On the north side of the Rappahannock, lived a family who found themselves in less than ideal circumstances in April 1865, when son Lawrence Taliaferro came home.  At the burned out shell of what was left of the house, he found his father and sister living there with two former slaves, both who refused to leave their master.  Several days after his homecoming, his older brother returned, pulling an old horse.

Prior to the war, having owned fine livestock, over 150 slaves, acres of crops and a handsome plantation allowed them to live the idyllic lifestyle of country gentlemen.  Now, however, with an aging father, and mouths to feed, the brothers began to look into what remained to them and found very little, other than the horse and a broken harness.

After both enlisted, from November 1862 through May 1863, the Army of the Potomac occupied the area.  During this time, they cut down every sapling & every tree for miles in every direction to use for building and burning.

Both brothers collaborated and were able to borrow a plow, patch the harness and prepare their first garden.  Soon, they heard rumor that several men upriver in Fredericksburg were buying bones.  Used as an ingredient in fertilizer, it had become an commodity, for use in in the depleted soil of Virginia.

They managed to gain the loan of a wagon and went bone hunting, as the area was littered with remnants of worn out dead mules, horses and pack animals from both sides.  Within two days, they had collected 2,000 pounds of bones, which they sold for 2 cents a pound.  The brothers worked from dawn to dusk, while both former slaves planted the garden and prepared the fields for corn.

About a month later, the brothers happened upon a bit of good news.  Iron scrap, left along with the dead animals was also salable.  They jumped at the chance of becoming “Salvagers” to make ends meet, but due to their team being so poor were only able to get, at most, a half of days work.

Shortly afterwards, Federal Troops camped nearby and the family had a surprise visit of two Union Soldiers.  They came, they said, to check on old man Taliaferro, as he had become a favorite of their unit.  The astonished brothers invited them for dinner, doing their best to get them a good supper.  The men were pleased with both the dinner and the entertainment and offered to the boys that they should return the visit the next day.

The boys met with their companions at the Army camp, enjoyed their time together, and found to their surprise the wagon filled with enough sugar, bacon, coffee and so much more as to last longer than six months.  Not only this, one of the soldiers went to the Quartermaster and requested that some of the ‘jaded mules’ that could not keep up with the Army be turned over to these boys.  The Quartermaster agreed and turned over four skinny, tired mules.  The brothers welcomed the largess with tears in their eyes and set off for home.