With support from American Public University System (apus.edu). (The sentiments expressed do not in any way reflect modern-day policies of APUS, and are intended to encourage fact-based exchange for a better understanding of our nation’s foundational values.
French, Steve. (2012). “Rebel Chronicles: Raiders, Scouts and Train Robbers of the Upper Potomac.” New Horizons Publishing Company. Print. info-sfrench52@yahoo.com
In May of 1864, when Andrew Leopold was taken to Baltimore under guard to be taken to be transferred to Fort McHenry a Baltimore Sun reporter noted “he is a guerilla chief and spy and murderer of the blackest die.” Now whether all that was true or not remains to be seen. But Andrew Leopold was born in Sharpsburg, Maryland in 1841. His father was Mathew Leopold and his mother, Polly Leopold. His father soon died and later his mother would marry John Zittle of Sharpsburg. The boy grew up in the town; later on, he worked on farms – local farms along the C&O Canal. He was a friendly boy who knew people on both sides of the river, especially in Shepherdstown where he knew quite a few people and traveled over here quite a bit. Probably at this time during his teenaged years he met Thomas Hipsley, who lived over near Moler’s Crossroads, who was an especially close friend of his and served in the Confederate Army later on with him. In 1861, he would join the first Virginia Cavalry.
Some of his first actions in the Civil War would be right here when militia men from Virginia would fire across at union guards, guarding the C&O Canal. The Entlers who lived across the river at that time running the ferry, commented later on, especially Luther about gunshots ringing out and bullets flying in the ferry house on the far side. But he served in the 1st Virginia Cavalry until April of 1862. Then he joined the 12th Virginia Cavalry along with his friend, Thomas Hipsley. During that time he participated in the Valley Campaign with Stonewall Jackson. He wrote a letter home to his mother about his experiences during that time, attacking the Union camp. Later on, he’ll fight in the Battle of Second Manassas, and he’ll be wounded three times towards the end of that battle. And his brigade commander, Gen. Beverly Robertson, will mention in the official reports of the battle how brave a man Leopold was. But once again, he was wounded three times at the Battle of Second Manassas. He has a long recovery but about October, 1862, he is headquartered with Stuart, at Stuart’s headquarters at The Bower, not far from here in Jefferson County. Towards the end of October, he is dispatched with Capt. Redmond Burke with a small band of men and they come to Shepherdstown, and are in this area scouting and rounding up conscripts for a two or three-week period.
On November 19th, there is a skirmish along the river at Guard Lock 4. And at this time a civilian named Mortimer Cookus is shot and killed by Leopold, as he is trying to escape across the river. On the night of the 24th and 25th of November, Leopold, Burke, Burke’s sons are surrounded in a house in Shepherdstown by soldiers from the 2nd Massachusetts Infantry. Burke is killed. Leopold and two of Burke’s sons are captured, Hipsley and a soldier named John O’Brien also. The next day they are taken to Sharpsburg. The Union soldiers come back to Shepherdstown to arrest Daniel Rentch, a noted Shepherdstown resident. They are taken to Fort McHenry. The soldiers who are captured – they’re released very soon afterwards, paroled.
And by January the first, 1864, they’re all back with Stuart at his camp near Fredericksburg, Virginia. That winter, as soon as he is exchanged and the others are exchanged, they’re back in the service – dispatched service – operating once again in the Shepherdstown/Berryville area, carrying mail back and forth between the citizens and armies, scouting and so on. On the night of March the 6th, he comes into Shepherdstown with John O’Brien, and he’s hunting for a man named Jacob Hudson. He finds Hudson caring for his uncle at his house at Shepherdstown. And he knocks on the door with O’Brien. Evidently he doesn’t know Hudson, but Hudson has been talking about him around town. When Hudson opens the door, Leopold asks for Hudson -“Is Hudson in the house?” – Hudson immediately becomes scared and he runs toward the back door and he is shot down. George Brantner, who was a former Confederate soldier, he’s seated right in that room, cannot tell whether it was Leopold or O’Brien who shot the young man, but he sure identifies him later on, because Leopold met Brantner at the door and (Leopold) told him he had mail for him. Leopold will come down the street that night. He will tell one resident here in the town that he did shoot a man up the street and then they will leave the mail here and head back for camp.
Ten days later, on the night of March 15th & 16th, Leopold and a group of men go to Sharpsburg, Maryland, and, in Sharpsburg that night they steal six horses from an oyster wagon, parked outside of a local tavern. After midnight on the 16th, they return to try to get across the river. They go to Bridgeport where the ferry is, directly behind me, and they knock on the door. They say they have a dispatch to take to Harper’s Ferry to (Federal) General Stevenson. The young man, Charles Entler and his friend Samuel Jones, that are in the office that night, sleeping in the office, refuse to answer the door. Finally, Leopold starts tearing the shutters off the windows and Charles decides to come out. Samuel Jones would later say he knew it was Leopold at the door, but he was too scared, too frightened to say a word. As Charles comes out the door, his brother, Luther, who is in the ferry house himself, walks outside; and, as soon as he gets outside, he hears a man shout at his brother: “By God, I’m Captain Leopold and I’ve been looking for you a long time.” Immediately the gunshot goes off, Luther turns, makes haste into his house to get his revolver. His brother, Charles, nineteen-years-old, runs off and dies in the road, going up towards Ferry Hill. Leopold and his men escape. Now, they’re wanted men. The Middletown Valley Register over in Maryland, a few days later, comes out with a long article about Leopold and his band and at the end of it says: “Leopold deserves a hempen collar.” So he’s a wanted man, not only by the authorities in Maryland, but by Union soldiers, especially Major General Robert Milroy, the famous “Grey Eagle,” who was headquartered at that time in Winchester.
Towards the end of April around April 21st, Union forces are sent out of Berryville and they go to Castleman’s Ferry. That night, they will capture Leopold, and, once again, some of the Burkes – Hipsley and some other men when they surround the house, and they threaten to burn it down, if the Confederates don’t come out. They’re taken to Winchester and put in the Clarke County jail. While in that jail, one of Milroy’s citizen spies named Michael Graham from Woodstock, Virginia, talks to Leopold and finds out what he wants. Leopold wants to either join the Union Army or be allowed to get out of jail and go to Ohio. In return he will tell Milroy who the scouts and spies are in the lower Shenandoah Valley. He will meet with Milroy, and Milroy will listen to all this, but Leopold plays his hand too fast, and tells Milroy what he needs to know beforehand. So Milroy won’t agree to give him his freedom or allow him to switch sides and join the Union Army, but he will pack him to the prison at Fort McHenry. The inner fort was where only the most notorious Confederate guerrillas and partisans are held.
Now over in Sharpsburg at this time, Polly Zittle will hear of her son’s dire circumstances, and she will ask daughter, Sally Zittle, who is Andrew’s half-sister to come to Shepherdstown and meet with Mary Louise Entler and convince her to take her south – for Entler to take Zittle south – and meet with J.E.B. Stuart and try to arrange some sort of deal where(by) Andrew can get out of prison. So, at this time, Andrew is already at Fort McHenry. The girls meet here and they head south. Now, Entler was a – maybe we’d call spy today – but she was mostly concerned with delivering the mail between – once again this mail system between the army and the citizens. The girls get as far as Berryville. They’re taken into custody one morning at the Berryville hotel and sent to Winchester. Here they are going to meet – once again – General Milroy, who is in a big argument with a lot of women there. It’s over a cow. All of the sudden, the girls come in. He turns around and sees them and says: ”What do you want?” They tell him and he shouts out: “By God, I wouldn’t have any trouble here if it wasn’t for the women!” The women in Winchester. So, he listens to them, talks to them a while, then he will pack them off to Harper’s Ferry. At Harper’s Ferry, they are put under guard there, kind of loose guard – the Stipes Boarding House. They’ll stay probably close to six weeks there under sort of a house arrest. Mary Lou Entler will even meet her future husband Walter Herrington, who is a telegrapher for the Union Army at Harper’s Ferry. The girls are eventually sent to Baltimore and, while there, they will take the Oath of Loyalty to the Union, although the girls would say: “We really didn’t mean it. We dropped the Bible on the floor. So we didn’t swear to it on the Bible.” When, especially Miss Entler, gets back to Shepherdstown, she’s met right at this location as she comes across the ferry by hundreds of people and she’s a very gracious local hero for a long time afterward. (Back to Leopold).
He’s in the prison at the inner fort. He’s with a number of noted desperadoes, including William Boyd Compton (Belle Boyd’s cousin), who had been captured behind the Union lines in Fairmont, West Virginia. Captain Joel Baker, the guard, comments that most of the prisoners of the group – there’s about eight or nine in the guard room – most of the prisoners are cultured gentlemen, but not Leopold. Baker would write that Leopold is not trusted by the other prisoners. They think he would sell them out for just a few cents. Leopold is held in prison until mid-December, 1863, when he is put on trial by a military tribunal. He’s charged with a number of crimes, of being a guerrilla, murderer, violating an act of war, and being a spy. The tribunal is led by Col. W. W. Bates of the 8th New York heavy artillery. The Judge Advocate is Lieutenant Roderick Baldwin. Leopold will represent himself, but he will have the help of a local, Baltimore attorney, Milton Whitney Esq. who was well-known in Baltimore for many years. The trial opens up. A lot of local residents come from here to Fort McHenry to testify, including Daniel Rentch, Luther Entler, Samuel Jones, other men from Shepherdstown and also General Milroy will appear. The trial will go – on and off – for probably three, almost four, weeks. They break for Christmas a while; they break for different witnesses to arrive.
Finally, two charges are dropped, but he is still charged with being a guerilla and murderer, both capital offences. His defense rests on that he wasn’t a guerilla, that he was a Confederate soldier, especially dispatched into this area by J.E.B. Stuart. Also, he refused to admit that he had murdered Charles Entler. He said he didn’t have anything more to do with the murder of that young boy than any of the judges on the tribunal; and, he said the shooting of Cookus was just part of a local skirmish. So he denied being a guerilla; he denied being a murderer. In his summation, Lt. Baldwin, the Judge Advocate, would say: we owe something to the people of the border who have been hounded from their home, who have been murdered at their doorstep. We need to protect them. The verdict comes back. He is convicted of murder: the murder of Entler, the murder of Cookus – and he is convicted of being a guerrilla. Afterwards, the verdict and the results of the trial – goes up through the chain of command.
Finally, they reach that April, Judge Advocate Joseph Holt. Holt reviews all capital cases for Abraham Lincoln. In a four-page review, Holt will say this man has been convicted of these crimes and he deserves the death penalty. In late April, 1864, Abraham Lincoln will sign off on that. At that time, Leopold is taken from the guard room, shackled. He’s put in a cell, still in the inner fort, but not with the rest of the men on death row. During that month, there is a big escape from the guard room at Fort McHenry. William Boyd Compton leads the rest of the men in the escape and they all eventually get back to the Confederate lines. On the evening of April the 22nd, Leopold will be informed by his chaplain, Doctor Reese, that his execution will be the next morning. He will meet with Reese that evening for prayer and communion. During the winter, Leopold would become a committed Christian. He studied the Bible frequently. He had another small book that he would study. They had prayer. Reese left for a while.
About, five-thirty, he would return. Once again, they would talk of the afterlife. Then he (Leopold) would go out under guard, get on the wagon atop his coffin, and he would ride to the execution site right outside the walls. Captain Robert Baylor of Charlestown was also a prisoner at Fort McHenry at the time. He was out on the grounds of the fort and as he passed Baylor, Leopold would wave to Baylor and said: “Tell the boys I remain true to the cause.” As they neared the execution site, he could see the soldiers of the fort lined up on three sides of the gallows. The gallows there could have four executions at the time. (Federal) Major General Lew Wallace was there, later on the author of “Ben Hur.” He was the commander-in-chief of the Eighth Corps Middle Department, and Brig. General W. W. Morris, the sixty-six year old commander of Fort McHenry was also there. He was helped off the wagon. The reporter for “The Baltimore American” said that “Leopold went up the steps firm and undaunted.” Once atop the scaffold, he was asked for any last words and Leopold pointed to Gen. Morris and said: “Old man, you’re the reason I’m here. But I’ll forgive and I’ll meet you in Heaven.” After that, he stepped back. The hood was put on his neck by Private Elijah Brown, and then the rope put around his neck. Just afterwards, Morris gave the signal, and then – Leopold dropped into eternity. He would hang there for about twenty minutes before the soldiers took him down. There were friends there in Baltimore, some of Leopold’s friends.
They brought him back to Sharpsburg, where he was prepared for burial. A few days later, he was going to be brought to Shepherdstown to bury in the Soldier’s Cemetery. His plot will be right beside Redmond Burke, his old Captain. But he’s going to be brought across here by the undertaker, (with) of course his mother and sisters are with that group. They’re going to ride up this hill. At the Entler Hotel, there is a group of Unionists shouting at the undertaker to go back. Beforehand these same people had (gone) to the cemetery and warned the over four hundred mourners there to leave, but they ignored them. They go to the cemetery – once again – there’s a big crowd there. Lots of girls crying and so on. He is buried. Although maybe a year before, Leopold had been a hated person by most Confederates in this area because they heard that he was going to switch sides. By this time, he totally redeemed himself.
His conversion to Christianity, his bravery on the scaffold had turned him into a local hero. Later on, that same day, the Unionists would strike. They would come back and would steal the undertaker’s hearse and his horses and ride away with them. Whether he was really guilty of every crime that he was accused is questionable. He wasn’t a guerilla. He was a member of the regular Confederate Cavalry and there’s some question, on the murder of Entler that it might have O’Brien did the shooting.
With support from American Public University System (apus.edu). (The sentiments expressed do not in any way reflect modern-day policies of APUS, and are intended to encourage fact-based exchange for a better understanding of our nation’s foundational values.
The Song of Mary Louise Entler Herrington (1840-1932)
CHAPTERETTES Prelude Flag Dangerous: Carry the Secret Mail: The Sad Fate of the Great Western: A Wartime Shepherdstown Each Day: A Sidetracked Mission: “Fraternizing” With the Enemy: Peacetime – Eternal Tide of Memories: The Eyes of Age:
About the end of the heydays of a great inn; about the innkeeper’s feisty, adventurous – amorous – young daughter during the Civil War who lived to tell about it and see her family’s inn perish.
PRELUDE:
The 1850s in Shepherdstown: Good Times for Joseph and Mary Entler
The Entlers boarded travelers and stabled their teams by the score in their Great Western Inn on Shepherdstown’s German Street.
As Mary Louise Entler Herrington (hereafter “MLH”) told it: After my father bought it in 1809, he hung a large sign swung across the pavement at the east corner of the house. A heavy post at the curb supported one side and the other side was fastened to the house. In the middle of the sign in large letters that were plainly visible for squares up and down the street was the word, “INN”, and just below that, ‘JOS. ENTLER”.
For many years it was a welcome abode to the weary traveler, for then all traveling was by wagon and carriage from Ohio and Kentucky to Baltimore and Washington, where their produce was sold and groceries and other commodities were taken back. All these white-covered wagons were placed in the large grounds and the weary horses were comfortably bedded down and fed in the large stone stables by good trusty colored men.
The house was a quaint, 52-foot-long weatherboard house with massive stone steps to both front doors and stone trimmings and steps to the front cellars and long massive stone stiles or (carriage stepping stones).
The dining room was 34-feet-long. The ice house was under the dining room and was filled every winter with twenty-five, four-horse wagon loads of ice, which lasted until fall. The ice was from the Potomac River.
The large fireplace was in the kitchen that also had the cranes and pothooks and hangers.
Seventeen rooms were in the house and many also had large old-fashioned fireplaces and were finished with high-paneled mantelpieces.
In the 1850s children remembered the fancy carriages, with many horses pulling, making the smart, sharp turn from the main street to the lane leading to the rear stables.
All circuses stopped at this inn and pitched their tents in the large lot arranging the cages of wild animals around the circle inside and all other wagons outside the tent.
Joseph Entler moved his family to Wingert (Wingerd Cottage) in 1858 and leased out the Great Western. Then that all ended – and, so did the Great Western.
FLAG DANGEROUS:
Twenty-one-year-old Mary Louise Entler – in an act of defiance – and several friends sat in chairs in the big hall of Wingerd Cottage sewing . . and sewing – ripping stars from an American flag mailed to them from New Orleans, that once waved from a ship of Rezin Davis Shepherd’s, as he perhaps thought such a flag might be more trouble to have in New Orleans, as the new war boiled over and Louisiana seceded from the Union in early 1861.
Mary Licklider, a niece, recalled how Mary Entler Herrington retold her past before dying in 1932:
A U.S. flag, probably made of wool bunting fabric was given to four or five young girls (young girls at the time), by Mr.
Rezin Shepherd who lived in New Orleans. In the summer he lived at Wild Goose Farm. The flag was one from one of his vessels. It was sent to us by Mr. James Shepherd and was to be converted into a Confederate flag, a work that was dangerous at the time, being in disputed territory. We could work only when our men were in the lines and had to be very cautious then.
My father Joseph Entler owned and lived at Wingert (Wingerd Cottage) during the war and there the flag was made. The location off from town and the large wide hall were ideal places for the work, which took many anxious weeks to complete.
It was very tedious to rip every seam of the stripes in such a way as not to ravel the bunting.
Every star was ripped from the blue field, and then to sew all the red together and all the white to form the bars red, white, and red.
Of course we had a surplus of stars as the Confederacy was young.
After many weeks of work, the flag was finished and a beautiful Confederate flag was ready to be sent through the line to Company B. It was hidden away awaiting a safe transfer. (Mary’s brother – Cato Moore Entler – was with Company B of the 2nd Virginia Infantry).
MLH recalled an investigation in the fall of 1861: I heard the tramp of cavalry and clank of swords and sabers. I looked out the window and saw the cottage was surrounded by “Yankee” cavalry.
Oh, the flag, what was to be done with it? I heard the officer read orders to my father to search his premises thoroughly for contraband goods. My father seemed to be protesting against the search. But that gave me a little time to take the flag from its hiding place in a chest. The house was surrounded. I could not get out to hide it.
I pulled a dress from the wall and put the flag in it and threw the dress carelessly across the back of a chair. Skirts were very wide with deep facings upon them. I put the little flags that we wore on our dresses and letters under the carpet.
My door was pushed open by Capt. Horner of Col. Coles’ Cavalry and the search began. Every bureau drawer and closet was searched, even the grandfather clock where reposed letters to go through the lines. But they were too deep in the bottom of the old clock to be detected. Everything was handled but the blue-striped dress hovering over its precious treasure. It was too insignificant to attract their notice and they gave up the search, but rather in a bad humor. The flag was safe and sent to Company B. That flag would be readily recognized by its many seams and its homemade marks. Now what became of that flag is a mystery.
Due to confusion created by units carrying different flags after 1st Manassas, the 30th of October 1861 saw Governor Letcher present every Virginia regiment with a bunting flag. Another private group in Charles Town had had a regimental flag made for the 2nd Virginia infantry regiment that the unit reportedly carried into battle at First Manassas/Bull Run, but was smuggled back to the Rutherfords in Charles Town.
CARRY THE SECRET MAIL:
March, 1862
MLH recalled: We collected all letters and concealed them by carefully sewing them between the ruching and dress. It required neatness and patience to make the work look innocent of anything contraband. We started on our march one bright beautiful morning but the roads being soft and muddy and we being not yet accustomed to marching could not get over much ground as rapidly as Stonewall Jackson’s men. The first night was spent at the home of Mr. Foley where another mail was collected. Another bright morning blessed our errand and when the purple shades of evening were gathering in the west we entered Charles Town as leisurely and passed the Union soldiers as indifferently as though we were out for an evening stroll. What a triumph it would have been for them to have secured that mail; how they would have gloated over every sacred sentence in those letters. My heart thrilled with fear at the thought although apparently so indifferent to their presence.
THE SAD FATE OF THE GREAT WESTERN HOTEL:
December 26, 1862: The 12th Pennsylvania cavalry – The Bull Run Racers – crossed over the river ford into town and the (Federal-sympathcizing) refugees all came back from Maryland with a fire in their eyes and revenge for Mort Cookus’ blood (who was shot and killed by Andrew Leopold near Dam No. 4 on November 19th. (The refugees) declared that every Southern man’s house should be burned down. – Gallaher in “The Shepherdstown Register.”
MLH: The property was a hotel (in market for rent at the time). It was taken possession of and occupied by a Pennsylvania Cavalry Company. The extensive grounds in which were apple trees and vegetables were trampled and all the fencing destroyed.
WARTIME SHEPHERDSTOWN EACH DAY:
MLH recalled: 1863 still finds our town disputed territory and a veritable “deserted village” – old men, women, and children with a very few Union men . . . In time of war when both armies have fallen back, a town presents a most desolate and forlorn appearance-the old people, women and children have no definite plans. They stand about in groups writing and talking of the latest battle or the expected skirmishes. Their homes are places to retire from inclement weather rather than to adorn – the table to satisfy hunger rather than the delightful board where sweet companionship mingled with health-giving food.
No systematic housekeeping, no aim, no object in performing any household duties. All energy was concentrated in doing for the soldiers. “When our boys come home we will do thus and so” was the oft repeated phrase. Sometimes at the dead of night the report of a pistol shot would warn us that the rebels were in town. But when daylight came we saw only the blue coats patrolling the streets, and they would leave as mysteriously as the rebels.
THE SIDETRACKED MISSION:
May – 1863 – Mary Entler’s Dangerous Mission Gets Sidetracked
NOTE Raider Andrew Leopold, whose sister, Sally Zittle, was a friend of Mary Entler, had been captured in late April, 1863 near Berryville and taken to a jail, awaiting trial for murder and other crimes.- JS
MLH: A beautiful May morning, balmy air waiting the perfume of flowers over the country submerged in war. Sparkling dew drops resting in the bosom of such blossoms like tiny tear drops-weeping for the sad hearts made sad by war. God sends beautiful days in war as well as peace- we must remember that.
A young prepossessing girl introduced herself to me on this May morning as a sister of Andrew Leopold. She told me her brother had been captured by the Yankees and was confined in Fort McHenry, MD, and that the entreaties of her widowed mother had induced her to try to get through the Federal lines to have an interview with (Confederate) General J.E.B. Stuart in regard to having her brother exchanged as a prisoner of war. . . She had been sent to me by a southern woman who knew I had carried letters through to Charles Town and thought I would accompany the young lady to that place, and acquaint her with friends who would assist her through the lines. I hesitated a moment and she said with tears that his mother had a message from Baltimore that if some powerful influence was not brought to bear immediately that her brother would be executed as a guerilla. That decided the matter.
We started off in a one horse carriage for Charles Town. She as a traveler was attired in a brown suit with a cape to match trimmed with quilling around it and a brown straw hat with a veil. I was to spend the day only and was dressed in a blue “Dolly Varden” pattern dress, blue silk bonnet with wide turn over cuffs and concealed in the lining of these cuffs were slips of paper with names of prominent Southern sympathizers who we were to call upon for any assistance. Before starting we concluded it would be better to go under fictitious names – she as Lucy Hamilton, and I as Louise Hamilton, her cousin. And with hearts filled with hope we started off that bright May morning on our errand of mercy.
Charles Town was reached in good time. We stopped where we were directed at Mrs. L’s and urged for safety to stay all night here-Lucy to start next morning southward and I to return home would arouse no suspicion. The next morning was quite as beautiful and arrangements were completed when I found she was getting timid about starting off alone. She entreated me to go just as far as Berryville and then she thought she would feel brave enough to travel alone. It was a big undertaking for two young girls as the country was then all excitement and confusion. I finally agreed to go to Berryville. We knew exactly where to stop and whom to see. All was planned before starting from home. I will never forget how beautiful Berryville looked the morning we drove up to the hotel. It was a village embowered in beautiful green trees, blooming flowers. The bees humming in the nectar-laden flowers produced that lazy, peaceful quiet that is so soothing to tired nerves. We made our arrangements with the proprietor and took a stroll through the pretty, cool looking streets.
We met Union soldiers and plenty of them but we did not feel any fear of our plans failing. In the evening we called upon the family next to the hotel and had music until late that night. Next morning while arranging to separate we were visited by a Yankee officer saying he wished to know here were were going, and that we must take the oath. At first we refused to take the oath but when we consented to take it he would not let us, but placed us under arrest. What a frustrating of all our plans. How my heart ached for that poor girl. How she had built her hopes on securing the release of her brother on this venture.
Under arrest by the Federals, Gen. Milroy flabbergasted:
MLH: Winchester reached, we were taken to the head-quarters of General Milroy where we found women, young and old, proud and defiant, now arguing their claims and proclaiming their grievances. One delicate, forlorn-looking widow relating to the General how his men, the Yankees, had taken her cows, her only means of support for her children. He turned from her quickly to my friend and me – if there had been the least disposition on my part to be humble – his exclamation put that feeling to flight and aroused a very rebellious state of mind. “What in the devil are you doing here? If it were not for the women running around the country we would not have so much trouble.” My companion started up with surprise. “General, we did not want to come here. We did not start for this place. Your officers brought us here.” He ran fingers through his mass of snow white hair already standing straight up like the quills of a porcupine and out of the audience chamber he strode without another word. He presented a fine physique, tall, well-proportioned, erect in carriage, a wealth of snow-white hair which suggested from its stand-up appearance that his fingers had a fashion of roaming there when troubles were to be, and plans and problems of great magnitude to be wrought out.
FRATERNIZING WITH THE ENEMY:
June – 1863:
We were soon before the Provost Marshall at Martinsburg awaiting his orders. Next morning we were taken to General Kelly at Harper’s Ferry to await further orders. We were assigned to the best boarding house in the town adjoining the General’s headquarters where a great many of the officers boarded. We had a guard to watch our movements and prevent our escape if we thought of anything of the kind. We were allowed to walk around the town accompanied by the guard and sometimes were invited by officers, to whom we were introduced, to attend concerts and places of amusements but the guard invariably followed behind to the disgust of our gallants. Lucy and I ignored the guard altogether. We did not care how tired he became running over the old hills of Harper’s Ferry after us and many were the taunts and comments we overheard about “secesh” (Confederate-sympathizing) prisoners.
“Miranda!” and the voice startled us – for it came from under the ground – a cottage, vine-clad and embowered in trees and bushes right under our feet on the slope of a hill. (The voice then said: “Here comes the two ‘secesh’ prisoners again trailing that poor tired guard after them as unusual. He looks like he is ready to drop. Much I would follow behind them over these hills.” She lived there under the hill with her beautiful daughter. She had lots and lots of beautiful flowers but not one would she give us after we humbled ourselves to ask for one because we were rebels.
At Harper’s Ferry with your five mountains, your bright Potomac, your smiling languid Shenandoah, your historic Jefferson’s Rock and romantic stone steps leading to the temple of God – St. Peter’s Church. In the yard of this church, high above the streets and houses of Harper’s Ferry, the Fifth New York Regiment Band discoursed sweet music every Sunday evening of the six weeks Lucy and I were prisoners. The sweet strains of the “Mocking Bird” as only Henry Frunkenfield could render them, echoed from Loudoun Heights across the great Shenandoah over the beautiful rock-ribbed Potomac of Maryland Heights, back again the mountain breezes wafted them though the streets and windows as if a hundred mocking birds were trilling their soul-felt song.
As a piece of fun, we were dressed in fantastic costumes, slipped down a stairway, of which the General had no knowledge to the kitchen, to dance for the cook and her black “Topsy”. The guard was told that we were about to make our escape. He hunted the house over for his prisoners and when he found us he did not recognize us for some time, our disguise was so complete. Two guards questioned us until they were finally convinced that we were not attempting an escape.
Sabbath days and week days were all the same at Harper’s Ferry during the war. The soldiers and citizens would promenade the streets. The crowds would send forth their martial airs, dignified and soul-stirring also their merry dance tunes. But this one Sabbath day seemed so different from all others that we had spent at that place. The day was declining and from the description of an Italian sunset, I think the sunset of this evening far surpassed any such Italian scene. The golden rays touched the tree tops and they looked like burnished gold. The strains of music came from the high rocks where St. Peter’s Church rests peacefully. Darts and streaks of gold tips of trees on the mountain tops – the birds twitter and call to their mates in low tones. There is a hush as if all nature were bowed in silent prayer as the twilight settles over the valley. The beauty of this Sabbath will never fade from my memory. It was my last one there as a prisoner. The stillness was soon changed to wild confusion and excitement.
Mary Entler Jumps Sides:
MLH: I took the oath of allegiance to the United States in June, 1863 in Baltimore, Maryland to Col. Fish who was in command there at the time. I have passed from Gen’l Lockwood commander at H. Ferry 1863 also from Gen’l Stevenson.
MLH: late August, 1864 – afterwards Company H., 116 Ohio Infantry, Capt. Peters and Col. Washburns Regiment occupied it, and every partition in the front bedrooms were destroyed. Every mantel piece (they were colonial) all but two were burned. The floor in the garrett of the back building was also destroyed. Enough of new window sash and door frames for a house was stored too. cistern and well floors destroyed and cistern filled with bee hives and rubbish. A fine dressed stable with 25 partitioned off, with board partitions-upper story divided off for grain and sleeping quarters for oster. All was torn out and this weakened the roof so that when a snow came it collapsed. A brick carriage house met the same fate. My father Joseph Entler was an old man at the time, and was never after that financially able to put back what was destroyed by the United States soldiers.
PEACETIME – ETERNAL TIDE OF MEMORIES:
MLH married on February 15, 1865 in Frederick, Maryland Walter L. Herrington, a ticket-agent on the B&O Railroad at Harper’s Ferry.
1870: They lived in her parents’ home of Wingerd Cottage, her parents having been forcibly retired from inn-keeping. Mary’s husband worked as a photographer then, that same year, died an untimely death.
1910: MLH had a dry goods and milliners shop on the south side of German Street.
1914: Mary Herrington paid in trust to George Beltzhoover the remaining western half of the lot of the once Great Western Hotel for $400, a sum to be paid to Nellie M. Entler. – December 5, 1914, Deed Book 111, p. 505. – Jefferson County Clerk.
1920: Mary Herrington was seventy-nine years old, living in Shepherdstown with her seventy-two-year-old-sister, Julia M. Miller, and brother, sixty-nine-year-old Lewis Little.
On June 20th MLH sold the dual-lot Great Western Inn to relative Harry T. Licklider on the condition that she could still live in the inn her natural life with her brother, “the said Home to consist of four rooms of the first floor and five rooms, including a summer kitchen and garden.” Two years later Licklider fell in arrears with the Swift Corporation and was sued and forced to sell the Great Western lands to pay off the debts. So the inn was gone from the family but MLH could live there, literally, on borrowed time.
She recalled: Only the walls of the stables remain today in ruins, covered with Virginia Creeper to screen the ugly scars of the Civil War.
