USA > Virginia > Augusta County > Augusta County > Annals of Augusta County, Virginia, with reminiscences illustrative of the vicissitudes of its pioneer settlers (A Supplement) > Part 17
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Captain Gamble did not trust the company's scribe to record his own orders, but entered them himself. In one dated Kakey- atte, 13th October, 1779, he gives directions in regard to the pay, &c., of three washer-women, who drew rations in his com- pany.
A general order in October calls upon the officers to exert themselves in detecting marauders, reminding them that the army was raised to protect, and not to oppress the inhabitants.
Another general order, also in October, exhorted the men to furbish up their arms and clothing, as the corps would probably very soon " parade through towns and cities, from which they have been long excluded," and all eyes would be upon them.
On the 22d of October General Wayne expressed his concern that the Virginians were the only troops in the light infantry that had not " procured hair for their caps." 34 The colonel of the Virginia regiment thereupon repeated his order on the sub- ject. He directed that no officer should mount guard or go on the grand parade without a cap, and " if he has not one of his
34 Probably instead of plumes.
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own he will kind a nuff to borrow." So the copyist enters it in the company order book.
Next appears a company order dated October 24, in the hand- writing of Captain Gamble. The Captain expressed his pleasure at learning from Ensign Phillips that notwithstanding the sol- diers had drawn " two days' rum" the day before, not one of the company was drunk on the parade. The commissary, he said, would soon have liquor to issue, exclusive of what the State of Virginia had begun to supply, and as it would be most proper to draw several days at once "on account of the distance," Cap- tain Gamble was fearful that soldiers "accustomed to get drunk " would fall victims to the vice. He declared his deter- mination to suppress a practice destructive of good order and military discipline. The men who should be caught " disguised with liquor either on or off duty," should have their rum stopped for two weeks. For a second offence the punishment should be whatever a court-martial might inflict without favor to any indi- vidual.
A general order of November 5 says: "Some late intelligence renders it necessary for the corps to be prepared to seek or meet the enemy." Every man was to be in readiness to act. The commissary was ordered to send wagons immediately to bring the rum and other supplies from the landing. At the next gen- eral parade a gill of rum would be issued to each man.
Cold weather had come on by November 7, and a regimental order of that date, signed by Colonel Christian Febiger, directs about chimneys to the tents, and requires the officers to prevent the men from destroying the fences or any thing belonging to the inhabitants. A general order instructs the commissary to "engage all the roots and vegetables he can procure for the use of the troops, for which he will give beef in barter."
On the last page of the fragment Captain Gamble is mentioned as "regimental officer." He was then only about twenty-five years of age.
In October, 1779, an act of the Legislature was passed repeal- ing all acts providing salaries for ministers. Such acts had only been previously suspended from time to time.
At a county court-martial, October 27, 1779, Colonel Moffett presiding, Lieutenant James Bell, accused by his captain, Alex- ander Simpson, of disobedience, "in refusing to impress a horse
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to carry provisions for the use of the militia ordered out on duty in this county," was tried and found guilty. It was ordered that he be reprimanded, "which was immediately done by the presi- dent in presence of the court."
At the same session of the court, Ensign James Steele reported the desertion of sundry men from their station on the west fork of Monongahela, they being substitutes for Augusta militiamen. Many other substitutes were returned on the same day by Ensign Robert Christian for deserting from his command at Buchanan fort. Some of the alleged deserters were acquitted, and others convicted and sentenced to serve six months longer than their original time.
By act of May, 1780, the vestries in Augusta and several other counties were dissolved ; and the election of five freeholders as overseers of the poor in each county was provided for. The vestry of Augusta parish held their last meeting on the 16th of May, 1780, but only entered some orders in regard to the poor.
Soldiers, however, were still needed. Therefore an act passed by the Legislature in May, 1780, provided that the several coun- ties (except the county of Illinois and the territory in dispute between Virginia and Pennsylvania) furnish one fifteenth man of the militia, to serve in the Continental army till December 31, 1781. Staunton was appointed a rendezvous.
The last act on the subject during the war, passed at the ses- sion which began October 16, 1780, called for 3,000 men, and fixed the quota of Augusta as 80, Rockbridge 38, and Rocking- ham 49, to be drafted for eighteen months, if not furnished by volunteering.
