On the 9th I took leave of my brother in the prison at Kinston, N. C, where we had together en- dured much suffering, and was taken to Fort Caswell to receive the sentence of the court-martial. That night we were lodged in prison at Wilmington, and the next day took a boat to Fort Caswell. On the morn- ing after my arrival I felt that it would be right to ask an interview with the commanding colonel, from a conviction of duty. My request was kindly granted and we had a pleasant interview, and I have always thought it a beneficial one. Colonel Jones seemed to be a man of more reason and discretion than many of his class, and his memory I shall ever cherish. " I told him I sought the interview in order to ex- plain to him the reasons why I could not comply with the demands upon me. He said that he had received a long communication from headquarters concerning my case, and thought he well understood the situa- 276 SOUTHERN HEROES. tion, but was instructed to carry out tlie sentence. He asked why we Friends could not furnish substi- tutes or do other government work if we were con- scientious about bearing arms. I answered : ' Sup- jjose I had an antipathy against thee and it was in my heart to take thy life, but not being desperate enough to do it myself, I, for one hundred or one thousand dollars, hired some ruffian to do it. Who would be responsible for thy blood ? ' To this he replied that I would be, of course, if I were the sole instigator of his death. " I then told him it was for this reason that we coukl not hire substitutes, who pledged themselves to shed blood, as the common duty of a soldier. Again, as fortifications are needful in time of war, should we take the place of soldiers to build them ? They would be placed in the ranks in our stead and sent to kill men. We, knowing these results, do not feel free to do a soldier's work. " We had much discussion following this, upon the subject of war, and admirably different was the colo- nel's conduct toward me from that of most of the offi- cers before whom I had been, who refused to hear any excuses on account of religion, saying they knew as much as they wanted to know on that subject. " Colonel Jones said the reasons I gave were sin- cere, and he felt disposed to favor me all he could. But he was not there to make laws, but to execute such orders as he received from higher authority, and he had taken an oath to that effect. " I tokl him I was not requiring him to take any SOUTHERN HEROES. 211 undue responsibility on himself. If it was right for him to take his high office and to perform the attend- ant acts of office, with any of which I could not com- ply, I was there to suffer the penalty ; but it was the privilege and duty of Christians to give a reason for their faith and the hope that is within them. " To all this he listened meditatively, but said he would have to send me to the prison. After a few hours the police came to take me to the smith-shop outside the fort, with orders to have me manacled with a chain to my leg, attached to a heavy ball. This was done with more apparent emotion on the part of the workman than on mine. The interview with the colonel had baen overheard by outsiders, and word seemed to have run through the entire camp that there was a Christian prisoner brought in on account of his religion. " At first the place seemed to me to be the worst I had ever seen, and the colonel had told me at the first of our interview that they had outlaws from the army and others of the worst class of men, yet I found more sympathy and kind treatment than at any other place. For several days I was not called for by the officer of the day, whose business it was to assign men work. " Plenty of opportunity was offered me for the dis- cussion of the war question. One man asked what would become of a nation if it should be invaded by another and none were ready to defend it. I an- swered that if the people were right on both sides there would be no need of defense, and if one side 278 SOUTHERN HEROES. were wrong the Lord would protect tlie right, if they trusted in Him, for ' Vengeance is mine ; I will re- pay, saith the Lord.' But when we sought to defend ourselves, we had no right to depend upon Divine pro- tection. The Hebrews under Pharaoh were not re- sponsible for one drop of blood that was shed in the exit from Egypt. The Lord delivered them, for they trusted in Him. " He rej)lied that we coidd not get nations to think alike, so we must take things as we find them. I told him the question should be whether the thing were right or wrong ; if wrong, we should not do evil, that good might come, but overcome evil with good. He replied that these arguments would do in time of peace, but the nations would have to be wonderfully reformed before these plans would work ; it would be an imjiossibility to change the minds of the peo]3le at once. I replied that individuals must begin the work of enlightening the people on the impolicies, injustice, and folly of war, as well as upon the conflict between its spirit and the precepts of the gospel. Being a little stirred, he said that the Bible sanctions war ; that David was a man after God's own heart, and he was a great warrior, for while Saul slew his thousands, David slew his tens of thousands, and destroyed his enemies by force of arms. I told him that the Bible was full of prophecies pointing to the advent of Christ as the Prince of Peace, upon whose shoulders should be the government ; that we were now in the gospel days when swords are to be beaten into ploughshares, and sj^ears into pruninghooks ; that Christ in his SOUTHERN HEROES. 