Chapman House

Chapman House. Confederate Father and Son. This is the Chapman House, built in 1803 and the home of one of Union’s most prominent families. Augustus A. Chapman and his son, George Beirne Chapman, both served the Confederacy in the Civil War., Augustus Chapman, an attorney, was twice a member of the Virginia General Assembly (1835-1841; 1857-1861), a U.S. Congressman (1843-1847), and a representative for Monroe County in the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1850. During the Civil War, he was a brigadier general commanding a Kanawha Valley militia brigade comprising regiments from Greenbrier, Mercer, Monroe, and Giles counties. He fought in several engagements in West Virginia., George Chapman enlisted in Lowry’s Battery in present-day Greenville and was elected 1st lieutenant. In April 1862, he returned to Union to raise his own battery. Only 21 years old, he was made captain of Chapman’s Battery. At the Battle of Droop Mountain, Chapman’s Battery fought under Gen. John Echols, also from Union. Chapman was mortally wounded at the Battle of Winchester on September19, 1864. As he rode toward one of his guns, shell fragments struck his left shoulder and tore through his body Lt. Frederick G. Thrasher, his second-in-command who also was wounded, wrote, “On my arrival at Lynchburg General A.A. Chapman came to see me to inquire about his son, the Captain. I told him that I had left him a few hours before at Charlottesville in a very dangerous condition. The General and Mrs. Chapman went on the next train to Charlottesville, arriving there a short time before their son’s death.” Chapman’s Battery fought on without him until the war ended. . This historical marker was erected by West Virginia Civil War Trails. It is in Union in Monroe County West Virginia