IX. THE CIVIL WAR IN FAIRFAX
Among the representatives in Richmond in February of 1861 when Virginia was debating secession from the Union was a young man (35 yrs. old) by the name of John Quincy Marr.
He was a graduate and former professor of Virginia Military Institute. A tall, strong man with black hair and dark eyes, he was an affable, witty and popular lawyer.
While the convention at Richmond still hesitated, Marr returned home to Warrenton to raise a company of infantry, known as the "Warrenton Rifles", who were being made ready to uphold the secession.
Late in May in 1861 the "Warrenton Rifles", after having been to Dumfries, Fauquier Springs, Bristow Station and Centreville, found themselves bivouacked in the Methodist Church building (Duncan's Chapel) at Fairfax.
The village was under the command of Lt. Col. Richard S. Ewell, a veteran recently resigned from the United States Army, whose conversation was said to be so full of profanity "that an auditor declared it could be parsed". He had two mounted companies (one from Rappahannock County and one from Prince William County) who had "very few fire-arms and no ammunition".
Although Colonel Ewell was absent scouting on the day of May 31st, 1861, William (Extra Billy) Smith, who was a neighbor and good friend of Marr, arrived at Fairfax around supper time that evening. After chatting with Marr for a while, he retired to the Joshua Gunnell house (the Oliver Building) which was diagonally across from the Chapel.
In the meantime, Lt. Charles H. Tompkins, Co. B, 2nd U. S. Cavalry was riding with eighty men towards Fairfax Court House to reconnoiter the country in the vicinity of the court house.
Tompkins was an Indian type fighter and he made no attempt to seize the pickets who might warn Marr and his men. Instead, he and his men rode wildly up and shot at them. One guard rushing into the chapel shouted, "The enemy's cavalry are approaching". Marr hurried his men into the surrounding clover fields where they fell in rank.
Governor Smith, hearing all the racket, jumped out of bed and ran to join his friend, Marr. In his haste he left his coat behind and, it is rumored, even his shoes, which were placed outside the bedroom door to be polished by the old negro servant before morning.
Upon arriving at the clover field, he looked around for Marr but not finding him, asked one of his men, "Where is your captain?"
"We don't know, Sir," was the reply. Marr had disappeared and his men were in a state of confusion.
"Boys, you know me. Follow me!" urged the 63 year old governor.
Halfway to the courthouse more confusion arose when one of the young Riflemen challenged Col. Ewell, who, having returned to Fairfax, had been struck in the shoulder and was bare headed, bald and bleeding. "Extra Billy", coming to the rescue, introduced Col. Ewell, "Men, this is Lt. Col. Ewell, your commanding officer, a gallant soldier in whom you may place every confidence."
The half-company followed Ewell up to Main Street. Then turning the company over to Smith again, Ewell left to send a messenger for reinforcements from Fairfax Station.
"Extra Billy" assumed Tompkins and his men would return by the same way they had gone. He positioned the remains of the Riflemen around fence posts in front of Cooper's Carriage Shop.
At 3:30 A.M. they heard sounds of Tompkins and his men returning. When Tompkins reached almost to the carriage shop, "Extra Billy" and his men "let loose", causing Tompkins' men to "run off ingloriously, pulling down fences and making their escape through fields" while leaving the ground strewn with "carbines, pistols, sabers, etc."
Tompkins wrote that he ascertained at least 1000 of the enemy were in Fairfax, perceived that he was "largely outnumbered" and departed "in good order", having killed at least twenty-five "rebels".
Actually only Ewell and one private were injured. Col. Ewell was taken to "the brick tenement" to have his wound treated and in the confusion lost his shoulder epaulet. It was found there later and due to the importance and historical implication of this incident that it represented, the epaulet was cherished by people of the town for many years. It is now in the hands of the Clerk of the Court and Mrs. Thomas P. Chapman, the latter being a descendant of Col. Ewell.
Only one man was killed and that was Marr. He had been shot by a random bullet at the outset of the fracas. Jack, a colored servant of the Moore family, found him later in the morning, face down in the clover field, gripping his sword in his right hand. The "random, spent bullet" had probably been fired as far as three hundred yards away. Directly over Marr's heart was "a perfect circular suffusion of blood under the skin, something larger than a silver dollar, but the skin was unbroken, and not a drop of blood was shed". The shock of impact had stopped his heart.
Thus it was that the first Confederate officer, to be killed in action with the enemy, lost his life in the Town of Fairfax.
On June 8th, 1861, Company B, 2nd United States Cavalry went out on a scouting expedition. They entered the village of Fairfax where they had a skirmish with the units in this vicinity. When the company returned to camp, they realized that two of their members had been captured. Soon they discovered that these two were to be hanged the next morning. They mounted their horses, rode down to Fairfax, found where the two men were imprisoned and rescued them. The picture above is from the Pictorial War Record.
BRILLIANT EXPLOIT OF COMPANY B, SECOND CAVALRY, IN THE RESCUE OF TWO OF THEIR COMRADES, WHO WERE TO BE HUNG BY THE CONFEDERATES AT FAIRFAX, VA.
