Picking up from where I left off with my last post…
As I prepared to begin work on my thesis, I began sorting out my “findings” from the newspapers and Southern Unionist claims. Despite all that I already had, there was more to be learned. In fact, I exchanged e-mails with one person who made me aware of a story that I had yet to discover.
The fellow told me that two men in Page County, both Southern Unionists, were murdered. Not “formally executed” in the wake of a trial, but murdered. Not only that, but it disturbed me when he told me that these two men were in the middle of prayer when they were murdered. Oh, and also, a local minister was present in the group of men who had taken these two men from the jail. The minister did not partake in the murder, but he was present at the time.
I asked the person where he had heard this, and he cited two sources. The first was Sabres and Spurs: The First Rhode Island Cavalry in the Civil War, 1861-1865 (1876), by Rev. Frederick Denison (the story can be found on pages 94-95). The second source was a piece from Lt. Col. Franklin Sawyer (8th Ohio Infantry), found in the 17 July 1862 issue of the Newark Advocate [Ohio].
Remembering Haynes, Denison remarked that “he was not in harmony with the rebellion.” As he continued expressing his sentiments, he was eventually (according to Sawyer) “notified by the rebels not to return [to his home], but after the battle of Winchester [I took this as, perhaps, Kernstown], and our possession of the Valley, he did return. On our way to Fredericksburg, he entertained some of our officers and advised with them about his safety. Two days after we left, he was arrested.”
In fact, Haynes was arrested with another man, remembered simply as “Beylor.” Both were taken to the county jail in Luray. Within days of their arrival, they were found guilty of some unspecified crime (I don’t think I am assuming too much by feeling rather confident that the charge was “treason”) and condemned to death [only now, in writing about this again, do I realize that I didn't cite the source here, though I feel fairly certain it was Sawyer].
Nevertheless, according to Sawyer…
They were taken out of jail at midnight, under pretense of being sent to Richmond, marched about two miles into the woods, and there told that they were to be shot. They were in charge of five of the citizens of Luray, one of whom was a Baptist preacher, – Haynes asked permission to pray, and did so. His prayer so affecting that the hearts of two of the murderers failed, and one of them seeing this, stepped up and shot Haynes while on his knees and another one immediately shot Beylor. The bodies were left unburied until our army went up there. The families of these men are said to be in a most wretched condition. – Our Chaplain, Dr. Freeman [Lyman N. Freeman], visited Mrs. Haynes yesterday, and tells me that she has not left her bed since the murder of her husband was learned by her. This is only one instance out of hundreds, of cruelty of these rebels.
Denison’s version of events is not as descriptive but he remarked…
By [Thomas J. 'Stonewall'] Jackson’s direction, Mr. Haynes was arrested and imprisoned in Luray. When General [James] Shields moved to occupy Luray [June 1862], he promised Mrs. Haynes and her daughter that Mr. Haynes should be released; but on reaching the place he found the rebels had killed the prisoner; an account of which transaction the General penned and forwarded to the afflicted family by our Quartermaster, C.A. Leonard [Charles A. Leonard]. But the crowning barbarity was that the rebels refused to give up the lifeless body.
More on all of this later.
Sherree
October 3, 2008
Thanks for this post, Robert.
I intend to say a prayer today for these two “treasonous” rebels, in honor of their memory. Also, I looked up the twenty slave rule that you referenced in another post, and I will say a prayer for members of the planter class as well, in case they are in a dark place and need some help.
Funny how the strangest people believe in God. Like two men who did not accept the prevailing philosophy of their day, it appears, and were executed because of it. Or, less than a century later, a man of the church who abandoned his church for God, when the church failed to stand up and help prevent what became one of the greatest tragedies of all time–the attempted extermination of an entire group of people of another faith–and was executed, too. Yes, I am going to say some prayers today for the unsung heroes of God’s work on Earth.
Thank you again.
cenantua
October 3, 2008
Thanks for the comment Sherree. Before I say anything, however… well, just stay-tuned for more to come in the next few days.
Sherree
October 3, 2008
Will do, Robert. I am interested in the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey used to say. (I think it was Paul Harvey. I haven’t googled the quote yet to see if, after all, Paul Harvey did not say that, or if he was alleged to say it, or if perhaps he never said it and maybe Spock and the Klingons actually said it, etc….)
I am serious about the prayers. Just for the record.
Have a good week-end.
cenantua
October 3, 2008
Sherree, The prayers are for some good people. Just because they did not “go with the flow,” good people suffered for it; and they were as much “Southern” as the people who killed or harrassed them. I find hero status justified in some Southern Unionists. At the very least, the bravery they exhibited is more deserving of remembrance than what has been done for them so far. While a lot of people tend to focus on big-name Unionists (Thomas, for example), the real heroes were the common folk Southern Unionists (white and black… and of course, I have already mentioned one of them in an earlier post).
