Andrew Jackson & Sarah Louise Hagaman Critcher

Captain Andrew Jackson Critcher was a son of Nathaniel & Cynthia A. Clark Critcher.  Nathaniel was born in Granville Co., NC in 1803 and settled in Watauga Co. in c1840.  Cynthia was born in Orange Co., NC in 1804 and, it was likely in that county they married in 1822.

Andrew was born in Orange Co. in Sep., 1834.  He was the fourth of what I believe to be seven children born to Nathaniel and Cynthia.

Nathaniel and his family were in Watauga Co. by 1840 and most remained there for the remainder of their lives.

Andrew married Sarah Louise Hagaman c1868.  She was a daughter of Thomas Andrew and Sarah Reece Hagaman.  Their children numbered four and included Meta Belle, born Jan. 24, 1871, who married Charles Daniel Coffey.  Click on the title of this blog to see photos and to read more about that couple.

Andrew had a remarkable career during the Civil War.

His record reports that on Dec. 25, 1861, shortly after enlistment, Andrew was promoted to second lieutenant and shortly thereafter to first lieutenant.  He was wounded at Ox Hill in Fairfax Co., VA, part of the Northern Virginia campaign from June to Sept., 1862.

He was returned to duty sometime in Nov., 1862 and promoted to captain in Dec. of that year.  Capt. Critcher was captured in May, 1864 and confined to the Old Capital Prison in Washington, D.C. and, later moved to Fort Delaware in June, 1864.  Later that summer he and other prisoners were moved to Charleston, SC where they were used as human shields against the south's bombardment of that Federally occupied city.

Having survived that, Critcher was moved to Hilton Head in Dec., 1864 where he was released sometime shortly thereafter in a prisoner exchange.  He was captured again at Boone in Watauga Co., NC in Mar., 1865 and sent to Camp Chase in OH where he was released on Jun. 14, 1865.

Andrew returned to Watauga Co., and to Boone where he met and married Sarah. They settled there and the 1870 census shows that he was a retail merchant and somewhat wealthy. By 1880 he was a farmer.

In addition to Meta Bell (second oldest), he and Sarah were parents of Maury P., born Jun., 1869; L. Frank, born Jan., 1879 and M. Ethel, born Sep. 1885.

Andrew died in Watauga Co. on Jul. 7, 1904 and was buried at Lovill in the Greer Cemetery. I do not have a death date or burial place for Sarah and would appreciate that input.

I know that Andrew had at least one brother who served during the Civil War. He had four brothers, all of the right age at the time of the war to have served. The one that I know of was John Calvin.

John was born c1841 and died Aug. 13, 1863 in Orange Co., VA. He had enlisted on Nov. 5, 1862 at Boone in Co. D., 1st NC Cavalry Regiment. Some genealogies report that he is also buried at Lovill, but a headstone as not been found.

A source was: Michael C. Hardy, Author, A Short History of Old Watauga County (Boone, Watauga Co., NC: Parkway Publishers, Inc., 2005).