field. My mother through the kindness of friends and through her own industry managed to find food during the winter, but each week did we stay in bed all day while she washed and ironed our clothes with her own hands, as she had no money to buy with, nor were there any stores in Fredericksburg from which she could have bought. After some weeks she succeeded in getting us more clothes, which was certainly more comfortable for us all.
In the spring, my mother, through the kindness of a friend, was enabled to go to Danville, Virginia, where we remained until after the war was over, but never, even if I live to be a very old woman, will I forget the horrors of the "shelling," or the different events as they appeared to me as a child, and though I may have forgotten other scenes of later date, those enacted during that terrible time are as present with me as if they had only happened yesterday.
