Letters from the Front: 52 Ancestors 2024 Prompt “Witness to History”

Captain Weir:  Civil War Officer at the Battle of Shiloh

Edward Rumsey Weir Jr.: 1839-1906 (Maternal Second Cousin 3x Removed)

 

It is so rare to hear about famous military battles from the perspective of the regular people who were fighting in the trenches, the real witnesses to history. We usually only read the history book account, a sort of omniscient-narrator version that views the battle as a whole, with individual units mere chess pieces being moved about on a gigantic gameboard. Everyone who has studied American history in school has heard of the Civil War’s Battle of Shiloh. But I was fortunate to discover a letter written from the battlefield by Captain Edward Rumsey Weir, providing that first-hand, witness-to-history perspective.

The Battle of Shiloh pitted two great generals against one another: Ulysses Grant commanding Union troops, and Albert Sidney Johnston commanding Confederate forces. The stakes were high, as were the losses, which included Johnston, who was killed in battle. Casualties (which includes injuries and captures along with deaths) totaled 24,000, making Shiloh the costliest battle of the war up to that point. Grant’s victory had important consequences. Wikipedia noted that Confederate President Jefferson Davis believed Johnston’s death was the Confederacy’s “turning point of our fate” in the Western Theater.  The Wikipedia article went on to state:

“With the loss at Shiloh, the likelihood of the Confederacy regaining control of the upper Mississippi Valley was severely diminished, and the large number of casualties represented the start of an unwinnable war of attrition.[262] The victory at Shiloh also placed the Union army in a strategic position to infiltrate and capture key points in the south.” (See Wikipedia citation below).

So who was Edward Rumsey Weir, Jr. and what led to his experiences at Shiloh? Edward was the eldest son of Edward Rumsey Weir Sr. and wife Harriet Rumsey Miller. He was born August 13, 1839 in Greenville, Kentucky and grew up in comfortable circumstances on his father’s large plantation. When the Civil War broke out, Edward joined one of the Kentucky militia units his father formed and financed to support the Union cause. The units were eventually absorbed into the Union Army as the 11^th Kentucky, an infantry regiment. Edward, at the tender age of 22, was given the rank of Captain and command over Company B.

The 11th Kentucky spent most of 1861 and early 1862 in camp at Camp Calhoun in Kentucky waiting for deployment. The troops suffered from boredom and illness, impatient for some sort of action.

Cover page for Edward Weir Jr.'s Civil War Army records from Fold3

Edward wrote home to his mother describing conditions in camp. It is an amazing account of the life and food of a Union officer in the early days of the Civil War. Admittedly, Edward had the assistance of a slave, Jessey, who accompanied him to war, cooked his food, maintained his equipment and cared for him when sick, so his life was more privileged than the average young officer.

January 8, 1862

HQ Co B 11th KY Reg, Camp Calhoun

My Mother, Dear Mother

            Today is a misty day.  We have been excused from doing the usual "Dress Parade" which always must occur rain or shine. 

            I have just finished dinner.  I was just thinking how you would like to see me at my table.  We have no table cloth.  Our table consists of a good box (that has become just blank from wear).  Fine plates with one china plate (for the Capt. as Jessey says) tin cups, three knives and 2 forks make our table furniture.  We had today, biscuits (big fat Biscuits) cold ham & coffee without sugar or cream. 

            I now can drink coffee by the pint three times a day.  I generally eat two or three of those big fat biscuits and a lb. of bacon at a time.  I have only been sick but one time with my old tonsillitis complaint.  Then I found a kind lady to take care of me.  When I began to get well, the Ladies of Rumsey sent me plenty of "goodies" until I almost made myself sick again. 

            My tent is now quite cozy.  I have a nice little stove that makes it quite warm.  I now sleep under only two blankets and Father's old shawl & keep as warm as I once did in my Country room under a comfort and half a dozen blankets before a big fire. 

            I sometimes dream that I am again in my little Country room at home and that All is peace and happiness as I once was in days gone by, when I awakened only to hear the steady tread of the sentry as he passes his "beat" back of my tent.  To hear him call for the Corporal of the Guard to let in some commissioned officer who has been out late breathing mock love to some fair maiden.  Will we ever again meet all again at home in our shady porch that is over hung by grape vines?  No one can tell.  But in all probability we never shall.  Our home may become the scene of some bloody battles between some unstrung Armies.  I may water some Southern plain with my life's blood.  But let us mother look to a brighter day - when this Rebellion shall be arrested and the power of the Government felt everywhere upon the face of this Continent.  We will again see home I hope and be sitting where we once were. 

            Jessey says tell "my" Harriet  that he does not live like he did at home.

