The Eastern Clarion,
Paulding, Mississippi
May 10, 1861
A reliable gentleman, a resident of the neighborhood, informs us that when Mrs. Maria Ellington, widow lady residing near Dover, Russell county, Alabama, received and read Lincoln’s proclamation, she immediately walked across a field to where her two sons, her sole props and support, were ploughing, and urged them to start forthwith for Columbus and enlist in a military company for a campaign or the war, if necessary, for the defence and establishment of our independence. They came accordingly and enlisted, as there was then no prospect of a company being formed soon in their own county. Learning afterwards that Capt. Baker was organizing a company in Russell, for active service, they obtained an honorable discharge for the purpose of returning to join that.
The fires of patriotism which animated the women of ’76 yet burn brightly in the South; and while it continues we may be annihilated, but can never be conquered. When the history of the struggle in which we are engaged is written, such incidents will form its most pleasing episodes and illumine its brightest pages.—Columbus Sun.