Aged Man Tells of Early E. Shore Life

The material of this article was gotten from an interview with Benjamin F. Scott, a ninety-six year old Civil War veteran of Chincoteague Island. Beginning with his birth he has given us some interesting highlights of his life, which acquaint us with the conditions of former days.

Mr. Scott was born on the 8th of May, in 1838 at Hog Island. He was named for Benjamin Franklin, the eminent statesman. Mr. Scott also added that Franklin tried to sail to the North Pole, but his ship wrecked -- thus not succeeding. The writer was not aware that Franklin had tried this.

Mr. Scott was hired out at the age of fourteen to work for his blind mother. And he worked from the 8th of March until Christmas for $10. The man who employed him was Tom Mears, an old sailor and sea captain, a former West Indies trader, who had settled in Northampton county. The next year he received $30 per year, and worked for a Mr. William Matthews.

Mr. Scott relates of his experience with one employer:

He had to get up at the crack of dawn and feed horses. When the o'clock a boy came out in the field to begin work immediately. About nine o'clock a boy came out in the field to him with a bit of fat meat and a bit of corn bread on a tin plate. Mr. Scott had to eat sitting on the plow beam and if he took longer than was thought necessary he got a sharp reproof. When he wanted water he could go to the corner of the fence and get it from a jug sitting there. On cold, frosty mornings when his feet where cold, he drove the cattle up from the spot in which they had been lying and stood there to warm his feet.

Hired help in those days were allowed one pair of shoes, one shirt, one pair of pants, and a jacket a year by the farmers. Mr. Scott earned his "holiday money" and money for his other clothes by cutting wood at night for fifty cents a cord.

Mr. Scott said that the poor whites of that time were worked like slaves -- the girls till they were eighteen and the boys till they were twenty-one.

In '63 Mr. Scott enlisted on the Northern Side. He was twenty-five years old. He was among a group of sixty-three men coming from Chincoteague, which completely swept the island of men of that class. Mr. Scott belonged to a company of one hundred men.

He tells an interesting story of how Chincoteague came to be on the northern side. A Mr. George Clayville went, at the outbreak of the war, to Philadelphia, by beating way up the beach, since he could not go by the mainland for he would have been captured immediately. He went to Jim Conner, of Philadelphia. This Mr. Conner had gone to Philadelphia, made money, and bought a share in nearly all the oyster boats of Chincoteague. George Clayville asked him to get the North to grant us protection and free trade. Naturally Jim Conner also was interested in Chincoteague so he went with our plea. The northern government gave Chincoteague the right to free trade and sent a gunboat for our protection. This boat was called the Louisiana and was not more than one of our tug boats today, but it was equipped with several guns. Chincoteague hoisted the Stars and Stripes and kept them flying continually until the war ended. They made their flag pole out of two tall trees nailed together and as soon as one flag was worn out another one was hoisted.

The rebels tried to take Chincoteague three or four times but each time they were headed off. On the last attempt, they made it ashore on Great Shoals and a big storm arose: they had to go back. During the whole war our free trade with the north continued.

Mr. Scott related an extremely ghostly tale about an incident of his war days. A lady of Chincoteague, Mrs. Mary Turlington, was drowned when the boat in which she was, sank. Her body was the only one found and it was found ashore on Hog Island. Mr. Scott's company was coming to Chincoteague one night, so his lieutenant said that they would take the lady's body, which was buried on Hog Island, back to its native soil. He sent two or three men to dig up the body. They went taking their lighted lanterns along. They began their work and suddenly their lanterns went out. Three more times this happened and at last the men the men gave up. The body is still there. These people also reported strange noises like many people yelling. The soldiers thought that perhaps it was a rebel attack but next morning no trace of them was found. They came to the conclusion that it must have been some southern "guerrillas."

These "guerrillas" of the rebels were men scouting around for provisions. They watched the doings of the northern army very closely and, when they knew that the guards were off duty, made their attack. At one time they captured, without fighting, a steamer, three soldiers and much food.

Mr. Scott's company was kept on the go all day. They went from one of the three headquarters -- Drummondtown, Eastville and Onancock to the other making reports and receiving orders.

