James Edgar Chancellor (UVA Library Special Collections)

     He was the youngest child born to George and Ann Chancellor of Chancellorsville, arriving on January 26, 1826. He received every benefit a loving and well-to-do family could provide, and he made the most of those advantages.
     James attended the "classical academy" in Fredericksburg and studied medicine under Dr. George French Carmichael [1]. He then enrolled at the University of Virginia and took classes in medicine, anatomy and surgery, and chemistry and earned his degree in 1847. He then spent a year in Philadelphia, where he attended the Jefferson Medical College. He received his medical degree in 1848 and returned to Spotsylvania, where he began a successful private practice.
     Until about 1853, James lived with his half-sister, Mary Pound, and her husband, Jacob E. Appler, on their farm near Chancellorsville. In 1853, James was appointed to a one-year term as postmaster at Chancellorsville, a sinecure held by a number of his relatives over the years. That same year, on November 18, James married his sweetheart, Dorothea "Dorry" Josephine Anderson.
     Born on February 3, 1828, Dorry was the daughter of Thomas W. Anderson and Jane Porter Alsop. In 1834, Jane's father, Samuel Alsop, Jr., gave to Thomas and Jane a house and large farm in Spotsylvania called "Coventry" [2].

James E. Chancellor house (Library of Congress)

     James and Dorry Chancellor made their home at the house shown above. It was located across the road from Spotsylvania Court House [3]. The wall in the foreground enclosed the lawn of the court house at that time. The triangular wooden frame in front of the barn at left was a well built in the road. An earlier granary and stable belonging to Dr. Chancellor burned in 1857.
     Six children were born to James and Dorry: Eustathius (1854), Euodia Livingston (1855), Alexander Clarendon (1857), Thomas Sebastian (1858), Samuel Cleveland (1859) and Josephine "Josie" Anderson (1862). Euodia died in 1857. James and Dorry published the poem below dedicated to her memory. This clipping is part of the George Harrison Sanford King collection at the Central Rappahannock Heritage Center in Fredericksburg. Euodia lies buried in the gated portion of the Berea Christian Church cemetery belonging to J. E. Chancellor (his name is on the gate) at Spotsylvania Court House. Berea Church was built in 1856 under the supervision of Dorry's grandfather, Samuel Alsop, Jr.







     Soon after the Civil War began, Dr. Chancellor made his services available to the Confederacy. On September 4, 1861, James was commissioned assistant surgeon for the General Hospital at Charlottesville. The following year he was named chief surgeon of the hospital complex in Charlottesville, and remained at that post for almost the entire war.
     Since there was no such thing as a "general hospital" in Charlottesville in 1861, the wounded and sick Confederate soldiers who were brought here via the Virginia Central Railroad were quartered in the town's stores, hotels, private homes, the town hall and court house and even the Rotunda at the University of Virginia. During the Civil War, more than 22,000 men were treated at this place. Over 1,100 died there and are buried in umarked graves near the University.
     On February 23, 1862, James and Dorry Chancellor celebrated the birth of their second daughter, "Josie." Their happiness would be short lived, however. Dorry became sick just five months later and she died of "typhoid fever with pulmonary congestion." Her body was transported back to Spotsylvania, and she was buried next to Euodia at Berea Christian Church.

Richmond Times Dispatch, August 21, 1862

     After Dorry's death, James' two youngest children, Sam and Josie, were brought to the widowed Jane Alsop Anderson to care for. While it is not known how long Sam lived with his grandmother, it appears that Josie lived with her for most of her life.
     In addition to his responsibilities for thousands of patients and caretakers, James also did what he could for his extended family. After the destruction of Chancellorsville in May 1863, James made arrangements for his aunt Fannie Chancellor and her children to come to Charlottesville. He obtained for Fannie a position as matron at Midway and Delevan hospitals. Fannie, with the help of her daughters Frances and Penelope, brought fresh eggs and vegetables to the patients and provided whatever other small comforts they could. Unfortunately, James' skills as a doctor could not save Fannie's daughters once they contracted typhoid fever in August 1864. They died within days of each other.
     The year 1864 also saw Dr. Chancellor detailed on temporary duty when he was ordered to report to the Reserve Medical Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia. These surgeons assisted in the care of thousands of Confederate soldiers wounded during the battles of the Wilderness and Spotsylvania Court House. He returned to Charlottesville after the completion of this tour of duty.
     In early March 1865, Union cavalry commanded by General Philip Sheridan occupied Charlottesville for three days. Although there was a moderate amount of looting and burning, the town and outlying farms were spared the wholesale destruction these same troopers meted out in the Shenandoah Valley.
     A month later, after the capture of Richmond by Federal forces, Dr. Chancellor loaded medical supplies into an ambulance with the intention of making his way to General Joseph Johnston's army in North Carolina. However, when news of General Lee's surrender at Appomattox reached him, James returned to Charlottesville and acknowledged that the struggle for southern independence had come to an end.

Dr. James Edgar Chancellor (UVA Library Special Collections)

     James did not return to Spotsylvania after the war. Instead, he elected to remain in Charlottesville. In October 1865 he was named demonstrator of anatomy by the medical school at the University of Virginia. He also met someone who would become part of his life for the next 30 years.

Birdwood (Virginia Department of Historic Resources)

     Gabriella Garth was born about 1828 at "Birdwood" in Albemarle County, the impressive home of her wealthy and socially prominent parents, William Durrett Garth and Elizabeth Woods Martin. The beautiful young Gabriella enjoyed all the benefits of a storybook upbringing, including an education received at Mrs. Mead's School in Charlottesville. In the map detail below, I believe Birdwood is indicated as "Garth" in the left center of the image, just south of the road and east of "Randolph."

Map detail of Albemarle County, 1860s (National Archives)

     In November 1851, Gabriella married Dr. James Kirk of Hilton Head, South Carolina, in a ceremony held at Birdwood. The bride and groom then returned to Rose Hill, the Kirk home in Bluffton. A portrait of Gabriella hangs in the house today, and can be viewed by clicking on this link. Dr. Kirk and Gabriella had three children together. Dr. Kirk and their oldest child died in 1858. She remained at Rose Hill with her surviving children, Woods and Lilla, until 1861. With the threat of a Union invasion of Hilton Head now imminent, Gabriella took her children and a small contingent of slaves to the train depot in nearby Hardeeville. From there they headed west to Alabama, presumably to refugee with her uncle, Jesse Garth.
     While living in Alabama, she met Dr. John Summerfield Mayes. They were married in Lawrence County in March 1862. Dr. Mayes and their son died there in 1865. Gabriella then took Woods, Lilla and her youngest child, Martha Mayes, home to Birdwood and soon thereafter met Dr. Chancellor. They were married in her parents' home on November 14, 1867. Reverend J. S. Lindsay, chaplain at the University, officiated.

School of Medicine, 1867. Chancellor seated at far right (UVA Library Special Collections)

     James and Gabriella Chancellor lived at University Place in a large house. Over the years, in order to help make ends meet, Gabriella took in boarders, mostly young male students at the University. In 1880 there were 34 people boarding in the Chancellor household.
     Dr. Chancellor also sought ways to supplement his meager income. The most successful of his ventures was to become resident physician at various mineral springs which featured hotels and other amenities to attract those who sought to "take the waters." Testimonials by James appeared in newspapers over the years, attesting to the efficacy of the waters at such places as Jordan Alum Springs and Rockbridge Alum Springs in Rockbridge County, Virginia and at the Salt, Sulphur and Iodine Springs in Monroe County, West Virginia.
     Beginning in 1872, this would be virtually his sole source of income. That year he suffered a nasty wound while dissecting a cadaver. His health became so compromised that he was obliged to resign his position at the University of Virginia.

Faculty in 1868. Chancellor at lower left (UVA Library Special Collections)

UVA faculty. Chancellor in front, 2nd from left (UVA Library Special Collections)

     Despite this serious setback, James E. Chancellor's reputation and stature as a physician continued to grow. He published a number of professional papers that were presented at various conferences. He became a member of the Medical Society of Virginia in 1871, serving as its vice president in 1874 and 1880 and as president in 1883. He also was appointed to the Virginia State Board of Medical Examiners. Chancellor was made a permanent member of the American Medical Association in 1875 and the American Public Health Association in 1878.
     In 1885 he was elected and served one term as professor to the chair of diseases of women and children at the University of Florida in Tallahassee. He also filled the chair of anatomy during his stay there.
     That same year, on May 6, James's youngest child, Josie, died at "Coventry," her grandmother's house in Spotsylvania. She is buried with her mother and sister at the Berea Christian Church cemetery. Her obituary is part of the George Harrison Sanford King collection at the Central Rappahannock Heritage Center:


     On Monday, December 9, 1895, The Alexandria Gazette reported that "The dwelling house of Dr. J. E. Chancellor was destroyed by fire at the University of Virginia at 7 o'clock Saturday evening. Loss about $2,000."
     James and Gabriella moved to 110 13th Street in Charlottesville. Dr. Chancellor died there one year later, on September 11, 1896. He is buried at the University of Virginia Cemetery and Columbarium.

James E. Chancellor standing with his brothers (Ancestry)

     After his death, Gabriella was joined in her house by her divorced daughter, Martha Mayes Shuey and her two children. Ten years after the burning of the house she shared with James, this house also burned:

Richmond Times Dispatch, November 23, 1905

     Gabriella Garth Kirk Mayes Chancellor died in Louisa County, where she had gone to spend the summer, on August 10, 1909. She is buried at Maplewood Cemetery in Charlottesville.



Postscript 

All four of James Edgar Chancellor's sons lived well into the 20th century and prospered.

Dr. Eustathius Chancellor (Nationial Institutes of Health)

     Eustathius Chancellor earned his medical degree at the University of Maryland in 1877. He moved to St. Louis, where he completed his classical education by earning a Master of Arts degree at St. Louis University, while establishing a successful private practice. The governor of Missouri appointed him as Medical Director of the Missouri State National Guard. He never married. Eustathius died in 1931.

Alexander Clarendon Chancellor

     A. C. Alexander married and raised a family in Columbus, Georgia, where he owned a successful store specializing in men's high-end clothing and accessories. He was named president of the Georgia Retailers Association in 1909. A photograph of his palatial home appears in Kenneth H. Thomas' book, Columbus, Georgia in Vintage Postcards. Arcadia Publishing, Charleston, SC: 1901. He died in 1933.

Home of Alexander Clarendon Chancellor

     Thomas Sebastian and his wife lived in Alabama and Alabama, where he worked in retail and as a commercial traveler.

Samuel Cleveland Chancellor

     Sam Chancellor graduated from the Pharmaceutical College in Baltimore, Maryland with the intention of becoming a medical doctor, but impaired eyesight obliged him to pursue a career as a pharmacist instead. He spent years honing his skills at drug stores in Baltimore, Richmond and Charlottesville. In 1890 he bought out the drug store of R. C. A. Seiburg in Charlottesville and established his long standing pharmacy there.

Charlottesville directory, 1902 (Ancestry)

Chancellor's Drug Store (UVA Library Special Collections)

Chancellor's Drug Store (UVA Library Special Collections)

     In 1905 Sam married Clarissa Lynn Rodes, who died after a failed appendectomy a year later. Sam Chancellor died in 1922.
         


Notes

[1] Dr. Carmichael (1806-1882) served as surgeon in charge of the General Hospital in Danville during the Civil War.

[2] Samuel Alsop, Jr. built houses for two of Dorry's sisters as wedding gifts. "Kenmore Woods" was given to Ann Eliza Alsop and her husband, John M. Anderson.  "Oakley" was built for Clementine Alsop and her husband, Thomas Coleman Chandler. I wrote this article about Oakley several years ago.

[3] In future years, this house would be occupied by Spotsylvania County Sheriff Thomas Addison Harris and Commonwealth's Attorney Samuel Peter Powell.


Sources

Makers of America: Biographies of Leading Men of Thought and Action, volume 1. B. F. Johnson, Washington, D. C.: 1901.

Virginia: Its History, Influence, Equipment and Characteristics, volume 2. Lewis Publishing Company, New York: 1904.

Kelly, Howard A. and Burrage, Walter L. American Medical Biographies. The Norman, Remington Company, Baltimore, MD: 1920.

Henry, William Wirt and Spofford, Ainsworth R. Eminent and Representative Men of Virginia and the District of Columbia of the Nineteenth Century. Brant and Fuller, Madison, WI: 1893.

The George Harrison Sanford King archive at the Central Rappahannock Heritage Center:

    

Vespasian Chancellor (National Park Service, with thanks to Tom Myers)

     Over a span of 21 years, Reverend Melzi Chancellor and his wife, Lucy, had 10 children together. Of their five sons, three were old enough to enlist in the Confederate service when Virginia seceded from the United States in 1861.
     Vespasian Chancellor, the oldest of the 10, was born in Spotsylvania County on November 22, 1838. In 1860, he was still living in his parents' household, working as a farmer at their home at Dowdall's Tavern on the Orange Turnpike. The following year, on April 25--just as Virginia was formally withdrawing from the Union--Vespasian was appointed postmaster at Chancellorsville. He would serve a second time as postmaster at the newly rebuilt Chancellorsville in 1877.
     On July 3, 1861, Vespasian enlisted for one year in Company C of the 30th Virginia Infantry. Much of his time was spent as a wagon driver for the quartermaster department. He was admitted to the General Hospital (where his uncle, Dr. James Edgar Chancellor, was chief surgeon) on May 12, 1862. He was furloughed five months later with a diagnosis of "Functional disease of the heart and anemia."

Vespasian Chancellor (The Photographic History of the Civil War)

     At some time after his departure from the 30th Infantry, Vespasian began to operate as a scout and spy for the Confederate cavalry, and was attached directly to the headquarters of General J. E. B. Stuart, for whom he became "one of his most successful scouts." On February 11, 1864, he officially enlisted in Company E of the 9th Virginia Cavalry and served with that regiment until at least January 20, 1865.
     After the war, Vespasian returned to Spotsylvania and lived with his parents, his three unmarried sisters and his younger brother, Melzi, Jr. As he had before the war, Vespasian continued to work as a farmer. However, because of his experiences during the Civil War, and also because of his family's unique place in Spotsylvania's history, he was able to supplement his income with much more interesting work.



     Over the years, Vespasian Chancellor was called upon by a number of veteran's groups to provide guided tours of the area's battlefields. Some of these are well documented and will be presented here. In the photograph below, taken in May 1884, Vespasian is seated at far right.

Veterans at Chancellorsville, 1884 (National Park Service, with thanks to Tom Myers)

     Standing in front of the tree at left is Warren Dudley Foster of Spotsylvania, who had been captured with Captain Benjamin Cason Rawlings during the Mine Run campaign in November 1863. Next to him is Reverend James Power Smith, who as a young lieutenant was among the first to render aid to General T. J. "Stonewall" Jackson after he was wounded on May 2, 1863. Seated at center and holding a cane is Joseph Dickinson, former adjutant of General Joseph Hooker. During the Battle of Chancellorsville, Dickinson saved the Chancellor family and other civilians by shepherding them from their burning house. Standing second from right and sporting the Dundreary whiskers he affected in his later years, is General James Longstreet.
     Although Vespasian does not appear in the picture below, it does show some well-known personages at Chancellorsville. General James Longstreet is standing third from right next to the one-legged Union General Daniel Sickles.

Veterans gathered at Chancellorsville (Donald Colvin)

     During the fighting on May 2, 1863, Reuben Towle Leavitt, Jr., of the 12th New Hampshire Volunteers was shot in the knee and brought into the Chancellor's house with scores of other Union wounded. The following day, the house--which was also used by General Hooker as his headquarters--came under heavy bombardment by Confederate artillery. Hooker was knocked unconscious after a solid shot hit the pillar he was standing next to. The house very shortly thereafter caught fire. Joseph Dickinson escorted the Chancellor family and other civilians there to a place of safety in Stafford County. Leavitt and other incapacitated soldiers gathered in a room were startled when a chimney collapsed from the fire and bricks came tumbling into the room. These men were saved from the burning house, but were captured by Confederate forces. Leavitt was imprisoned for six months before being paroled. He was permanently disabled by his wound. In October 1888, Leavitt and other surviving members of the 12th New Hampshire visited Chancellorsville, which was then undergoing repairs. The photo below, from Asa W. Bartlett's history of the 12th New Hampshire, shows Leavitt, at left, seated in the carriage next to Vespasian Chancellor. Damage from the battle 25 years before can still be seen in the wall facing the camera.

Reuben T. Leavitt and Vespasian Chancellor (Asa W. Bartlett)

    Vespasian also played a role in deciding where to mark the spot where a monument would be erected to commemorate the wounding of "Stonewall" Jackson. In an episode recounted in Charles Royster's book, The Destructive War, Vespasian, James Horace Lacy (owner of Ellwood and Chatham) and Lacy's son-in-law, Reverend James Power Smith, identified a likely spot on the old Chancellorsville property while giving a tour to Union veteran J. O. Kerbey. It was decided then that, because it would never be known for certain precisely where Jackson had been shot, the monument would be placed close enough to the Orange Turnpike to encourage tourists to visit it.
     In 1888, a granite marker was dedicated on the spot chosen by Chancellor, Lacy and Smith. In May 1899, Vespasian acted as tour guide for the 114th Pennsylvania Volunteers, the Collis Zouaves, who had come to Spotsylvania for the dedication of the monument which listed the names of the 38 men lost by that regiment during the Battle of Chancellorsville. The Zouaves and Vespasian also visited the Jackson monument nearby and posed for this photograph. Vespasian Chancellor is leaning against the tree at right:

114th Pennsylvania Volunteers and Vespasian Chancellor at Jackson monument (Donald Colvin)

The Free Lance, May 11, 1899

     Vespasian was a member of the Chancellorsville Battlefield Association, which bought property at the battlefield sites of Chancellorsville and Spotsylvania Court House. Although their timing was off by 30 years or so, the Association anticipated that the federal government would create a national park encompassing these locations, and that money could be made by catering to the expected influx of tourists to the area. Good intentions notwithstanding, the enterprise was a financial failure by the late 1890s.

Sue Chancellor (Rich Morrison)

     Vespasian married his first cousin, Susan Margaret Chancellor, in Washington, D.C.  on March 8, 1893. Sue Chancellor was one of the fortunate people saved by Joseph Dickinson at Chancellorsville in 1863, and her memoir of that event was published in 1921. Vespasian and Sue made their home in Fredericksburg at 300 Main (modern Caroline) Street.

300 Caroline Street, Fredericksburg (Google)

     On January 28, 1904, Vespasian took a spill on the icy pavement near his home in Fredericksburg. He fractured his right hip and was attended to by Dr. J. E. Tompkins. Vespasian died at his home on April 28, 1908. He is buried in the Chancellor family cemetery in Spotsylvania.

G. E. Chancellor broadside, 1884 (Library of Virginia)

     Vespasian's brother, George Edwards Chancellor, was born in Spotsylvania County about 1842. On April 25, 1861, George enlisted in Company E of the 9th Virginia Cavalry. Except for a period of time in late 1864, during which he was reported absent without leave (this occurred a month after he had been granted a furlough by General Robert E. Lee), George served for the duration of the war. His horse was killed in action at Buckland Mills in Fauquier County on October 19, 1863. Lieutenant Chancellor received for the mount he had furnished to the Confederate service. Near the end of the war, George was wounded while fighting near besieged Petersburg. When he returned home a war's end, he brought with him the jacket he had worn as a trooper with the 9th Cavalry, which bore "a dozen or more bullet holes."

Invoice of George E. Chancellor (Author's collection)

     In 1868, George moved to Fredericksburg, and by 1870 he was living in the household of Irish-born merchant Patrick McCracken, in whose store he worked as a clerk. By 1873, George had established his own business, where he sold groceries, feed and seed, and farming implements at the corner of Commerce (modern William) and Charles Streets. He was active in the Conservative Party and was elected as a delegate to its state convention in 1870.

Receipt of George E. Chancellor (Author's collection)

     In October 1876, General Joseph Hooker (who had never fully recovered from his injury at the Battle of Chancellorsville) and his literary executor, Samuel P. Bates, visited the battlefields of Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania. Bates wrote an account of their experience at the Chancellorsville battlefield in an article he wrote for The Century Illustrated Magazine:
     "We were accompanied on our ride to the Chancellorsville field some ten or twelve miles above Fredericksburg by Major George E. Chancellor, a son of Melzi Chancellor, whose home at the time of the battle was at Dowdall's tavern, where General Howard had his headquarters. On setting out, General Hooker suggested that we should take some lunch along with us, as when he was there last, there was very little to eat in all that region. Major Chancellor thought it unnecessary, and, in fact, we feasted most sumptuously at his father's house."
     The house where they had lunch that day, "Chancellor's Retreat," stood behind Wilderness Baptist Church, as shown in the 1884 photo below. The Orange Turnpike (modern Route 3) is in the foreground.

