The Confederate Blockade of the Potomac River

     In the hazy light of a hot summer morning you can see the rippling shoreline of Maryland from the abandoned Confederate gun emplacements.  This is history in the raw, a place called Possum Nose, a long abandoned and forgotten Civil War site on the Potomac River.  Earthworks, once built to protect cannons, watch the river blankly, while overgrown trenches await a Union attack that will never come.  The remains of a powder magazine and scattered hut sites can be found in the deep woods, but these are the only reminders that Washington was once held hostage.

Even before Virginia became part of the Confederacy, Northern Virginians realized the opportunity they had to “strangle” Washington by erecting land batteries on prominent points along the Potomac.  The decision to do so was finally reached in August 1861, while the Union Army lay paralyzed after its defeat on July 21, 1861 at Manassas in the first major land engagement of the war.  A strong battery was built at Evansport, at the mouth of Quantico Creek, some thirty five miles south of Washington, on what is today the Quantico Marine Corps Base.  Smaller batteries were erected at Possum Nose and Freestone Point, also in Prince William County.  In all, there were thirty seven heavy guns placed along the river supported by five infantry regiments.  The Confederates also used a captured steamer, the C.S.S. City of Richmond, berthed in Quantico Creek, to terrorize smaller craft on the river.

If a strong force of Union ships had been patrolling the Potomac at the beginning of August, it would have been impossible for the rebels to construct or maintain gun batteries on the banks of the river.  Once the three rebel batteries supported by troops were dug in, however, it was considered to be almost impossible to capture the positions by assault.

Washington was shaken.  The Capital was proud of its busy wharves, where twenty new warehouses had been constructed.  With the completion of the first Confederate battery, trade began to suffer.  The once busy wharves fell idle.  Trade came to an abrupt halt.  Shortages developed and prices soared.  Occasionally a ship would run the Southern blockade, but only the little oyster pungies docked with any regularity.

 The Confederate defenses effectively closed the Potomac River.  All ships carrying U.S. government shipments were directed to go to Baltimore to unload.  Those ships not carrying government stores which attempted to run the batteries were subjected to a hail of fire for a distance of about six miles.  Even the fastest ships could be kept under constant fire for almost an hour.  Unfortunately for ships trying to run the Confederate gauntlet, the river’s deepest channel swerved close to the Virginia shore just at the point where rebel batteries were mounted.

The Confederate blockade was so successful during the fall and winter of 1861-1862 that a foreign correspondent reported that Washington was the only city in the United States which really was blockaded.  The blockade became so frustrating to the North, both in terms of morale and diplomatic embarrassment, that President Lincoln issued a direct order for action, “Ordered, That the Army and the Navy cooperate in an immediate effort to capture the enemy’s batteries upon the Potomac.”

 Lincoln’s order was never carried out, for on March 9, 1862, General Joseph E. Johnston ordered a general retreat of Confederate forces to defensive positions further south, along the Rappahannock River, to forestall a Union drive on Richmond.  Within two days the batteries were evacuated and the C.S.S. City of Richmond burned in Quantico Creek.

     Some evidence of the blockade still exists.  A restored site can be seen at Freestone Point in Leesylvania State Park.  Evidence also remains at Possum Nose.  These un-restored earthworks remain in excellent condition.  The largest, overlooking the river from a seventy five foot hill with cliff-like banks, housed three guns.  Smaller emplacements flank the main battery.  Behind the batteries, running the entire width of Possum Nose, are winding rifle pits.  The Fifth Alabama Infantry Battalion and one company of the First Tennessee were stationed at Possum Nose and hut sites are still visible. 

     Despite the growth of Northern Virginia in the last century, many little known Civil War sites dot the countryside, haunting reminders of that tragic war.

Love, Sex, and Marriage in the Civil War

A brief look at love, sex, and marriage in the Civil War. The book covers courtship, marriage, birth control and pregnancy, divorce, slavery and the impact of the war on social customs.

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The Duke Street Slave Pen, Alexandria Virginia 1861

The Duke Street Slave Pen

(Now the Offices of the Urban League)

     Alexandria, Virginia was a major center for the domestic slave trade during the antebellum period.  Hundreds of thousands of slaves were shipped to the labor hungry cotton fields of the Deep South. 

