To the Southern Unionist Union soldiers of Henderson Co., N.C.!

Thanks to Craig for letting me know about this monument! Click on the photo to read more from The Historical Markers Database page that focuses on this monument.

The Civil War Experiences of Nancy Brewer, A Free Woman of Color

By Victoria Bynum
Renegade South

One of the women who will make a brief appearance in my book-in-progress, Southern Communities at War, is Nancy Brewer of Chapel Hill, North Carolina. In 1871, fifty-year-old Nancy applied to the Southern Claims Commission for compensation for wartime damages caused by the Union Army (#11545). Specifically, she testified that soldiers under the command of Gen’l S. D. Hopkins had in April 1865 seized a horse worth $100, forty lbs of bacon worth $10, and 1000 feet of lumber worth $20, from her farm.

Nancy Brewer’s claim was one of many submitted under the act passed by Congress in March 1871 allowing for “Claims of Loyal Citizens for Supplies furnished during the Rebellion.” Hers caught my eye because she was both black and a woman. I opened her folder not so much to learn what she believed the government owed her, but to glean whatever insights I could into what Nancy Brewer’s life was like in slaveholding and Civil War Chapel Hill.

Given that Nancy was claiming loss of property, I was not surprised to learn that she had been a free woman even before the Civil War. Although she could not sign her own name, Nancy had also been a prosperous free woman. Two years before the war, she explained, she had bought a lot and a house in Chapel Hill for $400. She had also purchased her future husband, Green Brewer, out of slavery in order that they might live as a married couple.

These are the sorts of personal family histories that we might never know about without the existence of records that address totally unrelated issues that happen to involve African Americans. Nancy’s deposition further reveals the complexities of life for people who opposed the Confederacy, yet suffered depredations committed by Yankee soldiers. According to Nancy, her late husband, Green, had belonged to the Union League, and they had always sympathized with the Union cause because it was “God’s will for the colored race to be free.” But during the last months of the war, as Union Army encampments surrounded Chapel Hill, the Brewers’ pro-Union views did not protect their property. Soldiers had taken the Brewers’ horse despite her protest that without it they could not make a crop.

Testifying on Nancy’s behalf was another African-American woman, Nelly Stroud, a washer woman who now lived with her. Nelly admitted that the Brewers had not shared their political views with her while the war was raging. “It would not do for colored people to talk here,” she explained, “a still tongue made a wise head.” But Nelly had little good to say about Union soldiers either. During the war, she washed and cooked for them, but feared them at the same time. They threatened to “show me the devil” if General Johnson did not surrender, Nelly told Commission agents. When asked why they would make such a threat, she responded that “I just believe the Devil made them do it.”

Thomas M. Kirkland, a white merchant, also testified on behalf of Nancy Brewer. Kirkland claimed to have known Nancy’s husband, Green, for about ten years, though he quickly explained that he had not been on “intimate” terms with him during the war because Green was a black man. In typical paternalistic fashion, he characterized him as “sober & upright,” and generalized that almost all blacks were loyal to the U.S. Government during the Civil War.

Nancy Brewer’s claim was approved by the Commission. This final comment from a Claims Commission officer appears on her file, giving us further valuable information about the experiences of this African American couple of the Civil War Era South:

The claimant is a colored woman & a widow—her husband having died since the war. He was formerly a slave, but she had bought him & he belonged to her!—or rather was freed during the war—. He was a rather superior colored man. After the war, Governor [William] Holden appointed him a magistrate—Loyalty proven.

Hiram Hulin seeks justice for murdered sons

Many years ago, historian Bill Auman called my attention to the following letter from Hiram Hulin to Col. M. Cogwell, Commander of the U.S. Post at Fayetteville in Reconstruction North Carolina. Hulin, an antislavery Wesleyan Methodist from Montgomery County, was seeking justice for his three sons, Jesse, John, and William, who were murdered during the Civil War by Confederate home guard troops because of their refusal to serve in the Confederate Army.

Submitted by Victoria Bynum. Originally published in Elizabeth Gregory McPherson, ed. “Letters from North Carolina to Andrew Johnson,” North Carolina Historical Review vol. 28, no. 1 (Jan. 1952): 118-119.

