The Confederate Commissary Site of the Sweet Battle |
Located on Main Street just off the Square in Rusk is a local Confederate site that not too many people know about, the Sugar House, or as some call it "the Sugar House." The story is a little sketchy, but all stories agree that it was one the sweetest battles to take place. |
The battle was a private affair, one in which Rebels and Yankees didn't face each other. The start of it all was when the Confederate government instituted a commodities program to provide food to widows and indigent families of Confederate soldiers who were at the front battling the Yankees. The commissary was located in a building which now is a residence sheltered by a huge magnolia tree. |
Those eligible received food without having to fool with food stamps. W. P. Brittain, County Clerk, entered notations in his records which indicated that he knew quite a bit about the townspeople. After one woman's name he wrote, "No children, but pretty." After another name of a woman he wrote, "Too industrious to need help." Southerners had not seen sugar in a long time, so they had to drink unsweetened coffee and tea. Cookies and cakes also went without sweetening. Knowing that sugar was in the commissary, but that they couldn't get it was maddening to the citizens of Rusk. The sugar was for Confederate Troops exclusively. Citizens got corn and meat. |
When it became apparent that the South would lose the war, citizens vowed that they would not let Union soldiers get the sugar. Confederate soldiers learned that the commissary was to be raided by Union soldiers, and the citizens of Rusk. The soldiers formed a ring around the building and warned the citizens that Union soldiers were on the way. The widows of the Rusk area came to the commissary to take the sugar, but were met with guns pointed at them. But the Confederate soldiers couldn't bring themselves to fire on the war widows, so they relaxed their guard and there was a wild scramble for the sugar. Some women got sugar and some didn't. Soon there was a scramble among those with no sugar trying to take sugar from those who had it. Sugar flew through the air like flakes of snow. There on the red dirt of this East Texas town was a large blanket of white, looking as if there had been a recent snowfall. The white landscape greeted Union soldiers when they came into Rusk. The soldiers were ordered to confiscate all the sugar, using whatever they could, spoons or other objects, the Union soldiers confiscated what sugar they could, including what was on the ground. The battle may have not been blazing guns and cannons, but the outcome was a battle won by southerners. For many families had sweetened coffee and tea that night for the first time in years. |
