Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 December 1888 — SKEERT LUCY. [ARTICLE]

SKEERT LUCY.

A Story of War Times in Georgia and - a Mother’s Courage. Atlanta Cotu-tltufion. ’ “Skeery Lucy—that’s what they called her,” said Plunkett as'he chunked the fit-e and seated himself nr the corner. “As a little girl at school the teacher called her ‘Timid Lucy,’ but all the scholars knowed her as ‘Skeery Lucy,’ for she went by that name among all the settlement folks. “When she growed up an got married she was just the same, and When John, her old man, would be a little late in getting home at night, he’d find her shut up tight in the house with all the doors locked, and every table and old bench and chairs piled up ergin them, and when John would knock at the door and tell her who it was, he’d have to stand and wait till she moved these things away before he could open the door, and then he’d sfeold her for being such a dunce, but she’d just laugh and say: “You knowed I was ‘skeery’ afore you married me.’ “The name of ‘Skeery Lucy’ clung to her for a long time, and I guess she deserved it, for she’d squeal at a lizard or a frog, and take a fit almost if she seed a snake, but when old Sherman came down here she (lone what most any man woifld erbin afraid to do, an’ they quit calling her ‘Skeery Lucy’ after that, and that’s what I to tell you erbout. “She was left with four little children to scuffle for when John went ofT to Virginia, and it was mighty hard getting along at best, but as the armies got nearer and nearer things got scarcer and scarcer, and Lucy got scarier than ever The big guns could be seen for a long time before we seed the Yankees, and Lucy just looked like she couldn’t stand it, and the folks in the settlement said she’d die some day just from fright and anxiety. “But everybody had to scuffle, and one morning Lucy waked up with not a c.nst of bread in the house, and the children were swinging onto her dress and apron crying for something to eat, and there was no other way but for her to start out and get a little meal for ’em. She shut the children up in the house amj put out across the field to the mill, and they, poor little things, had been taught by their mammy to be afraid, and there they sat, all in a huddle, as scared as rabbits at everything that cracked or made a fuss, and whispered to each other. “Sherman’s armv was on the move, making for the railroad —they’d got down the night before and Lucy didn’t know it. , “Hardee’s army was moving to meet the Yankees and to keep them from the railroad, and Lucy didn’t know nothing er ’bout that. 4, She had just got to the mill and stepped upon the platform when down through the woods came Hardee’s line of battle at double quick, and before she had time to think they were past, throwed out skirmishers and were expecting every minute to meet the Yankees. “Sherman’s line was coming toward Hardee, and it was only a question of a few minutes till the fight would begin. “Lucy thought of hpr little children, shutrUjA in the house, and knowed how scared they’d be when they heard so many men marching. “She started in a run toward her house, intending to get there before Hardee’s troops did. But old Sherman was coming, and it would only be a minute till there should be warm times between Lucy and her house. - “The skirmishers began to pop their guns up and down the line, and here come a battery dashing through a road in the woods and unlimbered in a twinkling and let in, and then the fight started. L-. “Lucy’s house was between the two lines. She seed a shell hit the chimney and scatter the bricks and rocks. She thought of her four little children that were huddled up and-couldn’t get out, and she didn’t stop. “The balls were flying thick from one line of battle to the other, but she dashed through Hardep’s line and went’up through the cotton patch the same as a deer. The soldiers screamed: ‘Come back! Lay down! You’ll be killed!’ and sich like, but through it all she wen and dashed ergin the door, and fell in ermong her little children. “Just then a bomb struck one corner of the house and scattered splinters everywhere. The children were clingto her and er screaming at the top of their voices. Another shell hit the house and tore away one gable end, and Minnie balls were pattering the same as hail. She grabbed&e smallest child up on her left arm and made the rest jine hands, and then took hold of the end child’s hand; and out they dashed into the open field between the two armies. “The Yankee line was the first to see them as they went stumbling, falling, and rolling over the cotton rows, and they yelled like madmen: y ‘A truce, a truce, a truce!’ “Then Hardee’s men seed what was the matter, and they waved their caps and jumped up and down and yelled: “‘A truOe,a truce, a truce!’ “In less time than it takes to tell you, the firing ceased and a hundred men from Hardee’s line rushed for the children and Lucy, and the first one of them grabbed ’em in their arms and were

back over the hill in a minute, and then the fight went on. f“She’s never been called ‘Skeery Lucy’ from that day to this, and old Sherman said the day tuat he would erlost the battle rather than to have killed so brave a woman. But. there are others who say that any mother would erdone the same thing.”