Abraham Shaffer

Abraham Shaffer was my husbands great great grandfather. This is a story about him that his sister gave to me.
We are going back to the years 1861-1865 or the Civil War era. The confederate soldiers that I shall tell about are Abraham Shaffer and his brother Jacob. Abraham was born February 28, 1842, the son of Isaac and Melinda Smith Shafer, at Brooks Cap near Dovesville, Virginia.
When the war broke out between the states Abraham volunteered his services, knowing he would soon be drafted. He, along with his older brother, Jacob, were members of Company F, 33rd Virginia Infantry, and fought under General Imboden. Abe was confident the war would soon be over. How wrong he was. The first battle he was in was ½ mile from Moorefield, West Virginia between the two forks of the river just west of town. He fought in other battles in Hardy County before they moved on to Virginia.
Pretty soon it was a full, fledged war, and they found it to be a hard, cruel one. They were plagued with hunger, cold, and other things common to wars of that day. At first they were well clothed and well fed. But the South intended to finance the war by selling cotton to England. The North closed the harbor at Charleston, S.C. and shut them off.
The question of slavery was the great issue of the war. The North and South divided over this issue. The South had two good generals. General Robert E. Lee and General Stonewall Jackson. The monument to the Unknown Soldier stands at General Lee’s old home at Arlington, Virginia. General U.S. Grant was commander of the Northern Army. Lee was considered the best general of the war. The South won many battles but the three day battle at Gettysburg was the last battle the South won. President Lincoln wanted the slaves freed, but wanted them to stay with their former masters to pick cotton. General Lee did not want his state of Virginia marched through with armies.
Abraham Shaffer was twice wounded. Once slightly, once severely. At Manassas he was shot through from one hip to the other. The bullet grazed the skin of the left hip. This happed at mid afternoon. At sundown they gathered up the dead and wounded.
An old doctor was there, and a soldier asked him if he was taking the bullet out of Abe’s hip. He said no. He was tired and it was getting dark. The soldier swore if the doctor would not do it that he would, so the doctor consented. They gathered pine knots for a light. Abe said the first gash was bad but he had to make a second one. That was almost unbearable.
He was out of service for a good while. Jake went home and their mother asked. “Where is Abe?” Jacob told her he was wounded, but he would recover.
Later, both brothers were in the same battle. The horses got wild when they smelled blood and gun powder. The battle ended but Jacobs’s horse ran away, in front of the enemy lines and the Yankees shot him dead. Abe was shocked but he and a cousin, Mann smith and Tom Grady nailed up a rough pine coffin and buried him somewhere in Virginia. Abe went home and told them Jacob was dead and buried. Abe brought Jacobs horse home. A gray mare named Net. She lived several years.
At one time Abe had his horse shot from under him and once his boot heel shot off while running.
Abraham Shaffer saw President Lincoln once near the end of the Civil War.
General Lee surrendered to General Grant and signed the papers at Appomattox Court House.
After the war Abe married Angeline Fitzwater. Their first son, Julian Napoleon Lafayette died in a few weeks after birth. They moved to Hardy County in what is now Frosty Hollow. They had three sons and three daughters, Dora Belle Egyptianna, Mary Susan Fuentice, Rosetta Drusilla Melinda, William Chancellor Monroe (Dec. 12, 1871 to Sept. 27, 1960), Isaac Samuel Harvey and Jesse Ferguson Conway. Angeline lived eighteen years after her marriage to Abe.
He afterwards married Myrtle Barr of the famous Barr Band family and they had one daughter Ethel May.
He (Abe) died October 11, 1920 at the age of 78, while plowing his faithful horse ‘Bird’.
He was a good soldier, a good Christian man, a good father, and a good worker. Abraham Shaffer was my grandfather and Mary Susan Fuentice my mother.
Mary Susan was Ethel’s (Granny’s, Lee’s grandmother, his dad’s mom) half sister by Abrahams’ first wife.