Custers Luck
Sergeant Major
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2013
- Location
- Chesterfield VA.
AMAZING, I will treasure this story you have shared its so heart wrenching, but her story from the past like a breeze blows into the future, so she lives on.Sorry about that Custers Luck! I had to put the Refuse into a plastic bag so we could take it to the front to be collected tomorrow morning in the snow. It's pretty cold up in Wisconsin. I suffered from snow deprivation as a child in the deep south. Ah well. Any way - This story is about Custer so it is for you. Mr. MC. C. Wrote the new lyrics to "Dixie" to tell his eleven sons which one should become the lawyer in charge of his law office, and who should be in charge of his sugar crops, and which sons would be taking care of the lumber business, and which sons would be managing the livery stables, and which sons would be managing the food crops, and who would be in charge of the cotton? and who would be in charge of the stocks and bonds and travel to and fro from New York, or possibly London if this War should be won or lost.
Some of the lyrics were: If I should fall in the war my own dears
Put away your cares and all your fears I Pray
Look away Dry your tears Oh my own.
Just Play a round of Dixie - and Dance - for me -
A Virginia Reel in the Shady Grove where we loved and laughed together
Don't you cry - my own - For I'll be with you always
Little George will beat his drums - Oh, Mary Dear, you're not alone
Wear your red shawl - you're safe and warm - and my arms you'll feel around you.
Jonathon shall read the Law and Michael too shall pass the bar they'll study hard
While Angels guard the House and all the yard for Katie
So Play that round of Dixie and dance for me
A Virginia Reel in the Shady Grove This is no time for Crying
Don't Cry My Dears, For I am there Beside you.
His song mentions every member of the family. But he didn't take into account that all of his sons could die as well as himself. For war has no respect for whether it is right for a child to go before a parent. His first wife had died when his oldest son was only about 9 years old and too young to understand it all. Mary Clothilde was their mother now, and the whole family had accepted her as their only mother. When the eldest three boys had fallen in the war and Mary had received the letter that told of their death, she had written to her husband asking him what they had said, if they were in pain, had he held them, had he assured them that she too had loved them? For when He had died, his possessions had been sent back home, and that letter had been carried by him through the war, and it came back to the little play house.
(but - I am getting ahead of the story)
When the first three died - Mary Clothilde wrote, "How did my babies die? Did they suffer long? My dearest, I know that you are in pain, for I myself can hardly breathe with the pain of this, but I must know! Did they suffer long? Did you Tell them that I love them too? Did you hold them as they died. Did you kiss them? Were they buried with their prayer books? With a rosary? With love? My Heart is broken that I shall never again hear their voices, or touch them. To think that they shall never again enter the doorway of our home again. Oh my dear, the pain is too great to bear. I do not even know who I am without them. I was Mary Clothilde Mc Cameron The mother of 12 Children and now, what am I? Mary Clothilde, the Mother of 9 living children and three in the arms of the angels. I know that I should be grateful that I had them for so long, and that I had them when they were young, and that she had so little of them when they were young, that she left them in my care, and they were hers, and that it is her time with them, But I Want them back. Oh, I want them so!"
With each soldier that Mary Clothilde nursed back to health, she rejoiced, and with each death, she despaired. I cannot read her letter without crying. That poor mother. In her journal, she tells how she won the heart of the oldest boy when she first came to be their mother and it is the most wonderful story. but I really want to tell you how Custer comes into this tale.
