William Oscar Dance

Peter married Private [Group Sheet]

Notes:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2006/jul/21/20060721-090027-7182r/?page=all

A list of famous Civil War battles often includes Gettysburg, Shiloh, Antietam and Manassas; it never includes the battle at the Boisseau farm.

In terms of significance, however, few individual battles in the war had more immediate and sweeping consequences than the April 2, 1865, fight southwest of Petersburg, Va. In fact, following on the heels of a Confederate disaster at Five Forks, the dramatic Union charge at Boisseau farm led directly to the fall of Richmond and Gen. Robert E. Lee?s surrender at Appomattox.
The ?battle? of Petersburg was actually a 10-month siege between June 1864 and April 1865 that consisted of hundreds of smaller and larger clashes between Federal and Confederate soldiers. Some historians have calculated that as many as 80,000 casualties occurred during the siege operations.

Some individual battles during the siege made national headlines: the Crater, Fort Stedman and Chaffin?s Farm. The greater part of the common soldier?s time during the siege, however, was spent digging earthworks and keeping his head down to avoid sharpshooters.

The landscape along the siege lines between Richmond and Petersburg was stripped of trees, the soil was dug up and piled into revetments and earthworks, and then the dirt was shoveled up again to repair damage done after almost daily artillery exchanges. An elaborate network of zigzagging trenches and dugout shelters evolved over time. Homes and farms along the siege line were incorporated into the network.

One such farm was the Boisseau plantation, located in Dinwiddie County southwest of Petersburg. Its highlight was Tudor Hall, an elegant Georgian and Federal two-story house built in 1812.

The Boisseau farm had prospered before the war. For many years, hogsheads of tobacco were rolled down the nearby Boydton Plank Road to the busy warehouses in Petersburg, where inspectors graded, bought and sold tobacco. The war, however, visited hard times on owner Joseph Boisseau?s family, and by mid-1864, the success of the prewar years was a fleeting memory.

In August, when Ulysses S. Grant?s Union forces cut the Weldon Railroad south of Tudor Hall and Lee?s Confederates were forced to extend the Petersburg siege lines farther west to Hatcher?s Run to protect vulnerable wagon routes and the remaining rail lines, Confederate trenches were constructed directly through and around the Boisseau farm.

The situation was not conducive to family life. In early October, the Boisseaus moved out and the Rebels moved in. In a county where the vote to secede had been 804-to-1 in favor and where Joseph Boisseau had served actively in the pro-Confederate civil defense force, he had little choice but to turn over everything he had that could aid the war effort. This included allowing Brig. Gen. Samuel McGowan to set up his brigade headquarters in Tudor Hall.

McGowan had steadily moved up in the ranks during the war and was noted for his bravery under fire. Born in South Carolina to Irish immigrants, he had been variously a successful lawyer, soldier and member of the South Carolina House of Representatives before the war. He kept the men of his brigade busy, assigning teams of 200 to 300 a day to work on the entrenchments and artillery revetments.

According to one aide, these Confederate earthworks simply could not be taken. ?They could scarcely be stormed, on account of the ditch and the brush abatis in front.? In places, the combination of a ditch in front and the earthwork behind created a 15- to 20-foot differential in height, or practically a sheer wall.

McGowan?s men worked constantly to add new obstructions and strengthen the works The weakness was not in the works; the problem was that there was as much as 20 feet between each soldier in Lee?s stretched and thinned ranks.

When McGowan wasn?t busy with administrative duties, he played whist and recited Shakespeare. His men enjoyed a relatively quiet stretch of roughly five months while the drama of the siege was played out on other parts of the 40-mile line, such as the Crater, Fort Harrison and other areas that were often out of earshot and sometimes out of mind.

In February 1865, the men passed a resolution vowing to continue the war no matter what happened, and McGowan followed with a stirring speech. Little did they know that their impregnable works soon would be the stage for a dramatic, siege-lifting, war-ending assault.