Slaves being sold to cotton planters further south were brought into Alexandria from the countryside and housed in the slave pen until the time for sale.  After sale, they were herded to the Alexandria wharves and shipped out in lots by steamboat.  Lewis Bailey, taken from his family and sold as a young boy walked back to Alexandria from Texas after the Civil War to be re-united with his mother. Masters were forced to explain why contented and well cared for servants ran away so frequently and in such large numbers.  Many owners concluded that frequent runaways were mentally imbalanced.  Masters devoted considerable energy to controlling the movement of slaves.  Written passes were needed to leave the plantation.  Overseers watched the slave quarters, slave patrols were formed, professional slave hunters were employed, and rewards were offered.

Slave trader George Kephart went out of business abruptly on May 24, 1861 as the Union army marched into Alexandria.  When Federal troops arrived at the slave pen on Duke Street, the pen was in complete disarray, the sole occupant one old slave still chained to the floor.

Alexandria 1861-1865

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Falls Church, Virginia in the Civil War

The Falls Church

The Falls Church, the church for which the city is named was first built in 1734. The present-day brick church, replaced the wooden one in 1769. By 1861, Falls Church had seen the arrival of many Northerners seeking land.  The township's vote for secession was about seventy five percent for and twenty five percent against.

The Falls Church was vandalized by occupying Union troops.  The 83^rd Pennsylvania Infantry, camped near Falls Church, confiscated fences and gates for firewood and even harvested five acres of potatoes.  Volunteers of the 40^th New York took pride in the name the “Forty Thieves” because they could find plunder where others failed. 

A dedication marker at The Falls Church recognizes unknown Union soldiers who were buried in unmarked graves in the church yard during the Civil War. The soldiers were from the 144^th and 80^th New York Volunteer Infantry regiments stationed at Upton’s Hill. The soldiers all died of disease, with the exception of one who was “accidentally shot.”

There are currently two markers at The Falls Church, one for unknown Union soldiers and one for Confederate soldiers.  These markers are located in the front of the church yard on South Washington Street and were dedicated on Memorial Day, 2004. The remains of a single unknown Confederate soldier were removed after the war.

Civil War Graves of Northern Virginia

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Centreville, Virginia in the Civil War

Centreville in the Civil War

On July 16, the great Union army, marched out of Washington City to meet the Confederates at Manassas Junction. The Union Army marched through the sleepy village of Centreville, Virginia (seen above).  On July 21, 1861, the two great armies grappled. Both sides had armies of about 35,000 men.

The Union Army was defeated on the plains of Manassas.  The retreat was relatively orderly until the cry went up, “The Black Horse Cavalry are coming.”  At the Bull Run crossings (below) the retreat became a humiliating route, as soldiers streamed uncontrollably toward Centreville, discarding their arms and equipment.

Ruins of the Stone Bridge across Bull Run

The Summers family, whose house, north of Fairfax Court House, was in the path of the retreating soldiers, woke up to find bales of blankets and uniforms in the yard, along with barrels of fish and flour and beef tongues, and even a crate of champagne, all left behind in the panic of retreat.

Hidden History of Northern Virginia

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The George Washington Masonic National Memorial

Under Construction 1922 - 1932

Sitting high atop Shuter’s Hill in Alexandria, Virginia, once considered as the site for the U.S. Capitol, the Alexandria-Washington Freemason Lodge No. 22 dominates the local skyline, as well it might, being the Lodge of none other than Worshipful Brother George Washington.  In Masonic terms, George Washington was, "a just and upright Mason", a "living stone" who became the cornerstone of American civilization.  Washington presided over the cornerstone ceremony for the U.S. Capitol in 1793, laying the cornerstone of the United States Capitol in Masonic garb, as chronicled by the Alexandria Gazette of September 25, 1793.  A family cemetery was located to the right of the George Washington National Masonic Shrine (seen here under construction). In early America small family cemeteries were common.  An English visitor to colonial Alexandria, noted, “It is the custom of this place to bury their relatives in their gardens.”

