Virginia, Montgomery County, Blacksburg
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This is Smithfield, the birthplace of William Ballard Preston (1805-1862). On April 16, 1861, in the Virginia Convention, he reluctantly introduced the formal resolution to secede from the Union.
Preston served in the Virginia House of Delegates (1830-1832; 1844-1845). In 1832, after Nat Turner’s Insurrection, he supported an unsuccessful effort for gradual slave emancipation. He served in the Virginia Senate (1840-1844) and then in the U.S. Congress (1847-1849) with a fellow Whig who became a friend—Abraham Lincoln. Preston was Secretary of the Navy under Presidents Zachary Taylor and Millard Fillmore (1849-1850).
As a delegate to the Virginia Convention, in April 1861, Preston proposed that a committee call on President Lincoln to ascertain his policy toward the Confederate States (seven had seceded by then). The Convention appointed a member from each of its factions, including Preston (a conditional unionist), to the committee. It met with Lincoln in Washington on April 12, the day the bombardment of Fort Sumter began, to present the Convention’s official communication. The next day, the committee and Lincoln debated the constitutional limits of his authority to repossess Federal forts and repel force with force.
The committee reported to the Convention that Lincoln’s approach was hostile. After Fort Sumter fell and Lincoln called on April 15 for 75,000 troops from the states, delegates regarded his proclamation as an excessive response to the situation. The next day, Preston introduced the Ordinance of Secession, which passed on the 17th, 88-55. Preston served in the Provisional Confederate Congress and then in the Confederate Senate until his death.
(sidebar)
Col. William Preston, William Ballard Preston’s grandfather and Revolutionary War officer, built Smithfield in 1774. James P. Preston, the father of Ballard (as his family called him), an uncle, and two first cousins were Virginia governors.
(captions)
(top left) William Ballard Preston, ca. 1845-1849 — Library of Congress
(bottom center) Ordinance of Secession Courtesy Library of Virginia
(top right) President Zachary Taylor’s cabinet, 1849. Left to right: William Ballard Preston, Secretary of the Navy; Thomas Ewing, Secretary of the Interior; John Middleton Clayton, Secretary of State: Zachary Taylor (standing), Twelfth President of the United States; William Morris Meredith, Secretary of the Treasury; George Washington Crawford, Secretary of War; Jacob Collamer, Postmaster General; Reverdy Johnson, Attorney General. Courtesy Library of Congress
(Politics • War, US Civil) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
This is Smithfield, the birthplace of William Ballard Preston (1805-1862). On April 16, 1861, in the Virginia Convention, he reluctantly introduced the formal resolution to secede from the Union.Preston served in the Virginia House of Delegates (1830-1832; 1844-1845). In 1832, after Nat Turner’s Insurrection, he supported an unsuccessful effort for gradual slave emancipation. He served in the Virginia Senate (1840-1844) and then in the U.S. Congress (1847-1849) with a fellow Whig who became a friend—Abraham Lincoln. Preston was Secretary of the Navy under Presidents Zachary Taylor and Millard Fillmore (1849-1850).
As a delegate to the Virginia Convention, in April 1861, Preston proposed that a committee call on President Lincoln to ascertain his policy toward the Confederate States (seven had seceded by then). The Convention appointed a member from each of its factions, including Preston (a conditional unionist), to the committee. It met with Lincoln in Washington on April 12, the day the bombardment of Fort Sumter began, to present the Convention’s official communication. The next day, the committee and Lincoln debated the constitutional limits of his authority to repossess Federal forts and repel force with force.
The committee reported to the Convention that Lincoln’s approach was hostile. After Fort Sumter fell and Lincoln called on April 15 for 75,000 troops from the states, delegates regarded his proclamation as an excessive response to the situation. The next day, Preston introduced the Ordinance of Secession, which passed on the 17th, 88-55. Preston served in the Provisional Confederate Congress and then in the Confederate Senate until his death.
(sidebar)
Col. William Preston, William Ballard Preston’s grandfather and Revolutionary War officer, built Smithfield in 1774. James P. Preston, the father of Ballard (as his family called him), an uncle, and two first cousins were Virginia governors.
