15th day of March 1864

 

As I arose this morning, I noticed the sun rising, the rain had finally stopped.  Hopefully this was a sign of good things to come.  I hurriedly dressed, to check on the wounded before church.  The other ladies and I tried to make them as comfortable as possible.  We had lost several men over the night.  If there was more fighting, there would be more wounded.  We worried; where would we put any more men, our 'hospital' was full and how would we care for so many poor souls.

 

I hated to leave the wounded, but felt that I needed to attend church to pray with my neighbors for the fighting to stop.  The church was completely full, not an empty space on any of the pews.  The chaplain from one of the Confederate cavalry unites presented the sermon.  The Yankees had taken our own preacher the day before.  The town was quite during church.  As we left, we noticed that the Yankees had come back and taken over the town!

 

The heartless devils set fire to our town again!  Thanks to the good Lord and the drenching rain, the buildings were soaked and the fire was easily extinguished.  More Confederate troops had arrived over night and seemed to have the Yankees out numbered.  They soon ran the blue bellies out of town!  But they again stopped at the edge of town and regrouped.  Our boys followed them into the fields.  After what seemed like a lifetime, the shooting stopped.  We ladies ran on the field again to check the bodies, to see if we could help any of the poor souls.  The first I came to was a young boy who was badly wounded.  There was nothing that I could do to save him, but I knelt down beside him to comfort him.  As he lay dying, he cried for his mother.  I looked up through my tears over the battlefield covered with bodies at our town.  In the distance I could see the Confederate flag flying once again over the town.  We had won the battle, but at a very high price, with the lives of our neighbors and friends!

 

The armies have both gone, to fight again another day on another battlefield.  We, the citizens of Chisholm Fork, were left to pick up the pieces, rebuild our town and bury the dead.

 

Widow Brock

 

Sorry it took me so long to complete the story, but it's been crazy here at the office!  I can't find the words to describe a CPA office the last few weeks of 'tax season' other than, CRAZY! 

 

I want to thank all of you who came to the event, hope that you had as much fun as I did.  I can't remember when I've had such a good time.  A special thanks goes out to two very young troopers, who guarded our flag.  One of our ladies ask this two to guard our flag before the battle started on Sunday.  After over an hour, when the battle was over, I went back through town and there they were still walking back and forth in front of the flag with their muskets on their shoulders.  I ask them if they were still guarding the flag, and one answered proudly 'Yes ma'am'.  It makes me feel good to see two so young get so involved, that's what it's all about!  Thanks again for helping make the event a great success!  Hope to see all of you at Mexia.