Charlottesville

“ Although I care more for Jefferson and Patrick Henry than all the others together. We’ll hang those two.”
The girl wrung her hands as she listened. 278 Jefferson, the governor of the state, the writer of the Declaration of Independence; and Patrick Henry, he who had been termed the Voice of the Revolution! Oh! it must not be! But how, how could it be prevented? They should be warned.
“If I but knew where Charlottesville is,” cried the girl anguished by her helplessness. “What shall be done? Oh, I’ll ask Fairfax.”
Up to the garret she sped unnoticed by any one. ”

“ Here I should see a hunt meet or a race meet. There are many other places to which I might go after that, but as I meant only to suggest an easy little tour, I shall stop at this point, contenting myself with saying that not far to the south is Charlottesville, where Jefferson built that most beautiful of all universities, the University of Virginia, and his wonderful house Monticello; that Staunton (pronounced as without the "u") , where Woodrow Wilson was born, lies west of Charlottesville, while Fredericksburg, where Washington's mother lived, lies to the northeast. ”

“ What a glorious world Almighty God has given us. How thankless and ungrateful we are, and how we labour to mar his gifts. I hope you received my letters from Richmond. Give love to daughter and Mildred. I did not see Rob as I passed through Charlottesville. ”

“ At Cuckoo Tavern in Louisa County, fifty miles from Charlottesville, young Jouett was sitting around one night getting the latest news of the rebellion, when Tarleton, who commanded a British force, came into the place. Jouett hid from sight and overheard Tarleton talking with several other English officers. They said they were impatient to be on their way to Monticello to capture Jefferson, Patrick Henry and other Virginia leaders. Jack stayed to hear the route they would take to Charlottesville and then slipped away on his horse. ”

“ For a time they lay there in silence, then the junior officer spoke:
“Will it be possible for us to reach Charlottesville to-night, colonel?”
“Charlottesville!” Peggy’s heart gave a great bound as she heard the name. Charlottesville was the place where the Assembly was in session at that very time. But Colonel Tarleton was speaking:
“Not to-night, lieutenant. But to-morrow we’ll swoop upon the Assembly and take it unawares. By St. George, ’twill be rare sport to see their faces when they find themselves prisoners. ”

“ The one for the deaf and blind is a State institution.
Tarleton entered Charlottesville on the fourth day of June in 1781. Jefferson's term as governor expired four days later. Ex-Governor Patrick Henry had been his guest while the Legislature was meeting there. He now hastened to Staunton where the Legislators had fled from Charlottesville. Mr. Jefferson, according to one historian, concealed himself in a cave in Carter's Mountain and Patrick Henry, in his flight to Staunton, met Colonel Lewis and told him of how the Legislators had fled Charlottesville upon Tarleton's invasion. ”

“ The city owns its water-supply system and owns and operates its gas plant; an electric plant, privately owned, lights the streets and many houses. The site of the city was a part of the Castle Hill estate of Thomas Walker (1715-1794) , an intimate friend of George Washington. The act establishing the town of Charlottesville was passed by the Assembly of Virginia in November 1762, when the name Charlottesville (in honour of Queen Charlotte, wife of George III.) first appeared. In 1779-1780 about 4000 of Burgoyne’s troops, surrendered under the “Convention” of Saratoga, were quartered here ”

“ Upon the forming of the County of Albemarle in 1745, its boundaries included what are now Buckingham, Amherst, Nelson, and Fluvanna Counties, with parts of Appomattox and Campbell—the Blue Ridge being the Western line. The county seat was then placed in Scottsville on the James, but with final boundary adjustments in 1761 it was felt necessary to remove the court house to a more central site. Thus Charlottesville was not a town of natural growth, but a political creation. ”

“ The Revolutionary War was drawing to a close, involving Virginia in its last throes in the devastation of an invading army. The whole eastern portion was overrun by the British forces under Arnold and Tarleton, the capital taken, and much public and private property destroyed everywhere. Charlottesville, to [Pg 294] which the legislature had adjourned, Monticello, and Castle Hill were raided by Tarleton's dragoons, and the legislature, Mr. Jefferson, and Doctor Walker barely escaped capture. ”

