David Hoggard, Jr.
(Bertie County)
Featured Character – Divided Allegiances
Confederate Deserters in the Mountains
Courtesy of Pictorial War Record, October 27, 1883
On August 28, 1863 conscription officers, frustrated with the lack of cooperation from the county residents, visited the Jernigantown (now Elm Grove) community of Bertie County. According to tradition, having already shot at three men whom they had spotted running away to avoid recruitment, they came upon the ninety-acre farm belonging to thirty-three-year-old David Hoggard, Jr., his wife of ten years, Mary E. Jernigan Hoggard, and their six children. Hoggard was not there, but on a subsequent visit, the officers came upon him while he was working in his fields. When Hoggard tried to evade them, he was shot and killed. The officers brought his body back to the house and gave Mary a musket to defend herself now that she had no husband to defend her.