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Letter to Governor Zebulon Vance
I am authorized and requested by Chief Justice Pearson to lay before your Excellency the following facts, There is a man in Yadkin county near Mount Nebo . . . named Elkanah Willard, who openly defied the law, first, By rescueing his brother who is a conscript (he himself is not) from a guard who had him in custody by a display of arms and open force. Secondly, by putting Capt Fleming and the men accompanying him at defiance, in such a way that they were obliged to shoot him down or rush upon him armed as he was at the imminent danger of their lives The Capt says he could have shot him down or at the risk of his life have attempted to arrest him but as he was a man of most desperate character and has 5 older brothers as bad as himself, the better plan he thought was to let him alone — Henry W. Ayer -November 10, 1862
Elkanah Willard was not with his four brothers, William, Leander, Milton, and Benjamin on February 12, 1863, but according to witnesses, “the Willard boys did most of the shooting”. In the winter of 1863, nearly a hundred young men from Yadkin County took to the woods to avoid being conscripted into the Confederate Army. Home Guard and Militia sought to arrest them, but well hidden and supplied by friends and neighbors, it was not an easy task. These skulkers were often friends, neighbors, and even family. On the night of February 11, 1863, it was snowing in Yadkin County. The Willard boys and 12 other young men took refuge inside the Bond School House in the Deep Creek Friends community just a short ride from the county seat in Yadkinville. These young men were not Quaker pacifists, nor ardent Union sympathizers. They were yeomen farm boys, not slave owners. Their reluctance to serve was not as much political as practical.
Jesse Virgil Dobbins
Most said that Jesse Virgil Dobbins was their leader. Standing almost six foot tall, the 34-year-old farmer and Miller was dark featured. His family home was between the schoolhouse and Yadkinville. He was an outspoken Unionist saying: “I think the Union men had the same cause to rebel against the so-called Confederacy as our forefathers had to rebel against the British government.” He planned to lead these young men on a dangerous journey across the Blue Ridge to the safety of the Union troops in Tennessee. On the morning of February 12, they gathered by a fire inside the one-room log school house, when a comrade arrived with a newspaper. Everyone huddled together to read the news of the war.
Captain James West
No one knows who told Captain James West of the presence of the skulkers at the Bond School House. This should be no surprise for to this day, there are few secrets in Yadkin County, and everyone is related. Maybe it was the smoke from the chimney of the schoolhouse that alerted a passerby. Most likely, Captain West received the news on the night of February 11th. Captain West was a tall good looking man of 42 years of age. Leading the Home Guard was a thankless task. County Solicitor R.F. Armfield wrote Governor Zebulon Vance of his efforts saying that the militia had “exerted themselves with great zeal” in the pursuit of deserters. Captain West, hearing of the men hold up in the Bond School House sent out word and soon had a posse of armed men, one of whom was my distant relative Joel “Poindexter” Reece. He also reported the news to Confederate militia Captain William Sanford “Billy” Williams who gathered a few members of his troop. Leaving Yadkinville that morning by the Boonville Road, they stopped at the home of Daniel Vestal. Seeing the large group of armed men, the lady of the house inquired of their intentions. When told, she looked at Captain West and exclaimed: “And Ye will get thy head shot off thy shoulders too!”
Owing either to the snowy weather or the interest in the news being read, Jesse Virgil Dobbins failed to station a picket around the schoolhouse. The Militia supported by the Home Guard members were able to come upon the schoolhouse undetected. Surrounding the schoolhouse, guns were soon inserted in between the logs in the wall and opened fire. The schoolhouse was soon covered in smoke, bullets embedded in the walls, screams and panic ensued. Jesse Dobbins sought refuge beneath a bench. Solomon Hinshaw lay on the floor bleeding from a bullet wound to his heart with an uneaten biscuit still in his mouth. Seeing this, Jesse’s boys commenced to screaming and cursing when the door suddenly opened. There, bravely standing, with a pistol in one hand was Captain James West, demanding their surrender. It is believed that one of the Willard boys answered by shoving his gun into the Captain’s face. Before he could fire, the brave Captain shoved the gun from his face, the gun blast nearly severing a ceiling joist. Another gunshot found its mark hitting Captain Jame West below his left eye, shattering his skull, killing him instantly. One witness describing him as a “lifeless, and headless form, almost all of his head being shot off.” Most folks believe Benjamin Willard fired the shot that killed James West, but Jesse Dobbins got the blame.
