Even before its founding in 1757, Loudoun County attracted a diverse immigrant population, including English, Scots and Germans, as well as various religious sects, including Catholics, Protestants and Quakers. This became apparent as the nation moved toward Civil War in the mid-1800s.
Unlike other counties in Virginia, Loudoun had a number of citizens who were opposed to secession, or remained loyal to the Union after the outbreak of hostilities. But these citizens were a distinct minority, and all in the area from Leesburg to the north.
On May 23, 1861, Loudoun voters approved the Virginia Convention’s earlier vote to secede by a 2-to-1 margin. All but three precincts –Waterford and Goose Creek (today’s Lincoln), which were predominantly Quaker; and Lovettsville, populated mostly by recent German immigrants–voted to leave the Union.
Eastern Loudoun precincts voted overwhelmingly for secession, with Gum Spring Precinct voting 135-5, and Whaley’s 108-0. Because there were no pro-Union local factions in the east, as there were in western Loudoun, there were no clashes between local factions. But there was plenty of action in the area during the Civil War.
A lot of this had to do with the county’s strategic location, and its inclusion in “Mosby Confederacy,” the area in the Piedmont and Northern Virginia where Col. John S. Mosby and his Partisan Rangers caused so much trouble.
The fact that the nearby Potomac River formed the border between the United States and the Confederate States, and the strategic river crossings and bridges–while they still stood– and added to the tension.
First Blood in the East
Battles around Harper’s Ferry and Leesburg, including the Battle of Ball’s Bluff on October 21, 1861, preceded the fighting in Eastern Loudoun and Western Fairfax. But civilians in the east felt the impact of the fighting, even before battles and skirmishes were fought there.
Following the First Battle of Manassas on July 21, 1861, many Union and Confederate wounded were brought north into Loudoun. Two Dranesville doctors who practiced in Eastern Loudoun, brothers Dr. William Day and Dr. John Day, struggled to treat the wounded in tents set up in a field between their homes on the Leesburg Turnpike. Later falsely accused of mistreating Union casualties, the doctors were pulled from their homes by Union officers and arrested, and spent a year in the Old Capitol Prisoin before being exchanged. Upon release, they joined the Confederate Army.
On December 20, 1861, Confederate forces under Gen. J.E.B. Stuart–including all of Gen. Joseph Johnston’s supply wagons–were confronted by Union troops under Gen. Cresap Ord at the intersection of Georgetown Pike and Leesburg Pike at Dranesville. Infantry, cavalry and artillery on both sides were involved, and although Stuart succeeded in saving his supply wagons, he finally withdrew from the battle, suffering 194 killed, compared with only 68 Union troops.
August 28-30, 1862 would see a Second Battle of Manassas, and the cannon fire was heard as far away as Eastern Loudoun. After the battle, a stream of Confederate troops under Gen. "Stonewall" Jackson marched through the county in pursuit of Gen. John Pope's federals, resulting in a second engagement at Chantilly.
Once again, the Confederates brought their wounded with them, some of which were left at private homes in Eastern Loudoun to recover–or die. One of the wounded was Virginia infantryman Pvt. William Hooke, who was cared for by the Foley family at the Lunette House on the nold Braddock Road in present-day Kirkpatrick Farms. Hooke later died from his wounds, and was buried in the Foley family cemetery nearby.
Mosby Makes His Mark
On Dec. 31, 1862, then-Lt. John Singleton Mosby chose Mount Zion Church on the Little River Turnpike east of Aldie as the place to rendezvous with his first band of Rangers. And it was from the church that they launched their first raid, a successful attack on a Union picket post at Herndon Junction on the Alexandria, Loudoun and Hampshire Railroad.
Weeks later, Mosby’s men gathered again at Mount Zion to plan and carry out a similar raid on a Union cavalry outpost near Chantilly, taking more prisoners, their horses and equipment.
Aware of the new threat, Union commanders responded, and nearly captured Mosby in Middleburg in February. But he escaped, and the raids continued.
