Avenel Revisited

On Saturday—D-Day—many Americans went to France to join the thousands visiting the historic site of the invasion. Four thousand other people visited the D-Day Memorial in Bedford.

On Sunday, an American now living in France, and his French wife visited a historic Bedford site because of another war. This time, the site was Avenel—the old Burwell plantation; the war was the Civil War.


Avenel wasn’t crowded. Volunteer Annette Allen, historian June Goode, a young intern from the Bedford Bulletin (accompanied by her mother who took pictures), and I were the only ones present besides the visiting couple.

June, me, Annette, & Farrar

Avenel wasn’t open to the public on Sunday. But it was open to us, and Annette—a wealth of information about the history of the place—gave us a tour. Here's why:

In 2006 Farrar Richardson, an American living in Bordeaux, France, was researching information about his great grandfather, Henry Brown Richardson, a Confederate officer and the son of a Maine abolitionist minister. Richardson knew that his ancestor had been wounded in the battle of Sharpsburg and had been hospitalized in Bedford, Virginia, and had visited Avenel while in Bedford.

When Farrar googled Avenel, my blog popped up because I’d blogged about doing a reading at Avenel with fellow Lake Writers. He e-mailed me to ask if Avenel might have been a hospital; I contacted Bedford historian June Goode, whose book Our War, was Lettie Burwell’s diary that covered a portion of the Civil War. Avenel hadn’t been a hospital. I also told him about another book that picked up where Lettie’s diary left off—Lucy Breckenridge of Grove Hill, by Mary Robertson. While LT. Richardson was referred to in both books, neither Lettie nor Lucy identified him by first name. Mary Robertson assumed the Lt. Richardson from Louisiana was Lt. Frederick Richardson, who was killed at Gettysburg. But she was wrong—it had to have been Henry. Both Lettie and Lucy left enough clues for us to make that assumption. Plus Henry Brown Richardson, who joined the Tensas Rifles while he was working as a engineer in Louisiana, eventually became a Virginia soldier under General Averill. Henry Brown Richardson was wounded at Gettysburg and eventually imprisoned at Johnson’s Island Prison, where he received a message from a mysterious "R" at Avenel.

Anyhow, Farrar and his wife recently came to America and visited some places that Henry had been—Gettysburg, Sharpsburg, and Avenel. At Avenel, June and I were finally able to meet the person we only knew through e-mails.

Before they arrived at Avenel, the Richardsons
(flanked by June and me) had stopped at the D-Day Memorial.

Annette gave us a tour and showed us the rooms where Henry would likely have been. She also showed us rooms where he wouldn’t have been (and a few places where most visitors don't go) and told us how the house had changed during remodeling.

Henry would have entered the front of the house where the drive circles.


He wouldn't have come in this side, which faces what is now called Avenel Street, and what most people think of as the front:


Perhaps he passed these boxwoods near the circle. They look very old, so maybe they were here then:


He would have entered by this door:


Then he would have walked into the hallway.


Perhaps Lettie and her sisters might have watched from upstairs.


Perhaps he would have sat and visited in this room, which was later used as a bedroom. Both Mrs. Burwell (Frances Steptoe Burwell) and her daughter Lettie died in this room:


Most likely he visited in the adjacent parlor to the right. He probably didn't go upstairs, so he didn't see what is now called the Lee Room (Robert E. Lee once stayed there):


And he certainly didn't go into what is now called the Pink Room:

Can you see the little orb at the baseboard? This room is one that's haunted.

Another view of the pink room.

Perhaps he noticed this portrait of Mrs. Burwell:


Or this one of Mrs. Burwell's mother, Mrs. Steptoe:


He wouldn't have seen this painting. It didn't exist then. And the wraparound porch was added later.


Did he ever go onto the upstairs balcony? If so, he wouldn't have seen the red barn in the background; it was was built later.


Had he gone onto the balcony, he might have noticed the steep stairs going toward the attic. What secrets hide in that attic, do you suppose?


It's hard to say what the young soldier, recovering from his wounds, might have seen. But we're sure Henry Brown Richardson was there.

During our visit, we no doubt walked in a few of his footsteps. And we had a most enjoyable time doing so.

