USA > Virginia > Highland County > Highland County > A history of Highland County, Virginia > Part 12
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But the ultimate result of this battle, so well fought on both sides, was to the great advantage of the Confederates. Not only did the Federals evacuate Highland, but by following up his suc- cess, Jackson compelled Fremont to abandon the South Branch Valley. Staunton was delivered from danger, Jackson's rear remained safe, and by the time Fremont reached the Shenandoah he was too late to intercept his active antagonist.
On the now deserted scene of strife the battle lines could be followed in the pressed and trampled sod littered with torn pieces of blue cartridge paper. Around the apex of the upper V, where so much carnage had been wrought among the brave Georgians, the ground was suggestive of a shambles.
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During the 9th and 10th Jackson pressed after the Federal force, but in the narrow South Branch Valley was unable to flank it or to inflict material damage. There was constant skirmishing as far as McCoy's Mill. The firing of the woods by the Federals wrapped the valley in a fog of smoke, making the Confederate advance as embarrassing as though undertaken in the night. At Franklin, Milroy and Schenck met Fremont's advance and took a strong position on the Peninger Hill above the town. From this vantage ground they were dislodged and drawn far away by marching and not by a battle. Leaving some cavalry to keep up a noisy demonstration on the Federal front, Jackson began a return to the Valley on the 12th. He was averse to marching or fighting on Sunday, and as McDowell had been fought on that day of the week, he made the first half of the following Thursday a substitute therefor, and issued the following order :
Soldiers of the Armies of the Valley and the Northwest: I congratulate you on your recent victory at McDowell. I request you to unite with me this morning in thanksgiving to Almighty God for thus having crowned your arms with success, and in praying that He will continue to lead you from victory to victory until our independence shall be established and make us that people whose God is the Lord. The Chaplains will hold Divine Service at ten o'clock A. M., this day in their respective regiments.
Mount Solon was reached the 18th, 200 miles having been covered in eighteen days. Banks had fallen back to Strasburg. Jackson led his "foot cavalry" down the Luray Valley, turned his enemy's flank and chased him in disorder to the bank of the Poto- mac. Fremont from the west and Shields from the east were expected to cut off his retreat. But the roads across Shenandoah Mountain, which Captain Hotchkiss had blockaded with fallen timber, had compelled Fremont to move down the South Branch to Moorefield before he could turn eastward. Jackson slipped between his pursuers, and the Massanutton Mountain keeping them apart, he at length worsted Fremont at Cross Keys and Shields at Port Republic. By his threat against the city of Wash- ington, he pushed four armies out of his path and kept them from reënforcing McClellan. He now marched where he was most needed-to join the army of Lee at Richmond. In these brilliant
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exploits the soldiers from Highland bore a due share, a consider- able number of them falling in battle, especially at Port Republic.
The position at Camp Alleghany was not reoccupied, but although the Federals made several cavalry raids into Highland, the county was not permanently held by them. It was in a way left between the lines, yet by means of signal stations on the higher mountain ridges, it was possible to get prompt warning of a Fed- eral advance and to send a force to meet it.
At the June session of the county court, the justices took the oath of allegiance to the Confederate States. They also appointed the following committees of safety in compliance with the Gover- nor's proclamation of the preceding April :
Monterey; Benjamin B. Campbell, Samuel B. Campbell, A. Hanson Campbell, John Campbell, James Gay, John Gum of A., James Jones, John S. Pullin, John M. Rexrode, Stewart C. Slaven, William Swadley, James Whitelaw.
Back Creek; John C. Bird, William M. Campbell, Thomas Campbell, William Chestnut, Morgan Gum, David V. Ruckman.
Jackson's River; David G. Cleek, John Hiner, David McNulty, Michael Wise, Elisha Wright.
Doe Hill; John M. Armstrong, Abel H. Armstrong, Edward E. Curry, Joseph Hiner, Benjamin T. Hook, Andrew J. Jones, Decatur H. Jones, Henry McCoy, David Michael, Joseph Rexrode, Henry Ruleman, John Wilson.
Crabbottom; George Arbogast, George Beverage, Jonas W. Chew, William T. Kinkead, David Mauzy, John Mullinax, Benjamin Rexrode, James W. Siever, David Snyder, James L. Snyder, Solomon Wagoner, Henry White.
