USA > West Virginia > Braxton County > History of Braxton County and central West Virginia > Part 20
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After the organization of this Post, many other soldiers joined and they held their meetings in Sutton for several years. The soldiers beeoming old and many of them having died, the Post ceased to exist as an organized body.
Henry Bender was Commander of the Post, John D. Sutton, Adjutant, and Jacob Riffle, Treasurer. It is to be regretted that the charter and other officials papers became lost, together with a complete roster of its members.
CIVIL WAR INCIDENTS.
It is related that Perry Cutlip, Alonzo Brown, James and Francis Lough, while on a furlough and returning to camp. arrived in the night at the place of their old eamp, and discovered some dead and wounded men, a battle having been fought and they were not aware of it. Perry Cutlip saw a gold wateh on a wounded soldier, and started to remove it. The soldier resisted, and told Cutlip the watch was a gift from his father, and that if he got the watch he would have to kill him. At this, Cutlip drew his gun to strike the wounded man, and Frank Lough shot Cutlip, the ball taking effect in the neck, but he recovered, and the Confederates are all living at this time, 1916, except one.
SINKING OF SULTANA.
William S. Conner of Beaver Falls, Pa., a survivor of the. Civil war, re- calls vividly the sinking of the packet Sultana at the close of the Civil war, which was a worse catastrophe than the sinking of the Titanic in that more lives were lost, and hundreds of men burned to death.
The sinking of the Sultana occurred on April 27, 1865. The packet was loaded with 2,300 Federal soldiers just released from Southern prisons, and were returning home. One of the boilers exploded while the boat was in the Mississippi below Memphis. Seventeen hundred men were burned or drowned in squads, while about six hundred floated down the swollen river for miles
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where they were pieked up by reseuring steamers, many of them from tops of trees where they had taken refuge. Nearly half of the reseued died later from exposure.
Mr. Connor was in the United States navy at the time of the terrible ae- cident, and assisted in the work of rescue.
John D. Weihert, a Braxton boy, soldier in Company F, Tenth West Virginia Infantry, was eaptured and sent south to prison, and on his return at the elose of the war, lost his life on the ill-fated Sultana.
James B. Corley who belonged to a branch of the Corley family, related to the Corleys of Randolph and Braxton, was on General Lee's staff in the late Civil war, and James A. Corley, a relative, was an aid of General Garnett at Laurel Hill, and wrote what is believed to be General Garnett's last dispateh before he was killed at Carrieks Ford on Cheat river. It was to Colonel Seott, and reached him near Huttonsville while he was eating breakfast, July 12, 1861, and read as follows: General Garnett has eoneluded to go to Hardy eoun- ty, and toward Cheat bridge. You will take advantage of the position beyond Huttonsville, and draw your supplies from Richmond, and report for orders there.
After the battle of Droop Mountain, a squad of soldiers was detailed to gather up the dead and wounded, and among the number thus detailed was Andrew Jackson Short of Company F, Tenth West Virginia Infantry. They were working in the night, and Short discovered a dead soldier, and took hold of his body to remove him to the place where they were bringing the dead and wounded together. He felt a erooked finger on the soldier's hand, and the size and feel of the man convineed Short that it was his brother John. He there- fore called for someone to bring a light, saying that he had found his brother, and when he had the light, he discovered for a certainty that the man was his brother John. In relating the incident to Dr. W. P. Newlon many years after the battle, he said that he took his brother by the hand and recognized some peculiarity by which he knew the lifeless body of his brother.
This is an ineident so rare that nothing similar has ever, to our knowledge, been recorded in the annals of warfare. When John and Andrew grasped each other by the hand when they last parted before the bloody confliet, who could have pietured in his imagination the tragie meeting again when Andrew should take the same hand in his, though that hand was eold in death. After the fatal ball had laid the soldier low in battle, his affectionate brother, though separated in the great eause, was the first to lay his hand upon the pulseless brow of him who had given up his life on the battle field.
In 1861 Nathan D. Barnett and his son, John D., were sent by the Fed- eral authorities to Camp Chase, a Federal prison, but their friends soon in- tereeded and seeured their release. On their return they stopped at the resi- denee of Felix Sutton to stay over night. During the night Nathan Barnett took violently ill and lived but a day or two. It was some derangement of the
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bowels or kidneys. Dr. Samuel Cutlip, of Cedarville, was sent for, but could give no relief.
