The Civil War Series; 3; "Forgotten Battlegrounds, The Civil War in Southwest Virginia"

This program is closed. And. Southwest Virginia has often been ignored in history that should not be the case. The contributions of this quadrant of Virginia not merely to American history but to world history one might say have at times been indispensable. The American

Civil War is a case in point. First the natural resources of southwestern Virginia notably coal iron and salt would be vital not merely to the Confederate effort but to Virginia as well. Some of the most famous fighting units of the Confederate armies would be raised in these mountainous counties. Almost two dozen Confederate general officers were either born here or made this area their home after the war. But perhaps most vital of all from southwestern Virginia's contributions was the Virginia and Tennessee will load. It was very early. The lifeline of the Southern Confederacy. It was the only way a line and the world's first railroad war that connected the two major military the US well South West Virginia has a wonderful and tragic story to tell. Like Virginia itself it was caught up in the Civil War. It was consumed by its suffered with power away from it. That is the story

we wish to tell. And. So. Did. For. Me. The most strategic aspect of southwestern Virginia was the Virginia and Tennessee. We are east of Vic a switch behind me which abutments and part of the original road back of that road to Virginia and Tennessee was charted in 1848 and built in the 1850s. It was both the largest and the

longest line in Virginia. Beginning in Lynchburg It snaked to London and four miles to Bristol connecting with another line that went on to Memphis. This made the Virginia and Tennessee Valley the lifeline of the Confederacy. It was the one railroad that connected Richmond with the West the rolling stock number over 400 cause and the locomotives lay off road construction at that time would be remedied by modern day standards. The cross-ties simply would cut along the right away place some two and a half feet apart on by land. Balas was never used unless absolutely necessary. And the cross-ties would normally place two and a half feet apart. Absolutely dangerous by today's level. The rails of that day left a good deal to be desired. They were made of on anti-shake. This particular piece of iron is quite typical of Virginia and Tennessee. The whale is rather small. Some 16 to 18 pounds

to the yard as compared to today's One hundred and fifty pounds of steel. For the average yard so well travel was the car used to say the least. But in the Civil War whales will be the vital element in the fighting of that contest. The contributions of southwestern Virginia to the Civil War were as much of material as they were of manpower. It is astonishing that the health of the Southern Confederacy was literally dependent upon the natural resources of the most inaccessible and spaceless subtle quadrent of the Old Dominion Apfel is regional more than chronological because of the many and unique elements of war existing in that sector. Each became a target. Each became a victim always at a time appointed by the enemy. We start with fause southwestern Virginia then move east to where the hills and the rolling Piedmont begins. Geography is our base. Civil war and violence.

You. Name for the shrine of George second of England. Cumberland Gap was the most famous American gateway to the west. Daniel Boone and thousands of pioneers used it to start a new life in Kentucky Tennessee and beyond in the Civil War. The gap was understandably a vital mountain passage between the eastern and western theaters of war. Six times opposing forces skirmished over possession of the past. Not until November 1863 did Union forces gain firm control of Kabul and damp. Soldiers. Cemeteries. Always seem to look the same but this one isn't. Here. Two hundred and six confederates. Not one died in action. Each man courage from sickness wounds disease. They perished here at Virginia William and Henry College is located. The school was only

20 years old when the war began and it was forced to close its doors as faculty members went into service and the major building at the college became a major hospital. For. The wounded and the sick throughout southwestern Virginia. At times the hospital may have held up to a thousand patients. Not all of them of course recuperated and 200 album live here today on a hilltop. I'm known unappreciated but they sleep the last week. Of dedicated soldiers. Civil war awakened the sleepy town of Abbington and soon made it one of the most important stops along the Virginia and Tennessee railroad. Not only was it a supply base for all of southwestern Virginia Abbington also became a gathering point for sick and injured soldiers from I'm off Washington. Today a landmark hotel but then a school for young girls became one of the region's largest military hospitals for most

