CLARA BARTON FAMILY PAPERS [*Barton, Stephen Jr. Estate of*] 56TH CONGRESS, 1ST SESSION. H. R. 9674. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. MARCH 16, 1900. Mr. THAYER introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on War Claims and ordered to be printed. A BILL For the relief of the estate of Stephen Barton. 1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives 2 of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 3 That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and hereby is, authorized 4 and directed to pay to Samuel R. Barton, administrator 5 of the estate of Stephen Barton, deceased, the sum of 6 ten thousand eight hundred and fifty dollars, for property 7 seized and destroyed at Bartonsville, Hertford County, North 8 Carolina, April first, eighteen hundred and sixty-five, by order 9 of the commander of the Union army at that place. [*Brother Stephens papers & letters which accumulated while he ws at the [?Thying] Hospital in front of Richmond*] [*Genl Butlers Army*] 56TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION. H. R. 9674. A BILL For the relief of the estate of Stephen Barton. By Mr. THAYER. MARCH 16, 1900.--Referred to the Committee on War Claims and ordered to be printed. I, Alonzo V. Blanchard, of Palmer, in the County of Hampden, and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, a member of the firm of A. V. Blanchard & Co., doing business at Palmer, in the County of Hampden aforesaid, on oath do depose and say: Said firm of A. V. Blanchard & Co. are the assignees and owners of the Patents issued by the United States to Thomas Blanchard, known as Blanchard's Patents for turning irregular forms, and for bending timber, etc., and that, on the first day of March, A. D. 1860, the said firm of A. V. Blanchard & Co., by their instrument in writing and under seal, did license Samuel R. Barton, of Bartonsville, in the County of Hertford, and State of North Carolina, to use one set of machinery to turn, bend and polish Plow and Cultivator Handles, for the unexpired term of said Patents granted to Thomas Blanchard on Dec. 18, 1849, for the term of fourteen years, which said license was for the whole State of North Carolina. Said license was to the said Samuel R. Barton only, and no other person or persons was interested therein directly or indirectly, and by the terms of the letter of license granted to the said Samuel R. he could not assign the same, or permit any other person to become interested therein, without forfeiting his right under said License, and said License was not assigned, but was the sole property of said Samuel R. Barton, and the said Barton has fully paid and satisfied us for all sums due us under and by virtue of the aforesaid License. And I do further depose and say, that our firm of A. V. Blanchard & Co. are largely interested in the manufacture of plow and cultivator handles, and have been so interested in various states of the Union for twelve years past, and that the prices for, and the value of, plow and cultivator handles since January 1st, 1863, have been fully thirty (30) per cent. higher than they were before the war. I have seen the lumber manufactured by said Samuel R. Barton, at Bartonsville, North Carolina, and know that the timber there manufactured was of the first quality. And I further say that neither I, nor said firm of A. V. Blanchard & Co., or any of its members have any interest in the claim of Samuel R. Barton upon the United States for the destruction of his property by the military branch of the service. ALONZO V. BLANCHARD. {5 Cent Revenue Stamp and Notary Seal.} COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS. HAMPDEN COUNTY, SS. } PALMER, JANUARY 11, 1866. Subscribed and sworn to before me, and I certify that I know the affiant to be a credible person, and I have no interest in this claim or its prosecution. And I certify further that the erasure of the words "throughout the whole loyal states" was made by me before the signing thereof. JAMES G. ALLEN, Notary Public for Hampden County. {5 Cent Revenue Stamp.} COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS. SECRETARY'S OFFICE, BOSTON, JANUARY 15, 1866. I hereby certify that at the date of the attestation hereto annexed James G. Allen was Justice of the Peace for the County of Hampden, in the said Commonwealth, duly commissioned and constituted; and that to his acts and attestations, as such, full faith and credit are and ought to be given in and out of Court. And I believe his signature to be genuine. In testimony of which, I have hereto affixed the Seal of the Commonwealth, the date above written. OLIVER WARNER, Secretary of the Commonwealth. {Massachusetts Seal.} STATE OF VIRGINIA. NANSEMOND COUNTY. } To Wit: This day Geo. W. Lewis being duly sworn, says:-- That he was stationed at Suffolk, Va., Nansemond County, from the 5th day of February, 1865, until the 12th day of July, 1865, and during all that time was the Colonel commanding the Third Regiment of New York Cavalry in the service of the United States. That on the 1st day of April, in the same year, he left Suffolk in command of an expedition under orders of Brig.-Genl. Gordon, then commanding district of East Virginia, and stationed at Norfolk. The expedition crossed the Blackwater River, on the said 1st day of April, 1865, and proceeded as far as Riddickville, the residence of Abram Riddick, in Her[t]ford County, North Carolina, and on the Chowan River, that he ordered Capt. Geo. F. Dern, under his command, to proceed with a squadron of Cavalry to Bartonsville, on the Chowan River and about four miles below the residence of said Abram Riddick by land, and about four miles above the mouth of the Meherin River, and about eight or nine miles by land below the mouth of the Nottoway River, to ascertain where the U. S. Gun-boats were, and to communicate with them. That the said Capt. Dern reported to him on his return that he found no Gun-boats in that vicinity, and that he had burnt several houses at Bartonsville together with a large amount of plow handles and plow beams, stored in said houses. That the said burning was done to signal any Gun-boats that might be in the river below. That personally he had no knowledge of the quantity or value of the property destroyed, and further this deponent says not. GEO. W. LEWIS, Late Col. 3rd N. Y. Cavalry. STATE OF VIRGINIA. NANSEMOND COUNTY. } To Wit: I, John R. Kilby, a Notary Public, in and for said County and State of Virginia, do certify that the foregoing affidavit and deposition of Col. Geo. W. Lewis was duly made and signed, in said County and State on the 4th day of January, 1866. Given under my hand this 4th day of January, 1866. JOHN R. KILBY, Notary Public. {5 Cent Revenue Stamp.} STATE OF VIRGINIA. NANSEMOND COUNTY. } To Wit: I, Peter B. Prentis, Clerk of the County Court of Nansemond County, do certify that John R. Kilby, whose genuine signature appears above, was, at the time of signing the same, a Notary Public, in and for said County and State, duly commissioned and qualified, and that due faith and credit, are and ought to be given to all his official acts as such. In witness whereof I have hereto set my hand and annexed the seal of said court on this 4th day of January, 1866. PETER B. PRENTIS, Clerk. {Nansemond County Seal.} STATE OF VIRGINAI. NANSEMOND COUNTY. } To Wit: I, Thos. I. Kilby, Presiding Justice of the County of Nansemond in the State of Virginia, do certify that Peter B. Prentis. who hath given the certificate on this paper, is Clerk of the said court, and that his said attestation is in due form. Given under my hand this 5th day of January, 1866. THOS. I. KILBY, Presiding Justice of Nansemond Country Court. {U. S. Internal Revenue Stamp, Two Dollars} STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA By the Justices of the Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions for Hertford County. November Term, 1865. It having been certified to us that Stephen Barton, late of Hertford County, is dead, and having made no last will and testament in writing: On motion, administration on his estate is granted to Samuel R. Barton, who enters into bond for the sum of ten thousand dollars, with Samuel D. Winborn and Jackson B. Hare securities, which bond the court accepts, and the Samuel R. Barton duly qualifies as Administrator by taking the oath required by law. These are, therefore, to empower the said Samuel R. Barton to enter into and upon all and singular the goods and chattels, rights and credits of the deceased, and them into his possession take, wheresoever in the State to be found, and an inventory thereof exhibit according to law, and all the just debts of the deceased to pay and the residue thereof distribute as the law directs, in such cases made and provided. {Seal of Hertford County, N. Carolina} Witness, Lewis M. Cowper, Clerk of the said court, at office in Winton, this 27th day of November, A. D. 1865. L. M. COWPER, Clerk. 25 Cent Internal Revue Stamp. STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA. HERTFORD COUNTY. Before me, T. D. Vann, a Justice of the Peace in and for said County, this 26th day of December, 1865, personally appeared Brackney T. Spiers, of said County, personally known to me, and a witness of credit, who being duly sworn, deposes as follows: I am fifty years of age, reside about five miles from Bartonsville, in said County, and have always been a resident of same County. I have known Mr. Stephen Barton since he came to reside in the County. He carried on the Steam Saw Mill business at Bartonsville on the Chowan river. In the year 1860, in connection with the mill, he and his son Samuel R. Barton put up other machinery for making the wood work of plows--handles and beams. The attention of both was thereafter given principally to the new work, the right to run which, as I learn, was purchased by S. R. Barton for the State. A large quantity of oak material was got, and worked up, and an immense stock accumulated on hand, after the interruption of commercial intercourse with the Northern cities. I have noticed several rooms filled to their fullest capacity. I should think, judging from the bulk and the close and compact packing, the number of pairs of plow handles did not fall short of 35,000, and of beams perhaps not enough to match the handles, but a large number of them. I cannot state their value, having no practical acquaintance with the business. The work was well made, thoroughly seasoned, and all defective pieces selected out and separated from the lot. I have occasionally visited Bartonsville, before and since the burning by U. S. Cavalry last spring. The stock seems to have been all consumed, and the buildings which contained them. There were many articles in a store when I was last there, including tools and implements required in the business. The store was burned, and I suppose whatever was in it at the time. I am not prepared to state either the amount or value. I have often met with Mr. Barton, the father, and heard from him his own opinions. I have seen the statement of A. Riddick, Esq., and concur fully in what he says as to Mr. Barton's political views and personal conduct during the war. I was surprised that his property should