Daniel Morgan's GRAVE MATTERS (Who gets his body in 1951?)
Daniel Morgan lived a long afterlife. He was nationally known well into the 1950s. But by the 1960s and 1970s the fade from national consciousness starts to set in. The memory of him even locally is only held by those interested in history. And there's another town whose local historians are still interested in him - Cowpens South Carolina.
And that is who came for Daniel Morgan's body in 1951. That goes viral nationally. Life Magazine comes to photograph this.
Cowpens South Carolina sends an undertaker with a note from a Daniel Morgan ancestor that he has authority to dig up the body and move it to Cowpens. This really wakes up Winchester. This event happens after Cowpens hears no response from the Winchester Lions or from the Winchester Frederick Co Historical Society. Thus begins the "Second Battle of Cowpens," as the late and honorable Judge Robert Woltz called it.
Let us note the humorous exasperation of a local Winchester man aghast at South Carolina's town of Cowpens attempt in 1951 to snatch Daniel Morgan's body: "I wonder why Quebec doesn't put in a claim? After all he fought a battle there."
That quote is found in Life Magazine issue of 3 Sept 1751. The article attributes that defiant declaration to Winchester's Lion Club President.
Never mind there was a previous body snatch attempt by New Jersey in 1865, but that's another story.
Two sources are quoted from: Engles and Woltz. We list the full references at end of this story.
Table of Contents
Slippery
Slippery like, Cowpens SC Lions Club sent a letter to Winchester's Lions Club asking their help to give up Daniel Morgan's body. Cowpens SC calculated that the leaders of Winchester's Lions Club would have enough pull to make that happen. Instead, the Winchester's Lions Club turned the letter over to the Winchester Frederick Co Historical Society.
July 1951
…the President of the Winchester Lions Club received a letter form the Lions Club of Cowpens, South Carolina, asking their help in moving Daniel Morgan’s remains for reburial near the Cowpens Battlefield Park. The Winchester club disclaimed responsibility and turned the letter over to the Winchester Frederick County Historical Society.
From Page 125, Engle.
No results from came out of that handoff to the historical society.
Again, slipperly like, Cowpens SC calculating that no response meant no interest, sent unannounced, an undertaker and two assistants to Mt Hebron Cemetery Winchester VA.
August 5, 1951
Body Snatchers Arrive at Mt Hebron Cemetery
… an undertaker, J.G.Floyd of Cowpens, South Carolina, and two helpers arrived unannounced at Mount Hebron Cemetery and requested help in removing the body of Daniel Morgan. They carried letters from the mayor of Cowpens and Josephine Neville Strong Callahan, Morgan’s great-great-great-granddaughter, authorizing them to disinter Morgan’s body and take it back to Cowpens.
From Page 125, Engle.
Cowpens had a point?
Although slippery like attempts were made by Cowpens, did Cowpens SC have a point?
Apparently that town
made much better efforts
than Winchester.
The monuments to Daniel Morgan far out do Winchester's attempts.
Look at story of the wrong cannon
purchased in the 1920s by
Winchester organizations
to honor Daniel Morgan's grave site.
Those organizations wanted a
Revolutionary War cannon.
What they recieved was a
Civil War cannon.
That mistake was not the fault of the local organizations but of those who were searching for any cannon.
That mistake
of a civil war cannon
sat for over 2 decades
at the gravesite
of Daniel Morgan,
until WWII
when it was melted for scrap.
An 11 year old local girl writes of her father being ashamed of it.
Although South Carolina itself was not unified.
According to Woltz on page 134 in his article, "The Second Battle of Cowpens", “Newspapers in the two largest cities of that state [South Carolina] as well as some letters to their editors perhaps surprisingly took the part of Winchester in the battle and in favor of letting the general rest where he lay.”
Life Magazine shows photographs claiming local pride and involvement in sustaining the memory of Daniel Morgan.
But the same local pride and involvement is even proven in Winchester. Their efforts to get a Revolutionary War cannon even though it turned out they were wronged by the seller and deliverer.
But residents who left Winchester would sometimes make annual visits to Mt Hebron Cemetery to view Daniel Morgan's grave.
Unfortunately for one return visitor they came to the cemetery with South Carolina car tags right at the very moment of this controversy.