of the war years. Abbington also served as headquarters for a number of general officers both Confederate and union one of the most imposing buildings in Abingdon was Vietnam it it was the country home of Judge Samuel focusing who became colonel of the thirty seventh Virginia and led that regiment until his death at Southern Pines late in May 1862 for two years the hand remain relatively quiet. Then in mid-December 1864 Colonel focusing system the plan to be made here at the time it happened on the day before the wedding. Union General George Stollman and Union host one occupied Abbington Stoneman made the time at his headquarters. His offices promptly ate up all the wedding the fresh mints and one of the officers even put on the wedding dress and paraded around the house. The next morning December 16th 1864 Stoneman left Abingdon. He burned the railroad station and other public buildings. However that afternoon the marriage did take place here at which

time it and focus and sister wore her wedding dress with genuine so called Southwest. To. Vashon to. Mountain. Communities with two Scapa then to insulate it. To be sufficiently utilized by federal unions. So Union soldiers had to resort to hit and run tactics mounted expeditions in force that would disrupt if not destroy selected Confederate installations then returned to the safety of Union lines. An all out effort of this occurred in the spring of 1864 and it led to the largest Bible ever fought in southwestern Virginia. The Clark family established a farm here and the 17:00 to its generations of the has continued to live here. The farm became such a landmark that the high continuous sewage on your right became to buy out the family name as well. One of the greatest tragedies of that very tragic civil war was that both sides were fighting for the same thing.

America as each side conceived of what America should be and thus possessed of that common patriotism. Boys from Ohio and West Virginia came here and met boys from Virginia and a great bottle designed to determine exactly where America was going in the future. Claus mountain was part of the massive union offensive of 1864 launched in Virginia General U.S. Grant moved southward against Lee's army with Richmond as his ultimate objective. A second force under General Fund Siegel advanced southward. Up the Shenandoah Valley it was the third federal force that draws our attention now. It consisted of some six thousand five hundred infantry under General George Cook. It left Charleston on a heavy reinforced raid with ten can move through the mountains for a hundred and fifty miles. Its objective doubling six and a half miles to the southeast

Dublin was the way ahead for the Virginia and Tennessee railroad in this on the night of Sunday May 8th 1864. General quick alive the top Quartz Mountain and the background. He saw over here on this high ground a Confederate force which he estimated correctly at about twenty four hundred men. Quick. Immediately saw that the come down that mountain across five hundred yards of bottom land would be suicidal. And so he laid plans for an enveloping movement. The heavy attacking force would crawl around to your right. Come in and strike the Confederate flag. On Monday morning a clear day May 9th 1864 the offensive got under way flew the morning. The Union force was sneaking through heavy woods getting in position on the Confederate flag near noon. The bottle got way. Unfortunately for the Federals the Confederates he saw what was taking place and General Albert Jenkins in command of the southern forces quickly reinforced his light

flank so that when the union attack came it was beaten back heavy fighting vicious fighting took place for the better part of an hour. It had not been in this area for a good while. The leaves were thick on the ground and then all the heavy gunfire that took place the underbrush and the least caught fire so that wounded men unable to move had no choice but to lie there and watch the flames coming up to consume them. After the fighting over he came to a stalemate. It was finally a future president of the United States Colonel B Hayes who saw that the best bet might be to come up this draw shortly to your left and to attack the Confederate White Sunna which appeared to be weak. He and his Ohio brigade launched that second offensive and shortly around 1 p.m. They broke through the Confederate lines. General Jenkins fell wounded. Colonel McCausland took command but now the Federals are pouring through the Confederate position and

Colonel McCausland has no choice but to give way and fall back toward Dublin and the battle ended in early afternoon. It had been a vicious at times hand to hand fight some 1200 American soldiers of North and South had fallen. Today the battle field of Claudette's mountain is quiet. But it will be a monument to American gallantry in the 1860s General Jenkins deserved about a fate for four days after the battle I'm attended and in excruciating pain from my mind go left arm the lay of a Union Station on May 13th. Federal surgeons determined that gangrene had infected the one. Jenkins was moved here to the Guthrie farm some two miles from the battlefield here. His left arm was amputated in the afternoon of May 13th. All seemed to be going well until the morning of May 24th. Fifteen days after the battle a