Edited to add the write-up in the June 17, 2009, Bedford Bulletin (click to enlarge):

~

History Matters

Yesterday, I received a phone call from fellow Lake Writer and Bedford historian June Goode. She told me that Farrar Richardson, whom both of us have emailed in the past and who now lives in France, was visiting Avenel this coming Sunday.

This used to be the front of Avenel

I first "met" Mr. Richardson (in a virtual way, at least) in 2006 after I blogged about doing a reading at Avenel. (For the two or three blog readers who haven't heard of Avenel, it's the Burwell plantation house in Bedford, a town about 40 miles north of where I live. Avenel is rich in history—both Robert E. Lee and Edgar Allan Poe were guests there—albeit not at the same time.

The "Lee" bedroom, upstairs

A settee, downstairs

Rosa, one of the Burwell girls

And Avenel is also haunted. A Lady in white used to be seen on the grounds.

In this picture I took at night in 2007, you can see an orb near the roof.

Anyhow, Mr. Richardson's great grandfather visited there during the Civil War. The picture below shows how Avenel looked in the old days.

That's not a orb—merely the flash reflection.

While Googling Avenel, Mr. Richardson found my blog. He contacted me because he wanted to know if Avenel had ever been a hospital, since his ancestor was hospitalized in Bedford following the Battle of Sharpsburg.

I didn't know, but I figured June Goode did. She'd written Our War: An Account of the Civil War in Bedford, Virginia. I found a Lt. Richardson mentioned in her book. But what I found led to another mystery.

If you read my December 15, 2006 blog post, "Avenel Mystery," you can see why we corresponded back and forth—and what the mystery was.

If you read my December 23, 2006, blog post, "Mystery Solved?," you can see how things turned out.

Ah, the power of blogs!

And next week, I'll let you know how the meeting at Avenel went.

~

Mystery Solved?

We’re not Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys, but I think we solved the mystery of Avenel. Well, part of it.

For well over a week, Farrar Richardson and I have been emailing back and forth between Virginia and France. June Goode, author of Our War, and I chatted on the phone last week and compared notes. Our conclusion: Henry Brown Richardson was indeed the Lt. Richardson who was in Bedford to recuperate from wounds suffered at Sharpsburg, who visited Avenel, and who was mentioned as “Lieut. Richardson of Louisiana” by Lucy Breckinridge in her diary.

We've concluded that Mary D. Robertson, editor of Lucy Breckinridge of Grove Hill, just might have made an error in thinking that that Lt. Richardson’s first name was Frederick. (Lucy never mentioned his first name.) No doubt Robertson consulted Records of Louisiana Confederate Soldiers and Louisiana Confederate Commands by Andrew B. Booth, found the name Richardson, and assumed that Frederick Richardson was the correct one. (p. 79: Lucy mentions meeting “Lieut. Richardson of Louisiana.” Robertson's footnote: "Frederick Richardson was at this time on sick leave. He was later promoted to Captain of Company F of the Fifth Louisiana Infantry and killed in action at Gettysburg on 4 July 1863. Booth, Records, III., Bk 2, p. 390.")

According to June Goode, soldiers were often received as guests at Avenel, which was within walking distance of some of the buildings used as hospitals. Naturally, good Confederates such as the Burwells would extend hospitality to those brave young men who fought for the cause. June Goode also told me that William Burwell owned a newspaper in Louisiana and sometimes visited there. It makes sense, then, that he’d open his home to soldiers from that state.

One of those visitors was Captain Frank Clarke from New Orleans, who was in Bedford to recuperate from his wound at Sharpsburg; Henry, an engineering staff officer during the Civil War, was seriously wounded at Sharpsburg, hospitalized at Winchester, and also sent for rest and recovery to Bedford County. Odds are good that Henry and Frank were friends. They were both wounded in the same battle.

But was Henry Brown Ricardson really “from Louisiana”? The plot thickens here: According to Farrar Richardson, Henry was “both son and grandson of New England Congregational Ministers. His grandfather was a founder of the American Anti-slavery Society. A maternal uncle ran a station on the Underground Railway. A paternal uncle said that if he had had seven sons rather than seven daughters, he would have joined John Brown in Kansas. Henry seems to have been the only non-abolitionist in the family.” Consequently, Henry probably didn't speak much, if at all, of his family while he was fighting for the opposition. Better to let everyone think he was from Louisiana—which he sort of was.

