A Virginia Village Part 11

February 3, 1766:

In the record of a Vestry meeting held for Truro Parish at Wm.

Gardner's the 3rd and 4th of February, 1766, is the following: It appearing from an order of the Vestry bearing date the 25th day of March, 1763, that there was a deficiency in the work which ought to have been done on the Falls Church, by Mr. Chas. Broadwater, and that persons were appointed to view the same and report and no report appearing upon the records of this parish, it is ordered that the Church Wardens do inquire into the same and report accordingly. [Geo. Was.h.i.+ngton was present at this meeting. Ed.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Major Jos. T. Hiett]

July 10, 1766:

At a Vestry held for Truro Parish July 10, 1766, Mr. Edward Payne, one of the Church Wardens, having reported to this Vestry that he had applied to the persons formally appointed to view the work which ought to have been done on the Falls Church by Mr. Chas.

Broadwater, and that they denied having any order to view the same and refused to concern themselves;

Ordered: That Thos. Price do view the work done to the Falls Church and report what deficiency appears in the same, and that Mr. Edward Payne do apply to the Vestry of Fairfax Parish to appoint a workman to view the same and that the said do report as aforesaid, and that Mr. Edward Payne attend the viewing on behalf of this parish and to apply to the said Vestry to appoint one of their members to attend the same on behalf of their parish.

February 23, 1767:

At a Vestry held for Truro Parish at the Glebe the 23rd day of February, 1767, at which Geo. Was.h.i.+ngton was present, it was ordered: A report being made to this Vestry by Jas. Wren and Thos.

Price, two workmen empowered by a formal order of this Vestry to view the work done to the Falls Church and to report what deficiency appeared in the same, etc., by which report there appears to be a deficiency of 9 14 s. 6 p.

Ordered: That the Church Wardens of this parish apply to Maj. Chas.

Broadwater, the undertaker of said work, for the said sum, and account with the Vestry of Fairfax Parish for their proportion of the same when it is received.

Ordered: That a Vestry House be built at the New Church of the dimensions and in manner following * * (Capt. Ed. Payne agreeing with the Vestry to build said house).

[Ill.u.s.tration: Mr. George Stambaugh]

September 9, 1768:

At a Vestry held for Truro Parish September 9, 1768, at which Geo.

Was.h.i.+ngton was present, the following entries appear:

That the Vestry being convened at the New Church in order to view and examine the work, and having done so do find the same completed and finished according to the articles of agreement between Capt.

Ed. Payne, the undertaker * * *

Ordered: That Col. Geo. Mason pay him the sum of 193 pounds out of the money in his hands belonging to the parish the same being the last payment due to the said Payne, for the said church. (This was probably known as Payne's Church; the church near the Fairfax C.

H.)

November 28, 1768:

At a Vestry held for Truro Parish November 28, 1768, at which Geo.

Was.h.i.+ngton was present, it was ordered: That Geo. Was.h.i.+ngton, Esq., pay to Alex. Henderson the sum of . 8, being the balance of 9 14 s., 6 p., received from Maj. Chas. Broadwater for a deficiency on the Falls Church.

February 24, 1784:

At a Vestry held for Truro Parish at Colchester, the 22nd day of February, 1784, John Gibson, gent., is elected for a member of this Parish in the room of his Excellency General Was.h.i.+ngton, who has signified his resignation in a letter to Dan'l McCarty, esq.

[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.