Curtis Curry describes himself as an amateur historian, but the local author presented a Civil War lecture on Thursday that any professor would be challenged to match.

Curry presented the lecture at the Pocahontas County Senior Citizens Center in Edray. The talk focused on Civil War activities in and around Pocahontas County and the speaker relayed numerous facts and figures about the war at the local level.

According to Curry, there was a total of 4,230 people living in the county in 1860, just before the war began. Of that total, 3,958 were white, 252 were African-American slaves and 20 were free African-Americans.

In the May 23, 1861 Virginia vote, to decide whether or not to secede from the United States, 360 Pocahontas County residents voted for secession, while only 13 voted against. Oddly, just three years later, another vote in Pocahontas County would support a continued Union war effort.

Although a majority in Pocahontas County might have supported the Confederacy, more men from western Virginia counties fought for the U.S. According to Curry's lecture, 30,000 West Virginians fought for the North, while just 8,000 would put on a gray uniform for the South.

The Confederacy was greatly outnumbered. The North had a population of 22 million at the start of the war, compared to just 9.4 million in the South. The North had 4.4 million horses and the South just 1.6 million. The Northern army had 621,000 soldiers and the South - just 196,000 soldiers.

After Curry's lecture, audience members asked several questions and a wide-ranging discussion about the war and family histories took place.

Curtis' brother, John Curry, described how his great uncle, William Curry, was afraid that Union troops would burn the courthouse in Huntersville. William Curry and a black man took the courthouse records into Virginia and safeguarded them until after the war, when they were returned intact.

John Curry related another story about a little-known Civil War skirmish that occurred along Stony Creek, near Woodrow. According to Curry, the battle began as a fight over a honeycomb.

Several accounts of the skirmish appeared in The Pocahontas Times between 1904 and 1968. Andrew Price wrote a detailed account in Plain Tales of Mountain Trails: I, The Midland Trail; II, The Seneca Trail, published in the West Virginia Blue Book in 1928. Some of the accounts contain conflicting details and dates.

According to Price's account, the skirmish occurred in November 1864, when Pocahontas County was part of the newly-formed state of West Virginia. Although part of the U.S., the county was a dangerous place for federal troops, because of Confederate scouts and bushwhackers.

According to Price's book, a small unit of Union troops was dispatched from Beverly to Edray to protect a polling place for the presidential election of 1864. The U.S. troops were on their way back to Beverly with the election results when they commandeered some honey from William Beverage, a farmer and Confederate sympathizer.

A larger group of Confederate scouts had been alerted to the presence of the Federals and attacked the Union troops at the Beverage farm, in an area known as Duncan's Lane. As a result of the action, one Union soldier was killed and the Union force was scattered. But the election results were successfully returned to Beverly.

Price reports that the Pocahontas County vote was heavily in favor of Abraham Lincoln, the most pro-war candidate. But the Union soldiers were among those who voted at Edray, according to Price's account.

Curtis Curry has authored two books: "The Williams" and "A Historic and Scenic Tour of Pocahontas County." Both books are available at The Pocahontas Times Store and Museum, the Pocahontas County Historical Society Museum, the Whistle Stop in Durbin and other area locations.

To learn more about the Battle of Duncan's Lane, visit the McClintic Library in Marlinton to read various articles about the battle in The Pocahontas Times archives.

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