#72 The Ballad of Widow Fritchie

Barbara Fritchie, age 96,  of Frederick, Maryland, was immortalized in a poem for something she had nothing to do with. In September 1862 Lee's army was heading northward through the town. As they marched, so the story goes, they dragged a captured American flag through the dirt. Upon seeing this, Mrs. Fritchie, otherwise bedridden, hobbled out of her house and began to curse at the soldiers and their leader, Stonewall Jackson. According to the ballad by John Greenleaf Whittier this is what happened:

"Shoot, if you must, this old gray head

But spare your country's flag," she said."

A shade of sadness, a blush of shame,
Over the face of the leader came;

The nobler nature within him stirred
To life at that woman's deed and word;

"Who touches a hair of yon gray head
Dies like a dog! March on!" he said.

All day long through Frederick street
Sounded the tread of marching feet;

All day long that free flag tost
Over the heads of the rebel host.

The real Barbara Hauer Fritchie stayed in her bed during the entire Confederate occupation. Jackson had entered the city in an ambulance as the result of being thrown from a horse. When he left the city, Jackson had taken a different route than his troops, who passed the Fritchie home.

After the Confederates left and the Union soldiers entered the city, the sweet old woman got out of her bed and appeared in her doorway waving an American flag that had been stored between the pages of her family bible. Her niece thought the woman's patriotism would make a good article for the newspaper and passed it along. The story, however, evidently became mixed with a third-hand account mentioned by a doctor in Fredericksburg who heard from a clergyman that an unidentified old woman berated the Confederate troops for their mistreatment of the flag.

Like wildfire, the story-turned-legend raged through the Union ranks, adding details as it went until it reached the ears of the Whittier. For decades afterward, its origins and validity were studied and questioned.

Fritchie died in December, 1862, and never knew of the immortal fame she had earned.

(Source: Davis, Burke. The Civil War: Strange & Facinating Facts. New York: Wings Books. 1960.)