 | LOYAL SOUTHERN WOMEN. Women of the war : |  |
An Instance of Self-sacrifice.
When the lines of field-works were being established
around the national capital, the military engineers in charge
of their location came upon a lovely spot near Bladensburg,
Maryland. A tasteful cottage home, standing on the verge
of a gentle slope, was surrounded by orchard shade trees,
grape-vines, a charming flower garden, a lawn of exquisite
smoothness, and "shrubberies that a Shenstone might have
envied." This little paradise was the residence of a lady
and her daughters, whose husband and father was away
fighting under the Union flag. The formation of the
country was such as to require the line of earth-works to
pass directly through these beautiful grounds and gardens.
The position commands the country around for miles, and is
the proper point for a battery. Yet the officers saw at a
glance that the planting of guns on the hill would make
terrible havoc of that charming rural home. Every tree in
the orchard must come down, the shrubbery be torn away,
a wide ditch cut through the flower garden, and the whole
place, in fact, desolated and ruined. Other lines were run
in the hope of avoiding this hill entirely, but in vain. No
other eminence afforded such a tactical position, and to
neglect it might be to throw the advantage thus afforded
into the hands of the enemy. It became the unpleasant
duty of the officers in charge of the survey to call on the
the mutilation of her grounds, and the destruction of all
that was loveliest on the premises. They stated their conclusion
in as delicate a manner as possible, and told her
how they had hoped to avoid an occupation of her land.
She heard their statement in silence, arose, walked to the
window, and gazed for a few moments on the tender lawn
and the blooming garden. Then, with tearful eyes, she
turned to the engineers and said, "If it must be so, take
it freely. I had hoped to live here in peace and quiet, and
never to leave this sweet spot, which my husband has taken
so much delight in making beautiful. But if my country
demands it, take it freely. You have my consent."
When the women of Tyre cut their long hair and braided
it into bowstrings for the archers on the walls of the besieged
city, their devotion was no greater than was here
shown by this patriotic lady of Bladensburg.
| LOYAL SOUTHERN WOMEN. Women of the war : | |