Harrellsville
(Hertford County)
Featured Character – The Home Front
"Union Troops Looting a Plantation," Drawn by James E. Taylor, 1888
Courtesy of Corbit, D.L., Pictures of the Civil War Period (State Department of Archives and History 1958)
In areas such as Harrellsville in Hertford County, Union troops destroyed all necessary provisions for survival for Confederate troops and local civilians. In January of 1864, Harrellsville lost between 150,000 and 200,000 pounds of pork, 270 barrels of salt, 10,000 pounds of tobacco, 32 barrels of beef, and other goods that were originally stored for Confederate troops. They also took a number of horses, mules, wagons, and prisoners. Though dangerously outnumbered, 31 Confederate soldiers under Captain Hillary Taylor advanced upon the enemy, causing them to withdraw in fear to their gunboats. Though the Union Army was driven off, the supplies lost that night were greatly needed and irreplaceable.