and the young ladies of Leesburg Female Academy, and on the left by
the youths of the Leesburg Institute. The former wore white, with blue
sashes, and their heads were tastefully adorned with evergreens. They
held sprigs of laurel with which they strewed the great guest's
pathway. The lads wore red sashes and white and black cockades.
One of them pronounced an address of welcome, and was amply rewarded
by a grasp of the hero's hand. As Lafayette ascended the portico of
the court-house a little girl stepped forward, holding a wreath of
laurel, and said:
Hail Patriot, Statesman, Hero, Sage!
Hail Freedom's friend, hail Gallia's son,
Whose laurels greener grow in age,
Plucked by the side of Washington.
Hail, champion in a holy cause,
When hostile bands our shores beset;
Whose valor made the oppressor pause,
Hail, holy warrior, Lafayette?
She, too, was honored by a grasp of Lafayette's hand as well as a
kiss. After an oration by Ludwell Lee, the distinguished party
returned to the hotel where they were entertained by a delegation of
the ladies of the village, while another delegation superintended the
spreading of a banquet on court-house square. Two hundred persons
participated in this banquet. The numerous toasts were remarkable for
loftiness of thought and elegance of diction. President Adams launched
the following sentiment:
"The living records of the war of Independence like the prophetic
books of the Sibyl, increasing in value as they diminish in numbers."
Lafayette toasted General Bolivar, "who has felt true patriotism, and
understood true glory." Another toast was "To the memory of
Washington, fresh as the passing moment, lasting as eternity."
It is estimated that 10,000 persons witnessed the festivities.
Lafayette, after a brief sojourn at the plantation of Ludwell Lee,
departed for a visit to Madison at "Montpelier," and Jefferson, at
"Monticello."
MEXICAN WAR.
Scarcely a generation had passed, during which the whole country
passed through several years of financial distress, when the United
States became involved in a brief successful war with Mexico, caused
chiefly by the resistance of that country to the "annexation of
Texas." But it is not within the scope of this sketch to follow the
history of that foreign struggle. It is sufficient to say that the
people of Loudoun favored most heartily the annexation of Texas, and
responded, indirectly of course, to the small quota of men and money
required by the Government.
The entire United States force employed in the invasion of Mexico was
composed of 26,690 regulars and 56,926 volunteers, not including those
serving in the navy. The losses of men by death from disease and
wounds were about 11,000, and the number killed in battle, about
1,500. The cost in money amounted to $150,000,000. The gain consisted
of the cession of extensive territory stretching to the Pacific Ocean,
several thousand miles of valuable sea coast and an immense bound of
the United States into international power. In the accomplishment of
this general result Loudoun sent many of her sturdiest sons, who
served from the State in various bodies throughout the war.
SECESSION AND CIVIL WAR.
_Loudoun County in the Secession Movement._
The election of Lincoln and attendant success of the Republican party
revived the determination of the South to secede from the Union.
Just at this juncture the prosperity of Loudoun was unprecedented, and
the threatened dissolution was a serious menace to her progress.
General trade had recently been greatly stimulated, and the resources
of the County were being daily multiplied.
Following the resolute lead of the other southern States, the
legislature of Virginia, on January 14, 1861, authorized a State
convention to consider the advisability of secession, and the members
elected in pursuance thereof met in the capitol, at Richmond, at 12
o'clock a.m., on Wednesday, the 13th day of the February following. They
constituted what was perhaps the ablest body of men that ever
assembled in the State, and the friends and foes of secession were
alike represented. The delegates from Loudoun were John Janney and
John A. Carter, both of whom had represented her in the constitutional
convention of 1850,51.
Roll call was followed by the election of a permanent chairman, Mr.
