Botetourt and the Civil War

With Virginia and the nation celebrating 250 years of freedom from England in 2026, I thought it might be fun to occasionally bring up some local history. At one time, Botetourt County stretched all the way to the Mississippi and into Wisconsin, which means my county's history is also the history of much of the nation.

Botetourt County of course has multiple connections to the American Civil War, or the War Between the States, as it is sometimes called. The war took place from 1861 to 1865.

Buchanan, one of our towns, was raided by Union General David Hunter, during what is known as "Hunter's Raid."

Photo courtesy of buchanan-va.gov

Hunter's Raid began on June 5, 1864, with the Battle of Piedmont. He proceeded to Staunton, a city about an hour and a half away today by Interstate 81, burning government buildings and supplies as he went. 

In Harry Fulwiler, Jr.’s book, Buchanan, Virginia: Gateway to the South, the author records the events that will bring history buffs into the town.  Hunter’s report:

“June 13:  While awaiting news from Duffie, on the 13^th I sent Averell forward to Buchanan with orders to drive McCausland out of the way and, if possible, secure the bridge over the James River at that place.”

In an August 8 report on the June events: “On the morning of the 14^th I moved with my whole command toward Buchanan, and on arriving there found it occupied by Averell. He had driven McCausland sharply from the place, capturing some prisoners and a number of canal barges laden with stores, but had not succeeded in saving the bridge.  As there was a convenient and accessible ford at hand the advance of the army was not retarded by its loss. In view of this fact and of the damage incurred to private property the inhabitants of the village protested against the burning of the bridge, but McCausland, with his characteristic recklessness, persisted in the needless destruction, involving eleven private dwellings in the conflagration. The further progress of this needless devastation was stopped by the friendly efforts of our troops, who extinguished the flames.

On the 15^th I moved from Buchanan.”

Fulwiler also records the memories of Jane Boyd, who witnessed the Confederate burning of the bridge and the subsequent occupation by the Yankees: “General McCausland sent his men across the bridge, and then had the bridge filled with baled hay … and fired. The bridge was an old fashioned covered wooden bridge, and the flames spread rapidly. … The burning of the bridge set fire to the town, and as many, perhaps, as thirty buildings were destroyed. The scene was terrific, and many people were made homeless. General McCausland formed his line of battle just at the foot of Oak Hill, my old home, and the enemy’s line was on the opposite side of James River, near the foot of Purgatory Mountain.” The report goes on to talk about how General Averil’s men put out the fire, but looted as they did so, downing many decanters of fine old wines. Boyd says there were 30,000 men camped around Buchanan and surrounding areas. Mount Joy burned, the Jones’ foundry, a storehouse, and many other buildings.

Hunter took his men away from Buchanan via the Peaks of Otter, to Bedford. The raid ended at the Battle of Lynchburg on June 17-18, 1864, where Confederate General Jubal Early defeated the Union forces.

Following the Union defeat, Confederates forces pursued Union forces back through Bedford, then to Salem where they fought again at the Battle of Hanging Rock.

While that raid wasn't quite all of Botetourt's contributions to the Confederate side of that terrible war, it was certainly devastating to that part of the county.

Nearly forty years after the war ended, Botetourt residents memorialized their Confederate soldiers with a monument at the county courthouse in Fincastle.

The Confederate Monument is on the right-hand side of the photo. This courthouse has been
torn down and the monument has been relocated.

The Botetourt Monument Association put up the monument, which is in the shape of an obelisk. The family of Buchanan’s most famous author, Mary Johnston, was instrumental in placing the monument in Fincastle. Johnston also had a hand in the dedication of a monument in Vicksburg National Park in 1907 celebrating the Botetourt Artillery’s efforts in that famous Civil War battle.

According to news reports of the October 27, 1904 dedication in Fincastle, Major John Johnston and Eloise Johnson, Mary Johnston’s father and sister, attended the unveiling.  Eloise Johnston apparently was the chief sponsor of the monument; Judge William B. Simmons and John Johnston were “untiring” fundraisers for the project.

The newspaper called this “the greatest day in the history of the peaceful little city. Thousands of people gathered there to witness the unveiling of the beautiful monument erected in honor of the Confederate dead of Botetourt County.”

