Staunton, Virginia

“ Far south in the Valley, Augusta County, Virginia, which contains the thriving towns of Staunton and Waynesboro, is experiencing an upward surge of in [Pg 26b] dustrial development that seems certain to continue and is going to call for a great deal more water than can be counted on from present sources. Public awareness of this is shown by the fact that county citizens voted in a referendum in November of 1966 in favor of construction of a Federal reservoir at Verona near Staunton on the Middle River, which had been strongly opposed when it was presented as a part of the Army 1963 plan. ”

“ From Staunton to the Springs in western Virginia the route is, via Buffalo Gap 10 miles, Deerfield 12 miles, Cloverdale 8 miles, thence to Bath Alum Springs, 15 miles.
"This new and elegant establishment is situated at the eastern base of the Warm Spring Mountain, on the route through Virginia by way of the Valley of the great Kanawha to Point Pleasant and Guyandotte on the Ohio River. It is very pleasantly located both in point of climate and scenery; the atmosphere is pure, bracing, and exhilarating; the mountain scenery diversified and picturesque. ”

“ John B. Floyd and Henry A. Wise, both in the Confederate service, and others were active on the Kanawha and in Southwestern Virginia, but as the line from Staunton across Cheat Mountain led to Buchannon and Clarksburg, and also via Laurel Hill to Webster and Grafton, striking the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad at two points, it was regarded at Richmond as the gateway to Western Virginia which, if opened, would insure its permanent recovery. ”

“ WESLEYAN FEMALE INSTITUTE, STAUNTON, VA.
This school is under the patronage and control of the Baltimore Conference of the M. E. Church. It is designed to furnish, at a cheap rate, facilities for a thorough education, equal to those of the best schools. The several departments are in the charge of competent teachers. Diplomas are given to those who complete the prescribed course of study. The building is commodious, and is in all respects arranged for the convenience and comfort of pupils.
VIRGINIA FEMALE INSTITUTE, STAUNTON, VA.
Rev. ”

“ You may judge my surprise when I afterward learned that Stoneman was still in Louisville, Kentucky, and that the troops in North Carolina were Kirk's forces! In order that Stoneman might get off without delay, I told Thomas that three thousand men would be sufficient for him to take. In the mean time I had directed Sheridan to get his cavalry ready, and, as soon as the snow in the mountains melted sufficiently, to start for Staunton, and go on and destroy the Virginia Central Railroad and canal. Time advanced, until he set the 28th of February for starting. ”

“ Public business was transacted and writs were issued in the name of the Commonwealth of Virginia, instead of the king of Great Britain, and there was little other change. The abolition of the religious establishment in the course of time marked the most important departure from the old order of things. So far from danger was this region considered, that the Continental Congress, by resolution of September 8, 1776, advised the Executive Council of Pennsylvania to send disaffected Quakers arrested in Philadelphia, to Staunton for safe-keeping. ”

“ The one for the deaf and blind is a State institution.
Tarleton entered Charlottesville on the fourth day of June in 1781. Jefferson's term as governor expired four days later. Ex-Governor Patrick Henry had been his guest while the Legislature was meeting there. He now hastened to Staunton where the Legislators had fled from Charlottesville. Mr. Jefferson, according to one historian, concealed himself in a cave in Carter's Mountain and Patrick Henry, in his flight to Staunton, met Colonel Lewis and told him of how the Legislators had fled Charlottesville upon Tarleton's invasion. ”

“ They came into Staunton, in good order, veteran [Pg 389] troops, ready to march against Shields or Frémont or Banks or Sigel, to keep the Valley or to proceed against Washington, quite as Stonewall Jackson should desire! Seven thousand troops, Georgia, Texas, North Carolina, and Virginia, lean, bronzed, growing ragged, tall men, with eyes set well apart, good marchers, good fighters, good lovers, and good haters.—There suddenly appeared before them on the pike at Staunton Stonewall Jackson, ridden through the night from Mt. ”

