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THE MEMORIES OF FIFTY YEARS:
Containing
Brief Biographical Notices of Distinguished
Americans, and Anecdotes of
Remarkable Men;
Interspersed with Scenes and Incidents Occurring
during a Long Life of Observation Chiefly
Spent in the Southwest
by
W. H. SPARKS
Philadelphia:
Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger.
Macon Ga.: J. W. Burke & Co.
Stereotyped by J. Fagan & Son.
Printed by Moore Bros.
1870
TO
MY BROTHER AND NEPHEW,
THE HONORABLE OVID GARTEN SPARKS,
AND
COLONEL THOMAS HARDEMAN,
OF MACON, GEORGIA.
This Volume is Dedicated
BY THEIR AGED AND AFFECTIONATE RELATIVE, TRUSTING
THEY WILL ESTEEM IT, WHEN HE SHALL HAVE
PASSED TO ETERNITY, AS SOME EVIDENCE
OF THE AFFECTION
BORNE THEM BY
THE AUTHOR.
PREFACE.
In the same week, and within three days of the same date, I received
from three Judges of the Supreme Court, of three States, the request
that I would record my remembrances of the men and things I had known
for fifty years. The gentlemen making this request were Joseph Henry
Lumpkin, of Georgia; William L. Sharkey, of Mississippi, and James G.
Taliaferro, of Louisiana.
From Judge Sharkey the request was verbal; from the other two it came
in long and, to me, cherished letters. All three have been my intimate
friends--Lumpkin from boyhood; the others for nearly fifty years.
Judge Lumpkin has finished his work in time, and gone to his reward.
Judges Sharkey and Taliaferro yet live, both now over seventy years of
age. The former has retired from the busy cares of office, honored,
trusted, and beloved; the latter still occupies a seat upon the Bench
of the Supreme Court of Louisiana.
These men have all sustained unreproached reputations, and retained
through their long lives the full confidence of the people of their
respective States. I did not feel at liberty to resist their appeal: I
had resided in all three of the States; had known long and intimately
their people; had been extensively acquainted with very many of the
most prominent men of the nation--and in the following pages is my
compliance.
I have trusted only to my memory, and to a journal kept for many
years, when a younger man than I am to-day--hastening to the
completion of my seventieth year. Doubtless, I have made many mistakes
of minor importance; but few, I trust, as to matters of fact. Of one
thing I am sure: nothing has been wilfully written which can wound the
feelings of any.
Many things herein contained may not be of general interest; but none
which will not find interested readers; for while some of the
individuals mentioned may not be known to common fame, the incidents
in connection with them deserve to be remembered by thousands who knew
them.
These Memories are put down without system, or order, as they have
presented themselves, and have been related in a manner which I have
attempted to make entertaining and instructive, without being prolix
or tedious. They will be chiefly interesting to the people of the
South; though much may, and, I hope, will be read by those of the
North. Some of my happiest days have been passed in the North: at
Cambridge some of my sons have been educated, and some of my dearest
friends have been Northern men. Despite the strife which has gone far
toward making us in heart a divided people, I have a grateful memory
of many whose homes and graves were and are in New England.
Would that this strife had never been! But it has come, and I cannot
forego a parent's natural feelings when mourning the loss of sons
slain in the conflict, or the bitterness arising therefrom toward
those who slew them. Yet, as I forgive, I hope to be forgiven.
There are but few now left who began the journey of life with me.
Those of this number who still sojourn in our native land will find
much in these pages familiar to their remembrance, and some things,
the reading of which may revive incidents and persons long forgotten.
In the West, in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Texas, there are
many--the descendants of those who participated in events transpiring
fifty years ago--who have listened at the parental hearth to their
recital. To these I send this volume greeting; and if they find
something herein to amuse and call up remembrances of the past, I
shall feel gratified.