Summer of 1951
Raleigh [Engle’s husband] and I returned to Winchester with our girls for our annual visit. As we did every summer, we went to visit family plots in Mount Hebron Cemetery, just down Morgan Lane from Daniel Morgan’s grave.
As our car with South Carolina tags drove through the stone archway into Mount Hebron Cemetery, men seemed to materialize from everywhere.
They watched as we drove up the hill and turned left toward Morgan’s grave.
Two men followed our car on foot as we pass Morgan’s gravesite and drove on until we reached our destination, the Gold family lot farther down the lane. Only when we emerged from the car – and were identified as local people – did the group disperse. Never had I felt so uncomfortable and unwelcome in my own hometown.
From Page 127, Engle.
The irony was that this former family of Winchester was the very one who tried to get a Revolutionary Cannon and instead wrong received a Civil War cannon to honor Daniel Morgan's grave at Winchester.
National News
Chicago Tribune 7 Aug 1951 and Time Magazine 20 Aug 1951 catches on to this story before Life Magazine does.
In 1951 they know this is of national interest.
The average citizen in America knew Daniel Morgan's story.
The picture shown here is not from Life Magazine. It looks to be from a newspaper.
August 20, 1951
Time Magazine article
According to this article: . . . cemetery superintendent Oscar Harry exploded upon reading the letter to the Lion’s Club of Winchester: “General Morgan, sir? You’re not taking General Morgan today, tomorrow, or the next day!”
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Superintendent Harry quickly contacted W. Nelson Page, president of the Cemetery Board, the members of the Mount Hebron Board of Managers, and Ben Belchic, president of the Winchester Frederick County Historical Society. The men assembled hurriedly to confront the “new and bold attack to snatch the body of General Daniel Morgan.” The South Caroline contingent retreated, but vowed to return. The next day the Mayor of Cowpens, S.T. “Tip” Mosely, arrived with the committee’s attorney, and the fight began.
From Page 126, Engle.
The actual Life Magazine issue
Life Magazine really makes it go viral 3 Sept 1951.
In this link
is the actual Life Magazine article,
pages 53-55 with pictures:
See the front cover
of this Life Magazine issue
and then Scroll down
this link
to see table of contents:
Life Magazine poses the town's fathers of each side glowering at each other over Daniel Morgan's grave.
Here is the actual Life Magazine first page of the article's text.
Below is a link to Handley archive's picture of this.
Gen. Daniel Morgan's grave; On left 4 men from Winchester (identified as, l to r, Nelson Page, Ben Belchic, Miff Clowe, Oscar Harry(?)) refusing to let the Mayor of Cowpens, SC (A.S. Moseley, in VFW porkpie hat and holding letter) and Cowpens Attorney General J. Manning Poliakoff (light suit, arms folded), remove the remains. Date given as August 10, 1951 (from 69-150 wfchs). Reprinted in Frederick County: From the Frontier to the Future, p. 32. Filed as "Morgan grave controversy".
Iconic photograph of the posed Standoff between Winchester VA and Cowpens SC at the gravesite of Daniel Morgan, date given of 10 August 1951.
The Lawsuit
In the meantime, Cowpens SC goes legal. It sues for the body.
The late honorable Judge R K Woltz writes about those legal proceedings
Judge Woltz in his 2000 article, entitled “Second Battle of Cowpens,” writes, ” Sadly of that group (those who worked this legal case), only Justice Whiting and I survive.”
He also savored and wondered about how young he was then and grateful to have been involved in a legal case such as this so early in his career.
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Of the papers filed in this case, Judge Woltz writes, “As to the various papers filed, I note at this late date, I signed one of them. Henry H Whiting, then [J.Sloan] Mr Kuykendall’s young and first associate and years later a colleague of mine on the circuit court and later still the first local appointee to the Virginia Supreme Court in over one hundred years also signed one. “
Judge Woltz is now buried near Daniel Morgan's grave.
He wrote of those legal proceedings discussed in the contents below.
That's it.
That's our lead story.
There's always more.
Below is a timeline.
Skip around.
Read bits and pieces.
