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Part of the American
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Sallie Chapman Gordon Law 1805 ~ 1904
Just upon the eve of preparation by
ex-Confederates a few years ago to celebrate the Fourth of July
in a becoming manner and spirit, the sad news was announced of
the death of the venerable Mrs. Law, known all over the South as
one of the mothers of the Confederacy. She was also truly a
mother in Israel in the highest Christian sense. Her life had
been closely connected with that of many leading actors in the
late war, in which she herself bore an essential part. She
passed away June 28, 1904, at Idlewild, one of the suburbs of
Memphis, nearly ninety-nine years of age.
She was born on the River Yadkin, in
Wilson County, North Carolina, August 27, 1805, and at the time
of her death was doubtless the oldest person in Shelby County.
Her mother's maiden name was Charity King. Her father, Chapman
Gordon, served in the Revolutionary War, under Generals Marion
and Sumter. She came of a long-lived race of people. Her mother
lived to be ninety-three years of age, and her brother, Rev.
Hezekiah Herndon Gordon, who was the father of General John B.
Gordon (late senator from Georgia), lived to the age of
ninety-two years.
Sallie Chapman Gordon was married to Dr. John S. Law, near
Eatonton, Georgia, on the 28th day of June, 1825. A few years
later she became a member of the Presbyterian Church, in
Forsyth, Georgia, and her name was afterward transferred to the
rolls of the Second Presbyterian Church, in Memphis, of which
she remained a member as long as she lived.
She became an active worker in hospitals, and when nothing more
could be done in Memphis she went through the lines and rendered
substantial aid and comfort to the soldiers in the field. Her
services, if fully recorded, would make a book.
She was so recognized that upon one
occasion General Joseph F. Johnston had thirty thousand of his
bronzed and tattered soldiers to pass in review in her honor at
Dalton. Such a distinction was, perhaps, never accorded to any
other woman in the South, not even Mrs. Jefferson Davis, or the
wives of the great generals. Yet, so earnest and sincere in her
work was she that she commanded the respect and reverence of men
wherever she was known.
After the war she strove to comfort the
vanquished and encourage the down-hearted, and continued in her
way to do much good work.
Women of
America
Source: The Part Taken by Women in
American History, By Mrs. John A. Logan, Published by The Perry-Nalle
Publishing Company, Wilmington, Delaware, 1912.
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