White Flint Bill
Sergeant
- Joined
- Oct 9, 2017
- Location
- Southern Virginia
On June 25, 1864, Federal cavalry under the command of General John Wilson seized the Mulberry Hill plantation, making it their headquarters for their planned assault on the Staunton River Bridge, which was about a mile to the south. With her husband and sons off in Confederate service, Mrs. John McPhail was head of household at the time.
Pressed by the Federals for information about the Confederate defenses, Mrs. McPhail told them that there were at least 10,000 Confederate soldiers defending the bridge and that reinforcements were steadily arriving. In fact, there were only 938 defenders, and 642 of them were local old men and young boys armed with squirrel guns or whatever else they had on their farms.
Mrs. McPhail wasn't lying. The tricks Captain Benjamin Farinholt had employed to mislead the attackers had fooled her too. Farinholt, age 25, had been assigned to defend the post after making his way back to Virginia, having escaped from a prison on Lake Erie, where he was sent after being wounded and captured at Gettsyburg. Realizing that he was greatly outnumbered, even after he had summoned all the local boys and old men with guns, Captain Farinholt had empty trains make a continuous loop to the bridge, as if unloading reinforcements. Each time another empty train arrived, the men would shout huzzahs as if welcoming newly arrived soldiers.
Farinholt's tactic were successful. Wilson proceeded cautiously, and when they attacks came the next day, he assumed he was being resisted by a much larger and better equipped force than the one he was actually facing. After several charges, the Federals were finally repulsed and withdrew. The vital railroad connection over the Staunton River was saved.
Mulberry Hill was built by Judge Paul Carrington in the 1730s. Carrington had served prominently during the Revolution and afterwards was a member of the General Assembly and an appellate judge. Today Mulberry Hill is a registered Virginia Historic Landmark.
The story may be apocryphal, but supposedly after a Federal officer found young Donald McPhail crying because the raiders had stolen his pony, the officer gave the boy this sword, which is now displayed in the museum and the Battlefield.
Bringing the