Abel Nelson Washington Belk

Abel Nelson Washington Belk, a farmer, was drowned by Sherman's raiders in 1865 for refusing to divulge the whereabouts of his father's gold mine. He was the father of William Henry Belk, the founder of Belk Department Stores.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/46961858/able-nelson_washington...

About the 21st of February the army of Gen. Sherman began to cross the Catawba river, at various points, from a few miles above Camden to Rocky Mount Ferry in Lancaster District; and within a few days thereafter the whole army occupied the districts of Kershaw and Lancaster, devastating in the most ruinous and ruthless manner the entire section of country extending from a few miles above Lancaster C.H. to a short distance below Camden, embracing a scope of about fifty miles in breadth. On the 24th of February Kilpatrick’s cavalry occupied our village. Here he remained until the 29th; and although it has been said that the depredations committed here were less than in many other places, they were sufficient in all condolence, to stigmatize with infamy any people claiming to be civilized. The stores and other places of business were broken open by the soldiery, and the negroes, many of whom had congregated upon the streets, invited to go in and pillage; which invitation they were not slow to avail themselves of, and were as destructive as the Yankees themselves. Some of the store houses and offices were occupied by the troops and some of them used as stables for horses. All of the prominent dwellings, though occupied by the owners, were taken possession of as quarters for the officers.

Other dwellings were pillaged and stripped. Many articles which could not be appropriate, such as house furniture, were destroyed. Females of the highest respectability were in-united in their dwellings; and in some instances the males were brutally maltreated and abused. Some hung up by the neck to make them divulge where property was hidden. Others were robbed in the streets of the clothing on their persons.

No houses within the village, with the exception of the jail, were burned. After the main body left a squad came in with orders, it is said, to fire the place; but before they could put their designs in execution a body of Wheeler’s cavalry drove them away.

Three citizens were killed by the enemy in cold blood. One of them, Mr. Hiram Adams, who resided near this place, was made a prisoner, and because he could not walk fast enough to suit their purposes, they shot him. Mr. Abel Belk, a very worthy man, was found dead in the woods where he was trying to conceal himself from the foe, with every evidence of having been drowned or throttled. Mr. C.B. Northrop, a prominent lawyer of this place, burned his own gin house on the approach of the enemy. They then set fire to his dwelling, burning it with all of its contents; and a few days afterwards Mr. Northrop was found dead in his fields nearby. His dwelling was within a half mile of the village. They spared neither age, sex nor condition.

A debauched and demoralized soldiery, bent upon plunder and destruction, they cared not who furnished them with the means of gratifying their hellish instincts. White flags, or other tokens of submission, were of no avail, and the few who resorted to those cowardly devices fared no better than their neighbors.

The country was stripped almost entirely of horses. Cows were driven off in large numbers, and many cows and hogs were shot down with no other purpose than to gratify the devilish dispositions of the foe. All gin houses were burned; also other houses containing cotton. All of the important mills, all machine shops of every description, and all unoccupied dwellings, and dwellings that were temporarily abandoned on the approach of the enemy, were destroyed. Wagons, carriages and other vehicles were either burned or so mutilated as to render them wholly unserviceable. It seemed to be the purpose of the foe, not only to deprive us of the means of present living, but to so cripple us that we cannot make a subsistence in the future.