USA > Virginia > Rockbridge County > Rockbridge County > A history of Rockbridge County, Virginia > Part 15
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In the election there were 1,869 votes for Dorman, 1,839 for Moore, 293 for Brockenbrough, and seventy-two for Baldwin. There were no votes for Baldwin in six precincts out of the twelve. The result rather upheld the con- tention of the Gasette that there were not more than 250 secessionists in the county.
The state convention met February 13th, little more than a fifth of the delegates going to Richmond as avowed secessionists. By a vote of more than two to one the people of the state reserved the right to pass upon the action of that body. By the decisive majority of more than 1,500, Rockbridge declared in favor of submitting such action to the people.
The following letter by Alexander H. H. Stuart, of Staunton, throws an interesting light on the atmosphere in which the convention worked.
Since the first day of the session, Richmond has been the scene of unexampled excite- ment. The disunionists from all parts of the state have been here in force, and have sought to bring every influence to hear to precipitate Virginia into secession and civil war. * * * Secession is a doctrine of New England origin. It is at war with the whole theory of our institutions, and is subversive of every principle of popular government. * * * In my opinion, there is no natural antagonism between the Northern and the Southern states. They (the sections) are the complements of each other. The present alienation is the work of designing men. I believe that all our wrongs can be most effectually redressed in the Union. Secession, instead of being a remedy. would be an aggravation. It would lead to emancipation, and probably to emancipation in blood. Should the Union be dissolved peace- ably, the policy of the new government will be shaped by the cotton states. Free trade, and direct taxation for the support of the Federal government, will be the cardinal features of that policy. The expense of maintaining the present government of the United States, ranging from $60,000,000 to $100,000,000 a year, is raised by duties and is voluntarily paid in the form of increased prices by those who buy foreign goods. Under the other system, the tax would be involuntary, and Virginia's part would be about $5,000,000. *
* This would be a very heavy burden. South Carolina's causes of dissatisfaction are financial and not the same as ours.
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A HISTORY OF ROCKBRIDAL COUNTY, VIRGINIA
Samuel MeD. Moore, a gentleman now sixty-four years of age, of com- manding presence and mature convictions, took a leading part in the proceedings of the convention. He was a member of the Committee on Federal Relations. Jeremiah Morton, of Orange, introduced a resolution declaring against coercion of the seceding states on any pretext whatever, and stating that while Virginia was ardently desiring to restore the Federal Union, she would unite with her sister states of the South if the efforts then under way should not avail. Mr. Moore, in reply, said the cotton states had not consulted Virginia, and he did not intend to be bound hand and foot by them. He would neither be hurried out of the Union, nor kept in it by precipitate action. If compelled to go anywhere. he was determined to know first where he was going, who he was to go with, and what was to be his condition after he did go. Ile was ready to resist sending troops through Virginia to attack the seceding states, but if the latter thought proper to attack any United States fort. they would have to abide the conse- quences. He would at a proper time undertake to show that there was a conflict of interest between Virginia and the cotton states.
These five resolutions were introduced by Mr. Moore, February 25th : 1. That in resisting the fugitive slave law, refusing to give up refugees, trying to deprive the South of common territory, in circulating incendiary pamphlets. and furnishing arms to bands of assassins, the South demands full and ample security that these wrongs shall not be repeated. 2. Virginia can never join a confederacy with the African slave trade. 3. Virginia refuses to endorse government by direct taxation. 4. Approval of the Crittenden program. 5. "If such amendments are not adopted, Virginia will enter into a compact with such states as will agree to adopt them, whereby the present government of the United States will be dissolved as to the states so agreeing."
Mr. Dorman introduced an additional resolution to the effect that the Federal Union can rightfully be dissolved only by the power that made it, and that Virginia should work for a vote in all the states upon the decision of the Prace Conference. Several speeches were made on the Moore resolutions. . A band of fifty to sixty men serenaded the successionists who had replied to Moore, and gave three groans while passing Moore's hotel. There was talk of burning him in effigy, and yet there was a motion in convention to adjourn to Staunton.