At the same session an act was passed for supplying the army with clothes, provisions and wagons. Augusta was required to furnish forty-six suits of clothes, Rockbridge seventeen, and Rockingham nineteen.
By the court-martial which sat at the courthouse, October 24, 1780, six captains were fined {10 each for not returning rolls of their respective companies. Zachariah Johnston, a member of the court, was one of the delinquents, and forthwith paid his fine.
On the following day, John Massey was brought before the court on suspicion of being a deserter from "the detachment of militia ordered on duty from this county to the southward, under
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the command of Captain Tate and Captain Buchanan." The court was of opinion that Massey's return home was not culpa- ble under the circumstances; and he, acknowledging that he was a deserter from the British army, and would rather serve to the westward, was allowed to exchange places with James Buchanan, the latter to go south and Massey west.
From the proceedings of the Legislature in 1781, we learn that there had been some trouble in Augusta in reference to a draft; but the date, cause and extent of it are not stated. Probably the men called for were furnished without drafting.
The court provided for the families of soldiers out of the county levy. At November court, 1779, Mary Waugh and Mary Lendon, soldiers' wives, were allowed, the one forty and the other sixty pounds ($133.3373 and $200) for the ensuing year. The people were evidently almost unanimous in support of the American cause. We have heard of only two disloyal men in the county during the war. At a term of the court in 1781, William Ward and Lewis Baker were found guilty of treason in levying war against the commonwealth, and sent on for trial. The court on that occasion was composed of Elijah McClana- han, Alexander St. Clair, Alexander McClanahan, Thomas Adams and James Trimble.
In October, 1780, by act of the Legislature, all ministers of the gospel were authorized to celebrate the rites of matrimony on and after January 1, 1781; but Dissenting ministers, not exceed- ing four of each sect in any one county, were to be specially licensed by the County Courts. Ministers of the " Established Church," were authorized ex officio to perform the service. Notwithstanding a large majority of the people had become Dissenters long before this, the Legislature, elected by free- holders, clung to the establishment, and it was not till October, 1784, that all ministers were put upon an equal footing in re- spect to the matter referred to.
By act of the Legislature, in October, 1780, the Court of Greenbrier county was empowered to have a wagon road opened from their courthouse to the Warm Springs, or to the mouth of the Cowpasture river, the costs to be paid by the property- holders of Greenbrier, in money or " clean merchantable hemp." This act was suspended in 1781, but re-enacted in October, 1782. The last act authorized the justices of Greenbrier "to clear a
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wagon road from the Warm Springs in Augusta to the Savanna." We presume the road was cleared soon afterwards. Previously, merchandise and baggage were transported from the east in wagons, to or near the Warm Springs, and from thence west on pack-horses, while the wagons returned loaded with venison, hams, &c.
Mention has been made of the Rev. Archibald Scott as the first pastor of Bethel congregation. Foote gives the following account of the origin of Bethel. The year succeeding Mr. Scott's settlement as pastor of North Mountain and Brown's meeting-house-that is, in 1779-"as he was riding through the neighborhood he came unexpectedly upon a company of men putting up a large log building. Upon inquiry, he found it was designed as a meeting-house. The people worshiping at the old North Mountain meeting-house, had been talking about a new church building and a new position, but nothing had been decided upon by the congregation. Fearing lest evil might spring from this sudden movement of one part of the congre- gation, the young pastor says : 'Are you not too fast, my boys?' 'No,' said Colonel Doak, ' we will end the dispute by putting up the church.' The church building was completed, and called Bethel, and the dispute was heard of no more." Mr. Scott lived six miles from Staunton, about where Arbor Hill now is. He died in 1799, and was buried in Hebron graveyard. 35
A member of Mr. Scott's flock was Mrs. Margaret Humph- reys, who lived to an advanced age, near Greenville. "Her graphic descriptions," says Foote, " were full of interest, and conveyed the liveliest impression of the times when the Valley was a frontier settlement. Where now may be seen the beauti - ful farms and substantial houses in Bethel, her active memory recalled the log cabins, the linsey-wolsey, the short gowns, the hunting shirts, the moccasins, the pack-horses, the simple living, the shoes and stockings for winter and uncommon occasions, the deer and the rifle, the fields of flax and the spinning wheel, and the wool and looms, and, with them, the strict attention to religious concerns, the catechising of children, the regular going to church, the reading of the Bible, and keeping Sabbath from the beginning to the end, the singing of hymns and sacred songs,
35 His descendants are Scotts, Sprouls, McPheeterses, &c.
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all blended, presenting a beautiful picture of enterprise, economy and religion in laying the foundation of society." 36
From an order of the County Court, of February 18, 1780, we learn that Sampson Sawyer's negro woman, Violet, was sentenced to be hung on the 4th of March for burning her master's dwell- ing house. What is curious, however, in connection with the matter is, that it was ordered also that after the body was cut down, the head should be severed and stuck upon a pole at a cross-road. 87
Governor Gilmer gives a picture of the times during the war in an anecdote which he relates, and which we cannot omit.