So, how did Henry end up in Louisiana? In the spring of 1860, the young engineer arrived in Tensas Parish to help supervise a levee construction and went into the surveying business with Charles B. Tenney. After the war broke out, Tenney became first captain of the Tensas Rifles.

Henry enlisted as a private in the Tensas Rifles (F. Richardson thinks became Co. D of the 6th Louisiana). Richard Taylor, who commanded the Louisiana Brigade under General Ewell, chose Henry to be a mounted orderly during Jackson's Valley campaign. After this campaign, Henry was commissioned as First Lt. and thereafter served as Engineering Staff Officer under General Ewell.

After the war, Henry’s records probably wouldn’t have shown up in Andrew Booth’s book because Henry served out the War as a Virginia soldier.

Another clue: Lucy’s comment on August 10, 1863: “Mr. Burwell says that Lt. Richardson received a very severe lung wound, and is expected at Avenel as soon as he can travel.” Now, this is over a month after Frederick Richardson was killed at Gettysburg on July 4, 1863, so Mr. Burwell couldn't have been referring to Frederick. Farrar Richardson, in his email to me, reports that Henry’s lung was bruised at Gettysburg, he was given first aid at a Confederate field hospital there, and he was left behind when Lee withdrew. So—Henry was alive after Gettysburg and had a severe lung injury.

Why didn’t Henry soon go to Avenel when he was able to travel? Because he had been taken prisoner and sent to Johnson’s Island. It was there he received the July 27, 1864, ad that someone from Liberty (the former name of Bedford city) cryptically wrote and signed “Avenel.” When he was finally paroled in February 1865, he headed first to Richmond where he stayed at General Ewell's and then journeyed to Bedford.

Why did he go to Bedford in April 1865? Who might have written that ad? Who might have been writing him letters for so long before taking placing the ad. Our guess is Lucy Breckinridge. While she didn’t live at Avenel, that’s where she first met Lt. Richardson in Oct. 1862 and was so taken by his good looks. We know from her diary that she climbed the Peaks of Otter with him in November 1862.

Now for another clue: Lettie Burwell was quite smitten with Frank Clarke, and they were engaged for a time. Mention is made in Lucy’s diary (Dec. 12, 1862) of Frank Clarke receiving “a smart, well-written letter from Lt. Richardson today.” According to Farrar Richardson, Henry Brown Richardson was known to write “lengthy and frequent letters to his parents” before the war.

Lucy had a number of beaus. For instance, she broke off her engagement with Captain Houston in Dec. 1862—less than two months after first meeting Lt. Richardson. But by 1864, though—when Henry had not been heard from for more than a year—Lucy was engaged to Thomas Jefferson Basset, whom she married on January 28, 1865, in a quiet ceremony at her home, Grove Hill.

Less than two months after Lucy married Tommy, Henry received his parole and “arrived in Richmond on the 22nd of March and rec’d a leave of absence ‘for thirty days unless sooner exchanged.’ Stopped in Richmond, at Gen’l Ewell’s house for ten days, and on the first of April went to Bedford Co., Va. (west of Lynchburg) where I remained till the first of May. Then over the mountains to Botetourt Co. and spent a week, and on the eighth started on horseback for this side of the Mississippi, or wherever I could get to anything like a Confederacy.”

He no doubt visited Avenel during the month he was in Bedford, and there he must have learned that Lucy Breckinridge had married.

Why did he leave for Botetourt (the next county to the west of Bedford)? Was it because that’s where Lucy’s home Grove Hill was? Did he visit Lucy? Or was it merely because Botetourt was the gateway to the west? But why did he stay there a week?

On June 16, 1865, Lucy died of typhoid fever. She was 22.

Lettie Burwell never married. She remained at Avenel until her death in 1905. Captain Frank Clarke—to whom she was engaged at one time—was permanently disabled in April 1863 from wounds suffered in the Battle of Fredericksburg.

