USA > Virginia > A history of the valley of Virginia, 3rd ed > Part 16
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that the seditious paper aforesaid orginated in Philadelphia, and as the persons' names who are under-mentioned, have uniformally manifested a disposition highly inimcial to the cause of America ; therefore, Resolved, That it be earnestly recommended to the Su- preme Executive Council of the State of Pennsylvania, forthwith to apprehend and secure the persons of Joshua Fisher, Abel James, James Pemberton, Henry Drinker, Israel Pemberton, John Pember- ton, John James, Samuel Pleasants, Thomas Wharton, Sr., Thomas Fisher, son of Joshua, and Samuel Fisher, son of Joshua, together with all such papers in their possession as may be of a po- litical nature.
"And whereas there is strong reason to apprehend that these persons maintain a correspondence and connection highly prejudicial to the public safety, not only in this State, but in the several States of America ; Resolved, That it be recommended to the executive powers of the respective States, forthwith to apprehend and secure all persons, as well among the Quakers as others, who have in their general conduct and conversation evinced a disposition inimical to the cause of America ; and the persons so seized be confined in such places, and treated in such manner, as shall be consistent with their respective characters and security of their persons ; that the records and papers of the meetings of sufferings in the respective States, be forthwith secured and carefully examined, and that such parts of them as may be of a political nature, be forthwith transmitted to Congress."
The said report being read, and several of the paragraphs con- sidered and debated, and the question put severally thereon the same was agreed to. "Ordered, That the board of war remove under guard to a place of security out of the State of Pennsylvania, the Hon. John Penn, Esq., and Benjamin Chew, Esq., and that they give or- ders for having them safely secured and entertained agreeable to their rank and station in life." A number of Quakers besides those mentioned, and several persons of a different denomination, were taken by the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, concern- ing whom Congress resolved, on the 8th of September, "That it be recommended to the said council to order the immediate depar- ture of such of said prisoners as refuse to swear or affirm allegi- ance to the State of Pennsylvania, to Staunton, in Augusta county, Virginia." *
In conformity with the recommendation of Congress, a number of Quakers, together with one druggist and a dancing master, were sent to Winchester under guard, with a request from the Executive of Pennsylvania, directed to the county lieutenant of Frederick, to secure them. General John Smith was then the county lieutenant.
* See Gordon's History of the American Revolution, vol. ii. pp. 222, 223. It was at the instance of the late General Isaac Zane, of Frederick County, Virginia, that the place of exile was changed from Staunton to Winchester.
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When the prisoners were delivered into his custody, he proposed to them, that if they would pledge their honors not to abscond, they should not be placed in confinement. Among the prisoners were three of the Pembertons, two of the Fishers, an old Quaker preacher named Hunt and several others, amounting in all to twelve, and with the druggist and dancing master, fourteen. One of the Fisher's was a lawyer by profession. He protested in his own name, and on be- half of his fellow prisoners, against being taken into custody by Col. Smith,; stated that they had protested against being sent from Philadelphia ; that they had again protested at the Pennsylvania line, against being taken out of the State ; had repeated their pro- test at the Maryland line, against being taken into Virginia ; that there was no existing law which justified their being deprived of their liberty, and exiled from their native homes and families, and treated as criminals. To which Col. Smith replied, "It is true that I know of no existing law which will justify your detention ; but as you are sent to my care by the supreme executive authority of your native State, and represented as dangerous characters and as having been engaged in treasonable practices with the enemy, I consider it my duty to detain you, at least until I can send an express to the Governor of Virginia for his advice and direction what to do in the premises." He accordingly dispatched an express to Williamsburg, with a letter to the governor, who soon returned with the orders of the executive to secure the prisoners. Col. Smith again repeated that "if they would pledge themselves not to abscond, he would not cause them to be confined." Upon which one of the Pem- bertons spoke and observed to Fisher, "that his protest was un- availing, and that they must patiently submit to their fate." Then addressing himself to Col. Smith, he observed, " they would not enter into any pledges, and he must dispose of them as he thought proper." The colonel then ordered them to be placed under guard.
