Civil War Bordellos

 

With the outbreak of war, many prostitutes, known as "Cyprians", "Fallen Angels", "Daughters of Eve" and "Daughters of Joy" followed the drum, attaching themselves to the armies as cooks and laundresses.  The mob of camp followers attached to the Army of the Potomac in 1862 was dubbed "Hooker's Army", in honor of the Commanding General Joseph Hooker.  The term "hooker" has come down to modern times as a description of a woman of easy virtue.

Washington saw an explosion of active and prosperous bawdy houses.  Before the outbreak of war Washington had some five hundred prostitutes.  As Washington became the bustling hub of the Union army in the East, ambitious girls from New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Chicago and St. Louis converged on Washington.  There were 450 known houses in Washington in 1862, employing 5,000 women, with an additional 2,500 women employed in nearby Georgetown and Alexandria.  Bordellos occupied whole blocks along the south side of Pennsylvania Avenue.  The Army christened these establishments, the "Post Office", "Fort Sumter", the "Wolf's Den" (run by Mrs. Wolf), "the Haystack" (run by Mrs. Hay) and the "Cottage by the Sea".  In the expensive houses, there were luxurious furnishings and pretty young hostesses dressed in silk.

These establishments were not popular with the neighbors.  Tired of loud late-night parties and the general atmosphere of carousing, residents of one neighborhood threatened to make up a list of officers who frequented "notorious places of infamy", and report them to the commanding general, and to their families at home.  The press also took a hand in censuring the sinful atmosphere, condemning the "uniformed idlers who go gallanting the painted Jezebels with which the city is stocked."  

The Provost Marshal made some effort to suppress the trade.  Brothels were raided by the Provost Marshal and, after a fine, declared "broken up".  For a girl, the fine was five dollars or three months in the house of corrections.  For a Madam, the fine was $50 or six months in the house of corrections.  As a practical matter the fines were paid, no one spent any time in the house of corrections and the "sporting house" merely set up shop at a new location.  The Provost Marshal did have some successes, however.  The employment of "pretty waiter girls" in beer and concert saloons was prohibited and these well-known places of assignation were quickly cleaned up.  Although the Provost Marshal's efforts were treated as a joke by many, there was a sound military reason for cracking down on "the trade".  Union military records reveal that 82 out of every 1,000 men (some 8 % of the Army) suffered from some sort of debilitating venereal disease.

Love, Sex, and Marriage in the Civil War

   The Civil War Wedding (e-book)

The Civil War Wedding Soft Cover

Lincoln's Wedding

 

      In the fall of 1839, twenty-year-old Mary Todd moved from Lexington, Kentucky, to Springfield, Illinois.  Shortly after her arrival, she met thirty-year- old Abraham Lincoln at a cotillion.  Lincoln came up and said to her, “Miss Todd, I want to dance with you in the worst way.” The next evening, Lincoln called on her again and began his courtship.  Over the next few years Mary became engaged to Lincoln, broke up with him, entered a period of separation and misunderstanding, and finally began seeing him again.

     On the morning of Thursday, November 3, 1842, Lincoln dropped by the home of Reverend Charles Dresser. The Dresser family was still at breakfast when Lincoln announced, “I want to get hitched tonight.” Reverend Dresser agreed to the arrangement.

     After leaving the Dresser home, Lincoln happened to meet Ninian Edwards in the street. He told Mr. Edwards of the plans for the marriage. Mr. Edwards replied, “No, I am Mary's guardian and if she is married at all it must be from my house.” When Elizabeth Edwards was informed of the plans, it was decided that the marriage would be delayed by one day as the Episcopal sewing society was meeting at the Edwards' home that night and dinner had already been ordered. 

     Sometime before the wedding, Lincoln visited Chatterton's jewelry shop in Springfield. He ordered a gold wedding ring and had it inscribed,  “Love is Eternal” .

     Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd were married at the Edwards' home on Friday evening, November 4, 1842. Some thirty relatives and friends attended the ceremony. Mary wore a white muslin dress. She wore neither a veil nor flowers in her hair. A week after the marriage, on November 11, 1842, Abraham wrote a letter to a friend. Most of the letter dealt with legal matters, but he closed the letter with the following sentence: “Nothing new here, except my marrying, which to me, is a matter of profound wonder.”

                                   The Civil War Wedding (e-book)

The Civil War Wedding Soft Cover

Love, Sex, and Marriage in the Civil War

Captain Weir: Custer’s Would be Rescuer

 Thomas Benton Weir first served under General George Armstrong Custer during the American Civil War, enlisting in the Michigan Cavalry. He quickly earned promotion to first sergeant and later received brevet promotions to major, lieutenant colonel, and colonel in recognition of his superior performance during the war.

 In May 1866, Custer was lieutenant colonel of the new 7th U.S. Cavalry stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas, where the regiment was to be organized and trained.  Joining Custer and his wife Libbie were a diverse group of officers, including Captain Thomas Weir, the charming but hard-drinking Michigan officer who had served with Custer before.

Captain Weir

The 7th Cavalry was ordered west in March 1867 to overawe the Cheyennes and Sioux.  Custer fruitlessly pursued an elusive foe. By summer he was surly and morose and on July 15 decided to abandon his command and lead a small detachment on a dangerous forced march to Fort Harker, Kansas where he expected to find Libbie.  He discovered that she was still at Fort Riley.

Custer had received an anonymous letter urging that Custer should “look after his wife a little closer.” Lieutenant Edward Mathey later confirmed that Thomas Weir was “the reason why Custer left his command without permission.” Weir had indeed been very attentive to Libbie during Custer’s long absence, rescuing her from a flood, escorting her on long evening strolls and proving himself utterly charming. A serious flirtation seemed to be in progress. Confirmation for this comes from Custer himself when he later wrote to Libbie, “The more I see of him…the more I am surprised that a woman of your perceptive faculties and moral training could have entertained the opinion of him you have.”

Libbie Custer

Custer boarded a train for Fort Riley and surprised Libbie that summer of 1867 with what Libbie described as one long, perfect day, which would always be hers for time and eternity.  The romantic gesture resulted in a court-martial and a humiliating suspension from rank and pay for Custer, who only recouped his name by leading the 7^th Cavalry to victory at the Battle of the Washita.

On June 25, 1876, during the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Custer ordered Captain Frederick Benteen to “come quick, bring packs (that is the spare ammunition that was lagging behind).   Benteen, came upon Reno’s beleaguered force and halted. 

At this point, Captain Thomas Weir, considered a part of the Custer clique, disobeyed Benteen’s orders to remain with Reno’s command, and rode to the sounds of battle in an attempt to support Custer.  He made it as far as what is now known as Weir Point, about three miles south of Last Stand Hill and about one and a half miles north of Reno Hill. Here, Weir was later joined by Benteen and Reno. 

The would-be rescuers were set upon by a large party of Sioux warriors and made a fighting retreat back to Reno’s original entrenched position, where they were besieged for a day and a half before being relieved by General Terry.  

After the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Weir’s mental health declined rapidly. Assigned to recruiting duty in New York City, Weir wrote letters to Libbie Custer hinting at untold secrets regarding her husband's death.  He repeatedly wrote promising to come to her side in Monroe, Michigan.  He never made it. 

Thomas Weir died on December 9, 1876. In the final months of his life, he refused to go outside, began to drink heavily and in his last days was said to be extremely nervous, to the point of being unable to swallow.  Doctors informed Libbie Custer that the 38 -year- old captain, in the advanced stages of alcoholism, had died of “melancholia.”

UFOs over Phoenix (1997)

 Ancient peoples around the world have reported unidentified lights in the sky for thousands of years.  The ancients believed that the gods themselves came down and visited them on a regular basis.  Native Americans in Arizona were no different.  These interactions were memorialized in petroglyphs and through oral traditions preserved as myths and legends. It is only when humans achieved high altitude flight that visits from the gods became visits by Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs).

