The Battle of the Barges

Written by Bill Helin

Throughout the Revolutionary War British barges plundered and harassed farmers living on the Maryland and Virginia Eastern Shore creeks. By 1782 the state of Maryland had had enough and ordered Commodore Zedechiah Whaley of the Maryland State Navy to clear the Chesapeake Bay of this British threat. Commodore Whaley in command of a flotilla of 4 sail and oar driven barges spotted the enemy in

Revolutionary War Barges

Tangier Sound. Determining that the British force was too strong for his lightly manned barges, Commodore Whaley sailed into Onancock creek on 28 November 1782, and asked Lieutenant Colonel John Cropper (County Lieutenant of Accomack County) to assist him with volunteers to man his barges. Colonel Cropper gathered up 25 local men and boarded Whaley’s flagship PROTECTOR. Officers with Colonel Cropper were Captain Tom Parker, William Gibb, and Major Smith Snead. Underway the following day the American flotilla sighted the British force east of Tangier Island heading north at a fast pace.

After a 24-hour chase the Maryland fleet caught up with the six British barges at the head of Kedges Strait, the water that divides Smith Island and South Marsh Island to the north. Whaley ordered his fleet to attack and in a short while they had closed the enemy to 300 yards. Encountering heavy cannon and musket fire 3 of the 4 Maryland barges turned back leaving PROTECTOR and it’s 65-man crew alone to fight the British.

As the battle pressed on, gunpowder on PROTECTOR exploded killing four men. Others jumped overboard in flames. A musket ball killed commodore Whaley. In hand to hand fighting Colonel Cropper was badly wounded. Overwhelmed by a superior force, PROTECTOR surrendered. Of the 65 men who

Headstone of

Commodore Whaley at

 Scott Hall Cemetery

went into action aboard PROTECTOR, 25 were killed or drowned, 29 were wounded and only 11 escaped. By 3 December Colonel Cropper and the other American prisoners were released and were back in Onancock. The Battle of the Barges was over. Ironically the battle had occurred on the same day that the Treaty of Peace between Great Britain and the United States was signed.

George Corbin of upper Accomack County arranged the funeral of Commodore Whaley. Carried through the streets of Onancock by a procession of Accomack County militiamen, Commodore Whaley was buried on 3 December 1782 in the Corbin family cemetery at Scott Hall with full military honors.

Sources:
Barton Haxall Wise,  "Memoir of General John Cropper”
Alton Brooks Parker Barnes,  “John Cropper; A Life Fully Lived”

What is a Log Canoe?

Written by Joe Valentine

The Annie C Log Canoe

From colonial times until the early 1900’s, the log canoe was the basic mode of transportation on the Eastern Shore. Its origins go back to the native Indians who would cut down a tree and hollow it using hot coals to burn into the log and then scrape the charred wood out with clam shells and beaver teeth. The colonists had the advantage of iron tools, axes and adzes. Over time they wanted larger and more stable canoes and started using two or more trees spiked together with iron rods.

During the colonial times, roads were few and far between. One of the most efficient modes of transportation was by water, and the log canoe was a sturdy and inexpensive means of providing water transportation. It also provided a means of making a living off the water harvesting seafood. In the book, “Parson of the Islands”, by Adam Wallace, the parson, Joshua Thomas, a preacher in the early 1800’s used his log canoe, The Methodist, to spread religion alone the Eastern Shore. The watermen of the time used their log canoes for oystering, crabbing, and hauling produce. The log canoe was the pickup truck of its time.

The Eastern Shore of Virginia Historical Society is fortunate to have what is probably the largest log canoe still in existence, the Annie C, built in 1904. At 45 feet long from stem to stern, not including the bow sprit, and with a 9 ½ foot beam, one may wonder why she is called a canoe. The reason for this is that the term canoe refers to a boat that is double ended; it has a sharp bow and a sharp stern. The reason she is a log canoe is that her bottom was carved from logs. Log canoes come in many sizes. Some are made from three logs but they have been made from up to seven logs. The Annie C is made from five logs, but the logs used in the Annie C were larger than most, some being nearly three feet in diameter. The diagram below shows how the Annie C was constructed. The logs formed the bottom of the hull and the sides were built up from regular lumber, pieces called risers or rising wood.

Come to Ker Place in Onancock and see a piece of history, the log canoe Annie C.

