USA > West Virginia > Tucker County > History of Tucker County, West Virginia, from the earliest explorations and settlements to the present time; > Part 17
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This ship, the George Le, has an after history worth mentioning. It was taken back to New York and repaired and named the Central America. Its fate is known the world over. It sailed from Aspinwall with a full load of passen- gers. It went down in the Caribbean Sea, with nearly all on board. Poets and orators have told the story, and it is a sad one. There were about twenty of Harper's acquaint- ances on board. The passengers were on their way from California, and many of them carried in their belts the earnings of years. When it was found that the ship must go down, the men began to unload themselves of the gold, which they empted from their belts upon the deck, until, according to an eye witnesss, there was no spot from one end of the ship to the other, whereon a man might set his foot, that was not covered with gold. But it did no good, and the ship went down with its gold and its human beings and the ruthless Caribbean waves rolled over all.
Harper returned to California and with his brothers mined and dealt in cattle. The business prospered well. So well, indeed, that they conceived the plan of establishing a house in Chili, South America. The few Europeans and Americans who had gone there were making fortunes. Jerome Harper
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was sent there. It was about this time that the insurrec- tion broke out in Chili. The people there were oppressed with all tyranny, and politics were in a deplorable condi- tion. The measure was full of risk and danger, but Jerome had established a merchants' commission store there. He was doing a large business when the rebellion came on. With the characteristics of his family, he at once took sides in the controversy, and in so doing, he gave his sympathy and assistance to the rebels. The war raged dreadfully for
awhile; but the Government forces were the most powerful and the rebellion was crushed. The rebels, as fast as they could find transportation, were banished to Patagonia. That country then was, and still is, among the least civilized regions on the globe. It was the Siberia of South America; and those who were exiled to the savage hills, where it rains or snows three hundred days in the year, met a fate as dreadful as the Nihilists who now languish in the icy prisons of Asiatic Russia.
E. Harper could get no tidings from his brother, further than that he sympathized with the rebels. When the news reached California that the rebels were conquered and were being banished to Patagonia, Captain Harper concluded that his brother must have been sent to Patagonia. Time, with no tidings from Jerome, convinced him more strongly of this; and, with an ever commendable generosity, he deter- mined to go to the rescue of his brother.
Captain Harper was intimately acquainted with the U. S. Minister to Chili, and through his interposition hoped to procure the release of his brother. The property in San Francisco and in the country was sold to raise funds for that purpose. He came down to Pataluma, near San Francisco, and was intending to make the sale of some
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property there, and then proceed in person to Chili to do what he could for Jerome. But when just on the eve of departure, he got intelligence that Jerome had arrived in San Francisco, and was out of money. Harper sent him twenty dollars on which to come to Patalima, and without awaiting his arrival, returned north and canceled the sales he had made. Those made in San Francisco and Pataluma were also canceled, so that there was no great loss after all.
After this, Mr. Harper worked some mines and dealt in cattle till 1860. At that time his parents wrote to him to come home as they needed his care. Ho closed his busi- ness and returned to his native county.
This was in 1860, and the Civil War was at hand. Har- per was a man who always took sides one way or the other. If he was not a friend he was an enemy. So, when the war came on, he joined the Confederates, and threw his whole energies into his cause. The first active service he saw was at the battle of Corrick's Ford, where he acted as pilot to Garnett's retreating army, and led it safely through mountain paths and narrow defiles across the Alleghanies. . The particulars and a full account of this will be found elsewhere in this book. It is proposed to give here only such of his history as is not connected in a general way with other county matters.
The next we hear of him he was in Pendleton County, actively engaged in the field. That part of the State was then held by the Confederates. There was fighting to be done. The man who had braved the dangers of mountain, plain and sea, and had seen duty in the wildest country on earth, was sie to be of service in guerrilla warfare among the steep cliffs and narrow defiles of Pendleton County. .
