University of Virginia Library

Noble Act of two Tennessee Women.

During the same autumn, when Grant was commanding
in West Tennessee with headquarters at Jackson, the
twenty-seventh Iowa was ordered to take the cars at Corinth
and proceed to Jackson. It was night time and the train
was crowded, men occupying the platforms and covering

the roofs of the cars. As he approached a bridge, the engineer
saw two lanterns in the distance swung to and fro
with the greatest earnestness. He gave the signal of danger;
the breaks were instantly applied, the train stopped,
and men sent forward to ascertain the cause of the alarm.
Two women were found at the bridge, who said the coming
of the loaded train of Union soldiers was known to a gang
of guerrillas which infested the neighborhood. In the early
part of the night the assassins had fired the bridge, and
allowed the string-pieces to burn nearly off, when they
extinguished the fire, and left the structure standing, but
so weak that it would go down as soon as a train came over
it. Hearing of this piece of dastard villany, the women
had left home in the dead of night, and travelled on foot
several miles through the woods, to give an alarm and prevent
the fearful consequences that would otherwise have
ensued.

The officers and men whose lives were thus saved begged
of these heroic women to accept a purse of money, which
was made up on the spot. This they refused; and all the
return they would permit was that a small squad of the
soldiers might see them safely home.