By Staff
Lydia Grimes
Forgotten Trails
I am continuing the story of the Yankees coming near our area during the Civil War. It is a bit long, but I found it very interesting that many names from this area were in the write-up. I hope you enjoy it.
The Yankees passed through Dixie on the 22nd and shortly thereafter passed on their left, the home of Wiley Dixon and his family cemetery where his son, William H. Dixon, is buried. He was born April 8, 1829 and died Jan. 11, 1864, while in the service of the Confederate Army in the same camp near Mobile that Peter McGowin had died three weeks earlier.
His mother, Elsie May Dixon, went with Nancy McGowin in a wagon to the army camp where they died and brought their bodies back home for burial. It took them almost two weeks to make the trip. They took their own food with them, camping out at night and sleeping in the wagon going to Mobile and under it on the way back as the coffins were in the wagon.
After passing the Dixon place the raiders took a sharp turn in the road and within a short time arrived at the homestead of Isaac Hart on their left. They took what corn he had in his barn. He had a short notice that the Yankees were coming so he took most of the corn deep in the swamps and hid it. He took his livestock, goats, sheep, work animals and his wagons as far off the road as possible. The raiders emptied his potato banks, took all of his syrup and that is all he lost except the bucket he used to draw water from his well, which they took.
Mr. Hart was living in Florida on the Yellow River when the Florida Creek Indian War of 1837 broke out. He joined the army and served as a private in the West Florida Volunteers until the war scare blew over. He later moved into south Alabama and settled on the bounty land he received for serving in the army during this war.
Mr. Hart had four sons serving in the Confederate Army at this time. One of his sons, Allen Thomas, lived a short distance up the road from his father on the right side of the road. He was in the Confederate Army and his wife, on hearing the Yankees were coming, took what livestock she could gather and what cured meat she could carry and hid everything in the woods back of her house. As the raiders were well supplied with corn and potatoes, she only lost some chickens and pigs that she could not hide and a wagon they burned.
Another son, Reuben Sylvester, was in the Rebel Army and was captured Aug. 3, 1864, by the Yankees between Marietta and Atlanta, Ga., during the Battle of Atlanta. He was wounded in Marietta a short time before his capture.