While the rich progressed from rough shacks to Georgian homes, there was no such advance for the poor. There was not even any improvement in agricultural implements and the poor were finding it more and more difficult to compete with the large landholders and their scores of slaves.
They resented the tight band held over them by the mother country, who, they felt, neither understood their problems nor how to cope with them, as well as they did (e.g., the impractical way the English tried to fight the Indians during the French-Indian war).
Added to this was the constant pressure from the mother country for more money to exploit her domain, felt in the enforcement of the "Sugar Act", "Stamp Act", "Tea Act", and "Boston Port Act".
The smoldering embers of hate began to flare in the hearts of the radicals. The gentry hoped to keep the radicals under control for they felt the Virginia colony had less cause to fight than the other colonies. The colony of which they were a part was "the most populous, prosperous and important one of the thirteen." They had not felt the sting of taxes like their northern mercantile brothers nor the sting of poverty like their less fortunate southern brothers.
For example, when the "Stamp Act" was being considered. Richard Henry Lee applied for the position of stamp distributor. When a fight developed in the House concerning the "Stamp Act", Peyton Randolph, Edmund Pendleton, Richard Bland and George Wythe opposed Patrick Henry's resolutions bitterly.
The gentry in Fairfax seemed to be the exception for George Johnston, a prominent lawyer living between Alexandria and Mt. Vernon, backed Patrick Henry in his protest. George Mason wrote the Non-importation Resolutions in 1769, his Fairfax Resolves in 1774 and his famous Bill of Rights in 1776. George Washington, Fairfax planter, was, of course, Commander in Chief of the Continental Army and brought the country through to victory under the most difficult circumstances.
Large numbers of able-bodied citizens in the County served under Washington in the Revolution. An artillery company was formed out of the two militia companies in Fairfax and two later drafts took eighty-two more men. There were a few English sympathizers like the Fairfax family who did not take part but almost every influential family in the County fought on the side of Independence.
During this time Patrick Henry served as Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia, and in this capacity, appointed a Sheriff to serve the County of Fairfax. One of the most interesting documents in view at the Fairfax County Clerk's Office is the original of this command signed by P. Henry.
The County itself was touched by battle on two occasions: (1) The Continental Army under General Lafayette crossed the Potomac near Chain Bridge and (2) Rochambeau's Army of French allies came up through the County over the old King's Highway to Alexandria, where French transports awaited them.
The country prospered after the war but economic levels changed. The new rich who had prospered by government contracts during the war took the place of men who had lost their business along the coast line and of men whose homes had been ramshackled by English troops. Currency fell and prices rose. The farmer, who had by now turned to wheat instead of tobacco for his livelihood, was receiving high prices and seemed to be getting rich. However, his labor supply was extremely limited and he found it difficult to raise enough crops to supply his own needs. What labor he could find demanded extremely high wages and the products which the farmer needed came at extremely costly prices. In spite of difficulties, however, the farmer saw the need for a good road to Alexandria, where he could export his wheat. Thus the farmers of Fairfax, Alexandria, and Loudoun Counties joined together to build The Little River Turnpike, which was one of the first improved roads in the United States. This road was completed in 1806 and as stated before, tolls were collected for it at Earp's Ordinary. Another strong factor in the completion of this road was the establishment of the County Court House at the present site in the Town of Fairfax.
In 1618 Gov. Yeardley established the prototype of the county court by an order stating that "county courts be held in convenient places, to sit monthly, and to hear civil and criminal cases." It determined rates of local taxation, registered legal documents, licensed inns and exercised control over their prices, directed the building and repair of roads, and rendered judgments in both civil and criminal cases.
While Fairfax County was still a part of the colony, the first sessions of Court were probably held in Colchester, a thriving seaport town where large quantities of tobacco were exported. Charles Broadwater, John Carlyle, Henry Gunnell, Lord Thomas Fairfax, George Mason, and George Washington were among the Gentlemen Justices during the period of 1742 to 1776.
The first entry of the Court's minutes were made in 1742 at a session held in Colchester. This was an order removing the county records from Colchester to the new court house two miles north of Vienna. This court house, where the Fairfax Resolves were written, was called "Freedom Hill". Ambiguously, a gallows was constructed here and death sentences were carried out promptly. The court house remained at Freedom Hill for ten years when it was moved to Alexandria.
There are many theories concerning the move to Alexandria: Roads were poor and slow; there was still Indian hostility—the treaty of Fontainebleau did not come until 1762; there was pressure from the more influential citizens of Alexandria to move it to that city.