Bullpasture; A. R. Ball, John Bradshaw, John T. Byrd, Jesse Chew, Lewis Davis, Peter Hupman, Joseph Layne, Samuel W. Marshall, James Moyers, Henry Pullin, Robert C. Pullin, George Revercomb, Asgal C. Steph- enson, Edward Steuart, William Vance, James Wright.
At the same court W. W. Fleming was authorized to borrow from the Sheriff $3,000, and to purchase therewith 2,000 bushels of salt, any contract to be valid, which he might make. In July he produced a contract for 1,700 bushels of a commodity which in the course of the war became as scarce as it was necessary.
At the same session county notes of one dollar and fractions thereof, and to the aggregate value of $5,000, were ordered to be issued. The poll tax for 926 tithables was placed at $3.
In October of this year the smallpox broke out at Doe Hill
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and was the cause of more than twenty deaths. A hospital was ordered, and at the same time Joseph Layne was directed to purchase supplies for destitute families. The following winter Adam Stephenson was appointed to purchase cotton yarns and cloth to be delivered at cost. At this time the allowance of salt was fixed at two pounds per head of horses and cattle up to the amount of seventy-six pounds, and three pounds to each member of a household up to twenty-four pounds.
In May the following agents were appointed to make personal examinations of the wants of soldiers' families, and to report as to the ability of such families to pay for provisions : Samuel C. Eagle, Jonathan Siron, Joseph Layne, Asgal C. Stephenson, Anson O. Wade, David Stephenson, John Trimble, Benjamin B. Campbell, William Hevener, William M. Summers.
It is significant that the commissioner of the revenue reported 336 deaths as against 151 births.
August 18th, General Averill with his Federal cavalry entered Highland and moved up all three of its principal valleys. The next day he came to Monterey, where the court was in session, and arrested the leading officials. Some of the public records were destroyed by the soldiers. General Imboden had been there the day before to see General Jones about attacking Averill at Petersburg. On the tenth and eleventh of November one branch of Averill's army moved up Back Creek, and another up Jackson's River, the two wings meeting at Forks of Waters. In December he came again, going down Back Creek on the twelfth "in a severe and discouraging rainstorm," while Thoburn with 700 cavalry turned toward McDowell.
The following January the sheriff was instructed to make full lists of all indigent soldiers who were or might be disabled, of the widows and minor children of deceased soldiers, and of the indigent families of those now in service. Layne was authorized to draw $1,700 for the support of such indigents and to appoint a sub-agent in each magisterial district. That this sum could not go far will appear from the following maximum prices allowed by the court : wheat $10 per bushel, corn $8, rye $6, buckwheat $7, potatoes $3. If supplies could not be purchased at these figures,
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they were to be impressed, and when necessary the sheriff was to furnish a guard.
In March a suspension of the fence laws was ordered with reference to inclosures of which the fences had been destroyed by either army. The soldiers' levy was fixed at $12 per tithable.
In April of 1864 the court thus memorialized the Confederate war department :
Whereas, all the men of said county between the ages of 18 and 45 years have been, since early in the first year of the war, in the military service of the Confederate States of America, and whereas, the number of slaves in said county, being very small at the commencement of the war, has been very much diminished by escaping and being enticed away by the common enemy,- there are not more than ten or fifteen able bodied males slaves in said county,- that labor has become extremely scarce, and whereas, the enemy by frequent raids into and through the county, and remaining for a time, by robbing, plundering, and wantonly destroying personal property, and carrying away negroes, horses, cattle, and sheep, and almost everything essential to human existence, and injuring human habitations, and laying waste the land and destroying fences and all other improvements,-and whereas, detachments of the Confederate cavalry are continually amongst the people without adequate means of transportation of supplies from a distance, under the plea of neces- sity impressing and taking not only what a citizen may have as a surplus, but the necessary support of families,-and whereas, the said county is not well adapted generally to grain raising on the account of cold climate and short summer seasons, but is peculiarly adapted to grazing and raising stock, which latter business has been almost entirely abandoned on account of the tem- porary presence and continued proximity of the enemy, together with the impossibility of procuring supplies beyond the limits of the county with the present depreciated currency of the country, has placed the said county in a condition almost upon a point of suffering,-and whereas, there is a large number of soldiers' families in said county, which families are without the means of support, because supplies are not in the county and cannot be pro- cured from abroad,-thus rendering the said families in a state of great des- titution,-and would tend to dissatisfy the soldiers in the army ;- and whereas, the President has called into the military service all the men between the ages of 17 and 18, and 45 and 50 years, which call, if carried out and said men are taken from their present vocations and kept in service any length of time, a large amount of suffering must ensue to the people and families aforesaid : therefore, in consideration of the foregoing statement of facts as to the scarcity of labor, the difficulty with the present labor in the county to produce a suffi- cient supply of sustenance for the people, and the suffering that must inevitably ensue if the men between the ages of 17 and 18, and 45 and 50 years, are put into the service, the draining and destruction of human subsistence by the
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ravages of the common enemy, and by the improper impressment by Southern soldiers, the impossibility of procuring supplies from abroad under the present circumstances, and an actual necessity for producing what is necessary to support the people of the county; it is resolved by the county court of High- land county,-First, that the county court aforesaid do earnestly and respect- fully solicit the Secretary of War to suspend the order for the enrollment and putting into active service the men aforesaid between the ages of 17 and 18, and 45 and 50, if it is at all consistent with the duties and powers of his office, and that if any persons included in said call should be enrolled and put into service, that they may be discharged.
