By Kurt Vetters
University of North Alabama
My good friend and mentor historian Greg Gresham introduced me to the rich vein of history found in the memoirs of men who fought in north Alabama during the Civil War. For them, this was the salient event in a lifetime of regular life, and the detail in the reminiscing is amazing and always interesting.
William McTeer was a Federal officer from east Tennessee who fought in north Alabama with the Third Tennessee Cavalry. He passed through Florence, Tuscumbia, Decatur, Athens, Huntsville, and points in between while in the army. He tells four stories of female heroism and quick-thinking that are worth remembering and are representative of women’s countless untold stories during those terrible war years.
Another of McTeer’s stories concerns an unnamed woman of Florence. One of the Federal soldiers of the Third Tennessee, tired and sleepy from his exertions, lay down in a pleasant garden behind a home in Florence. When he awoke, his unit was gone and he was alone in rebel territory. Not to worry, as the “lady of the house told him to have no fears; so she concealed him in a room in her house until another Federal command went to Florence, when she reluctantly sent him back to his company.”
As the surrendered Federal soldiers were being taken south to captivity in Enterprise, several escaped. Hotly pursued by his guards, one officer “found he would have to resort to some means besides running to avoid capture, so, running into a house occupied by coloured people, he told an old colored woman that the rebels were after him and were about to get him. Quick as thought, she threw down a feather bed, under which was one of straw, and directed him to get on the straw tick. He did so. She then threw back the feather tick, covering up our man and, tumbling into bed herself, began groaning and pretending to be very sick. She was scarcely arranged before the rebels came in, inquiring for the Yankee. She denied seeing him and insisted they search the premises. They examined every place they imagined a man could hide — under the beds, behind the door, and even examined the beds except the one of the sick old woman was on – but could find no man, and had to give up the search and leave without their man. In due time he was out again and made his way safely to the Federal lines.”
Lastly, on Jan. 4, 1865, around 2:30 a.m., somewhere south of the Tennessee River along the old Jackson Military Road in present-day Colbert or Franklin County, Lt. McTeer and his commander Col. William Prosser stopped for a rest in a house beside the road. This area through the last few years of the war had seen severe depravations by Federal forces. Prosser gave orders for reveille to be sounded at four o’clock, as the enemy was close behind the command. McTeer volunteered to wait up while everyone slept, wake the bugler, and then sleep till the command was ready to move. “While thus sitting and waiting, the woman residing there came and asked permission to cook some food for the prisoners we had. Permission was not only granted, but she was urged to cook and prepare all she could spare for them; that they had fared hard, but we had nothing to eat ourselves. She went to work with a will, promising a good breakfast to Col. Prosser and myself for this privilege. Four o’clock came; I woke the bugler and laid down until Col. Prosser was shaking me and telling me breakfast was ready. Instead of keeping her promise, as soon as I laid down she had mixed up some dough without salt or anything else but water and flour, dashed it into an oven, and had let ashes fall on it, then, placing it on the fire and covering it, went off and let it take care of itself. This stuff, having taken something like the form of a softened horn, was what we had for breakfast.”
There are so many great stories of women in the Civil War and so much new scholarship is coming to light with new books and articles searchable online. I’ll be compiling some new stories for next year!
Bibliography:
McTeer, W. A. (2019). Loyal Mountaineers: The Civil War Memoirs of Will McTeer (Kindle, 3rd Edition, p. 96146). Blount County Friends of the Library. (1879) Pages 89, 92, 146.
