Southern Claims | Fourth Generation Inclusive

October 20, 2012

I was free born, I got my property by way of work.

Bryant Simmons filed claim #12254 with the Southern Claims Commission. He was 40 years old and lived near Dudley, Wayne County, where we worked as a wagonmaker. He lived on his own land, consisting of 51 1/4 acres, of which half were under cultivation. During the war, he worked on his farm and in a blacksmith shop.

“I was employed, or rather pressed into service, for about 2 years by the Rebels, they made me go and work on breastworks and fortifications [in Kinston NC], they guarded me during the night.” Also, “I worked on the railroad a few days while the Union army was in here.”

“I was free at the beginning of the war, I was free born, I got my property by my work. I live on my own land.” In March 1865, the Union army took bacon, lard, corn, pease, meal, fodder and hogs, saying that soldiers needed something to eat after a march. “I think they eat the hog on the premises …” “There were about 500 lbs. of bacon, sound and good, well dried in my dwelling in the loft worth about 20 or 25 cts. per pound, 20 pounds of good lard in my corn crib … four barrels of good sound corn partly husked … 1400 pounds of good sound fodder standing in the field in stacks .. one hog fat in the woods ….” Simmons was literate and signed his deposition.

Jesse Hollowell, a 62 year-old white farmer, testified that he had known Simmons about 25 years and lived within two or three miles of him. He testified that loyal men regarded Simmons as loyal.

James King, age 60, a farmer and carpenter who lived near Dudley, testified that he had known Simmons about 20 years and lived about a mile and a half from him. They often talked about the Union cause, and Simmons said he hoped the United States would put down the rebellion. King signed his name to his deposition.

Wife Elizabeth Simmons and daughter Cornelia Aldridge corroborated Simmons’ account of his property taken by General Kilpatrick’s command in March 1865. Both testified that the closest camp was near Mount Olive, about five miles away. Cornelia Aldridge signed her name to her deposition.

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October 17, 2012

We, all here, were a proscribed people.

John Herring Jr. filed claim #11519 with the Southern Claims Commission. He was a 67 year-old farmer living in Dudley, Wayne County. During the Civil War, he lived in Grantham township on rented land on a two-horse farm (about 45 acres.) “The claimant being a colored man it is needless to question him as to loyalty.”

“Sherman’s whole army was encamped within about a mile and a half ‘and stayed there longer than I wanted them to!'”

“I was always a free man was born free, all my days a farmer.”

Augustus Blunt, age 38, testifying to Herring’s loyalty, said that he lived in Brogden township and ran a sawmill. He was Herring’s son-in-law. He overheard one Union officer remark, “You are making a purty good raise boys.” Daughter-in-law Kizzie Herring, age 36, living in Grantham, also testified, as well as son Doctor Herring, 24.

John Bryant Capps, age 44, was a boarding house keeper in Goldsboro. He testified that he had known Herring for 20 years and lived about 7 miles from him. “Shortly after the outbreak of the war I was carried off by the rebels to serve as a cook. When I made an effort to get home to my family I was prevented and they gave me 50 lashes.” I never knew a man of my color who did not wish to see the south get whipped by way of satisfaction for the the many whippings inflicted upon us.”

Wm. H. Thompson, age 27, lived in Goldsboro and had known Herring since childhood. During the war he lived about 5-8 miles from Herring. “I have yet to learn of the first colored man who was not in full sympathy with the Union cause. We, all here, were a proscribed people, and during the war had to keep our mouths shut or they would have been effectively shut for us forever.”

John Herring, age 50, mulatto, his wife Charity and their children (including 2 month-old Doctor) appear in the 1850 census of Wayne County living south of the Neuse River.

Augustus Brunt [sic] is listed twice in the 1850 census of Wayne County, both times south of the Neuse. He appears as a 12 year-old (probably an apprentice) in the household of William Benton, and as a 13 year-old with his mother, Polly Brunt. The censustaker noted that Augustus was born in Wayne County and Polly in Johnston.

John Capps, age 22, mulatto, is listed in the 1850 census of Wayne County on the south side of the Neuse River.

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October 16, 2012

My mother was an Indian woman came from Guadaloupe.

Lewis W. Levy Sr.‘s claim (#16083) with the Southern Claims Commission was submitted to Congress on 4 December 1876. Levy lived in Cumberland County, 3 miles southeast of Fayetteville; was a free-born colored man; and owned 109 acres, of which 40 were under cultivation. He worked as a saddle and harness maker. During the war, he was forced to work in his trade at Fayetteville arsenal, where he was “insulted, abused and molested by the rebels.” He fed 6 Union soldiers on their way to federal lines after escaping from Florence SC, and his son Lewis Levy Jr. and Alexander Jackson, another colored man, piloted them over the Cape Fear River.

