Hardy County was certainly a hot bed of activity during the war. In my family my grandfather told my dad that when he was a boy the soldiers would help the locals with their harvesting - probably to get part of it. At least that would be better than just taking it. My grandfather said that he and his brothers would take apple cider out to the fields for the soldiers. They would be Union or Confederate depending on who was in control of Moorefield and the surrounding area at that time. My dad was born in 1899 and he told me that when he was young and the kids would have a fight at school he would be called "Yankee Lover". I'm not sure how it was determined that my family had been Union sympatherizers because we had soldiers on both sides but the kids probably got their ideas from their parents. It must have been extremely difficult to be in Hardy County during that time. Joyce

Our Family Oral tradition and a few letters in the MS library at William & Mary speak to the help at Harvest time by Confederates. They would rotate using a threshing machine early in the war. Another Oral history spoke of taking all of the animals up into the mountains to hide them from the army - which army has always been a question ! I suspect the Confederates. Gen. Rosser's reports told of LARGE quantities of sheep, cattle, and wheat taken from the area. Thanks, Mark -----Original Message----- From: Joyce Reiss [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Wednesday, March 29, 2000 9:14 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Civil War Stories Hardy County was certainly a hot bed of activity during the war. In my family my grandfather told my dad that when he was a boy the soldiers would help the locals with their harvesting - probably to get part of it. At least that would be better than just taking it. My grandfather said that he and his brothers would take apple cider out to the fields for the soldiers. They would be Union or Confederate depending on who was in control of Moorefield and the surrounding area at that time. My dad was born in 1899 and he told me that when he was young and the kids would have a fight at school he would be called "Yankee Lover". I'm not sure how it was determined that my family had been Union sympatherizers because we had soldiers on both sides but the kids probably got their ideas from their parents. It must have been extremely difficult to be in Hardy County during that time. Joyce