In the Red River Campaign - Mary C. had a hospital in her home. (actually she had 3 hospitals - a confederate one, and a union one, that the Union knew about and a hidden one for Confederate officers that the union didn't know about.) Mary C. and her husband had taken in two young girls from Ireland years before who had been sent to America by their families because of poverty and famine. (their family meant to come later but hadn't come yet) Mary C. couldn't bear to use them as servants, she raised them as daughters of the house. It just happened that there were 4 Irish young women who were travelling with the Union army doing some cooking and laundry and other work with them and they pointed out the officers hospital to the union army. they had to do something about the house rather than doing something like jailing Mary C. they decided to take every stick of furniture and every book and every article of clothing out of the house and burn an empty building to the ground. That was to be the punishment for the crime. They also left the Irish girls there with Mary C. Because they didn't want anything to do with them any longer after their treachery. Mary and her little girl Moved into the "Garconiere" or Boys House which was quite large, as it was built for 11 boys and their friends. and well furnished already, not to mention all of the furnishings that the Army had carried over to the Garconierre and to the Law Office and to the Play House and other buildings on the property before they left.
Mary C. was never the same after her home ha been burned to the ground. Mary was in what seems like a catatonic state of some sort. She was in a very frail state mentally certainly, but that wasn't the largest of Mary Clothilde's problems. The 4 Irish Women were stealing from her, and one night, they took off in a wagon with a large amount of valuable items and they had set fire to the garconierre right before they left. Mary C. and her daughter and the two other Irish girls came out of doors with the elderly pharmacist who had helped Mary C. with her hospital. The Pharmacist was going to be taking the Irish girls to the east coast to meet their Papa. But he gave the little girl enough money to live off of for a few months and an address to write to him if she were to require more later. He also helped her to move into the playhouse with her mother before he left.
Mary C. Ended up dying of typhoid fever about two months later. and one by one Katie's brothers died. When the war was over she was living in the play house, and the fifty or so double houses that her Papa had built for the free black people who were share croppers for his land. (Scottish People Never kept slaves - for they themselves had been held as slaves. The African Slave system was based on the White Slavery system that came before it) Any way, The Free Black People had seen the cruel way that the town people had treated young Katie and her mother, and decided that they weren't going to stay and find out what they were going to be treated like, for likely they were only going to be re enslaved. So they all lickety split took up their freedom papers and headed for the North. The Towns People just up and claimed the shotgun double houses for themselves. Some of them even took two houses and joined them together like dogtrot houses. Then - they shunned little Katie, because she was just a poor child who lived in that little two story cottage no bigger than a playhouse. (And they had stolen their grand big double dogtrots from her father's great store! the wretches!)
Finally, One hot afternoon, Katie saw two of her brothers coming home after the war was over. The twins were returning! When they were nearly there she realized that one of them was either dreadfully ill, or horribly wounded. She didn't know which was worse. She began to pray for the ability to cure him, even while she knew she would not be able to do anything for him. She wasn't able to. He lived only two days. Katie was only able to run for the priest for her brother so that he could have last rites before his death. She and her brother made sure he had a proper burial and then, they worked on making a good home life for each other in the old playhouse.
The old pharmacist sent them more money and sent word that he had learned that their father had been in a Union Prison Camp and had been Ill and would be trying to make his way home as soon as he was better., and Katie's brother took her to the general store to buy her a winter coat. The Townies had been raiding the out buildings where all of the items had been carried by the Union Army and the owners of the General Store were no exception. Katie was delighted to have her brother buy the red coat that her mother had once owned and had made over for one of her Irish sisters that she had always been too little to wear before. She was especially delighted that she got to buy and wear it "before the gen'l store owner's daughter who was fat and smelled like a pole cat because she didn't rub alum under her arm pits, had tried to shove her round body into it like a big round sausage." . Katie even went to confession after buying the coat because she thought she had committed a sin for thinking such mean thoughts about the gen'l store owner's fat daughter who smelled like a pole cat. After her confession, Katie and her remaining brother went home, and they had to pass the post office on the way. The Lady who worked there called to Katie's Brother, and he went in, He was given a rather large parcel, and it contained many of their father's personal effects and some of their mothers things as well. There was a letter that explained that their father had died some days before.
The two of them decided that they would do what their father had requested when he had first gone to the war, they would go to the grove and play Dixie and sing the song lyrics that their Father had written.
