Malinda Blalock
Sarah Malinda Pritchard was born in 1842 in the Appalachian Mountains of western North Carolina, near Grandfather Mountain. She met William McKesson Blalock (nicknamed Keith) in a one-room school they both attended.
Their marriage in April 1861 was a shock to their neighbors, because their families had been feuding for 150 years, but they were in love. The citizens of their home state were sharply divided in their support of the Union or the Confederacy. It seems that Malinda, as she was called, originally sided with the secessionists. Keith opposed the election of Abraham Lincoln, but was an ardent Unionist.
When the recruiting officer came to town in March 1862, seeking enlistments for the 26th North Carolina Infantry, Keith joined the regiment, hoping to pass through the lines and join the Union army. He also feared for Malinda’s safety after he left, so he made sure their neighbors saw him march off to serve with the Rebels.
He soon realized that the new recruit marching beside him was, in fact his loving wife. She had cut her hair and enlisted as “Sam” Blalock, Keith’s brother. The recruiting officer knew no better. She was a crack shot, and could handle herself well in times of stress.
The 26th Regiment was stationed at New Bern in eastern North Carolina. By the time they joined their comrades, the Battle of New Bern had been fought, and the Union troops were bivouacked some distance away, foiling Keith’s plans to defect.
He quickly realized that he could not be a Rebel soldier and devised a plan to secure a discharge. He rolled around in a poison ivy thicket, and by the next morning appeared to have some form of communicable disease. What was “Sam” to do? Of course, she wanted to go with Keith. She decided to reveal her gender to their commanding officer, and they were both released on April 10, 1862. So much for their military service!
They returned to the mountains, and terrorized the citizens of western North Carolina. They assembled a band of marauders and raided the farms of Confederate sympathizers. In one of these operations, they shot it out with the Moore family and Malinda was wounded. At another such incident, Keith had an eye shot out by one of the Moores.
Keith and Malinda moved for a time to Tennessee, where they joined a Union guerrilla group under General George W. Kirk, who was succeeded by General George Stoneman. They made several forays into the North Carolina mountains, where these pro-Union guerillas tormented civilians of that region. And Keith served for a time as a Union recruiting agent.
Then Keith became a leader in the “Watauga Underground Railroad,” which helped Union prisoners escape from the Confederate prison in Salisbury, North Carolina, the largest in the state. He guided those men through the mountains and safely into Tennessee, but the Confederate patrols were making that job increasingly tougher.
Incredibly, they returned to their former home after the war, to live the rest of their lives as farmers, with their four children, though Malinda died at the young age of 59, not so young for the times, I guess.
She was a pistol.
Copyright © 2006 Maggie MacLean
Tags:
