History often takes a strange twist. I have recently finished reading “Team of Rivals” which relates the history of Abraham Lincoln’s succession as President of the U.S. and of the Civil War. The following is excerpted from a document entitled “The Tragic Fate of Guyandotte”. This area was a part of Huntington, WV as I was growing up. It’s history is that of a separate community with secession tendencies as a part of Virginia. The raid spoken of below was not a major battle of the War, but it certainly has an interesting history in my own family. The Colonel John Clarkson who led the raid was a Great Uncle of my wife, Harriet Elizabeth Clarkson of Ceredo, WV. The Baptist Church which was burned by Union troops was pastored by my Great Grandfather and my mother’s father, Grandpa Petit, sued the federal Government long after the war and got recompense for the damage. How interesting! My wife’s relative is a Confederate Army officer and his action results in blatant destruction by Union soldiers of a Church which has a long history in my own family. And neither of us had any knowledge of this until many years after our marriage. Not that it would have mattered.
“Although Confederate cavalry raids were frequent and discouraging to Union supporters. One such raid, carried out on November 10, 1861, targeted the town of Guyandotte, Virginia, which served as the hostile host of a Union recruit camp. While successful, this action precipitated the burning of the town by Union troops and sympathizers in one of the Civil War's early acts of retaliatory destruction. These events foreshadowed the increasingly harsh nature of the Civil War, reflecting the hardships suffered by the soldiers of both sides, as well as the civilian population and local communities. Guyandotte's fate was a result of the residents' suspected collaboration with the Confederate raiders and the town's established reputation as a "hot bed of secession."
“In 1857, Eli Thayer, a United States congressman from Massachusetts, unveiled his plans for founding a colony in the region. After a brief visit to the area in May 1857, Thayer selected a site ten miles west of Guyandotte for his fledgling community, which he named Ceredo.
“Regional tension was exacerbated as a result of John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry, which strengthened support for secession in Guyandotte. Although few of the town's citizens were slave holders, they protested against Northern sympathy for Brown and vowed "to repel at all hazards" any further encroachment upon their right as Virginians to own slaves.
“In the first week of November (1861), Confederate General John B. Floyd ordered a cavalry force to "proceed in the direction of the Ohio River, and to strike the enemy a blow. . . ." The raid was led by Colonel John Clarkson, whose force numbered about seven hundred horsemen from the Fifth and Eighth Virginia Cavalry regiments. . . The Confederate cavalry charged into town at full speed, capturing several Union sympathizers before crossing the Mud River and moving toward Guyandotte.
“As the triumphant Confederates withdrew from Guyandotte with their prisoners in tow, the steamer SS Boston appeared, moving slowly up the Ohio River. Aboard were approximately two hundred Union soldiers from the Fifth Virginia Infantry, who had advanced from their camp in Ceredo after learning of the attack.
“The business section of Guyandotte was completely gutted, purportedly to prevent the Confederates from returning for supplies. The Buffington Mill was burned, as was the Forest Hotel. Even churches were not immune from the torch. The Guyandotte Baptist Church was burned after two unsuccessful attempts when Union soldiers tore off the shutters and stuffed them with straw before setting them alight in the church belfry.
“In 1909, the Guyandotte Baptist Church was awarded $2,500 by the United States government for wartime damage.”