In early March, Mosby carried out one of his most famous raids.
Infiltrating the Union encampment at Fairfax Court House on the night of March 8, 1863, Mosby and his men captured Union Gen. Edwin Stoughton, members of his staff and 50 horses–without firing a shot.
The Rangers returned to Eastern Loudoun at the end of the month, when Mosby and 61 of his men were caught off guard by a much larger Union force while camped at Miskel’s farm in present-day Broad Run Farms on April 1, 1863.
Tipped off that Mosby was at the farm, about 150 Union troops under Capt. Henry Flint surrounded the house and barn where Mosby’s men were sleeping, blocking off any means of escape. Moments before it would have been too late, one of Mosby’s men who had been staying nearby home galloped into the dooryard, screaming a warning. Mosby rallied his troops and counter-attacked, firing their revolvers as they struggled to mount their horses.
Historians note that Flint made two serious mistakes: dividing up his force and holding men in reserve, and attacking Mosby’s men on horseback with drawn sabers, rather than taking cover and using his superior firepower to wipe them out.
The result of the action was severely lopsided, with nine Union soldiers killed (including Flint), 15 wounded and 82 captured. Four of Mosby’s men were wounded, and one later died – the first fatality for Mosby’s command. There would be more.
Guilford Signal Station and the Prelude to Gettysburg
In early June 1863, the First Corps of the Army of the Potomac under Gen. John Reynolds moved into the Guilford (Sterling) area, and set up an Army Signal Station on the high ground then known as Bridge’s Hill, a 440-foot prominence north of the village of Lanesville. The purpose of the signal station was to detect and observe Confederate troop movements in the area, and transmit the information to Gen. Joe Hooker’s headquarters in Fairfax.
The Guilford signal station was part of a network connecting Gum Spring (Arcola), on Goose Creek, and Maryland Heights and Sugarloaf in Maryland. Information was transmitted by signal flags from the outlying stations to Guilford, which was connected to Fairfax by a telegraph line. While his men operated the signal station, Gen. Reynolds stayed in the home owned by Mr. and Mrs. Ben Bridges down the mountain at Lanesville.
At the time, the Confederate forces were on their way to the epic Battle of Gettysburg. The information was relayed to Hooker, and the scene was set. Gen. Reynolds left Guilford to join other Union regiments at Gettysburg, where he was killed on July 1, 1863, the first day of the battle.
The Battle of Aldie that took place on June 17, 1863, between Confederates under Col. Thomas Munford and Union forces commanded by Gen. Judson Kilpatrick.
The first skirmish was fought near the intersection of the Snickersville and Ashby’s Gap turnpikes, which was nominally a Union victory, due to the surrender of a detachment of the Fifth Virginia Cavalry under Capt. Reuben Boston to Union forces.
When the action shifted to the north on the Snickersville Turnpike, Union cavalry was caught on a narrow road surrounded by stone walls, and rounding a curve in the road were cut down by Rebel fire.
The First Massachusetts Cavalry suffered nearly 200 killed or wounded, believed to be the worst single-day toll on a cavalry unit throughout the entire Civil War. A monument to the dead of the First Massachusetts Cavalry was erected along Snickersville Turnpike in 1888, at the scene of the fighting. In a gesture of healing, it was placed on land donated by Dallas Furr, a former Mosby Ranger.
After Aldie, the action shifted to the west along the Little River Turnpike, with engagements in Middleburg on June 19, and at Upperville on June 21.
Anker’s Shop and Mosby’s Return to Mount Zion
After several months of small-unit hit-and-run attacks on Union forces, Mosby’s Rangers took on a larger Union force on the Leesburg Pike near Anker’s Store, near present-day Potomac View Road. After selecting a good ambush site – with thick timber on one side of the turnpike and a fence on the other – Mosby waited for the Union approaching formation, commanded by Maj. J. Sewell Reed.
