Blind man with a math degree: Unionists in a Confederate stronghold: Chesterfield during the Civil War

An artist's depiction of a typical resident of the Carolina Sandhills, circa 1874
From Schribner's Monthly, Vol. VIII, p. 157.

This blogpost continues a series of posts on Chesterfield County and the Fox family. Other posts are:

What was Old Store township in northwestern Chesterfield County like at the dawn of Reconstruction? The area is part of the Carolina Sandhills. As the name suggests, the land is characterized by sandy soil which supports large pine tree forests. The climate was mild and believed to be healthful. Physicians recommended the area to invalids seeking to recover from illnesses like tuberculosis. The soil supported only limited crops of cotton and cereal, but fruits and vegetables grew in abundance.

The area contained some valuable mineral deposits, and a gold mine, one of the most productive in the southeast, was located in neighboring Jefferson township. However, the vast majority of residents were farmers. Most were men of modest means who owned no slaves and cultivated maybe twenty or thirty acres, growing subsistence crops and sometimes small amount of cotton. The area did include plantations, and about one-third of the inhabitants were enslaved. A typical slave-owner enslaved a family or two, a labor force too small to make them a member of the planter class, but some enslaved many more. The planter John Blakeney owned fifty-five slaves.

Compared to other parts of South Carolina, the Old Store township was poor and undeveloped. Lacking a rail line or major waterway, an ambitious farmer who grew cash crops had spend at least a day transporting them thirty miles to Cheraw, the nearest market town. County-wide, the average farmer was satisfied with just growing enough food to feed their family. Of all the counties in the state, the total cash value of farm products was the second lowest in the state and the amount of land under cultivation was the third lowest.

Outsiders viewed Chesterfield as a primitive region inhabited by ignorant subsistence farmers. Representative of attitudes towards the region is an 1874 description written by a journalist for Schribner's Monthly magazine. In a survey of the south, the journalist wrote that

The inhabitants of the hill-county ... are decidedly primitive in their habits, and the sobriquet of "sand-hiller" is applied by South Carolinians to some specimens of poor white trash, whom nothing but a slave-aristocracy system could ever have produced. The lean and scrawny women, without any symptoms of life in their unlovely frames, and with their faces discolored by illness, and the lank and hungry men, have their counterparts nowhere among the native Americans at the north; it is incapable of producing such a peasantry. The houses of the better class of this folk, – the prosperous farmers, as distinguished from the lazy and dissolute plebeians, to whom the word "sand-hiller" is perhaps too indiscriminately applied, –are loosely built, as the climate demands little more than shelter. At night, immense logs burn in the fire-place, while the house door remains open. The diet is as barbarous as elsewhere among the agricultural classes in the South – corn bread, pork, and "chick'n;" farmers rarely think of killing a cow for beef, or a sheep for mutton; hot and bitter coffee smokes morning and night on tables where purest spring water, or the best of Scuppernong wine might daily be placed – the latter with almost as little expense as the former.

While the people living in Old Store may have been unsophisticated, they included some who displayed remarkable courage and moral clarity during the Civil War. Living in Old Store township were a small but significant number of Union loyalists, a rarity in the secessionist heartland of South Carolina. The loyalists included Alfred and John Agerton, Hartwell Harris, John Melton, Ransom Pigg, Thomas H. Watts, and William Vicks.

Some of the Unionists later spoke about their political beliefs in testimony they provided to the federal government (in support of claims for compensation for war losses). They were all opposed to secession and favored the Union during the war. The Confederacy, they felt, was waging an unjust war to maintain slavery. After the outbreak of the war, Alfred Agerton spoke about the issue with remarkable candor. He told Edward Wadsworth, the enslaved foreman on the planation of Alfred's neighbor Daniel Wadsworth, that he did not want his children forced into war just to keep slaves in bondage.

Alfred and most of the others owned no slaves. Of modest financial means and with limited education (Alfred was illiterate), they held little political power and stood to gain nothing by the supporting South Carolina's planter elite. However, a few of them had significant financial investment in slavery: Thomas H. Watts owned fifteen slaves.

Despite his ownership of slaves, Thomas had become disgusted with the practice by the time of Secession. Shortly before the war broke out, a religious camp meeting was held near his farm. Only whites attended, and after learning of the meeting, Thomas asked Edward Wadsworth (then enslaved by Thomas's neighbor) if the people attending the meeting were Christians. Edward replied "yes," and Thomas followed up by asking if it was right for slaves to be working the fields instead of going to church. He added that "the slaves had souls just as well as white people." Edward felt too frightened to respond as statements like this were beyond the pale. However, later, during the war, Thomas gained Edward's confidence, and they regularly discussed the war and their hopes for a Union victory.

