Levi Pace Corr

Levi Pace Corr (1817-1897), son of a Methodist minister, willed the freedom of his slaves as soon as it was legal to do so. (It was legal to do so in his lifetime, but any slave freed after 1806 would have to leave Virginia within one year. Having nowhere to go, that would not have been freedom at all.) Levi declined the wedding gift of a slave. As a Whig, he opposed secession, but supported his state when it came to war and the defense of his home.

Levi established his home and business at “Roadview plantation,” near White Marsh, Gloucester County, Virginia. This Main House of this estate remained in the Corr family as recently as 2018. A newspaper article in 1998 described the storm damage done to pecan trees planted by Levi on this estate, before the War Between the States.

Levi was a first lieutenant of Company C of the 21st Virginia militia at Gloucester Point during the War Between the States. When company troops were electing their officers, he voted for his opponent, believing it a greater honor to be a courteous gentleman than a captain. His opponent voted for himself and by that one-vote margin was elected captain. Levi, getting the second most votes, became his lieutenant. The 21st regiment was a pre-war militia unit, called into active state service in July of 1861, and released from active service in August of that year. Although this unit was not recalled to active duty in the Spring of 1862, it appears from muster rolls and other official reports to have continued to function much as though it were an active unit.

As a first lieutenant, he had charge of the troops at Gloucester Point to prevent the federal gunboats from passing up the York River. Seeing that the Confederate guns were dropping their balls in the river far short of the gunboats, whereas they had his range, he ordered his troops out of useless slaughter back of the second breastworks, a mile distant. Being in a location that saw very little action in battle, the more common concerns of the officers of this unit were the matters of feeding the men and preventing the spread of disease, which was a serious problem at times. An official report dated March 15, 1862 was signed by Levi and a lieutenant from another company of his regiment. In this document, they reported that “there was a lot of beef supposed to be eight or nine hundred pounds … the said beef afterwards became so much damaged as to be entirely unfit for the troops and had to be thrown away.”

Levi was characterized after the war in the words of his son as follows: Distinguished for self-control, he accepted without complaint the results of the war, with the exception of “carpetbaggers.” With nothing but land and character left, he devoted his energies to farming and his trade as a mechanic and wheelwright. He was successful and prospered, educating a large family. He became known as “the grand old man.”

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/21992856/levi-pace-corr