Little Sorrel

While going through an old trunk at my grandfather’s house, I discovered this hand-written letter along with a leather pouch containing a tuft of hair. It has become one of my most prized possessions. RjZ

The letter reads:

This lock of hair was cut from the tail of “Little Sorrel” who was ridden by “Stonewall Jackson” when he was mortally wounded at Chancellorsville May 10th 1863. I stood by the man while he cut it off, then he handed it to me with the strictest injunction not to speak to anyone of it. About 40 yrs after I recalled its hiding place in the back of an old ambrotype. “Little Sorrel” was taken by a circuitous route to the place of destination to keep from being recognized.
A “border girl” of the sixties, living on the battlefield in the Valley of Virginia.
Mrs. J. H. Grabill

Little Sorrel ultimately became one of the most famous horses of the Civil War and has been immortalized in bronze and is currently preserved at the Virginia Military Institute.

Mrs. J.H. Grabill is my great, great grand aunt Mary Lytle “Mollie” Hollingsworth and the sister of my great, great grandfather Charles Milton Hollingsworth.

Mr. John Henry Grabill was a confederate officer who at the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 enlisted in Company G of the 33rd Virginia Volunteer Infantry, part of the famed Stonewall Brigade. Known as “Grabill’s Company” his unit saw action at the First Battle of Bull Run and other campaigns in 1862. Later that year, he raised Company E of the 35th Virginia Cavalry, also famously known as “White’s Comanches” which fought in key engagements such as Brandy Station and the Battle of the Wilderness.

John Henry Grabill (1839-1922) | Archives & Special Collections

Here is an excerpt from his war journal in which he meets the Hollingsworth family for the first time including his future wife Mary “Mollie” Hollingsworth and her sister Harriet “Hattie” Hollingsworth.