Tragedy in the Shenandoah Valley:

The Story of the Summers-Koontz Execution
By Robert H., II Moore
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Try to meet me in Heaven where I hope to go.

These poignant words were written in the summer of 1865 by twenty-year-old Confederate Sergeant Isaac Newton Koontz, in a letter he penned for his fiancee just hours before his death at the hands of Union firing squad in the heart of Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. The execution of Koontz and Captain George Summers came after the surrender at Appomattox Court House, and remains one of the most tragic yet little-known events of the Civil War.

One month prior to kneeling on the hard ground to face their deaths, Koontz and Summers, along with four other Confederate soldiers, stole horses from a Union troop stationed near their home. Soon after the theft, the young men--remorseful and goaded by their fathers to uphold their honor--returned the horses and were offered a pardon by Union Colonel Francis Butterfield. The rebs returned home, free of mind and clean of conscious. All had been forgiven. Or so they thought.

As the sun crept over the horizon on June 27, 1865, Union soldiers--under new command--swarmed the family homes of Summers and Koontz in a swift raid and arrested the two bewildered men. They were told that their pardons were no longer valid, and later that same day they were tied to a stake and shot with Union muskets--no trial, no judge, no jury.

Before their deaths, Summers and Koontz were allowed to write farewell letters to their loved ones, and these heartrending documents serve as the basis for Robert Moore's insightful recounting of the Summers-Koontz execution. An experienced Civil War writer and a direct descendent of Koontz's fiancee, Moore brings this shocking story to life with a clarity that will appeal to Civil War experts and enthusiasts alike. Exhaustively researched and well written, Tragedy in the Shenandoah Valley tells one of the great and largely untold stories of the Civil War.




Monument InscriptionCaptain George W. Summers and Sergeant Newton Koontz, Company D, 7th Virginia Cavalry, were here executed on June 27, 1865, by order of Lt. Col. Huzzy [sic] 192 O.V.M.I., without the privilege of any kind of trial, they having been arrested at their homes in Page County, brought here and shot.



Restoration of the Summers-Koontz Civil War Monument, located just off U.S. 11, about midway between Mt. Jackson and New Market, Virginia, on the west side of the road. Re-dedication ceremony is planned for June, 2009, says the Shenandoah County Historical Society.

Legacies of Olustee Florida

Pictures of the Confederate monuments at the Battle of Olustee site, about fifteen miles east of Lake City, Florida. There are 14 of them.

This first batch shows two individual monuments subsequently implaced. The words ought to be legible enough. In another batch, the words on a stone slab on the monument might not be so I will transcribe the words.

Sincerely,
Jimmy L. Shirley Jr.





These show the Noble Banner of the South in place on three locations. The one with the regiments name, this band surrounds the bottom of the monument which also includes the yankee regiments involved. I show this one because my wife's GGGrandfather, James Monroe Davis, was a private in the 19th Georgia Volunteer Infantry Company E and was wounded in the thigh by a Minie ball. She likes to say that her DNA was shed on that battlefield.

Sincerely,
Jimmy L. Shirley Jr.


This is the second batch of pictures. The words in picture #VI reads thusly, "TO THE MEN WHO FOUGHT AND
TRIUMPHED HERE IN THE DEFENCE
OF THEIR HOMES AND FIRESIDES,
THIS MONUMENT IS ERECTED
BY THE UNITED DAUGHTERS
OF THE CONFEDERACY AIDED
BY THE STATE OF FLORIDA
IN COMMEMORATION OF THEIR
DEVOTION TO THE CAUSE OF
LIBERTY AND STATE SOVEREIGNTY

MCMXII
The words on #VII reads thus, "THE BATTLE OF OLUSTEE WAS FOUGHT
ON THIS GROUND
FEBRUARY 20 1864
BETWEEN 5000 CONFEDERATE TROOPS
COMMANDED BY GENERAL JOSEPH E. FINEGAN
AND 5000 FEDERAL TROOPS UNDER
GENERAL TRUMAN SEYMOUR
THE FEDERALS WERE DEFEATED WITH
A LOSS OF 2000 MEN
THE CONFEDERATE LOSS
WAS LESS THAN 1000.
The Jackson Flag is always hoisted during the reenactment during Colours on Saturday and on Sunday. I suspect the rest of the year that flagpole is empty. But, I could be wrong. I think not, though.



These show the Noble Banner of the South in place on three locations. The one with the regiments name, this band surrounds the bottom of the monument which also includes the yankee regiments involved. I show this one because my wife's GGGrandfather, James Monroe Davis, was a private in the 19th Georgia Volunteer Infantry Company E and was wounded in the thigh by a Minie ball. She likes to say that her DNA was shed on that battlefield.

JACKSON GRAVE

While I was in Washington, I drove down to Lexington, VA. and attended services at Lexington Presbyterian Church and sat where "Stonewall" did when he attended church there. Below is a picture of his grave near the church.

Just as "Stonewall" said if the Shenandoah Valley is lost the war is lost, we today face the same challenge with food production hanging in the balance as our lifeline. The Army of Northern Virginia depended on the food production from the valleys farms to sustain them.

The U.S. has almost destroyed its family farms and will ultimately destroy itself as a Nation.

Thanks to:

Clyde Magee
SCV
Rosin Heels Camp
Mississippi

Southern Legacy in Bonnie Scotland

GREETINGS FROM BONNIE SCOTLAND
Just thought you would like to see the new stone that I had made for Col. R A.Smith
The old sandstone monument was getting harder to read.
His stone is one of the main talking points on the official tours round the Dean cemetary in Edinburgh
There will be a dedication later in the year.
All the best from Bonnie Scotland
BILL BROWN 43rd NC.
SCV MURFREESBORO CAMP #33
CSA UNKNOWN SOLDIERS CAMP#1753.
Widows Sons Mess. FRIENDSHIP 1712 Edinburgh, Scotland
email
Bill.brown@blueyonder.co.uk




Colonel Robert Alexander Smith.