The
writer below was the son of planter/physician Dr. John D. Bellamy of
Wilmington, who owned several plantations in that region. John D.
Bellamy (1854-1942) was a young boy when Sherman’s bummers ransacked
their refugee home near Lumberton; he was leader of the Cape Fear
Academy cadet corps in April 1870 when General Robert E. Lee visited
Wilmington on his return to Lexington after viewing his father’s grave
in Georgia. Bellamy was a childhood friend of Woodrow Wilson, was
elected to the North Carolina Senate 1892-93; and elected to the United
States Congress 1899-1903.
Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman
North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
"Unsurpassed Valor, Courage and Devotion to Liberty"
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"
Hessian Hirelings of the United States Government
“My
father had two sons in Virginia, in the [Confederate] Army and Navy,
and the next one to go was I. So during the winters of 1863 and 1864,
and the early part of 1865, although he shod his Negroes with good
shoes, he made me, and also my younger brother, go barefoot during the
winters. He said it would toughen and harden us, and that when my time
to go to Virginia, I would be able to stand the exposure of the battle
fields; and the result was that I never had, from that day to this, any
serious illness – owing much of my longevity to this enforced practice
in my rearing.
I
can recollect, while going out in winters with my feet bare, in the
snow and ice, that I always went on the side of the fence where the sun
shone through the cracks of the rails and melted the snow! It was
warmer!
With
great vividness I remember, also, how in March 1865, after Sherman had
burned Columbia . . . General Francis P. Blair, of Sherman’s army, came
with his corps, consisting of General Hicklenlouper’s Brigade and other
troops, through Robeson County, where we were refugeeing. The corps
that came immediately around our home consisted of Germans of
Hicklenlouper’s Brigade, who could speak very little English, and German
officers were in command.
They
were hirelings of the United States Government to assist in fighting
the South, very much as the Hessians were hired during the Revolutionary
War.
It
had been rumored that my father was a very wealthy man, and immediately
the Hessians drew their steel ramrods out of their muskets, and began
to pierce the ground all around our home and other places on the
premises, to find what treasure they could unearth. They found the
silver my oldest sister had buried under the steps. They also discovered
a valued deposit in which was my father’s valued diploma from Jefferson
College, of the University of Pennsylvania. [The bummers] had gone
through our home and cut open the locked bureau drawers with axes and
stolen every valuable they could find . . . .
[An
officer,] with three or four Germans, came into our home . . . and
demanded that my mother give them the contents of her safe, which
contained milk, butter and other food. Of course she had to comply!
Immediately, they started to drink the milk, and remarked, “Mrs.
Bellamy, is this milk poisoned?” So, my mother drank a cup of milk,
before they would drink the remainder.
They
left us without food and penniless for nearly a week, after the troops
continued their march to Fayetteville and Wilmington and through
Bentonville. [While] a boy, two bummers seized me, held me, and took
off a nice pair of shoes, which I had put on to prevent them from being
stolen! I was left in my stocking feet, in the cold rain, in the back
yard! And that Yankee had my shoes!
[Someone
told the Yankees of a] certain lady living in the neighborhood had
money and jewels, which she had hidden in the mattress of her bed.
[They] found her sick in bed [and] asked for her money and she denied
having it. They pulled her out, raised up the mattress, found her
valuables, and took them! As a punishment, they knocked in the top of a
hogshead of molasses, which they found in her barn, and dipped her, head
and all, into the barrel!
(Memoirs of an Octogenarian, John D. Bellamy, Jr., Observer Publishing, 1941, pp. 23-25)
Thanks, Brock. I always learn a lot from reading your blog. It's my favorite site.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the kind words. :)
DeleteI laugh when I hear people say that the government would never use foreign troops on our soil. They have and will use them if it is expeditious for them... and foreign troops generally were treated badly by the locals.
ReplyDeleteAgreed.
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