USA > Virginia > Tazewell County > Tazewell County > History of Tazewell county and southwest Virginia, 1748-1920 > Part 55
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Federal Government. The ordinance required that the question should be submitted to the people on the following fourth Thursday in May for ratification or rejection. An election was held on that day, and the action of the Convention was endorsed by a very large majority of the votes cast at the election.
The secret sessions of the Convention, held before the ordinance was adopted and promulgated, were marked with very able and heated discussions of the secession question. There was a strong anti- secession sentiment prevailing among the members, as was shown by their votes when the ordinance was put upon its final passage. It was adopted by a vote of 88 to 55. The minority was made up of a number of the most distinguished men of the Commonwealth. Among these were: Alexander H. H. Stuart, John B. Baldwin. Edmund Pendleton, William McComas, Jubal A. Early, Robert Y. Conrad, James Marshall, Williams C. Wickam, John S. Carlile, Alfred M. Barbour, George W. Summers, John Janney, who was President of the Convention; Waitman T. Willey, Sherrard Clem- mens, Samuel McD. Moore, John F. Lewis, Algernon S. Gray. William White, J. G. Holladay, and others.
The men who represented the counties that constitute the present Ninth Congressional District of Virginia in the Convention were as follows: Lee-John D. Sharp; Lee and Scott-Peter C. John- ston; Scott-Colbert C. Fuqua; Russell and Wise-William B. Aston; Tazewell and Buchanan-William P. Cecil and Samuel L. Graham; Washington-Robert E. Grant and John A. Campbell ; Smyth-James W. Sheffey; Wythe-Robert C. Kent; Pulaski- Benjamin F. Wysor; Giles-Manillius Chapman. Three of these- Mr. Sharp of Lee, Mr. Fuqua of Scott, and Mr. Grant of Washing- ton-voted against the ordinance; but Mr. Grant changed his vote to the affirmative. The other members from this district-nine in number-voted for the ordinance.
Governor Letcher took prompt steps for organizing and mobiliz- ing the military forces of Virginia. A number of well-trained volunteer companies were already in existence in the various cities and counties of the State, and these were quickly mustered into ser- vice. The governor, on the 22nd of April, nominated Colonel Robert E. Lee to be Commander of the military and naval forces of Virginia, with the rank of major general. The nomination was confirmed by the Convention; and on the following day, the 23rd,
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the great military chieftain appeared and was introduced to the august body by John Janney, the venerable President, in a speech that presaged the fame that Lee would win in the four years that followed. General Lee s response to the beautiful remarks of Mr. Janney was brief and characteristic. He said: "Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Convention-Profoundly impressed with the solemnity of the occasion, for which I must say I was not prepared, I accept the position assigned by your partiality. I would have much preferred had your choice fallen on an abler man. Trusting in Almighty God, an approving conscience, and the aid of my fel- low-eitizens, I devote myself to the service of my native State, in whose behalf alone, will I ever again draw my sword."
A temporary union of Virginia with the Confederate States was effected through Commissioners appointed by the Convention, and Alexander H. Stephens, Commissioner for the Confederaey. And on the 25th of April an ordinance was passed adopting the Constitution of the Provisional Government of the Confederate States ; and this ordinance was not to be effective until and unless the Ordinance of Secession was ratified by the voters of Virginia. Later, a resolution was passed inviting the President of the Con- federate States, and the constituted authorities of the Confederacy, to make the city of Richmond, or some other place in this State, the seat of government of the Confederaey. Alexander H. Stephens, Vice President of the Confederate States of America, says in his History of the United States: "On the 21st of May, after the seeession of Virginia, the seat of government of the Confederate States was transferred to Richmond, the capital of that State."
Thus did a convention, composed of the most eminent men of the Commonwealth, separate Virginia from the United States of America and identify its hopes and fortunes with the Confederate States.
I have undertaken to relate as briefly as possible the most potent factors that forced a dismemberment of the Union, and the consequent four years of tragic strife between the sections. This. I believed, was necessary before telling what the people of Taze- well did as their part in the Civil War.
