Abstract
This book is written not to glorify the North or the South during the divisive Civil War but simply to reach an understanding of why John Arnold Edwards, the author’s great-great grandfather, served in the Confederate Army, specifically Company E, 15th Virginia Cavalry. He was born in Pennsylvania and grew up in Methodist parsonages throughout Pennsylvania, Baltimore and Washington, D.C. He was the second of nine children of Rev. Dr. William Balthrop Edwards and Elizabeth Alexander Sommerville Edwards. William Balthrop was born in in King George County, Virginia, and was a Methodist minister for 57 years, under appointment to the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. It is through the Minutes of the Annual Conferences of the Methodist Episcopal Church and letters William Balthrop penned to his wife that we learn of William Balthrop’s antislavery and anti-Southern stances. Despite that, John Arnold joined the Confederacy while his parents and siblings stayed north and prospered. This book includes much about his father’s ministry, division within the Methodist-Episcopal Church, and conflicts over slavery. The author discovers that John Arnold attended Edwards Academy, later called Piedmont Academy in Fauquier County, Virginia. It was there that he received his formal education under his uncle, Francis Marion Edwards, principal of Edwards Academy. When the Civil War broke out, most of the students joined the Confederacy. John Arnold’s first cousin, Waite Sommerville, joined the Union Army. Both lives ended tragically. Prior to the Civil War, John Arnold married his second cousin, Rose Emma Edwards, in King George County, moved there, and was schoolmaster at Mt. Hope, which became his family homeplace. He was wounded during the Bristoe Campaign at Brandy Station, near Culpeper, Virginia, October 11, 1863, and died from those wounds in the Linwood House in Richmond, January 17, 1864. The proprietor of the Linwood House was John Arnold’s friend, Malcolm “Mac” Wallingsford, a clerk for the Confederate Army and a SPY. John Arnold was survived by two children: Maggie and George, who remained in King George. Many of their offspring live there now. Interestingly, in 1865, John Arnold’s father was one of five members of the Methodist denomination who planned a D. C. memorial service for President Abraham Lincoln.