At any rate, the Court was moved to Alexandria in 1752 and there it remained until 1799. The gallows remained at Freedom Hill. When a death sentence was passed, the prisoner was taken out The Little River Turnpike from Alexandria to Annandale, thence along "Court House Road" to the gallows. Eventually the name "Court House Road" was changed to "Gallows Road", which name a portion of the road bears today.
During the forty-seven years court was held in Alexandria, the building fell into such disrepair that it finally became an unfit place in which to hold business, thereby speeding the acceptance of a proposal by George Mason and other influential residents that the Court be moved to Fairfax.
At that time there lived in Fairfax a man by the name of Richard Ratcliffe who held large tracts of land in this area. His holdings began at the Ravensworth line and swept over and through all the area that the Town of Fairfax now occupies, traveling on into what is now Loudoun County.
When plans became final to move the Court House from Alexandria to Fairfax, Richard Ratcliffe sold to Charles Little, David Stuart, William Payne, James Wren and George Minor, for one dollar, four acres of land "to erect thereupon an house, for holding the Pleas of the said County of Fairfax, a clerks office for the safe keeping of the records and papers of the said County, a Goal and all and every other building and machine necessary for the Justices of the Peace for the said County from time to time to erect for the purpose of holding the pleas of the said County, preserving the Records and publick papers, securing and safe keeping of prisoners and reserving good order and the publick peace but for no other use or purpose whatever and also the undisturbed use of and privilege of all the springs upon the lands of Him the said Richard Ratcliffe ...", dated June 27, 1799.
Records show that a Richard Ratcliffe came to this country from England in 1637 along with John Bristoe, Robert Turner, Henry Warren, Thomas Clarke and Robert Throckmorton—Lord of the Manor of Ellington. It is assumed that the descendants of Ratcliffe and Throckmorton worked their way into the vicinity of the future town of Fairfax for their names appear often in the records and newspaper clippings.
The Richard Ratcliffe who gave the land for the court house came here from Maryland. He was the son of John Ratcliffe of "Poynton" and "Doyne" Manors, Port Tobacco, Charles County, Maryland.
He married Lucian Bolling who was from one of the families who had moved into this area from the Jamestown Colony. Her father was Girard Bolling who was one of 18 children and descended from Thomas Rolfe.
Mr. Bolling was a planter and merchant who owned a store in Fairfax. Ratcliffe became associated with his father-in-law in the mercantile business and took over the business after Mr. Bolling died. In Ratcliffe's will he left "the brick store and land lot to his sons for the purpose of keeping store in or on if necessary".
He and his wife had five daughters and four sons. Penelope married Spencer Jackson. Nancy married Stephen Daniel. Jane married Thomas Moss, a future clerk of the court. Patsy married Richard Coleman. Lucian married George Gunnell. His sons were Robert, who was Deputy Sheriff in 1801, Charles, John and Samuel. Two of his sons were evidently a disappointment to him for in his will he speaks of Samuel "having conducted himself badly for several years past" his debts were to be paid by the executors, who were Robert and Charles Ratcliffe, Thomas Moss, Gordon Allison and Roger M. Farr. He also stated that two of his sons had received more than his daughters but he hoped his sons would do better and his daughters would understand.
The Ratcliffe home place, "Mt. Vineyard" will be recalled by older citizens in the town as the Rumsey place, which burned years ago. The family graveyard still exists today. It is located on Moore Street.
Besides owning a great deal of land and a mercantile business, Mr. Ratcliffe owned a race track on the east side of town. Its approximate location was east of Route 237, north of The Little River Turnpike and west of Fairview Subdivision. His personal property was valued at $4445.34. In his will the slaves were divided among his wife and children. Some of the slaves were valued as high as $600 each, while others were valued at a dollar.
In 1836, when Mr. Ratcliffe died and the town had to be surveyed in order for his estate to be divided, John Halley, the surveyor writes: "In laying off I commenced at the northwest corner of Rizin Willcoxon's Tavern House, Robert Ratcliffe having represented that that house was considered when built as being exactly on the corner of the lot on which it stands, and the side and gable ends of said house ranged with the streets. I have therefore taken the ...... of said house as a guide". The tavern was valued at $4000.00 at that time.
Robert Ratcliffe had evidently used the northwest corner of the tavern when in 1805 he laid off the town when An Act of the Assembly established a "Town at Fairfax Court House on the Land of Richard Ratcliffe by the name of Providence".