If one cares to search for the causes of the war between the States, they can surely be found in the series of events that attended the agitation of the slavery question-beginning with the Missouri
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question in 1818, and culminating in the Presidential election of 1860. To whom shall be alloted the fearful responsibility of originating the causes that provoked the terrible catastrophe? This, up to the present time, has been largely a matter of individual or sectional opinion. Conservative thought may, possibly, eventually find that the fault was dual-divided equally between the fanatical Abolitionists of the North and the uncompromising slaveholders of the South. The Abolitionists so abhored slavery that they violated the Constitution, defied the deerees of the highest judicial tribunal of the Government, and employed the most barbarous agencies for its abolition. And its extreme advocates at the South claimed, as did John C. Calhoun, that slavery was a benevolent institution and should be perpetuated. Others at the South contended that its economie value transcended all questions of morality and righteous- ness. From these two extremes there was developed an irrepressible conflict that could not be concluded except by war.
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CHAPTER V.
WHAT TAZEWELL DID IN THE WAR.
There was practically no difference of opinion among the people of Tazewell as to what they ought to do in the conflict between the North and the South. At the election held for ratification of the Ordinance of Secession the vote of the county was practically unan- imous for ratification of the ordinance. This attitude was not evoked by a desire to extend or perpetuate slavery. According to the census of 1860, the entire population of the county, after the formation of Buchanan and McDowell counties, had been reduced to 9,920 souls. Of this number 8,625 were white persons, 1,202 were negro slaves, and 93 free negroes. There were not more than two or three hundred slave-owners in the county.
From the day that Tazewell became a political unit of the State of Virginia and of the Federal Union, the people of the county had remained steadfast in their devotion to the political creed of Thomas Jefferson. They were thoroughly indoctrinated with his theories of States-Rights and Local Self-Government. Hence, when the North undertook to violate the constitutional and reserved rights of the Southern States, the men of Tazewell stood heartily with Virginia in her resolute support of the Southern people. It was not to extend or perpetuate slavery that Tazewell sent two thousand of her devoted sons to do service for the "Lost Cause."
The sublime spirit that animated the Clinch Valley pioneers to defend their homes and loved ones from assaults made by the sav- age red foe, and to do much splendid service for their country on numerous battle fields while fighting Great Britain's red-coated veterans during the Revolutionary War, was reawakened in the breasts of their descendants when the tocsin of war was sounded in 1861. Immediately following the withdrawal of Virginia from the Union, volunteer companies were rapidly organized in Tazewell County, so rapidly that it was almost impossible to supply them with equipments for service. But this did not stay the ardor of the brave and eager men of Tazewell. Most of the men and boys of the county had guns of their own, and they knew how to use them
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quite as well as did their pioneer ancestors. Many of the soldiers went to the front armed with their own guns and pistols, and the cavalrymen furnished their own horses. Twenty companies-ten of infantry and ten of cavalry-did valiant service for the Con- federacy.
Bodies of Confederate troops were on several occasions encamped in the county while the war was going on. The first of these was a small army under the command of General Humphrey Marshall, of Kentucky, that camped in the spring of 1862 east of the county
Captain William Edward Peery, son of 'Squire Thomas Peery, and grandson of William Peery the pioneer, was, possibly, the most universally beloved man that Tazewell County ever produced. He was born July 7th, 1829, and died March 15th, 1895. It can be safely said that he lived and died without an enemy on earth. His home was the centre of the lavish hospitality for which Tazewell in his day was so noted. He was educated at Emory and Henry College, and was a man of fine literary taste and attainments. The first year of the Civil War he served on the staff of Gen. Jno. B. Floyd. In the spring of 1862 he became lieutenant of a company of cavalry, of which com- pany the gallant Col. W. L. Graham was captain. This company was attached to the 16th Virginia Cavalry Regiment in the fall of 1862, and he was made captain. On the retreat from Gettysburg he lost his right arm and was made a prisoner at the battle of Boonesboro, Md., in June, 1863. He was imprisoned at Johnson's Island until March, 1865, when he was exchanged, and returned home after an absence of two years. Captain Peery would never accept a public office, though often solicited by his friends to stand as a candidate. However, he held and expressed decided and intelligent convictions on all public questions, and had much to do with shaping the political and economic thought of the people of the county.
