Confederate Shop
By R. D. Stewart, originally sourced from the Richmond Dispatch
Captain John R. Grabill sends a clipping from the Richmond Dispatch with an account by R. D. Stewart, of Baltimore, and he gives a careful version of the event. It concerns the murder of David Getz (by command of General George A. Custer - pictured below).
The article differs in some of the details from the account which I have secured from persons who were present and still living in Woodstock. The writer personally knew the small family, consisting of Andrew Getz, Elizabeth his wife, and their simple-minded son, David. David was about 30 years of age. The family lived in a small house close to the Methodist church, and for the rent of this humble home they served as sexton of the church.
David was mentally deficient, and no duties of a civil or military character were required of him. He was simple and harmless. The boys loved to tease him, and many a Confederate soldier told David that he had come to take him back with him. He was very timid and had no ambition to be a soldier, but was always frightened when the suggestion was made that he should go into the army. David had in some way become possessed of an old musket, and with it amused himself hunting ground squirrels and small birds.
In the summer of 1864 he was engaged in his usual sport in the pines near his home when a squad of Federal soldiers suddenly came upon him. To their question, "Are you a bushwhacker?" Не replied, "Why, yes." He had no comprehension of the term "bush-whacker." He was at once seized by a number of Federal soldiers, dragged to the pike, and then tied to a wagon. The poor fellow was almost frightened to death, and his heart-rendering screams aroused the whole town. There was a wail that could hardly be imagined.
Accustomed as the people were to the brutality of the Federals who prowled through this valley, nothing aroused their sympathy and horror, not even the burning of their homes and churches by the fire fiends of the brutal Sheridan, as did this human outrage. Tied behind a wagon and dragged through the streets, his plaintive cries and shrieks brought to their doors the ladies on both sides of the street. Helpless, they stood and wept for the poor unfortunate. Close behind him walked his aged mother and father, clasping each other's hands. They continued to follow their screaming child until they were driven back by the bayonets of the Federal soldiers.
Custer's camp was about one mile south of Woodstock. Here he was waited upon by Mrs. J. L. Campbell, Mrs. Murphy, and other ladies of the town, who gave him a truthful statement of the character of the man and besought Custer to look at him, as one glance would convince him of the truth of their statements. He roughly repulsed them. He was afterwards visited by Moses Walton, a distinguished lawyer of Woodstock, Dr. J. S. Irwin, a Union man of the town, and Mr. Adolp Heller, a prominent merchant and a strong Union man, at whose house both Custer and Torbett had occasionally made their headquarters.
While Mr. Heller was at heart a Union man, he was always ready to protect the innocent so far as it was in his power. He earnestly besought General Custer to release the poor idiot. When Custer intimated that he proposed to have him shot, Mr. Heller boldly replied, "General Custer, you will sleep in a bloody grave for this. Surely a just God will not permit such a crime to go unavenged." These gentlemen left his headquarters saddened by the exhibition of brutality upon the part of Custer. The words of Mr. Heller proved to be prophetic.
Poor Davy Getz was again tied behind the wagon, compelled to walk to Bridgewater, a distance of 40 miles, there forced to dig his own grave, and then was murdered like a dog. The father several years later committed suicide. The mother was taken to the home of her son, Mr. Levi Getz, of Rockingham County, where she died some years ago.