Although Mosby initiated the ambush before the main body of troops had entered the trap, they defeated the Union troops in the furious, hand-to-hand battle that ensued. Maj. Reed was among the eight killed; 25 were wounded and 72 captured.
The last major engagement in Eastern Loudoun took place in July 1864 at Mount Zion Church, where Mosby’s unit was originally organized. Having returned from a raid on Point of Rocks, Md., Mosby sought to attack the Union force of about 150 cavalrymen under Maj. William Forbes that had been occupying Leesburg. Mosby knew that Forbes would be leading his men from Leesburg to their camp near Vienna.
Mosby hoped to draw Forbes’ men into the sort of ambush that worked so well at Anker’s Shop, but the first trap failed when Forbes took a different route than Mosby expected. He caught up with Forbes at the Skinner farm on the Little River Turnpike just east of Mount Zion Church.
Opening the fight with cannon fire, Mosby and his mounted cavalrymen attacked, driving the surprised Federals into a line of trees near the church. There, Forbes tried to rally his troops, but he was captured when his horse was killed and he was pinned under it. Others broke free and tried to escape, and when Mosby’s men ended the pursuit at nightfall, Union casualties were 12 dead, 37 wounded and 45 taken prisoner. In addition, more than 100 horses and their equipment were captured.
The ‘Burning Raid,’ and the End of the War
In late November 1864, Gen. Philip Sheridan initiated a “scorched earth” strategy in Northern Virginia – and “Mosby’s Confederacy” in particular–in order to deny Confederate forces food, supplies and lodging in civilian homes.
Because the effort was confined to the lands west of the Bull Run Mountains, the destruction–the worst endured by Loudoun County during the entire war–did not fall on the famers, mill owners and others in Eastern Loudoun. Ironically, it was the areas that had been most loyal to the North that suffered most.
As the miserable winter of 1864-65 drew to a close, Mosby conducted one last raid in Loudoun, attacking a Union unit near present-day Hamilton on March 22-23. Less than two weeks later, Gen. Lee surrendered Appomattox officially ending the war–although Mosby refused to surrender, disbanding his troops at Marshall months later.
Aftermath
The Emancipation Proclamation was issued in June 1863, but African-Americans did not achieve true freedom until the war was over. And then they faced new challenges in addition to the turmoil caused by the war. In early 1867, the U.S. congress passed the Reconstruction Act, which placed the Commonwealth of Virginia was designated the First Military District. Fortunately, Maj. Gen. John Schofield was placed in command of the district, and proved to be a fair and courageous administrator.
Pres. U. S. Grant and members of his cabinet visited Leesburg in November 1873, for the purpose of attending the county's “Thirteenth Annual Fair.” Arriving at the depot, they were taken by carriage to the fairgrounds at the north end of town.
As recorded in “Loudoun in the Civil War,”published by the Loudoun Civil War Centennial Commission (1961), “When the President reached the judges’ stand, he was greeted by three long, loud cheers. The President bowed his thanks and shook hands with hundreds who pressed around him.” The healing had begun.
Reconstruction continued until 1876, when Virginia was re-admitted to the Union. Throughout this period, former slaves in Loudoun County began to build their own societies, based on their churches and schools. New predominantly African-American communities were established in Eastern Loudoun, including the villages of Watson, Nokes, Oak Grove and Willard.
Interestingly, only two battlefield monuments have been erected in Loudoun County: the Eighth Virginia Infantry memorial at Ball's Bluf, and the First Massachusetts Cavalry monument at the site of the Battle of Aldie.
As Loudoun historian Stevan F. Meserve so eloquently stated at the end of his book, "The Civil War in Loudoun County, Virginia: A History of Hard Times," published in 2008:
"The most lasting tribute to the men and women who endured or died in four years of warfare in Loudoun is the land itself. North and South alike hallowed the land with their blood and watered it with their tears. We who follw owe it to them not to let their memory fade or sacred sites of their struggle be destroyed."
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