Pierpont visits VA battleground: A WV Sesquicentennial Moment
By Beth Vorhees and The WV Division of Culture & History
June 11, 2012 ·
On a June 13, 1862, trip to Yorktown, Norfolk and other recent battlegrounds, Gov. Francis H. Pierpont suggested rounding up as many slaves as possible to perform all the necessary labor at Union encampments.
After
all, Pierpont argued, that’s what the Confederacy was doing and it was helping
to keep their soldiers fresh for duty on the battlefield.
He was
particularly worried about Union soldiers having the energy to fight when they
had to do so much physical labor, according to a letter published in the New
York Tribune and the Wheeling Intelligencer.
Pierpont
was talking to several congressmen who joined him on an excursion by steamer
and rail from Washington, D.C., to recent scenes of interest in the campaign of
the peninsula.
Pierpont
also demanded that every house, horse, mule, cow or chicken should be used to
provide aid and comfort to Union soldiers.