CIVIL WAR
It was a happy, prosperous, and contented Loudoun that the sun shone
down upon in 1850. In politics the county was predominantly Whig and in
the growing national issues of States' rights, slavery and secession,
her sentiment clung to the preservation of the Union; but the seeds of
dissension had been sown. The repercussions of John Brown's insane raid
on the nearby Harper's Ferry arsenal on the 16th October, 1859, were
particularly severe in Loudoun. The madness of it all profoundly shocked
the community and seemed to strike at the foundations of existing
society, law, and order. Yet a dogged adherence to that Union, which
Virginia had been so instrumental in building, persisted. Little doubt
was felt concerning the _right_ of a sovereign State to withdraw from
what had been a wholly voluntary confederation, but sentiment and a deep
feeling of expediency strongly opposed such action. Elsewhere in the
State the tendency toward secession was stronger. As the fateful days
passed, Virginia was torn between conflicting views. It is probable that
the ranting of the extreme abolitionists in the North drove more
Virginians toward secession, and that against their will, than the most
persuasive arguments of its fieriest advocates.
The Legislature of 1861 recognized the peril of decision in favor of
either side, and the gravity of attendant consequences to be so great,
that it wisely decided to refer the issue to the people themselves. On
the 16th January of that year it therefore authorized that a convention
be called, to be made up of delegates elected from every county, for the
express purpose of deciding upon Virginia's course. Thereupon such
delegates, having been duly elected, the convention met in Richmond on
the 13th February, 1861, Loudoun being represented by John Janney, at
that time and until his death in 1872, a leader of her Bar, and John A.
Carter. Both opposed secession and voted against it in a convention in
which it was apparent that its proponents held a majority. Nevertheless,
Mr. Janney was elected permanent chairman by a majority of the
delegates--a great personal tribute to the man and evidence of the
respect in which he was held. Both those who favoured and those who
condemned withdrawal from the Union were given ample opportunity to
expound and urge their views. When the ominous vote was cast in secret
session on the 17th April, 1861, eighty-five of the delegates favoured
and fifty-five opposed an ordinance of secession; but their action was
conditioned upon the majority decision being referred back to the people
of Virginia for approval or rejection. Both Janney and Carter voted
against the measure but even while the convention was in session a mass
meeting, convened in Leesburg, passed resolutions advocating the
proposed ordinance. How great a change had taken place in the sentiment
of the county, during those early and fateful months of 1861, is shone
in the following table of the results in Loudoun of the election of the
23rd May in which the ordinance of secession was overwhelmingly ratified
there:
Precincts For Secession Against
Aldie 54 5
Goresville 117 19
Gum Spring 135 5
Hillsboro 84 38
Leesburg 400 22
Lovettsville 46 325
Middleburg 115 0
Mt. Gilead 102 19
Powells Shop 62 0
Purcellville 82 31
Snickersville 114 3
Union 150 0
Waterford 31 220
Waters 26 39
Whaleys 108 0
--- ---
Total 1626 726
The great mass of the American people, North and South, neither
expected nor wanted war. The overwhelming tragedy of it all lay in the
nation being caught and carried on in a flood of events beyond its
imagination or control and these, with sinister assistance from fanatics
and trouble-makers on both sides, brought on the devastating deluge.
With Lincoln's call for volunteers, Virginia rallied to resist what she
believed to be a threat of hostile armed invasion. The die was cast.
It is not the purpose of this book to attempt a detailed account of the
war-epoch in Loudoun. Much of her story during those dreary years
already has been recorded by other writers. The full narrative deserves,
and sometime undoubtedly will have, a volume to itself.
Inasmuch as fate had made it a border county, it was inevitable that
intense factional bitterness should exist and that much fighting should
take place within its boundaries; but no major engagements occurred
there. Loudoun at least was spared the terrible slaughter that destiny
staged in Tidewater, the Valley and north of the Potomac.
It required but little imagination on the part of the county government
to foresee the probability of fighting in the county and the subversion
of the civil authority, with the confusion and lawlessness that would
consequently ensue. Therefore the Loudoun Court, headed by its then
presiding Justice Asa Rogers, ordered the county clerk, George K. Fox,
Jr., to remove the county records to a place of safety and to use his
discretion for their preservation. Pursuant to these instructions, Mr.
Fox loaded the records into a large wagon and with them drove south to
Campbell County. For the next four years he moved his precious charge
about from place to place, as danger threatened each refuge in turn, and
in 1865 was able to bring back to Leesburg every record intact as will
appear in the following chapter. Thus to Mr. Fox's faithful performance
of his duty, Loudoun owes the preservation of her records in happy
contrast to the loss, damage and destruction which came upon the
archives of her sister counties during the ensuing conflict. From a
subsequent entry in the court's records, we also learn that no court
was held in the county from February, 1862, until July, 1865.[152]
[152] Loudoun Minute Book 1861-65, p. 69. Also statements to author by
Mr. Fox's daughter, Mrs. John Mason of Leesburg.
With the inception of actual warfare the county divided along the lines
forecast by the election in May, 1861. Those sections in which the
Quakers and Germans predominated, continued strong in their adherence to
the Union; the remaining people of the county, with comparatively few
exceptions, were so deeply and unswervingly attached to the Southern
cause as to suggest the burning conviction of religious zeal. To add to
the intensity of hostile feeling, there were, nevertheless, in all parts
of the county, as was inevitable in a border community, individuals who
passionately disagreed with the convictions of their neighbors and these
as occasion offered and to the detriment of their former friends,
reported surreptitiously upon local matters to the side with which their
sympathies lay.
