A mountain-white heroine

Introduction

OUR country offers hospitality to all civilized nations. It opens wide its doors to every man who desires civil and religious freedom, and is willing to assimilate with onr people, and support onr free institutions. It accords to him every right of property, and, after a brief proba tion, the same voice in shaping our governmental policy that is enjoyed by our native-born population, whose fathers laid the foundations of our Republic, and who have themselves erected it into a great nation. But, like prudent householders, our native citizens do not give cordial welcome to the foreign beggar, burglar, incendiary, and cutthroat. And yet, recent investigations, conducted under the authority of Congress, disclose the fact that European governments are vomiting upon our shores their criminal and worthless characters in startling numbers. Their highways and by-ways are ransacked for paupers, and their jails and penitentiaries are emptied of dangerou> vagabonds, to be thrust into our large cities in idle and lawless crowds, there to form an element that is a menace , to the peace and security of any civilized community.

550426

The presence of this element has already obliged every one of our larger municipalities to so augment its police force, as to greatly increase the tax-burden of its orderloving citizens.

This is an element sufficiently dangerous to cause alarm ; but it is far less dangerous to us as an American people than those firebrands of Europe — the Anarchists and Socialists — whom foreign governments are scattering broadcast among us. The paupers and criminals threaten our security as individual citizens; the Anarchists and Socialists are a menace to the stability of our Government, and the integrity of our very civilization.

John Most, the high priest of American anarchy, in his recent examination before the Congressional Immigra tion Committee, expressed the opinion that there are fifty millions of Socialists in Europe, and he stated that two million Anarchists are already domiciled in the United States, and are being reinforced by every ship that arrives from the Continent. The number of Social ists already here he did not state ; but they are undoubt edly more numerous than the Anarchists. When asked to define the difference between socialism and anarchism, Most replied that the Socialist seeks to change the whole system of society. He does not seek to abolish individual ownership, but — what is the same thing — he would have the earnings of property equally distributed among the people. Under this system he believes there would be no necessity for laws, nor any need of a government. Every man would become a law unto himself, and the State would soon go out of existence. The Anarchist,

INTRODUCTION. 5

on the other hand, according to Most, believes in the equal distribution of all property, and the immediate and total abolition of all State government.

The mere statement of these doctrines is enough to show that these people are the natural enemies of our American civilization. They are simply destructives. License with them is liberty ; and freedom the ability of the poor to pull down the rich, and to revel idly on the avails of other men's industry. Both Socialists and Anarchists are largely sceptics and atheists, and drawn, as they mainly are, from the most ignorant and degraded population of Europe, they are the ready instruments of designing demagogues who would build themselves up on the ruin of society. What enormities they would commit if once freed from restraint, may be seen in the recent developments in Chicago, and in the atroci ties attending the great riots in Pittsburg and New York city.

But I conceive that the peril to which the country is exposed from this disorganizing element, lies not so much in its violent uprising, as in the peaceful spread of its opinions — the silent infusion of its poisonous virus into the veins of the great body of our working popula tion, till they shall mistake French Communism, or Ger man Socialism, or Russian Nihilism, for Anglo-Saxon freedom. The danger is that the country shall thus lose its national character, be un-Americanized, swung away from the traditions of our fathers, and from the English liberty, English law, and English religion, which have given us all our greatness as a nation.

This calamity may not be possible in our Eastern and Middle States, where the foreign element is a minority, and every school-boy knows that true freedom is liberty regulated by law, and its most characteristic trait a strict regard for the property and rights of other men. The natural field for these destructive theories is the West, where the foreign-born population is a much more potent element, and New England ideas have not so thoroughly leavened the community. In that section, which in the near future will hold the political power of the country, these atheistic and destructive principles are strongly aggressive, and gaining ground with astonishing rapidity. In Chicago alone there are now, according to Professor Samuel Ives Curtiss, forty thousand Anarchists, who openly counsel resistance to law, and support vile journals in which are reproduced the writings of Thomas Paine, the shallow utterances of Robert G. Ingersoll, and ribald parodies of all that is most sacred in human literature. These journals distinctly proclaim that property is theft, the future life a delusion, Christianity a fable, and God Himself merely a scarecrow, invented to keep the poor out of the rich man's cornfield.

