(While I have previously written about my lineage in the Confederate Army, It’s important to add that I also had a great, great, great grandfather who served in the Union Army during the Civil War.)
Isaac Yoak was born June 29, 1821, making him 41 years old when the Confederates fired on Ft. Sumter in April 1861.
In an article titled “Marching with the 10th West Virginia Volunteer Infantry,”written by G.E. Richards in the West Virginia Hillbilly Aug. 14, 1982, Yoak farmed in the vicinity of Troy and joined Company C on Dec. 22, 1861 at the rank of private. He enlisted for a term of “three years or during the war.”
He was captured Oct. 7, 1862 at Flatwoods in Braxton County and marched to Bandsook Depot in Virginia and confined at Libby Prison in Richmond. He was paroled at Atkins Landing, Va., Oct. 23 and sent to Alexandria Nov. 26. He was sent to Wheeling, West Va. Records show that on Dec. 31 he was at or near Washington D.C.
The delay in joining his unit following his parole, Richards wrote, may have been due to injuries suffered during captivity. After the war he would claim a pension for rheumatism, catarrh (chronic inflammation of mucous membranes) of head and throat, and injury of feet incurred while a prisoner of war on the march from Flatwoods to Bandsook Depot.
Yoak rejoined Company C sometime in January 1863 while they were on picket duty in Winchester, Va. The unit would be involved in the battle of Droop Mountain Nov. 6, 1863 in the Lewisburg, West Va., area. The 10th routed forces commanded by Confederate General Echols, who was threatening the B&O Railroad.
Richards wrote that according to family tradition, it was at Droop Mountain that the Yoak brothers faced each other in battle. Isaac was one of the squad of men assigned to scout the area for stragglers. He encountered his brother Henson (62nd Virginia Infantry Company H) and told him he would surely be killed if he didn’t surrender. The author found nothing to confirm his unit was involved in this battle, so the encounter may have happened in a different location. Nor does he confirm whether Henson surrendered or not.
Yoak was involved in battles with Confederate Gen. Early in the Shenandoah Valley in the vicinity of Strasburg, Va. It was there that the war almost ended for him. In his application for pension after the war it indicated that on July 24, 1864 that while on a retreat from Kerns Town to Winchester, his company was ordered to engage the enemy. A musket ball struck him in his right leg just above the knee and passed up along the thigh bone coming out near the hip joint, a very serious flesh wound. He was carried off the battlefield by Sgt. Elmore Powers who placed him in an ambulance. He went to Cumberland, Md., and then to a hospital at Clairville where he remained until sometime in October.
During Yoak’s recovery he missed numerous engagements in the Shenandoah Valley. He returned from hospitalization in time for the November roll call. He apparently rejoined the 10th while it was either stationed at Kerns Town or guarding property at Stephenson’s Depot near Winchester. The unit was moved near Petersburg around Christmas to join the 24th Corps. However, Yoak was transferred from Company C to Company A.
On April 2, 1865 the Confederate Army evacuated Richmond and Petersburg. The 10th was in the leading infantry unit headed west April 3 to cut off General Lee’s movement south. On April 8 the 10th marched behind Sheridan toward Lynchburg. Sheridan struck Appomattox Station, drove the enemy out and captured supplies.
The 10th arrived at Appomattox at 10 p.m. after marching 32 miles in 18 hours. On Sunday, April 9, the day of Lee’s surrender, the 10th was up at 3 a.m. and went double time four to five miles to join a battle line being formed near Appomattox Road. They stopped a cavalry charge and the enemy retreated. A white flag went up on Lee’s side and Meade granted a short truce until Grant arrived.
Yoak was mustered out of the Army Aug. 9, the day the 10th West Virginia Cavalry was officially disbanded as a military unit. He returned to Troy, West Va., and on Aug. 12, 1869 while living at Cox’s Mills filed a claim for disability pension. He was granted a pension of $20 per month at the time of his death.
His wife died July 4, 1874 and he then married Elizabeth Ann Johnson, the 20-year-old daughter of a Confederate sympathizer and benefactor, on Dec. 23, 1875. He died Sept. 30, 1908 while living on Rush Run in Calhoun County. He is buried in the Sand Ridge Cemetery.
Yoak served with distinction, was a POW, wounded in action, and still managed to be in the vicinity of Appomattox when the nation was reunited.
(Isaac Yoak was married to Elizabeth Ann Johnson. They had a daughter, Rachel Louise Yoak. She married Truman Ainsworth Flint. They had a daughter, Ethel Grace Flint. She married Owen Ashley Hawkins. They had a daughter, Myrna Lou Hawkins. She married Jack Franklin Roberts. They are my parents.)
