Legends of Loudoun Part 17

After being introduced to a few surviving soldiers of the Revolution, the distinguished party was driven to Colonel Osburn's Hotel (the present home of Mr. T. M. Fendall on Loudoun Street) the street in front of which was filled with a great crowd of orderly and well-behaved citizens. Here Lafayette was received by the Mayor of Leesburg, Dr. John H. McCabe and the common council. The mayor made an address of welcome and again Lafayette spoke in reply.

After a few minutes for rest and refreshment in the hotel, the carriages were resumed and

"the procession moved through Loudoun, Market, Back, Cornwall and King Street. Between the gate of the Court house square and the portico of the court-house an avenue had formed, by a line on the right, of the young ladies of the Leesburg Female Academy under the care of Miss Helen McCormick and Mrs. Lawrence ... dressed in white, with blue sashes, and their heads were tastefully adorned with evergreens. They held sprigs of laurel in their hands, which they strewed in the way as the General pa.s.sed them."

Another account discloses that the other side of the "avenue," facing the evergreen-crowned girls, was formed by a line of boys from the Leesburg Inst.i.tute, whose costumes were embellished with red sashes and white and black c.o.c.kades. As Lafayette, smiling and bowing, mounted the portico steps, he was greeted by Ludwell Lee on behalf of the people of Loudoun with a patriotic speech and once again the cheerful Marquis managed to make yet another appropriate response. After a full year of the young Republic's exuberant enthusiasm, the delivery of a mere half-dozen or so of speeches of grateful acknowledgment in a single day has lost its earlier terrors. At 4:00 o'clock a great banquet was spread on the tables set up in the courthouse square, the guests' table being protected by an awning. Toasts were enthusiastically given and drunk to Adams, Lafayette and Monroe, each in turn replying. With that auspicious start and the stimulus of the potent beverages, it is recorded that as the time pa.s.sed, the "volunteer toasts" waxed in number and ecstacy.

Afterward, the distinguished guests visited the home of Mr. W. T. T.

Mason for the baptism of his two infant daughters, Lafayette acting as G.o.dfather for one and Adams and Monroe in similar capacity for the other. More gayety in Leesburg, then a drive through the summer night to Belmont and partic.i.p.ation in the merry-making there, before the ill.u.s.trious visitors sought their rooms for the night in that gracious mansion.[146] As they returned to Washington the next day, it must have been with a profound, if weary, appreciation of the county's enthusiasm, affection and hospitality.

[146] See Chapter XIII.

In this second quarter of the nineteenth century, to which we have now come, the name of Charles Fenton Mercer, soldier, statesman and philanthropist, is writ large in Loudoun's records. Already we have read of him in his country home and of his founding the town of Aldie in 1810;[147] but the brief reference there made is wholly inadequate to the man and his accomplishments. Born in Fredericksburg on the 6th June, 1778, he was the son of James Mercer and grandson of that John Mercer of Marlboro whom we have already met.[148] His father, after a distinguished career, left at his death an estate so much involved that the son had some difficulty in securing his education. He, however, was able to graduate at Princeton in 1797 and the next year, at the time of friction with France, was given a commission by Washington as a captain of cavalry. When the danger of war pa.s.sed, he studied law and, admitted to the Bar, practiced his profession with great success. He served as brigadier general in command of the defense of Norfolk in the War of 1812, removed to Loudoun, was a member of the Virginia Legislature from 1810 to 1817 and, as a Federalist, was elected a member of Congress, in 1816, over General A. T. Mason, the election being so close, however, that it had to be decided by the House of Representatives. In Congress he served until 1840, a longer continuous service "than that of any of his contemporaries." Always deeply interested in the project of the Chesapeake and Potomac Ca.n.a.l, he introduced the first successful bill for its construction and it was in tribute to him that those interested in the plan met in Leesburg on the 25th August, 1823. When the ca.n.a.l company was organized taking over, in effect, much of the plant of General Washington's cherished project the Potomac Company, Mercer became its first president and continued in that position during the period of Federal encouragement. Then came the Jackson administration and its opposition and, as a final blow, the organization of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company. The day of the ca.n.a.ls gave place to that of the railroads; but that section of the ca.n.a.l in Maryland, across the river from Loudoun, was completed and placed in successful operation, affording to her people better and cheaper transportation to Washington and Alexandria for their products than they before had known.

[147] See Chapter XIII.

[148] See Chapter VII.

Mercer was an ardent protectionist, intensely opposed to slavery and an advocate of the settlement of freed slaves in Liberia. He died near Alexandria on the 4th May, 1858, and was buried in the Leesburg Cemetery. On his headstone it is justly reaffirmed that he was "A Patriot, Statesman, Philanthropist and Christian."[149]

[149] _Charles Fenton Mercer_, by James M. Garnett.