Hidden History of Northern Virginia

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Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier 1921

On March 4, 1921, Congress approved the burial of an unidentified American serviceman from World War I at Arlington National Cemetery. A highly decorated soldier, Sgt. Edward F. Younger, selected from four identical caskets. The World War I Unknown lay in state in the Capitol Rotunda prior to burial at Arlington National Cemetery.  On Armistice Day, November 11, 1921, President Warren G. Harding presided over the interment ceremonies. 

Even in 1921 the intention had been to place a superstructure atop the Tomb, but it was not until 1926 that Congress authorized the necessary funds for completion of the Tomb.  Architect Lorimer Rich and sculptor Thomas Hudson Jones won a design competition for a tomb that would consist of seven pieces of marble in four levels (cap, die, base and sub-base.)  The “die” is the large central block with sculpting on all four sides. By September, 1931 all seven blocks of marble were at the Tomb site. By the end of December 1931, the assembly was completed.  Carvings on the central block under the direction of the sculptor Thomas Jones started thereafter. The Tomb was completed in April, 1932.

Installation of the sarcophagus for the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

The Tomb sarcophagus was dedicated on April 9, 1932.  The marble sarcophagus weighs seventy nine tons and is inscribed, “Here Lies in Honored Glory – An American Soldier – Known But to God”.

Historic Cemeteries of Northern Virginia

The Golden Era of Potomac River Bridge Building

Construction of Memorial Bridge ( view from the Lincoln Memorial)

     The 1930s saw the construction of two new bridges across the Potomac.  The Arlington Memorial Bridge, widely regarded as Washington’s most beautiful bridge, was opened on January 16, 1932.  Memorial Bridge was designed to symbolically link North and South in its alignment between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington House, the Robert E. Lee Memorial.  The functional Point of Rocks Bridge connecting Loudoun County with Maryland was completed in 1937.

Memorial Bridge from the air

     The late 1950s and early 1960s were the hey-day of bridge building in Northern Virginia.  As part of the Interstate Highway System created by Congress in 1956, the Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge was opened in 1961.  The American Legion Memorial Bridge, originally known as the Cabin John Bridge, was built in 1963.  The Theodore Roosevelt Bridge, connecting Rosslyn to Washington was opened June 23, 1964.

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The Long Bridge Across the Potomac River

The Long Bridge

The Long Bridge, the ancestor of the five bridges which are now collectively known as the 14^th Street Bridge, was a wooden toll bridge opened in 1809 by a private firm called the Washington Bridge Company.  When the British burned Washington in 1814, President Madison and other government officials escaped into Virginia across the Long Bridge.  The Americans then destroyed the Virginia end to prevent pursuit by the British.  The British destroyed the Washington end to prevent a counterattack by the Americans.  It took four years to reopen the bridge.

During the Civil War, Washington became a major military supply depot.  Railroads were a relatively new invention which the military was using for the first time.  How to get supplies from Washington City, across the river to the battle front in Virginia became a central concern of war planners.  Rails were placed on Long Bridge, but fearing that the structure might collapse under the strain of too much weight, the generals had horses pull railroad cars and engines across the river into Virginia.  A new stronger bridge dedicated solely to rail traffic was built one hundred feet downstream, but this bridge was not operational until the war was almost over.  The Long Bridge was frequently damaged by floods over the following decades, but served until 1906 when it was replaced by the “Highway Bridge”.  The traffic in 1906 seems light compared to the 250,000 automobiles that now pour across the 14^th Street Bridge daily.  At the turn of the century the average daily traffic over the Highway Bridge was fifty two single electric trolley cars, two hundred two-car trains, some one hundred automobiles, eight hundred double-animal teams, four hundred single-animal teams, five hundred pedestrians and eight horsemen.

