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John L. Heatwole's book The Burning is a collection of stories
about the burning of the
Shenandoah Valley
in the fall of 1864 during the
US Civil War.
The destruction of the valley was ordered by Gen.
Ulysses S. Grant
to eliminate it as a major source of food for Gen. Robert E. Lee's
Confederate forces in Virginia. This was effective military strategy,
but it destroyed much civilian property: crops, livestock, mills,
barns, outbuildings, and some homes. Heatwole has collected stories
from many local sources and woven them into their historical context.
The sources are well documented, although many of the stories have
been conveyed only through oral tradition.
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The stories contain many names that also appear in the history of the
Good family: Beery, Brenneman, Fulk, Garber, Gochenour, Good,
Hershberger, Shoup, Wenger and others. Before the war, our ancestors
Jacob Good (GC22) and his son
Joseph Good (GC229) lived in
the valley in
Rockingham Co., VA.
Although they were gone before the war, they had lived in the heart of
the destruction, and they probably still had relatives there.
Abraham P. Good,
for example, left Rockingham Co. for Ohio in 1864 only shortly before
the burning.
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