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VIRGINIA'S UNSUNG VICTORY In The Revolution
VIRGINIA
SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS
By Alfred Percy
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$27.50
Been ana Dann niemann Burlington, n. c. 1980
Fram Ruby Race Muur ( Their grand mother) 727
580643341
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WORKS BY THIS HISTORIAN
PIEDMONT APOCALYPSE, 1949
*OLD PLACE NAMES, 1950
*Central Virginia Blue Ridge, 1952 THE DEVIL IN THE OLD DOMINION, 1952 has been rewritten and revised for a more effective edition.
(* These books will be republished with additional data and improved format. ) ORIGIN OF THE LYNCH LAW - 1780, 1959 THE AMHERST COUNTY STORY, 1961 TOBACCO ROLLING ROADS TO WATER- WAYS, 1963
"GRAY FLITS THE SHADE OF POWER" 1964.
VIRGINIA'S UNSUNG VICTORY IN THE REVOLUTION, 1964
Co-Author and assistant to the editors of THE SAGA OF A CITY, 1936, by the Sesqui -Centennial Association of LYNCHBURG, VIRGINIA.
CENTRAL VIRGINIA INFORMATION ABSTRACTS FROM EARLY AMHERST COUNTY RECORDS By Bailey Davis, Amherst, Virginia. ABSTRACTS - DEED BOOKS "A" INTO "F" SECTIONS ABSTRACT OF WILL BOOK, "A", NELSON COUNTY WILL BOOK ENCYCLOPEDIA OF 26 AMHERST COUNTY WILL BOOKS FROM 1761 to 1919, EACH SECTION WITH FULL INDEX WHEN COMPLETED. MANY SECTIONS HAVE BEEN COMPLETED. SECTIONS SOLD INDIVIDUALLY. Please send stamped, self-addressed envelope with query for prices.
VIRGINIA'S UNSUNG VICTORY In The Revolution
GINIA
E
By Alfred Percy
Percy
Pre reso
Elon Road Madison Heights, Va. 24572
COPYRIGHT 1964 by ALFRED PERCY ALL RIGHTS RESERVED REVISED 1965
This book has been researched, written, composed, and lithographed in the Commonwealth of Virginia, the United States of North America, by Peg and Alfred Percy, The Percy Press Elon Road, Madison Heights.
Litho-art work, adaptation of color, and design by Peg Percy, graduate of Parson's Schools of Fine and Applied Arts, New York and Paris. Historical research, writing and lithography by Alfred Percy, graduate of The Univeristy of Virginia Law School with over twenty-seven years of historical research, writing, editing, and sixteen years of special lithography for historic publications.
Mrs. Evelyn West Allen, Editor, Elon, Madison Heights, Virginia; Mrs. Garland Huffman, Editorial Assistant, Elon Road, Madison Heights, Virginia.
Member of: Virginia Historical Society, Lynchburg Historical Society, Albemarle County Historical Society, American Association for State and Local History, The Private Libraries Association of Great Britain, The American Name Society and Virginia Name Society.
Most people make a mess of the present because in trying to look ahead they forget their behind. A wise citizen, even as a good general, keeps alert, fore and aft, past and present , in order to acquire common sense foresight.
The whole policy, theme song, directing hymn of our historical publishing is to publicize the use of history as a guidon for the guidance toward a sane future. We do not sigh over the past in the nostalgic but fat-headed manner of the romanticist bragging about "the good old days. " We have no time to stress past personal acts of little moment just be- cause the person happened to have reached maturity a hun- dred or more years ago. Along this same line ours is not an organization for the verbal spraying of worm-eaten fam- ily trees. Of course, if the big winds of possibility should shake down some big apples of leadership from to-day's crop on those family trees, then this would be in our line of chronicling, as are the repetition of history, the tracing and study of mental trends and their effects from one century to another, and just plain historical miracles. This might even be the miracle as well as a crutch to help us on our limping way toward a sane formula for avoiding in the future the similar pitfalls and death traps out of which we have recently and not so recently clambered.
We are deeply grateful to the following people who, in the years, 1958, 1959, were so cooperative in helping with the research of the Revolutionary War Period dealing with THE ORIGIN OF THE LYNCH LAW - 1780, published 1959: Mrs. Josephine Wingfield, Librarian, and the staff of the Jones Memorial Library of Lynchburg, Virginia. The Chamber of Commerce, Lynchburg, Virginia, and its Executive Vice President, Lawrence H. McWane. Miss Anne Freudenberg, Assistant in Manuscripts, Alderman Library, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia. Mr. H. P. Scott, Clerk, and Miss Jane Smith, Deputy Clerk, Clerk's Office for the Circuit Court of Bedford County, Bedford, Virginia.
