Part 9 Beatrice Scovell's "The Muskoka Story"

PART NINE

Charles Blackmore From Muskoka, Enlisted With The Federal Army During the American Civil War

     As a preamble to this story, we are compelled to note, for the record, that we have begun additional research on Charles Blackmore, and his service for the Federal Army in the American Civil War, to corroborate the information published in this story penned by Beatrice Scovell. At present it is a folk story, and a good one at that, but we intend to pursue the facts, as presented, through online Civil War archive sites. You will note by the end of the story, that Charles William Blackwood, on a leave of absence from his Division, for health reasons, decided to return to Canada without approval, which would have most likely meant he was a deserter from the Union Army, and may appear in records as such.
     As we noted in a previous story, my old Civil War re-enactor friend, and historian, Tom Brooks, gave a lecture, on my urging, at the Muskoka Pioneer Museum in Port Carling, on the very subject of British and Canadian citizens who joined the war effort on either side of the conflict. Citizens were discouraged to migrate to the United States to fight in this war, and it more than likely was against the law at the time, to do so. It may have been the case some information was not given by Blackmore at the time of enlistment, to avoid problems as a British subject enlisting in a foreign conflict. This may explain why little information is available under his name, in New York where he enlisted.
     There is a brief chapter in Beatrice Scovell's 1980's book, "The Muskoka Story," that contains information about a local fellow by the name of Charles Blackmore, who found reason to join the fight of the Federal Army during the American Civil War. There were others from Muskoka who had a connection with the conflict, including a man named Charles Winter, buried in the Ufford United Church Cemetery, in the Township of Muskoka Lakes.
     Beatrice Scovell, in her fascinating folk history of Muskoka, with an intimate profile of her pioneer family in Huntsville, writes about Blackmore in the chapter headed "The Building of the Peterson Road." She begins her story with the following overview:
     "In 1860, Mr. Richard Hanna came to Muskoka with a contract to build thirty miles of the Peterson Road, from Muskoka Falls east to Minden. This is the Draper Road. The men who built the road endured incredible hardships. In 1969, an historic plaque was erected to commemorate the building of this road, and at that I wrote to Marjorie McBride whose history of the road building was printed in the Bracebridge newspaper. Mrs. McBride had written her story for the ceremony when the plaque was unveiled. She was very kind and said I could use what she had written, and that I could make use of other material she had."
     Beatrice Scovell continues, that "Although Mrs. McBride had more information than I had been able to gather from three other people, this was not the only source of my information about the Draper Road, nor was it the beginning of my interest in it, for years before I had taught in the Uffington School, being sent there to take the place of a teacher who was ill.
     "The home of Mr. and Mrs. Mathias, where I boarded, was a few minutes walk from the school. I had never been in this area before, and I started to gather history as soon as I found some people who were also interested in the beginnings of Muskoka. One of them was my host Mr. Mathias. I had heard about the troubles of the workers on the Peterson Road, from Mr. Hanna, the sone of Richard Hanna, who was given the building contract, and also from Captain Lee. Now Mr. Mathias started to talk about the road-building, and said I could go to the home of one of the builders, who had come back to live in Draper. He had lived on the property until his death in 1922, at the age of 81. Charles Blackmore had been a teenager when he first saw Muskoka, being given a job working on the Peterson Road, by Mr. Hanna in 1859."
     She writes that, "He (Blackmore) was born at Kingston, Dorsetshire, in England, in the year 1841. It was the stringency of the times in his homeland that decided the seventeen-year-old to emigrate. In the years 1857-58, at the close of the Crimean War, England saw the return of thousands of her soldier-sons from the fields of battle. A great number of them were maimed, scarred, incapacitated, unable to earn a living. About this time, Muskoka was being opened by the Canadian Government, and notices were to be seen posted in Toronto, asking for men to work on the colonization roads in the Northland. Mr. Blackmore, with a companion, Tom Page, started for the north. They arrived at Severn Bridge early in January 1859. Mr. Hanna was hiring men to work on the Peterson Road, in Draper Township. This road follwed, as nearly as possible, the fourth and fifth concession lines, the full eight miles from east to west across the township."
