Enough of War: The Death of A Young Confederate Soldier

In one of her letters to her son Baker, Louisa Tapscott White Armstrong described her uneasiness at Baker's joining a rifle company in Texas in 1885. "I have had enough of war," she wrote. The war to which she had the most intimate knowledge would have been, of course, the Civil War. Louisa had married Edward McCarty Armstrong shortly before the Civil War, in 1856; in that marriage she also became the stepmother of Edward's children by Hannah Pancake, who had died two years previously. The oldest boys of that first marriage were young adults when the Civil War began in 1861. By that time, Louisa would have mothered those step-sons for five years.

At this point, I do not know how many of Edward McCarty Armstrong's sons fought in the Civil War, but I do know which of them died in that war. I found, tucked in the chaos of the family papers, a hand-written copy of Isaac's obituary. The description is written in fine, old, script; I have placed images of the handwritten notice at the bottom of this post.

A Young Christian Soldier.

Among the sad fruits of this horrible war, another excellent Christian youth has just been gathered in the grave.

Isaac P. Armstrong was born in Hampshire County the 6th day of April 1842. He was the son of Col. Edward M. Armstrong, recently a member of the Virginia Convention and now a refugee, with his large family, from his home at New Creek Station, in Hampshire.

This young man enlisted in the service of his country, and the defence of his desolated county, at an early period of the war; was in the battle of Manassas--and in Ewell's division, engaged in the series of hard marches and bravely contested fields, which have shed on that division since placed under Jackson, such imperishable glory. On Friday evening the 27th of June, he received a fatal wound in his knee in the battle of Gaines Mill. He was taken first to a hospital in Richmond, and then in a few days to the residence of Rev. B. M. Smith at Union Theol. Seminary, where he had spent his years of college life. Here he lingered, a great sufferer for seven weeks. All that the most eminent surgical skill could suggest, and Christian kindness could administer, was done for his healing and comfort, but the nature of his wound baffled every effort, and in the morning of the 22nd, he calmly rested from his labours and sufferings.

During his college and Military life his walk was that of one, who had sought and found the Saviour, and been led by the Spirit, as a son to the God of all grace. He bore his great sufferings with Christian firmness and patience, and resigned himself with childlike confidence and peace, to the will of his Father in Heaven. His Christian faith had been the basis of his courage as a soldier, and he met death relying on Him, from his love in Christ , he felt assured, that "neither death, nor life, nor principalities, nor powers nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature" should be able to separate him. Though far from his Mother's side by which he would have wished his body laid, he rests till the Resurrection morning, among honoured dead--and in the midst of a Christian community, who testified their regard for the young Soldier, while on his bed of pain, by ennumerable acts of kindness, and will cherish his memory, as that of one whom, God blessed them, in sending to die and be buried among them.

Click on each image to enlarge.

The Armstrongs and The Civil War

Buried in the large number of family photos from several generations of Armstrongs, Nugents, Lewises, and Cooks are a couple of photos from the Civil War. These photos remind us of the bloody conflict that took place here on American soil, in the fertile valleys, on the streets of frontier towns, on farmland, in the yards of folks, once neighbors and kinfolks, now on opposite sides of battle. Because my first goal is to organize and communicate what information we have here in our own family records, I have not researched how the Civil War affected the Armstrongs. At the time, Edward McCarty Armstrong and his family were living in what was to become West Virginia, a strong Unionist part of Virginia. Most of the slave-owning plantations were in eastern Virginia, and there was a long history of political differences between these two parts of the state. However, just a little online research reveals that Edward McCarty Armstrong was a delegate to the Virginia Secession Convention, and as a delegate, he voted against secession. However, when the secessionists won later, he supported the Confederacy and eventually moved his family from New Creek (later to be named Keyser, West Virginia) to Salem. Edward McCarty Armstrong's home was later sold to the "Davis brothers of Piedmont" and thereafter the home was known as the Davis Mansion.  The Armstrong Mansion, home of William Armstrong, Edward's father, was located on the site where Keyser High School now stands. The two photos we have of Union soldiers camped in Keyser are near those Armstrong homes. Click on each image for a better view.