After the town of Sutton was burned, Colonel Anas Ansal brought a com- pany to Sutton, and part of them went up Laurel creek, and part up Birch river. They killed George Cutlip and Chapman on Laurel creek, wounded Sam. Carpenter, killed John Given, and at Gardners killed Perry Conley, burned Lewis McElwaine's house, also those of Arthur Hickman and Caleb Gardners.
Asa Squires who lived on Salt Lick was the only man in the county who furnished four sons to the Union army, and his fifth son wanted to enlist, but his parents thought he was too young.
John Knicely who lived in the same neighborhood, served through the war with three of his sons.
Throughout the war the courts were open, and their authority was re- spected. In November of this year, several "detailed farmers," called into military service, sued out writs of habeas corpus, and brought their cases' be- fore Judge Thompson at Staunton. He decided that they were not liable to serve as soldiers, and ordered their discharge.
In time of the Civil war, Caleb Gardner of Webster county went South and worked during the struggle at a saltpeter cave. He was pressed in the service and ordered to Richmond, but applied to the Civil authorities, and was released by a magistrate.
Elijah Perkins, a citizen, was arrested by the Federal military authorities in 1862, on some charge, and was detained in custody, and taken in charge by the county authorities and released.
Within the Civil war, there was a little battle near the Three Forks of Cedar creek between some Federal cavalry and a squad of Confederate sol- diers. One cavalryman was so badly wounded that he died.
In the Battle at Bulltown, the Confederates had a four-pound cannon that they carried on a mule and used in the battle, and on their retreat up Laurel creek, they concealed the cannon in a laurel thicket, a short distance above Wainsville where it remained in silence during the remainder of the war, and until the time when Dr. Nicholas Gibson brought his bride to Sutton in 1871. Then the boys prepared for a royal serenade, and the old cannon was brought from its hiding place and taken to Sutton by Johnson Barker, one of its old defenders who had been in the Bulltown battle, and knew where it was con- cealed. In the excitement of the serenade, they charged the old war relie too heavily and it burst, and while no one was seriously hurt, some of the party were considerably shaken up.
In time of the Civil war a young man named Jasper Johnson belonged to Company B, 19th Virginia Cavalry. It seems that Johnson was at one time cap-
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tured by Federal soldiers and volunteered in the Union army. He then de- serted and went baek to his old command. Becoming tired again of the ser- vice, he left and desired to stay at home, but the Federals caught him, and he was senteneed to be shot but made his escape, and went baek to the Confeder- ates. He was eourt martialed by William L. Jackson's command and shot at Camp Cameron near Warm Springs, Virginia, for having twice deserted his army. His comrades in arms thought that Johnson was young and a vietim of eireumstances, and should not have been executed. Accordingly they planned for his eseape, but he refused, saying that if he was eaught by the Federals he would be shot. This was the fate of many a young man during the Civil war, but whether by eivil or military authority, the death sentence is a relic of the dark ages which eivilization and Christianity will at last correct.
A Federal eourier named Benum who carried dispatches and mail from Sutton to Summersville, was captured at Big Bireh and taken south, and as far as we know, never returned to this part of the war zone.
Milton Frame, a Union man, who lived on the waters of Steer ereek, not far from the little village of Servia, was attacked at his home by some Con- federates. There were three or four men at his house and they had some fire- arms, but the Confederates outnumbered them and they all took shelter in the Frame residence and tried to shield themselves. Mrs. Frame, being armed, bid defianee to the intruders and stood them off with a bravery and heroism that would be commendable in the bravest frontiersman of our country. The Con- federates tried to shield themselves behind a little out-building, but Mrs. Frame kept up sueh a fire that they retreated and left her in possession of her home and the battlefield. She received a bad gunshot wound in the hand. Mrs. Frame's maiden name was Amanda Rose. She was oblivious to fear. Whether the Confederates in their defeat or the inmates of the house who sheltered themselves behind Mrs. Frame's gun had the greatest reason for exultation we eannot eonjeeture.