FAIRFAX COURT HOUSE
Photo by Ollie Atkins
Meanwhile, a red brick building had been erected for the court house. It had a gabled roof, an arcaded loggia and a cupola. In the cupola hung a very fine bell which had been imported from England. This bell rang to remind the citizens of church time, court, town meetings, etc.
The inside of the court house was beautifully paneled with walnut wainscoating and behind the Justice's chair the wall was paneled from floor to ceiling. There was a gallery for slaves and rows of hand carved wooden pews for freemen.
On the outside was a place for tying horses in the yard and nearby stood a well with the traditional "old oaken bucket". The inscription on the bucket read, "He who drinks therefrom will return to drink again!"
Among the first Justices of the Peace to serve in the new Court House after April of 1800 were James Coleman, David Stuart, Charles Little, William Stanhope, Richard Bland Lee, Robert F. Hooe, William Payne, Richard Ratcliffe, William Deneale, Humphrey Peake, Richard W. Poeh, Hancock Lee, William Gunnell, Richard M. Scott, Francy Adams, James Wiley, Augustine I. Smith, and James Waugh. These men formed a committee that took turns serving as Justices of the Peace. They were known as Gentlemen Justices and were appointed and commissioned by the governor until 1851.
In 1843 an agricultural journal was published at the Fairfax County seat. It was called the "Farmer's Intelligencer" and was edited and published by J. D. Hitt. The first issue which appeared on October 21, 1843, showed agitation for a revision of the Virginia constitution in advocating a more economical and simplified court procedure. It may or may not have been indicative of general feelings at the time, but from 1851 until 1870 Justices were elected by the voters of the County. Among these were Silas Burke, John B. Hunter, James Hunter, W. W. Ellzey, Minnan Burke, Ira Williams, M. R. Selecman, William W. Ball, John Millan, Nelson Conrad, T. M. Ford, David Fitzhugh, S. T. Stuart and Elcon Jones.
From 1870 to 1902 the County Court was presided over by a single judge elected by the state's legislature. During that time Thomas E. Carper, Richard Coleman, J. R. Taylor, J. F. Mayhugh and John D. Cross were among those who served. Governor Yeardley's order was abolished in 1902 by a constitutional convention and by 1904 the circuit courts took over the former work of the county courts. Their decline was brought about because they had become the symbol of opposition to a centralized government. Thomas Jefferson said, "the justices of the inferior courts are self-chosen, are for life, and perpetuate their own body in succession forever, so that a faction once possessing themselves of the bench of a county, can never be broken up...."
John Marshall said "there is no part of America where less disquiet and less ill feeling between man and man is to be found than in this commonwealth, and I believe most firmly that this state of things is mainly to be ascribed to the practical operation of our county courts".
William Moss served as Clerk of the Court from 1801 to 1833. From 1833 until 1887 F. D. Richardson, Thomas Moss, Alfred Moss, S. M. Ball, H. T. Brooks, W. B. Gooding, William M. Fitzhugh, D. F. Dulaney, and F. W. Richardson served as Clerks. F. D. Richardson who was born in 1800 and entered the Clerk's Office under William Moss in 1826 was either Clerk, Deputy Clerk or Assistant Clerk to the date of his death on October 13, 1880, a period of 50 years. His son, F. W. Richardson, born Dec. 16, 1853, went into the Clerk's Office when he was 18 years old (1871) and served as Deputy and Assistant Clerk until the death of his father in 1880, when he was elected Clerk of the County and Circuit Courts.
It is said that Ripley wrote in "Believe It or Not" that "'Uncle Tude' (F. W. Richardson) and his father had been Clerks of the Fairfax Courts continuously for one hundred and five years".
As the court house drew men to this area and the population increased, a school for girls was established on the property west of Truro Episcopal Church. Known as Coomb's Cottage, it was a finishing school for young girls and boasted a roster of approximately one hundred young ladies from both the north and the south.
The school was built and established by Dr. and Mrs. Baker, who were English. In addition to the main house (a white frame building west of the church), there were a number of other buildings. Two of these are located across Route 236 from the Church and are still standing today. One is a professional building, the other a private home. They were moved to their present location by Judge Love when he bought the original school property. (The school closed down during the Civil War and was never re-opened).
The present Truro Episcopal Rectory had been built as a home by Judge Love's father, Thomas R. Love, who later sold it to Dr. William Gunnell and built his home in the large grove of trees on the Layton Hall property, near the site of the present town hall. "Dunleith", as the large brick home was called, was destroyed by Union forces and replaced by an ordinary frame house after the war.
