Pocahontas County

                                                                              June 27, 1940

                                                                        Chapter 4 Section 4

                                      NANCY HART THE CONFEDERATE SPY SPENT

                                         HER LAST DAYS IN POCAHONTAS COUNTY

          In Roane County, during the Civil War, was a band of Guerillas who were

 

not regular soldiers and to this band belonged Perry Connelly. Many deaths

 

were blamed to him and it became a matter of prime importance with the Union

 

Forces to get rid of Connelly. To this same band belonged Nancy Hart. She was

 

a girl in her twenties, black eyed, of medium height, of modern education, very

 

attractive and very beautiful. She was a Confederate bred in the bone. She was

 

the eyes of this local army. Connelly's death caused the little army to disintegrate

and the soldiers found their way into the regular Confederate Army, but Nancy Hart

continued to be as great service to the army as a spy.

Her Grave at Richwood

 

Her Hatred for Union Soldiers

 

Family Genealogy

 

Captured

 

     She was captured and held as a spy in the jail at Summersville. After a time the

soldiers guarding her grew careless and underestimated the danger of their charge.

 

She was allowed some freedom about the jail yard, and she talked freely to the

 

soldiers. One night she approached on of the Sentinels and engaged him in

 

conversation. She was allowed to examine a pistol he carried. When she secured

 

the pistol she shot him and made her escape. She fled to the mountain wilderness

 

and she was not taken again.

 

     Nancy Hart married Joshua Douglas, and they settled in the great mountain

 

wilderness around the head of Spring Creek and but for one more tragedy she

 

rounded out a peaceful and contented life in her mountain home.

 

     In 1880 the County rang with the news of the killing of Thomas Reed by Kenos

Douglas. Douglas lay in a laurel patch for five weeks in the dead of winter, but

 

was captured and given a life sentence. Kenos was son of Josuha and Nancy

 

Hart Douglas. This is the story of a heroine of the Civil War.

 

 

 

 

                                                   From---1926 the Blue Book

 

                                                          By: Andrew Price

 

     ( I have made considerable inquiry about this woman and as near as I could

 

find out she lived in Pocahontas County and the Reeds lived in Greenbrier, and

 

for the reason the trial was held in Lewisburg.)

 

 

 

                                                     John Brown In Pocahontas

 

      John Brown of Harper's Ferry brought wool into this County in the 1850's.

 

He spent Sunday in Marlinton. Held family prayer but did not kneel. He sat in his

 

chair talking to God. He was a deeply religious man who would not travel on

 

Sunday.

 

                                                     From the--1926 Blue Book

 

                                                            By: Andrew Price

 

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