On March 13, 1997, Arizona experienced one of the largest mass UFO sightings in history, the so-called Phoenix Lights. Lights of varying descriptions were seen by thousands of people during a three-hour period, over a distance of three hundred miles stretching, from the Nevada line, through Phoenix, to the edge of Tucson. There were two distinct events involved in the incident: a triangular formation of lights seen to pass over the state, and a series of stationary lights seen in the Phoenix area. The United States Air Force identified the second group of lights as flares dropped by military aircraft.  The initial sightings remain unexplained.

The first call came from a retired police officer in Paulden, Arizona, a small town about two hours north of Phoenix at approximately 7pm.  After that, calls began pouring into television stations and the police.  The reports were unanimous on several key points: there was a triangular craft that was enormous (some witnesses described it as a mile wide), it was totally silent, it moved slowly, and it often stopped to hover.

A drawing of the object created by witness Tim Ley appeared in USA Today

The Governor’s office was besieged with calls, especially after a USA Today article in June brought international attention to the incident.  To stem a mounting sense of panic in the state, Governor Fife Symington held a press conference during which he claimed to have “found who was responsible” for the lights.  Symington then brought in his chief of staff dressed in an alien costume, handcuffed and looking contrite.  Crisis averted.  Ten years later, however, Symington confessed before the National Press Club, that he had pulled this stunt only to avert public panic.  He said that he himself had seen the object and that it was, “enormous and inexplicable.”

The Great UFO Secret (Six Short Stories of First Contact)

Legends of the Superstition Mountains

Amazon:                           All other:

A Newsman at the Battle of the Little Bighorn

 

Mark Kellogg rode with Custer and wrote: “The hope is now strong and I believe, well founded, that this band of ugly customers, known as Sitting Bull's band, will be "gobbled" and dealt with as they deserve."

George Custer and the Grand Review of the Army of the Potomac

 

At 9:00 A.M. on May 23, 1865. a cannon boomed, signaling the beginning of the Grand Review of the victorious Army of the Potomac as it marched down Pennsylvania Avenue.

The cavalry led the march under the command of Brevet Major General Wesley Merritt, a hero of the Gettysburg and Shenandoah Valley campaigns.  Brevet Major General George Armstrong Custer led the 3rd Cavalry Division in the forefront of the march, astride a magnificent stallion named Don Juan.  Custer cut an imposing figure atop his stolen horse.  In fact, the horse belonged to one Richard Gaines of Clarksville, Virginia.  Unfortunately for Gaines, Custer took a fancy to the horse and had his soldiers appropriate the animal as “the spoils of war.”  Gaines was never able to regain possession of his legal property because of Custer’s powerful friends.

Before the Presidential reviewing stand, a woman threw an evergreen wreath in front of Don Juan. The horse panicked and galloped toward the president and other dignitaries. Custer regained control of the animal to the great applause of the crowd, and casually proceeded down Pennsylvania Avenue.

Many detractors at the time, and subsequently, thought that this was just the type of theatrical stunt that Custer routinely engineered to draw attention to himself.

Civil War Humor 1861-1865

The Great Northern Rebellion of 1860 (alternate history)

The Perils of the Mona Lisa

 

Leonardo Da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa in the early 1500’s.  It soon was acquired by the King of France and after hanging in various royal apartments went on permanent display at the Louvre in Paris in 1797 and is now, at $870 million, one of the world’s most valuable paintings.

The painting was not always so popular, and owes its worldwide recognition to an art theft in 1911.  The theft was carried out my one Vincenzo Peruggia, a museum employee and Italian nationalist, who thought this Italian masterpiece had no business in France.  Peruggia tried to sell the painting to the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy but ended up in jail.  The Mona Lisa returned to France after a three year odyssey.  Peruggia may have had accomplices who planned to sell forgeries of the Mona Lisa in America to unscrupulous collectors.  Their story did not come to light until 1932.