The Cooper Carriage house was built during this time by a Mr. Cooper who had come to Fairfax from the North. Mr. Cooper was a highly respected citizen and a very gallant Confederate soldier. He was wounded seven times. Cooper Carriage House is located east of the professional building which was a part of Coomb's Cottage.
Another house built before the Civil War was the home of Judge Henry W. Thomas which stood on the site now occupied by the large, pillared, grey stucco house belonging to Mrs. John Barbour. This house served as headquarters for the Union officers and afterwards as a hospital.
The old cedar posts on the porch of the frame part of this house were the original posts that held the gallery in the old court house. When some remodeling of the court house was done, Judge Thomas bought the posts. They were later removed to a white frame house which served as a tenement house for the Barbour estate. This house is still standing today and the porch roof is sustained by tapering posts, which are more delicate and slender than ones usually found on outside porches.
Also built during this era was the D'Astre place, which is the present home of Mr. A. B. McClure. This home was owned by a Frenchman who had the reputation for making wonderful wines. The vineyard of Niagaras, Delawares, Concords bear out the tribute. The runway from the cellar to the highway where the barrels were loaded is evidenced today by a road leading to a log house near the grape arbors. The tenement house, now owned by Mrs. Douglas Murray, boasts a concealed attic room, hidden behind a closet. Here Confederate soldiers picked off the Union troops as they marched past. The house was raided many times by Union troops but still managed to keep its secret.
Beyond the D'Astre place was the home of Charles Broadwater, which has recently been torn down for widening of The Little River Turnpike. When torn down, the well house revealed numerous musket balls from the war. The house itself was a study in architectural beaming. Each wall header was constructed of large hand-hewn oak timbers. Each timber had hand-hewn slots which received studs secured by wooden pegs.
The large colonial brick house at the corner of Sager Avenue and University Drive was possibly built during this era too. The land had been part of the Ratcliffe division, designated as Lot 26, and had passed from the Moss family to the Jackson family. Later, a Mr. Harry Fitzhugh, who taught school here, bought it and eventually sold it to Mr. F. W. Richardson.
The Draper house at the corner of Main and Route 237 was built in 1827 by Dr. S. Draper who occupied it until 1842, at which time a Mr. William Chapman bought it. The wide upstairs portico and two immense chimneys at each end of the brick house were characteristic of the houses built at that time.
The large white frame house belonging now to Mrs. Fairfax Shield McCandlish, Sr., and being located across from the Fairfax Post Office was built before 1839 and was owned and occupied by the Conrad family. They called it "Rose Bower". A son, Thomas Nelson Conrad, served as a Captain in the Confederate Army and at one time as a Rebel Scout. In 1859 it was bought by a Mr. Thomas Murray who later rented it to a lawyer by the name of Thomas Moore. Mr. Moore had married one of the young ladies who attended Coomb's Cottage—a Miss Hannah Morris from Oswego County, New York. Mr. Moore was to have the distinction of carrying the court records to Warrenton, when the war clouds gathered around Fairfax.
By 1843 Zion Church was founded under the leadership of the Reverend Richard Templeton Brown. He writes: "On the 8th of February last we had the pleasure of a new congregation at this very destitute place and prompt measures were adopted for the immediate erection of a plain and substantial church. The edifice has been commenced, and, if not entirely finished, will be used during the present year. Some of the most influential citizens of the place and neighborhood are interested in the work; the ladies also are zealously engaged; and we trust that, by the blessing of God, the Church at this place will exert a wide and purifying influence."
At that time there were five communicants and twelve families regularly connected with the church. Services were first held at the court house, but when for some reason it was forbidden, Mrs. Daniel Rumsey of "Mount Vineyard"; a Baptist lady, saying that she "could not see the Ark of the Lord refused shelter", offered her parlor in which the congregation met until the church was completed. She was the mother of Mr. William T. Rumsey, who gave the lot for the church and was one of its first vestrymen.
The church was completed and consecrated by Right Rev. William Meade, D. D. on June 28th, 1845, under the name of Zion Church.
In 1861, when Fairfax became involved in war, the church became a storehouse for munitions. It soon thereafter rapidly deteriorated and was finally torn down by Union soldiers to provide material for their winter quarters on a neighboring hillside.
In the meantime, the Methodists, it is thought, probably organized in this vicinity around 1800. The Rev. Melvin Steadman thinks they may have worshipped at Payne's church for a while or possibly at the Moss family's home. The first structure built by them, according to local tradition, was a log cabin which was built around 1822. By 1843 a more elaborate frame building had been built on land given by a Mr. Bleeker Canfield. Records show that the membership of the Fairfax Circuit fluctuated between a high of 604 in 1819 to a low of 332 in 1839. The black proportion usually made up a third of the total, sometimes more.
