[It was my dad who pointed this out. I was saying "four-times-great-grandfather" as I explained a battle, and he said, "Wouldn't he be your great-great-great-grandfather?" There then ensued a recitation of names, like a third-grader still unsure about their times-tables: Charles, Harland, another Charles, and then James. For me that's my grandfather, great-grandfather, great-great-grandfather, and the Civil War veteran, my great-great-great-grandfather.]
![]() |
Part of James's pension file, talking about his injuries during the war and his injuries after war, |
But this is something of an outline. Yes, I knew when he had joined and mustered out, when he had been injured and sick, but I didn't have a whole lot about his experience of the war. To find out a little more about that, I decided to research his regiment: the 14th Pennsylvania Cavalry. The unit was organized late in 1862 in western PA, and was comprised of largely of Germans. It took part in some minor action in West Virginia in 1863, and was part of the major campaign in the Shenandoah Valley in 1864 under Sigel, then Hunter, then (finally) Sheridan. This included the burning of the Virginia Military Institute, a defeat by the Confederates that allowed Jubal Early to raid into PA and harass Washington City, and (finally) a defeat of the Confederate army in the Valley late in 1864.
With this knowledge in hand, I started plotting out the places the 14th visited and the battles they took part in. Of course, I can't say precisely where James was during any given battle (except for the times he was in hospital), but I could say that at the least his buddies were there, and most likely he was there, too, shoeing horses and fixing harness.
Now, when I say I plotted it out, I mean that I got a map of Virginia and put dots where all the battles happened. It became something of a jumbled mess, since the armies pushed each other up and down the Valley many times. But the highlights of the 14th's service in the war became clearer. I conceived the idea of a trip to hit all those highlights. It was an ambitious trip at first, taking up to a week, starting in Lynchburg and moving all the way up to Winchester one tiny battlefield at a time. In the event, I only felt comfortable taking
![]() |
The map I used to plot it all out. Yes, those are my toes. |
The other advantage of a shorter trip? My dad was able to join me, and together we explored the experience of our shared ancestor during the Civil War. (What could be better for father-daughter bonding?)
Staunton
So on a fine, hot, Virginia day in July, having enjoyed myself the previous day at Monticello, I drove west across the Blue Ridge to the little town of Staunton. Which, as it transpires, is pronounced like Stanton. So, apparently, I've been saying it wrong all these years, just like I've been telling people my three-times-great-grandfather was my four-times-great-grandfather.
Point two about Staunton: It was an important railroad town during the Civil War, and both armies passed through it repeatedly. Like Wimchester to the north, it changed hands many times.
Point three about Staunton: this is where James was injured (by a horse) about June 1, 1864. According to his pension record, "while shoeing a horse at Staunton, VA, [James] was thrown and badly injured in the back, from which injury he still suffers [some twenty years later]."
Grand Caverns/Weyers Cave
rock. There wasn't a list of names on the website, and I wasn't sure if they would have such a list if I visited, but I figured that it was worth seeing the place regardless, since the 14th PA Cavalry, had been there.
It was a short drive there from Staunton, though I did get literally sidetracked by historical markers that I hoped had something to do with the 14th (they didn't). If I hadn't stopped, I think the drive would have been twenty minutes grand total.
The first thing that greeted me upon my arrival (aside from suffocating heat and a lot of picnickers--the cave is in the middle of a local park) was a historical marker. It talked a bit about Stonewall Jackson's legendary campaign in the Valley in 1862, and then it talked about how the 14th PA Cavalry bivouacked nearby and how some of them toured the caverns.

Battle of Piedmont
Stop number two for the day, about twenty minutes from Grand Caverns, was New Hope, VA, where the Battle of Piedmont took place on June 5, 1864 (about the time James was injured). There isn't a whole lot to mark the place. None of the land has been preserved as a park of any kind. There are two markers on the side of the road, one hidden in the bushes beside the fire station, one hidden amongst the tall corn. On the other hand, this is a small place. In the 1860's, there was just a scattering of houses. Today, there isn't much more. In some ways, the place has been preserved better than some major battlefields simply because no one has taken any interest in developing the area. As a result, it remains very much the same as it was in 1864: fields and pastures, with a few narrow roads (in the same places), all of it in the shadow of the mountains all around.

That afternoon, I met my Dad at the New Hope Post Office (closed on Sunday, of course) and hopped in his truck. Armed with a battle map that had taken some effort to find online, we drove north on VA 608 (Battlefield Rd), stopped to read the marker at the fire station, and continued on until we reached a road heading eastward. According to my map, that road
(VA 778, Patterson Mill Rd) was there in 1864, and the 14th PA came sweeping south from a ridge north, turning slightly westward to follow the path of the road, and striking at Confederate cavalrymen. Riding along in the delightfully air-conditioned truck, it's hard to fully appreciate the conditions of that day. I could imagine heat, dirt, bugs, bullets flying, horses thundering everywhere. These were "small" battles, but that's like saying a house fire is "small" compared to a forest fire. It certainly doesn't feel "small."
To be honest, I wasn't interested in piecing together the intricacies of troop movements during the battle: I was interested in seeing the landscape and seeing exactly where the 14th had fought. To try to get into much finer detail, for me at least, would have been an exercise in banality. There was no need to spend hours puzzling over maps, when what I really wanted, I already had: an impression of the place, the time, and the battle. I had an idea of where the regiment had been and how the battle unfolded: the Confederates lost, and their general, Grumble Jones, was killed. (The Union would go on to attack Lynchburg and burn VMI in Lexington, but was then pushed all the way back to West Virginia while Confederate General Early harried Washington City.)
Having gotten the lay of the land, we decided as evening set in to bring things to a close. It'd been a long day, and it was time to retreat to Harrisonburg and the safety of a Hampton Inn.

You make this so interesting !!!! When is the next installment?
ReplyDeleteHopefully this weekend, but no guarantees!
Delete