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PAGE 4—THE HERALD, Ahoskie, N. C,—MILESTONE YEAR 1959
CIVIL WAR IN R-C: Colorful Story of Heroism and Sorrow
The great time of national testing—the Civil War—
brought heroism and sorrow to the Roanoke-Chowan, as
it did to the rest of the South.
People of Hertford and the surrounding counties were
reluctant to leave the Union. But once the die was cast,
thousands of young men from the area marched away to
battles against countrymen.
The area was touched directly by fighting. Hertford’s
county seat, Winton, was put to the torch early in the
war, and the area was to tremble time and again to the
march of hostile troops.
The story of the Roanoke-Chowan in the Civil War is
a rich, brave, colorful tale.
Here are only parts of the story.
The following article tells of the actions of the Hertford
County Court—the county’s ruling body—during the
years of the Great Conflict.
Other articles in the Civil War series tell of the various
Confederate units in which Roanoke-Chowan men served,
and of actions fought in thie area.
Mirrored in the activity of the County Court during
the 1861-65 period is the mounting anxiety, want, and
despair of the Confederacy.
Here is that story:
A summer of great hope, ex
citing gatherings of eager young
men, and ebullient preparation for
war.
That was Hertford County in
the greening spring of 1861.
Four years later, the scene was
one of despair, desolation, w'ant,
of gaunt-eyed men weary of fight
ing and homefolks worn with care
and suffering.
The story of Hertford County’s
home front during four years of
Civil War is told graphically in
the minutes of the County Court,
the governing body of the day.
From the first burst of enthusi
asm, when companies of volunteer
soldiers gathered at Hertford vil
lages, to the final surrender, when
thin veterans walked heme to the
battered county, the story unfolds
in the record of the court’s ac
tions.
Drama Opens
The minutes for the quarterly
meeting of May, 1861, opened the
home front drama in Hertford.
By then. President Lincoln had
issued a call for troops to put
down rebellion in .southern states,
and a reluctant North Carolina
had reversed a previous stand and
seceded from the Union.
North Carolina’s Governor had
issued a call for volunteers to
form regiments. And Hertford
County was responding.
Already, three companies had
been formed in Hertford. The
County Court moved to provide
for them.
It ordered county bonds, as
many as $6,000 worth, issued.
Each volunteer company was to
get five dollars per man from the
fund for equipment.
Meanwhile, a committee to pro
vide for the families of these
troops had been formed, consist
ing of Richard G. Cowper, David
Valentine and John B. Shat’p.
L. R. Jernigan was named to
head a committee in charge of
providing equipment for soldiers.
His committee reported it had
issued $3,800 at its first meeting,
and the committee was busy seek
ing tents, guns, uniforms, and
other equipment for soldiers. All
members of the court pledged the
county’s “full resources” to the
families of volunteers and pro
mised to fully equip “volunteers
enrolled for the public safety.”
At this first meeting as a coun
ty in the new Confederate States,
the Court attended to regular busi
ness, also. It appointed John
Vaughan as guardian of Cutta-
whiskey Bridge, paid ferrykeep-
ers at Wiccacon and Tar Ferry,
issued a whiskey licence to Pleas
ant Jordan at the Winton Hotel
and named tax listers.
August Meeting
As another Hertford company—
this time a cavalry unit—moved
out to join other North Carolina
troops, the Hertford County Court
met in regular session and heard
an offer from Kenneth Rayner for
$145.40 to be spent for equipping
Hertford soldiers.
Rayner had been an antiseces
sionist and was perhaps hoping to
show his change of heart in the
matter.
Dr. G. C. Moore was elected
new chairman of the County
Court. As head of the Democratic
Party in the county, he was taking
over after a generation of Wig
control. The War had destroyed
the Whig Party along with the
Union.
Winton Memorio! Statue
There was no record of suiy war
preparations other than Rayner’s
offer. In routine business, the
Coi;rt issued $640 foi- repairs -to
the Murfreesboro bridge and
heard a report of a committee
named to conduct the town elec
tion in Murfreesboro.
Three months later, in Noveni-
ber, two of Hertford’s first volun
teer companies had been captur
ed by the August invasion of Hat-
teras Island.
Hertford had organized a com
mittee to provide for the famOies
of the county’s several hundred
Confederate soldiers. Tillman
Vann was named in the place of
R. G. Cowper on the committee.
In routine business, the Court
paid $390 for a new bridge over
Chinkapin Creek at Pitch Landing
and issued whiskey licenses to Wil
liam Day at Murfreesboro and
Joseph Vinson at Saint Johns.
