Sunday Search: Confederate Service

Following my records request that I filed with the National Archives a few weeks ago I decided to do a little more digging into the service of George William Clapsaddle during the Civil War. It seemed odd that he would have been discharged less than a year after enlisting in the 28^th Virginia Infantry. This was especially intriguing as there was little information on ancestry.com including the vague details found in his application for assistance from the Federal Government that he filed on 10 November 1902. 

While I am still waiting on the documents from the National Archives, the next logical step was to reach out to the local chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. With the few details that I had been able to record, I posted my query to their Facebook page and, through the assistance of a very helpful member of the group, I was able to learn about a few more details about my 3^rd great grandfather. Following our discussion, I turned my focus to fold3.com (I have a membership but, too often, I neglect to search this site) and was able to get a much more complete picture regarding his service in the Confederate Army.

George William Clapsaddle was born on August 29, 1834 to John Jacob Clapsaddle (who also served in the Confederacy even at his advanced age at the time) and Catherine Rinehart. One of four known children, he grew up on a farm in Botetourt County, Virginia. According to records, he enlisted in the 28^th Virginia Infantry (Company K) in Amsterdam, Virginia by Lieutenant Robertson on 20 July 1861 (one day before the regiment’s participation in the First Battle of Bull Run (Battle of First Manassas) and, despite originally enlisting for a period of one year and having not received any pay, he was “Discharged from military service… by Secretary of War” at Fairfax County Court House in Virginia on 30 September 1861. Later documents recording the receipt of back pay show that he was discharged on December 28, 1861.

While there is no supporting documents from 1862, it is likely that, after having received compensation for his previous service, he immediately reenlisted in the Confederate Army this time serving in the 12^th Virginia Calvary (Company E and D). It is possible that, during this time, George Clapsaddle participated in what would late be called Stonewall Jackson's Valley Campaign in the spring of 1862. However, it was while in service of this company that he was captured by Union forces at Charleston, Virginia on June 15, 1863, charged with assisting in the capture of cavalry officers and sent to Fort McHenry, Maryland and later Fort Delaware, Delaware.

After being included in a prisoner exchange on July 30, 1863, he returned to the 12^th Virginia Calvary where he was once again discharged. In early 1864, he enlisted for a third time this time serving as a private in Captain W. Hays Otey’s Company of Virginia Light Artillery in charge of local defense and assigned to the Confederate Arsenal Ordinance Depot in Danville, Virginia as a machinist where he served until the end of the war.

After the war, George Clapsaddle returned home, resumed farming, and married Margaret Ann Bowyer (daughter of Joseph Brown Bowyer and Elizabeth Betsy Stevers) on November 30, 1865 in Fincastle, Botetourt County, Virginia. They would go on to have eleven children including my 2^nd great grandmother, Sallie Betty Clapsaddle, who was born June 20, 1870 and married Roy H. Teaford on June 21, 1892.  

Late in life, while living with his oldest surviving son, Ray, he did apply for assistance from the Federal Government which he filed on 10 November 1902. While it is unknown whether he ever received assistance, what we do know is that he passed away on December 16, 1916 at the age of 82 not from old age but rather “epithelioma of upper lip, nose, and cheek”. While not specified, it is likely that it was a cancerous growth from which he has been living with for two years prior to his death. He was laid to rest, along with his story, in the cemetery at Galalia Church in Gala, Virginia.

The Poet As Reporter

This weekend we marked the 200th anniversary of the Star Spangled Banner or, as the poem was originally titled by Francis Scott Key, "Defence of Fort McHenry”. It was during the War of 1812 when this young lawyer looked on from the British naval position in the bay as his fellow countrymen fought off the bombardment from the British. It was during these nights and in the hazy aftermath that he penned the words we now know as our National Anthem.

Rarely can someone write a narrative of a single conflict that transcends time and place to represent a greater ideal. However, Key managed the nearly insurmountable task when he put his pen on the parchment. Rarer still is the fact that this anthem that epitomizes the strength, endurance, and courage of our nation was written during what is widely considered a war that was lost or, at the very least, considered a draw. Here is how the events unfolded around Key:

On September 3, 1814, following the Burning of Washington and the Raid on Alexandria, Francis Scott Key and John Stuart Skinner set sail from Baltimore aboard the ship HMS Minden, flying a flag of truce on a mission approved by President James Madison. Their objective was to secure the exchange of prisoners, one of whom was Dr. William Beanes, the elderly and popular town physician of Upper Marlboro and a friend of Key's who had been captured in his home. Beanes was accused of aiding the arrest of British soldiers. Key and Skinner boarded the British flagship HMS Tonnant on September 7 and spoke with Major General Robert Ross and Vice Admiral Alexander Cochrane over dinner while the two officers discussed war plans. At first, Ross and Cochrane refused to release Beanes, but relented after Key and Skinner showed them letters written by wounded British prisoners praising Beanes and other Americans for their kind treatment.

Because Key and Skinner had heard details of the plans for the attack on Baltimore, they were held captive until after the battle, first aboard HMS Surprise and later back on HMS Minden. After the bombardment, certain British gunboats attempted to slip past the fort and effect a landing in a cove to the west of it, but they were turned away by fire from nearby Fort Covington, the city's last line of defense.

During the rainy night, Key had witnessed the bombardment and observed that the fort's smaller "storm flag" continued to fly, but once the shell and Congreve rocket barrage had stopped, he would not know how the battle had turned out until dawn. On the morning of September 14, the storm flag had been lowered and the larger flag had been raised.

…

Aboard the ship the next day, Key wrote a poem on the back of a letter he had kept in his pocket. At twilight on September 16, he and Skinner were released in Baltimore. He completed the poem at the Indian Queen Hotel, where he was staying, and titled it "Defence of Fort M'Henry".

As the ships rocked back and forth in the bay the events unfolded before him and Key recognized that he was a witness to much more than history. In the end, Key served as both poet and reporter as these are the words that solidified the patriotism of the nation and banded us together until the end of the war and beyond. It allowed us to look past the current struggles and strive for a better and brighter future. Key’s words brought us solace during a time of rebuilding and drive us to this day to see that our nation remains strong. It is only fitting that a man whose name may have otherwise been lost to history, speaks to us and for us in the words that he wrote 200 years ago.