Chapter XXXII: Appendix: NOTE L: Page 185

Mrs. Edwards, wife of Mr. Edw. C. Edwards, of Campbell county, carried information, at the cost of exposure to inclement weather and risk of arrest and punishment, to the Union troops in several instances. Once she traveled from her home in a buggy to Lenoir’s Station on the East Tennessee and Georgia Railway and thence by Rail to Athens, 55 miles southwest of Knoxville, and quickly returned. She was accompanied by a neighbor’s adult daughter, Miss Bettie Carey, to whom she did not divulge her purpose. They traveled with passports from the Confederate authorities, and accomplished the journey of more than 150 miles with remarkable celerity. Upon arriving again at home, Mrs. Edwards mounted her horse, and with the valuable knowledge concerning intended movements of the Confederate troops which she had obtained on her recent visit among them, she went alone through the rain over Pine Mountain to the encampment of Gen. J. G. Spears, near the Kentucky border. He was of Bledsoe county, East Tennessee, and in May and June, 1861, a member of the Union Convention at Knoxville and Greeneville. The information given him by Mrs. Edwards, was the means of saving from capture, him and his soldiers, and also, several hundreds of East Tennessee refugees who were on their way to the interior of Kentucky. General Spears thought that she deserved for her daring, patriotic exploit, so useful in its results to his army, more than wordy gratitude; and that she should be paid two thousand dollars by the Federal Government; but the papers he gave her to prove that reward was justly due her failed of their purpose. The United States has never paid it in whole or in part; but her work was not done for the sake of money.

On another occasion, when Winter was about passing into the Spring of 1863, she went on a patriotic errand to Williamsburg, Kentucky, accompanied by Miss Bettie Carey,--both on horseback, their cavalier being a son of Mrs. Edwards, ten years old, mounted on a mule, but as on the previous trip, she kept her special purpose from her companion. Their ostensible object was to purchase supplies needed by their households. As the first night closed in upon the travelers, they lost their way on Pine Mountain. Mrs. Edwards preserved her cheerfulness and hopefully said, that by and by they would find a house. This they did after tedious wandering in the cold and darkness. Observing a light, they found the hospitality they sought in a log cabin which had but one apartment. Their supper, consisting of coffee corn bread and bacon, was kindly provided by the family, and one of the beds in the room was assigned to their use. The two women, with the lad nestling at their feet, slept as comfortably as the cold wind which found entrance through the crevices of the house would permit.

The journey had several difficulties, not the least of which was in fording rivers that were in such a swollen condition, that the horses had almost to swim and their riders were compelled to mount high in their saddles to escape the waters. Mrs. Edwards alone knew what communications she had with others at Williamsburg in relation to the War. In returning home, they were hospitably fed and lodged at the house of a worthy Union man, of whom, as illustrating the wanton cruelties inflicted here and there upon country people by the Confederate soldiery, it has to be said, that not long afterwards, he was arrested by them at his home, and deliberately shot to death, and two of his neighbors of like mind, at the same time shared his fate.

“Were the three men charged with any offence?” was the question asked of the lady who told of the occurrence in connection with the above narrative. “O, no!” was her reply; “they were only Union men.”

There was an instance of dangerous adventure in behalf of the United States, which a young lady and a boy who had just entered his teens undertook during the siege of Knoxville. According to a report made to the House of Representatives, (50th Congress, 1st Session,) by its Committee on War Claims, Gen. Grant sent an important dispatch to Gen. Burnside. So overrun was the territory between Chattanooga and Knoxville by Confederate troops, that it could only be delivered, if at all, with great difficulty and hazard. At length, Miss Mary Love, of Kingston, Tennessee, agreed to take the message through the Confederate lines. She went, attended by a guide, Thomas F. Carter, as far as Louisville, Tennessee. Being there compelled to abandon personally the attempt, she could find but one person who was willing to prosecute it: and to him, a boy, John T. Brown, only 13 years of age she entrusted the dispatch. He carried it safely to its destination, but has never received from the Government, any acknowledgment of his brave and patriotic service.