1930: Mary L. Herrington was listed as eighty-nine years old but with her brother, Lewis Little, now listed as head of their house of the south side of German Street between King and Princess Streets near the center of the block, assessed at about $4,000. Mary A. Licklider & Mary Herrington 1930 Census with her interviewer Mary A. Licklider living next door at the home of Edward Licklider, Mary’s father.
1932: Mary Louise Herrington died March 27, 1932, having given much of these recollections to Mary A. Licklider, a descendant of Mary’s brother, Cato Moore Entler. Her marker is in Elmwood Cemetery. That summer, the new owner of the Great Western began massive alterations and reductions.
References:
Matthew M. Neely was U.S.Senator from West Virginia, from 1922-1928, then from 1931 to and thru the year Mary Entler Herrington died in 1932. wikipedia.org 27 July 2001 Web. 20 May 2014.
Letter to Senator Neely of WV from Mary Louise Entler Herrington; Concerning Damages to Property During the Civil War
Hon. Neely, I wish you to put before Congress a claim for damages to property by U.S. soldiers during the Civil War. The property was a hotel (in market for rent at the time). It was taken possession of and occupied by a Pennsylvania Cavalry Company. The extensive grounds in which were apple trees and vegetables were trampled and all the fencing destroyed; afterwards Company H., 116 Ohio Infantry, Capt. Peters and Col. Washburns Regiment occupied it, and every partition in the front bedrooms were destroyed. Every mantel piece (they were colonial) all but two were burned. The floor in the garrett of the back building was also destroyed. Enough of new window sash and door frames for a house was stored too. cistern and well floors destroyed and cistern filled with bee hives and rubbish. A fine dressed stable with 25 partitioned off, with board partitions-upper story divided off for grain and sleeping quarters for oster. All was torn out and this weakened the roof so that when a snow came it collapsed. A brick carriage house met the same fate. My father Joseph ENTLER was an old man at the time, and was never after that financially able to put back what was destroyed by the United States soldiers. I am sole survivor and think it but just and right that the United States Government should pay me an old woman now to repair it. (Signed) Mary L. ENTLER HERRINGTON. (A postscript was added): I took the oath of allegiance to the United States in Jun 1863 in Baltimore, Maryland to Col. Fish who was in command there at the time. I have passed from Gen’l Lockwood commander at H. Ferry 1863 also from Gen’l Stevenson. My grandfather, Philip ENTLER was a Revolutionary soldier, my father Joseph ENTLER was a soldier in the War of 1812 and helped defend Baltimore and Washington. My husband, Walter HERRINGTON was a Royal Arch Mason and United States Assistant Revenue Assessor under President Johnson for some time. If these facts have any weight in this matter I am glad.
Description of House
An Ancient Landmark Being Changed August, 1932 – The Shepherdstown Register (undated) Joseph ENTLER (my father) conducted it as an inn. The house is a quaint 52′ long weather board house with massive stone steps to both front doors and stone trimmings and steps to the front cellars and long massive stone stiles or carriage stepping stones as were used in ancient days. The dining room is 34 feet long. Seventeen rooms in the house and large old fashioned fireplaces in many of the rooms and finished with high paneled mantelpieces. The large fireplace in the kitchen which was used for cooking and had the cranes and pothooks and hangers. The ice house was under the dining room and was filled every winter with twenty-five four horse wagon loads of ice, which lasted until fall. The ice was from the Potomac River. After Joseph ENTLER bought it in 1809, he opened it as an inn. a large sign swung across the pavement at the east corner of the house. A heavy post at the curb supported one side and the other side was fastened to the house. In the middle of the sign in large letters that were plainly visible for squares up and down the street was the word, “INN”, and just below that, ‘Jos. ENTLER”. For many years it was a welcome abode to the weary traveler, for then all traveling was by wagon and carriage from Ohio and Kentucky to Baltimore and Washington, where their produce was sold and groceries and other commodities were taken back to the states and intermediate points. All these white covered wagons were placed in the large grounds and the weary tired horses were comfortably bedded down and fed in the large stone stables by good trusty colored men.
All circuses stopped at this inn and pitched their tents in the large lot arranging the cages of wild animals around the circle inside and all other wagons outside the tent. Seventeen rooms in the house and large old fashioned fireplaces in many of the rooms and finished with high paneled mantelpieces. All were destroyed but two during the Civil War, when occupied by Union Troops. The bedrooms above are still numbered as in the days when the late the large fireplace in the kitchen which was used for cooking before cook stoves were introduced has still the cranes and pothooks and hangers as the good old cooks used to handle. The ice house is under the dining room and was filled every winter with twenty-five four horse wagon loads of ice, which lasted until fall. The ice was from the Potomac River. This house and ground adjoining on the east extended to within a few feet from the corner below Trinity Episcopal Church all was the property of Cornelius Wynkoop, who sold it to Levi Gooding, 17 Oct 1801. Charles Harper had an interest in it. Joseph ENTLER (my father), bought Harper’s interest Jun 22nd., 1809. The 17th. of Feb 1812 the interest in the property was deeded to Joseph ENTLER from Levi Gooding, which has been the family over 100 years. Philip ENTLER, Joseph ENTLER’S father was a soldier in the Revolutionary War and told his son the building was a barracks in that war, and all ground which extended on the east beyond the Episcopal Church was used by Revolutionary soldiers as drilling and practice grounds and was used also in the War of 1812-14. After Joseph ENTLER bought it in 1809, he opened it as an inn. a large sign swung across the pavement at the east corner of the house. A heavy post at the curb supported one side and the other side was fastened to the house. In the middle of the sign in large letters that were plainly visible for squares up and down the street was the word, “INN”, and just below that, ‘Jos. ENTLER”. For many years it was a welcome abode to the weary traveler, for then all traveling was by wagon and carriage from Ohio and Kentucky to Baltimore and Washington, where their produce was sold and groceries and other commodities were taken back to the states and intermediate points. All these white covered wagons were placed in the large grounds and the weary tired horses were comfortably bedded down and fed in the large stone stables by good trusty colored men. Only the walls of the stables remain today in ruins, covered with Virginia Creeper to screen the ugly scars of the Civil War. All circuses stopped at this inn and pitched their tents in the large lot arranging the cages of wild animals around the circle inside and all other wagons outside the tent. On one occasion an elephant died and left a baby elephant. Years after the occurrence, the same circus came to town, and the baby remembered the place where its mother died and was buried in the lot and it’s grief was pitiful site. entlerd originally shared this, 14 Apr 2010 story at ancestry.com trees.ancestry.ca 4 March 2006 Web. 1 July 2014. (Subscription membership required for access). reocities.com 18 October 2000 Web. 1 July 2014.
History of Confederate Flag made in Shepherdstown by Mary Louise Entler Herrington: Copied from the original by Mary A. LICKLIDER, 16 Feb 1938 It may be interesting to the Shepherdstown Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy and others also to know the facts about a flag that was made and sent through the line in 1861 to our own Company B.
A U.S. flag was given to four or five young girls (young girls at the time), by Mr. Rezin Shepherd who lived in New Orleans. In the summer he lived at Wild Goose Farm. The flag was one from one of his vessels. It was sent to us by Mr. James (Hervey) Shepherd and was to be converted into a Confederate flag, a work that was dangerous at the time, being in disputed territory. We could work only when our men were in the lines and had to be very cautious then. My father Joseph ENTLER owned and lived at Wingerd Cottage during the war and there the flag was made. The location off from town and the large wide hall were ideal places for the work, which took many anxious weeks to complete. It was very tedious to rip every seam of the stripes in such a way as not to ravel the bunting. Every star was ripped from the blue field and then to sew all the red together and all the white to form the bars red, white, and red. Of course we had a surplus of stars as the Confederacy was young. After many weeks of work the flag was finished and a beautiful Confederate flag was ready to be sent through the line to Company B. It was hidden away awaiting a safe transfer. I heard the tramp of cavalry and clank of swords and sabers. I looked out the window and saw the cottage was surrounded by Yankee Cavalry. Oh, the flag, what was to be done with it? I heard the officer read orders to my father to search his premises thoroughly for contraband goods. My father seemed to be protesting against the search. But that gave me a little time to take the flag from its hiding place in a chest. The house was surrounded. I could not get out to hide it. I pulled a dress from the wall and put the flag in it and threw the dress carelessly across the back of a chair. Skirts were very wide and deep facings upon them. I put the little flags that we wore on our dresses and letters under the carpet. When my door was pushed open by Capt. Horner of Col. Coles’ Cavalry and the search began. Every bureau drawer and closet was searched, even the grandfather clock where reposed letters to go through the lines. But they were too deep in the bottom of the old clock to be detected. Everything was handled but the blue striped dress hovering over its precious treasure. It was too insignificant to attract their notice and they gave up the search, but rather in a bad humor. The flag was safe and sent to Company B, but all inquires after the war failed to locate it. There was an exchange of flags several years ago. That flag would be readily recognized by its many seams and its homemade marks. Now what became of that flag is a mystery. It went through the lines and was received by the company. I believe I am the only one living who helped to make the flag and saved it from being captured by Capt. Horner, its first Yankee assailant. – entlerd originally shared this to Deron’s Original Family Tree trees.ancestry.ca 4 March 2006 Web. 1 July 2014.
“CEOS told of Early Stories of Shepherdstown by Jim Price” – Spirit of Jefferson Farmer’s Advocate – Jun 8, 2000, p. 7. The Great Western Hotel had nineteen rooms and was owned by Joseph Entler, and was more like a truck stop where drovers and drivers and passengers of Conestoga wagons stayed. In 1858 Joseph Entler moved his family to Wingerd Cottage (the home of Cindy and Bob Keller) and leased the hotel out. news.google.com 25 March 2002 Web. 1 July 2014.
Born in Shepherdstown, Jefferson, Virginia, USA on 24 Aug 1821 to Joseph Entler and Mary Ellen Rickard. Cato Moore married Mary Ellen Bowen and had 9 children. He passed away on 6 Apr 1902 in Shepherdstown, Jefferson, Virginia, USA. records.ancestry.com 22 January 2009 Web. July 1, 2014.
1st Maryland Cavalry, U.S.A. (Originally organized as the 1st Potomac Home Brigade Cavalry, “Cole’s Cavalry” was formed under the guidance of Henry A. Cole (from Frederick, Maryland). Company C was recruited primarily from Emmitsburg, Maryland and Gettysburg, Pennsylvania and was commanded by Capt. John Horner; wikipedia.org 27 July 2001 Web. 20 May 2014.
Due to confusion created by units carrying different flags after 1st Manassas the 30th October 1861 saw Governor Letcher present every Virginia regiment with a bunting flag. Another private group in Charles Town had a regimental flag made for the 2nd Virginia Infantry regiemnt that they reportedly carried into batle at First Manassas/BullRun 2ndvirginiacsa.tripod.com 16 May 2013 Web 1 July 2014.
Gallaher, D.C. (December, 1996). “Fragments of a Diary of Shepherdstown Events During the War 1861-1865.” Magazine of the Jefferson County Historical Society, vol. LXII. Print.
Mary Entler’s brother: ENTLER, CATO MOORE: b. 1822. Confectioner. enl. 6/18/61 at Winchester in Co. B as Pvt. sick at Manassas Hosp. 10/21/61. To Chimborazo #5, 1/13/61; diarrhea. To Gen. Hosp. Farmville, 5/7/62; torpor of liver. Returned to duty 7/16/62; however, last official entry shows him absent sick 6/30-10/31 1862. – Frye, Dennis “2nd Virginia Infantry Regiment,” Lynchburg, Va: H. E. Howard. Print. More . . .
Mary L. Herrington was listed as eighty-nine years old but with her brother, Lewis Little, now listed as head of their house of the south side of German Street between King and Princess Streets near the center of the block, assessed at about $4,000. Mary A. Licklider & Mary Harrington 1930 Census with her interviewer Mary A. Licklider living next door at the home of Edward Licklider, Mary’s father. NARA T626. Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930. Roll: 2536 State: West Virginia County: JEFFERSON Browse Description: SHEPHERDSTOWN TOWN Enumeration District: 19-9 Description: SHEPHERDSTOWN TOWN Sheet Number: 4b fold3.com footnote.com(fold3.com) 21 October 2010 Web. 20 May 2014.
116th Ohio Infantry The most likely time in which the 116th Ohio visited the Great Western Inn was during late August, 1864: Left Ohio for Parkersburg, Va., October 16; then moved to Clarksburg and Buckhannon. Moved to New Creek November 9, and to Moorefield December 12. Duty at Moorefield, Va., December 15, 1862 to January 10, 1863. Moorefield January 3. At Romney until March 17. Near Romney February 16. At Winchester, Va., until June. Operations in Shenandoah Valley April 20–29. Scout toward Wardensville and Strasburg April 20. Scout to Strasburg April 25–29. Bunker Hill June 13 (Companies A and I). Battle of Winchester June 13–15. Retreat to Harper’s Ferry, W. Va., June 15–16, 1863; then to Washington, D.C., July 1–4, and joined Army of the Potomac at Frederick, Md., July 5. Pursuit of Lee to Manassas Gap, Va., July 5–24. Wapping Heights, Va., July 23. At Martinsburg, W. Va., August 4, 1863 to April 29, 1864. Skirmish at Hedgesville October 16, 1863 (detachment). Sigel’s Expedition from Martinsburg to New Market April 29-May 16, 1864. Battle of New Market May 15. Advance on Staunton May 24-June 6. Piedmont June 5. Occupation of Staunton June 6. Hunter’s raid on Lynchburg June 10-July 1. Lynchburg June 17–18. ***Ordered to the Shenandoah Valley July. Battle of Kernstown-Winchester, July 24. Sheridan’s Shenandoah Valley Campaign August 7-November 28, 1864. Charlestown August 21, 22, and 29. Berryville September 3, Battle of Winchester, Opaquan Creek September 19, 1864. Fisher’s Hill September 22. Cedar Creek October 13, Battle of Cedar Creek October 19. Duty at Opequan Crossing November 18 to December 19. Moved to Washington, D.C., December 19; then to Aiken’s Landing, Va. Siege of Petersburg and Richmond December 27, 1864 to April 2, 1865. Appomattox Campaign March 28-April 9, Hatcher’s Run March 29-April 1. Fall of Petersburg April 2. Pursuit of Lee April 3–9. Rice’s Station April 6. Appomattox Court House April 9. Surrender of Lee and his army. Duty at Richmond, Va., until June. wikipedia.org 27 July 2001 Web. 20 May 2014.
Baldau, Catherine. “House Arrest: Mary Entler’s Adventure in Harpers Ferry.” in “The Harpers Ferry Anthology – Civil War-era Stories by Park Rangers and Volunteers.” (2011). Harpers Ferry, WV: The Harpers Ferry Historical Assocation. Print.
Joseph Entler household 1870 Census p. 506. United States. Bureau of the Census; United States. National Archives and Records Service. (1965). “Population schedules of the ninth census of the United States, 1870, West Virginia [microform] (Volume Reel 1689 – 1870 West Virginia Federal Population Census Schedules – Jackson and Jefferson Counties).” Washington, D.C.: Gov’t Printing Office. Print.
United States. Bureau of the Census; United States. National Archives and Records Service. (1965). “Population schedules of the ninth census of the United States, 1870, West Virginia [microform] (Volume Reel 1689 – 1870 West Virginia Federal Population Census Schedules – Jackson and Jefferson Counties).” Internet Archives: Digital Library of Free Books, Movies, Music, and Wayback Machine. 27 Oct. 2009. Web. 10 Sept. 2010. More . . .
Joseph Entler, Jr. household with MLH, Potomac District p. 26 United States. Bureau of the Census; United States. National Archives and Records Service. (197-). 10th census, 1880, West Virginia [microform] (Volume Reel 1405 – 1880 West Virginia Federal “Population Census Schedules – Jefferson (cont’d: ED 4, sheet 23-end) and Kanawha (part: EDs 1-61, sheet 26) Counties).” Washington, D.C.: Gov’t Printing Office. Print.
1900 United States Federal Census about Mary L Herrington Name: Mary L Herrington Age: 60 Birth Date: May 1840 Birthplace: West Virginia Home in 1900: Shepherdstown, Jefferson, West Virginia Race: White Gender: Female Relation to Head of House: Sister Marital Status: Widowed Father’s Birthplace: Pennsylvania Mother’s Birthplace: West Virginia Mother: number of living children: 0 Mother: How many children: 0 Name Age Joseph Entler, Jr 72 Annie E Entler 65 Mary L Herrington 60 Julia M Miller 53 Maurice Miller 16 Source Citation: Year: 1900; Census Place: Shepherdstown, Jefferson, West Virginia; Roll: 1761; Page: 5A; Enumeration District: 0048; FHL microfilm: 1241761 search.ancestry.com 10 July 1998 Web. 1 July 2014.
Mary Herrington was seventy-nine years old, living in Shepherdstown with her seventy-two-year-old-sister, Julia M. Miller and brother, sixty-nine-year-old Lewis Little. 1920 United States Federal Census about Mary L Herrington Name: Mary L Herrington [Mary L Herington] Age: 79 Birth Year: abt 1841 Birthplace: West Virginia Home in 1920: Shepherdstown, Jefferson, West Virginia Race: White Gender: Female Relation to Head of House: Head Marital Status: Widowed [Widow] Father’s Birthplace: Pennsylvania Mother’s Birthplace: West Virginia Household Members: Name Age Mary L Herrington: 79 Julia M Miller 72 Lewis J Little 69 Source Citation: Year: 1920; Census Place: Shepherdstown, Jefferson, West Virginia; Roll: T625_1952; Page: 9A; Enumeration District: 74; Image: 555. search.ancestry.com 10 July 1998 Web. 1 July 2014.
Suit in favor of Swift & Company against H. T. Licklider, in which Licklider sold to discharge and pay off said decree: ”The certain house and land on the east side of Princess Street in Shepherdstown . . . designated on the plat of said town as the north west corner of Lot No. 127, said lot fronting on said street 40 feet by 98 feet deep on said alley and known as the site of the business of “The Licklider Corporation.” Also, two certain adjoining parcels of real estate of which the late Joseph Entler died seized and possessed and situate on the south side of German Street in Shepherdstown, designated on the Plat of said town as Lot No. 14 and bounded as follows: No. 1 consisting of a vacant lot of land fronting on said street 33 feet by about 206 feet deep to a public alley in the rear, No. 2 consisting of the adjoining lot of land and the large weather-boarded dwelling thereon, the said lot fronting on said street about 60 feet more or less by about 206 feet to a public alley in the rear, subject to a life estate of Mary L. Herrington in part of same and being the same real estate conveyed to Harry T. Licklider by deed from Mary L. Herrington and others by deed dated June 29, 1920. – Lis Pendens, October 14, 1922, Deed Book 122, Page 140, – Jefferson County, WV Clerk. (NOTE: The life estate deed states that Mary Herrington sold the two adjacent lots to Licklider on the condition that she and, as long as Herrington approves, Licklider to allow, provide and maintain free of any charge and expense to her said “Dwelling for and during her natural life: the said Home to consist of four rooms of the first floor and five rooms, including a summer kitchen and garden.” – July 6, 1920, Deed Book 119, Page 82, Jefferson County Clerk.
“Historically, milliners, typically female shopkeepers, produced or imported an inventory of garments for men, women, and children, including hats, shirts, cloaks, shifts, caps, neckerchiefs, and undergarments, and sold these garments in their millinery shop.” wikipedia.org 27 July 2001 Web. 20 May 2014.
116th Ohio Infantry – compiled by Larry Stevens. References for this Unit ohiocivilwar.com 17 August 2000 Web. 1 July 2014.
Mary L. Herrington was listed as eighty-nine years old but with her brother, Lewis Little, now listed as head of their house of the south side of German Street between King and Princess Streets near the center of the block, assessed at about $4,000. Mary A. Licklider & Mary Harrington 1930 Census with her interviewer Mary A. Licklider living next door at the home of Edward Licklider, Mary’s father. NARA T626. Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930. Roll: 2536 State: West Virginia County: JEFFERSON Browse Description: SHEPHERDSTOWN TOWN Enumeration District: 19-9 Description: SHEPHERDSTOWN TOWN Sheet Number: 4b fold3.com. footnote.com(fold3.com) 21 October 2010 Web. 20 May 2014.
“In the Realms of Rest: M. L. Herrington,“ The Shepherdstown Register,” March 31, 1932.
Image Credits:
Montage of images of people in Shepherdstown during the Civil War – Historic Shepherdtown Commission.
Harper’s Weekly September 6, 1862, p. 569 sonofthesouth.net start date unavailable Web. 1 July 2014.
The first flag of the 11th Pennsylvania Reserves
detail of woman sewing flag etsy.com 18 May 2001 Web. 1 July 2014.
Battle flag of the 28th North Carolina Infantry.
Stuart’s Horse Artillery Flag jeffctywvmuseum.org 9 November 2004 Web. 1 July 2014.
The 33rd Indiana Volunteer Infantry 33rdindiana.org 20 June 2011 Web. 1 July 2014.
Remains of U.S. Infantry colors from President Lincoln’s box on the night he was assassinated. medicalmuseum.mil 2 June 2012 Web. 1 July 2014.
Flag of the type carried by the Treasury Guard and other infantry regiments during the Civil War. medicalmuseum.mil 2 June 2012 Web. 1 July 2014.
Ohio Department of the Adjutant General, “National Colors of the Black Brigade of Cincinnati,” in Ohio Civil War 150 | Collections & Exhibits, Item #1490. ohiocivilwar150.org/omeka 25 September 2009 Web. 1 July 2014.
Ohio Department of the Adjutant General, “Guidon of the 27th U.S.C.T.,” in Ohio Civil War 150 | Collections & Exhibits, Item #1489. ohiocivilwar150.org/omeka 25 September 2009 Web. 1 July 2014.
Flag of the Rockbridge Rifles Original Author: W. H. Horstmann & Sons of Philadelphia Created: ca. 1860 Medium: Silk flag with oil-painted seal Courtesy of The Museum of the Confederacy encyclopediavirginia.org 8 November 2006 Web. 1 July 2014.
Alfred Lee : Dolly Varden Dolly Varden / words by Frank W. Green ; music by Alfred Lee Philadelphia : Lee & Walker, between 1872 and 1875 Plate no.: 131819.4 Color: Portrait of a young woman in a Dolly Varden dress / T. Sinclair & Son Lith. Box 25, no. 7. library.upenn.edu/collections 7 March 2003 Web. 1 July 2014.
Hotchkiss, Jedediah, “[Map of Loudoun County and part of Clarke County, Va., Jefferson County and part of Berkeley County, W. Va., and parts of Montgomery and Frederick counties, Md.]..” memory.loc.gov/ammem/ 14 October 2004 Web. 1 July 2014.
One-horse buggy David Hunter Strother, “At Hancock Depot, Aug. 1st, 1857. West Virginia and Regional History Collection. Act, No.:P.95.30.387pg26c
Dicken’s Dolly Varden by William Frith. Owner/Location: Victoria and Albert Museum – London (United Kingdom – London) Dates: 1842 Artist age: Approximately 23 years old. Dimensions: Unknown Medium: Painting – oil on canvas Entered by: Member Irene on 22 December 2013. the-athenaeum.org 23 May 2002 Web. 1 July 2014.
Shepherdstown and Charles Town, Va. Brown, Howell S. “Map of Jefferson County, Virginia From Actual Surveys With Farm Limits, 1852.” Magazine of the Jefferson County Historical Society Vol. XLV. (1979): pp. 1-7. Print.
Robert_H._Milroy wikipedia.org 27 July 2001 Web. 20 May 2014.
Woman pouring from watering can Marmion, Annie P. (1959) “Under Fire: An Experience in the Civil War.” William Vincent Marmion, Jr. ed.
Rezin Shepherd-Shepherd University
Elderly woman Crayon, Porte (Strother, D. H.). “The Mountains. Pt. VI.” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, Volume 45, Issue: 270, November 1872, pp. 801-816. Print.
Crayon, Porte. (November, 1872). “The Mountains. Pt. VI.” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine. p. 803. (SEE REFERENCES)
Gate to farm house Strother, David H. “Rural Pictures.” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, New York, NY: Harper and Bros. Volume 20, Issue: 116, January, 1860. pp. 166-180. Print.
Strother, David H., (Jan., 1860). “Rural Pictures.” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine. p. 166 (SEE REFERENCES).
Ring on woman’s finger Strother, David H., “Virginia Illustrated.” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, New York, NY: Harper and Bros. Volume 13, Issue: 75, (Aug., 1856). pp. 303-323. Print.
Strother, David H., “Virginia Illustrated.” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine. p. 323.(SEE REFERENCES)
Cook in kitchen Strother, David H., “Virginia Illustrated.” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, New York, NY: Harper and Bros. Volume 12, Issue: 68, (Jan., 1856). pp. 158-179. Print.
Strother, David H., “Virginia Illustrated.” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine. p. 177 (SEE REFERENCES)
Horses in stable eating hay Strother, David H., “Virginia Illustrated.” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, New York, NY: Harper and Bros. Volume 11, Issue: 63, (Aug., 1855). pp. 289-311. Print.
Strother, David H., “Virginia Illustrated.” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine. p. 293 (SEE REFERENCES)
Federal cavalry standstill “Battles and Leaders. Vol. 1.” (1887). Robert Underwood Johnson, Clarence Clough Buel (Ed.). New York, NY: Century Co. Print.
“Battles and Leaders Vol. 1.” Internet Archives: Digital Library of Free Books, Movies, Music, and Wayback Machine. 27 Oct. 2009. Web. 26 Sept. 2010. p. 600.
Searching for Arms. Drawing by Adalbert John Volck, circa 1890-1896, glc00493.05. (Image: Gilder Lehrman Collection) civilwar.org 15 May 1998 Web. 1 July 2014.
Additionsal Image Credits for the Videos:
Young Woman at a Piano by George Goodwin Kilburne, 1880.
Detail The Effect of the Rebellion of the Homes of Virginia – Harper’s Weekly, 24 December, 1864. pp. 824-825.
William Stebbins Fish – Maryland Historical Society. Maryland Historical Magazine, (Summer, 1999). Vol. 94. p. 132.
Polish stables in Gdansk wikipedia.org 27 July 2001 Web. 25 October 2014.
The Homecoming by E.L. Henry
Title: [Civil War envelope showing soldier standing at attention in camp with message “Our Union defenders”]. Date Created/Published: [between 1861 and 1865]. memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html 4 May 1999 Web. 20 May 2014.
Pen and Ink by Edwin Graves Champney. Image courtesy of the Outer Banks History Center. obxentertainment.com 8 April 2009 Web. 25 October 2014.
Matthew_M._Neely wikipedia.org 27 July 2001 Web. 25 October 2014.
Headpiece for ‘Good for the Soul’ – Howard Pyle wikiart.org 30 May 2008 Web. 25 October 2014.
Christmas Boxes in Camp Christmas 1861: Published Harpers Weekly January 4, 1862. (Not used) hoocher.com 4 April 2009 Web. 25 October 2014.
Sunday Morning in Virginia: 1887 Winslow Homer hoocher.com 4 April 2009 Web. 25 October 2014.
Girl in the Orchard: 1874 by Winslow Homer hoocher.com 4 April 2009 Web. 25 October 2014.
The Reaper: 1878 by Winslow Homer hoocher.com 4 April 2009 Web. 25 October 2014.
porcupine awf.org 19 June 1998 Web. 25 October 2014.
Union officers eating during the Civil War. (Library of Congress photo) blog.timesunion.com 10 December 2005 Web. 25 October 2014.
Strother, David H., “The Mountains. Pt. IV.” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, New York, NY: Harper and Bros. Volume 44, Issue: 267, (Aug, 1872). pp. 347-366. Print.
Strother, David H., “The Mountains. Pt. IV.” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine. pp. 347-366. (SEE REFERENCES)
Henry_Hayes_Lockwood wikipedia.org 27 July 2001 Web. 25 October 2014.
Death Record of W. L. Harrington in 1874 wvculture.org 2 March 2000 Web. 25 October 2014.
Mary Entler 1920 Census, West Virginia, Jefferson County archive.org 9 August 2002 Web. 25 October 2014.
(Not used) Foraging was resorted to, to a considerable extent. Turkeys, Geese, Chickens were taken whenever found; corn-cakes, bread, ham, and smoked sides with butter, apple butter, and in fact everything that was eatable was procured, sometimes by paying cash and at other times by promises to pay when change could not be made. (Courtesy Bradley Forbush) 13thmass.org 29 May 2002 Web. 25 October 2014.
Leading Civil War historian Dennis Frye explains to Don and Marie Davis, owners of the Carriage Inn bed and breakfast on Washington Street in historic Charles Town, WV (John Brown was tried and hanged at two nearby locations) how it came to be the Gens Grant and Sheridan had a war council in the east front parlor of the once called Rutherford House. (the same room where this video was made). Funny thing – Confederate General Stonewall Jackson had dinner there once as did Gen Jen Stuart who also brought his fiddle player at the same place – but DIFFERENT NIGHTS. TRT: 8:53 Video link: https://youtu.be/rNcWBCLYfMY
With support from American Public University System (apus.edu). (The sentiments expressed do not in any way reflect modern-day policies of APUS, and are intended to encourage fact-based exchange for a better understanding of our nation’s foundational values.
The Dandridges at The Bower and The Rutherfords at their Charlestown home had Civil War generals and intrigues come right to their doorstep and even into their parlors, sleeping areas and barns; stories piled high.
But what Confederate Generals J.E.B. Stuart, Stonewall Jackson had in common with Federal commanding General Ulysses S. Grant; General Philip Sheridan, and General Nathaniel Banks – are the first floor rooms of Thomas and Mary Rutherford’s home on Washington Street in Charles Town, WV, today the Carriage Inn. They all spent time there, having fun or plotting.
This is the story of The Rutherford House/Carriage Inn during the Civil War seen through the eyes mainly of Richard Duffield Rutherford, a ten-year-old in 1860, who got around quite a bit, mirroring the rhythms and terrors of daily life in Charlestown during The Troubles.
Summary:
Thomas and Mary Rutherford and their eight children – alongside the war’s flailing claws – had a flag made for Stonewall Jackson to take into battle in 1861 at First Manassas/Bull Run; entertained at dinner Federal General Nathaniel Banks with Stonewall’s returned flag precariously hidden away in an upstairs hearth; enjoyed Sam Sweeney’s banjo as he sat beside Gen J.E.B. Stuart who was visiting and sharing momentos with the family of his ride around Gen. McClellan’s army in October, 1862. They cared for wounded in late 1862, one who died and they buried. Daughter Mary dodged a bullet fired at her upstairs window, all while our callow narrator, Richard, nosed around town, saw things, and above all daily milked their two cows, that he often had to roam to find, bribing thankful Federal pickets with pie.