We have mentioned John Grattan as one of the church war- dens of Augusta parish in 1774. He was, says Governor Gilmer, a Scotch-Irish Presbyterian of the old Covernanter's faith and practice, noted for his love of David's Psalms in long metre, and his long prayers at family worship. He settled on North river (now in Rockingham county), and built the first good flour mill in the Valley. He was also a merchant, supplying a wide extent of country with foreign goods. Little coin circulated here, and trade was generally managed by barter. The goods bought were paid for in cattle, ginseng, pinkroot, and bear and deer skins. These articles were disposed of in Philadelphia, and this part of the business was usually transacted by Mrs. Grattan. She went to Philadelphia on horseback, sold the cattle, &c., and bought new goods for her husband's store. She was very ex- pert, and generally very successful; but on one occasion she suffered a woful defeat. Being in Philadelphia, during the war, on a trading expedition, she was offered Continental paper money for her cattle, at the rate of two dollars for one of coin. When she left home the depreciation was not near so great. So she took the paper, and set off home with it, exulting in her financial
36 The Rev. Dr. William McPheeters, a native of Augusta, educated in Staunton and at Liberty Hall, was pastor of Bethel from 1805 till 1810, when he accepted a call to Raleigh, North Carolina.
37 This custom seems to have been general in Virginia, at this, or an earlier period. The ghastly memorials thus set up were doubtless to inspire a wholesome dread in the minds of the negro slaves. They impressed themselves in many instances as local topographical desig- nations. Witness: Negro-foot precinct, in Hanover county, and Negro- head, Negro-foot and Negro-quarter, in Amelia county.
12
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shrewdness. Each day's travel lowered her anticipations of profit, until, when she reached home, three dollars in scrip were worth only one in specie. 38
Until some time after the Revolution, the merchants in the State were, with few exceptions, Scotch or Scotch-Irish.
The prices paid for labor, &c., in Staunton, in 1780, show the great depreciation of the currency at that time. The County Court allowed Jacob Peck {80 " for making a new door to the prison," and £287, Ios. " for building a bridge across the creek below Staunton." Alexander St. Clair was allowed £97, 10s. "for one pair of dog-irons for the courthouse," and £30 ($100) were paid for the use of a wagon one day.
During the war, officers were sometimes transferred from one regiment to another. This was doubtless owing to the fact, that by the casualties of war regiments were often broken up, and new combinations were necessary. In a "list of officers on the establishment of eight regiments," found among the papers of Colonel Robert Gamble, furnished to us by Dr. Cary B. Gamble, of Baltimore, a grand-son of Colonel Gamble, we discover some familiar names. The date is not given, but we learn, incident- ally, that it was after the battle of King's Mountain, which oc- curred on the 7th of October, 1780. It was therefore probably during the winter of 1780-'81. Thomas Posey is entered as major of the First regiment, and as "rendezvousing at Staun- ton." Christian Febiger is entered as colonel of the Second regiment, and commanding at Philadelphia. Robert Porterfield was a captain, and William Eskridge a lieutenant in the Second, and both were prisoners in "Charlestown." George Mathews, previously colonel of the Ninth, is here entered as colonel of the
38 One of Mr. and Mrs. John Grattan's daughters became the wife of Colonel Robert Gamble; another, the wife of Samuel Miller, son of Henry Miller, who founded the iron-works on Mossy creek in 1774; and a third married Colonel Samuel Brown, of Greenbrier, who, as we have seen, was carried off by the Indians when he was a boy, in 1764. Their youngest child was Major Robert Grattan, for some years a merchant in Staunton, of the firm of Gamble & Grattan, and afterwards, for many years, famous for his hospitality to travelers by Bockett's stage coaches, while passing his residence on North river, in Rockingham. He com- manded a company of cavalry against the whiskey insurgents in Penn- sylvania. An older son of John Grattan was an officer in one of the Virginia regiments during the Revolution, and died in service in Georgia.