A story related to the writer from a very reliable source was to the effect that just before the town of Sutton was burned, Phoebe, a daughter of James Hefner who lived three or four miles south of Sutton, eame to town to get a doctor to go to her father's house and see her sister Elizabeth who was very low with typhoid fever. She seeured the serviees of Mrs. Humphreys who prae- tieed medicine in Sutton and surrounding vieinity. The Commander of the post refused to allow Miss Hefner's return, but permitted Mrs. Humphreys to go. The following day, the girl was allowed to return, but her sister had died. This so ineensed Miss Hefner that she determined to have revenge, and having heard the night she was kept in Sutton, the roll call of the soldiers, she observed their position and formed a very aeeurate idea of their strength. She went immediately to Jackson's Camp, not waiting for her sister's burial, and ap- pealed for a foree to be sent and capture Sutton which was done, and its de- struetion followed. This ineident shows the determination of a woman when she is driven to desperation by a wrong.
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In 1862, Lieutenant Henry Bender of Company F, Tenth Virginia Volun- teers, commanding a squad of men, had a battle at the residence of Andrew Ware, with some Confederates under Eli Goff.
Men whose respective names were Smith, Warner, Lake, Goff-a brother of Eli C. Goff-John Butcher and others of the Confederates, were in the house. The fight was a spirited one, Buteher being killed. The Confeder- ates, finding they were surrounded by men who were resolute and determined, surrendered. Goff was a bold and daring man who had committed many dep- redations on the citizens of the central part of the state, and the capture of him and his gang was one that Lieutenant Bender felt justly proud of when he delivered them to the authorities at Wheeling.
INCIDENTS OF A STORM.
The first day of January, 1863, was the coldest day of which we have any knowledge. How low the mercury fell, we do not recall, but between Grafton and Piedmont, a number of Federal soldiers perished, and at other places soldiers and citizens perished. In addition to the intense cold, the wind blew constantly all day on New Year's, also that night. It was our good for- tune to be on picket duty that day and night, on what was called the back road across the river, opposite the town of Beverly.
On the Harper farm, I had become acquainted with Mrs. Harper who was a New England lady, and she had taught a school in Braxton county many years before the Civil war. She mentioned a little girl who stayed at the home of the writer's father and went to sehool, and spoke of her as a very bright, active, sweet-natured little girl. We informed her that the child in question was Hannah Rodgers, and then she remembered the name. The writer then told her she was still living, being the wife of Adam J. Hyer, and was a most noble woman.
Mrs. Harper had invited us to take dinner with them that day. The picket post stood about a half mile above the Harper residence in a large open field so we left the post long enough to go down and eat dinner, but it was so in- tensely cold that we could hardly stand it in the dining room. Mrs. Harper lived in a good house, and had prepared a most appetizing meal, but it was too near the Arctic regions on that day, and we were unable to enjoy the feast.
When night came, we suffered most and came very nearly losing our life. We had a fire on the outside of a rail pen, but the wind blew it in every direction, and the only thing we could do was to constantly shift from one side to the other, and walk around the fire for hours. Finally becoming so cold and sleepy, we lay down in the pen, and memories soon ceased, and with a feeling of comfort, went to sleep. Had some of the boys not wakened the sleeper soon afterwards, he would have been frozen to death, and it took active tramping around the fire the remainder of the night to keep circulation alive.
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BURNING OF SUTTON.
The company that captured and burned Sutton on Wednesday, Dec. 29, 1861, was commanded by Captain John S. Sprigg. The town had as its de- fenders, Lieutenant Dawson with about sixty of Roan's cavalry who retreated, and the town was promptly occupied by the Confederates. It is said that in the absence of Captain Sprigg, some time within the day, that the Tunings set fire to the town and partly destroyed it. Sprigg returned and was appealed to by John S. Camden and others to stop the burning. Hanley Humphreys re- lates that he saw a soldier going with a torch to set fire to a house, and some soldiers told him that the order was not to burn any more. He said, "Whose order?" and the reply was, "Captain Tuning's."
Pembrook B. Berry was instrumental in putting out fires and saving much property. The town was again attacked by Chas. Rodgers who had but a small squad of soldiers. They burned the Camden hotel and some other buildings. A house stood where the Racket Store now stands, opposite the hotel which had been used as a Federal hospital. It caught fire from the hotel and was burned. When Spriggs' command captured the town, there were about thirty- five soldiers in the house whom he paroled. Dr. Lafayette Woodruff was in charge. He had accepted an invitation to cat turkey with Joseph Osburn on the following day, but he made his escape by riding double out of town be- hind a cavalryman.