have been destroyed by Federal troops, as it was done last spring, and especially, as tho' exposed, it had not been before. I remember to have heard Mr. S. Barton speak of the value of his stock of plow handles, &c., and the price which he hoped to get after the war, and according to my memory it was in excess of $10,000 in specie. BRACKNEY T. SPIERS. T. D. VANN (J. P.) STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA. HERTFORD COUNTY. I, Lewis M. Cowper, Clerk of the Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions of the County and State aforesaid, do hereby certify that T. D. Vann, before whom the foregoing affidavit of Brackney T. Spiers was made, is an acting Justice of the Peace for Hertford County, duly commissioned and qualified, and that full faith and credit are due to his official acts. In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and affixed the seal of the said court at office in Winton, this 28th day of December, A. D. 1865. L. M. COWPER, Clerk. Seal of Hertford County, North CarolinaSTATE OF NORTH CAROLINA. HERTFORD COUNTY. I Jno. W. Harrell, Chairman and Presiding Magistrate of the Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions of the County and State aforesaid, do hereby certify that Lewis M. Cowper, whose name is signed to the foregoing certificate, is now, and was at the time of signing the same, Clerk of said Court, and that his said attestation is in due form. Given under my hand, this 28th day of December, A.D. 1865. JNO. W. HARRELL, Chairman and Presiding Magistrate STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS. WORCESTER COUNTY. In the matter of the claims of Stephen Barton by his heir-at-law, and Samuel R. Barton of Oxford, State of Massachusetts, personally came before me, Clerk of the Central District Court of of Upton, Mass., first being duly sworn according to law, on his oath says: I am now forty-two years of age and resided in North Oxford, Mass., in the year 1859, and from there I went to reside in Bartsonville, Hertford, State of North Carolina, on the Chowan River. I was engaged while at North Oxford, by Samuel R. Barton, the claimant, to go to Bartonsville, N.C., to engage in manufacturing plow handles, beams for plows, &c., at which place Stephen Barton, the claimant, had a plant for the purpose of manufacturing boards, lumber, and whatever might be profitably manufactured from the standing timber on his real estate. On said premises were erected in 1860, flooring covering a large space of ground used for storing or drying the lumber used, and there were on the premises a large saw mill building, a machine shop, plow shop building, blacksmith shop, smoke house, store house, about 25 X 35 feet, two and one-half stories, horse stable, and numerous small out-buildings, and the various storehouses wherein were stored plow handles and the various manufactured articles. I was present during all the time between December, 1859 and May, 1861, and was knowing to all matters and things in and about the premises, including all manufactured goods, and property of a personal nature, such as oxen, cows, mules, horses, &c. There were two forty-horse engines and boilers for same. I knew all about the business, and worked in and about the premises, and knew that at time I left Bartonsville, N. C. there were stored in and on the premises at least (80,000) eighty thousand pairs of plow handles. I heard at this time, and in fact I know that plow handles at this time, about May 1, 1861, were worth at least (33 1/3) thirty three and one-third cents per pair, which would be a value and fair market value of Twenty-six thousand, six hundred and sixty-six dollars ($26,666.00). There were also stored in and on said premises at said time about ten thousand beans (10,000), worth according to size and quality from (25) twenty-five cents to one dollar and ten cents per beam. The plow handles belonged to Samuel R. Barton, and the plow beams to Stephen Barton, now deceased. There were also at least on said premises about (50,000) fifty thousand plow rounds, worth at least (1) one cent apiece, the property of Stephen Barton, deceased. The buildings, save the Mill, were worth at least six thousand dollars, and were the property of Stephen Barton, deceased. I first became acquainted with Stephen Barton in North Oxford, Mass., about 1853, and knew him to be as consistent a Union man as ever lived in the United States, and he ever so remained until his death. He was unflinching in his adherence to the Union cause, and never aided or abetted the enemy in the remotest degree. I was also acquainted with Samuel R. Barton in 1853, and have known him since, and knew him to be a thorough Union man from first to last, and I further say that said Samuel R. Barton entered the service of the United States soon after being driven out of North Carolina. I also enlisted into the United States service in Co. G. 18th Regt. Massachusetts Vols. The immediate cause of our leaving North Carolina was: all of the Northern boys who came South with the Claimants were drafted in the Confederate service, and we scooted and went North. I have not ever returned to Bartonsville, N. C. since May, 1861, and I don't know anything as to the condition of affairs at Bartonsville, but I have heard and have reason to believe that the property is burned and destroyed, and was destroyed as a war measure. I want to further say that I attended to manufacturing of the plow handles, and know that there were the amount on hand as aforestated, and at its time state,--and that they were of the best quality. I have no interest in the prosecution of this claim, and my Post Office address is West Upton, Worcester County, Massachusetts. EDWARD I. WILLIS WORCESTER, SS. Sworn and subscribed to before me, this 19th day of February, 1885. [L. S.] E. T. RAYMOND, Clerk of the Cent'l Dist. Court of Worcester, Mass.FORT VALLEY, HOUSTON CO., GEORGIA, AUGUST, 1865. MISS CLARA BARTON: Your communication of August 4th has been received, contents noted, and in response would reply, that in the years 1863 and 4, during a period of twelve months, I was in command of the Confederate troops on the line running along the Chowan River, and upon which lived a Mr. Stephen Barton at a place called Bartonsville, four miles below Mr. Abram Riddick's Ferry, a point on the Chowan, midway between the Nottoway and Meherrin Rivers. At the time of my taking command of this point I found a considerable manufacturing establishment where there had been made a very large amount of plow handles, a part of which, probably Ten Thousand Dollars worth in gold were then on hand, having been stored away in houses above the factory. The reason of its being thus stored, Mr. Barton said, was, that he was unable to get transportation for it, to the Northern market, for which he had intended it, having been deprived the privilege by Confederate regulations. I also learned, that, at the commencement of the war, he had a large number of Northern men who had been employed by him in "getting out" and manufacturing of his lumber, who, upon the approach of difficulties, had been dismissed, and by his instrumentality sent North, and joined the army, one of whom, it was reported, returned afterward in connection with the navy, just before my taking command. These circumstances had prejudiced Mr. Barton in the eyes of the community, which led me to a closer investigation of his property and himself than I otherwise should have made. While on my first visit to this point, inspecting my line, I saw ans conversed with Mr. Barton, and told him what the people of his community had said of him and his manufactory. He replied that it was true that he had sent off his hands, that there was a General Order permitting it, by the Confederate authorities: that it was true, that he was a Northern man, being from Worcester, Massachusetts,--an old man and infirm, that he had been on board the Federal Gun-boats twice, and enjoyed their hospitality, having on board an old friend, Capt Flusser, who, he stated, had brought him Northern mail, and among others a letter from his sister, a resident of Washington city, and who was connected with some of the Government Bureaus: that though he had done this, he had promised the Confederate authorities that he would give no information against them, being obliged to remain in a Southern climate by reason of his bad health (having the asthma) and being acclimated here, could not have endured the Northern winters. Further he told me if he left his property, it would be at once confiscated, he having been already threatened with imprisonment by the Confederate authorities, because of his political sentiments. That he had so told Capt. Flusser who had offered him a berth on board his boat to go North, that it was a great sacrifice to make and also that he had some unfinished business and some outstanding debts in the North, which a portion of this manufactured material was designed to meet, and that his sense of honor, as well as other considerations had decided him to remain and protect his property, and he further expressed to me, that he was a Union Democrat, an earnest opposer of secession, and that from long observation both North and South, he believed that the whole country would be benefitted by dispensing with slave labor, that he found the negro in that state inefficient, and had been thus compelled to bring Northern men South to perform his work, thus he did not favor the institution of Slavery and owned no servants. I was struck with his candor, and seeing from the drift of his expression that he was a conscientious man, and a gentleman, though his views differed from those of my cause, I determined to protect him, believing that he would do me no damage. I placed troops upon his place, informing him that he had better remove his property farther inland, it being liable to be destroyed by either party. He replied that he could not do this for want of transportation, which he had not the means of controlling, as most of the money due him was in the hands of parties in Norfolk, and farther North. I also advised him not to hold further communication with the Federal Fleet, as it served to raise prejudice and render his property and himself liable to molestation, and that I knew of threats by the Confederates to burn him out. A number of times after this I called upon your brother, and found him always the same candid and consistent man, treating my propositions with respect, and my soldiers with kindness, who also learned to respect him. Finding him in straightened circumstances, by reason of neither selling nor manufacturing during the war, I allowed him special permission to cross the Chowan river and go into the Counties of Chowan, Perquimons, Pasquotant, and Gates, to dispose of little cottons, cotton thread and tobacco which he and his immediate neighbors might have, in exchange for meat for their own personal use, none of which he nor his neighbors used for the Confederate service, and from my knowledge of his political sentiments, I am confident that he would not have engaged in any such business. I am strengthened in this opinion by the fact of his having a Grist Mill, which he had formerly erected for the use of the