Sherree
October 3, 2008
I agree with you, Robert. Amen.
Sherree
October 7, 2008
Good Morning, Robert,
I just finished your book, Tragedy in the Shenandoah Valley. What a heartrending story in every respect! The anguish felt by everyone involved must have been extreme. The account of how Captain Summer’s father believed that his son would be safe if he cooperated with the authorities and his refusal to tell his son to flee when his son suggested that he flee, followed by the elder man’s inability to come to terms with this, is particularly poignant. You have written a wonderful book, and I recommend the book to everyone. Also, I offer my apologies about the SCV. I did not know that you were a member. You are obviously interested in heritage only, and in the preservation of the past, as are others, including at the top of anyone’s list your fellow blogger, Kevin, who is helping in a significant way to expand the definition of the past, and who is including in that definition those who were forgotten entirely. Without getting into that topic in depth as you are preparing for exams, perhaps a serious dialogue can take place in the future between you and others concerning those layers of history and symbolism that pertain to the war and that must be taken into account if a truly fair and equitable remembrance of the past is to be achieved, and a truly fair and equitable society developed.
Again, you have a written a wonderful book, Robert. Good luck on your exams. I feel certain you will do quite well!
Sherree
caswain01
October 7, 2008
Ought this not be on a Civil War Trails marker somewhere around Lury?
cenantua
October 7, 2008
Hi Sherree,
Thanks for the remarks about the book. I’m very glad you enjoyed it. I do have what might seem to be a funny question, but, how did you read it? What I mean is, did you read it strictly as a narrative or did you read it along with the endnotes? I encourage folks to read it twice, once as a narrative and then as a narrative, focusing on the notes. I loaded a lot of data in the endnotes and think it adds a lot to understanding all that took place.
I wrote the book because, as much as possible, I wanted to get to the heart of the events that surrounded the execution. Unlike some books that hold events like this on high as an example of “Yankee brutality,” it wasn’t my objective. I wanted to apply historical analysis to the incident. In the wake of putting it all together in the book, I now understand a great deal more about the key Union officers involved and why they may have acted in the manner in which they did. For that matter, I think I can grasp the reasons why the Southern Unionist (Tharp) did what he did by going over to the Union camp and telling him the “boys” were up to no good again. Even though it may have been a lie, I understand better his possible motivations, finding a new source of empowerment at the end of the war, after being among the inwardly oppressed in the area for four years. This is what historical analysis is all about… and it can be fun.
Also, you don’t need to apologize about the SCV. I was a member for 20 years, but left about three years ago. A number of things frustrated me with the organization, especially the more I worked my way through my thesis research. However, it all came to a head when I proposed the creation of a Sons of Union Veterans Camp from among the members of my SCV Camp. All of our most active members in the SCV camp qualifie for membership in the SUVCW and most participated in creating the camp. We received a lot of positive comments from SCV members, but there were key folks in the leadership who proved to show their obvious disdain for the thought. I think that it says a great deal about the Sons of Union Veterans, in the way that they were accepting of the idea that a camp be in their organization named specifically for the honor of both soldiers, blue and gray. We named the camp after one of the earliest Blue-Gray reunions to take place (1881 in Luray, Va).
Thanks again! Robert
cenantua
October 7, 2008
Craig – good question. It should be on a marker, but the local battlefields foundation, through which we use to secure about 80% of the cost of the markers through grants, hasn’t been able to offer grants for three years. 12 out of 13 of our CWT markers were funded through grants from the SVBF.
Don Umphrey
October 7, 2008
Robert,
I wondered who I was communicating with on the Civil War Unionist forum, so I came over to take a look. You have an impressive listing of Civil War publications. I also see that you are descended from Union soldier. Was he in the First Alabama?
Don
cenantua
October 7, 2008
Hi Don – No, my closest relatives in blue were uncles. One was in Cole’s Cavalry (1st Maryland Potomac Home Brigade) and was involved in scrapes with Mosby’s men regularly. Another set served in a Kentucky unit. One however, in which you might be interested as one who is interested in Southern Unionists, was a Virginian from the east face of the Blue Ridge. He got so fed up with the conscript hunters that he moved North just to be left alone. Unable to find emploment in New Jersey, he went across to Philadelphia one day and enlisted in the 72nd Pa… There is quite a bit more to the story worth telling and it involves going back home during the war.
cenantua
October 7, 2008
Don,
I should add, however, that my wife’s mother’s family is from NW Alabama (Marion Co). She has several family members who served in the 5th Alabama Cav. She also has one ancestor who was a Southern Unionist in that same county. His Loyalist Claim was among those that were approved.
