First, yes, I know… it’s been a while. Relocating is going to string me out a bit between now and June, but I need to remember to feed the blog in the in-between.
In fact, the warmer it gets, the more motivated I am to get things done on the inside of the house, so I can get on the outside… and I don’t mean the yard. Nooooo… rather, I feel the pull of Jefferson County and Harpers Ferry lately, although, I need to comment on some Sesqui-related stuff happening in my own (new) backyard… in Winchester. Indeed… 150 years ago today, for example, old Jack evacuated Winchester. I think I just might have a few things down in the bag that would be worth writing about, in relation to the events that took place 150 years ago, this month… around Winchester.
Yes, as Jackson left Winchester, Cornelia McDonald recalled that on the night of March 11 “there were hurried preparations and hasty farewells, and sorrowful faces turning away from those they loved best, and were leaving, perhaps forever.” Then, of course, as reported in a Franklin County, Pennsylvania newspaper on March 19, the Union arrival in Winchester, Virginia was greeted with “a warm welcome by the townspeople… Two-thirds of the people in the area are supposed to be Unionist, but have been compelled to bow to secession pressure. as one Hagerstown newspaper noted, when Union troops arrived.”
This is something that has certainly caught my attention… the varied reports of Unionism in Winchester. By contrast, though I can’t recollect the source, I do recall, at some point in the war, a Union soldier noting that the ladies of Winchester were so full of secesh spirit that it would probably challenge the secesh spirit of Charleston, South Carolina. For that matter, contemporary interpretation suggests that… well, take Rebecca McPherson Wright, for example… according to recently written interpretation, “Her family was one of the few in Winchester who supported the Union”. Really? [Some will recall that I wrote about her story as well, in Southern Unionists Chronicles).
While I have no doubt that there were many with strong secessionist sentiment in Winchester, I feel a need to challenge just how “few” were in Winchester, who supported the Union. I think back, also, to a flag I saw at the West Virginia battle flags exhibit in Wheeling, a couple of years ago… made by the Loyal Ladies of Winchester.
There will be more to follow on this… including one piece about a particular house on the Kernstown battlefield in which lived yet another Unionists woman…
"Market-Place at Winchester, Rendezvous of the Rebel Militia of the Valley of the Shenandoah." From Harper's Weekly. New York, September 7, 1861
Janet Ramsey
March 11, 2012
Hi, I have enjoyed your blog, which I have come across several times in doing research. There is a nice collection of Henkel Family Correspondence posted by the Library of Medicine called Physician’s Lives in the Shenandoah Valley. On March 11, 1862, Fannie Coiner in Augusta County writes to her cousin Dr. Caspar Coiner Henkel of New Market, currently in Winchester, about Caspar’s cousins belonging to the Godfrey Miller family: “I think so much about the citizens of Winchester, know they must feel extremely anxious about the fate of their town..”
Robert Moore
March 12, 2012
Thanks much for stopping by and posting these stories, Janet. Glad you enjoy. What are you researching, exactly? I’m curious.
Janet Ramsey
March 11, 2012
Confederates annoy Winchester Merchants from the beginning.
Mon. May 6, 1861. …The quartermaster in Winchester informed me that the merchants were paying double freights, and were thus securing all the transportation. To prevent the consequent delay of the machinery, I directed him to impress the wagons. He also notified me that the baggage cars from Strasburg were employed in carrying flour from the valley to New York, and that every barrel would be required for our use. To remedy this evil, until the subject could be referred to you, and also to secure the transportation for the machinery, I directed him to impress the cars.
T. J. Jackson, Virginia Volunteers Commanding. (Official records)
Janet Ramsey
March 11, 2012
Winchester had closer ties to North because of railroad routes.
According to the online Richmond Daily Dispatch, Bills were introduced in the legislature early in 1861 to extend the “Winchester and Potomac Railroad” to to Strasburg, in order to connect by rail to Richmond and Alexandria. They were rejected because of fears that all the Valley produce would be funneled North.
When Virginia seceded from the Union, the Augusta County militia had to ride the train to Richmond, then to Gordonsville, then to Strasburg, march 18 miles to Winchester, and ride the train to Harper’s Ferry, where Federals had already come to the Arsenal, according to
The Daily Dispatch: April 27, 1861. “So much for not having a railroad from Winchester to Strasburg.”
Janet Ramsey
March 12, 2012
Thank you for your kind reply.
We are researching background material relating to the farming Journal of Siram Peter Henkel (1809-1879) of Rockingham County for the Civil War period. His mother was a Miller from Winchester and his wife was a Coiner from Augusta. Relevant to your thread here, we found from the Daily Dispatch of Mar. 21, 1862, in a northern article titled, “The Situation,” that on Mar. 12 Manassas was evacuated by the Confederates and subsequently occupied by Union Forces. The Confederates fell back towards Gordonsville. There are nice photos of those winter quarters in Manassas and Centreville taken at this time in the collection of the Library of Congress. Just as in 1861, events around Manassas were a concern for the Valley District of the Army of Northern VA headquartered in Winchester under Jackson.
Janet Ramsey
March 13, 2012
Events for Thurs. Mar. 13, 1862 in Winchester
From the Richmond Daily Dispatch of Mar. 17, in the Valley article :
On Wednesday… the enemy marched into the town [Winchester] and took undisputed possession. They [met] with a cool reception from the loyal people of that beautiful section of the State, and, to the honor of the town, we are pleased to learn, that only two Union flags were displayed, and they by those so bankrupt in character and morals…
From the Richmond Daily Dispatch of Mar. 19, in the Valley article :
“…one of our men… had his horse shot from under him by a Union man named Coleman, in whose house the two Yankees had been enjoying his hospitality. Won’t he suffer if any of Ashby’s men ever come across him! Well, I would not like to be in his place.”
Janet Ramsey
March 14, 2012
March 14, 1862 Winchester:
Siram Henkel of Rockingham Couonty, near New Market, writes in his journal: “Today at noon I came from town with Mr. William W. Glass, he brought two black boys which I am to keep for him a while for their victuels & clothes.”
Note: Colonel William W. Glass, of the 51st Regiment of the Virginia Militia lived at Rose Hill near Winchester. The household consisted of Thomas Glass and his wife Margaret, his son William (age 25) and fifteen slaves, most of them children. Thomas Glass died in February of 1862. William, recently married, took over the management of the farm. While he was away, his young wife died and, and shortly afterwards he was discharged from military service.
Janet
March 15, 2012
On Sat. Mar. 15, 1862, Siram Henkel of Rockingham, near New Market, wrote in his farming journal:
“After dinner we all went to town to see the soldiers come from Luray but they did not come.”
I don’t know the background for this, but I think it is interesting.
Janet
March 18, 2012
Wednesday March 18, 1862, Winchester (Daily Dispatch Mar. 19, Valley article)
…In the town of Winchester, the elegant residences of Senator Mason and Col. Angus W. McDonald have been burned to the ground; together with their valuable contents, including libraries and furniture. In the county of Clarke, besides enticing hundreds of negroes away from their homes, the incendiaries have laid in ashes the fine mansion, stabling, &c., of Major Oliver R. Funsten, of Ashby’s cavalry regiment…