Morning Disrupted

The Civil War's complexities were present in the Ray family of John Ray, originally from Tennessee, a pro-Union postmaster, and his wife Roxanna, who listed an enslaved woman named Rhoda and her four children in the 1860 census. According to Olivia Ray, at 6 a.m. on August 10, 1861, her sister Livonia and brother Wesley were herding horses in the valley south of the springhouse when a Confederate soldier rode up and warned them to leave because fighting would begin in less than ten minutes. As troops advanced over the horizon, Roxanna and Rhoda took the children into the cellar while John Ray remained on the front porch watching the battle in his cornfield. Although cannon rounds landed in the backyard, the house was not damaged and the family was unharmed. Olivia, who was six years old that day, later provided the memories on which the family's story is based. Rhoda never forgot the battle and the dreadful sights she and her children saw, and Livonia later helped haul water for wounded soldiers after the battle.

Missouri · United States