Carol Beck

As the Crow Flies Carol Beck

As the Crow Flies; A Civil War Story. This story, based on the Civil War Battle of Richmond, Ky. onAugust 30, 1862 was told to my Mother, Zelah Hardin Heyer Cate by her grandmother who lived the story. Frances Evaline Williams and Hezekiah (Hezie) Jeremiah Hardin were married in Paris, Kentucky on August 30, 1853 when she was 18 and he was 26. Their home was near Falmouth, Kentucky. It was in December 1861 when Hezie and his father, known by everyone as "Pappy" were in Cynthiana, Kentucky to buy timber and met Captain Daugherty of the 18Th Kentucky Infantry Volunteers who was there to enlist men for the Union Army. Hezie was signed up for one year at $13.00 per month pay. "Pappy" was too old, but became a "camp follower" leaving Hezie to explain to "Ma", (Rhoda) Hardin what he had done. Hezie had a 30 day furlough in order to get "Ma" and family situated in Falmouth with 9Frances and the children at his place until the men could return. Frances was at work in the garden that morning when she heard the thundering sound of horses hooves. It was the Confederate Army of Tennessee under Sgt. John W. Kerrick with the commissary. Frances hid the "good horse" Belle, but left the old blind Bess where she could be seen, knowing they wouldn't take a blind horse. It turned out that Sgt. Kerrick was "kinfolk" fr;om Paris, Kentucky and told her about the fighting below Richmond and the Union Army nearly wiped out. Meanwhile, Hezie, who had been injured at the Battle of Richmond, Kentucky had managed to crawl to a place familiar to him where he was given refuge by Zeke and Josie, a couple who were slaves on the White farm. Zeke slipped out of the "Spring House" in the early morning to find help for "Mista" Hezie and found a young Confederate soldier tending to the dead and wounded over the fields. To their amazement, the young soldier turned out to be a student of medicine at Tulane, in New Orleans, "Pokie, Frances' brother! He tended to Hezie's wound until he could find a