Appalachian Civil War Stories - The Civil War In My Family

One afternoon, my first grade son came running up the drive off the school bus, in a real hurry. He dropped his book bag on the couch and approached me in the kitchen, all out of breath, to ask a BIG question. "Momma, the kids at school say we're Yankees, because we moved here from West Virginia!!"   "Are we Yankees? I don't want to be a Yankee because they don't like em. I want to be a Rebel, so I can yell. But they won't let me because they said I was a Yankee! " He was quite upset, because the children had taunted him all day long calling him a Yankee. This was in the 1980s.  I don't think we had ever uttered the word Yankee to him, so this was all new to him.

I was not really stunned, but just still amazed that more than a hundred years after the Civil War, we seemed to be still fighting the Civil War all over again and of all places on a playground! I was busy trying to get the last of the garden canned and put up. I really did not want to tackle this subject at all!! But I knew this little boy needed an answer. So I had to sit down a 7 year old and explain a Civil War and what Yankees and Confederates were, more than a hundred years after the fact!!!

I had to explain to him how Yankee and Rebels referred to different sides of men who fought each other on American soil. I told him how it was an awful, ugly, terrible war in which hundreds of thousands of people died for an institution called slavery that was ugly and awful. That it destroyed people's lives and loved ones were killed. That it was over one side wanting to keep the right to have people as slaves because of the color of their skin and the other side wanting to free them.

And then I had to explain slavery! I had to explain how many black people were brought over in ships to be bought and sold much like we do cows and horses today. That they had to work on plantations and farms and industries and were not free but other people actually owned them. I told him they could be bought and sold and separated from their families. I told them they had sometimes very horrible lives because their owners would beat them with whips and worse.

I didn't go into great detail about how slaves were treated by being beaten, lynched, raped and killed on a whim and had very few rights to go to court. I didn't tell him then about the Civil Rights movements that were still working on abolishing the remaining vistages of slavery today.  He was seven and I regret I had to keep it to a 7 year old level.  I told him that today it doesn't matter about the Yankee's and Rebels because that war is over. The Yankees won and the slaves were freed. I told him I wanted him to go back to school and tell them we were all Americans. We are not at war anymore.

He went back to school the next day...and what I had told him, I hoped would work.  Well...it didn't work. I waited for him to get off the bus and this time he wasn't running fast, but walking really slow, as if he had been just so defeated.  He came in the house and  I asked him, "What's wrong son?"  He said, "They won't stop calling me a Yankee! They keep telling me, Yankee, go home."

I started to call the school and make a big stink about it. I wanted to take a stand to say stop these kids from doing this.  The Civil War doesn't matter any more. But I knew I was living in a community and fighting a community that believed in glorifying the South in the Civil War and were teaching their kids this same misguided crap. That these bullies were not going to stop, just because a mother didn't like it. My standing up for him and a seven year old standing up to this on his own, are two different things. Especially when that 7 year old has more of a Confederate pedigree than probably most of those kids.

So I pulled my 7 year old son on my lap and told him the story of how our families were originally from Virginia and through my side and his father's side of our families he was one of many generations to live in this county. So he WAS home....truly home. The families moved to West Virginia long after the Civil War.

I didn't tell him they moved probably because of the 1924 Racial Integrity Act. Where Walter Plecker, the Virginia State Registrar was combing through marriage and birth records, in his quest for a pure white race.  That people with a certain last surname would be suspect and their race could be challenged. We had the native stories in our family and all people of color they were forcing them to lose their rights, lands and they and their kids would be segregated.That our families moved to another state during a time of those in power were trying to undo the policies of Reconstruction. That was a bit much to tell him then.

But I told him, that he could tell those bullies he had many grandfathers, probably more than they had, that were Rebels.  He should tell them he himself was born in Virginia, not West Virginia.

I will never forget his face. It lit up like a really dark cloud went away. He said, "Really momma? Are you sure?" I said, "Yes it's true. But it ain't exactly something to be proud of. That war killed some of those same grandfathers. They died because of that war.  There ain't no glory in that, because it was war between our own people. In some of our families, brothers fought against their own brothers. It was really BAD. I don't know why they want to fight it all over again, and hurt people, especially on a playground. That WAR is over, you hear me?!  I don't want you playing Yankees and rebels!"  I warned him that these things happened, but we do not bring it up and we do not hurt people with being a Yankee or a Rebel. Remember how you felt being called that name. We are just Americans now. That was the end of it...that worked.

I was so proud of him when he came in another time and told me they were trying to pick on another child, calling them a Yankee and he said he took up for them and told the teacher.