Wilderness Church and "Chancellor's Retreat," 1884 (National Park Service)

     George Chancellor never married. In 1880 he was sharing a home on Commerce Street with merchant John J. Berrey, also a life-long bachelor.

The Free Lance, February 13, 1885

     On November 12, 1887, George died at home of "a lingering disease of the stomach and secretive organs." He is buried in the Chancellor family cemetery in Spotsylvania. His obituary appeared in the November 1887 edition of The Free Lance:



    

Thomas Frazer Chancellor (National Park Service, with thanks to Tom Myers)

  
     The youngest of Reverend Chancellor's sons to fight for the Confederacy was Thomas Frazer, born in 1845. He enlisted in Company E of the 9th Virginia Cavalry on March 1, 1862.
     On October 10, 1862, General J. E. B. Stuart led a force of 1,800 cavalrymen on a raid into  Pennsylvania. They cut telegraph wires, seized ammunition, clothing and other supplies, and burned the railroad depot and trains at Chambersburg. They accomplished this at the cost of a few wounded men and two unaccounted for. One of these missing troopers was Private Thomas Chancellor.
     Thomas had been taken prisoner "near Gettysburg," and spent the next two months incarcerated at Fort Delaware. He was sent to Fort Monroe in Virginia on December 15 and was exchanged on December 20, 1862. He then rejoined his regiment and served as a courier for General Stuart.
     Late in 1862, Thomas Chancellor issued an invitation to General Stuart to attend a party to be hosted by his aunt Fannie Chancellor at Chancellorsville. Although Stuart was well acquainted with Fannie and had been her guest a number of times previously, he sent her his regrets. But he allowed Major John Pelham, Colonel Heros von Borcke and some others to attend, including a couple of musicians. This party of 10 men commandeered an ambulance and set out from Fredericksburg for Chancellorsville. En route the ambulance hit a snow covered stump and wrecked violently four miles from Chancellorsville. When this battered group finally arrived, they were greeted by Thomas Chancellor. Fannie Chancellor's guests danced until midnight, ate supper, and then resumed dancing until the wee hours of the morning. (From Jerry Maxwell's book, The Perfect Lion, 241-243).
     Private Chancellor accompanied General Stuart's cavalry a second time into Pennsylvania, arriving at Gettysburg on July 2, 1863. Thomas was mortally wounded during the fighting there and died on July 15, 1863. In 1939, George Harrison Sanford King, a grandson of Thomas' sister Anna, ordered a headstone for Thomas from the Department of War and had it placed in the Chancellor family cemetery in Spotsylvania.


Sources:

Maxwell, Jerry H., The Perfect Lion: The Life and Death of Confederate Artillerist John Pelham. The University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa, AL: 2011.

Bartlett, Capt. A. W., History of the Twelfth Regiment New Hampshire Volunteers in the War of the Rebellion. Ira C. Evans, Concord, NH: 1897.

The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine. May 1886, to October 1886. Volume XXXII, New Series Volume X. The Century Company, New York, NY: 1886.

Miller, Francis Trevelyan and Lanier, Robert S., editors, The Photographic History of the Civil War in Ten Volumes. New York, NY: 1911.

Royster, Charles, The Destructive War: William Tecumseh Sherman, Stonewall Jackson and the Americans. First Vintage Civil War Library Edition, January 1993.

M. S. Chancellor, "The Farmer's Store," 1927 (Library of Congress)

     Two young men, each born in Spotsylvania County in the mid-nineteenth century, came to Fredericksburg, where they made their mark as noteworthy civic and business leaders. They were brothers-in-law, and for almost 20 years they were business partners as well. Special thanks today to Diane Ballman of the Central Rappahannock Heritage Center (CRHC), who furnished me with two rare photos of Sanford Chancellor.

Sanford Chancellor (CRHC)

     Melzi Sanford Chancellor, Jr., who was called Sanford, was born at Dowdall's Tavern in Spotsylvania County in 1859. He was the youngest child of Reverend Melzi Sanford Chancellor and Lucy Fox Frazer. I have recently written a piece about Reverend Chancellor, which can be read here. Dowdall's Tavern stood on the south side of the Orange Turnpike (modern Route 3) just east of Wilderness Baptist Church, where the senior Chancellor served as pastor for many years.

Location of the home of Melzi Sanford Chancellor, 1863 (National Archives)

Dowdall's Tavern (Library of Congress)

     Sanford attended local schools after the Civil War and then studied at the Locust Dale Academy in Orange County. By 1879 he was working as a clerk in the store of his brother, George Edwards Chancellor. The store sold farming supplies and tools, and also carried groceries. It was located at 318 Commerce, located at the corner of modern William and Charles Streets. Today that site is the location of Castiglia's Italian Restaurant.

Invoice of George E. Chancellor, 1882

     In 1880, Sanford was still living with his parents in Spotsylvania County. By this time, Reverend Chancellor had built a new home,  called "Chancellor's Retreat," behind Wilderness Baptist Church. In the 1884 photograph shown below, this house can be seen in the far distance at right. In the foreground is the Orange Turnpike, today's Route 3.

Wilderness Baptist Church and Chancellor's Retreat, 1884 (National Park Service)

     When Sanford moved to Fredericksburg, he lived with his widowed sister, Anna Cora Chancellor King, and her sons: Chancellor, George Phillips, Jr., and Rufus. Their house was located at 822 Main (modern Caroline) Street and is still there today. Sanford, Anna and George later moved to 1108 Charles Street, where they took in boarders.
     George Phillips King, Jr.--a merchant like his uncle Sanford (he worked for James T. Lowery for many years)--married Cora Harrison in 1908. One of their sons, George Harrison Sanford King, later gained a reputation as one of Virginia's most able genealogists. Sanford Chancellor, who never married, lived with George and Cora for the rest of his life. In the photograph below, George King is shown standing at right next to Julia Mann. Sitting are Sanford's nephew, Scott Todd Stephens (a son of Lucy Monroe Chancellor) and his wife, Lillie Jennings Stephens.



     Another sister of Sanford, Leona, married James Richard Rawlings in 1877. By the 1880s the Rawlings family settled in Fredericksburg, where James began to work as a merchant.
     George Edwards Chancellor died in Fredericksburg on November 12, 1887. Acting as executors of George's estate, Sanford, his brother Vespasian and their father took steps to sell off the remaining inventory of the store and to pay the estate's debts. In July 1888, Sanford and James announced that they had bought the store on Commerce Street. They would continue in the same line of business as before under the name of Chancellor & Rawlings. For the next 17 years, they sold farming supplies, groceries, dry goods and even adding new items as opportunities arose.

The Free Lance, April 4, 1893

The Free Lance, May 28, 1894

The Free Lance, January 13, 1898

The Free Lance, April 27, 1899

     With his new-found prosperity, Sanford also began participating in the civic life of Fredericksburg. He was first elected to the city council in 1896 and won re-election several times thereafter. He was elected vice president of the Rappahannock Valley Agricultural and Manufacturing Society, which organized the fairs held in the city each year. He also joined a number of fraternal organizations, including the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Order of the United American Mechanics, the sons of Confederate Veterans and the Masonic Lodge Number 4.
     In a time when many of the city's leading citizens were devout members of the Baptist Church, Sanford attended Trinity Episcopalian.

Sanford Chancellor (CRHC)

     Sanford got the attention of local citizens and a reporter for The Daily Star in 1910 when he jokingly announced that he had ordered an automobile for himself:

The Daily Star, May 24, 1910

  

  In 1913, Sanford advertised his business in The Battlefield, the yearbook of the State Normal School in Fredericksburg, the forerunner of Mary Washington University:

The Battlefield, 1913 (Ancestry)

     Melzi Sanford Chancellor, Jr., died at 1108 Charles Street at 11:05 p. m. on June 19, 1925. He had been stricken with apoplexy, and two doctors were summoned to help him. Soon after their arrival, Sanford died of a cerebral hemorrhage. His funeral was conducted from the house on Charles Street by Reverend Sheerin, rector of Trinity Episcopal Church. Sanford is buried at the Chancellor family cemetery in Chancellorsville.
     In a brief and very unambiguous will, Sanford had left his entire estate to George King. George sold a half interest in the store to his brother, Chancellor King, who continued to run the business in his uncle's name for several years after Sanford's death.

James Richard Rawlings (Dan Janzegers)

     James Richard Rawlings was born at "Green Hill," in western Spotsylvania County on May 6, 1852. He was the youngest of five children born to James Boswell and Ann Cason Rawlings. James' father was a farmer, slave owner, justice of the peace and postmaster at Danielsville. The senior Rawlings was also a man of colorful character and expensive habits, which in 1844 landed him in the Louisa County jail for failing to pay a debt to a Jacob Roler. Mr. Rawlings wrote a letter to the sheriff of Spotsylvania County, in which he helpfully listed some of his wife's assets which could be liquidated to raise money to obtain his release from jail. The Rawlings home appears just south of Catharpin Road in the lower center of the map detail shown below.

Western Spotsylvania, 1863 (National Archives)

     James had two older brothers. Zachary Herndon Rawlings (1836-1916) was a farmer, railroad contractor, grist mill owner, store merchant and postmaster at Vesuvius in Rockbridge County. He was married to my second great aunt, Nancy Baker Row. Nearer to his own age was Benjamin Cason Rawlings (1845-1909), whose exploits during the Civil War have been topics of this blog (here and here) as well as a chapter of my book.
     Greenfield, the farm of James' in-laws, the Row family, witnessed a portion of Jackson's flank march during the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863. A year later, just prior to the invasion of Spotsylvania County by the army of General U. S. Grant and the Battle of the Wilderness, the Row and Rawlings families packed up their belongings and, together with a handful of slaves who had not yet run away to freedom, fled to the little crossroads village of Hadensville in Goochland County, Virginia. Here they would remain in relative safety as refugees for much of the remainder of the war.
     James' brother, Zachary, served for a time in Company A, 30th Virginia Infantry. His career as a foot soldier came to an end after being wounded at the Battle of Antietam in 1862. Benjamin, at the age of 18, became the captain of Company D of the 30th Virginia. Benjamin survived capture, imprisonment, sickness and many near misses during the war's fighting. Just before Lee surrendered his army at Appomattox in 1865, Benjamin was able to escape the Union encirclement of the remnants of the Confederate army. He made his way to Goochland County on foot and arrived at Hadensville gaunt, feverish, with matted hair and tattered clothes. James did not recognize his own brother, and was so frightened by his appearance that he hid behind his mother's skirts when he saw him.
     After the war, James continued to live and work at his parents' farm in Spotsylvania. On November 12, 1877, James married 20-year-old Leona Chancellor, a daughter of Reverend Melzi Sanford Chancellor. They had five children who survived to adulthood: James Boswell (1878-1936), Susie Estelle (1886-1957), Florence Baker (1888-1988), Lucille (1894-1958) and George Chancellor (1897-1974).
     I have not been able to find James' family in the 1880 census. By the 1880s James was working as a merchant in Fredericksburg. His name appears in the minutes of an 1886 city council meeting. After the death of Leona's brother, George, in 1887, James entered into a partnership with Sanford Chancellor to buy the store at 318 Commerce Street. The following summer, Chancellor & Rawlings arrived on Fredericksburg's mercantile scene.

The Free Lance, July 10, 1894

     James and Leona bought the house at 1112 Charles Street, and so lived just a few doors down from Sanford Chancellor and the King family. Unlike the Episcopalian Sanford, James was a devoted Baptist and served as deacon of the Fredericksburg Baptist Church for 25 years. James also served on the board of trustees for the city's public schools. 
     By the end of the 1800s, Leona's health began to decline. She died of tuberculosis at their home shortly after 2 p. m. on June 8, 1900. Her funeral was held at their house on June 10. She lies buried in the Confederate Cemetery in Fredericksburg.
     James and Sanford dissolved their partnership in the store by 1905. That year, James and his son James Boswell opened their own general merchandise store at 405 Commerce Street, just a block from Sanford Chancellor's store.

The Free Lance, April 25, 1905

     James Boswell Rawlings received his early education in the Fredericksburg public schools before attending the Locust Dale Academy and the Fredericksburg Collegiate Institute, where he graduated in 1895. During the Spanish-American War he served in Company K, the Washington Guards, and was stationed at Camp Alger in Falls Church, Virginia.
     In 1910, the Rawlingses dissolved their partnership in the store. James Boswell Rawlings accepted a sales position with the Heywood-Wakeman furniture company in Baltimore. The senior Rawlings continued to operate his store on his own. In 1913, he was appointed to the first of two 4-year terms as postmaster of Fredericksburg. His son James then returned home to take over the management of his father's store.
     On November 25, 1908, James Richard Rawlings married his second wife, Loula Williams. She was a sister of Reverend R. Aubrey Williams, who had been pastor of the Fredericksburg Baptist Church since 1904. James and Loula were married by her brother in a ceremony held at her aunt's house in Richmond. They had one child together, Mary Van Buren Rawlings, born in 1911. 
     James' other children had mostly grown up by now and had started careers of their own. Florence Baker graduated from Longwood College and became a school teacher. This was also true of her sister Lucille, who graduated from the State Normal School. Neither sister ever married.

Florence Baker Rawlings (Ancestry)

Lucille Rawlings (Ancestry)

     While Lucille was a student at the local college, James placed this advertisement in the 1913 edition of The Battlefield:

J. R. Rawlings (Ancestry)

     James and Leona's youngest child, George Chancellor Rawlings, became the executive vice president of the Lawyers Title Insurance Corporation. His son, George Chancellor Rawlings, Jr., became a controversial lawyer in Fredericksburg and served in the House of Representatives in Fredericksburg in the 1960s.

George Chancellor Rawlings, Jr. (Ancestry)

     James Richard Rawlings died of pneumonia at his home on Charles Street on Saturday morning, January 17, 1925--just five months prior to the death of Sanford Chancellor. His funeral was held at the Baptist Church and he was buried in the Confederate Cemetery in Fredericksburg.
    

Fannie Kent. Richmond, Virginia, early 1900s

     My grandmother died just shy of her 99th birthday in October 1982. Her death, and the effect her funeral had on me, moved me to write of my impressions from that time. I loved my grandmother, and soon after her death I began to regret not having spent more time with her when I was young. I wrote this soon after she was laid to rest at Shady Grove:

     Here are several photographs of the old Goshen School taken between 1895 and 1919. The school was located on the corner of Gordon and Brock Roads, opposite Goshen Church. You can see that the school had been enlarged by 1919. Doubtless some of you will recognize the names of your ancestors here.

William George White

     My great-grandmother, Mary Elizabeth "Lizzie" Houston (the subject of numerous posts on this blog), was born in Rockbridge County, Virginia in 1854 to George Washington Houston (a graduate of Washington College) and Annette Louise Willson. Lizzie's grandfather was a cousin of Samuel Houston, who achieved some fame in the history of Tennessee and Texas. In 1875, Lizzie married Spotsylvania County native, George Washington Estes Row, in a ceremony held at New Providence Church in Rockbridge. The presiding minister was Ebenezer Dickey Junkin, whose father had once been president of Washington College in Lexington, and whose sister had been the first wife of Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson.

Ann Eliza Houston White

     On January 12, 1842, Lizzie's aunt, Ann Eliza Houston, married Lexington merchant William George White. Born in Rockbridge County in 1811, William was an able man of many resources and achieved a certain stature in the Lexington of his time. He was town treasurer for a while and also served as treasurer of Washington College 1857-1865.
     William and Eliza had five children who survived to adulthood. Only one of these, Ann Eliza White, married (she was the wife of Reverend Leonidas Beverly Chaney). The widowed Ann Chaney died in Fredericksburg in 1919. Her brothers and sisters--Margaret, Clara, William Houston and Robert-- lived together as a family their entire lives until each succumbed to the infirmities of old age.
     William White's store stood on Main Street in Lexington, opposite the Presbyterian Church. In January 1854, this site became the scene of of a violent struggle and murder, and the ensuing trial made headlines in many papers of the time. Harboring a grudge against VMI cadet Thomas Blackburn, Washington College law student, Charles Burks Christian, attacked him outside the church after evening services. During the fracas at the intersection of Nelson and Main Streets, Christian stabbed Blackburn, who then staggered to the walk in front of White's Store, where he died on hay scales near the store's basement entrance. (For those of you who enjoy reading well-written history, I recommend Daniel S. Morrow's book,  Death in Lexington: VMI, Honor and Justice in Antebellum Virginia. The History Press, Charleston, SC: 2013)

William Houston White

     In 1864, William G. White's older son, William Houston White,  enlisted in the Rockbridge Light Artillery immediately upon his graduation from Washington College. He remained in Confederate uniform for a year, until the surrender of General Robert E. Lee's army at Appomattox in April 1865. Earlier in the war, General Lee's son, Robert, Jr., also served in that battery. After the battle of Antietam, young Robert was promoted and became an aide to his brother, General George Washington Custis Lee [1].
     By the end of the Civil War, Washington College was destitute and its prospects were not bright. It had invested heavily in Virginia state bonds, whose potential value was negated by the outcome of the war. Fortunately, money was raised from some of the more solvent members of the local citizenry, including $20,000 contributed by inventor Cyrus McCormick. In addition to money, strong leadership was also required to attract new students to the College. The school's trustees offered the presidency of Washington College to Robert E. Lee during the summer of 1865. The former general accepted their offer, and presided at the school for the next five years.

Robert E. Lee (Wikipedia)

     Soon after his arrival, Lee was contacted by the executive committee of the Rockbridge Bible Society, which included the Society's treasurer, William George White, inviting him to join their membership. Although most families in Rockbridge were of Scots-Irish descent and devout Presbyterians, they had no difficulty in making room for the revered former general, an Episcopalian. Lee and White became good friends.
     A house was built for Mr. and Mrs. Lee. President Lee also raised funds to build a church for the school's campus. Completed in 1868, this church came to be known as Lee Chapel.
     Robert E. Lee died Wednesday morning, October 12, 1870 at 9:30 at his home at Washington College. His death could hardly have occurred at a more inopportune time for the planners of his funeral. During the first week of October 1870, the worst flood in living memory occurred on the North (now called Maury) River. Great damage was done along the canal, including the destruction of the lumber house belonging to Archibald Alexander and James D. Anderson. Just prior to the flood, Alexander and Anderson had accepted the shipment of metal coffins intended for C. M. Koones & Brother, Lexington's undertakers. Those coffins and everything else stored there had been swept down the North River.

Charles Henry Chittum (Barbara Chittum Hutchens)

     This posed a very difficult problem for the burial of Robert E. Lee. Because of the damage done to Lexington's wharf, coupled with the fact the area's roads had been washed out, it was unlikely that a proper metal coffin could be obtained in sufficient time. Volunteers began to search the river banks for the missing coffins, and one was found two miles downstream by Charles Henry Chittum, who owned a shoe shop in Lexington.

Funeral cortege of Robert E. Lee (Washington & Lee Special Collections)

     Lee's funeral took place in Lexington on October 15, 1870. Accompanied by the solemn music played by the band from the Virginia Military Institute, the funeral procession went past William White's store, shown in the photograph above. The cortege then proceeded to the College. In the picture below, throngs of mourners are seen at Lee Chapel, where he was buried.



     Among the pallbearers that day were two of Lexington's leading citizens. One was lawyer Joseph Grigsby Steele, who at one time served as clerk of court for Rockbridge County. The other was William George White.

William George White

    
     William White retired from business by 1880. His son, William Houston, assumed management of the store. William died on October 2, 1888. He is buried in the Stonewall Jackson Cemetery in Lexington.


There were two other pallbearers at Lee's funeral that day who deserve mention here:

Matthew Fontaine Maury (Wikipedia)

     Spotsylvania-born Matthew Fontaine Maury (1806-1873), called the "Pathfinder of the Seas," served his country as an astronomer, historian, oceanographer, meterologist, cartographer, geologist and naval officer. During the Civil War, Maury served the cause of the Confederacy. By the time of Lee's funeral, Maury was a professor of physics at the Virginia Military Institute.

