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Separate Lives, Shared Misery: A Look at Two of the “Immortal Six Hundred” Part I
Had it not been for the Civil War, Barney Cannoy and Junius Hempstead would have continued living in separate worlds, but a Union general’s obsession brought them together in one of the war’s most infamous imprisonments.
Part I: Soldiers, 1860-1864
Autumn 1860
Among the students entering the Virginia Military Institute at Lexington in August, 1860, was a 17-year-old Iowan, Junius Lackland Hempstead.
Blessed with artistic abilities, the young man from Dubuque had won first prize for his marble statuettes in two consecutive years. His work was so impressive that a patron offered to sponsor six years of art education in Europe. However, Junius’s father, Steven Hempstead, declined the offer.
The elder Hempstead had settled in Iowa in 1836 and become its second governer, serving two terms from 1850-1854. In 1855, he was elected as a judge in Dubuque County, a post he was to hold for twelve years. He had, however, spent much of his youth in St. Louis where he studied law. According to his son, he was a “Douglas Democrat” who believed in states’ rights, a position which likely influenced his decision to have Junius schooled in the South, first at Fieldings College in St. Charles, Missouri, then at VMI .
One hundred-forty miles southwest of Lexington, Barney Cannoy labored at the autumnal tasks of farming. Working with his father and younger brothers, he harvested crops, butchered hogs, and chopped wood on the family farm near Elk Creek. When time permitted, he hunted game and fowl in the hills of Grayson County. On November 26, he celebrated his twenty-fourth birthday, his wife and 18-month-old daughter at his side.
Spring 1861 – Spring 1864
Following the election of Abraham Lincoln in November 1860, southern states began withdrawing from the Union. Virginia’s secession on April 17, 1861, triggered a series of events that would draw Cannoy and Hempstead into a shared experience of horror.
Almost immediately, military units formed across the state. In Grayson County, 135 young men, mostly farmers, gathered to form the Grayson Daredevils, officially designated as Company F , Fourth Regiment, Virginia Infantry. A creative captain winnowed the number of volunteers to the requisite 100-man company with a shooting competition requiring each man to fire at a target while running. Those who missed the target or hit its periphery were eliminated. Barney Cannoy, whose family now included a month-old son, earned a spot on the Daredevils’ roster.
On April 24, Cannoy and the rest of Company F left Grayson County for Richmond, the assembly point for troops from across Virginia. From there, they marched to Harper’s Ferry, arriving in mid-May.
The outbreak of the war also disrupted life at VMI. On April 20, most of the cadets were ordered to Richmond to serve as artillery instructors and drillmasters for volunteer units– such as the Grayson Daredevils– congregating in the capital city. Despite his northern nativity, Junius Hempstead shared his father’s view of states’ rights, took his cadet oath to support Virginia against her enemies seriously, and remained at the Institute where he was among forty-seven disappointed cadets left to guard the school’s small arsenol.
Hempstead’s frustration at being left behind was short-lived, as he and ten other cadets were soon detailed to escort five gunpowder-laden wagons from Lexington to Harper’s Ferry, a distance of 150 miles. Like the Grayson Daredevils, the cadets marched to Harper’s Ferry. Upon their arrival, the commander of the First Brigade appointed them drillmasters. He was Thomas Jonathan Jackson, who had been one of their instructors only a few weeks earlier.
Hempstead was assigned to Company F, Fifth Virginia Infantry. It, Cannoy’s Fourth Infantry, three additional regiments, and an artillery battery comprised the First Brigade, Virginia Volunteers. Within weeks they would have their first battle experience, and after helping to secure a Confederate victory at First Manassas in July, both Jackson and the brigade carried the Stonewall sobriquet.
Over the next two years, both men participated in major battles in Northern Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. Hempstead transferred to the 25th Virginia Regiment and was appointed Third Lieutenant on August 14, 1862. At the Second Battle of Manassas two weeks later, he suffered a shoulder wound which apparently kept him absent from duty until March of 1863. He saw action at Gettysburg in July, later writing “When my cadet comrade Capt. Blankenship lost his leg at Gettysburg, I was made Captain.” Official records, however, state that he was simply the “Acting Commander,” and a member of his company wrote that Hempstead lacked “the sense to drive a lot of ducks to water,” adding ” [t]here is not one in the company that likes him. . .”.
Cannoy, who remained with the Stonewall Brigde, escaped being wounded, although he was hospitalized twice, having contracted typhoid in the fall of 1861 and pneumonia the following spring. On December 31, 1863, he was elected Second Lieutenant.
In March of 1864, Abraham Lincoln elevated Ulysses Grant to supreme commander of all Union armies. Two months later, Grant moved the 120,000-man Army of the Potomac into Virginia, hoping to engage the rebel army in open country south of the Rapidan River.
Robert E. Lee, however, had other plans. Rather than meet Grant in the open where his 66,000-man Army of Northern Virginia would be easily defeated, he opted to entrench his troops in the Wilderness, a wooded area crossed by streams and choked with underbrush that caught fire when the two-day battle began on May 5. Later, Junius Hempstead wrote, “I was wounded and captured on the 5th of May 1864. Our regiment charged into Gen’l Sedgwick’s Corp [sic], and was captured.”
Despite having 17,666 Union troops killed, wounded, or missing in the Battle of the Wilderness, Grant continued to push south toward Spotsylvania Court House. Lee’s army arrived at the crossroads community first, and a fierce 11-day battle began on May 8. Four days into the relentless contest, Barney Cannoy was captured at Spotsylvannia.
