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(Star and Wreath) Civil War supply and activity center. Men and boys served in the Confederate army on many battlefronts and in state troops protecting Texas from invasion. 3 military training camps were set up. Vital needs for military and civilians met with production of hats, shoes, saddles, harness, cloth, iron and pottery in factories in Gilmer and Ore City. A Quartermaster Depot was established on the home front, women, joined by old men, children and loyal slaves, ran the farms producing grain, meat and cotton for army, giving much, keeping little. Home county of southern heroine Emma Sansom Johnson (1847-1900). "Sunbonnet heroine" of the Confederacy. Buried Little Mound Cemetery, 11 miles west. On May 2, 1863 Gen. N. B. Forrest, with 600 C. S. A. Cavalry, in pursuit of 1,700 Federals bent on destroying vital supplies was halted by a burned bridge on Black Creek near Gadsden, Alabama. Forrest asked about another crossing, Emma Sansom volunteered to show way to little-known ford. Forrest swung her up behind his saddle. Bullets pierced here calico dress, but the 15-year-old waved her bonnet defiantly and pointed out the crossing, enabling troops to surprise, capture enemy. Feat recognized by note from Forrest, a gold medal from C. s. A. Congress and "The Ballad of Emma Sansom." She married Confederate veteran C. B. Johnson and moved to Texas in 1876. Texans with Forrest were 1st Legion, Willis Cav. Bn., 34d, 6th, 9th Cav. regts. |
