"Answering the Call"

— Wilson-Kautz Raid —

In June 1864, to deny Gen. Robert E. Lee the use of the South Side R.R. and the Richmond and Danville R.R., Gen. Ulysses S. Grant sent Gen. James H. Wilson and Gen. August V. Kautz south of Petersburg on a cavalry raid to destroy track and rolling stock as well as the Staunton River Bridge. On the morning of June 23, Confederate Capt. Benjamin L. Farinholt dispatched a courier from the bridge to Halifax (then called Banister Town) requesting reinforcements. Capt. William B. Hurt mustered his company of home guards, composed of old men from the community, and Headmaster John Henry Powell gathered young students from his Halifax Academy. On June 25, these old men and young boys helped defend the bridge from destruction by the Wilson-Kautz raiders.

Capt. Hurt recalled: "Capt. Farinholt ordered three or four of his companies to cross over the bridge and reinforce Col. Coleman and in obeying these orders, in my humble judgement, these little boys and old men rendered as valiant and faithful service as ever was rendered on any battlefield.... These little untrained boys and gray-headed farmers... arose from their position of partial safety and protection and with firm and steady step, marched into the very jaws of death itself."

As Capt. Hurt came from the mouth of the bridge on the North side, at the head of his Company, he was wounded by a bullet that struck his belt buckle and glanced into his side.

(sidebar)
After General Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox on April 9, 1865 the Federal VI Corps passed through Halifax on its way to occupy Danville. The ca. 1830 Halifax Academy, located on Academy Street, later became a public school and is now privately owned. The county seat of Banister Town as it was called during the war, became Houston in 1890, and after WWI changed its name to Halifax.

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Show me all markers in:  Halifax, VA  |  Halifax County  |  24558  |  Virginia  |  United States of America

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Halifax County Confederate Monument
History of Halifax
Mary M. Bethune High School
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