Home At Last

By Susan M. Thigpen © 1984-2012

Issue: August, 1984

Donnie Nester and Mrs. Eris Wade of the Floyd County Historical Society.Donnie Nester of Meadows of Dan, Virginia, a 6th grade student at Willis Elementary School, last month handed a pre-Civil War regimental drum to Mrs. Eris Wade of the Floyd County Historical Society, ending the drum's absence from Floyd County for almost 100 years. The drum which belonged to Zackery Smith of Floyd, who moved to Meadows of Dan about 1885, was purchased at the sale of Smith's belongings in 1940 and has traveled with John H. Yeatts of Prattville, Alabama for almost 10,000 miles. Yeatts who is subject to transfer says that the drum has made 11 major moves with him and that he is happy that it has finally "come home."

The weathered birch and leather drum bearing the faded lettering in gold on Williamsburg blue, "130th Floyd County Va." is a bit of a mystery. No one has yet shed any light on the 130th Regiment although Yeatts suspects that it was a home militia group that became merged with one of the several battle regiments in which Floyd County men served during the War Between the States.

The drum is presently on display with other Civil War artifacts in the Wilderness Road Regional Museum in Newbern, Virginia and will eventually be secured in the Floyd County room of the Museum.