DIANA SMITH
THE HEROINE OF THE NORTHWEST - 1862
A friend has kindly furnished us with some interesting
particulars in the history of this young heroine. She was born and raised in
the county of Jackson, Virginia. Her father is a consistent and pious member
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and was leading a quiet, peaceful, and
useful life, until his country was invaded, when he called his country-men to
arms, and raised the first company of guerrillas, which he commanded until his
fall, when, by fraud and treachery he was captured, and ever since has been
confined in a loathsome dungeon at Camp Chase, Ohio, without hope of delivery,
unless our Government should interpose and procure his release.
Diana, his only daughter, is a beautiful girl, and has been
tenderly raised, and well educated. She is also a member of the M. E.
Church, and has always been regarded as very pious and exemplary. She is
descended from a race of unflinching nerve, and satisfied with nothing less
than freedom as unrestrained as the pure air of their mountain home. Her
devotion to the cause of Southern rights, in which her father had nobly
engaged, has caused her, too, to feel the oppressor's power.
Although a tender and delicate flower, upon whose cheek the
bloom of sixteen summers yet lingers, she has been five times captured by the
Yankees, and marched sometimes on foot, in manacles, a prisoner; once a
considerable distance to Ohio, at which time she made her escape. She was
never released, but in each instance managed to escape from her guard.
She, too, has been in service; she was in several battles in
which her father engaged the enemy. She has seen blood flow like
water. Her trusty rifle has made more than one of the vile Yankees bite
the dust. She left her home in company with the Moccasin Rangers, Captain
Kesler, and came through the enemy's line in safety, and is now at the Blue
Sulphur Springs. She was accompanied by Miss Duskie,
who has earned the proud distinction of a heroine.
On one occasion this fearless girl was surrounded by fifty
Yankees and Union men, when she went rushing through their ranks with a daring
that struck terror to their craven hearts. With her rifle lashed across
her shoulders, she swam the west fork of the Kanawha river, and made her way to
the Mountain Rangers; preferring to trust her safety to those brave spirits,
well knowing that her sex would entitle her to protection from those brave
mountaineers. These young ladies have lain in the mountains for months,
with no bed but the earth, and no covering but the canopy of heaven. They
have shared the soldier's rough fare, and his dangers, his hopes, and his joys.
The great crime for which these daring young ladies are
charged by the enemy is cooking, washing, mending and making clothes, and
buying powder for the soldiers. We are informed that they are both ladies of
the first rank at home, and are every way worth of the highest place in any
society where virtue, integrity, and sterling principle give position.
This article appeared in several Southern newspapers in 1862, probably first in the Wytheville Dispatch (Wytheville, Virginia). It appeared in the Mississippian Weekly (Jackson, Mississippi) on November 19, 1862, with credits to the Wytheville Dispatch, in the Washington Telegraph (Washington, Arkansas) on December 24, 1862, and in the Dallas Herald, January 7, 1863.
The article has also been reproduced in The Rebellion Record: A Diary of American Events, by Frank Moore, 1863, D. Van Nostrand, Volume 3, page 21; Anecdotes, Poetry, and Incidents of the War: North and South: 1860-1865, by Frank Moore, pages 223-224; and The Civil War in Story and Song, 1882, a later edition of Anecdotes, Poetry, and Incidents.
The Washington Telegraph article is online at http://www.geocities.com/cannonball50x/smith.html.
Diana Smith is the daughter of James Ellison Smith (1812-1863) and is my first cousin three times removed. Her father is a younger brother of my 2nd great-grandfather, John V. Smith (1802-1862). "Jim" was a Captain in the Moccasin Rangers and was killed June 1863 at Nesselrode's on Little Sandy, Jackson County, West Virginia, about five miles northeast of Ravenswood.
After the Civil War Diana married Joseph R. Kessler. Colonel Joseph R. Kessler was distinguished in the Civil War. He was Captain of Company D, a cavalry company, 3rd Regiment, Virginia State Line, which was enlisted in Roane Co., (now West) Virginia, August 17, 1862. He was wounded near Prestonsburg, Kentucky, on December 4/5, 1862. Kessler was appointed Captain March 15, 1863, Company C, 19th Virginia Cavalry; and appointed Major, June 5, 1863. He received honorable mention from Lt. Col. W. P. Thompson in his report of the battle of Droop Mountain, November 6, 1863. He was appointed Lt. Col. 26th Virginia Cavalry January 1865.
Diana and Joseph Kessler had two children, William J. (1869-??) and Lee Genevieve Kessler (1874-??). In 1900 widower Joseph R. Kessler and daughter were living in Savannah, Georgia. He was a house carpenter.
Dixon Smith
Novato, California
April 7, 2008