The Hunter Becomes the Hunted

During the Civil War, very few places saw a long, drawn out bitter struggle through guerrilla and partisan warfare than the Shenandoah Valley. Union forces used the valley as a means to skirt around Confederate units in the Piedmont and Tidewater areas in the east. Confederate forces saw the valley as a path to conduct operations up through Maryland into Union territory. Considered the breadbasket of the Confederacy, the Shenandoah was also seen as strategic for supplying grain to feed Confederate forces. Generals such as Jackson, Sheridan, and Early earned their reputations leading many campaigns up and down the valley throughout the war. Many of these battles were low-key skirmishes among partisan ranger attacks. One such example of this is the raid conducted by Major General David Hunter (US).

General Hunter was known for his staunch abolitionist views on slavery and advocated for enlisting free Blacks into the Union Army. His notoriety came after his issuing of General Order No. 11, which called for the freeing of all slaves in the territories of Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina as of May 9, 1862.[1] President Lincoln immediately rescinded the order but Hunter left his mark while continuing to press for allowing free Blacks to serve as active duty soldiers.

Hunter was issued a command in the Shenandoah theater after Gen. Franz Sigel was removed by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant for losing momentum and being defeated by cadets from Virginia Military Institute.[2] Grant ordered Hunter to carry out scorched earth tactics to disrupt the Virginia Central Railroad lines and communications as well as destroy farming in the valley. Ultimately, Hunter would pose as a distraction for General Robert E. Lee’s forces in the east currently being engaged by General Grant.

One such account of Hunter’s raids focused on his attempt to take the town of Lynchburg with his force of 26,000 soldiers. He had just completed a burning of VMI as retaliation for the cadets defeating his predecessor at the Battle of New Market.[3] On June 16, 1864, Hunter and his staff arrived at Liberty Hall, the home of William Read, son of the local Dr. J.T.W. Read. The Read family offered their home along with their hospitality with no desire to inflame the tense situation of Union forces advancing in the area. Because it was still morning, William Read offered Gen. Hunter and his staff breakfast. Among the staff were future Presidents Rutherford B Hayes, James Garfield, and William McKinley. Mint juleps were served before bringing the staff into dining on one of the largest meals they had in some time.[4]

While receiving such hospitality, Gen Hunter and his staff failed to realize the hidden intent in the Read family’s actions. The Reads had been stalling Hunter’s forces to prevent the seizure of Lynchburg as well as waiting for the arrival for what would be General Jubal Early’s own raid tasked by General Lee to deal with the Union forces in the valley. The ‘hunter’ had now become the ‘hunted’.

Early’s forces arrived to drive Hunter’s raiders not only out of the Lynchburg area but out of the Shenandoah Valley and back into the area of West Virginia. The delay tactic by the Read family provided just enough time for Early’s own raiders to reach the area to take the offensive and drive Hunter completely out of the war for weeks. Mint juleps and a Southern breakfast saved the Shenandoah Valley allowing Jubal Early’s forces to recapture the burned remnants of VMI and protect Lee’s western flank for the next few months.[5]

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[1] Ezra J. Warner (1964) Generals in Blue: Lives of the Union Commanders. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press.

[2] Edward A. Miller Jr. (1997) Lincoln's Abolitionist General: the Biography of David Hunter. University of South Carolina Press.

[3] Charles W. Turner, editor. "General David Hunter's Sack of Lexington, Virginia, June 10-14, 1864: An Account by Rose Page Pendleton." The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography (vol. 83, No. 2, April 1975, pp. 173-183).

[4] Daisy Read, New London: Today and Yesterday. Lynchburg, VA: J. P. Bell, 1950.

[5] Jubal Early, (1866). A Memoir of the Last Year of the War for Independence. Toronto: Lovell & Gibson. p. 51.