Account of Shooting of Guard
Charleston Daily Mail, Thursday,
April
18, 1963
This is a different account of how
Nancy
Hart shot the guard.
Roane County Girl Served as Confederate Spy, Scout
Of the Daily Mail Staff
Hatred for Union Soldiers Blazed
|
Mr.
Adrian
Gwin’s
interview with Nancy’s grandniece Mrs. Jessie Ferguson Keith of Fola,
Virginia.
According
to
Mrs.
Keith, Nancy was born in Raleigh, NC in 1846.Her
family moved to Tazewell, VA when she was an infant.Her
mother was first cousin to Andrew Johnson, who became President and
Nancy’s
mother was raised in the same home with young Andrew.
Nancy and
her
family
moved to Roane County, in West Virginia when she was eight and resided
with William and Mary Hart Price. Nancy sympathized with the Confederate side, when she was 14 joined the Moccasin Rangers. Nancy had
gone
back
home to visit her sister Mary on October 19, 1861 as her sister was
expecting
and her time was near. About dusk
a
party
of Union soldiers rode into the yard.They
told William Price he was needed in Spencer to make a speech the next
day. While
William
was
preparing to go, they poked around the house. They found Mary Price in
the bedroom with several pillows and a large bolster behind her. They
apologized
rudely
for invading the bedroom.But hidden
in the bolster was Nancy Hart. William
Price
never
got to Spencer.He was found three
days later, shot in the back near another farm on the road to Spencer.The
hatred Nancy Hart had for the Union soldiers blazed anew. She was
captured
in
the summer of 1862.Nancy was captured
and fell into the hands of Colonel Starr’s forces. She was
jailed
in
the upstairs portion of a dilapidated house with soldiers quartered
downstairs
and a sentry guarding her room at all times. Nancy Hart
beguiled
the sentry guard, sweet-talked him and late at night by the light of
two
candles on the table, she played her trumps.She
asked for a cup of coffee and invited the young soldier to sit with her.Over
the cup of coffee, she leaned across the small table and pressed
herself
against the youth.He laid his pistol
on the table and started to take her into his arms.Nancy
grabbed the gun and with the swiftness of a panther, jumped back, fired
a bullet between his eyes.Then she
dived out the window and stole the Colonel’s prize horse. Abstracted
from
the
story in the Charleston Daily Mail, April 18, 1963 |
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Revised 7 February
2005