Compiled, written by Jim Moyer January 9, 2016, updated 2/23/16, 4/22/2017, 11/27/23, 11/28/2023
Table of Contents
Sources:
We owe the quotes and details to these two sources:
Source 1
Winchester Frederick County Historical Society Journal Volume XIV 2002 issue on Daniel Morgan, pages 112 to 130, by Elizabeth Gold Crawford Engle and Mary Thomason Morris for an article entitled: Cannons and Marble: A Monument for Daniel Morgan.
Source 2
Winchester Frederick County Historical Society Journal Volume XIV 2002 issue on Daniel Morgan, pages 132 to 144, by Judge Robert K Woltz for an article entitled The Second Battle of Cowpens.
The above sources will be noted as Engle or as Woltz.
Compiled, written by Jim Moyer January 9, 2016, updated 2/23/16, 4/22/2017, 11/27/23, 11/28/2023
Source 3
March 19, 2018
THE SECOND BATTLE OF COWPENS: SOUTH CAROLINA VS. WINCHESTER, VIRGINIA
That author states that One of Morgan’s surviving descendants is his great-great granddaughter, Mrs. Josephine Neville Strong Callahan
This author of the above article of 2018 in Journal of American Revolution quotes and footnotes the author of this blog.
[4] Jim Moyer, “Who gets Daniel Morgan’s Body?,” French and Indian War Foundation, January 9, 2016, updated April 22, 2017, frenchandindianwarfoundation.org/event/who-gets-daniel-morgans-body/, accessed December 28, 2017.
Source 4
Portraits of Daniel Morgan, Revolutionary War General
David Meschutt
The American Art Journal Vol. 17, No. 3 (Summer, 1985), pp. 34-43 (10 pages) Published By: Kennedy Galleries, Inc.
Author states Abigail Bailey is the wife of Daniel Morgan and they had two Daughters. [Not sure if Abigail was common law wife or not.]
The Court Decision
Woltz wished the merits of the case
could have been debated before a Judge
but that never is to be.
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Woltz wishes it could have been, since the issues were so interesting.
He found two major principles in Dead Body Law:
“. . . The most important is the wishes and desires of family members or descendant.”
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The other important consideration is if
“. . . that a body has lain for a long-time in a location should not be removed except for strong reason.”
Page 135, Woltz.
Technical Grounds
Instead the issue is decided on the technical grounds.
The deadline to post bail correctly was not met.
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Woltz explains that any suit brought by a non resident requires putting up bail because it “might be difficult or impossible to collect court costs . . . “
Page 137, Woltz.
“As Joephine Callahan was a resident of California, and the Town of Cowpens of South Carolina, counsel for the cemetery astutely requested that they post bond for costs and the court sustained the request ordering that bond of $250 be posted within the statutorily required time.
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Mayor [Roy] Cash of Cowpens then deposited a cashier’s check in the sum of $250 with the clerk of court.
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After passage of sixty days allowed for post the bond, argument was had and the court ruled that a cashier’s check is not a bond as required by statute, but did over objection grant plantiffs the opportunity within five days to post a bond in that amount.
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They were not able to do so within that period of time so the motion of the respondent Mount Hebron Cemetery Company the court order date January 7, 1952 dismissed the case.”
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The case was then dismissed.
Page 137-138, Woltz.
The Bill of Complaint
Bill of complaint From South Carolina
Congressman Joseph E. Bryson
US Senator Olin D. Johnson
Governor James F. Byrnes
Mayor of Cowpens SC, Roy Cash
…was five legal size pages of length and constained a total of 36 paragraphs of allegations. Among its allegations were the relationship of Jospehine Callahan to Daniel Morgan, that Morgan was a general in the United States Army, and rediculosly that he “lived in the State of Virginia for a few year, ” that he was the greatest military figure of his time, his crowning achievement “and most glorious hour of triumphant victory took place near Cowpens …”
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The allegations contrast the neglect of Morgan’s grave and his loss of identity among the citizens of Winchester with the great esteem with which is held in South Carolina and the existence of tangible evidence of that esteem there.
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The complaint also alleges that after due diligence “the place of repose of General Morgan’s wife has not been located.”
Page 136, Woltz.
..a South Carolina undertaker . . . was armed with a handwritten note of Josephine Neville Strong Callahan, complainant in the suit mentioned above, asserting that the general [Daniel Morgan] was her great-great-grandfather and authorizing removal of his remains to Cowpens. [The South Carolina undertaker] also carried a letter from mayor Cowpens authorizing him as his agent to remove the remains from Mount Hebron to Cowpens.
