S. NELLIE MARIA TAYLOR.
Eng^d. by A.H. Ritchie.]

She married early, and about the year 1847 removed with her husband,
Dr. Taylor, and her two children, to New Orleans, where she has since
resided. Consequently she was there through the entire secession
movement, during which, by her firm and unswerving loyalty, she
contrived to render herself somewhat obnoxious to those surrounding her,
of opposite sentiments.

Mrs. Taylor watched anxiously the progress of the movements which
preceded the outbreak, and fearlessly, though not obtrusively, expressed
her own adverse opinions. At this time her eldest son was nineteen years
of age, a noble and promising youth. He was importuned by his friends
and associates to join some one of the many companies then forming, but
as he was about to graduate in the high school, he and his family made
that an objection. As soon as he graduated a lieutenancy was offered him
in one of the companies, but deferring an answer, he left immediately
for a college in the interior. Two months after the college closed its
doors, and the students, urged by the faculty, almost _en-masse_ entered
the army. Mrs. Taylor, to remove her son, sent him at once to the north,
and rejoiced in the belief that he was safe.

Immediately after this her persecutions commenced. Her husband had been
ill for more than two years, while she supported her family by teaching,
being principal of one of the city public schools. One day she was
called from his bed-side to an interview with one of the Board of
Directors of the schools.

By him she was accused (?) of being a Unionist, and informed that it was
believed that she had sent her son away "to keep him from fighting for
his country." Knowing the gentleman to be a northern man, she answered
freely, saying that the country of herself and son was the whole
country, and for _it_ she was willing he should shed his last drop of
blood, but not to divide and mutilate it, would she consent that he
should ever endanger himself.

The consequence of this freedom of speech was her dismissal from her
situation on the following day. With her husband ill unto death, her
house mortgaged, her means of livelihood taken away, she could only
look upon the future with dark forebodings which nothing but her faith
in God and the justice of her cause could subdue.

A short time after a mob assembled to tear down her house. She stepped
out to remonstrate with them against pulling down the