union hospital steward was changing the dressings when he inadvertently broke the leg to binding the main artery. Albert Jenkins bled to death. No greater phenomenon exists in all of American development. And the advent of the willows. In 1838 did not exist. 30 years later it would dominate the American civil war which began with the Baltimore and Ohio system of course in 1830 by 1860 that with thirty one thousand miles of track in the country more railroad mileage than in the rest of the will combine of that thirty one thousand miles. Nine thousand of it was in the south but they were short lines 100 companies shared that mileage which meant that the average Southern Railway was about eighty five miles in length. The Baltimore and onehow would be the only Northern Railroad vulnerable to destruction

by the enemy. In contrast to every major road in the south would be a target and would know severe if not fatal destruction. From a center of busy activity a few hours before. Its location alongside the Willow gave it instant importance. Count Jackson on the edge of town was a training ground for the volunteers and for the lead mines that often deal with 15 miles away to the west where the indispensable mineral deposits that salt the oil for Times-Union columns struck with full before it finally ceased to be a confederate stronghold. Bullets are made of lead. When a nation like the Southern Confederacy was founded in war and depended on war to gain its independence. Bullets of course were absolutely vital few lead mines existed in the

Southern Confederacy. This here is the biggest. These mines are located at Austin Vale 15 miles from with Bill and it was here that the Southern Confederacy depended almost entirely for bullets during the course of the war. These mines double the output they used slave labor and great part. And at that peak the mines were producing about eighty thousand pounds of lead per month. By the end of the war some 3.3 million pounds of lead had come out of these quad mountains of southwestern Virginia for union attempts were made to neutralize the lead mines at Austin Vale. The first failed the second succeeded and Union troops momentarily burned the mines and put them out of operation but very quickly confetti was restored the mines back to full use. A third union attempt failed. Finally on April 7th 1865 Union soldiers occupied the mines. Two

days later while the silver ended up on matics court house. 10th the day after the Battle of the last mountain Union General William Dudley evil in some 2000 cavalry came this direction from as well and their objective was with Phil and the nearby land mines the union horseman alive atop this hill of the commanding eminence just before them was the gap formed by Kove mountain in the background. Here however they encountered Confederates from across the way. Some four thousand five hundred Southerners under the joint command of jungle William the gumbo Jones and Colonel John Morgan of Kentucky the Union soldiers dismounted and formed a quick defensive line at 3:30 that afternoon. The Confederates attacked Jones's man on foot straight ahead with a mighty rebel yell. Morgan's a man on horseback trying to fly the Union

white. The sudden appearance of gunfire from two different directions disrupted the union defensive position. The man quickly mounted and hastily rode off toward a little walker mountain and safety by the standards of the Civil War. This was not a large bottle. Losses were about fifty Confederates one hundred and fourteen Union soldiers. But the fight here saved the wistful and the lead mines at least for a while. Co Presbyterian Church was barely five years old when bottle it exploded quarters of a mile from here. It was a beautiful little church brick nestled in the woods a quiet sanctuary of gone. It was here at the bottom of that local citizens bought a number of the Union soldiers who had been wounded in the engagement. And then these pews is on the floor. The soldiers were placed in the townspeople and the citizens did what they could. Nineteen of those men died. In this sanctuary. They were buried in the grounds outside. The

following morning and that afternoon a funeral took place here at the church. The deceased was Major Nathan Parker. A member of Morgan's Calvary. Who had been mortally wounded in the action. So those union soldiers most of whom were farm boys from Ohio and West Virginia as well this will Major Parker. The war was over and so was life. Story of the civil war is the story of rivers and railroads. The importance of railroads to this war that came quickly upon. Days after the firing on Fort Sumter. President Lincoln ordered all Union troops in the field to converge on Washington. They'll and to for good or for evil. The railroads were going to be an integral part of this war. Union commanders who became aware of the importance of railroads often more often than not succeeded. Those who ignored the

railroads more often than not fail. One sees this from beginning to end. The opening major engagement of the war here in Virginia was fought in at Manassas and it was fought for control of Manassas Junction where the Anjan Alexander met the railroad coming in from the Shenandoah Valley and it was over that lot of lime that journalist Joseph Johnston and Thomas Jackson brought them in in mid July 1861 to become the potent force that would give the south victory at the opening war somewhat in similar vein. At the end of the war Jamali Lee was leading westward along the route of the south side. It was his lifeline so to speak. In those final days and one of the great victories of that final campaign occurred at Highbridge an imposing structure one of the engineering wonders of the world. At that time and it was for control of Highbridge a young general James dealing of Campbell