In July of 1861 Fairfax housed a detachment of Confederates who had been sent out to delay the Yankees who were on their way to seize the Manassas Railroad Junction. This junction connected with another line leading to a point near Richmond (the ultimate Yankee goal). Unfortunately, when the Unionists under Hunter entered Fairfax, the Confederate units fled, leaving large quantities of forage and camp equipment behind. Hunter paraded his men, four abreast, with fixed bayonets, through the streets of Fairfax. He even had the band play the national anthem and other patriotic songs as the men marched along. From here, they proceeded towards Manassas.
Everyone knows of the inglorious retreat of the Unionists from their encounter with the Confederates at the first battle of Manassas. Most people know, too, that spectators had followed the Union troops out from Washington to watch the battle—that they were dressed in fancy clothes and riding in everything from wagons to fine horse-drawn carriages, expecting to applaud an easy Union victory. What the spectators saw, however, was quite different from their expectations.
A combined attack by Confederate forces around 3:45 in the afternoon overwhelmed the Unionists, who fell back and retired. As they were retreating in orderly fashion, Kemper's battery reached an advantageous position on a rise of land and let go with its guns. The first shot hit a suspension bridge and upset a wagon, which, in its unwieldy position, served as a barricade for other vehicles. Other shots followed the first one and soldiers and spectators alike were seized with panic. Horses ran away, carriages overturned, women screamed and fainted, soldiers and spectators ran for their lives. It was every man for himself. "The roar of their flight was like the rush of a great river". Many of these people made their escape back through the Town of Fairfax, much to the amusement of citizens who had viewed Hunter's parade a few days before.
In the First Battle of Manassas the Confederate forces had trouble distinguishing their flag, the "Stars and Bars", from the Federal "Stars and Stripes". When the Confederate flag had been decided upon in Alabama in March of 1861, the people had voted to keep the red, white and blue colors and the blue canton. They had voted to use three (instead of thirteen) alternating stripes of red and white and to use stars to represent the states. This resulted in a flag so similar in appearance to the Union flag that Confederate forces, becoming confused, fired upon their own men.
General Beauregard stating that he "never wished to see the 'Stars and Bars' on another battlefield" designed a Battle Flag which consisted of a St. Andrew's Cross in blue with a white border along the sides, mounted on a field of red. Thirteen five pointed stars were placed on the blue stripes.
Flags of Gen. Beauregard's design were made by three Miss Carys (Constance, Hetty and Jennie) of this area and sent to Gen. Johnston, Gen. Beauregard and Gen. Van Dorn in October. The flags were accepted by these officers before massed troops of the Army in a ceremony at the fort on "Artillery Hill" in Centreville.
In December, a spectacular military display was held at Yorkshire, when Gen. Beauregard presented Battle Flags to various regiments of the Confederate Army.
On this occasion a new song, "My Maryland", by J. R. Randall, was played by the band. However, one of the first renditions of "My Maryland" had been given in Fairfax in September of 1861, by Miss Constance Cary and others, when they sang to soldiers of the "Maryland line".
On October 1, 1861, President Jefferson Davis with General Joseph E. Johnston, Gen. P. G. T. Beauregard and General Gustavus W. Smith met at the Willcoxon Tavern to confer regarding the success of the First Battle of Manassas. They decided that the Confederates were in no condition to take advantage of their success and begin an offensive against Washington. On Oct. 3, 1861, President Davis reviewed "a brilliant turnout" of troops at the court house.
There were two more skirmishes at the court house in November of 1861. By December of 1862 the town found itself under the command of an Unionist, Brigadier General Edwin H. Stoughton, who was living at the home of Dr. William Presley Gunnell (present Truro Rectory) when Mosby made his famous raid.
Here is the story in Mosby's own words, written to a friend in Richmond.
"I have already seen something in the newspapers of my recent raid on the Yankees, though I see they call me Moseley instead of Mosby. I had only twenty men under my command. I penetrated about ten miles in their line, rode right up to the General's Headquarters surrounded by infantry, artillery and cavalry, took him out of his bed and brought him off. I walked into his room with two of my men and shaking him in bed said, 'General, get up!' He rose up and rubbing his eyes, asked what was the meaning of all this. I replied, 'it means, sir, that Stuart's Cavalry are in possession of this place, and you are a prisoner!...' I did not stay in the place more than one hour.
We easily captured the guards around the town, as they never dreamed we were anybody but Yankees until they saw pistols pointed at their heads, with a demand to surrender...."
Stoughton was taken by Mosby to Culpeper and turned over to Fitz Lee, with whom Stoughton had attended West Point.
Mosby was disappointed in what happened—"Lee came out of his tent and welcomed General Stoughton ... as a long lost brother. He took him into the tent to give him a drink and left me out in the rain!"
Lincoln was so outraged with Stoughton that he dismissed him from the Army.
