Most of the following information comes from Roy Bird Cook's "Lewis County in the Civil War, 1861-1865", pages 93-103.
When Col. Erastus B.. Tyler, 7th O.V.I [Ohio Volunteer Infantry], moved his troops towards Gauley Bridge he impressed Samuel Clothier and his sons, of Weston, as teamsters. Mr. Clothier was captured by Confederate troops and his sons escaped. He was sent to Richmond, but James Bennett, surveyor, and John Brannon, State Senator, appeared on his behalf, as well as Rev. Crook, a southern Methodist minister. Mr. Clothier was released.
At the battle of Rich Mountain, Joseph and William Mathews, William Schiefer, James B. Camp, and William E. Lively, of Weston, were captured, none being in actual service. Gen. Rosencrans released them on parole, and they later joined active Confederate service. At this same time Dr. Washington Hillery was captured by Confederates and sent to Staunton. He appealed to Sen. Brannon, who told Gov. Letcher that Dr. Hillery was a good southern man, and Pres. Davis agreed to the release.
In the fall of 1861 a number of people were arrested and sent to Wheeling or Camp Chase, some had relatives in Confederate service. Concerned about some of his relatives, Jonathan M. Bennet, Auditor of Virginia, wrote to Judah P. Benjamin, Secretary of War, and a series of letters were exchanged between them.
Auditor's Office, Richmond, October 25, 1861
Hon. J.P. Benjamin.
Sir: Many of the best men of Virginia, whose names I can furnish, are now confined in cow sheds near Columbus, Ohio, for the utterance of their political opinions in their native State. They number over 100 and no efforts appear to have been made by the Government for their exchange or release. While such a great wrong remains unredressed there has been a "general jail delivery" of Union defenders who have committed treason against Virginia by giving aid and comfort to the Pierpont government. As exchange between the military authorities of the two governments of all political defenders is certainly legitimate and I merely state the facts that your better judgement may suggest a remedy. The sufferings of our citizens taken from Virginia unarmed and only because of their political opinions are too great to escape the immediate attention of all who have the means of redress, and I enter an earnest request that no further release such as the "Salem Jail Delivery" referred to shall be made until our friends held as hostages and for the purpose of exchange shall also be given up or released.
Yours truly, J.M. Bennett, First Auditor, Virginia
War Department, Richmond, October 26, 1861
J.M. Bennett, Esq.
State Auditor, Richmond
Sir: In answer to your letter yesterday I can only say that none can more deeply regret than I do the condition of all those not only of Virginia, but of other States, who have been seized by a despotic and unscrupulous power and incarcerated whether in cow sheds or dungeons. It is, however, a well-known fact that this Government has spared no effort to introduce a system of exchange of prisoners of war and that its efforts have been hitherto unsuccessful.
The prisoners of whom you speak are not prisoners of war. They are men not taken in arms. They are political prisoners, and your proposal seems to be that we shall hold in jail men convicted of no crime as political prisoners; also that we shall imitate the loathsome practices of which you complain, and shall within our own Confederacy hold men in prison who are citizens of Virginia by mere arbitrary military power for the purpose of exchanging them against those held under like cicrumstances by the enemy.
I am, therfore, compelled respectfully to decline your proposal to hold Virginians in prison until the enemy shall release other Virginians that he holds in prison. At the same time, I will cheerfully aid to the amount of my power in bringing to due punishment all traitors and other criminals, and will most heartily co-operate in any legitimate effort to relieve our fellow citizens imprisoned in this or other States whose wrongs and sufferings I deplore, but am powerless to remedy.
I am, respectfully, your obedient servant,
J.P. Benjamin, Acting Secretary of War
Auditor's Office, Richmond, November 4, 1861
Hon. J.P. Benjamin,
Acting Secretary of War.
Sir: A few days' absence from the city has prevented me from noticing your letter of the 26th ult. until now. One brother-in-law more than sixty years of age and eight or nine nephews and cousins held in custody by authority of the Governor of Ohio, charged with no offense, must be my apology for again intruding myself upon your time and attention in their behalf, as well as in behalf of all those whom fortune has thrown in the power of the Federal Government.
THe right of an exchange of political prisoners has been acknowledged by the Governor of Ohio, who at the instance of Wise, released about thirty such for the release of Mr. Waggener, of Mason Coutny, a member of the Wheeling convention.
In directing your attention to the matters which induced my former letter it is not necessary to allude to the dead, as in the case of poor Riffle, of Braxton County. He was a man about sixty years of age and as it was supposed without an enemy, but had voted for secession. For this act he was arrested, handcuffed and his hands behind his back, and with a rope securely tied around his neck he was tied to a wagon and compelled to walk in its rear for ten miles in the direction of the prison designed for his incarceration, until the Ohio lieutenant without the resistance of poor Riffle, shot and killed him. From the horrors of this act, which is well authenticated, I am constrained to turn in sympathy to the condition of the living now confined in cow sheds near Columbus, Ohio, in all the wretchedness which hunger, nakedness and the neglect of their own Government can inflict. They, too, may share the fate of Riffle. They number about 100 and are of the highest respectability.
It is not necessary to remind one who all admit is attentive to the public history and necessities of our affairs that there are ladies in Wheeling if not in Washington indicted and retained as prisoners for no other offense than because they made clothing for the brave young men who have since bravely and nobly fallen in our behalf. Are they cared for by the Government? What steps have been taken for their relief? These existing cases are evidences pointing to the actual feeling with which a generous mind may contemplate the calamaties of an enemy, and should call for every effort, retaliation included, for their relief. At least such is my opinion, and I trust will upon mature reflection be the opinion of your department, and a vigorous policy inaugurated in pursuance thereof.
Trusting that I may be excused for trespassing at so much length upon your time, I will close by mere suggesting that Governor Dennison has exchanged prisoners whom he affects to believe guilty of a crime for Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia political prisoners who are alike our enemies, and seeking to subvert the sovereignty of the State, and I cannot see that harm would grow out of an effort to make further exchanges.
I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
J.M. Bennett
Big Jim Riffle lived on the Little Kanawha River in Braxton, and so far as is known at no time did anything for which he could have received the punishment later given him. A party of Federal soldiers who took it for granted that everyone in that neighborhood was a "bushwhacker", captured him and tied him with a rope to the rear of a wagon, and with guards on both sides of him, marched through Weston and out on the road to Buckhannon Mountain, the guards for some reason never known, shot him and threw his body over the bank, where he laid for a day or so. Soldiers brought the body to Weston in a wagon, and buried him in the river bank opposite the end of Third Street. Citizens objected so strenuously to that procedure that the post commander had the remains removed to the Arnold Cemetery at the head of Main Street, but poor Riffle was not destined to lie there in peace. After the war Government men, who came to remove the bodies of dead soldiers to the cemetery at Grafton, again exhumed the body and made it ready for shipment. When learning their mistake he was again given his fourth and last resting place.
Maj. Joseph Darr, 1st WV Cavalry, reported that he had released on oath the following prisoners from Lewis County: J.J. Keith, Harrison Lowther, William Lynch, H.T. Martin, William Meeks, Lewis Snyder and Addison Wyatt, all of whom had been confined at Wheeling or Camp Chase. He further reported that he had turned William Bennett and George Bastable over to the United States Marshal under indictment for alleged treasonable acts.