March 1864–The Richmond Boondoggle and Tales of Assassination

March 19, 2014Posted inHistorical events, Historical people

By Gary Far­row, Danville His­tor­i­cal Society

Union Brigadier Gen­er­al Hugh Jud­son Kil­patrick had big plans and even big­ger dreams. In des­per­a­tion, Lin­coln approved a raid by the 1st Ver­mont Cal­vary upon Rich­mond that even the Com­man­der of the Army didn’t sup­port. It was a star-crossed ven­ture with con­se­quences that no one could foretell.

March 19, 1864 Danville North Star

DEATH OF COL. DAHLGREN

Colonel Ulric Dahlgren
Colonel Ulric Dahlgren

The fol­low­ing is the arti­cle in the Rich­mond Sen­tinel of the 5th, announc­ing the death of Col. Dahlgren: “The gal­lant Dahlgreen is dead. After leav­ing Rich­mond, he pro­ceed­ed with a por­tion of his men toward the penin­su­la through the coun­try of King and Queen, where he met Lieut. Col. Pol­lard of the 9th Vir­ginia, and had a sharp encounter, in which Col. Dahlgren was shot dead. Some sev­en­ty or eighty of his men were cap­tured. The remain­der has joined Kil­patrick as has been already stat­ed. Col. Dahlgren was one of the bravest men of Amer­i­ca, and his death will be regret­ted by all who ever knew him. He had lost a leg in the ser­vice and had just arrived at that peri­od of con­va­les­cence when he could take the sad­dle, when he was cut down by war’s relent­less hand.

Upon his per­son were found an address to his men and a mem­o­ran­dum of the route he was to take with his com­mand, when he left Kil­patrick, where he was to go, what he was to do, when he was sup­posed to be there, and when he was to rejoin the main force.

The address to his men is a most spir­it-stir­ring and patri­ot­ic appeal to his sym­pa­thies and val­or on behalf of their fel­low sol­diers who are suf­fer­ing impris­on­ment in the loath­some dun­geons and upon the desert islands of the Con­fed­er­a­cy. He begs them not to fal­ter or flag, but to fol­low him to open prison doors and putting arms into the hands of their released brethren, they would march togeth­er to kill Davis and Cab­i­net, and then return home to their friends, ready and anx­ious for fur­ther deeds of valor.”

Lat­er accounts rep­re­sent that there is no doubt that the pre­tend­ed address said to have been upon the per­son of Col Dahlgren was a bold forgery. This decep­tion was nec­es­sary to excuse the bru­tal­i­ty with which his body was treat­ed. He was a brave, spir­it­ed young offi­cer, and noth­ing but the fear his true chival­ry inspired could have induced the cow­ard­ly revenge grat­i­fied in the abuse of his life­less remains.

A Woman of Uncommon Generosity–Mary Elizabeth Goff Robinson

February 5, 2014Posted inDanville Green, Historical people, News from Choate-Sias house, NSM articles

By Sharon Lakey, Danville His­tor­i­cal Society

“Until I began to com­pile life­long infor­ma­tion, I didn’t real­ize the full range of gifts Meg was giv­ing to oth­ers through­out her life, with­out the slight­est wish for praise.” Charles A. Robin­son, 2013

Meg shares the joy at the dedication of the stained glass window she commisioned for the Danville Congregational Church, dedicated to mother, Eva Crane Goff, in 1988.
Meg shares the joy at the ded­i­ca­tion of the stained glass win­dow she com­mis­sioned for the Danville Con­gre­ga­tion­al Church, ded­i­cat­ed to moth­er, Eva Crane Goff, in 1988.

On July 2, 2013, a mys­tery came to an end in Danville: our anony­mous donor passed at 88 years of age in Penns­bury Town­ship, Penn­syl­va­nia, and the require­ment of her anonymi­ty was lift­ed. It is with humil­i­ty and plea­sure that I relate some of what I have learned about this remark­able woman, Meg Robin­son. Much of this knowl­edge comes to us through her hus­band, Charles, who has gra­cious­ly answered ques­tions and, as a good his­to­ri­an him­self, pro­vid­ed doc­u­men­ta­tion of the impor­tant events of her life.

February, 1864–The General and His Demons

February 4, 2014Posted inHistorical events, Historical people, Historical sites, NSM articles

By Gary Far­row, Danville His­tor­i­cal Society

A com­pli­cat­ed fam­i­ly and men­tal ill­ness pushed and pulled a man who became one of the most accom­plished gen­er­als in the Civ­il War.

Sherman's Meridian campaign was a practice run for his march-to-the-sea.
Sher­man’s Merid­i­an cam­paign was a prac­tice run for his march-to-the-sea.

