USA > Virginia > Augusta County > Augusta County > Annals of Augusta county, Virginia, with reminiscences illustrative of the vicissitudes of its pioneer settlers > Part 33
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Wednesday night, May 10 .- The committee appointed by the county meeting on Monday called upon General Duval this morning. He was extremely civil; said the only instructions he had were to restore order by suppressing guerilla parties, and to parol Confederate soldiers. He had no instructions in regard to civil government. [There were no guerillas in the country.]
Friday night, May 12 .- We are tasting the bitterness of a conquered people. The Yankees are evidently trying to worry us because they are not taken into society. No disrespect is shown to them, but cold politeness. The officers ride and walk about, decked off in shining coats, and evidently desire to attract the attention of the ladies. Gen- eral Duval is not satisfied with the temper of the people-" they are still defiant." He has therefore resorted to various petty annoyances. * * Yesterday he alleged that several persons had been murdered within four miles of Staunton-"Union people," who had recently come back. Nobody else had heard of it, and the statement is utterly false. * * Citizens are not allowed to be on the streets after 10 o'clock at night. *
* This morning a Yankee soldier was found dead near town, but, strange to say, the "Rebels" are not charged with having killed him. Yesterday a body of four or five hundred cavalry came in from Charlottesville to open an office for paroling, not knowing that any troops were here. They returned this morning. We hear that the Yankees at Winchester have the negro men, who lately went off from this place, working on the streets, guarded by soldiers, and that the women are begging from door to door.
May 14 .-- Reported on the streets that President Johnson has issued a proclamation declaring the property of all aiders and abettors of the "rebellion " confiscated, declaring all public offices vacant, and setting aside all sales of real estate made since 1860. Pierpoint is recognized as the Governor of Virginia, of course.
May 15 .- A sentinel has been promenading to-day before N. K.
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Trout's residence, because, the Yankees allege, the girls "made mouths," or hissed at the band as they entered town a week ago. The girls deny the charge. But what if they did ?
May 16 .- Many persons in town have been making what money they could out of the Yankee soldiers. Betty, a colored servant girl at -'s, thought she would try her hand, although her mistress is suspected of being a secret partner in the venture. At any rate, Betty went out to the camp with a lot of fresh pies to sell on reasonable terms. In due time she returned, greatly elated with her success-she had a handful of notes. But, alas! the rascality of the Yankees, and, alas ! Betty's igno- rance of United States currency. Upon examination, it turned out that the papers for which she had exchanged her pies were bottle labels, advertising cards, etc., without a cent of money among them. Betty probably told very freely where she lived, and during the day some Yankees called at the house and inquired if they could get any pies there.
Thursday, May 18 .- A pistol or gun was fired in one of the streets last night, and General Duval imagined that he was shot at. Early in the morning the town was surrounded by pickets, and no one was allowed to come in or go out. Every house was searched for fire-arms, and every weapon, however rusty and useless, was triumphantly seized and carried off. It is said and believed that a gun in the hands of a Federal soldier was accidentally discharged. But General Duval firmly believes that the "rebels," having sacrificed the head of the nation, are trying to kill him, the next great man. *
* The soldiers have been tossing negroes in blankets at their camp, and it is reported that one was killed and buried yesterday.
May 19 .- Several stores have been opened in town by army sutlers and others. The report of President Davis's capture is repeated.
May 20 .- A second public meeting was held to-day in the courthouse by General Duval's permission, and another committee was appointed to go to Richmond, &c., &c. It was a sham affair. * * Yesterday no one was allowed to leave town unless he had taken the oath of alle- giance. All restrictions were removed to day, but no one is permitted to be on the streets after 8 o'clock P. M.
