Fincastle is Botetourt County’s oldest incorporated town, and the smallest. It has about 350 people.
The current Fincastle Town Hall was built in the early 1990s. The town has a water and sewer system.
The town’s total budget, including utilities, is about $450,000. The town residents have the highest per capita income of Botetourt County’s three towns, at $19,954. There are 142 total housing units in the town, and 62.4 percent of the citizens are in the labor force. These folks travel 22.2 minutes to their jobs.
The town was originally called Miller’s Mill, then Fincastle, in 1772. In 1794 the town changed its name to Monroe, but that didn’t stick. The town incorporated in 1821.
The town is the county seat of Botetourt and houses the Botetourt County Courthouse and a multitude of historic records. Many of the historic structures are listed on the National Register.
Thirty-six Confederate soldiers are buried at Fincastle Presbyterian Church and a walking tour of this quaint town is available, guided or unguided, through Historic Fincastle, Inc.
Showing posts with label Confederacy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Confederacy. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Friday, June 6, 2008
Hunter's Raid in Buchanan
The Town of Buchanan in Botetourt has three markers commemorating the 1864 Virginia Raid of Union General David Hunter.
Hunter's Raid began on June 5, 1864, with the Battle of Piedmont. He proceeded to Staunton, burning government buildings and supplies as he went.
Hunter's orders indicate he sent troops ahead of him into the town. His soldiers captured prisoners and canal barges loaded with supplies. However, a bridge across the James River was ruined in the process. Eleven dwellings also were burned.
Approximately 30,000 Union soldiers camped around the area. Mount Joy, one of the larger plantation homes, also burned.
Hunter took his men away from Buchanan via the Peaks of Otter, to Bedford. The raid ended at the Battle of Lynchburg on June 17-18, 1864 where Confederate General Jubal Early defeated the Union forces.
Following the Union defeat, Confederates forces pursued Union forces back through Bedford, then to Salem where they fought again at the Battle of Hanging Rock.
Hunter's Raid began on June 5, 1864, with the Battle of Piedmont. He proceeded to Staunton, burning government buildings and supplies as he went.
Hunter's orders indicate he sent troops ahead of him into the town. His soldiers captured prisoners and canal barges loaded with supplies. However, a bridge across the James River was ruined in the process. Eleven dwellings also were burned.
Approximately 30,000 Union soldiers camped around the area. Mount Joy, one of the larger plantation homes, also burned.
Hunter took his men away from Buchanan via the Peaks of Otter, to Bedford. The raid ended at the Battle of Lynchburg on June 17-18, 1864 where Confederate General Jubal Early defeated the Union forces.
Following the Union defeat, Confederates forces pursued Union forces back through Bedford, then to Salem where they fought again at the Battle of Hanging Rock.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Confederate Monument
For 100 years, the memorial honoring the dead of the Civil War has graced the grounds of the Botetourt County Courthouse. This monument to the county’s war effort does not single out any one person, and lauds the efforts of all men and women who survived that harrowing time in our nation’s history. ...
The twelve volunteer companies from Botetourt County participating in the Civil War and listed on the monument are:
The Fincastle Rifles, Co. D. 11 Rec't. VA. Infantry.
The Botetourt Dracoons, Co. C. 2 Rec't. VA Cavalry.
The Mountain Rifles, Co. H. 28 Rec't. VA Infantry.
Anderson's Battery - The Botetourt Artillery.
The Roaring-Run Company, Co. K. II, Rec't. VA. Infantry.
The Botetourt Guards, Co. I. 57 Rec't. VA Infantry.
The Osceola Guards, Co. K 60 Rec't. VA. Infantry.
The Blue Ridge Rifles, Co. A. 28 Rec't. VA Infantry.
The Botetourt Springs Company, Co. E 28 Rec't. VA Infantry.
The Breckenridge Infantry, Co. K. 28 Rec't. VA. Infantry.
The Botetourt Heavy Artillery, Co. C. 20, Bat'N. VA. H'vy. Art'y.
The Botetourt Senior Reserves, Co. -- 4, Rec't. VA. Reserves.
