An eyewitness to history

Josef W. Rokus, Contributing Writer
Published: May 1, 2008

At about 8:30 p.m. on May 2, 1863, Pvt. David Joseph Kyle, 9th Virginia Cavalry, delivered a dispatch to Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson from Gen. JEB Stuart. Jackson’s bold flank attack at Chancellorsville was fully underway. It resulted in a major Confederate victory and a triumph for Gen. Robert E. Lee, and Kyle became an eyewitness to history when Jackson was fatally wounded by his own troops. He was a local boy who lived near Chancellorsville before he enlisted and who became a farmer at Brandy Station after the war.

The Kyle family before the Civil War
David Kyle’s grandfather, originally from Ireland, settled in Rockingham County, where David’s father, Joseph, was born in 1801. Joseph Kyle married Catherine Bolen, and they moved to Mobile, Ala., where David was born on Dec. 17, 1843. Catherine became the head of the family upon David’s father’s death in 1849, when David was just five years old.

The eight Kyle children endured another major family tragedy when their mother died on Sept. 17, 1855, when David was only 11. After her death, David went to live with his aunt, Caroline Dowdall, at Dowdall’s Tavern, near Chancellorsville. He was uprooted again two years later when Caroline’s husband, Peter Dowdall, died, and the tavern was sold to the Chancellor family. In 1859, the Rev. Melzi Chancellor, a minister at the Wilderness Baptist and Salem Baptist churches, moved to Dowdall’s Tavern, and the tavern operation ceased. Chancellor lived there during the war, but the building was destroyed by fire in 1869. The site was covered by the new eastbound lanes of Route 3 in the 1970s.

Upon Peter Dowdall’s death, David Kyle moved in with his sister, Catherine, who had married Oscar Bullock. The Bullocks lived on a 300-acre farm at the intersection of Bullock and Ely’s Ford roads, just north of Chancellorsville. Their house was destroyed during the war, and Oscar Bullock, who had enlisted in July 1861, died about three years later.

David Kyle in the Civil War
David Kyle enlisted on April 25, 1861, in Fredericksburg as a private in Co. E, 9th Virginia Cavalry, and in October that year he was detailed as a courier. He was reported as “Absent, sick” in January/February of 1862, and he became a courier for Gen. W. H. F. “Rooney” Lee a few months later. In February 1864 he was paid $550 for a horse killed in action, and a month later he was reported as “Absent in arrest.” He was also treated in a Charlottesville hospital for scabies for four months in 1864. Finally, the last entry in his surviving military records shows that he was “Present” as of October 1864.

David Kyle’s regiment fought in the following engagements: The Seven Days, Gainesville, Second Manassas, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, Dumfries, Rapidan Station, Brandy Station, Upperville, Hanover, Gettysburg, Williamsport, Funkstown, Culpeper Court House, Bristoe Station, Mine Run, The Wilderness, Todd’s Tavern, Richmond, Petersburg and Appomattox.

Kyle was probably still with the 9th Virginia Cavalry in early 1865 because the unit’s January 1865 report listed 659 men. As surrender loomed, most of the Southern cavalry took advantage of their mobility to slip away. Consequently, the names of only 24 men from the unit appear on the Appomattox parole list. Presumably, Pvt. Kyle was among those who headed home to avoid being taken prisoner. His gravestone reads, in part, “He served in the Confederate army four years.”

Of the 1,815 men who rode with the 9th Virginia Cavalry, 124 were killed in action, while an additional 81 deaths were caused by disease. The regiment also suffered 264 men wounded in action, 266 taken as prisoner, and 21 who were both wounded and captured. In total, 37 percent of the men who served with the unit were battle casualties.

“Stonewall” Jackson’s guide
The following details of Pvt. Kyle’s guide for “Stonewall” Jackson’s at Jackson’s last battle are based on Kyle’s account published in the September 1896 issue of “Confederate Veteran.”

As courier for Gen. W. H. F. “Rooney” Lee, Kyle was sent to deliver a message to Gen. JEB Stuart at about 3 p.m. on May 2, 1863. Because Lee had warned Kyle that the area was “infested with Yankees,” he took a circuitous route to reach Stuart at Ely’s Ford. When Stuart asked Kyle why it had taken him so long to reach him, Kyle explained his reason, whereupon Stuart asked Kyle how well he knew the country. Thomas Chancellor, also a local boy who happened to be nearby, piped up, “He knows every hog-path.” With that reassurance, Stuart sent Kyle out at 6:30 p.m. with a message for Jackson. Stuart added, “If Gen. Jackson wants you for a guide, stay with him.”

