Updated November 14, 2010.
Col. Draper on Knotts Island - The Arrest 0f Nancy White
Not least among the controversies that would follow the Federal
expedition’s return to Norfolk, was one arising from Colonel
Draper’s activities on Knotts Island before rejoining Wild at
Northwest Landing.
Even before Wild’s column had left Currituck Court house on 21
December, members of his column could see, in the distance,
evidence of Draper’s activities. Tewksbury reported, "As we left
the village [Currituck Court House], smoke was seen rising from
several points on Knott’s Island, showing that Colonel Draper was
carrying out the order of the General, ’to burn pretty freely‘."
Soon after Draper and his men landed on the island, they came upon
the home of William Henry White, a long-time resident, and
according to Wild, a lieutenant in Captain John T. Coffee’s
guerrilla company. Wild also claimed that White’s brother, Caleb,
and sixteen-year-old son (also named William Henry) were members
of the same company. An account published in 1914 states that the
elder White, hearing of the approach of the Yankees, "most
judiciously had taken to the tall timber, "leaving his wife,
Susan, and daughter, Nancy, at home.(1)
Wild later claimed that when Colonel Draper told Mrs. White that
he was going to burn her home, she responded testily that if he
did, "there will be no houses left standing on this island." From
this remark, Draper inferred that she meant that "her family would
burn all the Union houses on Knotts Island." Draper then told Mrs.
White that her comment made it necessary for her to accompany him,
as a hostage, to Norfolk. When Mrs. White protested that she was
about to give birth, Draper responded that it would then be
necessary for her daughter, Nancy, to accompany his regiment to
Norfolk.(2) At about this time, Draper’s men set fire to William
Henry White’s home, boats and out-buildings, which were "burned to
the ground," along with the nearby home of his brother, Caleb
White, and Oak Grove Church. (3) Nancy was taken with Draper’s
regiment, marching north toward Norfolk.
The day was a frightening one for Nancy. Not only had she
witnessed the burning of her home, but she was forced to leave her
mother and accompany Colonel Draper and hundreds of other
strangers to an unknown destination. She would soon learn however,
that not all of the Yankees agreed with Colonel Draper’s
methods.(4)
Draper and his men, with their young prisoner in tow, marched
north into Virginia, to the Federal outpost at Pungo Point, on the
east bank of the North River. There, on the estate of wealthy
farmer Harper Ackiss, the 98th New York Infantry, commanded by
Lieutenant Colonel Frederick F. Wead, had its winter quarters,
made more comfortable by the construction of additional cabins.
Draper and his men arrived at Pungo Point during the afternoon of
Tuesday, 22 December 1863. When he learned of Draper’s actions on
Knotts Island, Wead was shocked and angry, and a violent argument
arose between the two Yankee commanders. Wead told Draper that his
treatment of Nancy White and her family was a criminal violation
of the law of war.
Then there was the matter of young Nancy White now in Norfolk. The
people of Norfolk soon learned of her situation, some believing
that the Yankees held her in the Fort Norfolk jail. She was the
subject of correspondence from sympathetic citizens, including
Norfolk lawyers Charles Butts and J. Parker Jordan, as well as her
uncle James White, all of whom set up a considerable clamor that,
in Wild’s words, "exercised the minds of the Secessionists of
Norfolk vastly."
Wild found himself obliged to draft a detailed justification of
Colonel Draper’s conduct on Knotts Island. The gist of his
argument was that Draper was compelled to detain Nancy because of
the threats made by her mother, and that she was no longer being
held as a hostage, but only as a witness to the stormy altercation
between Colonels Draper and Wead. In that regard, and in
justification of his continuing to hold her in custody, he
insisted that he did "not intend to have her tampered with by Lt.
Col. Wead and his gang."
Wild claimed that his men had treated Nancy well, and that she had
never complained. Noting that when arrested by Colonel Draper,
Nancy had expressed concem over what she might wear, he pointed
out that she still had the trunk of clothing Colonel Draper had
allowed her to take from her home. Nancy’s detention became
unnecessary after Butler resolved the Wead-Draper dispute, and it
is likely that the Yankees released her by mid-January 1864.
Draper’s own account of what happened on Knotts Island on 21
December, and at Pungo Point on 22 December, could shed
considerable light on this dim area. Curiously, however, his 24
December 1863 report to General Wild regarding his activities
after leaving Elizabeth City does not mention those occurring on
Knotts Island, even though Wild claimed that William Henry White,
whose home Draper had burned, was a Rebel officer. Neither does
Draper make any reference to his dispute with Lt. Col. Wead at
Pungo Point. A transcript of this report is at the end of this
article.
