Lt Col. (CSA), David Berkley Lang

Lieut. Col. DAVID BERKLEY LANG, was born January 31, 1831, near Bridgeport, Virginia. He fell mortally wounded Sept. 5, (died on the 6th), 1864, while in command of the 62nd Virginia Mounted Infantry at Seephen's Depot, near Bunker's Hill, VA. Was buried at Winchester, VA in the "Stonewall" Cemetery, fulfilling a declaration made in a letter to his wife, in which he said: "I SHALL SEE VIRGINIA FREE OR BE BURIED BENEATH HER SOD".

His father, LEMUEL LANG married (the daughter of Thomas Berkley, who laid warrant on the land that the town of Astor, Taylor County is built upon).

A few months after David's birth, the two families moved to Missouri and while on the way, David's mother died with cholera. His father leaving the child with it's grandparents returned to his former home. In about three years, he married (Miss Surrepta Bartlett) and went back to Missouri and brought David home who was three years old, but remembered how his Grandmother Berkley lamented, when they parted.

His youth was spent upon the farm in summer and he attended country schools in the winter and obtained a good English education.

He married August 24, 1851 to (Elizabeth Powell-daughter of Burr & Elender Powell of Taylor County) and settled at Fairview, Taylor county, (now Astor) where he engaged in the mercantile business a few years. After disposing of his store, he built a steam flouring mill on Simpson's Creek near Flemington, but the business did not prove a financial success. He lost over $500 in one year by investing in wheat, when it was high.

In the Spring of 1859, he moved to a place three miles south east of Belington. Having exchanged the mill with Mr. Shelpler for a farm (now owned by Charles Stipes) he farmed and practiced medicine in that part of Barbour and the north western part of Randolph until the CIVIL WAR. He had studied medicine before he was married and while he was running the store. In 1861 he was having a very successful and lucrative practice.

In his boyhood days, he had somnambulitic habits. His father often found him on the rungs of the ladder that led to his bedroom, sound asleep with his book in his hand. At one time, he awakened and found the covers of off his bed. Not being able to find them in the room, he lit a candle and while hunting for them, he discovered them wound around the outside post of an unfinished portico frame. He had walked out of the door of the upper room on the joist while asleep and he would walk out to take them down, when he found them, but procured a pole and unwound them with it.

There had been no recurrence of this strange habit from his boyhood days until the fall of 1860. In that year, his wife awakened one night and saw him by the light of the moon sitting by his stand writing. When he came to bed, she awoke him and asked him what he had been writing, he said "nothing", but when he procured a light, he found a letter on the stand written to Lemuel E. Davidson, of Flemington, Taylor County, in which he spoke of a war between the states and said that he had taken side with the SOUTH and his friend that of the North , which proved to be the fact in the years that followed. Mr. avidson, however, did not take part in the conflict, but was a Union man and a member of the committee that designed the Coat of Arms of the State. The letter was very well written with the exception of a few places where the ink on his pen had become exhausted before refilling. He often showed this letter to his friends as a curiosity and the strange part of it was that the time it was written, he was very much opposed to Virginia's seceding from the Union and made several speeches against the Ordinance of Secession. When a majority of her citizens said, "she must secede", he like R.E. Lee and T.J. Jackson being strongly in favor of State's Rights and believing that his allegiance to his native State was greater then to the General Government, cast his fortunes with the South and yet he was always opposed to slavery.

On the Sunday morning that General McClellan's forces made an attack on General Garnett at Laurel Hill, he, in company with Colonel William Johnson, of Meadowville and some other citizens, who had spent the night at his home, went to the Confederate camp two mile away. Not knowing that there was any possibility of an attack and expecting to return home in the evening, pickets were put on duty and no one was allowed to pass the lines. It being a part of his nature not to be inactive, procured a gun and went into the skirmish and took a very active part until Garnett's forces left Laurel Hill. He returned home and after staying a few hours, mounted his horse with his double barreled shotgun and followed the retreating Confederate forces. He overtook them in the vicinity of Corrick's Ford and participated in that battle.

There stood a sugar tree on the farm of Peyton C. Booth, near the Confederate Camp at Laurel Hill which he stood behind and exchanged several shots with the enemy and for years could be seen the marks of the balls that struck the tree.

The few days that passed during the Laurel Hill skirmish were the most trying to his wife and children, of all they had ever endured. They had looked for him home on Sunday evening and when he did not return, his wife sent to the Confederate lines, daily, to hear from him but the pickets did not know him nor would they let her pass. The frequent volleys of musketry and artillery not far away increased the anxiety for her husband and made her hear almost break with grief.

After going to the South, he was employed by General William L. Jackson, as a scout and was in many close places with the enemy. He came through the mountains to go home in the latter part of November 1861, and spent a few days with his family, leaving his horse with a friend on Cheat Mountain.

On making his return, he became lost in the dense hemlock and laurel thickets between the forks of the Greenbrier River. He first left his saddle so he could get through the brush better and after cutting his way through the laurel with a heavy knife, he had to abandon his horse and would have perished in the snow had some Confederate scouts found him. Supposing they had caught a Yankee spy, they conveyed him to Camp Alleghany on top of the mountain and after they had warmed, they permitted him to go through their winter quarters to find someone to identify him. Meeting A.G. Reger of Philippi, he was released.

Jacob Burner of Pocahontas County, found the saddle three years after the war, hanging where he had left it.