The recruiting of soldiers began among the Confederates, to be followed
in due course by the Union men. "The 56th Virginia Militia" writes
Goodhart "commanded by Col. William Giddings, was called out and about
60 percent of the regiment that lived east of the Catoctin Mountain
responded."[153] Many of those who thus reported for duty were put to
work, it is said, building the fortifications around Leesburg, while a
number of their former comrades abruptly left Loudoun for the quieter
atmosphere of Maryland.[154] But the demand for men far surpassed the
resources of the organized militia. For the Confederates, new commands
sprang into being throughout Virginia. The 8th Virginia Regiment,
Company C (Loudoun Guard) of the 17th Virginia Regiment and White's
(35th Virginia) Battalion, known as the "Comanches," were largely made
up of Loudoun men and many of the county's sons also were to be later in
Mosby's famous Partisan Rangers as well as in many other commands. How
far flung in the forces of the Confederacy were Loudoun's soldiers is
suggested by a copy of the "Roster of Clinton Hatcher Camp, Confederate
Veterans," (organized in Loudoun County on the 13th February, 1888)
which, framed for preservation, hangs on the wall in the County Clerk's
Office. It gives the names and pictures of the original members and the
military organization in which each man served. Each of the following
commands are there represented by one or more former members:
1st Virginia Cavalry Stribbling's Artillery
2nd Virginia Cavalry Letcher's Artillery
4th Virginia Cavalry Gillmore's Battalion
6th Virginia Cavalry 34th Va. Artillery
7th Virginia Cavalry Loudoun Artillery
35th Va. (White's) Battalion 8th Virginia Infantry
43rd Va. Battalion (Mosby's Rangers)
1st Maryland Cavalry 17th Virginia Infantry
1st Richmond Howitzers 40th Virginia Infantry
Stuart's Horse Artillery 1st Georgia Infantry
Chew's Battery
7th Georgia Infantry
while, in addition, were many who served with staff rank or otherwise,
such as Dr. C. Shirley Carter, Surgeon on General Staff; John W.
Fairfax, Colonel, Adjutant and Inspector General's Department; J. R.
Huchison, Captain on Staffs of Generals Hunton and B. Johnson; A. H.
Rogers, First Lieutenant and Aide-de-Campe; William H. Rogers,
Lieutenant on Staff; Colonel Charles M. Fauntleroy, Inspector General on
Staff of General Joseph C. Johnston; H. O. Claggett, Captain and
Assistant Quartermaster; Arthur M. Chichester, Captain and Assistant
Military Engineer; L. C. Helm, scout for Generals Beauregard and Lee; B.
W. Lynn, First Lieutenant Ordnance Department; William H. Payne,
Brigadier General of Cavalry, A. N. V.; John Y. Bassell, staff of
General W. L. Jackson and midshipman C. S. Navy.
[153] _Loudoun Rangers_, by Briscoe Goodhart, p. 19.
[154] _The Comanches_, by F. M. Myers, p. 19.
In the northern part of the county, Union men joined two companies of
cavalry which were known as the Loudoun Rangers, an independent command
raised by Captain Samuel C. Means of Waterford, under a special order of
E. M. Stanton, the Secretary of War and later merged in the 8th U. S.
Corps. Between the troopers of this organization on the one side and
those of White and Mosby on the other, some of them former friends and
schoolmates, even brothers, there were frequent and vicious engagements
and mutual animosity ran high, as presently we shall see.[155]
[155] To get the full flavor of the bitterness engendered, read F. M.
Myers' _Comanches_, and Goodhart's _Loudoun Rangers_.
[Illustration: THE OLD VALLEY BANK, LEESBURG.]
With the intensity of recruiting, the county was soon drained of many of
its most vigorous and ablebodied men. At that time there was but one
bank in Leesburg--the old Valley Bank, concerning the founding of which
in 1818 we have read in the last chapter. One day, so runs the story,
there suddenly appeared in the town three bandits who, making their way
to the bank, then located in what has since been known as the "Club
House" on the northwest corner of Market and Church Streets, proceeded
to loot it. Tradition says that they found and seized over $60,000 in
gold and, placing it in sacks they had provided, fled with it south
along the Carolina Road. The greatly excited citizens hurriedly formed a
posse, made up largely of men who were too old for military service
together with a number of boys, which pursued the robbers so hotly that
the latter left the highway where it passes the woods on Greenway, south
of the mansion, and sought to hide themselves there. Here they were
surrounded in the woods and either made their escape or were killed, the
narrative at this point becoming somewhat vague. Be that as it may, they
disappear from the story and the pursuers turned to recovering their
booty. A diligent search, continued long after nightfall, failed to
reveal the hiding-place of the plunder. With daylight the search was
renewed and, although carried on for many days, during which much ground
was dug over, not a dollar ever was recovered; but for years the story
of the hidden treasure was repeated and even after the late John H.
Alexander purchased Greenway, long after the war, his children were
regaled by the negro servants with the story of the believed-to-be
buried gold.
Meanwhile the work of building fortifications of earthworks, begun by
Colonel Giddings' 56th Regiment of Militia, had so far progressed that
there were three forts on elevated ground on different sides of
Leesburg. One, known as Fort Evans, named in honour of Brigadier General
Nathan G. Evans, in command of the Leesburg neighborhood, was on the
heights on the part of the original Exeter between the Alexandria Pike
and the Edwards' Ferry roads, recently purchased by Mr. H. B. Harris of
Chicago from Mrs. William Rogers and Mr. Wallace George; another, known
as Fort Johnston, in honour of General Joseph E. Johnston, commander of
a portion of the Confederate troops at the first battle of Manassas,
(Bull Run), crowned the hill now covered by the extensive orchards of
Mr. Lawrence R. Lee, about one and one-half miles west of Leesburg on
the Alexandria Road; and the third, known as Fort Beauregard, was
constructed south of Tuscarora in the triangle formed by the old road
leading to Morrisworth, the road to Lawson's old mill and Tuscarora. The
property is now owned by the heirs of the late Mahlon Myers.