The Botetourt Junior Reserves, Co. E.2, Bat'N. VA Reserves.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Judge John James Allen
Snow fell lightly that December 10, 1860 afternoon as Judge John James Allen steadied himself for a meeting of Botetourt citizens. The country had been in turmoil since the election of Abraham Lincoln. He was about to try to convince his neighbors that the fledging nation could no longer exist in her present condition.
He was going to urge his beloved state to secede from the Union.
Allen, then President of the Supreme Court of Virginia, wrote the Botetourt Resolutions, a document that outlines states rights issues and urges the Virginia legislature to move to secure equality within the Union or to immediately withdraw. ...
He presented his Resolutions to his fellow citizens in an undocumented general meeting of the people. He was a strong supporter of the southern cause. In A Seed-Bed of the Republic, Robert Douthat Stoner calls the Botetourt Resolutions “a brilliant commentary on Virginia’s position in the impending Civil War.” ...
... After stating his case, Allen stood before his fellow citizens. The statesmen of Botetourt agreed with Allen’s sentiments and when the vote was taken, only two dissenters volunteered their objections. The document was forwarded to the Virginia legislature. ...
He was going to urge his beloved state to secede from the Union.
Allen, then President of the Supreme Court of Virginia, wrote the Botetourt Resolutions, a document that outlines states rights issues and urges the Virginia legislature to move to secure equality within the Union or to immediately withdraw. ...
He presented his Resolutions to his fellow citizens in an undocumented general meeting of the people. He was a strong supporter of the southern cause. In A Seed-Bed of the Republic, Robert Douthat Stoner calls the Botetourt Resolutions “a brilliant commentary on Virginia’s position in the impending Civil War.” ...
... After stating his case, Allen stood before his fellow citizens. The statesmen of Botetourt agreed with Allen’s sentiments and when the vote was taken, only two dissenters volunteered their objections. The document was forwarded to the Virginia legislature. ...
The Botetourt Resolutions
The Botetourt Resolutions were written by the Honorable John J. Allen, a resident of Botetourt County, on the eve of the American Civil War.
The Resolutions begin with a recitation of Virginia’s accomplishments before, during, and after the Revolutionary War.
“Throughout the whole progress of the republic she [Virginia] has never infringed on the rights of any State, or asked or received an exclusive benefit.
“On the contrary, she has been the first to vindicate the equality of all the States, the smallest as well as the greatest.”
“But claiming no exclusive benefit for her efforts and sacrifices in the common cause, she had a right to look for feelings of fraternity and kindness for her citizens from the citizens of other States, and equality of rights for her citizens with all others; that those for whom she had done so much would abstain from actual aggressions upon her soil, or if they could not be prevented, would show themselves ready and prompt in punishing the aggressors; and that the common government, to the promotion of which she contributed so largely for the purpose of “establishing justice and insuring domestic tranquility,” would not, whilst the forms of the constitutions were observed, be so perverted in spirit as to inflict wrong and injustice and produce universal insecurity.”
“These responsible expectations have been grievously disappointed.”
“Owing to a spirit of pharisaical fanaticism prevailing in the North in reference to the institution of slavery, incited by foreign emissaries and fostered by corrupt political demagogues in search of power and place, a feeling has been aroused between the people of the two sections, of what was once a common country, which of itself would almost preclude the administration of a united government in harmony.”
“For the kindly feelings of a kindred people we find substituted distrust, suspicion and mutual aversion. For a common pride in the name of American, we find one section even in foreign lands pursuing the other with revilings and reproach. For the religion of a Divine Redeemer of all, we find a religion of hate against a part; and in all the private relations of life, instead of fraternal regard, a “consuming hate,” which has but seldom characterized warring nations.”
“This feeling has prompted a hostile incursion upon our own soil, and an apotheosis of the murderers, who were justly condemned and executed.”
Judge John Allen, author of the Botetourt Resolutions, goes on to say the northern areas of the nation were spreading “incendiary publications” in an effort to “incite to midnight murder and every imaginable atrocity against an unoffending community.” …
“It is shown in their openly avowed determination to circumscribe the institution of slavery within the territory of the States now recognizing it, the inevitable effect of which would be to fill the present slaveholding States with an ever increasing negro population, resulting in the banishment of our own non-slaveholding population in the first instance and the eventual surrender of our country, to a barbarous race, or, what seems to be desired, an amalgamation with the African.”