As with most armed encounters, the smoke, the confusion was intermixed by random gunfire. Both sides shot at each other, and most shots missed. When the smoke cleared, militiaman John Williams and conscript Eck Algood also lay dead. The Willard boys escaped with Benjamin suffering a gunshot wound. Jesse Dobbins with his brother William and at least three others also managed to outrun or outsmart his captors. Not stopping until he traveled 5oo miles to Kentucky and signing up with the Union Army. Records show that Jesse Dobbins enlisted with the Union Army on February 27,1863 as a wagon master with a Tennessee Artillery Unit. He served honorably and upon discharge when the war ended, he returned to Yadkinville. The local sheriff seeing him approached him and attempted to place him under arrest. It seems that on February 16, 1863, a grand jury had indicted him for the murder of Captain James West. Jesse struggled free, mounted a horse and rode to Salisbury where he found a contingent of Union soldiers. Local legend says that Jesse returning with the soldiers, a Union Colonel persuaded the clerk of court from the tip of a sword to burn the indictment against Jesse Virgil Dobbins and all others involved with the Bond School House Affair. Truth is Jesse ended up with the indictments as they were found years later in a family trunk by his grandchildren. Still, no one was ever prosecuted for the death of James West and John Williams.
Brother Milton Willard escaped and actually ended up in the Confederate Army serving in Virginia. In 1864, like many conscripted soldier, he deserted, was captured and was eventually executed. William Willard and three others were arrested trying to cross the Blue Ridge and were first imprisoned at Camp Vance near Morganton. Knowing that they were wanted in Yadkin County for their part in the Bond School House affair, Confederate authorities were reluctant to keep them in a military prison, they interned them in the Yadkin County Jail. That’s where Elkana Willard stepped in. He led group Unionist known as the Heroes of America, who soon descended upon the jail, releasing his brother and comrades. Linking up with brothers Leander and Benjamin, they again attempted to cross the Blue Ridge into Tennessee and were ambushed by the North Carolina militia and were sent to Camp Vance where they promptly escaped. Captured again, Elkana was placed in the Burke County jail in Morganton. His brothers were offered to Yadkin County and when they demurred were sent to the Forsyth County jail in Winston.
There are no details as to how Elkana escaped from the Morganton jail, but he did. The other brothers managed to escape the Forsyth County jail the day before they were to be executed. Their escape was described in the newspaper of the day:
The last place [William, Benjamin, and Lee Willard] broke jail was Winston [in Forsyth County, North Carolina]. A sister of the Willard boys secreted an auger and a chisel upon her person, left her home in Yadkin County and went to Winston and after undergoing a rigid examination by the jailor, she was permitted to go up stairs to see her brothers. When she left the jail she left the auger and chisel with them. With the auger and chisel, they bored and cut out of the jail and made good their escape, and avoided being shot or hanged, as a detachment of state militia had been ordered there to take them out and hang or shoot them, and arrived the day after they escaped.
War is over
To this day Yadkin County is the only county in the state and among the very few in the country to have to have never voted for a Democrat for President. Some attribute this to the Bond School House Affair and the deprivation visited upon the county by the Confederacy. I tend to think the fine people of this county have an independent streak that is in their blood and is rekindled by their working the red clay soil of their farms. Whether Jesse Virgil Dobbins is a hero or traitor, I don’t know. Like most who fought in the Civil War, both North and South, he was caught up in something beyond his control. Nevertheless, I think his post war observation of best tells his story: “I was willing to join the United States army for the purpose of fighting for the Liberty of my Dear country that is more preshus than gold. The rebs say that I am a traitor to my country. Why tis this, because I am for a majority a ruling and for keeping the power in the people.”
This is my interpretation of this event from which I have drawn greatly upon the work cited below:
