Confederate
Veteran, Vol. XXXII , July, 1924.
"THE HOMESPUN DRESS"
reported by J.B. Lewis, of Anderson, S.C.
Adjutant General, S.C. Division, U.C.V.
At the reunion of South Carolina
Confederate Veterans in Orangeburg on May 14 and 15, there were many
delightful features but perhaps that which appealed most to the 'Boys in
Gray' was the singing of "The Homespun Dress" by Mrs. LOUISE SALLEY
HARTWELL. Though the wife of a Northerner, MRS. HARTWELL ' glories in
the name' of being a Southern girl, being the granddaughter of Dr.
ALEXANDER S. SALLEY, brigade surgeon of Kershaw's Brigade.
The costume she wore was a wartime
homespun dress which had belonged to MRS. MARY WARD, of SPARTANBURG,
S.C., who was a widow at the time of the war, and her five sons were all
in the army, one dying in prison at Elmira. Everything about the dress-
the cotton from which it was woven and spun and the indigo, walnut and
pine bark from which the dyes were made- was produced on MRS. WARD'S
plantation in Spartanburg County. The cloth was spun, woven and dyed at
home, and this, a very pretty blue-and -tan plaid, was an 'everyday'
dress. If you would like to hear the song "The Homespun Dress" and other
songs of the era please visit this website:
http://members.aol.com/awill84810/csmusic.htm
|