When Kyle reached the vicinity of Chancellorsville, Jackson’s flank attack was winding down. Kyle encountered the Rev. Melzi Chancellor at Dowdall’s Tavern, who had just returned from guiding Jackson. With Chancellor’s directions, Kyle soon found Jackson and delivered Stuart’s dispatch. As Jackson read the message, Kyle looked around the area he knew very well, having lived nearby at Dowdall’s Tavern and at the Bullock house. He also saw the dead horses and debris from a charge a little earlier by the 8th Pennsylvania Cavalry.

Jackson then tersely asked Kyle, “Do you know all of this country?” When the young courier replied, “Yes, sir,” Jackson responded, “Keep along with me.” Jackson, accompanied by his staff and Kyle, then rode eastward on the Orange Plank Road (now Route 3) towards Chancellorsville to make a personal reconnaissance before renewing the attack. Jackson’s party soon reached the area where the Bullock, Mountain and Orange Plank roads intersected. Here, Kyle informed Jackson that the Bullock Road ran northeast toward where he had formerly lived, while the Mountain Road tracked parallel to the Plank Road and intersected it again about a half mile east.

Possibly because Jackson was unsure of his new guide’s credentials, he directed Kyle to lead the way on the Mountain Road for about 200 yards. At that point, the general, apparently satisfied, caught up and kept abreast of Kyle. Jackson, who was accompanied by eight men at this point, led the group east for a short distance. They could now clearly hear the sounds of Yankees 200 to 300 yards away frantically throwing obstacles in the way of the advancing Rebels. Jackson then reined Little Sorrel around and started to retrace his route.

Kyle initially rode directly behind Jackson on their return journey. However, after about 75 yards, several mounted men filtered into a gap between Jackson and Kyle, with Kyle keeping pace about 10 yards behind. Suddenly, a shot rang out far to the south, followed by five or six shots nearby, which were then quickly followed by “a large volley, as if from a regiment,” according to Kyle. Jackson was seriously wounded by three smoothbore bullets fired by one of his own regiments. Several men who were in Jackson’s party were killed or wounded, but Kyle was one of four who escaped unharmed. Jackson was first taken to Dowdall’s Tavern and then to the Wilderness Tavern field hospital. There, his left arm was amputated early the next morning.

Kyle accompanied Jackson to the Wilderness Tavern field hospital. He concluded his account with “[The ambulance drivers] drove out on the right of the pike in the field to a hospital tent, where they took Gen. Jackson out of the ambulance and carried him into the tent, which was the last I ever saw of him.” “Stonewall” Jackson succumbed to pneumonia on May 10, 1863.

Pvt. David Kyle’s temporary assignment, which made him an eyewitness to one of the most important events of the Civil War, had come to a sudden and tragic end.

David Kyle after the Civil War
David Kyle married Lucy Julia Fox on Dec. 17, 1867, at “Sunbright” near Brandy Station, and they subsequently had seven children. On Jan. 1, 1868, he bought two acres of land in Brandy Station at the northeast corner of Alanthus and Brandy roads from James Barbour for $200.

He was quite active in Confederate veterans’ affairs after the war. For example, he was still a member of the Confederate Veterans’ camps in Lignum and in Culpeper in the 1890s. Also, the inscription on his gravestone reads: “He served in the Confederate army four years, true to the cause.”

In the 1870 and 1880 censuses David Kyle is listed as being a farmer, and his obituary describes him as “an extensive farmer and businessman.” Because he only owned two acres of land, he may have farmed someone else’s land. He also operated a store, probably with his son David Frank Kyle. An April 1876 Culpeper newspaper article mentions a store owned by him, and the 1900 through 1920 censuses list David Frank Kyle as a grocer.

Kyle’s name appears in an 1871 case before the Southern Claims Commission, a board that considered claims made by Southerners for war damages. His neighbor, George Smith, filed a claim for $2,250 and asserted that he was “bitterly opposed to the war” and that he had helped many people to get North through the lines. However, Kyle testified that Smith was a “strong secessionist” and “proud Rebel,” who often bragged about “whipping the Yankees.” The Commission denied Smith’s claim. After Smith’s death, his son appealed, but the claim was again denied in 1890.