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Third, and a "prisoner on parole." Robert Breckenridge was a lieutenant in the Fifth, but a prisoner in "Charlestown." Andrew Lewis was a lieutenant in the Seventh, and at Fort Pitt. James Wood was colonel of the Eighth, Robert Gamble a captain, and John McDowell and Henry Bowyer lieutenants of the same regiment. Captains Andrew Wallace and Thomas Bowyer, of the Eighth, are entered as having been killed at King's Moun - tain.
The battle of the Cowpens, in South Carolina, was fought January 17, 1781. Part of Morgan's command consisted of Virginia riflemen. Captains James Tate and George Moffett, of Augusta, were in the battle, and probably commanded com- panies from the county. Captain Tate certainly did. The vic- tory was one of the most remarkable of the war. Only twelve of the Americans were killed, and sixty wounded. Of the enemy, ten commissioned officers were killed, and more than a hundred rank and file; two hundred were wounded; twenty- nine officers and more than five hundred privates were taken prisoners, besides seventy wagons. The prisoners were turned over to the Virginia troops, whose time of service had just ex- pired, to be conducted to a place of safety.
The result of this battle excited Cornwallis, the British com- mander in the South, to more vigorous efforts. He pressed forward into North Carolina, eager to come to battle with Gen- eral Greene. The trial soon took place at Guilford.
While the Virginia troops were retiring with their prisoners, a call was made upon our Valley for reinforcements for Greene's army, and soon after their return home Captain Moffett and Cap- tain Tate, each at the head of a company of Augusta militia, were on the way to the South again. A company from Rock- bridge also went. Colonel Samuel McDowell commanded the battalion.
When the Augusta companies were about to start from Mid- way, the latter part of February, the Rev. James Waddell, of Tinkling Spring, delivered a parting address to the men. Many of them never returned. Captain Tate and a large number of private soldiers were killed at Guilford on March 15. Some who came back carried on their persons ever afterwards the marks of British sabres. Archibald Stuart, afterwards the judge, was a commissary, but fought in the ranks at Guilford. His father,
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Major Alexander Stuart, who commanded the Augusta and Rockbridge battalion (Colonel McDowell being disabled by sick- ness), was captured. " His captors," it is said, "plundered him and left him standing in his cocked hat, shirt and shoes." 39 He was detained for some time on board a British ship In the re- treat, Samuel Steele, who died in his old age near Waynesboro, shot a British dragoon who followed him, but two others assailed him and he was forced to succumb. He refused, however, to give up his gun, which he afterwards succeeded in reloading, and then put his captors to flight. David Steele, of Midway, was cut down in the retreat and left for dead. He revived, and came home and lived to old age. Foote states that the scar of a deep wound over one of his eyes painfully disfigured him. Sev- eral persons who often saw the old soldier have informed us that his face was not disfigured at all. His skull was cleft by a sabre and to the end of his days he wore a silver plate over the spot. Colonel Fulton, who was at Guilford, and afterwards for many years represented Augusta in the Legislature, is said to have been disfigured as Steele is described to have been. One of the Wil- sons, of Bethel, was probably the last survivor of Guilford in this region. The Rockbridge troops started from Lexington, February 26, and the survivors reached home again on March 23, following.40
The scene of the battle, old Guilford Courthouse, is six or seven miles northwest of Greensboro', the present county seat.
89 His sword, a somewhat uncouth weapon, presumably of local manu- facture, was some years ago presented by his grand-son, Hon. Alex- ander H. H. Stuart, to the Virginia Historical Society, of which the latter is president. The sword is without scabbard, that having been lost during the late war between the States, in hiding the weapon from Federal invaders.
40 Among the Revolutionary soldiers from Augusta, who died within the last fifty years, are the following : James Robertson, December 25, 1835, in the eighty-fifth year of his age; John Tate, August 6th, 1836; Samuel Steele, June 8, 1837; Major Samuel Bell, May 15, 1838; Lewis. Shuey, January 22, 1839; Robert Harnsberger, February 7, 1840; Smith Thompson, May 12, 1840; Peter Lohr, September 21, 1841; Samuel Gardner, January 11, 1842; Francis Gardner, July 26, 1842; John Bell, Sr., October 17, 1842; Claudius Buster, November 20, 1843; Captain Robert Thompson, January 23, 1847; William McCutchen, June 29, 1848.
