Civil War: Remembering Burke Residents Who Supported the Union

130107Letter to the Editor:
Civil War: Remembering Burke Residents Who Supported the Union
The first day of January 2013 marked the 150th anniversary of President Lincoln signing
the Emancipation Proclamation – and it is a good time to reflect on those brave
Americans who supported the Union as residents of Burke, Virginia during the Civil War.
The Pearson family – the slave woman Phillis and her four sons by prominent
landowner Francis Coffer (IV) – favored the Union “because they wanted to be free.”
The eldest brother, William Pearson, stated that as he left the farm in the spring of
1862, the Rebels threatened to make him work on their breastworks and “I would not
serve them in any way.” He added that “they had been freed by Francis Coffer (IV) in
his will, and inherited land. Coffer was a white man who recognized him and his
brothers as his children.” The second brother, Jack Pearson, donated part of his
inheritance in 1874 for the Pearson Colored School and in 1876 for a church that was
later built in 1891 as Little Zion Baptist Church. I have been working with the Greater
Little Zion Baptist Church to petition for a historical marker for the church and school.
Joshua Coffer, the nephew of Francis Coffer (IV), was arrested by the Confederates “on
or about the 22nd of February 1862 and taken to Richmond, Virginia and placed in
prison, where he died intestate about thirty days thereafter,” according to testimony by
his daughter Ella Coffer Hall. Her claim was not processed in 1902 due to the statute of
limitations. Why was Joshua Coffer arrested by the Confederates? Perhaps because he
gave a decent burial in October 1861 for his uncle, whose will dated on March 30, 1861
had provided freedom and valuable land inheritance for his slaves, indicating objections
to the Confederates’ policy of slavery? This story remains intriguing.
Lyman Broughton moved with his family from New York in 1848 to Burke. On July 22,
1861, he left Burke’s Station because he was afraid to stay in the area for he had
shown interest in the army. He testified that “I was imprisoned, taken away from the
farm as a spy and carried up to Bull Run before Beauregard on June 14… I shall never
forget that.” They threatened to hang him but finally sent him home. He moved the
day after Bull Run to Washington where he worked for the government. His brother,
Walt, was in the Union army, Ebenezer in the army, Norton a carpenter in the Navy
Yard. His brother David was in Libby Prison and “like to have died there.”
Francis Dodson told of being confronted by John Mosby himself in 1864 and reported
his presence to the Union soldiers in Burke’s station. “I reported to Major Sife and
Major Robinson; told them Mosby was out there waiting for the train and that if they
came out they would certainly be captured. By my information they avoided capture,
and sent out a force which pursued Mosby, and had a fight with him, and captured two
prisoners. The 8th Illinois cavalry pursued him and drove him off. The same night, the
US officers sent a guard to my house to protect me from the guerillas; they said it was
unsafe for me to stay out there after that and wanted me to come to camp with them.”
Ulam W. Barker moved to Alexandria during the war. “I did not vote on the question of
secession. I was afraid of the secessionists and could not vote against it, so did not
vote.” Some of his acquaintances endeavored to get him to vote for secession but he
refused. Some rebel soldiers threatened to arrest him at the early part of the war. He
was severely beaten by a Confederate neighbor because he was a Union man. He
sympathized with the Union cause from the first.
Daniel Collins left Burke’s Station one week before the battle of Manassas and was
engaged as a wagonmaster in the Union Army for three years. He was frequently
threatened with injury to his person and damage to his property on account of his
Union sentiments.
The stories came from the “Abstract of Claims for Civil War Losses” by the Southern
Claims Commission compiled by Edith Sprouse and Beth Mitchell. I thank them and the
brave residents of Burke, Virginia who some 150 years ago, supported the Union and
President Lincoln with his Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863. Their legacy
includes our hometown of Burke, Virginia with equal rights for all in the year 2013.
And we should also thank Robert Carter III (1728 – 1804) who in 1791 began a process
to emancipate his slaves, about 500 – the largest number emancipated in the US by an
individual slave owner before the Civil War. His paternal grandfather was Robert “King”
Carter, once the richest man in Virginia. The family of Robert Carter III owned property
in Burke -- a land grant in 1729 by Lord Fairfax to his father, right next to the land
grant in 1728 to the Coffer family, prominent early settlers of the Burke area.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7867-2005Apr21.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Carter_III
I should add that I am continuing with my petition for a historical marker for The Coffer
Home and I thank the 500+ signatories; target is 1,000. And on February 14th,
Braddock Supervisor John Cook will cosponsor a Black History Month program at the
Pinn Center on the historical marker project for Little Zion Baptist Church; if interested,
please email by February 7th to [email protected]. Thank you for supporting
citizens’ history preservation projects and local history education for our youth.
More info for your readers: Prince William County is sponsoring a Conference on
Emancipation and Slavery on February 21-23, 2013. Registration is free at
http://www.manassasbullrun.com/page/event-contact.htm
Corazon Sandoval Foley
Burke, Virginia