Lynchburg, Virginia

“ Through the newspapers is also made known at this time occurrences in Virginia, which more than anything else seem to speak powerfully against an institution which evidently undermines the morals and good sense of the white people, by allowing in their youth the indulgence of arbitrary and despotic passion. At Lynchburg, a large city in Virginia, two young men, both editors of newspapers, have just now shot each other with pistols in the open street. ”

“ As soon as it is possible to travel I think you will have no difficulty about reaching Lynchburg with a cavalry force alone. From 520there you could destroy the railroad and canal in every direction, so as to be of no further use to the rebellion. Sufficient cavalry should be left behind to look after Mosby’s gang. From Lynchburg, if information you might get there would justify it, you could strike south, heading the streams in Virginia to the westward of Danville, and push on and join General Sherman. ”

“ On the right of his brigade was the Thirtieth battalion of Virginia infantry, under the command of Captain, now Judge, Stephen Adams, who, on the breaking out of the war, was a practicing [Pg 49] attorney of West Virginia. He had married Miss Emma Saunders, of Lynchburg, but was then a stranger thrown into the line of defence of the city by the like accident. Captain Adams, after he became a citizen of Lynchburg, purchased the very land on which his men were that day formed in line of battle, and has often dug up pieces of shell and bullets which were fired at him. ”

“ The population of Virginia was 1,617,909 whites and 690,017 Negroes. In 1910 there were 1,389,809 whites and 671,096 Negroes. The white population increased 16.4 per cent while the Negro population increased only 2.8 per cent. Lynchburg had 21,714 whites and 8,355 Negroes. In 1910 there were 20,023 whites and 9,456 Negroes. The white population showed an increase since 1910 of 1,691, or 8.4 per cent, while the Negro population showed a decrease of 1,111, or 11.7 per cent. ”

“ The total population of the state increased by 18% during the decade 1950-1960. However, during the same decade, Virginia changed in population rank from the fifteenth place among the forty-eight states to the sixteenth place among the fifty states. The ten most populated cities in Virginia are Norfolk, Richmond, Newport News, Portsmouth, Roanoke, Alexandria, Hampton, Lynchburg, Danville and Petersburg. During the past decade, the population of three cities has been materially increased through annexation. ”

“ There are thirty-two independent cities: Alexandria, Bristol, Buena Vista, Charlottesville, Clifton Forge, Colonial Heights, Covington, Danville, Falls Church, Fredericksburg, Galax, Hampton (formerly, a second class city; now combined with the town of Phoebus and Elizabeth City County into a first class city since 1952) , Harrisonburg, Hopewell, Lynchburg, Martinsville, Newport News, Norfolk, Norton, Petersburg, Portsmouth, Radford, Richmond, Roanoke, South Boston, South Norfolk, Staunton, Suffolk, Virginia Beach, Waynesboro, Williamsburg and Winchester. ”

“ In the North, promiscuously seated black and white passengers all seem quite happy and at ease. Mixing them works well. There is never any hitch. In the South, however, segregation seems to be for the Negro’s good. The less personal contact he has with the white man the safer he is from sudden outbursts of racial feeling. Of course, the railway companies ought to give the Negro equal accommodation for equal fare, but that is another matter.
Lynchburg is a beautifully situated little city beside the Blue Ridge Mountains. It is a great market for dark tobacco. ”

“ Lynchburg is the see of a Protestant Episcopal bishop. Tobacco of a superior quality and large quantities of coal, iron ore and granite are produced in the neighbourhood. Good water power is furnished by the James river, and Lynchburg is one of the principal manufacturing cities of the state. The boot and shoe industry was established in 1900, and is much the most important. ”

“ Hunter's deeds were those of a malignant and cowardly fanatic, who was better qualified to make war upon helpless women and children than upon armed soldiers. The time consumed in the perpetration of these deeds was the salvation of Lynchburg, with its stores, foundries and factories, which were so necessary to our army at Richmond. ”