To the many friends I have in the Southwest, and especially in
Louisiana and Mississippi, where I have sojourned well-nigh fifty
years, and many of whom have so often urged upon me the writing of
these Memories, I commit the book, and ask of them, and of all into
whose hands it may fall, a lenient criticism, a kindly recollection,
and a generous thought of our past intercourse. It is an inexorable
fate that separates us, and I feel it is forever. This sad thought is
alleviated, however, by the consciousness that the few remaining sands
of life are falling at the home of my birth; and that when the end
comes, as very soon it must, I shall be placed to sleep amid my
kindred in the land of my nativity.
THE AUTHOR.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
REVOLUTIONARY TRADITIONS.
Middle Georgia--Colonel David Love--His Widow--Governor Dunmore--
Colonel Tarleton--Bill Cunningham--Colonel Fannin--My Grandmother's
Bible--Solomon's Maxim Applied--Robertus Love--The Indian Warrior--
Dragon Canoe--A Buxom Lass--General Gates--Marion--Mason L. Weems
--Washington--"Billy Crafford"
CHAPTER II.
PIONEER LIFE.
Settlement of Middle Georgia--Prowling Indians--Scouts and their
Dogs--Classes of Settlers--Prominence of Virginians--Causes of
Distinction--Clearing--Log-Rolling--Frolics--Teachers Cummings and
Duffy--The Schoolmaster's Nose--Flogging--Emigration to Alabama
CHAPTER III.
THE GEORGIA COMPANY.
Yazoo Purchase--Governor Matthews--James Jackson--Burning of the Yazoo
Act--Development of Free Government--Constitutional Convention--Slavery:
Its Introduction and Effects
CHAPTER IV.
POLITICAL DISPUTATIONS.
Baldwin--A Yankee's Political Stability--The Yazoo Question--Party
Feuds and Fights--Deaf and Dumb Ministers--Clay--Jackson--Buchanan--
Calhoun--Cotton and Free Trade--The Clay and Randolph Duel
CHAPTER V.
GEORGIA'S NOBLE SONS.
A Minister of a Day--Purity of Administration--Then and Now--Widow
Timberlake--Van Buren's Letter--Armbrister and Arbuthnot--Old
Hickory Settles a Difficulty--A Cause of the Late War--Honored Dead
CHAPTER VI.
POPULAR CHARACTERISTICS.
A Frugal People--Laws and Religion--Father Pierce--Thomas W. Cobb--
Requisites of a Political Candidate--A Farmer-Lawyer--Southern
Humorists
CHAPTER VII.
WITS AND FIRE-EATERS.
Judge Dooly--Lawyers and Blacksmiths--John Forsyth--How Juries were
Drawn--Gum-Tree _vs._ Wooden-Leg--Preacher-Politicians--Colonel
Gumming--George McDuffie
CHAPTER VIII.
FIFTY YEARS AGO.
Governor Matthews--Indians--Topography of Middle Georgia--A New
Country and its Settlers--Beaux and Belles--Early Training--Jesuit
Teachers--A Mother's Influence--The Jews--Homely Sports--The Cotton
Gin--Camp-Meetings
CHAPTER IX.
PEDAGOGUES AND DEMAGOGUES.
Education--Colleges--School-Days--William and Mary--A Substitute--
Boarding Around--Rough Diamonds--Caste--George M. Troup--A Scotch
Indian--Alexander McGilvery--The McIntosh Family--Button Gwinnett
--General Taylor--Matthew Talbot--Jesse Mercer--An Exciting Election
CHAPTER X.
INDIAN TREATIES AND DIFFICULTIES.
The Creeks--John Quincy Adams--Hopothlayohola--Indian Oratory--Sulphur
Springs--Treaties Made and Broken--An Independent Governor--Colonels
John S. McIntosh, David Emanuel Twiggs, and Duncan Clinch--General
Gaines--Christianizing the Indians--Cotton Mather--Expedient and
Principle--The Puritanical Snake
CHAPTER XI.