                                                                                    Your son, E

We can see in this letter that Edward was already facing his mortality even though he had just reached adulthood. Just three months later, Edward’s unit was fighting at Shiloh. The battle began April 6, 1862 in southwestern Tennessee, and continued on April 7, which was when Edward’s regiment arrived as part of General Buell’s Army of Ohio. According to the Historical Marker Database’s entry on the “Kentucky Regiments at Battle of Shiloh history marker in Hardin County Tennessee,

“The Army of the Ohio, which reinforced the Army of the Tennessee during the late afternoon and night of April 6 and the morning of April 7, contained ten regiments of Kentucky troops: the 5th Regiment of the 4th Brigade, 2nd Division; the 6th Regiment of the 19th Brigade, and the 1st, 2nd, and 20th Regiments of the 22nd Brigade, 4th Division; the 9th and 13th Regiments of the 11th Brigade, and the 11th and 26th Regiments of the 14th Brigade, 5th Division; and the 24th Regiment of the 21st Brigade, 6th Division. The initial unit of the Army of the Ohio to arrive at the scene of battle, the 4th Division, was commanded by Brigadier General William Nelson, a Kentuckian.”

Historical marker showing Kentucky units placement on Shiloh battlefield on April 7 1862. Blue are Union units, red are the Confederate units. Kentucky men fought on both sides.

Here is Edward’s description of the battle from his position:

Shiloh Fields, April 9th, 1862

Dear Father

            I have heard through Mr. Burge of your return home.  I am truly glad of it for there is no place so near & dear to me as home.  If I could return to my house with honor, I would resign and go home.  But as things now stand, I will fight the war out.  Were inspected yesterday by Capt. Gallent of the U.S.A.  He said that we could fight, but that we were imperfect in drill.  The men did not show much as we have been encamped 12 days without a tent, a blanket, an overcoat, or a camp ... the men were out of heart & did not care whether they have called their arms well or not.  We were called up & told that if we did not improve in two weeks that an examination would be had upon the Company officers.  My Company he hinted would pass.  Gen. Crittenden complimented us.  We were ordered up on Monday when the 14[th] Wisconsin had been routed.   The command was given by our Gen. to charge.  The wild cheers were given for Kentucky & with Crittenden at our head we rushed like men upon them.  Maj. Motty, Capt. Roach, Capt. Plato & myself were the first to cross the Branch.   Capt. Plato fell, Capt. Roach was wounded, John B. Morgan was killed at my side.  Elis Skip with Bayly Simmons and Brad Rhoads were wounded.  All at my side.  About 40 of us went too far beyond our lines & came very near being taken prisoners.  If all the regiment had followed, we would have been able to have routed them completely.  We again fell back and formed.  We made 5 charges during the day.  Upon 3 of them, with two guns, 3 times we took possession of the guns, twice we were driven back, but the fourth time we held them.  They were about to move off with one of the guns.  I then was within about 50 yards of it.  While they were lumbering, I advanced about 20 yards, with your colt revolver, I shot the saddle horse which of course stopped the removal.  I then fell down upon my face and awaited the advance of our boys.  The balls came fast and thick over me, but I came out unhurt.  We fought from 8 o'clock until 5 pm.  I had my pants about shot through by a grape shot.  This letter is only to let my Father know what his son did.  The boys in my Company will tell you that this Capt. was in the thick of the fight.  The Gen. & Col. can make out their reports, but they know nothing of who was in the advances.  Col. Love was at his place during the whole day.  Col. Hawkins was in the fight.  Hudson Brown has survived and James Patterson, who has been appointed my Lieut., is a good officer and fought well in the battle. 

                                                                                                Your Son

In only a few sentences, Edward brings this battle to life. The details vividly evoke images, smells and sounds: the horse falling as he shot it with a Colt Revolver. His fellow officers falling after being shot next to him. The smell of gunpowder and the whistling of minie balls over his head as he lay face down in the dirt. The futility of charging forward and gaining a piece of land and cannon, only to fall back, and then to once more charge forward into a barrage of bullets, intent on retaking the land and weapons just ceded.

Painting of Battle of Shiloh

Edward Weir survived the Civil War, advancing to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel by age 23. His file of war records and army muster rolls was nearly thirty pages long. He fought in battles around Corinth as part of the Kentucky 11th. He served as a recruiter back in Kentucky, and then transferred to Kentucky 35^th in an attempt to return to the front despite poor health. He suffered from severe long-term illnesses that made it difficult for him to keep up with his regiment, and by 1864 was assigned to serve in the Union’s office of Court Martial in Kentucky, probably due to his legal training. He mustered out of the army in late 1864.