Meanwhile the people of Rockbridge were expressing their sentiments in word and in act. The Gazette had made this comment on the slavery issue, February 7th . "To us it seems clear that in the event a Southern Confederacy is formed. lavery must inevitably be driven from the states of Maryland, Virginia, Ken turky, and Missouri, which will give rise to another dissolution." Just one month later it gave these reasons for not going into a Southern Confederacy: "We are devoted to the institution of slavery We believe its general tendency
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A YEAR OF SUSPENSE
is to elevate the condition of the African. A few masters maltreat their slaves, but just as many husbands maltreat their wives. Public sentiment frowns upon both. If the Southern states unite in a Southern Confederacy, slavery will be driven out of Virginia. Fifty negroes would run off then for one that runs off now." In such a contingency, the Canada line would in effect be brought down to the frontier of Virginia.
In a meeting at Natural Bridge, March 30th, with Edward Echols as chair- man, secession resolutions were passed with but three dissenting voices. Yet the Gazette expressed its belief that if the resolutions were to be offered in a meet- ing of all the citizens, there would be a majority against them of 1,500. Of Lincoln's inaugural address, the Gazette had these words to say: "We are not disposed to complain of the tone of this document. It maintains the doctrine of coercion, but there is not the slightest intimation that he would recommend to Congress the adoption of any coercive measures."
The final day of the period we are considering came perilously near being a day of bloodshed. On receipt of the news that Confederate batteries were firing upon Fort Sumter, a Confederate flag was run up in front of the court- house. This was at eleven o'clock, on the morning of April 13th. There were speeches by Major Colston, J. G. Paxton, J. W. Massie, J. C. Davis, and J. W. Brockenbrough. The Unionists of Lexington, who were numerously represented among the mechanics and working people, determined to show their resentment by flying a Federal flag from a still higher flagstaff. The pole, which was of unusual length, was brought to the courtyard at too late an hour to set it in place. In the morning it broke while being raised, because of holes that had been bored into it. It was then necessary to splice the pole, and this work occupied some time. Meanwhile, a few cadets had come into town, and hot words passed between them and several of the townspeople. In the scuffle that ensued the cadets were very roughly handled. It is in the nature of youth to be radical, and the cadets of the Institute were generally ardent in their enthusiasm for the Southern Confederacy. On the part of the students of Washington College, such feeling was less in evidence.
After the mauled youthis had returned to their quarters and related their adventure, their comrades were hot with rage. Almost at once they shouldered their muskets and began marching up Main Street with the avowed intention of storming the town and exacting satisfaction by force of arms. They were very soon met by Major Jackson, afterward the celebrated Stonewall, who told them they were not marching properly, and they fell into a more regular align- ment. He accompanied them to the hollow that crosses the street between the Institute and the courthouse. They were now confronted by Major Colston, one of their instructors and a person of magnetic influence. By a few brief words of command he made the column face about and march back to the barracks. A
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A HISTORY OF ROCKBRIDGE COUNTY, VIRGINIA
little later the hotheads were reprimanded by General Smith, who told them it was a flagrant violation of good order, whether civil or military, to take the punishment of their grievance into their own hands and perhaps cause innocent persons to suffer. Meanwhile, Captain E. F. Paxton, of the local militia com- pany, had received notice that the cadets were on their way. Though a secession- ist himself, he did not finch from his duty. His men, seventy-five in number, were given their arms, and were posted in windows and at other points of vantage with orders to fire if the cadets persisted in their rash design. The cadets would probably have experienced a terrible loss of life and limb if they had not been brought under control by Colston. Besides the militia, there were some experi- enced marksmen in the town who had gathered in from the mountains. Had firing once begun it would have been well aimed.
Francis T. Anderson, who was to speak at the raising of the Federal flag, was slow to appear and was sent for. His son found him in a law office closeted with perhaps twenty-five of the citizens. One of the number had received a tele- gram from Richmond with the news that Lincoln had called on each of the un- seceded states for a quota of men to put down the secession movement. All the persons in the room had a very grave air and were engaged in earnest con- versation. Their conclusion was that there was only one thing to do, and that was for Virginia to take her stand with the South. Mr. Anderson presently went ont upon the courtyard, and said in substance as he stood by the flagpole : "I love that flag. For eighty years it has been the flag of my country. Under its folds, that country has grown rich and prosperous. But, fellow-citizens, that flag is now in the hands of our enemies." At this point the speaker was hissed, no inkling of the telegram having yet reached the throng. But after he had related the import of the message, and had given his view of its significance to the Southern people, he was cheered to the echo. Unionism had come to a sudden end in Rockbridge. May 23rd, the people of Virginia voted on the ordinance of secession that had been adopted by the convention. In Rockbridge there was only a single negative vote in a total of 1,728.