neighborhood, and which he positively declined to run, even when we desired him to do so, saying that he could not conscientiously permit any of his machinery to operate during the war, although it would have been greatly to his personal interest to have done so. After this, during my absence from the command, he was arrested by one of my under Commanders, without my knowledge or consent, he, when asked, having given expression to his sentiments. Upon my return, finding no cause for his arrest, I ordered his immediate release; after this, he was again arrested in my absence, by another sub-commander without any cause whatever, but upon mere suspicion. I again released him, publishing orders that he should not be molested, and I am surprised beyond measure that he should have come to harm from the Federal troops, who should have been his best friends, as I never saw a more consistent Union man in my life, one who could command our respect, and should have claimed and received the confidence, love and sympathy of the opposite side. As to his property, I am still more surprised if possible, that it should have been burned by an irresponsible party, when large bodies of troops, both Confederate and Union, should have passed and repassed, fighting all around it, none of them doing it any injury, and the Federal Gunboats under Commodore Flusser plied up and down the river for months during my command, and seeing my pickets stationed upon this property, and not firing upon them, it seemed to me, and I came to the conclusion that they designed special protection, as other property similarly situated had been destroyed, for instance, Colerain, Harroldsville, Winton and Franklin, on the same river and its tributaries, had been burned in part, both during, and previous to my command. In connection with the above, as to the value of this property there is quite a proportion of which I could form no definite estimate, as I never saw it. But of the Steam Engine, and its appliances for the sawing of timber, the mill for the grinding of corn, the brass machinery for the bending of plow handles, shafts, etc., lathes for the turning of uneven surfaces, I can, having heard him place a value upon them of twenty thousand dollars in gold. His store, with his belting, remnant of goods, &c., I can place no estimate upon. nor can I upon his blacksmith shop where there were tools and iron which he had previous to the war, nor his store house where he kept his plows which he had received from the Northern markets, in exchange for plow handles. About three hundred yards from his house was a barn some 30 x 40 feet or more in dimensions, filled to the rafters with plow handles, closely packed, bent, seasoned and fitted for market, richly worth Ten Thousand Dollars in gold. This house was contiguous to others filled with grain and plow handles; and if one of the buildings was destroyed, all must have been, which would have comprised his entire valuable lot of bent timber. Believing that your brother had great injustice done him, in being deprived of his personal liberty, and further having his property destroyed without any cause whatever, I would advise you to institute a claim for the amount of damages done his property by his government, which had every reason to have protected him and his, assuring that you can rely upon me for any information that I may have in my possession, for the benefit of this claim, as I consider his family outraged by this blow which has fallen upon them. Believe to remain, with the highest esteem, Your obedient servant, JOEL R. GRIFFIN, Late Col. 8th Georgia Cavalry, etc., Comd. Forces Black Water. E. M. HULSEY, Justice of the Peace and Post Master at Perry, Ga. {5 Cent Revenue Stamp.} GEORGIA. HOUSTON COUNTY } Clerk's Office, Superior Court. I hereby certify that Elijah M. Hulsey, Esq., beforewhom the foregoing instrument was signed, and who has thereto subscribed his name, is, and was at the time of so doing, a Justice of the Peace, and also Postmaster, acting in said County of Houston, duly commissioned and qualified, and his signature thereto is genuine, as well as that of Col. Joel R. Griffin, and each are entitled to full faith and credit. Given under my hand and seal of office at Perry, February 22, A. D , 1866. {Seal of Superior Court, Houston County, Ga.} T. M. KILLEM, Clerk, S. C., H. C., Ga. In the matter of Claims, SAMUEL R. BARTON, administrator of the estate of STEPHEN BARTON, late of Bartonsville, Hertford County, North Carolina, deceased, and SAMUEL R. BARTON, of Oxford, in the County of Worcester, and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, for indemnity for loss of property, destroyed by troops of the United States, as a military necessity. STATE OF MARYLAND, COUNTRY OF CARROLL.} This day, GEORGE F. DERN, being duly sworn, says: That during the War of the Rebellion, he was in command of Co. L., 3d Regiment, New York Cavalry. That from February fifth, 1865 to July twelfth, 1865, his Regiment, under command of COL. GEORGE W. LEWIS, was stationed at Suffolk, Nansemond County, Virginia. That during this time, to wit: on April first, 1865, by orders of said Col. George W. Lewis, he, with his company, was at and near the Chowan River, in North Carolina. That, acting under orders from my superior officer, I proceeded with a squadron of cavalry to a place called Bartonsville, in North Carolina, on the said Chowan River. The immediate purpose was to ascertain the whereabouts of the United States gun boats which might be in the river below, and to communicate with them. That while at Bartonsville, and in command of said squadron of cavalry, and of the expedition as aforesaid and under my orders to exercise my own judgement in all matters pertaining to the expedition, and the destruction of property on the river, I gave order to destroy, by fire, a large property, at Bartonsville, North Carolina, said to belong to STEPHEN BARTON, now deceased, and to his son, SAMUEL R. BARTON. Said property so destroyed consisted of a building evidently used for the manufacture of plows. A storehouse and stable situated on the plantation, about one-quarter of a mile back from the other buildings and river, and several small outbuildings. The stables and storehouses were filled to their utmost capacity with finished plow handles, beams and rounds and other timber, evidently designed for use in the manufacture of plows. The timber was of the best quality and well manufactured. I judged at the time, that the timber must have been very valuable, but know nothing about its value. The buildings were in good condition and repair. They were very large and made from sawed lumber, and, in my opinion, were valuable, but am unable to state their value. I subsequently learned that both STEPHEN BARTON and his son, SAMUEL R. BARTON, were loyal union men, living north at the time the property was destroyed, and that SAMUEL R. BARTON was in the United States service. I further say that I have no interest directly or indirectly in this claim. WITNESS--DR. CHAS. THOMSON. GEO. F. DERN, Late Capt. L, 3d New York Cavalry. Mill, which he had formerly erected for the use of the neighborhood, and which he positively declined to run, even when we desired him to do so, saying that he could not conscientiously permit any of his machinery to operate during the war, although it would have been greatly to his personal interest to have done so. After this, during my absence from the command, he was arrested by one of my under Commanders, without my knowledge or consent, he, when asked, having given expression to his sentiments. Upon my return, finding no cause for his arrest, I ordered his immediate release; after this, he was again arrested in my absence, by another sub-commander without any cause whatever, but upon mere suspicion. I again released him, publishing orders that he should not be molested, and I am surprised beyond measure that he should have come to harm from the Federal troops, who should have been his best friends, as I never saw a more consistent Union man in my life, one who could command our respect, and should have claimed and received the confidence, love and sympathy of the opposite side. As to his property, I am still more surprised if possible, that it should have been burned by an irresponsible party, when large bodies of troops, both Confederate and Union, should have passed and repassed, fighting all around it, none of them doing it any injury, and the Federal Gunboats under Commodore Flusser plied up and down the river for months during my command, and seeing my pickets stationed upon this property, and not firing upon them, it seemed to me, and I came to the conclusion that they designed special protection, as other property similarly situated had been destroyed, for instance, Colerain, Harroldsville, Winton and Franklin, on the same river and its tributaries, had been burned in part, both during and previous to my command. In connection with the above, as to the value of this property there is quite a proportion of which I could form no definite estimate, as I never saw it. But of the Steam Engine, and its appliances for the sawing of timber, the mill for the grinding of corn, the brass machinery for the bending of plow handles, shafts, etc., lathes for the turning of uneven surfaces, I can, having heard him place a value upon them of twenty thousand dollars in gold. His store, with his belting, remnant of goods, &c., I can place no estimate upon. nor can I upon his blacksmith shop where there were tools and iron which he had previous to the war, nor his store house where he kept his plows which he had received from the Northern markets, in exchange for plow handles. About three hundred yards from his house was a barn some 30 x 40 feet or more in dimensions, filled to the rafters with plow handles, closely packed, bent, seasoned and fitted for market, richly worth Ten Thousand Dollars in gold. This house was contiguous to others filled with grain and plow handles; and if one of the buildings was destroyed, all must have been, which would have comprised his entire valuable lot of bent timber. Believing that your brother had great injustice done him, in being deprived of his personal liberty, and further having his property destroyed without any cause whatever, I would advise you to institute a claim for the amount of damages done his property by his government, which had every reason to have protected him and his, assuring that you can rely upon me for any information that I may have in my possession, for the benefit of this claim, as I consider his family outraged by this blow which has fallen upon them. Believe to remain, with the highest esteem, Your obedient servant, JOEL R. GRIFFIN, Late Col. 8th Georgia Cavalry, etc., Comd. Forces Black Water. E. M. HULSEY, Justice of the Peace and Post Master at Perry, Ga. {5 Cent Revenue Stamp.} GEORGIA. HOUSTON COUNTY. } Clerk's Office, Superior Court. I hereby certify that Elijah M. Hulsey, Esq., beforewhom the foregoing instrument was signed, and who has hereto subscribed his name, is, and was at the time of so doing, a Justice of the Peace, and also Postmaster, acting in said County of Houston, duly commissioned and qualified, and his signature thereto is genuine, as well as that of Col. Joel R. Griffin, and each are entitled to full faith and credit. Given under my hand and seal of office at Perry, February 22, A. D , 1866. {Seal of Superior Court, Houston County, Ga.