Harriett Panther Rollins

On Mar 2, 2015, David Smith <d.smith.7363@gmail.com> wrote to me:

I just ran across this today, while researching my Civil War Unit, 2nd NC Mounted Infantry, in particular, John S. Panther, who was killed trying to take Confederate prisoners back after they had killed four prominent union sympathizers. John's widow, Harriet Rhodes Panther Rollins, filed an extensive widow's pension, and some of it will shine a light on this.

State of North Carolina County of Polk

On this 25th day of October 1869, personally appeared before me R. S. Abrams Clerk of the Superior Court in and for the County and State aforesaid, it being a Court of Record, Harriet Rollins, late Panther, a resident of Polk County, aged 28 years, who, being duly sworn according to law, makes the following declaration in order to obtain the pension provided by the Acts of Congress granting pensions to widows.

That she was formerly the wife, and widow, of John S. Panther, who enlisted into the Union Army under the name of John S. Panther at Cumberland Gap, East Tenn., about the first of February 1864, as a private in Company “H” 2nd Regt of N Ca M. Inft. Com’d by Col Smith in the War of 1861. That soon after his enlisting as aforesaid, he was detailed as a Recruiting Officer for the 2nd & 3rd Regts, and by the orders of Cols Smith and Kirk was sent to NC for recruits, see papers filed with formal declarations, marked “A” and dated 14th February 1864, signed by Col Kirk assigning him to duty in NC.

That her said husband after engaging in the recruiting service, as aforesaid, occasionally passed through Polk, and the adjoining counties soliciting recruits, keeping his movements and whereabouts, as far as possible from the Rebels, to whom his business as a Federal Recruiting Officer was known, and at the time he was killed, he, with a small possy, had captured and held as prisoners, four of Capt Lanes Company of Confederate soldiers, who had some weeks previous thence, arrested in Polk County at or near the Court House four highly respectable prominent Union Citizens of Polk County, took them out a short distance from the C.H. and shot them til dead. This cold blooded murdering of union citizens being made known as to Cols Smith and Kirk, Capt. Panther “so called”, in his return to Polk, sometime after, stated that he rec’d orders from Head Qtrs. to arrest these Confederate murderers of Union men, if opportunity offered. Assisted by a small posse, he had succeeded in capturing some four of said party, and while passing through the County with his prisoners, he called at the house of J.W. Hampton, Esqr, a prominent Union Citizen, whose son was one of the murdered party, spoken of above, and while there was overtaken, and captured, by a party of Rebel soldiers who swore they would kill Panther, and in trying to make his escape, by flight, was shot by the Rebel party and instantly killed, which was on the 29th day of May, 1865.

She further declares that she was married under the name of Harriet Rhodes to said John S. Panther in Polk County NC on the 8th day of May 1857 by E.G. Forter, a Justice of the Peace, there being no legal barrier to such a marriage, that neither she nor her husband had been previously married, and that she remained his widow wife to the 8th day of June 1868, when she intermarried with one Daniel Rollins which took place in Polk County at the time above stated and whose name she now bears, and that the following are the names and dates of births of their children yet surviving, all of whom were under sixteen years of age at their father’s death viz:

• John Balis Panther was born 21st January 1858
• Jane Adaline Panther was born 30th September 1859
• Mahalia E. Panther was born 15th November 1861

All of whom are the legitimate issue of her marriage with the aforesaid John S. Panther dec’d, that she has not abandoned the support of any one of their children, that they are still under her care and maintenance, that she has not in any manner been engaged in or abetted the Rebellion in the United States that she has herself made out and forwarded her application for a pension which was forwarded to the P. Office about 1st June 1868.

That she hereby appoints B.D. Hyam Esq of Washington D.C. her attorney to prosecute her claim. Her Post Office address is } Columbus Polk County NC }