All of these fortifications were, at the time, considered of great
potential importance but in the course of events none, save for a
long-distance bombardment of Fort Evans on the 19th October, 1861, were
destined ever to be attacked nor, therefore, defended. The remains of
all remain largely in place, useful only as local monuments to Loudoun's
most tragic era.
The principal engagement in the county between the hostile armies took
place in the first year of the war. Soon after the first battle of
Manassas (Bull Run) the Leesburg neighborhood was held for the
Confederates by Brigadier General Nathan G. Evans and his 7th Brigade
made up of the 8th Virginia Infantry under Colonel Eppa Hunton; the 13th
Mississippi, under Colonel William Barksdale; the 17th Mississippi,
under Colonel W. S. Featherstone, together with a battery and four
companies of cavalry under Colonel W. H. Jenifer, all sent there by
General Beauregard to protect his left flank from attacks by General
McClellan, whose forces lay across the Potomac, and to keep open
communications with the Confederate troops in the Valley.
On the 19th October, 1861 Dranesville, a hamlet on the Alexandria
Road, fifteen miles southeast of Leesburg, was occupied by Federal
troops under General McCall. That evening his advance guard opened
artillery fire on Fort Evans, just east of Leesburg, and another
bombardment began at nearby Edwards' Ferry. Evans thereupon ordered
certain of his troops to leave the town and occupy trenches he had dug
along the line of Goose Creek, to meet the expected general attack. On
the following day, a Sunday, word came to McClellan that the
Confederates were evacuating Leesburg, whereupon that General sought to
make a "slight demonstration," as he termed it, that is an increased
firing by the pickets on the north side of the Potomac, with, perhaps, a
small force of skirmishers thrown across, to confirm the Confederates in
their belief that a general attack was impending and thus to hasten
their complete evacuation of the town. It was no part of McClellan's
plan, apparently, that troops should cross in force from the Maryland
side or that a major engagement should be precipitated. Brigadier
General C. P. Stone, in immediate command of the Federal forces along
the river, nevertheless ordered a considerable force to cross to the
Virginia side, both at Edwards' Ferry and also at Ball's Bluff, some
four miles up the Potomac. Apparently in ignorance of Stone's actions,
McCall, at about the same time, was retiring his men to their camp at
Prospect Hill, four miles west of the old Chain Bridge. Evans was in the
fort bearing his name. Early in the morning of the 21st, he learned that
the Federals had crossed the river at Ball's Bluff, driving back Captain
Duffy and a small force of Confederates. Thereupon Evans sent Colonel
Jenifer with four companies of Mississippi infantry and two of cavalry
to engage Stone. As a result, Stone's men were pressed back to the river
around Ball's Bluff.
[Illustration: BATTLE OF BALL'S BLUFF. (From an engraving published in
1862 by Virtus and Company. New York.)]
In his official report Gen. Evans wrote:
"At about 2 o'clock p.m. on the 21st a message was sent to Brigadier
General R. L. White to bring his militia force to my assistance at Fort
Evans. He reported to me, in person, that he was unable to get his men
to turn out, though there were a great number in town, and arms and
ammunition were offered them."
The Federal force which first had crossed to Ball's Bluff, was composed
of 300 men of the 15th Massachusetts under Colonel Devens. Later it was
augmented by a company from the 20th Massachusetts. No adequate
transportation across the river for a large force had been provided, so
that later it was difficult to send over needed Federal support. When
Evans became convinced that the main fight would be at Ball's Bluff, he
sent forward Colonel Hunton and his 8th Virginia Regiment of which
several of the companies had been recruited in Loudoun. To these forces
there were added, later in the day, the 17th and 18th Mississippi. Sharp
fighting, with advantage first to one side and then to the other,
culminated in a Confederate bayonet charge and the resulting route of
the Federals, many of whom were killed and wounded, others driven into
the river and drowned and by 8:00 o'clock the survivors surrendered and
were marched as prisoners to Leesburg. It is estimated that about 1,700
men were engaged on each side. The Confederate loss was reported as 36
killed, 118 wounded and 2 missing. The Federals reported losses of 49
killed, 158 wounded and 714 missing. The Confederate dead were interred
in the Union Cemetery at Leesburg; the Federal slain are buried at
Ball's Bluff where their lonely resting place long has been cared for by
the Federal Government.[156]
[156] Condensed from Hotchkiss' _Virginia Military History_ as quoted by
Head, p. 138. Also White's _Battle of Ball's Bluff_. For Gen. Evans'
report see "Official Reports, Sept. to Dec. 1861," published in Richmond
in 1862.
Among the killed were Colonel Baker of the Massachusetts troops and
Colonel Burt of the 18th Mississippi. Among the very dangerously wounded
was a young Massachusetts first lieutenant who, miraculously recovering,
later crowned a long judicial career as a venerated member of the
Supreme Court of the United States and conferred additional lustre upon
the name of Oliver Wendell Holmes.