} T. M. KILLEM, Clerk, S. C., H. C., Ga. In the matter of Claims, SAMUEL R. BARTON, administrator of the estate of STEPHEN BARTON, late of Bartonsville, Hertford County, North Carolina, deceased, and SAMUEL R. BARTON, of Oxford, in the County of Worcester, and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, for indemnity for loss of property, destroyed by troops of the United States, as a military necessity. STATE OF MARYLAND, COUNTY OF CARROLL. } This day, GEORGE F. DERN, being duly sworn, says: That during the War of the Rebellion, he was in command of Co. L., 3d Regiment, New York Cavalry. That from February fifth, 1865 to July twelfth, 1865, his Regiment, under command of COL. GEORGE W. LEWIS, was stationed at Suffolk, Nansemond County, Virginia. That during this time, to wit: on April first, 1865, by orders of said Col. George W. Lewis, he, with his company, was at and near the Chowan River, in North Carolina. That, acting under orders from my superior officer, I proceeded with a squadron of cavalry to a place called Bartonsville, in North Carolina, on the said Chowan River. The immediate purpose was to ascertain the whereabouts of the United States gun boats which might be in the river below, and to communicate with them. That while at Bartonsville, and in command of said squadron of cavalry, and of the expedition as aforesaid. and under my orders to exercise my own judgement in all matters pertaining to the expedition, and the destruction of property on the river, I gave order to destroy, by fire, a large property, at Bartonsville, North Carolina, said to belong to STEPHEN BARTON, now deceased, and to his son, SAMUEL R. BARTON. Said property so destroyed consisted of a building evidently used for the manufacture of plows. A storehouse and stable situated on the plantation, about one-quarter of a mile back from the other buildings and river, and several small outbuildings. The stables and storehouses were filled to their utmost capacity with finished plow handles, beams and rounds and other timber, evidently designed for use in the manufacture of plows. The timber was of the best quality and well manufactured. I judged at the time, that the timber must have been very valuable, but know nothing about its value. The buildings were in good condition and repair. They were very large and made from sawed lumber, and, in my opinion, were valuable, but am unable to state their value. I subsequently learned that both STEPHEN BARTON and his son, SAMUEL R. BARTON, were loyal union men, living north at the time the property was destroyed, and that SAMUEL R. BARTON was in the United States service. I further say that I have no interest directly or indirectly in this claim. WITNESS--DR. CHAS. THOMSON. GEO F. DERN, Late Capt. L, 3d New York Cavalry. STATE OF MARYLAND, COUNTY OF CARROLL. Then personally appeared before me GEORGE F. DEEN, who, being sworn accorking to law, says that the foregoing statement subscribed by him is true. JOSEPH ARNOLD, Justice of the Peace. JULY 29, A. D. 1886. STATE OF MARYLAND, CARROLL COUNTY, SCT. I HEREBY CERTIFY, That JOSEPH ARNOLD, Esquire, before whom the annexed acknowledgements and affidavits were made, and who has thereto subscribed his name, was, at the time of so doing, a Justice of the Peace of the State of Maryland, in and for Carroll County, duly commissioted and sworu. IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF, I hereto set my hand and affix the seal of the Circuit Court, for Carroll County, this 29th day of July A. D. 1886. WM. N. MARTIN, Clark of the Circuit Court for Carroll County. SEAL OF CARROLL COUNTY, MARYLAND. In the matter of Claims, SAMUEL R. BARTON, administrator of the estate of STEPHEN BARTON, late of Bartonsville, Hertford County, North Carolina, deceased and SAMUEL R. BARTON, of Oxford, in the County of Worcester, and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, for indemnity for loss of property, destroyed by troops of the United States, as a military necessity. STATE OF MARYLAND, COUNTY OF CARROLL. This day, GEORGE F. DEEN, being duly sworn, says: That during the War of the Rebellion, he was in command of Co. L, 3d Regiment,New York Cavalry. That from February fifth, 1865 to July twelfth, 1865, his Regiment, under command of COL. GEORGE W. LEWIS, was stationed at Suffolk, Nansemond County, Virginia. That during this time, to wit: on April first, 1865, by orders of said Col. George W. Lewis, he, with his company, was at and near the Chowan River, in North Carolina. That, acting under orders from my superior officer, I proceeded with a squrdron of cavalry to a place called Bartonsville, in North Carolina, on the said Chowan River. The immediate purpose was to ascertain the whereabouts of the United States gun boats which might be in the river below, and to communicate with them That while at Bartonsville, and in command of said squadron of cavalry, and of the expedition as aforesaid and under my orders to exercise my own judgement in all matters pertaining to the expedition, and the destruction of property on the river, I gave order to destroy, by fire, a large property, at Bartonsville, North Carolina, said to belong to STEPHEN BARTON, now deceased, and to his son, SAMUEL R. BARTON. Said property so destroyed consisted of a building evidently used for the manufacture of plows. A storehouse and stable situated on the plantations, about one-quarter of a milk back from the other buildings and river, and several small outbuildings. The stables and storehouses were filled to their utmost capacity with finished plow handles, beams and rounds and other timber, evidently designed for use in the manufacture of plows. The timber was of the best quality and well manufactured. I judged at the time, that the timber must have been very valuable, but know nothing about its value. The buildings were in good condition and repair. They were very large and made from sawed lumber, and, in my opinion, were valuable, but am unable to state their value. I subsequently learned that both STEPHEN BARTON and his son, SAMUEL R. BARTON, were loyal union men, living north at the time the property was destroyed, and that SAMUEL R. BARTON was in the United States service. I further say that I have no interest directly or indirectly in this claim. WITNESS --DR. CHAS. THOMSON. GEO. F. DERN, Late Capt. L, 3d New York Cavalry.STATE OF MARYLAND, COUNTY OF CARROLL. Then personally appeared before me GEORGE F. DEEN, who, being duly sworn accorking to law, says that the foregoing statement subscribed by him is true. JOSEPH ARNOLD, Justice of the Peace. JULY 29, A. D. 1886. STATE OF MARYLAND, CARROLL COUNTY, SCT. I HEREBY CERTIFY, That JOSEPH ARNOLD, Esquire, before whom the annexed acknowledgements and affidavits were made, and who has thereto subscribed his name, was, at the time of so doing, a Justice of the Peace of the State of Maryland, in and for Carroll County, duly commissioted and sworu. IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF, I hereto set my hand and affix the seal of the Circuit Court, for Carroll County, this 29th day of July A. D. 1886. WM. N. MARTIN, Clark of the Circuit Court for Carroll County. SEAL OF CARROLL COUNTY, MARYLAND.In the matter of Claims, SAMUEL R. BARTON, administrator of the estate of STEPHEN BARTON, late of Bartonsville, Hertford County, North Carolina, deceased, and SAMUEL R. BARTON, of Oxford, in the County of Worcester, and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, for indemnity for loss of property, destroyed by troops of the United States, as a military necessity. STATE OF MARYLAND, COUNTY OF CARROLL. This day, GEORGE F. DEEN, being duly sworn, says: That during the War of the Rebellion, he was in command of Co. L, 3d Regiment,New York Cavalry. That from February fifth, 1865 to July twelfth, 1865, his Regiment, under command of COL. GEORGE W. LEWIS, was stationed at Suffolk, Nansemond County, Virginia. That during this time, to wit: on April first, 1865, by orders of said Col. George W. Lewis, he, with his company, was at and near the Chowan River, in North Carolina. That, acting under orders from my superior officer, I proceeded with a squrdron of cavalry to a place called Bartonsville, in North Carolina, on the said Chowan River. The immediate purpose was to ascertain the whereabouts of the United States gun boats which might be in the river below, and to communicate with them. That while at Bartonsville, and in command of said squadron of cavalry, and of the expedition as aforesaid and under my orders to exercise my own judgement in all matters pertaining to the expedition, and the destruction of property on the river, I gave order to destroy, by fire, a large property, at Bartonsville, North Carolina, said to belong to STEPHEN BARTON, now deceased, and to his son, SAMUEL R. BARTON. Said property so destroyed consisted of a building evidently used for the manufacture of plows. A storehouse and stable situated on the plantations, about one-quarter of a milk back from the other buildings and river, and several small outbuildings. The stables and storehouses were filled to their utmost capacity with finished plow handles, beams and rounds and other timber, evidently designed for use in the manufacture of plows. The timber was of the best quality and well manufactured. I judged at the time, that the timber must have been very valuable, but know nothing about its value. The buildings were in good condition and repair. They were very large and made from sawed lumber, and, in my opinion, were valuable, but am unable to state their value. I subsequently learned that both STEPHEN BARTON and his son, SAMUEL R. BARTON, were loyal union men, living north at the time the property was destroyed, and that SAMUEL R. BARTON was in the United States service. I further say that I have no interest directly or indirectly in this claim. WITNESS --DR. CHAS. THOMSON. GEO. F. DERN, Late Capt. L, 3d New York Cavalry.STATE OF MARYLAND, COUNTY OF CARROLL. Then personally appeared before me GEORGE F. DEEN, who, being sworn accorking to law, says that the foregoing statement subscribed by him is true. JOSEPH ARNOLD, Justice of the Peace. JULY 29, A. D. 1886. STATE OF MARYLAND, CARROLL COUNTY, SCT. I HEREBY CERTIFY, That JOSEPH ARNOLD, Esquire, before whom the annexed acknowledgements and affidavits were made, and who has thereto subscribed his name, was, at the time of so doing, a Justice of the Peace of the State of Maryland, in and for Carroll County, duly commissioted and sworu. IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF, I hereto set my hand and affix the seal of the Circuit Court, for Carroll County, this 29th day of July A. D. 1886. WM. N. MARTIN, Clark of the Circuit Court for Carroll County. SEAL OF CARROLL COUNTY, MARYLAND. 