Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 34.djvu/361

 Woman Saved Richmond City. 353

From the News- Leader, May 16, 1906.

WOMAN SAVED RICHMOND CITY.

Thrilling Story of Dahlgren's Raid and Mrs. Seddon's Old Blackberry Wine.

How Governor Wise Got Time to Give Warning.

[See ante p. 179 the paper of Richard G. Crouch, M. D. ED.]

The following from the Memphis Commercial- Appeal, written -by William Preston Cabell, deals with a thrilling story of the war, familiar in most of its aspects to Richmond and Virginia people but of unfailing interest, especially because of the local references :

History has not recorded the fact that Richmond and the lives of Jeff Davis and his cabinet were saved by the art of woman. Ever since the semi-mythical legend of the rescue of Captain John Smith by Pocahontas, all the world reads with romantic interest of the saving of men by the hand of woman.

The daring exploits of Ulric Dahlgren, the one-legged boy-soldier who was only 21 when he rode at the head of his regiment, eclipsed the wildest legends of adventure of the olden time, and they are interwoven with a thrilling episode of unwritten history which reads like romance and fiction.

Early one morning in March, 1864, we were startled by the heavy pounding on the oaken doors of Sabot Hill, the charming home of James A. Seddon, secretary of war of the Confederacy, and situated on the James river, twenty miles above Richmond.

Mr. Seddon was a lawyer by profession, had been a congress- man, and was a man of great refinement, experience in public affairs, and wealthy. His wife was the beautiful and brilliant Sallie Bruce, one of the large family of that name in Halifax and Char- lotte counties. Her sister, Ellen, another famous belle of the Old Dominion in the palmy days, was married to James M. Morson, and lived on the adjoining plantation, Dover, one of the most aris- tocratic homesteads in Virginia. Many of Richmond's inner circle enjoyed the famous social gatherings here, where the society was as delightful as that which adorned the literary circles of the British