(captions)
(top left) William Ballard Preston, ca. 1845-1849 — Library of Congress
(bottom center) Ordinance of Secession Courtesy Library of Virginia
(top right) President Zachary Taylor’s cabinet, 1849. Left to right: William Ballard Preston, Secretary of the Navy; Thomas Ewing, Secretary of the Interior; John Middleton Clayton, Secretary of State: Zachary Taylor (standing), Twelfth President of the United States; William Morris Meredith, Secretary of the Treasury; George Washington Crawford, Secretary of War; Jacob Collamer, Postmaster General; Reverdy Johnson, Attorney General. Courtesy Library of Congress
(Politics • War, US Civil) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
Nick Kappas emigrated from Greece in 1913 and located in Roanoke. After the VPI vs. VMI annual football game in Roanoke, VPI cadets who frequented a restaurant where Kappas worked, persuaded him to move to Blacksburg to open his own business. He started the restaurant in 1921 in this building, and the business continues today. The restaurant had several different official names, but has always been called ‘the Greek's’ by its loyal customers. Today it is known as the Cellar Restaurant.
Main Street, near here, crosses a barely perceptible ridge line. This line divides water flowing east to the Atlantic Ocean, via the Roanoke River basin, from water flowing west to the Gulf of Mexico, via the New, Ohio, and Mississippi Rivers. In October 1763, by Royal Proclamation, King George III forbade Virginians to settle west of this line. Virginians considered the taking up of western land as their natural right. Shutting off access to this land was a provocation that accelerated the building momentum in Virginia for the coming American Revolution.
On 2 July 1889, a heavy storm turned nearby Wolf Creek into a raging river. The railroad embankment known as Newman’s Fill, just north of here, became saturated. About 1:25 AM, it collapsed under the weight of Norfolk & Western Passenger Train Number Two, heading east from Roanoke. The train plunged into the washout. Survivors remained stranded for hours, while passengers trapped inside died in a fire that ripped through the wreckage. At least 18 people perished in one of Virginia’s worst railroad accidents. In Cleveland, Tennessee, a monument was erected to honor three young residents killed in the wreck.
English Text:
Historic Hopewell
1- Erected by free contributions on the 17th.day of Oct.1847 
The exhibition presents the history of Thessaloniki from its founding to the modern era. The founding of the city, its urban plan development, its people, its economy and its culture are the main topics that the exhibition addresses. In other words, it draws a comprehensive portrait of a city that has been a cosmopolitan urban centre throughout history.
Huron Potawatomi Village
In 1806 Congress authorized and funded the construction of a National Road from Cumberland, MD to the Ohio River at Wheeling, WV. This National Road, also known as the National Pike or Cumberland Road, was our nation's first highway and truly the "gateway to the west."
When built in 1873, this structure was the largest single-span stone bridge in America. The high arch was designed to facilitate riverboat traffic on the proposed C&O Canal. However, due to the emerging railroad industry in the nineteenth century, the C&O Canal was never extended beyond Cumberland, MD.
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In the early 1800's ordinary Americans could not be bothered with learning the names of Chickasaw villages on the Natchez Trace. One they called Old Town, and passed the name on to the stream running through this valley. It is one of the sources of the Tombigbee River, first called “River of the Chickasaw” and later the “Tombeckbe” by the French.
This monument marks a stage in the course of the Natchez Trace through Mississippi. Over this first high-road came a tide of the best population of the older Southern states seeking homes in the Southwest. After the Treaty of Pontotoc, Oct. 20, 1832, between the American government and the Chickasaw Indians, came the settlers of the fair Chickasaw lands. Bienville fought the Battle of Ackia with the Chickasaw Indians near this spot May 26, 1736. Of the rage that repulsed him let it be recorded here. They die well who die for faith and home and native land.
In this section lived numerous members of the Hurst family, who were staunch Unionists in a predominantly Confederate area. Its best known member was Col. Fielding Hurst, commanding the 6th Tenn. Cavalry, an irregular Union group which skirmished and scouted for various Federal commanders in the area.
The Jacks Creek community was settled in the 1820s in Henderson (now Chester) County. It furnished men to the 13th Infantry, 18th Newsome's and 21st Wilson's Calvary units, C.S.A., and was the site of a skirmish 1 mi. N on Sept. 12, 1863, and an all-day battle by 2,500 troops under Gen. Forrest 1 mi. S on Dec. 23, 1863. It is the former home of J.M. Stone, Gov. of Miss.