For its August session the court met at McDowell. It appro- priated the poll tax of $4,113,17 to the use of the overseer of the poor, $2,000 of this as a fund to hire hands on the county farm and provide provisions for the paupers for the coming year. Each head of a family was ordered to furnish the salt agent with two good short sacks, or one long one, to be marked and delivered at specified points. The treasurer was ordered to take up within sixty days the county notes issued as currency. The court peti- tioned the governor to exempt, under plea of urgent necessity, the justices under the age of 45 years from military service. The plea cited the loss of slaves, the regular holding of courts, and the giving of a full quota of soldiers. The request was granted, ten of the fifteen justices being within military age.
The next January the supply of grain was exhausted, and none could be had from without. Agent Seig was ordered to request the Quartermaster General to have the tithe in kind transferred to the county court with power to collect the same, and to distrib- ute it among the indigents. The Secretary of War was asked to release from military service Hamilton Wilson and James H. A. Pullin, tanners, and John Ralston, shoemaker, on the ground that they were of more service in their trades than in the army.
In February only one-half pound of flour per day and one- half bushel of potatoes per month could be allowed the indigents, no member of a family above the age of twelve and able to sup- port himself being included. The county agent was authorized to pay $20 per bushel for wheat, $15 for other grain, and $10 for potatoes.
The last court under the Confederacy met March 23d. Seven- teen days later came the surrender at Appomattox, and the long,
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weary, and exhausting struggle was at an end. Presently the soldiers came back to their impoverished county to resume the work of tilling their fields and repairing their losses.
During the forty-eight months between Fort Sumter and Appomattox, there were no more marriages than in the nine months between Appomattox and the close of 1865. The exact numbers recorded at the county seat are 71 and 72.
As a further picture of the war period we append the following extracts from the diary of Sergeant Osborne Wilson :
1861
May 11. After early breakfast, get on mare, go to S. C. Slaven's, and wait for volunteers to come. They came bearing the Secession flag. We ride slowly to get to town at 10 A. M. Much log-rolling for officers. Mr. Myers makes a very appropriate speech after his election. W. Hull reads the paper on which are the names of the ladies who agree to make the uniforms. Cheers were given them. Dinner gratis to volunteers.
May 17. Got to Monterey in the forenoon, ready to be mustered in. We left our fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, sweethearts, and kind friends with sadness and grief we had never experienced before. Still we were young, strong, hopeful, and ready for the fray. We did not stop to count the cost
May 18. March to the brick house for our uniforms, form in line and march westward. Cochran, Pullin, and Myers address the crowd. Im- mense cheering, waving of hats, and handkerchiefs. Halt on Alleghany at Wilfong's. Speeches by W. W. Fleming, Adam Stephenson, and James M. Seig, who then returned, but not till James Whitelaw brought word of an insurrection of negroes about Williamsville.
May 19. The insurrection rumor caused by some runaway negroes.
May 21. Got to Beverly about 1 P. M. Ladies at most of the resi- dences greet us with smiles and handkerchiefs.
May 24. Reach Pruntytown. Dixie is sung at courthouse. Men com- plain very much of fatigue.
May 27. Citizens of Grafton don't like our presence.
May 28. Marching the railroad track to Webster. Train making much noise. Idea got out the cars loaded with enemies. Ordered to form in the timber and fire on them. The companies much excited. All a hoax.
