Seventy-Five Years in Old Virginia with Some Account of the Life of The
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Library of Congress Seventy-five years in old Virginia with some account of the life of the author and some history of the people amongst whom his lot was cast,—their character, their conduct before the war, during the war and after the war, SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS IN OLD VIRGINIA SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS IN OLD VIRGINIA With some account of the life of the Author and some history of the people amongst whom his lot was cast,—their character, their condition, and their conduct before the war, during the war and after the war By JOHN HERBERT CLAIBORNE, M. A., M. D. Honorary Alumnus of the University College of Medicine, Honorary Fellow and ex- President of the Medical Society of Virginia, Corresponding Member of the Gynecological Society of Boston, Fellow elect of the Victoria Institute of Great Britain, Member of the First Pan-American Congress, Formerly Member of the House of Representatives and Senate of Virginia, Lately Major and Surgeon of the 12th Virginia Infantry, Mahone's Brigade —Subsequently Surgeon on the General Medical Staff of the Confederate Army, and Executive Officer in charge of all Military Hospitals at Petersburg, Va., etc., etc. WITH PORTRAITS THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS New York and Washington THE NEALE PUBLISHING COMPANY 1904 Seventy-five years in old Virginia with some account of the life of the author and some history of the people amongst whom his lot was cast,—their character, their conduct before the war, during the war and after the war, http://www.loc.gov/resource/lhbcb.07854 Library of Congress F230 .C58 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS MAR 26 1904 Copyright Entry Mar. 25- 1904 CLASS a No. 82770 COPY B Copyright, 1904 By JOHN HERBERT CLAIBORNE THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS To my only Sister, Mrs. Mary Augusta Thomas, of Marion, Alabama, who as comrade of my early years will read with more interest than others this record of personal reminiscences, and who, as to the rest, will doubtless prove my most lenient critic, this volume is affectionately inscribed. CONTENTS CHAPTER I. Personal and For My Personal Friends. My Birth—The Character of the People Amongst Whom I Was Born—At School at Leasburg, North Carolina—My Mother —At Ebenezer Academy—I Attend Randolph-Macon College—Emory & Henry College —Again at Randolph-Macon—I Matriculate at University of Virginia—To Philadelphia, Where I Take Diplomas From Jefferson Medical College, the Pennsylvania Hospital, and the Philadelphia Obstetrical Institute—On Staff of Jefferson Medical College—I Return to Virginia and Look for a Location—Decide on Petersburg—Some First Experiences, 17 CHAPTER II. Petersburg In The Fifties. The City as I Found It—Some Early History— The Population and a Comparison—The Society—The Fourth of July—Hospitality and Liberality—The Business Interests—Growth of the City—Its Hotels and Taverns—A Professional adventure—Principal Resources and Finances—Its Municipal Government— The Churches and their Pastors—The Colored Congregations—The Press of Petersburg in 1850 and Later—The Schools and Teachers—The Petersburg Bar and Some Reminiscences of Its Honored Members—The Physicians of Petersburg—Recollections of Seventy-five years in old Virginia with some account of the life of the author and some history of the people amongst whom his lot was cast,—their character, their conduct before the war, during the war and after the war, http://www.loc.gov/resource/lhbcb.07854 Library of Congress Many Notable Members of the Profession Before and During My Time—Petersburg's Rise After the War, 40 CHAPTER III Politics Of The Ante-bellum Period. Politics in the Past—The Two Parties of the Day—The Alliance of the Whig and Know-Nothing Parties to Fight the Democratic Party—The Wreck of the Whig Party—My x First Vote Cast With the Democratic Party —Nominated by the Democratic Party for the House of Delegates—An Unwilling and Unexpected Launch Upon the Sea of Politics—Everything Goes Democratic—Some Account of Events in the Exciting Sectional Drama Leading to the Outbreak of Hostilities —A Nefarious Mission—The John Brown Raid the First Gun of the Fight—I Decline Re- election, but Am Renominated Against My Wish and Elected—Serve in 1857–'58 and Again in 1859–'60—An Account of Events and Measures Immediately Preceding the War —My Position Made Clear—Speeches in the Senate and Elsewhere—The Nominations of the National Conventions—The Secession Convention—The Peace Conference—The Call For Troops From Virginia by the Government the Last Straw—The Union Men of Virginia— A Visit to Washington and Some Things Heard and Seen—Opinions of Eminent Men North and South—Governor Letcher's Proclamation, 128 CHAPTER IV. The