William Henry Fitzhugh Payne

[Old Bay]

William Henry Fitzhugh Payne
(January 27, 1830 – March 29, 1904)

Courtesy of VMI.edu


Pre War

"Billy" was born in Fauquier County, Virginia to Arthur Alexander Morson Payne and Mary Conway Mason Fitzhugh, at their homestead, known as Clifton. He was their eldest of six children. Payne could trace his lineage back seven generations to the arrival of John Payne in 1620. He and his family were considered well bred, having members serve with distinction in civil and military duties. He was a distant relation of George Washington.

He attended the Virginia Military Institute from 1846-1847. He was dismissed from the school after a year, but later was named an honorary graduate in 1873. His expulsion was due to a charge he and several other classmates made, on horseback, of a parade formation of other cadets. This was done to show the superiority of cavalry over infantry, a thought he held all throughout his life.

Payne studied law at the University of Virginia and established a law practice in Warrenton in 1851. The following year, he married his cousin, Mary Elizabeth Winston "Molly" Payne on September 29; the couple would have ten children. He served as the Commonwealth's Attorney for Fauquier County from 1856 until 1869, unless away for military service, and several instances where he performed these civil duties while convalescing from wounds.

 

[Old Bay]

War Years

Payne was one of the founding members of the Black Horse Troop (later Company H, 4th Virginia Cavalry). There was talk in Warrenton dating back to 1856 for a formation of a militia unit of the finest sons of the county. At a dinner in 1858, the forming of the militia unit was again discussed and the following day the Black Horse Troop was formed, with John Scott elected as captain. Payne enlisted as a private when the company was mustered into service on April 21, 1861, and participated in the capture and occupation of Harper's Ferry. On April 27, he was promoted to captain of the Black Horse Troop. He was well liked, his good humor and bravado as his most striking characteristics with his men.

Payne took part in First Manassas (July 21, 1861), leading the famous charge that routed the11th New York (Fire Zouaves). He led his company into Centreville shortly thereafter and claimed sixteen Federal guns; personally presenting them to Jefferson Davis. This action placed Payne and the Black Horse Troop in distinction and were then assigned as Joseph Johnston's bodyguard. The company would gain this same distinction under Robert E. Lee as well. Payne was promoted to major on September 21, 1861 of the newly formed 4th Virginia Cavalry.

In a rearguard action at Williamsburg (May 5, 1862), he commanded the 4th Virginia (due to Colonel Beverly Roberson's illness and Lieutenant Colonel Williams Carter Wickham's wounding). Payne was severely wounded, shot through the jaw. He was left on the field, assumed dead, and captured by Union forces. He was then exchanged a couple of months later after his wife, Molly, found him in a hospital and convinced Federal authorities that her husband would be unable to continue active military participation.

Payne returned to duty with promotion to lieutenant colonel on June 27 and temporary command of the 2nd North Carolina Cavalry while he was healing at home in Warrenton. This body of troops defended Warrenton in several small skirmishes after Second Manassas (August 28-30, 1862) where nearly 3,000 Confederate wounded were located. In November of that year, Payne was ordered to a hospital in Lynchburg because of his unhealed wound. The 2nd North Carolina went into winter quarters there.

In February 1863 he rejoined the 4th Virginia and held temporary command for a month until Wickham could resume command. The 4th Virginia and 2nd North Carolina took part in in the action at Kelly's Ford during this time. Afterword, Major General Fitzhugh Lee commented: "Lt. Col. Payne, unmindful of his former dreadful wound, used his sabre with effect in hand to hand conflict." Once Wickham resumed command, Payne then returned to command of the 2nd North Carolina.

Colonel Sol Williams returned to command of the 2nd North Carolina on June 8th but was killed in action on the next day at Brandy Station. Payne continued his command of the 2nd and participated in Stuart's Pennsylvania raid until June 30, 1863 at the Battle of Hanover where he was again wounded (a saber cut to his side). After his horse was shot from under him, he fell headfirst into tanning liquid (made mostly of horse urine) and again captured. He was taken to Johnson Island, Ohio as a prisoner and exchanged later, after many months of captivity.