The writer reported that John Johnston and Attorney General William A. Anderson, both Botetourt County natives, made eloquent addresses.

Eloise Johnston and “a staff of twelve young ladies, representing the twelve volunteer companies that went into the Confederate army from Botetourt county,” unveiled the monument, “a model of beauty and excellence.”

While the monument at the county courthouse is not unique, the inscriptions are a little different in that they recognize the services of women in helping the soldiers during the war.

One side of the monument reads, “To the women of Botetourt in remembrance of their constant encouragement, steadfast devotion, tender in ministrations and unfailing providence and care, during the war and in the dark reconstruction years.”

The statue commemorates, “the deeds and services of the twelve volunteer companies … that went to the war from Botetourt County.” It is “in memory of our brave and loyal officers and enlisted men who were killed in battle and who died from wounds and disease, during the war, and of our faithful comrades who have died since the war.”

The twelve volunteer companies from Botetourt County participating in the Civil War and listed on the monument are:

The Fincastle Rifles, Co. D. 11 Rec't. VA. Infantry.

The Botetourt Dracoons, Co. C. 2 Rec't. VA Cavalry.

The Mountain Rifles, Co. H. 28 Rec't. VA Infantry.

Anderson's Battery - The Botetourt Artillery.

The Roaring-Run Company, Co. K. II, Rec't. VA. Infantry.

The Botetourt Guards, Co. I. 57 Rec't. VA Infantry.

The Osceola Guards, Co. K 60 Rec't. VA. Infantry.

The Blue Ridge Rifles, Co. A. 28 Rec't. VA Infantry.

The Botetourt Springs Company, Co. E 28 Rec't. VA Infantry.

The Breckenridge Infantry, Co. K. 28 Rec't. VA. Infantry.

The Botetourt Heavy Artillery, Co. C. 20, Bat'N. VA. H'vy. Art'y.

The Botetourt Senior Reserves, Co. -- 4, Rec't. VA. Reserves.

The Botetourt Junior Reserves, Co. E.2, Bat'N. VA Reserves.

The monument has been moved from its original location at the front of the Botetourt County Courthouse in Fincastle and is now in a monument park the county is constructing as part of the new courthouse building project.

There is a similar obelisk monument in the Town of Buchanan.

 

Perspective

Just the smallest shift can change your perspective.

Recently I decided to move my computer a little. My computer, once squarely in front of the window, is now off to the side.

I have a different view from the same window.

Before the move, I looked straight into a small glen, a part of the cattle pasture. Brush and pine trees frame the space, and daily I’d watch the deer pass back and forth, from brush to pine, their noses to the ground eating grass as they went.

I don’t see that anymore. Now I see a grove of oak trees, and the fields stretching out towards the two-lane road that runs by my house. I see the cedar trees growing tall, majestic and larger every year. And I see a rose bush, presently leafless and dead-looking, though with this warm weather it’s liable to bud just any time.

Each day I watch the view out my window.

Some mornings loom gray and ugly, the clouds and dark sky proclaiming a rainy, windy day. Other mornings, the dustiness of night is suddenly brushed away by pink as the sun rises behind me. 

Time passes, the shadows change, the daylight flicks over the house, the eaves of the roof afford shade or not. In evening the sun shines golden over the mountains I love so much. The rays reflect the browns of the tree branches, the yellows of the hibernating grasses.

I see squirrels, groundhogs, an occasional fox, the deer I may as well call my pets. The cattle, too, meander past. Sometimes I stop working to watch the calves kick up their heels, running delightedly up and down the hillside.

I envy those calves (until I remember their ultimate future).

If I raise my window, I also change my perspective. Suddenly, instead of the quiet of my house, I hear traffic. Momma cows call to little ones. Crows caw. A horn blasts in the distance, maybe a siren.  Things are happening all around me, even if I can’t see them.

In the mornings, I sometimes drink my hot tea over the kitchen sink so I can watch the sun rise. Today it was brilliant pink, splashed in between clouds. The dark skyline of nude trees seemed to reach up to grab the light, so breathtaking was the magnificence of the day.