Page 133, Woltz.
Mrs. Josephine Neville Strong Callahan is the great-great granddaughter of Daniel Morgan. That same woman did own a portrait of Daniel Morgan. She is also referenced above as an ancestor with the right to move Daniel Morgan's body.
Winchester's Response
First, let us note the humorous exasperation of a local Winchester man aghast at South Carolina's town of Cowpens attempt in 1951 to snatch Daniel Morgan's body: "I wonder why Quebec doesn't put in a claim? After all he fought a battle there."
That quote is found in Life Magazine issue of 3 Sept 1751. The article attributes that defiant declaration to Winchester's Lion Club President.
The best summary:
Virginia’s response consumed nine legal sized sheets and sustained some of the points but argued against neglect and promoted Morgan’s ties to Virginia and the Winchester area.
This author of the above article of 2018 in Journal of American Revolution quotes the author of this blog.
[4] Jim Moyer, “Who gets Daniel Morgan’s Body?,” French and Indian War Foundation, January 9, 2016, updated April 22, 2017, frenchandindianwarfoundation.org/event/who-gets-daniel-morgans-body/, accessed December 28, 2017.
The particulars:
We don't have the actual wording of Winchester's response - only what Judge Woltz describes of it.
August 10, 1951
Exact Court Petition from South Carolina
The suit itself was filed on August 10, 1951 by the town attorney for Cowpens, J. Manning Poliakoff with local attorney Robert E. O’Neal co-signing the bill of complaint. In Virginia and perhaps all states a so-called foreign attorney in a suit must associate a licensed attorney in that state with him. This is so a court can have a control over proceedings and counsel it might not have with only a nonresident attorney handling the case. news reports stated that the Clerk of the Court, P.J. Marshall, opened his office on a Saturday evening to allow filing of the suit.
The following Monday, G.G. Baker, Sergeant (now called Sheriff) of the City of Winchester served the suit papers on the cemetery president
Within the required twenty-one days of that service [the serving of Cowpen's bill of complaint ] a nine-page answer was filed by Mount Hebron Cemetery represented by the highly able and respected local attonreny J.Sloan Kyukendall.
Page 135, Woltz.
OVER THE TOP LANGUAGE IN THE COMPLAINT
Woltz notes the complaints from Cowpens SC, are “effulgent, almost hyperbolic, a method lawyers sometimes use to emphasize a point …”
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Historical? Hysterical?
In defense of Attorney Poliakoff, and his perhaps overblown language, the reader today must realize that slightly over fifty years ago when this dispute arose, our country was in a vital and dangerous Cold War with the “evil empire” of communism and we were in an actual shooting war with the communist regime of North Korea. Indicative of this intense and well grounded national fear of communism in 1951 was the early germination and growth of what became known as McCarthyism.
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Answer to the Bill of Complaint
…contains thirty-nine paragraphs on nine legal size sheets. It admits a few of the opponent’s allegations, denies a number and with respect to most neither admits nor denies “as it [the respondent] is not advised to the truth or falsity thereof, and calls for strict proof of said averment.”
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Woltz goes on to praise his fellow colleagues for their legal written response. He lists the names who signed that response as himself, and “Henry Whiting, then Mr. Kuykendall’s young and first associate and years later a colleague of mine on the circuit court and later still the first local appointee to Virginia Supreme Court in over one hundred years also signed one.”
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Page 137, Woltz.
Case Ends When?
August 13, 1951
Court Petition from South Carolina
South Carolina filed a petition to the Winchester Corporation court to uphold their right to the removal. A counter suit was filed to prevent it.
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The debate raged through August and into the fall.
From Page 126, Engle.
November 26, 1951
Cowpens Gives Up the Ghost
It’s Over, Done
…the Cowpens contingent gave up the fight in court, and that particular skirmish in Daniel Morgan’s twentieth century war was over.
Page 127, Engle.
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January 7, 1952
Officially the Court Case was dismissed on this date. The difference in dates on when this fight was over, might be the 60 days time on posting bond. But that doesn’t reconcile the contradiction: Engle states the Town of Cowpens quit the fight while Woltz stated the Town of Cowpens posted a cashiers check as bond.
