Piano of Catherine Kinsler Kaigler

In February 1865, near the end of the Civil War and during GENERAL SHERMAN'S march toward Columbia, Union troops camped at Flowery Pond, near the KAIGLER-DAVIS Cemetery. In keeping with their practice of pillage and burnings as part of SHERMAN'S strategy of "total war", Union troops burned the ancestral home of GEORGE KAIGLER I near the cemetery.

The detail of Union troops also visited Pineland Park, home of GEORGE KAIGLER II and proceeded to seize or destroy all food supplies suitable for human or livestock consumption. CATHERINE KINSLER KAIGLER was then ordered out of her home so that it could be burned. She steadfastly refused, and displayed her defiance by playing "Dixie" on her piano. The Union officer in charge of the troops in a display of compassion ordered his men not to burn the home. CATHERINE KAIGLER, it was said, reminded him of his mother.

This is that piano. She left it to Sarah Elizabeth Kaigler Davis (Sallie) who left it to, Caroline Elizabeth Davis, who left it to her oldest daughter, Sallie Kaigler Bellinger, who left it to her daughter, Joyce Cecile Wannamaker Hatchell, who gave it to her oldest daughter, Beverly Hatchell Elmore.

Present day is 4/20/2013