CONFEDERATE BIOGRAPHY:  Emma Sansome

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Submitted by Mary Love Berryman - marylove@tyler.net
7 June 2002 
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TEXANS WHO WORE THE GRAY by Sid S. Johnson,  

EMMA SANSOM.

Under the auspices of the local chapter, United Daughters of the 
Confederacy, a noble monument was unveiled at Gads­den, Alabama, on 
July 4, 1907, to Emma Sansom, a heroine of the war between the 
States. She performed a feat during that period that immortalized 
her. Dr. John A. Wyeth in his masterly "Life of Gen. Nathan Bedford 
Forrest" thus dedi­cates the book: "To Emma Sansom, a woman worthy of 
be­ing remembered by her countrymen as long as courage is deemed a 
virtue, who rode with Gen. Forrest in the engage­ment at Black Creek, 
May 2, 1863, and by guiding his men to an unguarded ford enabled him 
to capture Colonel A. D. Streight and his entire command, this volume 
is dedicated as a token of admiration and respect." This daring act 
is of such high interest that we are glad to be able (through the 
courtesy of Dr. Wyeth, and the publishers, Harper & Bros., New York) 
to reproduce from the above mentioned work the more salient features 
of the incident.  Briefly, the facts are these: Miss Sansom resided 
near Black Creek Falls, a few miles from Gads­den, Ala., with her 
widowed mother and sister, her brother being absent in the army. On 
the morning of May 2,1863, about eight or nine o'clock a great crowd 
of men wearing blue uniforms and riding mules and horses came by the 
Sansom home.  Some of the men dismounted, went into the house and began 
to search for arms and men's saddles. Pretty soon they got a chunk of 
fire from the kitchen and hurried down to the Black Creek bridge which 
they set afire. Presently an officer in grey uniform dashed up to the 
house, and after stating that he was Gen. Forrest and would protect 
them, he said, "Where are the Yankees?" On being told that they were 
in line on the other side of the creek watching the bridge burn, he 
turned to Emma Sansom and said, "Can you tell me where I can get 
across that creek?" The girl replied that there was an unsafe bridge 
two miles further down the stream, but that she knew of a trail about 
two hundred yards above the bridge on the Sansom farm where the cows 
used to cross in low water; that she believed he could get his men 
over there, and that if he could have her saddle put on a horse she 
would show him the way. He said "There is no time to saddle a horse, 
get up here behind me," and he rode close to the bank on the side of 
the road and the brave girl jumped up behind him, and quickly they 
rode out into a field through which ran a small ravine on which was 
thick under­growth that prevented the Yankees at the bridge and on the 
other side of the creek from seeing them.  Getting near the creek 
they got down and crept through the bushes, the can­nons and the other 
guns now beginning to fire fast.  She pointed out to the general where 
to go into the water and out on the other bank and then they returned 
to the house, the cannon balls screaming over them as they did so, 
and one of his bravest troopers being killed.  Gen. Forrest now 
quickly issued commands to his men, put spurs to his horse, 
success­fully forded the creek without losing a horse or gun and 
overtook the Federals, capturing Col. A. D. Streight and his entire 
command. As a token of appreciation of her thought­ful heroism the 
Alabama legislature adopted a memorial thanking Miss Sansom aud 
voted her 640 acres of land and a medal.  The monument recently 
unveiled at Gadsden bears on the base the figure of Gen. Forrest on 
his horse with the girl behind him clinging to him and pointing the 
way to the ford.  The statue of the heroine mounts the top of the 
pile.  It is the third monument in the South ever erected to a wo­man.  
The constitutional convention of Alabama in session in 1901 
considered the propriety of changing the State seal so as to depict 
this girl and her heroic act and the wonder is that it was not 
done. It is to be hoped that some day Texas, under whose sunny 
skies her children were born and in whose soil now sleeps the noble 
woman and her soldier husband, will fittingly mark her grave. We are 
glad to be able to give this brief sketch of her life.  Emma Sansom 
Johnson, of Calloway, Upshur county, Texas, was born in Walton 
county, Georgia, in 1847, and five years later the family home was 
changed to Black Creek, Ala., where her father died in 1859. She 
was married to Mr. C. B. Johnson, of Company I, Tenth Alabama 
Regiment, October 29, 1864.  In 1876 they removed to Texas where 
her husband died in 1887, leaving her with seven children-five boys 
and two girls-and as Dr. Wyeth says, "If they inherit the courage 
of their mother the world should be the better for their coming." 
The subject of this sketch died in August 1900, in Upshur county, 
Texas, and lies buried in the family plot in Calloway.