黑料社入口

Terror gripped the residents of Conwayboro during the evening hours of February 1865.

The Civil War was coming to a close when sentries along the 黑料社入口 River reported that a Federal troop transport had been spotted.

Ellen Cooper Johnson, 21-years-old at the time, recalled the confusion and then the arrival of the dreaded Yankees in an account that appeared in The Independent Republic Quarterly.

A company of local militia commanded by Capt. Samuel Bell was to rendezvous with Capt. Ervin, head of the home guard. The men were to be placed at different locations along the river where they thought the enemy would land.

Along the way, Capt. Bell mistook Ervin鈥檚 company for Yankees and fired into the men. Lt. John R. Beaty was mortally wounded, as well as three other men from Capt. Ervin鈥檚 home guard.

鈥淥ur soldiers had to leave Conway as quickly as they could, or be taken prisoner of war,鈥� recalled Mrs. Johnson. 鈥淭hat night the Yankees searched all the houses for our soldiers.鈥�

Beaty was taken to his family home and died two weeks later.

鈥淭here were but a few old men left in the town that night. The women and children were very much frightened, but took things as quietly as they could,鈥� she wrote.

Her husband, who lost a leg during the Battle of the Wilderness in 1864, sat on the porch of his home and listened to the Federal troops curse and threaten while they searched the town.

鈥淭hey came up to him and asked 鈥榃hat are you doing here? Ah, well, you can鈥檛 hurt us now, so we will not trouble you,鈥欌�� she recalled.

Mrs. Johnson said the invaders broke down a door and entered the home of Capt. Bell. It frightened his wife, and she asked the Yankee captain for protection. She told him her husband was not in the home.

鈥淰ery well, madam, but we are going to search anyway,鈥� said the officer.

Mrs. Johnson said the Yankees stayed in a boarding house on the corner of Third Avenue and Laurel Street for the next three months, but were unsuccessful in apprehending any of the local Confederate militia.

Their stay was largely peaceful.

The same couldn鈥檛 be said for some of the men who deserted from the Confederate armies and returned home.

In another account of Civil War days, Mrs. Johnson writes about two raids at Cool Springs by a gang of deserters who 鈥渨ould lie in the woods and would rather steal from defenseless families than work or fight for their state.鈥�

It was a desperate time for Mrs. Johnson and those living on a farm in Cool Springs near Conway.

Her sister received a note from their cousin, T. W. Beaty of Conwayboro that said, 鈥淧ut everything away that you can, the Yankees are in Georgetown and we are expecting them here at anytime.鈥�

鈥淭his seemed more than I could bear, the Yankees on one side and the raiders on the other. I did not know which was worse,鈥� she wrote.

SOURCE: Horry County Historical Society. To learn more, visit its website at

See past articles from this newspaper at .