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]
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.
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]
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.
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]
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.
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."
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.
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.
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."
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
"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]
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]
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]
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.
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]
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]
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.
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]
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.
"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.