POLITICAL CHANGES.
Aspirants for Congress--A New Organization--Two Parties--A Protective
Tariff--United States Bank--The American System--Internal Improvements
--A Galaxy of Stars--A Spartan Mother's Advice--Negro-Dealer--
Quarter-Races--Cock-Pitting--Military Blunders on Both Sides--Abner
Green's Daughter--Andrew Jackson--Gwinn--Poindexter--Ad Interim--
Generals by Nature as Civil Rulers
CHAPTER XII.
GOSSIP.
Unrequited Love--Popping the Question--Practical Joking--Satan Let
Loose--Rhea, but not Rhea--Teachings of Nature--H.S. Smith
CHAPTER XIII.
INFLUENCE OF CHILDHOOD.
First Impressions--Fortune--Mirabeau B. Lamar--Dr. Alonzo Church--Julius
Cæsar--L.Q.C. Lamar--Texan Independence--Colquitt--Lumpkin--What a Great
Man Can Do in One Day--Charles J. Jenkins
CHAPTER XIV.
A REVOLUTIONARY VETERAN.
Tapping Reeve--James Gould--Colonel Benjamin Talmadge--The Execution
of Major André--Character of Washington--A Breach of Discipline--
Burr and Hamilton--Margaret Moncrief--Cowles Meade
CHAPTER XV.
CHANGE OF GOVERNMENT.
Governor Wolcott--Toleration--Mr. Monroe--Private Life of Washington
--Thomas Jefferson--The Object and Science of Government--Court
Etiquette--Nature the Teacher and Guide in all Things
CHAPTER XVI.
PARTY PRINCIPLES.
Origin of Parties--Federal and Republican Peculiarities--Jefferson's
Principles and Religion--Democracy--Virginia and Massachusetts
Parties--War with France--Sedition Law--Lyman Beecher--The Almighty
Dollar--"Hail Columbia" and "Yankee Doodle"
CHAPTER XVII.
CONGRESS IN ITS BRIGHTEST DAYS.
Missouri Compromise--John Randolph's Juba--Mr. Macon--Holmes and
Crawford--Mr. Clay's Influence--James Barbour--Philip P. Barbour--
Mr. Pinkney--Mr. Beecher, of Ohio--"Cuckoo, Cuckoo!"--National Roads
--William Lowndes--William Roscoe--Duke of Argyle--Louis McLean--
Whig and Democratic Parties
CHAPTER XVIII.
FRENCH AND SPANISH TERRITORY.
Settlers on the Tombigbee and Mississippi Rivers--La Salle--Natchez
--Family Apportionment--The Hill Country--Hospitality--Benefit of
African Slavery--Capacity of the Negro--His Future
CHAPTER XIX.
THE NATCHEZ TRADITIONS.
Natchez--Mizezibbee; or, The Parent of Many Waters--Indian Mounds--
The Child of the Sun--Treatment of the Females--Poetic Marriages--
Unchaste Maids and Pure Wives--Walking Archives--The Profane Fire--
Alahoplechia--Oyelape--The Chief with a Beard
CHAPTER XX.
EXPLORATION OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY.
Chicago--Crying Indians--Chickasaws--De Soto--Feast of the Great
Sun--Cane-Knives--Love-stricken Indian Maiden--Rape of the Natchez
--Man's Will--Subjugation of the Waters--The Black Man's Mission--Its
Decade
CHAPTER XXI.
TWO STRANGE BEINGS.
Romance of Western Life--Met by Chance--Parting on the Levee--Meeting
at the Sick-Bed--Convalescent--Love-Making--"Home, Sweet Home"--
Theological Discussion--Uncle Tony--Wild, yet Gentle--An Odd
Family--The Adventurer Speculates
CHAPTER XXII.
THE ROMANCE CONTINUED.
Father Confessor--Open Confession--The Unread Will--Old Tony's
Narrative--Squirrel Shooting--The Farewell Unsaid--Brothers-in-Law--
Farewell Indeed
CHAPTER XXIII.