County gave his life along with many of the men he led. So from beginning to end one simply cannot ignore the railroads. They are going to be there and they are going to have a vital role in what occurs. Men alone do not make an army. Everything that goes into a military attack depends on what its country has behind the battle lines. Indeed the strength of a fighting force is a clear reflection of what is or what is not supporting it. On the home front natural resources can well be the difference between victory and defeat. Without question. Natural resources can be the factor separating an all out performance from a crippled effort. In the mid 90s century salt was a precious mineral. Indeed it was the sole means of preserving meat of getting pork and beef from the home front to the armies in the field. It was a vital ingredient in love making and

it also was very important in keeping livestock nutritiously supplied the South before the Civil War had imported most of its salt. With war of course that supply was cut off. Salt works existed in Kentucky and Alabama but as each of these sections fell under federal control. More and more attention shifted to a tiny village snuggled in the mountains of southwestern Virginia and behind me is one of the salt ponds that stood along the banks of the North Fork of the Holston live on and the salt ponds would become vital to the Confederate war and. The production of salt was not as complicated as it was cumbersome. The Brontes solution was extracted from the ground by means of a huge pump. The solution then passed through wooden pipes and went to a furnace where the liquid was very old. And what was left in huge pots was the crystallized salt. The

Salvia produced a mineral that was 99 percent pure for every 100 gallons of bryony material that came out of the glass on 22 gallons of salt would be produced. In fact during the salt production here actually increased tremendously at the beginning of the the salt works jeapordizing two hundred and fifty thousand bushels per year and the rise in the works had increased to an astounding four million bushels a year. Indeed salt veal was the sole capital of the Confederacy. Alexander Stewart was in charge of the salt works during the Civil War. He was the beloved general Jepps do it and the general's widow and the mother were living here in 1864 when war came down to the little village. Confederates had heavily entrenched the landing hills and early in October. Union troops came through Clanchy mountain Funtime as well and approach Saltwell. One local story has it that as the union column was passing down

the road they came to an old lady standing by the roadside and one union Cal shouted out we are going down to get all the salt to which she replied Well you may get Pappa instead. And indeed they did. Some thirty six hundred union Kalf women approached saw the all in fighting broke out on October 2nd 1864 with twenty eight hundred confederates in a cemetery is not a very appropriate place to do battle but perhaps it is. In any event this cemetery of a cemetery was the center of the battle line on that day. After a sharp fight the Federals were driven off leaving the wounded and captured soldiers behind that night something happened whether it was a massacre. We are not sure but at least one hundred numbers of the 5th us colored cavalry who were captured or wounded were murdered. The chief perpetrator seems to have been a Tennessee Galella leader named Champ Ferguson who is not adverse

to killing unnecessarily. In any event. In October 1865 champ Ferguson would be one of the last people executed by union authorities for war crimes during the Civil War. A second attempt would be made militarily. The seas the. Two months later in December 1864. It succeeded and the works were partially destroyed. It is interesting to note that on April 9th 1865 when General Aliso ended up on Mattox the salt works were still in operation. Of the Confederate generals some South West Virginia the most famous was James Brown Stewart known to his fans as jail. He became the league's cavalry commander and as such was the eyes and ears of the Army of Northern Virginia. Thanks to the Jepps do it. Birthplace of action suggests to its birth place is being preserved and restored to what it looked like when he

was a young boy here. And to talk about it is the head man of that Plez of action. Tom Perry thank you but this is the Laurel Hill Farm this farm consisted of about fifteen hundred acres in the spring of 1833 when Jim Stewart was born here on February the 6th at the foot of groundhog mountain here behind me. The Stewart family consisted of about 11 children. Gybe was the seventh of 11. He would live here until he was about 12 years old. That time he would go up to with full and live there for two or three years before going to marine Henry College in 1848 for two more years and then continuing on to West Point. This was a very special place for gybes Stewart. He wrote often of it when he was at West Point talking about how he had to be deprived of it in order to appreciate it properly. He also wrote of it when he was in the U.S. Army in Kansas offering even to buy part of it from his mother who was wishing to sell it. And in the winter of 1863 when he had less than a few months to live he told his brother

