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Who
Was William H. Chapman?
During the American Civil War, William Henry
Chapman rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel in the 43rd battalion of
Virginia cavalry, known as Mosby’s battalion. As second-in-command to the
Confederate partisan leader John S. Mosby at the end of the war, Chapman was
the man who arranged the meeting of Mosby with Union General Winfield Scott
Hancock, which led to the disbanding (but not the surrender) of the rangers
at the war’s close. He had a distinguished military career and a long record
of fine service in civil pursuits following the war.
William Henry Chapman grew up in Luray, Page
County, Virginia. Prior to hostilities he was a student at the University of
Virginia.
At that
time, the students of the University were organizing themselves into their
own regiment known as the “Southern
Guards”. The governor of Virginia,
however, disbanded the unit and told them to go
home and help organize local military units. Chapman went back to Luray and
called on a local inventor named John Kaylor Booton to help organize an artillery
battery that would be known as the "Dixie Artillery". Later, John Booton was
elected to the state legislature and Chapman was elected Captain of the
"Dixie Artillery".
As battery commander, Chapman fought at the
Seven Days, Second Manassas, and Sharpsburg before his command was
consolidated with other units in October 1862. Made a supernumerary by this
action, he served as a recruiting officer until given charge of a company in
Mosby’s command. Operating behind Union lines, it was highly disruptive of
Union communications. When the battalion was increased to a regiment,
Chapman became its lieutenant colonel. He met with Hancock after Lee’s
surrender to arrange the Mosby meeting mentioned earlier. Chapman himself
was paroled at Winchester, Virginia, on April 22, 1865.
On February 26, 1864, Colonel Chapman was
married to Miss Josephine Jeffries. Miss Jeffries was a resident of Fauquier
County, living just north of Warrenton at "Edgehill", the family farm. The
minister who was to officiate was captured on the way to the wedding and
another was hastily procured. Later that same day Federal troops arrived but
Colonel and Mrs. Chapman had left on their brief honeymoon.
John Mosby helped President Grant win
re-election in 1872 and as a result was able to suggest several of his close
associates for posts in the federal government. It was during this time that
William Henry Chapman went to work for the United States Revenue Service.
During the years that followed he was assigned to posts in numerous locales,
including Alexandria, Virginia, northern Georgia, San Francisco, California,
and Greensboro, North Carolina.
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One newspaper account states that Chapman began
his duties with the Revenue Service in Greensboro and was stationed here at
four different periods during his career. In January of 1916, The Greensboro
Patriot newspaper reported: "Col. Chapman is perhaps the oldest man in the
service of the internal revenue department, both in years and in length of
service. He is 76 years old and for half his life, or 38 years, has been a
revenue agent . . . Col. Chapman is remarkably active and vigorous for a man
of his years."
Following his
retirement from the revenue service, William Henry Chapman made his home in
Greensboro. The announcement of his death described him as a "distinguished
Confederate veteran and prominent citizen" of Greensboro. Lt. Colonel
Chapman is buried in Green Hill Cemetery in Greensboro. |
Photo courtesy of the Lt. Col. William Henry Chapman Society
Headstone of Lt. Col. William Henry Chapman in Green Hill
Cemetery, Greensboro, North Carolina.
Click on the stone above for a larger image. |
Sources:
Sifakis, Stewart. Who Was Who in the Civil War. New York, NY: Facts
on File Publications, 1988
Greensboro Patriot, January 20, 1916
Greensboro Daily News, September 6, 1929
Greensboro Daily News, September 7, 1929
Correspondence with David Roha, June 2006, great-grandson of William H.
Chapman.
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