September 28, 1867

Sir,

Permit me to address a line to you in which I ask your opinion of the course proper to be pursued in regard to the arrest and trial of certain persons who in the time of the war murdered my three sons Jesse, John, and William Hulin and also James Atkins who were evading the military service in the Confederate Army; after arresting them they took them before two Justices of the Peace for trial. From the only information which we can get the Justices committed them to jail. They were delivered into the hands of the murderers who were home-guard troops and while on their way to the pretended prison they deliberately shot and beat to death with guns and rocks my three sons and Atkins while tied with their hands and handcuffed together. One Henry Plott now residing in the County of Cabarrus was the officer in command of the s[q]uad of murderers at the time of the murder was committed. Most of the murderers were strangers to the people of the County and their names are entirely unknown to us except one George W. Sigler who now resides quietly in Marshall County, Mississippi. Against him a bill has been found by the Grand-jury of this County. His Post office is Byhala about 16 miles from Holly Springs, Mississippi. I have informed the State Solicitor of his where abouts and nothing is done for his arrest. Permit me to pray you in the name of my departed sons to lend aid of the Military force of the government to arrest and bring to trial the felonious murderer. I beseech you by all the paternal feelings which a father should hold for a son to lend us aid in this matter.

We would earnestly commend that you arrest Henry Plott as so-called Captain in the Confederate Army in command of the murderous squad and that he be held in custody till he reveals the names of the remainder of the murderers. Henry Plott was heard to say soon after the murder “we caught four,” and the question was asked, “what did you do with them?” Answer “we put them up a spout.” “Did you kill them?” “Yes we did.” All the facts above stated can be proved by the best of testimony.

You will please inform us by your earlyest convenience what course you can take in [this] matter and what it may be necessary for us to do in the premises. With Great respect I am sir

Your Obedient servant
Hiram Hulin

*For another related post by Dr. Bynum, see Kill or be Killed from 2/12/09.

Great Post over at Renegade South

See here.

I can see now that I need to make an RSS feed for Vikki’s posts!

O.K., the RSS feed is up now.

North Carolina Unionist John W. Hilton

Once again, Michael Hardy has posted some very good information about another unwilling member of the 58th North Carolina who ended up in the U.S.Navy.

Michael wrote…

According to the NC Troops (Vol. 15, pg. 411), Hilton’s date and place of enlistment are not recorded (probably in the autumn of 1863). [Possibly mustered in as a private in Company L, 58th North Carolina Troops.] Hilton was captured at Missionary Ridge, Tennessee, November 25, 1863. Sent to Nashville, Tennessee. Transferred to Louisville, Kentucky, where he arrived on December 11, 1863. Transferred to Rock Island, Illinois, where he arrived on or about December 14, 1863. Released at Rock Island on or about February 5, 1864, after taking the Oath of Allegiance and joining the U. S. Navy.

I’ll let Hilton tell you his story (spelling is his):

“In March 1861 and from that time until August 28, 1862, I lived two miles from Thomasville, Davidson County, North Carolina, and during that period my occupation was Wagon and Buggy Manufacturer.

On said August 28, 1862, I was arrested and imprisoned in jail at Lexington, North Carolina, under accusation of entertaining principles and sentiments in favor of the United States government, was refused bail and kept in prison until the 4th day of November, 1862 when I was allowed to give bail and was released upon giving $5000.00 bond, conditional for good and peaceful behavior towards the Confederate Government.

Thereupon, I returned to my home and said business and resumed the same for about twenty days, when on November 25, 1862, after having planned with other union sympathizers to release Federal soldiers imprisoned at Saulsbury, North Carolina, and learning that the plot was discovered and that I was about to be arrested for complicity in it, I fled to avoid capture… to Forsythe County, North Carolina, and there lay in concealment under care of my friend Joseph Nott Singer, until June 1863.

About the last of June, 1863, while attempting to pass through the confederate lines on my way North, I was captured by confederate soldiers near Taylorsville, Tennessee [present day Mountain City, Tennessee].

Six days after, I eluded my guard and laid concealed in various places, principally in Davidson and Forsythe counties, North Carolina, until September 15, 1863, when I started north again, and was recapatured on the 15th day of October, 1863, near Wytheville, Virginia, by confederate soldiers while enroute North, who deprived me of my money, knife, and valuables on my person.