Then the most historic two hours at Rutherford House/Carriage Inn was the meeting of Federal Generals Grant and Sheridan (almost two years to the day after the terrible Antietam/Sharpsburg battle), having surrounded the Rutherford home with a huge security cordon, and used new information smuggled into them by an African-American named Thomas Laws – correctly convincing them the time was propitious to attack Confederate General Jubal Early on the Opequon Creek.
A lasting memory after the war was, for Richard, – one night sky’s hideous glow in all directions from the burning barns and, in some cases, homes torched as part of General Sheridan’s punitive campaign through the Valley, the one where his orders from Grant were curt and cruel – so that, to periphrase, a crow flying overhead would have to carry its own rations.
Meantime the Rutherfords ate, starved, baked, sheltered, hid, entertained and prayed for the end – the real and final end – to this war that left their town changed forever, with a past obliterated and eclipsed.
Chapterettes: 1. Tom and Mary Rutherford thrive on political connections and railroad subsidies. 2. The Fissure Opens – John Brown nails the issue and is hanged. 3. July, 1861: The flag from “The Ladies of Jefferson County” & first time, face-to-face with Federals 4. Future Federal General Francis Barlow bemoans Charlestown. 5. A Rutherford relative teases the Federal pickets. 6. Sister Virginia recounts how the gift flag comes back to the Rutherfords. 7. February 27-28, 1862 Federal General Nathaniel Banks crossed the Potomac with 30,000 men. 8. A misunderstanding about “church” music at the Charlestown Presbyterian church 9. Tempers flash over stolen pigs, poultry and cows. 10.Young Richard Rutherford had much better luck with the Rutherford’s cows thanks to food bribes. 11.Gen. Banks dines with the Rutherfords. 12.“We don’t want him!” said the Confederates.
Tom and Mary Rutherford thrive on political connections and railroad subsidies:
In 1860 Thomas Rutherford had $36,000 in real estate and $6,000 in personal property, largely from the estate left his wife, Mary, by her father, Richard Duffield, who first built and leased the train depot near his home in 1839 to the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, that still stands in 2014. Their wealth was often in the form of United States dollars in the payments from the Baltimore and Ohio. Because their wealth was not in Virginia lands, enslaved persons or Confederate paper; the family still had about half their reported wealth ten years later in 1870. Their son-in-law, Cleon Moore, in fact, would build next door, becoming a lawyer for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad after the war.
1859:
2. The Fissure Opens – John Brown nails the issue and is hanged
Richard Rutherford wrote of that day: John Brown was hanged on December 2, 1859 in the morning. I was sitting on a wall fence back of the Episcopal Church. The rope was arranged, the black cap adjusted. The sheriff came down the steps of the scaffold. The signal was given, the rope cut, the body swung and in a few moments, it was all over. Everything was done quietly. In a few minutes he was pronounced dead. – Rutherford, p. 21.
1861:
3. July, 1861: The flag from “The Ladies of Jefferson County” & first time, face-to-face with Federals
Rutherford recalled: My sister (Virginia) had raised money and presented to the Second Virginia regiment of that Brigade a handsome Virginia State Flag. (On the back side there was a banner “from the Ladies of Jefferson County”). This was their Brigade flag in this battle. – Rutherford, p. 24.
In 1920 Mrs. Virginia Rutherford McMechem, Richard’s sister, wrote down the colorful history of the flag/banner: The flag, which was ordered and made in Richmond for the 2nd Virginia Infantry of local enlistees, arrived in Winchester, Va. on the 17th July, just as the Brigade was about to leave for Manassas Junction on the 18th of July. The 1st (Stonewall) Brigade marched out of Winchester with the flag flying at the head of the Second Virginia Regiment. The purchase money was given me by Thomas Rutherford of Charles Town and several of his friends as a gift to the Regiment. Thomas Rutherford did not desire to appear so prominent in the matter, so it was allowed to go as from the Ladies of Jefferson County. On the 21st of July, date of 1st Manassas, this was the only flag carried into the battle by the First Brigade and the only Virginia flag in Jackson’s command, other troops being put under his command after he arrived on the field. – Virginia Rutherford McMecham, letter 1920.
Richard Rutherford’s first encounter with Federal soldiers:
On July 17, 1861 – I was frightened never having seen a Yankee soldier before and thinking of them as some sort of desperate creature who would kill us all. (But) The Yankees rode into town but did not seem to disturb anyone. . .My father said it was just a scouting party. Shortly after (Federal) General Robert Patterson did advance with his army and camped around the town. They stayed with us for some time. Many of them came to the house for water and often asked for something to eat, which we always gave if we had anything left! I got pretty well acquainted with many of them. . .(One of Patterson’s staff officers stayed with the Rutherfords-JS): a Captain Phillips asked if he could have a room at our house, so we gave him a room. The next day he brought a soldier with him and gave orders to allow no one to trespass or disturb the property. We fixed a bed for the guard in the wash house in the yard. – Rutherford, pp. 24-25.
David Hunter Strother wrote:
July 17 – Wednesday: west of Charles Town: At the ruin of the old Episcopal Church – the first built in the valley – the main column halted and detachments were sent forward to the right and left to inclose the town and capture the militia, which were reported to be assembled there. The army entered Charlestown with drums beating, colors flying, and all the pomp of a grand review. The streets were silent and deserted, the houses generally closed, and only a few negroes and children appeared to witness the “grand entree.” As the column passed, a Confederate flag was displayed from the upper window of a storehouse. The doors were instantly crushed in and the offensive emblem replaced by the Stars and Stripes. Otherwise everything was quiet. The sentiment of the army was conciliatory, while, from terror or sullen-ness, very few of the inhabitants showed themselves on the streets. – Strother, p. 156. More . . .
4. Future Federal Major General Francis Barlow bemoans Charlestown:
Federal officer Francis Channing Barlow of the 12th New York militia arrived and stayed in Charlestown in July, 1861 and did not fight at First Manassas/Bull Run: We are encamped close to the field where they say John Brown was hung, they point out the spot where his gallows was erected. I went into the Court house where John Brown was tried this morning. This town is like all Virginia towns, . . . slovenly, with occasionally some large and pleasant looking places. Last night, we had no supper. . .(This morning) we foraged about to four or five houses for breakfast without success; they saying that they were eaten out, stolen out by those who preceeded us. They are openly Secessionists here almost entirely, the women talk openly, freely, but good humoredly. – Barlow, p. 14.
Barlow describes many men bathing in the Evetts Run near town:
(I) wiped my hands on my head, the brook which runs by our encampment being so dirtied, riled by the thousands quartered higher up that it dirties one more. . .Yet thousands of naked forms can be at this moment seen washing in it. Carlton Richards and I started for town. At the town pump in the most frequented part of town, close to the Courthouse, we took off our coats, shirts and stood entirely naked except trousers, stockings and shoes, washed and cleaned ourselves in the face of the multitude among soldiers of all climes. (Barlow to his brother Edward, from Charlestown, Va, July 18, 1861).- Barlow, p. 14.
5. A Rutherford relative teases the Federal pickets:
The Yankees had a patrol that marched up and down the streets every night. No lights were to be allowed after ten o’clock. My Aunt Nancy Douglass from St. Louis was staying with us at the time. One night the lamp was burning in her room when the patrol passed. They called. “Lights out!” So Aunt Nancy picked up the lamp and held it outside the window at them. They all laughed and told us to turn it out. “Well,” she said, “you told me: ’Lights out’ so I thought you wanted it outside.” . . . – Rutherford, p. 25.
The night of July 21st was rather exciting as the First Battle of Bull Run was fought that day. Captain Phillips told my father of their defeat at Bull Run and that the Rebs were moving on Washington. It was a desolate looking country that we looked over the next morning – the large army of troops leaving, it looked quite dilapidated. Fences were all burned and trash heaped everywhere. – Rutherford, p. 25.
Rutherford wrote that the town undertaker found the body of a local man killed at the battle, named Frank Butler, awaiting him at his business.
6. Sister Virginia recounts how the gift flag comes back to the Rutherfords:
October 30, 1861 – Due to confusion created by units carrying different flags after 1st Manassas the 30th October 1861 saw Governor Letcher present every Virginia regiment with a bunting flag. Colonel Allen returned the 2nd Virginia’s Flag to Charles Town for safe keeping. One afternoon in late 1861, Brigadier General Torbett of the U.S. Army was encamped around
Charles Town with his Cavalry command. His Staff officers had pitched their tents in the beautiful grounds surrounding the Rutherford home and were lying all about on the grass. A little bare-footed colored girl came into the yard and wound her way among them, carrying a small package wrapped in a newspaper. Coming to a side door she handed the package to a member of the family saying, “Give this to Miss Ginny Rutherford”, and darted away. The Family never learned who the child was. Thomas Rutherford wrapped the flag carefully and put it under an iron hearth in the bed-room where it remained until after the close of the war. It would have been to them ample reason to the Federals for reducing the home to ashes. – Virginia Rutherford McMecham, letter 1920.
1862:
7. February 27-28, 1862 Federal General Nathaniel Banks crossed the Potomac with 30,000 men:
8. A misunderstanding about “church” music at the Charlestown Presbyterian church:
Wrote Edwin Bryant of the 3rd Wisconsin Infantry Regiment: Our sojourn in Charlestown was exceedingly disagreeable to the inhabitants. It annoyed them to have their churches occupied by Yankee soldiers; and the little organ was kept in full blast in one of the churches occupied by a part of the Third, while a hundred or more stout lungs vented the song, then new and expressive of the northern feeling: “John Brown’s body lies a-mouldering in the grave, But his soul is marching on.’
The boys of the regiment determined to keep that song going constantly during our stay in Charlestown; and though we staid there several days they came near keeping good the resolve. The song and the throats of the singers were rather worn-out and ragged for sometime after. It is to be feared that the organ was a little wheezy, too. – Bryant, pp. 40-41.
Federal officer David Hunter Strother (who knew the locals well) describes the minister’s grief:
I saw Mr. Dutton flying along the street and hailed him. He greeted me and said he was going to see about the occupation of his church. I went with him and found Colonel [Thomas H.] Ruger’s Wisconsin men in occupation and taking up the carpets. The preacher was for getting out the pulpit furniture, Bibles, and candelabras. Presently looking toward the organ he saw a platoon of rugged-looking fellows around the organ and fumbling with the music books of the choir. He looked in agony at the prospective destruction and desecration. A moment after, the books were all open and fifty accordant voices rose in a thrilling anthem that filled the church with solemn music. The alarmed clergyman paused a moment. His face became calm and solemn. He turned to the officer in command: “You need not move the furniture from the pulpit, Sir. It will be safe, I feel assured. . . .” (The Reverend W. B. Dutton was the Presbyterian minister at Charles Town from 1849 to 1874). Strother, p. 5.
9. Tempers flash over stolen pigs, poultry and cows:
While here, the commanders were besieged with complaints from the citizens. Their geese, turkeys and chickens disappeared. They murmured that “private property was not respected.” The orders were strict enough; and officers did not countenance their violation. But so it was, everywhere that soldiers marched a great mortality prevailed among poultry, pigs and sheep. The women were most indignant and most outspoken. They took such revenge as bitter tongues and prayers that we might be exterminated could afford them. One well-to-do farmer protested against his corn and grain being taken as he had a large number of negroes dependent on him for support. In a week he was doing his own chores, milking with his own hands his last cow, and as woe-begone a secessionist as could be found anywhere. His slaves had left him; and his stock and poultry had joined the Union side, too. – Bryant, pp. 40-41 in Charlestown with Gen. Banks; spring, 1862.
The amount of pig and chicken stealing was very considerable and all the way from the Ferry I saw soldiers with slaughtered sheep and hogs, carrying their whole quarters upon their bayonets. There was a good deal of fence burning (but) there was no wanton acts of destruction. – Strother diaries, p. 6.
10. Young Richard Rutherford had much better luck with the Rutherford’s cows thanks to food bribes:
He wrote: We kept two cows during the war and I did the milking. I would turn them out every day and as there were no fences left, they would get pasture all round the town. It was my job to find them in the evening and bring them home. The pickets were on Hunter’s Hill and at first refused to let me go after them, but I soon found a way to bribe them. My mother would fix up a plate of cornbread or pie or almost anything in the eating line, and armed with food and a crock of clabber, I would march up to the pickets and while they were eating I would get the cows. One of them told me to bring them some more of that feed and I could go anywhere I wanted. – Rutherford, p. 32.
We could get nothing in the way of clothing except gray cloth made by the factories in the county, so everyone dressed in gray. No one who did not actually live in or around Charlestown can realize the trying times we suffered during the four years of war. – Rutherford, p. 33.
Federal General Nathaniel Banks with a large army, takes up residence nearby:
Gen. Banks made his headquarters also at Mr. Hunter’s house and one of his staff, Captain Shriver (Captain Robert C. Shriber of the 39th New York Infantry Regiment-JS), had a room at our house. He also sent a soldier, Jack White, to guard the property. A very nice and decent fellow, so he had his meals with the family and stayed with us even after the army advance to Winchester. – Rutherford, p. 27.
11. Gen. Banks dines with Rutherfords:
On March 10, 1862 (Monday) Gen. Banks, the day he left, sent his headquarters wagons off early in the morning, expecting to leave soon himself, but being delayed until night, my father told Captain Shriver to invite the General and his staff over to supper with us. The invitation was accepted and very much appreciated by them if judged by the way they ate and their thanks afterward. They left about nine o’clock. – Rutherford, p. 27.
In late May, 1862, General Stonewall Jackson, hoping to culminate his victorious Valley Campaign against Gen. Banks by capturing Harper’s Ferry, failed to do so and retreated back through Charlestown, with a funny incident at the Rutherford house:
12. “We don’t want him!” said the Confederates: In late May, 1862, Federal soldier Jack White (possibly “John White,” a private in the 39th New York Infantry Regiment under Captain Robert Shriber-JS) re-visited the Rutherfords as Confederate General Stonewall Jackson was driving White’s Federal army under Gen. Banks northward out of the Valley into Maryland. White got ensnared when arriving soldiers under Jackson happened to “look in on” the Rutherford household. Jackson’s men stayed in the area briefly, then leaving upon getting orders of Federal armies forming further south.
Richard Rutherford recalled: One morning we were all sitting at the breakfast table and suddenly heard shooting on skirmish lines getting closer and closer. Poor Jack White was about through and got up and started to go – but my father told him to finish. In a few minutes men of Jackson’s line, came around the house. Some looked in the window and called out: “Hello there, Yank!” We went to the door and my father spoke to them, telling how White had taken care of the property for some months and could have easily gotten away, but that he (father Thomas Rutherford) had made him stay for breakfast. They said at once: “We don’t want him. . .” So White got on his horse and rode away unmolested. – Rutherford, pp. 27-28.
References:
Interview with descendant Don Amoroso, Shepherdstown, WV July 9, 2014.
General Grant to Gen. Halleck – order stating “a crow would have to carry its own provender” on July 14, 1864: OFFICIAL RECORDS: Series 1, vol 40, Part 3 (Richmond, Petersburg); Chapter LII. CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. – UNION. If the enemy has left Maryland, as I suppose he has, he should have upon his heels veterans, militiamen, men on horseback, and everything that can be got to follow to eat out Virginia clear and clean as far as they go, so that crows flying over it for the balance of this season will have to carry their provender with them. p. 223 (SEE REFERENCES)
1. Tom and Mary Rutherford thrive on political connections and railroad subsidies:
Richard Duffield was paid $2500 in compensation for the railroad’s right-of-way through his land. Duffield used the money to build the depot with the railroad’s blessing, as the railroad preferred to use its capital for the line and to make use of such private depots wherever it could. The depot housed the B&O station master’s living and working quarters. – wikipedia.org 27 July 2001 Web. 20 May 2014.
Source Citation: Year: 1860; Census Place: Charlestown, Jefferson, Virginia; Roll: M653_1355; Page: 797; Image: 147; Family History Library Film: 805355. Source Information: Ancestry.com. 1860 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: 1860 U.S. census, population schedule. NARA microfilm publication M653, 1,438 rolls. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.
1860 United States Federal Census about Thomas Rutherford Name: Thomas Rutherford $36,000 real estate; $6,000 personal property Age in 1860: 53 Birth Year: abt 1807 Birthplace: Virginia Home in 1860: Charlestown, Jefferson, Virginia Gender: Male Household Members: Name Age Thomas Rutherford 53 Mary E Rutherford 45 Ellen D Rutherford 19 Virginia Rutherford 16 Mary Rutherford 12 Drusilla Rutherford 5 Thomas Rutherford 11 Richard Rutherford 10 search.ancestry.com 10 July 1998 Web. 20 June 2014. search.ancestry.com
Source Citation: Year: 1870; Census Place: Grant, Jefferson, West Virginia; Roll: M593_1689; Page: 555B; Image: 536; Family History Library Film: 553188. Source Information: Ancestry.com. 1870 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: 1870 U.S. census, population schedules. NARA microfilm publication M593, 1,761 rolls. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.
1870 United States Federal Census about Thomas Rutherford Name: Thomas Rutherford $15,000 real estate; $3,000 personal property Age in 1870: 63 Birth Year: abt 1807 Birthplace: West Virginia Home in 1870: Grant, Jefferson, West Virginia Race: White Gender: Male Post Office: Charles Town Household Members: Name Age Thomas Rutherford 63 Mary E Rutherford 55 Thomas Rutherford 20 Richard Rutherford 19 Drucilla D Rutherford 15 Madison Taylor 30 Mary Ford 20 Maggie Dickson 20 search.ancestry.com 10 July 1998 Web. 20 June 2014.
2. The Fissure Opens – John Brown nails the issue and is hanged.
Recollections of Richard D. Rutherford. (December, 1993). “The Magazine of the Jefferson County Historical Society.” Volume LIX. Edited by Cecil D. Eby. Charles Town, WV: Jefferson County Historical Society. Print. pp. 17-41.
3. July, 1861: The flag from “The Ladies of Jefferson County” & First time face-to_face With Federals:
Strother, David H., “Personal Recollections of the Civil War.” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine. New York, NY: Harper and Bros. Volume 33, Issue: 194, July, 1866. pp. 137-160. Print.
Virginia Rutherford McMechem’s account in 1920 of the flag they made for Stonewall Jackson: This flag was made in Richmond, Virginia by George C. Ruskeil Manufacturers for the 2nd Virginia Regiment in the Spring of 1861 under the direction of Daniel B. Lucas of Charles Town. The companies composing the Second Regiment mostly belonged to Jefferson and Clark Counties. The flag arrived in Winchester, Va. on the 17th July, just as the Brigade was about to leave for Manassas Junction on 18th of July. The 1st (Stonewall) Brigade marched out of Winchester with the flag flying at the head of the Second Virginia Regiment. The purchase money was given me by Thomas Rutherford of Charles Town and several of his friends as a gift to the Regiment. Thomas Rutherford did not desire to appear so prominent in the matter, so it was allowed to go as from the Ladies of Jefferson County. On the 21st of July, date of 1st Manassas, this was the only flag carried into the battle by the First Brigade and the only Virginia flag in Jackson’s command, other troops being put under his command after he arrived on the field. Soon after 1st Manassas Thomas J. Jackson was appointed Major General and took command of the First Division of the Army of Northern Virginia; the Stonewall Brigade still holding its own, as the First Brigade of the Division. Colonel James Walkinson Allen succeeded Jackson as its commander and not long afterward was killed at Gaines Mill on the 27th June 1862. Due to confusion created by units carrying different flags after 1st Manassas the 30th October 1861 saw Governor Letcher present every Virginia regiment with a bunting flag. Colonel Allen returned the 2nd Virginia’s Flag to Charles Town for safe keeping. Latter one afternoon in late 1861, Brigadier General Torbett of the U.S.Army was encamped around Charles Town with his Cavalry command. His Staff officers had pitched their tents in the beautiful grounds surrounding the Rutherford home and were lying all about on the grass. A little bare footed colored girl came into the yard and wound her way among them, carrying a small package wrapped in a newspaper. Coming to a side door she handed the package to a member of the family saying, “Give this to Miss Ginny Rutherford”, and darted away. The Family never learned who the child was. Thomas Rutherford wrapped the flag carefully and put it under an iron hearth in the bed-room where it remained until after the close of the war. There were other treasures there also, which if they had been found by U.S.Soldiers, would have been to them ample reason for reducing the home to ashes. In 1920 Mrs. Virginia Rutherford McMechen wrote down the colourful history of the banner. Subsequently the flag came into possession of her niece, Miss Emily T. Rutherford of Baltimore, Md, who presented it to the Virginia Military Institute in January 1959. In 1976 this historic flag came into the care of Mrs. June Cunningham, VMI Museum Director. The museum has provided it with a climate-controlled atmosphere while awaiting funds for professional restoration. In 1985 Mrs. Lise Putnam Liddell of Houston, Texas generously provided the funds for restoration. It was restored by Ms. Becky Sudsbury of the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts in Winston Salem, North Carolina. A proper case has been constructed for the flag and it is held proudly at the VMI Museum. http://2ndvirginiacsa.tripod.com/id4.html
4. Future Federal General Francis Barlow bemoans Charlestown:
Barlow, Francis C. (2004) “Fear Was Not In Him: The Civil War Letters of Major General Francis C. Barlow, U.S.A.,” ed. Christian G. Samito. New York, NY: Fordham University Press. Print.
The sources of the following chapterettes are already-mentioned: 5. A Rutherford relative teases the Federal pickets; 6. Sister Virginia recounts how the gift flag comes back to the Rutherfords; 7. February 27-28, 1862 Federal General Nathaniel Banks crossed the Potomac with 30,000 men.
8. A misunderstanding about “church” music at the Charlestown Presbyterian church
Bryant, Edwin E. (1891). “History of the Third regiment of Wisconsin veteran volunteer infantry 1861-1865.” Cleveland, OH: Arthur H. Clark company. Print.
Our sojourn in Charlestown was exceedingly disagreeable to the inhabitants. It annoyed them to have their churches occupied by Yankee soldiers; and the little organ was kept in full blast in one of the churches occupied by a part of the Third, while a hundred or more stout lungs vented the song, then new and expressive of the northern feeling: “John Brown’s body lies a-mouldering in the grave, But his soul is marching on.’
The boys of the regiment determined to keep that song going constantly during our stay in Charlestown; and though we staid there several days they came near keeping good the resolve. The song and the throats of the singers were rather worn-out and ragged for sometime after. It is to be feared that the organ was a little wheezy, too.
While here, the commanders were besieged with complaints from the citizens. Their geese, turkeys and chickens disappeared. They murmured that “private property was not respected.” The orders were strict enough; and officers did not countenance their violation. But so it was, everywhere that soldiers marched a great mortality prevailed among poultry, pigs and sheep. The women were most indignant and most outspoken. They took such revenge as bitter tongues and prayers that we might be exterminated could afford them. One well-to-do farmer protested against his corn and grain being taken as he had a large number of negroes dependent on him for support. In a week he was doing his own chores, milking with his own hands his last cow, and as woe-begone a secessionist as could be found anywhere. His slaves had left him; and his stock and poultry had joined the Union side, too. – Bryant, pp. 40-41 in Charles Town with Gen. Banks; spring, 1862.
Thomas H.Ruger Thomas H. Ruger, had graduated with honors at West Point, in 1854, and served as lieutenant of engineers, entrusted with important work under Beauregard, while that officef was in the United States army. He had resigned the service six years before. – wikipedia.org 27 July 2001 Web. 20 May 2014.
A VIRGINIA YANKEE IN THE CIVIL WAR THE DIARIES OF DAVID HUNTER STROTHER (1961). Edited with an Introduction by Cecil D. Eby, Jr. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press. Print.
February 28, 1862: I left the staff at General Banks’ request and returned to Charles Town. I saw Mr. Dutton flying along the street and hailed him. He greeted me and said he was going to see about the occupation of his church. I went with him and found Colonel [Thomas H.] Ruger’s Wisconsin men in occupation and taking up the carpets. The preacher was for getting out the pulpit furniture, Bibles, and candelabras. Presently looking toward the organ he saw a platoon of rugged-looking fellows around the organ and fumbling with the music books of the choir. He looked in agony at the prospective destruction and desecration. A moment after, the books were all open and fifty accordant voices rose in a thrilling anthem that filled the church with solemn music. The alarmed clergyman paused a moment. His face became calm and solemn. He turned to the officer in command: “You need not move the furniture from the pulpit, Sir. It will be safe, I feel assured. . . .” (The Reverend W. B. Dutton was the Presbyterian minister at Charles Town from 1849 to 1874). Strother, p. 5.
In 1851 the congregation moved to the current location on East Washington Street. The present sanctuary was built and soon thereafter the manse was built next door for the Pastor and his family. ctpres.org 21 December 1999 Web. 20 June 2014.
The sources of the following chapterettes are already-mentioned: 9. Tempers flash over stolen pigs, poultry and cows; 10.Young Richard Rutherford had much better luck with the Rutherford’s cows thanks to food bribes; 11.Gen. Banks dines with the Rutherfords; 12.“We don’t want him!” said the Confederates.
Image Credits:
Images of Thomas Rutherford and group image of Mary E., and sons Thomas and Richard, circa 1870s – courtesy Don Amoroso.
The Execution of John Brown; John Brown David Hunter Strother Collection West Virginia Historical Art Collection West Virginia Regional History Collection WVU Library. wvu.edu 20 November 1999 Web. 25 May 2014.
a. Strother, David Hunter; Charleston, Va. The Execution of John Brown, December 2nd 1859 (W1995.030.374) images.lib.wvu.edu 20 November 1999 Web. 25 May 2014.
b. Strother, David Hunter; John Brown (W1995.030.394pg20b) images.lib.wvu.edu 20 November 1999 Web. 25 May 2014.
“Virginia Rutherford McMecham” (semblance) David Hunter Strother Collection West Virginia Historical Art Collection West Virginia Regional History Collection WVU Library. wvu.edu 20 November 1999 Web. 25 May 2013.
St. George’s Chapel 1862 Strother, David H., “Personal Recollections of the Civil War.” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine. New York, NY: Harper and Bros. Volume 33, Issue: 194, July, 1866. Print.
Strother, David H. (July, 1866). “Personal Recollections of the Civil War.” Harpers Magazine. p. 123 (SEE REFERENCES)
Soldiers bathing, North Anna River, Va.–ruins of railroad bridge in background Creator(s): O’Sullivan, Timothy H., 1840-1882, photographer Date Created/Published: 1864 May. memory.loc.gov 4 May 1999 Web. 20 May 2014.
detail of photos of men in the 12th New York militia that encamped outside Charlestown, Va. in July, 1861, including Francis Barlow and Carlton Richards. dmna.ny.gov 30 January 2012 Web 10 May 2014.
Portrait of Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, officer of the Federal Army Creator(s): Brady National Photographic Art Gallery (Washington, D.C.), photographer Date Created/Published: [Between 1860 and 1865] memory.loc.gov 4 May 1999 Web. 20 May 2014.
Gen. Phil Sheridan and Staff Date Created/Published: [Jan. 3, 1865] Medium: 1 negative : glass, wet collodion. Reproduction Number: LC-DIG-cwpbh-03133 (digital file from original neg.) memory.loc.gov 4 May 1999 Web. 20 May 2014.
General Jackson’s “Chancellorsville” Portrait, taken at a Spotsylvania County farm on April 26, 1863, seven days before his mortal wounding at the Battle of Chancellorsville. Date 26 April 1863 Source Derivative (crop) of: File:Photograph of General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson – NARA – 526067.tif Author Unknown commons.wikimedia.org 15 September 2004 Web. 20 April 2014.
The Battle Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia wikipedia.org 27 July 2001 Web. 20 May 2014.
U.S. 35 Stars (1863-1864) flags theflagshop.net 24 May 2000 Web. 10 July 2014.
detail from photo – courtesy Ann Cross and Don Amoroso of Mary E. Rutherford and her two sons Richard and Thomas in the 1870s.
“Mary E. (Mrs. Thomas) Rutherford” circa 1840s (semblance) David Hunter Strother Collection West Virginia Historical Art Collection West Virginia Regional History Collection WVU Library. wvu.edu 20 November 1999 Web. 25 May 2013.
Strother, David Hunter; 1845. Winchester. Va (W1995.030.388pg7) Date January 1857 Title 1845. Winchester. Va Collection West Virginia Historical Art Collection Type Drawing Identifier W1995.030.388pg7 Nationality American 1816-1888 Medium Pen and ink wash, some white and brown highlights, some pencil wvu.edu 1999 Web. 25 May 2014.
Duffields Station Today National Register Nomination West Virginia Archives & History wvculture.org 2 March 2000 Web. 1 Oct. 2011.
“Richard D. Rutherford” (boy holding goose)(semblance) David Hunter Strother Collection West Virginia Historical Art Collection West Virginia Regional History Collection WVU Library. wvu.edu 20 November 1999 Web. 25 May 2013.
Strother, David Hunter; Berkeley Springs, 1846 (W1995.030.388pg12) Collection West Virginia Historical Art Collection Type Drawing Identifier W1995.030.388pg12 Nationality American 1816-1888 Medium Pen and ink, some pencil, some white highlights wvu.edu 1999 Web. 25 May 2014.
First Battle of Bull Run Kurz & Allison Public Domain wikipedia.org 27 July 2001 Web. 20 May 2014.
scared boys in the bushes Crayon, Porte (Strother, D. H.). “The Mountains. Pt. IV.” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, New York, NY: Harper and Bros. Volume 44, Issue: 267, August, 1872. p. 362. Print.
Crayon, Porte.. (August, 1872). “The Mountains. Pt. IV.” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine. p. 347 and p. 362 (SEE REFERENCES)
Drawing Charles Town, Va. Brown, Howell S. “Map of Jefferson County, Virginia From Actual Surveys With Farm Limits, 1852.” Magazine of the Jefferson County Historical Society Vol. XLV. (1979): pp. 1-7. Print.
Francis_C._Barlow wikipedia.org 27 July 2001 Web. 20 May 2014.
Original-john-brown-words-george-kimball-1890 Public Domain James E. Greenleaf, C. S. Hall, C. B. Marsh – Cornell University Library Making of America Collection. The original publication of the text of the “John Brown Song”, “From an Original in the Possession of Mr. Abram E. Cutter of Charlestown”, according to George Kimball and as re-published in George Kimball, “Origin of the John Brown Song”, New England Magazine, new series 1 (1890):374. wikipedia.org 27 July 2001 Web. 20 May 2014.
Charles Town Presbyterian Church, exterior, sanctuary, organ loft in 2014. – by Jim Surkamp.
Rev. Warren B. Dutton, DD of the Presbyterian Church from 1842-1866 – courtesy of the Charles Town Presbyterian Church.
