While the house you see is, in this photo, adorned for Christmas, imagine if you will… an American flag… two yards long, draped from the middle garret window.
Can you envision it?
In fact, in April 1861, Otho Nesbitt had hired a seamstress to make that flag for him… a statement to all those around Clear Spring, Maryland, that he was firm in his stand on Union.
Now, consider this…
Nesbitt was also one of the most prominent slaveholders in Clear Spring.
It’s one of those things that challenge the standard story of the Civil War… and, therefore, all the more reason why I’m interested in Nesbitt.
Image of Otha Nesbitt from the collection of the Clear Spring District Historical Association
As I pointed out in my =>post about Plumb Grove (home of Otha Nesbitt’s brother, Jonathan Nesbitt, Jr.), the Nesbitt family had been in the area since 1763. I haven’t traced the story of the Nesbitt family slaves, but do know that Otho was given a family of slaves by his father.
Fortunately, Otho’s diary is preserved by the Clear Spring District Historical Association, and we can get a glimpse of his relationship with his slaves. Unfortunately, I have yet to secure a chance to see the diary in person. Nonetheless, in her book, Too Afraid to Cry: Maryland Civilians in the Antietam Campaign, Kathleen A. Ernst provides some key information about Nesbitt and his slaves.
Diarist Otho Nesbitt of Clear Spring , who was given a slave family by his father, wrote of bringing a doctor daily to his farm to attend a sick little boy, hiring a seamstress to measure the slaves for new clothes, and ordering a new bedstead and sofa from a local carpenter for slaves Eli and Morris. “Morris”, he noted, “had always wanted a sofa.” When the circus came to town, Nesbitt gave his slaves money so they could attend.
Still… they were slaves, and of value to the economic stability of Nesbitt’s farm. When Maryland emancipated her own slaves in 1864, Nesbitt noted, “The negroes all set free in Maryland without compensation to their owners… the work of Abolitionism.” In all, he valued his seven slaves at $2,000. On November 1, he presented the news, and the situation to the former slaves…
Told the negroes that I had nothing more to do with them. It was now near winter and they had no house, no home and probably could get no work this time of year and if they cared to work on as they had been doing till spring they might do so, that I couldn’t pay a whole family of negroes to cook a little victuals for me after all that I had lost to both Armies. They said it was so and they would work on until spring as they had been.
Ernst closed her remarks about Nesbitt, noting that he “had provided some schooling for his slaves, fed and housed the family until members began to leave in search of employment in 1865; they all stayed in touch, and sometimes worked for him, for years to come.”
So, yes, Nesbitt fits the mold of a Southern Unionist, but, as a slaveholder, he also had interests to sustain. Nesbitt embraced the Union, but he was opposed to emancipation.
Nesbitt died in 1893, and was buried in Rose Hill Cemetery, just east of Clear Spring. See Nesbitt’s Find-a-Grave page, here.
Cenantua's Blog 
Gary Smith
July 27, 2011
Otho Nesbitt also gave money to his slaves to attend local circuses. Although never married, he fathered two children, a son Jefferson and a daughter Lillie, by his lifelong consort, Hannah Temperance Robinson.
Robert Moore
July 30, 2011
“Although never married”
Not according to Hannah’s headstone. She appears to be shown as a Nesbitt
Carolyn A. Cooper
August 6, 2011
Hello Robert, the above Nesbitt story may parallel my family. I am trying to do some genealogy on my family members from Clear Spring and Hagerstown, long distance (I now live in Scotland). One ancestor, John Ernst (1820-1864) was a farmer in Clear Spring, and when he died his wife Adaline (also called Ellen) “married” their farmhand John Wrede (also Reid), and when she died in 1881 John Wrede/Reid moved in with his stepson John G Ernst in Hagerstown, Md [JGE was one of the founders of the Hagerstown Furniture Co and my great-grandfather] where he lived for the rest of his life. The thing is, we can’t find anything on-line to confirm their marriage, but in the 1870 census Adalina/Ellen is going by the name of Wrede. I wonder if a lot of marriage records were lost at that time, or marriages were informal and did not involve official channels? Have you heard about this happening? Would records have been kept in churches as they were here in the UK in times past?
Thanks for your advice,
Carolyn Cooper
Incidentally, I read and enjoyed the interesting book by Kathleen A Ernst “Too Afraid to Cry”, but she is not a relation – I wrote to ask her.
Robert Moore
August 7, 2011
Thanks so much for your comment, Carolyn,
The one really difficult thing about research in Washington County is that so many records were destroyed in a fire that occurred at the court house, in years after the Civil War. It may be that they did marry, but finding a record may be an impossibility. If you can establish which church they may have been married in, you may be able to find a record, but, I’m afraid it’s all dependent on the church and how well the record-keeping was.
Yes, Ernst book is excellent, and one that I pick up and skim from time to time, even after already having read it.
Georgette Giles
August 5, 2018
Thank you for your comments. I believe that I may be a descendant of the slaves of the Nesbitt plantation. We have yearly family reunions and the Nesbitt family is somehow attached. I have a cousins that is researching this data, Jeanne Howard. The following names are also associated, Reid (my great-grandparents era) and Gillis (a new name that has come up. Our family has a deep history in the Gettysburg, PA and Maryland area.
Georgette Giles
August 5, 2018
Additionally, I have done DNA testing and have through Ancestry.com and I am 21% Scandinavian.