During World War II, a phony Mona Lisa was allowed to fall into the hands of the Nazis, while the original painting was moved from secret hiding place to secret hiding place throughout the war.  The real Mona Lisa resurfaced in Paris on June 16, 1945.

In the early 1950s, a man claiming to be in love with the painting tried to cut it out of its frame.  A glass covering was placed over the painting to prevent future attempts, but to no avail.  On December 30, 1956 a Bolivian man threw a rock at the Mona Lisa while it was on display at the Louvre. The rock shattered the glass case and dislodged a speck of pigment near the left elbow.

Since then, bullet proof glass has been used to shield the painting, which is just as well, since the assaults have continued.  In 1974, while the painting was on loan to the Tokyo National Museum, a woman sprayed it with red paint in a protest to further rights for the disabled.  In 2009, a Russian woman threw a ceramic teacup purchased at the Louvre’s gift shop at the painting.  She had personal grievances against the French government. In 2022, an environmental activist tried to smash the glass protecting the world’s most famous painting before smearing cake across its surface.

Mona Lisa, she’s faced the wild storm waves of ages, and bravely she faces them still.  And always with a smile.

Love, Sex and Marriage in Victorian America

Legends of the Superstition Mountains

Alternative sources

The Ghosts of the Real Downton Abbey

 

Highclere Castle

Where is the real Downton Abbey?  The setting for the iconic television show is Highclere Castle in Berkshire, England.  Few fans of the show may be aware of the castle’s connection with ghosts and the occult.

The castle’s best-known resident was the Fifth Earl of Carnarvon who financed the expedition to find the tomb of Egypt’s King Tut.  In 1922, the Earl called archaeologist Howard Carter to Highclere to tell him that the funds had dried-up for further excavations. But he agreed to a final dig. On the 4th of November, Carter discovered a staircase beneath the sand leading to the sealed tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun. The Earl travelled to Egypt immediately. Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter broke the seal of the mummy’s tomb together.

Fifth Earl of Carnarvon

The Earl of Carnarvon didn’t live to see Tutankhamun’s most precious treasures removed from the burial chamber, he died at the Continental Savoy hotel, Cairo, in April 1923.  Some said he was the victim of the “Mummy’s Curse.” At the very moment of Lord Carnarvon’s death all the lights in Cairo went out and at his English home Carnarvon’s dog let out a great howl and dropped dead. 

Though the curse is scoffed at by many, Lord Carnarvon himself might well have believed in the possibility of such a curse. Carnarvon was a believer in spiritualism and the occult. He was an active member of the London Spiritual Alliance. On numerous occasions Carnarvon organized séances in the East Anglia Room at Highclere Castle.

In his published memoirs the sixth Earl of Carnarvon says that his father became “keenly interested in the occult”.  “My father said, 'If we sit round the table holding hands, I believe we shall achieve a levitation.' 'What does he mean?' I whispered to my sister. 'I think he hopes the flowers on the table will rise several feet into the air,' she replied, and they did.”

The current Countess of Carnarvon recounts having seen the ghost of a footman who committed suicide in the castle. “I turned and saw a man coming towards us out of the gloom,” she explained, “He seemed slightly undefined.” At that point, she told her son, who was driving a toy car, to go faster, and they ended up crashing through a door. The unexplained figure, however, just stayed at the doors watching them.  After the encounter, Lady Carnarvon asked an Anglican monk to bless the castle. After the monk blessed the property, she said that she never saw the ghost again.

The footman isn’t the only ghost that has been seen at the castle. Lady Carnarvon’s father claimed to have seen a “well-dressed lady” who greeted him by saying, “good evening”. 