(Library of Congress photograph cropped from a three-image photo) Thos. H. Ruger. CREATED/PUBLISHED [between 1860 and 1870] NOTES Title from unverified information on negative sleeve. Annotation from negative, scratched on emulsion: 1673. Forms part of Civil War glass negative collection (Library of Congress). SUBJECTS United States–History–Civil War, 1861-1865. Portrait photographs–1860-1870. Glass negatives–1860-1870. MEDIUM 1 negative : glass, wet collodion. CALL NUMBER LC-B814- 1673 REPRODUCTION NUMBER LC-DIG-cwpb-04479 DLC (digital file from original neg.) SPECIAL TERMS OF USE No known restrictions on publication. wikipedia.org 27 July 2001 Web. 20 May 2014.
Mary Rutherford (1847-1937) Owner/Source Mary H. Tayloe File name Rutherford_Mary#0252A – 2000-07-07 at 16-15-34.jpg File Size 2.68m Dimensions 1263 x 1806 Caption Mary Rutherford b. 1847 d. 1937 m. Archibald H. Asquith Submitted by Mary H. Tayloe wmstrother.org 12 December 1998 Web. 20 June 2014.
Strother, David H., “Personal Recollections of the Civil War.” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine. New York, NY: Harper and Bros. Volume 35, Issue: 210, November, 1867. Print.
Strother, David H. (November, 1867). “Personal Recollections of the Civil War.” Harpers Magazine. p. 708. (SEE REFERENCES)
With support from American Public University System (apus.edu). (The sentiments in this production do not in any way reflect modern-day policies of APUS).
The wheat harvest was gathered, and the heats of midsummer were beginning to drive all who had means and leisure to congregate about famous springs and cool places in the mountains.
It was really the discovery of printing that killed chivalry, soul and body. Then the power that comes of knowledge passed over to the unarmed people. The unlettered prince could no longer delegate the writing and reading of his letters to a hired valet.
Front field of Leeland, Route 480 Shepherdstown, WV Google Maps
Tuesday August 4th, 1857, Shepherdstown, Va.
The Day of the Horses – The Ring Tournament in Leeland Field.
On Tuesday last, a large assemblage of people, consisting of the youth and beauty of Jefferson, and Berkeley counties, Va., and Washington County, Md. collected at Leeland, near this place to witness the exciting scenes of a Tournament that came off there. – (1).
The tournament lists were staked out on a long level of evenly mowed turf some four hundred yards in length, guarded on either side by a railing of rope, and spanned near the further extremity by an arch of evergreen boughs, from the centre of which the ring was suspended. Outside of these lines were double rows of light wagons and carriages, regularly packed and filled with eager spectators.
Near the centre were several extensive pavilions, made of wagon covers, bolting-cloths, or more agreeably thatched with fresh green boughs, shading rows of rough plank seats already occupied by the elite of the company – rustic dames whose silks and ribbons, or maidens whose delicate cheeks, shunned the scorching sunshine.
Between this dress circle and the rope harrier the space was crowded with the undistinguished multitude of leather-faced mountaineers, squatting or lounging upon the grass, of lint-headed, bare-legged
children, and negroes full of eager hilarity and vociferous expectation. Behind all, barns, stables, sheds, fodder-racks, fence corners, and umbrageous thickets afforded shelter for the four-footed chivalry who were to play the leading part in the amusements of the day. – (2)
Prior to the tilting the Gallant Knights were addressed by the President, Mr. Henry K. Douglas, of Ferry Hill, Md. in the following neat and appropriate speech. His delivery was bold, clear and impressive for one so young:
Gallant Knights – You have assembled here today not for the purpose of provoking Iron Mars, but that you may exhibit your devotion to the fair daughters of Eve, and given them assurances that as you now make known your consciousness of their charms, so you will ever consider it your greatest duty and supreme pleasure, to protest those charms though death alone be your reward.
You need no allusion to Knights of ancient days to increase your valor, nor stories of bleeding champions and fainting ladies to arouse your gallantry. You possess that generous spirit which would welcome the sword as readily as the harmless lance, did the cause of love require it.
But even if you did not, you have before you a picture of loveliness that could change the hermit to a sprightly courtier, make the tottering sire forget his hoary hairs, and straightway as a boy again. And the merry hearts of these fair ladies are beating in unison with yours, for as your fleet steeds pursue their swift course, and you hasten towards the fatal ring, they wait an anxious sympathizing expectation and hail your success with a smile or announce your failure with a sigh. Knowing that you feel doubly inspired by the beautiful scene before you, and bearing on your banner the motto: “Cupid and the Ladies,” I bid your charge and may the God of Love grant you success and your reward the smiles of the fair with crowns of rosy garlands. – (3)
The hour had come, the trumpet call had sounded. The enlisted knights were already mustered behind the barn. The chief marshal of the tournament a handsome fellow, superbly mounted, with peaked beard and flowing locks cultivated expressly for the role, bobbing with plumes and fluttering with rosettes, with an air of egregious importance, was galloping to and fro, posting his guards, heralds, and pursuivants at their proper stations.
The ladies were lightly and gracefully dismounted, and their horses led away. Choice seats had been reserved in the green pavilion, and a sweep of the chiefs broadsword removed the rope barriers from their path.
As (one lady) ascended the steps all the men and boys within range jostled each other and stretched their necks to catch a glimpse, while all the rosy cheeks turned pale with curious envy. The music ceased, the vocal murmurs died away. The orator and knights remounted to join the muster behind the barn.
Again the signal bugle was blown, and a troop of horsemen burst into the lists at full gallop. They were received with a storm of drums, trumpets, brass-bands, cheers, and waving of handkerchiefs and banners. Charging through the whole length of the course, they executed some pretty military maneuvers, and wheeling, galloped back to their starting-place. The parade resembled the grand entree at a circus, or, perhaps, a fancy ball on horseback. The knights were attired variously, according to their whims and pretensions, each wearing some token – a glove, a handkerchief, a ribbon, or bouquet from the lady in whose honor he proposed to risk his neck and exhibit his skill. Two or three were masked, and wore no favors by which they might be distinguished unknown, perhaps, except to their lady-loves, with whom there had been a secret understanding. At length all the preliminary ceremonies were concluded, and the game commenced. Then the judges were posted beside the arch where the ring hung suspended.
Heralds to proclaim the count, grooms and attendants to replace the ring when taken off and to assist any cavalier in case of an accident. Others along the line kept back the eager and excited crowd with drawn sabres, while at the lower end the chief marshal called a roll of the knights, who took their places in line in order as they were named. – (4).
We never before saw such an array of female beauty and chivalry, as was there assembled:
The following are the names of the officers and Knights:
President – Henry K. Douglas Heralds – James L. Towner, Samuel Moore
Judges – R. Davis Shepherd, Jr., Samuel B. Neil George H. Murphy – Knight of Ivanhoe Thomas Chapline – Hotspur R. T. Berry Harvy Percy
E. G. Lee – Knight of Alhambra
George R. Bedinger – Saladin Joseph T. Hess – Rienzi Daniel Morgan – Long Star Dr. P. Grove – Knight of Woodburry
(In a previous tournament held at Shannondale Springs, the president
had been Col. John F. Hamtramck of Shepherdstown; R. D. Shepherd, Jr. won three consecutive contests, allowing him to award the Queen of Love and Beauty to Miss Rosa Parran of Shepherdstown). – (5).
The riding at Leeland was very graceful and well done, exiting and animating, evidencing great proficiency in Equestrianism and abundantly showing that the chivalry of the Old Dominion is still in keeping with the world-wide reputation she has won in days of yore.
After three alternate charges by each Knight, R. T. Berry, George H. Murphy, and Dr. P. Grove, were declared the victors; after which the Knights were again marshaled in front of that array of beauty and love that could be with the many colors of the rainbow, when the coronation took place as follows: – R. T. Berry crowned Miss Julia J. Hays, of Sharpsburg, MD., Queen of Love and beauty; George H. Murphy selected Miss Mary Abbott of Georgetown, D.C., First Maid of Honor; Dr. P. Grove selected Miss Lillie Parran, Second Maid of Honor.
The coronation was performed by the President in a graceful and becoming manner and each was prefaced by a neat speech in the most beautiful language.
At night the exercises of the day were wound up by a magnificent Cotillion.
After the selection, the company repaired to the hotel where a most sumptuous feast was spread there with the flow of champagne and the
exchange of toasts consumed the afternoon. Every one then retired to their rooms to prepare for the fancy ball.
At about half past eight o’clock, the spacious ballroom was thronged with spectators awaiting entrance of the Queen and her Champion and cortege and attendants.
At the sound of music, the folding doors at the upper end of the room were suddenly opened, and the Queen and her Champion, richly
dressed in fancy costumes, the same wreath of such freshness . . . resting on his brow, appeared followed by the Knight and Maids of Honor and a long train of attendants all fancifully attired.
They proceeded to the far end of the room and took their stand when the crowds made their obeisance. Then the Queen and her Champion and three Knights and Maids of Honor took hands, formed and danced
a cotillion, and the ball was opened for the evening. I have been to many balls and have seen much in this way, but have never seen one so bright and beautiful as this. The many characters represented every nation, and flitted before you in such rapid succession that it was impossible to identify. A few, however, were very conspicuous.
There were some others whom we noticed were magically attracting much attention, and there was one, “the gayest in the revel, the lightest in the dance,” who “Like a fairy on a festival morning, She tripped in the merry quadrille, Bright blushes her features adorning, She conquered the crowd at her will.”
The dancing was kept up until the “wee hours of morning admonished them to part. And this ended a gala day long to be remembered by all.”- (6).
At an earlier ring tournament at Shannondale Springs in the County, an older generation prevailed.
“The president of the day, one Henry Bedinger addressed them in such eloquent tones and elevated and inspired sentiments that the dullest bosum was roused to the highest daring and the true spirit of ancient chivalry was revived. . . The speech of Mr. Bedinger was most appropriate and beautiful. When he had concluded, the knights repaired to the place of starting. Then began the most splendid contention that I ever witnessed. It is impossible to give a detailed
account of it, but the horses catching the spirit of the rider, flew like the wind and their flashing eyes and foaming mouths betrayed the high excitement . . .
Mr. Lewis Washington, as the English hunter of the 15th century, so superbly he filled the character so to very life, and Mr. John Pendleton Kennedy in the court dress of Louis the 14th looked remarkably striking and handsome.” – (7).
Main sources: The Shepherdstown Register, August 8, 1857.
Crayon, Porte (Strother, D. H.). “The Mountains – X.” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine. Volume 51. Issue: 304 (September, 1875). pp. 475-486. Print.
The Baltimore Sun, September 1, 1849.
The Baltimore Herald, August 2, 1848, (Thornton Perry collection, Virginia State Library).
An illustration of three American couples performing a Country-dance in the Longways Minor set, c. 1820. The Granger Collection, New York, ID: 0048338. http://testaae.greenwood.com
With support from American Public University System (apus.edu). (The sentiments in this production do not in any way reflect modern-day policies of APUS).
The highly profitable wheat fell to the scythe at The Bower where young tall, wiry Adam Stephen Dandridge took place in the line along with enslaved African-Americans John Pinco and “Levin.” – (1) (2).
Harvest crews helped from farm-to-farm.
If the neighbors had not finished their harvest, the force was allowed to go and help them out, receiving for themselves the usual wages. In all
the fields of corn, the outside rows were planted in a broomcorn for the Negroes’ use and they spent the long winter evenings in making brooms, baskets, hampers and split-bottom chairs all of which found a ready sale in the country stores. The chairs were of all sizes from the large porch chairs down to low, sewing chairs and chairs for children. They managed to make them very comfortable and they were substantial and lasted a lifetime. – (3).
The “cultural Congressman,” Alexander Boteler may have not been on the crew but the young men born of Philip and Hannah Thornton swung their scythes in unison at Fountain Rock farm near Shepherdstown
and when possible were part of Hugh Nelson Pendleton’s crew, farm and home at Westwood in the southern end of the County, even after ten of the African-American Thorntons in Jefferson County, opted, with support, to take passage on the barque “Cora” in May, 1855 and they sailed to Cape Palmas, Liberia Africa to start anew. – (4) (5).
Wheat was coming off Edmund and Henrietta Lee’s Oak Hill Farm on the Philadelphia Waggon Road opposite and to the immediate west of Boteler’s Fountain Rock, relying on Nace and others to harvest and get the shocks of wheat in to the barn.
September would bring more indoor work for the County’s farms.
In September, the cloth and yarn for winter work were brought home from the factory along the river and the work of making up began and was only finished at Christmas.
In every household there was a woman who could cut out the garments and all the younger girls had been taught how to sew and knit. During the year, all the girls in clean frocks assembled in some room in the great house every morning and the class of sewers and knitters was presided over by some bespectacled old Negro woman whose word was law to the girls. The work of making up the clothing and knitting yarn socks went on under her supervision, and at Christmas every man and woman on the place appeared in new clothes and new shoes and warm woolen stockings.
Every man had an overcoat every four years and a flannel hack jacket called by the Negroes the “warmus” to wear under his waistcoat in cold weather.
Tobacco was issued to each worker once a week. Sometimes it was bought in kegs of about 100 pounds and was called black-strap and one strap, sometimes two, was the ration. Some people chewed it and some of them smoked in their corncob pipes. This was before the days of fertilizers when tobacco was raised on virgin soil. Every year a farmer would clear a small patch of ground sufficient for the wants of his farm and plant it in tobacco. The fragrance of the Negroes’ corncob pipe was notorious and was due to the fact that no fertilizer had been used in growing his tobacco. – (6).
REFERENCES:
1. Serena K. Dandridge undated letter, Dandridge Collection, Duke University.
2. Adam Stephen Dandridge Account Books, Jefferson County Museum.
3. A. R. H. Ranson. “Reminiscences of a Civil War Staff Officer By A Confederate Staff Officer, First Paper: Plantation Life in Virginia Before the War.” The Sewanee Review. Vol. 21, No. (4 Oct. 1913), pp. 428-447.
4. Helen Boteler Pendleton, “A Nineteenth Century Romantic” The Shepherdstown Register, December 21, 1933.
5. Magazine of the Jefferson County Historical Society. Volume LXXV December 2011. “Jefferson County to Liberia: Emigrants, Emancipators, and Facilitators.” by Jane Ailes and Marie Tyler-McGraw pp. 43-76.
6. A. R. H. Ranson. “Reminiscences of a Civil War Staff Officer By A Confederate Staff Officer, First Paper: Plantation Life in Virginia Before the War.” The Sewanee Review. Vol. 21, No. (4 Oct. 1913), pp. 428-447.
With support from American Public University System (apus.edu). (The sentiments in this production do not in any way reflect modern-day policies of APUS).
Alexander “Alec” Boteler who had inherited Fountain Rock, married Helen Stockton and they had Helen (“Tippie”), Charlotte (“Lottie”), Elizabeth (“Lizzie”), and Alec Junior.
Preceding Boteler as the area’s Congressman in Washington, was Henry Bedinger who met Caroline (“Carrie”) Lawrence, the daughter of a fellow Congressmen who, only after he found the forces of love unstoppable, consented to the pact. Before the Bedingers accepted the honorable adventure of setting sail for Denmark and Bedinger being our first ambassador there for most of the 1850s, the two young fathers and husbands were friends, both young lawyers with families. Each also had a strong penchant for art – for Henry poetry, for Alec drawing and painting. – (1).
Alec’s love of drawing and art is not surprising given he was the great-grandson on his mother’s side to Charles Willson Peale, the leading portrait painter in early America, who painted General Washington.
Boteler himself would write: Drawing is my great delight. If I could have my way. I would have been an artist. But my father threatened to whip me if he ever saw me painting anything. I was descended from a family of painters and my father wanted me to stick to something more material. When my house was burned down during the war it contained some excellent specimens of the Peales, which were heirlooms there. Among other paintings was one representing the artist, to whom my great-grandmother’s picture is being shown on the easel by my grandmother, while she also seeks to steal away the painter’s brush.
While a student at Princeton Boteler’s passion for drawing surfaced in fantastic irrepressible ways.
His daughter, Tippie Boteler much later wrote:
While his future wife was en route to Princeton in a carriage she heard of this Alec Boteler. The story she heard of her (future) husband was that he had thrown a farmer into the water to copy his expression of terror and that the man accidentally drowned; and the young student never recovering from his remorse, had become a gloomy, morose and changed man!
One afternoon soon after his arrival at college, in passing a large brick house, he noticed outlined against the window the profile of a beautiful girl who was evidently intent upon reading. He quickly drew out his pencil and sketchbook and made rapid outlines. On getting back to the college, he finished it and showed it to a fellow student in triumph as the prettiest girl he had ever seen. “Why, that is Miss Helen Stockton!” exclaimed his friend, who was A. S. Dandridge, who lived in Jefferson County and would own the Bower. “If you think she is up to your standard, I’ll take you to see her tomorrow night!”
But Alec Boteler’s meeting Helen Stockton inspired him out of the gloom his absurd behavior had wrought.
Once married and with responsibilities settling on their dreamy shoulders, Alec would love getting together with his creative friend and forever treasure their times together with the wives and children elsewhere.
Henry Bedinger was home at his ancestral home at Bedford nearby and just outside Shepherdstown around 1851 when he tossed off a limerick to his neighbor over the hill at Fountain Rock. The invitation, inspired by his recent readings of Robert Burns, went:
My wife’s awa;’ my wife’s awa’, Na mair she can me tease; She’s gan til her father an’ mither an’ a’, And I can do as I please.
So if you’re in for a night of joy, And gin grat fun ye wad see, Just don your plaidie my merry boy, And o’er the meadow to me.
A wee bit room in eastern wing, A ceiling so love and snug, A cheerfu’ bleeze in the chimney neuk And ablains a bit of a jug.
A bit of jug wi’ the barley bree, A jest and merry sang, And twa, thra friends what helping me To push the hours along.
The wind may roar an’ the rain may fa’, My wife’s awa’, my wife’s awa’; Na mair she can me tease, She’s gan til her father an’ mither an’ a’, An’ we can do as we please.
After serving in Congress for four years, Henry Bedinger left with his family for Denmark. Boteler, a self-admitted novice at business who pleaded with his uncle to not be given the responsibility of running his father’s prosperous cement mill along the river upon his father’s death, had a costly miscalculation. In 1852, a business calamity overtook Alexander Boteler in the failure of Willoughby R. Webb, a merchant of Shepherdstown, who built his woolen mill on the site of today’s Blue Moon Cafe with thirty employees and upon whose notes he had placed his name because of his friendship for Mr. Webb. He was thus called upon to pay nearly twenty thousand dollars, a large part of it his wife’s money, her father having left her considerable property. – (2).
That woe may have propelled him into the field of elected office with a steady salary, serving in Bedinger’s old Congressional seat from early 1859 until just before war broke out. In 1856, Congress had voted its first annual salary of $3,000.
Artist/Congressman Boteler created a cartoon of Charles Harper’s home and apothecary shop, still looking much the same adjacent on the eastern side of McMurran Hall on German Street. Sensing dark times ahead, Boteler added as its caption, the ominous words from Shakespeare’s Henry VI: “Heavy looks foretell some dreadful story hanging on thy tongue.” – (3).
In November, 1858, Ambassador Henry Bedinger finally returned home to Carrie and their three children who came back from Denmark two years earlier. Carrie disliked the card-playing of even the Episcopalian priest in Denmark. Henry was a favorite to King Frederick VII and many a late evening an excessively homely and sensitive man would materialize from the shadows looking for Henry for a chess game: Hans Christian Anderson, the famed children’s writer.
Carrie and the children marveled that the widespread Christmas custom they brought back from Europe – a decorated tree – was a completely new notion both in Long Island and Shepherdstown. The custom “caught on” in Europe when Prince Albert and Queen Victoria had one.
Fighting his homesickness, Henry wrote a long Shepherdstown-smitten poem to John Boroff, a blacksmith with a shop at the Washington and Princess Street intersection:
“To My Good Old Friend, Mr. John Boroff, of Shepherdstown, Virginia by the Exile.
I am walking on a Sandy Shore, hard by the Sound Sea, And, to save me, John, I cannot tell why I should think of thee. And yet, throughout this lengthened day, thy friendly face will come To fill my soul with memories of happier hours and HOME.
Go where I will, do what I may, I cannot fail to hear The roaring of thy furnace and thy hammer ringing clear. What art thou forging now, John, that echoes such as those Should cross the broad Atlantic from the thunder of thy blows?
My mind has run away, John, and all that I can do Cannot coax it to come back again from Shepherdstown and you. It is playing with those marbles, it is spinning the same top. That often in your absence, John, I’ve spun within your shop.
Does the coulter of the plowman demand the glowing fire, Or do thy sturdy strokes descend upon the wagon’s tire? Art thou forming for the woodman’s axe an edge of perfect proof? Or striking from the solid anvil strong shoes for horse’s hoof?
I know not and I cannot guess, but this I say to thee, I would give a very pretty gift could I be there to see. For I must confess the honest truth – my mind has run away As limber legged Bill Russell did from you one sunny day.
It is wrestling with your prentice boy and tripping up his heels, And shouting with a merry shout to find how cheap he feels. It is moulding bullets at your forge, and yet with watchful eyes. Lest your too sudden entrance should take it by surprise.
And when, with ears all wide awake, it hears your heavy stride. Although the door is much too near, the window opens wide, And with a bound away it goes, still leaving you to guess What evil spirit could have left your tools in such a mess.
Homecoming, then tragedy:
In November, 1858, Henry Bedinger had indeed come home to Shepherdstown and his family to great joy. His daughter, Mary, watched from a window from their home at the southwest corner of Princess and German Street. In the center of the street that November night in 1858 was a huge bonfire, and her father’s joyous speechifying face shone in the hot blaze making them cheer more and more. Then, eight-year-old Mary noticed the adults in their house had become silent, huddled. Their father came home and, a great blow – suddenly was “called home.” Pneumonia took him. And Carrie sold Henry’s share of his ancestral home of Bedford back to his sister, Henrietta and her husband Edmund Lee, (a first cousin of the general, Robert E. Lee). Carrie then used the money to build a new, more modest home near town Carrie named Poplar Grove.
Carrie purchased the farm from Daniel Morgan with a brick house in the middle of a grove of great oaks and poplars. She built an addition to the old house with woodwork of black walnut so common in those days, and there she took her young family just before the storm of the war between the states took over their land. – (4).
The Bedingers’ writing genes continued to create through Henry and Carrie’s children.
Henry’s gifted youngest daughter, Caroline Bedinger, nicknamed “Danske,” was already a prodigious writing talent and even shared editing preferences in her poems with Mr. Boteler. Danske’s daughter, Serena, wrote in later years:
The Bedinger children seemed to have taken to writing books as ducks like to water. They all complained that paper was too scarce and too “hard to write on,” but they utilized every scrap that came to them. Danske’s foil was poetry with a few romantic stories for good measure. Mary’s (nicknamed “Minnie:), I’m told, was fairy tales, with which she could enthrall her younger brother and sister.
Of little Danske it can be said “the ink was in the baby. she was born to write a book” and she was. It was not long out of the cradle before she began to wield her pen. As she presented a book of original poetry, “A Present” to Hon. A. R. Boteler with a note in the book saying that he must excuse the writing, as the paper was hard to write on, and compared to Shakespeare and Milton were not so good either – another note calls attention to the fact that the “thee”‘s and “thou”‘s are customarily used instead of “you”‘s in poetry, and apologizes for a few “you’s that had slipped in. – (5).
REFERENCES:
1. Mary Bedinger Mitchell, “Memories,” edited by Nina Mitchell. Shepherdstown, WV: Printed privately.
2. Helen Boteler Pendleton, “A Nineteenth Century Romantic” The Shepherdstown Register, December 21, 1933.
3. Boteler Collection, Duke University.
4. Mary Bedinger Mitchell, “Memories,” edited by Nina Mitchell. Shepherdstown, WV: Printed privately.
5. Serena K. Dandridge undated letter, Dandridge Collection, Duke University.
With support from American Public University System (apus.edu). (The sentiments in this production do not in any way reflect modern-day policies of APUS).
Alexander Boteler lived at Fountain Rock in Shepherdstown, WV – was Congressman before the War; Designed the Confederate Seal; In the Confederate Government; His Home was burned for his mis-deeds
Alex Boteler took his seat for the first time in the U.S. Congress the same month John Brown and four of his raiders were hanged in Charlestown, Va., after they tried to capture the federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry and hoped to inspire a wholesale rebellion by those enslaved. They did succeed in igniting the enslavement issue.
With John Brown’s blow against slavery and the hangings of Brown’s raiders in Charles Town (“Charlestown” in 1860-JS) following
convictions in a state court, a chasm of difference was made obvious to both Northerners and Southerners. Four candidates ran in the ensuing months for the Presidency, instead of the usual two because of the volatile political season, electing the Midwesterner, Abraham Lincoln.
Seeing they had lost the upper-hand in Washington, most deep South states seceded at once on the tragically mistaken assumption that Lincoln would not go to war to retain them. Moreover, the United States Army was small and the powers of the President as commander-in-chief were scarcely defined in the text of the Constitution.
Little did they anticipate that Lincoln would simply create those powers in the void.
Boteler was bitterly opposed to the disruption of the Union, but, when Virginia seceded, he resigned from Congress and threw his lot with the Confederacy. He was a member of its Provisional Congress and later served in the first regular Congress of the Confederate States. He was chairman of the House committee which designed the Confederate flag, and, he himself combined suggestions from many and added his own to make the final seal. He offered the successful Joint Resolution 13 on April 30, 1863, making the seal official. The seal consisted of a picture of Washington on horseback, surrounded by a wreath composed of the South’s agricultural products. Boteler had an artist draw a sketch of the statue of George Washington located in the capitol grounds at Richmond. This reproduction was then sent to England, where it was made into a seal. – (1).
With support from American Public University System (apus.edu). (The sentiments expressed do not in any way reflect modern-day policies of APUS, and are intended to encourage fact-based exchange for a better understanding of our nation’s foundational values.
The elders in the Lee, Boteler, Bedinger, Dandridge, Allen, Douglas, Pendleton & Morgan households watch their men enlist.
Many opposed secession but enlisted in the Confederate units when the Federals called out for thousands of volunteers. The Bedingers at Poplar Grove and Pendletons at Westwood were so deeply opposed to enslavement that they either didn’t do it or, at Westwood, gave the choice of freedom to the large number of those they had enslaved.
The act of provocation by Confederate forces at Fort Sumter in South Carolina gave President Abraham Lincoln the legal justification for calling for 75,000 volunteers to forcibly bring back those seceding states and their people. And the war would, it first appeared, start right in Jefferson County, where the strategic Baltimore & Ohio dipped briefly into Virginia, that had just acted to join a foreign country.
April 18, 1861 – On that fateful night after Virginia’s conditioned vote to secede from the United States, many local militiamen were already en route to Harper’s Ferry to take control of the federal arsenal, basing their action on a word-of-mouth understanding that their action was legal and officially sanctioned.
James Walkenshaw Allen
The acting militia commander, a 31-year-old, professionally-trained officer from Summit Point named James Allen, was confronted and cautioned by locally born but ardent Unionist, David Hunter Strother. – (1)
David Hunter Strother
As the local militia moved towards Harper’s Ferry at the urgings of Turner Ashby on the night of April 18th, Strother, a lifelong friend of those present, intervened arguing that no formal, written order had been produced to authorize the militias to move on the Federal arsenal in the lower town and capture its estimated 16,000 weapons and weapons-making equipment.
(In fact, the vote by the popularly-elected Virginia Secession Convention had occurred the previous day in Richmond voting 85-55 to secede, BUT only after the results were known of a referendum scheduled for the following month).
Just as Col. Allen was taking Strother’s point to heart and ordered his militia only so far east as Halltown pending the substantiation of his orders, when there erupted from the lower town out of their line-of-sight:
. . . flashes and detonations . . . several times repeated; then a steadier flame was seen rising from two distinct points silently and rapidly increasing in volume until each rock and tree on the Loudoun and Maryland Heights were distinctly visible and the now over-clouded sky was ruddy with the sinister glare. This occurred I think between nine and ten o’clock. Some thought they heard artillery.
But the more skillful presently guessed the truth and concluded that the officer in command had set fire to the arsenals and abandoned the town.
With the ashes of the arsenal cooling, Strother perceived in the light of the next day, the enormity of the events:
I must confess that I felt this morning like a man wandering in a maze. . . . So it seemed that the sudden gust of emotion, excited by the lowering of our starry flag, had swept away the mists of speculation and revealed in its depth and breadth the abyss of degradation opened by secession. Yesterday I was a citizen of the great American republic. My country spanned a continent. Her northern border neared the frigid zone while her southern limit touched the tropics. Her eastern and her western shores were washed by the two great oceans of the globe. Her commerce covering the most remote seas, her flag honored in every land. The strongest nation acknowledged her power, and the most enlightened honored her attainments in art, science, and literature. Her political system, the cherished ideal toward whose realization the noblest aspirations and efforts of mankind have been directed for ages. The great experiment which the pure and wise of all nations are watching with trembling solicitude and imperishable hope. It was something to belong to such a nationality. This was yesterday. To-day, what am I? A citizen of Virginia. Virginia, a petty commonwealth with scarcely a million of white inhabitants. What could she ever hope to be but a worthless fragment of the broken vase? A fallen and splintered column of the once glorious temple.
But I will not dwell longer on the humiliating contrast. Come harness up the buggy and let us get out of this or I shall suffocate. – (2).
CHAPTER 6: WAR BEGINSIN JEFFERSON COUNTY by Jim Surkamp
With support from American Public University System (apus.edu). (The sentiments expressed do not in any way reflect modern-day policies of APUS, and are intended to encourage fact-based exchange for a better understanding of our nation’s foundational values.
Jefferson County’s fighting age male Union sympathizers, threatened with arrest for treason against the newly forming Confederacy, left the County and as the gravitational forces of solidarity brought most of the remaining white young men to enlistment points for the Confederacy –
Logan Osburn
their “destiny was with Virginia” as Logan Osburn of Kabletown so famously concluded. Their wives and mothers began feverishly making havelocks and clothing for their young men.
Roughly nine hundred men from Jefferson County would fight for the Confederacy in thirteen different units during the war.
At least 130 Jefferson County-born, African-Americans fought in the United States Colored Troops and a smaller number of white Countians enlisted in a variety of scattered Federal units. – (3).
Thomas Jonathan Jackson
Eight thousand enlistees would flock to Bolivar Heights by May 23rd from as far away as Mississippi, joined soon by a mercurial West Point-graduated professor from Virginia Military Institute named Thomas Jonathan Jackson who quickly put them through their paces and drilled them so relentlessly that notions of war as a grand, brief lark were dashed and some complained that the exercises were meant to kill them sooner than a fired bullet. – (4).
Julia Pendleton Allen
James Allen was there, while his wife, Julia Pendleton Allen and their young son, Hugh Pendleton Allen, were at home on their County farm.
George Rust Bedinger
George Rust Bedinger, Henry Bedinger’s son by a previous marriage, and who rode in the ring tournament a few years prior on his horse “Saladin” was there with Alexander Boteler, Junior. The former was confident, encouraging, skillful; the latter, often angry to distraction because Bedinger mocked him mercilessly, for he suffered from a stutter. – (5).