     Her research recorded, "From the Severn, a party of six men set out: Charles Blackmore, and his friend Tom Page, Charles Carroll, Jack Lyons, Jerry Sullivan, and a man called McGregor. They drove an ox loaded with two sacks of crushed oats, the men carrying their own dunnage. It is interesting today to note the progress of this party, through the deep snow, as they travelled northward in an unknown wilderness. Their first stop for the night was McCabe's Hotel, situated near where the old Northern Railway Station was afterwards built, at Gravenhurst. The next, about nine miles further on, they stopped at the camp of a Mr. Birney, who was engaged in building the first bridge across the South Branch of the Muskoka River at Muskoka Falls. The third night was spent at a 'Shabeen' called Cedar Camp, kept by Mr. Higgins on Lot 13, Concession 5. The fifth day, the party made as far as Derry Walls, less than two miles, when the ox,  completely exhausted, fell in the snow. The men, who were more than half famished, slaughtered it, dressing the carcass and serving a portion that evening for their supper. They camped in the snow over night. The next morning, Charlie Carroll, the wag of the party, stood on top of the cliff overlooking the valley where they had spent the night, and stretching out his hands in a mock serious manner, named the wretched place, 'The Valley of Death.' The name persists to this day.
     "A cache was made ere, at the foot of a cliff, and the dunnage of the party was hidden away, together with the carcass of the ox. The men made their way about a mile farther on, where they found the main camp of the road builders, at the head of a little lake. Here the men fell-to and worked for about two weeks. Then the food supply at the camp failed. Two men were sent back to the cache at Derry Walls, to bring up what had been left there. A few hours later Collins and Sullivan returned with disastrous news. Wolves had torn the cache open. The clothing and blankets left there had been destroyed and, worst of all, not a bit of foodstuff could be found. The men were literally starving."
     Beatrice Scovell adds to the story that, "The Irish wit of Charlie Carroll still prevailed, even in this crisis, for in taking leave of the spot, he named it, too, 'May the name go down to posterity as Poverty Lake,' he said. That is why this beautiful lake was known, on the very earliest survey maps. However, it was soon changed to Prospect Lake. The trip out of the township that February, taken by the men of that party, was in agony. Some of them were only half clothed and all of them were starving. Not more than one or two had a cent in their pockets to purchase food, even if there had been any to buy. Where the men of this party spent the balance of the winter, no one remembers. But by early in May of the next year, Mr. Blackmore was back in the road camp at the head of Prospect Lake, working under the formanship of Charles McKenzie. When the ice broke up in the spring, the body of one of a surveying party, who had been drowned in the previous Fall, was recovered, and buried, near the roadway, on the lakeshore. But again, the total lack of wilderness experience of these new immigrants defeated them. Returning to the place a week later, they found that wolves had opened the grave, scattering the bones about far and wide. Quietly, the men gathered the bones together and reburied them, and tis time they took care to protect the grave with huge stones,
     "During the summer of 1861, Mr. Charles Blackmore, in company with the late John and Samuel Armstrong, travelled southward to Davenport, looking for work. Leaving the Armstrong brothers there, he went to Buffalo, New York, where he enlisted in the Northern Army of the U.S.A. for service during the Civil War. He was sent to Lockport, New York, for examination, passed on to Rochester, for training, and then sent to Baltimore. His Division was on the James and Potomac Rivers, and spent many weary months camped under the walls of Fort Monroe. He was moved again to City Point, then to Petersburg, Virginia, making ready for a grand advance on Richmond, which his Division never saw. About this time the Presidential elections fell due. Every soldier who could be spared was sent back to his point of enlistment to vote. During this lull, Mr. Blackmore, having been taken seriously ill, was granted leave of absence. He took advantage of this to return to Canada. Despite the early terrible hardships he had suffered, the lure of the great northland drew him as much as ever. A few months later, he was back in Draper Township. His first location of land was lot 20, concession 5, although previously to this, had held a squatterËs right to lot 20 concession 4, which he sold to Joe Massey for fifteen dollars. Later he sold the location to which he did have a deed, to a man called Colvin, walking all the way to Orillia to make the transfer. For the next eight or nine years, he worked in various lumber camps in the Muskoka and Parry Sound districts, finally locating in Draper on lot 19, concession 5, and in 1871, marrying Miss Willena Lamont and settling down.
     Thank you Beatrice Scovell for preserving this important aspect of Muskoka heritage, in your fine little book, the work of a lifetime, entitled, The Muskoka Story.