Seaton Tinsley Preston (3/29/1892)(3/20/1977) m. Sarah Kathryn Barber (5/20/1898)(11/28/1976)

I have a story written by Mrs. Seaton Grantland Tinsley (Fannie William Gaines Tinsley) in 1912 about her experiences during the Civil War. The Gaines homestead, Powhite, was in Hanover County Virginia, just east and slightly north of Richmond. About the first of May, 1862 the Yankee army (McClellan's forces) moved in and took their home over as an observation post. Mrs. Tinsley must have been about 22 years old and Hattie (my grandmother, Harriet Bryan Tinsley) was only one year three months old. The rebel forces were on the opposite hill across the Chickahominy River in Henrico County. She tells of how the soldiers acted and what they did. In general they were very polite, did not take anything or do anything to violate the Tinsleys or their property. They did tell them they couldn't have any lights on in the back of their house because the Rebels would see them. Every day the Yankees sent up an observation balloon called the "Intrepid" to see what was going on in Richmond. There were some instances of brutality. The man going up in the balloon was a General Low. When he came down he would tell the Tinsleys and Gaines what he had seen which was interesting. Sometimes the balloon was sent up from a neighbors house, an elderly woman Mrs. Woody. When they came down and told her what they saw, she replied, "Yes, Moses also viewed the promised land, but he never entered." That night the church which she attended and which was on the corner of her place was burned by the Yankees. Mr. Tinsley was in the Confederate Army in Richmond. After about six weeks, Jackson's Army moved in and they were right in the midst of the fighting but survived unharmed. The complete story can be found at Civil War Page