Sept 5, 1864 Letter from Edward asking to be relieved of Court Martial Duty

Following the war, Edward married Eliza Triplett and worked as a lawyer in his hometown of Greenville. He and Eliza had seven children. He died April 3, 1906, at age 66. His father wrote a memoir of his service during the Civil War, described in previous blog posts. Edward Jr.’s letters to his family from army camp and from the battlefield were donated to Western Kentucky University’s Manuscripts & Folklife Archives along with his father’s memoir, which is where I located them.

The Battle of Shiloh may have had significant repercussions on the future of the United States, but it also had significant impacts on the men who fought in the battle. I’m sure Edward Weir’s experiences stayed with him life-long. Eyewitnesses to history never forget.  

 

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Shiloh

http://files.usgwarchives.net/ky/military/rosters/union/11rega-k.txt

https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/search-soldiers.htm#sort=score+desc&q=edward+weir

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=22024, Kentucky Regiments at Battle of Shiloh.

US, Civil War Service Records (CMSR) - Union - Kentucky, 1861-1865. US, Compiled Service Records of Volunteer Union Soldiers Who Served in Organizations from the State of Kentucky, 1861-1865. https://www.fold3.com/image/231454886

MSS 651 Manuscripts & Folklife Archives – Library Special Collections – Western Kentucky University. Collection of Weir family papers, including Edward Rumsey Weir Jr. letters.

 

Moonshine Murder: 52 Ancestors 2023 Prompt “Spirits”

 Young “Revenuer” Shot by Owner of a Distillery

Francis “Frank” Weir: 1865-1890 (Maternal 3^rd Cousin 2x Removed)

 

While young Frank Weir was a distant relative—a third cousin twice removed doesn’t even qualify as a “kissing cousin”—his story is so interesting I wanted to write it up. It is a remarkable little piece of American history.

We all know a little about bootleg liquor and the efforts of the federal government to tax and control the liquor trade. After all, we’ve heard about illegal stills, mostly in rural areas of Appalachia where people distilled moonshine, and we know that there were violent confrontations between the G-men (now ATF or the Dept of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms) and the moonshiners that sometimes led to death. Most of these stories stem from the Prohibition era, which ran from 1920 to 1933. However, the history of violent interactions between “revenuers” (alcohol tax collectors) and liquor distillers started much earlier than Prohibition, and involved other types of liquor besides moonshine. Edward Rumsey Weir’s grandson, Francis “Frank” Weir, was a victim of this violence and rebellion. He was killed by a brandy distiller in rural Barren County, Kentucky on September 19, 1890. He was only 25 years old.

Francis Weir was born February 18, 1865 in Greenville, Kentucky. His father, Col. Edward Rumsey Weir Jr., had served in the Civil War as a Union officer, and had been mustered out before war’s end in 1864. He had married Eliza Triplett Johnson of Owensboro earlier that year. Francis was the eldest of their six children.

Frank appears on the 1880 federal census as a 15-year-old student. After that, he doesn’t appear in Kentucky records again until he started employment with the Internal Revenue Service as a “storekeeper gauger”. I was unfamiliar with this job title, so did a little research. The positions involved measuring and verifying alcohol produced and warehoused by distilleries, in order to assess taxes on the liquor.

The tax on spirits became a huge portion of national tax revenue in the late 1800s. William Miller’s article cited below (see No. 2) states that in 1876, liquor taxes comprised 48 percent of all national revenue, and by 1892 the percentage climbed to a staggering 59 percent—six out of every ten tax dollars came from liquor taxes (pg 20).

In 1890, the year young Frank Weir was killed, the “whiskey” tax on distilled liquor was ninety cents per gallon—a considerable sum in those days, equivalent to over $30 per gallon in today’s money. Political allegiances had little impact on the distilleries’ compliance with tax laws. “A military officer reported that the hostility to the revenue laws is not confined to one political party but is general.’ It was the tax to which mountain people objected regardless of who collected it.” (pg 7)

William Miller noted that “blockaders intimidated and bushwhacked revenue officers.” (pg 8). The most violent years were 1877-78. Miller wrote: “After the government intensified its campaign against illegal distillers in 1876, gun battles between revenue posses and moonshiners became common.” (pg 7)

Frank’s job was normally quite safe. He worked at “bonded” warehouses—distilleries that were complying with the Revenue Service. Local newspapers published the names of the storekeepers and gaugers on a regular basis, listing the employee’s name and the distillery he would be working at for the period.

From March 6, 1890 Twice a Week Messenger

Frank Weir spent most of his time at Owensboro area distilleries, and the newspapers reported that he was well liked:

“He was appointed to the revenue service about fifteen months ago, soon after Collector Feland took charge of his office. For some time he was assigned to duty at one of the Owensboro distilleries and had made a number of friends here. He was a pleasant young man of good habits, and the shocking murder by which he lost his life will be much regretted here.” (No. 3 below.)

