A History of the Town of Fairfax

by Jeanne Johnson Rust

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.