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No relic or memorial of the battle remains on the spot, and even the graves of the slain have been obliterated.
After Cornwallis entered Virginia, a party of Tories raised the British standard on Lost river, then in Hampshire, now Hardy county. John Claypole, a Scotchman, and John Brake, a Ger- man, were the leaders, and drew over to their side a majority of the people in the neighborhood. Their object appeared to be to organize and march in a body to join Cornwallis upon his ap- proaching the Valley. The militia of Shenandoah, Frederick and Berkeley were called out to suppress the insurrection, and a body of four hundred men was speedily equipped and mounted. General Daniel Morgan, of Frederick, being out of service and at home, was called to the command, and advanced with the troops into the disaffected region. Claypole was arrested, but released on bail, and Brake was punished by the army living at free quarters for a day or two on his cattle pens and_distillery. No collision occurred, but one man was killed by a drunken at- tendant of General Morgan, and another, while running away, was shot in the leg. The militia were out only eight or ten days. The Tories soon became ashamed of their conduct, and several of their young men volunteered and went to aid in the capture of Cornwallis .- [Kercheval, page 199.]
In June, 1781, the first and only alarm of the war occurred in Augusta county. The members of the Legislature were driven from Charlottesville on the 4th, by the approach of Tarleton, a dashing commander of dragoons, and met in Staunton on the 7th, in the old parish church. But on the following Sunday, the Ioth, as stated, a session was held to enter an adjournment to the Warm Springs. This proceeding was caused by a report that Tarleton was pursuing across the Blue Ridge. Some of the members of assembly took the road toward Lexington, and others went to the northwest part of the county. Patrick Henry was one of the latter, and such seemed to be the emergency that, according to tradition, he left Staunton wearing only one boot.
The cause of the alarm and stampede has been variously re- ported. The late Judge Francis T. Brooke, then a young lieu- tenant of the Continental army, gives one version of the matter in a memoir he left behind him. He was in Albemarle, in com- mand of a detachment, and was ordered by his captain, Bohan- non, if he could not join the Baron Steuben, to proceed to
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Staunton, and thence to join the corps to which he belonged in the army of La Fayette. He says: "The next day I crossed the ridge about six miles to the south of Rockfish Gap. When I got to where Waynesboro' is, I found a large force of eight hundred men, or one thousand riflemen, under the command of General McDowell. He stopped me, saying he had orders to stop all troops to defend the gap. I replied that I belonged to the Continental army and had orders to go to Staunton, and said to the men, 'Move on,' and he let me pass. At that time I sup- pose a regimental coat had never been seen on that side of the mountain-nothing but hunting-shirts. I marched with drums beating and colors flying, and some one seeing the troops, carried the news to Staunton that Tarleton had crossed the mountain, and the Legislature then sitting there ran off again ; but learning the mistake, rallied and returned the next day. In the morning 1 entered the town. There, for a few days, I heard Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, George Nicholas, and my neighbor, Mann Page, of Mansfield."
Judge Brooke's narrative proceeds: "When I arrived at Staunton, Colonel Davis, whom I found there, insisted on re- taining me in that service, but Captain Fleming Gaines, who belonged to Harrison's regiment of artillery, ordered me to join my corps as speedily as I could in the army of the Marquis, and furnished me with his horses and servant to do so. In a few days I left Staunton, and took the road, by what is now called Port Republic, to cross the ridge at Swift Run Gap. A curious inci- dent occurred : one of the horses was taken lame, and I stopped at a smith's shop to have his shoes repaired; the people were all Dutch, and spoke no English, and seeing me in regimentals, they took me for a British officer, and detained me for a time as their prisoner, until one of them came who understood English, and I showed him my commission, and he let me pass."-[From a communication by Major J. M. McCue, in the Staunton Spec- tator.]
Yet there was good reason for anticipating an inroad by Tarleton. The first rumor of it seems to have arisen on Satur- day, but on Sunday the report was apparently confirmed. On Saturday, Mr. Scott was hearing a class in the catechism at Bethel, which he dismissed to spread the alarm. On Sunday, the people of Tinkling Spring congregation were assembled as
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