Mrs. Pauline H. Edwards and Mrs. Letitia F. Thompson, LOOKING BACK, Bell, Lynchburg, 1951, for permission to use THE LYNCH TREE, by Mrs. Epps Turner Perrow. Mrs. Nathaniel E. Clement, Chatham, Virginia.
FOR COLONEL JAMES CALLAWAY, COLONEL CHARLES LYNCH, JR. CAPTAIN ROBERT ADAMS, JR.
Mr. and Mrs. Hardwicke Adams, Monteflora, Altavista, Virginia.
Mr. Thomas T. Adams, Staunton Hall, Hurt, Virginia.
Mrs. John B. (Virginia Featherston) Adams, Charleston, West Virginia.
Mrs. Freeland Kinnier (Leta Adams), Lynchburg, Virginia. Mrs. L.M. Winston, Avoca, Altavista, Virginia.
Mrs. Walter Faunteleroy, Crondall, Altavista, Virginia. Dr. and Mrs. Thomas W. Lewis, Altavista, Virginia. Mrs. B. Y. Calvert, Lynchburg, Virginia for the loan of the Callaway Papers compiled by the late Mr. B. Y.Calvert.
Contents
THE UNSUNG VICTORY
1
RATTLESNAKE FLAG 1
ALBEMARLE BARRACKS FOR PRISONERS 5
FROM BEDFORD COURT ORDER BOOK #6. LYNCH'S FERRY
12
24
LYNCH TREE 26
BACKGROUND AND BIBLIOGRAPHY 27-47
COLONEL CHARLES AND OTHERS COM-
MISSIONED IN BEDFORD MILITIA SEE 38 & 43
INDEX 48
COUNTIES INVOLVED DIRECTLY AND INDIRECTLY IN THE TORY CONSPIRACY - 1780.
East of The Blue Ridge: Bedford County, which then included Campbell and upper Franklin Counties.
West of The Blue Ridge: Montgomery, Botetourt, which in- cluded present day Roanoke, Pulaski, Wythe, Floyd, etc. Indirectly involved were Amherst, Albemarle, Pittsylvania and Rockbridge Counties.
This small book deals with the Tory Activity during the crucial years 1780-1781. This took on a more concentrated form than the earlier and more scattered Tory activities in South central and Southwestern Virginia.
THE CULPEPER MINUTE
MEN
LIBERTY,
OR DEATH
DONT TREAD ON ME
Accurate History A Slide Rule For The Present! A Storm Warning For The Future!
THE UNSUNG VICTORY
A RIGHT GOES WRONG
FTEN the ghosts in history return again and again to haunt the country with misinformation.
Virginia has to her credit one of the great victories of our Revolution and yet there is no official record of it as such. All that is left of this victory is a word that people shun, a meaning and a term that the people have twisted to cast a shadow over the nation, a town, a section of Virginia, and a family.
If this story proves anything at all it will illustrate that we the people of the United States, can build up in our minds a living and expanding lie that can create a distorted picture of our basic history and have a damaging effect upon future generations unless adequately corrected, if such can be
*
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done. Haunted houses may be interesting to thrill -seekers but they are hard to sell for living purposes. Such is also the case with the name of a town, of a county, and a family that has been blackened by a distorted legend. People seldom realize that printed words can be, and often are, lies.
This national fault magnifies the reason why we need to prove the accuracy of our past events. Instead of the Biblical parable of "out of the mouths of babes and sucklings, " we should substitute this gem of historians wisdom from the Dobie Gillis T. V. series: "How will you know where you are going if you do not know where you have been?"
Thisis a profound truth and should be considered along with another that appeared in the Saturday Evening Post some years ago to the effect that the reason history keeps re- peating itself is because those who make it know nothing about it. We do not know where we are going because of un- certain ideas as to where we have been. These varied, dis- torted interpretations are eventually applied to the meaning of our engraved tables of stone, constitutions, bills of rights, until any picture of the past or future becomes a surrealist nightmare. To pin this down to a given period; if we misjudge, misinterpret, and misuse the recorded accounts of battles, we will certainly make a mental hodge-podge out of Revolutionary War activity that was not even understood by the people of the community at the time the action actually took place.