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seat, then Jeffersonville. General Marshall had his headquarters at the home of the late Captain Wm. E. Perry, and most of his men were quartered on Captain Peery's farm. His army was composed of the 5th Kentucky Infantry, commanded by Colonel A. J. May; 54th Virginia Infantry, under Colonel Trigg; 29th Virginia Infan-
This old walnut tree is one of the most noted trees in Tazewell County. It stands near the west end of the residence of the late Capt. Wm. E. Peery; and many hundreds of his friends were greeted and socially entertained by him under its delightfully refreshing screen. Tradition affirms that Dr. Thomas Dunn English wrote the sweetly pathetic ballad, "Ben Bolt," within the precincts of its cool shadows. He certainly wrote "The Logan Grazier," one of his poems, under this tree. Dr. English was then sojourning in Tazewell and was frequently the guest of Captain Peerv.
try, under Colonel Moore; a small battalion of infantry, com- manded by Major Dunn; a battalion of Kentucky cavalry, under Colonel Bradley; and a battery of artillery, commanded by Cap- tain Jeffries. General Marshall had been ordered to assemble these forces at Tazewell to co-operate with General Henry Heath, who
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was stationed at Dublin, in Pulaski County, and Colonel Gabriel C. Wharton who was encamped at Wytheville with his regiment, the 51st Virginia Infantry. The three commands-Marshall's, Heath's, and Wharton's-did co-operate in May, 1862, against the Federal army under General Cox that was advancing up New River, aiming to reach the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad, now the Norfolk & Western Railway. General Marshall had made a fine record in the Mexican War, but in the operation against Cox he showed such inefficiency that he had to retire from active military service.
The next body of men that encamped for a season in the county was a battalion of Georgia artillery. There were three or four companies and it was a splendid body of men. They camped here during the winter of 1862-63, and came more especially to get sup- plies of food for the men and feed for their horses, there still being an abundance of grain, hay, and meat in the county. The encamp- ment was made in a basin at the head of a hollow just west of the present fine orchard of Samuel C. Peery, on land then belonging to the estate of Major David Peery, and now owned by Ritchie Peery. Comfortable cabins were built for the officers and men, logs cut from trees on the site of the camp being used for that purpose. The place was afterwards called by persons living in the locality the "Georgia Camp." It is about two miles northeast of the town of Tazewell. Early in the spring of 1863 the Georgians left their winter quarters and went South for active service.
Very soon after the Georgians left, the 45th Virginia Battalion of Infantry, known as Beckley's Battalion, occupied the camp that had been vacated. This battalion was composed of four companies, and was made up almost entirely of men from the border counties, most of them from Boone and Logan. Several of the Hatfields and McCoys belonged to the battalion, Ans. Hatfield being a lieutenant in one of the companies. It was as fearless fighting body of men as could be found in the Confederate service. Lieutenant Colonel Henry Beckley, son of General Alfred Beckley, of Raleigh County, commanded the battalion; Major Blake Woodson, of Botetourt County, was second in command; J. G. Greenway, who afterwards became distinguished as a physician at Hot Springs, Arkansas, was adjutant; and Dr. Jno. S. Pendleton, brother of the author, was surgeon. In the spring of 1864 the writer enlisted as a private in Company A, which was commanded by Captain Stallings, who T.H .- 39
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was clerk of Logan County. At the battle of Piedmont, on the 5th of June, 1864, the 45th Virginia Regiment and the 45th Virginia Battalion were near each other on the fighting line, only one regi- ment, the 60th Virginia, intervening.
The Tazewell men in the 45th Regiment suffered heavily. Colonel William Browne was mortally wounded; Captain Charles A. Fudge, was severely wounded and fell into the hands of the enemy; Captain James S. Peery was captured, and several other men from the county were made prisoners, among them Jesse White.
Captain Charles A. Fudge entered the service of the Confederate States early in the spring of 1861 as second lieutenant of Company H, 45th Regiment, Virginia Infantry. And in the spring of 1862 he became captain of the company. He commanded his company in numerous battles; but at the battle of Piedmont, on June 5th, 1864, he was desperately wounded and captured by the Federals. He was confined in prison until the war ended. Though he lived to a venerable age he never recovered fully from the terrible wound received at Piedmont. He was born March 7th, 1834, and died November 2nd, 1912.