William Fitzhugh Lee
William Fitzhugh Lee, a career army officer was raised, in part, by the Shepherdstown Lees after his father died in Alexandria. By the time of the war, he had graduated from Virginia Military Institute, had married Lillie Parran of Shepherdstown, and fathered their daughter, Laura.
In April, 1861, he arrived to help in the instruction of the ever-increasing numbers of hungry recruits at Bolivar Heights all thinking they would defend Harper’s Ferry against invasion. His family were at their home on the northeast corner of German and Mill Streets, with Lillie’s re-married mother, Laura Parran Towner. – (6)
Edwin Grey Lee, who once dressed up as the “Knight of Alhambra” at the erstwhile tournament – the eldest son of Edmund and Henrietta Lee – likewise came “to camp” and was soon Jackson’s aide-to-camp. The Lees tried to visit him at Camp Jackson and Bolivar Heights near Harper’s Ferry while drilling was underway. – (7)
Henrietta Lee wrote her eldest daughter, Ida Rust:
Ida Rust & Henrietta Bedinger Lee
Virginia Bedinger
Your Papa took Virginia (George Bedinger’s sister, also called “Diddie”-JS) and me up to see them last week. We met with our usual luck; broke down twice, and after various delays and accidents got there at half-past three, stayed half an hour, and jolted home, which we reached at ten o’clock at night, being eleven hours in the spring wagon.
Their horse Jimminy-Crimminy, had become skittish and refused to cross a small stream as they neared the noisy encampment. They were therefore compelled to borrow another horse to get them home.
Lee continued to Ida about their relative in Connecticut, Susan Cornwall: I am sorry to say she has joined her voice to the baying and barking of the Northern bloodhounds, and seems crazy upon the subject of the Flag, Union and Constitution. . . Oh, at times I am so sick of noise and wrangling and contest that I long for the wings of a dove to flee away.- (8).
Henry Kyd Douglas, the 23-year-old, one time president of that ring tournament from a few years before, who lived with his family at Ferry Hill overlooking the Potomac from the Maryland side – arrived at the camp, come what may. His father, Rev. Robert Douglas was part-owner of the valuable covered, wooden bridge at river’s edge.
Henry Kyd Douglas later reflected on the issues of the Civil War and his place in it:
Personally I had no feeling of resentment against the people of the north because of their desire for the emancipation of the enslaved, for I believed Negro slavery was a curse to the people of the Middle States. As a boy I had determined never to own any one.
When on the 17th April, 1861 the Virginia Convention passed the Ordinance of Secession, I had no doubt of my duty. In a week I was back on the Potomac.
When I found my mother sewing on heavy shirts – with a heart doubtless heavier than I knew – I suspected for what and whom they were being made. In a few days I was at Harper’s Ferry, a private in the Shepherdstown Company, Company “B”, Second Virginia Infantry. – (9).
Henry Kyd Douglas
Joseph Johnston
On June 13, 1861, General Joseph Johnston, who replaced the less experienced Jackson, won the argument to not stay and defend Harper’s Ferry and ordered his force to evacuate Harper’s Ferry taking different directions. Some moved up the river, another larger force towards Charlestown. They would reunite in Berkeley County, make their way, some using rail, towards Bull Run/Manassas and fight in the first major battle of the war. Meantime the federal army under General Robert Patterson was, basically duped into remaining in the local region, not detecting the hurried movement of Johnston’s men to the Manassas battle location.
Douglas wrote: When Federal General Robert Patterson began to demonstrate from Hagerstown to cross the Potomac at Williamsport, General Johnston determined to evacuate Harper’s Ferry.
I was with the regiment that marched to Shepherdstown to destroy the bridge over the Potomac at that point.
I was with the company that set fire to it, and when, in the glare of the burning timbers, I saw the glowing windows in my home on the hill beyond the river and knew my father was a stockholder in the property that I was helping to destroy, I realized that war had begun. I knew that I was severing all connection between me and my family and understood the sensation of one, who, sitting aloft on the limb of a tree, cuts it off between himself and the trunk, and awaits results.
Not long after I saw the heavens lighted up over in Maryland one dark night and knew that the gorgeous bonfire was made from the material and contents of my father’s barn, I saw that I was advancing rapidly in a knowledge of the meaning of war; and my soul was killed with revengeful bitterness. – (10)
As the armies inched closer to clashing, more men in Jefferson County enlisted – or at least tried to:
At Westwood near Summit Point, Hugh Nelson Pendleton’s son, Dudley Digges Pendleton, a half-brother to Col. Allen’s wife, Julia, was a graduate of Washington College. He had not yet realized his future wife “Tippie” Boteler. He enlisted June 19th into the First Rockbridge Artillery at Winchester, as war began to unfold. – (11).
At the Bower farm, sixteen-year-old Adam Stephen Dandridge wanted to enlist but was prevented by his concerned parents. On July 2nd, 1861, as the first area battle erupted in Berkeley County at Falling Waters, the cannon could be heard across the Valley with a different, strange effect on each individual who met the blasts. Wrote Dandridge’s daughter, Serena Dandridge, much later:
It was a piping hot July day, the first day of harvest in the long bottom, along the creek. The wheat was standing tall and fine that year, a heavy crop. Father was swinging the first cradle, and the colored cradlers were strung out in a long line beside him. He was only sixteen, but over six feet tall and wiry and tough. As the cradling went on, the sun’s heat beat down more and more fiercely. Suddenly the booming of cannon was heard from over the hills in the direction of Martinsburg.
Like an electric shock, the words – “The war has begun!” – ran through the field. Father said he saw one of the cradlers, a big strong colored man, give a yell and jump straight up in the air and fall down dead with sunstroke (It may be assumed that it was a heart condition. -JS). In the field, all was in confusion. Father flung his cradle down, and he and some of the boys got on horses and went off to join the battle. The dead man was carried home. The boys and horses were eventually corralled and brought back, the easier because the battle, which was only a skirmish, was over before they arrived. This was only the FIRST time Steve ran off to join the army.
When father was a young boy, The Bower was a busy and peaceful spot. He had learned to swim by being tossed into the flooded creek from the foot bridge by one of the older cousins, Phillip Pendleton Cooke, with orders to “swim you little devil.” The manly art of self defense was not neglected, and papa was a match for the best, black or white, but he says their bouts were always friendly. As the time of the Civil War drew near, excitement was in the air, and the boys made themselves bows and arrows and staged sham battles. One well-remembered day Steve dared the others to shoot at him, and one of the neighbor boys stepped up drew a bead on him quoting: “For Phillip’s right eye!” The arrow landed in father’s right eye. Of course the pain was terrible. Finally a cataract formed over the eye, and he was often in severe pain during the war. – (12).
REFERENCES:
1. James Walkenshaw Allen – VMI Historic Rosters Database.
2. Strother, Harpers New Monthly, June, 1866. pp. 1-26.
3. National Park Service, Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System.
4. Report of Inspection made at Harper’s Ferry, Va. by Lieut. Col. George Deas, Inspector General C.S.Army. May 23, 1861.
5. Moore, Edward Alexander, pp. 36-38.
6. Ann C. Reeves Collection
7. Levin, p. 24.
8. Levin, p. 26.
9. Douglas, p. 3, pp. 6-7.
10. Ibid.
11. Driver, p. 76.
12. Serena K. Dandridge undated letter, Dandridge Collection, Duke University.
Special thanks to: Ms. Leslie Keller of the Boteler/Pendleton families Main sources:
Douglas, Henry Kyd. (1940, 1968). “I Rode With Stonewall.” Charlotte, NC: University of North Carolina Press. Print.
Dandridge/Boteler Collection – Duke University Levin, Alexandra Lee. (1987).
“This Awful Drama: General Edwin Gray Lee, C.S.A., And His Family.” New York, NY: Vantage Press. Print.
Official Record of the War of the Rebellion Service Records – National Archive & Records Administration (NARA)
Main Image Credits:
Greatly altered detail from ”Paddy Flanagan” by George Bellows. (courtesy Irving and Joyce Wolf)
Brown, Howell S. “Map of Jefferson County, Virginia From Actual Surveys With Farm Limits, 1852.” Magazine of the Jefferson County Historical Society Vol. XLV. (1979): pp. 1-7. Print.
By Eastman Johnson: The Barefoot Boy – 1860; Private collection. The Brown Family – 1869; Owner/Location: Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
Christmas Time (also known as The Blodgett Family) – 1864; Owner/Location: Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Good Day for the Soul by Howard Pyle – 1898
Harvesters at Rest by Harry Herman Roseland
Dark Water – by Jennifer Walcott
Harper’s Weekly, “Union Square, New York, May 4, 1861;
”Women Stitching Havelocks for Union Soldiers”. June 21, 1861.
Woman holding Union flag with shield and eagle,” ca. 1862. Color lithograph on Civil War envelope.
With support from American Public University System (apus.edu). (The sentiments expressed do not in any way reflect modern-day policies of APUS, and are intended to encourage fact-based exchange for a better understanding of our nation’s foundational values.
At the beginning of the Civil War, Davis Shepherd was captain of a small company of picked men appointed to guard the ford at his father’s place overlooking the Potomac River some five miles above Shepherdstown. The river was picketed on both sides and one of the Union camps was stationed directly across the river from the Lower Shepherd farm, as it was generally called.
Terrible rumors of danger to unprotected country families living in the path of the hostile army had caused the Boteler family to leave Fountain Rock and refugee in Baltimore.
Davis Shepherd’s wife, Elizabeth (A. R. Boteler’s oldest daughter), and her little ones had also been unable to remain at the River Farm while Davis was on duty at his father’s place. She and her two little children were at the rectory with Dr. Andrews, whose big heart and hospitable home were opened freely to all who needed comfort and help of any kind.
Beautiful Mrs. Tom Butler, frightened from Rose Hill by another sinister rumor of the war cry of the enemy also took refuge at the rectory with her four children, and at different times during that spring and summer others sought shelter with the well-beloved rector, counselor and friend of the whole community.
Later in July came the news of Manassas A. R. Boteler’s son, Alexander, Jr. had been wounded, but little could be learned of his condition.
Hearts were filled with anxiety for him and with grief for dear ones whose names were on the list of the slain. Tucker and Holmes Conrad, Peyton Harrison, W. F. Lee – these and others not less dear fell in that first great battle of the war.
Old Mr. Conrad had met the messenger bringing him tidings of his boys at the gate.
“Which?” he asked. “Both” was the answer. There was at all times a wonderful calm about those who suffered loss. No “wind of words” bore back the rising tide of sorrow following a battle. – (1).
Brothers in blood, in faith Brothers in youthful bloom Brothers in life Brothers in death Brothers in one same tomb Well fought they the good fight in death the victory won sprung at one bound to heaven’s light and God’s eternal son Written by David Holmes Conrad and carved on the tomb of his two sons Holmes and Tucker July 21-22, 1861 Manassas Pvt Henry Tucker Conrad, Sgt Holmes Addison Conrad
REFERENCES:
Elizabeth Stockton Pendleton. “A Wartime Incident – Fifty years Ago,” Shepherdstown Register, July 16, 1914; also “A Wartime Tragedy,” Shepherdstown Register, March 8, 1934.
Bradley Forbush webmaster 13thmass.org
1860 Census – National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).
Tombstone inscription by Holmes Conrad – findagrave.org
Military Archives – Carlisle, Pennsylvania
Image Credits:
Double Folio Civil War Wood Engraving “THE NEWS FROM THE WAR” – June 14, 1862 – by Winslow Homer
The Conversation (1882) by Edward Lamson Henry
The New Bonnet by Eastman Johnson
Monument Square, Baltimore, Maryland, June 1861, after the arrest of Marshal of Police Kane
Old Time Militia Masters by Porte Crayon. Harper’s New Monthly Magazine Volume 0057 Issue 338 (July 1878) / Volume 57, Issue: 338, July 1878, pp. 212-222.
First Battle of Bull Run, chromolithograph (1889) by Kurz & Allison – Library of Congress
Images at Flickr: 78 “Jeb” Stuart and The “Curse” of the Silver Spurs by Jim Surkamp https://www.flickr.com/photos/jimsurkamp/albums/72157632616352506 (Spurs first given by Stuart to Wm Lee, who died wearing them at Manassas and some months after they were returned to Stuart in the fall of 1862, he was wearing; them when he was mortally wounded).
With support from American Public University System (apus.edu). (The sentiments expressed do not in any way reflect modern-day policies of APUS, and are intended to encourage fact-based exchange for a better understanding of our nation’s foundational values.
William Fitzhugh Lee: “The Overlooked Lee” – Ann C. Reeves
(Ann C.Reeves, a direct descendant of “Willie” Lee of Shepherdstown, writes of the brief shining light of her ancestor’s life. William Fitzhugh Lee has been inexplicably missed by most official records. He was raised by the Lees in Shepherdstown after his father’s death, was a Virginia Military Institute graduate, close friend of J.E.B. Stuart, bestowed mysterious silver spurs by Stuart, only to die leading a pivotal charge on a battery at Manassas – that was not ordered. His poignant, agonizing death with family would become common – universal as an event but, as all such deaths, unique in its pathos and power. An American generation – across the divide – would encounter the new horror of young men in their budding prime, dying.-ED).
While not the head of his class academically, William “Willie” Lee was chosen by his classmates, on the basis of “character,” to address them upon graduation:
When I look around the happy faces of the motley throng assembled here tonight and reflect that those bright eyes now beaming with merriment and love may on tomorrow’s dawn grow dim with tears, when I meet the smiles of youthful manhood, the thoughtful glance of matured intellect or the searching gaze of venerated names as, and even then, we seek to trace the course of future tears and as the last hoary age turns to scan the path on which the course of life is run, bowed beneath the weight of years we seek not then to serve amid the rich promises of earthly hopes or to build the fairy fabric of ambition’s dreams.
These were the stirring words of a young and optimistic William Fitzhugh Lee in his Fourth of July Valedictory address to his compatriots at the Virginia Military Institute in 1853. Although the issues of slavery and states rights had been in the political forefront and the idea of secession had been discussed for several years, no one could have known how prescient these words were; that within eight years they would all wake up to “the dawn grown dim with tears,” and for him and his loved ones, this would unfold on the shores of Bull Run Creek.
William was the son of the Rev. William Fitzhugh Lee of Richmond and Mary Catherine Syme Chilton Lee, of Fairfax, born on April 27, 1832 in Richmond. The Rev. Lee, a graduate of Virginia Theological Seminary, was a first
cousin to Robert E. Lee. Bishop Meade described him as “light as a feather, but possessed a strong mind and will, and lived under the pressure of a heart and soul devoted to the love of God and man.” Despite a brief ministry of only twelve years, he made a significant contribution to the Episcopal Church, serving as Rector of a historic church in Richmond that he renamed St. John’s, famous for Patrick Henry’s speech in which he proclaimed, “Give me Liberty, or give me Death!” St. John’s thrived under his leadership, crowded with parishioners and Sunday school children and a zealous missionary society. Controversy around needing to expand led to Lee’s resignation and his founding and serving as Rector of Christ Church, Richmond. Due to physical frailty and declining health, he resigned and then founded and edited “The Southern Churchman,” an evangelical journal that he was editing on his deathbed, at the age of 33. His small son, William Fitzhugh Lee, known as “Willie,” was only five.
Although devoted to his mother, who returned to Alexandria with him, Willie spent considerable time with his paternal uncle, Edmund Jennings Lee, of Shepherdstown, Virginia, who served as a surrogate father. He was especially
close to his cousin, Edwin Gray Lee, who would end up on the battlefield with him at Manassas in July of 1861. Willie entered the Episcopal High School in Alexandria in the fall of 1842, aged ten. There, he fell under the
tutelage of the Rev. William N. Pendleton, Episcopal priest, headmaster of the school, and later, a Brigadier General and Chief of Artillery for the Confederate Army. A West Point graduate, Pendleton was a gifted teacher, engineer, and athlete who served as a powerful Christian role model for the boys he taught, including Willie. Pendleton’s daughter, Susan, would later
marry Willie’s first cousin, Edwin Gray Lee, of Shepherdstown, who was like a brother. Pendleton’s son, Alexander Swift Pendleton (Sandie) would serve
as Jackson’s Adjutant General and his unofficial Chief of Staff, later to become Early’s Chief of Staff. Willie also attended the Fairfax Institute.
During the times he lived with his aunt, uncle, and cousins at Leeland, in Shepherdstown, he grew up knowing their friends and neighbors. Among them was one of five daughters of a town physicians, Dr. Richard Parran and his
wife, Laura Morgan Parran. Eliza Morgan Parran, listed in the Morgan and Parran Family Bibles as Lillie (courtesy, John Whelihan) was the second eldest daughter. She is described in the March, 1853 journal of one potential suitor (William Quesenbury Claytor) as a young woman “whom I admire exceedingly…I think her decidedly more attractive than her sister…who is considered so beautiful.” (Alexander Street Press). Willie and Lillie must have known each other for many years. She participated in the annual
Ring tournament, a throwback to the chivalric jousts of England. Held in Morgan’s Grove (Lillie’s grandparents were Morgans,) there were knights on horses encouraged by the beautiful young women of Shepherdstown, one of whom was crowned Queen of Beauty among Maids of Honor. Lillie held both roles. She must have been intelligent, too, as William’s Commencement address also extolled the extension of literacy to women, making marriage a partnership of intellectual equals.
In 1850, William entered the class of 1853 at the Virginia Military Institute, the third class since it’s founding. According to correspondence between his mother, Mary Lee and the Superintendent, Col. Francis H. Smith, there were maternal worries about his maturity and moral behavior, as well as questions about his tuition, paid for by Edmund Jennings Lee. As required by graduates of VMI, William was expected to teach for a period of time in Virginia, which he ultimately did, in Fauquier County. Letters between him and Superintendent Smith suggest that he tried to bypass this responsibility due to a need for greater income to help support his mother, and, for a short time, he first worked as a civil engineer.
In June of 1855, William entered the United States Army as a 2nd Lieutenant under the 2nd Regiment, scheduled to be stationed at Fort Ridgely, a small outpost in Minnesota, although a letter to Superintendent Smith suggests he was rerouted to Fort Leavenworth. Records indicate that he also served at Fort Randall South Dakota, Fort Riley, Kansas, and several other remote frontier posts that helped to manage Indian affairs. During this period of time, he came to know J.E.B. Stuart, who was making a name for himself in the US Army. It was William who informed Stuart that his wife Flora, had born him a son. When admirers gifted Stuart with a pair of silver spurs, he gave them to William Lee in acknowledgment of his promise as a soldier.
On September 15th, 1859, William Fitzhugh Lee married Lillie Parran while on leave from Jefferson Barracks. The wedding was performed at 8:00 in the
morning at Trinity Church by the Rev. C. W. Andrews, an influential churchman whose dedication to theology and global understanding included a strong interest in the Liberian solution to slavery. Dr. Andrews figured largely in the lives of the Parran and Lee family members, with numerous baptisms, weddings, and funerals (C.W. Andrews Papers, Duke University Archives).
After they were married, the Lees and the Stuarts bonded as couples, at Fort Riley and later, at Jefferson Barracks. This was a special relationship that
lasted as long as each of the four lived. While Flora Stuart and Lillie became close, J.E.B. Stuart also seemed quite taken with Lillie for her special qualities, and they sustained a deep and enduring friendship as evidenced by several remaining letters. In a July 16, l860 letter from Stuart to Lee written from a camp 10 miles above Bent’s Fort, Stuart wrote:
Dear Lee: As Mr. Robt. Bent son of Col B leaves on 18th for the states I avail myself of his going to jot you a line. I made a little scout the other day which accomplished all the success attending us thus far. I will give you very briefly the items. As we passed Bents Fort on the morning of the 11th old B told us he had positive information that old Sotanke & family (2 lodges) had been a few minutes before within a ½ of a mile from his post. When hearing of our being there he cleared out double quick. I immediately volunteered to pursue him, and the maj. detached with me 20 men, and I started in pursuit. After a sharp trot of 5 miles I came in sight, he then abandoned everything but the ponies & I followed at a run – He was several miles ahead but I gained on them every jump. I never participated in a more exciting chase. In 2½ hours after leaving Bents Fort I was just in the act of nabbing them when I discovered Capt. Steele with a large detachment approaching from the opposite direction returning from a 8 days unsuccessful scout. Wasn’t that unfortunate for me? Finding that he was sure to secure the main party I turned to the right to pursue some scattered bucks running off in that direction, in that pursuit a part of Steele’s command under Otis, Armstrong, & Bayard joined and two warriors were killed, & 1 squaw captured, those captured by Steele’s party were 16 women & children and 36 ponies & mules. The last warrior was killed by the Sergt (Occleston) of my detachment, but not until he had given Bayard a very severe arrow wound in the cheek, and wounds to two of my detachment in the legs. The capture of the whole party I am confident (&I believe all of nearly all are equally so) would have been just as certain by my party alone, but as my Detachment had contributed mainly to effect it, I suppose I ought to be satisfied. I pursued them 26 miles to Steele & then 6 miles to the right. I had Bayard carried in a blanket that distance back to Steele’s. Bayard is now here, he suffers a great deal having the arrow head still deeply imbedded in between the cheek bone & the upper part of the upper jaw-bone. It can not be extracted. No fears are entertained as to his ultimate recovery, but he will be a sufferer for some time I fear.I have heard nothing from Riley since the mail sent out from Pawnee Fork. We have heard through the Cheyenne’s and Arrapahoes who are here & very friendly, that somebody has killed 8 Kiowas near Cow Creek, and that somebody has killed 20 lodges of Comanches on a tributary to Arkansas below Mulberry Creek, and that Ruff has killed 110 on the Canadian. We have received pretty authentic information that the Indians who were at a point 20 miles from Denver City have moved down on the Republican and Smoky Hill, & our next move will be in that direction. We will probably reach Pawnee Fork by the middle of 20th of August. Desaupne is now absent with 100 men over a 5 days scout on Purgatoire Cr, he is expected day after tomorrow. The Indians have refrained from depredations thus far on the emigrants, as far as we can learn. The prisoners are now in the hands of the Indian Agent Bent – who will endeavor to secure the delivery of the mail murderers. He has however ascertained pretty certainly that they have been all killed. The warriors we killed were Sotanke’s brother and son the Squaws were his. The old buck is bankrupt now. Walker went up to a grand war dance at Bents Fort. We enjoyed it very much. Young Bent the bearer of this seems to be a very clever fellow, and has been very kind to us. Don’t curse your fate if you should be ordered to take post at Bent’s Fort, it is by far the best point west of Riley’s & so stands in our estimation. Quarters already for 2 companies, and the best building material – except lime, clay is however available as a substitute. Remember me cordially to Mrs. Lee when you write (I suppose she is East), and present my kindest regards to all friends at Pawnee. I do not consider that worthy Capt of our regiment one of that number. I think it probably that Bayard will in a week if his situation will allow it, be sent in the ambulance under escort to Pawnee to go thence to the States. His gallantry & personal daring was the subject of special mention in my report, though he belonged to Steele’s detachment.
The officers here are getting on very harmoniously & pleasantly. Very truly yours, J.E.B. Stuart
(Original letter, now lost, was in the possession of Mrs. F.V. Chappell, of New London, CT. Contents courtesy Western Historical Manuscript Collection – Columbia, MO)
in later life, and as an infant with her mother
On New Year’s Day, 1861, Laura Morgan Lee was born to Lillie while William was stationed at Jefferson Barracks. As the winter progressed and more and more southern states voted for secession, Abraham Lincoln assumed office, and the northern and southern stances became tightened, William became more and more upset. Following the battle at Fort Sumter in April, he began to speak out against what he considered the faulty course being pursued by the Federal Government toward the South. He spoke his mind quite freely and was arrested by Captain Nathanial Lyon, a staunch abolitionist who had gained command of the St. Louis arsenal. William was court-martialed and kept on house arrest for a brief period of time. When released, he resigned from the Army on April 30, ten days after his second cousin Robert E. Lee’s resignation, and returned to Virginia. With the help R.E. Lee, he was appointed a captain in the Confederate Army, ordered to duty at Harper’s Ferry. According to Charles D. Walker, author of “Graduates and Eleves of the Virginia Military Institute,” William was ordered to Harper’s Ferry where he was “actively engaged in the training of the raw recruits of the recently-formed army, and afterwards…performed laborious service as a drill-master and recruiting officer.” Although Walker writes that Lee was commissioned Lieutenant Colonel of the 33rd Virginia Infantry, things at Harper’s Ferry were very disorganized as herds of new, untested recruits descended upon that town. It took the arrival of Thomas Jonathan Jackson, William’s former Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy and Instructor of Artillery at VMI to whip the new recruits into shape During this time, Lillie and six-month-old Laura had remained in Missouri. Fearful of their safety, William quickly penned the following letter on June 21st.
Harper’s Ferry, VA June 21st 1861 My dear LillyI wrote to you a few days ago advising you how to get to Virginia. Since then I have been most anxious and uneasy about your safety. The mails have all stopped Between here and all points north and west. So I shall have great difficulty in Getting letters to you. When you write, enclose your letters to Dr. MacGill of Hagerstown and ask him to find an opportunity to get them to your mother {Laura Parran Towner in Shepherdstown} who can transmit them to me. The Balt. & Ohio Rl.Rd between Wheeling and Grafton is in possession of the troops of the North. It will be out of the question therefore for you to attempt to come in that Way. The Louisville route is the only one left you now. Find an escort to that city or to Cincinnati. From Cincinnati you could go to Louisville and then on to Lynchburg, Va. O’Connell sometimes goes to Newport to take recruits. Ask him To let you know when he can go next after the receipt of this and if he can take you with him to Cincinnati and place you en route for Louisville. In the meantime write to Dr. Llewellyn Powell, my cousin, tell him who you are & how you are traveling & ask him to meet you at Louisville & place you under escort for Va. It would be better if you could get an escort all the way in. Suppose you write to Maj. Hagum {Hagman?} to try & find you one from Fort Leavenworth. There are Constantly officers (resigned) on their way in from there.
I must hurry down & try & find an opportunity to send this to you – all are well & in good spirits. Love and Kisses & all – From your fondly devoted Husband W. F. L. (Original location of this document at Red Top, family home in Connecticut of William Reeves, Jr., Carol Reeves Parke, and Ann C. Reeves)
The following events are taken from private John O. Casler’s “Four Years in the Stonewall Brigade.” Casler had joined the Potomac Guards in June of 1861, which became part of Col. Arthur C. Cummings’ regiment that ultimately became the First Brigade under T.J. Jackson, along with Lieutenant Colonel William Fitzhugh Lee. According to Casler, by June 24th the companies took part in Johnston’s movement to reinforce Beauregard at Manassas Junction, marching east towards Winchester, where they were celebrated by brass bands, “drums beating, colors flying, and the fair ladies waving their handkerchiefs and cheering (them) on to ‘victory or death.’” The soldiers moved to Shawnee Springs and back to Romney. Between late June and early July, they moved between Darksville, Shawnee Springs, and Martinsburg with a few minor “squirmishes” with the Federals. An anticipated July 4th battle did not materialize and they moved back to Winchester. Casler admits to his disappointment, not yet having experienced the horrors of war.
It was in Winchester that William Fitzhugh Lee saw his little Laura for what would be the last time.
According to Casler, his battalion was ordered to report to Col Cummings, somewhat south of Winchester and they remained in the area until July 15th, at which time they became permanently attached to General T.J. Jackson’s brigade. As there were not enough men, yet, to be numbered, their regiment became Colonel Cummings Regiment. They finally left the Winchester area on July 18th, marching toward Berry’s Ferry, on the Shenandoah River, where they were informed of the Federal threat to General Beauregard at Manassas Junction. The men were formed in ranks in a forced march all day and all night, crossing the Shenandoah around midnight and spending about two hours to rest in Paris, before heading towards Manassas.
Lowell Reidenbaugh, in “33rd Virginia Infantry,” writes that the men reached the Shenandoah River at sundown, walking waist-high through the water. They were exhausted, and spent the next night (the 20th) in a grove of pines. In the morning, they marched upstream, returning to Blackburn’s Ford. Three hours later, Jackson was informed of an impending battle near Henry House Hill, the left anchor of the Confederate line. The 33rd marched the seven miles there and sustained bombardment without a fight until mid-afternoon.
There are several accounts of the ensuing battle between the 33rd and Rickett’s and Griffin’s batteries, near Henry House Hill in Manassas. Casler explains that the 33rd Regiment had been organized in Winchester, and that most companies “were perfectly raw troops.” Jackson, soon to be named “Stonewall” had ordered the brigade to hold off fire until the Federals were within thirty paces. Cummings wrote that the brigade had reached the brow of the ridge near Henry House with the 33rd Regiment to the far left. All agree that a charge was made contrary to orders. In “Col. Cummings’ Account” in the Southern Historical Society Papers, he explained that some Federals, dressed in red, had started firing on the left flank of the brigade. This “tore up the ground uncomfortably near the men and, the two things together, coming about the same time caused considerable confusion in part of the regiment, and realizing that the most trying position that raw men, and even the best disciplined and bravest could be placed in was to be required to remain still, doing nothing, receiving the enemy’s fire without returning it, I feared the consequences, if I strictly obeyed General Jackson’s orders; therefore it was that I have the orders to charge, contrary to his order to wait until the enemy was within thirty paces, the enemy being much further off at that time.” Casler writes:
Colonel Cummings and Lieutenant Colonel Lee were in front of our regiment, perhaps a hundred yards, stooping down, and occasionally standing to get a view over the crest of the hill that rose gently before us for a little over a hundred yards. The musketry kept up on our right, and then Colonels Cummings and Lee were seen to rise and bending down, to come back with somewhat quickened steps to the regiment. I remember, as Colonel Cummings drew near, he called out: “Boys, they are coming, now wait until they get close before you fire.’ Almost immediately several pieces of artillery, their horses in front, made their appearance on the hill in front of us, curving as if going into battery, and at the same time I descried the spear-point and upper portion of a United States flag, as it rose in the hands of its bearer over the hill; then I saw the bearer, and the heads of the men composing the line of battle to the right and left of him. At the sight several of our men rose from the ranks, leveled their muskets at the line, and, although I called out, ‘Do not fire yet,’ it was of no use; they fired and then the shrill cry of Colonel Cummings was heard, ‘Charge!’ and away the regiment went, firing as they ran, into the ranks of the enemy, and particularly at the battery towards which our line rapidly approached . . . I think it can be demonstrated that the victory of First Manassas is traceable to Colonel Cummings (p. 42.)
Casler quoted a letter received from Col. Cummings at 75 years of age:
When General Jackson directed me to look out for the enemy’s artillery, Captain William Lee, who was acting as Lieutenant Colonel, and a gallant man he was, and I walked out on the plateau and saw the artillery of the enemy moving rapidly up the Sudley road to our front and left, and large bodies of the enemy’s infantry moving along the hill towards our left flank, and we returned immediately to the regiment.