The Commissioners noted: “He was unusually well off in property for a colored man, much above the average of colored people. He was nearly white, so much so that the confederates arrested him and tried to force him into their Army, but the surgeon discharged him on the ground of physical inability.”

“A large force of Genl. Sherman’s Army camped near him for 2 or 3 days in March 1865; & we have no doubt from the nature of the case that they stripped him of all he had. … We allow $723.00.”

“I was free born. My mother was an Indian woman came from Guadeloupe France to this country in 1794.”

Alexander Jackson, age 60, testified that he was a colored man and that he resided in Rockfish township, Cumberland County and worked as a saddle and harness maker. He was not related to Lewis Levy, but had known him 30 years and lived about 2 1/2 miles from him. They sometimes worked in the same shop.

Edinboro Scurlock, age 48, testified that he was colored, lived in Cumberland County near Fayetteville and was a wagon maker. He was not related to Lewis Levy, but knew him all his life and lived about 1/2 mile from him.

Lewis’ son Robert W. Levy was a 21 year-old farmer who lived in Rockfish township. His testimony mentioned his mother, brothers Lewis Jr. and Matthew N. Levy, sister Ann Eliza Levy, and Wright Lambert. Matthew N. Levy, age 23, and Lewis W. Levy Jr., 24, also testified. They lived in Fayetteville and worked as coopers.

George D. Simmons, age 39, lived in Fayetteville and worked as a barber and grocer. He had known Levy for 22 years and lived about 5 miles from him.

In the 1850 census of Fayetteville, Cumberland County: Lewis Levy, 30, saddle and harnessmaker; wife Sarah C., 25; children Robt., 6, Eliza, 8, Lewis, 4, and Matthew, 6 months; plus Abel G. Stuart, 20, apprentice saddlemaker; Paul Jones, 23, painter; and Wm. Dunstan, 34, painter. All were described as mulatto.

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October 6, 2012

A damn’d radical.

On 25 Mar 1875, 70 year-old Everett Hays filed a claim with the Southern Claims Commission (#3663). He had lived in Wayne County’s Pikeville township for 25-30 years and worked as a farm laborer. Hays was born in Greene County, “close by Pikeville,” and testified:

“I was whipped by Jim Combs and Council Radford and said it was because I was a d–n’d radical.”

The Union “was my pluck always.”

“I was compelled, like a great many of my color, to go in to the service as a cook.”

“Colored folks had always to get passes.”

“During the war, John Sykes and a party looking for deserters came to my house, and questioned me about deserters, and because I could give them no satisfactory information they took me out and whipped me, and carried off from my house a quantity of sausages.”

“It was our good luck that the Rebs would not take in colored men as soldiers.”

“I never heard of a colored man who did not rejoice at the defeat of the Rebs.”

Laurence Reid was deposed in support of Hays’ claim. He was 58 years old “as near as I can come to it,” lived in Pikeville “near to Everett Hays.” He had known Hays for 30 years, but was not related to him, and asserted, “We were both shoved off to do slave’s duty tho’ we were both free-born men …”

Others mentioned were Hays’ wife Millie Hays, his sons Burkett and Lafayette Hays, daughter Biddy Hays, and Elbert Artis and Beedie Artis, both of Pikeville. Lafayette, a farmer, was about 26 years old and lived at Lagrange in Lenoir County. Burkett was about 30 years old and also lived at Lagrange, where he worked as a blacksmith’s helper.

Hays asserted that Union troops had taken 3 barrels of corn, 400 pounds of bacon, 5 pounds of lard, a half bushel of meal, a pound of tobacco and cooking utensils valued at $122.00. The Commission allowed $75.00 of his claim.

In the 1850 census of Edgecombe County: Everett Hays, 40, wife Milly, 40, and children Beady, 11, Burkett, 6, and Lafayette Hays, 2.

An act of Congress, approved March 3, 1871, provided that the President nominate three commissioners of claims (otherwise known as the Southern Claims Commission) to receive, examine, and consider the claims of “those citizens who remained loyal adherents to the cause and the Government of the United States during the war, for stores or supplies taken or furnished during the rebellion for the use of the Army of the United States in States proclaimed as in insurrection against the United States.” The commissioners were to satisfy themselves of the loyalty of each claimant; certify the amount, nature, and value of the property taken or furnished; report their judgment on each claim in writing to the House of Representatives at the beginning of each session of Congress, hold their sessions in Washington; and keep a journal of their proceedings and a register of all claims brought before them. The act provided further that of the claims within its provisions only those presented to the commissioners could be prosecuted, and that all others were to be barred.

Category: Southern Claims