Sue and the Civil War

Sue’s eyes were on the rope thrown over the rafters of her father’s big barn. The Tory soldiers had caught her and her sister Amanda riding horses. They had already drove off all their cows and horses. Now the Tories believed the rumor that the Davenports had some fast horses hidden. The Tories were telling her that they would hang her if she didn’t tell where the horses were hidden. Sue thought of her father and brothers all fighting the Tories. They needed to keep those horses. Sue thought of her boyfriend Mote whose grandmother was Little Red Fox. He was smart, he would know what to say. “Oh, Amanda, we’ve got to go to the house and help Mama cook supper for the General and his men. Quickly the Tories left. She had did it! When she was younger the Yankees would set her up on the table and say “Now tell us where your Daddy and brothers are.” She would get sassy with them and it would tickle them. The Yankees had already taken all they had. Searching for money they would rip up their big fine feather beds and pillows. The women and children would refill them with dried corn shucks. They wouldn’t come out of the ho.es so bad. The soldiers would even steal them.

Southern women had a hard time trying to feed their children and themselves. People up north didn’t have to suffer like we did. We used to have negroes to do it and white women didn’t have to do it. In the north the women always did it.

Raise a garden and try to make a crop and soldiers would gather it all. Both sides took their livestock and food. The south seldom had enough food and supplies. As they moved along, the people gave them what they could. The Yankees would have to halt to let food and supplies catch up with them. Or they could “live off the land.” South soldiers especially were pitiful in looks and equipment. Most of them wore their own clothes and used their own guns.

Sue’s family suffered no bad troubles from the soldiers.

Two old maid neighbors run out of food. There was an old stiff cowhide hanging on the fence. They worked the hide off the fence and boiled it for days. They finally ate it all. They didn’t starve.

The Yankees outnumbered the South and it was a short war.

One of Sue’s brothers come walking home after the war, he had been in prison. His Mama saw him coming. He told her to cook him a good supper. She did and he couldn’t eat a cup full. His stomach had just growed up. He didn’t live very long.

Her father and other brothers all come home from the war safely.

The Davenport tavern was on a hill in Jefferson County, Alabama. Meals were served. Bedrooms for travelers had a big white china wash basin and water pitcher. They could park their buggies or wagons and stay a day or a week. The horses and livestock would be fed and watered. Slaves they owned to help them were treated like humans. The plantation across from them had lots of slaves. There was a certain place off for punishment. The slaves were put across a barrel and whipped.

Sue’s mother would hear them and tore out down the hill. She would plead with the overseer, “Turn him loose. Beat on me.” Sometimes she could ease their punishment. Her husband and sons would run and grab hold of her. Trying to hush and stop her. Maybe that’s where Sue got her impetuousness. Her parents worried about Sue. She wasn’t confident enough to help cook. She had a friend visiting and the friend broke one of the valuable china washbasins. Sue’s mother didn’t say a word to her and she whipped Sue.