ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, July 2, 1996 TAG: 9607020019
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: S.D. HARRINGTON STAFF WRITER
WHEN J. Raymond Hildebrand died in 1988, he was remembered among other things as one of Western Virginia's leading historians and map makers.
He was a Roanoke city planner and longtime secretary of the Roanoke Valley Historical Society. But he was also a humble man who took little credit for his work. He didn't even sign his hand-drawn maps that traced the beginnings of eight Virginia counties. His maps appeared in at least a half-dozen history books.
And despite a family with rich history in the Shenandoah Valley, he rarely wrote about it.
When his son, John R. Hildebrand, cleaned out his father's personal office, he uncovered something that he never knew existed: a small box of writings from his great-grandfather, Jacob R. Hildebrand, a Mennonite farmer who kept a journal while his three sons fought in the Civil War.
John Hildebrand, a Salem historian and retired engineer, has published those journals and believes they will offer a rare account of the war - through the eyes of a Mennonite, whose religion normally promotes pacifism.
Hildebrand isn't sure why his father never published the journals - unless, perhaps, he was too humble.
"It was just his personality that he never sought any public attention," Hildebrand said. J. Raymond Hildebrand was a Lutheran, but he may have held on to some Mennonite beliefs, particularly the belief that seeking public attention is vanity.
James Hildebrand didn't talk about his family's history with his son often.
"I don't know I evidenced to him any interest in the family history," John Hildebrand said.
The book, "A Mennonite Journal, 1862-1865" (Burd Street Press, $9.95), will be available this month in some local bookstores and history museums.
Hildebrand said probably the most difficult part of writing the book was transcribing his great-grandfather's cursive from old, sometimes stained, parchment. At times he had to leave blanks if the paper was too weathered or the handwriting too smudged.
"The form of writing they used then took a while" to get used to, Hildebrand said.
"I tried to be faithful to the punctuation and everything else."
Jacob Hildebrand used a lot of abbreviations, such as "bo't" for "bought," and he shortened names like "Joseph" with "Jos."
"And he used very few periods," Hildebrand said.
Jacob Hildebrand farmed in Augusta County between Staunton and Waynesboro.
His three sons - Benjamin, Gideon and Michael - each fought in the war. In his journals, Jacob Hildebrand wrote about trips to take his sons clothing and food because of the inadequate supplies that the Confederate Army provided.
During frequent trips to Staunton, he picked up the news about the war. Many of the entries in his journal were part weather and farming logs, part war updates.
His March 31, 1862, entry reads:
"Cleared off last night windy but not cold, was at Staunton bro't my knapsack home. M.M. Dull made his 2nd application for Exemption but did not get off, calico is selling at 611/2 cents per yard, brown cotton cloth at from 40 to 45 cents per yard wood is selling at $6. per 4 horse load. it is reported that we lost at the batle near Winchester 80 killed & 300 wounded."
Another tidbit Hildebrand learned during a trip to Staunton on March 20, 1862, was that 72 Mennonites were arrested by the Confederate government while trying to escape to the Union states. They were captured in Petersburg, trying to go through West Virginia to Ohio. They were then imprisoned in Richmond.
John Hildebrand explains in the book that Mennonites with strong pacifist beliefs were faced with a conflict between their religious tenets and Confederate law, which required them to serve in a state militia.
Some Mennonites were less opposed to force than others, and some even supported the Confederate Army.
Jacob Hildebrand was one who supported the Confederate efforts, but he was exempt from fighting because of poor health.
Jacob Hildebrand provided little background about the battles he recorded in his journals. That's where John Hildebrand came in. After he transcribed the writings, Hildebrand turned to texts such as Douglas Southall Freeman's Pulitzer Prize-winning Civil War volumes for details.
Hildebrand hopes readers find the journals as intriguing as he did after he first read them.
"The journal creates in your own mind a curiosity," he said.
In one of Hildebrand's favorite entries, his great-grandfather writes about a trip to Staunton and a rumor he has heard: That Gen. T.J. "Stonewall" Jackson would bring his troops there.
"Jackson was supposed to be very secretive in his dealings," John Hildebrand said. "A lot of times he wouldn't share his plans with his own staff.
"So much for Gen. Jackson's secrecy. Everyone in Staunton knew what he was doing."
"A Mennonite Journal, 1862-1865" is $9.95 at Books-A-Million, Ram's Head bookstore at Towers Mall, the Roanoke Valley History Museum and the Salem Museum.
LENGTH: Long : 104 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ROGER HART/Staff. 1. The front jacket of "A Mennoniteby CNBJournal, 1862-1865" features a photograph of Jacob R. Hildebrand of
Augusta County. 2. John Hildebrand, a Salem historian, has written a
book from the journals of his great-grandfather, Jacob R. Hildebrand
of Augusta County. Jacob Hildebrand, a farmer and a member of the
pacifist Mennonite sect, supported the Confederacy during the Civil
War and had three sons who fought for the South. color.