Part 11 (2/2)
[Ill.u.s.tration: The Old Church from a war-time Photograph]
Falls Church in the Civil War.
In May, 1861, the Union troops moved into Virginia and occupied Arlington Heights and Alexandria. On June 1 an engagement at Fairfax Court House between a company of Union cavalry and Confederate troops resulted in the loss of six Union and twenty Confederate soldiers. The Union forces under General McDowell occupied the town of Fairfax about the middle of July, inaugurating the first Bull Run Campaign. The battle of Bull Run was fought July 21, 1861.
After the first battle of Bull Run, a systematic plan for the defense of the National Capital began to take shape. At that time the commanding heights four miles west of Alexandria and six miles from Was.h.i.+ngton were occupied by the Confederates, Falls Church being the headquarters of General Longstreet.
In October, 1861, the hills were again taken possession of by the Union troops. The system of works for the defense of Was.h.i.+ngton on the south began with Fort Willard below Alexandria, and terminated with Fort Smith opposite Georgetown, comprising in all twenty-nine forts and eleven supporting batteries, besides Forts Ethan Allen and Marcy at the Virginia end of Chain Bridge, with their five batteries of field guns.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Mr. Charles A. Marshall]
Falls Church was the most advanced post of General McDowell's corps, when on August 3, 1861, a correspondent of Harper's Weekly writing from here to that paper described the old Church as it appeared at the beginning of the Civil war as follows:
”On this page we ill.u.s.trate Fall's Church, Fairfax County, Virginia, from a sketch by our special artist with General McDowell's 'corps d'armee.' This is the most advanced post of our army in Fairfax County, and has been the scene of several picket skirmishes. Falls Church was built in 1709, and rebuilt, as an inscription on the wall informs us, by the late ”Lord” Fairfax, whose son, the present ”Lord” Fairfax, is supposed to be serving in the rebel army. The t.i.tle of ”Lord,” we may observe, is still given to the representative of the family. The inscription on the old church reads as follows:
[Ill.u.s.tration: Mr. John S. Garrison]
'Henry Fairfax, an accomplished gentlemen, an upright magistrate, a sincere Christian, died in command of the Fairfax Volunteers at Saltillo, Mexico, 1847. But for his munificence this church might still have been a ruin.'
Service was held in the old church two Sundays since, Rev. Dr. Mines, Chaplain of Second Maine Regiment, officiating, and most of the troops in the neighborhood being present.”
Captain Henry Fairfax, to whose memory the tablet alluded to was placed in the old church, was a graduate of West Point. At the outbreak of the Mexican War, he organized a company called the Fairfax Volunteers sailing to Mexico with the regiment of Virginia volunteers under command of Colonel John F. Hamtramck. Upon arriving in Mexico, Captain Fairfax fell a victim to the climate and died at Saltillo, August 16, 1847. His body was brought home and buried near the church he loved so well, and it is thought that the grave which may be seen in the foreground of the war-time picture of the church on page 62 may be his. The tablet to his memory has long since been destroyed, and every vestige of his tombstone has disappeared, but nature, not forgetting his generous gifts to the old church, has sent up a spire-shaped cedar to mark his grave.
Colonel Hamtramck died April 21, 1858, at Shepardstown, Va.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Mr. F. A. Niles]
The damage to the old church, according to one of the oldest citizens of the town, Mr. George B. Ives, was done by a company of Union cavalry on picket duty under command of a captain of the regular army. He permitted his men to tear out the floor of the church and use it for a stable. The building might have been damaged beyond repair had it not been for Mr.
Ives and the late Mr. John Bartlett, who reported the matter to General Augur, the Military Governor of this district, by whose orders the captain was arrested and further desecration prevented.
About three miles from Falls Church, on the Alexandria turnpike, is Bailey's Cross Roads, where in November, 1861, President Lincoln reviewed the Union forces preparatory to the Peninsular Campaign.
The story of the most important events occurring during those stormy times around the old Colonial church is best told by the ”Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies,” extracts from reports therein following:
[Ill.u.s.tration: Dr. T. C. Quick]
SKIRMISH AT MUNSON'S HILL AUGUST 31, 1861.
Report of Colonel Geo. W. Taylor, 3rd N. J. Infantry, dated September 2, 1861.
GENERAL: The pickets of the enemy having for some time been extremely annoying to outposts on Little River Turnpike and on the road leading from thence to Chestnut Hill, I decided on making a reconnaissance in person with a small force with the view of cutting them off. Accordingly I marched with 40 men, volunteers from 2 companies of my regiment, on the morning of Aug. 31, at 3 a. m., and keeping to the woods arrived soon after daylight at or near the point, a little beyond, at which I desired to strike the road and cut them off.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Miss Ellen W. Green]
Here we were obliged to cross a fence and a narrow corn field where the enemy, who had doubtless dogged our approach through the woods, lay in considerable force.
While in the corn we were suddenly opened upon by a rapid and sharp fire which our men, whenever they got sight of the enemy, returned with much spirit. Scarce two minutes elapsed when I found 3 men close to me had been shot down. The enemy being mostly hid, I deemed it prudent to order my men to fall back to the woods, distant about 30 yards, which I did.
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