Janney, of Loudoun, receiving a majority of the whole number of votes
cast. Two of the members were then designated a committee to wait upon
the president of the convention to inform him of his election and
conduct him to his seat. Whereupon he addressed the convention as
follows:[29]
[Footnote 29: The unabridged publication in this work of Mr. Janney's
speech of acceptance has seemed specially appropriate. It is the plea
of a Loudoun man for conservative action boldly put forth at a time
when men's passions were inflamed almost beyond human credulity, and
while he himself was the presiding officer of a body which had met to
decide the destiny of the Old Dominion and whose deliberations were to
be watched with breathless interest by the people of both
hemispheres.]
"_Gentlemen of the Convention_: I tender you my sincere and
cordial thanks for the honor you have bestowed upon me by
calling me to preside over the deliberations of the most
important convention that has assembled in this State since
the year 1776.
"I am without experience in the performance of the duties to
which you have assigned me, with but little knowledge of
parliamentary law and the rules which are to govern our
proceedings, and I have nothing to promise you but fidelity
and impartiality. Errors I know I shall commit, but these
will be excused by your kindness, and promptly corrected by
your wisdom.
"Gentlemen, it is now almost seventy-three years since a
convention of the people of Virginia was assembled in this
hall to ratify the Constitution of the United States, one of
the chief objects of which was to consolidate, not the
Government, but the Union of the States.
"Causes which have passed, and are daily passing, into
history, which will set its seal upon them, but which I do
not mean to review, have brought the Constitution and the
Union into imminent peril, and Virginia has come to the
rescue. It is what the whole country expected of her. Her
pride as well as her patriotism--her interest as well as her
honor, called upon her with an emphasis which she could not
disregard, to save the monuments of her own glory. Her
honored son who sleeps at Mount Vernon, the political mecca
of all future ages, presided over the body which framed the
Constitution; and another of her honored sons, whose brow
was adorned with a civic wreath which will never fade, and
who now reposes in Orange county, was its principal
architect, and one of its ablest expounders--and, in the
administration of the government, five of her citizens have
been elected to the chief magistracy of the Republic.
"It can not be that a Government thus founded and
administered can fail, without the hazard of bringing
reproach, either upon the wisdom of our fathers, or upon the
intelligence, patriotism, and virtue of their descendants.
It is not my purpose to indicate the course which this body
will probably pursue, or the measures it may be proper to
adopt. The opinions of today may all be changed to-morrow.
Events are thronging upon us, and we must deal with them as
they present themselves.
"Gentlemen, there is a flag which for nearly a century has
been borne in triumph through the battle and the breeze, and
which now floats over this capitol, on which there is a star
representing this ancient Commonwealth, and my earnest
prayer, in which I know every member of this body will
cordially unite, is that it may remain there forever,
provided always that its lustre is untarnished. We demand
for our own citizens perfect equality of rights with those
of the empire States of New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio,
but we ask for nothing that we will not cheerfully concede
to those of Delaware and Rhode Island.
"The amount of responsibility which rests upon this body can
not be exaggerated. When my constituents asked me if I would
consent to serve them here if elected, I answered in the
affirmative, but I did so with fear and trembling. The
people of Virginia have, it is true, reserved to
themselves, in a certain contingency, the right to review
our action, but still the measures which we adopt may be
fraught with good or evil to the whole country.
"Is it too much to hope that we, and others who are engaged
in the work of peace and conciliation, may so solve the
problems which now perplex us, as to win back our sisters of
the South, who, for what they deem sufficient cause, have
wandered from their old orbits? May we not expect that our
old sister, Massachusetts, will retrace her steps? Will she
not follow the noble example of Rhode Island, the little
State with a heart large enough for a whole continent? Will
she not, when she remembers who it was who first drew his
sword from the scabbard on her own soil at Cambridge, and
never finally returned it, until her liberty and
independence were achieved, and whence he came, repeal her
obnoxious laws, which many of her wisest and best citizens
regard as a stain upon her legislative records?
"Gentlemen, this is no party convention. It is our duty on
an occasion like this to elevate ourselves into an
atmosphere, in which party passion and prejudice can not
exist--to conduct all our deliberations with calmness and
wisdom, and to maintain, with inflexible firmness, whatever
position we may find it necessary to assume."