General Roseerans left Sutton on Sept. 7, 1861, and three days later fought the battle of Carnifax Ferry. This command consisted of ten thousand troops, the greatest army and number of men ever bivouaced in Sutton or marched through central West Virginia.
It is said when Clinebell's Confederates retreated from Sutton, that as they marched down the main street, Daniel J. Stout, a musician, played on his fife one of the most inspiring airs that, ran like this, "If you have any good thing, save it, save it-if you have any good things, give them to me." Now, the discomfiture of the Confederates and the excitement of the citizens render- ed the music very amusing, and as Uncle Daniel's shrill notes sounded amid the surrounding hills of Sutton, they gave an air of cheer and hilarity to an excited throng.
SUTTON IN THE WAR.
J. W. Humphreys relates that the first Federal soldiers to enter Sutton was Colonel E. B. Tyler's brigade, composed of the 7th and 13th Ohio Three Months men, and one other Ohio regiment, one or more batteries, some cavalry, and a company of soldiers called the Snakehunters, commanded by Captain Biggs. As they marched down the street about where Lee's hardware store stands, they saw a squad of men going up the hill on the other side of the river. They were ordered to halt, but they kept going and the soldiers fired at them. They were Enos Cunningham, Chas. S. Evans, Levi Weybright, P. B. Berry, two of the Tonkins boys, and perhaps one or two
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others. C. S. Evans' gun stoek was eut in two with a minnie ball. This was the first real taste of war that Sutton had experienced. These soldiers as they marehed down the street with flags flying and bands playing, dressed in new uniforms with shinning gunbarrels and bayonets fixed, was one of the most imposing sights that the town had ever beheld.
Jacob Ervin, a very old man, and James W. Humphreys were the only two men left in Sutton to welcome the army. General Tyler treated the citizens with great eivility and kindness.
A thrilling ineident. Was the dream of Captain Hyer, prophetie? In the summer of 1863, a portion of Co. F, 10th W. Va. Volunteer Infantry, was on a seouting visit to their homes in Braxton eounty, a county from whenee that stalwart company was recruited, and where 90 per eent or more or those noble and generous boys were born and raised. While at home, Captain Hyer and some of his men were captured by the Tuning brothers and others, who alternated between W. L. Jackson's eanıp and anything they eould piek up within the Federal lines. The night that Captain Hyer was captured, he was at his home on Salt Liek, and had as his guests John D. Baxter, who was orderly sergeant of the company; Sergeant S. E. Knieely ; private E. B. Wheeler and Wm. M. Barnett.
As well as we remember, this was the company at Captain Hyer's on the night of the attack and capture; George D. Mollohan, Harvey Hyer and M. L. Barnett, civilians, were either there on the night in question or captured in the immediate neighborhood and were present as prisoners when the attaek was made. After several shots had been fired and a demand to surrender had been made, Captain Hyer thinking that the house would be fired and his family exposed and further resistanee would be useless against the protest of Orderly Baxter and perhaps others, surrendered to a party, part of whom at least were thirsting for the blood of some of the inmates of that house.
We know little of the history of Tunings, but think they eame from Ty- gart's valley, and settled on Salt Liek. Prior to the war, Jaek, the one they called captain, was a very stout and rugged man. and it is said that the only time he ever met his match was when he fought the invineible Crawford Seott of Randolph county. The Tunings seemed somewhat vieious and vindietive in their nature, whether they had any special grievanee growing out of the war that imbittered them we know not; but early in the war they were known to be hostile and disposed to wage a guerilla warfare, and for that reason the commander of the post at Sutton sent Orderly Baxter with a squad of men to their residence on Salt Liek to confiscate some property. This order he obeyed as a soldier ; as General Sheridan did the order of the war department at Wash- ington to burn the barns of the valley to prevent the Confederate forees from obtaining the resourees of that fertile land, and as MeCauslin did the orders of General Early to burn Chambersburg in retaliation for some private property he elaimed had been destroyed in Virginia by the Federal forees.
