The list cited in the previous post is a copy of the typescript list at the Hayes Presidential Library. This abstraction contains numerous errors. Misinformation and myth have surrounded the “Flat Top Copperheads” for 146 years.

One of the first myths may have originated with the future 19th President of the United States. Rutherford B. Hayes wrote to Colonel E. P. Scammon on May 4, 1862, saying:
“I send enclosed a list of Captain Foley's men, the "Flat Top Copperheads," taken from the pocket of one killed by Lieutenant Botsford's men. You have the precious document, with spelling, &c. It should be copied for all who are likely to catch any of the scamps.”

Twenty-six years after the battle, one of the participants, Francis M. Kelly, a sergeant in Company C, 23rd Ohio Infantry, submitted an article to the Saturday, May 5, 1888 edition of The Ohio Soldier, published in Chillicothe, Ohio. A portion of Kelly’s first-hand account about the discovery of Foley’s roster is as follows:

“On entering the house [Foley’s] we found a long table reaching from one end of the house to the other, loaded with all the delicacies that a West Virginia market could afford. But strange to say, no one was to be found in the house; and supposing the breakfast had been prepared for us, we were about taking charge when six or eight women put in an appearance….Lieut. Botsford ordered the premises searched for contraband goods, which resulted in finding very little. The most important article of warfare found, was a complete muster roll of Capt. Foley’s company, which proved to be a very interesting document, which contained seventy-five or eighty names.”

Less than three weeks after the battle at Clark’s House, the May 21, 1862 edition of the Cincinnati Daily Commercial published a copy of the paper “found on a guerrilla, who was killed a few days ago in Western Virginia”.

The name “Peter Morrell” on the list at the Hayes Library, reads “Peter Worrell” on the roster in the Cincinnati Daily Commercial. Likewise, “Francis M. Peaterson” is revealed to be Francis M. Kesterson, and “Samuel J. Leedy” is, in fact, Samuel J. Snead.

In recent times, the name “Flat Top Copperheads” has become synonymous with Company F of the 151st Virginia Militia. The two units, although both commanded by Richard B. Foley, are not one and the same. Only 15 of the 79 men who appear on the list served under Foley in Company F of the 151st Virginia Militia.