The proceedings were dignified, solemn, and, at times, even sad.
During the entire session good feelings prevailed to a remarkable
degree. For these harmonious relations credit is principally due the
secessionists. Very often their actions were regarded with suspicion
by their opponents who, at such times, pursued a policy of obstruction
when nothing was to be gained thereby. But they were given every
privilege and shown every consideration.
On April 17, 1861, the convention, in secret session, passed the
ordinance of secession by a vote of 88 to 55 on condition that it
should be submitted to the people for their approval or rejection at
an election to be held the 23d of May for that purpose. Loudoun's
delegates voted solidly against the measure.
In the convention opinions varied as to whether peace or war would
follow secession. The great majority of the members, as of the people,
believed that peaceful relations would continue. All truly wished for
peace. A number expressed themselves as fearing war, but this was when
opposing secession. Yet in nearly all the speeches made in the
convention there seemed to be distinguishable a feeling of fear and
dread lest war should follow. However, had war been a certainty
secession would not have been delayed or defeated.
There was warm discussion on the question of submitting the ordinance
to the people for ratification or rejection. Many, both before and
after the passage of the ordinance, favored its reference to the
people in the vain hope that the measure would in this way be
frustrated. They declared that, in a matter of such vital importance,
involving the lives and liberties of a whole people, the ordinance
should be submitted to them for their discussion, and that secession
should be attempted only after ratification by a direct vote of the
people on that single issue.
Affecting and exciting scenes followed the passage of the ordinance.
One by one the strong members of the minority arose and, for the sake
of unity at home, surrendered the opinions of a lifetime and forgot
the prejudices of years. This was done with no feeling of humiliation.
To the last they were treated with distinguished consideration by
their opponents.
Shortly after the convention began its deliberations a mass meeting
was held in Leesburg, where the secession sentiment was practically
unanimous, for the purpose of adopting resolutions to be sent to that
important body recommending the immediate passage of the ordinance of
secession. The citizens were addressed by Col. J.M. Kilgore and
others.
The vote in Loudoun for the ratification or rejection of the ordinance
of secession, while not close, was somewhat spirited and marked by
slight disturbances at the polls. In practically every precinct
outside the German and Quaker settlements a majority vote was cast in
favor of secession.
No county in the State eclipsed Loudoun in devotion to the principles
on which Virginia's withdrawal from the Union was based, and the
courage displayed by her in maintaining these principles made her the
acknowledged equal of any community in the Southland.
_Loudoun's Participation in the War._
A discussion in this volume of the great Civil War and its causes has
at no time been contemplated, and vain appeals addressed to surviving
Confederate soldiers and Government record keepers long ago
demonstrated the impracticability of a thorough account of the part
borne by Loudoun soldiers in that grand, uneven struggle of 1861-'65.
Their exact numbers even can not be ascertained as the original
enlistment records were either lost or destroyed and duplicates never
completed.
It may with truth be said that the extent of the service rendered by
Loudoun in this, as well as preceding wars, will never be fully known
or adequately appreciated. However, certain it is that thousands of
her sons espoused the cause of the Confederacy, hundreds died in its
defense, and not a few, by their valor and devotion, won enduring fame
and meritorious mention in the annals of their government.
At home or in the ranks, throughout this trying period of civil
strife, her people, with no notable exceptions, remained liberal and
brave and constant, albeit they probably suffered more real hardships
and deprivations than any other community of like size in the
Southland. There were few Confederate troops for its defense, and the
Federals held each neighborhood responsible for all attacks made in
its vicinity, often destroying private property as a punishment.
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 worst damage was done the country
districts by raiding parties of Federals. Much of the destruction is
now seen to have been unnecessary from a military point of view.
Whole armies were subsisted on the products of Loudoun's fruitful
acres. Opposing forces, sometimes only detachments and roving bands,
but quite as often battalions, regiments, brigades, and even whole
divisions were never absent from the County and the clash of swords
and fire of musketry were an ever-present clamor and one to which
Loudoun ears early became accustomed.
