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.