Part 1 (1/2)

The History of the City of Fredericksburg, Virginia.

by S. J. (Silva.n.u.s Jackson) Quinn.

PREFACE

_To Messrs. H. B. Lane, Wm. E. Bradley and Prof. S. W. Somerville, Committee on History of the Common Council_:

GENTLEMEN--When I was requested by your predecessors to write a history of Fredericksburg, I regarded it as quite an honor, and in the discharge of the duty I have found great pleasure. Not that the material needed was ready at hand and the task was easy, but because I found so many of the best of our citizens eager to a.s.sist in getting the material together, that had been laid away for ages, and placing it at my disposal. Moreover, their kind words very much encouraged me, and I wish I could here record their names, but as it might not be proper, I take much pleasure in extending to them my grateful thanks.

The records concerning the town reach back only to the close of the Revolutionary war. If Major Lawrence Smith, who constructed the fort and governed the settlers by military law or ”as a county court might do,”

ever kept any records of his acts, we have been unable to find them, and the same is true of the Trustees who had the management of the town from the time it was ”laid out by law,” until it was chartered by the Legislature of Virginia. Therefore, much that is found in the following pages in reference to ”the olden time,” came from families who had preserved it in various forms for many generations.

In presenting this history it is not claimed that all is said about Fredericksburg that could have been said or that incidents have not been related as others have heard them, but it is believed that all important events have been referred to and incidents given as they have been related to us by those well informed and who were regarded as authority on such matters. Nor is there any claim made for originality. The book is intended to be a history of Fredericksburg, and ”history is a narration of facts and events which may be given chronologically or topically,” therefore we have written in the main what others have spoken and have disregarded chronology and even the arrangement of subjects. But it is believed that the arrangement herein is probably best adapted to impress the reader with the splendid history of the town and the magnificent achievements of her sons and those men of fame who sprang from her immediate vicinity.

It is believed this book will be welcomed by all citizens and their friends, whether those friends be former residents or descendants of such, or those veteran soldiers on either side of the late Civil Contest who performed such gallant deeds upon our hills and within our valleys. No soldier of either army--the Army of the Potomac or the Army of Northern Virginia--can ever forget Fredericksburg. It was in the four great battles fought in and around Fredericksburg that he won imperishable glory as an American soldier, that name which to-day is written on the highest pinnacle of military fame.

No living citizen, or the descendant of such n.o.ble sires, wheresoever dispersed, can ever forget the town or lineage from which he sprang. None such can ever fail to appreciate those citizens, who, in the most trying times, and under the most adverse circ.u.mstances, were conspicuous for their love and loyalty, suffering and sacrifice, daring and doing for home and country.

Let their deeds and sacrifices be preserved for imitation of future generations, which is one of the objects of this book.

Very respectfully, S. J. QUINN.

CHAPTER I

_Capt. John Smith Explores the Rappahannock River--The Flight of Pocahontas--Maj. Smith's Fort--Gov. Spotswood's Miners at Germanna._

In what year the white man first set his foot upon the present site of Fredericksburg is not certainly known. The mind of man, of the present generation, does not run back to that time, and if the first white visitor to the place thought it of sufficient importance to make a note of it that note was not preserved; or, if it was, it is unknown to the present inhabitants of the town, unless that visitor was Captain John Smith.

It is stated that after John Smith was captured by the Indians, while on his trip exploring the Chickahominy, his captors marched him through the country, amid great rejoicing, visiting the Indian towns on the Pamunkey, Mattapony, Piankitank, Rappahannock and Potomac rivers, but it is not stated that he was taken as high up the Rappahannock as the falls. This trip through the country, however, while it was attended with hideous yells, cheers and all sorts of mournful noises by the excited throng, gave John Smith some idea of the rich and fertile valleys, the beautiful rivers that flowed from the mountains, and a desire to explore them if he should be fortunate enough to get back to the English settlement alive.