William Preston Johnston (Wikipedia)

     William Preston Johnston (1831-1899) was the son and biographer of Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston, who was killed at the Battle of Shiloh in 1862. During the Civil War, William served as aide-de-camp to Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States of America. He was captured with Davis at Irwinville, Georgia in 1865. He spent several months imprisoned at Fort Delaware.
     At the invitation of Robert E. Lee, Johnston joined the faculty of Washington College. During his tenure there, he lived at "Clifton," a house on the North River opposite Lexington. Johnston and Lee used to sit on the porch of this house and watch collegiate boat races on the river.

Clifton

     In 1897, Clifton was purchased by Lizzie Houston's brother, Finley Houston, who at that time was quartermaster at VMI. The house remained in the Houston family for the next 80 years.

Finley Houston

[1] In 1865, Custis Lee joined the faculty of the Virginia Military Institute. After the death of his father, he assumed the presidency of Washington and Lee University, serving until 1897. In 1877, Lee sued the United States government to regain title to Arlington, his family's estate, which had been seized during the Civil War. The case went to the Supreme Court, which decided in his favor in 1882. The following year, Lee sold Arlington back to the federal government for $150,000.

Little Falls School, 1959 (Stafford County Museum)

     During the spring and early summer of 1917, a new two-room school house was built in Stafford County on River Road (modern Route 3), a few miles east of Chatham Bridge. The school was sited on Little Falls Run on property that once belonged to the Pollock family, who operated a mill there. During the Second Battle of Fredericksburg in 1863, Union soldiers assembled into boats at this place and paddled across the Rappahannock. They were then able to drive off the Confederates on the opposite bank. Park historian John Hennessy has written an excellent article on this operation, which can be read here.

Pollock's mill on the Rappahannock River at Little Run Falls, 1863

     The school was built on land deeded by dairy farmer Edward C. Nathan, a Wisconsin native who took an interest in the progress and well-being of his adopted state. He was then the owner of Little Falls Farm. A year after helping to establish the school, Mr. Nathan died during the influenza epidemic.
     On July 7, 1917, The Free Lance published an article titled: "Little Falls School: The Building Opened for Inspection on July 4. Many Present, Varied Program."  The activities of that day were then described in some detail. The community obviously took great pride in the new building: "The Little Falls School, said to be the best, most efficient and attractive two-room school in the state was opened to the public."
     Two hundred eighty two people attended the ceremonies, which commenced at 3 p. m. with a baseball game played between the River Road Farmers' Union and the White Oak Farmers' Union. The River Road team won, 20-19. The game was umpired by two Fredericksburg businessmen, Horace F. Crismond, Jr. and John W. Berry.
     This was followed by a number of speeches and the singing of songs. There was a patriotic feel to the festivities, as the United States had recently declared war on Germany. Late in the day, a vote was taken to see if the attendees thought holding a dance in the new school would be acceptable. The ayes had it, and throngs of people danced in the school until after midnight.
     The main portion of the school was 60'x24' and included folding doors so that the space could be divided into two class rooms. On the north end of the school (the right side of the building in the photo at the top of today's post) was a hexagonal stage, 21'x15'. Bookcases built beneath the windows had room for over 2,000 volumes, and would serve as a library both for the school and for the community at large. The citizens of south Stafford were justifiably proud of their new facility.

     Four months later, on November 26, 1917, Little Falls School was destroyed by a fire. The building was insured for $2,000, but it was soon learned that it would cost $3,000 to replicate the original structure. The necessary money was raised, and the school was rebuilt to its former glory.
     Little Falls School taught children in grades 1-6. Over the years, a number of capable women served as teachers and principals there. One of these was Elizabeth Dickinson Thorburn.

Elizabeth Thorburn (Ancestry)

     Elizabeth Thorburn was a graduate of Chancellor High School and Mary Washington College. She was a sister-in-law of Thomas Thorburn, whose family was responsible for establishing telephone service in a section of Spotsylvania County. My brief history of the Fredericksburg & Wilderness Telephone Company can be read here. Elizabeth was named as principal and teacher in 1938. She was also active in an initiative in the early 1940s to provide a hot lunch to the students. Local women volunteered to provide canned vegetables to the school to be used as soup stock. In 1945, she was elected president of class room teachers at a meeting of District "A" of the Virginia Education Association.
     In 1949, Lilla Eley was named principal and teacher of grades 4-6. That same year, Virginia Hart Jones was hired to teach grades 1-3. Mrs. Jones later remarried, and as Virginia Ballard was the last principal of Little Falls School.

The Sullivan house, 1953

     Directly across River Road (Route 3) stood--and still stands--the house of my grandparents, Daniel Webster and Ethel Sullivan. The house can be seen in the photo above, taken in 1953. I am seated comfortably with my grandmother.

Daniel Webster Sullivan

     Webster Sullivan, familiarly known as "Web," owned a large poultry farm called the Northern Neck Hatchery. He bred and raised chicks for chicken farmers throughout the region. During the 1920s and 1930s, he used to advertise his business in The Free Lance-Star. Three examples appear below:

February 6, 1928

March 7, 1931

March 29, 1934

     All six children of Webster and Ethel Sullivan attended Little Falls School. The image below is that of my father, taken in the late 1930's:

Paul Sullivan

     On January 22, 1983, The Free Lance-Star published this 1929 photograph of Little Falls School. All the children are identified in the caption. Included in this group are three of my father's sisters: Gaynelle, Catherine and Hope.

Little Falls School, 1929

     Although I cannot do anything about the quality of this reproduced photograph, I am able to provide this portrait of my four aunts. Standing are Hilda and Gaynelle. Sitting are Catherine and Hope.

The Sullivan Sisters

     Hope does not appear in the article's picture because by 1929 she was 14 years old and would have been attending high school. According to the Stafford County Museum, Falmouth High School was not built until 1931. Until then, white children from Stafford County who wished to attend high school went to Fredericksburg.
     In 1957, my family moved to Los Angeles in order that my father could earn more money than he had been making at the Sylvania Plant. While in California, he worked as a machinist at the Marquardt Corporation, an aeronautical firm that manufactured ramjets, among other things.
     I began my schooling in California, and was enrolled in the kindergarten at Fernangeles Elementary School in the autumn of 1958. I began first grade in early 1959 (a student was allowed to begin in any semester during which he became of age for that grade, in this case I turned six then). Fernangeles was a big-city school with facilities and programs that were unknown in rural Spotsylvania at that time. We raised a garden at the school (I grew radishes) and took numerous field trips, including a memorable one to a commercial bakery in Los Angeles. We held "Duck and Cover" drills, during which we crouched under our desks, as we would be expected to do during a nuclear attack. We danced the hokey-pokey and finger painted. Sometimes we would do some reading and writing.
     By 1959 my father had become restless and wished to come back to Virginia. He believed that a rural environment would be healthier for my sister and me. Plans to return to Virginia accelerated when my Grandmother Sullivan fell ill. My parents quickly sold our house on Pendleton Street, packed up our belongings and sold the family dog. My sister and I were promised that we would get another dog when we came to Virginia.
     My grandmother's health took a sudden turn for the worse in early 1960, and in February my father came back to Virginia alone to see her in the hospital and to be of some help to his father. He never saw his mother again. She died while my father was being given a speeding ticket in Georgia.
     My mother, my sister and I made the move to Virginia in April 1960. Our belongings were placed in storage and we lived at the Sullivan house. Very soon thereafter my father came home from work one day with a puppy for us. We named her Queenie, and she was ours for the next 10 years. Someday I shall write about Queenie.

Queenie

     My sister and I were happy during our short time at our grandfather's house, (although it must be said that I was afraid of old Web). We used to swim in Little Falls Run, and would sit on the stone outcropping that spanned the creek. My grandfather, long-retired form the hatchery business, kept a large garden in the bottom by the creek. He grew tomatoes and other produce for sale down there. He used to keep a small box of Morton's salt on his person. Sometimes he would pick a ripe tomato for us and cut it in half, sprinkle a little salt on each open face, and give one to me.

Your blog host, 1961

     I was enrolled in the second grade at Little Falls. Although I had only just begun the second grade in California, I was, perforce, thrust into the second semester of the second grade at this rural two-room school in Stafford County.
     To this day I remember without difficulty the shock and panic I felt with this new reality. There was no hokey-pokey. No finger painting. I was a semester behind my classmates and for the first time in my life I was given homework to do. I struggled to keep up.

Report Card, 1960

     Fortunately for me, my teacher was Virginia Ballard, who was also the principal. She was wonderful to me and stayed in close contact with my mother, which was not difficult, given that we lived just 100 yards from the school.

Modern entrance to Sullivan home (Google)

     When I used to walk home from school in the afternoons (Route 3 was just a two-lane road in 1960), Queenie would be waiting for me at the stone retaining wall at my grandfather's house (the house is hidden by the trees in the Google street view above). I would set my books down on that wall and Queenie and I would tussle in the yard and then roll down the small embankment next to the wall (the utility pole was not there in those days). I held on to her and down we went. Then we would scamper up into the yard and do it again. In her excitement, Queenie bit at my hands, and more than 55 years later they still bear the scars of her playful nips. My mother did not mind my bleeding hands so much, but the fact that several of my shirts were torn to shreds while engaged in this activity did not please her.
     I remember shopping with my mother one day at the A&P in Fredericksburg during this time. We encountered Mrs. Ballard in the produce section. It was the first time I had ever seen one of my teachers outside a school setting. The adults chatted while I stood there, dumbfounded. "Mama," I said later, "I did not know Mrs. Ballard ate groceries!"
     One quiet Sunday morning my father and I went rabbit hunting in the field behind the school, near the river. My father was carrying a semi-automatic .22 rifle, which held about 18 or 20 .22 shorts, as I recall. A rabbit started out from our right and raced in front of us toward the tree line. My father threw the butt up to his shoulder and began to shoot. I remember standing behind him, awestruck, as puffs of dirt appeared just behind, and then just ahead of our prey. The rabbit did not make the tree line. That day my father showed me how to dress out a rabbit for supper, and it was a skill I utilized for a number of years afterward.
     But life at the Sullivan house was not entirely idyllic. Web Sullivan was a peculiar and difficult man, and the recent death of my grandmother made him only more so. One day, my father sat me on that stone wall near the house (behind the trees in the photo above). He tied a sheet around my neck and began to cut my hair. My grandfather appeared, and I soon became aware that angry voices were being raised and that a violent confrontation was occurring inches from me. I was terrified.

     We moved from Stafford almost right away. We rented a house at the end of modern Bernstein Road in Spotsylvania County. It was a dirt road in 1960, and it looped around our house on its way back out to Route 3. Among our neighbors were Dr. Henry Bernstein and his family.

Dr. Henry Bernstein

     I never saw my grandfather again. In June 1963, Little Falls School closed its doors for good. Virginia Ballard continued to teach in Stafford County schools for some time after this. She died in 2009 at the age of 100.
     Webster Sullivan died at home one month after Little Falls School closed. His death certificate was signed by Dr. Henry Bernstein.

     I will be attending a book signing next week in Orange County, Virginia. This event will be held  on June 29, 2016 at 2 p.m. at the Lake of the Woods Clubhouse, 205 Lakeview Parkway. I encourage my readers who are able to do so to come meet me and buy a signed copy of my book. Proceeds from the sale of the book will be donated to the Orange County Historical Society. Hope to see you there!

The Virginia Herald, June 10, 1829

     Today I write my 160th article for Spotsylvania Memory. By now, those of you who have followed my blog over the past five years, as well as those who have read my book, are familiar with my topics and style of writing. My purpose has always been to share, honestly and dispassionately, what I have learned from my research. I have done my best to avoid editorial asides or sermonizing about this or that. I believe that it is important for my readers to experience original source material as I have found it. In this way, each of you may formulate your own views about our shared past without being obliged to peer through the prism of my opinions.
     Today, however, I have decided to take a different approach. And I am doing so on a subject freighted with many complications and possibilities for controversy: Slavery. Because the history of my native state is heavy-laden with emotional investment, nuance of fact and a blurring of many boundaries, it is almost impossible for me to write about it without making my point of view a part of this story. For the history of slavery in Virginia is also the history of my own family.
     First, let us stipulate here that the 246 years existence of slavery was a catastrophe for this nation and for those unfortunate souls who were snatched from their homes in Africa and brought here to labor and live a life without hope. Some of the core principles upon which this country was established--equality before the law and the freedoms proclaimed in the Bill of Rights--were never intended to apply to enslaved blacks. This fundamental hypocrisy, made possible by the dehumanization of generations of people, was the corrosive fact of our polity that has always hindered the United States from achieving the full potential of its founding ideals. The pernicious effects of this dual standard upon the enslaved Africans and their descendants remain with us to this day.
     I also wish to give my opinion on one other matter that is a perennial source of contention among many. I have always believed that slavery was the proximate cause of the Civil War. Had not slavery existed in the United States, it seems to me unlikely that the other sectional disagreements between north and south would have in themselves been seen as justification for secession. Slavery was such a toxic issue, and the south had so much at stake in its perpetuation as a legally-protected institution, that its existence alone made any political resolution of the other issues virtually impossible.
     I have long been of the opinion that the issue of states' rights as the main cause of the Civil War is simply wrong. "States' rights," as preached by southerners in the 19th century, was merely a screen for advancing the interests of the slaveocracy. Southern demagogues who endlessly brayed about states' rights were interested in the issue only insofar as they could sustain the institution of slavery and enable its extension into new territories and states. They were vehemently opposed to the assertion of the rights of other states to be free from the intrusions of the federal government, when those states were opposed to slavery. Northern states, whose citizens found slavery to be odious and whose governments were loath to assist in the capture and return of runaway slaves, were compelled to do so by federal law. These states would certainly have preferred to offer sanctuary to slaves who sought freedom within their borders. But the slave interests who held sway in Congress made this a difficult proposition by forcing the passage of the Fugitive Slave Acts of 1793 and 1850. These laws not only required free states to allow slave catchers to operate freely within their borders, they also obliged these same states to actively assist in the apprehension of runaways. States' rights, indeed.

Slave catchers apprehending a runaway

     Slavery in Virginia had its beginnings in the Gulf of Mexico. In 1619, a Portuguese cargo ship, San Juan Baptista, was carrying 350 Angolans to Veracruz, Mexico, where they were to be sold to the Spanish. This ship was waylaid by two English privateers, Treasurer and White Lion. Instead of sailing to Mexico, the English and their captured bounty made for the Atlantic. They sold about 20 of these Angolan men at Jamestown, Virginia and took the rest to Bermuda and other destinations.
     Because this group of Africans had been baptized as Christians, they were treated as indentured servants by the English colonists. This meant that after laboring for seven years, they would be granted their freedom, just like white servants. By 1650 there were about 300 African indentured servants living in Virginia. Some of these black workers, once freed, would buy land and farm. Some would later own black slaves.
     By this time Virginia was experiencing an unhappy transition, whereby the status of black indentured servants gradually changed to that of lifelong slaves. The labor-intensive nature of cotton and tobacco farming led Virginia plantation owners to make the switch from indentured servitude to chattel slavery.
     By 1662, Virginia adopted the doctrine of partus sequitur ventrem, which held that a child's legal status derived from that of his or her mother. A child born of a free woman--white or black--was a free person in the eyes of the law. If the mother were enslaved, then all children born to her would also be slaves, regardless of whether the father happened to be a free white man. Thus, the illegitimate children of white slave owners and their female slaves were considered to be slaves. The owners were under no legal obligation to emancipate their mixed-race progeny or even to acknowledge their paternity of them.
     Until about 1800, Virginia slave owners were at liberty to emancipate their slaves, if they chose to do so (and many did), with a minimum of government meddling. However, the Virginia legislature passed a series of measures which placed conditions on these freed persons of color. Acts were passed in 1793 and 1803 which required "every free negro or mulatto" to be registered and numbered in a book kept by the county clerk. In 1806, the General Assembly passed a law stating that all freed slaves who remained in the Commonwealth for more than one year after their emancipation would forfeit their right to freedom and be sold by the overseers of the poor for benefit of the individual parishes (Virginians strongly felt that having too many free blacks living near their slaves would put unhelpful ideas into the minds of those not yet freed). Beginning in 1837, freed slaves could petition local courts for permission to remain in the Commonwealth. These petitions would include certificates from free white citizens who could testify to the good character and free status of the petitioner.
     Freed slaves also had the right to petition the legislature so that they might be re-enslaved. And why on earth would they do such a thing, you might ask. It often happened that a master would free a father or mother only, but not the family as a whole. If the General Assembly denied the petition of a freed slave to remain in the state, he or she would be faced with the Hobson's choice of enjoying freedom far from his or her family, or rejoining them as a slave.
   
     In my earlier writings about slavery in Virginia, especially as a documented reality of my ancestors, I avoided the temptation to speculate on the thought processes that enabled white slave owners to perpetuate the peculiar institution for two and one half centuries. Playing the role of amateur psychologist is a task that I am not qualified to undertake, especially as it pertains to analyzing the psychology and motivations of people now long dead. But today I am willing to give it a shot, if only to clarify in my own mind how an evil such as slavery could survive so long in a country nominally dedicated to individual liberty and the dignity of man.
     In order to justify slavery in their hearts, slave owners were obliged to reconcile a number of contradictory ways of thinking. They were aided in this by the simple fact that both during the colonial era and during America's first 90 years of nationhood, slavery was a legally sanctioned enterprise which--especially in the south--also enjoyed the approbation of the church. Rare was the clergyman who would dare to preach against slavery; indeed, most ministers believed, along with their congregations, that slavery had the approval of God, and their selective interpretations of Biblical scripture reassured them that slavery was beneficial both for the enslaved and their masters. Many preachers of the gospels were themselves slave owners, and saw no irony in that fact when juxtaposed with Christ's teachings.
     Once chattel slavery became an established legal and social institution in the late 17th century, its insidious tentacles reached into every corner of Virginia society. The ownership of slaves was the underpinning of wealth for the gentry and the upper classes. In the example of Absalom Row, my second great-grandfather, the inventory and appraisement of his estate in 1856 showed that 40% of his wealth derived from the value of his slaves.

Absalom Row (1796-1855)

     In addition to being an integral part of Virginia's economy, slave ownership was intimately entwined in the social and family life of white citizens. Among the elites, one's status derived in some measure from their slave-based wealth. In many cases, it was considered a sign of good taste to have house servants whose skin color was lighter than that of the field hands. That some of these domestic servants were kin to the people who owned them was a reality known to all, but spoken of very rarely.
     The white masters of antebellum plantations in the south wielded absolute power over their own families and their enslaved laborers alike. Too many of these men fell prey to the corrupting temptations this power afforded them. The sin that dared not speak its name at that time was the coercive sexual exploitation of slave women. Often, this this took the form of the blatant rape of these poor unfortunates. In other cases, these relationships included an emotional tie between both master and slave. Many men chose to ignore the children born of these affairs. Others would openly provide money, clothing and education to these children and even emancipate them and their mothers. For the long-suffering wives of these men, they had little recourse but to gnash their teeth at the whole sordid business, and ignore the existence of the light-skinned youngsters who bore such a resemblance to their husbands. Some of these wives would take out their frustration and humiliation on the the slaves, whom they tended to blame for these incidents.
     This shadowy world of dual families living together in the same household made for a complicated and highly nuanced domestic situation. Of course, everyone knew what was going on behind closed doors, but no one dared to to confront the master of the house with the obvious truth. Even at the highest social levels in Virginia, white and half-white family members, the one free and the other slave, tacitly adhered to the roles this caste system required them to play without murmuring a word about it. George Washington's wife, the former Martha Dandridge Custis, had a half-sister, Ann Dandridge, who lived with the Washingtons at Mount Vernon. Ann was the daughter of Martha's father and a slave woman who was of African and Native American ancestry. No visitor ever had any inkling that this slave woman was a sister-in-law of George Washington. And it got worse from there. Ann Dandridge attracted the attention of Martha's dissolute son, Jacky Custis, with whom she had a daughter, Harriet, and a son, William. The Washingtons were therefore the grandparents of slaves. After Martha's death in 1802, Thomas Law, son-in-law of Martha's granddaughter, Elizabeth Parke Custis, emancipated Ann Dandridge almost immediately. [Source: Wiencek, Henry, An Imperfect God: George Washington, His Slaves and the Creation of America, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 2003]
     The Custis family also furnished a notorious example of a slave owner who openly acknowledged his paternity of his slave child and lavished him with attention and favors. Martha's first father-in-law, the fabulously wealthy John Custis, had fathered a child, "Black Jack" Custis, by one of his slaves. John doted on this child and sought to free him by extra-legal means so that the boy could inherit property from him. This was done to the detriment of his son by his white wife, Daniel Parke Custis, who married Martha Dandridge, the future Mrs. Washington [Wiencek].
     These types of shenanigans were frowned upon in polite society, not just because they were unseemly, they also posed a threat to the underpinnings of slavery itself. The prospect of large numbers of mixed-race people, whose paternity was openly acknowledged by their white fathers, meant that these people could possibly attain legal status, inherit wealth and move freely in white society. Such a possibility, unlikely though it was, challenged slave-owners' belief systems.
     Another aspect of master-slave relationships that required great mental elasticity among whites was the irreconcilable dichotomy inherent in their connections. Many whites indulged in the fantasy that their enslaved laborers were docile, willingly obedient and even affectionate. And there is no question that long-term friendships developed between the races. But there was never any ambiguity  as to who held the upper hand. And most slaves remained alert to opportunities to gain their liberty. White owners who were particularly delusional misconstrued obedience for loyalty. When these slaves took advantage of those rare opportunities to flee before the Civil War, their white owners would feel genuinely bewildered and hurt that these people, whom they had taken care of, would be so ungrateful.
     But residing just beneath this delusion was the existential reality that never quite left the awareness of slave owners. Two slave revolts, the abortive Gabriel's uprising in 1800, and Nat Turner's rebellion in 1831, made very clear to whites that a real desire for freedom lurked behind the docile visages of their slaves, and that there existed within their servants an ever-present potential to use violence to get that freedom. Successful slave uprisings were exceedingly rare, but the possibility that they could be murdered by their own slaves at any time surely must have weighed heavily on the minds of whites throughout the Commonwealth.
     Far more whites were murdered surreptitiously by slaves acting alone or in small groups than did  during the Nat Turner rebellion. For example, Ambrose Madison, grandfather of future president James Madison, was poisoned in 1732 by three of his slaves at his home in Orange County. In 1820, Carlton Row (an older brother of Absalom Row) and his wife Lucy were poisoned by their slaves after Carlton ordered one to be whipped (as family tradition has it). Carlton and Lucy's one-year-old daughter, Rachel, was spared. She was brought to Orange County and raised in the household of her grandfather, Thomas Row.
     Laws were enacted to protect white citizens from their slaves. It became illegal to teach blacks to read and write. Slaves were forbidden to congregate in meetings without a white person being present. Slaves were required to have on their persons passes signed by their masters, giving them permission to do so. Woe to the unlucky slave caught off the plantation without his pass.

