Comfortably Numb
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As queer a Fortean tale that I have ever come across...
'Little Mountain Hermit' 1887
- Thread starter Comfortably Numb
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If I'm reading it correctly, I think I have a theory ...
The location is in Highland County, Virginia - as remote a county as there is in the state, nestled among the Appalachian ridges and valleys adjacent to what is now West Virginia. Little Mountain is a long ridge running from roughly southwest to northeast. As such, specifying "Little Mountain" does nothing to pinpoint the location of the hermit's cave.
The author of this piece states he first encountered the hermit in 1862 - the "second year of the war", probably in August. In May of that year Stonewall Jackson won his first victory of his Shenandoah campaign in the Battle of McDowell. This battle occurred in Highland County, roughly one or two major ridges east of Little Mountain. This would correlate with the author's statement that a later sighting had been by an acquaintance who lived circa 10 miles away at / on Little Mountain if the author's own home were in the vicinity of McDowell.
Jackson's victory was obtained at the cost of twice as many casualties as the Union forces suffered. After the Battle of McDowell Jackson shifted his attentions east and south to the Shenandoah Valley. I haven't been able to locate any mention of substantial battles in Highland County after the 1862 Battle of McDowell.
The hermit wore a Confederate coat (tunic; whatever ... ) with thread stars sewn onto the collar. A single star on each side of the collar denoted a rank of major. If the collar had been black (which I can't confirm from the article) it would have denoted a major in the medical service (the only rank I find listed for a medical service officer's uniform). The Confederate Army commissioned circa 1,000 surgeons "... with rank, allowances, and emoluments of a major of cavalry." [1]
The only possession discovered at the hermit's cave after his death was a "beautiful" set of surgical instruments with the initials "A. T. H." ("A. T. M."?) engraved in the handles.
The article states that the hermit's body presented an old gunshot wound to the head, and the author suggests this was the cause of the hermit's odd behavior and muteness.
So here's my first cut at a hypothesis ... The hermit was originally a Confederate surgeon wounded at the Battle of McDowell, who wandered off into the mountains permanently dazed by his head wound but retaining enough sense to hang onto his most cherished possession - his monogrammed set of surgical instruments.
[1] http://www.medicalantiques.com/civilwar/Civil_War_Articles/Confederate_Army_Surgeons.htm
The location is in Highland County, Virginia - as remote a county as there is in the state, nestled among the Appalachian ridges and valleys adjacent to what is now West Virginia. Little Mountain is a long ridge running from roughly southwest to northeast. As such, specifying "Little Mountain" does nothing to pinpoint the location of the hermit's cave.
The author of this piece states he first encountered the hermit in 1862 - the "second year of the war", probably in August. In May of that year Stonewall Jackson won his first victory of his Shenandoah campaign in the Battle of McDowell. This battle occurred in Highland County, roughly one or two major ridges east of Little Mountain. This would correlate with the author's statement that a later sighting had been by an acquaintance who lived circa 10 miles away at / on Little Mountain if the author's own home were in the vicinity of McDowell.
Jackson's victory was obtained at the cost of twice as many casualties as the Union forces suffered. After the Battle of McDowell Jackson shifted his attentions east and south to the Shenandoah Valley. I haven't been able to locate any mention of substantial battles in Highland County after the 1862 Battle of McDowell.
The hermit wore a Confederate coat (tunic; whatever ... ) with thread stars sewn onto the collar. A single star on each side of the collar denoted a rank of major. If the collar had been black (which I can't confirm from the article) it would have denoted a major in the medical service (the only rank I find listed for a medical service officer's uniform). The Confederate Army commissioned circa 1,000 surgeons "... with rank, allowances, and emoluments of a major of cavalry." [1]
The only possession discovered at the hermit's cave after his death was a "beautiful" set of surgical instruments with the initials "A. T. H." ("A. T. M."?) engraved in the handles.
The article states that the hermit's body presented an old gunshot wound to the head, and the author suggests this was the cause of the hermit's odd behavior and muteness.
So here's my first cut at a hypothesis ... The hermit was originally a Confederate surgeon wounded at the Battle of McDowell, who wandered off into the mountains permanently dazed by his head wound but retaining enough sense to hang onto his most cherished possession - his monogrammed set of surgical instruments.
[1] http://www.medicalantiques.com/civilwar/Civil_War_Articles/Confederate_Army_Surgeons.htm
Comfortably Numb
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I am delighted you have taken the time to contemplate this fascinating tale.
My initial concern was that perpetual dilemma, when you come across which seems new - is it though, or a well known case?
As I couldn't find any trace of same, had to go with posting it!
Your conclusions seem well founded and personally I would only add...
... what an extraordinary, bizarre, story - now one of my favourites.
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I located two additional newspaper archive editions of the story - one of which was inaccessible behind a paywall and the other of which offered only a scrambled OCR transcript of the text.
I haven't been able to locate a listing of Confederate casualties from the Battle of McDowell. It seems the US National Archives holds some comprehensive records of Confederate medical service personnel (in hardcopy only). If anyone were to be able to invest the effort I suspect it might be possible to locate a record of a Confederate surgeon / officer with the initials found on the surgical instruments.
This, of course, would only identify the owner of the instruments - not necessarily the identity of the hermit. There's always the chance the hermit wasn't the surgeon himself, but rather someone else who wandered off with a scrambled head as well as the surgeon's coat and instruments. I suppose there's also a chance the hermit had wandered off after one of the other battles in Jackson's remarkable Shenandoah campaign that summer, but none of those other engagements occurred in the vicinity of Highland County and Little Mountain.
I haven't been able to locate a listing of Confederate casualties from the Battle of McDowell. It seems the US National Archives holds some comprehensive records of Confederate medical service personnel (in hardcopy only). If anyone were to be able to invest the effort I suspect it might be possible to locate a record of a Confederate surgeon / officer with the initials found on the surgical instruments.
This, of course, would only identify the owner of the instruments - not necessarily the identity of the hermit. There's always the chance the hermit wasn't the surgeon himself, but rather someone else who wandered off with a scrambled head as well as the surgeon's coat and instruments. I suppose there's also a chance the hermit had wandered off after one of the other battles in Jackson's remarkable Shenandoah campaign that summer, but none of those other engagements occurred in the vicinity of Highland County and Little Mountain.