Casler felt that the unauthorized charge was made “with splendid discretion (p. 43.) While it took three attempts to secure Rickett’s battery, it was an unexpected victory for the Confederates (in the eyes of much of the country), and it buoyed their spirits greatly.
During the charge, Captain William Lee, acting as Lieutenant Colonel, was mortally wounded in the breast.
An article in the Times-Dispatch of June 4, 1905 was reproduced in the Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume XXXIV. Quoting Captain John H, Grabill, of the 33rd, “After the battle was over, General Jackson rode to one of the field hospitals As he sat upon his horse he looked steadily upon the dying Captain Lee of the Thirty-third, who was propped against a small tree, and made this remark: ‘The work Colonel Cummings’ regiment did today was worth the loss of the entire regiment.’” In fact, the 33rd sustained huge losses.
A touching first-hand account of the Battle of First Manassas was written in a personal letter from William Lee’s cousin (who was like a brother,) Edwin Gray Lee to William’s mother, describing the battle, his lingering illness, and death (Western Historical Manuscript Collection, Columbia, Mo.)
He began:
You know we left Winchester on the 18th of July. We reached Manassas Junction on the 19th and on the morning of Saturday the 20th we were placed in the reserve to General Longstreet behind the woods in rear of the Battlefield of the 18th. While we lay there I repeatedly saw Willie and conversed and laughed with him. Early on the morning of the 21st we were moved and we continued to shift our position until about 10 A.M. when we finally took one in reserve to Gen. Bee’s Brigade. During this morning I saw William frequently. About 11 o’clock we got a request from Gen. Bee to come to his support. Gen. Jackson (I was his aide-de-camp) sent me to move the various regiments forward. And the last time I saw Willie was just as I bore the order to Col. Cummings to move his (???-ED). He was looking as calm and cheerful as ever. I saw him, and at 20 minutes before 12 o’clock, we entered the battle. The order of our Brigade was as follows – On the right was the 5th Regt. Next the 4th the 27th was in column in reserve to the 4th and in front of the 4th were 21 pieces of our artillery. On the left of the 4th was the 2nd and on the left of the 2nd the 33d, which was Wm’s Regt. Which made the left of the Brigade.About 2 P.M. the battle became terrific. Our artillery and that of the enemy kept up one uninterrupted roar, while the sharp rattle of the musketry and the occasional thunder of a volley from a whole Regiment, mingled with the crashing or shot, the shriek and whistle of bullets, the bursting shell, and the hoarse, loud tone of fierce Command made it all seem doubly terrific and grand.About 2:30 or 3 P.M. “Rickett’s Battery” was brought on the hill, put into position and unlimbered. It fired two shots, when it was charged by the 33rd. They drove the Yankees from the guns but were not strong enough to hold them, and were driven back. They Charged again, Wm. Leading the left wing and Colonel Cummings the right, and again took the battery and again had to abandon it. It was in this charge that Wm. Was shot. (All these particulars I learned afterwards.) Col. Cummings rallied his men, charged the third time, and took and kept the Battery. The 33rd lost more than one third in killed and wounded, a greater loss than was sustained by any other Regiment on either side.When Willie was shot, he walked back up the hill, but did not fall. He remarked to an officer, “I am shot”: and the blood began to trickle from his breast. He was assisted to a distance of more than half a mile in rear of the Battle ground, and he then had to lie down. “All the charges” that I mentioned above, occupied but a few minutes: About 3 o’clock I was accosted by Dr. Cornelius Baldwin of the 33rd who asked me if I knew Capt. Lee was shot. My heart sank as I told him no, and I begged him to take me to him.He said no, if I could stay with Dr. McGuire (who was overwhelmed there with the wounded) he would bring him there. I urged him to make all speed, and in a few minutes he brought William to us in a light spring wagon.We lifted him out as tenderly as we could and laid him in the shade, on the ground. The day was extremely hot and all around us was dust and confusion – wounded men in every conceivable state of mutilation lying all round.Dr. McGuire immediately unbuttoned Willie’s coat and vest as far as he could. The wound was right in the centre of the breast between the 1st and 2nd studs of his shirt. The missile that inflicted the wound (whether a small piece of shell or a bullet, I never could determine) had struck the third button of his coat, partly torn it off, and had passed downwards, driving the cloth or the coat, waist coat and small waistcoat button, together with his shirt, about an inch and a half into the breast.It required nearly the whole of the surgeon’s strength to draw these things from the wound, while I held him in my arms. The wound gave him much pain; the Dr. carefully dressed it and laid him down in quite an easy position. Whatever it was that struck him did not enter the breast: It either fell off, rebounding when he was shot, or else it was pulled out, unobserved, with the clothing. He was too much hurt to be allowed to talk, and the only communication he made was either assent or dissent, indicated by the movement of his head. After his wound was dressed, I gave him some water and asked him if he felt easier. He nodded. I then told him he must not speak, but that I must tell him that we had whipped the enemy and would soon drive them from the field. Just then our gallant Brigade made its final charge, and Generals E.K. Smith and Elay came up with their fresh troops. The enemy broke and ran in the wildest panic, and the mighty, never, never-to-be forgotten shout of victory arose. I sat down by him and said:“Willie, do you hear that? We’ve whipped them and they are flying! The day is ours and we have gained an overwhelming victory!! Oh, how his glorious eye brightened, as he feebly waved his hand, and still more feebly whispered “hurrah!” At this moment Brig. General Jackson came up with a shattered finger to have it dressed; as soon as it was done, he directed me to get on my horse and ride back with him on the field. A young friend who was by Willie’s side assured me he would never leave him and would see him well and comfortably taken care of and fixed. I was utterly unable to leave the field of battle until after dark, and even then I had not fulfilled the orders I had to execute. I got to my Brigade about midnight: and next morning early I went to the house where I learned Willie had been taken. It was owned by some good Scotch people named “Pringle.”The house was full of wounded, among them Br. Gen. E.K. Smith, who was removed during the day. Willie was in a large room down stairs and during all the time save three days, was alone. My excellent young Harrison from Berkely, was by him, nursing him as tenderly as tho it had been his own brother. He had been up with him the whole night. Willie was still suffering very much, but was much better. He had the best medical attendance the army afforded, in Drs. McGuire, Conrad and Straith. The latter was with him day and night the whole time. He was still forbidden to talk; but he beckoned me to him and said, in a low whisper: “Eddie, write to Lil and Mother.” I said: “Yes Willie, but don’t talk.” He smiled and was perfectly quiet.All that day and night he was in much pain, but it diminished and the next morning (Tuesday) he was much better. Before day I went to his wife, and in the morning as soon as I got a little rest, I wrote to you. He seemed to suffer less all day than he had done, and during part of it seemed really bright, and I couldn’t help hoping he would get well. He asked me twice if I had written to you, and seemed quite and satisfied when I told him I had, but I wouldn’t let him or rather did not encourage him to talk of you although I knew his thoughts were with you and his wife and child continually. At night he was not so comfortable as during the day, but next morning he brightened up again and continued so much better until Thursday indeed until Friday morning early that I determined to write to you saying that the Drs hoped for his recovery, as indeed they did during part of Wednesday and Thursday. But it did not continue. Young Harrison hadto leave me on Tuesday morning, when my cousin, George Bedinger came to aid me in nursing him. To both of them we owe many, many thanks. Their kindness and watchful attention could not have been greater possibly.Cousin Lillie did not get my letter, as I did not know where she was. But being at Strasburg, she learned on Wednesday that Willie was wounded and on Thursday she and Mrs. Swann, her cousin, came to the house where we were. They had great difficulty in getting there, but the kindness of some officers helped them through. During all this time Co. Cummings and others of his Regiment came over continually to enquire after him. Dr. Eliason, who lived up the road some little way, was more than kind, also. (Talcott Eliason) He supplied so many comforts and conveniences. On Friday morning Willie began to grow worse. In the afternoon Mrs. Towner (Lillie’s Mother)and Pa and Edmund came. I knew then from the Surgeon there was no hope. Oh how my dear father wept over one whom he loved as his own son! Constantly Willie asked us briefly as possible, to read to him and sing to him. And every thought, and every breath was but full of confidence and faith and love towards our Heavenly Father and the Blessed Savior. He grew gradually worse from this, gangrene having ensued. On Saturday he said “Dr. is there any hope”? Straith (who was unremitting in his efforts) replied “Captain I fear there is none”.His wife and all of us were around him. He said: “I had hoped to live to see my Country established in her new Government: but if Thou orderest otherwise, Oh Father, Thy will be done”. He asked Pa to pray; but he was weeping so that he could not and I prayed for him, for his wife and child, for his Mother and for us who loved him dearly:“That all of us might bow with humble hearts to the will of that God whose every act is full of love; that we might kiss the hand that ever Chastens for our good and remember that those who departed in Jesus, were only ‘gone before’.”And when I finished he took up the prayer and prayed the God of Justice and the God of Battles to bless and prosper our Country very briefly, for he could not talk much, but how fervently and how beautifully. And I know that God will answer that prayer of his faithful dying servant. From this moment he was conscious scarcely at all. He suffered much until Sunday night: but after that he was insensible to pain. I sat by him, watched him, nursed him and scarcely ever left his side from this, or during the whole time. But I have nothing more to tell. At twenty minutes before nine o’clock on Tuesday night, July 30th his brave heart ceased to throb and the blessed Father of Mercy took him to Himself. And when I looked upon his thin but calm and beloved face (for oh dear Aunt I loved him) my heart went up to God for those he left behind. And surely He will be with and bless them for hath He not promised? He was so gentle, so patient, so full of love to those who were around him . . . He has only gone before, dear Aunt Mary, to await you in his Father’s home. The faithful soldier of Christ’s Cross has gone to join his Lord’s glorious army – never, never more to leave it.I have since then been commissioned as Major to the Regt. (33rd) which he was on duty with; and often wish you could hear the expressions of regard, respect and love with which the command, from its commanding officer to (two unknown words) soldier invariably speak of him. No sadder (two unknown words) than that of his loss couldever have been made to them. But he fell, (blessed thought) in the path of duty, in his Country’s Cause, in Freedom’s cause, on the field of honor and of glory. He fell, not unmarked, unknown, & unloved; but with his sword in his strong grasp, as the leader of gallant soldiers many of whom fell by his side, and mourned by hundreds who knew him but to love him. And above all, far above all, hefell, not without hope in God – but an humble, earnest prayerful child of Jesus: a trusting servant of the Most High! And to that Gracious God and Loving Father, dear Aunt I commend you: Oh may He in his Great Mercy be with you, bless you, sustain you, & comfort you. “The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble. The name of the God of Jacob defend thee: send thee help from the sanctuary and strengthen thee out of Zion”! Let us take comfort from and make an example of, the dying bed of my more than brother. And “cast our burden on the Lord” and say as he so sweetly, submissively said “Oh Lord! Thy will be done.”
Virginia Bedinger wrote to her mother in Shepherdstown, “Truly, it was a great victory + I pray to God to make us thankful to Him for his great love + mercy towards us in delivering us from the horde of our enemies . . .Measuring our friends loss in that victory, poor Mr. Willie Lee was wounded desperately + when we heard it was thought he must die. God have mercy on his poor young wife.”
Charles Wesley Andrews, the Episcopal clergyman and Rector of Trinity Church in Shepherdstown, also went to visit William in the Pringle House. In a letter written to his wife, he wrote:
I went to see Willie Lee who was shot in the breast mortally as is supposed. Lilly had got there. He was well attended to by Edwin Lee and others. He could not speak above a whisper & breathed with difficulty, but understood all I said. He was alive however yesterday morning when I left & there’s no thought or possibility of his recovery. Mr. E.J. Lee has gone back again this morning to bring up his body if he dies.
Although the lingering death of any young soldier is tragic, William did not die alone, miserable, and unknown as did so many courageous warriors in this terrible conflict. On the field, in the field hospital, and as death slowly overtook him, he was surrounded by friends and family – his beloved Lillie, his mother-in-law, classmates from VMI, his former professor Jackson, General Pendleton, his priest C. W. Andrews, his cousin/brother Edwin, his uncle and surrogate father, Edmund, Col. Cummings, and fellow members of the 33rd. With a lifetime forged with early loss and economic hardship, the frustration of not seeing his dream of a new country, the devastation of knowing he was not to enjoy the blessings of a long marriage and fatherhood of his baby girl, and in the face of intense pain and suffering, William was consoled by his deep faith that God’s will be done. In the end, it was not Captain and Mrs. William Fitzhugh Lee, but Willie and Lillie, lovingly intertwined in the cot of the front right room of the Pringle House as his life slowly ebbed away. Thus did the following dawn grow dim with tears.
Because of the disorganization, lack of documentation in the early days of the war and his untimely death during the first real battle, William Fitzhugh Lee’s brave and humble character, popularity, and courageous role in the Battle of First Manassas has not been properly told. It is time for my great-great-grandfather’s story to be shared.
(Lillie Parran Lee is at the far right).
Lillie Parran Lee was devastated, wearing widow’s black daily for the next fifty-five years. Following Willie’s death, she had her sister, Mary Dare Tinsley, hand deliver the silver spurs, which William was wearing when he was felled, to J.E.B. Stuart. Upon his dying, Stuart told those around him to give his sword to his son and to give his spurs to Mrs. Lillie Lee, of Shepherdstown. The friendship between the two couples had come full circle.
My mother, Elizabeth Lee Chappell Reeves and Uncle, Thomas Huntington Chappell, remembered her well from their childhood as a gentle and loving elder who told stories and played card games with them. She would never acknowledge President Lincoln or the existence of West Virginia, insisting on Jefferson County, Virginia as her place of origin. From a childhood of carefree gaiety and social interest, Lillie sustained not only the early loss of her father, husband and close friend, J.E.B. Stuart, but her daughter, at the age of 34. She remained loyal to the Cause, dying in New London Connecticut at the home of her great-grand daughter, whom she helped raise. But that is another story – Ann C. Reeves.
Rev. C. W. Andrews Collection – Special Collections Library, Perkins Collection, Duke University.
Andrews, Rev. C.W. (1877). “Memoir of Rev. C. W. Andrews.” Cornelius Walker, ed. New York, NY: Thomas Whittaker, 2 Bible House. Print.
Andrews, Rev. C.W. (1877). “Memoir of Rev. C. W. Andrews.” Cornelius Walker, ed. Google Books. 19 July 2008. Web. 24 Dec. 2010.
Casler, John O. (1906). “Four years in the Stonewall Brigade, containing the daily experiences of four year’s service in the ranks from a diary kept at the time.” Marietta, GA: Continental Book Company. Print.
Craighill, E. A. (1989). “Confederate surgeon: the personal recollections of E.A. Craighill Confederate surgeon.” Peter W. Houck ed. Lynchburg, Va: H. E. Howard, Inc. Print.
Cummings, Col. Arthur. (1906) “Colonel Cumming’s Account.” Southern Historical Society papers. R. A. Brock (ed). Volume 34. Richmond, VA.: Southern Historical Society. pp. 367-371
Cummings, Col. Arthur. (1906) “Colonel Cumming’s Account.” Southern Historical Society papers. Google Books 15 Aug. 2006 Web. 15 Oct. 2011.
Grabill, Captain John H. (1906). “Thirty-Third Virginia at Manassas – Col. Cummings Takes Liberties With His Orders and Does Good Work.” Southern Historical Society papers. R. A. Brock (ed). Volume 34. Richmond, VA.: Southern Historical Society. pp. 363-367.
Index:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 32.djvu Wikipedia English. Latest update 27 Oct. 2009. Web. 20 May 2011.
Johns, J. (John), Sparrow, William. (1867). “A memoir of the life of the Right Rev. William Meade, D.D., bishop of the Protestant Episcopal church in the diocese of Virginia.” Baltimore, MD: Innes & company. Print.
Lee, Susan P. (1893). “Memoirs of William Nelson Pendleton.” Philadelphia, PA.: J. B. Lippincott Company. Print.
Reidenbaugh, Lowell. (1987). “33rd Virginia Infantry.” Lynchburg, VA: H. E. Howard, Inc. Print.
Strother, David H., “Mountains.” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine. New York, NY: Harper and Bros. Volume 51, Issue: 304, (Sept., 1875). pp. 475-486. Print.
Thomas, Emery M. (1999). “Bold Dragoon: The Life of J.E.B. Stuart.” Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. Print.
Virginia Military Institute Archives
Walker, Charles D. (1877). “Memorial Virginia Military Institute. “Biographical Sketches of the Graduates and Eleves of the Virginia Military Institute who Fell During the War Between the States.” Philadelphia, PA: J. B. Lippincott & Co. Print.
Bishop William Meade – Johns, J. (John), Sparrow, William. (1867). “A memoir of the life of the Right Rev. William Meade, D.D., bishop of the Protestant Episcopal church in the diocese of Virginia.” Baltimore, MD: Innes & company. Print.
Rev. William Lee – Courtesy Reeves Family
Edmund Jennings Lee – Courtesy the Goldsborough Family
Edwin Gray Lee – Courtesy the Goldsborough Family, detail from painting at Library of Congress.
William Nelson Pendleton – William Nelson Pendleton. “Encyclopedia Virginia.” Courtesy The Virginia Historical Society. 7 Oct. 2010 Web. 15 Oct. 2011.
Susan Pendleton Lee – Notman Photographic Archives, McCord Museum, McGill University, Montreal. Photo No. 19459
Sandie Pendleton – Wikipedia English. Latest update 27 Oct. 2009. Web. 20 May 2011.
Laura Morgan Parran – Courtesy of the Reeves Family
Original Trinity Episcopal Church – Jim Surkamp
A ring tournament – Strother, David H., “Mountains.” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine. New York, NY: Harper and Bros. Volume 51, Issue: 304, (Sept., 1875). pp. 484. Print.
The Queen of the Ring Tournament – Strother, David H., “Mountains.” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine. New York, NY: Harper and Bros. Volume 51, Issue: 304, (Sept., 1875). p. 485. Print.
Young J.E.B. Stuart Wikipedia English. Latest update 27 Oct. 2009. Web. 20 May 2011.
Edwin Gray Lee in civilian clothing – Notman Photographic Archives, McCord Museum, McGill University, Montreal. Photo No. 17037.
Dr. Hunter McGuire – Wikipedia English. Latest update 27 Oct. 2009. Web. 20 May 2011.
George Bedinger Rust – Danske Dandridge Collection, Special Collections, Perkins Collection, Duke University
Edmund Lee Jr. – Courtesy the Goldsborough Family
Photos of actual room William Lee was cared for – Ann C. Reeves
Virginia Bedinger (Lucas) – Perry Collection, Charles Town Library, “Jefferson County History” Notebook.
Thy Will Be Done – Chapter 7.1 – THE TALE OF TWO CANNON by Jim Surkamp
15.476 words
With support from American Public University System (apus.edu). (The sentiments expressed do not in any way reflect modern-day policies of APUS, and are intended to encourage fact-based exchange for a better understanding of our nation’s foundational values.).
EYEWITNESSES: William Blackford Warren Lee Goss John Casler T. J. Jackson Thomas Gold John N. Opie J.E.B. Stuart George C. Eggleston David Humphreys William A. Morgan George W. Baylor Edwin Gray Lee
INTRODUCTION:
The Battle of Manassas/Bull Run shattered with gore the illusion of a short, “duel-like” war, with reserved seats for those with parasols.
William Blackford of Stuart’s cavalry recalled: “It is amusing now to recall how general the feeling was – every one seemed to think one battle would settle it, and those in authority, who had brought on all the trouble, who ought to have known better, unfortunately thought so, too.”
The battle was messy, incoherent with many piecemeal attacks and counter-attacks. William Blackford in Stuart’s cavalry was well-placed to see thousands of men turn and walk – then run – from the field of battle, as their 90-day tours of duty were coming due.
” . . . the most extraordinary spectacle I have ever witnessed took place. . . . I had been moving forward to the attack, some fifteen or twenty thousand strong in full view, and for some reason had turned away in another direction for a moment, when someone exclaimed, pointing to the battlefield, “Look! Look!” Where those “well-dressed,” well-defined lines, with clear spaces between, had been steadily pressing forward, the whole field was a confused swarm of men, like bees, running away as fast as their legs could carry them, with all order and organization abandoned. In a moment more, the whole valley was filled with them as far as the eye could reach. . .”
That fact, battlefield pressures, and the mere ability of some 8500 well-trained men – in Winchester on July 18 – to just get to Manassas by Sunday morning the 21st – decided the outcome.
We follow the men from the Shenandoah Valley with J.E.B. Stuart and Thomas Jackson, both freshly made Brigadier Generals, and those they faced, as they fought to hold the crest of Henry Hill. Of 2,600 men in The Stonewall Brigade, 480 became casualties in their real first battle. (Ballard; OR, Series I, IX, P. 483)
We focus on the linchpin events of the day surrounding the capture and recapture of the batteries of Union Captains Griffin and Ricketts, the first capture of which by the Confederates seemed to be the beginning of the ultimate unraveling of Union resolve. The struggle was between the Confederates, especially the Stonewall Brigade, trying to secure this ridge of Henry Hill where the batteries were after 2:30, while overcoming constant, strenuous efforts by Union forces to flank Jackson’s Brigade on the left of his line. Ultimately, reinforcements and vigilance by Confederate General Stuart’s cavalry kept that from happening. Around 5 PM the Union forces retreated. Learning from this, President Lincoln then issued a new call for 500,000 more recruits, but this time – requiring three-year commitments.
NOTE: Primary sources are given with an emphasis on first-hand accounts and direct observation. Personal or second-hand estimates of casualties or other quantities are kept as in the original and are subject to the analysis and possible documented correction by the researcher.-ED
THE FOCAL POINT IN THE AFTERNOON:
The batteries of Ricketts and Griffin, by their fine discipline, wonderful daring, and matchless skill, were the prime features in the fight. The battle was not lost till they were lost. (Frye, Battles & Leaders, Vol. 1, P. 189)
BACKGROUND
While General Johnston’s movements were going on in the lower Valley of Virginia, others of great importance were being made elsewhere in the State, the chief of which was the organization of an army by General Beauregard at Manassas Junction, to cover the approach to Richmond, the capital of the Confederacy. This Junction was about twenty-five miles from Alexandria, and was manifestly the strategic point for the defense of Northeastern Virginia. The United States troops were now massed in and around Washington, preparing for an advance into Virginia, and all the energies of the Confederate authorities were concentrated upon preparations to repel the invaders. On both sides Manassas was the center of expectation. Generals Beauregard and Johnston were acting in concert, and on the 18th of July, Johnston received a telegram from Beauregard that the enemy was advancing in force upon Bull Run, and calling upon him to hasten to his assistance. General McDowell, with a large army, was marching forward to attack the Confederates with the confidence of an easy victory. They had already driven back General Beauregard’s advance guard, and seemed likely to carry all before them when the arrival of Johnston’s troops turned the fortune of the day.
WINCHESTER TO MANASSAS: TOUGHING IT
There was an urgency in the ranks of the 2nd Virginia Infantry on July 18, 1861, urgency and emergency. Word had arrived at Winchester that there was an attack just outside of Manassas Junction, that the Union army was advancing rapidly against a small force under Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard at Manassas Junction. Joe Johnston and his army at Winchester needed to leave the Valley immediately, and to scurry to Manassas Junction, to reinforce the Confederates there and to stop this Union advance. And so Jackson’s men hurriedly began to march east from Winchester – to the Shenandoah River, crossing at Berry’s Ferry in Clarke County. . . (Frye),
JULY 18 – (Thursday)
On a sudden order to start a march, the Confederate soldiers near Winchester quickly began, except for ten, known of in the 2nd Virginia regiment, who “skedaddled” instead, eight of whom were from Company E, commanded by Raleigh Colston. (Frye, P. 11)
NOON
On the 18th of July I struck my tents, rolled them up, and left them on the ground, and about noon marched through Winchester, as I had been encamped on the other side of the town. (Jackson to Mrs. Jackson, Memoir).
July 18th we marched through Winchester and took the road leading to Berry’s Ferry, on the Shenandoah river, about eighteen miles distant. The citizens were very much grieved to see us leave, for fear the enemy would be in town, as there were no troops left but a few militia and Colonel Turner Ashby’s cavalry. (Casler).
3 PM
By 3 p.m., the Valley Army was in motion. According to one old Johnny, at that hour “we were rapidly moving through the dusty streets of old Winchester, there only to be the more inspired and encouraged for there was not a mother or sister who had not in the ranks a son or brother. . .” (Reidenbaugh).
About an hour and a half after leaving, I had the following order from General Johnston published to my brigade: “Our gallant army under General Beauregard is now attacked by overwhelming numbers. The commanding general hopes that his troops will step out like men . . .” At this stirring appeal the soldiers rent the air with shouts of joy, and all was eagerness and animation where before there had been only lagging and uninterested obedience. (Jackson to Mrs. Jackson, Memoir).
After marching a few miles we were halted, and the Adjutant read us orders that the enemy were about to overpower General Beauregard at Manassas Junction, and we would have to make a forced march. It was General Johnston’s wish that all the men would keep in ranks and not straggle, if possible. (Casler)
. . . about two miles out of Winchester. The column was halted and officers revealed a startling piece of information: Confederate forces under P.G.T. Beauregard had been attacked by Federals under . . . McDowell at Masassas and the Valley Army was on its way to help out “Old Bory.” (Reidenbaugh)
. . . as we marched we were halted on the road and an order from General Johnston read telling the men that “Our gallant army under General Beauregard at Manassas in now attacked by overwhelming numbers . . .” This appeal to our patriotism was like an electric shock, and was responded to with cheers, and every one felt that it was up to him to do his duty. (Gold).
. . . our disgruntled army moved towards the Blue Ridge Mountains. We were all completely at a loss to comprehend the meaning of our retrograde movement, until a general order was read, informing us that we were marching to the relief of Beauregard at Manassas, where a great battle was imminent. At this news, the whole army set up a continuous yell. It was the first Rebel yell, which afterward became so familiar to friend and foe. (Opie).
We continued our march until we reached Millwood, in Clarke County, where we halted for an hour or so, having found an abundance of good water, and there we took a lunch. Resuming the march, our brigade continuing in front, we arrived at the Shenandoah River about dark. The water was waist-deep, but the men gallantly waded the river. (Jackson to Mrs. Jackson, Memoir).
In fact the river was high, the river was almost chest-deep at that point and when the 2nd Virginia came to the river crossing, it stopped. It was pondering: “Well, do we wait for a ferry? How do we get across? Do we need rope to help keep our balance?” and all of the sudden the 33rd Infantry of the Virginia Brigade just splashed right in to the water . . . 2nd Infantry standing there on the road – ruminating, contemplating the water – and the 33rd Infantry just rushes right in to the water. Well the 2nd Virginia was greatly embarrassed. So sure enough, as soon as the 33rd had left the bank, all of 2nd Virginia trudged right into the water, all except one company. A ferry did arrive and Company C, a Clarke County Company, got on a ferry boat and one of the locals carried them across the river. They didn’t get wet. (Frye).
But when we reached the Shenandoah River and found that we had to ford it, our enthusiasm cooled and for a time many of us held back, but just then the 33rd Virginia, under Colonel Cummings came up and marched right into the water. We were put to shame and waded right in. (Gold) NOTE: Gold’s account is modified by Mr. Frye’s information.-ED
We waded across the Shenandoah river with our clothes and cartridge boxes hung upon our muskets . . . (Opie).
. . . the men removed their clothes and suspended them from their muskets along with their cartridge boxes and haversacks. In this undraped fashion, the men splashed ahead in “a long struggle against a cold, breast-high current.” (Reidenbaugh).
Straggling gained fearful proportions as the men climbed the Blue Ridge and passed through Ashby’s Gap at midnight (Reidenbaugh).
Charles Ferrell appears to have been one of those who fell off the march at this stage-ED:
FERRELL, CHARLES F.: b. 8/23/42, Painter. enl. 4/20/61 at Harper’s Ferry in Co. B as Pvt. AWOL 7/17/61 while on march from Winchester to Manassas. Present again Sept-Oct. 1861. POW at Kernstown, 3/23/62 (Ft. Delaware). Exchanged 8/5/62. After exchange, went home without leave, and taken POW at home. On parole as of 10/31/62. Present again Nov.-Dec. 1862. Surrendered at Appomattox. d. 5/23/08. bur. Elmwood Cem., Shepherdstown, W.Va. 1850 Census: 18 380 387 Ferrall Jacob 31 M WChairmaker VA 19 380 387 Ferrall Susan 31 F W VA 20 380 387 Ferrall Charles 7 M W* VA
Upon setting up camp for rest, Jackson when asked who would do guard detail, said: “The poor fellows are exhausted. I’ll stand guard.” (Jackson, of course, was on horseback for this march from Winchester to Paris). (Reidenbaugh).
JULY 19 – (Friday) (early morning)
Col. J.E.B. Stuart‘s 1st Virginia Cavalry had little time to get to Manassas
Gen. Joe Johnston informed Col. J.E.B. Stuart that his 150 cavalry troopers (1st Virginia Cavalry) would have to get to Manassas by road in time for battle. This meant more than a full day of hard riding, while maintaining the horses. (Ballard, Driver).
(Near Falling Waters in Berkeley County, in early July, 1861, Stuart with his new recruits):
“Attention!” he cried. “Now I want to talk to you, men. You are fellows, and patriotic ones too, but you are ignorant of this kind of work, and I am teaching you. I want you to observe that a good man on a good horse can never be caught. Another thing: cavalry can trot away from anything, and a gallop is a gait unbecoming a soldier, unless he is going toward the enemy. Remember that. We gallop at the enemy, and trot away, always. Steady now! don’t break ranks!”
And as the words left his lips a shell from a battery half a mile to the rear hissed over our heads. “There,” he resumed, “I’ve been waiting for that, and watching those fellows. I knew they’d shoot too high, and I wanted you to learn how a shell sounds.” We spent the next day or two literally within the Federal lines. We were shelled, skirmished with, charged, and surrounded scores of times, until we learned to hold in regard our colonel’s masterly skill in getting into and out of perilous positions. He seemed to blunder into them in sheer recklessness, but in getting out he showed us the quality of his genius; and before we reached Manassas, we had learned, among other things, to entertain a feeling closely akin to worship for our brilliant and daring leader. We had begun to understand, too, how much force he meant to give his favorite dictum that the cavalry is the eye of the army. (Eggleston).