Sources:

M. V. Brewington, “Chesapeake Bay Log Canoes and Bugeyes”
Edward Eggleston, “Stories of American Life and Adventure”
H. S. Holcomb, line drawings of the Annie C.
Adam Wallace, “Parson of the Islands”

Spies, Blockade Runners, and Secessionists on the Shore in 1863

Written by Kellee Blake

The Eastern Shore’s blockade runners “are having a high holiday, and the secessionists growing saucy,” grumbled Union General Robert Schenck in 1863. He was right. The canoes of Virginia’s Eastern Shore deftly slipped back and forth across the bay to Northumberland, Mathews, and other Western Shore counties as part of a complex aquahighway system bound for Richmond. On the land, clandestine supply arteries carried goods and munitions from points north, south, and distant east to waiting water transport
across the Bay.

Who was willing to run the blockade and why? Was it money? Patriotism? Both? Were they “serving” the Confederacy in lieu of uniformed action? Shielding another from inculpation? Whatever their reasons, the contraband activity reached its zenith in the summer months of 1863 when nearly all of the Shore’s occupying troops, commanded by General Henry Hayes Lockwood, were called away to fight at Gettysburg.

Though far away, the Battle of Gettysburg would fall hard on the Shore. At least one Shoreman was killed and others wounded fighting for the Confederacy. On the Union side, many of Lockwood’s Maryland soldiers battled against their neighbors, schoolmates, even brothers at Gettysburg. The death and destruction were overwhelming in the thick July heat; fury and bitterness would return to the Shore with these men.

During the three day battle, Henry Lockwood distinguished himself at Culp’s Hill, then briefly served at Harper’s Ferry before returning to the Shore, “the fleshpots of Egypt.” By now, Lockwood’s heart was greatly hardened against the Shorespeople and he determined they would more fully share in “the burden of this war.” The once conciliatory general now proclaimed the Shore to be a place of no “real” loyalty as he declared the blockade running would end. Lockwood and Schenck buttressed their coast guard and established a new paid network of spies and informants. Who were they?

Meanwhile, the Confederate demand for men and goods was exponentially increasing. Soldiers wrote to families on the Shore of their colleagues’ suffering for want of necessities. Even General Robert E. Lee called for the Shore’s continuing help in conveying, “goods from Maryland or Accomac, as it is to our benefit, and furnishes necessary articles to soldiers and citizens.” How would they answer his call? Find out the rest of the story with us.

~ Excerpt from the 2013 Eastern Shore of Virginia Historical Society Newsletter

It was a Hot and Miserable Summer in 1861….

written by Kellee Blake

At Ker Place on Tuesday, August 30, at 7:00 pm, historian Kellee Green Blake will share true stories of the Shore from the momentous summer and early fall of 1861. This will be the first in a series of lectures planned by the Eastern Shore of Virginia Historical Society to commemorate the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War. The Historical Society’s new exhibit of local Civil War artifacts coupled with the Virginia Historical Society’s Panel exhibit will be the perfect backdrop for attendees to spend a night immersed in an exciting chapter of our past.

During this talk, Mrs. Blake embraces questions that Shoremen were asking themselves during the hot and miserable summer of 1861- where crops rotted in the fields and lighthouses stood dark. The Shore was awash in rumor: rumor that the Federals would soon invade; rumor that the Confederate Army would come from Norfolk to reinforce them; rumor that the enslaved people planned a mass exodus. The people of the Shore did not know what to believe or which neighbors to trust. Those on Chincoteague and the islands poised themselves for an attack from either side. Others dared believe for freedom. Loyalties on the Shore were passionately divided, local leaders burned in effigy, and Shoremen vigorously collided in this period characterized as a “reign of terror.” In truth there were many small battles on the Shore, many quiet human struggles no less worthy of our notice. Who would ultimately prevail? Who would win this “war” on the Eastern Shore?

The answers will surprise you and transform your thinking about the vital role of these uniquely positioned Virginia counties- Accomack and Northampton. The days of believing that little happened here during the war are at an end.

Ms. Blake is the retired Director of the National Archives – Mid Atlantic Region in Philadelphia. She is a Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude graduate of Mary Washington College and received her graduate degree in American History from Villanova University. She has processed, researched, and administered thousands of documents from the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries including the papers of Aaron Burr, Roger Taney, Abraham Lincoln, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, H. R. Haldeman, and the Robert Kennedy Assassination Files. Kellee has been a regular speaker at national genealogical and historical conferences and is the author of multiple articles on wartime loyalties, the law practice of Abraham Lincoln, and the Federal Census. She has been working on a book about the Federal occupation of the Shore for the better part of four years. Kellee and her husband Tom divide their time between an 18th century home in Washington Crossing, Pennsylvania, and their cottage on Hunting Creek.

Excerpt from the 2012 Eastern Shore of Virginia Historical Society Newsletter