That
Barbara Frietchie lived is not denied.
That she died at the advanced age of 96 years and is buried in the burial-ground of the German Reformed Church in
Frederick is also true.
There is only one account of
Stonewall Jackson's entry into
Frederick, and that was written by a Union army surgeon who was in charge of the hospital there at the time.
“Jackson I did not get a look at to recognize him,” the doctor wrote on the 21st of September, “though I must have seen him, as I witnessed the passage of all the troops through the town.”
Not a word about
Barbara Frietchie and this incident.
Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, too, was in
Frederick soon afterward, on his way to find his son, reported mortally wounded at
Antietam.
Such a story, had it been true, could scarcely have failed to reach his ears, and he would undoubtedly have told it in his delightful chapter of war reminiscences, “My
Hunt for the
Captain,” had he heard it.
Barbara Frietchie had a flag, and it is now in the possession of
Mrs. Handschue and her daughter,
Mrs. Abbott, of
Frederick.
Mrs. Handschue was the niece and adopted daughter of
Mrs. Frietchie, and the flag came to her as part of her inheritance, a cup out of which
General Washington drank tea when he spent a night in
Frederick in 1791 being among the Frietchie heirlooms.
This flag which
Mrs. Handschue and her daughter so religiously preserve is torn, but the banner was not rent with seam and gash from a rifle-blast; it is torn — only this and nothing more.
That
Mrs. Frietchie did not wave the flag at
Jackson's men
Mrs. Handschue positively affirms.
The flag-waving act was done, however, by
Mrs. Mary S. Quantrell, another
Frederick woman; but
Jackson took no notice of it, and
[
619]
as
Mrs. Quantrell was not fortunate enough to find a poet to celebrate her deed she never became famous.
Colonel Henry Kyd Douglas, who was with
General Jackson every minute of his stay in
Frederick, declares in an article in “The century” for June, 1886, that
Jackson never saw
Barbara Frietchie, and that Barbara never saw
Jackson.
This story is borne out by
Mrs. Frietchie's relatives.
As already said,
Barbara Frietchie had a flag and she waved it, not on the 6th to
Jackson's men, but on the 12th to
Burnside's. Here is the story as told by
Mrs. Abbott,
Mrs. Handschue's daughter:
Jackson and his men had been in Frederick and had left a short time before.
We were glad that the rebels had gone and that our troops came.
My mother and I lived almost opposite aunt's place.
She and my mother's cousin, Harriet Yoner, lived together.
Mother said I should go and see aunt and tell her not to be frightened.
You know that aunt was then almost ninety-six years old. When I reached aunt's place she knew as much as I did about matters, and cousin Harriet was with her. They were on the front porch, and aunt was leaning on the cane she always carried.
When the troops marched along aunt waved her hand, and cheer after cheer went up from the men as they saw her. Some even ran into the yard.
“God bless you, old lady,” “Let me take you by the hand,” “May you live long, you dear old soul,” cried one after the other, as they rushed into the yard.
Aunt being rather feeble, and in order to save her as much as we could, cousin Harriet Yoner said, “Aunt ought to have a flag to wave.”
The flag was hidden in the family Bible, and cousin Harriet got it and gave it to aunt.
Then she waved the flag to the men and they cheered her as they went by. She was very patriotic and the troops all knew of her. The day before General Reno was killed he came to see aunt and had a talk with her.
The manner in which the Frietchie legend originated was very simple.
A Frederick lady visited
Washington some time after the invasion of 1862 and spoke of the open sympathy and valor of
Barbara Frietchie.
The story was told again and again, and it was never lost in the telling.
Mr. Whittier received his first knowledge of it from
Mrs. E.
D. E. N. Southworth, the novelist, who is a resident of
Washington.
When
Mrs. Southworth wrote to
Mr. Whittier concerning Barbara, she inclosed a newspaper slip reciting the circumstances of
Barbara Frietchie's action when
Lee entered
Frederick.
When
Mr. Whittier wrote the poem
2 he followed as closely as possible the account sent him at the time.
He has a cane made from the timber of Barbara's house,--a present from
Dr. Stiener, a member of the Senate of Maryland.
The flag with which
Barbara Frietchie gave a hearty welcome to
Burnside's troops has but thirty-four stars, is small, of silk, and attached to a staff probably a yard in length.
Barbara Frietchie was born at
Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Her maiden name was Hauer.
She was born December 3d, 1766, her parents being
Nicholas and
Catharine Hauer.
She went to
Frederick in early life, where she married
John C. Frietchie, a glover, in 1806.
She died December 18th, 1862,
Mr. Frietchie having died in 1849.
In 1868 the waters of
Carroll Creek rose to such a height that they nearly wrecked the old home of the heroine of
Whittier's poem.
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|
Union hospital in a barn near Antietam Creek.
After a sketch made at the time. |