And Henry? He eventually married Anna Howard Farrar, of St Joseph, Louisiana, a descendant of Capt William Farrar of the Virginia Co. and Farrar's Island. Despite the two bullets he carried around from his war injuries, Henry lived to be 72, raised nine children, and served many years as chief engineer for the state of Louisiana.

This part of the mystery still remains: who wrote the numerous letters to Henry and eventually took the ad in the newspaper and signed it “Avenel”? Was it Lucy? Lettie Burwell? Lettie’s sister Rosa? Or someone else entirely?

Avenel Mystery?

One thing always leads to another.

Last summer I blogged about doing a reading with fellow Lake Writers at a luncheon at Avenel, the historic Burwell residence in Bedford. I mentioned Avenel again in my post about the Bedford Bookfest. I also mentioned June Goode’s book, Our War, the annotated diary of Lettie Burwell, who may or may not be the “White Lady” who haunted Avenel for a number of years.

Farrar Richardson, a retiree who now lives in Bordeaux, found my blog when he Goggled “Avenel.” He was searching for information about his great grandfather, Henry Brown Richardson, who’d been wounded at Sharpsburg and hospitalized for a time in Bedford, where he’d developed a romantic interest with someone (possibly at Avenel). Henry Richardson later returned to battle and was wounded at Gettysburg.

Farrar Richardson emailed me yesterday and provided this information about his ancestor:

Henry, an engineering staff officer during the Civil War, was seriously wounded at Sharpsburg, hospitalized at Winchester, and sent for rest and recovery to Bedford County, presumably Avenel, where there seem to have been hospital facilities.

Normally Henry wrote lengthy and frequent letters to his parents, and these are usually my main sources. But this correspondence dried up during the war, because Henry was a Yankee who fought for the South. Therefore, I am digging around for bits and pieces in archives, wherever I can find them.

What intrigues me about his stay at Avenel is that he may have developed a romantic interest there. He was wounded again and taken prisoner at Gettysburg, and sent to Johnson's Island. There he received a letter from Baltimore, enclosing the following newspaper ad.

Liberty, Va., July 27, 1864
MAJOR HENRY B. RICHARDSON, Engineer Corps, Ewell’s Staff.— Wounded and left on the field at Gettysburg, July 3, 1863. Supposed to be at Johnson’s Island. Why don’t you write? Have sent you many letters. So anxious to hear from you. Old circle unbroken. All miss you. R., your old physician hopes to take your case in hand again, and would like to know if you have found a new physician. AVENEL.

Henry was finally released on parole in February 1865. I do not know if he was able to reply to the above ad, but as soon as it became obvious that Lee's army was doomed, he headed straight for Bedford County. He later wrote from Louisiana:

I arrived in Richmond on the 22nd of March and rec’d a leave of absence “for thirty days unless sooner exchanged.” Stopped in Richmond, at Gen’l Ewell’s house for ten days, and on the first of April went to Bedford Co., Va. (west of Lynchburg) where I remained till the first of May. Then over the mountains to Botetourt Co. and spent a week, and on the eighth started on horseback for this side of the Mississippi, or wherever I could get to anything like a Confederacy.

Farrar Richardson wondered if Our War might tell him anything about hospital facilities at Avenel. Might Henry be mentioned or the mysterious “R” identified in Goode’s book. Since Our War —published under the auspices of the Avenel Foundation—is essentially self-published, it wasn’t available on Amazon. Living abroad, Richardson didn’t have access to American libraries.

So, he asked me for any information. I emailed my friend Jean who knows how to get in touch with June Goode. Meanwhile, I thumbed through my copy of Our War. Thank goodness, Goode included extensive footnotes and a bibliography. She not only had listed buildings used as Confederate hospitals, she provided a map of their locations. There were several: Campbell's Tobacco Factory, Crenshaw Tobacco Factory, Micajah Davis Tobacco Factory, Toler's Furniture Factory, I.N. Clark Carriage Factory, Piedmont Institute, Reese Warehouse. Could Henry Brown Richardson have been at any of these?

Lettie's sister was named Rosa. She was pretty and had several beaus. Could she have been “R”? The only Richardson that Goode mentions, however, is Lt. Frederick Richardson, and that from a reference in Lucy Breckinridge of Grove Hill: The Journal of a Virginia Girl, 1862-1864 (edited by Mary D. Robertson and published by the University of South Carolina Press, 1994). Lucy was a friend of Lettie Burwell; her diary picks up where Lettie Burwell's ends.

