behind AotW

Two young farmers from Lancaster, PA, Abraham and Noah Zook, went to Mississippi in 1866 and invested more than $3000 in a cotton plantation near Vicksburg in partnership with local men, Sharpsburg survivor Cyrus Lafayette Broome and his brother(s) Elliott and/or William (all also known by Brown).

The Zook brothers were found to have been murdered about 1 November 1866, probably by the Broomes, who sold the crop, took the proceeds, and fled the area. No one was arrested or charged in the case.

I couldn’t find Cyrus L Broome/Brown in the US Census until 1900, when he is listed as a livestock commission agent in Crockett County, TX. All 6 of his children were born in Texas, between 1868 and 1881, so it’s reasonable to believe he did in fact go to Texas as early as 1866.

The murders and lack of justice in Mississippi was exciting news in Pennsylvania. So much so that Governor John W. Geary made a request for action to the State Legislature in March 1867:

The Zook clipping above is from the Shippensburg News of 26 January 1867.

The text of Governor Geary’s statement is from the Memphis Daily Post of 26 March 1867 (touch to enlarge).

18 year old Benjamin David Hennington enlisted as a Private in Company C, 16th Mississippi Infantry in April 1861. He survived a wound at Sharpsburg in 1862, by then a Sergeant, was appointed 2nd Lieutenant in 1863, and was wounded again and lost his sword at Spotsylvania Court House, VA in May 1864.

In 1913, James R. Woods, who had served in the 6th US Cavalry during the Battle of the Wilderness [sic], put an advertisement in the Times-Picayune of New Orleans seeking to return to its rightful owner a sword he had picked up during the fighting. He was able to identify the Confederate soldier by the name and unit engraved on the scabbard: “B.D. Hennington, 16th Mississippi.” Apparently Woods was successful in his efforts, for Hennington proudly posed for this portrait holding his long-lost sword.

This photograph was contributed to the FamilySearch database by J.K. Walters.

The sword’s story is from Jeff T. Giambrone in his Remembering Mississippi’s Confederates (2012). He credits Larry and Gayle Van Horn for the picture. Gayle posted a fine bio sketch of Hennington on her genealogy blog in 2008.

From the New Orleans Daily Picayune of 29 October 1862, online from Newspapers.com, casualties among the troops of the 16th Mississippi Infantry at Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862:

I’ve looked into each of these names and improved the roster of men I have for the regiment in Maryland in 1862.