“Weir was a model young man in every respect. At the internal revenue office it was said he was the best general officer in the service. He always did his duty well and there was never any trouble with his reports. When last in Owensboro, about a month ago, he announced his intention of resigning his office and going to Chicago to go into business. Great pity it is he did not resign then.” (No. 4 below.)

So what was Frank doing out in Barren County that day? According to news reports, the Second Internal Revenue District’s Division Deputy Collector, J.E. Biggerstaff, had levied a tax on whisky produced in 1889 by the Parker & Button distillery located near the Barren County town of Lucas. The distillery had failed to pay the tax, so Biggerstaff had ordered the sale of hogs and some whisky owned by the distillery partners at a public sale later in September, with the proceeds used to pay the $160 tax bill. One article stated,

“Fearing the removal of the hogs by Button before the day of sale, Deputy Collector Biggerstaff, in a buggy, accompanied by young Weir, yesterday went to Button’s to see about removing the hogs himself to some safe place.” (No. 3 below)

Herding hogs was not a one-man job, so Biggerstaff apparently brought Frank along to help him corral the critters. Biggerstaff left Frank alone with the buggy and horse near Button’s property while he went to try to persuade a neighbor to provide a place to pen the hogs until the sale date. He had trouble finding a cooperative neighbor, so didn’t return for two hours. By then, Frank and the buggy were missing. After a search, the buggy and horse were found a half mile away. The horse had been treated with more concern than poor Frank; the horse had been unhitched from the harness and was left browsing the grass along the roadside. Frank’s body was found one hundred yards from the buggy’s original location. He had been shot through the body with a Spencer rifle. At first it appeared he had been shot twice, but the second hole in his body was the bullet’s exit wound.

Suspicion immediately turned to W.C. Button, the owner of the hogs, half-owner of the distillery, and the owner of a Spencer rifle. He claimed he knew nothing of the murder and had been away from home at the time. However, at the inquest, two men testified that while cutting timber near the road where Frank Weir was killed, they saw Button pass by. Another witness reported Button asked workers at the mill down the road who was parked near his property, galloping off when he heard the buggy belonged to Biggerstaff. The timber cutters saw him pass by again, this time with a rifle, and they tesitified they later heard two shots.

While there were no eyewitnesses to the crime and no direct physical evidence, Button was arrested. The trial was postponed for several months despite strong public sentiment to get justice for young Weir. There was also considerable support for Button. A news article on the trial preparations reported that the prosecution had twenty-four witnesses scheduled, and the defense had over forty.

Unfortunately, the trial never took place. Button developed tuberculosis and died in jail a year after Frank’s murder. Button’s attorneys had filed a motion asking the court to release him so he could die at home. The Louisville Courier Journal reported that he had to be carried into court “on a lounge and presented a most pitiful sight” and that it was “obvious the man could live but a few days longer.” The motion was denied by the judge, and Button died in jail, claiming to the end that he was innocent. The article noted, “The prevalent belief, however, is that he was guilty.”

Frank Weir’s death truly was tragic because it was so pointless. If you object to government actions, you need to take your case to the ballot box, not turn to violence and murder. While I can see that liquor taxes were ridiculously high during the late 1800s, I feel that distillers could have easily passed on the cost of the tax to their customers. Instead, they tried to evade taxes and treated the tax collectors as enemies. Frank Weir was no one’s enemy. He was a young man trying to do the job the taxpayers were paying him to do.

Sources:

1.       Officer Down Memorial Page entry: “Storekeeper-Gauger Frank Weir” https://www.odmp.org/officer/24249-storekeeper-gauger-frank-weir

2.       The Revenue: Federal Law Enforcement in the Mountain South, 1870-1900.Wilbur R. Miller. The Journal of Southern History, Vol. 55, No. 2 (May, 1989), pp. 195-216 (22 pages) https://doi.org/10.2307/2208902 https://www.jstor.org/stable/2208902

3.       “Brutally Murdered: Young Frank Weir, a Government Storekeeper, Shot to Death”. Owensboro Twice a Week Messenger, Owensboro KY, Sep 23, 1890. Accessed on Newspapers.com.

4.       “Poor Frank Weir: The Victim of the Cold-Blooded Barren County Murder”. Owensboro Twice a Week Messenger, Owensboro KY, Sep 25, 1890. Accessed on Newspapers.com.

5.       “Storekeeper-Gaugers”. Owensboro Twice a Week Messenger, Mar. 6, 1890. Owensboro Messenger Inquirer. Aug. 27, 1890. Accessed on Newspapers.com.

