[The following takes place after a Union garrison surrendered to a Confederate force after a clever ruse by the Confederate Colonel, in which he tricked a superior and well-fortified Union force into surrendering after they’d effectively won the battle. Here, Union soldiers are being disarmed and are filing out into CSA captivity, thoroughly embarrassed.]
Six miles away at Union city, Hawkins’s men tore at their blankets and clothing with knives to prevent the rebels from using them, and hastily buried their regimental flag. But a rebel dug it up and claimed it as a trophy. When a captive officer tried to buy it back, pleading that his sister had sewn it, the trooper refused.
”If your sister’s good looking,” he said, “she and I can probably make a trade. But you and I? Never. Say to her it is in the hands of men who know how to defend such emblems.”
Source:
Ward, Andrew. “Duckworth’s Bluff.” River Run Red: The Fort Pillow Massacre in the American Civil War. Viking, 2005. 114. Print.
Original Source Listed:
William Weatherspoon in henry, As They Saw Forrest, pp. 101-103.
If you enjoy this type of content, please consider donating to my Patreon!
Would love to hear the story of the clever ruse that got them to surrender.