‘Our heritage, win or lose’
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Sage Merritt / News Virginian
Published: March 2, 2008
"All we're trying to do is portray history as best we know it and preserve our heritage," said Huffer, chairman of the Plumb House Museum in Waynesboro. "It might not be perfect, but it is our heritage, win or lose."
The Plumb House, located at 1021 W. Main Street, was the site of Saturday's reenactment and commemoration of the Battle of Waynesboro. The battle took place during the "beginning of the end" of the Civil War, Huffer said, when the Confederate forces were largely decimated. On March 2, 1865, the battle began, pitting the last of General Jubal Early's Confederate troops, the Army of the Valley, against the forces of General George Custer as the Union soldiers proceeded through the Valley. It was a quick victory for the Northern forces.
"The Battle of Waynesboro didn't last but 20 minutes," Huffer said. "The Union troops were lined up on Rosser Avenue, and the Confederates' line of defense was about 200 yards short. It was about 8,000 or 9,000 troops that had come down Route 11. Their goal was Lynchburg. General Early set up his defense over on Pine Avenue, but they left their left flank open, so it didn't last long."
In the midst of the battle stood the Plumb House. The home withstood a volley of bullets from both sides while the Plumb family hid in the basement, emerging upstairs later to receive a wounded Union soldier who later died of his injuries. Pieces of shrapnel remain lodged in one of the Plumb House's kitchen doors and the house's exterior shows the mark of bullets.
"That's probably why the Northern soldiers didn't burn the place down," Huffer noted. "Coming up the Valley, the Union soldiers burned everything. I guess it was snowing and sleeting so bad that they couldn't have burned the houses if they wanted to. Sheridan, he was a brutal general. He wanted to scorch earth."
The Plumb House remained in the Plumb family until the death of William Howard "Happy" Plumb in 1983, when the home was purchased by the city of Waynesboro in consideration of its historic importance. Happy was a prolific collector of Native American artifacts, and also took pride in his taxidermy work and butterfly collection. Now that the Plumb House has been transformed into a museum, Happy's many collections are still displayed in the restored main house and in the summer kitchen out back, alongside Civil War memorabilia and educational information about the house and the Battle of Waynesboro.
Saturday's commemoration of the 143rd anniversary of the battle included a reenactment, music, tours of the Plumb House, a ceremony at the Presbyterian Cemetery and a speaker at Stone Soup Books. It's all in the name of remembering history, and honoring the heritage of Waynesboro.
"You've got to promote your history, if you're interested in it," Huffer said. "A lot of people don't care about it, and that's their loss. Because you don't know who you are without it."
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