It was not long before there was plenty of fighting to be
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done. The Federals were advancing into the country, and Harper was sent out, with a company of others, to annoy them, but not to offer battle, unless favored by great odds. He got in front of several hundred, and saw a chance to strike them a telling blow. He made an impetuous charge, and drove them back upon the main body and captured two horses. But he had advanced too far, and found him- self in danger of being taken prisoner. The Yankees were on three sides of him. He had a good horse, and it was now a ride for life. He kept his distance and was thinking himself almost beyond danger, when a ball ent through his coat, and another stuck his horse in the neck and killed him instantly. Harper ran on a-foot. One, a tall fellow of the enemy, ont-stripped the others of the chase and came close upon him. It was a sad risk for the young sollier, and dearly did he pay for it. He was pressing a man whom it was not safe to press in a case of that time.
Harper got beyond range of the enemy's innskets, and then halted to collect his men. He could find only two. But with these he made a stand, and having greatly the advantage of ground, he held them in check for some time, and until both of his brave comrades fell dead at his side. He then continued his retreat and succeeded in making his escape. But, the two captured horses were retaken, and he got back to the Confederate lines without a horse. This exploit gave him a name in that country, and the very next day he was elected captain of a company of rangers.
This was duty that suited him. He was an excellent woodsman, and understood well the management of scouting parties. He and his brother William were the principal leaders of the guerrilla bands in that region; and so dashing and rapid were they in their movements, and so
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quick to understand and thwart any effort made to circum- vent them, that the Yankees were in mortal dread when- ever in that region.
It is not the intention to give the details of all the skir- mishes that took place in that section. That belongs to the history of Pendleton County ; and it should be pre- served as local history.
It was about this time that the McDowell fight took place. It was thought proper to keep the Federals in Beverly from aiding in the fight, and with this in view, Captain Harper was ordered to make a movement as if to attack Beverly, and thus keep there what troops were in it.
He immediately fulfilled his orders. He selected twenty of his most trusty men and came down from the mountains with a bold front, and advanced within one mile and a half of the town. Here he captured a store, and made all the display of his forces possible, so as to make an impression of fear upon the enemy. In this he was successful, inas- much as he did what he attempted ; but he met misfortunes before he was done with it.
The people on Dry Fork were principally Union men, and had organized companies of their own, and called then Home Guards. Their enemy often called them Swamp Dragons. Sampson Snider was one of the most noted leaders of the Union guerrillas of Dry Fork. When Har- per made his raid from Pendleton toward Beverly, he forgot that he was laying himself open to an attack from Snyder, who could cross over from Dry Fork and assail him in flank. When he had made all the display in front of Bev- erly that was deemed prudent, he retreated with his twenty chosen men, all in fine spirits and superbly mounted, to Shafer's Mountain.
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Here he was surprised and routed by Snyder's Company from Dry Fork. He lost all his guns, but saved his men, and making a forced march, camped that night above Franklin. The next morning he spied out the Federal Army and counted the regiments. There were twenty- seven. He learned that they were aiming to get in the rear of Stonewall Jackson. He at once set out with all speed to Staunton to convey the intelligence. When he stepped into Mayor Hammer's office, he found him pressing teams into service to send to Winchester for the captured spoils. Harper told him to stop the teams, that Fremont was moving in the rear of Jackson with twenty-seven regi- ments. When the Mayor heard this and saw who was speaking, he ordered the teams stopped and dispatched to Jackson what the situation was. He did not even ask Har- per how he knew whereof he spoke.
Soon after this, Harper joined the regular army; but he was seldom required to do camp duty. He was a good scout, and services as such were worth more than as a sol- dier. When Imboden made his raids into this section of the State, he was piloted by either Captain or William Harper. Captain Harper led the party that crossed the mountains with such remarkable speed to burn the Fair- mont bridge. He was also the pilot of Imboden at his first raid into Tucker County. William Harper was the pilot at the second raid.
