Wealthy in Heart: An Oral History of Life Before Fort A. P. Hill

[Linda Anderson]

The book was started in 2007 and includes wonderful stories of everyday life in Port Royal from the people who lived there. One contributor was Julian W. Garrett whose age was estimated to be 94. I don't know if he is related to the Garretts of Locust Farm.

http://fortaphill.files.wordpress.com/20...nheart.pdf

The introduction says, "The last act of one of the most infamous events in American history took place in Caroline County. After assassinating President Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth immediately began his attempted escape. After crossing the Rappahannock from Port Conway to Port Royal, the horse boat carrying Booth and his accomplice Duvall [David!] E. Herold landed in front of the home of John B. Lightfoot. Due to a particularly strong current that day, the boat landed downstream of the docks at Port Royal usually used. After declining the invitation to stay offered by Mr. Lightfoot’s daughters, Booth and Harold moved on to Port Royal."

There is no source cited but the information may have very well come from Rev. Ralph E. Fall who wrote Hidden Village: Port Royal, Virginia 1744-1981.

The stories about the Civil War start on page 338. From 89 year old Estelle Holloway Allen: "And the story goes that my grandfather, who was a surgeon, and he would run out on the battlefield and pull the soldiers in that were wounded and take out the minnié ball. And who has some of the minnié balls? We even had some of the minnié balls.
And they were called “damn Yankees.” They said . . . I was grown before I knew “Damn Yankees” was two words."

In 1977, 84 year old Mrs. Sue Christie gave an interview to the Richmond Times-Dispatch about the Garretts. In 2007 her 83 year old niece, Virginia Hearn Whiting, remembered, "My grandparents had property there, had the farm there named Hickory Grove. And I had a couple aunts that also had farms in that area. Then I had several other family members that lived in Port Royal proper and one from the family that lived in Bowling Green. So we were down there very frequently, go down to visit to the different ones and go to the old home place. I enjoyed that very much as a child because you could run through the house, run through the dogtrot, I think that’s what they call it when you have that long hall that goes right through a house."

After the land was acquired by the government, "The house was torn down and my—the youngest daughter in the family—my aunt Sue Christie said that she went down every day and sat as they tore the house down. She would sit there and just sort of cry a little bit, and finally they gave her a brick and told her to take it on home, I guess, from the foundation. But she watched the whole procedure. She was the one, being the youngest, you know, she was sort of watching out for things."