RICHMOND, Va. --
Joseph Atkins could have expected to benefit if the North won
the Civil War in 1862 when the Union Army came within hearing distance
of Richmond.
Atkins was a free black man in his early 30s who lived under restrictions almost as strict as those for slaves. He'd been taken from the farm he owned in eastern Henrico County and forced to help build defensive earthworks around Richmond and Yorktown. He was banned by law from learning to read.
His loyalty to the Union reflected a yearning for better times.
"I heard that the rebels meant to sell all free people of color into slavery," Atkins said a decade later to a government commission. "I thought the Yankees would give us our rights and they have done. I was always on their side and did all in my power for the Union cause."
The realities of war, however, proved disastrous to all who got in its path, among them Atkins and the other free blacks who'd lived for generations at Gravel Hill on Longbridge Road in Varina.
Their story is one of the focal points Saturday and today during a commemoration of the last of the Seven Days Battles at Glendale and Malvern Hill.
Gravel Hill was an unusual pre-war community, said Bert Dunkerly, a park ranger for Richmond National Battlefield Park. He spoke about "African-Americans Caught in the Vortex" on Saturday at Gravel Hill Community Center with William H. Anderson, whose ancestors lived at Gravel Hill during the Civil War.
They were freed in 1771 by John Pleasants in his will. Pleasants, who was a leader in the Quaker community, also granted 350 acres to the 78 former slaves.
"It was controversial," Dunkerly said. "There was a case that went before the state court of appeals. It was before the Revolutionary War. There was no Supreme Court. John Marshall was involved on behalf of the slaves to argue their case. They were successful, obviously."
The Union Army came through Gravel Hill on its retreat from Mechanicsville to the James River through Glendale.
Anderson's great-great-great-great-grandfather Richard Sykes recalled Pennsylvania regiments amassed outside his house, Anderson said.
"They told him, 'You guys have got to clear out of here because there's going to be a big fight.'
"He and his wife and children were getting out of the way when the firing started. They ran down to the woods and fell to the ground with bullets whistling above their heads. The fighting was so fierce that tree branches were falling down on them. They had to get up and run some more."
Atkins was more matter-of-fact in his petition for reimbursement from the Southern Claims Commission on Feb. 24, 1873.
"On Monday they formed a line of battle on my farm. … I was on the place all day. I saw my hogs all taken and killed by the soldiers," Atkins said. "I had 10 (hogs) penned up. They would have weighed 150 pounds apiece. They were cooked and eaten on the spot.
"I saw a full barrel of flour taken and a hundred weight of bacon. They were taken from my house. I lost all my chickens. I had 10 grown ones and a great many little ones. I had an acre of onions all pulled up. I grew them for market. All my fences were used for firewood. I had 10 acres enclosed. ... I lost a lot of beds and bedding and pots and pans that were taken for use at the hospital."
Atkins didn't get a receipt. "There was fighting going on all the time," he said on the form he signed with an X because he couldn't write his name.
"I was laying low, in a hole. I could see the soldiers take the things, but I didn't interfere. They took pretty much all I had, and the same evening went on to Malvern, fighting all the way. The rebels didn't come on my place till the Yankees were gone and everything gone with them."
So, he asked the government to reimburse him for 10 hogs, 20 bushels of corn, a barrel of flour, 100 pounds of bacon, 30 fowls, 40 bushels of onions, 500 fence rails and various household furnishings, for a total of $213.
Two relatives testified on his behalf, saying they'd seen the animals and fences before the soldiers arrived.
"I was there again the day after the soldiers left," said Eliza Atkins, his sister-in-law. "There were no fences left then. He had nothing in the world to eat. Everything was gone even out of the garden. All his furniture was gone too."
A white farmer then testified that the Federal army took only horses from his farm, questioned whether Atkins had as many supplies as he claimed and said Confederates probably burned the fence rails.
Result: Atkins got nothing.
Bob Krick, historian at the Richmond battlefield, said the Atkins claim offers "a typical case of how hard it was for any claimant to get his case approved.
"Mr. Atkins stood in the path of a massive battle, was trampled by it, and received no sympathy from his government."