Shortly before this, three hundred Hessian prisoners had been sent to Winchester ; there was consequently a guard ready pre- pared to receive these exiles, and they remained in custody about eight or nine months; during which time two of them died, and the whole of them became much dejected ; and is probable more of them would have died of broken hearts, had they not been permitted to return.
Some time after the British left Philadelphia, the exiles em- ployed the late Alexander White, Esq., a lawyer near Winchester, for which they paid him one hundred pounds Virginia currency in gold coin, to go to Philadelphia, and negotiate with the executive authority of the State to permit them to return to their families and friends ; in which negotiation White succeeded ; and to the great joy and heartfelt satisfaction of these captives, they returned to their na- tive homes.
In the absence of the exiles, Sir William Howe, the British
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General, had taken up his headquarters in John Pemberton's dwell- ing house. It was a splendid building, and had been much abused by the British, who also occupied several other houses belonging to Pemberton, which were much injured. Pemberton owned an ele- gant carriage, which Sir William had taken the liberty of using in his parties of pleasure. When Pemberton saw the situation of his property, he obtained permission from the proper authority, and waited on Sir William Howe, and demanded indemnification for the injury done his buildings and carriage. The plain and independent language he used to the British General on the subject, was remark- able for its bluntness, as it was for its fearless character. "Thee has (said lie) done gread damage to my buildings, and thee suffered thy w ***** s to ride in my carriage, and my wife will not use it since; thee must pay me for the injury, or I will go to thy master (mean- ing the king of England), and lay my complaint before him." Sir William could but smile at the honest bluntness of the man and thought it best to compromise and pay him a sum of money, which the old Quaker was satisfied .*
In 1779 there was a considerable increase of British prisoners at Winchester, and in 1780 barracks were erected about four miles west of the the town, to which the prisoners were removed, and a regular guard kept over them. In 1781 the number of prisoners increased to about 1600.
It was in this year the month of January, that Gen. Morgan, at the battle of the Cowpens, in South Carolina, gave the British Col. Tarlton a most signal defeat. In this action Morgan displayed the most consummate military skill and bravery. Whilst the two armies were closely engaged, Morgan, discovering the enemy were thrown into some confusion, called out in his usual stentorian voice, "Hurrah, my brave boys ! another close fire, and the day is ours. Remember, Morgan has never been beaten !" The author cannot now recollect his authority for this statement, but he has re- peatedly heard it asserted by different individuals who were acquaint- ed with the fact.
In the year 1813 the author traveled through South Carolina, and called to see Mr. William Calmes, with whom he had intimate acquaintance when quite a youth, having been a school-fellow in this county (Frederick). Mr. Calmes was well acquainted with Gen. Morgan, and related the following anecdote, in relation to Morgan and Tarleton.
There were two brothers by the name of --- , citizens of South Carolina, men of considerable wealth and respectability, who joined the British standard, and both obtained Colonel's commisions. One of them was at Cornwallis's headquarters the day Tarlton set out determined to take Morgan at all hazard. Meeting with Col. -, he accosted him to the following effect : "Well, Colonel, if
* Gen. John Smith detailed the foregoing particulars to the author.
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you will be at his Lordship's headquarters, (naming the day), you shall have the pleasure of dining with the old wagoner." To which Col. -- replied, "I wish you success, Col. Tarlton, but perinit me to caution you ; you will find Morgan hard to take." On which Tarlton flew into a passion, and threatened to arrest the Colonel for using such language in the hearing of his officers. The latter calm- ly replied, "Col. Tarleton, I have staked everything dear to me in this life upon the issue of the present contest. I own a fine estate. My family and my personal liberty are in danger. If America suc- ceeds in establishing her independence, my estate will be forfeited, my family reduced to beggary and the least I can expect, (if I es- cape with my life), will be perpetual exile. Hence, sir, I most ar-
dently wish you success. But permit me to again caution you. Morgan is a cunning, artful officer, and you will find him hard to take." Tarlton, however, pushed off in high glee, determined at every risk to capture Morgan and his little band of warriors. The result was soon known at his Lordship's headquarters ; and it so hap- pened, when Tarlton returned, Col. was present. The moment Tarlton saw him he apologized to him for the harsh lan- guage he used towards him, and exclaimed, " By ! Morgan is truly a great man !" This extorted praise from this haughty British officer speaks volumes for the high military talent of General Morgan.
