By Grace Kostrzebski
Davy Getz, while walking through the woods, was being watched – not by an animal, but by Union soldiers. During the fall of 1864, the Union army and Confederate army fought in small skirmishes in the Shenandoah Valley as both armies fought to control the key state of Virginia. Getz, who was likely intellectually disabled, was wearing civilian clothing when he was discovered and captured by Union soldiers near Woodstock in Rockingham County, Virginia.
Despite local community members begging for leniency for Getz who was said to have “the mind of a six-year-old,” Union General George Custer had him executed in October. While there was no lost love between the Union soldiers and the Southern communities forced to host them, this incident soured any chance of goodwill between the communities of Rockingham County and the Union army.
Soon after the extrajudicial killing of Getz, a young Union officer was killed in a small fight with Confederate soldiers north of Dayton. General Phillip Sheridan, who the officer served under, took personal offense from this death. Believing this to be a “murder,” Sheridan ordered all houses within a three-mile radius around Dayton to be burned.
While both Northern and Southern armies were under orders to never loot nor cause needless destruction, these orders were seldom listened to. Officers attempted to buy for what they could, but frequently community members refused to sell everything in fear of the rage of future passing armies. What could not be bought was ripped from the landscape, literally. Devastation and desolation followed these armies’ footsteps.
Abigail Lincoln Coffman was caught between these feuding armies. She was a first cousin, once removed of Abraham Lincoln. She lived on a fine estate with her husband, Joseph Coffman. They had decided to remain on this estate despite the warnings of desolation and encouragement to evacuate given to the community from General Sheridan. The Coffmans owned eleven enslaved people who escaped when Sheridan ordered the Union army to burn the homes around Dayton. Her neighbors’ homes and Abigail’s own out-buildings that surrounded her home were burned. All local livestock was slaughtered or stolen. There are conflicting stories as to why the Coffmans’ home was spared, but some attribute the Union soldiers’ mercy to Abigail standing outside her home yelling “I am the first cousin of Abraham Lincoln!” The Civil War was brutal for all – including those with famous connections like Abigail Lincoln Coffman. Violence and division affected families at home as well as on the battlefront.
The American Civil War is often depicted as a struggle between two clear enemies: the Union and the Confederacy. In many communities, particularly in the mountains of western Virginia, the conflict often divided communities — and even families — leaving complicated legacies during and after the war. The Shenandoah valley, the location for the examples cited above, includes the section of Route 76 from the Blue Ridge Parkway south towards Lexington. Route 76 intersects with many important civil war locations, particularly in the vicinity of Richmond, the focus of episode 5 (link).
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