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Northern Virginia Snow in the 18th and 19th Centuries

      Weather information goes back a long time in Virginia, thanks to record keeping by observers such as George Washington, James Madison and Thomas Jefferson. Snow is the most common form of natural disaster in Northern Virginia.  George Washington recorded that a gigantic snow storm on January 28, 1772 left thirty six inches of snow on the ground in Northern Virginia.  This number is the unofficial record for the area, assuming that Washington’s measurements were accurate.  Washington also reported a late season cold snap, with spits of snow and a hard wind on May 4, 1774.  During the winter of 1783-1784 the Potomac River froze over in November and the ice did not break up until March 15.  The previous year an entire regiment of the Virginia infantry marched across the frozen Rappahannock River. 

     The great winter events of the 19^th century were the “Great Arctic Outbreak of '99” and the “Great Eastern Blizzard of '99”.  On February 11, Quantico recorded a record low of  -20°F.  The blizzard struck on Valentine's Day, dropping thirty four inches on Northern Virginia. The winter of 1898-1899 was so cold throughout the United States that ice flowed down the Mississippi River into the Gulf of Mexico.

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Aviation Comes to Washington (1926-1941)

National Airport

     In the early days of aviation, Washington had the reputation of having, “the poorest aviation ground facilities of any important city in the United States or Europe.”  Wiley Post, the first pilot to make a solo flight around the world, said, “there were better landing grounds in the wilds of Siberia than at Washington."

     Thomas Mitten, the owner of the Pennsylvania Rapid Transit Company in Philadelphia, opened the first airfield in the Washington area in 1926, hoping to reap huge profits by flying Washingtonians to Philadelphia for the 150^th anniversary celebration of the Declaration of Independence.  Mitten’s “Hoover Field” was located on a thirty six acre tract in Arlington where the Pentagon now stands.  Mitten sold the airfield after only six months to a group of investors who incorporated as the Potomac Flying Service, which took over 25,000 passengers for sightseeing flights over the nation's capital between 1926-28.  A competing airfield, “Washington Airport”, opened across the road to the south on ninety seven acres.  Seaboard Airlines was established here, flying one daily round-trip flight to New York, starting in 1928.

     In 1930, at the height of the Great Depression, the owners of both Hoover Field and Washington Airport sold out to the National Aviation Corporation, which merged the two airfields into a new facility called Washington-Hoover Airport.  The new owners built a modern terminal building and a new hangar.  The new terminal boasted a passenger waiting room on the lower floor.  The airport also offered a large outdoor swimming pool for the enjoyment of the sightseers who converged on the airport.  The pool served as an important source of revenue.

     Despite improvements, Washington-Hoover could not overcome it structural defects.  The airport's single runway was intersected by a busy street, Military Road, which had guards posted to stop oncoming traffic during takeoffs & landings.  Additionally, due to its low-lying location next to the Potomac River, and its poor drainage, the airport was prone to flooding.  Bordered on the east by Route 1, with its high-tension electrical wires, obstructed by a high smokestack on one approach and a dump nearby, the field was increasingly unable to handle increased air traffic and newer planes.  Hoover Field closed in 1941, replaced by the much larger Washington National Airport (now Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport), two miles to the southeast.

Hidden History of Northern Virginia

Read about the Rebel blockade of the Potomac River, the imprisonment of German POWs at super-secret Fort Hunt during World War II and the building of the Pentagon on the same site and in the same configuration as Civil War, era Fort Runyon. Meet Annandale's "bunny man," who inspired one of the country's wildest and scariest urban legends; learn about the slaves in Alexandria's notorious slave pens; and witness suffragists being dragged from the White House lawn and imprisoned in the Occoquan workhouse. 

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Frank Lloyd Wright in Northern Virginia

Pope-Leighey House

In the 1930s architect Frank Lloyd Wright grappled with the problem of creating a moderately priced house that was both aesthetically pleasing and environmentally friendly.  Wright, who had been primarily employed to design houses for millionaires, began designing so called “Usonian” houses for the common man, houses that were simple, functional and beautiful.  Wright believed that the Usonian house would represent a new form of truly American architecture.