For soon after his release, in writing of the discoveries, having already explored the Chesapeake bay, he says:[1] ”There is but one entrance by sea into this country, and that is at the mouth of a very goodly bay, the wideness whereof is near eighteen or twenty miles. The cape on the south is called Cape Henry, in honor of our most n.o.ble Prince. The show of the land there is a white hilly sand like unto the Downes, and along the sh.o.r.es great plenty of pines and firs. The north cape is called Cape Charles, in honor of the worthy Duke of York.

”Within is a country that may have the prerogative over the most pleasant places of Europe, Asia, Africa or America and for large and pleasant navigable rivers, heaven and earth never agreed better to frame a place for man's habitation, being of our const.i.tutions, were it fully manured and inhabited by industrious people. Here are mountains, hills, plains, valleys, rivers and brooks, all running most pleasantly to a fair bay, compa.s.sed, but for the mouth, with fruitful and delightsome land. In the bay and rivers are many isles, both great and small, some woody, some plain, most of them low and not inhabited. This bay lies north and south, in which the water flows near two hundred miles and has a channel for one hundred and forty miles of depth betwixt seven and fifteen fathoms, holding in breadth, for the most part, ten or fifteen miles. From the head of the bay at the north, the land is mountainous, and so in a manner from thence by a southwest line. So that the more southward, the further off from the bay are those mountains, from which fall certain brooks, which after come to five princ.i.p.al navigable rivers. These run from the northwest into the southeast, and so into the west side of the bay, where the fall of every river is within twenty or fifteen miles one of another.”

Early in the year of 1608, his life having been saved by Pocahontas, John Smith made a number of trips, exploring the rivers of this section of Virginia, entered the mouth of the Rappahannock and, but for an accident that befell him, might have continued his trip to the falls.

They found fish in abundance in all the streams and, ”near the mouth of the Rappahannock, Smith plunged his sword into a singular fish like a 'thornback,' with a long tail and from it a poisoned sting. In taking it off it drove the sting into his wrist, producing a torturing pain, and in a few hours the whole hand, arm and shoulder had swollen so fearfully that death seemed inevitable. He pointed out a place for his grave, and his men, with heavy hearts, prepared it. But Dr. Russell applied the probe and used an oil with such success that Smith was soon well and ate a part of the same fish for supper.”[2]

[Ill.u.s.tration: View of Fredericksburg from Marye's Mansion, showing ground charged over by Federals in battle 1862. Confederate line at fence. (See page 91)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: View of Fredericksburg from Stafford Heights, where Federal guns were located in 1862, showing the old Scott bridge. (See page 171)]

Some writers contend that it was while on this trip that Smith came up the Rappahannock to the falls and had a battle with the Indians, but this is a mistake. This trip was commenced on the 20th of June, 1608, and it was directly after entering the mouth of the river that he saw so many fish in the clear stream and caught one on the point of his sword; for Russell, the physician, who accompanied him, says after Smith was thought to have been fatally poisoned, ”having neither surgeon or surgery, but that preservative oil, we presently set sail for Jamestown. Pa.s.sing the mouth of the Piankatank and Pamunkey rivers, the next day we safely arrived at Kecaughtan.”[3] If Smith had been very far up the Rappahannock he could not have pa.s.sed the mouth of these two rivers the next day.

The voyage that Smith made, during which he explored the Rappahannock river to the falls, was commenced on the 24th of July, more than a month after he entered the mouth of the river and was stung by the fish which turned him back. As this trip up the river is of great interest, being the first made by white men, it is here given in full as narrated by Anthony Bagnall, Powell and Todkill, Smith's companions, who wrote it down at the time. They say:

”In the discovery of this river, that some called Rappahannock, we were kindly entertained by the people of Moraughtacund. Here we encountered our old friend Mosco, a l.u.s.ty savage of Wighconisco, upon the river Patawomeck [Potomac]. We supposed him some Frenchman's son because he had a thick, black, bushy, beard, and the savages seldom have any at all, of which he was not a little proud to see so many of his countrymen. Wood and water he would fetch us, guide us any whether; nay, cause divers of his countrymen help us tow against wind or tide from place to place till we came to Patawomeck.