Slave patrol schedule for Spotsylvania County, 1853

     The activities of slaves were monitored by slave patrols. These patrols--referred to as "paddyrollers" by the slaves, were comprised of members of the local militia and were appointed and compensated by officers of the court. As a justice of the peace, Absalom Row was one such officer who organized these patrols in Spotsylvania County, and his signature appears on a number of related documents, like the one above. Among those listed was James H. Brock, who was Row's overseer at his plantation, Greenfield. The patrols were empowered to break up any unauthorized meetings of blacks they might come across. They carried firearms for their own protection and whips to mete out summary punishment to any slave caught without a pass.
     Slaves well understood that organized resistance against whites was suicidal, and that even more subtle forms of violence--like putting ground glass in the master's food--would not save them from savage retribution. What resistance they did offer was more subtle in nature. The tempo of work songs, which dictated the pace of communal work, could be slowed down when the overseer's attention was diverted. Handles of tools stored in sheds would be found mysteriously broken. Recently honed axes would turn up dull and rusty. Planters learned that trying to introduce new farming methods or machinery was futile, as slaves would feign incomprehension and new machines could be ruined and new ways of doing things could be easily misunderstood.
     By 1860, many in Virginia understood that the slave system was a wasteful and inefficient way to make money in an overwhelmingly agricultural society. However, slavery was so deeply ingrained into southern life, no one could imagine how things could be done differently. There was no good alternative to  keeping blacks right where they were. More to the point, white southerners were horrified by the thought of over four million slaves suddenly being freed, at liberty to roam at will and to compete with whites as farmers and skilled laborers. Freedom for blacks would mean the annihilation of their world view, their financial impoverishment and the threat of violent revenge from those whom they had victimized for generations. It was unthinkable. As Thomas Jefferson observed in a letter he wrote in 1824, "We have the wolf by the ears and feel the danger of either holding on or letting him loose."

Notice to Judicial Officers, 1861

      In April 1861, the Civil War long desired by the fire-eaters of the south began. It soon became apparent to slave owners in Virginia that their human property would seize upon this golden opportunity to make good their flight from bondage and reach sanctuary within the lines of the invading armies of the United States. As slave owners began to see their labor force and the source of their wealth take refuge with Union troops, it fell to the newly-minted Confederate government to take steps to to try to reassure citizens that something was being done to provide compensation for their loss. Accordingly, in October 1861, acting secretary of state William Browne published a "Notice to Judicial Officers." This proclamation provided instructions necessary to file a claim of loss of slave property. Implicit in this exercise was the hope that some day former owners would receive compensation for their loss. That day never came.

Nancy Estes Row's list of runaway slaves, 1862

     One of those who filed an affidavit of the loss of her slaves was Nancy Estes Row, the widow of Absalom Row. During the summer of 1862, she wrote the list of the names of the "servants" who ran away from Greenfield, shown above. She duly filed her paperwork with the Corporation Court of Fredericksburg in January 1863. She documented the names, ages and monetary values of each of the persons who ran away.
     But not all of her slaves ran away that summer. Some stayed with Mrs. Row, including Horace, Henry, Albert and William, whose names appear in letters and ledger entries after the escape of most of the other slaves of Greenfield. What motivated these few to remain in bondage? It is impossible to know, and each one of them may have had his own reason. Loyalty to Mrs. Row? Perhaps. Fear of the unknown? Also a possibility.

Labor contract with Henry Slaughter

     After the war, Henry Slaughter, one of these men who stayed behind with Nancy Row, continued to work at Greenfield. His name appears on the labor contract shown above, written by Nancy's son, George Washington Estes Row.
     George W. E. Row's daughter, Mabel, was born at Greenfield in 1879 and grew up on the adjacent farm named Sunshine, established by her father that same year. In 1960, Mabel shared her recollections of Greenfield with Spotsylvania historian, Roger Mansfield. She remembered being told by those who had lived at Greenfield, family members and former slaves alike, "The relationship between owner and servant was one of mutual respect. Even after the war, when the negroes had homes of their own, and a former slave died, the body was brought to Greenfield to lie in state in the parlor. They 'belonged.' Their burial ground is near that of their earthly masters."

Sketch of Greenfield, as remembered by Mabel Row Wakeman

     The graveyards of the Estes-Row family and of their slaves are all that remain of the old plantation. The graves of the slaves buried there are unmarked except for the dark field stones that have been scattered by time and circumstance. In my writing, I have done my best to share their names and to tell their stories as I have found them in my family's archive and in the public record. They deserved so much more in their lifetimes, but for now this is all I can do for them.
     And from the shadows, their eyes implore us.

Slave sale at Greenfield, 1832

Here are links to the articles in which I have shared what I know of the slaves and free people of color who were part of my family's history. For a few, I have been able to provide a glimpse into what their lives were like after emancipation.

http://spotsylvaniamemory.blogspot.com/2011/06/case-of-murder-in-old-spotsylvania.html
   
http://spotsylvaniamemory.blogspot.com/2011/09/greenfield-and-peculiar-institution.html

http://spotsylvaniamemory.blogspot.com/2011/09/slavery-and-absalom-row.html

http://spotsylvaniamemory.blogspot.com/2011/09/slavery-war-and-nancy-row.html

http://spotsylvaniamemory.blogspot.com/2011/10/justice-for-margaret.html

http://spotsylvaniamemory.blogspot.com/2011/10/george-we-row-and-freedmen.html

http://spotsylvaniamemory.blogspot.com/2011/11/sarah-jane-daniel-part-1.html

http://spotsylvaniamemory.blogspot.com/2012/04/prayer-book-of-rachel-keeling-row.html

http://spotsylvaniamemory.blogspot.com/2012/05/rows-of-caroline-county-part-1.html

http://spotsylvaniamemory.blogspot.com/2013/04/a-brief-story-of-ellen.html

http://spotsylvaniamemory.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-journal-of-absalom-row.html

http://spotsylvaniamemory.blogspot.com/2013/12/this-day-ran-away-from-my-premises.html

http://spotsylvaniamemory.blogspot.com/2013/12/atwell-young-black-confederate.html










    
    
     

Cecil Amander Burleigh (cecilsletters.com)

     During the past two years, I have been part of a team of volunteers who transcribe documents from the archives of the Library of Virginia. This crowdsourced program is open to anyone who has an interest in Virginia history at www.virginiamemory.com/transcribe/
     Recently, I have devoted my time to a large cache of letters sent and received during the Civil War by Cecil Amander Burleigh and his wife, the former Caroline ("Carrie") Dickerman. I have come to appreciate the struggles and sacrifices of this married couple, whose personal difficulties during the war were replicated tens of thousands of times across America.. This collection of letters, numbering in the hundreds, was made available to the Library of Virginia by Patricia Bangs, a direct descendant of Cecil Burleigh.
     Cecil and Carrie Burleigh were devout, patriotic people of high ideals whose lives were informed by a devotion to duty and a highly developed love of their country. They were also strongly opposed to the institution of slavery, and their letters make references to the "slave cursed soil" of the South. Their letters also clearly show their deep affection for each other and how well they coped with long periods of separation. Many of Carrie's letters to her husband end with some variation of "May God keep you from danger and may you be spared to return to your family." Cecil signed almost all of his letters to Carrie as "Burleigh," and the letters he received from friends and fellow soldiers usually begin with the salutation "Friend Burleigh." And so that is how he will be known in today's post.
     For those of you who may already be asking yourselves why I am writing about a Connecticut Yankee today, I hasten to say here that the first battle experienced by Burleigh was at Chancellorsville. My focus will be on those events of Burleigh's life leading up to that epic fight and its immediate aftermath.
     Cecil Burleigh was born on June 30th, 1833 in the town of Richford in Tioga County, New York. He left home at age 13 to apprentice as a blacksmith in the nearby town of Berkshire. At the age of 20, he was invited by Edward Dickerman to work at his smithy at Mount Carmel, near Hamden, Connecticut. While employed there, Burleigh met Edward's niece, Carrie, whom he married in 1855. They had one child, Louise, who was born in 1861.
     Burleigh next worked as superintendent for Ives & Pardee, hardware manufacturers, until they went bankrupt in 1860. He then taught school, reluctantly, until the outbreak of the Civil War. In April 1861, he became a recruiting officer for the Union army, a job that required a certain amount of traveling. When the 20th Connecticut Volunteers was organized in August 1862, Burleigh enlisted as a first sergeant in Company I. On August 27, 1862, examining surgeons at New Haven selected 980 men as fit for duty in the new regiment.
     After a brief period of training and equipping, the 20th was sent to Virginia, where it became a part of the 12th Corps, commanded by Major General Henry Slocum. The 20th Connecticut moved from Fairfax County and encamped near Stafford Court House by January 25, 1863. This would be Burleigh's home for the next four months.
     In a letter written to Carrie from that place on January 27, he plainly stated how he viewed the aims of the war:

     "I have no uncivil feelings against the people of this state but they need the influences of education and Christianity more than any people I ever saw. Perhaps you think it a poor way to reform them to lay waste their country & destroy their habitations but desperate diseases need energetic treatment. Before the proclamation of freedom to the blacks I began to fear we were fighting in vain but now we are fighting  for a noble cause to save from bondage not only four millions of people but all future generations."

     In at least one subsequent letter, Burleigh revealed to Carrie his willingness to lead a detachment of black soldiers. When Carrie wrote him of her ambivalence about such a notion, Burleigh told her that it would enable him to get a promotion more quickly. In any case, he never seriously pursued this as a career move.
     In late February 1863, Burleigh received a furlough and returned home to visit his family and friends in Connecticut. On his way back to Stafford in early March, Burleigh visited Washington, D.C., where he observed the House of Delegates:

     "We got there just as members were taking their seats, & listened to the prayer of the Chaplain during that time there was tolerable good order in the house but no sooner was the amen said than the bustle commenced it was not half so respectable an assembly as a town meeting in Hamden."

     The winter encampment of the 20th Connecticut Volunteers at Stafford Court House was cold and wet and stupendously boring. Burleigh shared a ramshackle hut with some friends who helped him build it. Other than occasional picket duty or other routine tasks, there was little to do but write letters, read letters, and try to remain warm and dry. It snowed or rained almost continually until late spring.
     On April 26, 1863, Burleigh wrote his last letter to Carrie from Stafford Court House. "We have positive orders to march at daybreak. I have no idea where we are to go but think we are bound to Richmond which place I hope to see in ten days (not a prisoner)." Incredibly, Burleigh had foretold his own fate.
     The 12th Corps broke camp on April 27 and marched about 30 miles west and crossed the Rappahannock River at Kelly's Ford. They then pushed on to Germanna Ford and forced a crossing against Confederates dug in on the south bank of the Rapidan. General Slocum and his command reached Chancellorsville about 3 p. m. on April 30.

Battle of Chancellorsville, May 3, 1863 (Wikipedia)

     On May 3, 1863, Union positions in the immediate vicinity of the Chancellor House came under intense artillery fire from Confederate batteries nearby. Dr. Daniel Lee Jewett of the 20th Connecticut was inside the residence attending to the wounded during the bombardment. One of his patients was killed by shrapnel while Dr. Jewett was operating on him. During the battle, the 20th heroically stood its ground during the savage fighting until it was forced to retreat when supporting forces on both their flanks gave way. The regiment suffered 197 casualties that day.
     Sergeant Burleigh, as well as other members of the 20th, was captured by the Confederates. He was taken to Fredericksburg, and was then transported to Libby Prison in Richmond,  but was soon paroled. Two weeks after the battle, he was at last able to write a letter to Carrie and tell her of his experience:

"Annapolis Md May 16th 63
Dear Wife
     I want to write you a few lines but the wind blows so here I cant keep my paper still...I dont know where my reg't is or how many were killed or wounded I know four of our Co. were killed & as many wounded & there are nine of us taken prisoners Paddock & Bradley [1] among them Bradley & I stood up & fought till we were entirely surrounded & the ground covered with dead & wounded so did a number of others perhaps it would have been better to have retreated with the regt but the rebels paid dear for our capture. We were captured on Sunday May 3d we were behind a slight breast work made of poles lightly thrown together our forces were driven back on our right & two assaults were made upon our position but we repulsed them handsomely & could have held our position till this time but our forces gave way both on the right & left of us & we were nearly surrounded when Col Wooster gave the order to retreat & the regt left on the double quick I started to follow them but it was so much against my disposition that [I] determined to sell my life as dearly as possible. I found a Co. of the 84th P. Vs. [Pennsylvania Volunteers] who where making a gallant fight. I was very much exposed to the shot & shell & bullets flew about me like hail stones but I thank God he preserved me in all that danger, & kept my heart from fear. I presume you have heard from the regt several times since the fight. I dont know how I am reported perhaps you think me dead but hope your heart has not been subjected to that terrible trial of course you have been very anxious to hear from me but I could not let you know where I was any sooner. As soon as I got inside of our lines I tore a leaf from my memorandum book & an envelope that had been wet & stuck together & wrote you a few lines which I hope you have received it was the best I could do. I will not write you much more to night we did not get here till nine oclock this morning & of course are not settled yet but I can now get enough to eat & feel better than I did but it will take some time for me to get in as good condition as I was when we left Stafford. You may direct to Parole Camp, Annapolis Maryland. I shall need some money but you need not send any till you hear from me again. I dont know how long we shall stay here before we are exchanged but presume it will be two months if so I should like to have you visit me if you felt able to for they say they wont let a paroled prisoner go home though I can see why. Give my love to all good friends & much love & many kisses to my dear wife Mother & child
C A Burleigh"

     Carrie's first knowledge that her husband was still alive came not from this letter, but from the hurriedly written note Burleigh mailed just before departing to the parole camp in Annapolis.

"May 15th 1863 Fortress Monroe
Dear Wife I send this to let you know that through the mercy of God I am still alive & well except I am nearly exausted with the hardship & privations of the last two weeks for I am on board of a transport & shall arrive at  Annapolis tonight I will write you from there as soon as I can I know nothing of the regt since I was taken prisoner Will Bradley & Paddock are with me & six others from my company there were several killed & wounded that belong to our Co but I think none that you know write me direct to the paroll camp Annapolis M. D. & I think I shall get it. I have very much to write but this is all the paper I have. I have lost everything but my Bible & your picture with love C A Burleigh"

     Carrie received this note from Burleigh three days later. She immediately sat down and wrote to him:

"Mt Carmel May 18th / 63
My dear dear Husband
My heart is so full of joy & gratitude to night that I cant begin to find words to express a thousandth part of it, your few words written on your way to Anapolis reached me to night, & it seemed almost like hearing from the dead, you can scarcely know what I have suffered in mind for the last two weeks..."
     Carrie also received a letter from Lieutenant Edward Doolittle, who reassured her about her husband's safety, and then added his own observation of Burleigh during the battle,

"...[his] earnestness is the only cause I can assign for his unwillingness to leave our entrenchments at a time when almost & perhaps all others had left. He was urged strongly by Corpl Austin to leave. I also tried to persuade him. his only reply was "he could not then." As for coolness & self possession few men possess it to the degree than did he. All through the engagement & while standing there alone, he was calm & self reliant, never for a moment seeming the least distressed or dejected. I of course had no chance for conversation  with him during the engagement but from his very looks I was satisfied that he felt that all would go well with him. He would look up at me and smile (I was very nearly directly behind him) this he did repeatedly during our stay behind the Breastwork."
     Lieutenant Doolittle himself would lose his life just five months later in Stevenson, Alabama.

Parole Camp at Annapolis, Maryland (Wikipedia)

     At this point during the Civil War, prisoner exchanges still routinely took place between the United States and the Confederacy. Captured soldiers signed paroles pledging not to rejoin their respective armies until properly exchanged. Confederate soldiers simply went home and usually awaited notification that they had been exchanged and could then rejoin their regiments. Union soldiers were confined at parole camps until they were exchanged. In the case of Sergeant Cecil Burleigh, this took quite some time.

Convalescent Camp, Alexandria, Virginia (Library of Congress)

     Burleigh stayed at the Annapolis camp for a short time and was then transferred to the Convalescent Camp in Alexandria, also a holding facility for paroled Union prisoners awaiting exchange. In late May or early June 1863, Burleigh was given a furlough to go home to Connecticut for a short visit. On his way back to Alexandria, Burleigh wrote Carrie from Baltimore on June 10: I feel more than ever how dear my little family is to my heart & I long for the time to come when I may be permitted to stay with them but I will try to exercise patience."

     It would be another two years before Cecil and Carrie Burleigh would see each other again.

     Sergeant Burleigh remained confined until the end of September, when he was at long last officially exchanged. He spent more than a week traveling by train through Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky in order to catch up with the 20th Connecticut Volunteers. Burleigh finally reunited with his fellow soldiers in Decherd, Tennessee on October 9, 1863, more than five months after he had been captured.
     The 20th was now part of the 2d Brigade, 3d Division of the 20th Army Corps. In February 1864, Burleigh was promoted to Lieutenant and assumed command of Company C. Just a couple of months later, the 20th, now part of General Sherman's army, left Tennessee and made its way toward Atlanta. During the fighting around Atlanta Lt. Burleigh had a few close calls but managed to avoid injury, illness or recapture.
     When Sherman took the bulk of his army east to Savannah, the 20th Connecticut remained behind with the rest of the troops garrisoning Atlanta. The 20th rejoined Sherman's main army shortly before the capture of Savannah. Burleigh then marched through South Carolina and then North Carolina. Shortly before the war's end, Burleigh was brevetted to Captain. At the war's conclusion, the 20th Connecticut then marched to Washington, D.C., where they participated in the triumphant military review in May 1865.
     Lt. Cecil Burleigh was mustered out of the Union army in Washington, D.C. on June 13, 1865. He returned home and took up his trade of blacksmithing. He served several terms as town councilman in Hamden and was elected to the Connecticut General Assembly in 1880. In his later years he worked in the insurance business.
     Near the end of his life, Burleigh suffered from the complications of diabetes. During his last month he was in such pain that the was kept in a constant state of sedation by the heavy use of opiates. He died on April 27, 1895 and is buried in Central Burying Grounds in Hamden, Connecticut.