Mercer's day well may be cited as the most active and, perhaps, the most ambitiously progressive in business affairs in the county's history.

s.p.a.ce precludes enumeration and extensive description of all the enterprises then undertaken but pa.s.sing mention may be made of a few.

The improvement of transportation was a dominant motive. Ca.n.a.ls, railroads, turnpikes all were instruments to that end. An early railroad was projected by the men of Waterford and incorporated in 1831 as the Loudoun Railroad Company to run from the mouth of Ketoctin Creek on the Potomac "pa.s.sing Ketoctin mountain to the waters of Goose creek so as to intercept the Ashby's Gap turnpike road"; a curious and impractical route it may seem to us in the light of present conditions and that it was just as well that the project died in birth. In 1832 another railroad but sponsored in Leesburg, to be known as the Leesburg Railroad and to run from that town to the Potomac, also came to naught. At length in 1849 the Alexandria, Loudoun and Hampshire Railroad was incorporated and built, and under various names has been since continuously operated, thus giving the county its only railroad communication within its boundaries.

In 1832 there was incorporated the Goose Creek and Little River Navigation Company to make those streams available as highways of traffic. Locks, dams, ponds, feeders, and other appurtenant works were ambitiously undertaken. With a.s.sistance from the State and the proceeds of the company's sales of stock much construction was accomplished; but during the Civil War the works were destroyed by the Federal armies and they never have been restored.

The Catoctin Furnace Company was another ambitious project. Iron ore was mined in Furnace Mountain, opposite the Point of Rocks, and for a time shipped away for smelting. In 1838 a furnace for treatment of the ore was completed on the property and the ore smelted at first with charcoal made at the plant and later, as operations increased, with c.o.ke brought from a distance. The business was highly successful and profitable until ruined by the Civil War. It was this activity that caused the construction, in 1850, of the original Point of Rocks bridge across the Potomac.[150]

[150] See Briscoe Goodheart in 4 Balch Clippings 33.

Reference to some of the many turnpike companies of the period already has been made. Undertaken for the profit of the shareholders as well as the convenience of the people they, for the first time in her history, gave the county roads fit to bear heavy traffic and were another exemplification of the energy of the time.

When the church was disestablished after the Revolution it was agreed that it would be left in possession of her property. As time went on there arose a clamour among those of other beliefs that her property and particularly her glebe lands should be sold by the Overseers of the Poor, to whom the proceeds should go, their argument being that having been acquired by taxes laid on the whole community, the taxpayers as a body should benefit therefrom. Bishop Mead describes what took place in Loudoun concerning Shelburne's glebe:

"About the year 1772, a tract of land containing 465 acres, on the North Fork of Goose Creek was purchased and soon after, a house put upon it.

When Mr. Dunn became minister in 1801 an effort was made by the overseers of the poor to sell it, but it was effectually resisted at law. At the death of Mr. Dunn, in 1827, the overseers of the poor again proceeded to sell it. The vestry was divided in opinion as to the course to be pursued. Four of them--Dr. W. C. Selden, Dr. Henry Claggett, Mr.

Fayette Ball and George M. Chichester--were in favour of resisting it; the other eight thought it best to let it share the fate of all the others. It was accordingly sold. The purchaser lived in Maryland; and, of course the matter might be brought before the Supreme Court as a last resort, should the courts of Virginia decide against the church's claim.

The minority of four, encouraged by the decision in the case of the Fairfax Glebe, determined to engage in a lawsuit for it. It was first brought in Winchester and decided against the Church. It was then carried to the Court of Appeals in Richmond, and during its lingering progress there, three of four of the vestrymen who engaged in it died, and the fourth was persuaded to withdraw it."[151]

[151] Bishop Mead's _Old Churches of Virginia_, II, 274. Also see _Landmarks_ 306 and Selden vs. Overseers, XI Leigh 127.

CHAPTER XV

CIVIL WAR

It was a happy, prosperous, and contented Loudoun that the sun shone down upon in 1850. In politics the county was predominantly Whig and in the growing national issues of States' rights, slavery and secession, her sentiment clung to the preservation of the Union; but the seeds of dissension had been sown. The repercussions of John Brown's insane raid on the nearby Harper's Ferry a.r.s.enal on the 16th October, 1859, were particularly severe in Loudoun. The madness of it all profoundly shocked the community and seemed to strike at the foundations of existing society, law, and order. Yet a dogged adherence to that Union, which Virginia had been so instrumental in building, persisted. Little doubt was felt concerning the _right_ of a sovereign State to withdraw from what had been a wholly voluntary confederation, but sentiment and a deep feeling of expediency strongly opposed such action. Elsewhere in the State the tendency toward secession was stronger. As the fateful days pa.s.sed, Virginia was torn between conflicting views. It is probable that the ranting of the extreme abolitionists in the North drove more Virginians toward secession, and that against their will, than the most persuasive arguments of its fieriest advocates.