All along the Great Lakes this fetid exhalation from the cesspools of Europe is spreading, and it threatens to soon taint the atmosphere of the entire West. And the misfortune is that the spread of the poison cannot be checked. No capitation tax will keep these men out of the country, and we cannot deny them a free expression of their opinions when they are in it. If we were to set zealously about the work we might convert a few of them

INTRODUCTION. 7

to our political creed ; but the chances are that when we had made one proselyte two others would spring up in his place, armed at all points with false logic, and backed by the moral support of that European reserve of fifty millions.

But it is doubtful if any genuine Anarchist can be converted to our American idea of freedom. Hatred of the rich he has drunk in with his mother's milk, and the iron heel of the governing classes in his native country has so scarred his very soul, that he has come to regard all who are better-conditioned than himself as his natural enemies. He cannot be made to understand that there can be no tyranny where every man wears a crown, no actual inequality where all are equal before the law, no exclusive possession of riches where moderate intelligence, and persistent industry, will speedily bestow them upon the poorest and most illiterate. He is incapable of under standing this, and hence, is unable to appreciate either the rights or the duties of an American citizen. This being so, and these men increasing in number in a more rapid ratio than our native population, and every one of them having the ballot in his possession, how shall we during the coming years preserve our national character, and keep intact our American institutions ? The question ia of vital moment to this nation, and it concerns not only every patriot, but every Christian who has at heart the upward progress of the human race, and would see his \ country achieve its high mission as the standard bearer of civil and religious freedom.

There can be but one answer to this question, and thaF"? is — The safety of our American institutions depends )

8 A MOUNTAIN-WHITE HEKOINE.

/ solely upon a more general education of our native-

{ born American population. From our own people, who have inherited our national traditions, and have our Anglo-Saxon freedom in their very blood, must be formed a body of intelligent, liberty-loving, God-fearing men, whose ballots shall hold this destructive foreign element in check, and thus preserve to us in their integrity our national character, and our free institutions. Thus far we have been safe in our numerical superiority ; but with this inflowing tide of socialism and anarchism over spreading all the West, the time has come when our supremacy is endangered, and we need to be reinforced by a body of voters who have the same ideals and aspira tions as ourselves. This reinforcement we must have, or soon lose our character as an American people. This is the emergency that is now upon the nation.

But where shall we look for an auxiliary native force that will neutralize the baleful influence of this dis organizing foreign element ? The Southern negro is the

iborn enemy of atheism and anarchism, and when his* rights as a freeman are more generally respected, and he

' is better educated, and more fully acquainted with his duties as an American citizen, he will be a valuable aid in upholding our American institutions. But the negro has not inherited our traditions, he has no ancestral mem ories connected with Bunker Hill, or King's Mountain, nor does- he belong to a race which through fifteen hun dred years of blood and struggle has achieved enlightened liberty and Christian civilization.

There is, however, among us a class of native-born

INTRODUCTION. 9

Americans, who, if educated, and socially and morally elevated, would I think give the country the added strength it needs to maintain intact its free institutions; and this class is the so-called " Mountain-White" popula tion of the Southern Alleghanies. They occupy what is now the very heart of this country, and number about two millions, all of them native-born, with an inherited love of freedom, and the intense patriotism which is peculiar to our American character. Being either too poor, or too conscientious, to hold slaves, they were, more than a hundred years ago, forced back to the mountains by the slave-holding planters of the seaboard, and, insu lated there, shut out from the world, and deprived of schools and churches, they have grown up in ignorance of their rights and duties as American citizens.

