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be educated but who could find no girls' school that met the Maria Edgeworth requirements. He founded, therefore, a school between his own residence, Blandwood, and the Porter home, which he called the Edgeworth Female Seminary. It was the only advanced school for women in North Carolina that was founded, owned, and financed not by a board or a church but by an individual. Teachers were brought from France and Germany, the grounds were beautifully kept, new buildings were added, and till the beginning of the war Edgeworth enjoyed a growing and generous patronage from the South and West.

The war converted Edgeworth into a hospital for both Confederate and Federal soldiers. As the buildings were almost opposite the Porter home, O. Henry's father was kept busy in the practice of his profession. The old Presbyterian Church, which O. Henry's grandmother attended, had also to do hospital duty by turns, and thus father and grandmother were not only in constant demand but were laying up a store of interesting reminiscence that was to become a part of O. Henry's heritage in later years. The war took its toll of Greensboro citizens though there was little destruction of property. The town and county and State had been overwhelmingly for union and against secession, but when the order came to North Carolina to send troops with which to fight her seceding neighbours, all parties

were united in opposition. The contest then became, as O. Henry puts it,* "the rebellion of the abolitionists against the secessionists." No battle was fought in Guilford County, but Greensboro loomed into sudden prominence at the close of the war and again a few years after the close.

Jefferson Davis was in Danville, Virginia, fifty miles from Greensboro, when he heard on April 9, 1865, that General Lee had surrendered. He came immediately to Greensboro where the last conference was held. The members of his cabinet were with him and he was met in Greensboro by General Joseph E. Johnston and General Beauregard. It was perhaps the saddest moment of Mr. Davis's life. Hope was gone, but his instinctive thoughtfulness for others did not desert him. Knowing that the home that should shelter him might be burned the next day by Federal troops he declined all offers of hospitality and remained in the old-fashioned cars that had brought him from Virginia. He was still for fight but consented reluctantly that General Johnston should open correspondence with General Sherman. A little later thirty thousand of Sherman's troops entered the town under General J. D. Cox and soon thirty-seven thousand Confederates under General Johnston were paroled. Greensboro looked like a tiny islet in a sea of mingled

In "Buried Treasure."

blue and gray. The boys of the town gathered up eagerly and wonderingly the old muskets and swords thrown away by the Confederates and built stories about them or fought mimic battles with them long after the hands that had once held them were dust. There was little disorder, for all knew that the end had come and the soldiers were busy fraternizing. Reconciliation, however, was harder to Confederate wives and mothers than to Confederate soldiers. Mrs. Letitia Walker, a daughter of Governor Morehead, describes the scene as follows:

President and Mrs. Davis remained over one night in Greensboro in their car, declining the invitation of my father, for fear the Federal troops should burn the house that sheltered him for one night. Memminger and his wife remained over several days with us for a rest, bringing with them Vice-President Alexander H. Stephens, so pale and careworn; but the price was on his head, and we tearfully bade him Godspeed. Never can I forget the farewell scene when the brave and grand Joseph E. Johnston called to say farewell, with tears running down his brown cheeks. Not a word was spoken, but silent prayers went up for his preservation.

But one fine morning, amid the sound of bugles and trumpets and bands of music, the Federals entered Greensboro, fully thirty thousand strong, to occupy the town for some time. General Cox was in command. He, Burnside, Schofield, and Kilpatrick, with their staffs, sent word to the mayor that they would occupy the largest house in town that night, and until their headquarters were established. They came to Blandwood, which already sheltered three families and several sick soldiers. My father received them courteously and received them as guests-an act which General Cox appreciated, and after placing his tent in the

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