William Alexander that he would give anything to make a pilgrimage to this place. And when the war was over did quietly spend the rest of his days there. So this farm was a very important place in the life of Jim Stewart and a very important place in the history of the war in South West Virginia which we try to commemorate here with an encampment every year and a symposium we hold every other year on the career of General Stewart. During the war. Stosh. Confederate general Stosh fellow southwestern Virginia. A land from Abington eastward to Lynchburg in bannable was a birthplace or a home place to Anelli a school of Confederate generals some became distinguished and successful commandos leaving their names on the page pages to me and that were they of us who in all honesty became footnotes on those pages. Now we've been mainly on highway historical markers and whose memories are celebrated on the by play our descendants. That was Jeff Stewart of course

as well as Abbington. Joe Johnston Lee's predecessor as the South's preeminent commander and whose army remained in being Adelies had given up the fight at Appomattox and Jubal Early from Franklin County who marched his army nearly to the gates of Washington. William Jones born in Glade splaying and wondrously nicknamed grumble John B Floyd governor and Sojo came from Montgomery County and Thomas Wassa of Campbell County highlighting how women still in the Cybil at the end Armistead long from Campbell County services leaves ordnance officer and shuckin Corps artillery commander from Washington County came John M. Bowden from Campbell County James dealing one with four. James a walk on Stonewall Jim. The last command of Jackson's old brigade Labadie roads of Lynchburg killed at Winchester in 1864

Lynchburg Samuel Gallen called Byerly the bwave an accomplished young officer they in battle at Antietam Bedford County since Samuel Anderson James Goggin and William Terry another William Terry came from with John Eckles from Lynchburg and William Campbell from Danville William Y see who's from Abington James. Question from Saul. Bill and Gabriel wanted from Ratford. What made the willows such a revolutionary innovation for that day. In the mid 19th century Anami was dependent upon wagons to transport its supplies the wagons of that era could carry perhaps as much as five hundred pounds. And if the roads were decently passable it could make a mile an hour. Now the fellows come along and suddenly well those can transport what a

hundred wagons would normally be required to do and they can do it at a later fifteen to twenty miles an hour rather than the one mile per hour. The wagons are making the ice. The willows have such an impact on war that generals have to concede you strategy new tactics. They have to work out entirely new arrangements for the conduct of war and one great illustration of this change occurred in the autumn of 1863 when General James Longstreet of Lee's army took 12000 man and he moved from Central Virginia to eastern Tennessee by 12 different loads. It was a distance of eleven hundred miles. He covered the distance in eight days and the railroads unloaded him right at the battle front. This was an unheard of transfer of troops. It had never occurred in the past but it would become standard practice that after.

That time of the Civil War or Lynchburg was one of the most important cities in central Virginia. It was a thriving commercial center of some 10000 people with tobacco the first of all industry railroads converged here the James River and Kanawa canal course through the town. When the war came Lynchburg became a very important supply center as well as a medical center for wounded soldiers. Naturally therefore it was a tempting target to federal forces in the spring of 1864. A union army under General David Hanta advanced southward of the Shenandoah Valley that army seized and burned Lexington. Then turned to east with Lynchburg as its next target some three miles from the city. General Hanta stopped his man and he came here to Sandusky plantation where he would establish his headquarters and that was a personal note to it as well to tell us about these things and the bottle of Lynchburg. Here is all very wiley who teaches at Lincoln

