Leesburg, Virginia

“ The largest spring of any class in the county is Big Spring, a comparatively broad expanse of water of unsurpassed quality, bordering the Leesburg and Point of Rocks turnpike, about two miles north of Leesburg. ”

“ General Beauregard's object in locating this strong force at Leesburg was to guard his left flank from a Federal attack by way of several good roads that led from the fords of the upper Potomac, near that town, directly to his Bull Run encampment; to watch the large Federal force that McClellan had located on the opposite side of the Potomac; to keep up a connection with the Confederate force in the lower Shenandoah Valley by a good turnpike that led from Leesburg across the Blue Ridge, and to save for his army the abundant supplies of the fertile County of Loudoun. ”

“ In October General Stone's division of the Army of the Potomac was at Poolesville in Maryland. General Banks's division was at Darnestown, between Poolesville and Washington. General McCall's division was at a little hamlet called Lewinsville, on the turnpike leading from the chain bridge to Leesburg, on the Virginia side. The main body of the Rebels was at Centreville, but there was a brigade at Leesburg.
It is a beautiful and fertile country around that pleasant Virginia town. West of the town are high hills, called the Catoctin Mountains. ”

“ The cost of construction between Alexandria and Leesburg, the first division of the work, was $1,538,744. The line, many years afterward, was extended to Round Hill and still later to Bluemont, at present the Westernmost terminal. Stages, affording communication with Winchester and intermediate towns of the Shenandoah Valley, are operated from this point and between Leesburg and Middleburg and Point of Rocks. Liveries are conducted in all the important towns. ”

“ Middleburg, situated on Goose Creek in the southwestern part of Loudoun, is 12 miles from the summit of the Blue Ridge at Ashby's Gap, 5 miles west of Aldie, 1/4 of a mile from the Fauquier line, and 16 miles by stage from Leesburg, the seat of government. It is a growing and prosperous community, elevated and airy and overlooking a broad expanse of rich territory. Fourteen of its 296 inhabitants are merchants and mechanics. ”

“ It is a shame to suffer these people to neglect their duty in the manner they do."
After his journey in the "Illinois Country" we find him again in [131] Leesburg in the employment of one Kirk, a merchant of Alexandria who, son of a blacksmith in Cresswell's home parish, had gone to Virginia and prospered there. On Sunday, the 19th November, 1775, Nicholas records that he "went to Church or Courthouse which you please in the forenoon" thus further confirming that the established church services were, at that time, held in the courthouse at Leesburg. ”

“ BATTLE OF LEESBURG—OPERATIONS ON THE LOWER POTOMAC AND EAST SHORE—ACTION AT DRANESVILLE. AFTER the first battle of Manassas, Col. Eppa Hunton had been ordered to reoccupy Leesburg with his regiment, the Eighth Virginia; a little later Col. William Barksdale's Thirteenth Mississippi, Col. W. S. Featherston's Seventeenth Mississippi, a battery, and four companies of cavalry under Col. W. H. Jenifer, were sent to the same place, and these were organized into the Seventh brigade of the Confederate army of the Potomac, which, early in August, was put under command of Brig.-Gen. ”

“ After the passage of the ordinance he was placed upon the military committee, to recommend measures of defense; but feeling that his proper place was in the field, he resigned his commission in the State militia, and as a result of an application drawn up by his friend, Hon. Ballard Preston, and signed by every member of the convention, he was appointed colonel of the Eighth Virginia regiment, which he was ordered to organize and equip. This was rapidly accomplished at Leesburg, where he collected a body of as brave men (as he himself declared) as ever fought for liberty. ”

“ We can now understand something of the importance of General Evans holding on hard at Leesburg, keeping the left flank of the army protect while it confronted General McClellan’s people before Washington; and there is nothing which has a more demoralizing military effect than that one fatal word—“flanked.”
General Evans had now under his command the Eighth Virginia Regiment under Col. Eppa Hunton, who had occupied Leesburg shortly after the battle of July 21st, joined later by three Mississippi regiments, viz., the Thirteenth, Col. Wm. Barksdale; Seventeenth, Col. W. S. Featherstone ”

