Since my earliest days, I have sought to learn how to play the piano, and how to play the
piano.
Since my earliest days, I have sought to learn more about the ancestors from whom I sprung.
What were they like?
What did they do with their lives?
How did they better the world in which they lived?
The physical search for answers leads me to the Schaefer House, deep in Claiborne County.
One day in the 1860s, the postmaster of Port Gibson, Mississippi, received a letter from
a man in Indiana by the name of William Duffner, a Union soldier who had fought in the battle
of Port Gibson.
The postmaster passed the request on to A.K.
Kell Schaefer, my great-great grandfather, a confederate, a unique lifelong correspondence
ensued.
A great tangible symbol of the friendship was a chair made by Mr. Duffner, sent as a gift
to Kell.
The rocking chair, elaborately decorated with a painted map of the entire Vicksburg campaign,
will be displayed permanently at the Museum of Mississippi History in Jackson.
The first shot in a series of battles have culminated in the siege of Vicksburg, in fact,
the first place on Kell and Elizabeth Schaefer's front yard.
With Kell off fighting for the Confederacy, his wife Elizabeth and two other women remained
at home directly in the path of General Ulysses S. Great and his army of 24,000 men.
The army had crossed the Mississippi River from Louisiana and was marching north.
The march would take them right by the Schaefer home known as Holly Hill.
The women frantically tossed household items into a wagon under the bright midnight moon.
They raced off just as shots began to be fired.
They returned to Holly Hill after the battle to find the home riddled with bullets, the
floors covered with blood from amputations and hastily buried bodies scattered through
the grounds.
The battle of Port Gibson destroyed Elizabeth Schaefer mentally and physically.
Her health never recovered.
Kell returned home after the war to find the graves of his wife and two sons.
Rather than succumb to bitterness, Kell opened his heart and mind to reconcile with the men
who marched by Holly Hill who indirectly led to the deaths of his loved ones while nearly
destroying his home.
I have honored my great-great grandfather's spirit during my many visits to the Schaefer
home.
The house, although just a building, is also to me a great symbol of the power of reconciliation
and forgiveness over division and hate.
The rocking chair will likewise be such a symbol for generations yet undone.
Thank you.