Across from McGowan, Union Gens. Horatio G. Wright (VI Corps) and John G. Parke (IX Corps) were busy in late March. In conjunction with Grant?s spring offensive, they massed troops, supplies and ammunition in preparation for an all-out assault on the section of the Confederate line in front of them.

On March 25, many of the advanced Rebel rifle pits were captured and held ? an ominous sign had the Confederates paid more attention. Near the end of March, McGowan?s brigade was shifted west and participated in Gen. George Pickett?s ill-starred Five Forks? movements.

A few of Brig. Gen. James H. Lane?s depleted regiments filled the earthworks at Boisseau farm, but the line was substantially thinned by the shift. The 37th North Carolina covered the section closest to Tudor Hall with just two cannon, and the men spaced up to 10 paces apart. Sometimes, the next man in line was out of immediate eyesight.

Following the Rebel disaster at Five Forks on April 1, Grant ordered an immediate attack on the siege lines in the Boisseau farm sector. Gen. George Meade directed Wright and Parke to assault the enemy at 4 the next morning following a massive artillery barrage.

Thousands of men who normally were within easy line of sight of the Confederates hunkered down silently that dark night, threatened with gag and buck if they so much as sneezed. The Union soldiers could hear their Rebel counterparts several hundred yards away on sentinel duty, discussing news of the war and rumors of battles. Still, this sector of the front had been quiet for so long that they remained relatively unsuspecting.

In the middle of the night, an artillery barrage of epic proportions erupted and left no doubt about what was coming. What little Confederate artillery responded was quickly overwhelmed. After more than three hours of ?softening up,? the cannon went silent, and the Union soldiers rose silently, bayonets attached, but without percussion caps on their rifles, which meant that they could not fire and would be forced to climb over the earthworks before loading.

The thin and demoralized Rebels still remaining ? probably many fewer than 3,000 along this stretch of line ? shot sporadically, fighting tenaciously in small pockets (including around Tudor Hall itself) but gradually were forced to fall back toward Petersburg when the deluge of Union soldiers inevitably crawled over and through their works.

The significance of this successful attack, inevitable or not, was that it represented the first real piercing of Lee?s Petersburg line. Grant had been attempting unsuccessfully for almost a year to penetrate Lee?s defenses. He had resorted to repeated attempts to outflank Lee, which, though stretching Rebel resources, hadn?t broken the opposing army. Even the men who breached the wall in the early morning twilight little suspected the tremendous impact of their actions.

The consequences, however, were rapid and profound. The entire 40-mile Confederate siege line began to unravel from Boisseau farm northward. Lee could not bring any reserves to fill the gap. Within hours, the Union flag would be flying over the Capitol in Richmond, and within a few days, the war itself would all but end with Lee?s surrender.

History, however, seems to have forgotten where the 10-month siege was broken and where Confederate hopes were dashed permanently. The surviving earthworks where the breakthrough occurred are protected and can be visited at Pamplin Park in Petersburg.

When Eliza BOISSEAU was born in 1808 in Logan, Kentucky, her father, Sergeant, was 44, and her mother, Nancy, was 43. She married James Theodorick "Thee" CARTER and they had two children together. She then married Cary Ashley P. Foster and they had eight children together. She died in 1862 in Christian, Kentucky, at the age of 54.

John married Nancy Elizabeth Carter 11 Jul 1786, Prince Edward Co., Virginia. Nancy (daughter of Waddill Carter and Mildred "Millie" Wade) was born 1765, Prince Edward County, Virginia; died 11 May 1849, Simpson County, Kentucky; was buried , Boisseau Cemetery, Simpson County,Kentucky. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~tnlincol/geneal/carter2.txt


PRINCE EDWARD CO.