The issue of secession and Unionism came to head after Lincoln's election in fall 1860. That November the South Carolina legislature called for a state-wide election of delegates to a convention to discuss secession. Chesterfield County was a stronghold of secessionist sentiment. Shortly before the election, the county's two battalions paraded and then were addressed by their commanding officer as well as the county's state congressmen. Each battalion held a vote on whether to support secession, and both voted "unanimously to a unit" in favor of immediate secession, an outcome that was loudly cheered when it was announced. The Cheraw Gazette reported that it had "no hesitation in saying that old Chesterfield is a unit in favor of withdrawing from the Union." In this atmosphere, Unionists had few political options. When the election for convention delegates was held, Ransom Pigg and others decided not to cast votes since none of the candidates opposed succession. Ultimately, Chesterfield County sent as delegates John A. Inglis, Stephen Jackson, and Henry McIver. All three lived in Cheraw. They owned slaves, although only Jackson and Inglis were members of the planter class. Inglis worked as a lawyer, but he had achieved enough success that he had been able to purchase a large rice plantation in Marlboro County which he ran as an absentee landlord. Jackson had achieved more modest success. He oversaw twenty-seven enslaved workers who grew cotton on the 850 acres of land he owned. McIver served as solicitor (an elected position similar to district attorney). Inglis and Jackson were active in state politics and had served multiple terms in the state legislature. At the convention, they, along with all other delegates, voted in favor of secession.

Ransom P. Pigg
From SCFINER via findagrave

Residents of Old Store township had an opportunity to discuss the outbreak of the war several months later, around the time of the firing on Fort Sumter. A public meeting to discuss secession and the possibility of war was held at the Zion church grounds, near the planation of Daniel Wadsworth. The meeting was attended Alfred Agerton and Thomas H. Watts. Most people in attendance were in favor of secession, and a number gave speeches in favor of leaving the Union, even if it meant war. Both Alfred and Thomas held fast to his views and argued with others. Thomas said that secession was wrong and unnecessary. At one point, he was invited to make a speech, but the invitation was rescinded after he said that he was opposed to the Confederacy and in favor of the Union.

Many families first felt the impact of secession around the time of the church meeting. Following the firing on Fort Sumter, the Confederate government called on men to volunteer for the Confederate army. Large number of young men went to Cheraw to enlist. Volunteers from Chesterfield County made up the Chesterfield Rifles and the Chesterfield Guard (two companies of the 8th Regiment, South Carolina) as well as the Chesterfield Light Infantry.

Opposed to the war, the Unionists tried to keep their families out of the army. Unfortunately, Alfred Agerton saw his worst fears realized: three of five sons served in the army. Alfred said he did everything he could to prevent this, but they were forced to join by conscription laws. Tragically, all three were died in the war. Two died from illness, and the third in battle.

Alfred's brothers John and William also served. The nature of John's service was contested. John was widely regarded as a Union loyalist, and he claimed that he was conscripted into the army. However, his loyalty was questioned by federal officials who later reviewed his record when processing a claim he submitted for war losses. The officials noted that the conscription laws were not in force when John first enlisted and, after a detailed examination of his record, concluded that his loyalty was unproved.

Regardless of why John joined the Confederate army, he contributed little to the war effort. When war broke out, John was in his forties, the upper age limit for military service, and he never left the state. He first joined the Pee Dee Legion in spring 1862 for a 12-month term. He was stationed in the town of Georgetown for training, but before his enlistment term ended, he fell ill and was discharged. He was sent into the army a second time in fall 1863 when he joined the 4th South Carolina State Troop. He repeated his previous experience: he was stationed in Georgetown, but he was discharged a few months later after falling ill.

John's most significant military service was his third term of enlistment. In fall 1864, he joined the 5th Battalion South Carolina Reserves. John's company was sent to the town of Florence to guard Union prisoners held in a stockade. The stockade had recently been built to replace prison facilities in Georgia. Georgia was being invaded by Sherman's army, and Florence was a more secure location.

