The Casto Hole

During the Civil War, loyalties in the new state of West Virginia were deeply divided, with some residents supporting the Confederacy, others serving the Union, and still others trying to avoid both sides, creating a bitter local struggle that split neighbors and families. In Jackson County, near Staats Mill, these divisions found expression in the story of Nicholas Casto and Elihugh Powers, two prominent residents who took opposite sides. Casto became a captain in the Home Guard, organized to protect Unionists from Confederate raiders, while Powers supported the Confederacy. A nearby cavern on Straight Run, a branch of Tug Fork of Mill Creek, where the Guard sometimes met and where local residents also hid property from foraging soldiers of both armies, became known as the Casto Hole. According to legend, after Casto wrote a poem critical of the Confederacy and of Powers, Powers answered with his own poem, which became the ballad “The Casto Hole.” It was said that while shingling a roof he wrote twenty-seven verses, one on each shingle, and nineteen survived. Though the lyrics sharply attacked Casto and Unionists, the song became so popular that even the Casto family was said to enjoy it after the war.

West Virginia · United States