The Confederates were led in the fighting by Colonel Eppa Hunton of the
8th Virginia. It was he who rallied that regiment when a part of it was
in retreat and turned threatened disaster into victory. Colonel Hunton
had been born in Fauquier on the 2nd September, 1822, of a family long
settled in that County. At the outbreak of the war he was practicing law
in Prince William and held a commission as brigadier general in the
Militia. After the Ordinance of Secession was adopted, he was
commissioned a colonel by Governor Letcher and ordered to raise the 8th
Virginia Infantry. For that purpose he proceeded to Leesburg and
recruited his command. Chas. B. Tebbs became Lieut. Colonel and Norborne
Berkeley, Major. Both were of Loudoun and Berkeley eventually succeeded
Hunton in command of the Regiment. Of the ten companies in the regiment,
six originally were made up of Loudoun men under Captains William N.
Berkeley, Nathaniel Heaton, Alexander Grayson, William Simpson, Wampter,
and John R. Carter. Of the remaining four companies, one was from Prince
William, one from Fairfax and two from Fauquier. During the war the
regiment covered itself with glory by its splendid fighting qualities
from the first Manassas to Pickett's charge at Gettysburg and suffered
frightful losses. It became known from these losses, as the "Bloody
Eighth." Hunton, shot through the leg at Gettysburg, was promoted for
his valour there to brigadier general. After the war he lived in
Warrenton, practicing his profession with marked ability in Fauquier,
Loudoun, and Prince William where juries, frequently including members
of his former regiment, seldom failed to give him their verdict. He
served as a member of the House of Representatives and later as United
States Senator from Virginia, holding in his professional and political
life the esteem and affection he had won on many a field of battle.
Acting as a volunteer scout for Colonel Hunton, that day of the Ball's
Bluff Battle was a young trooper of Ashby's Cavalry who, migrating from
Maryland to Loudoun in 1857, purchased a farm on the shore of the
Potomac and became very much of a Virginian. Elijah Viers White was born
in Poolesville, Maryland, in 1832, attended Lima Seminary in Livingston
County, New York, and later spent two years at Granville College in
Licking County, Ohio. With the restlessness of his age he went to Kansas
in 1855 and, as a member of a Missouri company, had some part in the
factional fighting then distracting that territory. At the time of John
Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry he served as a corporal in the Loudoun
Cavalry and soon after the outbreak of the war was transferred to
Ashby's Legion. By December, 1861, he was a captain, reporting to
General Hill, and in charge of a line of couriers between Leesburg and
Winchester. During the winter of 1861-'62 this force was quartered in
Waterford and, somewhat augmented in numbers, was assigned to scouting
and guarding the Potomac shore. Thus originated the unit which became so
famous in Loudoun's history--the 35th Virginia Cavalry[157] or, as it
was more generally known, "White's Battalion"--the "Comanches"
affectionately held in local memory. Although having but about
twenty-five men when wintering in Waterford, the organization increased
with such rapidity that before the war's end its rolls, according to
Captain Frank M. Myers, its historian, bore nearly 700 names. On the
28th October, 1862, it was formally mustered into the Confederate
service by Colonel Bradley T. Johnson of General J. E. B. Stuart's
staff. In its inception formed for scouting, raiding and other local
duty, and regarded as an independent organization, it was fated in
January, 1863, to become a part of Brigadier General William E. Jones'
Brigade and thenceforward continued a part of the regular military
establishment of the Confederacy.
[157] Myers' _Comanches_, p. 314.
As the fame and exploits of the command and its leader grew, the latter
was promoted major in October, 1862, and lieutenant colonel in February,
1863. That he was not made a brigadier-general in accordance with the
recommendation of the military committee of the Confederate Congress was
due chiefly to General Lee's personal disapproval of Colonel White's
lack of severity as a disciplinarian. Undoubtedly his men took advantage
of his protective attitude toward them and incidents of insubordination,
desertion, and even mutiny were not infrequent;[158] but as enthusiastic
and fearless fighters they won and held the respect of both sides alike.
How well and dearly this reputation as warriors was earned is shown by
their participation in no less than thirty-one battles, including Cold
Harbor, Sharpsburg (Antietam), Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Spotsylvania
and Appomattox and in fifty-nine recorded minor engagements as
well.[159] Colonel White himself was severely wounded on no less than
seven occasions. Such was the esteem in which he continued to be held in
Loudoun after the war, that he was elected sheriff of the county and
also its treasurer. He was a principal founder and the first president
of the Peoples National Bank of Leesburg which position he continued to
occupy until his death in 1907. General Eppa Hunton in his autobiography
has this to say of him: "No man in the Confederate Army stood higher for
bravery, dash and patriotic devotion than Colonel 'Lige' White."
[158] Same, pp. 148, 154, 242, 315, 342, 353, etc.
[159] See manuscript memorandum prepared by Mrs. Magnus Thompson and now
in possession of Colonel White's granddaughter, Miss Elizabeth White, of
Selma.
In the meanwhile, as we have seen, the Loudoun Rangers had been
organized on the territory west and north of the Catoctin Mountain by
Union men and had been taken into the Federal service. In August, 1862,
this command, then numbering about fifty, was making its headquarters in
the small brick Baptist Meeting House which still stands in Waterford,
whence it had been participating in raids on the Confederate portion of
the county. About 3:00 o'clock in the morning of the 27th of August,
while a certain number of the Rangers were away from the church on raids
or picket duty, Captain E. V. White, with forty or fifty men, made a
carefully planned attack on the building and after some sharp fighting,
in which one of the Rangers was killed and ten wounded, the men in the
church surrendered and were taken prisoners and paroled.