June 3. The retreat (from Philippi) tires the men very much.
June 4. All our baggage in the hands of the enemy.
July 6. Heavy firing about midnight in every direction, but mostly near Belington.
July 14. Stop about 3 A. M., having marched all night and all day yesterday. Slcep a little and then march till sunup. Scarcely anything to eat.
THE TOWN OF McDOWELL
Photo by A. C. Suddarth
Looking southeast. The distant ridge at the right is Sitlington Hill. The center of the battlefield is beyond the nearer hill in front
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July 16. Arrive at Petersburg before noon. These marches are killing the men.
July 17. Got to Upper Tract about 11 A. M. Plenty of provisions brought in by citizens.
July 27. Our mess drew onc tent. Have hardly anything to cook in, and what is morc, nothing much to cook.
July 29. Get furlough and take flour home to get baked.
1863
June 3. Sorry to leave the mountain country.
June 9. Bread and raw ham for breakfast.
June 12. At Chester Gap, ladics wave handkerchiefs, scatter bouquets on the road, and smile sweetly.
June 23. At Sharpsburg and Keedysville (Md.) people look very sour at us.
June 27. Pass through pleasant little town and country places. Many of the citizens copperheads and hope we'll be successful.
July 15. Dinner with Union family for one dollar.
July 20. Soap one dollar.
August 3. Water very bad, scarce, and inconvenient.
August 16. Go to church 11 A. M., at Mt. Pisgah, 3 miles from Rapidan Station, but the house is crowded and I have to stand by a window. Revival going on. Several come forward at close of sermon. Next day 9 persons baptized by immersion.
August 27. The men are taking great pains to keep themselves clean.
August 31. Hear that the enemy was bushwhacked in Highland.
September 9. Review near Orange of Ewell's corps. The three divisions make three lines of battle, each more than a mile long.
October 3. The idea prevails that we are to have peace soon. The Washington correspondent of the Chicago Tribune writes that the Army of the Potomac has fought its last battle and will fall back on the defenses of Wash- ington.
October 18. If I could only get letters more frequently, how much of anxiety they'd remove. What expressions of true sympathy they bear.
October 24. Spent at a sutler's $8.50 for tobacco, soda cakes, and ground peas.
1864
March 15. Flat bread, meat, molasses, and genuine coffee for breakfast. March 19. A man shot for desertion.
May 27. (New book begun in convalescent ward, Chimborazo Hospital, Richmond.) Before this year is closed, or even this little book half-filled with what occurs daily in my observation, I hope and pray that this cruel war may be over. A battle is expected. There is confidence in Lee and Johnson falling back. Chicken soup, mutton soup, peas, beans, corn bread, and milk for dinner.
-
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June 3. Extracts from Northern newspapers represent the people of the North as growing despondent. Gold up to 184. Men in high position begin to acknowledge the magnitude of the task of subduing us. The slaughter on both sides during the last three days has been vast, but greater on the Federal side than on ours.
June 5. Have as much as I can do dressing wounds. Mathias Bodkin and Hughart Pullin severely wounded May 30.
May 8. Hear that Hall had raided Highland, capturing some citizens and doing other injury. The people destitute.
June 11. Hopeful of Lee's ability to repel front attacks, but danger from raiding parties.
June 19. A mug of genuine coffee.
June 20. $2 for shaving me and cutting hair close to scalp. Report that negro troops kill Southern wounded.
June 29. For dinner, soup, milk, onions, bacon, fresh meat, beets, col- lards, snaps, cucumbers, rice, arrowroot.
July 1. Get very weary and long to be by some clear, shaded mountain spring. Have blackberry pie.
July 21. "Examiner" down on Davis for removing Johnston.
July 25. Peace will never come until we gain some decisive victories of large magnitude, and prove to the enemy that we are more powerful than they. Fearful mortality from sickness.
August 17. $4 for peaches and melons.
August 26. $32 for cider, peaches, and tobacco. The patients say there is not enough butter on our toast.
August 30. Find no churches open.
September 4. From Hood's defeat it is thought war will last 4 years.
September 6. Two of us spend $11 for paper, envelopes, pens, and melons.
September 15. Even if McClellan is elected little hope of peace need be entertained. War will doubtless go on until we gain decisive victories over the Union armies.