Sunday, May 21 .- This morning, after the Presbyterian congregation had assembled for worship, through some bungling, a Yankee chaplain was escorted to the pulpit where the Rev. Mr. Baker was seated. The chaplain only wanted to give notice that he would preach elsewhere in the evening, but persons outside, hearing of the intrusion, as they re- garded it, spread the report that he had usurped the pulpit and intended to preach by force of arms. The affair caused great indignation at first, but afterwards much amusement. The scene which outsiders imagined was exhibited in the church is described by Walter Scott in "Wood- stock," when the Rev. Nehemiah Holdenough was thrust from his pul- pit by one of Cromwell's soldiers and his comrades, who exclaimed:
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"We will pluck yon Jack Presbyter out of his wooden sentinel box and our own watchman shall relieve guard and mount thereon, and cry aloud and spare not." According to report, some of the Federal offi- cers don't spare the chaplain. They asked him if he had preached to-day, and he replied : "No, neither preach, pray, nor sing." He did sing, however, at the Presbyterian church.
Monday night, May 22 .- Pierpoint is recognized by the Washington authorities as the legitimate Governor of Virginia. We are apprehen- sive that no one will be allowed to vote or hold office unless he purges himself by oath of all sympathy with the " rebellion," and thus nearly the whole people will be excluded. No doubt some will swear they never did sympathize. The applicants for office upon the restoration of the monarchy in the person of Charles II were not more debased than some people now-a-days.
Monday night, May 29 .- Yesterday evening United States flags were hung out at several street corners, so that persons going to the Episcopal church should have to pass under them, and a small paper flag was sus- pended over the church gate. This morning a small flag was found pasted to the portico of A. F. Kinney's house, and Ned Kinney, who first discovered it, took it down. For this act of treason he was ar- rested and threatened with banishment to a Northern prison. A large flag was then put at Kinney's gate.
Tuesday night, May 30 .- The Pierpoint's Constitution of Virginia, framed at Alexandria during the war by sixteen men, and never voted for by anybody else, is to be imposed upon us by Federal bayonets. It wipes out slavery now and forever, &c., &c.
May 31 .- Most of the county committee, No. I, have returned from Richmond. Pierpoint insists upon his Constitution with its provision restricting the right of suffrage to those who can, or will, take what is called " the iron-clad oath " But it seems that the Legislature may remove the restriction.
Thursday night, June 1 .- General Duval's flags are spreading them- selves. Another string of them is stretched across Augusta street, near Main. The General says the flags were not put up by his order, but being up they must be respected.
Friday night, June 2 .- The "last agony " from Washington appeared this morning-President Johnson's proclamation of pardon to rebels on certain conditions. There are so many proclamations and oaths of one sort and another that it is hard to keep the run of them. All military officers above the rank of lieutenant, all civil officers of the "pre- tended," or " so-called," Confederate States, and all persons worth more than $20,000 are excluded from the benefits of the oath last prescribed by the president. Persons belonging to these classes must file petitions to his excellency for pardon, and he promises to be liberal. Why per- sons worth over $20,000 are specially guilty is hard to see. Many a fla- grant "rebel " is not worth a dollar in ready money.
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June 4 .- There is a good deal of talk about emigrating to Brazil. But it is not worth while. No doubt the first man met on landing would be a Connecticut vender of wooden nutmegs.
June 5 .- A man in a sulky, while passing under the flags on Saturday, cut at them with his whip, for which grave offence he was put into the guard-house and kept there until to-day.
June 6 .- The flag farce has reached the ne plus ultra of absurdity. Yesterday two soldiers went to O. C. Morris's and demanded a flag they said he had. He stated that he knew of no flag on his premises, and the men rushing by him found a negro child having a little red rag tied to a switch, which it had been playing with at the kitchen window. Full of patriotic ardor, the soldiers seized the rag, and tearing it in pieces warned Morris that his whole family would be put under arrest if the offence were repeated.
Monday night, June 12 .- Two regiments of infantry, under a Colonel Stewart, arrived to-day, from Winchester, to relieve Duval's command.
Tuesday night, June 13 .- The two infantry regiments of Duval's com- mand marched out this afternoon, on their return to Winchester, fol- lowed by an immense train of negroes. The other infantry regiment was sent to Harrisonburg several weeks ago. The officers of the Ohio regiment, which left to-day, are apparently gentlemen, and we are sorry they did not remain, as we are still to have Federal troops here. Col- onel Duval (no relation of the General) and Lieutenant-Colonel Wilson have always conducted themselves as sensible and liberal men, and have freely expressed their disapproval of the General's fooleries. The General's coach was a luxurious vehicle, drawn by four elegant gray horses. It is said the cavalry have gone also.
