This marker located at 1529 Parkersburg Turnpike, Swoope VA is an important link on the Anabaptist Heritage Trail. Among hundreds of Civil War markers in Virginia, this is the first that recognizes conscientious objectors. The Confederate Civil Disobedience marker described the capture of 72 Brethren and Mennonite men who were marched 87 miles to the train station in Staunton. The Confederacy shipped the men to the prison in Richmond.
When Confederate officials in Richmond learned that only two men captured all 72 men, with no resistance, this influenced the legislators to amend conscription laws in Virginia to exempt religious denominations that preached nonviolence.
The actions of these brave men testified to nonresistance both to officials then and to we who learn their story today.
The inscription on the marker reads:
“On March 19, 1862, a weary column shuffled by the road in front of you. They were not soldiers marching to a battle, but dozens of pacifist conscientious objectors who were being herded to Staunton, and then prison.
Desperate for recruits, the Confederate government planned to draft young men into the army, but for members of the numerous Mennonite and German Baptist Brethren “Dunker” churches in the Shenandoah Valley, pacifism was a way of life. Presented with two unacceptable choices—army service or prison—members of these “peace churches” attempted to escape to the Northern state of Ohio.
As a group of 72 pacifists tried to secretly pass westward through the mountains, two Confederate scouts—just two—arrested the draft evaders at Petersburg, now West Virginia. True to their rejection of violence, all 72 fugitives surrendered without resistance. On the 87-mile march from Petersburg to Staunton the captives proved so compliant they required only a few guards. Most of the prisoners felt that by surrendering they had tacitly promised not to escape, and they kept their word.
After passing this point, the column of prisoners arrived in Staunton, where one citizen wrote: “Some, if not all of them, are simple-hearted, inoffensive people … there is something pitiful in their fleeing in this manner and being taken like partridges on the mountains.”
The civil disobedience of the pacifists had raised an important issue. Their commitment and conduct impressed lawmakers as admirable examples of devotion to Biblical principles. Virginia passed laws protecting conscientious objectors, and the Confederate Congress amended conscription laws to exempt religious denominations that preached non-violence.”
Sources
- Elwood Yoder, Shenandoah Mennonite Historian, Spring 2024