But I'm not innocent, there was a time I had to be set straight too. I knew my heritage. Before my son was even born I remember when Southern rock became popular in the 70s and old Charlie Daniels sang, "The South's gonna do it again." People started flying the Confederate flag again. Before then I never saw one except in a history book or in reference to the KKK during the Civil Rights movement. I have no idea what I was thinking when  I bought a replica Civil War flag at a flea market and took it over to my dad. He had a couple of grandfathers that fought for the Confederacy. Thought he might like to fly it in honor of that heritage. Wow...... did I get a lesson and a surprise!

First thing, that two branches of the service, 3 war Veteran told me was, "That's not the flag of my country. That's not the flag I serve nor the flag I fought under. That's not the flag men and women are serving and dying under today." Then he asked me, "Why would I want to fly a flag of a defeated country and cause?"

I said. "To honor our grandfathers who fought under it, you know our heritage?" He said, " Baby girl, you don't need that to honor them. You know who they are and what they lived through and who you are...You take that flag home and put it up in a drawer someplace because I don't want it and I'm certainly not gonna fly it and you won't either! It's disrespectful to your country to fly that flag."
That was the end of that! That was the beginning of my understanding about who I was and that Civil War in it's proper place.

I don't know what it is about that war nor why so many can't realize what they are doing by not calling out the truth about it. I'm a proud Southerner. We certainly have a lot more to be proud of than a war over slavery.

I once helped a Confederate re-enactor find a Confederate ancestor. He had been participating with a group but really didn't know any of his ancestors that were Confederate.

I searched but most his direct ancestors were all men who fought for the Union. As a matter of fact, there was still a medal in West Virginia for a descendant to claim for their Union service in the Civil War. He was a direct descendant, I offered to help him with the paperwork to claim it. He informed me he absolutely didn't want it nor any part of it because his grandfather fought for the North. That was pretty confusing to me.

I finally found a great great uncle for him that fought in the Confederacy with Mosby's Raiders or Rangers. He was tickled to death.

I was then invited to a Confederate heritage group meeting and asked me to join. I thought it might be fun to dress up in Civil War type clothing and play an 1860's southern belle. But I know my female ancestors were no belles because most mountain folks really didn't have plantations and I'm pretty sure most of them never dress that fancy!  But I always like to help others with research and I love recreating different time periods.

At the first of the meeting they gave a prayer and a salute. That salute shocked me. After the prayer when they saluted the Confederate flag, along with the American flag, it looked like to me a salute you'd give Hitler. They said it was the original salute to the flag of the U.S. and made to go along with the pledge that was written and they are resurrecting it again?  I told my friend who invited me, that salute can't be resurrected again and taken back. That symbolism no longer means a pledge to the U.S.. Later I noticed in events they put their hands over their hearts for the pledge, but in this private meeting they used this salute, because they know what this symbol means today. It's the white supremacy of Hitler and the eugenics of Walter Plecker all over again.

In my mind I could see my father's face when he spoke to me about the Confederate flag and I knew he would not approve of this group. Here was a man who spent 4 years in a foxhole in Europe fighting men who gave that same salute. He would have tanned my hide for joining such a group or ever giving that salute to a cause or a flag, today. Even dead, my Dad would haunt me on that one!! I never joined because that is not how I want to honor my Southern heritage.

This ugly current of a war that occurred over 150 years ago, seems to still be fought all over again, even more today in conversations and events. Crazy talk of secession, and people arguing over flying the Confederate flag, the monuments that were put up in a time of Jim Crow.  I thought this would be a great time to write about my grandfathers in the Civil War, because it seems people have forgotten how bad that war and the institution of slavery truly was.

I already wrote about John D. Kitts. There is also James R. Burress, shot by his own neighbors, the home guard for being AWOL. He refused to fight because he had a brother fighting for the North and one fighting for the South and he refused to bear arms against either side.  There is Jordan E. Bowling, who as an old man, joined to take someone else place for 900 acres of land and died for it. He's buried in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond. There is John Wesley Perdue, John Bowling and Henry Hounshell. Along with all manner of Uncles and cousins.  I have found that when people learn their ancestors true stories of the Civil War, especially if they died...there is no good war. That war laid waste an entire generation.

The argument of it was just over states rights is really shallow. It was the states rights to continue the practice of slavery, that they wanted to keep. No ifs, ands or buts, it was over keeping people of a different color enslaved and subservient to white people. To deny them all rights white people have. That mindset played out with our relationship to Native Americans, Asian Americans and others. In the 21 Century we can only hope we live up to the words that all are created equal.

