Contributed by Pam (Benson) Wade.

Letter by Irene Munch. This story was originally added by Patrific1971 on 10/31/2013. Click on "View original" at lower-right for larger look.

Contributed by Margaret Boyce Miotto of Charlottesville, NC.

From "Echos of the Civil War" by Orie Munch, continued.

But the war years were not happy and peaceful ones. The stories I used to hear “old timers” tell convinced me that Silas was smart to leave home when he did. Fort Valley is a beautiful and peaceful place in which to live these days, but during the war it was a dangerous place. This little valley, hemmed in by mountains on both sides became a refuge for both Union and Confederate deserters as well a lot of thieves and outlaws. Persons like Silas Munch, who was known to be out of sympathy with the average member of the community, were safe targets for anyone out to work mischief, if the “old timers” were right, there were mischief makers abroad in those days. Locals called them “bushwhackers.” These men usually moved in small groups, Many were the guerillas who killed Silas’ neighbors. Some of them. may have been fanatics out to punish Union sympathizers, but some were evidently outlaws who survived by preying upon farm families.
Whatever the explanation and for whatever reason, it was reported by those who lived through those days that a guerilla band killed a man named Tasker who lived in the upper end of the Valley, and that the same, or a similar gang, apprehended two Ritenour brothers, Samuel and John, near their home and shot them. Samuel was killed, but John was shot through the neck and merely knocked unconscious. However, he was presumed dead, and was buried, with his brother, under some brush in the woods near their home. John eventually revived and managed to crawl home, where his wife treated his wound with spider webs and nursed him back to health.
The case of Absalom Clem provides an insight into the motivation and behavior of at least one of those bushwhacker gangs. The gang showed up at the Clem home and told Absalom that they had come to take him to serve in the army, but they also told him to take all the money he had because he would need it. Under such pressure there wasn’t anything Absalom could do but obey. But the gang was not after recruits. When they got Absalom away from the house and into the woods, they shot him and took all his money. His body was found by friends several days later.
Apparently many bodies were not discovered. My grandfather, Jacob Munch, when he was about 16 years old, was plowing a piece of land beside Passage Creek one day when he stopped to remove a pile of driftwood that had collected along the Creek. Under the pile he found a man’s leg. He was afraid to tell anybody because in those days those who “knew too much” might end up in a shallow grave so he just plowed the leg into a furrow and kept quiet.
Alter the war, a Mr. Veach, who operated a grist mill in the Valley, also had a stomper in which he crushed bones for fertilizer. Some of the bones that he picked up, or that were brought to him, were human bones. He refused to crush those, but he collected them in a pile by themselves, mute reminders of foul play.
The war days were dangerous days in Fort Valley.