Posted on 02/17/2003 10:33:48 AM PST by stainlessbanner
CHATHAM, Va. - Gathering food for Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's troops earned Sam Lovelace a rare reward.
In 1933, Lovelace began drawing a Civil War pension - $300 a year - for his service to the Confederate States of America.
Lovelace collected the pension for his work as a teen-aged slave in the Chatham area during the Civil War. He is believed to be the last Confederate pensioner in Pittsylvania County, according to Herman Melton's book, "Thirty-Nine Lashes - Well Laid On: Crime and Punishment in Southside Virginia 1750-1950."
The annual pension was the result of an act passed by the Virginia General Assembly that awarded pensions to ex-slaves.
According to Gretna resident Eunice Bennett, Lovelace's first cousin, the $300 annual pension was a sizable sum at the time.
"He worked hard and he saved his money. He put it away and didn't drink it up," Bennett said. "He was a good father and took care of his family."
Lovelace also had a penchant for remembering details. He told a WPA historian in 1936 about 400 Union prisoners of war who were marched through Chatham to prisons in Danville. He also told the historians about the days when Chatham was a village of 18 homes, listing the names of each resident.
"He was a gold mine of history," Melton said.
Bennett remembers Lovelace sitting and telling stories for as long as he had an audience.
"He remembered down through his childhood, working at Chatham Hall," Bennett said.
Lovelace, who died in 1953 at the age of 107, was married and had four children - daughters Emma and Marie and a son, Thomas. A second son died during childhood.
He ate what he grew on a small plot of land located in the shadow of the Wooding Plantation, where he was a slave until the end of the Civil War.
Lovelace's work ethic never waned.
"He cut his own firewood (for his log cabin home) until he died," Melton said. "He was a pretty remarkable man."
Another good story about John Wayne Holland and others rediscovering their Southern roots.
I wonder why he wasn't included in the Slave Narratives then.
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