“ The Army of Virginia shall operate in such manner as, while protecting western Virginia and the national capital from danger or insult, it shall in the speediest manner attack and overcome the rebel forces under Jackson and Ewell, threaten the enemy in the direction of Charlottesville, and render the most effective aid to relieve General McClellan and capture Richmond. ”

“ From it men enough had gone to war, but as yet it had not itself become a field for contending armies. No cannon here had roused the echoes of the Blue Ridge, no smoke of musketry drifted through the forest glades. News of the war came by boat up the James, or from the lower towns,—Lexington, Staunton, Charlottesville,—in the old, red, high-swung stages, or brought by occasional horsemen, in saddle-bags filled with newspapers. The outward change in the countryside was to be laid to the door, not of violent commission but of omission—omission less spectacular, but no less assured of results. ”

“ I will go to Charlottesville, where I have a lady friend who keeps a boarding-house for the University students. I can stay with her, and make myself useful in return for board and lodging, until I get something to do for a living. That is all settled. I asked you for this interview only to satisfy myself that no hint of my identity had been dropped, and no suspicion of it excited, during my swoon ”

“ At Charlottesville, at the foot of Monticello, the people of Albemarle County, Virginia, met to adopt resolutions of denunciation, and at Lexington, Kentucky, they added their protest. [1574] Richmond—Knoxville—followed. These resolutions were dignified and forceful protests, sponsored by men of the first ability in the communities acting. But in the House of Representatives at Phila{407}delphia, when Jeffersonians spoke in favor of the repeal of the obnoxious measures, their voices were drowned by loud conversation, coughs, laughter, the scraping of the feet of the Federalists. ”

“ During the winter of 1779 the Convention Army at Charlottesville lost heavily by desertion. “I should observe that this desertion is among the British troops. For what reason it is impossible to say, the Americans shew more indulgence to the Germans, permitting them to go round the country to labor, and being for the most part expert handicraftsmen, they realize a great deal of money exclusive of their pay.”
The officers made themselves pretty comfortable. They put up a coffee house, a theatre and a cold bath. ”

“ David Allison was an enthusiastic admirer of Thomas Jefferson, and, on coming to Charlottesville, had at his first opportunity called on him with a letter of introduction. At times he would speak so enthusiastically that Rodney would notice a smile on his mother’s face as she said: “You should remember, David, that you often have too much confidence in men. There are those who say that he is striving to be popular and to win success, and, to please the rabble, would destroy laws and customs under which the Old Dominion has flourished.” ”

“ Nobody has time to climb the rickety stairs to find the genius in the attic. Nobody looks for the statesman among the serene adherents to the "Simple Life." Had Cincinnatus lived at this day, he would have ploughed to the end of his furrow. Nobody would have interrupted him.
The absence of all the hurry and fever of life made the little town of Charlottesville an ideal home before the cataclysm of 1861. The professors at the University could live, in the moderate age, upon their modest salaries, and have something to spare for entertaining. ”

“ I have a consultation in Richmond to-morrow, then me for Charlottesville. We have examinations coming on, and while I like to play with you, I’ve positively got to work.”
“Not if I endow all the chairs in the university! You’ve not only got to come, but you’re going to be there the day they arrive.”
Thomas Ardmore, of New York and Ardsley, struck his heavy stick—he always carried a heavy stick—smartly on the cement platform in the stress of his feeling. ”

“ Late in the summer of this year another large convention of clergymen, Presbyterian this time, was held at Charlottesville. No good hotel could be found anywhere in Virginia. The landlord was ruined by the hospitality of the citizens. As soon as a pleasant stranger "put up" at a public house, he was claimed as a guest by the first man who could reach him. ”

“ On the approach of Cornwallis, La Fayette, having removed the most valuable stores from Richmond, abandoned that town and retired towards the north-west, to form a junction with General Wayne, who was now on his march with 1,000 of the Pennsylvanian levies to join the southern army. The assembly of Virginia, on the abandonment of Richmond, adjourned to Charlottesville, and increased powers, suitable to the emergency, were conferred upon Governor Jefferson. ”