Stuart’s men grew tired and hungry during the hard ride. William Blackford resorted to extreme measures-ED
I was famishing when we halted for rest, but just then a man passed by with a huge bullfrog he had just caught . . and he told I might have it if I liked as he would not eat for all the world. It was but the work of a few moments to kindle a fire, dress the frog and broil him, not the hind legs, but the whole body; it was delicious and quite enough to serve as a pretty good meal. . . I had been in saddle all the day before and all the night, and without food during that time except the bullfrog; this together with my attack of sickness made me so weak that I could scarcely walk across the front yard of the house to knock on the front door. . . Some charming girls in wrappers, aroused from their slumbers, appeared at the upper windows and after hearing my tale hastened to dress and come down. . . A basin of cold water fresh from the well and snowy towels refreshed me inexpressibly, for the roads were suffocating in dust. Then a delicious breakfast, hot strong coffee in a huge cup, seemed to bring new life to my bones. (Blackford).
But I must tell who Comet was, for to a cavalry officer in active service his horse is his second self, his companion and friend, upon whom his very life may depend. . . He was a dark mahogany bay, almost brown, with black mane, tail and legs and a small white star on his forehead – great eyes standing out like those of a deer, small delicate muzzle – delicate ears in which you could see the veins, and which were in constant motion with every thought which passed through his mind – small and beautiful feet – and legs as hard as bone itself. (Blackford).
Jackson’s Brigade continues its march to the train connection at Piedmont.-ED
They then continued on up and over the Blue Ridge, back down the east side of the Blue Ridge and now we’re in Piedmont, Virginia. This was important, because at the Village of Piedmont, you could get on the train of the Manassas Gap Railroad. And so the 2nd Infantry rushed to Piedmont where they would get on the train. (Frye).
This halting and crossing delayed us for some time; but about two o’clock in the morning we arrived at the little village of Paris, where we remained sleeping until nearly dawn. I mean the troops slept, as my men were so exhausted that I let them sleep while I kept watch myself. Bright and early we resumed the march, and the head of our column arrived at Piedmont, on the Manassas Gap Railroad, about six o’clock in the morning; after eating our breakfast, the brigade commenced going aboard of the cars. . . (Jackson to Mrs. Jackson, Memoir).
Then we started on a quick march, marched all day and nearly all night, wading the Shenandoah river about 12 o’clock at night, halted at a small village called Paris about two hours, then resumed the march . . . about daylight, and arrived at Piedmont Station, on the Manassas Gap railroad. Our brigade was in the advance on the march, and when we arrived at the station the citizens for miles around came knocking in to see us, bringing us eatables of all kinds, and we fared sumptuously. There were not trains enough to transport all at once, and our regiment had to remain there until trains returned, which was about 3 o’clock in the afternoon. (Casler).
We had a regular picnic; plenty to eat, lemonade to drink, and beautiful young ladies to chat with. We finally got aboard, bade the ladies a long farewell, and went flying down the road, arriving at the Junction in the night. (Casler).
. . . and, marching all night, crossed the Blue Ridge Mountains and reached the Manassas Gap Railroad at daylight. At Piedmont Junction we ate breakfast, and were loaded into box cars and hurried on to the junction. (Opie).
Even here an interesting thing happened. These men would be placed in cattle cars. They would be tightly stuffed into these very tight structures on rails and be prepared to move. Not everybody in the 2nd Virginia was crammed into a cattle car. Lawson Botts’ Company, Company G from Charles Town, spied what looked to be a much better car – a passenger car, and so they immediately apprehended the car – the passenger car – and Company G, those boys, had comfortable seats. Well, all a sudden, this brash young man comes in and says: “You can’t take this car. This car can’t be yours.” (Frye).
Lawson Botts and the boys say: “Well, why not?” – and
Sandie Pendleton, who was on Johnston’s staff at the time, said: “Because this is for the officers of the Brigade.” And at that point the Botts’ Greys said: “We are equal to our officers. We deserve these seats, and you are going to have to be forced to remove us from this car.” End of discussion. They rode in luxury to Manassas Junction. And so that would be the last fun – fun moment for these boys of 2nd Virginia. That train ride to Manassas Junction, and then it became very serious. They would get off the train, they would march to Mitchell’s Ford along Bull Run; they would see the sight from the very first fighting at Blackburn’s Ford on July the 18th and they knew at this point, they now were going to face the Union Army in strength. They knew now that real business was at hand and most importantly – this is probably what was happening on that train ride – these men were in conversations. They were in conversations about the future of their new country, the Confederacy. They understood the weight of responsibility that was now upon their shoulders. What was going to happen? Would they stand and fight? Will they be drilled and disciplined to the point that they would withstand bullets and shots from cannon? Would they indeed be able to withstand the attack of the enemy. Would they survive or would they die? (Frye)
. . . after eating our breakfast, the brigade commenced going aboard of the cars. . . and the same day all that could be carried arrived at Manassas about four o’clock in the afternoon, without much suffering to my men or to myself. The next day we rested, and the following day was the memorable 21st of July. (Jackson to Mrs. Jackson, Memoir).
JULY 19 (Friday) – JULY 20 (Saturday)
. . . By night fall we are there and in bivouac. . . (Gold).
. . . that evening we got on the cars (at Piedmont Station) and arrived at the Junction that night. (Casler).
Upon our arrival, we were unloaded, and the trains were hurried back for other troops. We marched to a neighboring thicket and bivouacked for the night. After supper, a number of our company were seated around a camp-fire, when one of our comrades, William Woodward, exclaimed, “Boys, to-morrow I will be killed; but, Opie, you will survive the war!” I attributed his observations to the apprehensions of a timid nature, and said to him, “If you feel in this way, do not go into the battle.” I shall never forget his reply, “Yes, I will; I do not fear death. It is my destiny, and I will meet it like a man.” The next day that noble hero fell at my side, at the Henry house, pierced by a minie ball. His last words were, “Give me liberty or give me death.” Since then, I have ever, under all circumstances, believed in destiny, a belief which saves one from many unnecessary fears. (Opie).
JULY 21 (Sunday) – THE MAYHEM
The next morning we marched about four miles east, where they had had a battle on Thursday (July 18th-ED). We stayed there all that day and night, expecting an attack every hour. (Casler).
(That-ED) Sunday morning our forces were attacked four miles higher up, and we made a quick march from there to the battle-field . . . where we arrived about 12. They had been fighting all morning, but about 10 they got at it in earnest. We got there (that is, Jackson’s Brigade) just in the heat of the battle. . . (Casler).
. . . At day break we are marched to Blackburn’s Ford on Bull Run, where two days before a fight had taken place. But no foe appears to us and we are marched westward. . . (Gold).
STUART’S CAVALRY STILL EN ROUTE
NOTE: Capt. William A. Morgan was with J.E.B. Stuart and the 1st Virginia Cavalry that were following the infantry to Manassas from Winchester en route some 36 hours.-ED.
We left the neighborhood of Winchester very suddenly and marched day and night for the junction which we reached on Saturday (July 20-ED). We camped that night on what was the battlefield the next day (July 21-ED) Sunday bright and early, by dawn the conflict began with the booming of artillery and the sharp reports of musketry, mingled with the hoarse commands given by the officers, the screams of the dying horses and the groans of the wounded which was kept up without intermission until moonlight. (Morgan).
The reveille aroused us early on that fateful morning, and we ate a hasty breakfast, and, while yet eating, heard the slow and funereal booming of a distant cannon. It was “Long Tom,” a Federal rifle cannon, sounding the death knell of many a gallant soldier who fell that day. The long roll sounded, and we fell into ranks; and, the regiments having formed into line, great bolts of white cotton were brought out, which the officers tore into strips, and we tied a piece around our hats and another to our left arms. Mouldy, and the rest of his crew, never cut such a ridiculous figure as did we. We presented the appearance of so many lunatics. The men looked at each other, then up and down the line, and raised one loud and general shout of laughter. Comments were numerous. One fellow said, “I feel like a fool,” whereupon a comrade observed, “I suppose, then, you feel quite natural.” Another swore that we would frighten the Yankees to death before we could get a shot at them. I really think our very appearance, when we made the final charge, did help to confuse them. After we were thus decorated, we were given the watchword in a whisper, for fear the enemy, who was two miles off, might hear it. It was “Our Homes.” The next thing was the signal. When you met any one, and were in doubt as to who he was, you were to throw your right hand across your left breast and shout, “Our Homes!” holding your gun in your left hand. They, however, failed to tell us that, while we were going through this Masonic performance, we thus gave the other fellow an opportunity to blow our brains out, if we had any! Now you laugh and look incredulous, and, it may be, shake your head, reader; but this is a solemn fact. I often wonder if such a comedy was ever before or since enacted under such dramatic and tragic conditions. The fact is, our generals were as green as gourds in June. We destroyed on that morning cotton enough to make shirts for half the army, but cotton was king that day at least. (Opie).
NOON – 1 PM
. . . we arrived (to the main battlefield.-ED) about 12. . . (Casler).
. . . The brigade was ordered to the left of our army to reinforce our troops then engaged with McDowell’s advance. We moved into line southeast of the Henry house, on a little crest, in front of a pine thicket. The battle was then raging and the Confederates were retiring. As the dead and wounded were carried past, we realized for the first time the horrors of battle. Company C, commanded by Captain Nelson, was on the left of our regiment, the Botts Greys, Company G, was next in line to Company C, and as the men in the companies fell into line according to size, my place was on the extreme left of Company G, next to Tom Burnett, our fourth corporal, and adjoining the right of Company C. Captain Nelson was at the right of his company, and near him were the Randolphs, Grubbs, Cooke, and others of large stature. On the left of Company C was the Thirty-third regiment of our brigade, the Fourth, Fifth, and Twenty-seventh being on the right. (Baylor).
. . . instead of moving forward to his (Bee’s-ED) immediate support, we were halted and ordered to lie down in line of battle. The firing in our front was terrific, and why we did not render immediate and timely assistance to Bee I could never learn. We lost several of our men while lying in this position, and presently discovered that the firing drew nearer and nearer. At first a few wounded men appeared, then squads of stragglers, and, finally, crowds of men without order or organization. Some of them, carrying their dead and wounded, rushed headlong through our ranks to the rear. Bee rode about and through them, endeavoring in vain to rally them. When near our lines, he turned his horse and rode, unaccompanied, over the brow of the hill, and, like Hasdrubal at the battle of the Metaurus, he determined not to survive his people. It was when endeavoring to rally the remnants of his brigade that he is said to have remarked, “There stands Jackson and his men like a stone wall.” History does not explain this discrepancy: instead of standing, we were lying flat upon the ground, by order of General Jackson. Not until Bee’s Brigade was overwhelmed and driven from the field did we receive orders. (Opie).
When his brigade was drawn up in line of battle at Manassas, and the enemy were finding our range pretty accurately and sending quite a variety of shot our way, I noticed the approach of three men on horseback directly in the rear of our line, one of whom called to us to open space for them to pass through towards the enemy. This was done, and they rode along our front, fully exposed for half a mile, in order to get a good observation of the enemy’s position. President Davis and Generals Jackson and Beauregard were the three men. It was surprising that none of the three were seriously hurt, though General Jackson was shot in the hand at the time. . . (Humphreys).
The enemy’s artillery shelled us in this position for an hour or more, doing little damage. During this cannonade I remember General Beauregard riding in our front and the rousing cheer we gave him. Sam Wright broke ranks, ran forward and shook his hand. This was our first view of Beauregard, and his appearance is still indelibly impressed on my mind. (Baylor).
1 PM
About one o’clock the fence skirting the road at the foot of the hill was pulled down to let our batteries (Griffin’s and Ricketts’) pass up to the plateau. The batteries were in the open field near us. (Goss).
It was at this time that McDowell committed, as I think, the fatal blunder of the day, by ordering both Ricketts’ and Griffin’s batteries to cease firing and move across the turnpike to the top of Henry Hill, and take position on the west side of the house. (Imboden).
2:30 PM
The batteries of Ricketts and Griffin, by their fine discipline, wonderful daring, and matchless skill, were the prime features in the fight. The battle was not lost till they were lost. (Fry, Battles & Leaders, Vol. 1, P. 189)
Griffin moves two guns of his battery to the right of Ricketts, where the 33rd Virginia Infantry captures the guns. The remainder of Griffin’s battery withdraws from Henry Hill. (Ballard).
I will only say that, after taking our position on the left of the brigade, we laid upon the ground listening to the musketry and cannonading going on to our right – or, rather, somewhat in front of our right – from the Confederate forces, which was being vigorously responded to by the Yankees. The ‘Henry house’ was in front of our brigade, over the hill — the upper part of the house visible — and the Robinson house was to the right of that a few hundred yards. Occasional shells would explode over our regiment, and the solemn wonderment written on the faces of the men as they would crane their heads around to look out for falling branches was almost amusing. Colonel Cummings and
Lieutenant Colonel Lee were in front of our regiment, perhaps a hundred yards, stooping down, and occasionally standing to get a view over the crest of the hill that rose gently before us for a little over a hundred yards. The musketry kept up on our right, and then Colonels Cummings and Lee were seen to rise and, bending down, to come back with somewhat quickened steps to the regiment. I remember, as Colonel Cummings drew near, he called out: “Boys, they are coming, now wait until they get close before you fire.” Almost immediately several pieces of artillery, their horses in front, made their appearance on the hill in front of us, curving as if going into battery, and at the same time I descried the spear-point and upper portion of a United States flag, as it rose in the hands of its bearer over the hill; then I saw the bearer, and the heads of the men composing the line of battle to the right and left of him. At the sight several of our men rose from the ranks, leveled their muskets at the line, and, although I called out, “Do not fire yet!” – it was of no use; they fired and then the shrill cry of Colonel Cummings was heard, “Charge!” and away the regiment went, firing as they ran, into the ranks of the enemy, and particularly at the battery towards which our line rapidly approached. Although bearing a non-commissioned officer’s sword, I had obtained a cartridge box, belted it on, and had in some way secured a flintlock musket, with which one of our companies was armed. This gun, after two futile efforts, I fired at a man on horseback in the battery, one of the drivers, I think. I got near enough to the battery to see that it was thoroughly disabled, horses and men falling, and our line driving ahead, when I felt the sting of a bullet tearing a piece from my side, just under my cartridge box, which I had pulled well around on the right and front of my waist. (Randolph Barton to John Casler, January 15, 1897, quoted in Casler).
Jackson had, within the half hour before, passed along his brigade the order not to fire until the enemy was within thirty paces, and then charge. But the shells of the enemy had caused some confusion with the left company of my regiment, (8 companies in the 33rd Va. Infantry Regiment.-ED) and when Griffin’s Battery showed itself on the hill in front of us, and occasional shots began to fall among us from the enemy moving towards our left to flank us, when the tumult of the broken ranks of Bee and Bartow was threatening the steadiness of our right, and the enemy, with exultant shouts, was pressing on, I (Cummings.-ED) . . . thought if those guns get into battery and pour one discharge of grape and canister into the ranks of my raw recruits the day is gone . . . (Cummings to Casler, both of the Va. 33rd Infantry, September 20, 1896; quoted in Casler)
We were watching to see what they would do next, when a terrible volley was poured into them (the Union men in Griffin’s battery.-ED). It was like a pack of Fourth-of-July fire-crackers under a barrel, magnified a thousand times. The Rebels had crept upon them unawares, and the men at the batteries were about all killed or wounded. (Goss).
. . . I heard small-arms on-our-left, and turning in that direction, saw the Thirty-third regiment engaging the enemy. I recollect their first volley and how unfavorably it affected me. It was apparently made with guns raised at an angle of forty-five degrees, and I was fully assured that their bullets would not hit the Yankees, unless they were nearer heaven than they were generally located by our people. To my great astonishment and admiration, however, I soon saw these same men gallantly charging a battery in their front, and my spirits rose. Our men clamored to go forward to assist them, but our officers refused permission, and the golden opportunity was accordingly lost. (Baylor).
When in their advanced and perilous position, and just after their infantry supports had been driven over the slopes, a fatal mistake occurred. A regiment of infantry came out of the woods on Griffin’s right, and as he was in the act of opening upon it with canister, he was deterred by the assurance of Major Barry, the chief of artillery, that it “was a regiment sent by Colonel Heintzelman to support the battery.” A moment more and the doubtful regiment proved its identity by a deadly volley, and, as Griffin states in his official report,”every cannoneer was cut down and a large number of horses killed, leaving the battery (which was without support excepting in name) perfectly helpless.” (Frye, Battles & Leaders, Vol. 1, P. 189).
Property The New York Public Library
One of the artillery-men there engaged has since told me that . . . they saw a regiment advancing, and the natural inference was that they were Rebels. But an officer insisted it was a New York regiment which was expected for support, and so no order was given to fire on them. “Then came a tremendous explosion of musketry,” said the artillery-man, “and all was confusion. Wounded men with dripping wounds were clinging to caissons, to which were attached frightened and wounded horses. Horses attached to caissons rushed through the infantry ranks. I saw three horses galloping off, dragging a fourth, which was dead. The dead cannoneers lay with the rammers of the guns and sponges and lanyards still in their hands. (Goss).
The battery was annihilated by those volleys in a moment. Those who could get away didn’t wait. We had no supports near enough to protect us properly, and the enemy were within seventy yards of us when that volley was fired. Our battery being demolished in that way was the beginning of our defeat at Bull Run,” said this old regular. (He added: “I saw the Rebels advance and try to drag away those eleven guns three times, but they were driven back by steady volleys from our infantry. Then some of our men tried to drag the guns away, but were ordered to take their places in the ranks to fight. They couldn’t be spared!” (Goss).
As I approached the ground, General Jackson, whose brigade was then engaged, sent me word to protect his flanks, but particularly his left flank. I divided the regiment, giving Major Swan half (I had but 300 men for duty), and with the remainder hurried up to Jackson’s left, leaving his right to Swan. Entering a skirt of woods, I received intelligence that the enemy was rapidly outflanking us.
I hastened forward through several fences just as a regiment dressed in red was running in disorder towards a skirt of woods where the fire had been heaviest. I took them to be ours, and exclaimed with all my might: “Don’t run, boys we are here.” They paid very little attention to this appeal. When passing in column of twos through a narrow gap to gain the same held and very close to them I saw in their hands the U. S. flag. I ordered the charge, which was handsomely done, stopping their movement and checking the advance upon Jackson. I rallied again for another charge, as only a portion of my command was in the first, owing to the difficulty of closing up; but finding the enemy had gained the woods to my right and front, leaving no ground for charging, I retired to the next field to give them another dash if they penetrated beyond the woods, which, however, they did not attempt. (Stuart Report, OR, Series, Chapter IX, P. 483).
The regiment charged was the Fire Zouaves, and I am informed by prisoners subsequently taken that their repulse by the cavalry began the panic so fearful afterwards in the enemy’s ranks. (Stuart Report, OR, Series, Chapter IX, P. 483).
Our Cavalry was drawn up in rear of the lines of infantry . . . when the order came for us to do our part, that is to charge the enemy which of course we did, we charged up to their right flank upon which the New York Zouaves Regt., formerly commanded by Col. Ellsworth, were stationed. Owing to the dust and smoke which was to vision, impenetrable, the enemy did not see us until we were among them, with our pistols and sabers we charged them through and returned, cutting and riding them down in every direction. The charge was made just in the nick of time for, believe me, we were whipped beyond doubt . . . (Morgan).
Col. Stuart and myself were riding at the head of the column as the grand panorama opened before us. . . about seventy yards distant. . . and in strong relief against the smoke beyond stretched a brilliant line of scarlet – a regiment of New York Zouaves in column of fours, marching out of the Sudley road to attack the flank of our line of battle. . . they were all looking toward the battle and did not see us . . Col. waved his sabre for the rear to oblique to the left. . . I had not thought which of my weapons to draw until I started . . . I seized and cocked (carbine rifle-ED) that, holding it in my right hand with my thumb and finger on the trigger, I thought I would fire it and then use it for a crushing blow . . . (Blackford).
The tremendous impetus of horses at full speed broke through their line like chaff before grain . . . (I) fixed my eye on a tall fellow . .I then plunged the spurs into Comet’s flanks . . . he rose to make the leap; but he was too close and going too fast to rise higher than the breast of the man and he struck him full on the chest rolling him over and over and under his hoofs and knocking him about ten feet backwards . . . I leaned down from the saddle, rammed the muzzle of the carbine into the stomach of my man and pulled the trigger. I could not help but feeling a little sorry for the fellow as he lifted his handsome face to mine, he tried to get his bayonet up to meet me; but he was too slow, for the carbine blew a hole as big as my arm clear through him. (Blackford).
I now found my self perishing from thirst from the intense heat and the violence of my exertions . . . there was a small branch . . . its banks were lined with the enemy’s wounded who had crawled there to drink, and many had died with their heads in the water, the dark blood flowing into and gradually mingling with the stream . . . at last, I had to lie down and watch for the blood stains to pass. . . It was a long time before I could get Comet to touch it . . . (Blackford).
JACKSON’S LEFT FLANK EXPOSED
The Thirty-third took the battery, but not being reinforced, was forced to fall back in some disorder, which resulted in leaving the left of our regiment exposed to an enfilading fire, and the enemy soon took advantage of the situation and opened on Companies C and G at short range. Under this galling fire, with some of our officers shouting to the men, “don’t fire. they are friends,” our men were somewhat confused, but soon realizing the true situation, briskly returned the enemy’s fire with telling effect. I have since that time been in many engagements, yet have never seen men act as coolly and boldly under such disadvantageous circumstances as our men did on that occasion. Companies C and G, though suffering heavily, were unflinching and holding their own against largely superior numbers. (Baylor).
Men who were casualties that day from the 2nd Virginia Infantry Regiment’s Companies C & G:
MANNING, WILLIAM PRICE: b. 12/8/44 in Jefferson Co. near Duffields. 5’7″. light complexion, blue eyes, dark hair. Student. enl. 4/22/61 at Harper’s Ferry in Co. G of 2nd Va. Inf. as Pvt. Wded. in breast and face at 1st Manassas. 7/21/61. Absent due to wound through Sept/Oct, 1861. Last Infantry record shows him absent on special duty Nov/Dec. 1861. enl. at Harrisonburg in Co. B of 12th Va. Cav. as Pvt. POW near Sharpsburg. Md 9/28 or 9/30/62 (Ft. McHenry. 2/13/63 To Ft. Monroe for exchange. 2/14/63 Admitted Gen. Hosp. Petersburg. 2/18/63 debilitas. Released from hosp. 2/24/63. POW at Pommellville 8/2/63 (Ft. McHenry. 6/12/63). To Ft. Monroe for exchange, 6/28/63. Present Nov/Dec. 1863. Absent and sick Jan/Feb. 1864. Present March/April 1864. No futher record. Paroled at Charles Town, W.Va. Postwar received medical degree from University of Md.; physician at Shepherdstown, W.VA, until 1882; then moved to Washington, D.C. d. 2/11/01 at Washington. D.C. 1850 Census: 35 956 969 Manning Nathaniel W. 37 M WFarmer 8,000 VA 36 956 969 Manning Martha 37 F W VA 37 956 969 Manning Frances 13 F W VA 38 956 969 Manning Mary M. 9 F W VA 39 956 969 Manning William P. 6 M W* VA 40 956 969 Manning Edward B. 3 M W VA 41 956 969 Smith John W. 25 M WTeacher of Music CT 42 956 969 Redman George 50 M W VA 1 956 969 Redman William 21 M W VA
TIMBERLAKE, SETH MASON: b. 11/16/32 at Winchester. Farmer. enl. 6/19/61 at Winchester in Co. G of 2nd Va. Inf. as Pvt. Wded. in both legs at 1st Manassas, 7/21/61. Returned to Regt. from sick leave, 10/12/61. Last infantry record shows him absent sick, Nov./Dec. 1861. enl. 4/17/62 at Conrad’s Store in Co. B of 12th Va. Cav. as 1st Sgt. Nicknamed “the fighting sergeant” and “Uncle Seth.” Unofficial source (Baylor) says horse KIA at Front Royal, 8/11/62. Unofficial source (Baylor) says wded. east of Charles Town in early Dec. 1862. Absent on horse detail, Nov./Dec. 1863. Present Jan./Feb.-March/April 1864. No further record. Paroled at Greensboro, N.C., 4/26/65. Postwar, went to New York in 1866 and was employed in mercantile business in Brooklyn; then returned to Charles Town, W.Va.; then moved to Staunton area where he served as a steward of Western Hosp. d. 12/18/07 at home of his son in Brooklyn, N.Y. bur. Tinkling Spring Church Cem., Fisherviile, Va. (family lived at Cool Spring on Lloyd Road in 1850, today the site of Craftworks.-ED)
ISLER, CHARLES H.: b. 183O? Farmer. enl. 4/18/61 at Charles Town in Co. G of 2nd Va. Inf. as Pvt. Wded. at 1st Manassas, 7/21/61. Last infantry record shows him still absent from wound, Nov/Dec. 1861. enl. in Co. B of 12th Va. Cav. as Pvt. (date and location of enl. not stated). Unofficial source (Baylor) says POW at McGaheysville, 4/27/62. Baylor also says wded. just east of Charles Town in early Dec. 1862. Only official record is MWIA at St. James Church, Brandy Station, 6/9/63. bur. Edge Hill Cem., Charles Town, W.Va. (family lived at Beeler’s Mill property, located today on Kabletown Road.-ED) 1850 Census: 35 1180 1195 Isler Abraham 56 M WFarmer 15,000 VA 36 1180 1195 Isler Sarah 50 F W VA 37 1180 1195 Isler William H. 16 M W VA 38 1180 1195 Isler Charles H. 11 M W* VA
AISQUITH, CHARLES W.: b. in Jefferson Co. 5’8″. fair complexion, blue eyes, dark hair. Clerk. enl. 4/18/61 at Charles Town in Co. G as Pvt. To Sgt., date not listed. Wded. in neck at 1st Manassas, 7/21/61. Returned to duty 9/25/61. Absent sick Nov./Dec. 1861. Present again 4/30-10/31, 1862. Hospitalized 4/5/63, chronic diarrhea. Last official entry shows him commissioned as hospital steward, 6/1/63. d. 4/2/92. bur. Zion Episcopal Cem., Charles Town, W.Va.
BRISCOE, THOMAS W.: b. 9/4/33. Physician. enl. 4/18/61 at Charles Town in Co. G as Pvt. MWIA in chest at 1st Manassas, 7/21/61. d. 7/24/61 at hospital at Culpeper Court House. bur. Zion Episcopal Cem., Charles Town, W.Va. 1850 Census: 31 1321 1336 Briscoe George 27 M WArmourer VA 32 1321 1336 Briscoe Sarah R. 22 F W VA 33 1321 1336 Briscoe Frances 4 F W VA 34 1321 1336 Briscoe George W. 1 M W VA 35 1321 1336 Hicks Frances 14 F W VA 36 1321 1336 Power John W. 23 M WLabourer VA 37 1321 1336 Briscoe Thomas 59 M WFarmer 28,000 VA 38 1321 1336 Briscoe Juliet W. 48 F W VA 39 1321 1336 Briscoe Ellen M. 30 F W VA 40 1321 1336 Briscoe Ann 23 F W VA 41 1321 1336 Briscoe James 21 M W VA 42 1321 1336 Briscoe Thomas W. 17 M W* VA
1860 Census, P. 120: Briscoe, Thomas W (b: 1833),* Briscoe, Thomas (b: 1791), Briscoe, Juliet W (b: 1802), Briscoe, Frances A (b: 1845), Lawrence, Lewis M (b: 1832)
BUTLER, FRANCIS G.: b. 4/10/21. Farmer. enl. 4/18/61 at Charles Town in Co. G as Pvt. MWIA in chest at 1st Manassas, 7/21/61. d. 7/25/61 at Pringle’s House, Manassas. bur. Edge Hill Cem., Charles Town, W.Va. (Home may have been on the bend in Ridge Road opposite Glenburnie farm owned in 2011 by the Casserleys.-ED) 1850 Census: 10 456 463 Butler Frances G. 29 M WFarmer* KY 11 456 463 Butler Hannah S. F. 28 F W VA 12 456 463 Butler Sarah E. 4 F W VA 13 456 463 Butler John D. 2 M W VA
PAINTER, JAMES H.: b. 1841? Laborer. enl. 5/11/61 at Harper’s Ferry in Co. G as Pvt. Wded in the thigh at 1st Manassas, 7/21/61. Returned to regt. 10/1/61. Last official entry shows him present, Nov/Dec· 1861. d. 1910. bur. Greenhill Cem., Stephens City. 1850 Census: 19 929 942 Painter George 45 M WLabourer VA 20 929 942 Painter Barbara 46 F W VA 21 929 942 Painter Mary J. 15 F W VA 22 929 942 Painter Jacob 13 M W VA 23 929 942 Painter James 10 M W* VA
ENGLISH, ROBERT M.: b. 9/27/24. Farmer. enl. 4/18/61 at Charles Town in Co. G as Lt. Wded. in arm, leg, and breast at 1st Manassas, 7/21/61. Returned to duty 10/25/61. KIA at Port Republic, 6/9/62, bur. Edge Hill Cem., Charles Town, W.Va. (lived at the “Riddle Farm” located east of Country Club Road and north of the intersection with Route 340.-ED) 1860 Census: English, Robert M (b: 1826)*
2:30-3:00 PM
NOTE: The 5th Virginia Infantry (that John Opie was in.-ED), Hampton Legion, 4th Alabama Infantry, and 7th Georgia Infantry recapture Ricketts’ guns. Gen. Bee is mortally wounded and Gen. Bartow is killed. Ricketts is wounded and captured. The 11th Massachusetts falls back to the Manassas-Sudley road. But Henry Hill is recaptured again by the Union by the 69th New York Infantry and 38th New York Infantry. Opie’s unit is forced to withdraw. (Ballard)
“Attention! Attention!” we sprang to our feet and were ordered forward at a double-quick up the hill, until we reached the Henry house, where the men broke ranks and deployed along the yard and garden fences, not a few crouching behind the dwelling and outhouses. The enemy poured into us a terrific fire of musketry, and their batteries fairly rained shells. Immediately in our front, was a regiment of New York Zouaves, whose red uniforms made them conspicuous targets for our marksmen, and we literally mowed them down. On our right, in an old road running at a right angle with the line in our front was a mass of infantry, which, being protected from our fire by a high embankment, killed and wounded a great many of our men. William Woodward and Joab Seally fell. The deadly missiles fell around us like hailstones. The shouts of the combatants, the groans of the wounded and dying, and the explosion of shells made a complete pandemonium. The atmosphere was black with the smoke of the battle, which raged with great violence on both sides. O’Donnell, Scanlan and Steinbuck fall. A boy from Bee’s Brigade is shot in the forehead, and dies without a groan. He did not tell us his name, but simply asked if he could fall in with our company. Poor boy, he died among strangers like a hero. I felt like taking him in my arms, but that was no time for sentiment; besides, it was to be expected. . . (Opie).
A private in our regiment, Rippetoe by name, exchanged shots at very close range with one of the enemy, and both commenced to reload, when Rippetoe, seeing that his enemy would reload before he could, picked up a rock and killed him. . . (Opie).
