Sarah, The Cow and General Sherman

By Healan Barrow ©2013

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According to family tradition, my great-grandmother, Sarah Healan Jennings Healan Leet (b. 1833, d. 1909), challenged General Sherman when his Union soldiers took her cow in 1864 during the Civil War in the United States. Some of the story, I think, is true, but readers will have to make their own decisions.

This is the account my grandmother, Corrie Healan Justice (b. 1870, d. 1958) gave to a local newspaper in 1950. She was quoted verbatim in the article, and I can almost hear the tone and cadence of her voice.

The Story

“Sherman’s soldiers came riding by Beaumont, our beautiful North Georgia plantation home of 2,300 acres, raided the place, killed the livestock and disposed of it. All the food they could not take away, they rendered useless. But one cow had been saved by our cook’s 12-year-old boy who hid the animal in the smokehouse and fed it meal to keep her quiet.

“The soldiers, in the meantime, demanded that the cook prepare them some food, but she insisted there was nothing to cook; that they had taken everything. About that time the cow bellowed; the meal had given out. The soldiers then took the cow, telling the cook they would bring it back for her to cook for them.

“My mother, Sarah, whose husband was a high Mason, had heard that General Sherman was a member of the craft. She put on her best silk dress, took her husband’s Masonic apron and went to the general’s headquarters that had been established on the plantation. She overcame all resistance of the sentries, and when she reached the headquarters, sent the apron to him and requested an audience which Sherman readily gave. She told him of the harsh treatment by his soldiers and the theft of the cow.

“With the waving of the general’s hand, the officers bowed to her. Sherman ordered that the cow be returned, a guard placed around the home to prevent further depredations and food supplied to the family. An officer escorted my mother home.”

What is not true about Sarah in the 1860s

In 1864, Sarah was not living at the Beaumont Plantation near LaFayette, Georgia.

What is true about Sarah’s life in the 1860s

Sarah and her husband Andrew Jackson (Jack) Healan lived in the LaFayette area. They are listed in the 1860 Georgia census for LaFayette, Walker County, Georgia.

Jack was a Mason, and there is a Masonic marker on his grave in a cemetery in Wartrace, Tenn. Some years after her husband died, Sarah married the Rev. A.I. Leet, the owner of Beaumont. They moved to his Georgia plantation soon after their marriage in 1888.

Why the story is probably true

It could have happened since Sarah was living in the area where General Sherman and his troops fought twice. The campaign for Atlanta started in May 1864. They was heavy fighting throughout the vicinity. For a listing of the skirmishes and troop movements, see the web page “About North Georgia”. Sherman made a second swing through the area in October 1864. In his memoirs Sherman said he occupied Ships Gap and LaFayette.

The Masonic apron was in the Healan family for years. I saw it in the mid 1990s. Later, I watched my cousin gave it to a representative from the Masonic Lodge in Ringgold, GA, in 2005.

It would have been in character for Sarah Healan to have challenged General Sherman, the man ultimately responsible for taking her cow. From family histories and census records, I know that Sarah was a first-born child; she took care of her two teen-aged sisters and a mother-law in the early years of her marriage; she opened a boarding house in Wartrace, Tenn., and moved her family there when her husband became ill and could not work; she sent the six living children to college. This was a woman who got things done.

Why did my grandmother embellish the story?

Corrie got a brief taste of plantation life when Sarah married the Rev. A.I. Leet on July 2, 1888. There are a few photos of the plantation in a 1920 family scrapbook so Corrie spent several years there before she married. It was probably more a large farm than an elaborate estate. But in Corrie’s mind, Beaumont was the epitome of plantation life.

Personally, I believe Sarah challenged General Sherman. Forget about the plantation references. However, for those who disagree, that’s fine. It’s a great story, anyway. Sources: Family stories; The Memoirs of General W.T. Sherman, Complete, The Project Gutenberg.