25 Cent Internal Revenue Stamp. STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA. HERTFORD COUNTY. Before me, T. D. VANN, a Justice of the Peace in and for the County of Hertford aforesaid, this 27th day of December, 1865, personally appears ABRAM RIDDICK of said County, personally known to me, a witness of credit, who, being duly sworn according to law, deposes and says, as follows: I am sixty-four years of age, reside on the Chowan River, a short distance below the confluence of the Nottoway and Blackwater rivers, in the County of Hertford, and have been residing at the same place for more than forty years. I have known Stephen Barton, many years previous, and up to his death, which occurred in March, 1865. He was from teh state of Massachusetts, as I have always understood, and for several years previous to the commencement of the late Civil War, had resided at Bartonsville, a small village called after his name, on the Chowan River in this County, about four miles below me, by the land route. At the place was a large steam mill erected by Mr. Barton. In the year 1860 Mr. Baron constructed, and put in operation, in connection with his steam mill, machinery for the turning, bending and polishing of plow and cultivator handles, driven by the same steam power. This added machinery was put ip, as I understand, and worked for the benefit of Samuel R. Barton, a son of the old man, Stephen Barton, who had purchased the patent right to run the same within this State at Bartonsville, of A. V. Blanchard & Co., of Palmer, Massachusetts. There were many hands, perhaps a dozen or more, most of them from the North, employed in the new business of getting out the wood work for plows. Mr. S. R. Barton was also there, attending to this branch of the work, which was most actively carried on until the commencement of hostilities, which interrupted the business. I was frequently at the place and well acquainted with what was going on. The place was situated on teh west bank of teh Chowan River, and exposed to the visits from the gun boats of the United States, and the land forces of the (so called) Confederate States. The deceased was opposed to the Secession of the Southern States, as wrong in principle, and inexpedient in practice, and believed that a restoration of the Union was both inevitable and desirable. He was candid and frank in the avowal of these views, and tho' as a Northern man, at times an object of distrust to Confederate troops and citizens, his conduct was so consistent and reasonable, as to secure to him general respect from the military and other authorities and secure him generally from molestation. Once or more he was arrested by the Confederates and soon after released and returned to his home. I make these statements from my personal acquaintance and frequent conversations with him, as well as from his general reputation in this Community. During the period of operating the machinery for manufacturing plow handles and plow beams, an immense amount of work was done. The handles and beams were stored away in three or more houses and fully sheltered from the weather as fast as made. I cannot state with entire precision the quantity or value of them. From the bulk I should judge there were not less than forty thousand (40,000) pairs of handles and not as many beams. The rooms in which the former were packed were perhaps eighteen feet square, and one was much larger, were filled closely packed up to the very roof. These were back from the river 400 yards. There were many also at the river. I think the handles at prices prevailing before the war were worth not less than Ten thousand dollars in specie They were well made, selected and assorted, and thoroughly seasoned, and made of white oak. I attended the shipping of a load of the work, and its sale in Boston before hostilities broke out, and am satisfied upon the basis of this sale I do not overestimate the value of the stock he had on hand and was unable to send off. The houses, or rooms rather, to which I have referred, and in which this stock was kept, with other buildings and property at the mill on the river, were burned by a party of United States cavalry which made a raid into this part of the county early in April last. The property was all consumed, and none of it saved as I learn. I cannot accurately state the value of other property consumed. It was very considerable. A large lot of very valuable tools used in the manufacture of the lumber, and in the Steam Mill were destroyed. A large plantation stable, about sixty-five feet long, adjoining one of the buildings containing plow handles was destroyed together with its contents. It is two years, perhaps a little more, since, from declining health, I have visited Bartonsville, and my statements relate to the condition of things when I was last there. But I know no opportunity was afforded for the removal of the materials, and while the burning was reported to me, Iknow that a Cavalry party under command of Colonel or Lt. Col. Geo. W. Lewis, 2d New York Cavalry visited the neighborhood, and visited my own house at the time stated. From all I know, and what I have learned and fully credit, the losses in addition to the stock of handles could not fall below ten thousand or twelve thousand dollars and perhaps more. This estimate embraces tools, buildings, &c, but not money and funds, neither does it embrace valuable papers and accounts which were kept in the store which was also burned. I have heard of heavy losses of bank notes kept there, occasioned by the burning; but have no personal knowledge of these matters myself. I would add that when the Cavalry visited my premises, some of the officers (one of them called Capt. Dern I remember) informed me of their having set fire to Mr. Barton's houses, and the smoke of the burning buildings was seen before their arrival. I have given my estimates upon prices existing before the war. I should greatly increase them if referred to existing rates, and the paper currency of the country. The lot of oak timber was so well seasoned, and of such excellent material, as to command the best prices for such articles. Mr. S.R. Barton had been in this County for some four years, most of the time, but he left in the Spring of 1861, as soon as hostilities began, and remained away during the whole war, as I understood in the military service of the United States. It was generally thought in this community, during the war, especially among the military, that the stock of plow handles belonged to Mr. Stephen Barton, for had it been known they belonged to S.R. Barton and he in the Union army, they would in all probability have been confiscated or destroyed. ABRAM RIDDICK. T.D. VANN, (J.P.) --------------------------- STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA HERTFORD COUNTY. I, Lewis M. Cowper, clerk of the Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions of the County and State aforesaid, do hereby certify that T.D. Vann, before whom the foregoing affidavit of Abram Riddick was made, is an acting Justice of the Peace for Hertford County, duly commissioned and qualified, and that full faith and credit are due to his official acts. In testimony whereof I have hereto set my hand and affixed the Seal of said Court, at office in Winton, this 28th day of December, A.D. 1865. L.M. COWPER, Clerk. (Seal of Hertford County, North Carolina) --------------------------------- STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA. HERTFORD COUNTY. I, Jno. W. Harrell, Chairman and Presiding Magistrate of the Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions of the County and State aforesaid, do hereby certify that Lewis M. Cowper, whose name is signed to the annexed certificate, is now, and was at the time of signing the same, Clerk of said Court, and that his attestation is in due form. Given under my hand, this 28th day of December, A.D. 1865. JNO. W. HARRELL, Chairman and Presiding Magistrate. In the matter of the claim of Samuel R. Barton, ad'r, for indemnity and pay for property destroyed by the Army of the United States of Bartonville, North Carolina, during the war of the Rebellion: State of New York, Livingston County, Now comes CLARA BARTON, of Dansville, in the State of New York, first duly sworn according to law, on oath says: That Stephen Barton was a brother of the affiant, and that they were intimate as brother and sister during the whole time previous to Stephen's removal to North Carolina, and knew nearly all of his transactions during the whole time of his business career. I know Samuel R. Barton to be the only child of Stephen Barton, and the only living heir of said Stephen Barton. My brother was a leading business man in the section of the County in which he resided (Worcester, Mass.)- A man of natural refinement, and sensitiveness, of superior education, wonderful mathematical powers, and reckoned among the best judges in the State, of lumber, stone masonry, and water-power, in all of which he dealt largely. In 1855 he purchased a steam mill in Hertford County, North Carolina, and went there, taking largely his own workmen with him. Here the outbreak of the war found him in a village he had built up, and called by his name. A large quantity of lumber, ready for the Northern market, was thus suddenly hemmed in; his property was too large to take, and too valuable to abandon. He had a store, grist-mill, blacksmith shop, and large quantities of grain and cattle, which, if left would at once go to the use of the Confederates. He gathered his Northern young men, some twenty in number I think, placed them under conduct of his son Sam'l R. Barton, and sent them North, giving them all the money he could command. After various detentions, hard usages, and petty robberies at all hands through which they passed, the weary band of Yankees reached me in Washington, penniless, and I helped them home, many of whom, Sam'l R. Barton among the number, entered the U.S. service. Our next account of my brother was from the columns of the New York Tribune, that for this act, and others considered disloyal to the Confederacy, he was waited upon by an armed body of eight or ten men and ordered to leave the State. He replied that he "had broken no laws; and that when he left that State, for other than his own pleasure, he should leave for one better or worse, and he should not go alone, but should take as many of them with him as he could" He was knocked down on the spot, but rising up stunned and bleeding, he attacked them, unarmed and single handed, (for he was one of the mightiest of men,) and fought his way through them till they fled, awed, without daring to use a weapon upon him. This account of "Massa's great fight, and how the Good God help and save him." we had later from his hired negro, John ; he would never own a slave. When General Butler's Expedition sailed from Annapolis, I was filled with the hope that it might take possession of the Chowan River, and longed to accompany it ; but I was strange to all, and had "no friend at court." I detailed the circumstances in a letter to you, General, enclosing one to my brother, and begging you, if your troops penetrated that part of the country, to find and get him, if alive. We heard nothing more of him until the summer of 1863,-from Morris Island. I addressed a letter through Capt. J Waldo Denny of the 25th Mass. regiment, which he kindly passed to Capt. Flusser, commanding the North Carolina Fleet. Exceeding even my wildest expectations, Capt. Flusser took several Gun-Boats and proceeded up the river to my brother's village, passed a day with him, learned the condition of his property, offering to take him away with what could be taken, which offer my brother declined, upon the same ground on which he had remained at first, adding that he owed some just debts in the North which that property was designed to repay, and justice and honor demanded that he stay and protect it. Capt. Flusser made this report to me, approving the decision, assuring me that he should visit him again, and protect him so far as lay in his power A few months later Capt. Flusser was killed in action, and from this time we had no tidings from our brother until the autumn of 1864; and, for the sake of accuracy, I will copy from a letter of my own, written a family friend during the following summer of 1865. Dear M.