e wind of a minie bullet as it
passed close to her head and lodged in the wall. In the morning she dug
the ball out of the wall and took it over to the judge's house which was
opposite to her own. When the young man came in Mrs. Taylor handed it to
him, and asked if he knew what it was. He turned pale, but soon
recovered his composure sufficiently to reply that "it looked like a
rifle-ball." "Oh, no," said Mrs. Taylor, "you mistake! It is a piece of
Southern chivalry fired at a defenseless woman, in the middle of the
night, by the son of a judge, whose courage should entitle him to a
commission in the Confederate army."

Still, brave as she was, she could not avoid some feeling, if not of
trepidation, at least of anxiety, at being thus exposed to midnight
assassination, while her life was so necessary to her helpless family.

These are but a few instances out of many, of the trials she had to
endure. Her son hearing of them, through the indiscretion of a
school-friend, hastened home, determined to enlist in the Confederate
army to save his parents from further molestation. He enlisted for
ninety days, hoping thus to shield his family from persecution, but the
Conscription Act, which shortly after went into effect, kept him in the
position for which his opinions so unfitted him. From the spring of
1862, he remained in the Confederate army, gaining rapid promotion, and
distinguished for his bravery, until the close of the war, when he
returned home unchanged in sentiment, and unharmed by shot or shell--in
this last particular more fortunate than thousands of others forced by
conscription into the ranks, and sacrificing their lives for a cause
with which they had no sympathy.

From the time of her son's enlistment Mrs. Taylor was nearly free from
molestation, and devoted herself to the care of her family, until the
occupation of New Orleans by the Union forces. She was then reinstated
in her position as teacher, and after the establishment of Union
hospitals, she spent all her leisure moments in ministering to the wants
of the sick and wounded.

In 1863, we hear of her as employing all her summer vacation, as well as
her entire leisure-time when in school, in visiting the hospitals,
attending the sick and wounded soldiers, and preparing for them such
delicacies and changes of food and other comforts as she could procure
from her own purse, and by the aid of others. From that time forward
until the close of the war, or