Olden Day's Festival a step back in time

I'll admit that I don't always look forward to doing book signings, but I couldn't have had a better time at the Olden Days Festival in Smithfield, Va., last weekend.

For those of you who don't know the history of Smithfield, it is located on the banks of the Pagen River just west of Norfolk. The town and surrounding Isle of Wight County are as old as Virginia itself, having been first colonized in 1634. Lying on the opposite shore of the James River, across from Jamestown, the area was discovered by Captain John Smith and other early settlers.

Walking in downtown Smithfield is like taking a walk through history. Smithfield's Historic District boasts over 70 buildings of exceptional architectural importance, including residences of the Colonial, Federal and Victorian periods.

The Olden Day's Festival, an annual event in Smithfield, was the type of celebration that makes you realize what a great country we live in. The streets were closed down for the vendors, and old cars of every type lined the streets. There was a free concert by the Rondell's on Friday night and old-time music all day on Saturday during the street fair.

The town also has a connection to the Civil War, which is why I wanted to do a book signing for my historical fiction novel Shades of Gray there. In late January of 1864, the Union vessel Smith-Briggs landed on the banks of the Pagan River (right where I stayed, at Smithfield Station). The Union troops were pushed back by local Confederate troops, but discovered upon retreat that their gun-boat had left them behind.

Just as those remaining Union troops were preparing to surrender the next day, the Smith-Briggs was spotted returning – causing the Union troops to fire upon the Confederates in an attempt to escape. The Smith-Briggs was badly damaged and subsequently exploded due to ammunition catching fire. With their ship in ruins, completely outgunned, the Union troops were forced to surrender to the local Confederates.

This is a photo of Bacon's Castle, the oldest documented house built in Virginia (1665).

The house is so named because supporters of Nathaniel Bacon's revolt against Governor William Berkeley occupied the building in 1676 during Bacon's Rebellion.

There were so many historic buildings to see that we couldn't get to it all in just one weekend - so we will have to go back! I couldn't end this post without saying something about the beautiful Smithfield Station where we stayed. Here is a picture of the view of the Pagen River from our balcony. It was a spectacular trip!

Signing Civil War book at Olden Days

I am really excited to be taking part in Olden Days June 26-27 in beautiful Smithfield,Va., said to be one of the state' best preserved seaports.

According to its website, Smithfield is a quaint river-port town rich in Hams, History, and Hospitality. The town's Main Street takes visitors back "to a time long gone, when people acknowledged each other by name, the ice cream parlor was the center of every child's universe, and Southern Hospitality was the un-written rule."

Many of you may already think of "ham" when you think of Smithfield, and it is, in fact, the "Ham Capital of the World." Members of the English monarchy had standing orders for Smithfield's famous hams prior to the Revolutionary War.

I'll be signing my historical fiction novel Shades of Gray on June 27 during Olden Days on N. Mason Street. The Festival began in the 1980's, and is said to be one of the most popular community events to take place annually in Smithfield. Highlights include a free concert at the Smithfield Times Square Gazebo with music by the Rhondels and an antique car show featuring "Street Rods." Festivities on Saturday include antique cars, crafters, artisans, the Olde Towne Curb Market, Ghost Walks, the 3rd Ever Re-Inaugural Pagan River Raft Race, Horse & Buggy & antique fire engine rides and lots of good food!

If you're in the area, I hope you'll stop by and say hello. What could be better than hams and history?

Mosby Ranger Descendant Reunion in Va.

What a great and historic day we had in Virginia on Saturday!

The Mosby Heritage Area Association hosted the 2nd Mosby Ranger Descendant Reunion at the Inn at Kelly's Ford and had a great turnout!

It was so wonderful to meet the descendants of the men I read about while doing the research for my historical fiction novel, Shades of Gray, (which, by the way, climbed to #1 on Amazon in the romance/historical category, beating out Gone with the Wind for the first time)!

I had the honor of meeting members of the Ashby family, the deButt's family, and the Delaney's, among others. I even shook the hand of the grandson of Mosby Ranger John Alexander. (I have a first edition copy of the book written by the elder Alexander).

There was one relative of Mosby himself there as well - a sixth cousin to the Confederate officer.

It was so great to see the different relatives comparing genealogy notes and to find some new leaves on their own family trees. I had the honor of sitting with descendants of the Gray brothers and Christopher Shaw during lunch, and the added privilege of listening to the Tuscarora Band afterward.

I know the event was a lot of work for the Heritage Area Association members, but it was surely a worthwhile one. I hope they plan another in the near future!

Mosby Ranger Descendant Reunion

I'm really excited to be attending the Mosby Heritage Area Association's 2nd Annual Mosby Ranger Descendant Reunion this Saturday at the Inn at Kelly’s Ford in southern Fauquier County.

Most of you are probably familiar with the fact the the main character in my historical fiction novel Shades of Gray is based on Confederate cavalry commander John Mosby.

I look forward to meeting the descendants of the men I have so often read about in books about Mosby, and will also be signing my Civil War novel at the event. Those attending will also be bringing their Mosby Ranger artifacts, photos and documents for display. I will be taking a small field desk owned by Ranger Frank Rahm, as well as his hat band, which looks like it was made out the scraps of a flag.

The Mosby Ranger Descendant Reunion event is part of the year-long celebration of Fauquier County, Virginia’s 250th Anniversary. If you're in the area I hope you'll stop by. Visit the Mosby Heritage Area website for details.