June 14 .- United States treasury notes, called "green backs," and national bank notes constitute our paper currency. Very little current, however.
Tuesday night, June 20 .- The poor negroes flock to town as if they could not be free in the country. One small tenement, in which an old couple lately lived, is now occupied by thirty.
June 21 .- A report that four hundred Yankee negro troops, in Texas, demanded the surrender of some Confederates, and were attacked and all but sixty killed. As we are now a part of the United States, the way of telling this news on the street is: "The Rebels have whipped our people again."
Monday night, June 26 .- A military order is posted in the streets to-day, requiring "Rebel" soldiers to take off all insignia of rank, brass buttons, &c. The days of "the '45," when the Highland plaid was proscribed, have come back again. * * The "so called " Legisla- ture of Virginia-the Senate composed of four men, including the Lieu- tenant-Governor-has met at Richmond, and passed an act allowing persons to vote without taking "the iron-clad oath." There can be no courts till October.
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June 29 .- Many stores in Staunton. Goods said to be very cheap- that is, it seems so because we have not forgotten Confederate prices.
July 2 .- Federal soldiers have been enforcing the order for Confede- rates to strip off military clothing. Some of them have stood at street corners with shears to cut off brass buttons, &c. Every negro, even, wearing an old Confederate coat or jacket has lost his buttons. Most of our poor fellows have nothing to wear except their old uniforms.
Wednesday, July 5 .- The negroes gave the Yankee officers a dinner yesterday at their barracks. The town was full of negroes of both sexes, who celebrated the Fourth by walking about. A number of drunken soldiers were also on the streets. At night there was quite a mob of them in town.
Wednesday night, July 19 .- The first election for county officers under the new order of things was held yesterday. The vote was quite full, contrary to expectation. Most of the late incumbents of the various offices were re-elected, but the present attorney-general has published an opinion, received here after the election, in which he lays it down that all persons who have held office under the " so-called " Confederate States government are ineligible to office, which will probably cut out many of the successful candidates. * * "Loyal" men are so much afraid of acknowledging the Confederacy that they generally preface it by the words "so-called."
Saturday, July 22 .- The Fifty-eighth Pennsylvania regiment came here last week from Richmond, or somewhere east. The men are dis- contented and lawless. * * We have no mails, although the railroad trains and stage-coaches run regularly.
Tuesday night, July 25 .- The two regiments under command of Colo- nel Stewart started down the Valley this evening. Everybody regrets the departure of Stewart. We expect nothing good from the Pennsyl- vania regiment which remains here. The officers seem afraid of the men. It is currently reported that a soldier gave his captain a whipping a few days ago.
August 13 .- Governor Pierpoint has ordered new elections of county officers in place of those recently elected, who had held Confederate offices. The county magistrates elected on the 18th July met recently and adjourned over to the regular court day in this month. The corpo ration election took place last week, and I believe the military have made a formal surrender of the town to the civil authorities.
Monday night, August 28 .- The first session of the new county court was held to-day. Some routine business was transacted. * * Mr. A. H. H. Stuart was nominated by a public meeting for Congress. Candidates for the Legislature were also nominated.
September 10 .- Notwithstanding we now have civil courts, our pro- vost-marshal continues to try all sorts of cases. He generally decides in favor of the negroes whenever they are parties before him.
An election for members of the State Legislature was held
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October 12. Nicholas K. Trout was elected to represent Au- gusta county in the Senate, and John B. Baldwin, Joseph A. Waddell, and George Baylor were elected members of the House of Delegates. Mr. Stuart was at the same time elected a mem- ber of the United States House of Representatives.
The Circuit Court for Augusta county, Judge L. P. Thomp- son presiding, was held at the usual time in November. But although civil authority was then professedly restored, some Federal troops were kept in Staunton till January 12, 1866, when they were finally taken away. They were accused of ex- citing much disorder in the town, and their departure caused general rejoicing in the community.
CHAPTER XVIII. .
RECONSTRUCTION-1865-'71.