Around 1850 the church members found their sympathies divided and two churches were formed—a southern congregation and a northern congregation. The latter worshipped in a structure near the intersection of Routes 236 and 237 known as Ryland Chapel. This congregation existed until the 1890's.
The Southern church is first recorded in 1850 with 93 members. It reached a peak of 212 in 1852, dropped in 1854 and fluctuated around 125 until the war.
In 1846 the era of rail-roading began. Nurtured by Virginia State legislation, the Manassas Gap railroad was chartered in 1849. It was to run through the Town of Fairfax as shown by the plat below. Deep embankments where the railroad bed was laid can still be sighted today—one particular spot in the town lies east of the old Farr cottage (now occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Dennis) on Route 237. These trenches served as embankments for various battles in this area but other than that have seen no service due to destruction by both sides during the Civil War.
Forerunner of the fabulous county fairs which were held for years at the county seat was the first fair held on October 16th and 17th, 1852, at the court house. It was sponsored by the Fairfax Agricultural Society. The officers of this organization were Richard M. C. Throckmorton, President; H. C. Williams, First Vice-President; W. W. Ball, Second Vice-President; Levi Burke, Third Vice-President; S. T. Stuart, Corresponding Secretary and F. D. Richardson, Recording Secretary and Treasurer.
Among the exhibitors who were awarded prizes were William Swink, Ruben Kelsey, Dr. W. P. Gunnell, Charles Kirby, Charles Sutton, James P. Machen, R. M. C. Throckmorton, Mrs. W. T. Rumsey, Mrs. E. V. Richardson, Mrs. Mildred Ratcliffe. Mr. Joseph Williams of "Ash Grove" exhibited corn of "enormous dimensions". The stalks measured 16 ft. 9 inches and the distance to the first ear was twelve feet six inches and to the second ear thirteen feet one inch.
It was also the custom at this time to send out notices of funerals. A typical notice was published in a local newspaper as follows:
"Yourself and family are respectfully invited to attend the Funeral of John R. Richardson from the Presbyterian Church to the Public Cemetery, this afternoon at 3:00 o'clock. Funeral services by Rev. John Leighton.
Palmyra, Friday, June 8, 1855"
By 1859 Providence had taken the name of "Fairfax" when Culpeper abandoned it, and being located in a border county was destined to be the scene of the very first skirmish of the Civil War.
Preceding this skirmish, the citizens of the Town of Fairfax had debated and appraised the act of seceding from the Union. When on April 17, 1861, the convention in Richmond adopted "The Ordinance of Secession" to repeal the ratification of the Constitution of the United States of America by the State of Virginia, and to resume all the rights and powers granted under said Constitution, the people in Fairfax came forth to vote.
In those days votes were taken orally and penned by the Clerk of the Court. One page of the voting on secession is still filed among the records of the Clerk of the Court of Fairfax County.
The picture below shows 21 out of 22 people in Fairfax voting in favor of secession. The one dissenter, (on this particular page), Henry T. Brooks, was later appointed Military Clerk of the Court of the County of Fairfax, when Union forces took over the Town.
Among the representatives in Richmond in February of 1861 when Virginia was debating secession from the Union was a young man (35 yrs. old) by the name of John Quincy Marr.
He was a graduate and former professor of Virginia Military Institute. A tall, strong man with black hair and dark eyes, he was an affable, witty and popular lawyer.
While the convention at Richmond still hesitated, Marr returned home to Warrenton to raise a company of infantry, known as the "Warrenton Rifles", who were being made ready to uphold the secession.
Late in May in 1861 the "Warrenton Rifles", after having been to Dumfries, Fauquier Springs, Bristow Station and Centreville, found themselves bivouacked in the Methodist Church building (Duncan's Chapel) at Fairfax.
The village was under the command of Lt. Col. Richard S. Ewell, a veteran recently resigned from the United States Army, whose conversation was said to be so full of profanity "that an auditor declared it could be parsed". He had two mounted companies (one from Rappahannock County and one from Prince William County) who had "very few fire-arms and no ammunition".
Although Colonel Ewell was absent scouting on the day of May 31st, 1861, William (Extra Billy) Smith, who was a neighbor and good friend of Marr, arrived at Fairfax around supper time that evening. After chatting with Marr for a while, he retired to the Joshua Gunnell house (the Oliver Building) which was diagonally across from the Chapel.
