By James P. Gannon Special to the Rappahannock News

By James P. Gannon

Special to the Rappahannock News

The Civil War stories that a former slave woman told to her greatgrandson will be retold next week at the Blue Ridge Civil War Round Table when James Russell of Sperryville recalls the tales he heard as a young boy.

Mr. Russell, who is 80 years old, will be one of the local residents featured in a discussion of Rappahannock Civil War stories at the meeting of the Round Table, to be held next Tuesday evening a 7:30 p.m. at the Rappahannock County Library. The meeting is open to the public.

Another local resident sharing Civil War tales at the meeting will be Edna Metzinger, who will tell about her grandfather, John Madison Follin. He was 16 years old when he joined Company H of the 4th Virginia Cavalry, known as the Black Horse Cavalry, in Fauquier County.

The Round Table, which meets each month, invites other Rappahannock County residents who have stories of the Civil War years to attend this informal discussion and share their tales. The meeting will be organized as a group discussion, rather than formal talks, to provide for maximum participation by all who attend. Those who have Civil War relics or artifacts that they would like to display and discuss are invited to bring those items to the meeting.

Mr. Russell is one of relatively few living people who have heard Civil War tales from someone who was living during the War Between the States. His great-grandmother, Caroline Terry, was a slave on a plantation in the F.T. Valley of Rappahannock County during the war. She lived to be 108 years old, and before she died in 1941, Mr. Russell spent many days with his great-grandmother at her home in Sperryville, listening to her stories of slavery days, the Civil War, and the coming of emancipation and freedom.

Among his most prized possessions is a Civil War revolver that came to him from his great-grandmother. As he tells it, she picked up the weapon on a Civil War battle