Submitted by J. Michael Ruff DDS
The following is a story that was told to me by Mrs.Phillips around 1982 or 1983, and it had been shared with Mrs. Phillips by her grandmother. She said her grandmother was nine years old when General Sherman and his Army came to Fayetteville in March of 1865. He took her grandmother’s home as his headquarters. Mrs. Phillips said that there had been a fire in the yard because the weather was cold, and Sherman took a stick from the fire to light his pipe. An ash fell off in his beard, and the home’s residents laughed out loud.
Mrs. Phillips said that her grandmother had told her that Black people were running everywhere, and those who had been charged to care for her took their responsibility seriously. They took her and a butcher knife up to the hayloft to protect her from harm.
