The heroism of no Spartan mother was greater than hers. In East Tennessee. all the men left their homes and went to one army or the other. and the wives of the soldiers were left on the line of the contending armies. yet with a devotion indescribable they stayed in their mountain homes with no other protection than their virtue. their children. and the God they worshipped. They fed all they had. to the hungry soldier and the departing refugee. and without a murmur submitted to the conditions of war and came out of this fire with enlarged heroism and devotion to country such as to Inspire the admiration of the world. Her lot was more lonely and her. hardships far exceeded those of the soldier himself. Being the son of a soldier who lived in the South and fought three years to preserve this Union. and whose mother at that time suffered all the sorrows. privations. and hardships possible to suffer under all these circumstances.