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.
[Illustration]
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.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
IX. THE CIVIL WAR IN FAIRFAX
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.
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: 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).