Barbera Fritchie's famous stand that never was

In 1864 John Greenleaf Whittier's wrote a famous poem about Barbara Fritchie's defiant stance against the soldiers of the Confederacy as they passed by her house in Frederick, Maryland.  She waved her flag and Andrew Jackson ordered that no harm come to her.  Whittier wrote the poem based on stories he had heard from multiple sources.  He wrote it in good faith believing it to be completely truthful.  However history tells a slightly different story.

The truth is that Fritchie was sick in bed the day the soldiers passed through, and they did not actually pass by her house.  That day she had ordered her valuables hidden so that they would not be stolen.  Her flag was waving outside and was shot multiple times by Confederate soldiers from a distance.  However Fritchie did have a flag that she waved toward  Union General Burnside's men, not Jackson's six days later.  Fritchie's adoptive daughter's daughter left this account of the occasion.

"Jackson and his men had been in Frederick and bad left a short time before. We were glad that the rebels had gone and that our troops came. My mother and I lived almost opposite aunt's place. She and my mothers cousin. Harriet Yoner, lived together. Mother said I should go and see aunt and tell her not to be frightened. You know that aunt was then almost ninety-six years old. When I reached aunt's place she knew as much as I did about matters, and cousin Harriet was with her. They were on the front porch. and aunt was leaning on the cane she always carried. When the troops marched along aunt waved her hand, and cheer after cheer went up from the men as they saw her. Some even ran into the yard. 'God bless you, old lady.' 'Let me take you by the hand,' 'May you live long, you dear old soul,' cried one after the other, as they rushed into the yard. Aunt being rather feeble, and in order to save her as much as we could, cousin Harriet Yoner said. 'Aunt ought to have a flag to wave.' The flag was hidden in the family Bible, and cousin Harriet got it and gave it to aunt. Then she waved the flag to the men and they cheered her as they went by. She was very patriotic and the troops all knew of her. The day before General Reno was killed he came to see aunt and had a talk with her."

The truth is that Mrs. Mary S. Quantrell, another Frederick woman, had flown the flag in defiance of Jackson's troops, but no on took notice.  It was Whittier's poem the solidified Fritchie's place in history, and provided inspiration for generations to follow, even though the story is not completely true.

-Professor Walter

Up from the meadows rich with corn,
Clear in the cool September morn,
 

The clustered spires of Frederick stand
Green-walled by the hills of Maryland.
 

Round about them orchards sweep,
Apple and peach trees fruited deep,
 

Fair as the garden of the Lord
to the eyes of the famished rebel horde,
 

On that pleasant morn of the early fall
When Lee marched over the mountain-wall;
 

Over the mountains winding down,
Horse and foot, into Frederick town.
 

Forty flags with their silver stars,
Forty flags with their crimson bars,
 

Flapped in the morning wind; the sun
Of noon looked down, and saw not one.
 

Up rose old Barbara Frietchie then,
Bowed with her fourscore years and ten;
 

Bravest of all in Frederick town,
She took up the flag the men hauled down;
 

In her attic window the staff she set,
To show that one heart was loyal yet.
 

Up the street came the rebel tread,
Stonewall Jackson riding ahead.
 

Under his slouched hat left and right
He glanced; the old flag met his sight.
 

"Halt!" the dust-brown ranks stood fast.
"Fire!" out blazed the rifle-blast.
 

It shivered the window, pane and sash;
It rent the banner with seam and gash.
 

Quick, as it fell, from the broken staff
Dame Barbara snatched the silken scarf.
 

She leaned far out on the window-sill,
And shook it forth with a royal will.
 

"Shoot, if you must, this old gray head,
But spare your country's flag," she said.
 

A shade of sadness, a blush of shame,
Over the face of the leader came;
 

The nobler nature within him stirred
To life at that woman's deed and word;
 

"Who touches a hair of yon gray head
Dies like a dog! March on!" he said.
 

All day long through Frederick street
Sounded the tread of marching feet:
 

All day long that free flag tost
Over the heads of the rebel host.
 

Ever its torn folds rose and fell
On the loyal winds that loved it well;
 

And through the hill-gaps sunset light
shone over it with a warm good-night.
 

Barbara Frietchie's work is o'er,
and the Rebel rides on his raids no more.
 

Honor to her! And let a tear
Fall, for her sake, on Stonewall's bier.
 

Over Barbara Frietchie's grave,
Flag of Freedom and Union, wave!
 

Peace and order and beauty draw
Round thy symbol of light and law;
 

And ever the stars above look down
On thy stars below in Frederick town!

Comments

[The Wife]

Yeah, but her restaurant has good butterscotch pie.