The present condition of these people is directly trace able to slavery ; for in making the slave the planter's blacksmith, carpenter, wheelwright, and man of all work, slavery shut every avenue of honest employment against the working white man, and drove him to the mountains and the barren sand hills to starve and to die. And hav ing there shut him out from the world, it legislated to keep him in ignorance, lest he should learn his rights and overthrow its power. Only a few years before the war I saw a planter of my acquaintance march twenty of these men up to the polls, and when they had voted at his bidding, he turned to me and said, " This is your boasted Democ racy. These men govern this country : Jefferson gave them the right of suffrage, and they suppose they are voting for Jefferson now." 2

" But," I said to him, " why do you not teach them to think ? Why not give them schools and churches ? "

" Because, if we did, they might not vote for Jefferson."

This reply indicates the policy that was pursued toward these people, through long years, by the ruling element in the South. But ignorant as they generally are, there is not in the whole country a more honest, brave, and liberty-loving class of men than these u Mountain-Whites," and during our recent civil war they developed qualities that do honor to American manhood. Though citizens of seceded States, and hemmed in by secession armies, and a disloyal people, the majority of them stood firmly by the Union, enduring, for what they thought the right, such suffering as rarely falls to the lot of any people. Multitudes of them laid out in the woods, were hunted with blood-hounds, beaten with stripes, hung to trees, tossed on the points of bayonets, and buried while yet alive, rather than deny their country, or betray its friends. Grass-grown cross-roads, where rude guide posts point ways no traveler ever went ; lonely mountain hamlets, un known except to the census-taker and the tax-gatherer, where the spelling-book and the mail bag never were seen, produced a race of hereos whose deeds will vie with those of any of the most noted characters in our history.

Living as these people do, remote from traveled routes, they are seldom seen by travelers, and their exploits in the late war, performed as they were in small con flicts, and amid the seclusion of their remote mountains, have escaped the notice of the chroniclers of the great events that decided the fate of the nation. Nevertheless,

INTRODUCTION. 11

they are worthy of record at the present time, if for nc other reason than to show the character of a large native element on which, when properly instructed, we may rely to stem the tide of sociah'sm and anarchy that is now inundating the country. Therefore, it has been suggested to me that I may do a public service by recounting some of the war history of these people as it has been related to me by veracious persons, and by drawing such a general pic ture of their way of life, and natural and social surround ings, as came under my personal observation during a recent residence of some years in their near neighborhood. The facts that I record were communicated to me by some scores of individuals while I was traveling through their country in pursuit of material for a series of histo ries of the early South-West, that I have recently written ; and I had then no thought of ever giving them to the public. I consequently took no further care at the time to verify the various accounts I received than would be natural to one who has more personal satisfaction in truth than in fiction. But, since the idea of writing this volume has been suggested to me, I have taken every means of verifying its facts that are possible by a corre spondence with my original informants. The conclusion I have arrived at is, that the main facts I relate are his torically true, and that, if some of the minor details are not so, the fact does not detract from the truthful character of my picture as a whole, nor render it a less faithful representation of the rare heroism, and selfdevoted patriotism exhibited by these Mountain- Whites during the recent war for the preservation of the Union.

Chapter I. War Tidings

THE advent of a circus is a great event in the Southern Alleghanies. For weeks in advance of its coming, it is heralded by enormous placards posted at every country cross-road, and from far and near, for many miles around, the backwoods people gather to the exhibition. Often in some inconsiderable hamlet several thousands come together, and then, while whisky flows freely, ensue scenes of the wildest jollity, most uproarious noise, and reckless violence, from which a certain number of killed and wounded may be as accurately predicted as from the encounter of hostile forces in regular conflict. The secluded region among the mountains of Western North Carolina, which was the scene of the events I am about to relate, had never been afflicted with one of these equestrian visitations ; but there came a day in the month of April, 1861, when the monster placard announced that the dancing dogs, the monkey that plays the tam bourine, and the half-nude goddess who rides four steeds at once, bare-backed, and at full gallop, would soon be on exhibition in the widely-known village of Asheville. _

The circus stole into town over night, and when the half-asleep dwellers in the place heard its measured tramp

14 A MOUNT \IN-WHITE HEROINE.

on the highway, they knew that a long procession of Mountain-Whites would follow in the morning. And it did. One unbroken stream of both sexes, and all ages, on foot, on horse-back, mule-back, and " critter back," and in every kind of nondescript vehicle, poured into the town, over all its principal thoroughfares, from early dawn till high-noon ; and I question if a like procession was ever seen outside of the Southern Alleghanies.

