{"id":2510,"date":"2016-02-14T01:35:13","date_gmt":"2016-02-14T01:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/?p=2510"},"modified":"2018-06-30T03:44:33","modified_gmt":"2018-06-30T03:44:33","slug":"gillespie-takes-listeners-back-to-1865-reprinted-from-the-brunswick-citizen-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/gillespie-takes-listeners-back-to-1865-reprinted-from-the-brunswick-citizen-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Gillespie Takes Listeners Back to 1865-1866,&#8221; Reprinted from The Brunswick Citizen (2016)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"1866: Change, Resistance, and Uncertainty in the Northern Virginia Piedmont (2016)\" width=\"440\" height=\"248\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1bY98wvuh9E?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div><strong>by John P. Flannery. <\/strong><\/div>\n<div>\n<p><strong><em>Article originally\u00a0published on February 18, 2016 by <\/em>The Brunswick Citizen.<em>\u00a0\u00a0Reprinted with permission.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>On Sunday, [Feb. 14, 2016],\u00a0Richard Gillespie, [then] Executive Director of the Mosby Heritage Area Association, caused the St. James Church in Lovettsville, Virginia to fill up with eager listeners.\u00a0 Parked cars lined up and down the nearby streets, their occupants inside the church to hear Richard tell what it was like the morning after President Abraham Lincoln was shot at Ford&#8217;s Theater in Washington, DC.Ed Spannaus, the Vice President of the Lovettsville Historical Society, introduced Richard, who the spoke about the change, the terrible resistance and the uncertainty that came after the Civil War ended and after President\u00a0Lincoln was assassinated.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2520\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2520\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/citizen-Feb.-18-2016-p12-AUDIENCE.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-2520 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/citizen-Feb.-18-2016-p12-AUDIENCE-1024x533.jpg\" width=\"1024\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/citizen-Feb.-18-2016-p12-AUDIENCE-1024x533.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/citizen-Feb.-18-2016-p12-AUDIENCE-300x156.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/citizen-Feb.-18-2016-p12-AUDIENCE-768x400.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2520\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>The audience at the Feb. 14, 2016 Lovettsville Historical Society lecture by Richard Gillespie. The crowd watched, listened, and even took notes as Richard Gillespie spoke on the Civil War in 1865.\u00a0 Photographed by John P. Flannery.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>This was a sixth in a series of talks that Richard has delivered, with ever larger audiences each time.\u00a0 The premise of his most recent talk was this: &#8220;If we want to understand the history\u00a0of a region, its the historical sites that allow us to tell the story.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Drawing on a tradition of Native Americans who mark paths to spur stories about past events, Richard said, the monuments and places we have preserved&#8221; enable us to remember, and to pass on.&#8221;\u00a0 To sum it up, Richard said, it was a difficult\u00a0adaptation we had to make after the war.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>On March 1, 1862, Lovettsville saw its first Confederate soldiers.\u00a0 Fast forward to 1865, when Mosby\u2019s Rangers attacked the Loudoun Rangers, annihilating them just three days before Appomattox and thus just before the end of the Civil War.<\/p>\n<div class=\"page\" title=\"Page 1\">\n<div class=\"section\">\n<div class=\"layoutArea\">\n<div class=\"column\">\n<figure id=\"attachment_2515\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2515\" style=\"width: 196px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/citizen-Feb.-18-2016-p.03-MOSBY-PHOTO.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2515\" src=\"http:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/citizen-Feb.-18-2016-p.03-MOSBY-PHOTO-196x300.jpg\" alt=\"Confederate Col. John Mosby. The writing at the top says &quot;Richmond, 1865.&quot;\" width=\"196\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/citizen-Feb.-18-2016-p.03-MOSBY-PHOTO-196x300.jpg 196w, https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/citizen-Feb.-18-2016-p.03-MOSBY-PHOTO.jpg 593w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 196px) 100vw, 196px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2515\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Confederate Col. John Singleton Mosby. The writing at the top says &#8220;Richmond, 1865.&#8221;<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>With Appomattox, the dream of a Southern independent republic was dead, and its past believers and soldiers were thrown into disarray.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"page\" title=\"Page 1\">\n<div class=\"section\">\n<div class=\"layoutArea\">\n<div class=\"column\">\n<p>Even how they got from one place to another had changed by the war.\u00a0 The Berlin Bridge, connecting Lovettsville to Maryland, was down and, as Richard observed, \u201csomewhat like today, it was not going to be repaired until 1898, 33 years after the war.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The mills that had been so prosperous, producing grain for the nation, were destroyed in Union troop fires in 1864.\u00a0 Lovettsville escaped that wrath and the burning, Richard said, \u201cperhaps because the Union troops expected to bivouac in the area.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"page\" title=\"Page 1\">\n<div class=\"section\">\n<div class=\"layoutArea\">\n<div class=\"column\">\n<p><em><strong>\u201cWho\u2019s the coward now?\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Massive numbers of soldiers on both sides had been physically injured and emotionally damaged, and, until after the war, there hadn\u2019t been much time for funerals.<\/p>\n<p>It was hard for men who had been friends, who had schooled and played together, gone to dances together, to return home, after the war.<\/p>\n<div class=\"page\" title=\"Page 1\">\n<div class=\"section\">\n<div class=\"layoutArea\">\n<div class=\"column\">\n<p>Later diary entries suggest Frank Myers&#8217; condition was what might have then been called \u201cshell shock,\u201d but that we now call PTSD. In one entry he wrote that \u201csleep has been a stranger to my eyes,\u201d and he says also, \u201cif memory would leave me, I\u2019d be glad.\u201d In still another, Frank said, he wasn\u2019t \u201ccapable of taking care\u201d of himself.