Chapter 1 Comedy of Errors, Tragedy of Triumph Even though James Thomas Petty had resided in Washington, D.C., for years, he always identified himself as a Virginian. When it came time to choose sides in the sectional crisis, Thomas, as his friends called him, had no difficulty. He left the Union for the Confederate States of America just as Virginia did.Born in 1836 in Falmouth, Virginia, Thomas lived there and in Front Royal, Virginia, in the shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains during his youth. His father, James S. Petty, was a tailor by trade, and not a notably successful one at that.

In 1860, at age fifty-three, James Petty owned no land and held personal property worth a meager $150.00. Although he never made much money, James and his wife, Margaret, emphasized schooling for their children. At fourteen, Thomas could have helped to ease the financial woes of the family by seeking employment. Instead, his family scrimped while Thomas secured a superior education, which reaped dividends for the rest of his life.Avoiding his father's craft and, for that matter, other forms of manual labor, young Thomas gravitated toward the nation's capital in the early 1850s in search of employment. With support from his father's family, he found employment as a clerk, earning decent wages with the promise of economic mobility and financial security. A bright and pleasant lad, about medium height with hazel eyes and dark hair, Thomas carved out a strong network of friends and connections in and around Washington.

He socialized broadly, forging relationships with other aspiring young men from modest backgrounds, and with quite a number of single young women.On January 1, 1861, Petty called on President James Buchanan to offer him a happy New Year. "Poor Old Buck!" he jotted in his diary. "He looks careworn, and the effects of 'Secession' are visible in his countenance." Barely a week earlier, South Carolina had voted to withdraw from the Union, and rumblings from other slave states suggested that more would follow.Along with other Washingtonians, Petty rejoiced when rumors circulated that Senator John Crittenden's committee had eked out a compromise. It would have overseen the adoption of perpetually binding constitutional amendments that would secure slavery forever and guarantee slavery in territories south of the Missouri Compromise line, 36, 30'. "A mountain seemd removed from every heart," he exulted.

But that, too, quickly unraveled.Soon, the electricity of the times seized him, as it did hundreds of thousands of others. The thrill of momentous events, the culmination of decades of struggle over the legality and geography of slavery, was so exciting that it clouded his mind to solutions and consequences. "The South," he proclaimed joyously, "is in a blaze." On behalf of the Commonwealth of Virginia, he argued with friends so vociferously that he had to avoid political discussions to preserve his bond with them. When Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor fell to Rebel gunners in mid-April, he erupted with joy. Soon thereafter, when Virginia seceded, he announced his decision: "All my friends nearly condemn me but believing I'm right I still cry hurrah for Old Virginia! Whither she goes I'll follow."Although neither Petty nor his parents had slaves, many people he knew from days as a youth and an adult did -- his uncle in Front Royal owned a dozen.

Slaveholding was a Southern right, and Petty detested "Black Republicans" for their goals of stripping Southerners of their civil liberties as the Constitutional Convention of 1787 had reaffirmed. He took great pride in his standing as"Virginian & a Southerner."By mid-April, Petty had written his parents to inform them where he stood on the national crisis. A week later, he arrived in Front Royal, determined to enlist in the army. Two of his cousins had already left for Harpers Ferry to ser.