1862 Begins
The year 1862 opened with war
threatening the very doorstep of
Hertford County.
Federal force's had moved to
seize Roanoke Island and lay open
all of eastern North Carolina to
invasion.
On January 28. 1862, ten days
before the Island fell (and another
Hertford County company was to
be captured), the Hertford County
Court met in special session and
passed a resolution ordering
Chairman Moore “in person or by
letter” to plead with Governor
Vance for “sufficient men with
artillery to protect this part of the
state from the invasion of the
enemy.”
The Coifrt ordered Watson Dan
iel to contact state military author
ities to collect funds due county
slaveowners for five Negro n«en
sent to Roanoke Island to help in
the construction of fortifications
on that iUfated post.
But it was too late.
On February 19, a federal force
landed at Winton and burned the
courthouse.
On the fourth Monday of the
month, the County Court convened
at the still - standing home of
James Rhea (“the courthouse be
ing burned by the enemy, the
Yankees”).
It ordered the sheriff to as
semble “the whole of the magis-
try” of the county to a meeting on
April 7 to “provide a suitable
courthouse.”
In routine business the gov
erning group let repairs for Hill’s
Bridge and appointed a county
school board and taxlisters.
The meeting on April 7 met a1
Union Methodist Church near Win
ton. Thirty-three justices were
present, John W. Harrell presided
in the absence of Chairman God
win C. Moore.
Kenneth Rayner explained the
purpose of the meeting, and the
justices ordered that the church
bo used as a courthouse and ap
pointed a committee to renovate
it for that purpose.
The burning of the courthouse
and the military disaster which
accompanied it were on the minds
of the justices.
They ordered a nine-man com
mittee to “examine “free negroes
who engaged with the Yankees in
the raid in burning, stealing.”
The committee was authorized
to arrest or order to “quit the
county” and free negroes found
to have aided the federal expedi
tion.
Another five - man committee
was named to “collect evidence on
burning of cotton, the courthouse,
and other houses.” The County
Court evidently hoped to use evi
dence to get some financial pay
ment for the destruction.
In the routine matter, the court
settled a dispute between two
competing ferrymen at Winton. It
ordered L. R. Jernigan to discon
tinue his ferry at Winton, rather
than have the Barfield’s Ferry—
a mile downriver—discontinued.
Evidently, the Union forces had
destroyed at least one ferry boat.
Supply Preparations
Another special meeting of the
Court convened on March 23, 1862,
to prepare for relief work among
families of the county’s soldiers.
At the meeting. John HarreU
was named commissioner for pro
visioning families of soldiers
The state had passed its first
relief bill for soldiers’ families,
appropriating $1 million for the
purpose. Counties were to receive
a quarterly sum- from the state
and spend it locally for soldiers’
families.
For his job, which became
practically a fulltime task, Har
rell was to receive one per cent of
the county’s allotment and be paid
for travel expenses.
But Mr. HarreU saw quickly the
job was too demanding. At
another special meeting on April
20. he resigned. But the Court pre
vailed upon him to continue and
raised his pay to two and a half
per cent.
Only routine business was trans
acted at a regular session of courf
held on April 28, 1862. John 0
Askevi? was named guardian of
Chinkapin Bridge at'•-'’’ii-a Land
ing. Tax listers were named. Fer
rykeepers at Tar Landing and
Wiccacon Ferry were paid and
Henry Maddrey received $199.50
for repairs to Hill’s Bridge.
Summer Scare
As the bright, hot days of sum
mer, 1862, arrived, the tempo of
war stepped up. In Virginia, the
mighty Union army of McCleUan
moved against Richmond and reel
ed back from the bloody battles
known as the Seven Days.
In North Carolina, federal cav
alry units attacked villages in
counties east of Chowan River,
far west as GatesviUe.
Little Told Tale:
Some Joined Union Army
An untold—until recently often
hushed—story is the Roanoke-Cho
wan contribution to the Union
army in the Civil War.
Many Roanoke-Chowanians had
misgivings about the idea o f
secession from the' Union. When
war came, federal forces thought
Union sentiment was so strong in
the region that it was mentioned
in dispatches.
The Union officer who com
manded the forces which burned
Winton in February, 1862, said he
headed for the Hertford viUage be
cause he had heard large numbers
of Union sympathizers had gather
ed there.
This sentiment graduaUy declin
ed as the Confederacy’s long war
rolled on.
But the Roanoke-Chowan was in
a peculiar situation. It was in the
No Man’s Land between Union
forces which controlled the eastern
areas of North Carolina and
Confederate troops which firmly
held the line of the Roanoke
River.