Gold, Murder and Monsters in the Superstition Mountains

E-Book Version

Lost Inca Gold

 Museo de Oro del Peru

     When Spain conquered the Inca Empire, between 1533-1553, she came into possession of an almost endless supply of gold and silver.  One story from the conquest of Peru will suggest the wealth of the Incas.  As a ransom, the hostage Inca Emperor Atahualpa filled a twelve by seventeen foot room with objects of pure gold.  A second room was filled with silver.  The gold and silver were melted down into bars by the Spaniards who, in all, collected 13,000 pounds of gold and 26,000 pounds of silver.  The ransom did Atahualpa no good.  He was murdered by the Spaniards.  This was only the beginning.  The Spanish conquerors, initially fewer than four hundred men, under the command of Francisco Pizzaro, ravaged the land, killing and torturing in a frenzy of gold lust.  Sometimes the Incas had their revenge.  One hapless Spaniard was executed by having hot molten gold poured down his throat.  “Since you love gold, you shall have as much as you want”, said the Incas.

    Cuzco’s Temple of the Sun, was the most revered shrine in the empire.  Only three Spaniards ever saw the temple in its full glory.  These men were sent by the Spanish commander, Francisco Pizzaro, to speed up the collection of the royal ransom.  The temple had gardens in which everything…trees and grass and flowers, animals, birds, butterflies, cornstalks, snakes, lizards and snails were all made of hammered gold.  The main room of the temple held the high altar, which was dedicated to the sun.  The four walls of the room were hung with plaques of gold, from top to bottom, and the likeness of the sun topped the high altar.  The likeness was made of a gold plaque twice as thick as the plaques that paneled the walls and was composed of a round face, surrounded by rays and flames.  The whole thing was so immense that it occupied the entire back of the temple, from one wall to the other.  The disc was positioned to catch the morning sun and throw its rays into the gold-lined temple, filling the room with radiant light.

    On either side of this enormous golden sun were kept mummies of former Inca kings, which were so well preserved that they seemed alive.  The mummies were seated on golden thrones and looked directly out at the visitor.

    Five other rooms made up the temple complex.  The first of these rooms was dedicated to the moon, the bride of the sun in Inca mythology.  It was entirely paneled in silver and a likeness of the moon, with the face of a woman, decorated it in the same way that the sun decorated the larger building.  The bodies of long dead queens were displayed in this temple just as those of the kings were kept in the other.

     The room nearest to that of the moon was devoted to the stars.  This room was hung with silver and the ceiling was dotted with stars.  The next room was dedicated to lightning and thunder and was entirely covered with gold.  The fourth room was devoted to the rainbow.  It was entirely covered with gold and the rainbow was painted across the entire surface of one of the walls.  The fifth room was reserved for the high priests.

     The reigning emperor’s private quarters were similarly gold studded.  Outer and inner walls were sheathed in gold and the Inca’s palace had a golden garden similar to that of the Temple of the Sun.  When receiving visitors, the Inca sat on a golden stool.  He ate from golden platters and drank from golden goblets.

     The first three Spaniards to see the temple did not remove the holiest religious symbol of the empire, the golden disc of the sun, though they reported its existence.  Subsequently the disc vanished, hidden before the main part of the Spanish army arrived.  It has never been found.     The Spaniards conquered Peru over the course of several decades in an atmosphere of civil war and chaos.  Throughout the period the Inca scurried about trying to hide the most sacred religious items from defilement.

      One of the highlights of Peru’s capital is the outstanding collection of Inca artifacts in the basement vault of the privately owned Museo de Oro del Peru or Peruvian Gold Museum.  As extensive as the gold collection is it’s sobering to realize that these are merely crumbs.

Paititi (The Treasure of the Lost City)

Gold, Murder and Monsters in the Superstition Mountains

ebook version

Railroad Lore: “The Wreck of the Old 97.”

 Fast Mail Train

   After the Civil War, railroad ownership In Virginia was consolidated and people and freight began to move seamlessly throughout the state.  The next seventy years marked the heyday of rail traffic in Virginia.  Two spectacular train wrecks during this period contributed to Virginia’s railroad lore. 