Burleigh's photograph and details of his life are from http://cecilsletters.com/project/about
I also referred to John W. Storrs' history of the 20th Connecticut: https://archive.org/details/twentiethconnect00stor
    
[1] Sergeants Robert E. Paddock and Willis A. Bradley

Letter of John Winn Moseley to his mother, July 4, 1863 (Library of Virginia)

     In the course of transcribing documents for the Library of Virginia, I am fortunate to come across a number of writings from the nineteenth century that have the power to communicate to us evocative feelings and events from that bygone era.
     This morning, I found this letter written by John Winn Moseley of the 4th Alabama Infantry. Born in Buckingham County, Virginia, in 1832, John moved to Alabama as a young man. He enlisted in the 4th Infantry in Marion, Alabama on April 24, 1861. His regiment accompanied General Lee's army as it undertook its ill-fated invasion of Pennsylvania in late June 1863.
     Sergeant Moseley would not live to see either Virginia or Alabama again. He was gravely wounded during Pickett's charge on July 3. Before he died the next day, he wrote this letter to his mother. He died convinced that his sacrifice had not been in vain.

Battlefield Gettysburg Penn.
July 4th 1863
Dear Mother
I am here a prisoner of war & mortally wounded. I can live but a few hours more, at farthest. I was shot fifty yards of the enemy's line. They have been extremely kind to me. I have no doubt about the final result of the battle and I hope I may live long enough to hear the shout of victory before I die. I am very weak. Do not grieve my loss. I had hoped to have been spared but a righteous God has ordained otherwise & I feel prepared to trust my cause in his hands. Farewell to you all. Pray that God will receive my soul.
Your unfortunate son
John

The National Park Service has announced that I will be appearing at joint book signing event with author John Cummings at the visitors center's book store in Fredericksburg, Virginia on Saturday, December 10, from 10 AM to noon. Even if you have already purchased a copy of my book, please come by. I would enjoy meeting you. Details are available on the Park Service's Facebook page:

 Book Signing on December 10

Newlyweds: John and Lucy Pulliam, 1861 (CH)

     Every so often I am privileged to come across a collection of photographs relating to one of Spotsylvania's historic families. Such a stroke of good fortune occurred earlier this year when Pulliam family researcher Craig Harnden began to post these photographs to his family tree on Ancestry. With Craig's kind permission, I am able to share with you today this very rare look at the Pulliam family. Pictures from Craig Harnden's archive that appear in today's post are designated with '(CH)'. All images in my blog may be clicked on for enlarged viewing.

Western Spotsylvania County, 1863

     Named for his grandfather, John Duerson Pulliam was born in Spotsylvania on 3 November 1840 to Richard H. Pulliam and Rebecca Duerson. The Pulliam farm can be seen in the lower left portion of the map detail shown above. Richard Pulliam's sister Eliza's farm lay just to the north. To the northeast was Greenfield ("Mrs. Rowe"), my family's ancestral home.
    John D. Pulliam graduated from the University of Virginia in 1859. Like many young men in Virginia of that time who wished to practice medicine, he then attended the Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. He graduated in 1861, having written his thesis on the topic of digestion.
     The year 1861 would prove to be the most significant in the life of young Dr. Pulliam for two other reasons as well. On 15 July he enlisted in Company E of the Ninth Virginia Cavalry, my great grandfather's old regiment. Also serving with John were his brother Thomas Coleman Pulliam and his cousin Thomas Richard Pulliam, whose self-indulgent life and violent death have recently been featured in this blog. Click here to read what has become the most popular article ever published on Spotsylvania Memory.

Lucy Noel Jerrell, age 17 (CH)

     The most momentous event in the life of John Pulliam in 1861 was his marriage to eighteen year old Lucy Noel Jerrell on 4 December. Lucy was born in July 1843 to John C. Jerrell and Mary Cropp. The Jerrells lived southeast of Spotsylvania Court House, where her father operated a grist mill and ran a store.
     Dr. John Pulliam survived his year in the Confederate cavalry, managing to avoid injury, sickness or capture. He returned home to Spotsylvania, where he began his fifty year medical practice. Unfortunately for John and everyone he knew, the Civil War that they had so avidly wished for would soon be on their very doorsteps.

John C. Jerrell (CH)

     Among the first to suffer were John Jerrell and his second wife, Ann Marshall. On 5 November 1862 their home, mill and store house were ransacked by Federal troops. In the Confederate archives is the long list of the Jerrells' property that was stolen or destroyed that day by Union soldiers who "laid violent hands on his goods and wares." Among other things, the Jerrells lost ten slaves, a double barreled shotgun, 100 pounds of coffee, and 110 pounds of nails; English, French, Latin, Greek, law and medical books; percussion caps, quinine and other medicines. Without a doubt the most intriguing object stolen that day was a set of obstetrical instruments. As if that were not enough, the Jerrells suffered further indignity that winter when Confederate troops camping on their property burned 1,900 fence rails for fuel.
     A year and a half later John and Lucy Pulliam would have their own violent encounter with Union troops swarming through their neighborhood during the battle of the Wilderness. The experience of the Pulliams was included in the historic letter written by Maria Dobyns of neighboring Oakley plantation: The yankees even tore off the plaster off Dr. Pulliam's cellar, thinking something had been hid, took money off his and Lucie's clothes, together with everything else.

The Pulliam family, 1876 (CH)

     This family portrait made in 1876 shows John and Lucy Pulliam with their five oldest children (Ivy would arrive in 1877 and the youngest, Flavia, was born in 1883). The oldest daughter, Mary Etta, is at far left. She married John F. Lewis in 1880 and had three children with him before dying in 1886 at the age of 23. Standing at John's shoulder is Justinian, who also practiced medicine until his untimely death in 1891. Standing between her parents is Lucy Noel Pulliam, who married Dr. Charles Dudley Simmons. In John's lap is Alma, who married Dr. Frank P. Dickinson, whose family owned "Mercer Hall" in Spotsylvania. Warner moved to Augusta County where he lived near his sisters Ivy and Flavia for a time before dying during the influenza epidemic in 1918.
     Other photos from the Pulliam album:

Dr. Justinian Pulliam (CH)

Alma Pulliam (CH)

Flavia Pulliam (CH)

Ivy Pulliam  (CH)

     As a physician, John Pulliam touched the lives of many during his long career, including my own family.

Estate expenses of Nancy Estes Row

     Dr. Pulliam treated my great great grandmother, Nancy Estes Row, during her final illness in January 1873. The Rows were able to recoup some of his $12.50 fee when he bought several items at her estate sale.

Virginia Herald 6 May 1875

     By the 1870s John had begun to dip his toe into local politics. In 1875 he was elected as a delegate from the Livingston district for the Conservative Party's convention. Also elected from the Livingston district was Dr. Thomas W. Finney, who had served with John in the Ninth Cavalry. In 1860, while still a medical student, Finney lived with John Pulliam's family. Years later both doctors would be lauded for their heroic efforts during an epidemic in Spotsylvania:

The Free Lance 15 July 1887

     John Pulliam was elected a justice of the peace and served on the Spotsylvania  Board of Health 1909-1912. In 1910 he was elected president of the Spotsylvania chapter of the Farmer's Alliance. The only setback I have spotted in his multifaceted career occurred in 1884, when his nomination as superintendent of Spotsylvania County schools was rejected by the Virginia Senate.

Spotsylvania Court House, about 1900

     In the photograph above, Dr. John D. Pulliam is sitting with the political elite of Spotsylvania County. He is seated front and center, fourth from the right.

    

Dr. John Duerson Pulliam (CH)

     For many years John and Lucy Pulliam lived on a 160 acre farm near Peake's Crossroads, later known as Belmont.

Lucy Pulliam (CH)

Daily Star 29 May 1905

     Lucy Pulliam died of a stroke while entertaining friends at her home in 1905. John continued to live in their old home for a time, but sold it for $4,200 in 1909. He then moved in with his nephew Richard Graves and his family.

John Pulliam at White Hall, 1906 (CH)

     By about 1912 Dr. Pulliam had mostly retired from medicine, although he still would treat special cases. The last of these occurred in January 1914 when he traveled to Richmond to attend a sick nephew. While there he contracted a bad cold, which developed into pneumonia. He died on 15 January 1914.

John Pulliam (CH)

Richmond Times Dispatch 17 January 1914

    

Beechwood today (Vickie Neely)

     One of the facets of Spotsylvania's history that does not always receive the attention it merits is the story of those who remained loyal to the United States during the Civil War. That has certainly been true of this blog, which generally focuses on the lives of people who were native to this area. However, I recently had the good fortune to have been allowed access to the family archive of Spotsylvania resident, Vickie Neely. This collection of papers and photographs pertaining to the Armstrongs, Colemans and related families opened my eyes to their importance in local history. Their experiences during the turbulent Civil War era shed light on what it meant to be a patriotic American among hostile and suspicious neighbors.
     During the 1840s and 1850s, northern families in increasing numbers began to buy farms in Spotsylvania County. They were motivated to do so because of improving agricultural conditions in Virginia, and also because land prices here were significantly cheaper than  in northern states [1]. Among the families that came to Spotsylvania during those years were the Harrises [2] and Couses, who arrived from New Jersey in the 1840s; the Colemans from New York; and the Alrich, Armstrong and Morrison families from New Castle County, Delaware.
     The manner in which these new arrivals accommodated themselves to the mores of their adopted state varied. While I find that only one of these northerners was a slave owner (Moses Morrison owned a 60-year-old woman), a number of them rented slaves from their neighbors: Thomas, James & Moses Morrison; John Roberts Alrich; Peter Couse; and Archibald Armstrong. Robert McCracken Harris employed free blacks to work on his farm. In addition, most of these northerners remained loyal to the Union, but this was not true for all of them. Alrich voluntarily joined the 9th Virginia Cavalry. Three of Robert M. Harris' sons fought for the Confederacy. However, one of them, William, left Virginia and served in the Union army. He returned to Spotsylvania after the war.

Archibald Armstrong (Rich Morrison)

     The first of the Armstrong family to own property in Spotsylvania was Archibald, who in August 1857 bought a 207-acre farm from Parmenas Pritchett near the intersection of Brock and modern Gordon roads. In December of that same year, Archibald's uncle, 53-year-old Benjamin Armstrong, bought "Beechwood" from William H. Hansbrough. This was a 500-acre farm on modern Gordon Road at the Ni River, for which he paid $4,000 [3]. Benjamin's youngest son, Mahlon, came to Spotsylvania first, and began to get things in order for the other Armstrongs, who arrived in 1859. With Benjamin came his wife, the former Ann Mendenhall, and their daughters Anna Maria and Hannah. Mahlon's older brother, William L. Armstrong, brought his wife and two children. Benjamin and William shared the responsibility of operating the farm.

Spotsylvania, 1863 (Fold3.com)

     In the Civil War-era map detail shown above, the Armstrong home at Beechwood can be seen at the upper center. Just southeast of the Armstrong farm was "Laurel Hill," the property of the Couses. Spotsylvania County Court House is at lower right.
     The Armstrongs, like the other northern families that came to Spotsylvania before the Civil War, would certainly have been aware of--and sensitive to--the sectional differences that had long divided the country. Before the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, however, few thought that a war between north and south would become a reality. For reasons of his own (perhaps as a way of making friends in his adopted county), Mahlon joined Mercer's Cavalry soon after his arrival [4]. This militia unit was the forerunner of Company E of the 9th Virginia Cavalry. Mahlon joined the militia against the advice of his father. He would have ample opportunity to regret his decision.
     It is not known what sort of reception the northerners received from their neighbors when they first came to Spotsylvania. However, as the nation moved closer to civil war after the 1860 election, the Armstrongs, Colemans, Couses and Morrisons and others faced increasing levels of suspicion and hostility because of their undisguised loyalty to the United States. "It was a crime to be born north of Mason and Dixon's line at that time," Moses Morrison testified after the war [5].
     As secessionist fever gripped Virginia during the spring of 1861, men like Benjamin Armstrong, Peter Couse, Paul Coleman and Moses Morrison and his relations found it necessary to down play their Unionist sentiments. Although southerners often trumpeted their desire for liberty and to be free from northern "tyranny," they were utterly intolerant of anyone who harbored beliefs at odds with their own narrow orthodoxy. Southerners felt highly threatened by those whose loyalties remained with the old Union, and they were quite willing to take whatever action they deemed necessary to defend their cause from such heretics.
     On April 17, 1861, the Virginia Secessionist Convention voted to take the state out of the Union. On April 25, the Mercer Cavalry assembled in Fredericksburg, where its members were mustered by Captain Francis Corbin Beverly into what would become Company E of the 9th Virginia Cavalry. Most of these young men joined willingly, often with great enthusiasm. Twenty-three-year-old Mahlon Armstrong, who shared his father's allegiance to the Union, was "compelled" to join [6].

Mahlon Armstrong, early 1900s (Vickie Neely)

     Company E was sent to Camp Salvington in Stafford to be outfitted and trained, and then they were moved to Camp Potomac in King George County. It was while there that the men of Company E were assembled for the purpose of voting for the articles of secession. In his testimony before the Southern Claims Commission in 1872, Mahlon described what that episode was like: "The company that I was in was drawn up into a line and marched by a ballot box. It was not a ballot box, either. It was a fraud. It was down here on the Potomac River...I was threatened if I didn't [vote for secession] I would be shot [7]."
     Meanwhile, back home at Beechwood, Mahlon's father was contending with his own difficulties. The men of Spotsylvania qualified to vote were scheduled to cast their ballots for secession on May 23, and intense pressure was exerted on known Unionists to get in line and vote the "correct" way. This was not a ballot cast in secret. Each man had to stand before his neighbors and vote affirmatively by voice. Some of the Unionists went along with this charade to avoid immediate confrontation. Benjamin Armstrong, on the other hand, simply chose not to participate in the vote [8]. While he felt free to speak his mind with his family and other loyalists, Benjamin avoided talking with any else about the momentous events of that time. The official tally of Spotsylvania's vote on the question of secession was 1,323 in favor, 0 against [9].
   In late 1861, Mahlon fell ill while in camp, and he was furloughed to go home and convalesce [10]. By this time, Mahlon had given careful thought as to the timing of his planned desertion from the Confederate cavalry. He was fortunate that Company E had spent much of its first year in camp on the Potomac. When he returned to the 9th after recuperating, he still had not fought in any major engagement. On February 1, 1862, Mahlon was reenlisted for an additional two years of service and he received a $50 bounty. With that extra money in hand, Mahlon's chances of escape were much improved. On April 18, 1862, Private Mahlon Armstrong deserted from his regiment [11].
   

Moses Morrison (Steve Armstrong)

     Mahlon made his way back to Spotsylvania County, where he hid in the pine woods near the farm of Moses Morrison. It appears that Moses had some prior knowledge of Mahlon's plan, or somehow learned where he was hiding. Confederate patrols were prowling about, looking for Mahlon, and "they were determined to have him, dead or alive." One of Moses' brothers, Thomas Love Morrison, also hid in the woods with Mahlon [12]. By now, the Union army encamped in Stafford would soon cross over to Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania during General Joseph Hooker's ill-fated attempt to crush General Lee's army. In anticipation of the Federals' invasion, Confederate authorities had already arrested Peter Couse and other loyalists to prevent them from rendering any aid to the Union army. The Morrisons were also being closely watched. Moses came to Thomas and Mahlon's hiding place at night to provide food and other help. On April 25, 1862, Moses and Thomas led Mahlon to the headquarters of Union General Rufus King, thereby ensuring his freedom [13]. Their heroic deed was reported in The New York Times three days later:

The New York Times, 28 April 1862 (Rich Morrison)

Moses and Thomas Morrison were then arrested, and spent several months in a series of Confederate prisons. Mahlon made his way north, and spent the rest of the war in Milwaukee, Wisconsin [14].
     During the spring of 1862, life for Benjamin Armstrong and his extended family became intolerably stressful and dangerous. "It was not safe for any of us [northern men] to say anything in favor of the U. S. Gov't, and the consequence was we had to hold our peace [15]." While Confederate armies were still winning dramatic victories early in the war, the Armstrongs' neighbors would come by to crow about the north's apparently declining prospects. Benjamin received threats from his fellow Spotsylvanians, and beginning in late 1861 he would hide in the woods from time to time to avoid capture and imprisonment. In May 1862, Benjamin fled for his own safety and made his way back to New Castle, Delaware. With the exception of one brief episode, he would not see Beechwood again for three years [16].
     Almost all the other Armstrongs left Spotsylvania about this time. Hannah joined her father. Archibald and William Armstrong and their families also returned to their previous homes. Remaining at Beechwood were Benjamin's wife, Ann, and their eighteen-year-old daughter, Anna Maria. One reason they stayed behind was to protect Benjamin's property interests. Had the Armstrongs abandoned Beechwood altogether, Confederate authorities would have been all to happy to seize the farm. Anna Maria was also threatened with imprisonment. "I was sometimes afraid they would do it," she later testified [17].

Portrait presumed to be that of Paul Coleman (Vickie Neely)

     The example of Paul Coleman (Mahlon Armstrong's future father-in-law) demonstrates why Spotsylvanians were so sensitive to having northern sympathizers in their midst while a huge Union army loomed just across the Rappahannock River. Paul and his family lived on a farm south of the court house. Paul, his wife Esther, their daughter Romelia and three sons came to Spotsylvania from New York in the 1850s. They settled on a 300-farm on the Court House Road. The family called this place "Pea Ridge," a place name that generally referred to the Partow area. Like most of his northern neighbors, Paul remained devoted to the Union. By early spring of 1862, Paul left Spotsylvania and divided his time between New York and Maryland. On April 5, 1863, he wrote this letter to Union General Joseph Hooker. Had his southern neighbors had any idea to what lengths Paul would go to serve the interests of the United States, he would have been in mortal danger.

