Volume 2 , Issue 9

Highland County Virginia - April 1938 - Samuel Willson Sterrett

Men who at that time or later were residents of Highland served in Washington's army. They also helped to guard the western frontier against the Indian allies of the British. Highland volunteers under Captain David Gwin marched to the support of General Greene in 1781 and took part in the Battle of Guilford. There a large majority of the Virginia militia fought so well that Greene wished he could have known of it beforehand. He had reasons for his doubts, because the American militia had often behaved badly in the past. But on the field of Guilford the raw Virginians helped very much in making the nominal victory of Cornwallis a crushing defeat in reality. He lost a third of his men and had to leave North Carolina in great haste.

Augusta had indeed been a mother of counties. Extending at first 240 miles along the Blue Ridge, and thence westward to the Mississippi, its growth in population soon made it unweildly. County after county was lopped off in every direction except towards the east. The subdivision began with Botetourt in 1769 and continued so rapidly that in 1790 and continued so rapidly that in 1790 Augusta was reduced to her present size.

In 1787 the Highland area was wholly a part of Augusta. In that year the portion of Rockingham lying west of the Shenandoah Mountain was, with the addition of narrow slices taken from Hardy and Augusta, made into Pendleton. The southern line of the new county passed through the Highland area by following the divide between the waters of the Potomac and the James. Its course was therefore crooked. Scarcely more than two years after Pendleton was created, the county of Bath was stricken off from the parent county by being made to include that section of it west of the Shenandoah range. It thus took in the whole upper basin of the James, down to the point where it passes through the range just mentioned. The boundaries of Bath county consequently followed natural lines.

But in 1796 the southern line of Pendleton was pushed southward a varying distance of four to twelve miles, and made to cross the Highland area nearly through the center. The reason for such annexation is not at this time clearly apparent to the writer.

In the same year both Pendleton and Bath were enlarged by being made to take in the upper Greenbrier Valley. Their western boundary was therefore changed from the crest of the Main Alleghany to that of the "Back Alleghany", which diverges from the former on the west side of Pendleton and runs southwestward in a nearly parallel course at a distance of ten or fifteen miles. This enlargement was by petition of the few settlers of the Upper Greenbrier.

In 1821 this remote section of the two counties became a part of the new county of Pocahontas, and in the same year Bath was diminished to the southward by the creation of Alleghany County.

When the Highland area had thus become indentified with the new counties of Pendleton and Bath it seems to have contained from 1,000 to 2,000 people. Many new settlers had come into its valleys.

The forming of Highland County was one of those events which are perfectly natural. It was not so much that Pendleton and Bath were too long although the people near their common boundary were farther from their county seats than were the people at the other extremities of these two counties. The census of 1850 was to show that Highland had more people than Bath, though not as many as Pendleton. And when to economic considerations are added the ambitions of men desirous of public office, a movement to create a new county becomes a very actual force.

On March 19th, 1847, the bill to create Highland County was passed by the General Assembly, and in the new county it is related that the joy was like that caused by the surrender at Yorktown.

In view of the exceptionally high altitude of the county the name selected is very appropriate. As to who was responsible for the choice, there is some doubt and dispute. It is said to have been proposed by Andrew H. Byrd, delegate from Bath, while, on the other hand, it is claimed that it was suggested to Byrd by Samuel Ruckman.

The new county, thus launched as a political unit, pursued a quite uneventful career until the spring of 1861.

In the War between the States the mass of the Highland people sided with the action of their State. But, as elsewhere along the border line, there was some persons of undecided convictions. There were some others who could not bring themselves to uphold secession, and they either kept out of military service or went within the Federal lines. The former class supplied some deserters who passed from one army to another. The Highland company was mustered into service at Monterey, May 18, 1861. It marched the same day to join the army under Porterfield in its advance on Grafton. The Highland unit was attached to the 31st Regiment, Virginia Infantry. General Robt. E. Lee was in command of this section, and while in Monterey his headquarters were in the old corner house opposite the Methodist Church.

The only battle of any importance that occurred within the Highland boundaries was the battle of McDowell. This battle, close by the village of McDowell. took place on may 8, 1862. The Confederate forces were in the command of "Stonewall" Jackson, while the Union forces were headed by General Milroy and Schneck. The battle lasted approximately four hours. Losses were unusually small on both sides, and few, if any, prisoners were taken. Although neither side advanced to other's position, the Union forces retreated that night under cover of darkness and fog. It was Confederate victory.

The ultimate result of this battle, so well fought on both sides, was a great advantage for the Confederates. Not only did the Federals evacuate Highland, but Jackson's men remained safe and Staunton was delivered from danger.

Because of the loss of life during the war, and the inducement to emigration caused by its impoverishment at the close, the county fell off in population during the decade 1860-70, so that at the end of this ten year period there were no more people in Highland than at the time it was organized. During the next ten years there was a rebound, the number of people increasing one-fourth. The census returns of 1890 and 1900 show a slower though steady advance to the high mark of 5,647 in the last named year. The shrinkage in the ensuing decade brought the number back to what it had been twenty years before. This, however, is not due to any lack of real prosperity. It is a result of the economic changes throughout the Union which became particularly active about 1898. By greatly increasing the demand for well-paid labor in the industrial centers, this evolution has made the rural counties, to a degree greater than before, a nursery for the industrial towns.

It is not necessary, nor even likely, that Highland keep on marking time indefinitely. The county has not by any means touched the limit of its resources. If these are developed, Highland has a large future in store for it.

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