The Burning of Fountain Rock and Bedford July 19, 1864 - Shepherdstown Va.

Over a million words of footnoted content
https://web.archive.org/web/201908291...

This is, to my mind, the most powerful, moving and eternal day in all the history of Shepherdstown. Leaving the homes in ashes told the story of the Boteler family - today Morgan's Grove and the home of the Lees (the father was an elderly first cousin to Robert E. Lee). They were instructed by Capt. Franklin G. Martindale that they were to remove only the things they could carry. Since Boteler was a direct descendant of Charles Willson Peale, who painted George Washington, there could well be ashes remaining that were once one of Peale's paintings. It stunned me, in my deepest research on an old soldier's home in California when my eyes beheld a document from the file on Franklin G. Martindale's death: "cause: arsenic taken with suicidal intent." Oh may this and that day of the 19th in July, 1864 in Shepherdstown forever be one. Here also is the full text of the story from the one million word website I created called Civil War Scholars, that today can only be found in the web archive Everything is first-hand account in their own words. The memory of the listening will always be with you, as it abides with me. JS
https://web.archive.org/web/201907100...
Profound thanks to Terry Tucker, for her arrangements and performance; Ardyth Gilbertson and Homer Speaker and Rob Perks for videotaping all three presentations and the dear, inspiring folks of the Black Box Theater