Sherman's Soldiers - McAdams Family

Shadow Box in Lyster Cemetery
by Sue Jackson

Sherman's Soldiers and the McAdams Family near Gordon

"To illustrate some of the hardships the citizens endured, we will relate a true story of a young couple who told it many, many times after they were quite old.
This couple, Mr. Bryant (Barney) and Mrs ( Margaret Lyster McAdam), were married in 1855. When the war began they were the parents of two small children (Mary and James Thomas) and owned one slave, a Negro girl. When he was called away to fight ( with the Georgia 54th Regiment in May of 1862), his wife and the Negro girl plowed to make food for the family and when possible sent food to her husband who shared with his friends. She wove cloth at night and sewed. ( Barney was wounded in the foot and ankle on July 4 1864 in Atlanta and was discharged. At home, he either hid out or had joined other veterans at home for local defense.) When Mrs. McAdam heard the enemy soldiers were coming to Gordon she led her horse to a little island in a swampy area near her home and tied it there until they were gone.
They killed her hogs and took the best parts and knocked off the sides of the corn crib and let their horses eat all they wanted; they took the sweet potatoes from the hills where they had been placed to protect them from the cold. After they were gone she and the girl salvaged what they could of meat, potatoes and corn. She had buried her dishes in the run of a branch and she was never able to find them after the war ended.
In another home nearby, the union soldiers camped in the yard and as many as could slept in the house. The next day before leaving they emptied the feathers out of the mattress."

Story is from the booklet Gordon, Georgia 100 Years, 1885-1985. Information in parentheses has been added by Eileen B. McAdams.