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While Kappanannock did not witness any of the great pitched battles for which the Civil War was so infamous this does not mean that it was spared major deprivations. In the summer of 1862, the Union Army of Virginia, some 50,000 troops, occupied the county. Campsites spread from Sperryville eastward well past Massie’s Comer and southward to Woodville. In one of the first explicit expressions of “total war’, Union General John Pope, commander of the Army of Virginia, declared that civilians aiding the rebel army would have their property burned and would themselves be liable to the penalty of death. Lee called Pope a “miscreant” and declared that he must “be suppressed”. That suppression would come in late August at the 2nd Battle of Manassas, but not before Rappahannock felt the full weight of Pope’s orders.
Yankee Troops
Many residents were harassed or worse by the occupying force. Crops and livestock were confiscated and a number of locals left the area for the duration of the war. Union cavalry used Thornton Gap Primitive Baptist Church in Old Hollow as a stable. Post-war reparations allowed reconstruction of the church on the same site. At least one rape was recorded during this period. In a reflection on the judicial imbalances of the times, the black man who participated received a much harsher sentence than his two white counterparts.
Caroline Terry, a slave on a farm in F.T. Valley, had the audacity to laugh at a Union soldier who accidentally fell into a pond while performing for some sweet young ladies of the manor. The soldier threatened to kill her for her impudence however she was saved by the intervention of her female owners. Caroline became a Sperryville resident after the war and lived until 1941 (to age 108) in a house near the present site of Burgers and Things. Her grandson, James Russell, has become a well-known author with his benevolent recollections of Caroline and her time in bondage.
As the war progressed to its conclusion and the armies moved on, those who remained in Rappahannock struggled to get by. There are many stories of continuing hardship including slaves caring for elderly mistresses with men away in the military, sometimes forever. In the fall of 1864, a Union campaign to destroy the food supply in the Shenandoah Valley briefly touched Rappahannock adding to its woes. But the bad times did finally end and Rappahannock continued on its leisurely journey to the present.
As we gaze upon the magnificent countryside that we call home, it is difficult indeed to imagine war and its impact on this land. The people who lived here through the Civil War paid
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