With the first streak of day came an old negro, astride of an antiquated ox, which was hitched to a two-wheeled cart, laden with corn-fodder; and there soon followed many a score of foot passengers. The men were in slouched hats of all shapes and sizes, and the women in the peculiar sun-bonnet of the region ; or without any other head gear than that which adorned our first mother. The other garments of the women were merely a brightcolored ribbon tied about the neck, and a gown of linsey, or Dolly Varden chintz, such as formed the bed-curtains of our great-grandmothers. The men wore the same linsey, or homespun tow-cloth, and with both men and women the garments, as a general thing, came only a trifle below the knees, leaving exposed a bare ankle of the precise color of the red clay that covered the highway.

Following these pedestrians was another old negro, mounted upon the forward end of a dilapidated wagon, drawn by an ox and a mule, harnessed tandem, and urged forward upon a slow walk by a long whip, which every now and then, as the colored Jehu flourished it about his head, became entangled in the necks of a bevy of mountain beauties, who were seated in the bottom of the vehicle. Then came another platoon of " foot soldiery," and then two women riding abreast, one arrayed in bright colors, and seated upon a worn-out side saddle, strapped to the back of a two-year-old heifer, which she guided by a rope bridle, inserted in the mouth of the animal ; the other, wearing a man's hat and boots, and astride of a mule, which she rode bare-backed, holding on one arm a basket of eggs, on the other, a young child, which was laughing and playing at hide-and-seek with a four-yearold boy, who was mounted behind the woman. Evidently, the eggs were to pay for the woman's admission to the show ; the boy and the baby she probably expected to smuggle in gratis.

Then followed a troop of horsemen and horse-women, and in their rear, a large ox, bearing a young man and maiden, apparently in the first throes of courtship. He sat astride of the shoulders of the beast, his long legs nearly touching the ground ; she behind him, in a more feminine attitude, her arm tightly clasped about his waist, and her finely-formed foot moving in regular cadence with the motion of the animal. Then appeared another woman in a man's hat and cavalry boots, riding sideways on a bag of corn ; and beside her was a man with a head gear adorned with a drooping feather, which had evidently been out in the rain till it had lost all its original erectility. They were followed by a clumsy farm wagon of the country, drawn by three pairs of gaudily-decorated mules, and containing at least a score of mountain rbughs — great, bearded fellows, with enormous top-boots, which dangled from the ends and sides of the vehicle, with a Furioso air, which plainly said,

"Who doth these boots displace Shall meet Bombastes face to face. "

But I need not particularize further, where all was gro tesque, and unlike any thing ordinarily seen in civilized communities.

The most of the people in this procession had dull, ex pressionless faces, and only a casual glance was needed to show that they were below the average of our rural pop ulation in civilization, and intelligence. A considerable portion had the appearance of well-to-do farmers, the remainder are known, far and wide, as " poor whites ; " though they are not poor in the sense of being homeless, and destitute of the necessaries of life. However, their homes are often little better than hovels, and their food is usually a ration of salt pork, hominy, and " corn-dodger," which fails to develop in them a very high order of man hood. But the hovels are their own, and so are the small patches of cleared ground which they cultivate in the rudest and most primitive manner. Their " annual crops " are three or four swine, and a few bushels of corn and sweet potatoes. On this, and a scanty supply of game, they subsist — the potatoes, boiled and flavored with an iron pot; the corn, made into "hoe-cake," and baked in the ashes, or on the lid of a kettle fashioned for the pur pose ; and the swine salted, and smoked into bacon, and then fried till it has very much the same consistence as gutta-percha. This diet, no doubt, accounts for their gen erally sallow, cadaverous complexions, and for the pre-

WAB TIDINGS. 17

vailing absence of all spirit and energy for which they are distinguished.