In reviewing the momentous year that came to such a well-defined close, it remains clear that the people of Rockbridge felt no general enthusiasm in the doctrine of secession; that they deeply disapproved the conduct of the cotton states ; that their affection for the U'mon was sincere ; and that they took up arms against the Federal government with regret. But their heritage of political thought taught them that the Union of their fathers was founded by consent and could not rightfully be maintained except by consent. The coercion of a state by the central government was therefore foreign to their creed. They felt that the Union was virtually dissolved, that it was now their duty to stand by their tate, and they took up this duty with a resolution worthy of their ancestral stock
XIV
THE WAR OF 1861
OPENING SCENES-MILITARY ORGANIZATIONS-EVENTS OF 1861-2-FEDERAL RAIDS-HUNTER AT LEXINGTON-THE WAR YEARS IN ROCKBRIDGE-THE CLOSE- DOCUMENTARY PARAGRAPHIS
When the news of the firing on Fort Sumter reached Washington, President Lincoln called upon Virginia for 2,340 men as her quota for enforcing Federal jurisdiction in the seceded territory. The date of the proclamation was April 17, 1861. The reply of Governor Letcher was a prompt refusal. The reply of the state was the passage by the state convention of an ordinance of secession. The news of these events reached Lexington the morning of Saturday, April 20th, and this county found itself ushered into a war.
In each section it was the prevalent opinion that a determined stand, backed by a display of military force, would overawe the other. Only those dis- cerning men who best understood the temper of their opponents felt assured that actual war was inevitable and that it would be severe and devastating. No one dreamed that 1,340 engagements would be fought in the Virginias, that more than 600,000 American soldiers would lose their lives, and that 400,000 others would be more or less crippled for life. Some persons regarded the coming clash of arms as though it were like an exciting picnic. Others regarded it with the most serious feelings.
With the people of Rockbridge the leading issue was home rule as against the paramount authority of the Federal government. In the other issues, seces- sion and slavery, they were less interested. Of the four presidential candidates of the preceding year, Lincoln was looked upon as an enemy, Buchanan as a dis- honest coward, Breckenridge as a man who truckled to Kentucky Unionism. Bell was a passive spectator, yet gave his assent to the Confederate movement, and his followers in the Gulf states were active in its behalf.
The situation between the free and the slave states had been tense an entire decade. Colonel Smith and several others of the faculty of the Virginia Military Institute, and nearly 100 of their cadets had formed part of the armed force of 1,500 men that was assembled at Charlestown in the fall of 1859 to prevent any attempt to rescue John Brown. It was Colonel Smith himself who superintended the execution of Brown. A year earlier than this, he had been given orders under secrecy to double the guard of the arsenal, since there was a supposed plot to arm the negroes at the Pewe Iron Works near Lexington and set in motion a servile war. In the winter of 1860-61 there had been intense restlessness and
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A HISTORY OF ROCKBRIDGI COUNTY, VIRGINIA
some turbulence among the cadets. In the early half of April they were almost daily hoisting secession flags in spite of vigorous efforts to the contrary by the authorities.
About this time a bachelor makes this comment in the Gazette on the attitude of the women :
We believe that it is a historical truth that the ladies of the South have from the be- ginning of our trouble been in favor of secession. They see by virtue of their superior intuition the propriety of the measure long before the dull and stolid brams of man could receive and respond to the impression of the necessity. Whilst men were reasoning upwith the subject and striving in vain to solve the difficult problem, the intuition of the ladies cut the Gordian knot.
J. B. Smith and J. E. Carson were advertising in the county papers that they had $100,000 to spend for likely young negroes.
