Summary:
J. M. Heck writes to President Jefferson Davis in August, 1861, to defend Doctor
Washington Hilleary, arrested and held at Staunton for allegedly aiding Union
troops.
His Excellency JOHN LETCHER, Governor of Virginia:
RICHMOND, VA.,
August 14, 1861.
I have learned with regret that some person has had Dr. Washington Hilleary, a former resident of Randolph County, Va., arrested on suspicion of having piloted the Federal army around our camp at Rich Mountain. Knowing that these suspicions are entirely unfounded I feel that great injustice is being done to one of our friends. I therefore make the following statement of facts, hoping that they will be sufficient to procure his immediate release:
Doctor Hilleary resides about two miles west of Camp Garnett (Rich Mountain), at Roaring Run, and he and his family did all in their power to befriend and relieve our little army while it was at Camp Garnett, and when he heard that the Federal army was approaching he asked us to send our teams down to his house to bring to our camp all his grain, saying that he did not want it to fall into the hands of the Yankees, and he for safety fled to Beverly in the rear of our camp, and left there in company with other refugees and came on to the Valley of Virginia, where he was arrested and taken to Staunton. A young man by the name of Hart (as I learned while a prisoner) acted as pilot to the Federal army in their march through Rich Mountain.
Yours, respectfully,
J. M. HECK.
Bibliographic Information : Letter Reproduced from The War of The Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series 2, Volume 2, Serial No. 115, Pages 1508, Broadfoot Publishing Company, Wilmington, NC, 1997.
