Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 10, 1990 TAG: 9004100724
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: BETTINA ACZEL STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
So Hopkins decided to take a break from farming and go back to his first love - history.
"I decided to write a history of Franklin County," said Hopkins.
Now, Hopkins divides his time between milking his cows and researching Franklin County's history. As part of that research, he decided to do an in-depth study of the Franklin County men who fought in the Civil War.
"In the process [of researching Franklin County's history], I thought that people would be interested in the Civil War soldiers here," he said.
So Hopkins is compiling a list of all the men in Franklin County who fought in the Civil War. He estimates that he has between 2,500 and 3,000 names so far. Although he has spent eight years working on the project, he will need at least two more years to complete it, he said.
Hopkins uses several sources to find the names. In the county clerk's office, he uses old court order books that contain lists of families who received aid from the government while their husbands or sons were away fighting, as well as lists of those people who filed for pensions after the war.
Hopkins also has copies of the military service records on microfilm ordered from the National Archives. From his knowledge on which regiments and battalions had companies originating in Franklin County, he can determine more names, he said.
But even with these sources and more, Hopkins said he has problems getting all the names. The lists can be incomplete, he said, or some names can be listed twice with different spellings for a soldier's last name. Also, some of the old records might be from stories veterans have told, and therefore might not be accurate, Hopkins said.
"Veterans like to tell whoppers," he laughed.
Some men who were originally from Franklin County did not stay there during and after the war, making the process frustrating, Hopkins explained. But getting the names of the men is just the beginning for Hopkins.
"I want to show how devastating the Civil War was to Franklin County," Hopkins said. So Hopkins tries to determine the complete history of the men and their families to find out what happened to them before, during and after the war, a task that can prove to be impossible for many of the men, he said.
"You can't work on it continuously," he said.
Hopkins graduated with a degree in history from Washington and Lee University in Lexington, and has taught high school history in Franklin County. But he recalls learning about the Civil War much earlier.
When he was a child, his mother and friends told him that many people hid their good silver from the Yankees. But back then, Hopkins admits to being confused about the origin of the Civil War.
With all the talk about hiding silver from the Yankees, Hopkins confused the word civil for the word silver.
"Mother, why'd they fight the war over silver?" Hopkins remembers asking.
Years later, Hopkins is still asking "Why?" questions about the Civil War. As he learns more about the war, he discovers more questions he would like answered about the war and Franklin County, he said. Hopkins is also researching the railroad system and Indians in the county.
Hopkins said he hopes to publish his work one day. Even though the work has been hard and often exasperating, Hopkins said someone needs to put together this kind of exhaustive history of Franklin County.
"No one will walk this way again," he said.
by CNB