A Rebel Arrested by Rebel Women.
May 2, 1864
A few nights ago, as we are credibly informed, the tow Miss Straights, of PawPaw township, dressed themselves in the blue garb of Union soldiers and arming themselves, mounted horses and proceeded to the house of an old secesh friend and demanded the immediate and unconditional surrender of his castle. The old man remonstrated, declared he ?hadn?t done nuthin,? and very much desired to be ?let alone.? But his entreaties failed. He was ordered to get out of bed, dress himself and follow them to the nearest tree, where they intended to hang him and Bill Hood together. The old man got out of bed, put on his clothes and again begged with piteous appeals for his life. With heartless cruelty they made the old man follow them to a neighbor?s where they guided him for two or three hours, applying all sorts of insulting and tantalizing epithets, and making extravagant threats of what they intended to do with him. At last they revealed themselves, declared the arrest a burlesque and joke on the Yankees, and endeavored to make the old man see the point where the laugh comes in; but it is stated that he refused to look on it in that light, and returned in a sullen mood, reflecting on the vanity of all mundane things, and especially of prankish women.
Fairmont National.
We consider the two Miss Straights, in view of what is recorded above, as a couple of very questionable characters, aside from their Secessionism. There was nothing funny, smart, womanly or decent in what they did, even although it was done at the expense of one of their own rebel kind. No woman, with true and self-preserving instincts, ever stoops to such pranks.
Timeline of West Virginia: Civil War and Statehood: Undated: May 1864