You can't clean the U.S. Civil War up and make it pretty, to honor it, because it wasn't honorable to fight for a system that brutalized others for profit. I believe the institution of slavery would not have been abolished without that tragic, brutal war. But that was the only thing good that came out of it. I can't believe the people trying to resurrect this crazed ideology, as seen recently in Charlottesville. But then as my story started, I couldn't believe it was playing out on a playground in the 80s.

I'm going to write about my Civil War ancestors. What I found in my families story was it was more one of survival in a WAR zone. My ancestors are from the counties on the border of Virginia and West Virginia. The county I live in was formed during the Civil War. Their stories, in many ways, show men caught between the powers that order war and the families that just tried to survive those orders, living where they were.

It's not that I think they were not racist themselves, they were, but their stories are showing they were not all gung ho on joining and fighting for some mythical "Southern Cause against Northern Aggression" that these Neo Confederate groups claim they fought for. Only a couple I can find joined, the rest were conscripted (drafted) later in the war, or replaced others for money and land. I'll honor them by telling their stories even if they ended up on what is called the wrong or losing side of history. It's common in this family. I've already written about the "Tories".

But I don't need to fly the flag today they fought under to honor them. As my dad said, it's not our flag and I don't need it or monuments to honor them. They helped create this America in their own way, right or wrong. I will instead fight to make America inclusive and to live up to it's highest moral values embodied in that Constitution.

Below are some links to actual photographs in the National Archives collection of the Civil War and 150th Anniversary of the Civil War collections.

I will start telling our Civil War stories with my great, great grandfather, Jordan Efferson Bowling.

150th Anniversary In Photos

What the war was really like: Thesis about Union Men in North Carolina during the war. It was neighbor against neighbor and split families apart. 

Issuing rations. Andersonville Prison, Ga., August 17, 1864. Photographed by A. J. Riddle.

Burying the Dead at Fredericksburg, VA., after the Wilderness Campaign, May 1864 Photographed by Timothy H. O'Sullivan.

Ruins of the railroad at Richmond

Elmira Prison

Appalachia: Living in MY World

 Well...it's always a challenge to know what to write about, how much, and what to reveal about family on a blog. Folks put some crazy stuff out there and I've been hesitant believe me. I could write volumes on politics and don't. We are divided enough. Write about current family but only with their permission, and things that are GOOD to write about. Writing about ancestors, already passed, is easy enough to share about. Even then, you want to tell the truth and make them look good in the process, but in reality...they are dead to this world and probably don't care.

But sharing what's really going on in my part of Appalachia and my little part of the world...it's been a struggle. While my internet is up and paid for, better share this quick because I don't know the future. I have faith I can keep what we have and things will get better.  The blackberries are in!

Last fall, my son cleared the blackberry patch. Last thing he did
really physical but he didn't get them trained. I've been collecting
 in the challenging tangle and freezing for when I have energy to
process. Freezer don't fail me now!

My son has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of some kind of crazy inflammatory arthritis. Tests for Rheumatoid Arthritis show up negative, but he has all the symptoms, plus a few more. Just hit him out of the blue last summer. He just started losing weight and complaining about his knees swelling with pain.

Most of us would love to be able to eat as much as we want and lose weight, but there comes a time when you want that to stop. He was very anemic and eating like a horse. A couple of months ago he looked like an Auschwitz survivor with knees the size of large grapefruits.

Well you guessed it...no insurance...no regular job, especially since he spent his time taking care of me. They didn't expand Medicaid in Virginia, so that does not cover him. He was eligible for it, but unfortunately they sent him a card that only covers pregnancy! I told him, if you get pregnant, I think there is an award out there for the first man that does, and you won't need Medicaid.

He's been so ill, it's a bit scary and he is not that old. We found a charity care program (thank GOD!) but most of the care is 150 mile drive from us...one way. We had the challenges of costs to get him there. I wasn't driving, he can't bend his knees to drive, so it's been fun!  We have found partial programs but most don't cover some of his needed medications. So much has been cut even in the private charity world...we just hit a bad time to be sick and down on the old luck in Virginia.

We have had friends and family that have stepped up help cover his trips to the doctor and his medications, some of the bills. But the old credit card looks like the national debt, to cover the rest.

He had been taking care of me, working odd jobs and covering the bills I could not, doing the jobs needed around the house. Now it's been reversed and I'm a lousy caretaker!! Bless his heart!! He can't bend from the knees and I can't stand too long. We still manage. You should have seen us fixing the stairs last December! Could have been a cartoon!

