Page News & Courier
Heritage and Heraldry
An early history of Page County's White House Bridge
Article of July 2, 1998
Barely a decade old at the opening of the Civil War, the White House Bridge saw the passing of many soldiers in both Blue and Gray, advancing and retreating in the Shenandoah Valley. One such encounter, on April 19, 1862, saw the death of Private Charles C. Wheat. A member of Company D, 7th Virginia Cavalry, Wheat was shot and killed at the White House Bridge and Hamburg intersection by some of the advancing forces of General James Shields' army. Ultimately, the 19 year-old achieved the unwanted title of the first soldier known to have been killed in Page County. The exact details of the skirmish were not mentioned in the unit history of the 7th Virginia Cavalry, though they were operating in the area of Page and Rockingham County at the time. The incident, in fact, may have been the result of an attempted "bushwhacking."
Interestingly, Strickler's A Short History of Page County states that Judah Forrer and Dr. William H. Miller "were there at the time, but fled without injury." Forrer had just been discharged from the Dixie Artillery in January and it would be almost two years before he began riding with John S. Mosby's men. Miller, on the other hand, had been captured at Romney on October 26, 1861 and was confined at Camp Chase, Ohio during the affair. Furthermore, while Forrer's presence is possible, Dr. Miller was not sent to Vicksburg, Mississippi for exchange until August 25, 1862, making it impossible for him to be a witness to Wheat's death.
In 1926, Philip M. Kaufman recollected a springtime day on May 21, 1862 when "Stonewall" Jackson advanced on the bridge. Having marched through New Market and across the Massanutten at New Market Gap, Jackson reached the bridge and from what Kaufman recalled: "I was an eyewitness and, as far as I know, the only surviving one, not only of the crossing of General Jackson's army at the bridge at the White House. . . but also of Stonewall himself as he ran the gauntlet, with bared head, through the marching columns of his cheering 'foot cavalry'. His faded gray uniform with stars on the collar, his black beard and uncovered head, as he loped past the White House on Old Sorrel, are as fresh in my mind as on that day."
Within a couple of weeks of Kaufman's eyewitness encounter, the bridge again became a focal point. While at Strasburg, Jackson realized that Federal General James Shields might move through the Page Valley and across the Massanutten to close a trap with John C. Fremont's army striking from behind. In order to prevent the action and expedite his escape, Jackson made orders for the destruction of the White House and Columbia bridges in Page. Captain S.B. Coyner's Page men of Company D, 7th Virginia Cavalry were a natural selection to achieve the task. Sometime after 11 p.m. on June 1, Coyner's company made a quick trek toward Page and encountered "one of the most dreadful thunder storms" half way up the Massanutten. After a brief pause, the contingent pressed on under flashes of lightening that lit their way in the intense darkness. The bridges were "in flames by sunup." Coyner recalled that "the Yankees" later "pitched their tents and planted their cannon by the smoking ruins."
While the bridge had been destroyed, the ford at the White House had yet to see its last encounter between soldiers in the Civil War.
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