One fellow fell, shot on the eyebrow by a spent ball, making a slight wound, and he, kicking and tossing his arms about him, yelled, “O Lordy! I am killed! I am killed! O Lordy, I am dead!” I saw the fellow was not hurt much, only alarmed, and I said, “Poss,” (as we called him,) “are you really killed?” “Yes, 0 Lordy, I am killed!” “Well,” said I, “if you are really killed, why in the devil don’t you stop hallooing?” He is alive to-day, but he never forgave me. Finally, while loading and firing as rapidly as I could, taking rest on the fence, I found it impossible to get the ball in my gun, a minie musket. I examined it, and found that a ball had struck and indented it at the muzzle; and, therefore, throwing it down, I looked around and found that I was alone with the dead and wounded. I picked up another musket, and ran through the yard and down the slope of the plateau, where I found Stannard’s Battery, and, upon inquiry, was directed to a piece of woodland, passing through which, I found the brigade reforming under the immediate supervision of General Jackson, who had been wounded in the hand. I have never seen a Southern history which relates the fact that Jackson’s Brigade was driven from its first position. When I returned to the regiment, upon inquiry, the men said they had been ordered back—by whom, no one knew. I certainly heard no such order, and I believe, to this day, that the men fell back of their own accord, as they were subjected to both a front and flank fire for over an hour. (Opie)
To my right was one of our batteries, in front of which I ran in my eagerness to get with our people, when a cannon was discharged. . . I will here relate how I used the signal and watchword during the course of the battle. . . Still running, I threw my right hand across my left breast and shouted, “Our Homes!” Another gun was fired; I repeated the signal and shouted the watchword; yet another gun went off; and, still running at the top of my speed, I continuously beat upon my breast, shouting, “Our Homes! Our Homes! Our Homes!” When I passed the battery I halted and asked a powder-begrimed officer what in the devil they meant by shooting at me. Whereupon he replied, “We are not shooting at you, you d—d fool, we are shooting at the Yankees.” As I agreed with the officer that I was a D. F., I did not resent his observation, but asked him where the brigade went. . . . (Opie).
The batteries and Henry Hill position of Ricketts and Griffin changed hands six times throughout the afternoon, ending with Confederate possession. This excerpt from Gen. Jackson’s report suggests this fight for the batteries.-ED:
Lieutenant-Colonel Lackland, of the Second Regiment, followed by the highly meritorious right of the Second, took possession of and endeavored to remove from the field the battery which Colonel Cummings had previously been forced to abandon; but after removing one of the pieces some distance was also forced by the enemys fire to abandon it. . . The brigade, in connection with other troops, took seven field pieces in addition to the battery captured by Colonel Cummings. The enemy, though repulsed in the center, succeeded in turning our flanks. But their batteries having been disabled by our fire, and also abandoned by reason of the infantry charges, the victory was soon completed by the fire of small-arms and occasional shots from a part of our artillery, which I posted on the next crest in rear. (Jackson’s Report, OR Series 1. Vol. 2, Chapter IX, p. 482).
3:30-4:00 PM
At 3:30 p.m. the advance of the enemy having reached a position which called for the use of the bayonet, I gave the command for the charge of the more than brave Fourth and Twenty-seventh, and, under commanders worthy of such regiments, they, in the order in which they were posted, rushed forward obliquely to the left of our batteries, and . . . pierced the enemy’s center, and by cooperating with the victorious Fifth and other forces soon placed the field essentially in our possession. (Jackson’s Report, OR Series 1. Vol. 2, Chapter IX, P. 482).
Having reformed his brigade, Jackson exclaimed, “We must give them the bayonet, men; they cannot stand the bayonet!” At this moment men began to cry out, “We are flanked! We are flanked!” pointing to the left. In full view, about a mile from us, we saw several regiments wheeling into line. We could not determine at that distance to which side they belonged. We could see no cotton decorations and could not distinguish their flags or uniforms. General Jackson quickly dispatched several mounted men to learn who they were, and to report as speedily as possible. We waited for a few minutes in suspense, when the men came galloping back, yelling at the top of their voices, “It is Kirby Smith.” It is Kirby Smith!” Whereupon General Jackson sent his aides to the different colonels of regiments with orders to charge at once and preserve the alignment. We sprang forward, five crack Virginia regiments, with a yell that almost shook the universe. Simultaneously, Kirby Smith, with Elzey and Early, was plunging, with fixed bayonets, into the right flank of the enemy. We pass our artillery and the cannon of the enemy concentrate their fire upon us. Men, dead and wounded, fall all around; but there is no halt or pause. “Close up, men! Steady there! Close up!” There is no firing on our part. The infantry of the enemy, which had been heavily reinforced, poured volley after volley into us. Yet the command, “Close up, men! Close, up! Forward! Steady, men!” is all that we heed. We reach Ricketts’ Battery. It is deserted by all save the dead and wounded. There, shot through the thigh, between two of his guns, the gallant old hero lay, dead men and horses piled around him. Our lieutenant-colonel, Wm. H. Harman, said, “Why, Ricketts, is this you?” “Yes,” said he, “but I do not know you, sir.” “We were in the Mexican War together; Harman is my name.” Ricketts then recognized him, and they shook hands, literally across the bloody chasm. Harman sent for an ambulance and had him removed from the field. (Opie).
The Federal infantry had reformed and made its last stand. Half-way between them and Ricketts’ Battery, I saw a fine horse, with a brass-mounted saddle on, standing by a bush, on which the bridle was caught. I could not withstand the temptation, so off I rushed for the horse, in the midst of the musketry fire of both sides. I reached the horse, mounted and rode him back, amidst the shouts of our men and the balls of the enemy, not one of which struck me. While all these things were being enacted, the most striking picture I witnessed that day was that of a big soldier of our company by the name of Jas. Frazier sitting astride “Long Tom,” yelling like a Comanche. The rush at Ricketts’ Battery disordered our men, and they halted and began loading and firing back at the enemy’s infantry. (Opie).
Here the major of the regiment, afterwards the colonel, W. H. H. Baylor, who was killed at the Second Manassas, gave me a five-cent star off his coat collar and took my fine horse, worth $200. I thought, at the time, the star made me a hero, but afterwards would have preferred the horse. (Opie).
Recovering again from our confusion, incident to the capture of the battery, we were again closed up and ordered forward, but this time loading and firing as we went. The Federal infantry kept up a weak and desultory firing until we were within about two hundred yards of them, when, regardless of the threats and expostulations of their officers, they broke ranks, and many of them divesting themselves of all impedimenta, such as guns, canteens and cartridge belts — all sought safety in flight; in other words, they became panic-stricken, which means insane from fear. No one who has not seen an army panic-stricken, can realize what a fearful sight it is to behold. Men and officers become lost to all reason, all honor and all hope. They overcome all obstacles in their mad flight; fences, rivers, and even armed men, are disregarded, and nothing can stop them but absolute exhaustion. (Opie).
Now, my Northern friend, this was you this time; but, later on in the war, I saw an army of ours do the same as you did here, with much less excuse. (Opie).
4:00 PM
This position Jackson held until nearly four o’clock, when three of his regiments charged out in front, breaking the center of General McDowell’s line. Just at this time, too, an unexpected thing occurred, which settled the day. (Humphreys)
General Kirby Smith, with about fifteen hundred men, mostly Marylanders, was having his command conveyed by railroad to the junction, which was General Beauregard’s base. Hearing the roar of our battle, and knowing that if he went on toward the junction he would get farther away from the field of contest, he stopped the train at the nearest point, and guided by the sound, attempted to join us, but, fortunately for us, came out of the woods upon the flank of McDowell’s army, pretty well to their rear. They seeing this, thought it a trap, threw down their muskets, cut loose the horses from their guns and converted their whole army into a fleeing mob. From the crest of a high hill I could see a vast multitude all flying for dear life, scattered for three miles in width, and as far as the eye could see looking North. (Humphreys).
5 PM
But now the most extraordinary spectacle I have ever witnessed took place. I had been moving forward to the attack, some fifteen or twenty thousand strong in full view, and for some reason had turned away in another direction for a moment, when someone exclaimed, pointing to the battlefield, “Look! Look!” Where those “well-dressed” well defined lines, with clear spaces between, had been steadily pressing forward, the whole field was a confused swarm of men, like bees, running away as fast as their legs could carry them, with all order and organization abandoned. In a moment more the whole valley was filled with them as far as the eye could reach. They plunged through Bull Run wherever they came to it regardless of fords or bridges, and there many drowned. Muskets, cartridge boxes, belts, knapsacks, haversacks, and blankets were thrown away in their mad race, that nothing might impede their flight. In the reckless haste the artillery drove over every one who did not get out of the way. Ambulance and wagon drivers cut the traces and dashed off the mules. In crossing Cub Run a shell exploded in a team and blocked the way and twenty-eight pieces fell into our hands. By stepping or jumping from one thing to another of what had been thrown away in the stampede, I could have gone long distances without ever letting my foot touch the ground, and this over a belt forty or fifty yards wide on each side of the road. (Blackford).
Soon after the battle Gen. Jackson writes his wife:
“Mr. James Davidson’s son, Frederick, and William Page (son of my dear friend) were killed. Young Riley’s life was saved by his Bible, which was in the breast-pocket of his coat. . . My finger troubles me considerably, and renders it very difficult for me to write, as the wind blows my paper, and I can only use my right hand. I have an excellent camping-ground about eight miles from Manassas on the road to Fairfax Court House. I am sleeping in a tent, and have requested that the one which my darling had the loving kindness to order for me should not be sent. (Jackson to Mrs. Jackson, Memoir).
CASUALTIES IN THE STONEWALL BRIGADE
2,600 in Jackson’s Brigade (Ballard, P. 20).
It is with pain that I have to report as killed 11 officers, 14 non-commissioned officers, and 86 privates; wounded, 22 officers, 27 non-commissioned officers, and 319 privates; and missing, 1 officer (Jackson’s Report, OR Series I, Chapter IX, P. 483)
AFTER
Manassas, July 22d. My precious Pet, — Yesterday we fought a great battle and gained a great victory, . . . Although under a heavy fire for several continuous hours, I received only one wound, the breaking of the longest finger of my left hand; but the doctor says the finger can be saved, it was broken about midway between the hand and knuckle, the ball passing on the side next the forefinger. Had it struck the centre, I should have lost the finger. My horse was wounded, but not killed. Your coat got an ugly wound near the hip, but my servant, who is very handy, has so far repaired it that it doesn’t show very much. . . . The battle was the hardest that I have ever been in, but not near so hot in its fire. I commanded in the centre more particularly, though one of my regiments extended to the right for some distance. There were other commanders on my right and left. Whilst great credit is due to other parts of our gallant army. . . (Jackson to Mrs. Jackson, Memoirs).
Manassas Junction, July 24, 1861. Dear Father and Mother: I seat myself once more to write you a few lines, to let you know where I am and that I am still alive. Last Sunday was such a day as I had never seen, and I hope to God I never will see another such a time. We had one of the hardest battles that ever was fought in the United States. I have not power to describe the scene. It beggars all description. . . (Casler).
Camp Fairfax Station, July 24th, 1861 My Dearest Wife: I wrote you a few very hurried lines a day or two after the Manassas fight, merely to let you know that we were not killed. I do not know whether you have received them or not and as I expect Mr. Scinsendiver to return to Shepherdstown, I will write more fully.
We left the neighborhood of Winchester very suddenly and marched day and night for the junction which we reached on Saturday. We camped that night on what was the battlefield the next day. Sunday bright and early, by dawn the conflict began with the booming of artillery and the sharp reports of musketry, mingled with the hoarse commands given by the officers, the screams of the dying horses and the groans of the wounded which was kept up without intermission until moonlight. Our Cavalry was drawn up in rear of the lines of infantry and kept there until about 12 or 1 o’clock when the order came for us to do our part, that is to charge the enemy which of course we did, we charged up to their right flank, upon which the New York Zouaves Regt., formerly commanded by Col. Ellsworth, were stationed. Owing to the dust and smoke which was to vision, impenetrable, the enemy did not see us until we were among them, with our pistols and sabers we charged them through and returned, cutting and riding them down in every direction. The charge was made just in the nick of time for, believe me, we were whipped beyond doubt, but our cavalry charge decided the fate of the day and gave them for a different arrangement of our troops. (Morgan).
When after three hours of desperate fighting on both sides, the enemy being flanked by our cavalry and annoyed by the New Town battery they could stand no longer and then commenced a terrible fight. For an hour before they were routed I had a position which we had taken from them on their flight for a mile or two on both sides. Our cavalry having taken the hill were stationary for an hour it was truly a grand and terrible sight to look upon, one incessant war of artillery and musketry all the time every moment men and horses fell, numbers of them until they could not ship (?-ED) us, or at least thought so, when they fled in confusion and we after them for 8 miles, following them to Centerville I shan’t attempt a description of this glorious battle you have often read of them and can form some idea when you get the particulars of this eminent fight. (Morgan).
Our cavalry, – that is one or two companies suffered a good deal. Two whole front ranks went down as they entered the enemies lines, myself and company were in the very center of their ranks. The balls flying thick all around, apparently as thick as hail and yet strange to say there was no one killed; two or three of us were slightly wounded, myself among the number, three or four horses were shot and bayonetted by the Zouaves – my wound was caused by the jam of horses and men and has ceased to give me any trouble. It was in the knee of my right leg, in an hour I had forgotten it, in my first letter I did not mention it, for the reason it was not worth notice, so you need not be at all uneasy for I assure you I am in perfect health now. My horse, George, behaved nobly, never flinching at any time. (Morgan).
I rode over the field of battle the next morning to see the sad havoc by section being arrayed against section, men and horses covered the ground in every direction the most awful and ghastly sights – some men with their heads cut off from the shoulders, some with half heads torn to pieces -some disemboweled and mangled in every conceivable manner. To you or brother I suppose it would be an awful spectacle, but to tell you the truth, I, although having as much sympathy as the most of you, seeing so much blood and carnage, soon became used to it, and my curiosity was only to know what sort of a wound the poor wretch had received to kill him. There are dead men everywhere — all around — some crawled into the bushes and died, some went a mile or two and died, everywhere are the dead — and the whole country smells so very offensively that no one can stay in it or near that region. (Morgan).
I am now stationed at Fairfax station 18 miles from the field and 15 miles from Alexandria — I suppose we will move on to Alexandria in a day or two, — I am now on detached service under General Ellzey of the Maryland line — Col. Stuart has been promoted, and is now acting as Brigadier General — his promotion owing to the hard fighting and hard service which in his command have done. Our regiment has been highly praised, much more than any other in the service. The reason Jack and Davey were not in the fight was, that Jack is Assistant Quartermaster and was with his baggage four miles off. Davey just reached Camp without arms and had to go to the baggage train for them and did not get up with us again for a day or two. Archie was in — but not with my company – he was detailed as an escort to Gen. Bee of the South Carolina Brigade, and after Bee was killed he joined the Amelia troop for the rest of the day. . . (Morgan).
Neally (Cornelius.-ED) Hite was sick and went home. Fontaine Hite was with me all through – The Yankees lost in killed and wounded about 6,000 — Our loss was about 500 killed and 1000 wounded. These are the figures spoken of down here — I think judging from what I saw — that our loss is over estimated and the Yankee loss under what it really is. I heard that Wm. Lee was killed — and so stated in my letter to you, but I found him in one of the hospitals yesterday — he is very severely wounded and I think mortally — poor fellow, I hope he may recover — he was shot through the breast – the morning I saw him he was better, but I thought it was the state that precedes death. (Morgan).
Our loss in officers has been severe — you have no idea of the plunder that was taken — 500 wagons would not hold it — arms — 40 odd pieces of artillery — numbers of elegant horses — any quantity of provisions and clothing, fancy articles, etc. Our boys are literally loaded down and I had to scold them for having so much about them — they all turned out in new clothes of the finest kind –most of them had more clothes now than they ever had. When I started from Winchester, I had but one shirt, and that on my back and after wearing it a week and a half, it was of course ready for a change — and seeing quantities of nice new shirts lying around I just appropriated one to myself. We have quantities of overcoats, in addition to all our other traps. I often think of you and my darlings at home — often — you were in my thoughts on that dreadful Sunday after the fight has began and God alone knows whether I may ever see you all again — kiss my dear children for me and tell them not to forget me — Give my love to Mother – Lillie and Cousin Rose and family. (Morgan).
How are you getting on so close to the Boss? Keep out of her reach — I saw Jim Towner yesterday and he said he was glad you had his rooms, and hoped you would make yourself comfortable. Camp duties now claim my attention, and I must stop. God bless you and protect you all. Goodbye, Ever Yours, W. A. Morgan (William A. Morgan to his wife in Shepherdstown).
John Casler visited the battlefield and talked with the daughter of Mrs.Judith Henry, an elderly widow in the house who, in an exchange between Confederate sharpshooters in the house and Ricketts’ battery was killed.
I don’t suppose the soldiers of either army knew there was anyone living in the house, for all the other citizens around had fled for safety earlv in the day. However, be that as it may, they were there. The house was riddled with shot and shell from both sides, and the old lady, being helpless and confined to her bed, was pierced with several bullets and killed, while the daughter, unable to carry her off at the commencement of the fight, remained with her. She had crawled under the bed and escaped unhurt. I conversed with the daughter the next day, when she related what is here recorded. I also saw the corpse of the old lady. Their names were Henry, and this was the since noted “Henry house.” (Casler).
It should be noted of interest that the mentioned “Robinson house” east of the Henry house was owned by a 62-year old, freed black man named “Gentleman Jim Robinson” who owned 100 acres of improved farm land. Robinson, according to the family tradition was mulatto whose father was a member of the wealthy Landon Carter planter family who owned a mansion and plantation close by. Congress later authorized compensation to Mr. Robinson for property damage.-ED
After having driven the enemy from the field. . . we were halted and ordered to collect our dead and wounded. . . It now becomes our painful duty to relate how we disposed of those whose misfortune it was to fall that day. At this period of the war the Ambulance Corps, with its ambulances, stretchers and attendants, had not been thoroughly organized in our army. Consequently, each company went about the battle-ground, seeking its own fallen comrades. When we found one of our wounded, we placed him in a blanket, and thus carried him to the field hospital. I visited one, located outside of a farm house, and felt at the time that the sight I beheld there exceeded anything imaginable. (Opie).
There were two huge piles of legs, feet, hands and arms, all thrown together, and at a distance resembled piles of corn at a corn-shucking. Many of the feet still retained the boot or shoe. Wounded men were lying upon tables, and surgeons, some of whom at that time were very unskillful, were carving away, like farmers in butchering season, while the poor devils under the knife fairly yelled with pain. Many limbs were lost that should have been saved, and many lives were lost in trying to save limbs which should have been amputated. We found, in going over the field, dead men in every conceivable position, mangled, dismembered, disemboweled — some torn literally to pieces. Some, in their death struggles, had torn up the ground around where they fell. Others had pulled up every weed or blade of grass that was in their reach. The horrible scene would have melted the heart of a demon; but, later on in the war, as such sights became commonplace, the men evinced not the slightest sign of feeling or emotion. The only question which arose in their minds was . . . Who next? (Opie).
There has never been, in ancient or modern times, a people who did not honor their dead and give them decent sepulture; but our manner of burying the dead, both friend and foe, was necessarily brutal and barbarous. Exposed to the hot sun, decomposition immediately begins; therefore, when there are many dead, or when an army is moving, little time is allowed for the exercise of that care and pains which decent internment would require. Then, too, the soldier is a very lazy animal. We dug long trenches where the dead lay thickest, and the bodies were thrown in, until the trenches were full, when the loose earth was thrown over them and the ghastly work continued. (Opie).
These so-called graves were frequently very shallow, especially where the soil was rocky; and sometimes a hand or foot of some poor fellow served as a head or foot board. On this occasion we buried the dead of the enemy; but we buried all alike, except that we made separate trenches for them. The night overtook us while engaged in this gruesome work, and with it a perfect downpour of rain. (Opie).
I found a well-filled haversack, and out of this I ate, for the first time since morning; and, placing two rails together, put one end on the fence and the other on the ground — the two making a comfortable bedstead, thus raising me off the wet ground. I lay down lengthwise upon them, and, spreading my blanket and oilcloth over me, slept on the field as dry as if in a house. The next day we finished our unpleasant work and went into camp. (Opie).
Lily Parran Lee of Shepherdstown hurried to Manassas to be at the bedside of her husband, who had been shot in the chest. A younger Lee addressed his graduating class at Virginia Military Institute in July, 1853. In parting he said: “But that connection is, this night, dissolved and my voice must now never again be heard within these walls. No, never again and as with indistinct confusions the mingled visions of the past. . .”
Blackford, William W. (1945). “War Years with Jeb Stuart.” New York, NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons. Print.
Blackford, William W. (1945). “War Years with Jeb Stuart.” Google Books. 19 July 2008. Web. 24 Dec. 2010.
Casler, John O. (1906). “Four years in the Stonewall Brigade, containing the daily experiences of four year’s service in the ranks from a diary kept at the time.” Marietta, GA: Continental Book Company. Print.
Craighill, E. A. (1989). “Confederate surgeon: the personal recollections of E.A. Craighill Confederate surgeon.”Peter W. Houck ed. Lynchburg, Va: H. E. Howard, Inc. Print.
Driver, Robert J., Jr. (c 1991). “1st Virginia Cavalry.” Lynchburg, VA: H. E. Howard Inc. Print.
Eggleston, George Cary. (1875). “A Rebel’s Recollections.” New York, NY: Hurd & Houhgton. Print
Frye, Dennis E. (1984). “2nd Virginia Infantry.” Lynchburg, Va.: H. E. Howard, Inc. Print.
Gold, Thomas D. (1914). “History of Clarke County, Virginia.” Berryville, VA: C. R. Hughes Publishers. Print.
Gold, Thomas D. (1914). “History of Clarke County, Virginia.” Internet Archives: Digital Library of Free Books, Movies, Music, and Wayback Machine. 27 Oct. 2009. Web. 28 Dec. 2010.
Goss, Warren L. (1875c). “Recollections of a Private.” New York, NY: T.Y. Crowell & Co. Print.
Goss, Warren L. (1875c). “Recollections of a Private.” Internet Archives: Digital Library of Free Books, Movies, Music, and Wayback Machine. 27 Oct. 2009. Web. 24 Dec. 2010.
Humphreys, David. (1903). “Heroes and Spies of the Civil War.” New York, NY, Washington, D.C: Neale Publishing Co. Print.
Humphreys, David. “Heroes and Spies of the Civil War.” Internet Archives: Digital Library of Free Books, Movies, Music, and Wayback Machine. 27 Oct. 2009. Web. 24 Dec. 2010.
Col. William A. Morgan Letters, 1853-1889, in the Tracy W. McGregor Library, Accession #1275, Albert H. Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.
Opie, John N. (1899). “A Rebel Cavalryman With Lee, Stuart, and Jackson.” Chicago, IL: W. B. Conkey Co. Print.
Phillips, Edward H. (1993). “The Lower Shenandoah Valley in the Civil War: The Impact of War Upon the Civilian Population and Upon Civilian Institutions.” Lynchburg, Virginia: H. E. Howard, Inc. Print.
Reidenbaugh, Lowell. (1987). “27th Virginia Infantry.” Lynchburg, VA: H. E. Howard, Inc. Print.
Reidenbaugh, Lowell. (1987). “33rd Virginia Infantry.” Lynchburg, VA: H. E. Howard, Inc. Print.
Robertson, James I. (1982). “4th Virginia Infantry.” Lynchburg, VA: H. E. Howard, Inc. Print.
Wallace, Lee A, Jr. (1988). 5th Virginia Infantry.” Lynchburg, VA: H. E. Howard, Inc. Print.
Manassas: The March, The Mayhem, The Memory, Pt. 2 With Dennis Frye by Jim Surkamp on July 21, 2011 in Wartime THE TALE OF TWO CANNON https://web.archive.org/web/20190710013934/https://civilwarscholars.com/2011/07/manassas-the-march-mayhem-memory-pt-2/
Videos:
VIDEO:(CC) The Best Civil War Story – Chapter 7.1 – Wm Morgan and Anna – by Jim Surkamp. Click Here. TRT: 19:35. Video link: https://youtu.be/MrBniWlTn6U
Image Credits:
File:Alexander Pendleton c1860s.jpg Wikipedia English. Latest update 27 Oct. 2009. Web. 20 May 2011.
Barnard_Elliott_Bee1.jpg Wikipedia English. Latest update 27 Oct. 2009. Web. 20 May 2011.
henryhill.B&L.I.204.jpg “Battles and Leaders. Vol. 1.” Robert Underwood Johnson, Clarence Clough Buel (Ed.). New York, NY: Century Co. Print.
“Battles and Leaders. Vol. 1.” Robert Underwood Johnson, Clarence Clough Buel (Ed.). Internet Archives: Digital Library of Free Books, Movies, Music, and Wayback Machine. 27 Oct. 2009. Web. 26 Sept. 2010.
sudleyln.b&L.I.186.jpg “Battles and Leaders. Vol. 1.” Robert Underwood Johnson, Clarence Clough Buel (Ed.). New York, NY: Century Co. Print.
“Battles and Leaders. Vol. 1.” Robert Underwood Johnson, Clarence Clough Buel (Ed.). Internet Archives: Digital Library of Free Books, Movies, Music, and Wayback Machine. 27 Oct. 2009. Web. 26 Sept. 2010.
11nyfirezouaves.b&l.I.179.jpg General-Imboden.jpg “Battles and Leaders. Vol. 1.” Robert Underwood Johnson, Clarence Clough Buel (Ed.). New York, NY: Century Co. Print.
“Battles and Leaders. Vol. 1.” Robert Underwood Johnson, Clarence Clough Buel (Ed.). Internet Archives: Digital Library of Free Books, Movies, Music, and Wayback Machine. 27 Oct. 2009. Web. 26 Sept. 2010.
wwblackf925.jpg Blackford, William W. (1945). “War Years with Jeb Stuart.” New York, NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons. Print.
Blackford, William W. (1945). “War Years with Jeb Stuart.” Google Books. 19 July 2008. Web. 24 Dec. 2010.
Irv_mcdowell.jpg Wikipedia English. Latest update 27 Oct. 2009. Web. 20 May 2011.
File:Pgt beauregard.jpg Wikipedia English. Latest update 27 Oct. 2009. Web. 20 May 2011.
Joseph_Johnston.jpg File:Joseph Johnston.jpg. Wikipedia English. Latest update 27 Oct. 2009. Web. 20 May 2011.
Stonewall022.jpg Imboden, John. (1888). “Jackson at Harpers Ferry in 1861.” Battles and Leaders. Vol. 1. Robert Underwood Johnson, Clarence Clough Buel (Ed.). New York, NY: Century Co.
Imboden, John D. (1888). “Jackson at Harpers Ferry in 1861.” Internet Archives: Digital Library of Free Books, Movies, Music, and Wayback Machine. 27 Oct. 2009. Web. 26 Sept. 2010.
maryannajackson3.jpg Jackson, Mary Anna. (1895). “Memoirs of Stonewall Jackson.” Louisville, KY: Prentice Press, Courier-Journal Job Print. Co. Print.
Jackson, Mary Anna. (1895). “Memoirs of Stonewall Jackson.” Internet Archives: Digital Library of Free Books, Movies, Music, and Wayback Machine. 27 Oct. 2009. Web. 26 Sept. 2010.
stuart.230.11nyzouaves.jpg (composite from two sources) sudleyln.b&L.I.186.jpg “Battles and Leaders. Vol. 1.” Robert Underwood Johnson, Clarence Clough Buel (Ed.). New York, NY: Century Co. Print.
“Battles and Leaders. Vol. 1.” Robert Underwood Johnson, Clarence Clough Buel (Ed.). Internet Archives: Digital Library of Free Books, Movies, Music, and Wayback Machine. 27 Oct. 2009. Web. 26 Sept. 2010.
goss.stampede.manass.15.jpg Goss, Warren L. (1875c). “Recollections of a Private.” New York, NY: T.Y. Crowell & Co. Print.
Goss, Warren L. (1875c). “Recollections of a Private.” Internet Archives: Digital Library of Free Books, Movies, Music, and Wayback Machine. 27 Oct. 2009. Web. 24 Dec. 2010.
ricketts.b&l.189.jpg griffin.b&l.184.jpg “Battles and Leaders. Vol. 1.” Robert Underwood Johnson, Clarence Clough Buel (Ed.). New York, NY: Century Co. Print.
“Battles and Leaders. Vol. 1.” Robert Underwood Johnson, Clarence Clough Buel (Ed.). Internet Archives: Digital Library of Free Books, Movies, Music, and Wayback Machine. 27 Oct. 2009. Web. 26 Sept. 2010.
johnocasler.1863.jpg johnovertoncasler.jpg Casler, John O. (1906). “Four years in the Stonewall Brigade, containing the daily experiences of four year’s service in the ranks from a diary kept at the time.” Marietta, GA: Continental Book Company. Print.
listening.gunsB&LI.164.jpg “Battles and Leaders. Vol. 1.” Robert Underwood Johnson, Clarence Clough Buel (Ed.). New York, NY: Century Co. Print.
“Battles and Leaders. Vol. 1.” Robert Underwood Johnson, Clarence Clough Buel (Ed.). Internet Archives: Digital Library of Free Books, Movies, Music, and Wayback Machine. 27 Oct. 2009. Web. 26 Sept. 2010.
File:MNBPRickettsBatteryPainting.jpg ‘Capture of Ricketts’ Battery’, is by Sidney E King. The painting is oil on plywood, and is displayed in the Henry Hill Visitor Center at Manassas National Battlefield Park. Wikipedia English. Latest update 27 Oct. 2009. Web. 20 May 2011.
davidhumphreys.jpg Humphreys, David. (1903). “Heroes and Spies of the Civil War.” New York, NY, Washington, D.C: Neale Publishing Co. Print.
Humphreys, David. “Heroes and Spies of the Civil War.” Internet Archives: Digital Library of Free Books, Movies, Music, and Wayback Machine. 27 Oct. 2009. Web. 24 Dec. 2010.
jameswallen.jpg “James Walkenshaw Allen.” VMI Archives. 2 September 2007. Web. 10 July 2011.
wmnnelsonclarke.jpg “William Nelson Company C, 2nd Virginia Infantry.” Gold, Thomas D. (1914). “History of Clarke County, Virginia.” Berryville, VA: C. R. Hughes Publishers. Print.
Gold, Thomas D. (1914). “History of Clarke County, Virginia.” Internet Archives: Digital Library of Free Books, Movies, Music, and Wayback Machine. 27 Oct. 2009. Web. 28 Dec. 2010.
confederatesoldiers.jpg Goss, Warren L. “Recollections of a Private, Part II.” The Century Magazine, Vol. XXIX, Dec., 1884
wam04him.jpg Col. William A. Morgan Letters, 1853-1889, in the Tracy W. McGregor Library, Accession #1275, Albert H. Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.
