MRS. FRANCIS COOKSEY SEMMES (1824-1868)

Because of its rail lines, industry and arsenal, Meridian was of importance to both sides. The Confederates had placed 8000 under General Leonidas Polk, "The Fighting Bishop" from Tennessee, there to guard the town; but against the overwhelming odds of Sherman's 30,000-man army Polk was forced to give way to the marauding Yankees. In the path of the Union steamroller lay "Noisy Hill" the Semmes home, which was about 5 miles outside of town.
Dr. Semmes was with the Confederate forces; at home were his wife, children and a few loyal slaves, had remained at the plantation when the others ran away in the face of the Yankees' advance through the county. Mrs. Semmes could have had no doubt about the fate that awaited her home, judging form the glow of the sky in the distance, where the town of Meridian was burning; and her fears were compounded by the reports of her neighbor's plantation being put to the torch. By dawn there would be only four homes still standing in the Meridian area the Semmes House among them. Historians cannot account for why those few were saved, but a Semmes legend explains why "Noisy Hill" remained intact.
Sometime during the afternoon of February 15th, Union troops approached the Semmes house. "Missy they's coming," shouted one of the slaves. Under a cold, overcast winter sky the frightened occupants huddled together, as a detachment of Union arrived, some of them carrying torches.
Mrs. Semmes walked out to the veranda of the house to await the soldiers. The officer in charge addressed her, "Madam in the name of the Army of the United States, I greet you."
"May I be advised of your mission?" Mrs. Semmes asked.
Replied the officer, "Madam, my orders are to burn your home, barn, and outside buildings, to divest you totally of all your real and personal property, as a person rebellious to the government of the United States."
It was then, the legend says, just as the officer gave the order to start a fire on the second story, that the miracle happened. Out of faith or fear Mary Semmes, in the company of her three-year-old daughter, Henrietta, fell to her knees at the feet of the officer. With her hands clasped to her breast, she prayed aloud for God to guide the hand of the Union officer.
Contributor: JOHN MOSBY (50732696)

Frank Grey Semmes was born in 1854 in Lauderdale County, Mississippi, the son of Francis Cooksey Semmes and Mary Elizabeth Hubert, both of whom died when he was young and who are buried in the Semmes Family Cemetery in Meridian, Mississippi. His grandparents were Dr. Ignatius Semmes and Henrietta Thompson Semmes, members of two prominent Catholic families who were driven out of Maryland at the end of the Revolutionary War. Some of these Catholic families moved to Missouri. Others, including Ignatius and Henrietta, settled near Sharon in current Taliferro County, Georgia where they formed the first Catholic church in Georgia—Locust Grove, founded ca. 1791.