An incident occurred here during
Hunter's occupancy of the town that stirred it from centre to circumference.
It was the deliberate murder of
Captain Matthew X. White.
It was so atrocious and unwarranted that many generations will not forgive or forget
Hunter.
Captain White belonged to one of the most highly-respected families of the town, and was a man of wealth and social influence.
Before the war he was captain of the local cavalry company here, and his company was the first to leave the county when it was known that actual hostilities could not be avoided, being mustered into service at
Harper's Ferry, April 25, 1861.
His was made Company C, 1st Virginia cavalry.
During the summer of 1861 he resigned, and returned home and joined a company from this county in my regiment as a private—Company H, 14th Virginia cavalry.
For several days previous to the coming of
Hunter he was at home.
For two weeks previous to the raid and invasion two men were boarding at the
Lexington House, claiming to be from the far
South, and ostensibly enjoying a furlough.
The sequel shows they were Yankee spies.
On the day
Hunter came to the suburbs of the town,
Captain White had scouted about four miles out, and until he met an armed man dressed in citizen's clothing.
I do not know whether
Captain White knew him or not, but it was
John Thorn, who was thought to have led the
Yankees through the lower end of the county and on towards
Lexington up to the time he met his death.
Thorn was a man well known by people of that time, and a citizen of
Rockbridge, a farm laborer by occupation.
From the statement made by the toll-gate keeper, in front of whose house the tragedy occurred, and from a description the woman gave of the man and the little white mare he rode, it was evidently
Captain White who killed
Thorn.
When
Captain White returned from his scout he met at the hotel his supposed friends, and, enjoying together a glass of whiskey he incidentally mentioned to them that he had been scouting and had shot a man at the toll-gate.
Captain White went to his farm, three miles west of the town, that night, and next day the
Yankees entered the town.
It was a surprise to the people of
Lexington to see these two men who had been at the hotel for several weeks riding at the head of the column, having left the night before and joined the
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Yankee forces.
Next morning
Captain White was arrested at his farm, and taken through the town, and three miles beyond, near to the place where
Thorn was killed, and there murdered.
It was said that he was first hung and then shot, but the testimony of the two men who prepared his body for burial—
Major John W. Houghawout and
Alexander McCown—who are living to-day, is that he was shot in the back, the large ball going entirely through his body.
He was told to walk in front of the two men, who were his guards, and they evidently shot him when he was not aware of their intentions.
These two men returned to
Lexington and informed
Captain White's mother that her son was safe and would not be harmed, and after having, not an hour before, assassinated him. His body was left where it fell, and but for an accident would not have been found.
An Irishman named
O'Brien, who lived near by, having never been naturalized, and claiming to be a British subject, kept his horses at home: but the old man having two sons in the
Confederate service, the
Yankees paid no regard to his protestations and the
British lion, and took his stock.
The bridge that spanned the river between him and town had been burned, and he went down through an unfrequented wood to where he knew there was a canoe, which he intended using to get to
Lexington and see
Hunter and get his horses back.
He, however, never got them, as
Hunter's and
Averill's uppermost idea was to denude the country of stock.
On his way down through this dense forest he came upon the body of
Captain White, and went back and informed the
Misses Cameron, on whose land and near whose home this murder had been committed.
The
Yankees had left the place and gone towards
Lynchburg the same day. A messenger was dispatched to
Lexington, informing
Captain White's aged mother and father of the murder of their son, and
Dr. James McCleery, with the assistance of several colored men, brought the body to town and interred it in the
Lexington cemetery.
Poor Mat, friend of my youth and boyhood days, you deserved a better fate.
When he passed through
Lexington he seemed to be aware of his fate, for as he went by the residence of his old friend,
Houghawout, he said to him, ‘Good-by,
Huck, I am gone up,’ and marched on to the place of his assassination with the firmness and fortitude of a stoic.
He had no trial, and it is presumed that he was shot by the order of
David Hunter.