On the 1st September the Rangers were involved in another fight, this
time with Colonel Munford's 2nd Virginia Cavalry sent forward by General
Stuart for that purpose, the encounter taking place between the top of
Mile Hill and the Big Spring on the Carolina Road. The Rangers were at
the time reinforced by about 125 men of Cole's Maryland Cavalry but the
Confederates, by getting in their rear and completely surrounding them,
put them to route in a hot sabre fight. Goodhart, the Rangers'
historian, comments that these two defeats, coming so closely together,
almost broke up that organization and "did to a very large extent
interfere with the future usefulness of the command."[160] It continued
in service, however, until the end of the war, participating in the
battle of Antietam, in the Gettysburg campaign, and in the Shenandoah
Valley campaign in September, 1864.
[160] _The Loudoun Rangers_, by Briscoe Goodhart, 44.
It was in the same September of 1862, it will be remembered, that Lee
undertook his first invasion of Maryland. He and General Stonewall
Jackson spent the night at the residence of the late Henry T. Harrison
on the west side of King Street, now occupied by Mr. Harrison's
grandchildren, Mr. Cuthbert Conrad and his two sisters. "The triumphant
army of Lee," writes Head "on the eve of the first Maryland campaign,
was halted at Leesburg and stripped of all superfluous transportation,
broken-down horses and wagons and batteries not supplied with good
horses being left behind."[161] It is said that Jackson rose early in
the morning from his bed in the Harrison house to examine the several
suggested points for the Southern Army to cross the Potomac. He is
locally credited with the decision that the place known as White's Ford
was best for the purpose and it was there, on the 5th September, that
much of the Army crossed. With such a vast number to put across the
river, it is probable that all the ferries and fords in the Leesburg
neighborhood were used. It is well to note that White's Ford and the
present White's Ferry (then known as Conrad's Ferry) are two very
different places. The Ferry is at the end of the road now marked by the
State, running along the south side of Rockland; the Ford is to the
north thereof at the head of Mason's Island. Obviously the depth of the
water at White's Ferry would preclude its use as a ford. Goodhart says
Edwards' and Noland's Ferries were used,[162] while the report of the
Federal Signal Officer (Major A. J. Myers) made to Brigadier General S.
Williams, dated the 6th October, 1862, records the Confederates
"crossing the Potomac near the Monocacy, and the commencement of their
movement into Maryland."[163] Nevertheless the Confederate official
reports definitely shew that a great number, probably the major part of
the vast host, crossed at White's Ford, including Stonewall Jackson's
own men, General Early's Division (which had passed through Leesburg
the day before and camped that night "near a large spring"--whether Big
Spring or the old Ducking Pond of Raspberry Plain does not definitely
appear); General Hood's Division, Colonel B. T. Johnson's 2nd Virginia
Brigade, McGowan's Brigade, etc.[164] Never were the hopes of the
Confederates more rosy; it is recorded that, as the Army crossed the
river, the men sang and cheered with joy and that every band played
"Maryland, my Maryland." Twelve days later there was fought the battle
of Antietam, the bloodiest day's conflict of the whole war, and on the
night of the 18th September the Confederates, in retreat but in good
order, recrossed the Potomac.
[161] Head, 150.
[162] _Loudoun Rangers_, 44.
[163] _War of the Rebellion; Official Records_, Vol. 27, p. 118.
[164] "Reports Army of Northern Virginia," from June 1862 to Dec. 1862.
Vol. II, pp. 99, 187, 211, 246, 282, etc.
While the battle of Antietam was being so hotly fought in nearby
Maryland, Lieutenant Colonel (later Major General) Hugh Judson
Kilpatrick, advancing from Washington with ten companies of Federal
cavalry, reached Leesburg where there still remained a small Confederate
force made up of Company A of the 6th Virginia Cavalry and about forty
Mississippi infantrymen under Captain Gibson, then acting as Provost
Marshal of the town. Being largely outnumbered, the Confederates were
about to retire when they were joined by Captain E. V. White and thirty
of his men. Persuading the soldiers already there to make an effort to
hold the town, White and his men exchanged shots with the Federal
advance guard; but finding that Kilpatrick was bringing a battery
forward, the Confederates retreated through the town's streets.
Kilpatrick, however, had already trained his cannon upon Leesburg,
thereby subjecting it to its first and only artillery bombardment and
greatly terrifying the civilian population. Myers records that
"shrieking shells came crashing through walls and roofs" of Leesburg's
buildings. The Federal report avers that but a few shells were fired
"over the town."[165] After this brief artillery fire, Kilpatrick sent a
detachment of his 10th New York Cavalry through Leesburg's streets who
came in touch with the Confederates on the town's outskirts. Here
Captain White, about to lead his cavalry in a charge, was severely
wounded by the fire of the Confederate Infantry and as his men, in
retreat, carried him to Hamilton, the Confederate Infantry also fell
back, leaving the town to Kilpatrick. By way of souvenir of this little
engagement, there still remains a bullet-hole in the front door of the
house on the south side of East Market street then occupied by the late
Burr W. Harrison but now the residence of his grandson, the Hon. Charles
F. Harrison, Commonwealth's Attorney of Loudoun. According to the
official Federal report, already quoted, the Confederate "force at
Leesburg was principally comprised of convalescents and cavalry sent to
escort them. The whole country from Warrenton to Leesburg is filled with
sick soldiers abandoned on the wayside by the enemy."
[165] Myers' _Comanches_, 111; also report of Colonel J. M. Davis, _War
of the Rebellion: Official Records_, Vol. 27, p. 1091.