WHEN SUCCESSFUL, RIGHT; WHEN NOT, WRONG.
Territorial
Mississippi--Wilkinson--Adams--Jefferson--Warren--Claiborne--Union of
the Factions--Colonel Wood--Chew--David Hunt--Joseph Dunbar--Society of
Western Mississippi--Pop Visits of a Week to Tea--The Horse "Tom" and
his Rider--Our Grandfathers' Days--An Emigrant's Outfit--My
Share--George Poindexter--A Sudden Opening of a Court of Justice--The
Caldwell and Gwinn Duel--Jackson's Opposition to the Governor of
Mississippi
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE SILVER-TONGUED ORATOR.
John A. Quitman--Robert J. Walker--Robert H. Adams--From a Cooper-Shop
to the United States Senate--Bank Monopoly--Natchez Fencibles--Scott
in Mexico--Thomas Hall--Sargent S. Prentiss--Vicksburg--Single-speech
Hamilton--God-inspired Oratory--Drunk by Absorption--Killing
a Tailor--Defence of Wilkinson
CHAPTER XXV.
A FINANCIAL CRASH.
A Wonderful Memory--A Nation Without Debt--Crushing the National
Bank--Rise of State Banks--Inflated Currency--Grand Flare-up--Take
Care of Yourself--Commencing Anew--Failing to Reach an Obtuse
Heart--King Alcohol does his Work--Prentiss and Foote--Love Me,
Love my Dog--A Noble Spirit Overcome--Charity Covereth a Multitude
of Sins
CHAPTER XXVI.
ACADIAN FRENCH SETTLERS.
Sugar _vs._ Cotton--Acadia--A Specimen of Mississippi French Life--
Bayou La Fourche--The Great Flood--Theological Arbitration--A
Rustic Ball--Old-Fashioned Weddings--Creoles and Quadroons--The
Planter--Negro Servants--Gauls and Anglo-Normans--Antagonism of Races
CHAPTER XXVII.
ABOLITION OF LICENSED GAMBLING.
Baton Rouge--Florida Parishes--Dissatisfaction--Where there's a Will,
there's a Way--Storming a Fort on Horseback--Annexation at the Point
of the Poker--Raphignac and Larry Moore--Fighting the "Tiger"--Carrying
a Practical Joke too Far--A Silver Tea-Set
CHAPTER XXVIII.
THREE GREAT JUDGES.
A Speech in Two Languages--Long Sessions--Matthews, Martin, and Porter
--A Singular Will--A Scion of '98--Five Hundred Dollars for a Little
Fun with the Dogs--Cancelling a Note
CHAPTER XXIX.
AMERICANIZING LOUISIANA.
Powers of Louisiana Courts--Governor William C.C. Claiborne--Cruel
O'Reilly--Lefrenier and Noyan Executed--A Dutch Justice--Edward
Livingston--A Caricature of General Jackson--Stephen Mazereau--A
Speech in Three Languages--John R. Grymes--Settling a Ca. Sa.--Batture
Property--A Hundred Thousand Dollar Fee
CHAPTER XXX.
DIVISION OF NEW ORLEANS INTO MUNICIPALITIES.
American Hotel--Introduction of Steamboats--Faubourg St. Mary--Canal
Street--St. Charles Hotel--Samuel J. Peters--James H. Caldwell--Fathers
of the Municipality--Bernard Marigny--An Ass--A.B. Roman
CHAPTER XXXI.
BLOWING UP THE LIONESS.
Doctor Clapp--Views and Opinions--Universal Destiny--Alexander Barrow
--E.D. White--Cross-Breed, Irish Renegade, and Acadian--A Heroic
Woman--The Ginseng Trade--I-I-I'll D-d-die F-f-first
CHAPTER XXXII.
GRADUAL EXTINCTION OF THE RED MAN.