In November, 1863, he was sent through to learn the sit- uation of the enemy in Tucker County. He came over the mountains, and passed the settlements at night, till he ar- rived in Tucker, where he set himself to work searching out the designs of the enemy. His intimate knowledge of the country rendered this an easy task. When he had gotten 16
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the desired information he visited his father's house to bid his parents good-bye. He had not been there ten minutes when the house was surrounded by Union soldiers, and citizens of the neighborhood who had a spite at him and hit on this plan to take vengeance. He saw the soldiers in front of the house, and started to escape by the back door. On the step he was confronted by a squad of soldiers with presented guns. They ordered him to surrender. Seeing the impossibility of escape and the uselessness of resist- ance, he complied. He unbuckled his belt and let it and his pistols fall to the ground. He was then a prisoner.
It is not the purpose to follow him through the horrors of his prison life, except in the briefest manner. He saw and endured the rival of Libby and Andersonville. Noth- ing but his unconquerable will and his iron constitution enabled him to live through it. Carthagenian cruelty was surpassed on him, and his lot was worse than that of the Chillon Prisoner.
As soon as he surrendered, some of the men wanted to shoot him, and would have done so, if not restrained by the regular soldiers. They carried him to St. George, and threw him in jail. It was a cold, November night, and he was allowed no fire or blankets. This was not enough, and the next morning he was chained. It was not deemed safe to keep him in St. George, because his friends were mimer- ons and might set him at liberty. Therefore, he was taken to Rowlesburg and placed under the directions of Captain Hall. Hall treated him kindly ; but some of the men thirsted for his blood. Several plans were laid to kill him; but he and David Lipscomb succeeded in preventing falling into their hands. He was confined in the guard-house, and even then his enemies tried to assassinate him. He
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always spoke highly of the kindness of Captain Hall and of most of the men of Company F.
It was soon deemed advisable to move him from Rowles- burg, and he was taken to Clarksburg and put in prison. Great crowds of people came to look at him, and an Irish- man exclaimed in surprise : "Faith ! and he is a little man to fire a salute over and for the officers to get drunk over, when he was captured." He attracted a great deal of atten- tion at Clarksburg. The people had all heard of him and how he had fleeced the Yankees in Pendleton. From Clarksburg he was sent to Wheeling, and was there chained to a post, and all the other prisoners were ordered not to speak to him. He passed the time as well as he could. The officers paid considerable attention to him, and seemed to like to question him concerning his past life. He com- municated freely, and won their confidence. They ap- peared to think that they were doing him a great honor by condescending to talk with him. But he gave them to un- derstand that, although a chained prisoner, he was not a slave, and would not be forced to praise their tyranny. For, when one of them wanted his opinion of the prison, expecting him to brag on it and its managers, as compared with others, Harper replied that one thing seemed to be wanting to render the prison perfect in every particular. The officer wanted to know what that was. "A picture on the wall, of the Goddess of Liberty in chains," replied Har- per, while the officer's countenance fell, and a look of shame overspread his face.
The next day an officer came in and requested him not to make so much noise with his chains, as it annoyed them in their office. Harper felt this intentional insult, and giving the chain a shake of defiance, he said it annoyed him too,
-
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and if they did not like to hear it they could take it off. With this the officer flew into a rage, and heaped abuse and calumniation upon the prisoner, and charged him with causing more disturbance on the frontiers than any other five men. He tried to browbeat the prisoner into submis- sion ; but, in this he failed. Harper defended himself against the attacks of the officer, and said that the duty of a soldier had always been his rule of action. But, if they had any doubt as to whether or not he was a coward they might pick out six of their men and give him five of his from the prison, and they would settle the matter on any terms. This offer, of course, was not accepted; and Harper then told them if they would give him six men, he would take the town and them in it. He said it was only their coward- ice that made them chain him.
This controversy had a bad effect. It turned the officers against him, although they should have admired such a display of endurance and independence. But, after that he got few manifestations of kindness from them, and it was not long before he was carried to Camp Chase. Whether his quarrel had anything to do with the transfer is not certain.
We subjoin an extract from one of his letters.
