Ivey Lee’s Encounter with Yankee Bummers
Mr. Ivey Lee’s Encounter With Yankee Bummers The time was the day before the last major battle of the War of Northern Aggression, the “Battle of Bentonville”. Major General William Tecumseh Sherman’s Bummers inflicted not only property damage to one Southern Farmer and his family but inflicted physical injury that would affect the life of this gentleman until his death. The Southern Gentleman Farmer was Mr. Ivey Lee, my Great-Great Grandfather. Ivey Lee, a fifty-five year old farmer was at his farm in the Rosin Hill Community between Blackmon Road and Timothy Road, on that Saturday March 18, 1865, the day before the “Battle of Bentonville”. During the day, around meal time, some of Sherman’s soldiers arrived at Ivey’s place and he went out to meet them. The soldiers had been told a rich man lived there, but they were mistaken. They had Ivey Lee mixed up with Pharoah Lee who lived in the vicinity. While there they were stealing his corn, other crops, and two pigs. The soldiers, instead of shooting the pigs, cut their throats and let them bleed to death. Ivey did not appreciate the inhumane way they had killed his pigs and immediately told them so. One of Sherman’s bummers turned and shot Ivey in the back striking him in the hip region. The wound healed but Ivey was never able to sit in a chair again. Family members built him a handmade chair that he could prop against. The chair is in the possession of Mrs. James Rose and their family. The original article was printed in the Sampson Herald during the 1980’s and was written by Doris Cannon a Herald Staff Writer. The article was reprinted in “The Family of Ivey Lee and Nettie Warren Lee – A Tribute to the Lees” by Clarence Lee Warren, typed and edited by Abigail Warren Porter, 4th Edition, September 2000. This article is submitted to the North Carolina Civil War History Center in honor of the descendants of Ivey and Nettie Warren Lee by Don P. Warren