September 16. Beans and mutton for dinner; a very good meal for Rebel soldiers.
October 19. $5 for two pounds of tobacco.
October 22. $2.50 for copies of "Examiner" and "Whig." $8 fare, Richmond to Staunton.
October 23. Harrisonburg full of wounded. Valley perfectly desolate. December 1. One dozen apples, $5.
December 27. 100 Yankees in Highland recently. Wickham's cavalry there and doing worse than the Yankees; so somc of the company say. South- ern people very much discouraged over fall of Savannah.
December 29. "Examiner" and "Inquirer" hint at abolishing slavery December 30. Sweet potatoes, $40 a bushel. 3 gallons peas and beans' $20.
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1865
January 25. Report of peace.
January 31. $12.50 for ink, paper, envelopes, pipe.
February 1. Sausage, buckwheat cakes, coffec, and butter for breakfast.
February 10. Mass meeting in Richmond in favor of prosccuting the war to the bitter end.
February 20. 11 of the -th desert last night. Only one man in one hundred is getting a furlough.
March 3. News from South and West very discouraging. The enemy seem determined on driving us out of Va.
March 8. Orders more strict and harder every day.
March 10. Day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer appointed by the President. Go to church at 11.
March 16. Our underground habitations are poorly ventilated.
March 23. Election for House of Delegates.
March 27. Yankees want to trade papers, but our regiment permits no trade in our front.
March 28. Duty very heavy on the men.
March 29. Wakened soon after retiring by the report of heavy artillery and small arms. The sight is terribly grand. A magnificient display of fire- works. Never saw anything to equal it.
April 3. Our men burn stores in Petersburg and the bridge across the Appomattox. Enemy reported in our front. We are having a hard time and expect it to get harder.
April 6. Trains move very slowly on account of poor animals. We march in line of battle and in column. Enemy presses in front, rear, and flank, and I with many others fall into their hands.
April 10. Our boys trade all day with the enemy for rations. They say Gen. Lee has surrendered.
April 11. Start on our march to prison.
April 12. A good many of the prisoners fall from exhaustion.
April 14. Our vessel starts from City Point at dawn and gets to Point Lookout at 5 P. M.
April 22. Have a pint of very poor pea soup for dinner and codfish soup for supper. There is plenty to eat in the prison if I only had money to buy it. May 5. Suffer with hunger, sore eyes, and want of tobacco, and from Sometimes there is nothing for breakfast.
lice.
May 17. No grapevine dispatches.
May 26. Storm from northeast and very cold. Wonder if anybody pities us in this horrid place.
May 27. Can find no place of comfort. Pea and bean soup. generally thin. Sometimes eat all the crackers or cornbread at one meal. Mackerel and pickled beef.
June 8. It is the impression of most of the men that our Union friends will release us soon.
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June 9. Get crackers and cod. Bah!
June 22. Mutton for breakfast. Take the oath of allegiance to the U. S. After long delays in the hot sun and spending 3 hours in the parole camp, are marched out, given hard tack and raw pork, then marched to the wharf and put on board the Lizzie Baker at 11 P. M., for Richmond.
June 24. Get on the train at Richmond at 2 P. M., and arrive at Gordons- ville at 8. Country along the railroad enchanting. Never appreciated nature so much before.
June 25. Buy paper of French coffee and some sugar, and get milk and boil crackers for our breakfast. Boys go to the fields for blackberries and huckleberries to eat with their crackers. Go at 1 o'clock to a citizen and get first rate dinner of vegetables, etc.
June 27. Crops and gardens look flourishing. Everything looks de- lightful, especially to men out of prison.
June 28. Ride on train from Staunton to Buffalo Gap. Reach the Cow- pasture by sunset and have supper of bread, milk, and butter.
June 29. Things generally gone to ruin along the pike.
June 30. The delightful scenery of my native land is more appreciated than ever since I came out of prison.
July 1. Four years of war ought and does give one an appreciation of civil life.
July 2. Get home at 1 P. M., and have corn bread, fried pork, currant pie, coffee, and milk for dinner.
The first county court after the close of hostilities met Sept. 21, 1865. Eighteen members were present. During a subsequent period, ending with the restoration of local state government in 1870, many citizens were ineligible to office, being unable to act because of the nature of their connection with the Confederate army or government. For this reason nominations were some- times rejected by the military commandant. Citizens on assuming office took the oath of allegiance to the Federal government.
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