“ A party was a party in the Leesburg of 1776.
[132] Virginia was heading toward independence, with war if need be. Popular sentiment is shown by such entries as "Nothing but Independence will go down. The Devil is in the people." "All in confusion. The Committee met to choose Officers for the new Company that are to be raised. They are 21 in number, the first men in the County and had two bowls of toddy," (he carefully explains elsewhere that "toddy" means punch) "but could not find cash to pay for it." ”

“ Its object was to capture a Confederate camp that had been reported to be about a mile from the river. This force advanced to an open field surrounded by woods, where it halted until it could be joined by a company from the Twentieth Massachusetts, which had been left on the bluff, on the Virginia side, to protect the Federal return. Devens, at daybreak, pushed forward with a few men to reconnoiter, and, in person, went to within sight of Leesburg. Thinking he had not been discovered Devens determined to remain and sent back to his brigade commander, Colonel Baker, for reinforcements. ”

“ Marched from Goose Creek at six o'clock at which place left our baggage & sick, and proceeded through the low country. Roads bad in consequence of the rains; encamped at Red house 18 miles."
All writers of the period who describe the town agree that Leesburg, after twenty years or more of existence, was still a shabby little place, "of few and insignificant wooden houses" as one traveller records his impressions. The day of permanent buildings in the town had not yet arrived. Hardly an edifice standing in Leesburg today was then in existence. ”

“ A branch of the James River is called North River and this stream waters the county, flowing diagonally across it. Some of the richest soil in all the Valley is found in Rockbridge. Lexington, which is the county-seat, takes its name from the town of Lexington in Massachusetts and was founded in 1778. The first buildings of the old town were mostly destroyed by fire in 1794 and were replaced with substantial brick buildings. An Englishman who was visiting America long ago described the little town in these words:
"The town as a settlement, has many attractions. ”

“ When the news of the battle of Lexington, and of the removal of the powder, reached Fredericksburg, great excitement prevailed. Over six hundred men armed themselves, from the town and surrounding country, assembled at the Courthouse in town and offered their services to George Washington, who was then in Williamsburg, to defend that city from Lord Dunmore’s threatened attack, and the country from his tyranny. ”

“ In the year 1789 an enactment was passed by the Legislature empowering the Mayor and Commonalty of the town of Fredericksburg to lease for three lives, or twenty-one years, such unimproved parts of the market-house lots as to them shall seem most proper, and apply the rents arising therefrom for the benefit of the corporation. ”

“ We demand for our own citizens perfect equality of rights with those of the empire States of New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, but we ask for nothing that we will not cheerfully concede to those of Delaware and Rhode Island. ”

“ It was James Madison, of Orange county, a Virginian, born a few miles below Fredericksburg, at Port Conway, in King George [Pg 302] county, who gave that wonderful instrument, the Constitution of the United States, to the country, that has been described as the “grand palladium of our liberty, the golden chain of our union, the broad banner of freemen, a terror to tyrants and a shining light to patriots.” ”

“ Besides hundreds of invited guests from different parts of the United States, distinguished men and ladies, President Cleveland and nearly the entire cabinet and their wives, Vice-President Stevenson and Mrs. Stevenson, United States Senators, Representatives in Congress, Governor O’Ferrall and his staff, two members of the Supreme Court of the United States—Chief Justice Fuller and Justice Harlan—were present. The crowd was so immense that the ground seemed to tremble under their tread. It was the biggest day Fredericksburg ever had in the memory of man. ”

“ If we should draw a circle around this ancient city, with a radius of less than fifty miles, we should find within that narrow compass the birthplace of George Washington, of Thomas Jefferson, of James Madison, of James Monroe, of Zachary Taylor, of Chief-Justice John Marshall, of the Lees of the Revolution, of Patrick Henry, of Henry Clay, of Matthew Maury and of Robert E. Lee. ”