    

The Pope-Leighey House, now on the grounds of Woodlawn Plantation in Fairfax County, is a classic example of this type of architecture.  The house was commissioned by journalist Loren Pope in 1939 and was originally located in Falls Church.  The 1,200 square foot house features native materials, a flat roof and large cantilevered overhangs for passive solar heating and natural cooling.  A strong visual connection between the interior and exterior spaces is emphasized.  Wright’s innovative use of four native materials (wood, brick, glass and concrete) created a sense of spaciousness.  The interior of the house is set up to be an efficient living space.  The interior features many types of versatile built in furniture. Wright designed the house, along with his other works, to bring nature inside.

    

Despite its beauty the house has certain drawbacks.  There is very little room for storage. Wright believed that you should only keep things that you used often.  As a result, closets are small and there is no room for clutter.  Owning a house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright (recognized by the American Institute of Architects in 1991 as “the greatest American architect of all time”) was not just a purchase, but a commitment to a way of life.  Although Wright always created works of art, some of the practical details of daily living sometimes suffered. 

In 1946, Loren Pope sold the house to Robert and Marjorie Leighey. In 1961, the state of Virginia condemned the house to make way for Interstate 66.  Robert Leighey died in 1963 shortly before the state issued an order to vacate the premises.  Marjorie Leighey donated the house to the National Trust for Historic Preservation which moved the house to the grounds of Woodlawn Plantation (9000 Richmond Highway).

Another Wright masterpiece (still in private hands) was built in McLean in 1959.  Luis Marden was a photographer for the National Geographic who led a colorful and eclectic life.  He and his wife Ethel were the perfect couple to live in a Wright house.  Although the floors cracked and the furnace was never properly installed, Mrs. Marden wrote to Wright in 1959, “Our beautiful house.. stands proudly just under the brow of the hill, looking down always on the rushing water which constantly sings to it, day and night, winter and summer. It will … represent for us, as you put it when you were here, ‘a way of life’”.

Hidden History of Northern Virginia

     Read about the Rebel blockade of the Potomac River, the imprisonment of German POWs at super-secret Fort Hunt during World War II and the building of the Pentagon on the same site and in the same configuration as Civil War, era Fort Runyon. Meet Annandale's "bunny man," who inspired one of the country's wildest and scariest urban legends; learn about the slaves in Alexandria's notorious slave pens; and witness suffragists being dragged from the White House lawn and imprisoned in the Occoquan workhouse. 

Treasure Legends of Virginia

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Depression Era Art in Northern Virginia

     During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the federal government set up a number of public works programs to provide work for all Americans.  One of these programs involved artists.  Harry Hopkins, President Roosevelt's relief administrator said in response to criticism of federal support for the arts, “[artists] have got to eat just like other people.”  “The Section of Fine Arts” was established in 1934 and administered by the Procurement Division of the Treasury Department. The Section's main function was to select high quality art to decorate public buildings.  One percent of the funds allocated for the construction of public buildings were set aside for “embellishments”.  Artists were paid from these funds.  By providing decoration in public buildings, art was made accessible to all people.

     Post offices were considered a prime building objective of the Roosevelt New Deal, and a prime place for the display of public art.  Large murals, depicting enduring images of the “American scene” were the artistic vehicle of choice.  Artists were chosen in open competitions to paint scenes reflecting America's history and way of life on post office walls large and small. Mural artists were provided with guidelines and themes. Scenes of local interest and events were deemed to be the most suitable.  Americans shown at work or at leisure, grace the walls of the New Deal post offices. Social realism painting, though popular at the time, was discouraged.  You will not see bread lines or labor strikes depicted in New Deal public art.  The heroic was to be celebrated and embraced. Historical events depicting courageous acts were popular themes for post office murals.

     Seven of these New Deal artistic gems still exist in Northern Virginia.  In 1940 Auriel Bessemer completed seven murals for Arlington County’s first public building, the Joseph L. Fisher Post Office in Clarendon.  Bessemer was paid $800 to paint the seven murals depicting familiar local scenes such as Great Falls and Roosevelt Island.

Hidden History of Northern Virginia

Read about the Rebel blockade of the Potomac River, the imprisonment of German POWs at super-secret Fort Hunt during World War II and the building of the Pentagon on the same site and in the same configuration as Civil War, era Fort Runyon. Meet Annandale's "bunny man," who inspired one of the country's wildest and scariest urban legends; learn about the slaves in Alexandria's notorious slave pens; and witness suffragists being dragged from the White House lawn and imprisoned in the Occoquan workhouse. 