Line Creek Fifty Years Ago--Hopothlayohola--McIntosh--Undying Hatred--A
Big Pow-wow--Massacre of the McIntoshes--Nehemathla--Onchees--The Last
of the Race--A Brave Warrior--A White Man's Friendship--The
Death-Song--Tuskega; or, Jim's Boy
CHAPTER XXXIII.
FUN, FACT, AND FANCY.
Eugenius Nesbitt--Washington Poe--Yelverton P. King--Preparing to
Receive the Court--Walton Tavern, in Lexington--Billy Springer, of
Sparta--Freeman Walker--An Augusta Lawyer--A Georgia Major--Major
Walker's Bed--Uncle Ned--Discharging a Hog on His Own Recognizance
--Morning Admonition and Evening Counsel--A Mother's Request--
Invocation--Conclusion
THE MEMORIES OF FIFTY YEARS.
CHAPTER I.
REVOLUTIONARY TRADITIONS.
MIDDLE GEORGIA--COLONEL DAVID LOVE--HIS WIDOW--GOVERNOR DUNMORE--
COLONEL TARLETON--BILL CUNNINGHAM--COLONEL FANNIN--MY GRANDMOTHER'S
BIBLE--SOLOMON'S MAXIM APPLIED--ROBERTUS LOVE--THE INDIAN WARRIOR--
DRAGON CANOE--A BUXOM LASS--GENERAL GATES--MARION--MASON L. WEEMS--
WASHINGTON--"BILLY CRAFFORD."
My earliest memories are connected with the first settlement of Middle
Georgia, where I was born. My grandparents on the mother's side, were
natives of North Carolina; and, I believe, of Anson county. My
grandfather, Colonel David Love, was an active partisan officer in the
service of the Continental Congress. He died before I was born; but my
grandmother lived until I was seventeen years of age. As her oldest
grandchild, I spent much of my time, in early boyhood, at her home
near the head of Shoulderbone Creek in the county of Green. She was a
little, fussy, Irish woman, a Presbyterian in religion, and a very
strict observer of all the duties imposed upon her sect, especially in
keeping holy the Sabbath day. All her children were grown up, married,
and, in the language of the time, "gone away." She was in truth a lone
woman, busying herself in household and farming affairs. With a few
negroes, and a miserably poor piece of land, she struggled in her
widowhood with fortune, and contrived, with North Carolina frugality
and industry, not only to make a decent living, but to lay up
something for a rainy day, as she phrases it. In her visits to her
fields and garden, I ran by her side and listened to stories of Tory
atrocities and Whig suffering in North Carolina during the Revolution.
The infamous Governor Dunmore, the cruel Colonel Tarleton, and the
murderous and thieving Bill Cunningham and Colonel Fannin, both
Tories, and the latter natives to the soil, were presented graphically
to me in their most hateful forms. In truth, before I had attained my
seventh year, I was familiar with the history of the partisan warfare
waged between Whig and Tory in North and South Carolina, from 1776 to
1782, from this good but garrulous old lady. I am not so certain she
was good: she had a temper of her own, and a will and a way of her
own; and was good-natured only when permitted this way without
opposition, or cross. Perhaps I retain a more vivid memory of these
peculiar traits than of any others characterizing her. She permitted
no contradiction, and exacted implicit obedience, and this was well
understood by everything about her. She was strict and exacting, and
had learned from Solomon that to "spare the rod was to spoil the
child." She read the Bible only; and it was the only book in the
house. This Bible is still in existence; it was brought by my
grandfather from Europe, and is now covered with the skin of a fish
which he harpooned on his return voyage, appropriating the skin to
this purpose in 1750. She had use for no other book, not even for an
almanac, for at any moment she could tell the day of the month, the
phase of the moon and the day General Washington captured Cornwallis;
as also the day on which Washington died. Her reverence for the memory
of my grandfather was idolatry. His cane hung with his hat just where
he had habitually placed them during his latter days. His saddle and
great sea-chest were preserved with equal care, and remained
undisturbed from 1798 to 1817, precisely as he left them. I ventured
to remove the cane upon one occasion; and, with a little negro or two,
was merrily riding it around in the great lumber-room of the house,
where scarcely any one ever went, when she came in and caught me. The
pear-tree sprouts were immediately put into requisition, and the whole
party most mercilessly thrashed. From that day forward the old
buckhorn-headed cane was an awful reminder of my sufferings. She was
careful not to injure the clothing of her victims, and made her
appeals to the unshielded cuticle, and with a heavy hand for a small
woman.
