The Shadow
Gone nearly 146 years, but not forgotten.
Members of Carpenter’s Battery Camp 1927, Sons of Confederate Veterans, recently obtained a government-provided grave stone for Confederate Sgt. Luther A. Marmaduke.
The staff of Cedar Hill installed the marker.
Sgt. Marmaduke was a member of Company K of the 19th Virginia Calvary attached to Maj. Gen. Fitzhue Lee’s Division of Calvary.
Sgt. Marmaduke’s military records show he drowned on Dec. 21, 1863, while crossing the Jackson River at Holloway’s Ford, located near the present-day Mallow area.
The 9th Virginia Calvary was in pursuit of Union Gen. William Averell’s raiding party, which had destroyed a major Confederate supply depot in Salem.
In his retreat back to West Virginia, Gen. Averell’s raiders passed through Alleghany County, burning bridges behind him at Island Ford and Covington.
Averell’s command also crossed present-day Humpback Bridge, but for some reason did not burn it.
On the previous day, Dec. 2, 1863, seven members of the 14th Pennsylvania Calvary also drowned while crossing Holloway’s Ford during high water. These Union soldiers belonging to Averell’s command are buried in Alleghany County.
No information can be found on his family or where Sgt. Marmaduke was born, only that he rests in Cedar Hill Cemetery and gave his life in service to the Confederate States of America.