David Kyle died at his home at Brandy Station on Feb. 1, 1900, five days after suffering a stroke while unloading straw at his stable. His obituary indicated that he had served in the Confederate army but did not mention that he had been Jackson’s guide. He was buried in the Brandy Methodist Church graveyard. The church, located on Brandy Road and now dilapidated, became an antique shop after services ended there in 1973.

After David Kyle’s death, the inventory of his personal estate consisted of 13 items and included five cows, one horse, one mule, and several wagons. It amounted to $226.25. His real estate, the two acres that he had bought in 1868, was divided equally among the four surviving children following the death of his wife. Subsequently, three of the children sold their interests to their brother, David Frank Kyle.

David Kyle’s obituary included the following: “Mr. Kyle’s former home was the house in which Gen. Stonewall Jackson died, near Guinea Station, and Mr. Kyle had a number of excellent photographs taken of this historic spot and distributed them among his comrades who revered the memory of the gallant General.” However, this assertion is incorrect.

After Jackson was shot, he was taken to Thomas Chandler’s “Fairfield” plantation at Guinea Station, where he died. The building in which he died was later acquired by the RF&P Railroad, and in 1937 the railroad donated it to the National Park Service. Based on a title search, David Kyle never owned “the house in which General Stonewall Jackson died.”

On Nov. 1, 1902, David Kyle’s wife died, and she was also buried in the Brandy Methodist Church graveyard. Her obituary states, “She never seemed to rally from the attack of grief caused by her husband’s loss and suffered from an affliction of the heart.” Kyle and his wife were re-interred in Fairview Cemetery in Culpeper in 1925 because the family wanted to have all family members buried in the same plot there.

On March 3, 1945, fire destroyed the Kyle homestead, then the oldest house in Brandy Station. David Frank Kyle, David’s son, perished in the blaze. William Douglas Kyle Sr., a son of David Frank Kyle, ended up with the property and built an automobile service station there in the 1950s, which became Jimmy’s Auto Repair in 2007.

After almost 140 years, the presence of the Kyle family in Brandy Station then came to an end.

Josef W. Rokus is a freelance writer and a volunteer researcher for the National Park Service in Fredericksburg. He may be contacted c/o the Culpeper Star Exponent, 471 James Madison Hwy., Suite 201, Culpeper, VA 22701.

145th Anniversary of the Battle of Chancellorsville National Park Service Walking Tours and Programs

May 2
“Chaos in the Night: The Wounding of Stonewall Jackson” at the Chancellorsville Visitor Center (CVC) at 8:00, 8:30, and 9:00 p.m. One hour.

May 3
“Opening Shots - Changing Tide of Battle” at the Day One Battlefield Site, north side of Route 3, 3 miles east of the CVC at 10:00 a.m. One hour.

“You Can Go Forward, Then: Jackson’s Flank Attack” at Tour Stop No. 8, north side of Route 3, 2 miles west of the CVC at 10:00 a.m. One hour. Living history soldiers performing maneuvers and firing demonstrations will supplement the tour.

“Infantry and Iron in the Wilderness: Catharine Furnace to the Unfinished Railroad” at Tour Stop No. 6, 2 miles south of the CVC at 2:00 p.m. 90 minutes.

“Courage Beyond Measure: the Fight from Hazel Grove to Fairview” at Tour Stop No. 9, 1 mile south of the CVC at 4:00 p.m. 90 minutes.

“The Wounding of Stonewall Jackson” at the CVC at 11:25, 1:25, 2:25, and 3:25. 35 minutes.

May 4
“Decoying the Yanks” at Tour Stop No. 4, McLaws Drive, 2 miles east of the CVC at 1:00 p.m. 90 minutes.

“A Soldier’s Story: The Fighting for Fairview” at Fairview, Tour Stop No.10, south of the CVC at 3:00 p.m. 90 minutes.

“The Wounding of Stonewall Jackson” at the CVC at 11:25, 1:25, 2:25, and 3:25. 35 minutes.

May 9
“Stonewall Jackson’s Final Evening” candlelight tour at 8 p.m. at the Jackson Shrine on Route 606, about 15 miles south of Fredericksburg. Take I-95 Exit 118 east.

May 10
“The Wounding of Stonewall Jackson” at the CVC at 11:25, 1:25, 2:25, and 3:25. 35 minutes.

“Stonewall Jackson’s Last Breath” program at 3:30 p.m. at the Jackson Shrine on Route 606, about 15 miles south of Fredericksburg. Take I-95 Exit 118 east.

Please call (540) 373-6122 or (540) 786-2880 for additional information.