“ The records of the court of Bedford County, the minutes of various Quaker meetings, the journals of the Virginia House of Burgesses and of the first Constitutional Convention, taken together with family documents and traditions, show Charles Lynch to have been a thoroughly capable and highly respected man, a leader among the men in his community. ”

“ Negroes and Rebel soldiers worked harmoniously side by side. “I tell you, sir,” said a Yankee to a Virginian who didn’t approve of this social equality, “a white man has got just the same right a nigger has—to starve if he won’t work!”
Perched among its hills, and defended by nature’s fortifications, Lynchburg had seen little of the immediate horrors of war. Her sons had gone down to death, but her fields had not been ravaged, her barns had not been burned, her children had not been often startled by the cry of the Yankees at the gates. ”

“ The city has, however, been free enough from disturbance since the Civil War. It has its well-endowed Negro colleges, and on the other hand its less satisfactorily placed elementary and secondary schools. As in Norfolk, Negro business is thriving, though it has deeper roots.
It is less promising west of Richmond. A duller economic life prevails, and conditions are more normal, less affected by the prosperity of war industrialism. I traveled by train to Lynchburg. As this was my first experience of trains south of the Mason-Dixon line, I was interested to observe the Jim Crow arrangements. ”

“ The action of Lynchburg left him free to move northwards, his opponent being compelled to march away from the Valley. Early promptly utilized his advantage, crossed the Potomac, and defeated, on the Monocacy, all the troops which could be gathered to meet him. He appeared before the lines of Washington, put part of Maryland and Pennsylvania under contribution, and only retired to the Valley when threatened by heavy forces hurriedly sent up to Washington. He then fought a successful action at Winchester, reappeared on the Potomac, and sent his cavalry on a raid into Pennsylvania. ”

“ Some description of Hampton's great cavalry battle at Trevilian's Depot would strictly be a part of any history of the siege and battle of Lynchburg, for had he failed, Lynchburg would necessarily have fallen into the hands of the enemy; but time will not permit so pleasant a digression. It is enough to say that it was one of the most brilliant and successful engagements in which our troops were involved during the war, and one which shed well-deserved renown not only on General Wade Hampton, who commanded, but on every officer and man under him. ”

“ Lynch” who “was for many years the senior and presiding Justice of the County Court of Pittsylvania.” This writer also says that Lynchburg was named for this Mr. Lynch, and that his advanced age prevented him from taking the field during the War of Independence. This, however, is an account from memory of a story heard when a mere boy from an old man, and, as there are inaccuracies in several particulars, it cannot be regarded as reliable. ”

“ The scenes on Hunter's route to Lynchburg were truly heart-rending; houses had been burned, and helpless women and children left without shelter. The country had been stripped of provisions [Pg 34] and many families left without a morsel to eat. Furniture and bedding had been cut to pieces, and old men and women and children robbed of all the clothing they had except that on their backs. Ladies' trunks had been rifled and their dresses torn to pieces in mere wantonness; even the negro girls had lost their little finery. ”

“ The South rose en masse against such a visit and the governors of the Southern States with one or two exceptions vehemently denounced the whole project. The statement of Governor O’Ferrall of Virginia, himself an anti-lynching man, is typical of the Southern sentiment. “Things have come to a pretty pass in this country,” he said in the 230New York World, “when we are to have a lot of English moralists sticking their noses into our internal affairs. ”

“ The next morning we were loaded upon freight cars, and to our surprise found that Lynchburg, not Richmond, was our destination.
Upon this slight foundation we immediately began to build great hopes. If we had lost the battle, what was the reason we were not shipped to Libby and Belle Isle? We had not then heard of a great man's famous expression, "I propose to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer." The celebrated flank movement that placed the army south of Richmond and bottled up the Confederate army, existed only in the prolific brain of the greatest soldier of the age. ”