Page 138, Woltz.
Mt Hebron's Current Monuments
Nearby at the circle on Piccadilly Street:
Working notes
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See “Find A Grave” link on Daniel Morgan at Mt Hebron Cemetery.
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Judge Robert K Woltz is buried next to Daniel Morgan.
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See a transcript on the Judge’s WWII service.
Josephine Callahan
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THE SECOND BATTLE OF COWPENS: SOUTH CAROLINA VS. WINCHESTER, VIRGINIA
Portraits of Daniel Morgan, Revolutionary War General
David Meschutt
The American Art Journal Vol. 17, No. 3 (Summer, 1985), pp. 34-43 (10 pages) Published By: Kennedy Galleries, Inc.
Daniel Morgan Collection
Print this Page Stewart Bell Jr. Archives Handley Regional Library Winchester-Frederick County Historical Society P.O. Box 58, Winchester, VA 22604 (540) 662-9041 ext. 17 archives@handleyregional.org www.handleyregional.org 170 WFCHS
..
August 7, 1951
Chicago Tribune
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A HERO OF 1781 BECOMES ISSUE is the headline of this article.
To see the article how it appeared, click on:
Broken links
Broken links
To read the article in an easier format, click on:
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THE PETITION
August 10, 1951
Exact Court Petition from South Carolina
The suit itself was filed on August 10, 1951 by the town attorney for Cowpens, J. Manning Poliakoff with local attorney Robert E. O’Neal co-signing the bill of complaint. In Virginia and perhaps all states a so-called foreign attorney in a suit must associate a licensed attorney in that state with him. This is so a court can have a control over proceedings and counsel it might not have with only a nonresident attorney handling the case. news reports stated that the Clerk of the Court, P.J. Marshall, opened his office on a Saturday evening to allow filing of the suit. The following Monday, G.G. Baker, Sergeant (now called Sheriff) of the City of Winchester served the suit papers on the cemetery president. Within the required twenty-one days of that service a nine-page answer was filed by Mount Hebron Cemetery represented by the highly able and respected local attonreny J.Sloan Kyukendall.
Page 135, Woltz.
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Difference in Dates given of filing?
Engle used the date reported in the news.
Woltz, being a lawyer and later a Circuit Court Judge,
used the Clerk of Court filing date.
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THE DEBATE
Woltz, on page 134,
mentions some differences above
but most of the leaders
predictably favor their location:
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For Winchester VA
Winchester Mayor Mifflin B. Clowe
Congressman Burr P. Harrison
US Senator Harry F. Byrd Sr.
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For South Carolina
Congressman Joseph E. Bryson
US Senator Olin D. Johnson
Governor James F. Byrnes
Mayor of Cowpens SC, Roy Cash
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PARTIES TO THE COURT CASE
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Parties to Petition to INTERVENE
Mt Hebron Cemetery Board
T.G. Scully and his law partner, Robert K. Woltz filed on the same date 10 August 1951 as the Cowpens attorney a petition to “intervene.” : If one is not party to a suit but claims to have a substantial interest in I then the only way to become party is to ask the court to allow the invention, else anybody and everybody who wanted to jump into the case could do so without good cause.
Page 135. Woltz.
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Also filed by same groups above: DEMURER, meaning, “the one who brings the suit still has no case that is legally cognizable.”
Page 136, Woltz.
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OVER THE TOP LANGUAGE
IN THE COMPLAINT
Woltz notes the complaints from Cowpens SC, are “effulgent, almost hyperbolic, a method lawyers sometimes use to emphasize a point …”
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Historical? Hysterical?
In defense of Attorney Poliakoff, and his perhaps overblown language, the reader today must realize that slightly over fifty years ago when this dispute arose, our country was in a vital and dangerous Cold War with the “evil empire” of communism and we were in an actual shooting war with the communist regime of North Korea. Indicative of this intense and well grounded national fear of communism in 1951 was the early germination and growth of what became known as McCarthyism.
.
.
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Answer to the Bill of Complaint
…contains thirty-nine paragraphs on nine legal size sheets. It admits a few of the opponent’s allegations, denies a number and with respect to most neither admits nor denies “as it [the respondent] is not advised to the truth or falsity thereof, and calls for strict proof of said averment.”
