Memories

By: Fannie A. Beers

"I was left to endure the horrors of suspense as well as the irritating consciousness that, although sojourning in the home of my childhood, I was an alien, an acknowledged "Rebel," and as such an object of suspicion and dislike to all save my immediate family." "Fannie" Beers was born and lived in the North until she married A.P. Beers, a Southern student at Yale University. The couple moved to the South where they spent the next few years in Louisiana before Mr. Beers was mustered into Confederate service with his company of the Crescent Rifles. Fannie would return to her familial home in Connecticut; but, her time there would be short. Much of the town knew of her Confederate ties, and had heard of a small keepsake "Rebel" flag which she cherished in her prayer book. Beers states, "This harmless possession was magnified into an immense rebel banner, which would eventually float over my mother’s house." As Fort Sumter fell and war grew ever more imminent, neighbors were demanding, "Let’s have that flag," and "Show your colors"; these and other epithets would influence her decision to paste it over her heart, a place where it stayed throughout the remainder of the war. After the need became evident, she would rejoin her husband in Virginia. It was there that she made her name as a nurse. First, in Richmond at a private hospital maintained by wealthy ladies of that city, and later in hospitals in Georgia and Alabama. Beers was considered heroic for her service to the Southern Cause. Most famously, she is touted for risking her life bringing provisions to her husband and his men during the shelling of Atlanta. Acts like this earned her the title, "The Florence Nightengale of the South." Originally published in 1889 by J.B. Lippincott Company.

• ISBN-13: 9781598380750

• Page Count: 358

• Book Height: 8 x Width: 1.0625 x Length: 5 inches