§ 140 A Warning to the Yanks
When Sherman, after his march from Atlanta to the sea, turned his columns northward he was temporarily halted just below Fayetteville, North Carolina, while his engineers threw a temporary bridge across a swollen creek, the Confederates in falling back having destroyed the only bridge which spanned the stream. The retreating Southern army had left behind in Fayetteville a population made up almost altogether of women, children, boys too young to fight and men too old for service.
In response to a call, practically all of these older men gathered at the courthouse to discuss such measures as might be taken for the protection of the town in view of the approach of the invaders. Various expedients for saving the place from the fate which already had overtaken Atlanta and Columbia were discussed. But none of them seemed feasible, inasmuch as the community could muster no adequate defending force.
Finally an aged veteran of the Mexican War rose from his seat and caught the eye of the presiding officer.
“Mister Chairman,” he quavered, “I make a motion that we collect a fund and have a lot of dodgers struck off at the printin’ shop and circulated amongst the Yankee Army, warnin’ them that they enter Fayetteville at the peril of their lives.”