School in Lynchburg and is in one and is without question one of the most knowledgeable students of Lynchburg. Civil War history whose house known as the desk of house is built on 18 0 8 by Quaker Charles Johnston by the late 1820s. Most all of the Quakers had moved from links for the house went through several owners until it was the hunter family moved in. Major George S. Hunter's father purchased it and then George Hunter acquired it when his father died. When the shots were fired at Fort Sumter on April 18 61 the owner of this house Major George hutner was paymaster at Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor South Carolina. When Virginia seceded from the Union. He gave up his commission in the United States Army and came back home. The family's three boys fought for the Confederacy and he remained inactive

for military duty. Here in his home with Sandusky in June of 1864. The citizens of Landsburg were experiencing a feeling of panic. They were very anxious of what was coming to them from the news of. General David Hunter as he moved through the Shenandoah Valley. On the afternoon of June 17 as General David Hunter's forces approached Lynchburg. General McCalls one who had been in front of him ever since he left standing delaying him was making a stand at the ruins of the South River meeting house the old Quaker house when General David Hunter approached this house and decided to make it his headquarters. He found that the resident and the owner retired Major. George. Hunter. An acquaintance of his. They had been classmates at West Point. Both of them graduating in the class of 1822. He came in and occupied the house. He and his men set up their headquarters here on the morning

of the eighteenth. For some unknown reason Hunter did not make his attack. He seemed to be cautious and that that caution is what helped the Confederacy. And as the battle progressed on the 18th and the fighting became more intense early soldiers. Were arriving more and more from Charlottesville about train and his numbers were swelling then all that evening of the 18th. David Hunter was receiving news of more and more Confederates arriving more of our early 2nd Corps arriving and keeping in mind that he was running low on ammunition. He decided that he would move at midnight. He started withdrawing his men. He left about 100 and 17 of his wounded here unable to take them with him. And General Early in the had his earthworks knew that Hunter was moving but he didn't know where he could be. Preparing a flank attack but early didn't know what would what

would be his future the next day. About four o'clock in the morning Jubal Early scouts returned and told him that Hunter was in full retreat. This was great news for early as he quickly moved to pursue him chasing him and catching him. Later that day at liberty which is then known as Bedford a hunter had marched out early and in a forced march and then down that far and then it stopped at midday to let his men rest. And it is at this time that early caught up with the rear guard and there was a skirmish before hunters started off again this time heading out towards hanging rock. On Tuesday June 21st 1864 Honda's all Federals moved slowly along toward the west and the safety of the mountains. Union soldiers was slowly falling through a gap formed by stone outcropping and known locally as hanging water. Suddenly a sizable body of Confederate cavalry on the general John McCausland struck the

union column. Sharp fighting lasted for an hour with perhaps as many as 100 men killed wounded or captured. Local legend has it that nearby Mason Creek man red with the blood of men and horses. The arrival of a large contingent of union camp will be forced McCalls on retire. Antos for was. I did once again continued Westwood in retreat. The blue bakehouse a landmark at the time of the action at Hanging Rock still stands today. It is a small if not lonely reminder of the bit of fighting the One-Note Valley has ever witnessed. In the 1850s it would have been difficult to find a more pleasant place between them than the endgame. Which happens to be my home town a shipping port situated at the fall line of the Dan River as well as the western terminus of the Wichman in Danville way a road that was commerce notably in tobacco was solid. The town of

6000 in the South Side community was patchy and it was good. Then came more vagal became a major quartermaster's Depot while its sons served in infantry and artillery units. Then in 1863 the civil war came down to dandle in an unusual form. Soldiers of blue and gray gave no thought to the possibility that they might become prisoners of war. And certainly none of the seven thousand union soldiers who had been captured in battle and balked at dandle thought that they might end up in such a situation. Of those seven thousand one thousand three hundred would die here and Danville. Mostly from sickness disease malnutrition and terrible smallpox epidemic that exploded in 1864. Late that year. Although those believe Yikes. This place in Southside Virginia. They came their eternal home.

The climactic end to the American Civil War of course. Did take place right here in this house the home of major William Thomas Sutherland. Major Sutherland had been born in 1822 and celebrated his 40th third birthday while the Confederate cabinet was housed here in the Soval a mansion. Major Sutherland had made a fortune in tobacco and had been a member of the secession convention. Therefore he had known Jefferson Davis for some time. And as a result when the Confederate government evacuated Richmond on the evening or the night rather of April the 2nd 1865 that slow train that took 15 hours to get them to Danville brought him brought them here to the major's home. The weather was terrible that afternoon it was a cloudy drizzly drizzly

