An Oral Tradition: The Cave Man and the Confederates

Jeff Brady, my great-great-grandfather, was a farmer near High Falls in Moore County at the outbreak of the Civil War. He lived there with his wife, Mary Ann Moore Brady, and several children. Jeff Brady was a Quaker. He and Mary are buried in the cemetery of the Prosperity Friends Church in High Falls. A distant cousin recently related the following story to me in an email. “Johnny Brady, one of Daniel Brady’s children, had told us a story about Jeff and Mary that happened during the Civil War times. “Jeff,” he said, “had a cave dug out in which he hid. The ‘hunters’ came to his house and asked Mary if he had been home. She covered for him by saying he was off at war. They suspected she had lied, so they went a ways out into the woods, fired one shot, and then watched the house. Mary heard the shot and came running out saying, ‘Lord a’mercy, they’ve shot Jeff!’ She went straight to Jeff’s hiding place to see about him. The Confederate soldiers followed her and found Jeff. “They took him with them, but he was not court marshaled and shot. He was back home with his wife and family in the 1870 Census.”