-- You ask me to tell you something of the capture and death of our dear, noble brother and cousin, we have lain to rest among his native hills. You know how my last hope died with the gallant Capt. Flusser. One chilly day last autumn, when Gen. Butler's troops were pressing the lines of Richmond, we were having unusually sharp work, and the poor fellows were dropping back in scores to our flying Hospital tents. It was smoky and dreary, and I was out trying to revive and assist them, as they were laid down from the stretchers. I saw a Lieut. with a shot in the lungs ; he was lying on his back, and naturally strangling. I sprang and raised him partly up, and asked the boys to remove him to me, as I seated myself on a large coil of tent rope which was lying on the ground, where I could support him, upright, till the surgeons could get to him. While I was in this position, with hands and arms bare and bloody to the elbows, an orderly dashed up, and looking about seemed to conclude that I was the person sought, (naturally enough as there was no other woman,) and dismounting handed me a letter. With one hand and my teeth I tore it open, for special news from home boded no good in those days, and I saw this was from my nephew Sam'l R. It enclosed another addressed to himself, and to my bewildered eyes it was in the hand-writing of my brother. The Post mark and date were at Norfolk, and he said he was a prisoner there ; that six weeks before he had been captured by a raiding party of Gen. Butler's men, while journeying some forty miles from home, his object having been, as I learned later, mainly to obtain medicine and appliances, as you know he had hernia of long standing. He was ill, lying upon a bed in his wagon at the time of his capture. All had been taken from him, teams, bed, necessary clothing, blankets, medicine, and he had been thrown into thefourth story of a crowded prison house, to lie on bare floors with chills and fever, and chronic diarrhoea; he could not eat the food, and could purchase none, as they had taken all his money (nearly a thousand dollars) and papers from his at the time of his capture, and that these circumstances sufficiently explained the object of his imprisonment, and the hardships imposed upon him, and the positive refusal to allow him to communicate with his friends, as it was evident to all, that unless relieved he could not live many weeks, This letter he had persuaded a negro guard to take out for him. I waited till the surgeons sent for my suffering charge, washed my hands, stepped into an ambulance, and was driven to Gen. Butler's Headquarters, perhaps a mile and a half distant. He was busy, of course, but never too busy to attend to the wants of those around him. I gave him the letter, he comprehended all all at once, turning hastily to me, said, "This is hard, what can I do for you?" I commenced to say that my brother was a Union man. He stopped me with "Yes! yes! I understand it all. What shall I do?" "He is very ill, allow me to go to him, General." "Surely! but can we not do better? he can come here. You have shelter for him?" he said inquiringly. I replied that "I had an old negro hut with ground floor, but it was shelter when I had time to be in it." He rang for a clerk, and dictated a dispatch to Gen. Shepley, I think, at Norfolk, to send Mr. Stephen Barton immediately to him, with all property and papers found upon him at the time of his arrest. Let no one know of the order.--Then turning to me he said kindly, "now go and get ready for him. As soon as he comes I will send him to you." You who know me will understand the fullness of heart and the difficulty with which I saw my way out of that tent. I went back to my post, and stood sleepless among the dead and dying that night, next day, next night, and next day. My men arranged a loft in my cabin, and a straw bunk for the sick man who was to come. At ten o'clock this third night, I sat weary and alone by my cabin fire, when suddenly the door opened, and the bright face of the surgeon in charge appeared. "Don't be disturbed," he said. "we bring you some one." Six years before I had seen Stephen, strong, muscular, erect, two hundred and twenty pounds, dark iron gray. He walked into my presence now, pale, tottering, a hundred and thirty, his thin white locks resting upon his shoulders, bent, and walking feebly with a cane. At 7 that evening he had reached Gen. Butler's Headquarters, and been taken to him. He commenced as I had done, to assure the General that he had never been a Rebel, but was cut short with a kind inquiry concerning his journey, and how he had endured it, and could be ride a mile or two farther that night? Oh yes, if it were necessary,--supposing his prison to be that distance away. "Because," added the General, "if you can, you will find your sister there." "My sister!| he exclaimed, "is she a prisoner too?" He was pleasantly assured that neither of us were prisoners, put into the General's carriage and taken to me. He remained six weeks, waiting the General's call to examine his case. It came, one crisp, searching winter morning. I took him in an ambulance to Headquarters. How well I remember disrobing, to wrap cloak and shawl about him, as he sat shivering in the ambulance, weak and nervous, waiting his turn to enter the crowded office. That also came, we entered and were seated by an orderly. my brother at the side of the door. He was immediately removed by the General, and reseated directly in front of the door. Two other persons were then called for, Lieut. Budd of a N. Y. Regiment and one Hutchings, a detective from Boston. These were the men who had arrested Capt. Barton, and subsequently consigned him to prison. They were evidently ignorant of the cause of their summons to Headquarters, and also, each had known nothing of the presence of the other until they met at the door. On entering, they confronted their white-haired old victim.--they started, glanced at each other, charged color, recovered badly--walked in and were seated. Then for once I had the satisfaction of seeing and hearing Hen. Butler try a case, and learned how more than hard must be the way of the transgressor who should fall into his hands. The confusion of the two men upon entering the room had not escaped him. He stepped to Stephen's side, and in the kindest manner, asked him to state his case, calmly and fearlessly. He did so--testifying that he had been stopped on the road at night-fall by a party of United States cavalry and demanded his pass; while turning the leaves of his note book to find it. they caught sight of some U. S. currency ; they snatched the book from his hands, and demanded his pocket-book ; he delivered it to them, and they kept both, at the same time declaring him their prisoner. They could not wait, they said, to take him with them, but he could drive into Norfolk and report himself as their prisoner, telling him in threatening language that Gen. Butler had plenty of places for such as he. He assured them that he should be compelled to follow them into Norfolk, and even to Gen. Butler himself, if they did not return his property. They shouted at this, telling the "old villain" he "would get enough of it if ever he got to Gen. Butler," and rode away in the darkness. He did follow them to Norfolk the next day. They were astonished and frightened when he appeared, and while one remained by to see that he conversed with no one, another ran to Headquarters and reported him as a notorious Rebel whom they had captured and taken in, and had him at once imprisoned. When he closed, the General turned to the others, saying, "Gentlemen, this is a true statement. Many of the circumstances I know to be true, the rest I believe to be." He then questioned them in reference to their object in making the arrest--"Why had they done it? Why did they take his money? If they believed him worthy of arrest, why did they leave him alone, and free, after taking his property, to follow them into Norfolk, and then throw him into prison? In civil life, meeting a man on the highway in the night, taking his money. and leaving him, would be called by another name than an arrest!" Why had they not returned his money? How much did they take? What had they done with it? Here were some two or three hundred dollars, which had come with his package of papers, notes, etc., sent up from Norfolk. What had they done with the five or seven hundred they did not return? On all these points their memories were feeble, and statements conflicting. The General thought he might be able to aid them. He "had been informed that since the arrest of Mr. Barton, Lieut. Budd had obtained a furlough, been home and got married."--Admitted.--These things generally cost something. He remarked that they exhibited not only great loss of memory, but great discrepancy of testimony. Not the greatest on record, perhaps; he thought the most remarkable instance of discrepancy ever recorded, was that of the Four Evangels whose love for their Master none could doubt; who were always with him, and who must have been present at his crucifiction, and seen with their own eyes the inscription above his head, and read it word for word as it was, many times,--enough one would have thought to have fixed it forever unalterable in their memories. "For instance, supposing you four," pointing to the officers and clerks sitting at the table, "were in Richmond, and I was there hanging from a gallows, and over my head was written in large letters, 'This is Butler, the Beast who hung Mumford,' do you think you could ever forget that sentence, or render it in any other way! But when these four men, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, wrote of the death of Christ, strange to say, no two of them quoted this sentence alike. So yours is not a case of the greatest discrepancy on record, but it is great enough. Gentlemen! this money must be restored, and all of it. I hold you equally responsible. You will divide the responsibility between you, and in case of either to pay his share, I hold each responsible for the whole amount." The Lieut. turned pale, pleaded his poverty, and the necessities of his aged parents. The Gen. could see that this might be hard, but could not see how Capt. Barton should be obliged to support him or his parents. And turning sharply upon them, he exclaimed, "This is a bad business ; you are dismissed, but