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Woltz goes on to praise his fellow colleagues for their legal written response. He lists the names who signed that response as himself, and “Henry Whiting, then Mr. Kuykendall’s young and first associate and years later a colleague of mine on the circuit court and later still the first local appointee to Virginia Supreme Court in over one hundred years also signed one.”
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Page 137, Woltz.
THE LAST CHAPTER
OF
2ND BATTLE OF COWPENS
We learn also, as this furor became a national issue, in 1951
something else happened in 1920
regarding that day of the re-burial 13 June 1868,
that the Missouri Historical Society
revealed that the metal identification plate from Morgan’s original coffin was part of their collection. No one seems to know how the nameplate migrated to Missouri, but in 1920 a Henry Hanger of Saint Louis, Missouri had donated it to the Historical Society. The newspaper article from which this information was taken stated that Hanger could not remember how he acquired the artifact. There was inscription on the back of the plate:
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“Taken from the coffin of Maj. Gen. Daniel Morgan, whose remains were this day exhumed after having lain in the ground 66 years. June 13, 1868.”
Page 127, Engle.
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September 3, 1951
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This story was just too fun, not to pose for it.
This was getting national press !
Everyone in the 1950s knew who Daniel Morgan was.
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September 3. Life Magazine publishes article titled, “”Who Gets the General’s Body?” South Carolina comes to Mt Hebron Cemetery in Winchester VA to claim Daniel Morgan’s remains
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Gen. Daniel Morgan’s grave; on left 4 men from Winchester (identified as, l to r, Nelson Page, Ben Belchic, Miff Clowe, Oscar Harry(?)) refusing to let the Mayor of Cowpens, SC (A.S. Moseley, in VFW porkpie hat and holding letter) and Cowpens Attorney General J. Manning Poliakoff (light suit, arms folded), remove the remains. Date given as August 10, 1951 (from 69-150 wfchs). Reprinted in Frederick County: From the Frontier to the Future, p. 32. Filed under “Morgan grave controversy”. — Photo and Caption from Handley Library Stewart Bell Jr Archives. Click on Photo to enlarge.
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Life Magazine article
…featured a photo-article on the commotion …
From Page 126, Engle.
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April 1952
Rock of Ages Co of Barre Vermont
The nation-wide debate of 1951 seemed to provide the needed impetus for a successful monument project. In April 1952, the Rock of Ages Company of Barre, Vermont, placed a bid to design and execute a monument memorializing Daniel Morgan, to be placed by his grave. The Winchester-Frederick County Historical Society, the Fort Loudoun Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution , and the Lions Club jointly signed a contract for the proposed memorial. The Daniel Morgan Fund agreed to raise $2000 to pay for the monument. Even the schoolchildren got involved, with seven local schools donating at least $41.98 to the cause.
Page 127-128, Engle.
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Is this Daniel Morgan Fund the same as the April 14, 1921 Morgan Monument Fund initiated by Fort Loudoun Chapter of DAR noted on Page 121 Engle?
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Sunday, April 26, 1953
Marble Monument Commemorated
The Result of all the Controversy and Effort
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Photo by Jim Moyer
…a procession wound through downtown Winchester led by the Rouss Fired Department Drum and Bugle Corps. One hundred-fifty people gathered for the dedication ceremony. Representative Burr P. Harrison gave the keynote address. The Daughters of the American Revolution laid a wreath on the grave. Children, descendants of the original Morgan’s Riflemen unveiled the marble monument. The American Legion Post fired a volley to end the ceremony.
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The monument, with a bas-relief of Morgan and replica of the medal awarded to him in 1781, is inscribed:
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The people of Winchester, Virginia, dedicate this memorial to the patriotism and valor of General Daniel Morgan in the cause of American Independence.
Page 127-128, Engle.
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Note: Find picture of that 1781 medallion awarded Daniel Morgan.
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March 22, 2007
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Photo by Jim Moyer
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Daniel Morgan in the French and Indian War
Daniel Morgan might be more well known
for his heroic exploits in the Revolutionary War,
but he had 2 wounds lasting all his life
from the French and Indian War:
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one you can see still on a later portrait (click to enlarge picture so you can see the scar above his lip where the bullet exited, shot by the Indians chasing him )
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and the ones on his back.