Treasure Legends of Virginia

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Slavery in Northern Virginia

Interior of Slave Pen in Alexandria, Virginia

The vast majority of male slaves worked as farmhands.  Others worked as laborers, waiters, blacksmiths, drivers and servants at inns.  Although the free labor of the slave was the most obvious economic benefit to the owner, slaves were also a liquid asset.  The selling or hiring out of excess slaves to the labor hungry cotton plantations of the Deep South was a source of revenue for many slaveholders in Virginia.  A slave woman was commonly esteemed less for her laboring qualities, and most for those qualities which gave her value as a broodmare.  In 1857, a Richmond newspaper price list quoted the price of a “number one man…extra (fine)” at $1,450 - $1,550.  “Good” at $1,200 - $1,250.  Women sold for twenty percent less.

     To appreciate the hold that slavery had on the sense of economic well-being of both the slave owning and the general populations, it is important to recognize the economic pervasiveness of slavery in Virginia.  In 1860 Virginia had the largest number of slaves of any state in the Union. One out of every three white families in what is modern day Virginia owned slaves, making it similar to such Deep South states as Alabama, Louisiana and Georgia.     A slave worth $1,800 in 1860 would have a current value of some $49,000, the price of a new luxury car.   So, even a modest slave owner would have a large economic stake in perpetuating the institution.

       Even a cursory examination of the writings of the time suggests that slavery led many slave owners not to empathize with the humanity of slaves.   The Alexandria Gazette of January 2, 1850, for example, put reward notices for a runaway slave named Wallace aged twenty one and a missing black horse aged seven years side by side, as though these notices belonged in the same category.

     Non-slave owners, without the motive of economic self-interest blinding them, could recognize the inherent problem of slavery in Virginia.  The Benevolent Society of Alexandria for Ameliorating and Improving the Condition of the People of Color, for example, published a statement stating,

     “These enormous cruelties cannot be practiced among us, without producing a sensible effect upon the morale of the community: for the temptation to participate in so lucrative a traffic, though stained with human blood, is too great to be withstood by all; and even many of those who do not directly participate in it, become so accustomed to its repulsive features, that they cease to discourage it in others.”

Hidden History of Northern Virginia

Women Doctors in the Civil War

A quick look at women doctors and medicine in the Civil War for the general reader. Technologically, the American Civil War was the first “modern” war, but medically it still had its roots in the Middle Ages. In both the North and the South, thousands of women served as nurses to help wounded and suffering soldiers and civilians. A few women served as doctors, a remarkable feat in an era when sex discrimination prevented women from pursuing medical education, and those few who did were often obstructed by their male colleagues at every turn.

George Washington’s Church During the Civil War

Christ Church

While many churches were turned into hospitals and stables during the occupation of Alexandria, Virginia, Christ Church’s reputation as George Washington’s place of worship preserved it as a church. 

Union Army Lt. Charles Haydon found Alexandria, “A quaint, old looking place….There is not a half hour in the day that I do not have his (George Washington’s) presence associated with the surrounding scenery.”  Lt Haydon mused, “It would do us all good to spend an hour at the grave of Washington in tears over the fate of our country.” Union army chaplains conducted services in the church, where a Union army congregation grew up.  Most of the original parishioners worshipped with other Southern sympathizers elsewhere.  

Union soldiers vandalized the grave of Eleanor Wren at Christ Church, changing her age at death from “32” to “132”.  According to contemporary reports, “The streets were crowded with intoxicated soldiery; murder was of almost hourly occurrence, and disturbances, robbery, and rioting were constant.  The sidewalks and docks were covered with drunken men, women, and children, and quiet citizens were afraid to venture (out)”.

By the summer of 1863 the Alexandria Gazette reported, old residents of Alexandria had mostly departed.  When the war ended, Christ Church was returned to its parishioners with its interior intact.

Alexandria, 1861-1865

Civil War Graves of Northern Virginia