From Anderson's perspective, "These people were pro-Union, but they suffered at the hands of the Union, and at the hands of the Confederates, too. They were caught in the vortex."
Atkins was a free black man in his early 30s who lived under restrictions almost as strict as those for slaves. He'd been taken from the farm he owned in eastern Henrico County and forced to help build defensive earthworks around Richmond and Yorktown. He was banned by law from learning to read.
His loyalty to the Union reflected a yearning for better times.
"I heard that the rebels meant to sell all free people of color into slavery," Atkins said a decade later to a government commission. "I thought the Yankees would give us our rights and they have done. I was always on their side and did all in my power for the Union cause."
The realities of war, however, proved disastrous to all who got in its path, among them Atkins and the other free blacks who'd lived for generations at Gravel Hill on Longbridge Road in Varina.
Their story is one of the focal points Saturday and today during a commemoration of the last of the Seven Days Battles at Glendale and Malvern Hill.
Gravel Hill was an unusual pre-war community, said Bert Dunkerly, a park ranger for Richmond National Battlefield Park. He spoke about "African-Americans Caught in the Vortex" on Saturday at Gravel Hill Community Center with William H. Anderson, whose ancestors lived at Gravel Hill during the Civil War.
They were freed in 1771 by John Pleasants in his will. Pleasants, who was a leader in the Quaker community, also granted 350 acres to the 78 former slaves.
"It was controversial," Dunkerly said. "There was a case that went before the state court of appeals. It was before the Revolutionary War. There was no Supreme Court. John Marshall was involved on behalf of the slaves to argue their case. They were successful, obviously."
The Union Army came through Gravel Hill on its retreat from Mechanicsville to the James River through Glendale.
Anderson's great-great-great-great-grandfather Richard Sykes recalled Pennsylvania regiments amassed outside his house, Anderson said.
"They told him, 'You guys have got to clear out of here because there's going to be a big fight.'
"He and his wife and children were getting out of the way when the firing started. They ran down to the woods and fell to the ground with bullets whistling above their heads. The fighting was so fierce that tree branches were falling down on them. They had to get up and run some more."
Atkins was more matter-of-fact in his petition for reimbursement from the Southern Claims Commission on Feb. 24, 1873.
"On Monday they formed a line of battle on my farm. … I was on the place all day. I saw my hogs all taken and killed by the soldiers," Atkins said. "I had 10 (hogs) penned up. They would have weighed 150 pounds apiece. They were cooked and eaten on the spot.
"I saw a full barrel of flour taken and a hundred weight of bacon. They were taken from my house. I lost all my chickens. I had 10 grown ones and a great many little ones. I had an acre of onions all pulled up. I grew them for market. All my fences were used for firewood. I had 10 acres enclosed. ... I lost a lot of beds and bedding and pots and pans that were taken for use at the hospital."
Atkins didn't get a receipt. "There was fighting going on all the time," he said on the form he signed with an X because he couldn't write his name.
"I was laying low, in a hole. I could see the soldiers take the things, but I didn't interfere. They took pretty much all I had, and the same evening went on to Malvern, fighting all the way. The rebels didn't come on my place till the Yankees were gone and everything gone with them."
So, he asked the government to reimburse him for 10 hogs, 20 bushels of corn, a barrel of flour, 100 pounds of bacon, 30 fowls, 40 bushels of onions, 500 fence rails and various household furnishings, for a total of $213.
Two relatives testified on his behalf, saying they'd seen the animals and fences before the soldiers arrived.
"I was there again the day after the soldiers left," said Eliza Atkins, his sister-in-law. "There were no fences left then. He had nothing in the world to eat. Everything was gone even out of the garden. All his furniture was gone too."
A white farmer then testified that the Federal army took only horses from his farm, questioned whether Atkins had as many supplies as he claimed and said Confederates probably burned the fence rails.
Result: Atkins got nothing.
Bob Krick, historian at the Richmond battlefield, said the Atkins claim offers "a typical case of how hard it was for any claimant to get his case approved.
"Mr. Atkins stood in the path of a massive battle, was trampled by it, and received no sympathy from his government."
From Anderson's perspective, "These people were pro-Union, but they suffered at the hands of the Union, and at the hands of the Confederates, too. They were caught in the vortex."
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