Mill Island

Mill Island. Confederate Hospital. The mansion in front of you is Mill Island, constructed about 1840 in the Greek Revival style for Felix Seymour and his wife, Sidney McNeill Seymour. During the Civil War, Mill Island served as a Confederate hospital, especially for Capt. John Hanson McNeill’s Rangers, a locally recruited partisan band. In addition, according to local tradition, the Hardy County court clerk stored records here, away from the courthouse, for safekeeping during Federal incursions for fear that the courthouse might be burned., In 1861, Seymour’s widow lived here with her son-in-law and daughter, George T. and Margaret Ann Williams, and their two children. More than 20 slaves and a paid laborer helped George Williams cultivate 1,500 acres. They grew corn, wheat, rye, apples, peaches, and grapes, and raised horses, cattle, sheep, and hogs., Although George Williams did not serve in the Confederate armed forces, he was sympathetic to the secessionist cause, as were many of his slaveholding neighbors in this fertile valley. Like them, he suffered losses of crops and livestock to both sides during foraging expeditions. , After the war, Williams assisted in the financing of roads to improve the transportation of crops outside the valley. He also served as one of the first commissioners of the county’s new public school system. Soon after the war’s end, the valley began to return to its prewar level of prosperity.