In the meantime, Lt. Charles H. Tompkins, Co. B, 2nd U. S. Cavalry was riding with eighty men towards Fairfax Court House to reconnoiter the country in the vicinity of the court house.
Tompkins was an Indian type fighter and he made no attempt to seize the pickets who might warn Marr and his men. Instead, he and his men rode wildly up and shot at them. One guard rushing into the chapel shouted, "The enemy's cavalry are approaching". Marr hurried his men into the surrounding clover fields where they fell in rank.
Governor Smith, hearing all the racket, jumped out of bed and ran to join his friend, Marr. In his haste he left his coat behind and, it is rumored, even his shoes, which were placed outside the bedroom door to be polished by the old negro servant before morning.
Upon arriving at the clover field, he looked around for Marr but not finding him, asked one of his men, "Where is your captain?"
"We don't know, Sir," was the reply. Marr had disappeared and his men were in a state of confusion.
"Boys, you know me. Follow me!" urged the 63 year old governor.
Halfway to the courthouse more confusion arose when one of the young Riflemen challenged Col. Ewell, who, having returned to Fairfax, had been struck in the shoulder and was bare headed, bald and bleeding. "Extra Billy", coming to the rescue, introduced Col. Ewell, "Men, this is Lt. Col. Ewell, your commanding officer, a gallant soldier in whom you may place every confidence."
The half-company followed Ewell up to Main Street. Then turning the company over to Smith again, Ewell left to send a messenger for reinforcements from Fairfax Station.
"Extra Billy" assumed Tompkins and his men would return by the same way they had gone. He positioned the remains of the Riflemen around fence posts in front of Cooper's Carriage Shop.
At 3:30 A.M. they heard sounds of Tompkins and his men returning. When Tompkins reached almost to the carriage shop, "Extra Billy" and his men "let loose", causing Tompkins' men to "run off ingloriously, pulling down fences and making their escape through fields" while leaving the ground strewn with "carbines, pistols, sabers, etc."
Tompkins wrote that he ascertained at least 1000 of the enemy were in Fairfax, perceived that he was "largely outnumbered" and departed "in good order", having killed at least twenty-five "rebels".
Actually only Ewell and one private were injured. Col. Ewell was taken to "the brick tenement" to have his wound treated and in the confusion lost his shoulder epaulet. It was found there later and due to the importance and historical implication of this incident that it represented, the epaulet was cherished by people of the town for many years. It is now in the hands of the Clerk of the Court and Mrs. Thomas P. Chapman, the latter being a descendant of Col. Ewell.
Only one man was killed and that was Marr. He had been shot by a random bullet at the outset of the fracas. Jack, a colored servant of the Moore family, found him later in the morning, face down in the clover field, gripping his sword in his right hand. The "random, spent bullet" had probably been fired as far as three hundred yards away. Directly over Marr's heart was "a perfect circular suffusion of blood under the skin, something larger than a silver dollar, but the skin was unbroken, and not a drop of blood was shed". The shock of impact had stopped his heart.
Thus it was that the first Confederate officer, to be killed in action with the enemy, lost his life in the Town of Fairfax.
On June 8th, 1861, Company B, 2nd United States Cavalry went out on a scouting expedition. They entered the village of Fairfax where they had a skirmish with the units in this vicinity. When the company returned to camp, they realized that two of their members had been captured. Soon they discovered that these two were to be hanged the next morning. They mounted their horses, rode down to Fairfax, found where the two men were imprisoned and rescued them. The picture above is from the Pictorial War Record.
BRILLIANT EXPLOIT OF COMPANY B, SECOND CAVALRY, IN THE RESCUE OF TWO OF THEIR COMRADES, WHO WERE TO BE HUNG BY THE CONFEDERATES AT FAIRFAX, VA.
In July of 1861 Fairfax housed a detachment of Confederates who had been sent out to delay the Yankees who were on their way to seize the Manassas Railroad Junction. This junction connected with another line leading to a point near Richmond (the ultimate Yankee goal). Unfortunately, when the Unionists under Hunter entered Fairfax, the Confederate units fled, leaving large quantities of forage and camp equipment behind. Hunter paraded his men, four abreast, with fixed bayonets, through the streets of Fairfax. He even had the band play the national anthem and other patriotic songs as the men marched along. From here, they proceeded towards Manassas.
Everyone knows of the inglorious retreat of the Unionists from their encounter with the Confederates at the first battle of Manassas. Most people know, too, that spectators had followed the Union troops out from Washington to watch the battle—that they were dressed in fancy clothes and riding in everything from wagons to fine horse-drawn carriages, expecting to applaud an easy Union victory. What the spectators saw, however, was quite different from their expectations.