Letter of Paul Colman to General Joseph Hooker (Fold3.com)

"Flat Brook April 5th 1863
"Major General Joseph Hooker
     "My Dear Sir. although personally unknown to you, I thought perhaps I might be of Service to you in case of a forward movement from your present position having lived three years in the centre of Spotsylvania County and being familiar with the three main Routs from Fredericksburgh South for Some forty Miles perhaps I might be of Service as a Guide South by the Plank Court House or Telegraph Roads either of which I am conversant with (and the intervening country) for Some thirty Miles South or I might be of use to an Engineer in getting up a Map of that part of the County.
      "If in the way I have proposed or in any other way I can be of any Service to you or your command you can direct a line to me at the Eutaw House Baltimore Md accompanyed by an order or Recommendation to the Secretary of War or any other properly authorized person at Washington and it will be promptly and cheerfully attended to. with regarding my Loyalty, my Exile from my Home Should be a Sufficient guarantee I can also refer you to General Doubleday or Major Charles E. Livingston Genl Patrick or Genl Burnside. perhaps Genl Doubleday is more acquainted with me than any other Responsible person within your command. Yours Respectfully
"Paul Coleman
"To Major Genl Joseph Hooker Head Quarters Army of the Potomac Va"

     The Battle of Chancellorsville was fought north and west of Beechwood, so it was not until the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House in May 1864 that Ann and Anna Maria would learn for themselves what price they and their family would pay for their loyalty. On May 4, 1864, a large Union army commanded by General George Meade, and accompanied by Lieutenant General Ulysses Grant, left their camps in Culpeper County and crossed the Rapidan River into the Wilderness of Orange and Spotsylvania. During the battles that took place over the next several days, the Confederates were pushed southeast down Brock Road toward Spotsylvania Court House. Beginning May 7, the opposing armies fought a series of pitched battles in the vicinity of the court house.
     On the morning of May 12, General Grant moved his headquarters from the Alsop farm north to Beechwood. In his Memoirs, Grant described his first meeting with Ann Armstrong: "During the day I was passing along the line from wing to wing continuously. About the centre stood a house which proved to be occupied by an old lady and her daughter. She showed such unmistakable signs of being strongly Union that I stopped. She said she had not seen a Union flag for so long a time that it it did her heart good to look upon it again...She was without food, or nearly so, so I ordered rations issued to her [18]."
     Accompanying General Grant were two members of his staff, Horace Porter and Adam Badeau. Porter later gave this eyewitness account of Grant's meeting with Ann Armstrong: "...the general came to a humble-looking farmhouse, which was within range of the enemy's guns, and surrounded by wounded men, sullen-looking prisoners, and terror-stricken stragglers...An old lady and her daughter were standing on the porch. When the mother was told that the officer passing was the commander-in-chief, she ran toward him, and with tears running down her cheeks, threw up her arms and cried, "Thank God! thank God! I again behold the glorious flag of the Union that I have not laid eyes on for three long terrible years [19]."
     Anna Maria asked General Meade if he would mail a letter to her father, who was staying in Wilmington with his son, William. Instead, Meade generously "sent a telegram in which he informed her father (prematurely it turned out) that it was safe to come home. Later in the day Grant, Meade and [General Marsena] Patrick sat down to dinner at the Armstrong house [20]."
     The following day, Grand and Meade moved their headquarters from Beechwood and "the hospitals of the Second and Fifth Corps that had been at the Couse farm arrived. The Union medical corps also moved forty Confederate prisoners to the Armstrong barn from the Landrum house...On May 16 army ambulances and wagons transported all the wounded, including Confederates to Spotsylvania Road and from there to Fredericksburg [21]."
     As it happened, Benjamin Armstrong successfully made the journey from Wilmington to his home in Spotsylvania. But his stay would be brief. As the Union army moved away, Confederate cavalry began to sift in behind them and were soon present at Beechwood. Benjamin managed to get away without being seen, and returned to Delaware.
     Several days later, on May 23, Anna Maria wrote a letter to her sister, Hannah, in which she provided a vivid and emotional account of what she and their mother had just experienced. Her letter was published in the June 2, 1864 edition of the Wilmington Delaware Republican [22]. That article was clipped from the newspaper and saved in a family Bible:

Letter of Anna Maria Armstrong (Rich Morrison)

"LIFE IN VIRGINIA
"The following letter from a young Delaware girl residing near Fredericksburg, Va., dated Beechwood, May 23d, 1864, shows the hardships to which the people of that section have been subjected.
"Dear Sister--Once more I take my pen in hand to let you know we are well and still staying here, but that is all. You dont know how lonesome we are since the U. S. soldiers left. On Thursday night we went to bed completely worn out and slept very soundly. On Friday morning when we got up the pickets were gone. We had just done breakfast when we saw some of the rebels, they came on and one of them shot our dog; mother begged him not to do so, but it was no use. The rebel cavalry came soon after and Ewell's Corps of infantry arrived in the evening and went on about half a mile, where they had a severe fight. They owned they got a complete whipping. They brought about 80 wounded back to our barn--the last one of whom got away to-day, much to our relief. On Friday there was a skirmish line thrown on around our house, and it was really laughable to see the greybacks walking up and throwing down their guns. They say they are starving and will not fight. They were trying to cut off a wagon train, but thank God they did not succeed. If our house had been directly in range you would have seen us before now. They have got the cars running from the creek to Fredericksburg I heard to-day, and I hope you will come home soon, if you think you can be satisfied. Send us word before you come, and we will try to send for you. I tell you it is hard doing without a horse. I hope father got home safe. He just got away from in time. They came and took the horses from the hospital in about half an after he left. Mother begged them to leave them to take care of their own men, but they would not. You dont know what people they are; I wish that the U. S. soldiers would let the rebel wounded stay on the battle field, they deserve nothing better. I could see every one of them shot before my eyes. There were six buried in our lot. I wish Gen. Lee and all his men were in the same condition. There was one buried this morning; I expect if you were here you would be afraid to go to the wagon house after hearing them groan so. I believe one can get used to any thing. Our yard is almost covered with blood, you cannot pick up a piece of wood that is not completely wet with human gore. Do not faint or be afraid to come home when you read this letter. The little pig-pen is almost full of guns, so you see if they should hunt us we can shoot them. I must tell you what we have to pay for things here, flour is selling in town for $800 per barrel, bacon from $8 to $10 a pound; coffee $16, sugar $12, rice $1, and not much at those prices; calicoes $12 per yard. I do not know what muslin is now; I gave 50 cents for 1 pair of shoestrings; I will send you a sample of some dresses we got last summer and gave $8 a yard for them, and got them very cheap. I have got one home spun dress, it was a long time before I would wear it, but I had to come to it. I am afraid we will see no more of the U. S. boys; I wish they would camp on our place until the war is over, which it will soon be. The soldiers are getting dissatisfied and discouraged. I expect to hear of Richmond being taken soon.
"A. M. A."
     The damage done to the Armstrong property during its brief occupation by Union forces was extensive. Six miles of fencing, comprised of some 28,000 rails, was used for firewood. The engineer corps seized a considerable amount of timber that was used in the construction of a corduroy road. Two outbuildings were dismantled to provde wood used to build a bridge. Eight hundred dollars worth of growing crops were either seized for army use or trampled underfoot by horses, wagons and soldiers [23].
     Ann and Anna Maria Armstrong continued to live alone at Beechwood for the remainder of the war. Mahlon and Benjamin returned home in May or June 1865, and the hard work of rebuilding the farm began. It would be many years before Beechwood was restored to some semblance of its pre-war condition.


Acknowledgements:

- Many thanks to Russell Smith,  who kindly gave me permission to quote from his superbly researched  article, "Opening the Gates of Hell:" A Unionist Family on the Spotsylvania Court House Battlefield.

- A special thank you to my friend, Rich Morrison, for the research he undertook on his own initiative, which helped make this article better than it would have been otherwise. And, as always, there are treasures to be found in his family's vast photo archive.

- Thanks also to my friend, Vickie Neely, who shared her ancestors' archive with me, and trusted me to tell part of their story here. Vickie greatly improved the quality of this article by contributing her own research. I am also grateful for her transcription ability and her editing skills, which have made writing this a joy.


There will be future posts about the Armstrongs and the Colemans. Stay tuned.


Sources:

Armstrong, Benjamin. Publication Number M2094, Southern Claims Commission Approved Claims, 1871-1880, Claim Number 37018. National Archives and Records Administration. https://www.fold3.com/image/34/222378346

Armstrong, Mahlon. Publication Number M324, Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers who served in Organizations From the State of Virginia. National Archives and Records Administration. https://www.fold3.com/image/271/8883734

Coleman, Paul. Publication Number M345, Union Provost Marshal's File of Papers Relating to Individual Claims. The National Archives and Records Administration. https://www.fold3.com/image/249/280374591

Hennessy, John. "Democracy's dark day--the May 1861 secession vote in Fredericksburg, Part 2."
https://fredericksburghistory.wordpress.com/2011/05/27/democracys-darkest-day-the-may-1861-secession-vote-in-fredericksburg-part-2/

Neely, Vickie. Papers of the Armstrong and Coleman families.

The New York Times, "Department of the Rappahannock, April 28, 1862, p. 8.

Smith, Russell P. "Opening the Gates of Hell:" A Unionist Family on the Spotsylvania Court House Battlefield. Originally published in Fredericksburg History and Biography, Volume 5, Central Virginia Battlefield Trust, 2006. The version I cited for this article is a PDF shared with me by Rich Morrison.
  

Notes:

1. Smith, "Opening the Gates of Hell," p. 3.

2. My article on the Harris family can be read here.

3. Armstrong, Benjamin, Southern Claims Commission, p. 5.

4. Ibid., p. 7.

5. Ibid., p. 50.

6. Ibid., p. 6.

7. Ibid., p. 9.

8. Ibid., p. 8.

9. Hennessy, "Democracy's Dark Day."

10. Armstrong, Benjamin, Southern Claims Commission, p. 22.

11. Armstrong, Mahlon, Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers, p. 7.

12. Armstrong, Benjamin, Southern Claims Commission. p. 54.

13. The New York Times, "Department of the Rappahannock."

14. Armstrong, Benjamin, Southern Claims Commission, p. 4.

15. Ibid., p. 23.

16. Ibid., p. 5.

17. Ibid., p. 34.

18. Smith, p. 6.

19. Ibid., pp. 6-7.

20. Ibid., p. 9.

21. Ibid., p. 10.

22. Ibid., p. 1.

23. Armstrong, Benjamin, Southern Claims Commission, p. 2.

    

Hawkins sisters, 1866 (American Antiquarian Society)

     On May 2, 1863, the Hawkins family had front row seats to the opening act of one of the greatest military successes of the Civil War.
     The patriarch of this large family was James H. Hawkins, born about 1804. James was a farmer and slave owner, and was himself also a child from a large family. On October 2, 1829, he married Frances Pendleton (born about 1807) in a ceremony held in Spotsylvania. They made their home on the north side of the Orange Turnpike, modern Route 3, on a farm just behind Wilderness Church. Their homestead can be seen in the Civil War-era map detail below. The home of Reverend Melzi Sanford Chancellor, pastor at Wilderness Church, can be seen just south east of the Hawkins place, across the turnpike:

Map detail of western Spotsylvania, 1863 (www.fold3.com)

     During the first 20 years of their marriage, James and Frances Hawkins had 10 children who lived until adulthood. They were:

John Thomas (1830-1918)
Lucy (1832-1897)
Sally (1833-1915)
Martha (1837-1904)
Fannie Garrett (1838-1906)
Elizabeth (1839-1905)
Huldah (1841-1919)
Cordelia (1843-1922)
Alexander Bennett (1844-1923)
Isabella (1849-1939)

     Both Hawkins sons joined the Confederate army during the first year of the war. John enlisted in Company C of the 30th Virginia Infantry on July 7, 1861. He served for the remaining years of the war, attaining the rank of sergeant. John was surrendered at Appomattox by General Lee on April 9, 1865.
     John's brother, 17-year-old Alex, joined Company G of the 47th Virginia Infantry on August 2, 1861. The following spring, Alex was admitted to Chimborazo Hospital No. 2 on Richmond on May 15, 1862. The record does not show if he suffered from illness or wounds, but he was returned to his regiment just three days later. Ultimately, Alex served less than two years, and was discharged due to disability and returned home (RK).
     By May 1, 1863, the elaborately planned Chancellorsville campaign of Union General Joseph Hooker was well underway. Hooker made the Chancellor house east of Wilderness Church his headquarters. His subordinates chose more modest homes nearby for their use. Major General Carl Shurz chose the Hawkins home for his headquarters. Alex, who had traveled toward the Rappahannock earlier in the day to deliver some mail, was captured on his way back, and was made a prisoner in his home. As many as 25 people, both Hawkins family members and neighbors, assembled here for their safety (NH). During the brief time that Union soldiers were encamped near Wilderness Church, Hawkins family lore says that Huldah befriended one of them and actually hid him in the house during the cyclonic violence of the following day. It is said that after the war Huldah and this soldier exchanged letters (RK).
    

Wilderness Baptist Church, by Robert Knox Sneden (Virginia Historical Society)

     On May 2, Confederate General Thomas Jonathan Jackson spent a long and difficult day leading as many as 30,000 soldiers northwest along modern Jackson Trail and Brock Road. His single minded purpose was to get his troops into a concealed position just west of Wilderness Church, where the Union right flank lay dangerously exposed. By 5 p. m., a sufficient number of Confederates were assembled in formation astride the Orange Turnpike. Buglers sounded the attack, and thousands of southern soldiers stormed out of the tree line and made straight for the astonished Federals, who had been butchering beeves and making ready for a hearty supper. As the gray tide rolled on, it is said that Huldah waved her apron at the Union soldiers nearby and shouted, "Here they come!" Standing in the doorway of the house, Alex saw his old regiment, the 47th Virginia, racing across his garden. "This was too much for me," he later said, "and, picking up a gun, I went off with them down the road, yelling with the rest of them" (NH). A soldier with the 47th remembered seeing "several ladies who were wildly rejoicing." Most of the women and children, however, cowered in the cellar (RK).
     Confederate soldiers lingered at the Hawkins farm for a few days after the flank attack. While camped there, they turned their horses loose in James Hawkins' fields, where they ate up most of his wheat and rye crop and munched the grass in the open meadow. The Confederates also helped themselves to the fencing on the property, always a handy source of firewood. They burned up 20 panels of worm fence, and a further 730 feet of plank fencing. Nine months later, in February 1864, James Hawkins presented Confederate authorities with a claim for this appropriation of his property. Reverend Melzi Chancellor gave a deposition on his behalf. In March 1864, restitution in the amount of $263.50 was made to James. Here is the record of his claim (www. fold3.com):










     In April 1866, Dr. Reed Bontecou came to Spotsylvania with a wagon load of photographic equipment and made a visual record of the local battlefields. While he was there, he also took photographs of several families--the Dobyns, the Chancellors, the Triggs and Stephens, and the Hawkins. The portrait of six of the eight Hawkins sisters, which appears at the beginning of today's post, was taken on the porch of their house. Exactly which sisters appear in the photograph is not known to me. If any of my readers is able to identify these young women, I would appreciate hearing from you. The note on the back of the photograph reads: "Hawkins girls, who lived near the Church, during the War, and saw sights." Indeed they did.
     It is not known when James and Frances Hawkins died. It is assumed that they did not survive the 1860s, as their names do not appear on any subsequent census. Four of their ten children married. Alex married neighbor Lucy Matilda Trigg in 1868. Lucy was the daughter of Joseph W. Trigg, whose second wife was Alex's aunt, Huldah Hawkins. Fannie married John H. Pendleton in 1870. John married Mary Tanner in 1879. Isabella married Thomas Faulkner in 1880.
     Most of the Hawkins family lived together in their house behind the church for the rest of their lives. This page from Noel Harrison's book, Chancellorsville Battlefield Sites, shows two 20th-century views of the old house and its replacement:






My primary sources of information for today's post are the work of two historians with the National Park Service, Noel Harrison and Robert Krick. The parenthetical notations (NH) and (RK) indicate specifically were certain passages come from:

Harrison, Noel G., Chancellorsville Battlefield Sites. H. E. Howard, Inc., Lynchburg, VA:1990.

Krick, Robert K. Civilians in the Midst of Battle. Published in the Free Lance-Star on August 17, 2002.  His article can be read online here.

    

Melzi Chancellor and family, 1866 (American Antiquarian Society)

     Last week, I discovered two photographs in the collection of the American Antiquarian Society that I believe show Reverend Melzi Chancellor and several of his family members.  One of these pictures, shown above, did not have any identifying information on the back. The other, shown below has written on the back "Chancellor Family Group."

Chancellor Family Group, 1866 (American Antiquarian Society)

Label on the back of the picture above (American Antiquarian Society)

     Note that the woman seated at right in the second photo also appears standing second from left in the first photograph.
     Now take a look at the photograph below. It shows Reverend Melzi Chancellor, seated at left, with his brothers Dr. James Edgar Chancellor, standing, and Lorman Chancellor:

Melzi Chancellor and brothers

     Based on the known likeness of Melzi taken later in life, it is my opinion that he is the same man seated with his family in the first picture above. The two outdoor photographs were taken in Spotsylvania County in April 1866 by Dr. Reed Bontecou, who had come to make a photographic record of the battlefields there. While in Spotsylvania, Dr. Bontecou also took pictures of several families, including the Chancellors.
     Assuming that the photograph labeled "Chancellor Family Group" correctly identifies the subjects, I believe that this photo shows at least two of Melzi's daughters. Since there was no other Chancellor family in Spotsylvania at the time these pictures were made consisting of people of this age, the second picture can only be that of Reverend Melzi Chancellor and his family.
     Melzi Chancellor married Lucy Fox Frazer in 1837. They had ten children together, nine of whom were living in 1866 (a son, 18-year-old Thomas, died in July 1863 from wounds sustained during the Battle of Gettysburg). Those children and their dates of birth are shown below:

Vespasian (1838)
Anna Cora (1840)
George Edwards (1842)
Edmonia (1846)
Bedell (1848)
Lucy Monroe (1852)
Susan Monroe (1853)
Leona (1857)
Melzi, Jr. (1859)

     It is my opinion that the group photo at the beginning of this post shows standing left to right: Lucy Fox Frazer Chancellor, either Anna Cora or Edmonia, Bedell, and either Lucy or Susan. Seated are Reverend Melzi Chancellor and George Edwards. Melzi Jr. is seated at his father's feet.
     It is also my opinion that two of the women in the second picture are Anna Cora and Edmonia. None of these three women seem young enough to be Lucy or Susan.
     If my identification of these photographs is correct, then they are exceedingly rare likenesses of this well-known family.
     Over the years, I have written extensively about the Chancellor family. I invite you to have a look at those articles:

The Chancellors, Part 1

The Chancellors, Part 2

The Chancellors, Part 3

Lorman Chancellor

Reverend Melzi Sanford Chancellor

"O the horror of that day"

Dr. James Edgar Chancellor

Three Who Rode to War

Chancellor & Rawlings
    

    

A mother with Lucy Matilda Trigg and Susan "Sudie" Stephens (American Antiquarian Society)

Label on the reverse of the photo above (American Antiquarian Society)

     In April 1866, Dr. Reed Bontecou brought his photographic equipment to Spotsylvania County. Bontecou was a Union surgeon during the Civil War, and is best known for the photographs he took of his surgical patients. His primary aim in Spotsylvania, however, was to document the local battlefield sites. While he was in the vicinity, Dr. Bontecou also made portraits of several Spotsylvania families: Dobyns, Chancellor, Hawkins Stephens and Trigg. I have just recently written about two of those families--here are the links to those articles: "During the war, the girls saw sights" and "The Chancellors Revealed".
     Today, I will discuss the identities of the women in the photo above. First, let me give a little background about the Stephens and Trigg families.

Detail of 1863 map by J. F. Gilmer

     In the map detail above, the homesteads of the Stephens and Trigg families can be seen side-by-side in the upper center of the image. Their farms were located on modern Jackson Trail West near its northern outlet on Brock Road.
     William A. Stephens (1821-1886) married Mary Eleanor Scott (1826-1897) in Washington, DC in June 1843. They settled in Spotsylvania at the location shown above; they called their place Rosemount. Mary came from a well-to-do family. She was a sister of wealthy Robert Scott, whose story I have told in this article: The Enigmatic Mr. Scott. William was a man of business--farmer, slave owner, auctioneer and real estate appraiser, and postmaster at Danielsville. After the completion of the Potomac, Fredericksburg & Piedmont Railroad, one of the stops was "Stephens Station," a small white building on his property.
     William and Mary Stephens were the parents of three children: Sarah (1846-1865), John James (1847-1929) and Susan "Sudie" Ellinor Stephens (1849-1906)
     The Stephens' neighbors were the Triggs, whose farm was called Poplar Neck. Joseph W. Trigg was also a farmer and slave owner, and postmaster at Brockville. He married Amanda Fox in June 1848. They had two children, Lucy Matilda (1849-1927) and John William (1850-1935).
     Amanda Fox Trigg died in June 1860. Just three months later, in September 1860, Joseph married neighbor Huldah Hawkins (1819-1891).
     So, now we know that there was only one young Stephens woman and one young Trigg woman living in that area in 1866. Therefore, I am confident that the two young ladies sitting are Sudie Stephens and Lucy Trigg, although I cannot say which is which.
     Which leaves us with the older woman standing with them. All that can be said with certainty is that it is either Huldah Hawkins Trigg or Mary Scott Stephens.
     Lucy married Alexander Bennett Hawkins in December 1868. Alex was a nephew of Lucy's stepmother, Huldah. Alex and Lucy lived at the Hawkins farm behind Wilderness Church, where they raised eight children.
     Sudie Stephens married Oscar Beadles Todd in January 1869. Oscar's family owned Todd's Tavern before the Civil War. Sudie and Oscar lived on a farm opposite the railroad from Rosemount. They never had children.


    

This is the second in a series about the experience of two families, the Armstrongs and the Colemans, who left their homes and settled in Spotsylvania County before the Civil War. For those of you who may not have already read the first installment, it is available at this link:  "They would have him dead or alive"

Paul Coleman (Vickie Neely)

     On Friday morning, May 26, 1865, the steam ship Wenonah, commanded by Captain Daws and with 90 souls on board, slipped her moorings in Baltimore harbor and made her way south down the Patapsco River toward the Chesapeake Bay. Slowed by heavy weather, Wenonah at last arrived at the Fredericksburg wharf on Sunday, May 28. Among her passengers who disembarked that morning were Paul Coleman and Peter Couse [1]. These men, driven into exile by Confederate authorities and hostile neighbors in 1862, were finally able to come home. Peter returned to his farm, Laurel Hill, near the homestead of Benjamin Armstrong. Paul went to Pea Ridge, his home south of Spotsylvania Court House.