POLLY CARTER & THOMAS COLLIER 30 Oct. 1789 Marriage
Bond
NANCY CARTER & JOHN BOISSEAU 11 July 1786 Marriage
Bond
MARY CARTER & JOHN BARNETT 30 JJan. 1783
ANN CARTER & ABEL BLANKENSHIP 13 July 1791
THRODRICK CARTER JR. & JUDITH CUNNINGHAM 16 Apr..
1764
THOMAS CARTER & SARAH MARTIN 28 May 1764 Marriage
Bond
RICHARD CARTER & SUSANNAH BIGGER 29 Dec. 1772
Minister return

FRANCIS CARTER (BLW), died 7/26/1875, Prince Edward co.;
married (1) MARTHA K. FARMER (2) AMELIA HATCHETT (3)
5/11/1842 SARAH JANE LEIGH (P), Prince Edward co., she died
10/29/1898, Rice Deepot, Prince Edward co., LNR Green Bay,
Prince Edward co. 1879.
Ref: Wardell p.75

GEORGE (P,BLW), died before 7/5/1883, LNR P.O. Box, Prospect,
Prince Edward co. 1871
Ref: Wardell

THEODORE/THEODORICK/THEODORIC CARTER (P,BLW),
died 6/29/1873, Prince Edward co.; married (1) MARTHA BADWIN,
(2) ELIZABETH BAKER (3) 7/15/1838 JULIA A. MORGAN (P),
Prince Edward co.; She died 8/17/1898. LNR Pamplin, Appomattox
co., VA 1871.
Ref: Wardell p. 76

WILSON CARTER (BLW), died 7/30/1858, Prince Edward co., VA;
married 9/11/1851 MARY S. TAYLOR (P), Prince Edward co. She
died c 1887. LNR Prince Edward co., VA 1882.
Ref: Wardell p. 77

The DAR Record that says Elizabeth Carter b 1787 (supposedly a daughter of Waddill Carter and Mildred Wade) is shown born two years after her father Waddill died. There is a mistake here. Nancy Elizabeth Carter, d/o Waddill & Mildred Wade Carter is thought to be born in 1765, which would put her the right age to have married John Boisseau. There are other Waddill Carters in the Halifax Virginia and Caswell Co., NC area, which are situated very close to one-another. Unless there is a second daughter of Waddill and Mildred Wade Carter whose name is Elizabeth, I cannot agree with the DAR record until further evidence is established. The records of the DAR are being investigated.


Died:
(Simpson, KY Circuit Court book 1, File 110 - Eliza Boisseau and her second husband Cary Foster sued Daniel T. Boisseau for Nancy's care. The case lists her death date.)

Notes:

Married:
Children
Susan BOISSEAU
Mildred BOISSEAU b: 1787 in Virginia
Nancy BOISSEAU b: ABT. 1790
Lucy C. BOISSEAU b: 1790 in Virginia
Daniel Thompson BOISSEAU b: 13 FEB 1793 in Virginia
Benjamin Waddell BOISSEAU b: 1795 in Virginia
Robert BOISSEAU b: 1799 in Virginia
Eliza BOISSEAU b: 1810 in Kentucky

Notes:

Died:
Chancery Record 1789 shows wife Mary d/o Joseph Watkins, exec. of James Boisseau's estate.

James married Anna Fitzpatrick Abt 1758, Colonial Virginia. Anna was born 1740, Bucks Co., Pennsylvania; died 1797, Chesterfield Co., Virginia. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Name:
D/O Peter Fitzpatrick died 1797 Chesterfield Co., VA

Notes:

Married:
Children
Daniel Fitzpatrick BOISSEAU b: 4 MAR 1760 in Virginia
James BOISSEAU b: 13 NOV 1761 in Virginia
John BOISSEAU b: 14 NOV 1764 in Dinwiddie County, Virginia
Mary Holt BOISSEAU b: 1765 in Virginia
Lucy BOISSEAU b: 1767 in Virginia
Benjamin BOISSEAU b: 1769 in Virginia
Anner BOISSEAU b: 1771 in Virginia
Peter BOISSEAU b: 1773 in Virginia
Susanna "Susan" BOISSEAU b: 1777 in Dinwiddie County, Virginia
Patrick BOISSEAU b: 1778 in Virginia
David BOISSEAU b: 1780 in Virginia

Notes:

Nancy Waddill Carter (who married Thompson) had a brother, Waddill Carter. I have a copy of Waddill Carter's will from 1782, in which he mentions his "young son John." I am suspecting (but have not proven) that this John may be my long lost John Carter for whom I have spent years searching.