War. The Fourth Virginia Battalion Receives Orders—Quartered in Norfolk—The Companies and Officers—I Accompany the Battalion as Captain and Assistant Surgeon—Am Again Elected to the Senate—Ordered to Take My Seat by the Secretary of War—Obey the Order and Resign, and Apply For Orders For the Army— An Interview—Ordered to Open Hospitals in Petersburg and Made Surgeon in Charge— Appointed Post Surgeon—How Some Supplies Were Acquired—Events Preceding Siege of Petersburg—Arrival of the Enemy—Incidents of the Siege—Ordered to Remove the Hospital Patients and Correspondence with General Lee—The “Fiasco of the War”—An Adventure Before the Lines of the Enemy—“In Vinculis”—The Crater—General Mahone's Part in the Crater Affair—I Am Visited By a Shell at Night—More Incidents of Our Great Generals, And Another of Mahone in Particular—What Manner of Man Was He? What Seventy-five years in old Virginia with some account of the life of the author and some history of the people amongst whom his lot was cast,—their character, their conduct before the war, during the war and after the war, http://www.loc.gov/resource/lhbcb.07854 Library of Congress Manner of Men Were They?—Five Forks—Evacuation and Events Immediately Following, 191 xi CHAPTER V. The Surrender And Events Following. The 2nd of April, 1865—I Prepare to Evacuate—A Pathetic Scene—I Note the Absence of My Dog Jack—A “Borrowed” horse —On to Amelia Court House—An Invitation From Mahone—Romulus Given His ”Free Papers“—A Brave Quartermaster—I Lose All My Possessions Through a Yankee Cavalry Raid—The Asset of a Broken Concern—“A Swig From the Same Canteen”—The Best Forager I Ever Saw—Signs of Demoralization—Fall Into the Hands of the Enemy—I Give Away a Pair of Spurs—Interview With General Devlin—An Invitation to a Much-Needed Breakfast—I Show the “Sign of Distress”—Ordered To Be Paroled—A Night Adventure— Mahone Again and a Parole Blank—An Inhospitable Reception and the Very Opposite—A Question of Boots—With My Wife and Children Once More—A disagreeable incident—The Finale of The Old Regime 259 CHAPTER VI. Events Following The War. My Dog Again—I Am Warned to Leave Petersburg—Make A Purchase and Start for Louisburg, N. C.—Back Again and to Work —The Condition of the South Before the War An Anomaly of Content and Happiness— The Military Government—The Carpet-Bag Government and Its Curse—Opinions of Some Eminent Northerners On the Reconstruction Period—Will History Reproduce Itself in the Philippines—The Evidence of Robbery 311 APPENDIX. The Last Fight at Five Forks—Mr. Granier—What Manner of Man Was He—In the Interest of Justice to Mahone—Old Blandford Church—Personal Ancestry—American Bastiles—Dahlgren's Raid—“Who Fired the First Gun?” 330 PREFACE In February, 1900, the author received a request, through Mr. F. B. Sanborn, of Massachusetts, to read a paper on the “Changes in the Sociology of Old Virginia During Seventy-five years in old Virginia with some account of the life of the author and some history of the people amongst whom his lot was cast,—their character, their conduct before the war, during the war and after the war, http://www.loc.gov/resource/lhbcb.07854 Library of Congress the Last Half of the Last Century,” before the National Sociological. Society of America, to convene in Washington on May 2, 1900. He acknowledged the compliment, and accepted the invitation; but circumstances made it impracticable for him to fill the engagement. In gathering data for the fulfilment of that task, the author filed many of the facts recited in the first chapter of this volume. Becoming more interested in the subject, he continued to write, until reminiscences grew and multiplied, and crowded one upon another, and the whole scope and design of the original intention of the writer was lost in that law of association which the poet puts into classic verse: “Lulled in the countless chambers of the brain, Our thoughts are linked by many a hidden chain, Awake but one, and lo! what myraids rise! Each stamps its image as the other flies.”* * Rogers, “Pleasures of Memory,” Part II. In the meantime the author saw that his reminiscences had run, in length at least, into a book; and as custom ordains that every book should have a preface, he followed the precedent. In the preface, as is usual, he furnishes his readers with the reasons which induced him to appear before them, and, unbidden, to parade his wares. xiv Primarily, he wishes to say that he wrote these “Reminiscences,” in good part, to please himself— Cacoethes scribendi if the reader chooses so to characterize it. Secondarily, he desires to publish the book for the information of his children and grandchildren, and in their interest to record some account of his early life, as well as some of the revolutionary scenes and times in which his long and eventful life was cast; and to some extent to give a rehearsal of the part which he played in the exciting drama.