On Sunday, April 21st, the governor ordered Major Jackson to take a mim- ber of cadets to Richmond to act as drill sergeants at Camp Lee, and on Monday the order was complied with. On Saturday an order had come for the volun- teer companies of Rockbridge to turn out. At one o'clock p. m., on a date given as Sunday, but which was probably Monday, the Rockbridge Rifles, 103 strong. started from Lexington. The Reverend Mr. Tibbs and the venerable Doctor McFarland gave them a benediction, all heads being uncovered and all eyes moistened with tears. Doctor White pronounced the benethetion at the departure of the two companies of Rockbridge Dragoons, cach about sixty strong. The destination of these commands was Harper's Ferry. The officers of the Rifles were these: Captain, S. 11. Letcher: First Lieutenant. E. F. Paxton ; Second Lieutenant, J. K. Edmondson : Third Lieutenant. W. W. Lewis : Fourth Lieuten- ant. D. 1 .. Hopkins : Orderly Sergeant, J. C Boude. The following were the officers of the First Dragoons: M. X White, Captain : J. S. Cumings, First Lieu- tenant ; Charles Jordan, Second Lieutenant ; M. Burks, Third Lieutenant ; ] W. Moore, Orderly Sergeant. J. R. MeNutt was Captain of the Second Dragoons. R. McChesney wat First Lieutenant, and John Gibson was Third Lieutenant.
When the cadets, about 150 strong, started to Richmond by way of Staun- ton, the Rockbridge Greys, about 100 in number, were quartered at the Institute. awaiting orders. The Silver Greys were prompt to form a company and elect officers. The streets of Lexington took on an unusually active appearance. The citizens were very hberal in equipping the soldiers, and a committee of them stood pledged to look after the families of those who had gone to war. Accord- ing to the Gazette, a respected man of color set about raising a fund for this
A meeting at Natural Bridge, presided over by Colonel J. H Paxton. adopted these resolutions: That a committee of seven men, one from each
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THE WAR OF 1861
magisterial district, be appointed to receive subscriptions of money and materials for clothing ; that R. H. Catlett be quartermaster and J. H. Myers, treasurer ; that able-bodied young men, to the number of not more than 200, and who desire to serve their country, be requested to report at once to Colonel Davidson at Lexington ; that William Dold be a commissary to secure supplies for the soldiers awaiting orders in Lexington.
May 3rd, a flag was presented to the Artillery Company, J. D. Davidson making the speech. Responses were given by Captain Pendleton and Sergeant J. C. Davis. June 8th, the ladies of the Falling Springs congregation presented a beautiful flag to the Liberty Hall Volunteers, who were pronounced "one of the finest looking bodies of men sent from this portion of the state." The com- pany marched the same day with Professor White as their captain. At this time, Washington College, with sixty-nine students on its roll, closed for the remainder of the session. Three days earlier, the Rockbridge Guards, seventy-five strong. left Brownsburg under command of Captain David P. Curry. In a little more than a week the ladies of that village and its vicinity had made coats, trowsers, knapsacks, haversacks, cloth caps, and covered canteens for eighty men, besides ten tents and 140 fatigue shirts of gray cloth. All the men were provided with shoes and socks.
Within twenty weeks from the marching of the cadets, the Lexington papers could announce that Rockbridge had supplied her full quota of volunteers.
All in all, the following organizations were furnished by this county to the Confederate service : two batteries of artillery, four companies of cavalry, seven companies of infantry, a company of rangers, senior and junior reserves to the number of ninety, and 206 men on miscellaneous duty, making a total of 2,343. Of these, 250 were killed in battle, 169 died in service, and 463 others were wounded, making a total in casualties of 882, or 37.7 per cent .; almost precisely three men out of eight. Included in this number, however, are 288 men of other counties who enlisted in the Rockbridge organizations. Another statement places the number of Rockbridge men at 2,154.
In 1900, after six years of toil, J. P. Moore, J. S. Moore, and W. T. Poague compiled a list of the Rockbridge soldiers. They announced that absolute accur- acy could not be assured; that several names probably appear twice in their list, that the miscellaneous list is probably deficient, that not all the names of the Senior Reserves could be secured, and that the enumeration of casualties may be incomplete. But since the list is quite nearly accurate, it is a monument to the diligence of these veterans. The senior reserves did not include men under forty-five, and few of them could have been living. Junior reserves were under eighteen years of age.
The Rockbridge commands were in the Virginia campaigns, and most of them
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A HISTORY OF ROCKBRIDGE COUNTY, VIRGINIA
were in many battles. The first to respond was the Rockbridge Rifles, which was organized November 17, 1859, immediately after the John Brown affair. It was first assigned to the 5th Virginia, but was soon transferred to the 4th, and just after First Manassas, in which it lost fifteen men, to the 27th. It was in twenty- four engagements, Falling Waters being the first and Appomattox the last, where it surrendered thirty-three men. It had contained in all 140 men, and the pre- coding casualties were fifty-six. This company was often employed in sharp- shooting service.
