Page News & Courier
Heritage and Heraldry
Page execution: Marylanders fall for defying barn-burners, the conclusion
Article of June 7, 2001
On October 17, 1864, the Richmond "Examiner" called the execution of the Marylanders an "atrocity" and declared "The reason assigned for shooting them was that some of their men (the Federals) were shot while burning barns."
According to W.W. Goldsborough, "The facts were all carefully traced out, and verified by the statement of the citizen at whose house the two young men were first attacked, and near which they fought and were captured; by the statement of the citizen, some two miles to the rear, near whose house they were buried, not by the men who killed them, but by the pitying farmer, and by the evidence rendered by the opened graves of the poor men."
Apparently, the men had been temporarily buried "by the last farmer who had given them supplies" in Page County and later relocated. It was also said that upon opening the graves, comrades made "vows" to "avenge their deaths – and were avenged, though Powell escaped."
John James Hartigan lies today in the Lutheran Reformed Church cemetery in New Market. As for Crittenden, according to the family newsletter, "Col. Lawrence Kip, son of the bishop of California, and then serving in the Northern army, hearing of the tragic death of his boyhood friend, visited the spot and caused notice to be telegraphed Churchill's father. Relatives secured the body and sent it to Richmond, where it now lies in Shockoe Hill Cemetery."
Interestingly, only Hartigan appears to have been a true Marylander – though again, nothing has been found to yet confirm this. Having enlisted in Co. G, 13th Virginia Infantry early on and having been wounded in action at Munson's Hill on August 27, 1861, Hartigan was later discharged as a "non-resident."
On September 7, 1862, he enlisted with Co. C, 1st Md. Cav. at New Market. Hartigan had served with good service throughout the war. In February 1864 he was allowed to go to Augusta County to secure a new horse for his former mount had been rendered unserviceable.
Churchill Crittenden offers a much more detailed life. The son of Alexander Parker Crittenden, grandson of Judge Thomas Turpin Crittenden of Kentucky, and the great grandson of Major John Crittenden of the Revolutionary Army (from New Kent County, Va.), Churchill was born in Texas on May 17, 1840. Interestingly, Churchill's mother came from a line of Rhode Islanders. In 1851, his father moved his family to California. A. P. Crittenden had pioneered to California across the plains from Texas, in the winter of 1848 and 1849.
Churchill was attending Hobart College in Indiana when the Civil War began. Seeking permission to enlist from his father in San Francisco, Churchill served as a volunteer aide-de-camp to General James J. Archer from June 1862 until he joined the 1st Maryland Cavalry on August 4, 1862 while in Richmond.
Not unlike Hartigan, Crittenden's service record was commendable. On June 12, 1863, Crittenden's horse was killed in action near Winchester, Va. for which he was reimbursed $450. Obviously recognized for his keen military ability, in April 1864, he was detailed to the Mississippi for four months to "organize a band for special service." Returning to the Valley, he was furloughed for 60 days from July 24, 1864, meaning that when the execution took place, he had not been back very long from the respite.
As is known from a previous article (July 13, 2000), the brothers Kauffman survived prisoner-of-war camp after evading execution and lived long after the war.
Return to the Page News & Courier sponsored directory for
Heritage & Heraldry articles.