“ Lynch, as a suitable person to exercise the office of Col. of Militia," he saw the need and accepted. At this time in his history occurred the event that has made his name famous—a conspiracy in his home neighborhood that he promptly put down with the help of his troops, and caused to be sentenced and imprisoned its leaders, thereby exceeding his legal powers.
In Richmond, Jefferson, then governor, had fled from the capital, where all was in confusion, and there was much excuse for his action. ”

“ The movement for independence had from the first a great many opponents in the mountainous sections of Virginia, and there was a considerable number of Tories in Bedford County, where Charles Lynch lived. [40] The unsettled 25condition of affairs also led many desperadoes to resort to this section of Virginia. Both Tories and desperadoes 26harassed the Continentals and plundered their property with impunity. [41] The prices paid by both 27armies for horses made horse-stealing a lucrative practice, and the inefficiency of the judiciary made punishment practically out of the question. ”

“ In a general way the percentage of lynchings to the population is highest in the States where the negro element is largest, but Virginia, North Carolina, and notably South Carolina, are exceptions. So far as any correlation at all can be traced between the percentage of lynchings and the percentage of foreign born, the latter varies inversely to the former. The percentage of illiterates varies from State to State in about the same way that the percentage of negroes does ”

“ I understand that there are twelve hundred men in Lynchburg already organized, and that we may get eight or ten thousand men in Richmond by taking everybody who is able to bear arms. The staff-officers about Richmond would be nearly enough to officer this force. If such a force can be raised and put in my lines, it can hold them, I think, and my corps can move down to the relief of Beauregard, or it may be moved over to our right, and [Pg 645] hold Grant in check, so that Sherman will be obliged to unite with him or seek a base at New-Berne or at Wilmington. ”

“ James Lynch, the oldest of Dominick’s thirteen children, resided in Rome, N. Y., represented Oneida County in the state legislature for several years, and was later a judge of the Court of Sessions, and of the Marine, now City, Court, of New York. Dominick Lynch, 2d, at the time of, and after, his father’s death became a prominent merchant in New York City. This second Dominick was spoken of as “the most fashionable man in New York.” He made quite a reputation as proprietor of Lynch’s Chateau Margeaux, Lynch’s Sauterne and Lynch’s Lucca Oil. ”

“ The Confederates at Lynchburg, all told, numbered 11,000 men, the Federals 20,000.
An incident which occurred in Rockbridge County, the participants in which were of the "cradle and grave" classes, deserves mention. Maj. Angus McDonald, aged seventy, having four sons in our army, set out from Lexington with his fourteen-year-old son Harry, refugeeing. They were joined, near the Natural Bridge, by Mr. Thomas Wilson, a white-haired old man; and the three determined to give battle to Hunter's army. ”

“ Frequent occasion was found on the frontier for the use of such methods and practices to curb the activity of the lawless and the vicious. When the legislature of Virginia authoritatively declared that circumstances may arise under which measures, though not strictly warranted by law, are justifiable from the imminence of the danger, it gave expression to a principle which found ready acceptance among the early settlers exposed to the dangers and vicissitudes of frontier life. ”

“ The country swarmed with ruffians of all sorts, who fled thither from South Carolina and Virginia; life and property were insecure, and Lynch law was not unfrequently administered. The small planters were apt to be hard drinkers, and among their social amusements were scrimmages, in which noses were sometimes broken and eyes gouged out. There was a great deal of gambling. But, except at elections and other meetings for political purposes, people saw very little of each other. The isolation of homesteads, which prevailed over the South, reached its maximum in North Carolina. ”

“ Although we Europeans are rightly surprised that such a monstrosity as Lynch Law can exist in a general society, to be just to the Americans, and although we are bound to disapprove their present system derived from the original, this law was the result of imperious circumstances. When the Pilgrim Fathers landed at Plymouth, Lynch Law was the chastisement imposed by a community deprived of all law, who could only have recourse to their own justice to punish crime. ”