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- Emma Virginia Bonham is a very interesting person because of the famous fight that took place at Colonel Daniel Bonham's home in 1865 between a Yankee officer and five of Mosby's men. I researched this fight in depth and published an article about it in the magazine, "America's Civil War" in 2001.
Capt. Eugene Ferris of the 30th Massachusetts Infantry, which was camped nearby at the railroad bridge over Opequon Creek, came to pay a social call upon Miss Emma Virginia. While sitting in the parlor with her and her father, Col. Daniel S. Bonham, Ferris's visit was interrupted by the arrival of Lt. Charlie Wiltshire and four other members of Mosby's command. Capt. Ferris ran to get his horse, and then, a pistol in each hand, shot his way out of the Bonham stable yard, killing two of the Confederates and wounding two others. Ferris made his escape back to camp with his orderly, and was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor about 30 years after the War for this feat of arms due to the efforts of someone who read about this fight in John Scott's 1867 book "Partisan Life of Col. John S. Mosby". Your ancestor, Emma Virginia Bonham, wrote a letter to the War Dept. in support of the award in the 1890's attesting that "no braver soldier ever wore the uniform" or words to that effect.
http://genforum.genealogy.com/bonham/messages/1159.html
(Thanks to Bob Brawley for sharing this story with me in an email on Apr 14, 2012.)
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