He was promoted to full colonel in January 1864 and took command of a brigade consisting of the 5th, 6th and 15th Virginia Cavalry regiments. He led this brigade in Jubal Early's 1864 Valley Campaign.

He was promoted to brigadier general on November 1, 1864. After the valley campaign, Payne and his brigade were transferred to Richmond. Payne's brigade then consisted of the 5th and 6th Virginia and the additional commands of the 8th Virginia Cavalry and 36th Virginia Cavalry Battalion (the 15th having been absorbed into the 5th due to losses). He led his brigade during the final stages of the siege of Petersburg.

During the Battle of Five Forks, on April 1, Payne was again wounded. He was sent to Richmond for recovery. He was unable to rejoin his brigade after the evacuation of Richmond and evaded capture, returning to Warrenton. During the evacuation, Payne's promotion to major general (and division commander) was lost and never became official.

He was captured on April 13 and taken to Washington, DC. He was mistaken for the implicated co-conspirator in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln who had used the name Payne, and was almost overtaken by a mob intent on hanging him. He was quickly locked away in the Old Capital Prison before the attempt was made good and he was later paroled in June.

 

[Old Bay]

Post War

After the war, in his personal papers, he wrote how he lamented JEB Stuart's use of cavalry. Payne was a proponent of the use of heavy cavalry and the charge against infantry. He said he regretted nothing but his capture at Hanover. He believed this time lost in prison (along with the aforementioned enlistment as a private) was a major reason he did not achieve the rank of major general.

Payne remained an unrepentant secessionist, making note that he had always cared more deeply for Virginia than the Union. He penned a poem titled "A Good Old Rebel" expressing his feeling on the matter:

I am a good old rebel and that's just what I am,
For this so called land of freedom' I do not care a ****,
I'm glad I fit agin it, I only wish we'd won,
And I ant gwine ax no sardine, for anything I've done!​

After his time as Commonwealth's Attorney for Fauquier County ended in 1869, he became general counselor for the Southern Railway Company in Washington, DC and was noted as a fine orator. He died in Washington, DC at the age of 74, and buried in Warrenton, Virginia. Members of the Black Horse Troop, as well as Fitzhugh Lee, served as his pallbearers.

Fitzhugh Lee stated after Payne's death:

He was a most courteous and chivalrous gentleman, idolized by all who knew him. There was no office, political, or otherwise, that Virginia could have conferred upon him he could not have had merely by holding out his hand. There was no Virginian of his day and generation who surpassed him in any of the qualities that combine to make up an all-round soldier and citizen. ​

Another man, William R. Helm, a trooper in the Black Horse wrote following the death of Payne:

Oh death thou are indeed a thief
To steal away from us so great a man;
Our idolized, beloved leader,
The pride and boast of our command.
He was a man, take him for all in all.
We ne'er shall look upon his like again.
Peaceful be thy slumbers and happy thy eternity.​

From findagrave.com user Janet Greentree

 

[Old Bay]

Bibliography

Confederate Military History, Volume III

Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography, Volume III – Under the Confederacy— Department Officers, Members of Congress, and Military and Naval Officers

Findagrave.com

Lewis Marshall Helm, Black Horse Cavalry Defend Our Beloved Country (Higher Education Publications, 2004).

Lynn Hopewell, A Biographical Register of the Members of Fauquier County Virginia's Black Horse Cavalry, 1859-1865(Warrenton, VA: Black Horse Press, 2003), Unpublished.

Edward Longacre, The Cavalry at Gettysburg: A Tactical Study of Mounted Operations During the Civil War's Pivotal Campaign, 9 June-14 July 1863 (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1993).

Eugene M. Scheel, The Civil War in Fauquier County (Warrenton, VA: The Fauquier National Bank, 1986).

VMI.edu

 

[Tom Elmore]

Payne attended the University of Virginia as a law student in the 1848-1849 session. (Students of the University of Virginia, A Semi-centennial Catalogue).

 

[Old Bay]

Interesting how short of a time it took to get a law degree compared to now. I saw some information that he attended the University of Missouri as well but didn't see enough evidence to prove it with any accuracy.

 

[Drew]

Good job, Old Bay. An interesting character to be sure. I'll think about this and ask some questions later on.