On P. 168 of Our War, Goode, referencing Lucy’s diary, notes that Lucy and her sisters visited Avenel on October 28, 1862:

While at Avenel for a two-week visit, they met Captain Frank Clarke of New Orleans recovering from wounds he received at Sharpsburg. Lettie was later engaged to him but they never married. He became permanently disabled in April of 1863 from wounds he received at Fredericksburg [Chancellorsville?]. He continued to be in and out of the Breckinridge home through October 1863.

Could others wounded at Sharpsburg also have been there? Goode mentions:

During the two-week visit, there were many trips to the Peaks and to Natural Bridge. There were many young men who came to call . . . and Lt. Frederick Richardson, who was on leave at this time. He was later promoted to Captain of Co. F, of the 5th Lousiana Infantry and killed in action at Gettysburg on July 4, 1863.

Goode no doubt got this info about Richardson from a footnote in Lucy’s Diary. Lucy never gave Richardson’s first name; Lettie didn’t mention a Richardson, but her diary ended Friday, August 15, 1862—two months before Lt. Richardson appeared.

From the “Avenel” chapter (p.79), Lucy describes many who visited Avenel on that October evening, including a “Lieut. Richardson of Louisiana”:

Lieut. Richardson appeared that evening to be a bashful man, so they all said, but I was of a different opinion. I thought of The Spectator whenever I looked at him. He is one of the most perfectly handsome men I ever saw. I would describe him, but words fail. I did not get acquainted with him that night, but when I did I found him to be one of the least bashful and most charming persons I ever met.

The identifying footnote appears on this page. The footnote references Booth, Records III, Bk. 2, p. 309.

More Richardson references from Lucy’s diary: On Wed., Nov. 12, 1862, this Lt. Richardson and Rosa went in a carriage to Natural Bridge; he rode back on horseback alongside Lettie. (Rosa became engaged to someone else in 1863, however, so it’s unlikely she was his love interest.) On p. 80, Lucy notes that they climbed the Peaks of Otter: “. . . Capt. Pike, Lieut. Richardson, Eliza, and I went up like men and mountaineers.”

Dec. 11, 1862: “Captain Clarke got such a smart, well-written letter from Lieut. Richardson today.” A few sentences down, Lucy mentions that a week earlier she broke off her engagement with a Captain H. “and I don’t love him anymore.” (p. 88)

On January 6, 1863, Lucy makes it clear she is thinking of Richardson:

But for my companions, the Japonica, Luna and violets, and my beloved friends, Addison, Steele, etc., I think I should die of ennui. The former interesting companions are living in the window, and The Spectator is constantly before my eyes. Lieut. Richardson is very much like Addison. (p. 103)

On Aug. 12, 1863, Lucy reports "Mr. Burwell says that Capt. Richardson received a very severe lung wound and is expected at Avenel as soon as he can travel." (p.140) That was Lucy's last mention of him that I can find.

I emailed some of the above info to Farrar Richardson and received back this reply:

I think you've found him, (and her?). Henry was quiet and reserved in person-to-person contacts, but a great letter writer. I think he may have thought about a literary career. I will try to correlate with my other info and get back to you. The dates fit. If I remember correctly, Henry's Gettysburg wound involved a bruised lung. He was given first aid at a Confederate field hospital in G’burg, but was left there when Lee withdrew—considered too dangerous to be moved. His whereabouts may not have been known to Mr. Burwell in August '63. It seems Henry was promoted to Major in absentia, and he was later known as Major Richardson.

Blog Readers, here’s a mystery: Did the editor of Lucy Breckinridge of Grove Hill: The Journal of a Virginia Girl incorrectly identify Lt. Richardson as Frederick? (Could the source she referenced have been wrong?) Was it really Henry Brown Richardson who was the handsome young lieutenant at Avenel? If so, who might his love interest have been? And why did Lucy Breckinridge never mention the first name of the Lt. Richardson she found so indescribably handsome?

If you know anything about this mystery, contact Farrar Richardson.

And leave a comment here, too. I'm dying to know.