Federal troops occupied the Eastern Shore of Virginia early in the war in an effort to prevent food supplies from being sent to the western shore to support Confederate troops and the population in general. The move was also intended to keep Maryland in line in case she was tempted to leave the Union. The Chesapeake Bay was effectively blockaded and the Bay became a Union lake. But this did not prevent Confederate sympathizers on the Shore from trying to supply the mainland clandestinely by boat.
According to stories passed down in the Kilmon family of Painter, my great-great-grandfather Samuel Killmon, Jr. (1816-1871), was a blockade runner. The only indications we have that this was true are found in the death records of Accomack County, where he is listed as captain, and in the censuses. The 1860 census shows him as occupation as "sailing."
That he was a Confederate sympathizer is certain, however. My great-grandfather Thorogood O. Kilmon (1855-1934) once visited a Union encampment and came home wearing a Union cap. His father promptly threw it in the fire.
© Copyright 2005-2006 by Wayne L. Stith