The war was over, They didn't have to worry about who would do what anymore. There was no large plantation, or stable or Law Office anymore. The Lumber Yard and Land had been stolen by "the Commumity" The Community had taken everything, except for the playhouse. and Katie's brother felt like a failure. Still, the two of them went to the grove with the old guitar.
As Duncan began to play, Katie heard a noise and told him so. they looked about, saw nothing, and they started over. this happened three times, and finally they began to sing. Suddenly - a group of soldiers show up in union uniforms. Custer had stopped in the Area on his way to the west and one of his men had heard "that treason song" and didn't like it. He told them not to sing it any more or he could have them shot or hanged. and he told them if they sang it again he would surely hang one of them.
They tried to tell him that they were not singing anything that was treasonous, that it was simply a requiem for their father. (If the townies had had one ounce of care for these orphaned children the union officer would never have done what he did. however, the townies were not kind people, they were selfish and self absorbed. they could not care about those children, that would take time away from caring for themselves.
The brother and sister waited for a bit, then they tried again, and the Union soldiers heard them again, and they hanged Duncan right in front of his little sister. Then, The Lt. took the guitar and would not give it to the little girl. She had to run to the town to try to get the mean townies to help her to cut her brother down, and they wouldn't. Katie was disconsolate. The Lt. got himself drunk and fell down asleep near the playhouse and Katie noticed that she could steal back her guitar that night. she also saw that his money was blowing out of his coat pocket. so she put a gold cross and chain in his pocket and took all of the money out of his pocket and went to visit Mr. Custer the next morning and to tell him all about it.
Custer was so disgusted with the Lt. he had him shipped back to Washington City under guard. He didn't trust himself or his men to administer discipline. They'd have killed him. then, he asked the little girl if she could play and sing the song or them, and so she did. He and his men were "all very deeply touched" he wrote to his Libby. Then, Custer and his men spent the rest of the day making young Katie very happy. they even went down to the grove to dance for her Daddy with her.
That evening Custer sent 6 men to guard her as she slept in the playhouse. He went to write and telegraph his Libby that he was going to be sending a Little girl home to her that he wanted to adopt with her. He had found a child that he wanted to raise with her. An angel.
The next morning , when Custer went to tell Katie all about his plans, he looked into the window of the playhouse, and he saw her asleep on her bed with her little arm outflung upon her guitar he noticed that her chest neither rose nor fell and that it never would again. His only comfort was to be that he and his men had made her life happy in her last day of life when she had been so miserable, he and his men had been able to bring her joy.
He hadn't even told her that he wanted to become her new Papa yet.
He had that tomb built for that little girl who had only touched his life for one single day.
I feel rather sorry for This General who gets such a bad rap sometimes, the Indians hate him almost as badly as they hate Jackson. Yet Here he has brought joy to a child who has had a life of misery and has just witnessed her last living relative being brutally murdered before her eyes, and he has tenderly cared for her in such a kindly way, that she dies with a smile on her face.
My ancestor even mentions the family once when they are in Mansfield but this is before anyone dies, or Custer goes there of course. she just mentions that Mary C. upon learning of the two faced nature of this wicked young woman and her nasty mother who are visiting and have taken Mary C.'s hospitality without telling her of all of the antics of the daughter's past misbehavior in Sugar Country, Mary C. makes an excuse saying they must find other lodgings.
I try to see every ones point of view on Custer , like the rest of us he was seen through different eyes and showed different sides to his self depending on his relationship with people. a soldier, a friend, a jack *** to others, and the husband with a heart of gold.they all had different point of views and they were all right.
What intrigues me about Custer besides being his own man is that he found the beauty in the thing around him even on his way to battle, he would write to Libby how beautiful the country side was and describe the smell of flowers or how well the water tasted,or the joy of eating onions (yuk) I think he loved life and the wonders in it. he was a kid growing up in a war, like so many of the others.