I espaced from them the night that day and by circuitous route and managing to keep concealed during the time, I succeeded in reaching a point near Chattanooga, Tennessee; lair there concealed until after the battle of Lookout Mountain, where soon after, I voluntarily came to the Federal army at Chicamauga Station then in pursuit of Bragg’s army. whereupon I was placed in the custody of the Federal Provost Marshal, and in his custody returned with the Federal forces to Chattanooga, whence as a prisoner was sent to Rock Island… and there kept as such until my enlistment as landsman in the United States Navy on January 20, 1864…”

Hilton wrote the above in August 1891. The Pension Board wanted Hilton to clarify his Confederate service. Hilton appears to be a little more forthcoming in his reply in December 1891. Hilton writes:

“That on or about the last of October 1863, I was endeavoring to pass through the Confederate lines and while doing so was captured in west North Carolina near the Tennessee line by a body of North Carolina State Militia in the Confederate service and carried a prisoner to Raleigh, North Carolina, and while so a prisoner in said Raleigh was compelled by the Confederates authorities to join as a private, captain Eller’s Company L of the 48th North Carolina Regiment of Infantry, which was about the 14th or 15th of November 1863. That I continued as such private in said company L 13 or 14 days (and did not exceed 14) days and was sent back as an invalid to the supply train of General Bragg’s army at Chickamauga Station about the 29th or 30th day of November 1863. I made my escape from the Confederate authorities, sought and found the Federal forces and delived myself to them.”

The Captain that Hilton refers to is Capt. Calvin Eller, Company L, 58th NCT. While Hilton refers to the 48th NCT, the 48th was a Army of Northern Virginia regiment. It is interesting how Hilton changed his story. In the earlier version, he voluntarily went to the Missionary Ridge area, after escaping from Federal soldiers near Wytheville, Virginia. In the later version, he was actually captured, imprisoned, and forced into Confederate service.

After joining the US Navy, he was assigned to the USS Princeton. Hilton was later injured. It appears that he fell from a ladder and broke an ankle and banged his head. He was discharged in May 1865. Hilton later went to California, where he died on January 21, 1898. He is probably buried in Los Angeles.

As in the case of Sluder, I figured that I would do a follow-up work, so…

If Hilton became a landsman in January 1864, I wonder when he was officially assigned to ship’s company for the U.S.S. Princeton. If he signed-on to the Princeton at the same time he became a landsman, he would have seen… nothing much in the way of service. It seems that beginning in 1857, the Princeton was assigned to service in Philadelphia as a receiving ship, and there she remained through the Civil War. She was sold in October 1866.

Nonetheless, a good story about another Unionist. Michael’s finding some good stuff in those widows’ pension files.

Felix Sluder… a North Carolina Unionist

A few days ago, Michael Hardy (North Carolina and the Civil War) posted this brief story about Felix Sluder. The story is particularly rich because of Sluder’s pension application.

Hardy wrote…

Sluder lived in the North Fork District of Ashe County in 1860. He was a thirty-six year old farmer. Also in the house hold were his wife and two children. According to Sluder, on April 3, 1862, he was conscripted to serve in the Confederate army. It could be that he was in error about the date, since the first Conscription law enacted in early 1862 set the age limit at 35, and Felix Sluder would have been thirty-eightish. A revision to the law in September 1862 capped the age at 45. Regardless, Sluder was able to evade conscription officers for several months.

According to Sluder “on or about the last days of August 1863 I was captured on Roans Creek Johnston Co. Tenn by the Rebel home guard, while on my way through the lines to join the 4th Tenn. Infantry United States Army. as I had previously enlisted under one Joel Eastridge who were a recruiting officer of said Regt.” Sluder was taken to Camp Vance, and then on to Raleigh, before being sent to the 58th North Carolina. The 58th NCT was stationed near Missionary Ridge at the time. Sluder continued to refuse to join the Confederate army; “they then tried to force me to Enlist in the Confederate army.” Sluder wrote after the war; “and I willfully refused to do so. They then threatened to starve me until I did enlist in their service and I yet willfully refused. They then kept me under arrest until about the 26th day of Nov, 1863 and then about the same day they placed me in the breastworks at Mission Ridge and in the front of battle, where I were captured by the Yankees refusing all the while to enlist under any service for the Confederate authorities. and after bearing all the afore said punishment I still refused to enlist or render any service that ever for the confederates, and that I did not enlist in the Confederate army in no shape nor form.”

Sluder believed that he was placed on the front lines, in the breastworks, to be executed by the advancing Federals as the Confederates retreated. He wrote as much: “I [was] that day forced into the Breastworks so as to have me killed for refusing to enlist in the Confederate service” While this might be true, it smacks a little of the David/Bathsheba/Uriah story in the Old Testament. I find it hard to believe that the Confederates would have just left Sluder, knowing that he would desert. If the members of the 58th NCT understood anything, it was desertion.

