Madison County Genealogical Society

Minutes of the Meeting – November 8, 2018

The November 2018 meeting of the Madison County Genealogical Society was held at the Edwardsville Public Library on Thursday, November 8, at 7:00 pm.

President, Robert Ridenour, called the meeting to order.

GIFT MEMBERSHIPS AVAILABLE

Do you have a family member that is interested in (or even obsessed with) genealogy? A membership in the Madison County Genealogical Society would be a very thoughtful gift. A gift card will be sent to the recipient of any gift membership.

The following memberships are available:
Individual/Family Annual Membership $25.00
Patron Annual Membership $35.00
Life Membership $300.00

Contact our Secretary, Petie Hunter, at [email protected], about a gift membership.

November Meeting

 

 

On November 8, 2018, Jim DeGroff presented a program titled The Battle of Guilford Courthouse. Jim and his wife, Lola, had recently traveled to the area of Guilford Courthouse for a reunion of Lola’s family.

 

First I will talk about the visit to the battle site. For those of you who know my wife Lola, she had many relatives in North Carolina that fought in the Revolutionary War. We went to a family reunion and, since I was a member of the Sons of the American Revolution, I got to be in the color guard. They were putting a marker on the grave of one of Lola’s ancestors – Captain James Outlaw. There is a little story that goes with that. Lola’s brother found out that his grandmother’s maiden name was Kann. Then she got married and became an ex-Kann. Later he found out that his 4g grandfather was James Outlaw. When he was in grade school, Lola’s brother told the teachers that his grandparents were ex-Kanns and Outlaws. Of course, that got him sent to the principal’s office. Anyway, we went to my wife’s family reunion and we met Dana Outlaw, who is the mayor of New Bern, North Carolina. We were in New Bern the week before the recent hurricane and flooding.

 

Two of Lola’s relatives were William Whitfield II, and William Whitfield III. The story was that they were buried right next to the Neuse River, which overflowed as a result of the hurricane and all the rain. While Lola and I were there, she wanted to find the grave of her 4g grandfather. We went to this little town called Seven Springs. We went all over the town and stopped at a little grocery store and talked to a couple ladies. I asked if they knew anything about a little cemetery where the Whitfields were buried. They said no, but there is a Civil War cemetery right down the road to the left. We found it and thought what has this to do with anything? It is a Civil War cemetery. I went out into the middle of it and there was a big plaque there that said this had been a shipbuilding location. They built ships there during the Civil War and launched them on the Neuse River. The Neuse River flows into the Atlantic, so from North Carolina they could use these ships to attack the northern ports.

 

I was in the cemetery that had been a shipyard and I thought this is not the right place. I looked over toward a house with a small field grown up in high weeds. I walked over in that direction and found a low concrete wall about 20 feet square around two stone plaques with engraving on them: William Whitfield II and William Whitfield III. The Whitfields had, at one time, owned the land where they were buried and where the shipyard had been located. We found out that William Whitfield II designed a town when it was being developed; it was called New Bern.

 

After the grave marking for James Outlaw, we went down to Moore’s Creek, which is very close to the Atlantic. There was a battle there that was the first battle where the Americans beat the British. The Americans and British were on opposite sides of the creek. The British were not regular soldiers but Loyalists. The British saw only about six or seven Americans. During the night, the Americans took the bridge apart and greased the remaining beams. The Loyalists could not get their artillery across and even had trouble getting across on foot. The Americans caught them in a crossfire and killed almost the entire Loyalist group. Only one American died in the battle, John Grady, who also happens to be my wife’s relative.

 

From there, we went to Guilford Courthouse. At the time of the Revolutionary War, the courthouse was in the country. Today the courthouse is in the center of downtown Greensboro, North Carolina. If you ever get the chance to visit that area, I would recommend that you go.

 

The Americans lost the Battle of Guilford Courthouse, but the British lost almost a quarter of their troops involved in the battle and they began wondering if it made any sense to continue the fight against the American revolutionaries. The British soldiers were almost to the point of mutiny — they were fighting for a salary, but the Americans were fighting for liberty.

 

[At this point, Jim showed a video about the Battle of Guilford Courthouse. The sound track is not transcribed here because of copyright considerations.]

 

One of the things that I thought was interesting in the video was the animosity between the Continental Soldiers and the Militia. I did not realize it was quite as bad as it was; they did not think they were very professional and ran off, etc. The other thing that got to me was that I never knew was the Quaker families took care of both the British and the Americans. There was a lot to be learned by this story. A quarter of the British soldiers were killed in the Battle of Guilford Courthouse. That is when the British started thinking “Can we really afford to keep fighting like this?” Within a very short time, Cornwallis surrendered to the Americans at Yorktown.

 

This presentation was very well received and provoked many questions and comments.

 

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