Tunings, like a great many other people, not looking beyond the mere
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surface, nor comprehending the true eause, swore vengeance in their wrath against Orderly Baxter, and after the capture of Captain Hver and his eom- pany, they gloated over the satisfaction they would have in subjeeting the al- ready doomed soldier to the indignities unworthy of our eivilization, and later in the deep reeesses and lonely glens of the mountains beyond Webster C. H., he was to be put to death like a savage or an outlaw. After the captain and his men surrendered, they were tied two and two and started on their mareh. The destination of some were Libby prison; others were to be put to death. No one knew this better than the brave Baxter. With him, like every good sol- dier, obedienee and diseipline was the first law to be observed. Until in the midst of battle he rushed forward without restraint. We remember him at the battle of Droop Mountain, when the lines of battle had approached within a few rods of each other, I spoke to the orderly, who was in advance of his company, and requested him to go baek and rally the men and keep the eom- pany in line. Captain Hver was in prison, and Lieutenant Rollyson was on staff duty; Lieutenant Bender, who was bravely leading his men on in battle, was the only commissioned offieer of the company present.
We thought some of the men were falling and dropping behind. Poor fellows were being shot and wounded, and in looking baek the eause I had not observed, for not a man of that company failed to do his duty on that day.
Baxter paid no attention to my suggestion, rushed forward as an example for his men, and kieking down a portion of an old rail fence behind which the Confederate line had but a minute before used as a eovering, he sprang aeross the fence and discharged his gun at very close range, and in the act of re- loading, I saw him plaee the butt of his gun on the ground, grasp the barrel with both hands and eased his body to the ground. He was mortally wounded and died in a few brief hours. Thus perished a noble soldier, brave and gen- erous-as oblivious to fear as the birds that flit amid the branches of the trees. We were boys together, though he was somewhat older and stronger. We had partieipated in all the outdoor sports of that day and time. No roads were found too lonely and no night too dark to deter us from hunting the wild game of the forest. We had tamed steeds; had ridden young horses, kept fieree dogs; ehased and eaptured the wild hog. When we had nothing very amusing on hand we would indulge in a good natured serap.
Possessing a flint loek gun, and loading it with a large charge of powder and a paper or toe wad, one would stand beside the lane fenee while the other would run by on the opposite side and fire upon him. We ealled it running the gauntlet, a eustom that prevailed among the Indians. More than onee I felt the stinging sensation as I would pass that old rifle. When it came my turn to load and fire, I put in as big a charge of powder and paper wad as I though he had used; when the sterner realities of life eame and the exciting seenes which were being enaeted our companionship seemed inseparable, and I think it impossible that the youths of this day ean fully appreciate the warmth, eordiality, unselfish eomradeship of the sixties. The reader will par- don me for this personal referenec.
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The Confederates were composed of two Tunings, Jack and Al., F. F. Squires, and others whose names 1 have forgotten. Wm. M. Barnett gave me all the circumstances some years ago, and the last time I saw him at his home in Washington, he repeated the story. Being one of the actors and partici- pants in the affair, nothing escaped his keen observation and the slightest de- tail never became obliterated from his memory.
The prisoners all being secured, the march was taken up near midnight for Wm. L. Jackson's camp in Pocahontas county. Baxter and Wheeler were tied together and Knicely and Barnett. A word as to the personnel of these men. Captain Hver's consideration for his family had caused him to capitu- late and now that he was a prisoner, knowing the desperate character of the Tunings, doubtless, thought that the safety of all depended upon their sub- mission. Hyer's activity for the cause of the Union and his influence in the community had incurred the displeasure of some of the secessionists. He was captain of the home company, a company some of whose members were ac- tually indispensable to the success of the Union cause in his section. Baxter was a military man, a born genius; did nothing under excitement; stood 6 feet, 2 inches in height; weighed 180 pounds and was handsome and commanding in appearance. His determination was to get away from his captors or die in the attempt, and not be shot down like a savage or a dog.
E. B. Wheeler was a rich prize, known as an abolitionist, bold and aggres- sive to assert his views; over 6 feet tall and strong as a lion ; a slugger of the old school, but didn't take kindly to military life; had a keen sense of honor and was a noble and generous man with more than ordinary ability. From the time they started, his eye pierced the darkness and roamed the hillside for a favorable opening to make a break for liberty.
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