Page News & Courier
Heritage and Heraldry
Page's fighting Chapman brothers - postwar life
Article of August 2, 2001
While the combat exploits of the brothers Chapman can
be found among a good grouping of books on Mosby�s
Rangers, a bit of romance was not out of the question
in the midst of war. After less than a year with
Mosby�s command and less than a year of courtship, on
February 25, 1864, William Henry Chapman married
Josephine H. Jeffries near Delaplane, Virginia. She
was the daughter of James Eustace and Esther Foote
Jeffries.
There is a tale of the wedding taking place
quickly in order to avoid a Federal patrol that was
descending upon the marriage site. A Chapman family
story recalled that during the war, Federal troops
tried to capture her and Col. Mosby�s wife to put them
on the railroad trains to prevent Mosby�s men from
capturing and destroying them. The attempts to
capture them never succeeded.
Five months after
William and Josephine tied the knot; Sam Chapman
married Eliza Rebecca Elgin, the only daughter of S.
Gustavius and Catherine Lewis Smith Elgin at Marshall,
Fauquier County, Virginia.
Following two years of action packed service with
Mosby�s Rangers, Sam and William Chapman continued to
make their mark in society. Sam, a graduate of Columbia University, was said to
have, during the war, �embraced combat as if it were
an article of faith.� Mosby himself proclaimed that
Sam was �the only man he ever saw who really enjoyed
fighting, and who generally went into the fray with
his hat in one hand and banging away with his revolver
with the other.�
Following the war, Sam continued as
a minister in Virginia and later went on to serve as
chaplain with the 4th Immune Regiment in the Spanish
American War. Settling in Covington in Alleghany
County, Sam became well known as the �father of public
schools� in that county and became the first
superintendent of public schools. On May 21, 1919,
Samuel Forrer Chapman, aged 80, died in Covington and
was buried in Cedar Grove Cemetery.
Of William Chapman, one mother of a Ranger
complimented him in saying: �It seemed to me he knew
everything.� At the end of the war, following Lee�s
surrender at Appomattox, it was William that offered
the surrender of Mosby�s men to Gen. Winfield Scott
Hancock. Complimenting Mosby�s right hand, Hancock
described Chapman as �important as Mosby.� William�s
postwar career was much more covered by the papers.
He apparently never completed his college work started
at the University of Virginia before the war.
However, for his previous senior status in the 43rd
Battalion Virginia Cavalry and his continuing ties
with his former commander, Chapman found an
interesting lifestyle in the postwar years.
In 1873,
William was appointed by direction of President U.S.
Grant to the railway mail service. Five years later,
President Rutherford B. Hayes offered an appointment
to Col. Mosby to �clean up� the �great amount of
�moonshining�. . . in Florida.� Mosby declined the
position, but in turn recommended William Chapman,
then a resident of Alexandria, Virginia. Chapman accepted.
Though he returned unscathed from his adventures in
Florida, during a raid near Huntsville, Alabama,
William was shot through the wrist by a moonshiner.
Years later, William received yet another wound while
trying to catch a fleeing moonshiner from the U.S.
Court in Atlanta. William remained with the Internal
Revenue Service for over 20 years, not retiring until
the Civil Service Annuity Pension became effective in
1920. The last of the service members to be appointed
in July 1878, William�s tours of service included
Atlanta, Milton and Greensboro, N.C., New York,
Tennessee, St. Louis, San Francisco, Salt Lake City,
Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
On September 13, 1929,
nearly 90 years of age, the old warrior died at his
home at 840 West Market Street in Greensboro and was
buried in Green Hill Cemetery in that city.
Interestingly, his father, William A., is buried in Green Hill Cemetery in Luray.
Return to the Page News & Courier sponsored directory for
Heritage & Heraldry articles.