The cavalrymen of the North on the Eastern Shore, hardly ever used government "feed" for their horses. They would ride to a man's home, say he was a Rebel, and confiscate his corn and hay stack for their own use. If he complained he was captured and imprisoned. The soldiers would kill the beef and pigs of the people whenever they needed them.

Mr. Scott once killed a cow himself when he had gone from Sunday night until Thursday without a square meal. He and a few companions had been sent on a scouting trip on Sunday night. Carrying a breakfast in their knapsack, they marched from Eastville to the vicinity of Capeville. They found nothing brewing and had two hours of sleep. Before they could return to Eastville they received orders to go to Smith's Island were there were no provisions. They were nearly starving. Mr. Scott ran up against a fat yearling about two years old. He killed it, they skinned it, and they enjoyed a square meal. Afterwards, they went to the mainland for provisions. They stayed on the island for several more months.

Talking of this led Mr. Scott to tell of his army rations -- hardtack and round-rib. They would open the hardtack, throw it in the coffee, and wait for the worms in it to float to the top. Mr, Scott said, "It was common grub." The round-rib was horse meat, of course. It gets its name from the fact that a horse's ribs are rounding while cow's are flat. He said that horse meat tastes like that which comes from grass-fed cattle, and that it is good but not as sweet as cow's meat.

With the darkies freed and the men gone to war, supplies were few on the island. The stores got there merchandise only twice a year from Philadelphia, so they laid in big stores of flour, sugar, molasses, dry goods, etc. The first trip for goods was made in the Spring and the second in the Fall. The transportation of these goods was rather cheap because since the sailboats (the only means of transportation) had to have ballast anyway, the weight of the merchandise served for this purpose.

After the war Mr. Scott mentioned the carpet-baggers coming in and how they made money, facts which everyone knows. He could not remember any Eastern Shore negro who had held office but said the negroes were allowed to do pretty much as they pleased.

Mr. Scott, after talking of his Civil War experiences, discussed the causes of the war. He said that the North brought the negroes here and sold them to the South, then the North wanted them freed. (It was rather unfair!)

He told us of a church, the Northern Methodist, on the upper end of the Island. It firmly believed in the abolition of slavery. From the pulpit came political rather than religious sermons. Mr. Smith, the preacher, had been an old fighter. One morning three men met him on the way to church and forbid him to preach. Mr. Smith defied them and taking off his coat went into the pulpit to begin his talk. Two of the men charged him, one on either side. They dragged him to the church door and the other man brought his coat. They kicked him out. A general "free for all" fight resulted. Mr. Scott saw three women who had been there. Their old slat bonnets were torn up and their long capes were very mussed. To all appearances they had their share of the fight. The preacher never came back.

At this church negroes as well as white people could join. If a white person was converted but he owned a negro, he could not become a member, but if the negro was converted he could join. They had a gallery for the negroes which seated about forty. This gallery had a door which opened to the outside and a flight of stairs leading down. After the preaching the negroes held their meetings outside while the whites stayed inside. The wife of Mr. Matthews, Mr. Scott's second employer, was converted at the church. They owned a slave and the church would not let her join. The slave was converted, also, and when the members asked Mr. Matthews for the negro's certificate, he refused, "cussing them high and wide." Such little hard feelings and incidents in both the North and South helped bring on the Civil War.

In talking of slaves Mr. Scott explained that since it was so hot working in the cotton fields, the slaves could do the work much easier then whites, thus making them very useful in the south. Slave traders got much money. Mr. Scott heard a man say if he could rig up a ship and make one trip he would be fixed for life. A big, husky boy sold for $75 to $100.

The pirates were the slave traders' dread. They had a great, heavy chain on their ship to which the slaves were tied by a rope. When pirates threatened the slaves were pushed out of a hole in the ship and the chain pulling them down, drowned them.

The people of those days still used flint and steel and Mr. Scott was the first to carry matches to Hog Island.

Many are the tales that Mr. Scott tells, and they are interesting, both for themselves and their historic matter.