Monroe Journal, Centennial Edition, 1866-1966, Reprint Ed., p. 38F -- excerpts -- It appears that this article was written about the time of the Centennial of the War. Nearing her hundredth birthday, Mrs. Easley died a few years after this article. Susan Catherine Easley, of Beatrice at the time of this article, was the 8th child of 13 children that included one set of twins. One sister, Frances Somerall, was 95 when this was written and lived in Montgomery. Susan Middleton Easley, born in Wilcox County, was the daughter of John and Eliza Middleton and lived at Asberry on the Old Federal Road near Old Texas when she married Anslem Anthony Easley. Susan said, "[t]he old home is still standing, ... Andrew Jackson cut that road in one day. It was also called the Stagecoach road." Easley volunteered in the CSA at age 16 and served in Co. F, 1st Battn. Ala. Artillery at Fort Morgan and also in Co. B 1st Battn. Ala. Artillery. At one time he was attached to 5th Co., Washington Artillery of La. Easley was paroled at Meridian, Miss. on May 10, 1865. Susan Middleton Easley said that the sound of Dixie and the sight of a Confederate flag brings tears to here eyes and "In my heart there's a feeling I can't describe." Easley was the pastor of Susan's church and served as pastor of Sepulga, Cahawba, Mission, Sweet Water, Freeport and Roxana. Easley was a Methodist minister and was born in Marengo County in 1844. When they married in 1890 Susan was 16 and he was in his 40's. Their children included Anslem of Bay Minette, John Howard who died in 1957, and Mittie Lee living with her Mother when this article was written. The "Lee" in Mittie Lee's name is for Gen. Robert E. Lee who Susan's husband know and loved as a kind-hearted man who talked much about God. Susan's husband never talked about the War but her father, John G. Middleton did. "When my children were little they wanted to go every night to hear 'grandpa' talk about the war. He and his brother, also a veteran, sometimes talked all night. Susan's mother, Eliza Fore Middleton, had three small children when John G. went away to war. Only God knows how they lived through that terrible war. There were heartbroken, but patriotism and love of liberty demanded that the Yankees should be drivern away at any sacrifice, she said. For four years she worked in the fields on the farm. They were very poor. Food, seed and livestock were scare -- and they almost starved. My mother had only one cow -- and two of her children died from want of milk. she said. There were no bottles for babies -- they were fed with a cup, a reed and a piece of cloth. [direct quote from Susan's comments in article] Mrs. Easley said some of the soldiers became so crazy from hunger they deserted the army. "My father starved so long, when he came home he picked up every crumb from the floor. His feed were frozen from walking barefooted in the snow, and he was wounded in the arm. But he lived to be 90 years old, and drew a pension." Susan recalled, "[d]uring the war women gathered together to spin, weave, knew, sew and quilt. My mother said one night the Yankees came to a neighbor's house where they were making cloth and knocked. When she went to the door, they chopped her fingers off and took all the cloth from the looms." She recalled her father being home on furlough and hiding in the plum orchard to avoid Yankees. "They took the horses and all the meat from the smoke-house. A Negro woman at Riley's Crossing told them where the horses were hidden." [note: John G. Middleton later made a claim with the Southern Claims Commission for horses and meat taken by Yankee soldiers; his claim was denied although his uncle Martin Middleton's claim was approved.] Susan recalled that while she grew up in hard times and often worked for fifty cents a day, they had a good time, too. Weddings and log-rollings were big events; she recalled her mother cooking chickens in the wash-pot and baking 30 potato pies for a log-rolling. Susan had 4 dresses a year: two in the spring and two in the winter out of homemade cloth. However, the cloth for her wedding dress was bought in Greenville. "It was beautiful, and I remember just who it looked." Susan attributed her long life to "hard work and trusting the Lord." Observations from DABF: I have identified 13 children of John G. Middleton -- 9 with Elizabeth Fore and 4 with Martha Bond. However, it doesn't look like there are any twins -- unless one died in infancy and that would come as little surprise. Sons of Willis Middleton: John G. Middleton: Co. D, 1st Conf. Cav. Co. E, 1st Battn. Ala. Art. Co. E, 1st Ala. Vols. Willis Middleton: would have been of soldiering age; need further info on whether James Stephen H. Middleton: Co. G 36th Ala. Inf. Vols. Jackson Middleton: Co. D, 1st Reg. Conf. Cav. Anslem Anthony Easley: Co. F 1st Battn. Ala. Art. Co. B 1st Battn. Ala. Art.