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Amick's Ranger
Captain John's Capture & Escape |
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"My grandfather, his Uncle John, and another John Amick were all in the same Company A, Hounshell's Battalion, Virginia Cavalry, CSA.
One was my father's uncle, a very large man, commonly called Big John, another was Big John's cousin, being smaller in stature and was called Little John, and the third was my father, who being tall and slender was called, Long John to distinguish him from the older men. Little John became Captain of this Company A and was thereafter commonly called Captain John."
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"Captain John resigned his commission in order to engage personally in guerilla warfare, hoping thereby to more effectively protect his community and people against the activities of those of anti-Confederate point of view. His activities as a guerilla attracted attention to the extent that the Federal Government offered a substantial cash reward for him, delivered either dead or alive." |
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"Shortly thereafter, he was captured by Federal troops, but escaped by leaping from a second story window in a private home where he was being held, was successful thereafter in eluding his pursuers and after the war spent the remainder of his life in or near Nicholas County"-John C. Amick, in "John Amick" |
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Yankees crossing to Fayetteville
Searching for Captain John ? |
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When Captain John was captured, he was held prisoner by two armed yankee guards, some say in a barn and others a house. Bare fisted, Captain John jumped both guards and was then able to make his escape from a second story window. The yankees searched the Sewell Mountain wilderness for Captain John but couldn't find him. They looked for him at his father's homestead at Raven's Eye. There the yankees told Captain John's mother Delila that would hang her son John from the highest tree in Fayette County.
"I know that Little John, Capt. John Walker Amick was my grandfather, and that he conducted guerilla warfare, that there was a price on his head, and that Delila told the Dam Yankees, who said they would hang her son on the highest tree in Fayette County, 'that catchin' came before hangin'.
"I do not think that he (Capt. "Little John" Amick) resigned his commission. He was called Captain until he died, and when they had celebrations at Lewisburg, they always sent for him to come. He and General Imboden were friends until he died."......ltr to C. Hogan |
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"Big John, while on furlough at his home in Nicholas County, was killed in attempting to evade capture by a guerilla band under the command of a guerilla captain named Riley Ramsey. Following this incident, a squad from the army failed in an attempt to capture Riley Ramsey at his home. |
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