It was an ill-fashioned but powerfully-built house, and remains a
monument to this day of sound timber and faithful work, braving time
and the storm for eighty-two years. It was the first framed house
built in the county, and I am sure, upon the poorest spot of land
within fifty miles of where it stands. Here was born my uncle,
Robertus Love, who was the first white child born in the State west of
the Ogeechee River.
Colonel Love, my grandfather, was eccentric in many of his opinions,
and was a Puritan in religious faith. Oliver Cromwell was his model of
a statesman, and Praise-God Barebones his type of a Christian. While
he was a boy his father married a second time, and, as is very
frequently the case, there was no harmony between the step-mother and
step-son. Their jarrings soon ripened into open war. To avoid
expulsion from the paternal roof he "bundled and went." Nor did he
rest until, in the heart of the Cherokee nation of Indians, he found a
home with Dragon Canoe, then the principal warrior of the nation, who
resided in a valley amid the mountains, and which is now Habersham
County. With this chief, who at the time was young, he remained some
four years, pursuing the chase for pleasure and profit. Thus
accumulating a large quantity of peltries, he carried them on
pack-horses to Charleston, and thence went with them to Europe. After
disposing of his furs, which proved profitable, he wandered on foot
about Europe for some eighteen months, and then, returning to London,
he embarked for America.
During all this time he had not heard from his family. Arriving at
Charleston he made his way back to the neighborhood of his birth. He
was ferried across the Pedee river by a buxom lass, who captured his
heart. Finding his father dead, he gathered up the little patrimony
left him in his father's will, should he ever return to claim it: he
then returned to the neighborhood of his sweetheart of the ferry; and,
being a fine-looking man of six feet three inches, with great blue
eyes, round and liquid; and, Othello-like, telling well the story of
his adventures, he very soon beguiled the maiden's heart, and they
were made one. About this time came off the battles of Concord and
Lexington, inaugurating the Revolution. It was not, however, until
after the declaration of independence, that he threw aside the plough
and shouldered the musket for American independence.
That portion of North Carolina in which he resided had been mainly
peopled by emigrants from Scotland. The war progressing into the
South, found nearly all of these faithful in their allegiance to
Britain. The population of English descent, in the main, espoused the
cause of the colonies. With his neighbors Love was a favorite; he was
very fleet in a foot-race, had remarkable strength; but, above all,
was sagacious and strong of will. Such qualities, always appreciated
by a rude people, at that particular juncture brought their possessor
prominently forward, and he was chosen captain of a company composed
almost to a man of his personal friends and acquaintances. Uniting
himself with the regiment of Colonel Lynch, just then organized, and
which was ordered to join the North Carolina line, they marched at
once to join General Gates, then commanding in the South. Under the
command of this unfortunate general he remained until after the battle
of Camden. Here Gates experienced a most disastrous defeat, and the
whole country was surrendered to the British forces.
South Carolina and North Carolina, especially their southern portions,
were entirely overrun by the enemy, who armed the Tories and turned
them loose to ravage the country. Gates's army was disorganized, and
most of those who composed it from the Carolinas returned to their
homes. Between these and the Scotch Tories, as the Loyalists were
termed, there was a continual partisan strife, each party resorting to
the most cruel murders, burning and destroying the homes and the
property of each other. Partisan bands were organized by each, and
under desperate leaders did desperate deeds. It was then and there
that Marion and Fanning became conspicuous, and were respectively the
terror of Whigs and Tories.