Got a tiny garden planted this year. So proud of
myself.Got some BEANS!

But it got me thinking about disabilities and working with them. I've always worked with a disability of some type. Been ill most of my life with something. My dad called me the "strontium 90 baby".  We lived in an area while he was in the military, that they were doing nuclear testing. The fallout of strontium 90 was showing up in the cow's milk I was drinking. I've thought about that with each illness I've had and I've had some pretty weird illnesses over the years.  But I didn't let these illnesses stop me. I just learned to live with them.

Three years ago the illnesses kept multiplying, on top of what I was living with.  I couldn't function like normal people anymore. I became not reliable to do my job, not really functioning on any productive level. Never been so sick in my life and I still am. I could have been on disability 15 years ago and chose not to until there was just no other recourse. I applied and was awarded disability in a month! Yep...I worked with a lot of illness going on in the old bod for years.

 I was fortunate enough to be in a place to have medical care to help me get to working again. Help me gain strength to heal to a place I could keep going and working and producing and paying taxes. Have access to programs and medications that helped.  I'm glad I didn't have cancer or a lousy insurance company policy that didn't cover at least some of it. Though last go round I still had to refinance my house to cover what wasn't covered by "good" insurance. It was before the ACA act kicked in...so don't go there.  It did not used to be that way!!

Today in America...we've hit a mean season. For myself and seeing my son go through this, never before have I known such cold disregard for people getting ill especially on the domestic spending legislative level.

There are a great many people in the community who understand and try to help, but the need is so great and we just came through a great recession/depression. Regular people are not back on their own feet and so resources are limited at best in the private charity care world. At the same time Congress and legislatures are cutting domestic spending at record levels.

And I have no idea what the heck is wrong with our state and federal government and the insurance companies! I don't care which side you are on...letting real Americans, (my son is not a new immigrant!) do without needed health care, or bleeding people dry when the need is so great because of a political pissing match and pure greed is just STUPID!  We are killing our own people faster and quicker than any terrorist or take over of this country ever could.  JUST FIX IT!  Create a system where those that are ill have access to health care and don't go bankrupt in the process.

Anyway, end of rant. I went to Virginia Aging and Rehabilitative Services this week, to sign up again for services because my blog work has me believing I might still be a contributing member of society and can make some funding to supplement the disability I get. Believe me, I'm grateful but it's pitiful!!  I MISS MY JOB AND MY JOB MONEY!!!

I need to try to take care of my son until something breaks lose for him, the medicine gets him better or something. He's applied for disability but because of his age, I bet they deny it. Just do anything I can to help take care of his medical needs, keep us in our house, the bills paid, and my link to the outside world...the internet. I signed up with my old case worker....see they helped me before. It's how I kept going and kept being a useful member of society.  Problem is, I can't work a regular job anymore, not even part-time. I would NOT hire me!

Just ask my family. I wear out quick. Plan a Sunday dinner, get it cooked and fall asleep and miss the whole darn thing. The kitchen is usually cleaned up and a plate waiting for me in the microwave. But that WASN'T my plan!

The old heart goes to beating funky and that's it...I'm done for the day. Or when I can't even move because of pain. Yeah...those symptoms sort of hard to put on a schedule for regular work. I don't function on a regular schedule anymore. Used to be my medications kept me going...that doesn't happen anymore.  There are no pills curing this.

Believe me, the body and symptoms, just won't listen or cooperate with me at all. I say, "I'm going to do this today," my body says, "You wish!"  Sometimes I can fight it, and do what I wish, but I really PAY for it...for DAYS.

So I have to be careful. I'm learning to juggle doing whatever I can on low symptom days. Rest up for big events. Do what I can, when I can. It's not unusual for me to be folding clothes out of a dryer at 3 am because it just so happens to be the time I am up and FUNCTIONING.  It bothers me to no end to let the rest of what I want to do GO!  But I try not to let it get me down. I'm alive...I woke up today, and beat out everyone else that died last night...it's a good day!

So I have been talking to friends about what I CAN do. Driving is not an activity I do well these days. After I came back from VA rehab, I set down in a chair and fell asleep for several hours. Wears me out!!

The blog is monetized with ads but I hate those that have so many. I might add one or two more. It doesn't produce much, but every little bit helps.  It was suggested I take the best stories of Appalachian Heartwood blog and put it in book and Kindle form on Amazon's Create a Space, ask for a donation.

I actually have part of a novel I was working on years ago. Maybe I can finish it and can get it out there too.

