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JOHN HILL OLIVER
John Hill Oliver died on September 20, 1902 and is buried at the Cedar Hill Cemetery in Covington, VA. DAY 19: MAY 10, 2013
Me and my pal, Mark Thobe, joined the army on the buddy system. It meant we could be assigned to the same basic training company. We were joined at the hip though and ended up in the same squad. We went off together for advanced training at Fort Leonard Wood as heavy equipment operators. We weren’t supposed to be together anymore but we ended up in the same squad again. We were having breakfast one morning at a table with Lomax Wesley. He was a good old boy from Alabama. We sat down and started in putting milk and brown sugar in our mush. We thought it was Cream o’ Wheat. Lomax was astonished. He said, “what are you fellas doin’ to them grits. That ain’t the way you eat grits. You put a couple of fried eggs in it and some butter and black pepper”. We tried doing it that way next morning, but it didn’t really improve the grits. Didn’t care for them then and I don’t care for them still. In a nod to Mr. Lomax Wesley I tried those grits for breakfast again this morning. First time
JOHN AND SARA
Meet his wife, Sara. I have had them in 45 years. They still taste like grits. I am sticking to fried potatoes from now on. This evening I had every good intention of staying at Danville, VA. It is a good sized town and ought to have plenty of good motels, but after an hour looking for one I gave up. Martinsville is only 30 miles to the northwest and is a NASCAR town so I know it has plenty of motels. It was getting dark and I decided to settle on the first place I saw after a drive of 315 miles. It is a Super 8. Don’t stay here. I am sure the good motels are nearby. Had Arby’s for supper.
John Hill Oliver When John got out of the Confederate army he stayed in Alleghany County, Virginia among a passel of cousins. He bought a farm near Covington, married a girl named Sara and they raised a son named William Robert Oliver. William was his grampa’s name. I don’t know where the Robert part came from. John was forty years old when he joined the army and was 27 years older than Sara.
She was born in 1850 and finally gave out in 1944. John died in 1902 at the age of 79. I can’t make out from the headstone when William Robert was born or when he died. John was spared the long walk from Petersburg to Appomattox with the rest of Bobby Lee’s 9000 man army. His unit, the 22
nd Virginia Infantry, got to be so hard to handle after Colonel Patton died that they were disbanded sort of in disgrace in the spring of 1863 and all 16 of them had to walk home barefooted and hungry.
Locust Bottom William Poage was a war hero in his own right. He was an Indian fighter, a commander of militia, and veteran of the Revolutionary War. In recognition for his service William was given acreage along the headwaters of the James River at the mouth of Craig Creek. He may have got flooded out there but in any event he moved a few miles downstream onto higher ground at Locust Bottom. He died there in 1786 and might be the first guy buried at the new church there, although I did not find
WILLIAM POAGE FARM
This was the Poage farm at Locust Bottom. The farm buildings in the background were not even seeds, let alone trees when William had the place. headstones for any of the Poage family in that little cemetery. The Civil War veterans in our family, Joseph Johnson, Charlie, and John Hill Oliver were children of John Oliver and Elizabeth Hill. George Poage was Elizabeth’s grampa.
Appomattox The Army of Northern Virginia was in a destitute and starving condition when they broke out of Petersburg and fled westward with no supplies. They were hoping to pick some up along the way but failed to do so. The Yankees were in hot pursuit and caught up with them at Appomattox on April 8, 1863. They fought a brief engagement late in the afternoon. On the morning of April 9 General Lee’s army was set to try another breakout just west of town. Opposing them was the First Division of the Fifth Corps of Yankees commanded by our 6
th cousin, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. Joshua had recently been promoted to Brigadier General and placed in command of the First Division. Bobby Lee looked over the lines arrayed before him and decided he could not send his men into battle that day. He called for a conference with General Grant and the
LOCUST BOTTOM
This little Presbyterian/Lutheran church was built the same year that William died. The photo of his farmland was taken from the front steps of the church looking west. two of them met in the parlor of the McLean farmhouse and agreed on terms of surrender. Our cousin, General Chamberlain, being in command of the lead element of Grant’s army was in position to handle the surrender, parole, and stacking of arms and flags.
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