General William E. Jones, who commanded the Confederate forces. was killed just about the time the Federals made a successful breach in the Confederate lines and flanked the 45th and 60th Regiments, and the 45th Battalion. Colonel Beckley was wounded early in the action, a minnie ball passing through his left wrist ; and Major Woodson was shot through the left arm, between the shoulder and elbow. The author was captured in this battle, and, after being a prisoner for two days, was paroled at Staunton.
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There were other encampments of Confederate soldiers, at various times, in the county. Colonel A. J. May camped for a time with his Kentuckians at Indian, now Cedar Bluff ; and in July, 1863, he had a small force of cavalry camping on Colonel Henry Bowen's place in the Cove. The 16th Virginia Cavalry, commanded by Colonel William L. Graham, wintered at Camp Georgia in the winter of 1863-64.
The losses incurred by Tazewell as a result of the Civil War were not confined to those that came from the death and disablement by wounds of so many of her best men. Her financial losses were very heavy. All the coin, and paper money, of any future value, that was in circulation in Tazewell when the war began had dis- appeared, or was valueless, when the struggle was over. Gradually but unceasingly for four years, the thousands of horses, cattle, sheep and hogs, that were owned by the farmers and graziers had been reduced to mere hundreds by home consumption and the gener- ous supplies furnished the Confederate Government. The produc- tion of grain in the county was largely diminished by the absence of so many men who had been actively engaged in farming before they became soldiers. But the old men and the boys labored faith- fully, and enough grain was produced to feed all the people at home and to furnish considerable quantities to outsiders in exchange for depreciated Confederate money. The faithful negro slaves also toiled on uncomplainingly, and did their part nobly in caring for the wives and children of their masters and the families of the soldiers who had no slaves. Nothing more worthy of commendation trans- pired during the Civil War than the faithful service performed by the slaves in Tazewell County. In proportion to their condition and opportunity they did as excellent service as the gallant men who fought for the Confederacy.
Too much cannot be said in praise of the splendid service rendered by the good women of Tazewell while the war was in progress. There were no Red Cross organizations in the county, and none anywhere in the South, to do such work as was performed by the Red Cross organizations in the recent World War. But every precious mother and daughter of Tazewell while the States of the Union were engaged in fratricidal strife was in herself an
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impersonation of the modern Red Cross heroine. They could not go to the battle grounds to attend the wounded and dying; but at home they were one in thought and purpose to do all they could for the comfort of the men who were marching, fighting and dying for the cause they loved.
The old spinning wheels and looms were brought from the garrets and lumber-rooms and put into active use. During the last two years of the war. in 1863 and 1864, it was very seldom that fabrics of any kind suitable for clothing, either for men or
The above picture is reproduced from a daguerrcotype made at Lynchburg, Va., in March, 1864. I am using it to show the excellent quality of the woolen cloth woven by the good women of Southwest Virginia to supply their boys and kindred with clothing while they were fighting for the "Lost Cause." At the right of the picture is the author, dressed in a suit which was made from jeans woven by his aunt, Mrs. Kate Cecil Peery. On the left is my brother, Dr. Jno. S. Pendleton, and he is clothed in a suit of jeans for which our mother wove the cloth. My brother was surgeon of the 45th Battalion, Vir- ginia Infantry, and I was a private in Company A of the same bat- talion. This is the only picture of a Confederate soldier clothed in jeans I have ever seen, and that is why I use it here.
women, except such as were manufactured at home, were obtainable. All the country stores were closed, because the merchants could not buy any goods to continue business ; and the stocks of the two or three stores that tried to continue business in Jeffersonville would hardly have made a load for a four-horse wagon.
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Nearly all the farmers, large and small, had flocks of sheep which they carefully conserved, and the cultivation of flax was resumed. In this way enough raw material was produced in the county, when used with cotton thread, to provide ample clothing for the people at home, and keep the soldiers from Tazewell com- fortably clad. Bales of cotton thread were procured from North Carolina mills and used for chains in the webs of jeans, linsey, and flannel that the women skilfully wove on their hand-looms.
There were no commercial dycstuffs then procurable. The daughters of Tazewell had not only inherited their skill as weavers, but had retained the ingenuity and adaptability to conditions that made the pioneer mothers pre-eminent. They found in the forests and gardens vegetable dyes, from which they got very pleasing color effects. The colors were not as brilliant as those produced by the modern chemical dyes, but they were satisfactory. Black and white walnut bark, hiekory bark, sumac berries, wild indigo plants, and madder roots grown in the gardens, were the chief materials used. The colors produced from these were black, brown, blue, red, and sometimes by making two separate colorings a very pretty green effect was gotten. The linsey gowns worn by the girls and the jeans eoats and pants of the men and boys were neat and comfortable.
