Hello Everyone--This is my Civil War Story about my gg grandmother--Margaret Jane Starling Arthur. She married Barnabas Arthur who died in the War and is buried in Shelbyville, TN in Confed Natl Cemetery--His story in a complete separate story but here is hers: BOILING THE STONES When Barnabas Arthur left to fight in the Civil War (1861), his wife, Margaret Jane Starling Arthur was left on their farm in Chapel Hill, Ala with 8 children. The eldest was 17 at the time. Since the Confederacy needed food and fiber almost as much as it did soldiers, Barnabas came home 2 yrs later to 'lay a crop'. Once the crops were harvested in the fall of 1862 and delivered to the Confederate Army, he prepared to re-enlist in the Army. He left in November of 1862 taking his eldest son, William Houston Arthur, with him. But, this is not his story, this is the story of how Margaret survived after Barnabas and William left. At some point, the Union Army 'confiscated' the Arthur farm for their use. Margaret and the children were forced to flee to the woods in Chapel Hill. She was not allowed to take any household goods, clothes, food or much of anything except the closthes on their backs. She did manage to take the black iron pot with a ladle and dutch oven. After s! everal days she came to the realization that help was not on the way and she had to keep 7 children alive. With no education to help her; she knew that she had to live off the land and she had the presence of mind to take the black iron pot and sneak down to the creek and fill the bottom of it with stones from the bottom of the river. She knew that they would contain minerals and vitamins needed to survive. She then filled the pot with water from the creek and took it back to the woods. She left the children there and found the closest smoke house which was empty now. The Union Army had taken all of the contents. She scraped up dirt from the top layer of soil that the pork, turkeys and other meat had dripped on and placed it in the pot. She took the pot back to where the children were hiding. At first light, she built a fire and boiled this mixture for an unknow amount of time. She then removed the pot from the fire and allowed the dirt to settle to the bottom of the ! pot. When it was cool enough, each child got a ladel full fo the liquid which now contained minerals, vitamins and meat drippings. She saw to it that the children were all fed before whe drank what was left of the 'soup'. Thie process was repeated nightly. She and the children managed to survive until William returned with the news that, father and husband, Barnabas had been killed on June 27, 1863. In approx 1887 Margaret Jane and her daughter and her husband, Mary Elizabeth Arthur and Burrell Scales Lewis moved to Comanche, Texas where she lived out her life and died 1902. We just don't realize how hard times were during and especially after the War. This story has been passed thru the family for years but is unpublished. My sister still has the black iron pot used for 'Boiling the Stones' Have a GREAT day--- Dianne in Texas