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This action took place in July and August 1780. There are only a few official records and inaccurate interpre- tations. The fact that it was in part political and grew out of a difference of opinion between political parties known as the Whigs and the Tories may explain part of its obscurity, but not all. If the public today knows little of the Democratic Party and the Republican Party and the sharp splinter factions needling the nation, how are we to know the truth of what went on between our party ancestors, the Whigs and the Tories, one hundred eighty odd years ago? We are neither that bright nor that clairvoyant. We obtained representation and lowered our taxes - for a while. But Virginia had the theo- retical representation by elected Burgesses in 1619 and it didn't hold back the taxation from England, in 1776 and it doesn't now.
In 1780 the Revolution had been dragging along for four long years, draining the man power and energy of the thirteen self-declared republics, masquerading as a nation. We were slowly losing the war.
Generally speaking, the Scotch people living in our country were strong supporters of the Revolution. There were ex- ceptions among the Scotch merchants of Bedford County and the men of a Scotch regiment who had settled in North Carolina after fighting in the French and Indian War. Both of these factions became cells for fermentation of Tory feeling and action.
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All of this preamble leads up to the fact that when the British wedged into South Carolina at the port of Charleston in the spring of 1780, the Tories in Virginia and the Carolinas prepared a welcome for the British that would make Lord Cornwallis ' march north to Virginia one of victory . The fact that they did not take General Francis Marion, The Swamp Fox, into their initial calculations, helped delay and slow down some of the British victories, and thus gave Virginia time to wake up to the fact that the state was in a vulnerable position.
There were few Continental Troops in Virginia to oppose the British Army whether they came from the South or from the sea. Many of the mountain and valley militia men were fighting with General George Rogers Clark in the northwestern country between the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers and the Great Lakes.
In the Albermarle Barracks at Charlottesville, Virginia, four thousand British and German prisoners of war were con- fined. These were known as the Convention prisoners and were one of the results of our victory in the Battle of Saratoga, New York.
They were guarded by Albermarle and Amherst County militia, which were relatively small units. The prisoners had been placed at Charlottesville because of its remoteness from the theatre of war. Some escapees from the prisoner of war barracks were apprehended in Pennsylvania in continental
VIEW OF THE ENCAMPMENT OF THE CONVENTION TROOPS. (From a picture in Anburey's Travels.)
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uniforms with forged papers and counterfeit money. This brought the realization that the Tory underground was strongly organized.
With the British established in South Carolina and headed toward Virginia, Governor Thomas Jefferson was very much worried about the dangerous possibilities to Virginia whose main troops were fighting in other states. He frankly stated that a British force from a Chesapeake Bay landing co- ordinated with a hard-riding cavalry unit from Cornwallis' Army could liberate and arm the Saratoga prisoners, and Virginians would once again be under the British yoke. Our liberty would be lost.
Freedom ? Liberty? These two words were often used during the years of the Revolution. They also have a familiar ring today with the speaking and printing of many, many words on civil rights. Maybe some day we will understand just what freedom, liberty, and civil rights mean! The paradox is that we had more freedom under British rule then - than now. We fought for one set of rights only to lose their meaning in a welter of interpretations and changing trends.
In 1780 the Tories wanted a return to British rule. They considered all Whigs rebels and acting without the British law just as today those of us who question the legality of the decisions of our own U. S. Supreme Court may be deemed
7
to think rebelliously against American law. The Tories further felt that anything they did to hasten the return of British authority was within their legal rights, just as to- day many feel that any means used to enforce integration are legal. This was, of course, disputed with vehemence and violence by the patriots who stood for self rule.
These Tories even tried counterfeiting which aided in bringing about inflated currency.
In the spring of 1780 local Tories east and west of the Blue Ridge Mountains became more active. This appeared to be their main chance. More and more of the fence straddlers slid off on the side of England. They organized more system- atically and allied themselves with the active Tory cells in North Carolina.
The prominent Tory merchants in Bedford County were Leaders both in planning and finance. One exception was David Ross, that early chain store operator, who became a key mar in ordnance and supply for the State during the last years of the Revolution. John Hook, a leading merchant was so active as a Tory early in the Revolution that he had to be put under bond. After the war he became the butt of Patrick Henry's sharp wit when he tried to bring an action for damages for his cattle taken to feed our troops.
These Tory leaders whether active or supposedly neutral encouraged the free booters who stole cattle and horses from
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patriotic families to sell to the British army.