279 teaching- clearly corroborated the proi^hecies, saying : ' It was said by them of old time, " an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth," but I say unto you, resist not evil.' Saint Paul, the chiefest of the apostles, with truly inspired knowledge of the Gospel, testifies : 'The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of the strongholds,' while the effects of carnal warfare are continually demoralizing instead of christianizing men. " These and similar interviews were repeated for days, as new officers came in, and I seemed favored with ready answers, sometimes to my own astonish- ment, for it was not of me, but of Him in whom I trusted, and to Him be all the glory. " After the arguments of the people about me for war were exhausted, they manifested an increased in- terest to learn more of the history and views of the Friends from the Christian prisoner, as I was called. There seemed manifest on the ])a.vt of the guards a desire to have the opportunity of guarding me in and out of the fort, and no o2:>portunity was lost for ear- nest inquiry after truth. " The orderly-sergeant seemed to be a man of ten- der regard, who treated me with resjject, and often went with me instead of sending a man. When I was released from the fort and sent back to Wilming- ton, he went with me to the boat instead of sending a police guard, and remained with me several hours in pleasant conversation until the boat started. He then bade me an affectionate adieu, with best wishes for my welfare and safety. 280 SOUTHERN HEROES. " The fort was surrounded by a wall of sand and turf, perhaps thirty feet high or more, with huge can- non mounted on its parapets. Within were gloomy prisons filled with guilty culprits behind ponderous iron doors, and an array of soldiers without. Yet, not- withstanding its gloomy appearance, it seemed to me as a secret hiding-place, and my chains as jewels, for they were taken as an evidence of my suffering for Christ's sake. " After having remained here about a week, which was spent in writing letters for the soldiers and con- versing about religion with many inquirers, I was informed by the sergeant that if I had awy prepara- tions to make before leaving the fort, I had better be doing it, as the colonel had decided to send me back to Wihnington. I was soon called for and taken to the shop. As the smith was absent at roll-call, a crowd soon gathered, anxiously questioning as to what the results would be. Only words of kindness and sympathy were heard. When told of the order to remove my chain, the smith said : ' In the first place, it ought never to have been put on such a man, and I consider it a burning shame to humanity.' He has- tily cut the chain and dashed it away with seeming contempt. His words and actions caused me to feel some anxiety on his account, for at Kinston, where I had been so long, they would have been regarded as treasonable. " I was satisfied that I had the sympathy of the colonel, and that he had the chain put on me as the lightest form of punishment to which he could resort SOUTHERN HEROES. 281 under the circumstances, and no work was at any time required of me. I had been sent to Fort Caswell under the custody of three armed soldiers, but Colonel Jones sent me back to Wilmington in care of a single guard. "On arriving in Wilmington, at ten o'clock at night. Major Sparrow, the provost-marshal at that time, refused to admit me that night, saying there was so much sickness, and so many were off duty in con- sequence, he could not furnish a guard. So my escort said we would have to return to the boat, which was fastened to the wharf. He remarked that he would have to guard me all night, not that he had any fear of me, but that it might not be well for him to be found off duty or asleep. I answered that I was aware of his responsibility as a soldier, and did not wish in any way to subject him to punishment, but I had a couple of blankets with me and felt like sleeping, so if he cared to sleep with me all would be well. He replied that he thought he would risk it, so placing his gun in one corner, he slept with me, more like friend with friend than prisoner and guard. In the morning I procured water and shaved and washed. I asked him if he would like to shave, and he gladly accepted the invitation, saying it was not often that the opportunity was offered him. " He asked me many questions concerning the prin- ciples and doctrines of Friends, and I answered them as best I could. He inquired why they were not more generally known, and said he had only heard of the Quakers or Friends in rather a disparaging way. 282 SOUTHERN HEROES. and knew but little about them. He said he would like to learn more about them, and asked me to send him some books setting forth their doctrine, if we ever got through this war. I had with me a good supply of tracts, expressing their views and Christian doctrines, and he received them gladly. At the proper time he delivered me to Major Sparrow and bade me an affectionate farewell. *' Major Sparrow was one of the pleasantest men I ever met, I conversed with him concerning the troubles of the times, and he said many things that surprised me. He placed me behind the iron doors, as I felt, not from his own choice, but from the neces- sity of the occasion. •■'The next day, 8/17, 1863, my brother Jesse was very unexpectedly brought to my prison. I had left him at Kinston. He knew of no reason for his being sent to Major Spari'ow. He was received kindly, the guards were dismissed, and Major Sparrow told him to sit down and wait until he had time to talk to him. He had many questions to ask concerning our history, and said : ' I think it would have been best if we had all been Quakers, so far as to have averted these calamities that are upon us.' " Behind the ponderous iron doors we heai'd little of the disturbances without, except from prisoners of either army who were brought into the prison, " For some unknown reason we were next sent to Goldsboro and placed in the guard-house there, but in a few days we were called out to the camp of the artillery company, in which we weie placed SOUTHERN HEROES. 