“And it has at last culminated in the election, by a sectional majority of the free States alone, to the first office in the republic, of the author of the sentiment that there is an “irrepressible conflict” between free and slave labor, and that there must be universal freedom or universal slavery; a sentiment which inculcates, as a necessity of our situation, warfare between the two sections of our country without cessation or intermission until the weaker is reduced to subjection.”
The document continues to say Virginians would not censure others for “resorting to their ultimate and sovereign right to dissolve the compact which they had formed and to provide new guards for their future security.”
Allen then explains how the states separately and together “dissolved their connection with the British Empire.” He emphasizes the sovereignty of the separate states and the right of each separate sovereign state to care for itself. “The foundation, therefore, on which it was established, was federal, and the State, in the exercise of the same sovereign authority by which she ratified for herself, may for herself abrogate and annul.”
He writes that the states had an obligation to uphold the constitution while a part of the union, “but when a State does secede, the constitution and the laws of the United States cease to operate therein. No power is conferred on Congress to enforce them.”
He calls the use of power by the federal government “a dangerous attack on the rights of the States,” comparing it to the British government and colonies. He writes that the people have the right to take back the powers granted under the constitution, and calls the election of Abraham Lincoln “a standing menace to the South – a direct assault upon her institutions – an incentive to robbery and insurrection,” because he has the power to appoint postmasters and other officers in the southern states.
He then echoed the words of the forefathers by reciting what freeholders of Botetourt said in February 1775 to the Virginia Continental Congress: ““That we desire no change in our government whilst left to the free enjoyment of our equal privileges secured by the constitution; but that should a wicked and tyrannical sectional majority, under the sanction of the forms of the constitution, persist in acts of injustice and violence towards us, they only must be answerable for the consequences. That liberty is so strongly impressed upon our hearts that we cannot think of parting with it but with our lives; that our duty to God, our country, ourselves and our posterity forbid it; we stand, therefore, prepared for every contingency.””
The document resolves that a convention should be called immediately so the people can decide if Virginia should remain in the Union. The state should remain in the Union only if its “equality, tranquility and rights” are guaranteed; otherwise, the State should “adopt in concert with the other Southern States, or alone, such measures as may seem most expedient to protect the rights and insure the safety of the people of Virginia.”
The document can be viewed in its entirety on the Internet or in the Southern Historical Society Papers, volume 1, in the Virginia Room of the Roanoke City Library, Main Branch. There are minor differences in the documents; the above quotes are copied from the latter source.
The Resolutions begin with a recitation of Virginia’s accomplishments before, during, and after the Revolutionary War.
“Throughout the whole progress of the republic she [Virginia] has never infringed on the rights of any State, or asked or received an exclusive benefit.
“On the contrary, she has been the first to vindicate the equality of all the States, the smallest as well as the greatest.”
“But claiming no exclusive benefit for her efforts and sacrifices in the common cause, she had a right to look for feelings of fraternity and kindness for her citizens from the citizens of other States, and equality of rights for her citizens with all others; that those for whom she had done so much would abstain from actual aggressions upon her soil, or if they could not be prevented, would show themselves ready and prompt in punishing the aggressors; and that the common government, to the promotion of which she contributed so largely for the purpose of “establishing justice and insuring domestic tranquility,” would not, whilst the forms of the constitutions were observed, be so perverted in spirit as to inflict wrong and injustice and produce universal insecurity.”
“These responsible expectations have been grievously disappointed.”
“Owing to a spirit of pharisaical fanaticism prevailing in the North in reference to the institution of slavery, incited by foreign emissaries and fostered by corrupt political demagogues in search of power and place, a feeling has been aroused between the people of the two sections, of what was once a common country, which of itself would almost preclude the administration of a united government in harmony.”
“For the kindly feelings of a kindred people we find substituted distrust, suspicion and mutual aversion. For a common pride in the name of American, we find one section even in foreign lands pursuing the other with revilings and reproach. For the religion of a Divine Redeemer of all, we find a religion of hate against a part; and in all the private relations of life, instead of fraternal regard, a “consuming hate,” which has but seldom characterized warring nations.”