“ Here was the home and birthplace of men who commanded armies, controlled navies, swayed statesmen, electrified assemblies, and many of those homes and birth-houses are still standing, and it will appear but natural if they shall be pointed out and written about by the inhabitants of Fredericksburg with patriotic pride. Notwithstanding the quaint architecture of many of them, and the ravages of time upon them, they are dear to us and are regarded as heirlooms of the town which have witnessed the advent and exit of many generations. ”

“ Charlie Compher lives in Leesburg, Va. He will be glad to get a letter from you.
The country is a blessed place. Isn’t it queer that so many country boys and girls don’t think so, but are discontented and want to get to the city, feeling sure that the city will make them happy? ”

“ As time progressed population increased. The old citizens who had refugeed returned to their homes; young and middle-aged men, who had faithfully served their country in the army, exchanged their weapons of war for the implements of peace, and business began to assume its legitimate channels and the old town was well nigh restored to its wonted activity and prosperity. The census of 1870, very imperfectly taken, gave Fredericksburg at that time a population of about four thousand inhabitants. ”

“ Aeneas Campbell was one of the leading spirits in the new county. Not only was he its first sheriff but he built its first courthouse, as later noted, and was an original trustee of Leesburg when that town was "erected." In those days the outstanding men in a community were chosen for public office and the frequency of his name on the records unquestionably confirms his influential prominence. His later career was interesting. After he sold Raspberry Plain to Thomson Mason in 1760, we find him, in 1776, back in Maryland and busily engaged in the work of the Revolution. ”

“ If the morals and correct lives of the people of a town are to be judged by the number of churches within its borders, giving due consideration to the number of inhabitants, the people of Fredericksburg would be rated with the best. One of the first things that received the attention of the founders of the town, under the charter granted by the House of Burgesses in 1727, was the building of a house of worship and its dedication to the service of the Almighty, and since that time Fredericksburg has been blessed with regular divine services. ”

“ What spot so appropriate for the last resting place of these heroes, as some commanding eminence overlooking the memorable plain of Fredericksburg? And what nobler work for the hearts and hands of Southern women, than upon its summit to rear a monument to the unrecorded Confederate dead, which, through all time shall testify to the gratitude of the people for whom they so gloriously died? ”

“ Fredericksburg is regularly laid out and compactly built; many of its buildings are brick. The principal public buildings are a courthouse, clerk’s office, a jail, a market-house, an orphan asylum, one Episcopal, one Presbyterian, one Methodist, one Baptist and one Reform Baptist church. ”

“ From the terraced banks of the Rappahannock, sixty miles north of Richmond, to the shining reaches of the James, where the capital of the Confederacy stands high on her seven hills, the lowlands of Virginia are clad with luxuriant vegetation. The roads and railways run through endless avenues of stately trees; the shadows of the giant oaks lie far across the rivers, and ridge and ravine are mantled with the unbroken foliage of the primeval forest. ”

“ Williamsburg, 20th August, 1716.—In the morning got my horses ready, and what baggage was necessary, and I waited on the [Pg 28] Governor who was in readiness for an expedition over the Appalachian mountains. We breakfasted and about ten got on horseback, and, at four came to the Brickhouse, upon York River, where we crossed the ferry and at six came to Mr. Austin Moore’s house [13] on Mattapony River, in King William County; here we lay all night and were well entertained. ”

“ It occupies a high and healthy plain, the environs of which are waving and well cultivated and delightfully variegated by hill and dale.
The town derives its name from the Lees, who were among the early settlers of the County, and was established by act of the General Assembly, in September, 1758, in the thirty-second year of the reign of George II. Nicholas Minor, who owned sixty acres of land about the court-house, had subdivided this tract and some of the lots had been built upon prior to the passage of the act. ”