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2522\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2522\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/citizen-Feb.-18-2016-p12-BERLIN-BRIDGE.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-2522 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/citizen-Feb.-18-2016-p12-BERLIN-BRIDGE-300x185.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"185\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/citizen-Feb.-18-2016-p12-BERLIN-BRIDGE-300x185.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/citizen-Feb.-18-2016-p12-BERLIN-BRIDGE-768x473.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/citizen-Feb.-18-2016-p12-BERLIN-BRIDGE.jpg 939w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2522\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>View of the former Berlin Bridge over the Potomac River and its tollhouse, photographed by Alexander Gardner, 1862.\u00a0 Library of Congress.\u00a0<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Frank Myers still thought he might fight but instead he went to Woodgrove, surrendered and \u201cgot the parole,\u201d meaning he could go about his business, his citizenship and voting rights restored.<\/p>\n<p>Frank had remorse shortly after he had his parole, writing, \u201cI\u2019m so sorry I surrendered.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Elijah J. White, Lieutenant Colonel, in the 35th Virginia Battalion Brigade, said, \u201cAll who take the parole are traitors.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On May 12, 1865, after Col. White got a parole, Frank asked,\u00a0\u201cWho\u2019s the coward\u00a0now?\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"page\" title=\"Page 1\">\n<div class=\"section\">\n<div class=\"layoutArea\">\n<div class=\"column\">\n<p><strong><em>Union after the War?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>At the end of the war, when slaves were freed, the question was how would they go on, and their former masters had the same question. There was a rumor that former slaves had 40 acres and a mule coming their way. But it wasn\u2019t true.<\/p>\n<p>There was going to be\u00a0a general confiscation of property from public officials of the Confederacy. For example, Oatlands south of Leesburg was to be taken, but pleas from wealthy Loudoun homeowners to Washington succeeded in beating back the confiscation effort.<\/p>\n<div class=\"page\" title=\"Page 1\">\n<div class=\"section\">\n<div class=\"layoutArea\">\n<div class=\"column\">\n<p>Mosby resisted surrendering until he saw there was no way to continue the fight, and there was even a bounty on his head, but, in the end, President Ulysses S. Grant paroled him.<\/p>\n<p>Many of the injured had to raise funds for prosthetics for legs and arms.<\/p>\n<p>Vice President Andrew Johnson, the Southerner who succeeded Lincoln, abolished Lincoln\u2019s bill to help African-Americans to adjust after the war by establishing freedmen bureaus. Johnson believed that the bureaus encroached on states&#8217; rights and prevented freed slaves from becoming independent by offering too much assistance.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2525\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2525\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/citizen-Feb.-18-2016-p12-MOSBY-AND-HIS-MEN.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-2525 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/citizen-Feb.-18-2016-p12-MOSBY-AND-HIS-MEN-1024x619.jpg\" width=\"1024\" height=\"619\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/citizen-Feb.-18-2016-p12-MOSBY-AND-HIS-MEN-1024x619.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/citizen-Feb.-18-2016-p12-MOSBY-AND-HIS-MEN-300x181.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/citizen-Feb.-18-2016-p12-MOSBY-AND-HIS-MEN-768x465.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/citizen-Feb.-18-2016-p12-MOSBY-AND-HIS-MEN.jpg 1691w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2525\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Col. John Singleton Mosby (center) and his men.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>There were schools created by men and women of courage, white and black, to teach African Americans; and there were threats against those who did so. Indeed, Virginia wouldn\u2019t create a public school system until 1882.<\/p>\n<div class=\"page\" title=\"Page 1\">\n<div class=\"section\">\n<div class=\"layoutArea\">\n<div class=\"column\">\n<p>When Union horses were sold, Confederates were careful to get papers for the horses they bought lest they be accused of stealing them.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s a romantic view that after the war, union followed. In fact, it took sixty years, Richard said, \u201cto get to co-arguing at the Waterford store, and banging canes for emphasis.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>How two sides with such differences can ever get along is a topic that still resonates today. Richard apologized for talking so long, but no one noticed the time passing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\">\u00a0&#8212;<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><em>TOP:\u00a0 Historian Richard Gillespie discussing what it was like in Loudoun County, Virginia in 1865, when the Civil War ended.\u00a0 Photo by John Flannery.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Article originally\u00a0published on February 18, 2016 by the\u00a0<\/em>Brunswick Citizen.<em>\u00a0\u00a0Reprinted with permission.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #ffff00;\"><em><strong>Subscribe to The Brunswick Citizen<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h3>\n<div>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #ffff00;\">Subscriptions to The Brunswick Citizen are $20.00 a year in Loudoun County, VA and Frederick County, MD.\u00a0 Outside our home counties: $36.00 a year.\u00a0 The Brunswick Citizen does not have an online payment option.\u00a0 People subscribe in person, or by mailing a check (The Citizen, 101 W. Potomac St., Brunswick, 21716), or by calling 301-834-7722 to give us a credit card number.\u00a0 For more information, <a href=\"citizen@mip.net\">email us<\/a>.<\/span><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by John P. Flannery. Article originally\u00a0published on February 18, 2016 by The Brunswick Citizen.\u00a0\u00a0Reprinted with permission. On Sunday, [Feb. 14, 2016],\u00a0Richard Gillespie, [then] Executive Director of the Mosby Heritage Area&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2514,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2510"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2578,"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2510\/revisions\/2578"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}