Annie and the Yankee Soldier
Posted By : manager
Posted : July 24, 2020
Annie and the Yankee Soldier
Posted 23 Apr 2020 by gjrmad
This story is from the family genealogy research notes of Luke Mazzell, Jr, who wrote:
“This is another story that my Aunt Ruby Mazzell — Meitzler told me as follows . . . Annie Cantley Mazzell, the wife of Oliver Mazzell, lived with them until she died – no doubt Annie told her this story:
When Annie Cantley was a little girl, she lived in a town called Cantley, close to what is now Columbia, SC. Annie Cantley was in front of her house eating boiled peanuts. She had a lot of them in her apron. It was during the Civil War. She looked down the street and saw smoke and fire and a lot of shooting. Yankees were all around. It was very scary for a young girl.
The fire was all around her. She heard her mother and father call, “Annie, come home! Please!” She saw a man in uniform come riding up to her. He said, “Little girl, where do you live?” She pointed, “There.” He noticed the peanuts in her apron. “What are you eating?” She said, “Peanuts, Sir.” So, she shared those peanuts with the soldier.
As the men started to go for Annie Cantley’s house, he said, “Don’t burn that house. That’s Annie’s house.” He took a few more peanuts and said, “Go home, Annie, to your mom and dad.” Annie told her parents what had happened. They said the soldier on the horse was a general – – General Sherman!”
Note: I am glad that I visited Ruby Meitzler and many more of our family before they passed. This story would have never been told. So, pass it down to your children.”
–Luke Mazzell, Jr.
* Annie Cantley Mazzell was the Great-Great- Grand Mother
of Perry Gene Patrick, Jr.
