Murder of Nancy Anderson Cypert

CSA Today

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
Honored Fallen Comrade
Joined
Dec 3, 2011
Location
Laurinburg NC
1561374581240.png


"John William Cypert was only four years old when he witnessed the murder of his grandmother, Nancy Anderson Cypert. In 1862, during the Civil War in Searcy County, the boy and his grandmother were home alone when they had unexpected company. As John hid in the barn, he watched as a group of men in Union uniform dismount their horses and approach his grandmother. They demanded she relinquish her valuables. When she did not comply, they restrained the old woman and tortured her. They pulled her fingernails out one by one with a bullet mold. After they robbed the house of all the food and everything of value, they torched it with Nancy inside. John William watched helplessly as flames engulfed his home and the only mother he had ever known. -Tina Lewis Johnson"
 
As a side, I was in NC, (near Jacksonville) this past weekend. Got home last night. Them NC mosquitoes are like raptors...! :D

Love the area though. Beautiful. Saw lots of tobacco growing in the fields, & plenty of old farms.

I stopped by the CSS Neuse museum on my way home but, it was closed :frown:
 
This is so terrible, no matter who did it. I went to look her up and found quite a few references to her. Apparently she was very well thought of and had a number of children named after her in the area. One of the articles I read did point out that it was men wearing blue uniforms but they thought it was bushwackers. Another article mentioned that the surviving boy grew up to hate Northerners, which is natural enough if he believed that's who did it.
 
As a side, I was in NC, (near Jacksonville) this past weekend. Got home last night. Them NC mosquitoes are like raptors...! :D

Love the area though. Beautiful. Saw lots of tobacco growing in the fields, & plenty of old farms.

I stopped by the CSS Neuse museum on my way home but, it was closed :frown:
Many North Carolinians consider the mosquito the state bird. :wink:
 
Reading through the different versions of who may have killed Nancy, the fact that the barn wasn't searched again (to me) shows that her farm had been raked through before and they knew there was nothing there or they would have raked through that barn.
 
Reading through the different versions of who may have killed Nancy, the fact that the barn wasn't searched again (to me) shows that her farm had been raked through before and they knew there was nothing there or they would have raked through that barn.
They may have been drunk as loons, too.
Lubliner.
 
@CSA Today do we know if she was a random victim or was there a reason behind such an attack on an elderly woman? No matter who did it, I believe they should have been executed, but I'm curious what brought them to her farmstead.

There was nothing usual about plundering a farmstead, but murdering a woman was.
 
It couldn't have been Yankees. They never did anything like that. Without video evidence, & a signed confession, this is just hearsay... :whistling:
Or "taken out of context." :sneaky:

I'm sure there were men (and women) on both sides of the war who were capable of committing heinous crimes. This murder was certainly heinous. However, the account below does make a strong case for "Bushwackers" and not Union soldiers.

140855562_1420326710.jpg
 
Terrible story but unfortunately all too common in civil wars and in fact in any war. Thank you for posting her story and keeping her memory alive.
I have been over to Searcy county many times, actually I go on a yearly golf trip to Fairfiled Bay, and attest to the beauty of the countryside.
Regards
David
 
If you've read as many diaries of Southern women as I have there are plenty incidences where Yankees torched the homes of women and children during their occupation of the town. No actual deaths but "threats of death" while putting women of all ages and their young children out on the street with nothing but the clothes on their backs.
 
I'm sure there were men (and women) on both sides of the war who were capable of committing heinous crimes. This murder was certainly heinous. However, the account below does make a strong case for "Bushwackers" and not Union soldiers.

I read the whole thing on the findagrave page.

A strong case for bushwhackers..? Not sure I can come to the same conclusion. I wonder when she wrote this account. It doesn't say.

Though, she claims he told her this story 63 years after the fact. She says, he claimed they were wearing Union Soldiers uniforms.

It reads as if the bushwhacker claim, is speculation on her part. Hard to say. Would love to see more information. I'm sure a 4 yr old could distinguish the difference between a Blue uniform, & a Grey one but, I seriously doubt a 4yr old could tell the difference between actual soldiers vs hooligans masquerading as soldiers. Especially watching in terror, something as horrific as your Grandmother being tortured, & killed.

My point is, I don't see a STRONG case for bushwhackers. Looks like the facts (according to an eye witness) are, she was tortured, then murdered by men in Yankee uniforms. The rest seems speculation many decades after the fact.
 
Okay, I'm really confused - how do you tell the difference between actual soldiers vs hooligans masquerading as soldiers? I doubt I could tell the difference between real uniforms vs. bits and pieces of real uniforms put together if a gang of men ganged up on me other than the color.

And... what happened to bushwhackers? Did some just melt away back into the community or what when the war ended? Would a community let them?
 
I read the whole thing on the findagrave page.

A strong case for bushwhackers..? Not sure I can come to the same conclusion. I wonder when she wrote this account. It doesn't say.

Though, she claims he told her this story 63 years after the fact. She says, he claimed they were wearing Union Soldiers uniforms.

It reads as if the bushwhacker claim, is speculation on her part. Hard to say. Would love to see more information. I'm sure a 4 yr old could distinguish the difference between a Blue uniform, & a Grey one but, I seriously doubt a 4yr old could tell the difference between actual soldiers vs hooligans masquerading as soldiers. Especially watching in terror, something as horrific as your Grandmother being tortured, & killed.

My point is, I don't see a STRONG case for bushwhackers. Looks like the facts (according to an eye witness) are, she was tortured, then murdered by men in Yankee uniforms. The rest seems speculation many decades after the fact.

Agree "They may have been soldiers, but were probally not" isn't much a strong case for anything...……..

In Missouri and Arkansas, it could have Union or Confederate soldiers, Guerrilla's affiliated to either, or simply deserter outlaws from either....but not seeing a strong case for any in particular.

The strongest case could be made for Union soldiers, based on uniforms, Guerrillas or outlaws did often wear captured uniforms, but they often wouldn't be all uniformed, plus in 62 they wouldn't have had the opportunity to acquire enemy uniforms that they would later in the war
 
Last edited:
Back
Top