|
Re-enactors Andrew Dankmeyer of Frederick, Md. (top), and Russell Seibert of Williamsport, Md., take a sledding break in between events.
Civil War re-enactor Travis Taggart of Rockville plays taps following a ceremony yesterday observing the 143rd anniversary of the Battle of Fredericksburg.
Warren Clark (left) of Newport News and other Civil War re-enactors demonstrate infantry tactics to spectators on Saturday. The living-history interpreters were on hand during activities honoring the 143rd anniversary of the Battle of Fredericksburg.
Fredericksburg resident |
By CATHY DYSON
Women who lived through the bombardment of Fredericksburg during the Civil War didn't have time to dwell on their hatred for the "Yankees" who invaded their streets and burned their homes.
They were too busy trying to put their lives back together.
"They put the bitterness behind them," said Anne W. Rowe of Fredericksburg. "There was so much to do."
A year after the war ended, Fredericksburg women began planning for the proper burial of their Confederate dead, she said. They later completed a memorial to George Washington's mother, built a hospital named for her and saved several historical buildings.
"There was a lot that needed doing, and many needed help," Rowe said. "They all knew what suffering was."
Rowe was the keynote speaker yesterday during the commemoration of the 143rd anniversary of the Battle of Fredericksburg.
The longtime city resident and wife of Free Lance-Star publisher Josiah P. Rowe III was the first woman ever to speak at the event.
She talked about lots of women who came before her, including several of her ancestors. She shared their stories and memories, drawn from unpublished diaries and letters.
"They speak across the years," she said. "We have accounts of the horrors of the battle in the December weather, but we have reminiscences that show how life went on."
Rowe's remarks were a mix of history and Fredericksburg-area genealogy, as well as a tale of love and romance in the midst of death and suffering.
She referred to a diary written by Matilda Hamilton, a Spotsylvania County woman who was in her mid-40s during the war.
Hamilton wrote on Dec. 23, 1862, about "the graves of our poor soldiers. Twenty-eight lie buried on our lawn, three just outside our grass yard."
Yet, in her next sentence, she was encouraging a male caller to visit some of the "young and pretty girls" at Belvoir. That was a home in Spotsylvania where several families found refuge during the shelling of the city.
"Ten days after the battle, and she's matchmaking," Rowe said.
One of the matches worked.
Rowe's great-grandparents met and fell in love while treating the wounded at Belvoir.
Dr. Hugh Martin and Ella McCarty later married, but eventually were parted when his regiment moved north. She found comfort with "dear little Kate," the couple's first child, but as the fighting continued, Ella Martin wanted her husband home.
"You know I am ever looking on the bright side of things but I now see no silver lining to this dark cloud--they talk of peace, but peace to me is your dear presence," she wrote in February 1865.
The Martins were reunited at war's end and eventually settled in Fredericksburg. Whenever someone asked how she and her family managed during the lean years, she said: "The fields were full of turnip salad and the rivers full of fish."
Rowe quoted that line yesterday and saw her brother, Lewis Wilson of Stafford County, nodding his head in agreement. As children, they heard that story from their mother, time and time again.
Others in the crowd of several hundred people seemed to appreciate the civilian point of view.
Several lined up to thank her and shake her hand. A re-enactor in a gray uniform asked her to read a poem he'd written about the Battle of Fredericksburg--and e-mail her opinion of it.
Fredericksburg native Anne Ligon told Rowe how much she enjoyed the reminiscences. "It always makes me cry," she said.
Beth Daly of the Central Rappahannock Heritage Center liked the family connections--or "cousinage," as Rowe called it.
"It really makes it much more interesting when you can relate it to something personal," Daly said.
Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park plans to include more stories, like those of the Rowe family, in its presentation. Park employees are working on a film about how residents fared during the war.
Rowe certainly could share a few stories. One might be about the Union soldier who had a wound in his cheek. He stopped at a local house, where a woman stitched him up with sewing thread.
Another might be about the Spotsylvania girl who played the piano and sang for Confederate pickets stationed nearby--who, in turn, taught her how to play cards.
"It's not about whom, it's about the stories," Rowe said, "the stories of life, of death, of war, of love."
To reach CATHY DYSON:
Email: cdyson@freelancestar.com
