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The loyalty of a Charleston woman.
Wide spread as was the heresy of secession, and boastful as the rebels were that the entire population of most of the
Southern States were radically and thoroughly secessionists, there was, in fact, no part of the
South in which there were not earnest and devoted friends of freedom and Union among the whites.
The negroes were almost without exception loyal.
Even
Charleston, hotbed of treason as it was, had its loyal league of Union men and women, who, at the peril of liberty and life, performed acts of kindness to Union prisoners confined there, aided them in escaping, and gave them shelter, food, and clothing, till they could get away from the city.
Captain W. H. Telford, of the Fiftieth Pennsylvania Volunteers, escaped from Roper Hospital Prison, in
Charleston, and was for five weeks concealed by these devoted
Unionists.
Hie relates an incident which occurred to one of the party who escaped with him, which shows the great peril to which the members of the league sometimes subjected themselves to serve the cause they loved.
It should be premised that some of the male members of the league had wives who were very bitter rebels, and some of the ladies who were loyal had husbands who were actively engaged in the rebel cause.
The escaped prisoners had remained for several days closely concealed by a trusty member of the league, in consequence of the excitement in the city over the report that Yankee prisoners were being harbored by some of the inhabitants, a report which rendered it unsafe for
