One Hundred and Fifty Years Ago...

           

Lincoln Address Memorial at Gettysburg

            During 1863 the residents of Harrisonburg thrilled to the guerilla exploits of Captain John H. McNeill and his Rangers – a Confederate partisan unit that harassed Federal units.  Also, in July, the citizens of Harrisonburg were well aware of the great battle in Pennsylvania.  The Register on July tenth reported a “great, glorious, and overwhelming victory over Union forces” at Gettysburg.  Over the next week the truth became apparent as large numbers of wounded Confederates passed up the Valley, many breathing their last breathe in Harrisonburg.  On November 16, Court Day, a rumor late in the afternoon spread that the Yankees would be coming in about five hours.[i]  The rumor was false.  Uncertainty charge the atmosphere.

Lincoln Homstead in Virginia

But I thought Lincoln was born in a log cabin house in Kentucky? That was my thought process when I first heard about the Lincoln Homestead and its location in the Rockingham County. So does our 16th President have any true ties to Virginia?

According to the March 24, 1887 newspaper Rockingham Register, he does. The paper ran a front page article entitled: “Lincoln’s Ancestors in Virginia.” The article is John T. Harris Jr.’s argument that the Lincolns, according to deeds in the courthouse that “survived the Federal army during the civil war”, did not leave Virginia until 1781. The article was written in response to the newspaper Century’s article by “Nicolay and Hay” that stated the Lincolns left in 1780.[1] Quite a convincing article.