I have not done with you; go back to your duty. I can always find you when I want you." Then turning to me, he said. "I am through with these men for the present, but if you have anything to say to them, and I should think you would have, they will remain to hear it." I had something to say, and they found it as difficult to acquit themselves of the charge of barbarities with intent to kill, as they had to exonerate themselves from the charge of robbery and theft. My brother's papers, and the little money sent with them, not one third of what was taken, were restored to him, and he was given a "pass" to go anywhere within the lines of the Army of the James, or North, and he went to Washington. I remained to attend to whatever might arise later. Then came Fort Fisher! You have not forgotten the Order that removed Gen. Butler from his command, and I need not add, that after this, there being no one to administer justice, none was administered. The stolen money was never restored Stephen struggled on a few weeks longer, alternately hoping and despairing, suffering from the physical abuse he had received, crushed in spirit, battling with disease and weakness as only a brave man can, worrying over his unprotected property, and his debts in the old home he never reached, watching the war, and praying for the success of the Union armies, and died without knowing--and God be praised for this--that the reckless torches of that same Union army would lay in ashes and ruins, the results of the hard labor of his worn out life, and wreck the fortunes of his only child. Although doubting and fearing, we had never despaired of his recovery, until the morning of the 10th of March, when he commenced to sink, and we saw him rapidly passing away. He was at once aware of his condition, and spoke of his business, desiring that, first of all, when his property could be reached, his debts should be faithfully paid. He grew weaker, and rested long in thought between his sentences. Again, looking earnestly up, he said, "This war is near its end, God bless Abraham Lincoln and the Union armies." Later he motioned me to him, and said feebly, "When you see Gen. Butler, tell him, that with the last thoughts of my life, I remembered him, and that with my last breath I prayed for him." I promised. His eyes closed ; I bent down and asked if he knew me. "Yes," he said. "And do you love me?" A quiet clasp of the hand, and in low broken murmurs, "God--knows--how--much." A few little minutes more, and there lay before us, still and pitiful, all that remained to tell of that hard life's struggle and battle, which had failed most of all, through a great hearted love for humanity, his faithfulness to what he conceived to be his duty, and his readiness to do more for mankind than it was willing to do for itself. CLARA BARTON. Seal of Frederic W. Noyes, Notary Public, Livingston Co., N. Y. Sworn and subscribed before me, this 10th day of October, 1885, GEO. W. NOYES, Notary Public.[*copied*] [*7*] [*c 34*] My brother Stephen, when with me in front of Richman Hearing a voice I crept softly down my little confiscated stairway and waited in the shadows near his bed side. He had turned his face partly into his pillow and resting it upon his hands was at prayer. The first words which my ear caught destinctly were, "Oh God where children we all are, look down with thine eye of justice and mercy upon this terrible conflict, and weaken the wrong, and strengthen the right till this unequal contest close. Oh God save my country. Bless Abraham Lincoln and his Armies. A sob from me revealed my presence, He started, and raising his giant skeleton form until he rested upon his elbow, he said,"I thought I was alone" then turning upon me a look of mingled anxiety, pity and horror, which I can never describe he asked hastily "Sister what are these incessent sounds I hear. the whole atmosphere is filled with them. They seem like the mingled groans of human agony. I have not heard them before, tell me what it is." I could not speak the words that would so shock his sensative nature but could only stand before him humbled and penetent as if I had something to do with it all, and feel the tears roll over my face. My silence confirmed his secret suspicions and raising himself still higher, and every previous expression of his face intensifying ten fold, he exclaimed, "Arethese the groans of wounded men?" Are they so many that my senses cannot take them in? That my ear cannot distinguish them? and raising himself fully upright and clasping his bony hands, he broke firth in lines that will never leave me - "Oh our God, in mercy to the poor creatures thou has called into existence, send down thine angels either in love or wrath, to stay this strife and bid it cease. count the least of these cries as priceless jewels, each drop of blood as rubie gems and let them buy the Freedom of the world. Cloth the feet of thy messengers with the speed of the lightning and bid them proclaim through the sacrifices of a people, a peoples freedom, and through the sufferings of a nation a nation's peace," - And there, under the guns of Richmond, amid the groans of the dying, in the darkling shadows of the smoky rafters of an old negro hut, by the rude chimney where the dusky form of the Bondsman had crouched for years, on the ground trodden hard by the foot of the slave,. I knealt beside that rough couch of boards and sobbed 'Amen' to the patriot prayer that rose above me.[*?= C6 34*] [*Richmond*] [*An hour with my dear noble brother Ste. during a night after a battle in front of Richmond Clara Barton*] [*Copy*] My Brother was a leading business man in the section of the country in which he resided (Worcester, Massachusetts) a man of natural refinement, and sensitiveness, of superior education, wonderful mathematical powers, and reckoned among the best judges in the state, of lumber, stone masonry, and water power, in all of which he dealt largely. In 1854 he purchased a steam mill in Hertford County, North Carolina, and went there, taking largely his own workmen with him. Here the outbreak of the war found him in a village he had built up, and called by his own name. A large quantity of lumber ready for the northern market was thus suddenly hemmed in; his property was too large to take, and too valuable to abandon. He had a store, grist mill, blacksmith shop, and large quantities of grain and cattle, which, if left would at once go to the use of the Confederates. He gathered his northern young men, some twenty in number, I think, placed them under conduct of his son, Sam'l R. Barton, and sent them north, giving them all the money he could command. After various detentions, hard usages, and petty robberies at all hands through which they passed the weary band of yankees reached me in Washington penniless and I helped them home, many of whom, Sam'l R. Barton among the number entered the U. S. Service. Our next account of my brother was from the columns of the New York Tribune, that for this act, and others considered disloyal to the Confederacy, he was waited upon by an armed body of eight or ten men and ordered to leave the state. He replied that he had broken no laws; and that when he left that state for other than his own pleasure, he should leave for one better or worse, and he should not go alone, but should take as many of them with him as he could. He was knocked down upon the spot, but rising up stunned and bleeding he attacked them, unarmed and single handed (for he was one of the mightiest of men) and fought his way through them till they fled, awed, without daring to use a weapon upon him. This account of "Massa's great fight and how the good God helped and saved him we had later from his hired negro, John; he would never own a slave. When General Butler's Expedition sailed from Annapolis, I was filled with the hope that it might take possession of the Chowan River and longed to accompany it, but I was strange to all and had "no friend-2- at court". I detailed the circumstances in a letter to you, General enclosing one to my brother, and begging you if your troops, penetrated that part of the country, to find and get him if alive. We heard nothing more of him until the summer of 1865. From Morris Island I addressed a letter through Capt. I. Waldo Denny of the 25th, Massachusetts regiment, which he kindly passed to Capt. Flusser, commanding the North Carolina Fleet. Exceeding even my wildest expostations Capt. Flusser took several Gun-Boats and proceeded up the river to my brother's village, passed a day with him, learned the condition of his property, offering to take him away with what could be taken, which offer my brother declined, upon the same ground on which he had remained at first, adding that he owed some just debts in the north which that property was designed to repay, and justice and honor demanded that he stay and protect it. Capt. Flusser made the report to me, approving the decision assuring me that he should visit him again and protect him so far as lay in his power. A few months later Capt. Flusser was killed in action, and from this time we had no tidings of our brother, until the autumn of 1864, and for the sake of accuracy, I will copy from a letter of my own writ ten a family friend daring the following summer of 1865. "Dear M_____, You ask me to tell you something of the capture and death of our dear noble brother and cousin we have lain to rest among his native hills. You know how my last hope died with the gallant Flusser. One chilly day last Autumn when General Butler's troops were pressing the lines of Richmond, we were having unusually sharp work and the poor fellows were dropping back in scores to our flying hospital tents. It was smoky and dreary, and I was out trying to revive and assist them as they were laid down from the stretchers. I saw a Lieut. with a shot in the lungs. He was lying on his back and naturally strangling. I sprang and raised him partly up and asked the boys to remove him to me, as I seated myself on a large coil of tent rope which was lying on the ground, where I could support him upright, till the surgeons could get to him. While I was in this position, with hands and arms bare and bloddy to the elbows, an orderly dashed up, and looking about seemed to conclude that I was the person sought,(naturally enought as there was no other woman) and -5- dismounting handed me a letter. With one hand and my teeth I tore it open for special news from hom boded no good in those days, and I saw this was from my nephew Sam'l. R. It enclosed another addressed to himself, and to my bewildered eyes it was in the handwriting of my brother. The Post-mark and date were Norfolk, and he said he was a prisoner there, that six weeks before he had been captured by a raiding party of General Butler's men, while journeying some forty miles from home, his object having been as I learned later mainly to obtain medicine and appliances, as you know he had a hernia of long standing. He was ill lying upon a bed in his wagon at the time of his capture . All had been taken from him, teams, bed, necessary clothing, blankets, medicine and he had been thrown into the fourth story of a crowded prison house, to lie on bare floors with chills and fever, and