Murphy Givens Corpus Christi History Caller-Times

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Corpus Christi History

Corpus Christi History is published Wednesdays. Murphy Givens also sits on the Caller-Times editorial board and can be contacted at givensm@caller.com

Wednesday, May 26, 1999

First person: Rosalie Priour

Civil War days

Rosalie Bridget Hart's parents came to Texas in 1832. After her husband died, Mrs. Hart ran a store in Corpus Christi and Rosalie was sent to a convent school in Mobile, Ala., where she met and married Julian Priour. They returned to Corpus Christi in 1851. Rosalie Priour's journal covers the early years and continued with the terrible years of the Civil War.

   I had been at home a few days when friends begged me to teach the boys and girls. They promised to furnish me with provisions. The Federals gave or sold pro¦ visions to families who belonged to their _side. I began to teach in the house in which we formerly kept store.
   We moved our furniture down from our dwelling house, intending to remain in town, but were glad before long to return to the house we had built at the salt lake. The town was sometimes occupied by one side and sometimes by the other.
   I used to watch my children as closely as possible, but when I would think they were asleep, they would get out through the window and join the other boys. Con¦ federate soldiers would see them in the day and appoint a place of rendezvous for the night. When all of the town boys would be assembled, the soldiers would go into someone's pen and get the best beef they could find, then the boys would surround it and drive it to the salt lake for slaughter. The next day, it would be hung up in the market and those who wanted meat were invited to come and get a piece. This was the only way the Confederates could get meat._ All of the cattle on the range were so poor for want of grass and water they were nothing but skin and bones. Confederate soldiers received half rations and even with the meat they killed, they still suffered from hunger.
   Mr. Priour went to Austin for a load of flour and sugar, but it took all he made to cover expenses. He ran into debt and I had to pay it with my school money.
   During the last year of my mother's life I walked four miles and taught school all day, and in the evening came home to do the housework for a family of nine, and for the greater part of the time, for eleven. My nervous system became so exhausted from the constant work and anxiety lest I should fail, that when I arrived at the school I would be so weak I would have to sit down and rest before ringing the school bell.
   When I found that I could no longer walk so far and still have enough energy to teach the kids, I had some bedclothes taken to the schoolhouse and slept on benches and cooked my meals the best way I could. I kept the youngest of the children with me.
   We would go to the school every Monday morning and remain there until Friday evening. My readers will say, "Why not ride?" It was wartime and all our horses had been stolenø.ø.ø.ø
   The first two weeks that I was teaching school there was neither corn nor flour in the country nearer than 20 miles. I succeeded in getting a few bushels of corn, but it was so badly eaten by weevils and so musty that it would make one sick to smell it, yet it was better than nothing. I sifted the best of the meal to make bread for my mother and children. The hulls I carried to the schoolroom to make bread for myself; this and coffee was the only food I had during those two weeks, except when one of the scholars brought me a piece of fresh meat. But this I carried home at night for mother and the children.
   I did not want mother and the children to know what I was doing and I was afraid to eat the best for fear they would be left without.
   My son-in-law took pneumonia and was sick for three months. As soon as he was able to get up, he was compelled to go to Brownsville with cotton for the government. While he was away, my daughter stayed with me. She was sick. This left me sickness to attend to and bread to provide by teaching, and no one to help me except my little Fannie, then 12, and my oldest son Julian. May God bless and reward him, only for him his brothers and sisters would have suffered with hunger and cold many a time.
   When my son-in-law came back from Brownsville, he had another load of cotton to take back, but was so sick he couldn't go. We were without provisions and did not know what to do, so George Craven begged me to let my oldest son go in his place. I consented, and went down to the commanding officers and asked for a pass.
   Mr. Lovenskiold, one of our former teachers, knew Julian's age exactly. He said, "Julian will be 18 tomorrow (the date was Dec. 17, 1863)." He spoke with someone and said he could not give a pass since Julian was old enough to go into the army. I told him we were without food and had no means of getting any. His answer was: "If he tries to leave town, he'll be put in irons."
   The first duty Julian had to perform was to guard the office and for this purpose they gave him a gun without a lock. He was told not to allow anyone to go into the office except the colonel. When one officer tried to get into the office, Julian stationed himself in the doorway and told him if he tried to enter, he would knock him down with the gun. They thought this a good joke, a boy armed with a gun without a lock, standing up against an officer. After this, they put him to guarding prisoners with the same gun.

   (Source: The journal of Rosalie Bridget Hart Priour in the Nueces Room of Corpus Christi's Central Library.)

   Murphy Givens can be reached by e-mail at givensm caller.com or by phone at 886-4315. Previous columns can be found on-line at www.caller.com/mgivens.)