There were numerous others of like character, though less efficient
and less conspicuous. The exploits of such bands are deemed beneath
the dignity of history, and now only live in the memories of those who
received them traditionally from the actors, their associates or
descendants. Those acts constitute mainly the tragic horrors of war,
and evidence the merciless inhumanity of enraged men, unrestrained by
civil or moral law. Injuries he deems wanton prompt the passions of
his nature to revenge, and he hastens to retaliate upon his enemy,
with increased horrors, their savage brutalities.
As the leader of a small band of neighbors who had united for
protection and revenge, Colonel Love became conspicuous for his
courage and cruelty. It was impossible for these, his associates, as
for their Tory neighbors and enemies, to remain at their homes, or
even to visit them, except at night, and then most stealthily. The
country abounds with swamps more or less dense and irreclaimable,
which must always remain a hiding-place for the unfortunate or
desperate. In these the little bands by day were concealed, issuing
forth at night to seek for food or spoils. Their families were often
made the victims of revenge; and instances were numerous where feeble
women and little children were slain in cold blood by neighbors long
and familiarly known to each other, in retaliation of like atrocities
perpetrated by their husbands, sons, or brothers.
It was a favorite pastime with my grandmother, when the morning's work
was done, to uncover her flax-wheel, seat herself, and call me to sit
by her, and, after my childish manner, read to her from the "Life of
General Francis Marion," by Mason L. Weems, the graphic account of the
general's exploits, by the venerable parson. There was not a story in
the book that she did not know, almost as a party concerned, and she
would ply her work of flax-spinning while she gave me close and
intense attention. At times, when the historian was at fault in his
facts--and, to say the truth, that was more frequently the case than
comports with veracious history--she would cease the impelling motion
of her foot upon the pedal of her little wheel, drop her thread, and,
gently arresting the fly of her spool, she would lift her iron-framed
spectacles, and with great gravity say: "Read that again. Ah! it is
not as it happened, your grandfather was in that fight, and I will
tell you how it was." This was so frequently the case, that now, when
more than sixty years have flown, I am at a loss to know, if the
knowledge of most of these facts which tenaciously clings to my
memory, was originally derived from Weems's book, or my grandmother's
narrations. In these forays and conflicts, whenever my grandfather was
a party, her information was derived from him and his associates, and
of course was deemed by her authentic; and whenever these differed
from the historian's narrative, his, of consequence, was untrue.
Finally, Weems, upon one of his book-selling excursions, which simply
meant disposing of his own writings, came through her neighborhood,
and with the gravity of age, left verbally his own biography with Mrs.
McJoy, a neighbor; this made him, as he phrased it, General
Washington's preacher. He was never after assailed as a lying author:
but whenever his narrative was opposed to her memory, she had the
excuse for him, that his informant had deceived him.
To have seen General Washington, even without having held the holy
office of his preacher, sanctified in her estimation any and every
one. She had seen him, and it was the especial glory of her life. Yes,
she had seen him, and remembered minutely his eyes, his hair, his
mouth and his hands--and even his black horse, with a star in his
face, and his one white foot and long, sweeping tail. So often did I
listen to the story, that in after boyhood I came to believe I had
seen him also, though his death occurred twenty days before I was
born. My dear, good mother has often told me that but for an attack of
ague, which kept the venerable lady from our home for a month or more,
I should have been honored with bearing the old hero's name through
life. So intent was she in this particular, that she never liked my
being named after Billy Crafford (for so she pronounced his name) for
whom the partiality of my father caused him to name me. Few remain to
remember the horrors of this partisan warfare. The very traditions are
being obliterated by those of the recent civil war, so rife with
scenes and deeds sufficiently horrible for the appetite of the curious
in crime and cruelty.