In a message dated 3/1/07 4:28:16 PM, [log in to unmask] writes:


> 
> 
> By Barbara J. Hamilton
> Copied from The Gazette (Jefferson, Ohio), 14 February 2007
> 
> 
>     At about the age of 11-12 years, Leonard Mabane, as a slave, was
> drafted into the Confederate Army. General Robert E. Lee took note of
> the young boy and must have seen a reason to trust him with the General's
> valued horse.
> 
>     The large gray stallion was Lee's prized possession and many
> pictures of the General astride his famous horse were taken after the
> war ended. It was the young Leonard Mabane who made sure the horse
> received the best of care.
> 
>     Mabane was all alone.
> 
>     His entire family had been dispersed to other owners. He never knew
> his actual birth date, but he estimated he was born about 1851.
> 
>     His birth took place on a North Carolina plantation.
> 
>     Under the leadership of General Lee, he was at the Battle of
> Gettysburg. Perhaps Lee's heart was tender toward the young lad and
> knowing the keeping of the horses would keep the boy off the
> battlefield, he chose to give him that duty.
> 
>     When the Confederate soldiers under Pickett's charge recoiled, young
> Mabane was recorded as being with General Lee.
> 
>     Mabane would later recount the sight of seeing, "Lee riding out to
> meet the shattered followers of Pickett and saw Lee as he removed his
> hat and bowed, saying that he was to blame for the decision to 'make the
> charge.' "
> 
>     None of the many newspaper articles concerning Mabane mentions any
> time spent in the Union Army, yet his headstone says that he spent time
> fighting as a Union soldier after he escaped from slavery.
> 
>     No mention is made of his time spent in the Confederate Army. If the
> information on the tombstone, erected after Mabane's death, is correct,
> we must assume that he escaped slavery in the south, left the
> Confederate Army and made his way to the Union forces and freedom.
> 
>     Another possibility is that by the time Mabane died, his service in
> the Civil War had ended 57 years before. Perhaps those who erected the
> monument either did not know of his time spent in the Confederate Army
> of they failed to mention it.
> 
>     After the war ended, Mabane traveled north until he reached
> Ashtabula County. The Follet family of Pierpont, well-known anti-slavery
> advocates, took him into their home. The Follets were childless and
> happy to welcome the young man onto their little farm on Caine Road,
> northwest of Pierpont.
> 
>     On the 1874 Atlas of Ashtabula County, land consisting of 64 1/2
> acres in the northwest part of Pierpont is owned by Emily Follet. In the
> 1905 Atlas of Ashtabula County, the land mass has increased to 67 1/2
> acres and it is still listed under the name of Emily Follet.
> 
>     The property is about a mile from the one room Graham Road School
> once located in the southwest corner of Graham Road and Route 7.
> 
>     Mabane did not have the opportunity for an education and upon
> learning, at the deaths of the Follets, that he had inherited the farm
> and land, it was his expressed desire that upon his death, the money
> from the estate would be used to help the local school.
> 
>     Unfortunately, Mabane, probably unable to read or afford an
> attorney, had never written his desire on paper.
> 
>     The case went to court and the judge's hands were tied. Without a
> will, Mabane's money would go to the state. But the judge made the only
> choice he could in the matter. He allowed all the money ($500.00 in
> 1912), to be used for a monument over Mabane's gravesite.
> 
>     Today, you can view the impressive large headstone in the Evergreen
> Cemetery in Pierpont on Cemetery Road. Unfortunately, the stone does not
> mention Mabane's service in the Confederate Army.
> 
>     Either the headstone is incorrect, or Mabane escaped from the
> southern forces and joined the Union army.
> 
>     It would be a fitting tribute to the memory of Leonard Mabane to
> establish a scholarship named in his honor to fulfill his desire to help
> students and schools. Although he never received an education, a
> scholarship, school fund or donation in his honor would be a fitting
> legacy.
> 
>     Information concerning Leonard Mabane was gathered from the 1985
> Ashtabula County History and old newspaper articles.
> 
> Copyright 2007 by Barbara J. Hamilton
> 
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> 

Fascinating story!   Please clarify a few things for me.   Where is Ashtabula 
County?   Are you Barbara Hamilton?

Anita L. Henderson


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