"Childring, there's bushwhackers comin'. Sally and Polly, you girls crawl under the house and dig some holes to hide food. Bud, put my horse in the smokehouse, they're gonna take everything they can find." Catherine was trying hard not to let the children know how scared she was.

Catherine Smith was attempting to keep the farm going so she could provide food for her children until her husband returned from fighting in the Civil War. This family had never owned a slave, and probably had no voice in the decision to secede from the Union, but the Conscription Law of 1862 required all able-bodied southern white men between the years of 18 and 35 to fight for the Confederacy.

Bands of Bushwhackers roamed the countryside throughout the South engaging in guerrilla warfare. They operated outside the law, without military sanction or regulations. They were a law unto themselves, making them more dangerous and unpredictable than even the Yankees.

The Bushwhackers, she had tried so hard to prepare against, did raid her Georgia farm, taking everything they could find. They found her horse in the smokehouse and one of the men mounted it and started to ride off. As much as she hated to beg, Catherine implored him to leave the horse, stating, "You have taken everything else and now you are taking our horse, and I cannot provide for the family unless I have a horse to plow with."

He started riding away and Catherine grabbed her horse's bridle and hung on with all of her strength. The rider kicked her repeatedly and the horse pulled to the right in fear, but she wouldn't let go. The horse tried to rear and nervously skittered sideways as the dust rose up in clouds around its hoofs. It was a highly unsafe and confusing scene for all involved.

In the midst of the ruckus, the horse finally just stopped with Catherine still hanging on. The bushwhacker reluctantly dismounted and left in frustration to catch up with his companions. Catherine suffered extensive bruising, but she kept her favorite horse.

Catherine was widowed shortly after the Civil War, and in 1865, she walked from Georgia to Happy Valley, Arkansas, with her children, traveling with another family and hauling all of their belongings in an ox cart. She lived to be 97 years old and the story of Catherine defying the bushwhackers to hold on to her favorite horse became common knowledge. Later she was known in Faulkner County, Arkansas, simply as "Granny Smith."

Granny Smith was a relative of my maternal grandfather. She was my Great, Great, Great Grandmother. When my family moved from Arkansas to Los Angeles, my Grandparents lived with us in our three-room house.