At the outbreak of the war Loudoun was, as it now again has come to be,
one of the most fertile, prosperous and best farmed counties in all
Virginia. When the fighting was fairly under way, it, from its position
as border territory, was dominated by one side after the other but at
almost all times was overrun by scouts and raiding parties from both
armies. Her farms and their abundant livestock and produce offered
constant, if unwilling, invitation to these soldiers to replenish their
need of horses, cattle, hogs, grain and forage; and every account of the
period refers again and again to instances of seizure of these supplies,
involving the greatest hardships, as they came to do, to the rightful
owners. It seems to have made little difference as to which side was
temporarily in control, so far as these levies were concerned, for both
Federals and Confederates appropriated supplies from the farms of foes
and friends alike, sometimes, it is true, giving receipts or
certificates covering what they had taken, with a cheerful promise of
ultimate compensation, and sometimes wholly waiving that formality.
Also, as the armies passed and repassed, there were roving deserters
from both sides and "the mountains were infested with horse-thieves and
desperadoes who were ready to prey upon the inhabitants, regardless as
to whether their sympathies were with the North or South."[166]
"Numerous raids" quoting Deck and Heaton, "made by both armies drained
the abundant food resources of the county. The women and the children
were hard pressed for food, but they met the privations of war bravely
and loyally."[167] Head, writing prior to 1908, when there still lived
many whose knowledge of war conditions in Loudoun was based on personal
experience and observation and who, on every hand, were available for
consultation, says that the people of the county
[166] Williamson, 105.
[167] _Economic and Social Survey of Loudoun County_, 22.
"probably suffered more real hardships and deprivations than any other
community of like size in the Southland.... Both armies, prompted either
by fancied military necessity or malice, burned or confiscated valuable
forage crops and other stores, and nearly every locality, at one time or
another, witnessed depredation, robbery, murder, arson and rapine.
Several towns were shelled, sacked and burned but the worse damage was
done the country districts by raiding parties of Federals."[168] Col.
Mosby, of the famous Partisan Rangers, adds his testimony, writing
particularly of the upper part of Fauquier and Loudoun:
"Although that region was the Flanders of the war, and harried worse
than any of which history furnishes an example since the desolation of
the Palatinates by Louis XIV, yet the stubborn faith of the people never
wavered. Amid fire and sword they remained true to the last, and
supported me through all the trials of the war."[169]
[168] _History of Loudoun County_, 149.
[169] Mosby's _War Reminiscences_, 41.
This last quotation brings to our story one of the most picturesque
figures in either army and one whose numerous exploits in Loudoun and
her adjoining counties were truly of that inherent nature from which
popular legend and folklore evolve. John Singleton Mosby was born at
Edgemont in Powhattan County, Virginia, on the 6th December, 1833. He
was educated at the University of Virginia, was admitted to the Bar and
when the war broke out was practicing his profession in Bristol.
Promptly volunteering for service, he became a cavalry private in the
Washington Mounted Rifles and when that became a part of the 1st
Virginia Cavalry, Mosby was promoted to be its adjutant. Subsequently he
served as an independent scout for General J. E. B. Stuart until
captured by the Federals and imprisoned in Washington. After his
exchange he was made a captain in the Provisional Army of the
Confederate States by General Lee,[170] later a major and then colonel,
serving on detached service under General Lee's orders. During the
winter of 1862-'63 he built up his command known as Mosby's Partisan
Rangers (which had more formal status as the 43rd Battalion, Virginia
Cavalry) in the territory between the Rappahannock and the Potomac,
where, for the remainder of the war, he continued to operate; but the
heart of his domain was thus described
"From Snickersville along the Blue Ridge Mountains to Linden; thence to
Salem (now called Marshall); to the Plains; thence along the Bull Run
Mountains to Aldie and from thence along the turnpike to the place of
beginning, Snickersville."[171]
[170] _Mosby's Rangers_, by J. J. Williamson, 15.
[171] Same, 175.
This was the true "Mosby's Confederacy," as it became known, and Mosby's
Confederacy in very fact it was, albeit a precarious and but loosely
held realm. By Mosby's orders, no member of his command was to leave
these bounds without permission.
Mosby's purpose, always governing his operations, is thus described by
him:
"To weaken the armies invading Virginia by harassing their rear--to
destroy supply trains, to break up the means of conveying intelligence,
and thus isolating an army from its base, as well as its different corps
from each other, to confuse their plans by capturing despatches, are the
objects of partisan war. I endeavoured, so far as I was able, to
diminish this aggressive power of the army of the Potomac, by compelling
it to keep a large force on the defensive."[172]
[172] Mosby's _War Reminiscences_, 44.
He was amazingly successful. His men had no camps. To have had definite
headquarters would have been to invite certain destruction or capture.
When too hotly pursued, they scattered over the friendly countryside,
hiding in the hills, the woods, farmhouses or barns and often, if
discovered, appearing as working farmers. "They would scatter for
safety" says Mosby, "and gather at my call, like the Children of the
Mist." Their attacks frequently were made at night; but whether by day
or night so unexpectedly as always to utterly confuse their foes and
keep them in such nervous anticipation of attack at unknown and
unpredictable points that Mosby became to them a major scourge. Branded
as "guerilla," "bushwhacker," and "freebooter," Mosby stoutly and
logically maintained that his method of fighting was wholly within the
rules of war and when General Custer took some of his men prisoners and
hanged them as thieves and murderers, Mosby, acting on Lee's
instructions, promptly retaliated by hanging an equal number of Custer's
men as soon as he was able to capture them. That appears to have ended
the execution of captured Mosby men, save for rare individual and
heinous offences.
One of the most spectacular and, upon the local imagination, lastingly
impressive forays made by him was the so-called "Greenback Raid" in
which, on the 14th October, 1864, his men wrecked a Baltimore and Ohio
train near Brown's Crossing. Among the passengers were two Federal
paymasters, carrying $168,000 in United States currency. This was seized
by Mosby's men, carried to Bloomfield in Loudoun, and divided among the
raiders, each receiving about $2,000. It is related that thenceforth,
until the end of the war, there was ample Federal currency circulating
in Loudoun.
