By Ann Parker

My Great, Great Grandfather was Richard Ferdinand Woodroof.  He was born 
in Rutherford County in 1820.  He enlisted in the Confederate Army in 
1862 when he was forty two years old.  He had a wife and seven 
children.  During the war he was taken ill with Typhoid fever and was 
left in an attic of a hotel by his company commander.  He was provided 
with an army nurse to take care of him.  While he was convalescing the 
Yankees came through.  They found him and took his clothing, his watch 
and his money and also that of the nurse.  Just as the Yankees  were 
about to shoot  them both, a Yankee sergeant came up the stairs. 
Richard Woodroof  noticed a Masonic pin on his lapel.  He was also a 
Mason and gave the Masonic sign to the sergeant.  The sergeant ordered 
the soldiers to give back the clothing, money and watch, and spared the 
lives of the two men. 

When the war was over and   Richard Woodroof was on the way home he 
often had to go without food.  Once when he had been three days without 
eating he stopped at a farmhouse and asked for some food.  A very nice 
lady answered the door and said the Yankees had been through and had 
taken all the food except chitterlings.  She cooked them and Richard 
Woodroof said that was the best food he ever tasted.  After the war he 
always had chitterlings cooked at home.

While Richard Woodroof was away in the war the Yankees came through 
Rutherford County.  The Woodroofs were carpenters and had built false 
panelling in the walls of the farmhouse to hide food such as flour, 
beans and corn meal.  The Yankees did not notice the panelling.  They 
tore out the underpinnings of the farmhouse but all they found was an 
old hog jowl. The children all ran to hide before the Yankees reached 
the house.  My grandfather Richard Jr. hid in the orchard.  Some of the 
girls and Richard Woodroof's mother-in-law hid in the barn.  A Yankee 
went in the barn and tried to steal a saddle. Richard's mother-in- law 
grabbed the saddle and hit the soldier with it nearly knocking him 
unconscious.  He pulled his gun and was about to fire when the captain 
came in the barn and ordered him to put the gun away saying the Union 
Army was not fighting women and children. 
 
 
 
 
 

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 Mari   We'd love to hear from you.