Lasts week’s story we were given insight into the life and death of Ensign John McCorkle and his wife Rebekah Anderson (McNutt) McCorkle. This week I want to share with you a letter written in 1903 from the Honorable William Alexander McCorkle of Charleston, West Virginia to William A. Anderson in Lexington, Virginia.
William A. McCorkle (1857-1930) was born near Lexington, Virginia and was the great-grandson of Ensign John McCorkle (1738-1781) and his wife Rebekah Anderson (McNutt) McCorkle. He graduated from Washington and Lee University and practice law in Charleston, West Virginia. He was elected the 9th Governor of West Virginia in 1893 and served for four years. Later he was elected to the State Senate. He was also founder and President of the Citizens National Bank of Charleston.
William A. McCorkle is writing William A. Anderson (1842-1930) his father’s (William McCorkle) third cousin enquiring about his great-grandfather and how he had met his death.
William A. Anderson was the son of Judge Francis Thomas Anderson. William was wounded in the knee at the First Battle of Manassas during the Civil War. He later graduated from the University of Virginia and became an attorney. He was elected to the State House of Delegates and was President of the State Bar Association. He was known as the “Lame Loin of the Confederacy.” This was due in part to his stiff knee which was the result of the wound he suffered during the war and the fact that he was one of the last of the Civil War veterans in politics. The Anderson and McCorkle family ties started in 1755 when Rebecca Anderson McNutt (her mother was Catherine Anderson and her uncle was Robert Anderson) married Ensign John McCorkle.
The following is a copy of the letter:
Nov. 28, 1903. Hon. W. A. MacCorkle: Charleston, W. VA
My dear Sir: It was a pleasure to me to receive your kind letter of the 17th inst., and I gladly give you all the information I have about the interesting subject to which it refers. All that I know about it was learned from my father and uncles.
My grandfather, Colonel William Anderson, (1764-1839) died several years before I was born. When a mere youth, he volunteered in a company from Botetourt County, was in the battle of Cowpens and other engagements, under Generals Morgan and Greene, and served through that Southern campaign in 1780-1781. He was a first cousin of your great grandfather, Lieutenant John MacCorkle’s wife (Rebekah Anderson (McNutt) McCorkle) (1785-1820) your great grandmother, but some years his junior. Both Lieutenant MacCorkle and his brother-in-law and my father’s first cousin, Lieutenant or Ensign Robert McNutt, spent the night at my great grandfather’s (Robert Anderson) (their uncle’s) home, as their company from Rockbridge was passing through
that portion of Botetourt County on their way to join the army of the South, sometime in the year 1780. My grandfather, (Colonel Wm. Anderson) who was his father’s oldest son, was exceedingly anxious to join his cousins and go with them to the war. He was only about seventeen years of age, and as his father was frequently called from home to meet the Indian raids, (Botetourt County being then almost upon the frontier), his parents felt that they could not safely allow this stalwart son (he was over six feet in height) to leave them; and they considered that he was too young (vigorous and endured to hardships as he was) to encounter the exposure to which the Continental troops were necessarily subjected. They earnestly opposed his request, but he was so importunate that, two days after the Rockbridge Company had continued its march across the Blue Ridge mountains, towards North Carolina, they finally yielded to his importunity, and he struck out alone, through what was then largely a wilderness, and in due time joined his relatives and afterwards the Botetourt Company under the command, I think, of Captain Bowyer, some time before the battle of Cowpens, and was in that battle, as also was the Rockbridge Company. In that battle, Lieutenant MacCorkle was wounded in the foot, (other places said the wrist) and was carried, with those of Morgan’s troops who afterwards participated in the battle of Guilford, to that vicinity, and there died of lock jaw, and was buried at or near Guilford, whether before or after that battle, I am unable to say. My grandfather was, of course, present at his funeral. Many years afterwards, perhaps as many as forty, a man, whom my grandfather did not at the time recognize and who I think was named Lemon, came to him and asked him to certify to the fact that he (Lemon) had served with the Botetourt Company in that fight, so that he might obtain a pension. My grandfather could not recall him, but Lemon told him he could mention certain incidents that would satisfy him that he (Lemon) was with the army of General Greene, and was at the battle of Cowpens and at Guilford. One of the incidents Lemon mentioned to him was that, at the battle of Cowpens, General Morgan commanded his troops not to fire until he gave the order, and then to aim at the knee buckles, which were conspicuous upon the knees of the British soldiers. A young man in the Botetourt Company, before General Morgan gave the order to fire, had leveled his rifle and was taking aim at the British, who were then rapidly approaching General Morgan’s lines, and were then in point blank range. General Morgan cursed this young soldier, asking him “what in hell” he meant by violating his orders; and the young soldier, with tears running down his cheeks, said, “General, I’m not going to fire; I’m just taking good aim.” This man Lemon told my grandfather that he (Lemon) was this young soldier. My grandfather remembered the incident distinctly, and perhaps, and then recalled that the man’s name was Lemon. Mr. Lemon told my grandfather that, afterwards, at or near Guilford, he (Lemon) was present at the funeral of Lieutenant MacCorkle, and that, when the body was being let down into the grave, the coffin caught upon a root, or some other obstruction, so that the coffin could not be properly lowered into position. My grandfather remembered the occurrence distinctly; and upon these and other statements made to him by Mr. Lemon,
was so convinced that he must have been at Cowpens, and in the Botetourt Company that he felt justified in signing, and did sign, his certificate.
I received the history of these occurrences more than once from my father, (Judge Francis Thomas Anderson) and from my uncle, John T. Anderson, and I think also from my uncle, Joseph R. Anderson; and I have no doubt that my cousins, William Glasgow, Miss Rebecca Glasgow, Mrs. Kate Paxton, Miss Margaret Glasgow, and Colonel Archer Anderson, or some of them, have repeatedly heard the same account from my uncles, or from my aunt, Mrs. Catherine Glasgow. Cousin Rebecca and her brothers and sisters were double kin to Lieutenant MacCorkle, and probably learned other incidents as to his history and heroic services, which were not communicated to me. He was one of the immortal band, who, under General Morgan, achieved the great victory at Cowpens, an event which contributed as much to break the force of the invasion of the Southern States as any other, except King’s Mountain. Cordially yours, William A. Anderson.
The record states that “In 1781, John MacCorkle was severely wounded at the battle of Cowpens, and died. He was buried with military honors. Colonel William Anderson referred to it as the first burial he ever witnessed with military honors. Colonel William Anderson was a first cousin of Rebecca, John MacCorkle’s wife.”
This letter is just one example of how family’s histories are conveyed from one generation to the next. Sometimes much is added or even lost in the verbal telling of the tales of long ago loves, war and the daily woes of life.
This article was written by Joyce Wilson.