It is no wonder that Episcopal ministers who have inhabited the Gunnell home in the past have complained of the lights flashing on during the wee small hours of the night and of the stairs creaking. It is hard to tell whether Mosby's ghost is coming again for Stoughton or whether Stoughton's ghost is wandering through the house, wary of a second attempt to surprise him at night.
Mosby writes further about his raid: "Just as we were moving out of the town a ludicrous incident occurred. As we passed by a house an upper window was lifted and a voice called out in a preemptory tone and asked what cavalry that was. It sounded so funny that the men broke out in a loud laugh. I knew that it must be an officer of rank; so the column was halted and Joe Nelson and Welt Hatcher were ordered to search the house. Lt. Col. Johnstone of the Fifth New York Cavalry, was spending the night there with his wife. For some reason he suspected something wrong when he heard my men laugh and immediately took flight in his shirt tail out the back door. Nelson and Hatcher broke through the front door, but his wife met them like a lioness in the hall and obstructed them all she could in order to give time for her husband to make his escape. The officer could not be found, but my men took some consolation for the loss by bringing his clothes away with them. He had run out through the back yard into the garden and crawled for shelter in a place it is not necessary to describe. He lay there concealed and shivering with cold and fear until after daylight. He did not know for some time that we had gone, and he was afraid to come out of his hole to find out. His wife didn't know where he was. In squeezing himself under the shelter, he had torn off his shirt and when he appeared before his wife next morning, as naked as when he was born and smelling a great deal worse it is reported she refused to embrace him before he had taken a bath. After he had been scrubbed down with a horse brush he started in pursuit of us but went in the opposite direction from which we had gone."
Mosby's Rangers at this time were composed chiefly of young men from Fairfax and the adjoining counties, with some Marylanders. Among the men from Fairfax County were Franklin Williams, Richard Ratcliffe Farr, Capt. V. Beattie. The men had to arm, equip and supply themselves, so although they turned captured cattle and mules over to the Confederacy, they kept any horses they were able to find. They wore Confederate uniforms and through necessity on occasion captured overcoats. The "Jessie Scouts" of the Federal Army also wore the grey uniform in order to deceive the people and gain information.
An amusing illustration of the confusion and deception created by this occurred near Fairfax.
"A party of Federal soldiers dressed in grey, rode up to a worthy old farmer and after a short conversation asked him whether he was a 'Unionist' or a 'Secessionist'. The unsuspecting citizen told them he was a 'Secessionist', whereupon the Federals carried off all of his horses that were in sight.
A short while thereafter a party of Confederates rode up, wearing the blue overcoats which effectually (?) concealed their grey uniforms and propounded a similar question. Hoping by his protestations of loyalty to recover his lost property he told them he was a 'Union man', whereupon they too took such horses as they could find.
CONFEDERATE HORSEMEN SCOUTING BETWEEN ANANDALE AND FAIRFAX.
Sketched by A. R. Waud.
Finally a party came along dressed partly in blue and partly in grey, and asked the same question. Eyeing them critically for a moment and remembering his past unfortunate experience, he replied:
'Well, gentlemen, to tell you the truth, I am nothing at all and d——d little of that.'"
The fact that the Yankees had an abundance of horses is illustrated by the following article found in the Pictorial War Record (March 18, 1882).
"Some people will no doubt be astonished to learn that large fortunes had been made every year from the commencement of the war out of the dead horses of the Army of the Potomac. The popular idea is that when Rosinante yields up the ghost he is buried in some field, or left to moulder into mother earth in the woods somewhere. Not so. He has made his last charge, and gnawed his last fence rail, but there is from $20.00 to $40.00 in the old fellow yet.
A contract for the purchase of dead horses in the Army of the Potomac in the year 1864 was let for that year to the highest bidder, at $1.67 per head, delivered at the factory of the contractor. During 1863, $60,000.00 was cleared on the contract, and that year it is thought $100,000.00 was made on it. The animals die at the rate of about fifty per day at the lowest calculation.
At the contractor's establishment they are thoroughly dissected. First the shoes are pulled off; they are usually worth fifty cents a set. Then the hoofs are cut off; they bring two dollars a set. Then comes the caudal appendage, worth half a dollar. Then the hide—I don't know what that sells for. Then the tallow, if it is possible to extract tallow from the army horse, which I think extremely doubtful, unless he die immediately after entering the service. And last, but not least, the shinbones are valuable, being convertible into a variety of articles that many believe to be composed of pure ivory, such as candle-heads, knife-handles, etc. By this time the contractor gets through the "late-lamented" steed, there is hardly enough of him left to feed a bull-pup on.
Hereafter, kind reader, when you see a dead "hoss", don't turn up your nose at him, but regard him thoroughly, as the foundation for a large fortune in a single year. He may, individually, be a nuisance, but 'there is that within which passeth show'—$100,000.00 a year."
Horses, supplies, good fighting men and pickets were important to the Confederates. So were spies. Mosby was aided greatly by two young ladies who resided in Fairfax. One was Laura Ratcliffe and the other was Antonia Ford.
