The Civil War Dislocates the Shirley Family

When Mississippi seceded and the Confederacy was formed, the Shirley family remained ardent supporters of the Union. The family was ostracized and considered traitors by many in Vicksburg and had to keep to themselves much of the time. They would meet in secret with a small community of Unionists and exchange news about the war gleaned from newspapers. Older brother Frederick was a member of a local military company, and openly stated that he “would rather serve Lincoln twenty years than Jeff Davis two hours.” This agitated Confederate supporters who threatened to hang him. The family hurriedly shipped him off to Indiana, where he remained until Vicksburg fell. In May of 1863, following a series of battles, the Union Army rapidly closed on the city. Unfortunately for the Shirley’s, their residence was along the main road to Jackson, and thus was one of the direct routes the Union would use to attack and lay siege. James took the railroad to Clinton to pick up Alice from college and get her back to the family. They had decided to wait out the impending attack at the family home. But the Civil War rolled right over father and daughter. The Clinton railroad depot was burned, and the tracks were torn up. They became trapped in the village as the Confederate Army, and then the pursuing Union Army, both stormed through town. They soon greeted Union officers, served them milk and Alice played both Confederate and Union patriotic airs on the piano for them.[1]

[1] Winschel, Alice Shirley and Wexford Lodge, 13-15. Eaton, Grant, Lincoln and Freedman, 71-86.

Father and daughter were now separated from their mother and brother in Vicksburg. Additionally, the Shirley’s faced a serious challenge. Their residence would surely be destroyed, so they had to convince Union commanders that they were true-blooded Unionists. It was agreed that Alice would stay put and resume her college studies, while 69 year old James began walking the 40-mile road towards home. With the assistance of the Union army, he eventually made it back into Vicksburg. Alice finished the semester but remained stuck. On July 4^th, a thundering cannonade proceeded the retreat of General Johnston’s Confederate army back through Clinton. Alice received a telegram from her father to return home, so she boarded an Ohio regiment’s ambulance and joined a Union wagon train headed west to Vicksburg. After stops at night, switching wagons, and a nine mile train ride, she arrived in a few days and reunited with her family. When the war arrived in Vicksburg, Adeline had successfully pleaded with the Confederates to refrain from burning down their house. The Union army soon arrived, also intending to burn it down, but the soldier with the torch was shot dead by Confederates. The house then came under severe and heavy gunfire, so the family’s enslaved carriage driver hung a white sheet/ flag from the upstairs porch. Union soldiers seized possession of the house and began using it as field hospital for the wounded and dying. It was later repurposed as a smallpox isolation hospital. The soldiers found Alice’s diary in the house, read it, and were pleasantly surprised to find laudatory praise for the Union across its pages. This diary proved to the Union military that the Shirley family was indeed loyal to the Union.