American Historical Ephemera & Photography

3 ledgers, containing approximately 118pp, 172pp, and 256pp, each with marbled boards and measuring approx. 12 3/8 x 7 7/8 in. (heavily worn, losses to spine, some loose pages, soil). Ledgers primarily with entries of a business and accounting nature spanning ca 1849 to 1870s, but with scattered war-date entries documenting ongoing tension in Cabell County between Union forces and suspected Confederate sympathizers. 

War-date entries include an 1861 "List of property taken from me by Col. J.T. Tolan 34 Reg O Volunteers." Summers records with costs the loss of "3 head of young Cattle," "2 yoke of oxen & waggon," "land his pickets overan," "chickens taken by his men," "damage done my house & the use of it," and other losses. Another list for 1863 identifies additional losses, though Summer notes that "Col. J.R. Hall of the 5 got the following & said he would pay for a part of it...."

An entry dated 5 November 1861 reads: "I was taken a prisoner of war before Col. J.T. Tolan of 34 Regt. of Ohio volunteers & after a trial of 2 days I was acquited honorably witnesses against me was Andrews Jordon & Thomas Gibson...." Summers then continues by listing the charges against him which include canvassing the county to get volunteers to join the Rebel army, distributing ammunition to the Rebels, providing provisions to the Rebels. Two days later he records his relief at the acquittal, "I got home & was glad my neck was spared." 
Lieut. Col. John T. Toland enlisted on 8/2/1861 and was commissioned into the Ohio 34th Infantry, a regiment that served primarily in the Eastern Theater in present-day West Virginia and in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. Toland was killed on 7/18/1863 in the Wytheville Raid in western Virginia.

A note added for 21 January 1862 indicates that Summer's difficulties were not yet over following his trial. He was taken prisoner by Union troops in the winter of 1862: "I was taken prisoner & sent to Athenium prison at Wheeling on the 21 April I got home Absent 3 months & was sick when I arrived...."

George William Summers (1812-1890) was a farmer and a businessman who owned a grist mill, cane mill, blacksmith shop, and rental houses in the area of Grant, Cabell County, Virginia. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Cabell County was an area which saw strong support for the South with many residents leaving to fight for the Confederacy. George Summers himself had two sons enlisted with the CSA, Corporal Constantine R. Summers and and Cpl. Sylvester Summers, both with the 8th Virginia Cavalry. Perhaps because of his sons' allegiances, Summers was one of the many Cabell County residents suspected of  abetting the Confederate cause. Tensions in Cabell County reached a climax on 10 November 1861 when a Confederate cavalry force of more than 700 attacked a Union recruitment camp along the port town of Guyandotte. The Confederates quickly overcame the brief resistance of the federal recruits, in part it was believed, due to the assistance of pro-Confederate town residents. In response, when Union troops reclaimed control of the town the following day they burned it to the ground. These tumultuous events were unfolding nearly simultaneously with the entries in Summers's ledgers which record his 5 November 1861 trial and being taken prisoner in January 1862. Though it cannot be verified, the way in which these personal notations are written into the body of the ledgers suggests that Summers might have been attempting to camouflage his entries amongst the large amount of mundane business transactions. 

An interesting and unusual relic of the Civil War which demonstrates the bitterly divided sympathies of western Virginia.