   Seventeen year old Myrtle Ruth Knox had recently joined a company of opera performers and was dreaming of a successful musical career.  Her dreams were cut short on April 26, 1890 when her train crashed into the train depot in Staunton.  The tracks west of Staunton drop eighty feet before reaching the train station.  Two miles into the steep down-grade the train’s breaks were applied, but nothing happened.  The train did not slow down, in fact it went even faster.  The cars shook violently until the train jumped the tracks and slammed into Staunton’s train depot.  The building collapsed and toppled over into the railways cars.  Miraculously, there was only one fatality, young Myrtle Ruth Knox.  A new station was built in 1902, only to be abandoned in 1960.  The structure has since been the home of a number of restaurants.  The ghost of Myrtle Ruth Knox is said to wander around the station’s platform.   

   Virginia’s most spectacular rail disaster inspired the famous railroad ballad “The Wreck of the Old 97.”  On September 27, 1903, the Southern Railway train number 97, the so called “Fast Mail”, was running behind schedule.  The Fast Mail had a reputation for never being late.  Railroad company mangers instructed the train’s engineer, Joseph A. Broady, to get that train back on schedule and make up the one hour he was running behind (the company had a contract with the government which included a financial penalty for every minute the train was late reaching its destination).  Steep grades and tight curves made many places along the route potentially dangerous.  Signs were posted along the way warning engineers to slow down.  But Broady disregarded the signs and took one particularly steep grade at excessive speed.  Because he was going too fast, Broady couldn’t reduce his speed before reaching the curve leading into the Stillhouse Trestle near Danville.  The 97, the Fast Train, derailed and plunged into the ravine below. The train exploded in flames.  Eleven people died, including Broady. 

   The disaster served as inspiration for songwriters and singers for generations and “The Wreck of the Old 97” became one of the most popular railroading songs of all time.  While railway company officials placed blame for the wreck on Broady, denying that he had been ordered to run at unsafe speeds, the ballad disagrees and begins, “Well, they handed him his orders in Monroe, Virginia, saying, ‘Steve, you're way behind time; this is not 38 it is Old 97, you must put her into Spencer on time.’”

Virginia Legends and Lore

Virginia's Civil War Ghosts

 

   Do ghosts from the American Civil War still walk amongst us, or are reported spectral visions and unearthly things that go bump in the night the product of over active imaginations?  Virginia experienced twenty-six major battles and four hundred smaller engagements on her soil during the course of the war, giving ample opportunity for the creation of disgruntled spirits among those who died in battle.

   The Spotsylvania battlefield is one place that the ghosts of Civil War soldiers appear.  A fierce battle raged around Spotsylvania Court House on and off from May 8 through May 21, 1864.  Over four thousand soldiers were killed.  The Bloody Angle was the site of the longest, most savage hand-to-hand combat of the Civil War.  In recent years, American Battlefield Ghost Hunters Society has investigated paranormal activity around the Bloody Angle, often sprinkling the area with pieces of beef jerky and chewing tobacco, which would have been luxuries at the time of the Civil War, to lure the spirits of dead soldiers to the spot.  The group claims to have recorded the sounds cannonballs and musket fire, and has photographed misty figures said to be ghosts.

   The Manassas Battlefield, in Prince William County, is also home to a number of Civil War spirits.  During the Second Battle of Manassas, in 1862, the 5th New York Volunteer Infantry [Zouaves] sustained devastating losses.  One veteran wrote, “Where the Regiment stood that day was the very vortex of Hell.  Not only were men wounded, or killed, but they were riddled.”  One of the dead may still haunt the area.  A phantom Zouave soldier has been seen repeatedly on the battlefield’s New York Avenue Field.  The phantom beckons the onlooker to follow him into the woods.  To date, no one has taken the ghost up on the offer.

    Near the New York Avenue Field, a structure known as the old Stone House is also said to be haunted.  Originally a tavern, the house served as a field hospital during both the battles of First (1861) and Second (1862) Manassas.  Strange lights have been seen in the house at night, although it is locked every night by park rangers.  Strange sounds, like screams and groans are also said to come from the house.