At the close of the war this refugee colonel took shelter for himself and family in the British dominions of Canada, and his fine estate was confiscated. He, however, petitioned the government of South Carolina ; and from his general good charcter in private life, an act of pardon, together with the restoration of his estate, was passed, an he returned to its enjoyment with all the privileges of a free citizen. After his return Mr. Calmers became acquainted with him, and received the above statement of facts from him.
The brother of this officer, from some acts of ferocious cruelty practiced upon the friends of the American cause, had his estate also confiscated. The government refused to restore it, and passed an act of perpetual banishment against him.
In 1781 Cornwallis entered Virginia at the head of a large army, and in the month of June a party of tories raised the British stand- ard at Lost River, then in the county of Hampshire (now Hardy). John Claypole, a Scotsman by birth, and his two sons, were at the head of the insurrection, * Claypole had the address to draw over to his party a considerable majority of the people on Lost River, and a number on the South Fork of the Wappatomaka. They first manifested symptoms of rebellion by refusing to pay their taxes and
* Moses Russell, Esq., informed the author, that it was reported and believed at the time that Claypole's two sons went to North Carolina, and had an interview with Lord Cornwallis, who appointed and commissioned them both captains in the British service, and sent the commission of colonel to their father.
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refusing to furnish their quota of men to serve in the militia. The sheriffs, or collectors of the revenue, complained to Col. Vanmeter, of the County of Hampshire, that they were resisted in their at- tempts to discharge their official duties, when the colonel ordered a captain and thirty men to their aid. The insurgents armed them- selves, and determined to resist. Among them was John Drake, a German of considerable wealth, who resided about fifteen miles above Moorefield, on the South Fork of the River, and whose house became the place of rendezvous for the insurgents. When the Sheriff went up with the militia posse, fifty men appeared in arms. The posse and tories unexpectedly met in the public road. Thirty-five of the latter broke and ran about one hundred yards, and then formed, while fifteen stood firm. The captain of the guard called out for a parley, when a free conversation took place, in which this dangerous proceeding on the part of the tories was pointed out, with the terrible consequences which must inevitably follow. It is said that had a pistol been fired, a dreadful scene of carnage would have ensued. * The two parties, however, parted without blood- shed. But instead of the tory party retiring to their respective homes and attending to their domestic duties the spirit of insurrection in- creased. They began to organize, appointed officers, and made John Claypole their commander-in-chief, with the intention of march- ing off in a body to Cornwallis, in the event of his advancing into the Valley or near it.
Several expresses were sent to Col. Smith, requesting the aid of the militia, in the counties immediately adjoining, to quell this re- bellion. He addressed letters to the commanding officers of Berke- ley and Shenandoah, beat up volunteers in Frederick, and in a few days an army of four hundred rank and file were well mounted and equipped. Gen. Morgan, who, after the defeat of Tarlton and some other military services, had obtained leave of absence from the army, and was now reposing on his farm (Saratoga) in Frederick, and whose name was a host in itself, was solicited to take the command, with which he readily complied. About the 18th or 20th of June the army marched from Winchester, and in two days arrived in the neighborhood of this tory section of Hardy county. They halted at Claypole's house, t and took him prisoner. Several young men fled, among them William Baker. As he ran across Claypole's mea- dow he was hailed and ordered to surrender ; but disregarding the command, Capt. Abraham Byrd, of Shenandoah county, an ex- cellent marksman, raised his rifle, fired, and wounded him in the leg. ¿ He fell, and several of Morgan's party went to him to
* Isacc Vanmeter, Esq., then about eighteen years of age, was one of the posse, and related these fact to the author.
+ Claypole's former residence is now owned by Mr. Miller, and is about forty-five or fifty miles southwest of Winchester, on Lost River in Hardy county.