“ The plans were revealed and Jefferson hurriedly assembled his family. As their carriage left by a back road the English came up another and searched in vain for the Governor. [Pg 105]
Jouett went from there to Charlottesville to warn the members of the legislature of the impending danger and they fled to Staunton—all but seven of the legislators who were overtaken and captured. The story is told of how he saved General Stevens, a member of the Assembly. As they rode along, some British soldiers saw them and set their horses at a great pace. ”

“ Three of his sons served in the army of Revolution: George, lieutenant in Lee's legion; Paul, who was at the battles of Guilford and Greenspring; and Clement, who was wounded in the battle of Eutaw Springs. Paul Carrington, member of the committee of safety, was upwards of six feet in stature, his features prominent, with bright blue eyes, and sandy hair. His seat was Mulberry Hill, on the banks of the Staunton. [625:A] He died at the age of eighty-five, having survived all the early Virginia patriots of the revolutionary era. ”

“ VIRGINIA, Staunton (Independent City) , Stuart Addition Historic District, Roughly bounded by Augusta, Sunnyside, Market, and New Sts. (05/03/84)
VIRGINIA, Albemarle County, Charlottesville vicinity, Faulkner House, 2201 Old Ivy Rd. (05/03/84)
VIRGINIA, Bath County, Hot Springs, Homestead, The, U.S. 220 (05/03/84)
Multiple Resource Areas are identified by MRA
Thematic Resources are identified by TR
NHL designates a National Historic Landmark
Additional documentation has been accepted for the following property previously listed in the National Register of Historic Places. ”

“ Luigi Castiglioni—Alexandria—Mount Vernon—General Washington—Fredericksburg—Peach Trees and Persimmons—Richmond—Petersburg—Colonel Banister—Dr. Greenway—Colonel Coles—Staunton River—Buckingham Court House—Eniscotty—Rockfish Gap—Staunton—Middle River Ford—Winchester—Charlestown. ”

“ Staunton is served by the Chesapeake & Ohio and the Baltimore & Ohio railways. It lies between the Alleghany Mountains and the Blue Ridge, on a plateau about 1380 ft. above sea-level, in a fertile farming country with good pasture on the hillsides. ”

“ On my first arriving in England, I informed Mr. Staunton that my stakes would be forthcoming the moment he desired, and I was therefore utterly at a loss to account for so unwarrantable a statement being made in reference to me, unless with the intention of compromising my position before the public. And I would ask your lordship's attention to the terms of the suppressed paragraph, couched in such language as to avoid all insinuation of animus, and affording Mr. Staunton the amplest opportunity for explaining away the difficulty. ”

“ Little dreamt the light-hearted multitude that, in the silent woods of the Luray Valley, a Confederate army lay asleep beneath the stars. Little dreamt Lincoln, or Banks, or Stanton, that not more than seventy miles from Washington, and less than thirty from Strasburg, the most daring of the enemies, waiting for the dawn to rise above the mountains was pouring out his soul in prayer. ”

“ Staunton was beautiful and wilful, and enjoyed but delicate health; so that it was difficult for a man of affection, humanity, and a quiet disposition, to struggle with her on the point of her over-indulgence to an only child. ”

“ Staunton of Wolverton, in this county, settled there in the eighteenth of Elizabeth; extinct in the last century.
See Dugdale's Warwickshire, vol. ii. p. 665; Thoroton's Nottinghamshire, p. 157; and for the poetical pedigree of this house, Ib. p. 159; the monuments at p. 164; see also "Memoirs of the Life and Family of the late Sir G. L. Staunton, Bart." pr. pr. 8vo. 1833.
Arms.—Argent, two chevrons within a border engrailed sable. Founded on the coat of Albany Lord of Belvoir, who bore, Or, two chevrons and a border gules. The elder line of Staunton sometimes omitted the border ”

“ There is too great a disposition on the part of some of our very good friends to be masters, to interfere with and dictate to these States, to treat the people not as fellow-citizens; there is too little respect for their rights.” He made it plain that he meant the words of his second inaugural address, hardly six weeks before, when he promised that his mission should be “to bind up the wounds of the Nation.”
“Very cheerful and very hopeful,” Mr. Stanton reported, “spoke very kindly of General Lee and others of the Confederacy, and of the establishment of the Government of Virginia.” ”