It's just March. There is still time to think of this as a new year, time to seek out new perspectives, new windows, new light.  Do we bask in the sunrise, or rejoice in the sunset? Should we keep the same viewpoint and never bother to change our minds? Do we stick with the tried and true and never see the critters roaming just a stone’s throw away?

I opt to look. Even the fat, lumbering groundhog is too cute to miss.

Maybe it's time for a new perspective. Not the grand, resolution-style overhaul we promise ourselves every January and abandon by February. Maybe we need just a small shift, the way moving a computer a few inches can open up an entirely different world outside the same window. Listen a little longer before you speak. Let someone finish their sentence before you're already forming your reply.

Sometimes the most important thing a person says comes at the very end, quiet and almost offhand, and you'd have missed it entirely if you'd stopped listening too soon.

The new view doesn't have to be dramatic. It might be a different road home, an unfamiliar store, a hand held when you'd normally just walk side by side. It might be three small words said out loud to someone who already knows you mean them.

Look out the window every once in a while. You never know what's passing by.

*A version of this ran in The Fincastle Herald in 2005. It's been revised.*

Sunday Stealing

Thursday Thunks

1. It's the middle of the night. There isn't another car in sight. You're stuck at a red light that just won't change. How long do wait until you run it?

A. Probably not very long, although with my luck there would be a police car with no lights on it hiding behind a bush somewhere.

2. What's your favorite recipe?

A. Anything I don't have to cook. Otherwise, I suppose it's my grandmother's recipe for what she called Chocolate Lush.

3. When did you last ask yourself, "What the hell was I thinking?"

A. Every day. I ask myself that every day.

4. Have you ever had a mole removed? If yes, where on your body was it?

A. I had a huge mole removed from my chest when I was five years old. I was born with it and it covered most of my chest. It was shaped like a bullet and had white spots in it. I have been told it was precancerous so that is why they removed it. I have a huge scar on my chest in between my breasts where they cut it out. When I was in school, I used to tell my gym teachers I couldn't take gym because I'd had heart surgery and wasn't feeling well. If they argued with me, I would raise my shirt and show them the scar. It was hard to argue with a massive scar in the middle of my chest.

5. What website do you faithfully check (other than email)?

A. I do Wordle, I check Facebook once a day, and I play my Elvenar video game in my browser every day. I read the New York Times and The Roanoke Times online.

Thank you for playing! Please come back next week.

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I encourage you to visit other participants in Sunday Stealing posts and leave a comment. Cheers to all us thieves who love memes, however we come by them.

Saturday 9: Four-Leaf Clover

Saturday 9: I'm Looking Over a Four-Leaf Clover (2001)

Selected in honor of St. Patrick's Day. 

Unfamiliar with this week's song? Hear it here.

1) This is one of the songs included in Willie Nelson's Rainbow Connection album. He named it after his daughter Amy's favorite song when she was a little girl. She'd been asking him to record "The Rainbow Connection" for 20 years and finally, in 2001, he came through for her. Think of something you had to wait for. Was it worth the wait?

A. I knew two months after we met that I would marry my then-boyfriend, but it took him another seven months to come around and propose. He was definitely worth the wait!

2) Willie can trace his family tree back to the Revolutionary War. Are you interested in genealogy?

A. I can trace my family tree back to the Revolutionary War, too. I have always had an interest in genealogy but it's something I hope to pick up again at some point.

3) Today Willie is legendary performer, but as a child, he was very uncomfortable in front of crowds. He recalled that during his school days, reciting in front of his class made him so uncomfortable he suffered nose bleeds. When did you most recently have a bloody nose?

A. I don't generally get a bloody nose. I can't recall when I last had one.

4) During the 1990s, Willie had problems with the IRS. His management team set up illegal tax shelters, and he ended up owing millions in back taxes and penalties. This year's IRS filing deadline is Wednesday, April 15. Will you be early, on time, or will you need an extension?

A. I have my taxes for 2025 taken care of.

5) In "I'm Looking Over a Four-Leaf Clover," Willie sings about appreciating something he has previously overlooked. Is there anything positive in your life you feel you may take for granted? 