This circus, with its " ground and lofty tumbling," was, to a majority of these mountaineers, the most interesting incident which had occurred in their lives; but it is referred to here merely because it brought to this secluded people their first intelligence of one of the most notable events in American history — the attack upon Fort Sumter, and the lowering of the flag of the Union before armed re bellion, in the harbor of Charleston. It is probable that not an individual in the assemblage had any adequate con ception of the national bearing of the event, or of its vital relation to his own future; and yet, a feeling of dread and uncertainty, a vague sense of a grave crisis having come into their lives, pervaded the entire gather ing, and sent each one back to his home pondering the tidings with more than his accustomed thoughtfulness.

By none was the political bearing of this event more fully appreciated than by three youths, aged respectively, fifteen, seventeen, and nineteen years, who occupied one of the upper seats of the immense tent at the beginning of the itinerant performance. They were of a better class than a larger portion of the motley audience. Their clothing was of homespun, like that of the others, but it was neat, cleanly, and well-fitting, and sat upon them with the easy grace which betokens good breeding. Their forms were erect, and their features clear-cut, and intelli gent, with a frank, manly expression, and that look of unconscious dignity, which usually tells of an honorable lineage. And they were well-descended. An adverse 3 fate had condemned them to be born and reared in this backwoods region ; but it had not deprived them of the qualities which come down in one's blood from a culti vated ancestry.

The circus exercises had begun at noon, and the young men had, for an hour or more, looked silently on at the performance — the gorgeous cavalcade, the bare-back race, the flying leaps, and the antics of the intelligent steed, which fires off pistols, dances a horn-pipe, and exhibits various other accomplishments that are supposed to be exclusively human — when the oldest of the three young men said to the others : " Boys, you don't seem to enjoy this thing any better than I do. Mother will want to hear this news — suppose we go home."

"I'm agreed," answered the youngest. " This affair isn't much ; our pony can beat that trick-horse all to flin ders."

" Then we had better start at once, for it won't do to cross the Ivy after sundown."

Dropping from the seats they occupied the young men then passed noiselessly along the rear of the benches, to avoid disturbing the audience ; and, emerging from the tent, made their way to a clump of trees a short distance away, where, secured by his bridle to a swaying limb, the aforesaid pony was browsing.

As this pony performed an humble part in this history, he is entitled to a brief description, lie belonged to a species that seems peculiar to this mountain region. Dun-brown in color, he had a coat well nigh as shaggy as a spaniel's. He was about fifteen hands high, with a head small, and shapely ; limbs, clean and well formed, and haunches that were long and formed like those of a deer. He seemed too slender to possess much strength, but in his close-knit frame there was great endurance, and his eye — which was large and lustrous, but also gentle and coquettish as any woman's — told of unconquerable spirit, and an intelligence almost human. A rope bridle, a worn woolen blanket, strapped to his back, and a bag of corn, thrown loosely over his shoulders, comprised his accoutre ments.

As the youngest of the youths — whom his brothers addressed as "Billy," or "Billy -Boy" — approached to untie the rope by which the pony was tethered, the ani mal raised his head, gave a low whinny, and then lifted his right fore-foot by way of salutation. The lad took the foot in his hand, shook it gently, and then saying, " give me a buss, Sam," bent forward toward the pony, when the latter instantly rubbed his nose against the boy's face in a most affectionate manner. These ceremonies over, Billy bounded upon the pony's back, and, turning to his elder brother, said, " Aleck, don't }TOU think the bridge at Democrat will be fixed by the time we get thar?"