The stockade in Florence, SC
From Wikipedia

Artist's depiction of the stockade at Florence
Taylor, James E., Artist. Florence military prison series

By this time, the Confederacy was in dire straits, and the prisoners at Florence were kept in difficult conditions. Few supplies were provided. Many prisoners fell ill, and men died daily. The horrible conditions at the stockade hardened John's opposition to the war, but he had few outlets for expressing his views. John served alongside his brother-in-law Madison Jordan. Madison recalled that John regularly spoke out against secession to other privates, and once he even said that the rebellion was wrong and that he was opposed to it in the presence of soldiers who were committed rebels, an act that Madison thought was "rather dangerous." While on guard duty, he occasionally offered food and tobacco to Union prisoners, but he only did so during the infrequent occasions when he could do so without being noticed.

John remained on duty at the stockade until February 25, 1865. By this time, Sherman's army had not only advanced into South Carolina, but they had even captured the state's capital of Columbia. When the soldiers at Florence learned of Sherman's advance, John decided that the military situation was hopeless, and the Confederate army was now unable to enforce conscription, so he and three other solders abandoned their posts and began to return to their homes. John walked for 2 days, traveling twenty miles, but before making it home, he was captured by Union soldiers. He was imprisoned at Point Lookout for three months, until he was paroled.

The other Unionists were able to avoid military service. During the war, Alfred Agerton was an old man in his early fifties, so he was only sought for service towards the end of the war. In February 1865, he and many other old men in Old Store were ordered to go to Florence to join the State Reserves. Alfred grudgingly went, although he told his friends that, if forced into the army, he'd desert and flee to Union lines as soon as he had a chance. The issue never came up as he was discharged from service because of his bad eyesight.

Thomas H. Watts was also ordered into the State Reserves at Florence. He took a firmer stand than Alfred. Thomas told his friends that, if they were willing to refuse to serve and "fight the rebels as long as we had life or were allowed to return," he would lead them. They did not take him up on his offer, so he simply told the sergeant who give him the order that he refused. With the Confederate government collapsing in the face of the advance of Sherman's troops, there was nothing the sergeant could do.

Ransom P. Pigg took more extreme measures. Younger than the others (he was in his mid-thirties), he was repeatedly ordered into the Confederate army, but each time he "outflanked" the conscription officers by hiding out. A few times he even left the state for months to avoid them.

The path of Sherman's army. The yellow line indicates the path of Kilpatrick's cavalry
From the Library of Congress

For most of the war, the Unionists had limited opportunities for opposing the Confederacy. In addition to avoiding military service, they continued to speak out against the rebellion and in support of the Union. Thomas H. Watts, after hearing of the poor treatment of the Union prisoners at Florence, suggested to his friends that they organize a party to bring food to the prisoners, but his friends responded by saying that prison officials would not let them deliver the food, and they would only get themselves into trouble. Thomas then dropped the plan.

The Unionists' political talk made them unpopular with their neighbors, and they lost a number of old friends. Sometimes things got "pretty hot." Confederate supporters were upset by the Unionists' refusal to join the army, and some voiced threats. Alfred Agerton was a particular focus of anger. People were especially upset that he openly spoke in favor of the Union to slaves. Some Confederates said they should "handle him rough." A few times people started for his home with plans to injure him, but before they got there, others dissuaded them. While tensions were high, during the war, conflict between Unionists and Confederates in Old Store township never escalated beyond talk.

The Unionists had first had an opportunity to directly support the Union in March 1865. In the first week of that month, Sherman's army entered Chesterfield county, and General Kilpatrick's cavalry camped in Old Store township. The campgrounds were on Daniel Wadsworth's planation, and Kilpatrick himself took Wadsworth's home as his personal residence.

The Yorkville Equirer published a terrifying account of the conduct of Sherman's army in Chesterfield. It reported that Sherman's march was "lit by blazing roofs and marked by dead horses and cattle." The article described Union soldiers searching the countryside for valuables in the most brutal manner: older men and even women "had ropes put around their necks, with which they were jerked about in order to compel them to disclose the hiding places of their valuables." The author wrote that the county was left devastated and many residents faced starvation, but he remained thankful that people continued to resist the Union army: "A crust of bread and independence are preferable to Union and luxury."