The Rockbridge Battery marched from Lexington, May 10, 1861, with about seventy men and two small six-pounders from the Institute. Two other guns were given to it at Harper's Ferry. One of its guns was all the Confederate artillery in the affair at Falling Waters, and its fire was very accurate and effective. This command had the reputation of being one of the best in the Army of Northern Virginia, and at no time did it lack for recruits. Of its mem- bership forty-five were commissioned as officers and assigned to other companies. John McCausland, its first captain, rose to the rank of major-general. The command was in twenty-one battles and sustained 147 casualties, yet surrendered ninety-six men at Appomattox .*
The First Dragoons was organized at Fancy Hill May 16, 1859, by Captain 1 .. V Davidson.
The Liberty Hall Volunteers-Company 1 of the 4th Virginia Infantry - were organized at Washington College and served in the Stonewall Brigade. "The company was in thirty two battles and lost 146 men, one of whom -. A. B Ramsay-was wounded on four different occasions. At Jarst Kernstown the Volunteers were almost annihilated. At Sharpsburg they last three out of the five who were engaged. At Chancellorsville they lost nineteen out of twenty- eight, and after the engagement of May 12. 1864, at Spottsylvania, only two men were left.
Company H of the 25th Virginia Infantry, organized at Wilson's Springs, won fame as good marksmen and hard fighters. In the battle of McDowell, it lost twenty men out of thirty-five, every commissioned officer being put out of action.
The Rockbridge Greys of the Stonewall Brigade came principally from within a radius of five miles around Buffalo Forge. They were armed at the tart with the very light cadet musket, but later with the Enfield Their first battle was First Manassas, where they lost nineteen men out of sixty-four.
Company E of the 52nd Virginia Infantry was composed entirely of Rock-
. The Story of a Cann neer, In Edward A. Moore, of the Rockbridge Artillery a de Fridart of General Andrew Moore is a vivid and realistic presentation of war as sen Is a private soldier, and has been kindly mentioned by literary critics.
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THE WAR OF 1861
bridge men from the 8th and 144th regiments of the militia. It was organized at Staunton, August 1, 1861, upon the disbanding of the militia organization. It fought under Jackson and was in fourteen battles, losing fifty-two men.
Company G of the 58th Virginia was mustered in at Staunton, also on August 1, 1861. All but about nine of its members were from Kerr's Creek. This company served under General Edward Johnson in Pocahontas and High- land, and was in the battle of McDowell. Thenceforward it was in Jackson's corps. Its leading engagements were twenty-three, and it numbered sixty men at Appomattox.
Company G of the 14th Cavalry, organized in 1862, included nineteen men from this county, twelve of whom were original members of the Greys.
Company C of the same cavalry regiment was organized in 1862, and was largely made up of men who had already served in the Rockbridge Second Dragoons and the Churchville Cavalry. It was larger than the army regulations permitted, and a portion was formed into Company H.
For more than three years Rockbridge was not penetrated by any Federal column. Yet as early as the June of the first year of the war there was a wild rumor that a force of Federal cavalry was on its way from Ohio to destroy the Virginia Military Institute. There were then no hostile troops nearer than the vicinity of the Ohio river, and still the report was enough to bring out about 120 men at Brownsburg and fifty-five at J. W. Youell's on Walker's Creek. July brought anxious moments. Men from this county fought at Falling Waters, the opening engagement in the Shenandoah, at Rich Mountain, where the first serious fighting took place in West Virginia, and at First Manassas, where twelve Rock- bridge men were killed and thirty-six wounded. During the remaining months of 1861 there was but slight military activity in the Virginias.
At the opening of May, 1862, the army of Banks, nearly 20,000 strong, was lying at Harrisonburg, only forty miles from the Rockbridge line, and Staunton was threatened. The cadets were called out to aid in the successful repelling of the Federal advance, and after the battle of Port Republic on June 9th, the county was relieved of further apprehension for some months. The field crops were good, both in 1861 and 1862. But the depreciation already creeping into the Confederate currency was reflected in the rise of the private soldier's pay to $15.00 a month.
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