Beechwood, 1940s (The Free Lance-Star)

     Also returning to Spotsylvania that spring after a long absence were Benjamin Armstrong and his 28-year-old son, Mahlon. In 1862, Benjamin had fled from Spotsylvania, leaving his home, Beechwood, in the care of his wife, Ann, and a daughter, Anna Maria. Benjamin spent the last three years of the war at his old farm in New Castle County, Delaware. Mahlon, who had been forcibly conscripted into the Confederate cavalry, successfully deserted in April 1862 and spent the rest of the war in Milwaukee, Wisconsin [2].
     The Spotsylvania County to which these men returned in the spring of 1865 was a far cry from the Confederate-dominated slave culture that had threatened them. There were few farms in the county that had not suffered considerably during the war. The economy was shattered, Confederate currency was worthless and a great number of young men had been crippled or killed. The two main issues for which the south fought--slavery and states' rights--had been decided on the battlefield. For the next four and a half years, Virginia did not exist as a state, but rather as a military district ruled by officers of the United States army. Ex-Confederates who did not take the oath of allegiance were disenfranchised. A new political and economic reality soon took shape, one that benefited new arrivals from the north and marginalized local southerners.
     The Armstrongs and Paul Coleman became part of the new order. On October 18, 1867, The Fredericksburg Ledger reported the names of the registering officers for the county. Paul was one of three appointed for the 1st District. Benjamin and Mahlon, together with Samuel L. Alsop, were appointed for the 4th District.
     By June 1868, Paul and Peter Couse felt comfortable enough to associate their names with a notorious episode which, had they done so during Confederate rule, would have placed their lives in jeopardy. On June 5, 1868, Fredericksburg constable James Taylor went to the house of a Mr. Tibbets, a black man, to collect overdue rent. Tibbets refused to pay, and then he locked and bolted all the windows and doors of the house. Colonel Mallam, the military mayor of the town, then went to Tibbets' residence and informed him that if he did not surrender himself, a posse would be summoned and the house would be torn down around him. With that, Tibbets gave himself up and was taken to jail. While he was incarcerated, a large crowd of both blacks and whites gathered at the jail, where Tibbets gave an incendiary speech through the bars. The substance of Tibbets' tirade was to incite blacks to "strike a blow for their freedom" by opening the jail's doors and setting him free. Fortunately for all concerned, the blacks in his audience ignored his appeals and the peace was maintained. Peter Couse and and Paul Coleman acted as his sureties when he was granted bail [3].
     Paul continued to be active in local Republican politics for years to come. His next reported appointment came in 1869, when he was named registrar for the 14th Military Division, 32nd District of Spotsylvania County [4]. Two weeks later, Paul served on the nominating committee that named Captain Edwin McMahon as a candidate for the state legislature [5].
     Meanwhile, a significant change occurred in the lives of the Armstrong family at Beechwood. It seems that Benjamin was experiencing some stresses that lurked beneath what the written record tells us. In letters written by Mahlon in the 1870s, it is apparent that the members of the Armstrong family were still the objects of resentment and distrust by their neighbors. This unhappy state of affairs was made even more so by the Armstrongs' high-profile participation in Republican politics. In any event, Benjamin left Spotsylvania about 1869 and returned to his old farm in New Castle County, Delaware [6], where he remained for several years. By 1876, 72-year-old Benjamin was living with the family of his son, William, at 604 Orange Street in Wilmington, where he lived for the rest of his life. Meanwhile, his wife, son and daughter continued to live at Beechwood, which was still owned by Benjamin.

William L. Armstrong (Rich Morrison)

     By the late 1860s, a throng of ambitious northern men and their families came to Spotsylvania. Unlike the Armstrongs and the Colemans, these new arrivals were a different breed. They were the carpetbaggers, men seeking to make easy money in the vanquished Confederacy. They took advantage of the opportunities made available by the dominance of the Republican Party in local politics, and they used these political connections to procure patronage jobs for themselves whenever possible. Here is an overview of some of the men who became part of the orbit of the world of the Armstrongs and Colemans:

Business card of Wilcox & Kinsey

     - Thomas C. Westby, born in England in 1819, came to America and settled in Wisconsin. He brought his family to Spotsylvania in the years immediately following the war. In March 1869, General George Stoneman [7], in his capacity as military administrator, appointed Westby as clerk of court of Spotsylvania County, replacing Robert C. Dabney [8]. In 1872, Westby was named secretary of the Republican Party in Spotsylvania [9]. By 1878, Westby was living in Washington, DC, where he died on October 26, 1882.

     - Wyatt Allen Forsyth (1830-1908) was a mechanic in Tompkins County, New York, where he married Lavinia Hile before the Civil War. Forsyth quickly got into business once he came to Spotsylvania. In March 1870, Forsyth--together with Allen Hakes and Albert Wilcox--bought 1/5 acre of land adjacent to Christ Church near the court house. These three men established a spoke factory there. Hakes died the following year, and Edward Wood Kinsey then joined the business. Forsyth took his leave soon thereafter, and by 1875 was living in Washington, making a living in the lumber business. A few years later, he moved to Kanawha, West Virginia, where he continued as a lumberman for the rest of his life.

     -Albert Gallatin Wilcox (1823-1894) also came from Tompkins County, New York. Wilcox entered into a partnership in the spoke factory with Edward Wood Kinsey in 1871. That partnership dissolved a year later. In 1873, Wilcox was appointed postmaster at Spotsylvania Court House. Like Mr. Forsyth, Wilcox moved to Washington, where he was engaged as a lumberman. He later followed Forsyth to Kanawha, where he made his home and continued in the lumber business.

    - Edward Wood Kinsey (1842-1927) was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania. He appears to have been the only carpetbagger mentioned here who served in the Union army during the Civil War (Company A, 15th Pennsylvania Cavalry). He came to Spotsylvania soon after having married Sarah Jane "Sallie" Snowden in Philadelphia in 1868. Kinsey remained in the spoke business for several years after acquiring the factory from Wilcox. He ultimately sold out to Thomas A. Eipper. His wife, Sallie, served as postmistress at Spotsylvania Court House 1876-1881. Kinsey served as postmaster there 1882-1883. By 1887, Kinsey was living in Washington, where he was in the furniture and lumber business for many years. He was also a partner in the furniture store of his son, Nathaniel Bacon Kinsey, which was located on Commerce Street in Fredericksburg. Kinsey is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

     -Herbert B. Vincent was born in Pennsylvania in January 1836. In 1873, he was appointed as an election judge in Spotsylvania's Finchville District. In 1874, he sold his farm to James R. Curtis, who sued Vincent for cheating him in that transaction. By then, Vincent was living in upstate New York, where he listed his occupation as "capitalist." He died in Chatauqua in 1905.

     In 1871, Paul Coleman was forced to declare bankruptcy. A check of the historic cases of the Fredericksburg Circuit Court reveals that he owed a considerable amount of money to a variety of merchants and other creditors, including a debt shared by Wyatt Forsyth to Hart, Hayes & Company of Fredericksburg. A levy was placed on Paul's private property, and Spotsylvania attorney William B. Sanford was appointed as receiver.
     Fortunately for Paul, he was able to use his political connections to obtain patronage work in Washington, principally at the Bureau of Public Works. He moved from Pea Ridge, his house in Spotsylvania, and lodged at the boarding house of a Mrs. Holbrook at 717 Fourth Street NW. His wife Esther, his daughter Romelia and one of his sons, George, remained at Pea Ridge.
     Likewise, Mahlon Armstrong also began to spend time in Washington, leaving his mother and sister, Anna Maria, to manage Beechwood with the help of a teen-aged black servant, Fanny Parker. Taking care of Beechwood was a responsibility that the Armstrong women were well-qualified for, as they had managed and defended Beechwood after Benjamin had been obliged to seek refuge in Delaware in 1862. Mahlon was living in Washington for at least part of the time by 1872. Like Paul Coleman, Mahlon had ambitions to find a patronage job in the nation's capital. He was also helping his father with an effort important to the Armstrongs' financial well-being.
     The Southern Claims Commission was an organization of the federal government created by an act of Congress on March 3, 1871. It established a process by which citizens of the southern states who had remained loyal to the Union during the Civil War could seek reimbursement for property taken from them during the war. The two key provisions were that the petitioners had to prove their loyalty (usually accomplished by affidavits or depositions provided by their neighbors), and the property had to have been officially taken, and not merely stolen by Union soldiers.
     Mahlon helped his father prepare his application, which was submitted to the Claims Commission on February 12, 1872. Depositions were taken from witnesses in Washington on May 24, 1872, including those of Mahlon, his cousin Archibald Armstrong, his sister Anna Maria, Moses Morrison and Isaac Silver. In addition, General George Meade, who had stayed for a day at Beechwood during the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, submitted a letter in which he attested to the loyalty of the Armstrongs. Benjamin was ill at home on the day depositions were taken, and he did not make an appearance before the Commission. During his testimony, Mahlon affirmed his loyalty and that of his father: "Our sympathies have always been with the north & against the south, & I have since the war been fighting the rebels politically" [10].

A page from the claim of Benjamin Armstrong (www.fold3.com)

     Benjamin Armstrong sought reimbursement in the amount of $3,540 for the taking of fencing, timber, livestock and farming utensils, two buildings, and the destruction of growing crops and pasture. As they always do, the bureaucratic wheels turned slowly, and it would take three years before Benjamin received an answer to his petition.
     During the times he stayed in Washington with Paul Coleman, Mahlon attended what he called "Hamlin" Church, today known as the Simpson-Hamline Methodist Episcopal Church. He became friends with the minister there, Reverend Greenleaf G. Baker. On January 16, 1873, in a ceremony held in Washington, Reverend Baker officiated at the wedding of Mahlon and Paul Coleman's only daughter, Romelia.

Marriage certificate of Mahlon and Romelia (Vickie Neely)

     Nine months later, Romelia found a midwife she could rely on, and on October 10, 1873, she gave birth to Mary, the only child she and Mahlon would have. Romelia and Mary continued to live in Spotsylvania at Pea Ridge with her mother and brother, while Mahlon sought work in Washington.
     Even though Mahlon and Paul were dividing their time between Spotsylvania and Washington, they continued to remain active in local politics. In April 1873, Judge John T. Goolrick appointed Mahlon and Paul as judges of election in their respective precincts:

From The Fredericksburg Ledger, April 11, 1873

     In spite of (or perhaps because of) his continued activity in Republican politics, Mahlon remained an unpopular figure in Spotsylvania. The arrival of his daughter, the stress of living among unfriendly neighbors, together with the financial pressures exerted on many Americans by the Financial Panic of 1873, added new impetus to Mahlon's efforts to land a patronage job in Washington. His goal at the time was to leave Spotsylvania and bring Romelia and Mary to the capital to live with him.
     According to letters written by him to Romelia from December 1873 to January 1875, Mahlon spent considerable time and effort searching for a suitable job in Washington, where he stayed in the Fourth Street boarding house with his father-in-law. He sought help from a variety of people, including James Beverly Sener, an attorney and publisher of The Fredericksburg Ledger. Sener represented Fredericksburg in Congress 1873-1875. For reasons that are not known, Sener seemed unwilling to provide help to Mahlon, who wrote in November 1874: "Sener could give me a job, but won't."
     In between his job-hunting efforts, Mahlon sat in on sessions of Congress. In December 1874, he described the state visit of the King of the Sandwich Islands (modern Hawaii), who was received with all the pomp and ceremony the capital could provide. He was the first king to visit the United States since the Revolution.
     Mahlon's efforts to find employment often proved fruitless, but he seemed determined not to go back to Spotsylvania: "I dread coming back to Pea Ridge...I am beginning to despair & when I think of coming back to Va it makes me feel [sick] all over. No church no school for little Mary poor little her & nothing but starvation both for Mind & Body."

Letter of Mahlon Armstrong, January 1, 1875

      Then, briefly, there was a ray of hope. On January 1, 1875, Mahlon wrote to Romelia about his new job, obtained through the intercession of judges Chandler & Morton: "I go to it  tomorrow for the first [time] so do not know what my duties will be." Then, four days later, he had to give Romelia the bad news: "My job proved too much for me, they wanted me to shovel dirt. I politely declined after a week's chase of it. So now I have no prospects & I shall be home Saturday if not sooner unless something else turns up. It is too bad."
     During this period, Paul continued to be employed at the Bureau of Public works. His son, Oscar, who had a patronage job of his own, was dating Amelia Hile, the sister-in-law of Wyatt Forsyth. Paul was an acquaintance of former Union General Benjamin F. Butler, now a member of the House of Representatives. Paul had made arrangements to meet Butler in Washington in October 1873. Butler had written to Paul at Pea Ridge, and Romelia forwarded that letter to her father. But not everything was going well for Paul Coleman. He was still dogged by the ongoing litigation of his bankruptcy, and he was apparently unhappy with his wife. He was also suspicious of what he called "The Court House Circle" in Spotsylvania, and their gossiping, double-dealing ways. In particular, he had some choice words for the Kinseys and Herbert Vincent.
     Before leaving Washington, Mahlon checked on the status of his father's petition pending before the Claims Commission. It is obvious that he does not want word of the successful prosecution of the claim to become public knowledge in Spotsylvania: "I have never written to anyone about the claim except you [Romelia], so far as I know all are in ignorance." For the vast majority of Spotsylvania property owners whose farms had been ransacked during the war, there was no hope of any compensation for their losses. If Mahlon's neighbors learned that the Armstrongs had received money from the federal government for their loss, their unpopularity in the county would only have increased. As it happened, of the 33 Spotsylvania Unionists who applied to the Southern Claims Commission, only nine received any money, and virtually no one got all that they asked for. When their claim was settled in March 1875, the Armstrongs received only $1,540 of the $3,540 that they sought.
     Mahlon returned to Spotsylvania for good in 1875, and Paul some time later. Mahlon, Romelia and Mary moved to Beechwood to live with his mother and Anna Maria. Mahlon's mother, Ann Mendenhall Armstrong, died on April 3, 1879. Ann Armstrong had suffered much during her 20 years in Spotsylvania. Her husband had been driven into exile by the Confederates, she had been considered an outcast by her secessionist neighbors, and her dog was shot by a Confederate cavalryman during the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House. Despite her many misfortunes in this land of rebels, the choice of her final resting place was an act of unintended irony; Ann Armstrong was buried in the Confederate Cemetery in Fredericksburg. Anna Maria left Spotsylvania some time during the 1880s and returned north, where she remained unmarried and worked as a domestic. She died in the Penn Widow's Asylum in Philadelphia on August 25, 1920.

Esther Coleman (Vickie Neely)

     Paul Coleman deserted Esther, his wife, and moved to Baltimore, where he lived near or with his son, Royal Bunker Coleman. Paul died there on February 26, 1888.

Baltimore Sun, February 27, 1888 (Ancestry, Barbara Spears)

     Benjamin Armstrong spent the last 15 years of his life with his son, William, at 604 Orange Street in Wilmington, Delaware. Two years before his death, he wrote his last will and testament:

Will of Benjamin Armstrong (Ancestry)

Will of Benjamin Armstrong (Ancestry)

     Benjamin died at William's home on May 23, 1891. His funeral was held at his son's home. Benjamin is buried in the Lower Brandywine Presbyterian Church Cemetery in New Castle Cemetery.

Wilmington Daily Republican, May 25, 1891

Death certificate of Benjamin Armstrong (Ancestry)

     In his will, Benjamin left Beechwood to his surviving children. In due course, Mahlon bought his siblings' shares in the old Spotsylvania homestead. By 1895, Beechwood belonged to him.



Stay tuned for the final installment of the saga of the Armstrong family, in which the course of Mahlon's life takes some unexpected turns. The Adventists come to Screamersville.


Notes:

[1] "Arrival of the Pioneer Boat Wenonah,"The Fredericksburg Ledger, May 30, 1865, p. 3.

[2] Armstrong, Benjamin. Publication M2094, Southern Claims Commission Approved Claims, 1871-1880, Claim Number 37018. National Archives and Records Administration, p. 4.

[3] "Tibbets in Jail,"The Fredericksburg Ledger, June 9, 1868, p. 3.

[4] "Fourteenth Military Division,"Richmond Daily Dispatch, Jue 8, 1869.

[5] "Candidate for the Legislature,"The Fredericksburg Ledger, June 25, 1869, p. 3.

[6] Armstrong, Benjamin. Southern Claims Commission, pp. 4-5.

[7] Years earlier, while a cadet at West Point, Stoneman's roommate was none other than future Confederate General Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson.

[8] "Civil Appointment,"Richmond Daily Dispatch, March 9, 1869.

[9] "Republican Convention at Spotsylvania Court House,"Daily State Journal, March 8, 1872.

[10] Armstrong, Benjamin. Southern Claims Commission, p. 10.
            

    
    

Dr. John Samuel Apperson (Virginia Tech Imagebase)

     "February 2, 1859. This morning was one of uncommon interest to me. I arose early and prepared myself to leave, for where, I hardly know" [1]. So begins the diary of 21-year-old John Samuel Apperson, a remarkable document written by a man confident that an adventuresome and successful future lay ahead of him. Future events would justify his optimism.

Malinda and Alfred Apperson (Jack Apperson, Ancestry)

     Born into humble circumstances in Orange County on August 21, 1837, John achieved a great deal in his lifetime. He was a man of many resources, and utilized his native talents to become successful in the fields of both medicine and business. He married twice and was the father of eleven children, some of whom became successful in their own right.
     John was the oldest of six children born to Alfred Apperson and Malinda Jones, who were married in Orange County on September 3, 1836. As a young man, Alfred had worked as an overseer. He later bought a 170-acre farm in Orange just north of the old Turnpike (modern Route 20) near Locust Grove. In the Civil War-era map detail of Orange County shown below, "A. Epperson" can be seen at right above the double red line indicating the Turnpike. Ellwood, the home of Horace Lacy, can be seen at far right. Row's Mill, the home of Elhanon Row and his extended family, lay athwart the Turnpike at far left.

Map detail of Orange County (www.fold3.com)

     John Apperson's childhood was typical for his time and place. He worked on the family farm doing chores like cutting wood, making rails and plowing with a team of oxen. He attended a school until he was 12 years old, and afterwards supplemented his education by reading whatever books and periodicals might come to his house. By the age of 17 he was working in a country store, but was handicapped by his lack of mathematical knowledge. He remedied this problem by purchasing a copy of "Key to Davies' Arithmethic," from which he taught himself [2].
     On that February morning in 1859, when his journal begins, John packed up his worldly goods--consisting of his his clothes--and placed $12.50 in money and twenty four cents in stamps in his pockets. He took leave of his family, and then walked to his grandfather's house nearby, where he spent the night. The next day, he walked to Orange Court House, where he boarded a train bound for Charlottesville. While changing cars in Gordonsville, he encountered a friend of his, identified as "J. S. R." [3]. John told his friend that he was headed west, perhaps to Mississippi or Alabama [4].
     John arrived in Charlottesville at 2:00 that afternoon. Realizing that he did not have enough money to make the journey he originally intended, he set off on foot from the train station. His goal now was to make it as far as Lynchburg and look for work. While walking down the road, John met local resident John Dudley, who lived in the hills between Charlottesville and Scottsville. The convivial Dudley invited John to his house. John spent a few enjoyable days with his sociable host and his family, which included two comely and friendly daughters. The evenings consisted of drinking, fiddle-playing and dancing. On the morning of February 7, John bade farewell to the Dudleys and struck out for Lynchburg [5].
     John continued walking south down the road (likely the forerunner to modern Route 29) toward Lynchburg. He crossed the Rockfish River by way of a bridge that was being built, and spent the night with an agreeable farmer in Nelson County. By now John was quite footsore, and had developed large blisters on his right heel and instep. His kindly host invited him to stay with him until his feet improved, but John was anxious to reach Lynchburg. On the morning of February 8 he resumed his journey south [6].
     John at last arrived at Lynchburg and took a room at an inn. While looking for work, he met a man from Marion in Smyth County, who suggested that he go to the Seven Mile Ford there and try to get a job on the railroad. John took the train to Marion, arriving with just twenty seven cents in his pocket [7].
     After a short stint at cutting railroad ties, John met Dr. William Faris. Impressed by John's intelligence and obvious potential, Dr. Faris urged John to take up the study of medicine. John did so, and began to read with Dr. Faris and accompanied him while visiting patients. The 1860 census shows that John was living with the Faris family and his occupation was "student of medicine." He continued along this path of endeavor until the outbreak of the Civil War.