Turner Ashby: Knight of the Confederacy

Turner Ashby was a Confederate cavalry general who served under Stonewall Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1862 during the Civil War. A soldier by descent, he was the son of Colonel Turner Ashby, who fought in the war of 1812, and the grandson of Revolutionary War Captain Jack Ashby.

An expert horseman, Ashby was arguably the Confederacy's most renowned combat hero before his death on June 6, 1862. His presence in the Valley was a powerful catalyst to the Confederate effort there, and his presence resonates even now, as many Shenandoah localities celebrate Confederate Memorial Day on June 6.

According to accounts, Ashby displayed great coolness and determination in battle. Galloping over the battlefield, alert and eager, on his black stallion or his favorite white horse, he reminded many who saw him of a medieval knight.

General Thomas E. "Stonewall" Jackson declared that he "...never knew [Ashby's] superior as a partisan leader." Ashby was killed in a skirmish on Chesnut Ridge near Harrisonburg, Virginia, on June 6, 1862, the eve of the climactic battles of Cross Keys and Port Republic.

On that fateful day, Ashby and his men were fighting a rear guard action against the Yankees in an attempt to buy time for General Richard Ewell to set his defenses. In a skirmish with Federal troops, Ashby's horse was shot out from under him, but undaunted, he drew his pistol and called: "Charge, men. For God's sake, charge!" and proceeded to lead the cavalry charge on foot. After taking only a few steps, he was hit in the chest with a musket ball and died instantly. He was 33 years old.

Many say that the critical point in Ashby's career was the death of his younger brother in 1861. From then on he was driven by a vengeance that bordered on bloodlust.

Like the main character in the historical fiction novel Shades of Gray, Ashby and his deeds became legendary, creating a mesmerizing aura that was all the more powerful because it contained fears while it idealized hopes.

Birthday of President Jefferson Davis

"We are not fighting for slavery. We are fighting for Independence, and that, or extermination, we will have."
- Jefferson Davis


This is a guest post written by Bernhard Thuersam, Director of Cape Fear Historical Institute. First published on Southern Heritage News and Views.

Jefferson Finis Davis:
President of the Confederate States of America
Born June 3 in 1808
American statesman, soldier, Senator, Secretary of War, President

A West Point graduate, Davis distinguished himself in the Mexican-American War as a colonel of the Mississippi Rifles volunteer regiment, and was the United States Secretary of War under President Franklin Pierce. Both before and after his time in the Pierce Administration, he served as a U.S. Senator from Mississippi. As senator he argued against secession but believed each State was sovereign and had an unquestionable and constitutional right to secede from the voluntary Union of the Founders, just as they had seceded from England seeking political liberty. Davis resigned from the Senate in January 1861 after receiving word that his State of Mississippi had voted to leave the voluntary Union. Davis explained his actions saying:

“To me the sovereignty of the State was paramount to the sovereignty of the Union. And I held my seat in the Senate until Mississippi seceded and called upon me to follow and defend her. Then I sorrowfully resigned the position in which my State had placed me and in which I could no longer represent her, and accepted the new work. I was on my way to Montgomery when I received, much to my regret, the message that I had been elected provisional President of the Confederate States of America.”

Davis was a great and patriotic American who tried to save the old constitutional republic from abolitionist revolutionaries, and who left the old union with the old constitution intact to form a "more perfect Union" and with the consent of the governed. He contended that he would rather be out of the Union with the Constitution than to be in the Union without the Constitution. Today, we live in the latter, and truth be told, the Southern States seceded in order to save the Constitution of the Founders. Davis remarked in July 1864:

"I tried in all my power to avert this war. I saw it coming, and for 12 years, I worked night and day to prevent it, but I could not. The North was mad and blind; it would not let us govern ourselves, and so the war came, and now it must go on till the last man of this generation falls in his tracks, and his children seize the musket and fight our battle, unless you acknowledge our right to self-government. We are not fighting for slavery. We are fighting for Independence, and that, or extermination, we will have....Slavery never was an essential element. It was the only means of bringing other conflicting elements to an earlier culmination. It fired the musket which was already capped and loaded. There are essential differences between the North and the South that will, however this war may end, make them two nations.”

Reminded during the war of the destruction of his Mississippi plantations by occupying Northern troops, we dismissed it as the cost of war, yet confessed that he pitied his poor Negroes, who had been driven off by those troops and abandoned to misery or ruin. He resisted arming the slaves as they were not trained as soldiers, were needed to raise food for the armies in the field, and he would not use them as mercenaries and cannon-fodder as Lincoln was doing to avoid conscripting unwilling white Northerners.

At the end of the War, when a fellow traveler remarked that the cause of the Confederates was lost. Davis replied: “It appears so. But the principle for which we contended is bound to reassert itself, though it may be at another time and in another form.”

We may be experiencing his prediction now in the midst of State sovereignty resolutions and 10th Amendment reaffirmations across the country. In 1881, Davis was critical of the Gilded Age corruption and political ignorance of the United States Constitution and remarked: “Of what value then are paper constitutions and oaths binding officers to their preservation, if there is not intelligence enough in the people to discern the violations; and virtue enough to resist the violators?”

President Davis was guilty of no treason and demanded a fair trial in order to argue the constitutionality of the South’s actions in 1860-1861. This was denied by his revolutionary tormentors, and the reason was revealed by Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, Salmon P. Chase, in 1867. Chase admitted that:

"If you bring these leaders to trial, it will condemn the North, for by the Constitution, secession is not a rebellion. His [Jefferson Davis] capture was a mistake. His trial will be a greater one. We cannot convict him of treason."

President Davis died on December 6, 1889.