“Molly Tynes is recognized in many corners as the ‘Paul Revere of the Confederacy.’ In fact, she did Paul Revere one better: she completed her mission.”

By Frank Emerson

THROUGHOUT HISTORY, the accepted view of the role of women during warfare has been one of support.

Yet in both fact and in legend, there have been numerous instances of more proactive females during hostilities. Just think of Grace O’Malley, Ireland’s Pirate Queen of the 17^th century, British buccaneers, Anne Bonny and Mary Reed and the American Revolution’s Molly Pitcher.  However, until the emergence of the more enlightened views of present day, historically, women in wartime largely embodied the John Milton quote, “They also serve who only stand and wait” and basically kept the home fires burning while the men were away.

One further, albeit little-known example of a female coming to the fore in time of a national emergency is the action taken by one Molly Tynes during the American Civil War.

A young woman from the Appalachian Mountains of Southwest Virginia, Molly’s perilous ride over the night of July 17, 1863 rivaled those of Revolutionary War heroes Paul Revere or Jack Jouett. Surrounded by the intriguing mixture of fact and legend, Molly Tynes is recognized in many corners as the “Paul Revere of the Confederacy.” In fact, she did Paul Revere one better: she completed her mission.

That she lived, there is no doubt. She was born Mary Elizabeth “Molly” Tynes in Shawsville, Virginia in 1837 and educated at the Valley Union Seminary (now Hollins University near Roanoke, Virginia). Her family had moved to Jeffersonville, Virginia (now Tazewell) in the 1850’s, where Samuel Tynes, the family patriarch, farmed and operated a sawmill, gristmill and woolen mill. At the outbreak of the war, Molly still lived near Roanoke.

Legend has it that she was visiting her family in Jeffersonville in July of 1863 to help her father care for her invalid mother. Having left Huntington, in newly established

West Virginia on July 13, Union troops of the 34^th Ohio Infantry and the 2^nd Virginia Cavalry (Union) under the command of Colonel John T. Toland were now bivouacked at the William Peery farm, which was a short distance west of the Tyne family farm. Afraid of Yankee looting, Mr. Tynes had taken the precaution of having a slave named Tom take most of the livestock into hiding on Clinch Mountain. Only Molly’s mare, a horse named Fashion, was left at the farm.

According to an article published in of The Confederate Veteran (Vol. 18) in 1910, by Molly’s brother Captain Achilles J. Tynes of the 8th Virginia Cavalry, CSA, their father learned that the Federal soldiers were on their way to attack the town of Wytheville. This was of strategic value as a railhead for the vital Virginia-Tennessee railway, which was adjacent to the leadmines in Austinville.

The mines themselves would also be targeted.

According to Professor James I. Robertson of Virginia Tech, Austinville supplied fully one third of the lead used by the Confederacy during the war.

But the raid would also disrupt the supply of salt from the mines at Saltville to the west, which was used both as a food preservative, as well as an ingredient in saltpeter for gunpowder.

Though advanced age prevented him from doing so himself, Mr. Tynes was determined to warn the town of the imminent attack. With bravery bordering on foolhardiness, Molly took it upon herself to warn the citizens.

With family friend Samuel Houston Laird, a 15-year-old mail carrier named who was familiar with the shortest routes through the mountains, Molly is said to have made the roughly 40-mile trip on Fashion through the night of July 17. She arrived in Wytheville bedraggled and frightened the following morning to warn the citizens who were able to prepare for the Yankees. She then rode some miles further to the farm of a family friend, Robert Crockett, where she rested for several days.

There are people today who swear that this is exactly the way it happened. And maybe they’re right. The noted Civil War reenactor and scholar, Janice Busic says that several oral histories by contemporaries, while not etched in stone, confirm the events. One comes from a then nine-year old local boy named Caleb Thompson who reportedly remembered standing in doorway of his family home in Burke’s Garden on the trail to Wytheville that fateful morning and witnessing Molly shout out her warnings as she galloped by.

Consequently, all along the invasion route, citizens went into hiding. As a result, the Union troops met no resistance until they arrived in Wytheville.

The home guard, made up largely by old men, women and boys had been issued small arms by militia commanders Lieutenant Colonel Abraham Umberger and Major Joseph Kent. The citizens stationed themselves in houses and stores and behind walls and fences along the entrance to town. Word of the impending raid had also reached Confederate Major General Sam Jones 30 miles away in Dublin, Virginia. Jones detached two companies of soldiers – about 130 men – and two artillery pieces under the command of Major Thomas Bowyer, who commandeered a passenger train and arrived in Wytheville in time to confront the enemy. Consequently, the citizens and the Confederate soldiers proceeded to engage the Federal forces until about 8 p.m. whereupon both sides withdrew.

In the official report of Lieutenant Colonel Freeman E. Franklin, of Toland’s Virginia volunteer Union cavalry, states:

We found a company of rebels in Abb’s Valley, all of whom we captured excepting one. That one gave information to[Brigadier] General [John S.] Williams (at Saltville) of our approach, which was news they possessed at least twelve hours before we could reach Wytheville. Consequently, they were better prepared than we had been anticipating” (OR, I, XVII/2, p.942).