Ante-Bellum Wealth, Ante-Bellum Guilt: 52 Ancestors 2023 Prompt “Prosperity”

The Financial Life and Times of the Edward R Weir Family: Ante- and Post- Civil War

Edward Rumsey Weir: 1839-1906 (Maternal First Cousin 4x Removed)

 

Edward Rumsey Weir wrote a brief memoir, which principally focused on the period of his life before and during the Civil War. The memoir provides a window into the life of a prosperous merchant and plantation-owning family. As I noted in the previous posts, Edward R. Weir was in temperament an abolitionist, but as a practical businessman, he continued to own slaves. His wealth was built and maintained upon the work of those human beings, as he acknowledged and regretted.

His memoir begins with a description of his ante-bellum holdings and home: 

“When war broke out, I was a well-established farmer/merchant in Western Kentucky. I had business activities that[extended] throughout the region even into southeastern Illinois. The centerpiece of my entrepreneurial activities was my 1200+ acre plantation. At the heart of the plantation was the main house.

“The Weir Mansion had two main stories and an attic and basement and a porch stretching three quarters of the way across the front of the house. The porch roof was held two stories high on four square pillars. There was a small balcony overlooking the front entryway. On the main floor, there were four windows and a door across the front. On the second floor, there were four windows and a doorway to the small balcony across the front.

Edward R. Weir mansion, date unknown.

“Behind the house was the summer kitchen. The summer kitchen was used for cooking during the summer months to keep any heat so generated from the main house. Winter cooking was done in the winter kitchen in the basement. In addition to my spouse, my children and me, there were four domestic servants (slaves) living in the mansion.”

The Summer Kitchen, after Weir's death

The Edward Weir house is also described in a paper on Old Buildings in Greenville” written in the 1930s by Martha Beth Shelton, and reprinted in the 1990s. (See below) Miss Shelton wrote:

“The present home of L.Z.Kirkpatrick was originally the home of E.R. Weir, son of the pioneer, James Weir. This house was built about 1840 for Mr. Weir by Richard Guynn…It took a year and a day to build it, and Mr. Guynn only had a negro man to help him.

This house was one of the best built homes in the county. Close to the house was probably the most symmetrical stone-lined well ever made in Kentucky. Around the house were brick cabins built for slaves, and also the green houses and the icehouse. These have all been torn down, but the solid old house still stands. There is also the remains of is hexagon shaped brick office in the front yard.”

Photo from Otto Rothert book

In addition to his land, Edward Weir owned slaves who worked the land. It isn’t clear what crops Weir produced on his plantation. I researched Kentucky plantations online. It appears that hemp and tobacco were the top crops grown that were labor intensive enough to require dozens of enslaved workers. Cotton was rarely grown in Kentucky.

Four sisters, servants in the Weir home

In addition to his plantation business, Edward Weir also took over much of his father’s mercantile business. As noted in the footnotes to his memoir written by the memoir’s editor and Weir descendant Douglas B. Brockhouse,

“  After the death of his father, James R. Weir, in 1842, Edward R. Weir, Sr. took over the operation of the family businesses.  By most standards, Edward R. Weir, Sr. was a wealthy man.  Though he sold off some of the more distant establishments, the business empire Mr. Weir was managing was still quite extensive and generated a great deal of revenue for the times.”

Weir was a strong supporter of the Union when the Civil War broke out and as a result, was the target of angry attacks from Confederate supporters. Prior to the war, the family seems to have lived in comfort. But war disrupted that life. There are references to their fears of Confederate raids and the potential ransacking of their home. Edward’s wife had their slaves bury the family silver in the yard to hide it from Confederate raiding parties, and the family decamped to Illinois for a period.

Edward Weir used his own funds to organize, outfit and arm several units of Union infantry. He used his personal wealth to protect and preserve the Union. His descendant reported in the memoir’s footnotes that Edward’s support was financially devastating:

“The War took its toll on the wealth of Edward Weir, Sr.  Though the War was good for his mercantile business, his efforts to support the Union troops were not.  During the War years, the outflow of moneys to purchase goods for the Army far exceeded the profits made.  Thus, to survive after the War, Edward Weir was required to commence liquidating his assets.  By the time of his death in 1891, from a farm of over a 1,000 acres and a plantation estate house and a mercantile business consisting of several stores, Edward Weir had only a farm of several 100 acres and no mercantile business.  Yet, despite the hardships financially, when asked during the latter years of his life, if he would have supported the Union cause as much as he did knowing his support would leave him penniless, Edward Weir always responded in the affirmative.”

This account was backed up by newspaper articles reporting his death in 1906. The Ohio County News of Hartford Kentucky noted that “He was at one time in life accounted a wealthy man, but at the time of his death had lost nearly all of a once comfortable fortune.” The article went on to note, “He was a man of strong personal characteristics.”