As with almost all Confederate prisoners, Sluder was sent to Nashville, Tennessee. He was then transferred to Louisville, Kentucky, where he arrived on December 7, 1863. He transferred to Rock Island, Illinois, where he arrived on December 9, 1863. About six weeks later, Sluder was given the chance to join the Federals, which he did. He enlisted in the United States Navy on or about January 25, 1864, serving on board the USS Ticonderoga. In April 1865, Sluder was given a 10-day furlough. He felt that his health was so bad that he could no longer serve at sea. Towards the middle of April, he joined Company G, 57th Pennsylvania Infantry, and was mustered in as a private. He enlisted under the alias “John Malron, because he was sure that if he was captured by the Confederates, he would be executed for being a deserter. At the end of June 1865, he was honorably discharged from the United States army. Sluder returned to Ashe County where he died October 31, 1907. I assume he is buried in Ashe County, but I am not sure where.

I found most of this remarkable story in Sluder’s pension application. Sluder was not discharged from the US Navy at the end of the war, and was listed as a deserter. This “slight” on his record was later corrected in the 1890s and Sluder received his pension until he passed over.

I find his service in the U.S. Navy (after unwillingly serving with the 58th N.C. Inf., CSA) quite interesting. The USS Ticonderoga experienced active service in 1864, and into 1865 when the ship was involved in the capture of Ft. Fisher, near Wilmington, N.C.

Frank P. Haywood’s Disallowed Claim

After a little surfing on the Web, I came across the claim of Frank P. Haywood, of Franklin County, North Carolina. However, Haywood lived, at the time of the war, in Jackson County, Florida. His wife, on the other hand, owned a farm just outside of Raleigh, North Carolina. Because of service with the home guard, Haywood’s claim was disallowed. It’s an interesting read, and can be found at this Franklin County, North Carolina GenWeb Site.

Note that this is just a portion of the original claim. Additionally, an abstract from the claim of William H. Allen can also be found on this same page. Though both Haywood’s and Allen’s claims were disallowed, Allen’s was more “over the top” as he could provide no proof of having been a loyal Union man during the war.

The Haywood claim is a good example of the variances in understanding of what “Southern Unionism” meant to different Southerners during the war. Meanwhile, Allen’s claim shows how some Southerners who applied for claims lied in order to take a chance at landing some Federal money.

The Kinston (North Carolina) Hangings

I’d like to thank Richard Phillips for his contributions (comments made to this post) regarding North Carolina Unionists and Union soldiers. He has quite the database in the works. His mention of the “Kinston hangings” has triggered a memory that I have regarding the same event.

In the course of writing the book The Richmond Fayette, Hampden, Thomas, and Blount’s Lynchburg Artillery (1991) for the Virginia Regimental Histories Series, I ran across some information directly related to the incident. In fact, three of the above mentioned units were part of Gen. George Pickett’s 38th Battalion Virginia Light Artillery and were operating with Confederate forces in North Carolina when the Kinston hangings took place.

Lt. William I. Clopton of the Richmond Fayette Artillery was one of the Confederate officers to sit on the court-martial to try the captured “buffaloes” (Confederate deseeters who had joined the Union army). Elijah W. Gaines of the same battery recalled the events that took place after the “buffaloes” were found guilty

The jail was near the Neuse river, and back of it lay a flat country. On this plateau was erected a large scaffold of rude material, and around it was built a platform with triggers, with ropes attached. The fatal day arrived, the military was marched to the scaffold, the men detailed to pull the ropes and thus spring the triggers. Twenty-five men were placed on the platform at one time, the noose adjusted around their necks, their heads covered with corn sacks in lieu of black caps, which could not be obtained, the command given, the ropes pulled, the triggers sprung, and twenty-five men launched into eternity. This was followed later by five other executions, and then two, the latter being brothers of the same build and stature, about six feet tall and well built. They were baptized in the Neuse river, taken to the jail to change their clothing, and from thense to the scaffold, where they paid the penalty of cruel war’s demand.

See this link for more information. Also see Justice or Atrocity: Gen. George Pickett and the Kinston, N.C. Hangings.

The Shelton Laurel Massacre

The slain included James Shelton, David Shelton, Azariah Shelton, William Chandler, Wade H. Moore, Roderick Shelton, David Shelton, Jr., James Shelton, Jr., William Shelton, Joseph Woods, Ellison King, Halen Moore, and James Metcalf.

More information on the massacre can be found here, here, and here.

A very good discussion thread can also be found here and here in the Southern Unionist Forum. Included in these threads is a brief discussion about the hangings of women following the Shelton Laurel Massacre. When reading note the extremely good investigative work and analysis that has been applied to this event.