“This feeling has prompted a hostile incursion upon our own soil, and an apotheosis of the murderers, who were justly condemned and executed.”
Judge John Allen, author of the Botetourt Resolutions, goes on to say the northern areas of the nation were spreading “incendiary publications” in an effort to “incite to midnight murder and every imaginable atrocity against an unoffending community.” …
“It is shown in their openly avowed determination to circumscribe the institution of slavery within the territory of the States now recognizing it, the inevitable effect of which would be to fill the present slaveholding States with an ever increasing negro population, resulting in the banishment of our own non-slaveholding population in the first instance and the eventual surrender of our country, to a barbarous race, or, what seems to be desired, an amalgamation with the African.”
“And it has at last culminated in the election, by a sectional majority of the free States alone, to the first office in the republic, of the author of the sentiment that there is an “irrepressible conflict” between free and slave labor, and that there must be universal freedom or universal slavery; a sentiment which inculcates, as a necessity of our situation, warfare between the two sections of our country without cessation or intermission until the weaker is reduced to subjection.”
The document continues to say Virginians would not censure others for “resorting to their ultimate and sovereign right to dissolve the compact which they had formed and to provide new guards for their future security.”
Allen then explains how the states separately and together “dissolved their connection with the British Empire.” He emphasizes the sovereignty of the separate states and the right of each separate sovereign state to care for itself. “The foundation, therefore, on which it was established, was federal, and the State, in the exercise of the same sovereign authority by which she ratified for herself, may for herself abrogate and annul.”
He writes that the states had an obligation to uphold the constitution while a part of the union, “but when a State does secede, the constitution and the laws of the United States cease to operate therein. No power is conferred on Congress to enforce them.”
He calls the use of power by the federal government “a dangerous attack on the rights of the States,” comparing it to the British government and colonies. He writes that the people have the right to take back the powers granted under the constitution, and calls the election of Abraham Lincoln “a standing menace to the South – a direct assault upon her institutions – an incentive to robbery and insurrection,” because he has the power to appoint postmasters and other officers in the southern states.
He then echoed the words of the forefathers by reciting what freeholders of Botetourt said in February 1775 to the Virginia Continental Congress: ““That we desire no change in our government whilst left to the free enjoyment of our equal privileges secured by the constitution; but that should a wicked and tyrannical sectional majority, under the sanction of the forms of the constitution, persist in acts of injustice and violence towards us, they only must be answerable for the consequences. That liberty is so strongly impressed upon our hearts that we cannot think of parting with it but with our lives; that our duty to God, our country, ourselves and our posterity forbid it; we stand, therefore, prepared for every contingency.””
The document resolves that a convention should be called immediately so the people can decide if Virginia should remain in the Union. The state should remain in the Union only if its “equality, tranquility and rights” are guaranteed; otherwise, the State should “adopt in concert with the other Southern States, or alone, such measures as may seem most expedient to protect the rights and insure the safety of the people of Virginia.”
The document can be viewed in its entirety on the Internet or in the Southern Historical Society Papers, volume 1, in the Virginia Room of the Roanoke City Library, Main Branch. There are minor differences in the documents; the above quotes are copied from the latter source.
Monday, May 12, 2008
George Washington Painter
George Washington Painter, a member of the Confederacy for three years, left this world on January 13, 1926, cursing the northern soldiers. ...
Painter was a member of Company C, 20th Virginia Battalion, Heavy Duty Artillery, C.S.A. He joined on February 16, 1862 and served until June 16, 1865. He suffered a wound to his foot during the war, but it was not bad enough for him to leave the service.
... Painter likely marched off to war with a gun in his hands made by his father, John, who was a noted gunsmith. He made rifles for the Confederacy. ...
The war took Painter’s older brother, James Barnabas Painter, a member of Pickett’s Division. The brother died July 3, 1863, in the Battle of Gettsyburg, having served in the Confederacy for two years.
When the war ended, George Washington Painter walked home from either Appomattox or Richmond (family legends differ). ...
... After the Civil War, Painter was a farmer and a mail carrier. He delivered a rural route while riding on horseback.
Original article appeared in The Fincastle Herald in 2004.
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