The Legislature of 1861 recognized the peril of decision in favor of either side, and the gravity of attendant consequences to be so great, that it wisely decided to refer the issue to the people themselves. On the 16th January of that year it therefore authorized that a convention be called, to be made up of delegates elected from every county, for the express purpose of deciding upon Virginia's course. Thereupon such delegates, having been duly elected, the convention met in Richmond on the 13th February, 1861, Loudoun being represented by John Janney, at that time and until his death in 1872, a leader of her Bar, and John A.

Carter. Both opposed secession and voted against it in a convention in which it was apparent that its proponents held a majority. Nevertheless, Mr. Janney was elected permanent chairman by a majority of the delegates--a great personal tribute to the man and evidence of the respect in which he was held. Both those who favoured and those who condemned withdrawal from the Union were given ample opportunity to expound and urge their views. When the ominous vote was cast in secret session on the 17th April, 1861, eighty-five of the delegates favoured and fifty-five opposed an ordinance of secession; but their action was conditioned upon the majority decision being referred back to the people of Virginia for approval or rejection. Both Janney and Carter voted against the measure but even while the convention was in session a ma.s.s meeting, convened in Leesburg, pa.s.sed resolutions advocating the proposed ordinance. How great a change had taken place in the sentiment of the county, during those early and fateful months of 1861, is shone in the following table of the results in Loudoun of the election of the 23rd May in which the ordinance of secession was overwhelmingly ratified there:

Precincts For Secession Against Aldie 54 5 Goresville 117 19 Gum Spring 135 5 Hillsboro 84 38 Leesburg 400 22 Lovettsville 46 325 Middleburg 115 0 Mt. Gilead 102 19 Powells Shop 62 0 Purcellville 82 31 Snickersville 114 3 Union 150 0 Waterford 31 220 Waters 26 39 Whaleys 108 0 --- --- Total 1626 726

The great ma.s.s of the American people, North and South, neither expected nor wanted war. The overwhelming tragedy of it all lay in the nation being caught and carried on in a flood of events beyond its imagination or control and these, with sinister a.s.sistance from fanatics and trouble-makers on both sides, brought on the devastating deluge.

With Lincoln's call for volunteers, Virginia rallied to resist what she believed to be a threat of hostile armed invasion. The die was cast.

It is not the purpose of this book to attempt a detailed account of the war-epoch in Loudoun. Much of her story during those dreary years already has been recorded by other writers. The full narrative deserves, and sometime undoubtedly will have, a volume to itself.

Inasmuch as fate had made it a border county, it was inevitable that intense factional bitterness should exist and that much fighting should take place within its boundaries; but no major engagements occurred there. Loudoun at least was spared the terrible slaughter that destiny staged in Tidewater, the Valley and north of the Potomac.

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]

[152] Loudoun Minute Book 1861-65, p. 69. Also statements to author by Mr. Fox's daughter, Mrs. John Mason of Leesburg.

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 pa.s.sionately disagreed with the convictions of their neighbors and these as occasion offered and to the detriment of their former friends, reported surrept.i.tiously 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 surpa.s.sed 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 a.s.sistant Quartermaster; Arthur M. Chichester, Captain and a.s.sistant 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. Ba.s.sell, staff of General W. L. Jackson and midshipman C. S. Navy.

[153] _Loudoun Rangers_, by Briscoe Goodhart, p. 19.

[154] _The Comanches_, by F. M. Myers, p. 19.

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]

[155] To get the full flavor of the bitterness engendered, read F. M.

Myers' _Comanches_, and Goodhart's _Loudoun Rangers_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 pa.s.ses 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.

Meanwhile the work of building fortifications of earthworks, begun by Colonel Giddings' 56th Regiment of Militia, had so far progressed that there were three forts on elevated ground on different sides of Leesburg. One, known as Fort Evans, named in honour of Brigadier General Nathan G. Evans, in command of the Leesburg neighborhood, was on the heights on the part of the original Exeter between the Alexandria Pike and the Edwards' Ferry roads, recently purchased by Mr. H. B. Harris of Chicago from Mrs. William Rogers and Mr. Wallace George; another, known as Fort Johnston, in honour of General Joseph E. Johnston, commander of a portion of the Confederate troops at the first battle of Mana.s.sas, (Bull Run), crowned the hill now covered by the extensive orchards of Mr. Lawrence R. Lee, about one and one-half miles west of Leesburg on the Alexandria Road; and the third, known as Fort Beauregard, was constructed south of Tuscarora in the triangle formed by the old road leading to Morrisworth, the road to Lawson's old mill and Tuscarora. The property is now owned by the heirs of the late Mahlon Myers.