Ohio County News, Feb 11, 1891

The Owensboro Messenger death notice added that “he had many original and quaint ideas”—presumably quaint ones like slaves deserving freedom, blacks deserving decent and equal treatment, and that the Union should be preserved.

Both articles noted that President Harrison had appointed him Greenville postmaster. I expect that was a reward for Weir’s financial and political support for the Republican Party and cause, and a way to give him financial security as he grew old.  

While Edward Rumsey Weir experienced prosperity, he felt guilt at the price his slaves paid for that prosperity. That guilt seems to have motivated him to use his wealth to serve a greater good and support the Union in the Civil War. He may have lost his monetary wealth as a result, but I believe he died a spiritually rich man.

 

Sources:

The Recollections of Edward R. Weir Sr., written 1888. Douglas B. Brockhouse, Ed. MSS 651, Western Kentucky University, Weir Family Collection (MSS 651) Manuscripts & Folklife Archives. Western Kentucky University, mssfa@wku.edu

“Death of Edward R. Weir”. Owensboro Twice a Week Messenger, Owensboro, KY, Feb. 12, 1891.

A History of Muhlenberg County, Otto Arthur Rothert. Publisher J.P. Morton, 1913.

“Edward R. Weir Dead.” The Ohio County News, Hartford KY. Feb. 11, 1891.

Making Good Trouble in 1860s Kentucky: 52 Ancestors 2023 Prompt “Troublemaker”

 

The Troubled Troublemaker: Edward Rumsey Weir

Edward Rumsey Weir: 1816-1891 (Maternal First Cousin 4x Removed)

 

“Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and redeem the soul of America.” Rep. John Lewis, speaking on March 1, 2020 at a ceremony at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, commemorating the Bloody Sunday attack on civil rights marchers on March 7, 1965.

I believe Edward Rumsey Weir would have understood and supported John Lewis’ call to “get in good trouble.” Weir got in considerable trouble himself, supporting abolition in pre-war and Civil War era Kentucky. He believed that as a slaveowner himself, his calls for abolition would be more persuasive. He supported abolition despite the potential cost to his own businesses. Many of his fellow Kentuckians did not agree with him, and his views and actions made him a veritable pariah.

In addition to Edward Weir’s business interests, he was involved in politics, serving as a representative in the Kentucky House during two separate periods. His first term ran from 1841 to 1842. He was re-elected to the Kentucky House in 1862, serving through 1865. 

Edward was also a candidate for the Kentucky State Convention called in 1848 to prepare a new state constitution. In his memoir, Edward recalled,

“I took to the stump as an opponent of slavery.  After a heated and dangerous campaign, I was defeated by some 200 or 300 votes.  My opponent was a Democrat.  Nothing but the fact that I was one of the largest slave owners in Muhlenberg County and a born Kentuckian made it possible for me to discuss slavery.   More than once did I hear the pistol click in the pockets of my pro-slavery listeners as I spoke about the issue plainly before them.”

As the country became more divided over the issue of slavery heading into the election of 1860, Edward entered the political fray again.

 During the campaigns of 1860, I again took to the stump.  I ran up and down my County in support of the Unionists.  My speech came from the heart and was strong against those who favored succession and a disbanding of the Union.    In some circles, the opposition had become so strong to my position that a price had been placed upon my head.  I went few places without my trusty side arm at my side.”

Edward's ancestor said the "trusty side arm" was a "six-shooter minie ball revolver" that remained in the family into the 1900s. There is some question as to whether a revolver could fire a minie ball, but the Remington Army Revolver may have been able to use minie ammo.

Edward also travelled Washington D.C. to listen to the debates on the admission of the state of Kansas as a free state. He was assessing the mood of the federal government, and returned home fearing the country was headed for war. He travelled to the Kentucky state government and tried to rally Republicans to the Union cause and persuade the southern supporters to stay in the Union.

1861 drawing of the Kentucky capital building

He returned home prepared for the worst, recalling:

“I came home and held family council - a solemn one, and we decided not to abandon our home and state, but to fight it out "on our native hearth" though we all expected to lose our home and property. “

Edward started raising a militia group, arming them at his own expense and insisting they swear an oath that “demanded allegiance to the United States Government, ‘against all enemies, domestic or foreign’".