A combined attack by Confederate forces around 3:45 in the afternoon overwhelmed the Unionists, who fell back and retired. As they were retreating in orderly fashion, Kemper's battery reached an advantageous position on a rise of land and let go with its guns. The first shot hit a suspension bridge and upset a wagon, which, in its unwieldy position, served as a barricade for other vehicles. Other shots followed the first one and soldiers and spectators alike were seized with panic. Horses ran away, carriages overturned, women screamed and fainted, soldiers and spectators ran for their lives. It was every man for himself. "The roar of their flight was like the rush of a great river". Many of these people made their escape back through the Town of Fairfax, much to the amusement of citizens who had viewed Hunter's parade a few days before.
In the First Battle of Manassas the Confederate forces had trouble distinguishing their flag, the "Stars and Bars", from the Federal "Stars and Stripes". When the Confederate flag had been decided upon in Alabama in March of 1861, the people had voted to keep the red, white and blue colors and the blue canton. They had voted to use three (instead of thirteen) alternating stripes of red and white and to use stars to represent the states. This resulted in a flag so similar in appearance to the Union flag that Confederate forces, becoming confused, fired upon their own men.
General Beauregard stating that he "never wished to see the 'Stars and Bars' on another battlefield" designed a Battle Flag which consisted of a St. Andrew's Cross in blue with a white border along the sides, mounted on a field of red. Thirteen five pointed stars were placed on the blue stripes.
Flags of Gen. Beauregard's design were made by three Miss Carys (Constance, Hetty and Jennie) of this area and sent to Gen. Johnston, Gen. Beauregard and Gen. Van Dorn in October. The flags were accepted by these officers before massed troops of the Army in a ceremony at the fort on "Artillery Hill" in Centreville.
In December, a spectacular military display was held at Yorkshire, when Gen. Beauregard presented Battle Flags to various regiments of the Confederate Army.
On this occasion a new song, "My Maryland", by J. R. Randall, was played by the band. However, one of the first renditions of "My Maryland" had been given in Fairfax in September of 1861, by Miss Constance Cary and others, when they sang to soldiers of the "Maryland line".
On October 1, 1861, President Jefferson Davis with General Joseph E. Johnston, Gen. P. G. T. Beauregard and General Gustavus W. Smith met at the Willcoxon Tavern to confer regarding the success of the First Battle of Manassas. They decided that the Confederates were in no condition to take advantage of their success and begin an offensive against Washington. On Oct. 3, 1861, President Davis reviewed "a brilliant turnout" of troops at the court house.
There were two more skirmishes at the court house in November of 1861. By December of 1862 the town found itself under the command of an Unionist, Brigadier General Edwin H. Stoughton, who was living at the home of Dr. William Presley Gunnell (present Truro Rectory) when Mosby made his famous raid.
Here is the story in Mosby's own words, written to a friend in Richmond.
"I have already seen something in the newspapers of my recent raid on the Yankees, though I see they call me Moseley instead of Mosby. I had only twenty men under my command. I penetrated about ten miles in their line, rode right up to the General's Headquarters surrounded by infantry, artillery and cavalry, took him out of his bed and brought him off. I walked into his room with two of my men and shaking him in bed said, 'General, get up!' He rose up and rubbing his eyes, asked what was the meaning of all this. I replied, 'it means, sir, that Stuart's Cavalry are in possession of this place, and you are a prisoner!...' I did not stay in the place more than one hour.
We easily captured the guards around the town, as they never dreamed we were anybody but Yankees until they saw pistols pointed at their heads, with a demand to surrender...."
Stoughton was taken by Mosby to Culpeper and turned over to Fitz Lee, with whom Stoughton had attended West Point.
Mosby was disappointed in what happened—"Lee came out of his tent and welcomed General Stoughton ... as a long lost brother. He took him into the tent to give him a drink and left me out in the rain!"
Lincoln was so outraged with Stoughton that he dismissed him from the Army.
It is no wonder that Episcopal ministers who have inhabited the Gunnell home in the past have complained of the lights flashing on during the wee small hours of the night and of the stairs creaking. It is hard to tell whether Mosby's ghost is coming again for Stoughton or whether Stoughton's ghost is wandering through the house, wary of a second attempt to surprise him at night.
