"Federal soldiers visited Somerset Place for the second time during the Civil War July 27, 1862.

As the Rev. George Patterson reported, Lt. Thomas Woodward led approximately 30 troops to the plantation “for the purpose of pressing Twelve (12.) horses into the Federal service, to be used in this County in case the Yankees were attacked by the Confederate Cavalry.”

Woodward found only 7 horses that suited their needs, and subsequently confiscated 5 horses from the neighboring Bonarva plantation.
However, the Union soldiers left their biggest impact not on the plantation’s horsepower but on the power structure of slavery.

They “talked to some of [the enslaved people] about freedom & asked some of them if they would not like to go away with them, where they could work, & receive wages for their work.”

Seizing on this opportunity to defy his enslavers, gardener Fred Littlejohn “was the 1st to bridle the horses for the Yankees.”

He later defended his actions when confronted by Patterson, who reported that Fred continued to resist his authority after the soldiers left.

As a result of this Union visit and Fred’s defiance, Josiah Collins III decided to move potentially rebellious enslaved persons away from Somerset Place and the Union Army.

By the end of October 1862, Collins forcibly relocated 171 enslaved men, women, and children behind Confederate lines to a newly acquired plantation in Franklin County named "Hurry Scurry."

Words on image: ca. 1860's, Enslaved Black men and horses on Somerset Place plantation near Creswell in Washington County, North Carolina.
Source: Somerset Place State Historic Site

Source of narrative and photo: Somerset Place State Historic Site