   The Cold Harbor Battlefield in Hanover County is said to top the list of haunted battlefields in Virginia.  Here in 1864, thousands of Union troops were killed as wave after wave of men were repeatedly thrown in frontal assaults against fortified Confederate positions.  Today, some visitors claim to have felt the thunder of artillery and to have smelled burned gunpowder while exploring the battlefield.  Once again, the shouts and cries of unseen combatants echo through the woods.  Visitors report the sudden appearance of a dense fog on the battlefield, which just as quickly disappears.  The ghostly fog has driven away many who seek the safety of their cars, even as they hear unearthly footsteps behind them and sense unseen eyes upon them.

   Hauntings are also reported in buildings used during the Civil War as hospital.  One house in Brandy Station, Culpeper County, was used as a hospital after the Battle of Brandy Station (June 9, 1863).  The patients scrawled their names and other thoughts on the walls, thus the house is now known as the Graffiti House.  So troubling were the ongoing ghostly occurrences at the Graffiti House that the Virginia Paranormal Institute was called in to conduct an investigation.  One investigator felt an unseen force tightening around her wrist.  Another person saw a picture frame move on its own.  The team’s electrical instruments raced out of control.

   Another Civil War hospital of long standing was set up in Gordonsville, Orange County.     Gordonsville Virginia’s Exchange Hotel opened in 1860 and provided an elegant stopping place for passengers on the Virginia Central Railway.  In March, 1862 the Confederate army transformed the hotel into the Gordonsville Receiving Hospital.  Dr. B.M Lebby of South Carolina was the director of the hospital and its operations continued under his leadership until October 1865.

   The wounded and dying from nearby battlefields such as Cedar Mountain, Chancellorsville, Brandy Station, and the Wilderness were brought to Gordonsville by the trainloads. Although this was primarily a Confederate facility, the hospital treated the wounded from both sides. By the end of the war, more than 70,000 men had been treated at the Gordonsville Receiving Hospital and over 700 were buried on its surrounding grounds and later interred at Maplewood Cemetery in Gordonsville.

   The Exchange Hotel Civil War Medical Museum, as the structure is known today, has experienced more than one ghostly occurrence.  Screams and groans are heard, doors close on their own and eerie orbs appear suddenly in rooms.  Some have claimed they have encountered nurses, garbed in black, wandering the halls.

 Treasure Legends of the Civil War

1. Virginia Legends and Lore 

Colonel John Chiswell: The Celebrity Murderer (1766)

 

Williamsburg, Virginia

When we think of the Virginia of colonial times, the Virginia of Washington, Madison and Jefferson, we seldom think of the word MURDER.  And yet behind the façade of graceful mansions and quaint cobblestone streets, evil lurked.  Take for example the strange case of Colonel John Chiswell, someone today we might call “a celebrity murderer.”

 

Colonel John Chiswell was a very busy and important man.  He owned a huge plantation, he was a member of the House of Burgesses, and he was a colonel in the militia.  His wife was from a fine old family.  The Royal Governor, Francis Fauquier, was a close friend.  His son-in-law was Treasurer of the colony.  This was not a little man unknown in the colony.  Soon he would be even better known.

 

On June 3, 1766, Colonel Chiswell attended a session of the Cumberland County Court, to look after some land deals.  That evening he entered Benjamin Mosby’s tavern.  One Robert Routlidge, a blunt Scottish merchant who had had dealings with Chiswell before, approached the colonel.  Routlidge was clearly drunk, and not just a little drunk.  Routlidge proceeded to insult Chiswell and then threw a glass of wine in his face.  The short fused Chiswell picked up a pair of fire tongs and made for Routlidge.  The crowd in the room restrained him.  He next came at Routlidge with a candlestick.  Again he was restrained.  Next he picked up a punchbowl and made to break it over Routlidge’s head.  Again he was restrained.  A sheriff entered and ordered Col. Chiswell to leave, which he did, only to return moments later carrying a sword.

 

The sheriff tried to keep him from Routlidge but Chiswell bellowed that he would “run through any man” who tried to stop him.  Routlidge and Chiswell exchanged curses across the room until finally Chiswell called Routlidge a “Presbyterian fellow”, which was too much for Routlidge who broke free from those trying to calm him and squarely faced Chiswell.  In the next instant the colonel ran his sword directly into Routlidge’s heart.  The merchant fell dead.  Colonel Chiswell handed the sword to a servant for cleaning and then ordered a bowl of punch declaring, “He deserves his fate, damn him.  I aimed at his heart and I have hit it.”  The gaping sheriff immediately took Chiswell into custody.

 

The cold blooded murder of an unarmed man in front of a room full of witnesses, including a sheriff, was this an open and shut case?  Not according to Colonel Chiswell’s attorney.  According to the defense, due to his drunkenness Routlidge threw himself on the colonel’s sword. The incident was a mere accident.  After hearing the testimony of the witnesses, the examining court found sufficient evidence to prosecute the case.  Chiswell was held without bail, and an under-sheriff was ordered to transport the colonel to Williamsburg where he was to be jailed in chains while awaiting trial before the Governor.  News of the murder spread fast among Virginia’s power elite.  Three of the Governor’s closest confidants intercepted the under-sheriff and his prisoner before they could reach Williamsburg.  The distinguished deputation ordered the under-sheriff to release Chiswell on bail.  The colonel returned to the comforts of his townhouse in Williamsburg where he remained in seclusion.

 

Was the whole matter to be swept under the rug by Chiswell’s powerful friends?  Perhaps it could have been and would have been had it not been for one Robert Bolling who published an anonymous query in the Virginia Gazette of June 20, 1766.  Bolling broke the story to the general public.  “Upon an inquisition taken before the Coroner in Cumberland county, Robert Routlidge was found to be murdered (June 3d) by a sword in the hand of John Chiswell, Esq; whereupon he was committed to the county prison, and the examining Court, upon full evidence (refusing to bail him on a motion for that purpose) ordered him to the public prison, as the law directs, to be tried for murder.” Bolling continued the anonymous query by relat­ing the special treatment given to Colonel Chiswell by the Judges of the General Court. “ But before he was delivered to the keeper of the pub­lic prison, the Judges of the General Court, out of sessions, took him from the sheriff who conveyed him from Cumberland, and admitted him to bail, without seeing the record of his examination in the coun­ty, or examining any of the witnesses against him.”  Bolling’s query came to a thunderous summation, “I ask, whether this act of the three Judges of the General Court be le­gal. If it is legal, I have nothing more to say. If it is not legal, then I ask whether the act of these Judges has not a tendency to overturn the laws and constitution of the country, by their exercising an extra judicial power and controlling the course of law in a case of the highest con­sequence to the safety of the (king’s) subject(s)? Whether the bail taken by these Judges in an extra judicial manner can be liable on their recogni­zance, if Mr. Chiswell should not appear to take his trial? If they are not liable, whether it is not in fact a rescue, under pretense of law, of a person charged with an atrocious crime?”

 

As the facts became known, outrage spread among the general public.  Increasingly angry voices were raised about both the murder and the special privileges that were being granted Colonel John Chiswell.  The murder was fast becoming, “the crime of the century”, pitting the power elite against the common man in a contest over equality before the law. 

 

In fact, Colonel Chiswell never came to trial.  Either pressured by friends or collapsing under the nervous strain, Colonel Chiswell committed suicide in his Williamsburg townhouse.  The Virginia Gazette reported that he died of “nervous fits, owing to a constant uneasiness of mind.”  This did not entirely end the matter.  By now the people so distrusted their political masters that they suspected a plot to smuggle a still very much alive John Chiswell out of the colony.  An angry mob stopped Chiswell’s funeral procession and demanded to see the body.  The coffin was duly opened and Colonel Chiswell’s body publicly identified.

Murder in Colonial Virginia

Virginia Legends and Lore