Two That Survived "The Burning"

[James N.]

Alfred Waud's drawing of Custer's Division retiring from Mount Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley, Oct. 7, 1864.

October 6 is the anniversary of the beginning of the devastation wrought by Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan's Union Army of the Shenandoah, particularly its cavalry arm, in the wake of the twin victories over the Confederate army led by Lt. Gen. Jubal A. Early at the battles of Third Winchester and Fishers Hill in September, 1864. Sheridan pursued Early as far as the vicinity of Staunton and when he began his withdrawal he ordered his cavalry commander Brig. Gen. Alfred Torbert to lay waste to the Shenandoah Valley slaughtering livestock and destroying crops, barns, and gristmills in an action still known to locals as The Burning. Today although many fine homes remain, most of which have been lovingly restored, there are few period barns or mills which survive. This thread will concentrate on two of the fortunate few.

Spengler's Old Mill Tavern and Grill

Now a restaurant at the south edge of the town of Strasburg, Virginia, this former gristmill on the North Fork of the Shenandoah River survived for the pedestrian reason that it was used by Sheridan's troops to grind meal for their own use. One legend to the contrary claims it was spared because of an attachment for a daughter of the owner by one of the Union officers charged with burning it, but this is merely a romantic notion.

The interior on the second floor remains a dark and secure place, even retaining the loopholes cut into its massive walls when the threat of Indian attack on the Virginia frontier was still a very real possibility!

Soldier's names remain faintly visible on the rafters of this second-floor room and supposedly also in the milling room below. The mill was caught up in the flight of Early's army from the Battle of Cedar Creek fought nearby a little to the north of Strasburg on Oct. 19, 1864. I had visited almost twenty years previously and talked with the then-owner of the restaurant and promised to send her information I had concerning this episode in Greg Urwin's biography Custer Victorious. Imagine my pleasant surprise to discover on the walls among many other articles and clippings the Xerox copy I'd sent showing a sketch by artist-correspondent James E. Taylor showing Brig. Gen. George Custer leading his men against Early's rearguard with the mill featured prominently in the background!

Across the Valley Pike, now U. S. 11, stands the house used as the home of the miller; the more imposing brick Spengler House stands on the hill a little to the south of this.

 

[James N.]

The Breneman - Turner Mill

The Breneman-Turner Mill was built by Abraham Breneman about 1800 in a far more remote part of the Shenandoah Valley on Linville Creek, standing near what is now Virginia State Route 42 a little distance north of Staunton. It wasn't its location that saved it however, since Torbert's wide-ranging cavalry came even this far in their incendiary quest. It was members of Brig. Gen. George Custer's division that operated here in the western part of the Valley, while Brig. Gen. Wesley Merritt's men concentrated along the Valley Pike.

Another local legend has it that although some of the troopers or their officers found these destructive deeds distasteful, when they arrived here on Oct. 6, 1864, they still carried out their orders to the letter, igniting a fire within the mill despite pleas by the miller's wife. Once the flames were lit the cavalrymen hastily departed with the comment, "We're done now", giving enough time for their work to be quickly suppressed, though according to the Civil War Trails marker smouldering embers set it alight once again and it had to be rescued by a hastily assembled bucket brigade!

Like Spengler's Mill at Strasburg, the miller's house below stands just across from the mill itself in order that customers needed to wait only a short time for their grain to be processed. During the war this was home to 70-year-old George Shaver and his 77-year-old wife Hannah, who it was that plead for the survival of the mill. The last owner of the mill was J. Howard Turner, who operated it from 1933 to 1988; it's open seasonally for tours and corn-grinding demonstrations.

Below, a view from nearby in the Appalachian Mountains which form the western boundary of the Shenandoah Valley.

 

[Yankeedave]

lifes funny Spangler farm is more commonly associated with gettysburg. and the the terrain in the area of the last photo we paved this summer. We pave 10 miles a year on the blue ridge park road, its in our contract. i spend my part of my summers on top of the blue ridge over looking over so much to the east and west.

 

[James N.]

lifes funny Spangler farm is more commonly associated with gettysburg. and the the terrain in the area of the last photo we paved this summer. We pave 10 miles a year on the blue ridge park road, its in our contract. i spend my part of my summers on top of the blue ridge over looking over so much to the east and west.

Then this one will probably be familiar to you too; I don't remember exactly where I was when I took either of these, but from Staunton I drove west to Franklin, W. Va. to follow the route of Jackson's pursuit of Milroy after the Battle of McDowell.

 

[Yankeedave]

it would seem that you are looking back across the valley.

 

[James N.]

A small copy of another drawing by artist-correspondent James E. Taylor showing Union foragers in the Shenandoah Valley led by Brig. Gen. Wesley Merritt, mounted at left.

 

[Yankeedave]

so many times so many men swept back and forth and the valley continued to produce so much.

 

[Anna Elizabeth Henry]

Another saved mill was the Endinburg Mill located in Endinburg not far from Mt. Jackson. It too is accompanied by a local legend of how it was spared the torch of Sheridan's men. The granddaughters of Major Grandstaff begged the general to spare the mill as their grandfather had fought in the Mexican War and Sheridan gave them a note to rush back with to save the mill. Upon returning to the mill they already found up in flames, the townspeople formed a bucket brigade and only one beam was burnt. Today the mill still stands as a restaurant and museum.

 

[James N.]

Illustrative of the sort of legends combining at least a little truth and a now-uncertain amount of embroidered romance are these two handouts I picked up at the former Spengler's Mill, currently the Old Mill Grill. As I stated previously, legends to the contrary, it seems the mill was spared because the Federals decided simply to put it into use for themselves; its location was convenient to many of their encampments during the war years. The story about it serving as a "fort" for troops during the Civil War is preposterous, though at the time of its supposed construction, once-common Indian raids would've remained a memory for the older original settlers. The story related below sounds even more fanciful, but possibly a grain - pun intended! - of truth remains in it as well.

 

[Dave G]

I don't remember exactly where I was when I took either of these

For sure, the 2nd (and probably both) was at the site of Fort Edward Johnson, a few miles east of McDowell.