Artist's depiction of Sherman's troops entering the town of Chesterfield
From Harper's Weekly via the South Carolinians Library

At least in Old Store township, Sherman's troops certainly brought hardship to many, but their occupation was more far prosaic than the Yorkville Equirer's prose. When they arrived in Chesterfield, Sherman's troops had been on the march for over four months without supply lines. There are no reports of soldiers burning buildings or injuring citizens, but they did appropriate supplies. Alfred Agerton recalled that the Union soldiers were "badly off for clothes," and they took civilians' clothing to replace the rags they were wearing. The soldiers also took possession of people's horses as well as stores of corn, bacon, fodder, and other provisions. Upon the arrival of the troops, many Confederate supporters tried to hide themselves and conceal their possession. However, the Unionists stayed at home and willingly offered provisions to the troops.

The experience of Alfred Agerton is representative. On Wednesday March 1 around 10 am, two mounted Union soldiers came to his home and explained that they needed horses. Alfred brought them to a field where he had put up of his two horses. The soldiers put their saddles and bridles on them and then rode away with them. Before leaving, they told Alfred that General Kilpatrick could provide him with a guard if he asked for protection. Alfred left for the Wadsworth plantation and met with Kilpatrick. After asking Alfred about his loyalty, Kilpatrick said that the "colored people" had said he was a Union man and then told him to ask a colonel stationed nearby for a guard. Alfred went at once to the colonel, but before meeting him, he heard the sound of a horn blowing at his home. The horn was used by his family to alert each other in case of an emergency, so thinking a family member was in danger, Alfred abandoned his plans to meet the colonel and rushed home. Upon arriving, he was met by a large group of maybe one-hundred soldiers. One of them had found the horn and was blowing it for his amusement.

The soldiers had been brought there by the two soldiers Alfred had met earlier. Accompanying them were two slaves, Edward and Joseph Wadsworth, from the Wadsworth plantation. The soldiers had made them come to Alfred's farm to help hold their horses while they took Alfred's possessions. Alfred's family had a large store of provisions: seventy-five bushels of corn, two-hundred pounds of bacon, and one-hundred and fifty pounds of forge. The Union soldiers spent the day transporting these provisions to their camp in sacks. Alfred was raising some pigs on his farm, and the soldiers also shot the pigs and then, after skinning them, took the meat to their camp. Bee hives on the farm were destroyed by soldiers who wanted the bee's honey. While the soldiers were taking provisions, Alfred and his family remained at home. They were friendly with the soldiers, although the soldiers largely ignored them and focused on transporting the provisions. Alfred ultimately abandoned his plans to act on Kilpatrick's suggestion to request a guard since there was no need after the soldiers requisitioned his belongings.

The Union soldiers were especially appreciative of their treatment by Thomas H. Watts. Thomas maintained a small grist mill on his farm. When the Union soldiers arrived to requisition supplies from his farm, he helped them grind his corn before taking it away. After they were done, one officer urged Thomas and his family to follow Sherman's army, explaining that the rebels would likely retaliate against them after the Union troops left. Thomas declined the offer because his wife was experiencing health issues and was unable to travel. Before leaving, the officer and some other soldiers presented Thomas with notes attesting to his loyalty and service to the Union. One note, signed by "four soldiers," reads: "Soldiers of the Union pleas [sic] show respects towards Thomas M. Watts as he saved our lives through his diligence and pleas [sic] don't molest anything he has got."

The Union troops stayed in Old Store for about five days. Their stay passed without violence. A small group of Confederate soldiers, part of Joseph Wheeler's cavalry regiment, camped nearby, but they did not engage with the Union troops.

Union troops occupying the town of Cheraw
Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper via the South Caroliniana Library

By the time Kilpatrick's troops left, the Civil War was winding down. That month Sherman's army fought Confederate troops at Cheraw. The Confederates succeeded in delaying the Union army by destroying an important bridge over the Pee Dee river, but battle was of limited military significance. The Confederate forces were militarily overwhelmed by Sherman's army and could offer only limited resistance. Later in March, Sherman's army proceeded to North Carolina. In mid-April, Sherman accepted a signed armistice from the opposing Confederate general (Joseph E. Johnston). This largely brought the war to a close as Geneal Lee had already surrendered his forces earlier in the month.

The end of the war by no means brought an end to the underlying political issues. The year after the war Henry J. Fox and his New York-based financial backers began their efforts to found a colony of northerners and Englishmen by purchasing 3,721 acres of land from the Edgeworths, a family of wealthy Chesterfield farmers. The year after that, in an act of defiance against the outcome of the war and the changes men like Rev. Fox sought to bring to South Carolina, residents in Cheraw erected a memorial to Confederate soldiers. In a later post, we will explore how these issues played out during the early years of Reconstruction.