"No, I don't," answered the other. " The lazy loons won't have it done in a week. We must go back along the river."

" Then we had better be jogging, for by that route it's twenty miles to the Ivy." Saying this, the younger lad led the way up the road, followed by his brothers with the long, noiseless stride peculiar to the dwellers among these mountains.

They soon left the precincts of the town, and emerged

upon a rolling country, dotted with woods and open

fields, but well-nigh destitute of dwellings. Most of these

, cleared spaces were what are called " old fields " — land

I which perhaps a century ago had been planted in corn

' year after year, without any compost, till the soil became

exhausted, and refused to yjeld any crop of more value

than scrub-oaks, and a poor species of pine, scarcely fit

for firewood. Through this abandoned district the young

men trudged for half an hour before coming upon a single

token of human occupation.

The first indication of civilization they encountered was a woman ploughing in a fenced-field adjoining the highway. Her head, arms, and feet were bare, and a soiled cotton gown appeared to be her only garment. She was leisurely stirring the weeds with a bull-tongue plough, drawn by a new-milch cow, while staggering along behind was her offspring, vainly trying to keep in the shallow furrow. As the young men came abreast of the woman, she turned her pinched face toward them, and, pausing a moment in her* employment, dropped a courtesy, and saluted them with the universal " How-dy-e."

" Good morning," responded Billy, from the back of the pony, " Why don't your husband do that sort of work?"

"Oh, he's busy — got company — the barber's ter the house dressin' his har."

A few rods farther on they came to the " house," a onestory log shanty, about twelve feet square, with no visible opening except a door-way, and squatted in the midst of a small clearing, which was littered over with chips, un cut wood, and all manner of rubbish. A little beyond was the barber's shop — an edifice destitute alike of roof, door, and windows. It was, in short, a hen-coop, set on end, but still occupied by its natural tenant, and her brood of chickens. Seated upon it was a ragged " native," the very picture of forlornness ; and kneeling on the ground beside him, in his shirt-sleeves, was another " native " — the artist in hair — who had trimmed the other's locks in a horizontal " bang," and was in the act of combing them straight down, in the latest mountain fashion.

" What is the price for trimming hair in this shop 2 " asked the younger lad, as he rode by.

" A dime a cut," answered the artist, not looking up, or altering his position, " An' we ax fools half-price. Will you uns hev your'n done cut ? "

The boy wisely refrained from replying, and going on in silence the trio soon struck the road along the French Broad river, and came in sight of the only dwelling of any pretensions they had encountered since leaving the outskirts of Asheville. " Though living all their lives within twenty -five miles of the town, only the eldest of the three had ever visited it before, and he had gone to it on that occasion by the direct road, that crosses the Ivy by a bridge near the hamlet of Democrat, which now had been recently broken down by a freshet. Every thing was, therefore, new to all of them on the route they were now pursuing. They had observed this house, on their way up the river, and had wondered what "lord of the manor'' could have built so costly a dwelling where his only neighbors were "mean trash" — apparently more deeply sunk in poverty and squalor than any in the neighborhood of their own home in the mountains.

The mansion stood on the lower ground bordering the river, and in general appearance was not unlike some of the better class of country houses of the last century, which may still be seen here and there throughout New England. A wide portico lay along its front, and its staring-white walls were ornamented with green blinds ; but with these features, and its square, generous propor tions, its resemblance to a Northern country residence terminated. Its other characteristics were entirely South ern, and of the era of slavery. These features were outside chimneys, going up at either end in pyramidal form ; low log-cabins, surrounded with litter, and garrisoned by trouserless pickaninnies of every conceivable shade of darkness ; a dingy barn, and a dilapidated rail-fence, that encircled the premises, and stretched back to broad meadows, and ploughed fields, which climbed to the very summit of a wood-crowned hill, far at the rear,of the mansion. The highway was bordered by this fence, ex cept on its lower side, where a dense group of alders and willows ran down to the river.