I staid two months in Camp Chase. I am told that there were three thousand prisoners there ; but I cannot answer for the num- ber, because I had little opportunity for knowing. I know how I spent my time, and what I saw and suffered, and that is all I wish to know or see or hear on the subject. I have read many stories of prison life ; and I am, as a general thing, opposed to giving them circulation, since they arouse a feeling of hatred and vengeance that can do no good. Many of them, too, certainly are exaggera- tions, although many are not. You asked me if I thought the Union prisons as bad as the Confederate. I cannot answer this
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from personal experience, for I was never confined in a Confed- erate prison; but I should judge that they were about the same. The Rebels often let prisoners suffer because they had no food or shelter for them, and thus there must have been appalling horrors in the Southern prisons late in the war; for then the Rebels often had only the coarsest rations for their own men in the field. Of course, in so great a scarcity of provisions, and in the intense hatred that existed, the poor soldiers of the Union, in the Confed- erate prisons, must have suffered from hunger, and exposure to the weather. You know that my sympathies are with the South and always have been, and it is but natural that I should try to clear them of the charges of intentional cruelty. I do try to clear thein. I know the Southern people, I know that they are filled with fire, and filled with generosity. It is, therefore, my belief that much of their hard treatment of Union prisoners was of necessity, and if they could they would have been better.
But, with the Union prisons, this is not the case. They could have fed and clothed and sheltered their prisoners if they would have done so. Their stores were filled with bread and meat; and clothing, even if it must be the worn-out uniform of soldiers, was abundant. I endeavor not to let prejudice and national or sec- tional hatred influence me in what I say of the war. I fought for the South, and I wanted the South to succeed by all honorable means; but, since it was not to be so, I think I am man enough to free myself from all prejudice, and to consider calmly the issues as they then stood. I have no doubt but that much of the barbarity in the Northern prisons was due to a spirit of retaliation and re- venge. It was modeled, in extent, after the cruelty in Southern prisons; and I think the model was surpassed. I can't see how it could have been otherwise.
The last night of 1863 was very cold, and we were not allowed any fire. But, fifteen men disregarded the orders and kindled fires in their stoves. It cost them their lives ; for the guards discovered the fires and shot and killed the prisoners as they sat shivering round the fires trying to get warm. I suppose that they were buried, but don't know. I know that there was little hurry in burying those that died. I have seen them lie two or three days
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unattended, and when at last a rough box was brought and the corpse placed in it, the box and all was often used a day or two as a card-table for the guard, and until decomposition rendered it necessary to get rid of it.
I soon got accustomed to such scenes. But every day of my prison life I saw something new, and something more shocking than I had ever imagined. We know but little of what is in this world ; and we know but little of what human nature, in its de- pravity, can be guilty of ; and we know but little of what a man is capable of enduring. I had come to look upon Camp Chase as the worst place on earth ; and I would gladly have exchanged it for anything but death. Wretched as was my condition, I still wanted to live, and it was nothing but the stubborn determination to live that carried me through. I was there two months in the dead of winter, and the time seemed years. I suffered from cold and hun- ger and sickness all the time.
Finally word came that we were to be removed, and we hailed it joyfully, for we did not think that any change could be for the worse. We learned that we were to be taken to Rock Island Prison. We had heard of it, and the reports had been bad enough; but, in spite of all we heard, we were glad to get away from Camp Chase.
In February, 1864, we were taken to Chicago on our way to Rock Island. We had to walk through Chicago, about one mile. Nine ont of every ten had frozen hands or feet, and some were so frozen and benumbed with the cold that they could scarcely walk. The guards here seemed the meanest set of men I had seen. They were rough and brutal to the prisoners, and beat us over the head and pounded us when they fancied we were not doing right. Some of our men were so cut and bruised about the head that the blood covered them from head to foot, and often their hats were frozen to ther heads with the ice of blood.
* *
* *
When at last we landed at the Rock Island Prison, the horror of horrors awaited us. It seemed to me that I, like Dante, was pass- ing down through the realities of seven hells, and that I was now in the deepest pit. There was no necessity of so cruelly treating us. If there had been, I would be the last man on earth to com-
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plain. But there was no necessity for it. It was open and willful determination to torment us, and to torture us with hunger and cold and beatings and cursings, and everything revolting that could be used against us. I have wondered if the Blackfeet In- dians could have been more relentless in their torture of captives.