This first photo is of the Union Army encamped in the area then known as New Creek and now known as Keyser, West Virginia.  On the back of the photograph is stamped in ink: COYD YOST, Photographer, KEYSER, WEST VA. And in handwriting (Mimi's or Katharine's): Occupation by Union Soldiers, Civil War, Birthplace of Papa. And in my sister-in-law's handwriting: taken from the home of Louisa White and Edward M. Armstrong. Those latest notations would have been made at the direction of my mother-in-law, daughter of Katharine Nugent Armstrong Robb, in 1987.

Just this week, I found among the family papers a letter written to Mary Ophelia Nugent Armstrong (Mimi), from J. C. Sanders, Superintendent of Keyser Public School. The letter is dated February 27, 1929. At the beginning of the letter, Superintendent Sanders describes the picture of the home below. Then he describes what very well might be the original of the photo above:

Today a high school pupil brought to me another picture of Keyser taken in 1865. This is the picture I mentioned in my other letter. This shows all the land now occupied by the city of Keyser to be occupied by tents of soldiers and the old army fort on the hill now occupied by the Potomac State College. In the back-ground of this picture is shown in a very prominent way the old Davis mansion and almost hidden by a tree may be seen to the left the slave quarters. A photographer here tells me that he is under the impression that he has a negative of this picture and if so a copy from it would cost but a dollar or two. He is looking it up. This picture is an heir-loom and cannot be secured. It bears the inscription: "Photographed in 1865 by G. W. Parsons, 22' Penn. Reg. & Mulligan's Battery. I will be glad to have these copied for you if you desire.

 

In the same letter dated February 27, 1929, Superintendent Sanders writes:

Since writing you the other day Mrs. W. E. Woolfe (sic), the niece of Col. T. B. Davis, has sent me a photograph of the old Armstrong or Davis Mansion house taken in 1863. On the back of the picture is the name of her father Mr. Buxton with the note that it was taken during the late war 1863. It is a 5 X 8 picture that shows beside the house the barricks (sic) of the soldiers in the west end of the town. It was evidently taken while the house was occupied by the Union soldiers because in the yard at the side of the house is shown in the picture two officers (sic) tents. While I have not looked up the records, I am told that Col. Armstrong was a southern sympathizer and this property was taken from him and used by the Union Army and was occupied by an Ohio regiment known and (sic) the Ohio bucktails, named such because they wore squirrel tails on their soldier caps. When the house was torn down several years ago I saw the names of many soldiers from all parts of the West written and carved in the old cupola. Mrs. Wolfe will not part with this picture but will loan it for copies and I have consulted a photographer and he will charge $2.75 to make a negative and about $1 apiece for pictures taken from it. If you would like a picture copied I will be glad to have him do this for you.

From the Nugent-Cook side of the family, we have Civil War discharge papers, among others,  for Edwin Oscar Cook, Sr., but I have not found any such papers (yet) for the Armstrong side of the family.

Finally, although the following picture is not directly related to the Civil War, I include it here because it seems to belong to this post that describes homes of ancestors. On the back of this old photo are inscriptions in two hands, and here I can probably finally decide that the large print handwriting on many of these photographs is that of Mary Ophelia Nugent Armstrong rather than that of her sister, Katharine Armstrong Robb. First, there is this faded note written with pencil, in cursive: Given to Mary Nugent Armstrong, Mother's Home in Romney, W. Va., N. T. A. My guess is that "N. T. A." is Nettie Tapscott Armstrong. Then, in Mimi's large, round, print: Grandfather White's home, Romney, W. Va.--Our grandmother, Louisa White, Papa's mother's home. (Papa's and Baker's name) Baker White Armstrong. And one small addition, in what might be my husband's print: Louisa White is Baker White Armstrong, Sr's Mother.