Civil War in Limestone County, Alabama

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Franklin Monroe Hudson married my Mary Stephenson in Limestone County,Alabama on 02 Feb 1881.
1880 Census of Limestone
George Alexander Stevenson 58 b. Alabama Runs Sawmill
Elizabeth Stephenson 53 b. SC
Josephine 21 b. Al
Samuel 18 b. Al
Nettie 12 b. Al
Susan Glasco border 40 b. SC
Mary 19b. TN

Frank Monroe Hudson was born in Limestone Co,Al in 1852. In 1880, Frank Monroe Hudson was a widower.
Franklin Monroe Hudson told his memories of Limestone County,Alabama to his daughter Stella Hudson who wrote his memories down. I got a copy years ago from one the Hudsons.

Civil War.
The first Yankees in our part of the country came to Florence(Lauderdale Co,Al) on gunboats. we were eating breakfast one Sunday morning and got word that the Yankees had landed at Florence. The old men and boys all got excited and gathered up all their old rifles and shotguns in the country. Jerry Stout,the blacksmith,worked all day making butcher knives out of old files and horse shoes to fight the Yankees with. They showed up around our place in a few days. All Yankees were dressed in blue overcoats with capes and funny looking caps. Local men would get hold of the overcoats and dye them black. They certainly were good ones and wore long after the war. I never saw a Rebel army,only individuals. We boys thought the Yankees had horns.

During 1860 and 1861 the men in our community would meet at Uncle Hugh's on the Mooresville Road by the big spring for muster and drill. A gourd always hung by the spring and every traveler that passed would stop for a drink. We boys would march and play soldier. Captain Hobbs made up a company of cavalry. My father George Terry Hudson, Billy Northern,and Bob Christopher went off in the cavalry. They furnished their own horses. Father was so big and heavy that he was soon transferred to the infantry. Tubal Hudson,Sim Hudson,Travers, and Dooley Freeman went into Hobbs Infantry. The Freeman boys didn't come back. Dad and Billy Northern both came back. Bob Christopher was killed. The later companies that were organized went in as replacements. Bill Moore, our school teacher, turned school loose one Friday afternoon, organized a company of infantry and went to Virginia. That day was the last day that I ever attended school(1863). Uncle Drew Hudson(one of Stephen Hudson's sons) went into the army from Arkansas and came to our house from the Rebel army in Virginia on furlough. He stayed about two weeks,returned to the army and was killed. Uncle Joe Cox from Helena, Arkansas was killed in the army. His wife and kids returned to Alabama after the war.
End of this section. I will post more of his memories about the war in Limestone later.
 
Father came home on furlough several times during the war. After the Yankees occupied the country where we lived, the Tennessee river was a dividing line and they patrolled the North side. Rebel soldiers who lived on the north side would have to slip in to see their families. Father and Uncle Ruff Ray came on furlough together and would sleep out in the woods at night to keep from being captured. They had a fire built up one night and heard someone walking through the woods. They called to it and it didn't stop, shot and found it to be a cow. A cow sounds just like a man walking, picking up and put down two feet at the same time.
The Yankees got so bad about raiding our place that Grandma Ray went to the General and asked for a guard at our house. After all the men folk left, several of my Aunts and their children came to Grandma Ray's to live for protection and something to eat. She told the General that the soldiers would soon starve us to death, so he sent a guard,an old man. We kept our sweet potatoes hid and would roast them at night in the fireplace. One night we kids and the old yank guard had just raked the potatoes out when we heard soldiers holler at the gate. The guard kicked the potatoes under the stairway and then after the soldiers left we had a big time eating them. The Yankees would take anything they could find to eat. Aunt Sue Hudson had an awful bad dog, in fact all yard dogs would bite anyone they did not known. One day some soldiers were catching her chickens and the dog got after them. One of the soldiers ran it under the house and shot it with his carbine. The bullet went in just under the eye and came out through the throat. The dog lived several days, but finally starved to death since it couldn't eat.
 
Thanks David Wilma, here is some more of his account.
Sam Easter always kept several barrels of whiskey under his house. He mixed it up with a lot of Sorghum juice thinking that the Yankees wouldn't know what it was and wouldn't drink it. Some of them found it and word went around that there was plenty of fine French Brandy to be had there. They would go there and fill their canteens full. One day some of them were coming back from over the there and saw one of his sows. They shot it,cut it up with hide still on it, tied it behind their saddles with the hair part next to the horse and came riding by our house. My oldest sister was standing on the porch and one of them called out,"Say Sis,do you want some backbone?" He gave her the whole backbone.

We had four head of horses when the Yankees came. Three young horses, Polly,a black mare, Patchen,a bay mare,Nellie, a gray filly and an old horse named speck. When Buells Army came throught they camped near our house by a big pond. The General took a room at Grandma Ray's for his headquarters. They took all our cattle off and made no pretense at paying for them. One calf came back. We did have a receipt for 90 bushels of corn that the Yankees got from us, signed by Captain Meade. In 1864 a small army or detachment camped on Elk River and they came and took 30 bushels from our crib and gathered 60 more bushels from our field. All the raiding and stealing was not done by Yankee soldiers. Soldiers from both sides came back home,hid out, and stole and plundered.
 