Also, there were times when the main bodies of one or the other of
both armies were encamped wholly or in part within her limits, as in
September, 1862, when the triumphant army of Lee, 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;[30] again,
in June, 1863, when Hooker was being held in bounds with his great
army stretched from Manassas, near Bull Run, to Leesburg, near the
Potomac; and yet again, in July, 1863, when Lee's army, falling back
from Maryland after the battle of Gettysburg, was followed by the
Federal forces under General Meade, who crossed the Potomac and
advanced through Loudoun.
[Footnote 30: On the 5th day of September, to the martial strains of
"Maryland, My Maryland" from every band in the army, and with his men
cheering and shouting with delight, Jackson forded the Potomac at
Edwards' Ferry (Loudoun County), where the river was broad but
shallow, near the scene of Evan's victory over the Federals in the
previous October, and where Wayne had crossed his Pennsylvania brigade
in marching to the field of Yorktown, in 1781.]
General Early, after the short and bloody battle of Monocacy, and
following his invasion of Maryland and demonstration against
Washington, recrossed the Potomac at White's Ford, July 14, 1864, and,
resting near Leesburg, on the 16th marched to the Shenandoah valley by
way of Leesburg and Purcellville, through Snicker's Gap of the Blue
Ridge, with Jackson's Cavalry in advance.
Pitched battles and lesser engagements were fought at Edwards' Ferry,
Balls Bluff, Snickersville (now Bluemont), Leesburg, Middleburg,
Aldie, Hamilton, Waterford, Union, Ashby's Gap, and other points in
the County.
During Stonewall Jackson's investment of Harper's Ferry in September,
1862, guns were put in position on Loudoun Heights, supported by two
regiments of infantry, and a portion of Jackson's own immediate
command was placed with artillery on a bluffy shoulder of that
mountain.
The following military organizations were recruited wholly or in part
in Loudoun County and mustered into the Confederate service: 8th
Virginia Regiment (a part of Pickett's famous fighting division),
Loudoun Guard (Company C, 17th Virginia Regiment), Loudoun Cavalry
("Laurel Brigade"), and White's Battalion of Cavalry (the "Comanches,"
25th Virginia Battalion). Mosby's command, the "Partisan Rangers,"
also attracted several score of her patriotic citizenry.
The sons of Loudoun, serving in these and other organizations, bore a
distinguished part on every crimsoned field from Pennsylvania to the
coast of Florida.
Garnett's Brigade, to which the 8th Virginia regiment was attached,
was led into action during the memorable charge on the third day of
the battle of Gettysburg. The brigade moved forward in the front line,
and gained the enemy's strongest position, where the fighting became
hand to hand and of the most desperate character. It went into action
with 1,287 men and 140 officers, and after the struggle, of this
number, only about 300 came back slowly and sadly from the scene of
carnage. General Garnett, himself, was shot from his horse while near
the center of the advancing brigade, within about twenty-five paces of
the "stone fence," from behind which the Federals poured forth their
murderous fire.
_The Loudoun Rangers_ (_Federal_).
This volunteer organization consisted of two companies of disaffected
Virginians, all of whom were recruited in the German settlements
northwest of Leesburg. Company A, at the outset, was commanded by
Captain Daniel M. Keyes, of Lovettsville, who later resigned on
account of wounds received in action. He was succeeded by Captain
Samuel C. Means, of Waterford. Company B's commander was Captain James
W. Grubb. The total enlistment of each company was 120 and 67,
respectively. All the officers and privates were of either German,
Quaker, or Scotch-Irish lineage, the first-named class predominating.
The command was mustered into the Federal service at Lovettsville, the
20th day of June, 1862. Its historian, Briscoe Goodhart, a member of
Company A, in his _History of the Loudoun_ (Virginia) _Rangers_, has
said that it "was an independent command, organized in obedience to a
special order of the Honorable Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War, and
was at first subject to his orders only, but subsequently merged into
the Eighth Corps, commanded at that time by the venerable Major
General John Ellis Wool...."
