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  1. SUBJECT:

    2. Sheridan’s Orders to Burn Dayton, Virginia.

  2. LOCATION:
  3. DATE:

    4. During the War Between the States.

  4. OWNERS:
  5. DESCRIPTION:

    6. On Sheridan’s devastating raid up the Shenandoah Valley and the death of General Meigs by bushwhackers, General Sheridan ordered the inhabitants to move their personal property to fields and the houses burned. General Custer’s army occupied the forty-acre orchard of the Coffman family, near the suburbs of Dayton. The Coffmans lived in a brick house. Their belongings had practically all been carried out of the house by soldiers, when General Custer, searching a bureau drawer, found a Masonic apron, neatly folded. Upon inquiry he was informed by Mrs. Coffman that the Masonic apron belonged to her husband, who was a Confederate soldier. Upon learning this, General Custer ordered the soldiers to carry the belongings back into the houses, and the town of Dayton was saved.

  6. HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE:
  7. ART:
  8. SOURCES OF INFORMATION:

Informants: Mrs. Nancy Boyers, Keezletown, Virginia.

Mr. Joe Shrew and Mr. Fishback, Dayton, Virginia.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

August 10, 1937 W.A. Byerly

Bridgewater, VA