We ate everything that would sustain life, The prison officers did not seem to care how many of us starved to death. It would have been a mercy if they had killed us. * * * * *
*
I saw that it was a matter of life and death with me. I was wil- ling to give anything for my life. Some of us were to be exchanged, but the lot did not fall on me. I saw a tall fellow, on whom the lot had fallen, and I approached him for a trade. I hired him to assume my name, and I went in his place. I gave him $7000 in money, and sent him enough provisions to last him a year. What- ever became of him, I do not know ; but he had a stout constitu- tion, and I hope he endured it to the end of the war, and at last returned to freedom in the Sunny South.
Captain Harper was taken to Point Lookout. There he was again confined in a prison, only a little better than Rock Island. It was warmer and he had more to eat, which were the principal changes for the better. The prisoners were kept in tents where the mud was half knee-deep. They had one blanket for each two. They staid only two weeks, and were then shipped to James River and were turned loose within sight of the Confederate lines.
The war was now drawing to a close. There was great need for soldiers in the Rebel armies. They had been thinned by a thousand pitched battles, and few recruits came in. Worn and exhausted as he was by his dreadful suffering and exposure, Harper did what he could for the cause that had cost him so much; but the cause was beyond the need of his help. The war was over. He was the last man to bow in defeat; but, when it must be done, he did it, and acknowledged the power of the victor.
ยท
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He was not a man to contend without something to be gained. It will be seen that, in all his exploits and under- takings, he had something definite in view. This was his nature. So, when he saw that nothing was to be gained by hostility to the North, he buried all his antipathy, and turned his energies into other channels, and let the by- gones of the war be things of the past.
He returned to private life, and has since so lived, ex- cept when called upon by the vote of his countrymen to take office, and then he has done so, and his record as such is one of uprightness and honor. Since the close of the war he has been once to California, and has visited nearly all the Western States. His brothers, Jerome and Thaddeus, remained on the Pacific Coast. Thaddeus returned on a visit to West Virginia in 1868, and remained a few weeks. On his return to California he encountered terrible snow storms in crossing the mountains, and the train was almost buried in the drifts. After a length of time the track was cleared of the snow, and he arrived in California. He is a business man of great success, and has amassed a fortune. He is now engaged, among other things, in shipping beef from British Columbia. He spends his summers in that country and his winters in San Francisco, at the Palace Hotel.
Jerome Harper is dead. He died at Santa Barbara sey- eral years ago. He had long been an invalid, and had traveled over many parts of the world in search of health. He was finally taken, by E. Harper, to the hot springs of Santa Barbara, in California, and there he died.
The further history of Captain Harper, his connection with the forces of the Confederacy, in Tucker, will be found in the chapter on the war. Since the war, except the time
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spent in the West, he has lived on his farm in the Valley of Clover. He has there built the largest dwelling in Tucker County, and is one of the most extensive landholders. Of late he has engaged extensively in the lumber business.
None of the Harper brothers, who went to California, were ever married. They have always been men of influ- ence in whatever calling they have chosen. Captain Har- per's record as an officer will be further dealt with in the chapter on public officers.
CHAPTER XV.
TRAVELERS-CONTINUED.
HENRY BONNIFIELD is a native of Tucker, although not now a resident. He is a son of A. T. Bonnifield, and a grandson of William Corrick, and was born in 1855. While very young he manifested a tendency to be foremost in all manner of daring adventures. Climbing trees that other boys feared to climb and wading water too deep and swift for other boys were his pastime ; and, in the display of his belligerent propensities, no lad was too large for him to tackle. He was not a perfect specimen of peacefulness and resignation ; but his forwardness tended only to romance and adventure. Indeed, his very early life gave sign of what his after nature would be. He would never be second best in anything. With him it was best or nothing. His first years were spent in the Sypolt House, that stood where now stands the Crawfish Swamp School-house, near S. N. Swisher's. From there, with his father, he moved to Limestone, and lived on Wild Cat Ridge. It was then a hard place, and neighbors were few and far between. But, there were trees to climb, and snakes to kill, and springs to dabble in, and other mischief to claim his attention until his fifth year.
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