I can also try to put together some how-to videos. That came up when I volunteered at the Ceres Day celebrations in May. I didn't last long demonstrating corn husk dolls, as my illness showed up and cut it short. I've been demonstrating crafts and showing thousands of folks how to do these crafts for years, especially primitive stuff. Using video..I can rest and continue..have to show it only once and there you have it. Immortalized forever!!

Which I would be really happy to have certain crafts I do shared that way. I feel like when I'm gone, some of what was shared with me by my elders, goes with me and should be shared before that happens.

My son had an eBay store, he's been so sick, he hasn't had the strength to do anything.  I'm going to try to take it and work on it with him. He's going to have to walk me through most of it. It's changed so much since my day of fooling with it. Whatever crafts I make in the video's sell them on eBay or etsy.

Of course all these plans rely on whether we can function or not!! He's fighting not only symptoms of the disease but of the medications. The medication they have him on is an old cancer drug and it treats your body just as BAD!!  He has started to gain weight back which is good. But he is still in such bad shape.

But these are plans and we are going to continue on. We come from good stock I know it. We will survive this as our blood and kin have survived everything in this old world.

 Just a side note: our water is pumped from WV...sometimes it has a smell and sometimes it foams when you boil it. With all the stuff in the news about water, you can't help but just wonder if what is attacking us is part of what we are exposed to in the environment, genetics or past medical histories.

Genetics...especially for my son. He's always had some health issues too, since he was born. I was a strontium 90 baby but his father was a Vietnam Veteran in the Air Force. His father was considered non-combat personnel. He was on the big C-130s.  Flew supplies over and bodies back. Hit him kind of funny to hear he was non-combat, since he remembered the tarmac being shelled, bullets wiz by, his non combat personnel butt firing back and once a bullet embedded in his flack jacket.

Some of the supplies included Agent Orange and Blue and various colors of the rainbow in barrels. Sometimes the barrels leaked and his father's boots would get wet with these chemicals. His feet and lower legs would break out in later years and look like raw hamburger. But since he was non-combat personnel he couldn't get treatment at the VA for it. Civilian doctors had no idea what to do for him. I remember one doctor saying he could not get anything out of the VA for any ideas either. Lot's of steroid treatments.

You search for answers, because these are weird diseases, that the doctors are scratching their heads. Treatments to continue living are today expensive but solutions can be found.  But such is life and we go on. We are not defeated nor dead YET!! When I get some of this work accomplished, I will post on my blog and I will appreciate a share or two. Plus any ideas out there...let me know!!

Veterans, Native American Stories and Holidays

Wanted to let folks know that I haven't forgotten and I am working on articles. With my illnesses and the holidays it has been a little slow. Holidays are busy and trying for healthy people...they plum wear me OUT!! But I have been working here and there as I can. I'm working on several articles at the same time. I know...I know...folks tell me work on one thing, finish it, then do another. My brain, my body and my system in my house doesn't work that way!! Plus blogger has draft mode and it fits right in with the way I work. I have several in the Native American series ongoing and hope to have one of those up soon.

5th Infantry Division Regimental Cover

I gathered all of dad's war stuff together to do the article for the World War II Daughters Blog and realized, "WOW, we have a lot of stuff!" I found his regimental history book. Which is going to be a big help in putting together his story with the pictures. I also have his DD214 which lists the battles he was in and trying to match those with his photos and the regimental history. I think I could write a BOOK!! And may in the future.

The regimental history has NO index, no table of contents, no page numbers and goes only by dates. Quite fascinating but it's now beginning to be divided by post it notes and book marks. I am about 1/3 of the way through it. I'm attaching a photo of the front of it.

My dad joined the 50th Field Artillery of the 5th Division in 1939 and he went from Iceland to Czechoslovakia i.e. the whole war with this division. Marching just like the men on the cover. I have a story of him meeting the Russians. Plus his interviews I recorded, I'm going back through those and now understanding some of what he spoke of. He was in so many battles, it is amazing he survived.  These are just his Army stories, I have some stories of his Navy exploits that are just as harrowing!  I am so proud to do this though. I want to tell his story. Bravest man I ever knew and so unassuming about it all. But it may be after New Years before I get the first article accomplished.

Preserving Our Veteran's Stories

This Veterans Day, I wrote a blog post about my father and his military service. Since I am the family historian, along with that service comes many stories and photos. As usual I'm always trying to figure out how to tell those stories and what to do with all this family history.

I was going through the Yahoo news page on Veterans day and came across an article about Jane Bartow.  World War II Letters reveal parents untold love story. Jane found her parents letters from World War II and published them in a book.