# The spot was pointed out to the author, by Mr. Mr. Miller, where Byrd
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see the result. The ball had penetrated just above the heel, ranged up the leg, and shivered the bone. As the poor fellow begged for mercy, he was taken to the house, and his wound dressed by the surgeon of the regiment. He recovered, and is still living. They took from Claypole provisions for themselves and horses ; Col. Smith (who was second in command) giving him a certificate for their value.
From Claypole's the army moved up Lost River, and some young men in the advance took a man named Matthias Wilkins prisoner, placed a rope round his neck, and threatened to hang him. Col. Smith rode up, saw what was going on, and ordered them in- stantly to desist. They also caught a man named John Payne, and branded him on the posteriors with a red hot spade, telling him they would make him a freemason. Claypole solemnly promised to be of good behavior, gave bail and was set at liberty.
The army thence crossed the South Branch Mountain. On or near the summit they saw a small cabin, which had probably been erected by some hunters. Gen. Morgan ordered it to be surround- ed, observing, "It is probable some of the tories are now in it." As the men approached the cabin, ten or a dozen fellows ran out and fled. An elderly man named Mace, and two of his sons, were among them. Old Mace, finding himself closely pursued, surrendered. One of the pursuers was Capt. William Snickers, an aid-de-camp of Morgan, who being mounted on a fine horse, was soon alongside of him. One of Mace's sons looking round at this instant, and seeing Snickers aiming a blow with a drawn sword at his father, drew up his rifle and fired at him. The ball passed threw the crest of his horse's neck ; he fell, and threw the rider over his head. Snickers was at first thought by his friends to be killed ; and in the excite- ment of the moment, an Irishman, half drunk, who had been with Morgan for some time as waiter, and had seen much tory blood shed in the Carolinas, ran up to the prisoner (Mace) with a cocked pistol in his hand, and shot the poor man, who fell and instantly expired. Capt. Snickers soon recovered from the bruises received in the fall, as did his horse also from the wound in his neck.
The army proceeded to pay their respects to Mr. John Brake, an old German, who had a fine farm with extensive meadows, a mill, large distillery, and many fat hogs and cattle. He was an exception in his political course, to his countrynien, as they were almost to a man, true whigs, and friends to their country. Brake, as before ob- served, had joined the tory band, and his house was their place of rendezvous, where they feasted on the best he had. All this ap- pearing unquestionable, Morgan marched his army to his residence, they halted, and spent two days and nights with his reluctant host. His troops lived on the best in his fine firm, mill and dis-
stood when he fired at Baker, and where Baker fell. The distance is about four hundred yards.
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tillery afforded, feasting on his pigs, fatted calves, young beeves, lambs, poultry, &c., while their horses, fared no less luxuriously upon his fine unmowed meadows, oat fields, &c. As Brake had en- tertained and feasted the tories, Morgan concluded that he should feast them in turn.
The third day, in the morning, the army moved on down the river, passed by Moorefield, and returned to Winchester, where it was disbanded, after a service of only about eight or ten days. Thus was this tory insurrection crushed in the bud. The party them- selves became ashamed of their conduct, and in some degree to atone for it, and wipe off the stain, several of the young men volunteered their services and marched to aid in the capture of Cornwallis.
Within three or four days after these men were disbanded, two expresses in one day arrived at Winchester, and informed Col. Smith that Tarlton was on his way to rescue the British prison- ers at Winchester barracks. Col. Smith had again to call out the militia, and ordered four hundred men as a guard, removed the prisoners to Fort Frederick, in Maryland, at which place they re- mained to the end af the war. *
The summer of 1781 was emphatically the summer of militia campaigns. There were frequent alarms that Tarlton and his legion (of devils, some people termed them), were on their way to visit our Valley ; and sometimes it was reported that Cornwallis and his whole army would be upon us. The militia was almost constantly march- ing and counter-marching.