chronic diarrhea; he could not eat the food, and could purchase none, as they had taken all his money (nearly a thousand dollars), and papers from him at the time of his capture, and that these circumstances sufficiently explained the object of his imprisonment, and the hardships imposed upon him, and the positive refusal to allow him to communicate with his friends, as it was evident to all, that unless relieved he could not live many weeks. This letter he persuaded a negro guard to take out for him. I waited till the surgeons sent for my suffering charge, washed my hands, stepped into an ambulance and was driven to General Butler's headquarters, perhaps a mile and a half distant. He was busy of course, but never too busy to attend to the wants of those around him. I gave him the letter, he comprehended all at once, and turning hastily to me said,"This is hard, what can I do for you?" I commenced to say that my brother was a Union man. He stopped me, with "yes", "yes", I understand it all, what shall I do?" He is very ill, allow me to go to him General?" "Surely, but cannot we do better? he can come here." You have shelter for him he said inquiringly?" I replied that I had an old negro hut with ground floor but it was shelter when I had time to be in it." He rang for a clerk and dictated a dispatch to Gen'l. Shepley, I think, at Norfolk,- to send Mr. Stephen Barton immediately to him with all property and papers found upon him at the time of-4- his arrest, let no one know of the order,--then turning to me he said kindly "Now go and get ready for him, as soon as he comes I will send him to you." You who know me will understand the fullness of heart and the difficulty with which I saw my way out of that tent. I went back to my post, and stood sleepless among the dead and dying that night, next day, next night, and next day. My men arranged a loft in my cabin, and a straw bunk for the sick man who was to come. At ten o'clock this third night, I sat weary and alone by my cabin fire, when suddenly the door opened, and the bright face of the surgeon in charge appeared: "Don't be disturbed, he said,we bring you some one." Six years before I had seen Stephen, strong, muscular, erect, two hundred and twenty pounds; dark, iron-gray. He walked into my presence now, pale, tottering, a hundred and thirty, his thin white locks resting upon his shoulders, bent and walking feebly with a cane. At seven that evening he had reached Gen'l. Butler's Headquarters and been taken to him. He commenced as I had done, to assure the General that he had never been a Rebel, but was cut short by a kind inquiry concerning his journey and how he and endured it, and could he ride a mile or two farther that night? Oh, yes if it were necessary, supposing his prison to be that distance away "Because, added the General, if you can, you will find your sister there! "My Sister!" he exclaimed, is she a prisoner too?" He was pleasantly assured that neither of us were prisoners, put into the General's carriage and taken to me. He remained six weeks, waiting the General's call to examine his case. It came, one crisp, searching winter's morning. I took him in an ambulance, to headquarters. How well I remember disrobing to wrap cloak and shawl about him, as he sat shivering in the ambulance, weak and nervous, waiting his turn to enter the crowded office. That also came, we entered and were seated by an orderly; my brother at the side of the door. He was immediately removed by the General and reseated directly in Front of the door. Two other persons were then called for, Lieut. Budd of a N. Y. Regiment and one Hutchings, a detective from Boston. These were the men who had arrested Capt. Barton, and subsequently consigned -5- him to prison. They were evidently ignorant of the cause of their summons to Headquarters, and also, each had known nothing of the presence of the other until they met at the door. On entering they confronted their white-haired old victim, they started, glanced at each other, changed color, recovered badly, walked in and were seated. Then for once I had the satisfaction of seeing and hearing General Butler try a case, and learned how more than hard must be the way of the transgressor who should fall into his hands. The confusion of the two men upon entering the room had not escaped him. He stepped to Stephen's side and in the kindest manner asked him to state his case, calmly and fearlessly. He did so, testifying that he had been stopped on the road at night fall by a party of United States Cavalry and demanded his pass. While turning the leaves of his note book to find it they caught sight of some U. S. Currency. The snatched the book from his hands, and demanded his pocket book: he delivered it to them and they kept both, at the same time declaring him their prisoner, they could not wait they said to take him with them, but he could drive into Norfolk and report himself as their prisoner, telling him in threatening language that General Butler had plenty of places for all such as he. He assured them that he should be compelled to follow them into Norfolk, and even to General Butler himself, if they did not return his property. They shouted at this telling the "Old Villian" he would get enough of it if ever he got to General Butler," and rode away in the darkness. He did follow them to Norfolk next day. They were astonished and frightened when he appeared, and while one remained by to see that he conversed with no one, another ran to Headquarters and reported him as a notorious Rebel whom they had captured and taken in and had him at once imprisoned. When he closed the General turned to the others saying,"Gentlemen this is a true statement, many of the circumstances I know to be true, the rest I believe to be." He then questioned them in reference to their object in making the arrest.- "Why they had done it"? "Why did they take his money"? "If they believed him worthy of arrest, why did they leave him alone, and free after taking his property, to follow them into Norfolk, and then-6- throw him into prison"? In civil life, meeting a man on the highway, in the night, taking his money, and leaving him, would be called by another name than an arrest. Why had they not returned his money?" "How much did they take?" "What had they done with it?" Here were some two or three hundred dollars, which had come with his package of papers, notes, etc, sent up from Norfolk; what had they done with the five or seven hundred they did not return"? On all these points their memories were feeble and statements conflicting. The General thought he might be able to aid them. "He had been informed that since the arrest of Mr . Barton, Lieut. Budd had obtained a furlough, had been home and got married." Admitted. These things generally cost something. He remarked that they not only exhibited great loss of memory, but great discrepancy of testimony. Both the greatest on record perhaps. He thought the most remarkable instance of discrepancy ever recorded was that of the four Evangelists, whose love for their Master, none could doubt that, who were always with him, and who must have been present at his crucifixion and seen with their own eyes the inscription above his head and read it word for wird as it was many times; enough one would have thought to have fixed it forever unalterable in their memories." "For instance" supposing you four", pointing to the officers and clerks sitting at the table, "Were in Richmond, and I was there hanging from a gallows, and over my head was written in large letters "This is Butler, the Beast, who hung Munsford", do you think you could ever forget that sentence or render it any other way." "But when these four men, Mathew, Mark, Luke and John, wrote of the death of Christ, strange to say, no two of them quoted this sentence alike; so yours is not a case of the greatest discrepance on record, but it is great enough." "Gentlemen, this money must be restored and all of it. I hold you equally responsible. You will divide the responsibility between you, and in case of the failure of either to pay his share, I hold each responsible for the whole amount." The Lieut. turned pale, pleaded his poverty, and the necessities of his aged parents. The General could see that this might be hard, but could not see how Capt. Barton should be obliged to support either him or his parents, and turning sharply upon them, he exclaimed, "This is a bad business" -7- "You are dismissed, but I have not done with you; go back to your duty. I can always find you when I want you." Then turning to me he said, "I am through with these men for the present, but if you have anything to say to them, and I should think you would have, they will remain to hear it. I had something to say, and they found it as difficult to acquit themselves of the charge of barbarities with intent to kill, as they had to exonerate themselves from the charge of robbery and theft. My Brother's papers, and the little money sent with them, not one third of what was taken, were restored to him, and he was given a "pass" to go anywhere within the Army of the James, of North , and he went to Washington. I remained to attend to whatever might arise later, then come to Fort Fisher. You have not forgotten the order that removed General Butler from his command, and I need not add, that after this there being no one to administer justice, none was administered. The stolen money was never restored. Stephen struggled on a few weeks longer, alternating, hoping and dispairing, suffering from the physical abuse he had received, crushed in spirit, battling with disease and weakness as only a brave man can, worrying over his unprotected property and his debts in the old home he never reached, watching the war, and praying for the success of the Union Armies, and died without knowing, and God be praised for this, that the reckless torches of that same Union Army would lay in ashes and ruins, the results of the hard labor of his worn out life and wreck the fortunes of his only child. Although doubting and fearing we had never dispaired of his recovery, until the morning of the 10th of March when he commenced to sink, and we saw him rapidly passing away. He was at once aware of his condition and spoke of his business, desiring that, first of all, when his property could be reached, his debts should be faithfully paid. He grew weaker and rested long in thought between his sentences. Again looking earnestly up, he said, "This war is near its end. God bless Abraham Lincoln and the Union Armies." Later he motioned me to him and said feebly, "When you see General Butler tell him, that with the last thoughts of my life, I remembered him, and that with my last breath I prayed for him." I promised. His eyes closed; I bent down and asked if he knew me. "Yes", he said, "and do you love me?" A-8- quick clasp of the hand, and in low broken murmurs "God--knows--- how much." A few little minutes more and there lay before us, still and pitiful, all that remained to tell of that hard life's struggle and battle, which had failed most of all, through a great-hearted love for humanity, his faithfulness to what he conceived to be his duty, and his readiness to do more for mankind than it was willing to do for itself.