The Cloyds of Cloyd's Mountain

This passage on page 46 in McManus' history of the 1864 Virginia and Tennessee Railroad Raid, The Battle of Cloyds Mountain, led me to wonder if the Cloyd men who occupied two homes near the base of the mountain survived the war:

Surgeon Neil F. Graham of the Twelfth Ohio Infantry "recognized a need for more adequate shelter, and found James M. Cloyd’s residence with several verandas and two large end chimneys overlooking the battlefield, and, about a mile southwest of the battlefield, the home of Maj. Joseph Cloyd. These homes became the hospital, and the medical staff labored through the night."

Both men did outlive the war. I searched Ancestry.com and found James McGavock Cloyd (1828-1892), who acted as a Confederate scout and courier before the battle. Major Joseph Cloyd (1813-1884) acted as a purchasing agent for the Confederate government.

A Squirrel in Combat

In researching the Battle of Cloyds Mountain (May 9, 1864), I am reading Howard Rollins McManus' excellent volume on the subject. Page 9 includes an excerpt taken from the papers of James M. Comley in the Ohio State Historical Society in Columbus. It refers to breaking up winter camp and the liquidation of accumulated items before the May 1864 raid on the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad that culminated in the action on Cloyds Mountain:

"Extra clothing and bedding, cooking stoves, banjos, tamborines, stove pipe hats, fishing tackle, sidesaddles, rowboats and sailboats, pet raccoon, game cocks,...and one solemn looking blinking old owl, comprise a few of the extras disposed of to the highest bidder...One of the men carried a pet squirrel all through the raid."

The fate of this Southern squirrel in federal captivity was not revealed. Nor was his allegiance.