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Most of us know of General Sherman for leading the destructive march through my home state of Georgia to end the Civil War. I discovered a compassionate side of this man while researching the Indian Key massacre for Love Again.
This is an entry from Hester Perrine Walker's diary. She was one of the few survivors from that fateful night in 1840:
"Long Years after, General Sherman met me at West Point, & said to me, "Mrs. Walker, I was stationed at Indian Key for three years after you left there, and the first thing I did every morning after breakfast, was to walk around upon that stone wall and look down into your living grave. And now whenever you tell your story, I want you to say from me to you, that no matter how exaggerated your story may seem, no one, but one who has stood as I have & looked into that living grave could begin to realize its horrors. You know that I have been in every war, both Indian & Civil since I entered the Service, and I say, there never has been, there never will be, and there never can be, such a marvelous escape from death as yours. It was an escape from death at the hands of the Indians, from fire and from drowning."
Sherman was twenty at the time of this story and both he and Hester Perrine's miraculous survival have a part to play in Love Again.
The drawing is of Dr. Perrine's house on Indian Key.
Want more of Hester’s story of life on Indian Key and her miraculous survival?
http://digitalcollections.fiu.edu/tequesta/files/1947/47_1_04.pdf
This is an entry from Hester Perrine Walker's diary. She was one of the few survivors from that fateful night in 1840:
"Long Years after, General Sherman met me at West Point, & said to me, "Mrs. Walker, I was stationed at Indian Key for three years after you left there, and the first thing I did every morning after breakfast, was to walk around upon that stone wall and look down into your living grave. And now whenever you tell your story, I want you to say from me to you, that no matter how exaggerated your story may seem, no one, but one who has stood as I have & looked into that living grave could begin to realize its horrors. You know that I have been in every war, both Indian & Civil since I entered the Service, and I say, there never has been, there never will be, and there never can be, such a marvelous escape from death as yours. It was an escape from death at the hands of the Indians, from fire and from drowning."
Sherman was twenty at the time of this story and both he and Hester Perrine's miraculous survival have a part to play in Love Again.
The drawing is of Dr. Perrine's house on Indian Key.
Want more of Hester’s story of life on Indian Key and her miraculous survival?
http://digitalcollections.fiu.edu/tequesta/files/1947/47_1_04.pdf
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