The "Rangers," as the name implies, were scouts and, in this highly
useful capacity, served the enemies of their State with shameless
ardor. But, as a body, they fought few engagements and none of a
decisive nature. Their first and, perhaps, sharpest encounter happened
in and around the old Baptist Church at Waterford.
The following absolution or justification is offered in the preface to
the above-quoted work:
"As the name of their organization indicates, they came from
a State which was arrayed in arms against the authority of
the National Government. No Governor, or Senator, or Member
of Congress guarded their interests; nor was any State or
local bounty held forth to them as an allurement. Their
enlistment in the Union Army--their country's army--was the
spontaneous outgrowth of a spirit of lofty patriotism.
"As they saw their duty they were not lacking in moral
courage to perform that duty; and with no lapse of years
shall we ever fail to insist that the principles for which
the Rangers contended were eternally right, and that their
opponents were eternally wrong."
Far from being a well-ordered command with a clearly defined _modus
operandi_, the two companies were poorly drilled, imperfectly
accoutred, only aimlessly and periodically active, and, moreover, were
on the point of dissolution at the outset.
Operating, for the most part, independently and in detached parties
the command offered no serious menace to citizens or soldiery, though
the latter were sometimes harassed and annoyed by them.
Mosby, who had greatly desired and often essayed their capture, was
finally given the opportunity for which he had eagerly waited.
Learning that the Rangers were encamped near Millville, W. Va.
(Keyes' Switch, as it was then called), he dispatched Captain Baylor
with a detachment of horse to that point.
Major Scott who, in 1867, wrote _Partisan Life With Mosby_, has this
to say of the fight which followed: "He (Baylor) took the precaution
to pass in between Halltown (where there was a brigade of infantry)
and the camp. When within fifty yards of the Loudoun Rangers the order
to charge was given. Two of them were killed, four wounded, and 65
taken prisoners, together with 81 horses with their equipments. The
rest of the command sought refuge in the bushes. The only loss which
Baylor sustained was Frank Helm, of Warrenton, who was wounded as he
charged among the foremost into the camp."
The day of the capture General Stevenson, commanding at Harper's
Ferry, and under whose orders the Rangers had been acting, sent the
following message to General Hancock at Winchester:
Harper's Ferry, _April 6, 1865._
Mosby surprised the camp of the Loudoun Rangers near Keyes'
Ford and cleaned them out. He made the attack about 10
a.m....
John D. Stevenson,
_Brigadier-General._
When Major-General Hancock, so distinguished in the Federal Army,
heard of Baylor's exploit he laughed heartily and exclaimed: "Well,
that is the last of the Loudoun Rangers."
As indeed it proved to be!
_Mosby's Command in its Relationship to Loudoun County._
From January, 1863, until the close of the war Colonel Mosby's
partisan operations were mostly confined to the counties of Loudoun
and Fauquier, this rich, pastoral country affording subsistence for
his command and the Blue Ridge a haven to which to retreat when hard
pressed by the superior numbers that, from time to time, were sent
against him. Here he planned and executed most of the daring coups
that were to win for him international fame.[31] Here also his men
were dispersed and reassembled with marvelous facility--one of
countless manifestations of his great original genius. "They would
scatter for safety, and gather at my call like the Children of the
Mist," was what he wrote in after years. Of all his methods this has
been the least clearly understood. The explanation that he has offered
in his _War Reminiscences_ can be only partially complete; for he
could not, with propriety, point to his personal magnetism and daring
as the dominant influences, though he must have known that to an
extraordinary extent they were responsible for this almost
unparalleled devotion. "The true secret," he says, "was that it was a
fascinating life, and its attractions far more than counterbalanced
its hardships and dangers. They had no camp duty to do, which, however
necessary, is disgusting to soldiers of high spirit. To put them to
such routine work is pretty much like hitching a race horse to a
plow."