Silas Green

Silas Green was born into slavery around the year 1845 on a plantation in Franklin County, Virginia. According to local legend, soon after the beginning of the Civil War, Green voluntarily enrolled in the Confederate army. His owner considered him too valuable to sacrifice to war and refused to let him enter the service. Green was determined to join the army, and in spite of his owner's wishes, he organized and trained his own company of soldiers. He was ultimately forced, however, to watch his men go off to battle while he stayed on the farm to work. Records show that Green applied for a government pension for service in the Civil War in 1926, but his request was denied., After the end of the war, when thousands of freed slaves across the South moved to cities, Green and several members of his family came to Lynchburg. He first worked in a tobacco warehouse in the city, and then as a wagon driver and delivery man. The Green family lived near the intersection of Polk and Sixth Streets for nearly fifty years. Silas Green died in 1937 at the age of 92., A small obelisk near the Monroe Street fence marks the grave of Silas Green, his wife, his mother-in-law, and his infant daughter., Campbell Chronicles and Family Sketches, by R. H. Early, page 263.