Dr. Harvey Black (Virginia Tech Imagebase)

     On April 18, 1861, John Apperson was mustered into what would become Company D of the 4th Virginia Infantry in Marion. Two months later, he was assigned duty as a hospital steward under the direction of Dr. Harvey Black, the regimental surgeon. The two served together for the remainder of the war. Dr. Black became John's lifelong friend, mentor and colleague.
     Harvey Black was born on August 27, 1827 in Blacksburg, a town founded by his family. Like John Apperson, Dr. Black took up the study of medicine as a young man. In 1847 he enlisted as an infantryman to fight in the Mexican War. After three months's service in the ranks, he was appointed hospital steward, at which duty he served until he was mustered out in 1848. He enrolled in the University of Virginia upon his return home, and earned his medical degree in 1849. On September 15, 1852, he married Mary Irby Kent, with whom he had a daughter and three sons [8].
     In the years leading up to the Civil War, Dr. Black and his family lived in Blacksburg, where he practiced medicine. The 1860 census shows that the owned one slave, a 23-year-old woman. He enlisted in the 4th Virginia Infantry on May 4, 1861. He was named regimental surgeon, a post he held until November 20, 1862, when General Thomas J. Jackson appointed him chief surgeon of the Field Hospital, 2nd Corps, Army of Northern Virginia. He brought along with him hospital steward John Apperson.

Map detail of Spotsylvania County during the Battle of Chancellorsville (www.fold3.com)

      The events during the Chancellorsville campaign made an indelible impression on John's mind. Here are excerpts from his journal during that momentous week. The first entry was written while the 2nd Corps Hospital was encamped south of Hamilton's Crossing near Fredericksburg:

"Wednesday, April 29, 1863: This morning early the sound of cannon was bursting along the shore of the Rappahannock. A courier soon came back with some orders for Dr. Black. It stated that Dr. Black should be ready to move his hospital near the field. Dr. went to wash preparing to obey orders--another came ordering the ambulance train up. By 2 p. m. the wagons were ready to move...In wandering around we discovered the old Brigade. I saw the 4th and had a cordial meeting with the boys. There was considerable fighting near Fredericksburg, which resulted in some 30 killed and wounded and a company captured from our side.
Thursday, April 30, 1863: Today spent in camp speculating what would be done...The chief opinion is that we will fall back...The enemy is only making a feint here while the main body is crossing at Kelly's and Germanna...
Friday, May 1, 1863: Orders were received this morning from Dr. [Hunter] McGuire to move...At Telegraph Road we turned to the left at Mr. Wyatt's and out to the Plank Road [modern Route 610, now called Old Plank Road] at Tabernacle Church...We moved across the Plank Road and a little up to the right of the road, going west and camped. News at the front is that the enemy is falling back before our skirmishers.
Saturday and Sunday, May 2 and 3, 1863: The troops marched up the Plank Road to "New Store" [the home of John Alrich, at the intersection of modern Old Plank and Catharpin roads]. Here was a great many wounded. The house bore the unmistakable marks of a conflict nearby. Heavy cannonading toward the Old Furnace...The ambulance train took the old Catharpin Road and went up to Todd's Tavern. I was on horseback. There we took the road known as Brock's Road and paralleled it about a mile. The troops came out from the furnace [modern Jackson Trail East], crossed Brock's Road and left it to the right...Dr. Black directed us on a left hand road [modern Jackson Trail West] by William Stephens' and Mr. Triggs'. I began to expect that the fighting would occur at the Wilderness being the best position I knew of in this section of the county...We passed the old schoolhouse where I had studied the manners of spelling and arithmetic in 1845--nearly 18 years go. My feelings were such that I could not discuss them. Dr. Black was ordered forward to establish a hospital and send the ambulances on the field. When we reached the old pike [modern Route 3] the ambulances were sent down and the loaded wagons went to the Wilderness. Our tents were pitched along a gully where I have enjoyed many merry plays at "Gully's Keeper." The wounded commenced coming in and we  went to work. It seemed that Jackson commenced upon them as soon as he came up and the enemy made tracks. Our troops fought almost recklessly. The enemy left his mules. The saddest event of the day is a wound received by Gen. Jackson...he was wounded in the left arm and amputation was necessary. Dr. McGuire operated [Dr. Harvey Black assisted him]. The wounded commenced coming. The enemy's strong works had been stormed and taken principally by Trumble's Division under command of Brig. General Colston...The loss in the 4th Regiment is almost appalling--went in with 365 and lost 162. The "Blue and Gray" lost 50. The brigade charged the enemy's works three times before it was successful. General Paxton was killed; he was a brave man. Capt. Harman in the 4th Regt. was killed. Capt. Fulton lost a leg.
Monday May 4th, 1863: Nothing outside of the usual course of stirring events happened today. I saw some of the Misses Hawkins [9] and thought I knew them. A servant ran along and informed that I was right. I sent them my card and compliments...The fighting has nearly ceased. Our army is about one-half mile in advance of Chancellorsville and the enemy between that and the road. Both armies are intrenching. It was also reported that our force at Fredericksburg has been dislodged and the heights around Marye's House captured.
Tuesay May 5th, 1863: Today we were busy. Dr. Black sent Dr. Hackett and myself over to the barn to assist Dr. Straith...Dr. Straith put me to work on some mutilated hands. I took off a number of fingers and one was taken off in the middle of the metacarpal bone. This was Martin Roan, Co. D 4th Va. Infantry. I extracted a ball from among the tarsus of the foot of a soldier...
Wednesday May 6th 1863: This morning rain began to fall and soon the whole place was one mud puddle. I saw Lt. Col. Dugan and proposed that he go to my father's for a few days, but before he got off new orders came for the wounded to be sent to Guinea's Depot. Dr. Hackett and myself went over to the barn again; nothing much to do. I went home. My father had been down and brought me some things and had gone to the battlefield. He was not at home when I arrived...At home I found nothing new. The yard around the house was beautiful--as green as could be. I sat up late and went to rest with a cheerful good night. Today I met an old servant that had served under my father.
Thursday, May 7th 1863: This morning by 8 I was up and off to my post. Arrived there before some had left their bed...Today I performed my first important operation--took off a Yankee's leg below the knee. Dr. Gilkerson stood by. I felt no embarrassment whatever. Mrs. Jones have me a full history of Yankee vandalism. It is truly distressing. No people can prosper whose propensities for wanton destruction of property and oppressing defenseless women is so great. How the blood is made to boil at such atrocities and such acts of inhumanity" [10].

     At the conclusion of the war, Dr. Black went home to Blacksburg, and John went back to the Faris home in Marion. John saved his money for a year and then applied to the medical school at the University of Virginia. The professor of surgery at that time was Dr. James Edgar Chancellor, whose family had owned Chancellorsville [11]. John received his medical degree in 1867 and returned to Smyth County, where he made the town of Chilhowie his home. On February 20, 1868, he married Ellen Victoria Hull. They had seven children together.
     Dr. Black resumed his medical practice, and he also took an interest in the Preston and Olin Institute, a Methodist boy's school in Blacksburg. The school became insolvent in 1872, and Dr. Black helped to reorganize it as the Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College, the forerunner of today's Virginia Tech. Black served as the first rector of the school's board of visitors. That same year Dr. Black also received the honor of being elected president of the Medical Society of Virginia.
     In 1875, Dr. Black was nominated to become superintendent of the Eastern State Lunatic Asylum. He had not lobbied for the position, and was taken by surprise by the action of the institution's board. However, after mature consideration, Dr. Black decided that he could do some good in that role. He moved his family to Williamsburg, and assumed his new position on January 1, 1876 and served until March 1882. His tenure there was characterized by his humane and compassionate treatment of his patients, and the helpful reforms he instituted [12].
     Soon after his return to Blacksburg, Dr. Black petitioned the state legislature for funding to establish a facility for the insane in southwestern Virginia. Approval was given, and he and Dr. Apperson served on the building committee for the Southwestern Lunatic Asylum, which was built in Marion and opened its doors to patients in 1888. Dr. Black was named as its first superintendent. Dr. Apperson served as assistant physician there.

Harvey Black, House of Degates, 1887 (Library of Virginia)

     Despite declining health, Dr. Harvey Black was elected to two terms in the House of Delegates, in 1885 and 1887. Dr. Black suffered from what were called "urinary calculi"--stones in his bladder. In October 1887, Dr. Black traveled to St. Luke's Hospital in Richmond, where Dr. Hunter McGuire performed surgery. The procedure was only moderately successful, and Dr. Black underwent surgery a second time on October 8, 1888. He never recovered from this second intervention. He died in Richmond on October 19, 1888. He lies buried in Westview Cemetery in Blacksburg.
  

Dr. John Apperson (Virginia Tech Imagebase)

      The decade of the 1880s was also a period of success and tragedy for Dr. John Apperson. He had a thriving medical practice, a position at the new asylum and had been elected vice-president of the Medical Society of Virginia in 1881, 1882 and 1885 [13]. During Dr. Black's medical crisis, death visited the Apperson home twice in 1887. His daughter, 17-year-old Pauline, died on September 2. His wife, Ellen, died on November 14.
     On February 5, 1889, John married Elizabeth "Lizzie" Arabella Black, the only daughter of Dr. Harvey Black. John and Lizzie had four children together.

John and Elizabeth Apperson and family (Virginia Tech Imagebase)

     In addition to his accomplishments as a physician, John also enjoyed success in the business and professional world. He organized the Staley's Creek Manganese and Iron Company. In 1892 he was appointed business executive commissioner of Virginia to the World's Fair held in Chicago in 1893. He was a key executive in the Marion and Rye Railway, and was in charge of its construction. He served on the board of trustees of Emory and Henry College [14]. His home gives evidence of his worldly success and prosperity:

Apperson home in Chilhowie (Anita Epperson, Ancestry)

     Dr. John Samuel Apperson died at home on August 9, 1908. He is buried in the Round Hill Cemetery in Marion.

(Virginia Tech Imagebase)

    


Two of Dr. Apperson's sons were well known for their public service in their own lifetimes. Harvey Black Apperson (1890-1948) served in the Virginia Senate 1933-1944. He then worked for three years as a member of the Virginia State Corporation Commission.  For the last few months of his life Harvey was Attorney General of Virginia.

John Samuel Apperson, Jr. (1878-1963) worked as an engineer for many years at General Electric. But he is best known and admired for his work as a conservationist in a lifelong effort to protect the Adirondack Forest Preserve and Lake George.

But the son of Dr. Apperson that I feel closest to is his firstborn, Alfred Hull Apperson (1869-1944).  Alfred was an electrical engineer who graduated from the Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College in Blacksburg in 1894. He was in charge of the school's electric plant for several years after he graduated. Alfred worked in Richmond for many years as an electrical inspector for the Southeastern Underwriter's Association. In 1905 he married Sallie Duncan Williams of Lynchburg.


     
Duncan's parents were James Tompkins Williams (1829-1900), a merchant in both Richmond and Lynchburg, and Martha Jane Row (1828-1885), my second great aunt, who was born on our family's plantation in Spotsylvania.




Sources:

- Repairing the "March of Mars": The Civil War Diaries of John Samuel Apperson, edited by John Herbert Roper. Mercer University Press, Macon, GA: 2001.

- Diary of John Samuel Apperson of Locust Grove

- Transactions of the Thirty Ninth Annual Session of the Medical Society of Virginia, Held in Richmond, Virginia October 20-23, 1908. Capitol Printing Company, Richmond, VA: 1909. Click here for the link

- Annual Reports of Officers, Boards and Institutions of the Commonwealth of Virginia For The Year Ending September 30, 1888. J. H. O'Bannon, Superintendent of Public Printing, Richmond, VA: 1888. Click here for link

- Students of the University of Virginia 1825-1874

- Men of Mark in Virginia: Ideals of American Life. A Collection of Biographies of the Leading Men in the State. Lyon G. Tyler, L. L. P., President of William and Mary College, Editor in Chief. Volume III. Men of Mark Publishing Company, Washington, DC: 1907.  Click here for link

- Culpeper Officer's Diary Tells of Chancellorsville,"The Free Lance-Star, May 6, 1963.



Notes:

[1] Diary of John Samuel Apperson of Locust Grove, 3.

[2] Men of  Mark in Virginia, 6.

[3] Most likely John Sanders Row.

[4] Diary of John Samuel Apperson of Locust Grove, 4.

[5] Ibid., 5-9.

[6] Ibid., 9-12.

[7] Ibid., 1-2.

[8] Annual Reports of Officers, 36.

[9] See my article: "During the war, the girls saw sights"

[10] "Culpeper Officer's Diary Tells of Chancellorsville." Although the title of the article is misleading, the content is correct. This section of John Apperson's diary had been transcribed by Chancellor descendant and historian George Harrison Sanford King while he was a student at Virginia Tech in the 1930s. At that time, the diary was still in the possession of the Apperson family.

[11] See my article: Dr. James Edgar Chancellor

[12] Annual Report of Officers, 37-38.

[13] Transactions of the Thirty Ninth Annual Session, 233.

[14] Men of Mark in Virginia, 8.


    

Arrival of Adventists at Screamersville, early 1900s (Vickie Neely)

     This is the final installment of a three-part series that details the singular and epic experience of the Armstrongs and Colemans, two northern families who came to Spotsylvania in the 1850s. For those of you who have not yet read the first two articles, they can be found at "They would have him dead or alive" and "Since the war, I have been fighting them politically".

Mahlon Armstrong (Vickie Neely)

     When the three Armstrong families came to Spotsylvania in the late 1850s from New Castle County, Delaware, they joined the first Presbyterian Church of Fredericksburg. Their names appear in the Manual for the Members of the Presbyterian Church of Fredericksburg, Virginia, 1860. Shown on the list below, they were: Mahlon Armstrong and his sister, Martha; Mahlon's brother, William, and his wife Sarah; Mahlon's cousin, Archibald, and his wife, Sarah. Mahlon's father was not a church goer and his name does not appear on the church's rolls.

From the membership rolls of Fredericksburg Presbyterian Church

     It is not known whether Mahlon resumed his attendance at the Prebyterian Church, or any church for that matter, after his return to Spotsylvania after the Civil War. While living in Washington, DC in the early 1870s, Mahlon noted in letters to his wife, Romelia, that he attended services in at least three different churches--Methodist-Episcopalian, Quaker and Catholic. From that fact it appears that Mahlon was not committed to any one denomination at this point in his life, and he may have tried several different churches seeking one that would be a good fit for him. For Mahlon, that search would end in October 1889.
     As I understand it, Adventism in America evolved from a movement called Millerism, founded by William Miller, a New York farmer, lay preacher and Bible student. One of the tenets of the Millerites held that the earth would be destroyed by fire during Jesus' second coming. Miller spent years carefully calculating the end of the world by consulting the Bible and other sources. He revealed to his followers that the apocalypse would occur in 1844. When the world did not end on the first date he predicted, he forecast the end for several other dates that year. When the world failed to vaporize on any of those dates ("The Great Disappointment"), a schism occurred among his adherents. His movement divided into several new Adventist groups, including the Life and Advent Union, started by John T. Walsh. The Virginia Life and Advent Christian Union (which will hereafter be abbreviated as VLACU) was the umbrella organization for this branch of Adventists in the Commonwealth. It was this organization that brought Adventism to Spotsylvania.
     The Life and Advent Christian Church, located at 1206 West Cary Street in Richmond, was organized in 1887. Soon thereafter, mission work was undertaken in Spotsylvania. The first camp meeting in Spotsylvania, led by Elder R. C. Brown, was held October 5-22, 1889 on property near the Screamersville depot where the  Virginia Mission Tent had been erected. Several dozen Virginia Adventists assembled there to await the second coming and the end of the world. Among them was Mahlon Armstrong. Once again, the world failed to vaporize, and the out-of-town Adventists boarded the train and returned to their homes.

Richmond Daily Times, October 24, 1889

     Despite this inauspicious beginning, Mahlon became a true believer in the Adventist creed. He helped build the Berea Adventist Church near Screamersville in 1891. Over the years, he held positions of authority in VLACU, including secretary and treasurer. He was also instrumental in organizing a number of camp meetings in Spotsylvania, the last one being in 1911.

Map detail of Spotsylvania (Vickie Neely)

     The camp meetings were held on property owned by the Adventists located between modern Chancellor Road (Route 674) and Lewis Thorburn Road (Route 743). Out-of-town attendees would arrive at the Screamersville depot (which was also a post office and general store) via the Potomac, Fredericksburg and Piedmont Railroad. In the map detail shown above, Screamersville was located where the Virginia Central Railway (successor to the P F & P Railroad) crossed Route 674. For those of you who may be interested in my brief history of the railroad that once connected Fredericksburg with the town of Orange, it can be read at Death on the Virginia Central.

The Daily Star, February 5, 1903

     The Berea Adventist Church burned in 1899 and was rebuilt the following year. The last regular camp meeting there was held in 1911, although the Life and Advent Christian Church of Richmond, which owned the property, continued to have occasional events there until the 1930s. By 1945, the church building had fallen prey to neglect and decay and burned some time after that.

Mary Armstrong Mitchell (Vickie Neely)

     Mahlon and Romelia's daughter Mary, their only child, married Joseph Clarence Mitchell on January 15, 1899. During the first six years of their marriage, they had four children together: David Lynn, Louis Clarence, Elsa Gertrude and William Eugene. The Mitchells became Adventists and attended the camp meetings in the early 1900s. Shown in the 1905 photograph below at rear are Romelia Armstrong and Mary Mitchell holding Elsa. Seated is Romelia's mother, Esther Coleman, and next to her are Mary's two oldest sons, David and Louis.

Four generations at the Berea Adventist Church, 1905 (Vickie Neely)

     Vickie Neely's collection of photographs includes a number of pictures of the Berea Adventist Church, a few of which are presented here:

Berea Adventist Church

Romelia Armstrong at Berea Adventist Church

Adventists in front of one of the tents

    

Adventists in front of Berea Adventist Church

A gathering during one of the camp meetings

     In 1907, the attendees of the camp meeting posed for the group portrait shown below. It is my understanding that the research for the caption was done by the late Dr. Robert A Hodge. The members of the Armstrong and Mitchell families are identified:

Attendees at the Screamersville camp, 1907

     Also worth noting in this photograph are:

- Johsua Scott Mewshaw (23), who was chairman of the committee of finance for the VLACU. Johsua was active in the civic life of Washington, DC and for 18 years worked as station master at the old Pennsylvania train station. He was married to Juanita (9), and they were the parents of Rosa Musetta (8).

- James Howle (not in the picture) was the pastor of the Life and Advent Christian Church in Richmond. He was a tinner by trade and a long time employee of the city gas works. James was the father of Mary Duval Howle, (3), Alice May Howle Wingfield (18), Jessie Howle (32) and Bessie Evelyn Howle (35).

- Bennett Lee Fraysier (21) was president of the VLACU. His paying job was that of buyer and manager of the shoe department at the J. B. Mosby Company in Richmond ("The Finest Store in the South"). His mother (5) stands behind him and his future wife, Lula Baughn (6) stands next to her.

- Bennoni Milstead (24) was a government laborer and one-time chairman of the committee of finance for the VLACU.

     In addition to his work as an Adventist, Mahlon Armstrong continued to farm at Beechwood, his home on Gordon Road. In addition, he trained as a surveyor and was hired to survey the property of the late Richard Comfort in 1905 so that the land could be divided among his heirs (Virginia Chancery Causes).

Bramble Hill Post Office (Ancestry)

     Mahlon also ran a general store on a section of his property called Bramble Hill. In July 1911, he was named post master of the post office established there. This remained active until May 1913, when the post office at Bramble Hill was discontinued and its functions were transferred to the nearby Homedale office. Two months later, Homedale was also closed and its postal duties were consolidated at Screamersville.
     Mahlon's mother-in-law, Esther Coleman, died at his home in 1906. His daughter, Mary Mitchell, died of tuberculosis in 1910. Both are buried in the cemetery at Berea Adventist Church.

1918 Richmond city directory (Ancestry)

     Mahlon's long and eventful life took one more unexpected turn when by 1917, at the age of 80, he and Romelia left Spotsylvania and moved to 105 Lady Street in Richmond, where they operated a grocery. This would be the last hurrah of Mahlon Armstrong. In early 1918, he developed a carbuncle on his neck. Septicemia set in, and he died on February 6. His body was brought back to Spotsylvania and he was buried at Berea Adventist Church.

Mahlon and Romelia Armstrong (Dan Janzegers)

     After Mahlon's death, Romelia went to Baltimore and spent some time with her brother, Royal Bunker Armstrong, who worked as a driver for the city trolley system.

Royal Bunker and Romelia Armstrong (Vickie Neely)

     Romelia returned to Spotsylvania and lived out her years in a small house on the Beechwood property. As her health declinced, she was cared for by her niece, Grace Coleman Alsop Harris. Grace, a practical nurse, moved in with Romelia and stayed with her until her death on December 1, 1932. She is buried next to Mahlon in the cemetery at Berea Adventist Church.