The Story of Stephen S. Shook

In late October 2007, I received an e-mail announcing the illegal removal of a Union veteran’s headstone (in Madison County, N.C.) by a direct descendant (but even more surprisingly, he is also a deputy of Gaston County, N.C.). Apparently the Union veteran had prior service with the Confederate army. Like some of the people with whom I have been acquainted in the past, this descendant must have felt that, despite service in the Union army to the end of the war, his ancestor was more sympathetic to the Confederacy [after all, doesn’t the descendant always know better?]. Other direct descendants did not agree with the removal of the headstone, and therefore the incident became news-worthy. The body of the article can be read in the Gaston [N.C.] Gazette.

There were indeed quite a number of Confederates to “galvanize” and join the ranks of the Union army, most especially under the hard conditions of life while POWs. The POW camp at Pt. Lookout, Maryland was well-known for the large numbers of former Confederates that enlisted in two of six infantry regiments (the 1st United States Volunteer Infantry, being one of the two) that was raised from Confederate POWs and deserters. Most of these regiments ended up on the frontier, defending western forts from native Americans (as further reading about “galvanized Yankees,” I recommend Galvanized Yankees on the Upper Missouri: The Face of Loyalty by Michelle Tucker Butts and The Galvanized Yankees by Dee Brown).

However, in this instance, I felt that something was amiss and I just had to take a closer look at the details behind the matter. Technically, according to pension standards set for Union veterans, if one bore arms voluntarily against the U.S., they were not entitled to a pension as a former Union soldier [such as in the case, of, I think, most “galvanized Yankees”]. In evaluating loyalties in the case of former Union soldiers, I think these pension records set a good standard for the questions that we should ask. For example, what evidence, after the war, is there about the soldier’s loyalty? Is there a pension application showing some sort of testimonial as to sentiment? Did the veteran participate in U.C.V. or G.A.R. activities (or neither)? Did he try to apply for a Confederate pension? Did he apply for a Southern Loyalist claim? Is there some trail of paper showing a consistent trend toward desertion (or was he captured with an otherwise flawless record)? There is a lot to consider, but if a headstone is to be ordered [or replaced], it should reflect the true sentiments of the veteran.

Just as an example, I know of several Confederate headstones from the Veterans Administration that were placed in the twentieth century [in the Shenandoah Valley] and should have never been placed (based on the reluctance of the men to serve – especially when they were conscripted. One soldier of whom I am aware was a member of the Stonewall Brigade for a grand total of 35 days! At the end of this “lengthy” term of service, he was exempted from service because he was a shoemaker. To prevent being taken in by conscription hunters again, the man headed north into Ohio and spent the rest of the war there before returning to Virginia. Yet, a visitor to his grave today, upon seeing the famous distinctive pointed headstone made for Confederate veterans, would be mislead into believeing that this man was a true and faithful soldier of the Confederate army.

Anyway, back to this subject of the newspaper article…

Looking into the records of this veteran (Stephen S. Shook) with the Union headstone, I came to the conclusion that there should be no mistaking his loyalties. Shook applied for (application #377637) and received a pension (certificate #471516) from the U.S. government as early as June 1880. At that time, the U.S. government wasn’t messing around with sifting through loyalties and letting applications slide through the system (though they weren’t nearly as strict later in the early 1900s). I didn’t have a chance to visit the National Archives in Washington, D.C. and personally view these records, but I am familiar enough with these records to know that Shook had to have some serious testimonials from friends and/or comrades as to his having not voluntarily borne arms against the United States. Incidentally, Shook’s wife received a widow’s pension not long after he died in 1902.

Furthermore, a quick review of Shook’s military service revealed that Shook originally enlisted (possibly conscripted?) as a private in Co. A, 58th North Carolina Infantry on 10 June 1862 (at the age of 30). He transferred to Company B, of the 5th Battalion N.C. Cavalry on 27 June 1862 and transferred once again on 3 August 1863 to Co. K, of the 6th N.C. Cavalry. Not long after this transfer, he deserted (2 September 1863) at Loudon, Tennessee.

According to the newspaper article, family members (other than the one who removed the headstone), recalled that Shook deserted from the Confederate army in order to attend his nine year-old daughter’s funeral (who, according to the family story, died in a house fire). “After the funeral, Shook couldn’t return to fight with the Confederacy. And for whatever reason, he later enlisted with a Union regiment out of Tennessee… He tried to come home for the funeral, but they wouldn’t let him and he had to go AWOL.” By the close of the war, as the story goes, “Shook had become a sergeant in Company M, Eighth Regiment of the Tennessee Cavalry, according to the tombstone issued by the federal government and placed over his grave in 1920.”

Story adopted from the February 24, 2008 post on Cenantua’s Blog.