Eventually, Edward had 9,300 men under his command. This came at enormous personal cost. He wrote that,

“Guns and ammunition cost me $245 each.  Each man in my companies gave me his note for that amount which of course I never called and never received.  To me, it was the least that I could do to repay my Country for the opportunities it had given me.” (pg 14)

Edward continued to procure munitions once the militia units were replaced by federal infantry units. He was given a letter of credit for $10,000 to get supplies. He ended up using his own money, never tapping the federal credit. As it was unsafe for him to remain in Greenville, he ended up living in a Union Army camp for months. He noted that he was “tired of being afraid to sleep in my own bed.” (pg 22)

His wife and children were also forced to flee to safety in Illinois. Their neighbors were Confederate supporters and were a danger to the family. Edward’s wife and daughter were incredibly brave and stood up to raiding parties and mobs searching for Edward, but eventually they decided to wait out the war in a more secure environment.

                               

In 1863 he won election to the Kentucky House again. He recalled that:

“While serving in the legislature, by voice and vote, I supported the government at every turn.  On the floor of the House, I denounced the positions taken by the "weak kneed" Republicans of KY.  I gave such a stirring speech, that I was called upon by the Republicans of both Houses to furnish them a copy to be used as a campaign document.”

Residence of Kentucky State Rep Edward R Weir during 1864-65 legislative session, printed in the Courier Journal, Jan 31, 1865.

He ended up leaving the legislature when his family came down with smallpox. He went home to nurse them. His eldest son, now a Captain in the Union army, also spent months ill, sent back to Kentucky to recuperate before returning to battle. He was mustered out in 1864 as the war drew towards an inevitable end.

Even after the war’s conclusion, Edward continued to serve. He reported that:

“After my wife returned from Illinois after the fall of Ft's. Henry and Donalson (she had fled to Jacksonville to escape the dangers of the War), we kept an open house for all Union soldiers calling.  Often our floors were covered with weary Union soldiers, unknown to me except by their blue.  My wife and servants made our old kitchen hot with constant cooking.  Many a unit in need of supplies was willingly furnished for Union script [Figure 12] which I did not collect at War's end.” (pg 41)

Edward summed up his war years in a ridiculously modest fashion:

“Reflections upon our life at home during the War, considering how close to the enemy we were at times, it was rather mild.  At the beginning of the War, I owned a large farm near Greenville, KY (over 1,000 acres under cultivation).  It was well stocked with horses, mules and cattle.  Confederates during the early part of the War often visited the farm.  Their defiance forced me to remove all of my livestock behind Union lines after I lost five or six horses.” 

I was only captured by the enemy once.  It was for a very short time, as my captors did not know who I was.  I escaped from the semi-guerrilla band at the risk of my life.  Many a time I had to sneak away from my farm just ahead of an approaching enemy force.” (pg. 40)

In the next post, I will report on the financial cost of Edward’s support of the Union. He remained convinced that his political positions and his personal support of the Union were correct—merely what was required of him as a loyal citizen of the United States.

Sources:

1.       The Recollections of Edward R. Weir, Sr. Written 1888. Douglas B. Brockhouse, Ed. MSS 651, Manuscripts & Folklife Archives, Library Special Collections , Western Kentucky University. https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?filename=2&article=5534&context=dlsc_mss_fin_aid&type=additional

2.         "Edward Rumsey Weir, Sr." in the Civil War Governors of Kentucky Digital Documentary Edition, discovery.civilwargovernors.org/document/N00009772, (accessed September 19, 2023).

The Anti-Slavery Slaveowner: 52 Ancestors 2023 Prompt “This Ancestor Went to Market”

 

Edward Rumsey Weir: Civil War Era Man of Contradictions

Edward Rumsey Weir:  1816-1891 (Maternal First Cousin 4x Removed)

 

Edward Rumsey Weir was a conflicted man, full of moral contradictions. Although he was a slaveowner in Kentucky, owning forty human beings at the time of the 1860 census, he proclaimed himself to be anti-slavery. He worked to keep Kentucky in the Union during the Civil War, and even personally funded Home Guard units and the formation of Union companies in Kentucky. Did he undergo some sort of transformation in the years leading to the Civil War? But if so, why did he continue to own slaves?

Edward Rumsey Weir

Edward Rumsey Weir was born November 29, 1816 to parents James Weir and Anna Cowman Rumsey Weir. He was the oldest of their five surviving children, and grew up in Greenville, a town in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky. His father was a successful merchant, and was able to send his two sons, Edward and James, to college and on to study law at Transylvania University.

In 1838, Edward married his first cousin, Harriet Rumsey Miller. She was the daughter of Samuel Miller and Harriet Rumsey. Harriet Rumsey was Edward’s aunt, as she was James Weir’s sister-in-law. Edward was 22, and Harriet was only sixteen when they married. The couple settled in Greenville where Edward had a legal practice. They had ten children, five of whom survived to adulthood.