In turn this had led to large-scale confiscation of Tory property including plantations, slaves, and equipment. Many of the slaves were taken over by the State to work on war projects such as the Lead Mines in Southwest Virginia.
The section of Virginia east of the Blue Ridge to the North Carolina line was not a frontierat the time of the Revolution. It was well settled with a larger population than people today would consider possible.
Before and during the Revolution each county government was headed by the county lieutenant, who was often a ranking militia officer. There was also the high sheriff of the county and his deputies, the clerk of court, and the many local justices of the peace or magistrates, who made up the courts. From three to five justices sat as members of the lower court of the area. The higher state court known as the General Court sat in the Capitol town, which wasmoved to Richmond when Willi msburg was in danger.
In Bedford Count Colonel James Callaway was the county lieutenant while Colonel William Preston served in the same capacity for vast Montgomery County across the Blue Ridge. Both of these men were friends of, and had served with Colonel George Washington in the French and Indian War.
Colonel Charles Lynch of the eastern section of Bedford County, later Campbell County, was commander of the Bedford
9
County Militia which included the Bedford Mounted Riflemen. His main job was that of superintendent of the State Lead Mines in Montgomery County. His aide and right-hand man was his brother-in-law, Captain Robert Adams, Jr. of the Bedford- Campbell area.
In this war where friends were often pitted against friends there were secret meetings, plots, and counterplots. Tories from this vast hill and mountain country were, with the aid of British agents, constantly recruiting. They were establishing connections with the North Carolina Tories.
Governor Jefferson continued to be so worried about the liberation and arming of the Saratoga Convention Prisoners at Charlottesville that he set up a system of post riders from South Carolina and other battle areas to minimize the chance of our authorities being taken by surprise attack of Lord Cornwallis ' hard-riding, cavalry commander Colonel Banastre Tarleton.
Lieutenant John Wyatt, who had escaped from a British prison in Charleston, South Carolina, volunteered to pose as a British officer and went among the Tories with some print- ed British proclamations and promises he had picked up in Charleston as souvenirs. Wyatt and an unnamed assistant were taken to the big Tory secret meetings. They were shown the plans for attacking the State Lead Mines and the arsenal for repairing arms at New London, the county seat of Bedford
10
County, and for the arming of the prisoners at Charlottesville.
Wyatt was superb in his role as a British officer, for the Tories turned over to him a list of the Tory leaders east and west of the Blue Ridge along with their plan of action. Un- fortunately little has come to light about this able patriot.
The knowledge of this plot broke so swiftly in July 1780 that the authorities, called upon for immediate action, were delayed in getting off their reports to Governor Jefferson until some measure of control was established. Colonels James Callaway and Charles Lynch filed their reports with Governor Jefferson by July 30th. Unfortunately, these reports have been lost. However, Governor Jefferson's answers, based on these reports, with orders to put down the conspiracy and the incipient rebellion are on record. He also issued these military leaders commissions in blank in order that Lynch and Adams could increase the strength of the Bedford Mounted Riflemen.
The report of Colonel William Preston to Jefferson in early August gives in detail the Tory plans, and cites the problem of finding prison space for the many Tories already captured. His report also states that Lynch, after having searched out and arrested many of the Tory leaders, had gone through Montgomery County with a substantial unit of militia to reinforce the troops stationed at the Lead Mines.
Lynch, Preston, Callaway and Adams had nabbed the
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-> leaders so swiftly that the Tories had no chance to carry out their initial plan to embody the Tory troops at the Lead Mines and there capture and secure their own lead supply for bullets, while depriving the southern patriots of this source.
Our leaders acted so swiftly after Wyatt and others had uncovered the Tory plans that the Tories could not advance their date of uprising to capture the repair arsenal at New London, or to take over the Oxford Iron Mines and Works on Beaver Creek near the James River a few miles to the east. Here cannon balls were made and Ross iron for the cannon foundry near Richmond. Thus we have the nipping of a large scale plot before it became active to the point of further weakening the already weakened position of the patri- ot forces, with the corresponding increase in the strong possibility of the British victory.
There were seventy-five Tory prisoners held in Bedford County alone, many of whom were leaders. Evidence against sixteen of them was strong enough to warrant trials for treason by the General Court in Richmond. These men were found guilty of treason and their names listed in a statute passed by the Assembly, October 1780, and again in the Court Order Book No. 6, Bedford County Clerk's Office.