Here is what I know of my family (taken from a family ledger owned by William below and court records):

John Carter 25 March 1775 - 17 December 1852 married 21 March 1821 Oney Pollard 3 Sept. 1790 - after 1850
His children were:
1. William R. Carter 16 Sept. 1809 - 7 Feb. 1886 married 4 Feb. 1846 Mary Elizabeth Pollard 1 May 1829 - 1878
2. Beverly Atwood Carter 3 July 1813 - 17 Sept. 1862 at the
Battle of Sharpsburg (unmarried)
3. Mary Elizabeth Carter 21 July 1821 - after 1880 married James Davis 16 Jan. 1799 - 8 Sept. 1845

My John Carter first shows up on Amelia County Census
Records in 1820. There is a John Carter on the 1810 Census in Prince Edward who is described as being married and with one infant son (which would match my John's description). It is clear to me that John was married to another woman before he married Oney Pollard in Amelia in 1821, since all three of his children were born before then.
I have been somewhat hung up on the middle name of one of John's sons: Atwood. There are not many Atwoods in Virginia at this time. They seem to either be in Culpepper County (and they all move to present day West Virginia) or in Prince Edward County. Although I have not been able to find intermarriage between the Carters and the Atwoods, I have made this link: James Atwood dies in PEC in 1771. His will is witnessed by James Wade and Charles Wade. James and Charles Wade are the father and brother of Mildred Wade, who married Waddill Carter around 1765 in PEC. The name Atwood is too obscure (unlike say "Franklin") for there not to have been anyone to have known somebody of that name. -Peyton Carter on GenForum

Waddell Carter was in Rev War. died 1782 P.E.Co Va. His widow married 2nd Robert Anderson 19 April 1790 P.E.Co Va. Waddell's dau Mildred married Anderson Wade 1799 P.E.Co. Va. Anderson Wade b. 1772 Goochland (he married 2nd Eliz Cox 1808 Montgomery Co Va. Anderson Wade was son of John Utley Wade b. 1739 Goochland & Alice Woodrum dau of John Woodrum & Mary in Goochland. Alice Woodrum was sister of Mary Woodrum married Benjamin Weaver (Weaver's live in Fluvanna Co 1782 next to my Richard Chandler & Eliz

Samuel Carter who was named as one of the trustees was a son of Theodrick (Second) and Anne Carter. Samuel's brother Waddill married Mildred, a daughter of James Wade, who was also named as one of the trustees for widening the river.
GILES CARTER OF VIRGINIA, by Gen. Wm. G. H. Carter, p 109:
p 79 -Married in Prince Edward Co., VA, and lived there
until his death.
p 47 - Waddill was bequeathed land in his father's 1777 will.
p 80 -Will executed 6 Apr 1782, probated Jul 1782; Witnesses: Ro. Lawson, John Morton, Tho. Charlton, &
Abraham Venable;
Executors: brother Samuel, father-in-law James Wade, friend
Francis Watkins;
Heirs: wife Mildred, three under-age sons & two or more
unnamed daughters.

CARTER FAMILY GENEALOGY FORUM, Peyton Carter Mildred Wade married Waddill Carter c.1765. They had five children together:1. James Carter2. Theodrick Carter3.
Elizabeth Carter4. Mildred Wade Carter, who married Anderson Wade in 1799 (See note from Carol Clemmer)5. John Carter. Waddill died in 1782 and Mildred remarried in 1790 to Robert Anderson. Apparently, Robert Anderson died in 1802 and Mildred Anderson remarried AGAIN to Joseph Lewis in 1803 (as detailed in Anderson's estate papers).

