Today our walk was dedicated in honor of:
Army SGT John W. Armsworthy, Age 34 of Yadkin County, NC.
KIA Jan. 15, 1864 during the Civil War
He served in the 54th North Carolina Confederate Infantry Company H. He died of his battle wounds while being held as a prisioner of war by the Union Army.
John Wesley Armsworthy was thirty-one years old when the war broke out in 1861. He and his wife, Edna, aged twenty-six, had three children under five years old-Branch, Ella, and Matthew. Armsworthy owned a 270-acre farm in Yadkin County, where he and his young family lived. He raised all the food the family needed, including wheat, corn, oats, and potatoes. He had two cows to provide milk and butter, and fifteen hogs for meat. Armsworthy had one mule to help him work the fields but did not raise any cash crops, such as tobacco or cotton, nor did he own any slaves. He and his family were Methodists. Armsworthy was a Democrat, although, like most North Carolinians, he probably did not favor secession before the war. But ultimately he supported the state’s decision to leave the Union and join the Confederacy.
John Wesley Armsworthy enlisted in the Confederate army in April 1862. He joined Company H (Western Rangers), Fifty-fourth Regiment North Carolina Troops as a private. Armsworthy wrote many letters home to his wife, all of them giving some news about the war, offering advice on the management of the farm, and expressing his love and concerns for his wife and children. He fought in several battles, was captured and exchanged in May 1863, and received a promotion to sergeant later that summer. On November 15, 1863, Armsworthy was wounded in the right arm and captured in battle at Rappahannock Station, Virginia. At a hospital in Washington City, he wrote to his family on December 8, told them of his unfortunate circumstance, expressed hope that he would soon recover, and sent his love to his wife and children. It was his last letter home.
Sergeant John Wesley Armsworthy died of his battle wounds as a Union prisoner on January 15, 1864. He is buried in present-day Arlington National Cemetery in a numbered but unmarked grave. Armsworthy’s death left his wife, Edna, and three small children destitute in Yadkin County. Then the youngest child, three-year-old Matthew, died. Edna moved with her two surviving children to her uncle’s family home in Davie County, where she remained after the war. She never remarried. In 1909, at the age of seventy-two, Edna Armsworthy applied for a pension based on her late husband’s Confederate service, stating in part: “[T]hink what I have lost in doing with out my Husband all theas years. Now I am old [and] need some thing more than I have got, to be cared for like he would have done.” She died on March 3, 1910.
We had a great 10.28 Mile walk today. We headed down Northside Drive and once we reached 127 we headed towards town. We stopped at the War Memorial Park. We then headed west and walked over by Miller Ave. Stopped to get a photo at Holiday Hills Lake as we headed back to the house. I want to thank my friend Robert for walking with us today and I want to thank everyone who honked, waved, and saluted in helping us honor this hero today. We had 238 honks today. It was amazing. Thank you.
Army SGT John W. Armsworthy will not be forgotten !