But she also began a website called, World War II Daughters. On this site is space to tell these stories of our fathers and their experiences in World War II.  I was inspired. I contacted Jane and I've decided that several stories about my dad and his service are a better fit on her site, than here on Appalachian Heart Wood. I will be contributing a few of Dad's World War II stories to that website. I'll be posting on this blog when they are up with a link.  I encourage daughter's of World War II veterans with stories to contact Jane and consider telling their father's tales there.

Jane also told me about the Veteran's History Project through the Library of Congress. I worked as an assistant archivist and archivist beginning with the Holston Conference Archives during and after college and so all these letters, photos, etc. I have of family, I am always thinking about their preservation for the future. None of this hoarding of family mementos means a thing if they don't survive and the stories are handed down with them. Just one look on eBay will show you how some family members kept items for so long only to have another family member care nothing about them and discard them or get rid of them. Many times these items carry our history, not only of ourselves but of our nation.

So I have been in contact with the Library of Congress Veteran's History Project and this Thanksgiving I'm going to talk to my family of finding dad's mementos a permanent home where they can be shared, accessed by anyone and preserved. Better than a box in the closet.  I will scan all the copies digitally and share with the family. That way they can make copies of whatever they want. But to me this is a way that Dad's life will be honored and what he kept and did in World War II, Korea and Vietnam will be preserved.

If you have stories to share and mementos to preserve I encourage you to check out Jane's website and the Veteran's History Project at the Library of Congress. The project is collecting stories from Veterans of all wars including the most recent. Our Veterans and their stories deserve to be remembered.

World War II Daughters Stories

Veteran's History Project

In Honor of Veterans Day 2013

In Honor of Veterans Day

Old Warriors Never Die and neither do our memories of them. It's Veteran's Day 2013 and I would be remiss if I did not write something about my favorite veteran...my dad.

My dad, Don Bowling, was a warrior, and a soldier all his life. When he was a young man living in Appalachia, he worked on a farm, as a logger and as a lookout for a moonshiner. He joined the Army in Bluefield, WV in 1939.

The choice to him was simple. He didn't want to go under ground in the mines of the coalfields. He didn't want to work on the railroad like his father. He didn't want to continue farming like his grandfather and he certainly didn't want to end up in a Georgia Prison for making illegal liquor.  He wanted to see the world and in the military, see the world he did.

During WWII, for the duration of the war, he served with Patton's Third Army, the 5th Division, the 50th Field artillery unit.  He traveled from Iceland to the Russian front. After WWII he was discharged for a month or so and joined the Navy and served until 1970 making him a veteran of World War II, Korea and Vietnam. I asked him why he joined the Navy and not rejoin the Army. He said, "I lived in fox holes for 6 years. I wanted to ride in the rear with the beer for awhile."

He told us stories upon stories. Some not so good (and those he had to be pretty drunk to even talk about). Many stories of courageous acts that were amazing of things he did and things he witnessed. So many events he was very proud of and he always loved the military. He was very proud of his service to our country. On the day he died he would have returned to military service in a heart beat if he was ever asked.

I was thinking of him this Veterans Day. I remember the problems he had when he retired out of the service. He had problems getting medical care at the VA. He had problems to just getting his G.I. Loan papers processed. Then as now, it seems that politicians like to use the Veterans and military service people as a back drop for an election, but sort of forget the men and women who serve when they are in need.

So on this Veterans Day, let us not only thank our Veterans, Military personnel or our service responders for their service and wave a flag. Let us go beyond that by advocating for their needs to be taken care of.

If you hear of a bill in Congress that would benefit our Veterans and Military that you think is a good idea, such as a jobs, housing or training bill, write your Congress People and let them know that these men and women deserve our support.

If you know of an organization that is helping Veterans and military personnel or providing a service, pull out your wallet and send them a donation. 

One that I just learned about recently that is quite inspiring, is a foundation began by the actor +Gary Sinise called the  Gary Sinise Foundation.  He and the Lt. Dan Band are traveling in and out of the country performing shows and making a difference by raising funds and awareness for programs for our military personnel and veterans.  Whatever we do, let's do more to make sure that those who have served us really are not forgotten.

Later on I will do a few blog posts using a box of memorabilia of pictures and mementos of my dad's and relate some of the stories he told me about his military service. He participated in the Battle of the Bulge, (marching 125 miles in 3 days in sub zero weather to get to those guys) and his adventures as one of the oldest flight mechanics in the Navy when he retired. This blog could go on for a few years!!