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Whip marks on his back occurred in a dispute when he was in the position of driving a wagon hauling supplies for the failed Braddock Expedition in 1755.
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More on that scar above the lip?
17 April 1756.
Happened in service to Captain Jack Ashby’s Ranger unit. Leaving Fort Ashby high tailing it to Fort Edwards, chased by Indians who shot him.
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17 April 1756
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DANIEL MORGAN SHOT
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See a letter dated 17 April 1756 by John Fenton Mercer to George Washington, refers to the wound Daniel Morgan received.
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“Yesterday Morning one of Captn Ashby’s Men, who has been on Forlow some Time, with one Hintch who came down with Us as a Pilot, were in their Return to Ashby’s Fort & were fired on by seven Indians, Hintch killed dead on the Spot and the other returned here wounded in the Neck [Daniel Morgan], but no ways dangerous2—This happen’d about fourteen Miles from hence in the Road to Parker’s Fort,3 “
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One day later the above writer of that letter, John Fenton Mercer, dies in the Battle of the Great Cacapon 18 April 1756 east of Ashby’s Fort.
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A month later while court martials are in progress for some who did not follow orders or who left the scene of this battle, Washington’s men finds John Fenton Mercer dead. Col Washington writes Lt Gov Dinwiddie, 3 May 1756,
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“I have sent down an Indian scalp, which was taken at the place where Captain Mercer had his engagement. He was found thrust under some rocks, with stones piled up against them. They believe more were killed, from the quantity of blood found on the ground, and from other discoveries of their attempts to make more graves. But a hard shower of rain prevented their making a farther search.”
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Washington knew the whole Mercer family, the father and the sons.
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John Fenton Mercer’s brother, George Mercer, was Washington’s aid de camp at Fort Loudoun. Their father, John Mercer, was George Washington’s lawyer and a founding member of the Ohio Company of Virginia.
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Back to the story of Daniel Morgan’s wound :
Click on the picture to enlarge. Notice the line above Daniel Morgan’s lip. That’s the wound. The bullet entered the back of the neck crashing through some teeth in his mouth and exiting above his lips.
About this Portrait: 38 years after the wounding, Charles Willson Peale paints a portrait of “General” Daniel Morgan in 1794, on his way to the western frontier at the time of the Whiskey Rebellion. This painting was thought to be a copy until recent conservation removed earlier overpaint, uncovering the distinctive scar on Morgan’s upper lip. Click on photo to enlarge to see the little cut on under right side of nose going in to lip.
This national park website wrongly states this wound occurred in 1758.
The source of that wrong date comes from James Graham’s 1856 The Life of General Daniel Morgan, pages 32 – 34, who based much of his information from Reverend William Hill’s notes, who was pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Winchester VA and who was a friend of Daniel Morgan. Hill compiled extensive notes but never followed through with a published biography. Don Higginbotham, in his book, Daniel Morgan Revolutionary Rifleman , published 1961, stating that Graham “confuses the time and place of the event.” Graham did not have access to John Mercer’s letter to Washington 17 April 1756.
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Questions:
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How do we know Mercer’s letter to Washington 17 April 1756 refers to Daniel Morgan?
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And how do we know this phrase, “and the other returned here wounded in the Neck, but no ways dangerous” in that same letter refers to Daniel Morgan and his neck-mouth wound?
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According to this site, a listing of Daniel Morgan’s name is on a return Ashby submits to Washington:
Morgan is listed on “Weekly Return of the 2nd Co. Of Rangers Stationed at Sellars’s Plantation on Pattersons Creek under Command of Capn John Ashby 29 Dec 1755″, in the Library of Congress GW Papers.
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See this link referencing Virginia Military Records. showing Daniel Morgan’s name.
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More follow up on this later. Stay tuned.
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And about the STORY itself that led to Daniel Morgan’s wound?
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Although James Graham, in his book published 1856, may have gotten details of the dates wrong, he had direct access to the notes from the minister who was the contemporary friend of Daniel Morgan who recorded the stories he heard as it were from the “horse’s mouth.”
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So we cannot ignore all the details. Take a moment to read this story.
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