Mosby writes further about his raid: "Just as we were moving out of the town a ludicrous incident occurred. As we passed by a house an upper window was lifted and a voice called out in a preemptory tone and asked what cavalry that was. It sounded so funny that the men broke out in a loud laugh. I knew that it must be an officer of rank; so the column was halted and Joe Nelson and Welt Hatcher were ordered to search the house. Lt. Col. Johnstone of the Fifth New York Cavalry, was spending the night there with his wife. For some reason he suspected something wrong when he heard my men laugh and immediately took flight in his shirt tail out the back door. Nelson and Hatcher broke through the front door, but his wife met them like a lioness in the hall and obstructed them all she could in order to give time for her husband to make his escape. The officer could not be found, but my men took some consolation for the loss by bringing his clothes away with them. He had run out through the back yard into the garden and crawled for shelter in a place it is not necessary to describe. He lay there concealed and shivering with cold and fear until after daylight. He did not know for some time that we had gone, and he was afraid to come out of his hole to find out. His wife didn't know where he was. In squeezing himself under the shelter, he had torn off his shirt and when he appeared before his wife next morning, as naked as when he was born and smelling a great deal worse it is reported she refused to embrace him before he had taken a bath. After he had been scrubbed down with a horse brush he started in pursuit of us but went in the opposite direction from which we had gone."
Mosby's Rangers at this time were composed chiefly of young men from Fairfax and the adjoining counties, with some Marylanders. Among the men from Fairfax County were Franklin Williams, Richard Ratcliffe Farr, Capt. V. Beattie. The men had to arm, equip and supply themselves, so although they turned captured cattle and mules over to the Confederacy, they kept any horses they were able to find. They wore Confederate uniforms and through necessity on occasion captured overcoats. The "Jessie Scouts" of the Federal Army also wore the grey uniform in order to deceive the people and gain information.
An amusing illustration of the confusion and deception created by this occurred near Fairfax.
"A party of Federal soldiers dressed in grey, rode up to a worthy old farmer and after a short conversation asked him whether he was a 'Unionist' or a 'Secessionist'. The unsuspecting citizen told them he was a 'Secessionist', whereupon the Federals carried off all of his horses that were in sight.
A short while thereafter a party of Confederates rode up, wearing the blue overcoats which effectually (?) concealed their grey uniforms and propounded a similar question. Hoping by his protestations of loyalty to recover his lost property he told them he was a 'Union man', whereupon they too took such horses as they could find.
CONFEDERATE HORSEMEN SCOUTING BETWEEN ANANDALE AND FAIRFAX.
Sketched by A. R. Waud.
Finally a party came along dressed partly in blue and partly in grey, and asked the same question. Eyeing them critically for a moment and remembering his past unfortunate experience, he replied:
'Well, gentlemen, to tell you the truth, I am nothing at all and d——d little of that.'"
The fact that the Yankees had an abundance of horses is illustrated by the following article found in the Pictorial War Record (March 18, 1882).
"Some people will no doubt be astonished to learn that large fortunes had been made every year from the commencement of the war out of the dead horses of the Army of the Potomac. The popular idea is that when Rosinante yields up the ghost he is buried in some field, or left to moulder into mother earth in the woods somewhere. Not so. He has made his last charge, and gnawed his last fence rail, but there is from $20.00 to $40.00 in the old fellow yet.
A contract for the purchase of dead horses in the Army of the Potomac in the year 1864 was let for that year to the highest bidder, at $1.67 per head, delivered at the factory of the contractor. During 1863, $60,000.00 was cleared on the contract, and that year it is thought $100,000.00 was made on it. The animals die at the rate of about fifty per day at the lowest calculation.
At the contractor's establishment they are thoroughly dissected. First the shoes are pulled off; they are usually worth fifty cents a set. Then the hoofs are cut off; they bring two dollars a set. Then comes the caudal appendage, worth half a dollar. Then the hide—I don't know what that sells for. Then the tallow, if it is possible to extract tallow from the army horse, which I think extremely doubtful, unless he die immediately after entering the service. And last, but not least, the shinbones are valuable, being convertible into a variety of articles that many believe to be composed of pure ivory, such as candle-heads, knife-handles, etc. By this time the contractor gets through the "late-lamented" steed, there is hardly enough of him left to feed a bull-pup on.
Hereafter, kind reader, when you see a dead "hoss", don't turn up your nose at him, but regard him thoroughly, as the foundation for a large fortune in a single year. He may, individually, be a nuisance, but 'there is that within which passeth show'—$100,000.00 a year."
Horses, supplies, good fighting men and pickets were important to the Confederates. So were spies. Mosby was aided greatly by two young ladies who resided in Fairfax. One was Laura Ratcliffe and the other was Antonia Ford.