Don Umphrey
October 7, 2008
Nearly all of my Civil War research has focused on northwest Alabama. My great-grandfather, the one I mentioned as being a sergeant in the First Alabama, lived in Marion County. During the war he was in the Thorn Hill Community. Around 1882 he moved to what was then Allen’s Factory (now Bear Creek) and the high school in that little town bears his name. He was conscripted into Patterson’s Fifth Alabama Cavalry in 1863 then deserted and helped to recruit and form Company L of the First Alabama.
I’m curious as to the names of your wife’s family from Marion County and where they lived. I’m probably at least familiar with the name of her ancestor who filed a successful claim with the SCC.
Several years ago I was given some papers and some ledger books from the general store operated by my g-grandfather. In one of those, I found that he had hosted a reunion of the First Alabama Cavalry in Bear Creek in 1910. I donated those papers to the library in Haleyville, AL last November.
I saw on your vita that you had served on a submarine. What attracted you to that line of service? I guess you didn’t find too many of your colleagues with claustrophobia.
Best wishes with you upcoming comps on your second masters. I’ve been involved in academia for the past three decades. I retired from Southern Methodist University in May. My M.A. and Ph.D. are in communication, and I have taught screen writing, advertising, public relations, and consumer behavior. I’m now writing fulltime and also operate a small book publishing company that specializes in Christian material relating to addiction recovery.
I’m not sure that I will return to writing about the Civil
War again, but I have thought about doing a monograph on Brig. Gen. Phillip D. Roddey, who commanded the Fourth Alabama Cav. and Patterson’s Fifth.
Sherree
October 8, 2008
Good morning, Robert,
You are welcome.
To answer your question: I read the book both as a narrative and as history. You succeeded as a writer and as an historian, and again I complement you on a job well done.
Also, I understand what you have said about the SCV and the Sons of Union Veterans. I think that the past can be remembered and honored without fighting the war again, and that it is time that we do it. Actually, there is a common enemy now in the heritage disagreements that demands that we do: “progress”–progress, as in the proposed building of shopping malls on battlefields, for example.
The Civil War was a terrible tragedy for everyone: Northerners, Southerners, Western men and women, white men and women, Native American men and women, and most especially, black men and women whose very freedom depended upon the war’s outcome. I know that this is obvious. But as you said in one of your earlier posts; sometimes the obvious has to be stated. As 2011 approaches and the nation once again remembers the Civil War, I truly hope that we can find a way to heal the wounds of the past. All of those who died deserve this–from the slave who was born in bondage and died before freedom was granted, to the slave who went North and became a soldier, to the white Northerner who wore a blue uniform, and the white Southerner who wore a gray one. Let us let the dead bury the dead and move on, is my request to everyone involved.
Thanks again, Robert.
Sherree
cenantua
October 8, 2008
Don –
So you have a background in communications? Interesting tie-in as my second masters is in Technical and Scientific Communication, but with a focus on (at least it boils down to this) Information Architecture. I really got bitten by the “bug” when I took a course in hypertext theory. After that, I find myself regularly thinking about process and design (not necessarily graphic design) in Web development.
Some key names from my wife’s Marion County kin… Burleson, Mann, Fink, Howell. I can’t think of the others right now, but I’ll get back to you. Here is the link to a post that I wrote about the Southern Unionist, Howell. The Burleson, Fink and Mann families all served in the Confederate army, most in the 5th Alabama Cav.
As for submarines… I wanted to do something different/unique during my service in the Navy, not just the standard stuff. I started off in the aviation side, but volunteered for subs near the end of my first tour.
You should think about writing those biographies. I’m not sure if it is really a great time for books, but the effort might find a home in another medium.
Looking forward to more exchanges on the Southern Unionist listserv!
cenantua
October 8, 2008
Hi Sherree,
Thanks again.
I think that we need to really stand together against this leveling of battlefields for the sake of commercial development. It disturbs me in more ways than one when there is a disregard for bloodied and hallowed ground. 150 years or not, it’s obvious that the subject still touches our souls. We want our economy to turn for the better, but I think we need to remain conscious of what we might throw away in the name of progress.
As for letting the dead bury the dead, I think I know what you are saying, but we need to be mindful of our heritage. I think there is a need within most of us to identify with something, but we can’t let it define who we are. We can appreciate our heritage (including their experiences with the historically good episodes and the bad episodes) and still be mindful of the here and now.
