HIGH / TUCKER LETTER
Special thanks to Gary
Tucker for submitting this letter
Eliza Catharine Tucker, daughter of Daniel and
Susan (Ward) Tucker and granddaughter of John and Betsy (Walker)
Tucker, was born 8 November 1845, Hardy County, Virginia (Eliza
Tucker Myers family records).
Following the death of Daniel sometime during
the period of 1850-1860, Susan Tucker and children moved to Hampshire
County where they lived near Sector.
In 1937, Eliza was living at the Old Soldiers
[Confederate] Home, Higginsville, Missouri, but she was living at her
home in Cowgill, Caldwell County, Missouri at death. She died in 1939
at the age of 93 [tombstone]. She was buried at Cowgill cemetery.
Eliza was married first to John Columbus High,
16 December 1868, Hampshire County, Virginia, by the Rev. George Long
(Hampshire County marriage records). The ages of both are indicated
on the license as 23. John was born 9 October 1845. He was a veteran
of the Civil War, fighting with General Robert E. Lee and serving
from Virginia. Bittinger (1990) provides evidence that both John High
and Eliza Tucker were members of the Brethren faith. John and Eliza
High moved to Caldwell County, Missouri in 1869. John High died there
in about 1873 at the age of 28.
Eliza's second marriage was to Samuel G. Myers,
a native of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania but later of Hampshire County,
West Virginia. He was born 23 February 1840. His family home was in
the Sector community, present-day Mineral County, West Virginia. He
served with Company D, 1st Missouri Volunteer Infantry, and was with
General Pemberton at Vicksburg.
Eliza was appointed postmaster at Glassville,
Caldwell County, Missouri, on 27 November 1885 during President
Cleveland's term. She moved the post office from Glassville to
Cowgill on 8 January 1887 (Caldwell County History, Volume 1. 1985).
She was assisted in her work by her daughter, Rose High.
Many families were divided by the events of
the Civil War, and it appears that the Tucker family was no
exception. The sentiments of Eliza's father, Daniel Tucker, are not
known. It is known, however, that Eliza and her husband were
supportive of the Confederate cause. Eliza's grandson, Harry Holbert
Turney-High, recorded the following comments in a letter to a cousin
[identity unknown because letter says "Dear Cousin"], in a
letter dated July 11, 1975.
"Now just you remember that your
grandfather was John Columbus High of McNeil's Rangers. Like everyone
else in this command, he had a price on his head put there by the
benevolent Ulysses Simpson Grant. The legend is that all Confederate
cavalrymen were sweet and gallant, like J.E.B. Stuart. Those loveable
adjectives cannot be applied to any unit which calls itself
"rangers."
My yankee first cousin, Dottie, always wants
to drive home by way of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. I make her drive
way around that town. I do not want my name recognized. You remember
how that General Jubal (Old Jube) Early finally became furious with
the devastation of the Shendandoah and western Virginia. He sent his
cavalryman, General McCausland, up to burn Chambersburg just to let
them see what it was like. I advise you, too,to avoid that town.
"Our grandfather [John Columbus High] was
captured later, but someone forgot the writ of execution on all of
McNeil's men. I thought that he had been imprisoned in Fort Delaware,
from which very few Confederate prisoners came home. Cousin Georgiana
corrected me. He had been a prisoner in Camp Chase, Ohio.
Now the Union had plenty of food and
medicines, but Grandfather was so abused and neglected that he died
at age 28. And as you probably remember, our stepgrandfather Myers
[Samuel G. Myers] was captured in the forts of Vicksburg. He was
imprisoned at Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois, in an open corn crib in
the dead of winter.
"Our grandfather's grandfather was
peacefully walking down the streets of Keyser [present Mineral
County, West Virginia] when a detachment of the Ringgold Cavalry rode
up. {They were Missourians, too, Germans from St. Louis.). The
troopers grabbed your great great grandfather and insist[ed] that
this old (over 80) [man] swear allegiance to the United States. This
he refused to do. Then they imprisoned him in chains in the basement
of Cousin Lep's residence, still called The Stone House. Of course,
he died there.
"Did Grandmother [Eliza Tucker High
Myers] ever tell you how that they heard that there were finally some
medicines at Romney [West Virginia]? A little fifteen year old girl,
she took her little brother, our Granduncle Jim [perhaps an error;
Jim was one year older than Eliza], and trudged through the snow to
the valley town. She managed to buy some drugs, and headed back to
Purgittsville. She was overtaken by a detachment of Ringgolds, who
took the medicines and threw them in a creek.
"I always like to tell of my
grandmother's jail record, and perhaps she told you the story. Well,
her oldest brother [James H. Tucker] had received a minor wound, and
was on leave recuperating at home. He and young Eliza were sitting on
the front porch when they saw a cloud of dust coming their way. Of
course a trained cavalryman could tell by the dust whether it is
infantry, which hangs low, or artillery, which hands medium high, or
cantering cavalry, which goes quite high. Our granduncle took the
hint, and took off for the hills. Sure enough, here was a detachment
of the Ringgold Cavalry out on a routine intelligence probe.
The lieutenant asked grandmother, just as I
would have done in the same case, "Young lady, when is the last
time you have seen a rebel?" This was a routine, legitimate
question, but you know Grandmother. She should have temporized, or
fibbed, but no. You know how absolute honest she was, and how feisty
upon occasion. "I'll not tell you," she replied.
"The more the young lieutenant insisted,
the more she refused to talk. I suppose the boy thought that Lee, or
at least Jeb Stuart, was in force just over the hill. He then forced
her to mount behind him and took her into Romney, where he put her in
the pokey overnight.
"The next morning she was brought before
the Union commander, a very decent man called General Kelly. The
general interrogated her gently, and soon realized that she knew
nothing of importance. He then rose from his chair and went over to
her. "You are a brave little girl," he said, and patted her
on the head. To punish the lieutenant for bothering him with trivia,
he made him take Miss Eliza back to Purgittsville.
"This kindness paid General Kelly well.
Once in the dead of night, McNeil raided Romney. They captured the
Union general in his nighty, set him on a mule, and galloped away
before the whole yankee army could be aroused. When the Rangers got
free of the town, our Uncle Osce [Osceola Tucker, brother to Eliza]
saw that the poor man was having a hard time bareback on a mule on a
cold night with only his nightshirt on. He remembered the general's
kindness to his sister, gave him his own saddled horse, and wrapped
him in his own coat. General Kelly was later exchanged. "And so
on, and so on! I do not know how much you remember. I am just
refreshing you so that you do not make fun of we-uns southerners.
Remember the sandpaper!
"And just in case you had a good time on
the Fourth of July, suppose you remember that you are descended from
a Hessian officer, the father of the old man imprisoned in the Stone
House. I thought he had been captured at Saratoga, but I was not
using my head. The real Hessians were not at Saratoga. The Germans
were Waldeckers, Cumberlanders, and such people. Cousin Georgiana
told me he was captured at Trenton. Of course that was a shrewd move
on Washington's part, but that was a vulgar lie which was spread
about the Regiment Knyphausen. The High histories say that the
Hessians were hungover from too much Christmas. The facts are, and
the New Jersey Historical Society will verify this: because of the
Knyphausen Regiment's fighting effectiveness, it had borne the brunt
of the battles.
Colonel von Rahl had only 900 men left, most
of them wounded, or sick with dysentery and influenza. He had only
three officers present and fit for duty, when Washington hit with
2,200 of his best."
Eliza and John High were the parents of two children: Rose High and John G. High. There were no children from the second marriage.