It, however, pleased Heaven to so order things, that Cornwallis and his large army should be entrapped and captured at York- town, in Virginia. This put an end to the scourge of the war ; and our people being permitted to enjoy the blessings of peace and agri- culture, commerce and the mechanical arts, improved in a most as- tonishing degree. The French and British armies circulated immense sums of money, in gold and silver coin, which had the effect of driving out of circulation the wretched paper currency which had till then prevailed. Immense quantities of British and French goods were soon imported ; our people imbibed a taste for foreign fashion and luxury ; and in the course of two or three years, from the close of the war, such an entire change had taken place in the habits and manners of our inhabitants, that it alinost appeared as if we had suddenly become a different nation. The staid and sober habits of our ancestors, with their plain home-manufactured clothing, were suddenly laid aside, and European goods of fine quality adopted in their stead. Fine ruffles, powdered heads, silks and scarlets, decorated the men ; while the mnost costly silks, satins, chintzes, calicoes, muslins, &c., decorated our females. Nor was their diet less expensive ; for superb plate, foreign spirits, wines,
* Gen. John Smith communicated all the particulars of the foregoing narrative to the author, with the exception of branding Payne with the spade ; this fact was stated by Mr. Chrisman on Lost River.
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&c., sparkled on the sideboards of many farmers. The natural re- sult of this change of the habits and customs of the people- this aping of European manners and morals-was to suddenly drain our country of its circulating specie ; and as a necessary conse- quence, the people ran in debt, times became difficult, and money had to raise.
The sufferings and hard dealings with the Quakers deserve some notice in this place. The unfortunate proceedings of the Philadel- phia Quakers drew down upon the whole order the strong preju- dices and even hatred of the friends to the American cause. The treasonable proceedings of a few individuals ought not to have been visited upon the whole order of Quakers. It must be admitted, that this proceeding was a great blot upon Quaker character, and stamped the individuals concerned in it, with base hypocrisy, and gave the lie to their religious professions. Whilst they professed to hold it unlawful to shed human blood ; whilst they disclaimed all concern with the war ; they were secretly giving intelligence to the enemy, and aiding and abetting them in every way they could ex- cept resorting to arms. But it is again repeated that it was unjust with one fell sweep to condemn the whole order, for the malconduct of a few individuals. The Quakers in the Valley, notwithstanding their entire neutrality, were unquestionably the greatest sufferers by the war. They refused to bear arms, they refused to pay war taxes, and hence the sheriffs or collectors were compelled to destrain and sell their property to raise their respective proportion of the pub- lic burdens.
At the beginning of the war, attempts were made to compel them to bear arms, and serve in the militia ; but it was soon found unavailing. They would not perform any military duty required of them ; not even the scourge would compel them to submit to discip- line. The practice of coercion was therefore abandoned, and the Legislature enacted a law to levy a tax upon their property to hire substitutes to perform military duty in their stead. This, with other taxes, bore peculiarly heavy upon them. Their personal property was sold under the hammer to raise these public demands ; and before the war was over, many of them were reduced to great distress in their pecuniary circumstances.
There is an amusing story told of James Gotharp, who resided on Apple-pie Ridge. He was forced to march with a militia com- pany, and on one particular occasion was placed as sentry at a bag- gage wagon, with orders to suffer no man to go into the wagon without a written order from the commanding officer. One of the officers walked to the wagon to go in, Gotharp demanded his written authority, the officer cursed him and stepped upon the houns of the wagon. Gothiarp seized him by his legs and pulled his feet off the houns. The officer fell with his face upon the houns and had his nose and mouth sorely bruised.
This selling of Quaker's property afforded great opportunity for
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designing individuals to make profitable speculations. They con- tinued to refuse to pay taxes for several years after the war, holding it unlawful to contribute their money towards discharging the war debt. This being at length adjusted, no part of our citizens pay their public demands with more punctuality, (except their muster fines which they still refused to pay). Owing to their industrious and sober habits, they soon recovered from their pecuniary distress produced by the war, and are generally speaking the most independ- ent part of our community. Vast numbers of them have migrated to the western country and several of their meetings are entirely broken up. There is, however, still a considerable number of them in the counties of Frederick and Berkeley. They continue their an- cient practice of depending upon their household manufactures for their clothing ; and it was a long time before they gave into the practice of purchasing European goods. A few of them entered into the mercantile business ; several others erected fine merchant mills ; others engaged in mechanical pursuits ; but the great body of them are farmers, and are generally most excellent cultivators of the soil.
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