In writing to his wife and children, December 4, 1862, from Camp Washington, Augusta County, he said "We are with J.D. Imboden and on the ninth of last month, captured a company at St. George, Tucker County with all their stores". This letter was written with a pen made of elder. He also speaks in his letter of the hardships that he had endured in the past eighteen months, as a scout and that he was "urged by his friends to accept a more honorable position in a regiment". He received the appointment from the War Department shortly after, as a Major of the 62nd Virginia Regiment. He had served as Major of Militia while he lived in Taylor County and was very well versed in military tactics.

He was with Imboden, when he made the attack on Beverly, April 25, 1863 and on the 25th with part of Captain Taylor's Company and some others, he came down to General Garrett's old camp at the foot of Laurel Hill in pursuit of Colonel Latham's command, which had retreated from Bevely. His men camped for the night and he came home, it being the last night he ever spent with his family. The next morning he left home and the writer (the oldest son who wrote this story) went with him and leaving him he said, "Be good to your mother".

David and his men hurried toward Philippi and in his diary, he says that he and fourteen others made a dash on Philippi, causing the enemy considerable fright. Colonel Mulligan and some of his officers were near Big Rock, which has since been partly taken away to macadamize the main street of the town. It is said that they came on them so suddenly that the Colonel lost his hat and as he went galloping into the camp, he hallooed: "Fire that cannon", while he was still between the Rebels and the guns. The Rebels fell back and camped on the bank of the river near Washington Jones and the next night camped at the Hillery Place near where the town of Mabie, now is in Randolph County and the next day fell in with Imboden near Buckhannon.

On the night of September 25, 1863, he, with a large troop of men, captured thirty of General Averell's men at the Burned House, at the crossing of Cheat River on the Seneca Trail. He went into their camp under disguise, after they had laid down and ascertained their number and position. He then return to his men on the mountain and captured the company, all but one man who made his escape. His intention had been to surprise a company stationed at Belington, but finding his company at the river, he took it and returned South.

In a letter to his wife July 13, 1864, from Balair's House near Washington, he said he had been under fire every day since May 7th and had marched over 600 miles and had escaped with nothing more than a few holes throughtout his clothing, until the day before. He had been given the post of honor and was put in front and drove the enemy five miles to the fort. In the fight, his spur was struck by a ball, which slightly disabled him. The spur saved his foot from amputation.

On September 5, 1864, while commanding the skirmish line at Bunker Hill, eight miles below Winchester, he fell mortally wounded and died the next day at Winchester, having to be carried off the field by his comrades. He said, "If he could see his wife and little children, he could die happy", and that he "asked no greater compensation for the Confederate government for his service than the education of his children".

As you enter the Stonewall Cemtery at Winchester from the south gate, his grave is the second on the right of the sleeping Virginians, marked by a plain marble (the same as all the Virginians) with "Lieut. Col. David B Lang, 62nd Va. Reg. Died September 6, 1864". He believed in the virtue and triump of the cause he had espoused and said in one of his letters to his wife that "If this unholy war should last until my youngest son is eighteen years old, you should inspire such patriotism in each of them that they would shoulder their muskets in defense of their country". In another he said, "I shall see Virginia free or be buried beneath her sod". He was a cool and brave officer, respected and beloved by his men. He was always delighted to be in command of the skirmish line and was cheerful and hopeful in all vicissitudes of life.

Colonel Lang was sued on a security debt a year or so before the war and having some creditors of his own who desired to be secured, he gave a deed of trust on his property and his wife signed her interest in it. It was not sold until after the close of the war, when it took everything to pay off his debts and left his wife and children without anything but courage. Yet, there never was a murmur of regret that she had signed her interest to secure his creditors.

Their children were: Winfield S. who married (Catherine Fitzwater); Margaret E. who married (Marshall Scott); Martha P. married (Jesse Phillips and died 1888); PEYTON P. (died in1895) married (ALICE GAINER ); David B. married (Grace V. Vancoy) George W. married (Ella Wilmoth). The last three lived in Randolph County.

Mrs. Lang died November 18, 1898, at the home of her son David, near Kierans, Randolph County, at the age of 70 years old.

Winfield Scott Lang, born 1852 in Taylor County, son of Lt. Colonel David B. and Elizabeth (Powell) Lang, was married near Meadowville in 1872 to (Catherine, daughter of Jesse & Sarah (Harris) Fitzwater). Their children were: Emma, Olive, Thurman, John Lemuel, Minnie A., Jesse David, Boyd Otto, Martha Susan.

He belonged to the M.E. Church, South, was a Democrat and a farmer residing on Glady Creek. The officer of Assessor for the eastern district was held by him in 1882 and for several terms he was Justice of the Peace. He assisted in collecting data for this History of Barbour County, his work lying chiefly in Barker, Glade and Cove Districts.

Source: "The History of Barbour County, West Virginia: from its earliesst exploration" (Ancestory.com)(http://search.ancestry.com/browse/bookview.aspx?dbid=30032&iid=dvm_... -00212-0&rc= &pid=384&ssrc=pt_t3216135_p-805165810_g32768&fn=&ln=Record+fro m+The+history+of+Barbour+County%2c+West+Virginia+%3a+from+its+earliest+exploration+and+settlement+to +the+present+time&st=g)

Lieutenant Colonel David Berkley Lang was born January 31, 1831, near Bridgeport, Harrison County, West Virginia. His father, Lemuel Lang, married the daughter of Thomas Berkley, who laid warrant on the land that the town of Astor, Taylor County, is built upon.

A few months after David's birth the two families moved to Missouri, and whild on the way David's mother died with cholera, and his father, leaving the child with its grandparents, returned to his former home, and in about three years married Miss Surrepta Bartlett, and went back to Missouri and brought David home, who was three years old, but remembered how his Grandmother Berkley lamented when they parted.

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/62nd_Virginia_Mounted_Infantry