Just a thought (or maybe I’m rambling a bit), but I think that the echoes of slavery still reverberate strongest in the ears of African-Americans because of the trials faced since the days of freedom (segregation, Jim Crow, etc.). There is a traceable connection to slavery in the manner in which a people has been treated. It becomes really complicated when this translates into “real memory” (e.g., people, alive today, who experienced the segregation era) and when this memory clashes with “imagined memory.” I think there is a way through it, without sacrificing the heritage of either side. I might be oversimplifying it, but I think the start is looking at our heritage with an open mind and not seeing it so one-dimensionally. We should appreciate and understand our heritage, but do we really need to carry the baggage of a heritage of 150 years ago on our shoulders? If that baggage is carried on our shoulders, what is our motivation for doing so? For doing so, what do we make better, today?
Don Umphrey
October 8, 2008
Information architecture is way beyond me, Robert. My own communication research had me working with Gestalt-influenced social psych. theories from the 1940s and 1950s and how they tie into communication theory. So I am at least a half century behind the times. I am, however, interested in learning how to better navigate around the Internet–and I suppose this has to do with information architecture.
I am familiar with the Burleson family.
My Great-Great Aunt Susan Phillips married Ben Howell, a son of Burrell and Mary Ann Howell. Burrell Howell made a successful SCC claim, and I was able to use some of the information from this in my own book. Particularly compelling was Mary Ann Howell riding horseback into the night through a thunderstorm to warn Green Haley (another SCC claimant) that the Confederate soldiers were on their way to hang him.
Sherree
October 8, 2008
“I think there is a way through it, without sacrificing the heritage of either side. I might be oversimplifying it, but I think the start is looking at our heritage with an open mind and not seeing it so one-dimensionally.”
I couldn’t agree more, Robert.
Please keep up the good work!
Also, as far as how slavery, the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the Jim Crow era relate to the remembrance of things past by the men and women of the African American community, and as I commented on another one of your posts: that should be decided by African American men and women of the present, and not by white Northerners or white Southerners. That is the very least we can do to help correct the injustices of the past, in my opinion. If there are black men and women who agree with the views of heritage organizations–and there are–then that is their choice. If there are black men and women who do not agree with the views of heritage organizations–and there are–then that is their choice. The remembrance of the African American experience in American history does not belong to white America. It belongs to the men and women who are the descendants of the men and women who suffered the injustices of the past, and the voices of those descendants must be heard in a meaningful way, if we are going to formulate a meaningful history, and a meaningful future.
Thanks again, Robert, for the conversation.
Sherree
cenantua
October 8, 2008
Hi Don – Certainly a tie-in there as well, with Gestalt. I’m interested in the Web as a learning platform. Calling it that probably oversimplifies my interests. I’m curious how color, typography and the words (maybe a little rhetoric theory in there) all tie together to make for an effective educational tool. I’m also interested in the cognitive psychology side of the house in Web design.
So, we have a common focal point in Marion County. That’s quite something. Incidentally, noting your mentioning Bear Creek in your last comment… my mother-in-law was born at Bear Creek.
cenantua
October 8, 2008
Hi Sherree,
I just added something to my comment, to which you already replied… my addition was…
“We should appreciate and understand our heritage, but do we really need to carry the baggage of a heritage of 150 years ago on our shoulders? If that baggage is carried on our shoulders, what is our motivation for doing so? For doing so, what do we make better, today?”
What are your thoughts?
R
Sherree
October 8, 2008
Robert,
I think that if we begin to understand the past differently; then the past will no longer be a burden to be carried by anyone, but a history that tells of a triumph in human history like no other, and a triumph to be celebrated by all of us, and by the world as well. No matter how the founding of the nation is viewed, and how much blood was spilled as the nation was founded (and the founding of the nation is seen differently, depending upon perspective–a victory for one group of men and women; a defeat for another group) we took upon ourselves, in this country, the enormous challenge of trying to establish a democracy that actually works. There is so much untold history that needs to be told–the influence of the history of the Iroquois Nation upon our founding fathers such as Benjamin Franklin, a favorite example of mine–and when it is told, the healing will begin. The past is only a burden, I think, because so much of the past is still unresolved. We truly are a great nation, and our greatness encompasses the greatness of all of our citizens. Groups that attempt to divide us, do us all a great disservice, in my opinion.
Sherree
Don Umphrey
October 8, 2008
My mother, now age 90, was born in Bear Creek and that town is full of my relatives. Every year when I was growing up, we visited Bear Creek–and I guess those visits laid the foundation for my subsequent interest in the Civil War in that area.
I’m sure that your mother-in-law and my relatives are well acquainted. There may even be some blood connections through marriage.
Don Umphrey
October 8, 2008
In regards to your research interests, Robert, there has been quite a bit of work done by advertising researchers as to effects of color and typography. I suppose that some of this stuff would be transferable.