At the close of 1865, our people flattered themselves that they would be left to attend to their own affairs, under the Constitu- tion of the United States, without further molestation. They had in good faith "accepted the situation," and had no thought of future resistance to Federal authority. We shall see how far they were disappointed.
Congress and the Legislature met in December, on the same day. Mr. Stuart could not take the prescribed oaths, and he and all Southern men were excluded from the halls of Congress. This was a strange spectacle. The war was waged for four years to compel the Southern people to return to the Union, and now their representatives, although prepared to swear allegiance, were denied all participation in the government. For four years more Virginia had no representative in Congress.
The Legislature, however, proceeded comparatively untram- meled. John B. Baldwin, of Augusta, was elected speaker of the House of Delegates, and his influence was commanding and most salutary. There was little in the proceedings of the Legis- lature during either session-the winters of 1865-'6 and 1866-'7 -which has a place in these Annals. Some of the business was of general importance, and much of it was merely routine. Fed- eral politics were avoided as far as possible. Many acts of incor- poration were passed, and amongst them one for chartering the Valley Railroad Company.
Under the Alexandria Constitution, "so called," judges of the higher courts were nominated by the Governor, and ratified or rejected by the Legislature. The Court of Appeals consisted of
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three judges, and the counties were arranged in circuits, as pre- viously. In February, 1866, Judge Lucas P. Thompson, of the Augusta Circuit Court, was nominated by the Governor and con- firmed by the Legislature as one of the judges of the Court of Appeals. His health, however, was then declining, and he died in the following April, without having taken his seat on the bench of the highest court. In like manner, Hugh W. Sheffey, of Staunton, became the judge of the Circuit Court of Augusta and other counties.
Mutterings of the coming trouble were heard early in 1866. The few "original Union men" in the State were dissatisfied with the restoration of "Rebels" to place and power; and a few of them, under the lead of John C. Underwood, held a meeting in Alexandria, in February, and adopted a memorial asking Con -. gress to set aside the State government and organize a territorial government for Virginia. The proposition was generally re- garded as preposterous; but Underwood and his faction having the sympathy of the dominant party in Congress, in order, if pos- sible, to forestall hostile action, the people of Augusta, in a public meeting, on February court day, reaffirmed the resolutions adopted by them May 8, 1865.
On the 4th of April, 1866, a convention was held in Staunton, in behalf of the Valley Railroad enterprise, eight counties being represented. The company was organized under the charter granted by the Legislature, and a president and directors were elected. 57
A proclamation of the Secretary of State of the United States at Washington, dated December 18, 1865, set forth that the Thir- teenth Amendment to the Constitution, which prohibited slavery in the United States, had become valid, having been ratified by thirty-three States, exclusive of Virginia. To this amendment there was no opposition in this section of country, our people generally having no desire to perpetuate the institution of slavery. But the Thirteenth Amendment was no sooner adopted than the Fourteenth was proposed. This amendment, among other things, disfranchised every person, who, having previously, as a public officer, taken an oath to support the Constitution of
57 The road was completed to Staunton in March, 1874, and to Lex- ington in November, 1883.
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the United States, had engaged in rebellion, unless relieved of such disability by a vote of two-thirds of each house of Congress. It also prohibited the payment by any State of any debt incurred in aid of rebellion. The agitation of this matter led to another meeting of the people of Augusta, at their June court, 1866, at which J. M. McCue presided. Resolutions were adopted protest- ing against amendments to the Constitution proposed by "the body of men now assembled at Washington, and which claims to be the Congress of the United States." They further ex- pressed opposition to the amendment, but declared that no pro- position of the sort could be considered by the people till all the States were represented in Congress.
While our people were kept in a state of unrest and discom- fort by the measures proposed by politicians at Washington, nothing of special interest occurred in the county during the remainder of 1866.
On the 4th of January, 1867, a bill to establish and incor- porate the "Augusta County Fair" was introduced in the House of Delegates by John B. Baldwin. This bill was duly passed, and, as required by it, the County Court appointed directors of the Fair at their June term, 1867.