283 at Kinston, it having' been removed to a place near Goldsboro. " The first lieutenant required us to take arms and drill at once, and if we refused, he said we should be transferred to another general who had expressed a desire to have some Quakers to ' show that he could bring us into subjugation,' and who ' would tie a rock to our necks and pitch us into the river the first time his orders were disobeyed.' We kindly dis- sented from his orders, and he sent us back to the guard-house, after which we were kindly treated as prisoners by all with whom we had to do. Colonel Pool was even more kind than the duties of his office strictly allowed. " When my wife and little son came to the city to visit me, he, without any solicitation, sent for me to report at his office, and kindly offered me a furlough, good for twenty -four hours, to pass anywhere in the city of Goldsboro to procure comfortable quarters for them, the furlough to be renewed each evening at nine o'clock, as long as my wife had a mind to stay in the city. On thanking him for his courtesy and kind- ness to me, only a Christian prisoner, he replied : ' No occasion. It is my duty to do as I would be done by, and your captain has told me that you were a man worthy of full confidence.' " From time to time during our stay here we were visited by our friend William Cox, the minister before alluded to, who lived sixteen miles away, and by numbers of other Friends. They brought us pro- visions, etc. 284 SOUTHERN HEROES. " Such was the opportunity for discourse with prisoners of both armies, as they were being passed back and forth, tliat it seemed more hke opening a mission-iield tlaan being in a military prison. Our time was often occupied with such interesting reli- gious service as to leave us the assurance that it had not all been spent for naught." " On the tenth of Eleventh month, 1863, we were discharged by the authorities, having remained in this prison since the twenty -first of Eighth month. As we were now set at full liberty, we repaired to our homes, where we found our families well, thankful for the protection and many favors we had received from the Father of all our sure mercies during the many trying ordeals through which we had passed." Himelius and Jesse Hockett had been kept from their homes one year, seven months and six days. During this time their wives had ploughed the fields and raised crops to support their families, and had manufactured their clothing from cotton and wool grown upon their little farms. H. M. Hockett's wife's health was impaired, and she has never been as well as before, but still these sisters speak with pride of their husbands' loyalty to their principles, and rejoice that they were enabled to do that which fell to their lot, though hardship and trial w^ere theirs. They have since been favored to see their children grow up around them, have families of their own and become successful citizens, while upon their old home- stead they quietly enjoy their declining years, rejoicing in the peaceful days that have come to their South- SOUTHERN HEROES. 285 land. They know that the day will soon come when they will be summoned to a higher tribunal than that of any military court. As they continue to put their trust in the same Almighty Friend who sustained them in the dark days of privation and suffering, they humbly believe that by grace, through faith in the Prince of Peace, they will be presented faultless before the Father with exceeding great joy. CHAPTER XIV. Prayer-strengthened for the trial, come together, Put on the harness for the moral fight, And with the blessing of your Heavenly Father Maintain the right. Whittier. We have now followed tlie three Ilockett brothers of Centre meeting through their trying experiences. There were other members of that meeting, who had been with them at school and had met with them from week to week since boyhood in the old log meeting- house on the hill. They were of the same blood and faith, and were as willing as the brothers to sacri- fice their lives for their faith. They were genuine disciples of George Fox, of whom the soldiers said : " He is as pure as a bell ; as stiff as a tree." Many were pressed into the army, but none of them could be made to fight. Simon Kemp was taken to Drury's Bluff and at- tached to the 5th North Carolina regiment. As he refused to receive the bounty money, equipments or clothing, after weeks of trial and imjarisonment, he was allowed to pay the tax. Solomon and Kelby Hodgin hid in the woods for a long time, but finally paid the years of the war. Allen T. Tomliiison spent most o( his time in visiting the authorities anil in sei'uriug tho reU>ase of Friends. Enos A. Blair, a nuMuber o( Springli(>ld nn^et- ing, was arrested, but tinally sueeeinled iu obtaining exemption ]Kipers. His son, Frank S. Blair, t^nly seventeen years old, was eonserijUed while at school, and his father paid the tax fi>r him alst). One day while Sidney Tomlinson ami other Friends were riding home from meeting on hi>rseba«'k, a SOII'lllh.ltN IllJtOlCS. 2H0 niMiilicr ol iiHii l)(Ioii;.'i)iM to WIi<(;(;n a l''ri<;nd waH forc<;d into the artriy and cnt'-i-cfj ii|)on inilit.'uy diitieH, thouj^li r(!lu<;tantly, for Ik; waH at lurart not only op- [)OH<;d to th(! war hut aJHO loyal to tin; Union. ()i\ on<; occianion, amid his HiippoHc;*! fricndH, he remarked that he wi-ilied ;i,ll the men, North ;i,nd South, would ^r> home :ind leiive the luhtrH who hroij;4ht on tlx; wai' to fi;^ht it out. TImh H|)(;eeh, jjoHHihly in an exaj:jgcrated foi'm, was re|)ort<-d to the ofliefirH ; the man was tried hy eouit-m:irti;il ;ind senteneed to he shot ;it noon th;it d;iy. lie wrote a, few words of farewell to his wife and mf