According to tradition passed down in Nancy White's family, on the
evening after Draper took her away, her mother (Susan White) gave
birth to a son who she named Marshall. It was, not surprisingly, a
difficult delivery, leaving Sarah ill, a matter which somehow came
to General Wild’s attention. Nancy survived the war, married, and
left a daughter, Mary Balance Dey. Many years afterward, a writer
for Southern History Society Papers described Nancy as a "most
charming matron . . . who recalls most vividly . . . [being]
arrested . . . and brought a prisoner to Norfolk .... Those must
have remained painful memories, however. According to stories
passed down in her family, she recorded her experiences as a
prisoner of the Yankees on "an old yellow sheet of paper," but
even after her death, her daughter would not allow anyone to see
it because her mother considered the episode such a personal
disgrace.” Nancy’s grave is on Knotts Island just a few yards from
the place where she first encountered Draper in 1863.
FOOTNOTES:
1. Wild to Barnes, 10 January 1864, Wild Papers, SHC—UNC, Chapel
Hill. W. B. Browne, "Stranger than Fiction,' Southern Historical
Society Papers (hereafter SHSP), 29 (April 1914): 184. According
to family tradition among the descendants of William Henry White,
he was hiding nearby in the marsh known as 'fresh pond.'
2. Ibid. The 1914 article says Nancy White was age ten at the time
she was arrested by Draper; the story passed down in her family
places her age at sixteen; the 1860 census shows that she was
twenty-one; and the headstone on her grave indicates that she was
twenty-three. Her great·great-nephew, Dale Beasley of
Knotts Island, gives greater credence to the later date.
3. Tradition passed down in Nancy White’s family introduces other
discrepancies, including: that the Yankees spared the home of
Nancy’s father, William Henry White, and burned only his
out-buildings, and that Nancy was kept at Norfolk for six months
with no change of clothing. Manuscript account of Alyda White
Beasley, great granddaughter of William Henry White [Sr.], Special
Collections, Currituck County Library, Currituck, N.C.
4. He arrested two ladies of high character . . . and . . .
brought them as hostages for the return of the two negroes. He
also arrested a young lady of good family and as I learn and
believe, treated her very badly-nay inhumanely, and holds her also
as a hostage." E. A. Wild Papers, USAMHI.
General Wild’s Report to General Barnes Regarding Nancy White Jan. 10, 1864
No complaint is charged or pretended against Miss Nancy White. It
has from the 1st been declared that she is held as hostage, to be
offset against any of my colored soldiers taken prisoner by the
Guerrillas. All this labored defence of her character is wholly
superfluous. Indeed I have never heard of anything against her,
worse than the written reference concerning “her character &
conduct to the officers and men of the Regt. (98. N.Y. Vols)
stationed at Ackiss' Ferry." (Pongo Bridge).
She has been uniformly well treated—and comfortably lodged in
company with 2 other women—wives of guerrillas. She has never made
the slightest complaint of her condition. On the contrary, in
writing to her mother, she praised our kind treatment and
consideration, etc. etc. and the hardest thing she could find to
write was this "After all, it is not like home.”
Their place of confinement has been kept secret. And this
circumstance has exercised the minds of the Secessionists of
Norfolk vastly. So that for some time we were pestered with
inquiries as to their locality, with applications for permission
to visit them, to bring them supplies comforts etc. etc. from
persons disloyal, known to be strangers to the prisoners
themselves: until I snubbed them all, and turned some out of my
office. Among the later ones Lawyer Charles W. Butts interested
himself (the within Attorney) asking where they were. I told him
it was none of his business. Hence his present activity.
I firmly believe this whole document to be nothing more than a
scheme (plot) to find out their prison house with a view to
further mischief.
In dissecting it, l expose the following falsifications. They
studiously avoid saying that Miss Nancy White is the daughter of a
Guerrilla--a Lieutenant of guerrillas. Not a word is mentioned
about Col. Draper‘s burning his house & barns to the ground,
as also those of his brother, another guerrilla, lest it should be
asked why they were burned. James White only confesses that her
father "the last time I heard from him was in the Confed.
Service.' The truth is that her father Henry White is Lieutenant
of Capt. Coffey's Co. of guerrillas. His brother Caleb White is
Sergeant of Same Co. His son, Wm Henry White is a member of Same
Co. That Co. at the very moment that their houses were burning and
Miss White arrested, had gone down in Camden Co, N.C. to join
forces with other bands of guerrillas there & assist in
waylaying my colored troops and slaughtering as many as they could
with safety to themselves. They had made repeated attacks on us.