Until the early part of 1867, it was expected that a Governor would be elected during that year to take office January 1, 1868. Mr. Stuart and Colonel Baldwin were the only citizens promi- nently named in connection with the office; and if the election had been held, it is almost certain that one or the other of them would have been chosen to preside over the State.
The Legislature was called upon to consider the proposed amendment to the Constitution of the United States, and on the 9th of January, 1867, the Senate unanimously, and the House of Delegates with only one dissenting vote, declined to ratify it.
The party controlling Congress had, however, been at work devising measures to constrain the Southern States to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment, and on the 20th of February the " Shel- lebarger Bill" was passed. This bill provided, that whenever the people of any one of the "Rebel States" should adopt a Constitution framed by a convention of delegates elected by "the male citizens of said State, twenty-one years old and up- wards, of whatever race, color, or previous condition," &c., &c., "except such as may be disfranchised for participation in rebel-
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lion," &c., &c., and when, by a vote of the Legislature of said State, the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution should be adopted, then senators and representatives therefrom should be admitted into Congress, &c. This act was vetoed by President Johnson, but became a law by a two-thirds vote of Congress. Another act was passed over the president's veto, March 22d. which provided for the registration of voters and the call of State conventions contemplated by the Shellebarger Bill. These meas- ures caused a feeling of deep depression in the State, as they indicated, it was believed, an intention to place the common- wealth in the hands of the freed negroes, to the exclusion of nearly all other people.
General Schofield, of the Federal army, commanded the troops in Virginia, or " Military District No. I," as it was called. He issued an order, April 2, suspending all elections by the people until the registration of voters required by act of Congress should be completed. In the meantime, vacancies in office were to be filled by military appointment of persons deemed "loyal," or who would take the prescribed oath, commonly known as "the iron-clad oath." Registration officers in the various coun- ties were appointed by General Schofield from the same class.
The Legislature adjourned finally on the 29th of April.
Confederate Memorial Day was observed in Staunton by the people of Augusta for the first time on the Ioth of May, the fourth anniversary of the death of General Thomas J. Jackson. Colonel Charles T. O'Ferrall delivered an address in the Methodist church, and a procession of people, nearly a mile in length, moved from the town to Thornrose Cemetery, where there were appro- priate ceremonies.
The registration of voters, under the act of Congress, was begun June 22, and completed July 20. The number of voters registered in the county was 4,690, of whom 3,484 were white people, and 1,206 colored. This system of registration, and the secret ballot coupled with it, were innovations on the ancient cus- tom in Virginia. We had now seen the last of the old, and, as many still think, better plan of voters proclaiming their choice at the polls.
Everything in relation to the proposed convention was ar- ranged and ordered by the Federal officer in command of " Military District No. I." General Schofield directed that Au-
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gusta county should have two delegates, and the district of Augusta, Albemarle, and Louisa, one, and that the election should take place October 22. The voters had the privilege of voting for or against the Constitution, as well as for delegates to serve in case the majority in the State was in favor of a conven - tion.
Nearly all the white people in the State were arrayed in oppo- sition to the measures of the extreme "Republicans," who controlled both branches of the United States Congress. The former styled themselves "Conservatives," and called the other party " Radicals." A public meeting of the Conservatives of Augusta was held in the courthouse on Saturday, October 12, to nominate candidates for the Convention, the assembling of which, however, they intended to vote against. The nominees were Joseph A. Waddell and Powell Harrison to represent Augusta county, and James C. Southall to represent the district, and these gentlemen were elected on the 22d by large majorities over their Radical opponents. The vote stood in the county, for convention, 1,257, including 1,024 negroes and 233 whites ; against convention, 1,655, including 1,646 whites and 9 negroes. The total number of votes cast in the county was 2,912. Thus, of the registered voters, 1,788-nearly all white people-did not exercise the right of suffrage on this occasion. Very many of the people were discouraged, and indisposed to wage what they felt was a useless contest with the Congress of the United States, supported by the military power of the government. So it was in the State generally. The vast majority of the white people who went to the polls voted against the convention, but very many did not vote at all, while the negroes generally attended and voting for the convention, the majority in favor of it was 45,455.
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