A. I'm sure there are lots of things. Think about it: I have a roof over my head, food, a little extra spending money if I want to buy a book or something. I have electricity and water. I have a man who loves me. What else could a woman want, really?

6) Four leaf clovers and shamrocks are considered good luck. Do you have a lucky charm?

A. I do not have a lucky charm.

7) "The wearing o' the green" is one way to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. Will you wear something green in honor of the day?

A. I generally don't, but I will be going out that day so I will see if I can find something for the occasion. I don't want to get pinched.

8) According to Irish folklore, if you catch a leprechaun, he must either give you his pot o' gold or grant you three wishes. Would you choose the gold or the wishes?

A. I think I'd take the three wishes. With one, you could wish for gold if that's what you want. Although as fairy tales and legends generally point out, it is important to be careful what you wish for and how you word the wish.

   

9) Traditional Irish stew is made with mutton or lamb, though here in the US beef is also very popular. What's your favorite soup/stew?

A. I'm afraid I'm a very boring soup eater. I just like chicken soup.

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I encourage you to visit the posts of other participants in Saturday 9 and leave a comment. Because there are no rules, it is your choice. Saturday 9 players hate rules. We love memes, however. 

Thursday Thirteen #950

Things that March teaches you -

1. Patience, because the ground thaws when it’s ready and not a day sooner.

2. Timing, because there a narrow space between too early and too late. Plant too early, you lose your seedlings. Wait too long, and the heat will burn them.

3. When to wait, especially when mud or weather would only punish you for pushing ahead. Take a tractor through a muddy field and you'll pay for it later when you have to mow.

4. When to act, catching the small openings March gives you before they close again. That means grabbing a warm day to clear the weeds from the garden or a wet day to catch up on reading.

5. How to read mud, because its color, its pull, all tell a story about the week that was and the week that will be.

6. How to read sky, noticing which clouds mean “go” and which mean “wrap it up.” Stay too long and you'll find yourself in an early thunderstorm.

7. How to read yourself, the places where winter still lingers in your body. You'll know it by the ache in your bones.

8. The value of a good list when everything feels half-started. It's so easy to forget that you've already bought zucchini seeds.

9. The value of ignoring that list when the day rearranges itself. Take the time to forget the list and watch the sunset. There's enormous value in that soft beauty.

10. What’s predictable: the same gates, the same low spots, the same chores returning on cue. They're rather endless on a farm. Actually, they're endless in life, they just change their shape.

11. What never is predictable are surprises, equipment breakdowns, fast-brewing storms that rewrite the day.

12. What returns, like green grass, birdsong, light in the evening, and the sense of a year beginning again.

13. What doesn’t return, like the birds that nested in the tree that fell over during the ice storm, and how to keep working with what remains, like what to do with those broken limbs.

_________________

Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here if you want to read other Thursday Thirteens and/or play along. I've been playing for a while, and this is my 950th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.

How I Am

Not that anyone's asked, really, and I don't normally write about health issues, but at the moment, I have:

1) a superficial thrombophlebitis, which is to say, a blood clot in my calf that is not a deep vein thrombosis but instead is on the outside of my leg. It hurts and aches, and there's swelling. It started February 20 and has not yet quite resolved. I can still see a remnant of the clot through the skin in my leg.

2) an impingement in my right shoulder along with a sprained acromion bone. I did this by falling off the treadmill. My physical therapist says I should be back to playing the guitar in a few weeks.

3) my normal health issues of chronic abdominal pain, ulcers, and other issues that I won't go into. 

It's also been a difficult six weeks since my father died, for reasons I won't go into now, but death has its own weight to it and each of us must bear whatever that poundage may be and in whatever way we find it best to handle. 

When friends or family pass away, there is always a change, for good or ill, and we can only navigate it the best way we know how to at the time. We may look back and wish things had gone differently, but humans move forward through life, not backwards, and all we can do is the best we can at the time with the knowledge we have at that moment. 

Most of us do the best we can. Those who like to judge may find that my best is wanting in their mind, but that's on them, if they must find fault. As for me, I deal with my own demons and let others fight their own. There are plenty to go around.