“ Staunton and Frothingham started. “If you came really to know this country,” she went on, “you’d find out that just as soon as people here begin to pose as ‘our best people,’ ‘our best society,’ and all that rot, they begin to amount to nothing. They’re has-beens, or on the way to it. We don’t stand still here—not even in Boston. We’re always going up or coming down.”
After a silence Mrs. Staunton ventured to say, “I think you’ll find, Lord Frothingham, that the tone of Boston is, as I told you, far higher than New York’s.” ”

“ Staunton, Pete Obrey, and Hoover were the men of infamous notoriety, who did more lashing of our soldiers at Andersonville than any others. Staunton was chief of police: the few picks and spades within the stockade were under his control; Newman asked permission to use one, to repair his sleeping-pit; instead [Pg 106] of a reply, was felled with it to the earth; when consciousness returned, he dare not complain; suffering with the blow, and ill as he was, could only crawl away to his ditch, thankful to escape with life. The two first named were at Annapolis while we were there ”

“ Amasa Staunton, is prosperous and strong. It was his primary intention to have journeyed to the land of his birth and early ministerial success in New England, when the sacred ties of his domestic life were broken; but a sudden misfortune, which deprived him of his intended method of conveyance, caused him to employ the time in visiting those places in eastern New York, spoken of in the latter pages of this chapter. On his return, whilst at Brutus, he received a message from Mr. ”

“ Stanton had great learning, unselfish patriotism, and conscientious convictions of duty. He was a native of Ohio, a graduate of Kenyon College, and when still young in years attained a high rank in the practice of his profession of the law, making his head-quarters first at Pittsburgh and in 1856 at Washington. He was born and bred in Democratic principles, but had a profound hatred of slavery, and during the administration of President Buchanan was pronounced in his opposition to the disunion schemes of the Southern politicians. ”

“ His friendly order to the Virginia Legislature to return to Richmond, Stanton forced him to cancel. A master hand has organized a conspiracy in Congress to crush the President. They curse his policy of mercy as imbecility, and swear to make the South a second Poland. Their watchwords are vengeance and confiscation. Four fifths of his party in Congress are in this plot. The President has less than a dozen real friends in either House on whom he can depend. They say that Stanton is to be given a free hand, and that the gallows will be busy. ”

“ If Stanton liked a man, he was always pleasant. I was with him for several years in the most confidential relations, and I can now recall only one instance of his speaking to me in a harsh tone. It was a curious case. Among the members of Congress at that period was a Jew named Strouse. One of Strouse's race, who lived in Virginia, had gone down to the mouth of the James [Pg 160] River when General Butler was at Fortress Monroe, and had announced his wish to leave the Confederacy. ”

“ Every citizen that could possibly get out of the place was grabbing his valuables and fleeing the city on every train. The Cabinet officers were running hither and thither, not able to form a sensible or rational idea. Had it been possible to have evacuated the city, that would have been done. A Confederate prison or a hasty gibbet stared Staunton in the face, and he was sending telegrams like lightning over the land. Lincoln was the only one who seemingly had not lost his head. ”

“ John Ferrers sat up in his chair abruptly. "What the deuce are you talking about?"
"The three cases you were speaking of," returned Hugh, imperturbably. "What manner of man is this Staunton, if things pass the dallying stage and come to a head?"
"Oh!" His brother-in-law sat back, relieved. "I can't tell you more than that Mr. James Staunton does not strike me as the type who would ever face the music. While he can take his pleasure with other men's wives, I don't think he has any intention of providing himself with one of his own." ”

“ From the terraced banks of the Rappahannock, sixty miles north of Richmond, to the shining reaches of the James, where the capital of the Confederacy stands high on her seven hills, the lowlands of Virginia are clad with luxuriant vegetation. The roads and railways run through endless avenues of stately trees; the shadows of the giant oaks lie far across the rivers, and ridge and ravine are mantled with the unbroken foliage of the primeval forest. ”