His men were volunteers, many having served in other Confederate
commands and thence attracted to Mosby by his romantic reputation and
his greater freedom of operation. Numerous Loudoun men were in the
organization[173] but they made up a much smaller proportion than in
White's Battalion or in the 8th Virginia Regiment. Many of his men were
very young. One of these youths who survived the constant perils which
surrounded the band was John H. Alexander, born in Clarke County. After
peace was declared, he completed his interrupted education, was admitted
to the Bar and, eventually taking up his permanent residence in Loudoun,
very successfully practiced his profession there until his death in
February, 1909. He wrote an interesting book, _Mosby's Men_, covering
his experience with that leader, which was published in 1907. His only
son, the Hon. John H. R. Alexander, one of the most esteemed and
efficient judges Loudoun has contributed to the Virginia Bench, now
presides over the Circuit Court for Loudoun and adjacent counties. Two
more of Mosby's youths, these both of Loudoun, were Henry C. Gibson and
J. West Aldridge. After the war Mr. Gibson married Mr. Aldridge's
sister. Dr. John Aldridge Gibson and Dr. Harry P. Gibson, prominent
Leesburg physicians, are the sons of this marriage. Did space permit
many others Loudoun members of the command could be mentioned. The
instances given go to show how the sons of Mosby's Rangers still carry
on in Loudoun.
[173] See rosters in Williamson, pp. 475 and 487.
On the 17th June, 1863, Lee's Army was on its way north for its second
invasion of Maryland and toward the fateful field of Gettysburg. General
J. E. B. Stuart, in command of the Confederate Cavalry, had established
his temporary headquarters at Middleburg. Early that morning Colonel
Munford, with the 2nd and 3rd Virginia Cavalry, acting as advance guard
of General Fitzhugh Lee, was foraging in the neighborhood of Aldie with
Colonel Williams C. Wickham, who had with him the 1st, 4th, and 5th
Virginia Cavalry. While Colonel Thomas L. Rosser was carrying out
Colonel Wickham's orders to select a camp near Aldie, he came in contact
with General G. M. Griggs' 2nd Cavalry Division of Federals made up of
General Kilpatrick's Brigade (2nd and 4th New York, 1st Massachusetts
and 6th Ohio Regiments) the 1st Maine Cavalry and Randol's Battery.
These forces attacked each other with the greatest determination and
courage. Charges were followed by counter-charges and desperately
contending every foot of ground the adversaries surged up and down the
Little River Turnpike and the Snickerville Road, where two squadrons of
sharpshooters from the 2nd and 3rd Virginia Cavalry were holding back
Kilpatrick's men. Says Colonel Munford in his report of the fight:
"As the enemy came up again the sharpshooters opened upon him with
terrible effect from the stone wall, which they had regained, and
checked him completely. I do not hesitate to say that I have never seen
so many Yankees killed in the same space of ground in any fight I have
seen on any battle field in Virginia that I have been over. We held our
ground until ordered by the major-general commanding to retire, and the
Yankees had been so severely punished that they did not follow. The
sharpshooters of the 5th were mostly captured, this regiment suffering
more than any other."[174]
[174] _Life and Campaigns of General J. E. B. Stuart_, by H. B.
McClellan, 301.
In truth the Federal soldiers had paid dearly for their victory. Dr.
James Moore, who was acting as surgeon with Kilpatrick and afterward
wrote a life of that General, calls this engagement "by far the most
bloody cavalry battle of the war."[175]
[175] Moore's _Kilpatrick and Our Cavalry_, 71.
While all this desperate fighting was going on around Aldie, Colonel A.
N. Duffie, with the 1st Rhode Island Cavalry, was on a scouting
expedition, having crossed the Bull Run Mountain at Thoroughfare Gap and
being headed for Noland's Ferry. His orders were to camp on the night of
the 17th at Middleburg. Approaching that town about 4:00 o'clock in the
afternoon, he drove in Stuart's pickets "so quickly that Stuart and his
staff were compelled to make a retreat more rapid than was consistent
with dignity and comfort."[176] The Confederate forces at Aldie were
notified of the situation and ordered to Middleburg but Duffie
apparently was not aware of the heavy fighting that had taken place at
Aldie. When he at length succeeded in getting a message through to
Aldie, asking reinforcements, Kilpatrick replied that his brigade was
too exhausted to respond, though he would report the situation at once
to General Pleasanton, in command of the Federals. "Thus" writes H. B.
McClellan, "Col. Duffie was left to meet his fate.... His men fought
bravely and repelled more than one charge before they were driven from
the town, retiring by the same road upon which they had advanced." But
during the night Duffie was surrounded by Chambliss's Brigade and
although Duffie himself, with four of his officers and twenty-seven men,
eluded their foes and reached Centreville the next afternoon, he was
obliged to report a loss of twenty officers and 248 men. Some of these,
at first thought killed or captured, also succeeded in getting back to
the Federal lines but the defeat had been crushing.
[176] _Life and Campaigns of Maj.-Gen. J. E. B. Stuart_, 303.
After Gettysburg, General Lee's Army passed through Loudoun, followed by
General Meade. Again, on the 14th July, 1864, General Early, after the
battle of Monocacy, crossed with his Army from Maryland to Virginia at
White's Ford. After resting his men in and around Leesburg he proceeded
by way of Purcellville and Snickers Gap to the Valley.