The news was slow in Feb­ru­ary ’64: Lincoln’s Eman­ci­pa­tion Procla­ma­tion decree, free­ing slaves only in rebel states, had become law Jan­u­ary 1, but its true con­se­quences had yet to be deter­mined; the win­ter months had closed down the war in Vir­ginia and reports from the east­ern-cen­tric press about events in the low­er South, absent some epic bat­tle, con­tin­ued to be spot­ty. How­ev­er, there was a minor cam­paign in mid-Feb­ru­ary against a town in Mis­sis­sip­pi that helped cement the improb­a­ble rise of a Union com­man­der. His rela­tion­ship with U.S. Grant would cat­a­pult him to become the Gen­er­al and Chief’s co-archi­tect and col­lab­o­ra­tor in a new mil­i­tary strat­e­gy that was waged against the South.

North Danville Village Farm Receives Vermont Century Farm Award

North Danville Village Farm Receives Vermont Century Farm Award

January 9, 2014Posted inHistorical people, Historical sites, North Danville, NSM articles

By Pat­ty Con­ly, Direc­tor of the Danville His­tor­i­cal Society
Image Above: For-Clifs barn in the mid­dle of North Danville vil­lage. PHOTO COURTESY OF SUSAN (LANGMAID) LYNAUGH

There is a unique charm about the quaint and pic­turesque vil­lage of North Danville, nes­tled in the north­east­ern cor­ner of Ver­mont.   It has remained essen­tial­ly unchanged in many ways for the past cen­tu­ry.   Just ask any­one who lives there present­ly or has lived there at any time in the past.  Some of the faces and names have changed, but their mem­o­ries and lega­cy remain through friends and rel­a­tives still liv­ing in the com­mu­ni­ty. There is a strong sense of will­ing­ness to help one anoth­er that has endured gen­er­a­tions of fam­i­lies liv­ing in the vil­lage, as well as those liv­ing in hous­es or on farms on the out­skirts of town. North Danville was once bustling with mills and busi­ness­es cen­tered around its prime loca­tion on the Sleep­ers Riv­er, which runs par­al­lel to the low­er part of the vil­lage.  Today most of those busi­ness­es are no longer in exis­tence; how­ev­er, sev­er­al long-stand­ing fam­i­ly owned farms are still thriving.

The name Lang­maid has been asso­ci­at­ed with farm­ing in this area for many gen­er­a­tions, and their fam­i­ly farms con­tin­ue to dot the land­scape in and around Danville. But, there is a unique char­ac­ter about the Cliff Lang­maid farm, now known as the For-Clifs farm in the heart of North Danville.  It was renamed to reflect cur­rent own­er Cliff Lang­maid and his father and for­mer own­er, For­rest Lang­maid.  The unique­ness lies in the fact that it is a work­ing farm sit­u­at­ed right in the cen­ter of the vil­lage. You sim­ply can­not pass through the North Danville with­out notic­ing the big red barn.

Clif Langmaid, Lee (Langmaid) Beattie and Plynn Beattie
Clif Lang­maid, Lee (Lang­maid) Beat­tie and Plynn Beat­tie. PHOTO BY LIZ SARGENT

In the sum­mer months, as you approach from Danville and make the turn head­ing into the vil­lage, you will like­ly see the emer­ald green hill­side pas­ture dot­ted with black and white Hol­steins graz­ing in the field amid yel­low dan­de­lions. If you hap­pen to dri­ve through around milk­ing time, you may have to wait patient­ly as Plynn Beat­tie or Lee Lang­maid Beat­tie act as tem­po­rary “traf­fic con­trol cops” to stop cars and direct a parade of cows saun­ter­ing across the road mak­ing their way to the barn.  This is a less famil­iar sce­nario now in many small towns across Ver­mont and the North­east King­dom. How­ev­er, it is still a rare find in the epi­cen­ter of North Danville! 

The Largest Refugee Crises Ever Created on the American Continent

January 9, 2014Posted inHistorical events, Historical people, NSM articles

By Gary Far­row, Danville His­tor­i­cal Society

Black fugitives forging the Rappahannock river.
Black fugi­tives forg­ing the Rap­pa­han­nock river.

Civ­il War his­to­ry often gives short shrift to the fact that the con­flict pre­cip­i­tat­ed the largest refugee cri­sis ever seen on the Amer­i­can con­ti­nent. Before we read Danville’s North Star reports for Jan­u­ary of 1864, it is nec­es­sary to under­stand how the Union was han­dling the freed­men prob­lem that was cre­at­ed by Lincoln’s Eman­ci­pa­tion Procla­ma­tion on Sep 22, 1862.

The Procla­ma­tion declared that if a rebel state did not return to the Union by Jan­u­ary 1, all slaves would become free. How­ev­er, slaves did not wait until the begin­ning of the year; they began stream­ing toward Union lines and the refugee cri­sis was on. One reporter wrote, “There were men, women and chil­dren in every state of dis­ease or decrepi­tude often near­ly naked with flesh torn by the ter­ri­ble expe­ri­ences of their escape.” But if ex-slaves thought they had a bet­ter life, they were often mis­tak­en. “Often the slaves met prej­u­dices against their col­or more bit­ter than they had left behind.”