From http://www.virginians.com/t.htm?7076 Waddill Carter married Mildred, likely Mildred Wade. Virginia reimbursed Carter for bacon and beef he provided during the Revolution. Milley was head of a household of nine whites in Prince Edward County in 1785. She married second Robert Anderson 19 April (bond) 1790, and third, Charles Joseph Lewis 9 October 1803.
Known Children -- Lucy, Nancy, Mildred Wade, Mary, Elizabeth, Samuel

The Boisseaus forefathers, who were Huguenots, came down to Montauban,, Franceto assist carrying on the Protestant University In 1705 a parish in Prine George County, probably Martin Branden Parish, Rev James died before 1915, leaving a widow, Sarah, who died in 1715, and a son Capt James Boisseau Capt James was a vestryman of Bristol Parish, Prine George County, Va in 1722. He resigned the post Nov 22, 1768. Capt James married Mary, believed to be the daughter of Rev Joseph Holt. Their son, James Boisseau od Dinwiddie County born May 22, 1735, married Anner Fitzpatrick, daughter of Peter Fitzpatrick. Anner and James were the parents of John, born March 14, 1764 John stated on his Revolutionary pension application that his birthday was recorded by his father, James in a book, that was sold at his fathers sale The book was bought by James Sweet of Dinwiddie County. John Boisseau married Nancy Carter July 11, 1786. NANCY WAS THE DAUGHTER OF wADDEL cARTER AND mILDRED wADE , daughter of James Wade John Boisseau moved to Kentucky in 1806,in the part of Logan Co,that became Simpson Co in 1819. John and Nancy were the parents of Daniel T Boisseau 1793-1873, born in Prince Edward Co, Va,married Feb 3, 1820, Mildred Wade Haskins 1799-1845. Mildred is buried on the Eldon Hall farm of Franklin Ky Daniel T married Susan E Robey, 1820-1897 brn in Rutherford Co Tenn Both are buried in Big Spring Cumberland Presby Cemetery. Daniel and Susan were the parents of Dora C Boisseau, 1860-1937. Dora married Robert Alexander Evans Jr 1851-1919 of Middleton Ky. Evans was the son of Walter W Evans and Susan Catherine Harris. They are buried in Franklin Cemetery.
Jean Carter Wilson

Died:
Date of Will Probate July Court, 1782

Waddill married Mildred "Millie" Wade Abt 1760. Mildred (daughter of James Wade, Jr. and Mary 'Polly' Dickerson/Dickenson) was born Abt 1743, Prince Edward Co., Virginia; died 24 Oct 1803, Prince Edward County, Virginia. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Mildred WADE
Married: ABT 1765
Children

James CARTER
Theodrick CARTER
John CARTER
Elizabeth CARTER
Mildred Wade CARTER b: ABT 1780
Lucy CARTER
Nancy CARTER
Mary CARTER
Samuel CARTER



Name:
Mildred Wade first married Waddill Carter. She married secondly, after his death, Robert Anderson. He died shortly afterwards and she married 3rd, Joseph Lewis. The dispute over the ownership of her 1st husband's Still is because she disregarded the part ownership of the Still of her husband's brother, Samuel Carter. When the judge orders the Still sold, Mildred and her husband Joseph Lewis purchase the Still, and pay Samuel for his part of the Brandy produced for 8-10 + years that it has been under her control. - mfe

Notes:

Married:
John Bigger testified in the Chancery case, that "about the beginning of the War in America with Great Britan that Theodorick Carter Sen. and Waddill Carter bought in partnership a Still of a certain Henry Coldwell; as he this diplomat well remembers to have heard the Sen. Theodorick and Waddill Carter often say; and this deponant further saith that the fivalays understood that the said Still was used in partnership by the said Theodorick and Waddill Carter as their joint property and this informant often saw the said Still at the said Theorodick Carters and since the death of the said Theodorick Carter, he frequently saw the said Still at Samuel Carters, the plaintiff and he this deponent further saith that he always understood from the said Samuel Carter and said Waddill Carter both that it was their joint property and was kept by them alternately."
[John Bigger also names his son as James Bigger]