FEDERAL RAIDS TIIROUGH TAZEWELL
Tazewell's isolated location was a great protection against devastations by Federal armies while the war was going on. There were no permanent or even temporary occupations of any section of the county by the enemy; but there were four invasions by raiding parties, three of which were made by large forces. All of the raiders came by the same routes the Indians travelled when they made their murderous forays to the Upper Clineh settlements. Three of them came up the Tug Fork, and one the Louisa Fork of Big Sandy River.
TOLAND'S RAID.
In July, 1863, Brevet Brigadier General John Toland. in com- mand of about one thousand Federal cavalry, suddenly invaded Tazewell County. He came up Tug River and entered Abb's Val- ley on the afternoon of July 15th, erossed Stony Ridge and camped
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that night on Mrs. Susan Hawthorne's place about midway between the present residence of Mrs. Henry S. Bowen and the old Charles Taylor place, which is about half a mile west of Mrs. Bowen's house. At daybreak on the morning of the 16th, Toland resumed his march. Some of his men burned Lain's mill, which stood on the site now occupied by Witten's mill. For some reason the Federals applied the torch to and totally destroyed Kiah Harman's dwelling. which stood about one-fourth of a mile north of the Round House.
General Toland camped about three hundred yards west of the beautiful home of Mrs. Henry S. Bowen, shown above, and situated seven miles northeast of the court house. This is one of the most attractive of the many lovely homes in Tazewell County.
Just after sunrise the head of the column arrived at Captain Wm. E. Peery's, one and a half miles east of the court house. Thomas Ritchie Peery, brother of Captain Peery, Samuel L. Graham, John Hambrick, and the author. the latter then sixteen years old, were sitting in Mrs. Peery's room, waiting to get their breakfast, which was being hastily prepared. We had left our guns on the porch at the back of the room in which we were sitting. The floor of the porch was, as it now is, on a level with the ground, and paved with brick. Suddenly two Yankee cavalrymen rode on
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to the porch and pieked up our guns; and the house was then completely surrounded by troopers.
Mr. Graham and Mr. Hambrick slipped out into the hall and went into the ell part of the house, which Mr. Hambriek, as manager of the Peery farm, was then occupying with his family. By a clever ruse, Graham and Hambrick avoided being made prisoners. Mr. Hambrick went quickly to bed, pretending to be sick, and Mr. Graham assumed the role of his physician. When a couple of troopers entered the room Mr. Graham was feeling Hambrick's pulse, and told the intruders he was a very sick man, urging them to retire as a shoek might kill the patient. The trick was sueeessful, as the kind-hearted soldiers promptly left the room.
In the meantime Tom Ritchie Peery, who was then nineteen years old, and the writer, who was sixteen, had been ordered to join a bunch of prisoners that were out in the barn lot. There were some fifteen or twenty youths and old men, who had been eap- tured along the line of march from the head of the Clinch.
General Toland was moving his foree very rapidly so as to reach Wytheville as quickly as possible; and his men did not have much opportunity to plunder houses on the line of march. They took eight or ten horses from the Peery farm, among them two fine dapple iron-gray mares that belonged to Mr. Hambrick. Only two horses were left on the place. One of these was "Bill", 'Squire Tommic Peery's old riding horse, over twenty years old; and the other a beautiful young sorrel horse my grandfather Cecil had given me. The Yankees couldn't catch old Bill and my horse. These two horses jumped fenees and ran into the brush at the west end of Buekhorn Mountain.
There were several boxes of old Kentucky rifles in the granary. that had been left there by General Marshall's men in 1862. The guns were brought from the granary, broken up and piled with pieces of wood, and burned. Some of the guns were still loaded, and as the barrels became heated the sharp eraeks of the rifles made the Yankees seatter. During this time of confusion, the writer quietly walked away from the guards and slipped baek into the house, seated himself, and remained there until all the troops had passed up the road on their march to Wytheville. The other prisoners were taken as far as Burke's Garden and were there paroled. While passing through the Garden, a storehouse that
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