From my book-in-progress, Dear Father I Am Sorry To Tell
You
Interesting in
joining my Cyber Focus Group? See
information at end of blog.
If you tune out the cars, trucks and
motorcycles that corrupt Warrenton’s tree-shaded Main Street today, and if you
ignore the latte-serving coffee shops, gasoline stations and Wi-Fi hot spots that inhabit historic buildings, it seems little
has changed in this picturesque municipality since the turbulent 1860s.
 |
| Present-day courthouse in Warrenton, N.C. |
Soon
after the Civil War broke out, Warrenton, ten miles south of Virginia, became a
hornet’s nest of activity. At
nearby Fort Edwards, North Carolina’s first Confederate troops organized before
marching north to banish the enemy from their homeland. In July 1861, my ancestral cousin
Lyndon trained with his new regiment at a horse racetrack just outside of
town. Two weeks later, the
regiment was ordered to Richmond. To find out more, I set out for Warrenton.
I traveled I-85 through the
Carolinas. Just below the Virginia border, I took Highway 158 east toward
Warrenton. The asphalt ribbon
meandered through forests of skinny loblolly pines, family farms with American flags waving from
porches, and trailers scattered like weeds on manicured lawns. Abandoned tractors gawked from baking
tobacco fields. I steered the
Odyssey past the 1890 Browns Baptist Church near Boney Lambford Road, a housing
development named Sherwood Forest, and a sign warning that cows might cross the
road ahead. On the outskirts of
town, the ubiquitous Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Highway took me to Warrenton’s
historic business district.
Tiny
Warrenton’s eight hundred residents want the world to know their town’s big history.
Warrenton’s official website offers a virtual tour of fine old homes, quaint
shops and notable churches. Tasteful brochures promote a downtown walking tour
and a driving tour of the county.
Warren
County took its name from a Massachusetts doctor killed during the American
Revolution at the Battle of Bunker Hill.
The area today is economically depressed, but in 1861 Warren County reigned
as the richest county in North Carolina. It even owned its own railroad, which
of course Sherman’s men destroyed.
I
had no trouble finding a parking spot along Main Street. First stop: the Warren
County Courthouse. The charming,
red brick building, built in 1906, dominates downtown from a grassy hill shaded
by oaks and adorned with a monument to Confederate soldiers, “Our Heroes.” The current courthouse replaced
a courthouse built in the mid-1850s that burned down. The 1850s courthouse had replaced
the town’s original frame courthouse, built in 1786. A fire also destroyed that courthouse.
 |
| Monument to Confederate war dead at courthouse |
At
the clerk of court’s office at the end of a broad entrance hall, I asked a trio
of ladies how I could learn of the town’s Civil War history. One woman ducked
away and returned with the Honorable Richard E. Hunter, Jr., Warren County’s
superior court clerk and keeper of Warrenton’s historical flame. Hunter, spry and white-haired, invited
me into his office.
I
asked Hunter if he could tell me anything about events at the courthouse in
1861. Hunter pointed to a framed
photograph hanging on the back wall, one among many historic photos and
documents. The 1850s courthouse in the photograph, Hunter explained, would have
been standing when the state’s Civil War regiments gathered. The photo showed a brick building
with four massive Corinthian columns on a wide portico. The two-story courthouse looked more
like a temple built in ancient Greece than a courthouse erected in a 19th-century,
rural Southern state.
“So
that’s what my ancestor saw when he came into town?” I asked, thrilled at my
discovery.
“More
than likely,” Hunter confirmed.
I
stared at the photograph. I
imagined Lyndon’s regiment gathered at the courthouse, a
summer-sweet breeze whispering in their ears and women’s wails stirring their
souls, as their chest-thumping commanders nudged their flock along the path of
righteousness.
Warrenton NC
July 5, 61
Dear
brother, (Robert)
i
received your kind letter yesterday with much gladness
i was going to write to you today if I had not got your letter this makes two I have
gotten one
a good while ago but I have not forgoten it you want me to tell you if we had any fighting
to do yet we have not and I hope
we will not have any to do i would like to
see you all
we
have got four Company in this Regiment we
all marched up in town
yesterday and they
give us a fine dinner we had beans and rosten (roasted
corn) ears and everything that was
good
Pa
asked me one question I don’t think that I answered that was about our Company oficer Stokes is Promoted to
Colonelship and has escepted (accepted) J.B. Gordon is our
capton they have treted me very kindly so far
we
have met with clever folks everywhere we have went yet and have seen the most
pretty girls Yesterday the Court house was cramdfull
of ladies
our Colonel and all of our captons made speeches and the ladies on hering
this they wept biterly we promisted them
that they nead not fear the enamy for we would stop them if they don’t
stop
we don’t want to fight if we can shun it, but if we have it to (do) we
will do what we can for them none of you need not fear the enamy
becaus we will drive them back
We
have ninety eight privates in our company it is the best company i hav
seen I hav
many friends in this company and would hate to leave them if I left them they would hav thought hard of
me
i did not like to join the regulars without
leting you Pa know it but all of them beged me to stay and I did not want to
leave them after i had started if I had not
joined i think that Frederick would have joined and I could not stay at home by
my self I
would be very well satisfied if Pa was but I don't feel that i am doing wright
when i am doing anything against his will
###
Want To Join My Cyber Focus
Group?
As I write my creative
nonfiction book about the Civil War legacy, tentatively titled Dear
Father I’m Sorry To Tell You, I’m looking for people to participate in
a cyber focus group. The online
participants will read excerpts, and possibly whole chapters, from the
book-in-progress.
After I select
the focus group, I’ll post questions to get feedback about such issues as the
book’s organization, narrative/plot and characters. Responses will help me
rework passages and plot and craft the remainder of the book. And, I'll give credit where credit is due on my Facebook page.
If you’re interested in joining the group, please visit my Facebook page and complete the short Cyber Focus questionnaire for consideration. You’ll find it by visiting http://www.facebook.com/#!/CivilWarOdyssey?sk=app_201143516562748 or by clicking on the “Cyber Focus Group” button on my Facebook page.
I’m excited
about this new adventure. I hope many of the 1,279 visitors that have checked out Civil War Odyssey with Author B.J. Welborn will join the
conversation. I will select and notify the cyber focus group participants in
the next few months.