“ Sergeant William Parrott of Charlottesville and I that night bore a flag of truce to the enemy's lines, under which demand for the surrender of the town was made, but refused. During the night the Confederate iron clad ram "Albemarle" came down the Roanoke River and aided in the assault next morning, when the enemy's works and the town were carried, the garrison surrendering when all hope of successful resistance was gone. Our brigade was moved across the Washington road, whereon the enemy was attempting to escape. ”

“ The father or guardian of an indigent deaf mute in one of the border counties of this commonwealth, would vastly prefer Richmond, Staunton or Charlottesville as the place of his education, to either of the cities of Philadelphia or Hartford. There are, moreover, many strong and obvious reasons why a state institution should be patronized, in preference to any other. The public funds would be expended on our own soil, and among our own population. ”

“ While we lay in camp at Harrisonburg it became necessary to decide whether or not I would advance to Brown's Gap, and, after driving the enemy from there, follow him through the Blue Ridge into eastern Virginia. Indeed, this question began to cause me solicitude as soon as I knew Early had escaped me at New Market, for I felt certain that I should be urged to pursue the Confederates toward Charlottesville and Gordonsville, and be expected to operate on that line against Richmond. ”

“ An evidence of the truth of this surmise, and an abrupt ending to the peaceful life at Saratoga, came to the little settlement in the first week of the year 1781, when a post rider spurred into Charlottesville with a despatch to the County Lieutenant of Albemarle announcing that a British fleet had entered the Capes of the Chesapeake and seized the town of Portsmouth, and summoning the militia to embody, for Virginia was threatened with the fate which had already befallen her sister States to the southward. ”

“ Removal of Troops from Charlottesville.—Their Final Dispersion.—The Germans.—Departure from Petersburg
553among the British troops, and just fears were entertained that they might rise upon and overpower their guard, and join their countrymen on the Elizabeth River. The Germans were less impatient, for they were enjoying life better than at home; * yet it was thought expedient to remove the whole body of prisoners to a place of greater security. Accordingly, the British were marched across the Blue Ridge,Nov. 29, 1780 at Wood's Gap, and through the Great Valley to Fort Frederick, in Maryland ”

“ Eleanor was to be sent to visit a family of cousins near Charlottesville, Virginia, and Madge was to stay with a rich old maiden cousin of her father. Cousin Louisa did not like Madge. She felt a sense of duty toward her, and a sense of duty seldom inspires any real affection in return. So Madge looked back on the visits she had made to this cousin with a feeling of horror. Inspired by her Aunt Sue, Madge had always tried to be on her best behavior while she was the guest of Cousin Louisa. ”

“ Without a regular in the State, and scarcely a musket to put into the hands of the militia, invaded by two armies, Arnold’s from the sea-board, and Cornwallis’s from the southward,—when we were driven from Richmond and Charlottesville, and every member of my council fled to their homes, it was not the total destitution of means, but the mismanagement of them, which, in the querulous voice of the public, caused all our misfortunes. It ended, indeed, in the capture of the whole hostile force, but not till means were brought us by General Washington’s army, and the French fleet and army. ”

“ The troop failed in one of their objects, as we had notice of their coming, so that the two Speakers had gone off about two hours before their arrival at Monticello, and myself, with my family, about five minutes. But Captain McLeod preserved every thing with sacred care, during about eighteen hours that he remained there. Colonel Tarleton was just so long at Charlottesville, being hurried from thence by the news of the rising of the militia, and by a sudden fall of rain which threatened to swell the river and intercept his return. ”

“ He desires that you will keep yourself informed of the enemy's whereabouts, and attack him wherever you find him.
If, in your operations, an opportunity should present itself for you to detach a force to Charlottesville, which is almost unguarded, and destroy depots of supplies said to be there, or along the line of the Aquia Railroad, in the direction of Richmond, to destroy bridges, etc., or the crossings of the Pamunkey, in the direction of West Point, destroying the ferries, felling trees to prevent or check the crossing, they will all greatly contribute to our complete success. ”