All this time Mosby had been active in his "Confederacy" and attacks on
the Federal communications also had been made by White's Battalion when
in and around Loudoun. These attacks, frequently successful and always
without warning, had caused great losses to the Federals and forced them
to keep a large number of men engaged in their rear who badly were
needed elsewhere. On the 16th August, 1864, General Grant, determining
to end the menace, sent the following order to Major General Sheridan:
"If you can possibly spare a division of Cavalry, send them through
Loudoun County to destroy and carry off the crops, animals, negroes and
all men under fifty years of age capable of bearing arms. In this way
you will get many of Mosby's men. All male citizens under fifty can
fairly be held as prisoners of war, and not as citizen prisoners. If not
already soldiers, they will be made so the moment the rebel army gets
hold of them."
But Sheridan at that time was far too busy with his campaign in the
Valley immediately to comply. It was not until after his decisive
victory over Early at Cedar Creek on the 19th October, that he felt he
could act. On the 27th November he issued the following orders to Major
General Merritt in command of the 1st Cavalry Division:
"You are hereby directed to proceed, tomorrow morning at 7 o'clock, with
two brigades of your division now in camp, to the east side of the Blue
Ridge, via Ashby's Gap, and operate against the guerillas in the
district of country bounded on the south by the line of the Manassas Gap
Railroad, as far east as White Plains; on the east by the Bull Run
Range; on the west by the Shenandoah River; and on the north by the
Potomac.
"This section has been the hot-bed of lawless bands who have from time
to time depredated upon small parties on the line of the army
communications, on safeguards left at houses, and on small parties of
our troops. Their real object is plunder and highway robbery.
"To clear the country of these parties that are bringing destruction
upon the innocent as well as their guilty supporters by their cowardly
acts, you will consume and destroy all forage and subsistence, burn all
barns and mills and their contents and drive off all stock in the
region, the boundaries of which are above described. This order must be
literally executed, bearing in mind, however that no dwellings are to be
burned and that no personal violence be offered the citizens.
"The ultimate results of the guerilla system of warfare is the total
destruction of all private rights in the country occupied by such
parties. The destruction may as well commence at once and the
responsibility of it must rest upon the authorities at Richmond, who
have acknowledged the legitimacy of guerilla bands.
"The injury done to them by this army is very slight, the injury they
have indirectly inflicted upon the people and upon the rebel army may be
counted by millions.
"The reserve brigade of your division will move to Snickersville on the
29th. Snickersville should be your point of concentration, and the point
from which you should operate in destroying toward the Potomac.
"Four days' subsistence will be taken by your command. Forage can be
gathered from the country through which you pass.
"You will return to your present camp, via Snickersville, on the fifth
day.
"By command of Major-General Sheridan.
James W. Forsyth,
Lieutenant-Colonel and Chief of Staff.
"Brevet Major-General Merritt
Commanding First Cavalry Division."
In pursuance of these orders Federal soldiers in three bodies entered
the county on their devastating work. Williamson, himself a member of
Mosby's band and an eyewitness of what followed, writes:
"The Federals separated into three parties, one of which went along the
Bloomfield road and down Loudoun, in the direction of the Potomac;
another passed along the Piedmont pike to Rectortown, Salem and around
to Middleburg; while the main body kept along the turnpike to Aldie,
where they struck the Snickersville pike. Thus they scoured the country
completely from the Blue Ridge to the Bull Run Mountains. From Monday
afternoon, November 28th, until Friday morning December 2nd, they ranged
through the beautiful valley of Loudoun and a portion of Fauquier
County, burning and laying waste. They robbed the people of everything
they could destroy or carry off--horses, cows, cattle, sheep, hogs etc;
killing poultry, insulting women, pillaging houses and in many cases
robbing even the poor negroes. They burned all the mills and factories
as well as hay, wheat, corn, straw and every description of forage.
Barns and stables, whether full or empty, were burned--Colonel Mosby did
not call the command together, therefore there was no organized
resistance, but Rangers managed to save a great deal of livestock for
the farmers by driving it off to places of safety. In many instances,
after the first day of burning, we would run off stock from the path of
the raiders into the limits of the district already burned over, and
there it was kept undisturbed or in a situation where it could be more
easily driven off and concealed...."[177]
[177] Williamson, 317.
The loss to the county was enormous. Although many old and well-built
mills, and barns of brick or stone were not destroyed, as is
conclusively proven by their survival to this day, and the devastation
did not equal that in the Valley,[178] yet how great was the aggregate
damage is suggested by a report submitted to the second session of the
Fifty-first Congress (1890-91) in which sworn claims of adherents to the
Union alone amounted to $199,228.24 for property burned and to an
additional $61,821.13 for live stock taken; the report adding that
there had been no estimate of the losses sustained by those whose
sympathies were with the Confederates.[179] That the total loss to the
people of the County, as a result of Sheridan's order, was over a
million dollars well may be believed--and this in a community which had
been raided and robbed and levied upon by both armies, as well as many
outlaw bands for over three years of warfare! The privations and
suffering of the following winter and spring can but be imagined. It may
be noted that a Federal Brigade, under General Deven, established its
headquarters at Lovettsville about Christmas time and that, although his
soldiers patrolled all parts of Loudoun during that winter, yet in spite
of all the war-time strain and hatreds, their relations with the people
of the county were far better than usually prevailed.
[178] _Comanches_, 356.
[179] House Report No. 3859.
"The year 1864 closed with a gloomy outlook for the Confederacy" writes
Williamson and adds that "the winter in Virginia was very severe and the
ground was covered with snow and sleet for the better part of the
season." About all the comfort Loudoun had was in the repeated rumours
of peace to which the people eagerly listened and repeated one to
another.
And so the bitter winter passed and in the spring came Appomattox.