Thus, by 1863 and 1864, the
area was becoming a favorite
haunt of deserters from both
armies. These deserters, and other
outlaw groups, formed themselves
into bands of marauding fighters,
known as “Buffaloes.”
Thus, it was made easier in this
region for a man who wanted to
change colors in the war.
Hertford List
Many did. A list of Hertford
men who “went into Union lines”
during the war totals 27. A list
of Hertford County men who “be
came Union soldiers” totals 25.
There were others, in Hertford
and Bertie especially.
Most of the names of men of
Union soldiers are missing. In
terestingly enough, records of the
bureau which kept these names
were destroyed soon after the war
ended.
But from remembrances and
family tradition, some of the
names of Hertford men who wore
the blue survive.
William A. Overton was one. He
became a lieutenant in the Union
army.
Thomas D. Parker, a Hertford
man, deserted from the Confeder
ate calvary and also became a
federal officer.
Henry Dozier and Jacob Nowell
of Hertford County became Union
soldiers, and like many former
Confederates were not called
to serve in units which fought
against the south. They went west
with U. S. cavalry to fight in the
Indian wars.
Perry Overton was another
Hertford man who became a
soldier in the Union army. The
stark entry beside his name
“hanged at Tarboro after the
war.”
James B. Holloman of Hertford
met a similar fate. Isaac Godwin
was a deserter who was captured
and shot.
Joseph Parker was one who ^
shot after the war because he
“went into Union lines.” Benjamin
Parker was also listed as having
“gone into Union Unes.”
Some Roanoke-Chowan negroes,
both free negroes and slaves,
served in Union colored units after
they slipped across the Chowan
and joined Union forces. Several
hundred negroes escaped the
area to put themselves under the
protection of the federal forces,
See COURT, Page 5
FEDERAL GUNBOAT WHICH ASSAULTED WINTON—The
USS Commodore Perry was a New York harbor ferryboat in the
peaceful years before the Civil War. But in February, 1862, it
was part of a small fleet of Union vessels which ferried troops
on a warlike mission. The Perry tossed shells at Winton on
February 18-20, 1862, end landed federal troops which burned
the town. This photoi^raph was taken several years l3.-ier as the
Perry served in the blockading squadron stationed in North Caro
lina coastal waters.
Incidents on Chowan River in Summer of 1863:
Wheelers Report Mirrors Story
Of Civil War Times in R-C Area
Major Samuel J. Wheeler of Murfreesboro, who was a physician
n civilian life, was one of the Roanoke-Chowan’s most colorful Civil
War soldiers.
His unit was the so-called 12th Battalion of Cavalry. It was com-
posed of three Roanoke-Chowan companies, two from Northampton
and one a mixed unit from Bertie and Hertford, all of which had
been independently organized in 1862.
On May 3, 1863, the three companies were formed into a battalion
•inder Wheeler’s command. The job of the unit was to patrol the
Chowan River.
Union forces were in firm control of the North Carolina coastal
areas, and also held Suffolk in southeastern Virginia.
From these coastal towns, Union cavalry continually patrolled
into the Roanoke-Chowan area. Intermittently, the federal forces
carried out large scale cavalry raids toward Rocky Mount and Tar-
boro, mostly from their bases at New Bern and Washington.
In the Roanoke-Chowan region, the raids were usually on a small
scale. Federal gunboats were in complete control of the river, how
ever.
But in the summer of 1863, there were rumblings that the Union
forces planned to put into executiion a move they had discussed for
more than a year.
They planned a strong cavalry raid from Winton, across the Roan
oke-Chowan to Weldon. At this strong point, the vital Wilmington-
to-Richmond railroad crossed the Roanoke River. The federals want
ed to cut this lifeline of the Confederacy.
Federal forces began to probe the Chowan River line.
In mid-June, 1863, as the major armies of both sides moved north
ward toward Pennsylvania and the high tide of war at Gettysburg,
Major Wheeler’s little unit in his native county had its first brush
with the probing Union forces.
See WHEELER'S REPORT. Page 5
Since February b 1928
We have played a part in many anniversaries during the
past 31 years. The good people of the Roanoke-Chowan
area have purchased jewelry from us to commemorate
important events throughout the years. We appreciate
their friendship, confidence and patronage and we want
to say Thank You to each and everycne as we commem
orate this important milestone in our county's history.
We Join Our Fellow Citizens in Celebrating the
200th ANNIVERSARY of HERTFORD COUNTY