In his official after-action report, General Jones stated:

“The first information I received of the approach of the enemy was about mid day on July 18, just in time to enable me, by impressing the passenger train going west, to send to Wytheville two small and newly organized companies, the employees of this place, and a number of citizens of this neighborhood who volunteered for the service. They were commanded by Major Bowyer, my chief of ordnance”. (OR I, XXVII/2, pp. 946-947).

Legend holds that Molly arrived during the morning of July 18, but Jones says that he didn’t hear about the advance until mid-day. Who is to say that both things could not have come to pass? Jones did indeed send the telegram and the train full of reinforcements – but the citizens already knew about the approaching enemy and had fired on Toland’s men as they entered town. Toland was killed in this first encounter, which took place before Confederate troops even arrived at the town railroad depot. How were the citizens alerted? Locals credit Molly Tynes.

On Dec. 2, 1863, Molly married William B. Davidson of Mercer County, who was home on leave from the Confederate army. After the war, they moved back to Mercer County, in what is now West Virginia, where Molly taught Sunday school and William served several terms in the state legislature. They had no children.

Though this particular Battle of Wytheville, the first of several, was on a much smaller scale and less noted than other more prominent and famous engagements of the war, it was still important.

According to one of a number of conflicting estimates, several of Wytheville’s buildings were destroyed and five civilians and three Confederate soldiers were killed. The Yankees lost 15 killed, including their commander. The Union column’s second-in-command, Colonel William Powell, was wounded and captured.

As more Confederate reinforcements arrived, the federal troops abandoned the town, reportedly taking more than 80 civilians with them as hostages and potential human shields. When they reached Big Walker Mountain, about 12 miles northwest of town, they released their captives and continued their retreat.

Although the Wythville Raid is often held up as a Union victory, from a strategic perspective, the operation was a failure. Despite the damage inflicted to the town’s buildings, the Rebel telegraph system was intact, the railroad was still operational, and the saltmines and leadmines remained in operation.

Albert J. Gibboney was a Wytheville native and a Confederate veteran. At the time of the incident, he was clerk/aide to Major General Henry Heth, whom he saved from capture earlier in the month at the Battle of Gettysburg. It was from Gibboney’s house, which was later that day put to the torch, that the Minié ball was fired that killed Colonel Toland.

In 1894, Gibboney received a letter, now in the files of the Wytheville Department of Museums, from former Union Captain William Fortescue, who stated that he assumed command of the troops upon the death of Colonel Toland and the wounding and capture of Colonel Powell. In his closing remarks in the letter, Fortescue says, “Although I was afterwards on many hotly contested fields, I was never upon any that was more so than Wytheville.”

Molly died of tuberculosis in 1891. Although her husband was interred in Mercer County, she was buried next to her father and mother in Jeffersonville Cemetery in Tazewell. A tall, gracefully distinctive monument over Molly’s grave was erected by the William Watts Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1968. It still stands today. In addition, just west of Rocky Dell, toward Ben Bolt, on State Route 61, is a Virginia State Historical Marker extolling “Molly Tynes’s” Ride.

With the coming of peace, Molly’s brother, Achilles and his wife Harriet moved to Rocky Dell, where they proceeded to raise a family. One of their daughter’s, Eva St. Clair Tynes married James Robert Laird, the son of Molly’s guide, Samuel Houston Laird. In 1910, Achilles wrote a piece in The Confederate Veteran relating the heroics of his younger sister. The story of Molly’s ride has been passed down through generations of the families, all of whom swear to its truth.

There may have been embellishments along the way; some question the story’s overall accuracy. Perhaps the nature of the conflict can be summed up in an oft quoted line from the 1962 John Ford film, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence: “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.”

“Molly Tynes, slender, graceful, bruised and bleeding will not be forgotten while Tazewell’s mountains live”

                                    -Wm. H.T. Squires Land of Decision

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: A veteran of the U.S. Armed Forces, Frank Emerson is a singer/folk musician/freelance writer who lives with his wife, Frances, a museum director and their Manx, Ginny, in Wytheville, Virginia.  Author of numerous historical articles and stories about life as an on-the-road musician, Frank has recently restarted a writing project begun years ago on the Confederate raid on St. Albans, Vermont on September 10, 1864. www.frankemerson.com.

SOURCES:

The War of Rebellion: A compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies

Virginia During the War Between the States 1861-1865; Hoch, Beverly, Johnson, John, Emerson, Frank

The Confederate Veteran: Vol 18, September 1910

Wythe County Chapters:  James Presgraves

Virginia Cavalcade: Vol 1, 1951

Fortescue Letter to Albert Gibboney, 1894

Annals of Tazewell County 1800-1922: J.N. Harmon, Sr.

Clinch Valley News : July 2, 1926

Tazewell Historical Society, Mrs. Pat Surface

Civil War Talk: Molly Tynes-Did She or Didn’t She? She Did! Busic, Janice