Update: I will be posting his World War II stories and possibly photos on another blog World War II Daughters. His other stories and photos of his Navy service I will post from time to time here. I'm thinking Memorial Day, Veterans Day, Flag day etc. posts.

I welcome any comments or suggestions. Thanks for reading.

King's Men - Revolutionary War Loyalists in Appalachia

I've been battling my CFS symptoms last couple of weeks. So I'm taking it a bit easy and recycling some things I wrote quite a few years back.  There are two sides to every story and there are two sides to every war. I have seen researchers forget to look for ancestors participating on the other side of a popular conflict. Family research shows during the Revolutionary War and the Civil War I had family members who served on opposite sides in both wars. The history that emerges always leaves me wondering whether those wars were worth the damage it did to my family in the end but it is fascinating history.  The following is the story of a few of those ancestors who remained Loyalists and did not fight for Independence from England during the Revolutionary War in Appalachia.

This is looking towards the area these Loyalist Ancestors lived. Taken from the Tower on Big Walker Mountain.

One of the most fascinating stories I have found about some of my ancestors is the story of those that lived in the Appalachian mountains who refused to join the Continental Army or take an oath of allegiance to the new colonies in the Revolutionary War. I was always led to believe that everyone fought in the Revolutionary War to be free from Great Britain.  Nicholas Wyrick, Jacob Kettering (Kitts) along with Duncan Guillion were kin and ancestors who did not. 

It seems not everyone embraced the cause of liberty from England. Many in the area of New River were “disaffected” citizens and maintained that the King of England still had authority. There is a theory that many of these disaffected citizens had been on the frontier for many years and had assimilated with Native Americans by intermarriage. They were also concerned that the treaties under which they lived would be altered and their grants or claims rewritten by a new colonial government putting France in control of the frontier.

In searching lands transactions later, some would have those fears realized after the Revolutionary War. Many after the war would have property confiscated, leave or lose their lands because of stiff penalties leaving them to try to purchase their lands back. 

England was promising to honor surveys long since held up in land disputes for those on the frontier and also to negotiate with the Natives (pay them for squatters) while at the same time move the line of the frontier back to the Falls of the James River (Proclamation of 1763) preventing further encroachment into Native American territory unless under new treaties. This was one of the main reasons many of the Cherokee and other Native tribes sided with the British.

Whatever their reasons, many citizens in our area became enemies of the state and of the American Colonial government and to the American Cause. 

The first test of loyalty to the American Cause, at least for some on the New River frontier, probably came in 1777, when all males over sixteen were required to take the Oath to the state. The County courts were required to keep lists of those who had taken the oath, and those who had refused.  Those who refused to sign the oath were to be disarmed.  In addition, they would lose their right to hold office, vote, serve on juries, or acquire lands.  Their taxes would be doubled.

As the Loyalist or Tory problem continued, penalties were increased and under a new act of treason, the penalty was death without benefit of clergy, and forfeiture of property. In this case treason meant actually waging war against the Americans or aiding the enemy. Those “maintaining the authority of the King” were subject to fine and imprisonment, and it was the duty of the county lieutenant to see that the Loyalists were arrested and disarmed. (Virginia Hening, Statutes, IX, 281-283) 

There were those that took the Oath but William Preston, in our area of Virginia made it clear when he wrote to William Fleming in December 1777 that there was a problem with the men of Captain Thomas Burke’s militia company.  Preston noted that Burke and almost his entire company minus four or five, or “nearly forty of my neighbors have positively refused the Oath of Allegiance to the States” (Virginia Papers, Draper Mass., 2 ZZ.43) 

Preston went on to state he had tried to reason with them. He intended the following week to order them to be disarmed and had given them another week to come by and take the oath.  Preston was concerned because the punishments seem not to have much of an affect on those that refused.  He wrote, “all such will stand out until their property or Persons can be more affected than what the Law subjects them to. The present punishment is really a matter of diversion to them. They bring no suits, they never elect (vote), they don’t attend court, they can dispose of their arms, (trap and hunt without them), and they don’t want to purchase land: by these means they entirely evade the force of Law to which I sincerely wish some amendments could be made to stop this growing Evil.” 

Such was the alarm of how many who would not take the oath, the courts tried to make examples early. My grandfather, Jacob Kettering (Jacob Kitts) the miller was bound over on suspicion of being an enemy of the state in September 1777. He declared himself as such, and also admitted refusing paper currency. He appeared before a local jury of citizens and neighbors who returned their verdict in these words; “We the jury fine the said Kettering in the sum of Two hundred and fifty pounds, and to lie in Prison one year.”  (Summers, Annals, pp. 684,-686) 

Because the newly organized county of Montgomery had not yet built a prison, the court decided to send Kettering to the prison in Staunton, in Augusta County, where he was to remain until January 6, 1779.  They also were afraid to keep Kettering so near his friends.