Barney Cannoy
Both Cannoy and Hempstead were sent to Fort Delaware, a United States prison camp on Pea Patch Island in the Delaware River. Their days in armed combat were over, but soon the vindictive obsession of U. S. Major General John G. Foster would turn every day into a battle for survival.
Please also read
Part II: Prisoners, 1864- 1865
Part III: Civilians
Hoping to see the rest of this 3 part series soon!
Thanks, Billy. I’m working on it.
In your research, did you ever come across Peter Cannoy? He was Barney’s brother – service at one time in the 4th Va. and the 37th Va. Cavalry.
Jim,
I am aware of Peter Cannoy but know little about him. He and Barney’s first wife were sisters. Several years after the war, he and his family moved to Wytheville, and the Elk Creek relatives seem to have lost track of him.
Are you a descendant of Peter? If you have any information about him, I hope you will share it.
Pat
Peter was in the 4th with Barney, but was awol after being wounded at Kernstown. However, I once saw a personal account (can’t remember the specifics) in the library in Independence, VA. that noted him with the unit towards the end of the war. He also shows up on the rosters of the 37th Virginia Cavalry Btn.
He died in 1903, I believe. I have been to his gravesite in Wytheville. It is out in a field and has a CSA tombstone. An old cousin of mine lived very nearby, but has since passed.
Peter’s son, James Kenley moved to Saybrook, Ill. His son, and my grandfather, Wiley Cannoy moved back to Virginia around 1930 and settled around Tazewell. My father was born there.
Jim
Jim Please contact me. I have all the information you’re looking for with source documents as proof. Peter Preston Cannoy was my Great/Great Grandfather.
I was happy to read this article as Barney B. Cannoy holds a special place on the wall of my mancave. You see, his ggggranddaughter is my domestic partner and as a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, I am proud that both Rebecca’s ancestor and mine served such an honorable cause. I dig as much information on our families as possible so that we might pass this knowledge and pride down through the continuing generations of my family. I look forward to reading more!!!
Glad to hear from you, Rick, and to learn that you and Rebecca are honoring your Civil War ancestors. If you visit the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg, PA, I hope you will look for the brick in the Virginia section of the sidewalk with Barney Cannoy’s name on it. My husband and I had it placed there several years ago. How is Rebecca descended from Barney? Were your Civil War ancestors also from Virginia?
My name is Lee Parsons, my mother is Jane Parsons n her maiden name is Coomes. My grandmother Marie Coomes (Cannoy), was the daughter of John Cannoy of Grayson County Virginia. To the best of my knowledge, John Cannoy is the son of Barney Cannoy.
Hello, Lee. I always enjoy hearing from a member of the Cannoy clan. You are correct in thinking that Barney Cannoy had a son named John. That man was John Calvin Cannoy, born 1866, died 1949. However, he was not your direct ancestor. His older brother, George Washington Cannoy (b. 1861; d. 1941) had a son named John Garland Cannoy (b. 1890; d. 1977), and you are this man’s direct descendant. He married Sophia Cedella Hackler; they had nine children, including your grandmother Dora Marie (b. 1922) who married Hubert Coomes. John Garland Cannoy moved from Virginia to Pennsylvania at some point and has descendants in both areas. The Cannoys were fond of the name John. Barney’s father was John V. Cannoy, and he (Barney) had a younger brother named John Churchwell Cannoy who moved to Kentucky following the Civil War.
Barney Cannoy was my great, great grandfather on my dad’s side. In doing my genealogy research I’m having difficulty finding death information on Barney’s father and mother, John V Canoy and Eva Hackler. What I do have states they died the same year but I don’t have definitive dates or cause. From what I understand the grave sites are unmarked. Can you help?
I had no idea that one of my ancestors were part of the famous 4th Virginia Regiment let alone one of the “Immortal 600” as they were called. Thank you for sharing your research. I look forward to reading more!
Carol, I will see if I can learn anything to help you.
My name is Angela Smith, maiden name is Angela Marie Cannoy. My father’s name is Charles Edward Cannoy. My grandfather’s name is John Garland Cannoy, my great-grandfather’s name is George Washington Cannoy and my great-great-grandfather’s name is Barney B. Cannoy. I just happened to stumble upon this article tonight, and I find it fascinating! Any information I can find on my great-great-grandfather and the roll he played in the history of this great country is so intriguing to me. Obviously, I never knew Barney, but I feel a strong kinship with him through any and all information I can find on the internet. I’m very proud to know he’s my descendent, and of all he went through in service to our great country!
Thank you, Angela. My grandmother (whom I never knew) was Laura Jane Cannoy, born to Barney and his second wife, Margaret Perkins. Therefore, she was a half sister of your greatgrandfather. Following her marriage to John Whitaker, she moved to Illinois and later to Iowa. I think she was able to visit Elk Creek once or twice, probably in the 1930s; she also made a trip to Oregon about the same time to visit her other half brother, John Calvin Cannoy, of whom she was very fond (they were 8 years apart in age). I have been fortunate enough to visit Elk Creek and meet many relatives who gave wonderful tours of the area and the cemetery at Elk Creek. I’d love to more about your part of the family tree, if you care to share.
Dear Pat, this is continued correspondence to our Previous conversation.
My Grandmother Dora Marie Cannoy had The following siblings
Charles, Stewart, Ray, Bill, Nora, Virginia. Barney was/ is My GGG Grandad. Becky n Angy my 2nd cousins, I met n have photos of each of my uncles and am close to all my Cannoy ratings Hope This Might help you updating your database.
Thank you for this information. My apologies for such a late response. For some reason, you post went into a junk folder. I do remember seeing Dora in some of the materials I have.