Special To The Daily Journal

Snakes, chickens, Yankees and local mysteries of Civil War times were recalled at Monday night's meeting of the Richmond County Historical Society at Rockingham City Hall.

Dr. John Stevenson, society president, announced the September meeeting would be about the work of the society's Genealogy Committee in regard to efforts to collect and preserve local history through genealogical research.

The Oct. 24 meeting, which will be on a Saturday, is being planned as an outing at the 18th century Touchstone Plantation in northern Richmond County.

Curious as to who the first Confederate soldier was who died in the Civil War, guest speaker Irving Long said he found him to be a soldier in Augusta, Ga., who stepped on and was bitten by a poisonous snake.

Union soldiers would eventually follow the poisonous snake on a path of destruction, which toward the end came through Richmond County. The most recent "Confederate soldier" bitten by a poisonous snake was Bert McKenzie of Richmond County, a Civil WAR reenactor with the 26th S.C. Palmetto Battalion, Co. C, Long said.   

Ed Snyder, co-speaker, said four Union soldiers killed in a skirmish soon after crossing the Pee Dee River into the county and were buried in graves in West  Rockingham. Only four stones mark their graves.

When questioned as to how he knew they were Union soldiers, he said he was told a previous owner of the property, where the graves were located, allegedly dug them up and found remnants of Union soldier uniforms and dog tags, and reburied them.

Snyder surmised that had they been part of the Confederate Home Guard, the families would have taken their bodies back home.

Chicken story

Long said when one Union soldier killed a chicken belonging to Trudie Watkins' great-great-grandmother, she raised such a fuss it attracted a Union officer's attention. Watikins is a Richmond County resident.

Long used the episode of that girl, Safronia Hicks, age 6, to describe the hardships of families in those days.

Because of her protests, the Union officer spared the girl's family any further suffering at the hands of soldiers by posting a guard at the house.

The Hicks family, Long said, had been farming in the Grassy Island and Mountain Creek area of Richmond County. The father headed west leaving behind his wife and 10 children and was never heard from again. The mother moved to Rockingham to work at the Great Falls Mill, which was burned by the Union troops of Gen. William T. Sherman.

Out of work after the mill was burned, the Hicks family returned to the farm. One of the two sons who joined the Confederate forces lived through the war to return. Although crippled by war injuries, he on worked on the farm. At one point after moving to Anson County and back, the family lost all personal possessions when the waters of the Pee Dee River swept them away.

Safronia Hicks died in 1938, and the tale of the chicken was passed down through family generations, Long said.

Preserving memories

Snyder, a member of the 26th S.C. Palmetto Battalion, Co. C, Civil War reenactors group said his unit is still keeping memories of the Civil War alive in honor of those who served.

As a reenactor for the past 13 years, he said, "I play both Confederate and Union soldiers in reenactments."

The circumstances of the war were such that Long said John Hawley of  Richmond County was against slavery and secession, so he left and went to Connecticut where he became a general in the Union Army. He was later governor of Connecticut from 1870 to 1875. Long said although in another state, Richmond County produced another state governor other than N.C. Gov. Cameron Morrison.

When he came to Raleigh in 1885, Long said Hawley let it be known he would like to visit Richmond County, but he got a message that he would not be welcome. He was formerly a resident of the area now known as Scotland County which was formed from Richmond County in 1899.

Long said Hawley was an official who wanted to offer freed slaves and white supporters of the union "40 acres and a mule."

Synder unearthed another story of a Yankee grave beside a mill pond in the county which his great-grandfather maintained until his death.

When Laurel Hill was still a part of Richmond County during the Civil War, Snyder said a factory there allegedly made at least 50 rifles with slave labor, although, "nobody has ever seen one." As a collector of military memorabilia, he has been searching.

He said he had been told the entire gunworks was dumped into a lake near the site.

Across the Pee Dee River in Anson County, swords, knives and pikes were made. Responding to a question, Snyder said he did not know if, or how, the pike poles were ever used by Confederate solders. They came to a point at the tip where there was a hook-like blade extending out.

Snyder also said the foundation of a gun powder mill producing during the Civil War was still visible on Jones Creek in Anson County.

Memberships in the society and meetings are open to the public.