But this example and others did nothing to stop the tide and the Tory problems continued.   In April 1779, James McGavock reported to William Preston the action that had been taken against the Tories and the companies they belonged to, (These Tories were considered Continental Soldiers and militia under previous orders on the frontier) John Henderson, Nathaniel Britain, and Philip Lambert of Montgomery’s Company were admitted to bail; Joseph McFarland, John Etter, John Stephenson, and Joseph Erwin of Captain Stephen’s Company admitted to bail; Duncan Gullion, and Nicholas Wyrick of the same Company were “put in irons”.   

The day after Gullion and Wyrick were put into irons, they confessed that it was a John Griffith who lived on the South Fork of the Holston River who was the person who had enlisted them for the King, and he had administered the oath of allegiance to the King.  John Griffith was brought into court but the testimony of Gullion and Wyrick were not believed and he was admitted to bail. 

Later it was found that Gullion and Wyrick were speaking the truth and it was indeed John Griffith who stirred up agitation and had raised an army for the King to March on Ramsour’s Mill in North Carolina.  He did it by telling all who would listen that every bystander should be alarmed and expect themselves in great danger. “Rumors that the County was sold to the French were prevalent, and the feeling was that they may as well fight under the King as to be subjects of France.” (Preston Papers, Archives, Virginia State Library) 

It also helped that the Tories promised their followers twenty shillings six pence Sterling per day and 450 acres of land clear of quitrents for twenty-one years.   The Gullions, Wyricks and Ketterings were kin and close neighbors, the family members can be found on court records for each other along with the Kitts. (Ketterings) 

According to the records many were afraid of Duncan Gullion and Nicholas Wyrick. Duncan Gullion had even threatened to scalp William Preston and James McGavock. Gullion declared he would join with the Indians, and threatened to proceed to kill and destroy all before them.   Duncan Gullion’s sentence for treason was to be further heard in Williamsburg, but on the 140 mile trip to the public prison in Williamsburg, Gullion escaped.  This caused great alarm and guards were posted at McGavocks and Preston’s home. He was never caught but did eventually take the Oath. They also sold Gullion's horse to pay for the trip to Williamsburg. After the war he argued that he should be refunded the price of his horse because he never made it to Williamsburg.

Nicholas Wyrick at the age of 56, was fined 500 pounds and was sentenced to eighteen months in Prison. This occurred on May 5^th 1779. It is believed he served some of his time locally.  On November 2, 1779 the court of Montgomery County ordered that it be made public to all citizens of the county “all who came under the Denomination of Tories and are now or have been accused of offences against the Commonwealth be acquitted provided they appear before any Justice of the Peace of the County and enter into Bond and Security for their good behavior.” Particularly mentioned were John Davies and Nicholas Wyrick who were to be admitted to the same privilege. (Montgomery Co. Order Book 3, pg 81) 

“ There is no doubt that the Montgomery County settlements were much affected by the presence of the Loyalists in their community. For three years, the leaders such as Preston and McGavock, lived among them and suffered much harassment. The average citizens never knew when to expect trouble from his neighbor, but as Colonel Campbell foresaw, after the defeat of Ramsour’s Mills in North Carolina, Toryism on the New River came to an end, and all that remained to be done was round up the stragglers, obtain confessions, and process the suspects through the courts.

John Griffith, called Colonel Griffith by the insurgents, was the admitted leader of the group along the New River, but he escaped the full impact of the law because of the reputation of two of his companions, Gullion and Wyrick. 

David Campbell, writing in 1843 about the Tory activities on the Holston reported that Griffith was one of the most intelligent and influential of the Tories and received his commission from the British authorities. He raised a large company and joined the British somewhere in the Carolinas, but not meeting with the reception he had expected Griffith resigned and returned to his family. He was obliged to keep himself concealed for some time, and what became of his company is not known for certain, but it was believed that most deserted and returned to the Virginia Mountains.” (Early Adventures on the Western Waters, Vol 1. Mary B. Kegley; F. B. Kegley pages 137-152.) 
Note: My companion, Eddie Atwell today is a descendant of Duncan Gullion, where I am a descendant of Nicholas Wyrick and Jacob Kitts. I would love to hear your comments or stories of others who were Loyalists in Southwest Virginia or on the Frontier. It appears mine were not the only ones.

Copyright 2007-2016 Denise A. Smith