Wash Zachary’s Late Night Visit to the Home of Alfred and Jane Zachary

According to the family of Cashiers’ resident Mary Baumgarner Bryson, great-granddaughter of Alfred and Jane Zachary, the following story was passed down through the generations:

On a dark, cold winter’s night in 1864, Alexander Washington “Wash” Zachary tapped on the kitchen door of his Uncle Alfred Zachary’s house, located at the upper end of Whiteside Road. His aunt, Jane Powers Zachary, opened the door and let Wash come inside. She gave him supper, and then wrapped up a package of food for him to take with him. She let him out the kitchen door and told him, “Hurry, they’re looking for you.”

“They” might be the members of the Confederate Home Guard: It is possible that Wash Zachary was wanted for desertion, so the Confederate Home Guard would have arrested him and returned him to the battlefield if they caught him.