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More information on the Haines-Beyler Murder — Part IIWhat strikes me most about this recent discovery is that Ellis Haines made the claim that a Gibbons was one of the murderers. While the accusation was made, we certainly don’t have enough information to say with any certainty that any Gibbons family members were involved in the murder at all. That said however, we can take some time to conduct a little detective work to find out if any of the Gibbons family could have been present in Page County at the time of the murder.But first, when did the murder actually take place?According to this recent find, some Confederate soldiers from the Louisiana Tigers arrived at the Haines home on the very day that Gen. James Shields’ Union division moved out of Page Gounty. According to various sources, Shields’ division left Luray at 6 a.m. on May 12,1862, but did the last Union soldiers march out of Page at Milford on that day, or the following day? So, I’m thinking that Haines was taken from his house at Milford on either May 13 or 14. If he was truly held in confinement for eight days, and then murdered the night of the eighth day, that would place the date of death either lateon the night of May 21 or May 22, or sometime in the predawn hours of May 22 or May 23.Given this, could any Gibbons family members have been present during this time, as Ellis Haines suggested?I’m quite familiar with the history of the Gibbons family in Page, and Ellis Haines was correct about the Gibbons family moving to Georgia (they moved in 1860). However, if a Gibbons was present at the murder, the only one who might fit in the timeline was William Stevens Gibbons (1842-1931). I’m not saying he was guilty, but that he could easily have been in Page County in the latter part of May 1862.William Gibbons was a cadet at VMI at the opening of the war, was made a drillmaster in April 1861, assigned (unofficially, or the assignment was never completed) to Co. K, 1st Tennessee Infantry (likely one of the units he helped to train), and was then made an orderly to his older brother, Col. Simeon B. Gibbons, commanding the 10thVirginia Infantry. Following the death of Col. Gibbons at the Battle of McDowell (May 8, 1862), William vanishes from service records. If he did happen to remain with Jackson’s army after the death of his brother, he would have arrived in Page on May 20, with that army on its march to Front Royal. If he left the army after the death of his brother (did he accompany his brother’s body back to Harrisonburg for burial, and then go back to the only home he had known growing up, in Page? Certainly possible.), it makes sense that he may have returned to Page in the interim. Furthermore, in that he enlisted in the Page Volunteers of Co. K, 10th Virginia Infantry in Luray on Nov. 16,1862, it seems to make an even stronger case for his presence in Page for the months leading up to that enlistment. Incidentally, within two months of enlisting, William received a discharge, possibly due to health problems (he had also been absent from duty from August 1861-April1862, because of health).The rest of William’s history in the war is irrelevant to the Haines-Beyler incident, but may be hinting at something more. William eventually enlisted again (May 1864), in Co. C, 39t.h Battalion Virginia Cavalry (a company that had several Page Countians in the ranks). Captured at Hedgesville, Va. (W.Va.) on June 9,1864 while serving as a scout, Gibbons was “tried three times for being a spy, and narrowly escaped death.” After time as a POW at Wheeling, WV and Camp Chase, Ohio, he was finally exchanged in March 1865.In the end, within the scope of a historic who-done-its, we don’t have enough information to say that William was guilty, but there seems to have been opportunity, and... considering a possible need for vengeance in the wake of his brother’s death, there may have been motivation. Normally, I might end this by saying that “we may never know the entire story” or if William was actually involved in the murder. Yet, I would not have predicted finding anything further about the murder after writing about it nearly four years ago, and that a Gibbons was fingered for involvement. I suppose only time will tell.Robert H. Moore IIHeritageHeraldryMoore can be reached directly al cenantua© gmail com or at http:// herrtageandheraldry. wordpress.com/
Newspaper Details
Page News and Courier
Luray, Virginia, US
Thu, Jun 10, 2010
Page 13
Full Page
Clipped by
Jim G.
USA 07 Jan 2024
Other Publications Near Luray, Virginia
Luray Sun
Luray Commonwealth Review
Page News and Courier