The other cases where the offenses were considered short of treason were tried in the magistrates' courts for what was called TORYISM. All of these offenses were covered
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From Court Order Book No. 6, Clerk's Office for the Circuit Court of Bedford County, Bedford, Virginia Photograph by Mr. H.P. Scott, Clerk of Court
296. Matoutheed atkedtrolgurthouse Tuesday, 29thauguste 1780 for the Oramination of william bhecke for high Thereon. C
Mesanice Meallaway Oho Eving Sam Danston, James leallaway. man : Thaif Gratoderuggs. William Leftwich Henry Burgon In. HunterMen. Things Ihd. Arthur IJames Buford tante 0
The Prisoner being les to the Bar in Custodyde And Changes whythe Treason af" said he was quilty, Whereupon this the Opinion of the Court that he aught to be schied for the same before The Judges of the Geni Court this therefore Com? Thanh. That he romana him back to the Goal of this By dfrom thenew to the Rubbishgoals
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by the law, and the reports of the trials for these cases just short of treason are also listed in Court Order Book No. 6.
If the Tory conspiracy trials were all perfectly legal, how then did the unpleasant notoriety of the Lynch Law develop from these trials? In reality the explanation is very simple though it has been covered by obscurity for these many years.
Colonel Charles Lynch, Colonel William Preston, Colonel James Calloway and Captain Robert Adams, Jr. had the job of bringing many of these Tories, not actually under indictment for treason, to trial under martial law. Apparently, neither the Tories nor the patriots understood either martial law or courts-martial. It is doubtful if the mass of people knew that the legislature had passed a statute setting up the machinery to handle either invasions and / or insurrections. This statute was to become effective August 1, 1780.
However, this conspiracy became known around the 20th of July, 1780 and military commanders charged with the protection of the state and nation could not be expected to wait until August first to bring these people to trial under the new statute. They were all legally appointed officers of the Commonwealth of Virginia. It was their sworn duty to protect the Commonwealth and the people. They performed this necessary duty in an efficient manner that preserved the spirit and the intention of the acts of legislature made and provided for the emergency. In order to quell this dangerous
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conspiracy they had to put the martial law into effect under the insurrection statute several days before the date set by statute for it to become operative. They did not have a full legal blue print of procedure to follow, but by their common- sense cutting of red tape they may have saved this nation from returning to British rule; they definitely saved us from a great defeat. In other words, they had no time to lose.
In many ways our country functioned well from the start, regardless of the battles lost and difficult odds and handicaps. More often than not the right men showed up at the right time to handle adequately and efficiently the difficulty at hand. Therefore a great many Tories who were mixed up in the conspiracy found themselves under arrest awaiting trial for "Toryism. "
Suppose we say that today, if the Republicans would try the Democrats for Democratism and punish them for being liberals and vice versa, the alleged Democrats might well object. They might not consider that they were committing a crime or that their ultra liberal thoughts were dangerous to the nation. About the only difference is that in 1780 there was an actual War of Revolution being fought. People could be and were punished for being caught in a political act contrary to the thinking of the side doing the catching. Just the old, old adage that a party of political skunks by any other name gives off the same odor. The difference is that in war it can smell
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of treason. And in peace - it just smells! And how true today!
In Bedford and Montgomery Counties, many prisoners that had been named as participating in a conspiracy were apprehended. Against many there was evidence that they were at least tainted with Toryism. Some of these men were tried in the magistrates courts, found guilty, fined and im- prisoned in Bedford County. These cases are on record in the County Courts Clerk's Office.
As to the confessions that did not reach the court re- cords due, possibly, to the switching of allegiance and enlistment, we find an example in that of Peter Kinder. This is from the Papers of Colonel William Preston. The confes- sion is dated August 17, 1780. It is endorsed at the bottom "COLO. LYNCHS. " This may have been one of the missing Lynch Papers.
Kinder named Tories both east and west of the Blue Ridge in this confession. One of these was John Griffith, the Tory military organizer, sometimes referred to as a colonel. Both Kinder and Griffith were children of parents who had settled in the Roanoke-Montgomery area in or prior to 1749. Kinder was convicted of subversive activity in Montgomery County in 1779 and put under bond for good behavior for a year. The year had been up only a short while before he was ar- rested and made this confession.
The report of Colonel Charles Lynch, June 10, 1782, 3 Va. Cal. State Papers 189-90, states that Jinkins and others
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were undercover men of Griffiths working in the lead mines . Captain Saunders in charge applied Lynch's Law to them. Apparently, slow-downs on war projects are not new.
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