Moreover this very company was guilty of attacking our steamers in
the C & A canal, burning one and Firing into another. Now who
is the within complainant James White'? He is the brother of 2
guerrillas and uncle of the 3d. Well may he say 'I am the nearest
male relative left to look after this family. " And who is the
within corroborator, Soloman W. Coffee? He is the brother to John
T. Coffee, Captain of this same Guerrilla Co.- and brother in law
to Henry White the Lieutenant thereof. Nay, Soloman W. Coffee’s
own name stands on the musterroll of this company as testified by
Sykes, another member, before the military commission that tried
Major Burroughs. But he was somewhat invalid, and we had no
evidence of his having served in arms. He makes a great parade of
his lifelong loyalty. But he never took the oath unless very
recently in order to save his teams. On the contrary he
acknowledged to Col. Draper & Lieut Hendrick his disloyal
sentiments plainly-candidly—acknowledged that he had already been
confined for some time at Fort Norfolk-and protests loudly against
having his house searched (for arms) by nigger troops-saying he
would not mind it if they were white soldiers.
The falsity of his claim to loyalty is glaring and audacious. So
is the falsity of the certificate appended by Mssrs Whitehurst,
Bilote, and Wing. So likewise is the falsity of assertion of James
White “I am ignorant of the nature of the offence that Gen. Wild
charges her with having committed, or the offence that any other
person may have committed. I have been told on the streets of
Norfolk that she is held as a hostage." He must have been told
that by her mother on Knott’s Island to whom Col. Draper expounded
it. He could have been told it by every inhabitant of Knott‘s
Island. He might have been told it on his way to Norfolk by every
officer and every man in Lt. Col Wead‘s command, who had been
drawn up in battle array to rescue her by force from Col Draper.
And, that James White should be the only man in all this region
ignorant of the piratical deeds of his own family is absurd. It is
not true that Col. Draper, after learning that the mother’s
confinement was daily expected, “still persisted in taking her."
It is not true that the daughter then came forward and volunteered
to go in place of her mother. The circumstances are these: When
Col. Draper ordered the house to be ignited, Mrs. White threatened
'if you burn my house, there will be no houses left standing on
this Island" (meaning, that her family would burn all the Union
houses on Knott’s Island) The Col. told her she must go along with
him. When she found herself really arrested, she began to beg off.
But the Col. remarked that the nature of her threat gave a double
reason why she should go as a hostage. He was then told that she
was near her confinement. He at once called up Nancy and asked her
if she would go in place of her mother. She hesitated some 5
minutes. Then Col. D. decided for her, and told her she must go
with him. She directly thought of her clothing. She had 'nothing
to wear.’ The Col. told her she should take her trunk along, and
take her own time to dress at another house where they were to
pass the night. Her trunk and Nancy still hold together.
White also complains that her mother has never heard from her
since, and that he is unable to inform her of the critical state
of her mother’s health. This is untrue. We have never objected to
her receiving or sending messages through us. On the contrary,
soon after her mother’s confinement a messenger came, and she
received the news. And she afterwards wrote a letter to her
mother. Again today the news contained in this documents has been
imparted to her, and we have just sent another of her letters to
her mother to the care of Lawyer Butts. But this does not satisfy
them. They are all determined to see her.
That the mother was confined and was sick thereafter, we know. But
that she is fatally sick, we do not know. More, I do no believe
it. The story depends upon the veracity of these 2 lying Rebels:
James White and Soloman W. Coffee. These pathetic appeals "for the
sake of her dying mother and for the sake of humanity” come with a
peculiar unction from a whole family of guerrillas.
I think if the Maj. Gen. Commanding will read this document again
by the light of my endorsement he will agree that it is merely a
snare.
Respectfully submitted,
E.A.W. B.G.V.
Brig. Gen. Barnes Private Jan 10, 1864
Sir I have the honor to submit the real state of the case of Miss White. I was ready to release her 10 days ago, but that she is an important witnesses in the trial between Col. Draper and Lt. Col Wead before Maj. Gen. Butler himself. The time was appointed for last Tuesday-but Gen. Butler went to Washington and postponed it till Tuesday Jan 12. She must appear at that time. And I do not intend to have her in the meantime tampered with by Lt. Col. Wead and his gang. I therefore keep her as close as ever. Immediately after the trial I propose to release her, as she is no longer needed as hostage. One of our men cut off by the guerrillas made his escape through the swamps and got in safe. I have already released Major Gregory an old man of 73-for the same reason.
Very Respectfully
Your Ob Servant
E.A.W. B.G.V.
November 14, 2010. Comment Jack Dudley: My Great
Grandfather`s Nephew Wilson Rodgers Dudley from Blackwater rode
with Capt. John T. Caffee`s { Not Coffee} Local Defence {Not
Guerrilla`s}. Captians David H. Bright and John T. Caffee merged
their Company`s Aug.6,1863 and became a Recognized Company with
Confederate States Army on Sept.3,1863. Known as the { Pungo
Rangers }. It was important for them to be recognized by CSA. That
meant if captured they would be treated like any other Army POW.
Had they had been Guerrillas they could have been Hanged on site
with No Trial.
The Yankee post at Pungo Point was at what is now Old Pungo Ferry
Rd. in Va. Beach on the East side of North Landing River.