The Summers & Koontz Executions

The Summers and Koontz Executions. "Try to meet me in Heaven". , On May 22, 1865, former Confederate Captain George W. Summers, Sgt. Isaac Newton Koontz, Pvt. Jacob Daniel Koontz, and Pvt. Andrew Jackson Kite (all from the 7th Virginia Cavalry) set out from their Page County homes to obtain their paroles. Near Narrow Passage, they encountered a small party of Union cavalrymen. In the ensuing altercation, the four men drew revolvers and seized the Federals' horses and other property. Immediately remorseful, and at Summers' father's insistence, they returned the horses and other items to the 192nd Ohio Infantry camp here at Rude's Hill. The commander, Col. Francis Butterfield, promised them no harm., Almost a month later, on June 26, Lt. Col. Cyrus Hussey, commanding the Ohio regiment in Butterfield's absence, ordered their arrest and execution despite the promise. Hussey may have acted on accusations against them by local Unionist William Tharp. Kite and Jacob Koontz evaded arrest, but Summers and Isaac Koontz were shot here, at 7:30 P.M. on June 27. Before being shot, 22-year-old Summers wrote his parents, "Very much to my surprise, we must soon leave this world." Koontz, who was 20 years old, wrote his fiancée, Emma Shuler, "Oh, Emma, dearest in the world to me, how can I leave you. ...Try to meet me in heaven where I hope to go.", It is not clear whether the men were executed for their actions on May 22, or whether they were victims of rumors Tharp spread in retaliation for his mistreatment as a Southern Unionist., (sidebar) , The marble monument commemorating Summers and Koontz was erected here in 1893 to replace a wooden post that marked the execution site.