The last paragraph of Franklin Monroe Hudson's memories of the Civil War in Limestone County,Alabama.
Some of the men from our settlement went into the Union army and some went into the Rebel Army. Most all the Abernathy and Nance settlements across the Tennessee river went into the Union army. Lieutenant John Glasscoe, husband of Aunt Sue, came out of the war sick and soon died in a year or so. Old man Pounders,who lived in Mountain Home,Franklin County,Alabama, and a number of his sons volunteered into the Union army at the beginning of the war. One son named Jinks refused to turn Yankee and joined the Rebel army and was killed at the battle of Corinth. All of the boys who joined the Union army came home after the war. My father came home from the war in awful shape suffering from camp diarrhea,caused by poor food, half cooked etch. Uncle Billy Northern and Uncle George Thompson's families came to Grandma Ray's to live during the war. Lots of children died during the war,mostly from bowel complaints. The end.

Frank mentioned Lieutenant John Glasscoe, husband of Aunt Sue. The real spelling of the lieutenant's name was John Glasgow. He joined the 2nd Tennessee Mounted Infantry,Union army. His wife was living with my Stephenson family in 1880.
Her name on the census is Glasco.
1880 Census of Limestone
George Alexander Stevenson 58 b. Alabama Runs Sawmill
Elizabeth Stephenson 53 b. SC
Josephine 21 b. Al
Samuel 18 b. Al
Nettie 12 b. Al
Susan Glasco border 40 b. SC
Mary 19b. TN
Lieutenant John Glasgow might be buried in the Hudson Cemetery in Limestone County, Alabama.
Josephine Stephenson died in the 1880's and is buried in Hudson cemetery.
My Stephenson family and Frank Monroe Hudson moved to Lamar County,TX. Frank Monroe Hudson wrote a comment about what some woman told him after moving back to Alabama from Texas. She said, "Young man don't go to Texas. There are more things to bite you and more bushes to stick you than any place I ever saw."
 
Franklin Monroe Hudson married my Mary Stephenson in Limestone County,Alabama on 02 Feb 1881.
1880 Census of Limestone
George Alexander Stevenson 58 b. Alabama Runs Sawmill
Elizabeth Stephenson 53 b. SC
Josephine 21 b. Al
Samuel 18 b. Al
Nettie 12 b. Al
Susan Glasco border 40 b. SC
Mary 19b. TN

Frank Monroe Hudson was born in Limestone Co,Al in 1852. In 1880, Frank Monroe Hudson was a widower.
Franklin Monroe Hudson told his memories of Limestone County,Alabama to his daughter Stella Hudson who wrote his memories down. I got a copy years ago from one the Hudsons.

Civil War.
The first Yankees in our part of the country came to Florence(Lauderdale Co,Al) on gunboats. we were eating breakfast one Sunday morning and got word that the Yankees had landed at Florence. The old men and boys all got excited and gathered up all their old rifles and shotguns in the country. Jerry Stout,the blacksmith,worked all day making butcher knives out of old files and horse shoes to fight the Yankees with. They showed up around our place in a few days. All Yankees were dressed in blue overcoats with capes and funny looking caps. Local men would get hold of the overcoats and dye them black. They certainly were good ones and wore long after the war. I never saw a Rebel army,only individuals. We boys thought the Yankees had horns.

During 1860 and 1861 the men in our community would meet at Uncle Hugh's on the Mooresville Road by the big spring for muster and drill. A gourd always hung by the spring and every traveler that passed would stop for a drink. We boys would march and play soldier. Captain Hobbs made up a company of cavalry. My father George Terry Hudson, Billy Northern,and Bob Christopher went off in the cavalry. They furnished their own horses. Father was so big and heavy that he was soon transferred to the infantry. Tubal Hudson,Sim Hudson,Travers, and Dooley Freeman went into Hobbs Infantry. The Freeman boys didn't come back. Dad and Billy Northern both came back. Bob Christopher was killed. The later companies that were organized went in as replacements. Bill Moore, our school teacher, turned school loose one Friday afternoon, organized a company of infantry and went to Virginia. That day was the last day that I ever attended school(1863). Uncle Drew Hudson(one of Stephen Hudson's sons) went into the army from Arkansas and came to our house from the Rebel army in Virginia on furlough. He stayed about two weeks,returned to the army and was killed. Uncle Joe Cox from Helena, Arkansas was killed in the army. His wife and kids returned to Alabama after the war.
End of this section. I will post more of his memories about the war in Limestone later.
 
hello. I read the above report about the training place at the big spring . can you tell me where on mooresville road the spring is?
southernguy, I think this link might help

http://alabama.hometownlocator.com/maps/feature-map,ftc,1,fid,149148,n,mooresville spring.cfm
coordinates
Latitude: 34.6234251
Longitude: -86.8800041
I read that because of the limestone rocks there are many springs in Limestone Co,Alabama. The Mooresville Springs appears to be just south of Mooresville.
 
southernguy, I think this link might help

http://alabama.hometownlocator.com/maps/feature-map,ftc,1,fid,149148,n,mooresville spring.cfm
coordinates
Latitude: 34.6234251
Longitude: -86.8800041
I read that because of the limestone rocks there are many springs in Limestone Co,Alabama. The Mooresville Springs appears to be just south of Mooresville.
Here is a better topo map showing highways near Mooresville Springs

https://www.anyplaceamerica.com/dir...unty-01083/springs/mooresville-spring-149148/
 
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