Edward seemed to share his father’s business acumen. According to Otto Rothert’s A History of Muhlenberg County, Edward continued his father’s mercantile businesses following his death, although he sold some of the more distant properties. He also started a grist mill in the 1840s.

Edward also ran a large plantation. I don’t know what crop they were producing—perhaps tobacco? Edward owned 1000 acres of land, and he built a large ‘plantation home” on the portion of the property nearest to Greenville.

Despite relying on slavery to run the plantation, Edward believed slavery was wrong. As described in the next post, he became active politically as an abolitionist, risking his safety and his finances. And yet he didn’t free his slaves. His ancestor and editor noted that it may have been difficult to free his slaves in the 1850s and 1860s as the slaves would have faced a precarious future if they remained in slaveholding Kentucky. In addition, they would have been ill-equipped to relocate to a safer place in the north, and without their labor Edward would have lacked the resources to help them. I suppose Edward may have felt he was making the best choice among many terrible options.

In his memoir, Edward’s conflicted feelings about slave-owning are apparent. He wrote:

“Though slaves, they did live well and all were educated to read and write. A few received even better education. Yet, they had lived with us so long that they became part of the family. After the War, when they were free to leave, they remained in my employ and continued to live with us. There is no justification for slavery. In the South in the first half of the 19^th century, it was only through the use of slaves that one could economically operate a plantation and effectively compete with his neighbors.”

He seems to be trying to justify his ownership of these people, or at least he is trying to defend himself as a more enlightened and decent slaveowner than his neighbors. Following the war, he expressed gratitude for his slaves’ actions protecting him, his family and his property.

Edward’s anti-slavery sentiment seems to have come from his father, James Weir. The editor of Edward’s memoirs wrote that in the 1820s when Liberia became a destination for former slaves to resettle in Africa, James Weir “made the offer to his slaves to pay the passage of anyone wishing to relocate in Liberia. Several of them accepted his offer…” Edward Weir later called Liberia a “failed” experiment. Family papers that were donated to Western Kentucky University contain letters from two former Weir family slaves—probably Edward’s rather than his father’s former slaves—who had moved to Liberia. The archivist describes the letters as follows:

“Folder 17 contains two letters written to Edward R. Weir, Sr. by Lewis Ware [Weir] and E. Weir, emancipated slaves recolonized to Liberia. Lewis recounts his struggle with illness and his difficulties providing for his family because of drought, limited agriculture, lack of markets for crops, and expensive foreign imports. He asks to be sent aid in the form of clothing, shoes and foodstuffs. E. Weir’s letter is shorter but more cheerful, as he reports building a house and an “edifice,” perhaps for business.”

In addition to offering slaves the opportunity to emigrate to Liberia, Edward also gave at least three of his slaves permission to enlist in the Union Army (the Army required permission from slaveowners before accepting slave recruits). One of the three soldiers is pictured below.

Corp. Wilson Weir, Company F, 108th U.S. Colored Infantry

Edward Rumsey Weir was an interesting man, dependent upon a system of chattel slavery that he abhorred. In the next two blog posts, I will describe his political efforts to abolish slavery and to support the Union in the Civil War, and how these efforts devastated him financially.

 

Sources:

1.       "Edward Rumsey Weir, Sr." in the Civil War Governors of Kentucky Digital Documentary Edition, discovery.civilwargovernors.org/document/N00009772, (accessed September 19, 2023).

2.       Seventh Manuscript Census of the United States (1850), Slave Schedules, Kentucky, Muhlenberg County, Subdivision 2, p. 144-145.

3.       Eighth Manuscript Census of the United States (1860), Slave Schedules, Kentucky, Muhlenberg County, District 2, p. 98A-B.

4.       Lewis Collins and Richard H. Collins, Collins' Historical Sketches of Kentucky, vol. X (Covington, KY: Collins & Co., 1874), 640.

5.       "Edward Rumsey Weir, Sr. (1816-1891)," Find A Grave, Memorial #71435457.

6.       Kentucky Marriage Records, Madison County Courthouse, Richmond, Kentucky, Muhlenberg County Marriages.

7.       Otto A. Rothert, A History of Muhlenberg County (Louisville, KY: John P. Morton & Company, 1913), 56-62.

8.       The Recollections of Edward R. Weir, Sr. Written 1888. Douglas B. Brockhouse, Ed. MSS 651, Manuscripts & Folklife Archives, Library Special Collections , Western Kentucky University. https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?filename=2&article=5534&context=dlsc_mss_fin_aid&type=additional

9.       Source: “An old homestead sold.” The Record [Greenville, KY], 9 June 1910, page 3. Image provided by Muhlenberg County Kentucky History Group.

10.   Muhlenberg County Heritage Volume 14, Number 1. “Old Buildings” by Martha Beth Shelton.