As Harriet is trying to make her way home, she is stopped and the man with her arrested, a Mr. S Wonder who Mr. S is, and was he one of the Richmond prisoners who were not allowed to come home until March and April, 1865?
Hi. Sorry I'm late. May I offer some
conjecture on the identification of the mysterious "Mr. S-" ?
In April, 1994, Elwood W. Christ (Licensed Battlefield Guide and well-known Gettysburg historian) compiled a paper on Harriet C. Hamilton. Included in that paper is a typewritten article entitled, "Mrs. Bayly's Story of the Battle." The date of the included article is not clear, but at 5-1/2 pages, typewritten, it is much shorter than the 1888 version. Written in the first person, the article at one point discusses Harriet's walk on the morning of July 1. It contains a phrase which may give us a clue:
I was thinking about going back to the house when Uncle Robert S-- said to me "suppose we walk out the road a little ways and see if we can find out what is going on".
One possibility --
based on secondary sources only -- is that "Mr. S-" / "Uncle Robert S-" may be a reference to Robert Sheakley (1795-1868). The path to that conclusion stretches the definition of "uncle" a bit. But as anyone with a large family can attest, many a non-related male has been assigned the unofficial role of "uncle" as a way of acknowledging their importance in the family. The logic goes like this:
- Harriet C. Hamilton was the daughter of Enoch Hamilton. [Bittinger, Lucy Forney. Bittinger and Bedinger Families. 1904. Page 15.
- Enoch had a brother, John. [Bittinger, page 17.]
- John married Margaret Sheakley. [Bittinger, page 17.]
- Margaret had a brother, Robert. [Mellon, Rachel H. L., The Larimer, McMasters, and Allied Families. J. B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia. 1903. Page 51.]
Robert Sheakley was the brother of Harriet's Aunt Margaret ... conceivably an unofficial Uncle Robert.
Another clue can be found in the same article. In a statement attributed to Robert, Harriet quotes him as saying, ""I am old and they won't keep me long." Indeed, Robert was 25 years older than Harriet.
I hope that I haven't led anyone astray with my conjecture, but rather, provide some clues for further research.