rainy day one that probably made mockery of the weather made mockery of the Confederacy at that time I think the rain continued for three days. But the president. Along with Stephen Malorie secretary of the Navy Frances Luckett former governor of Texas and also a member of Jefferson Davis staff as well as George Trenholm and his wife all spent that week of April 3rd through April the 10th here in this home. The Major was very magnanimous man gracious. And according to the residence his residence for use by the Confederacy and his and Jefferson Davis and his cabinet and likewise just three weeks later when the union's six call. Came in to Danville general Horacio Wright set up his headquarters tent immediately across the street from this home. And again

the graciousness of the household was extended across the street to that federal court who had come in here 16000 man to occupy the anvil for him from April 27th through May 17th of 1865. Now it was here in this very room in the study of Major saw the one that Jefferson Davis issued his very last proclamation to the people of the Confederacy. And in that proclamation he expressed a desire to fight on and to not give in to not give up. And in fact the the move you may say will somewhat psychological and that the Confederate government had not vacated Virginia. It was still in Virginia albeit very close to the North Carolina line. But nevertheless that proclamation was printed in the Danville newspaper the following day. And saw. One of those was yet to come.

Nevertheless the railroad with one final somber note. In astore. Of the Civil War. In April 1865. Abraham Lincoln became the first American president. Of the motor you know. And he went home to Springfield Illinois by way of the overseas. Which covered Lincoln's body from Washington to Baltimore Philadelphia to New York over to Cleveland. And then southwest with Finally to Springfield Illinois. Not too many years after. Well those again would with the picture play the same sad note. Jefferson Davis the president of the Southern Confederacy died in New Orleans. He was carried by cranes to the south up to Richmond Virginia. For his final burial in Hollywood Cemetery. In both instances people lined the tracks packed the stations as the city's respective trains came by. Hoping that presidents. Were the final resting place. Where loads literally from beginning to end.

Made their mark on. The. Wall in southwest Virginia was perhaps more notable for what it was not than for what it was. In southwest Virginia's war there was no ground encircling movements no strategic maneuvering no ray of glittering bayonets sweeping the enemy from the field flags flying drums rolling crushing artillery blows. They own only sudden assaults from the mountains and quick tweets back into them. Skirmishes in jail as alarms and excursions. But the little battles claimed their victims as well as the law. And a man they had on the field to go into a mountain was just dead and more and no less than the man who fell at Chancellorsville. The reason that was fighting at all in southwest Virginia was this the little Virginia and Tennessee will hold that man from Bush the least with. It covered man nourishment and supplies to the theater of war in the eastern part of Virginia like Wilma

McLean who had moved his family from Manassas to Opper managed to get away from the war. The Valentini wanted only to be left alone in peace. The Federals were determined to bring not peace by the sword and fire and destruction. When the Union army swept out of the mountains against the will road time and again Confederates met them by the thousands. From mine those students clucks now soldiers. They were formed in the southwest Virginia units as the suchen and a Virginia Cavalry the 4th 11 18 24 36 40 fifth and 50 first Virginia infantry and the Danville Salem and Giles Vadhu is a law Tillery fewer came home than had left of the Sound of Trumpet shields before they came home to desolation for the journey. The mother State of the Union by 1865 lay in ruins later than any other visit did on any society in the western hemisphere. At the

end of the war one of the last proclamations of John C. Breckinridge the Confederate Secretary of War disbanded the military department of southwest Virginia and it broke in which told soldiers and civilians alike. You have done all that can be done for us. The long agony is over. In truth more than Virginie's fields and homes and railroads were in ruins. The country was not even a century old. The cost of the war and its tragic consequences to the nation's unity and its maturity was high and would lay like a curse on the country for years to come. Now generations later the nation has moved into what Winston Churchill spoke of as broad sun lit up lands where once the scorching handle of raúl left squaw's time and understanding and growth had been healing agents today in southwest Virginia the great mountains loomed the

tunnels and the seasonal garb and watch over peaceful valleys below rolling hills quietly all their harvests and nourish grazing cattle. The people go about their work and play. Southwest Virginia has never been showing and indeed it has never had a need to be. It is glorious enough as the ordinated nationalisms healthiest form lies on the edge of the values of the past and the bright promises of the future. No why is the American dream and the Virginia tradition more happily combined than in southwest Virginia. A. B. U B. A B C I

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