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Updated: June 20, 2025
Though this county sent many brave men into the Union ranks, probably more than any other county of the same population in Virginia, yet Leesburg is almost a fac-simile of Charlestown, the capital of Jefferson County, the scene of John Brown's execution, where all the people, including women and children, are "secession to a man."
Thus as I swung leg over Satan that morning I resolved to handle him as I had seen my father do, and I felt strong enough for that. I remembered, in the proud way a boy will have, the time when my father and I, riding through the muddy streets of Leesburg town together, saw a farmer's wagon stuck midway of a crossing.
It does not seem to have occurred to these officers that soldiers in the near vicinity of the enemy, wherever they may be placed, must always be subject to privations, and that at any other point of the Confederate frontier at Winchester with Jackson, at Leesburg with Hill, or at Centreville with Johnston their troops would be exposed to the same risks and the same discomforts as at Romney.
At two o'clock in the morning we halted at Metropolitan Mills, on the Alexandria and Leesburg turnpike. A bridge had been destroyed below, and the creek was so swollen that neither artillery nor cavalry could ford it. The meadows were submerged and the rain still descended in torrents. The chilled troops made bonfires of some new panel fence, and stormed all the henroosts in the vicinity.
On the twentieth we resumed our march at ten A. M., and advanced to Leesburg, where we fed our horses and rested. In the decline of the day we marched to Goose Creek, on whose grassy banks we bivouacked for the night. The whole cavalry force is moving towards the Rappahannock. On the twenty-first we advanced viâ Gum Spring and Centreville to Manassas Junction.
The enemy, they discovered, were not Cole's men but a California battalion. They learned that this force had turned in the direction of Leesburg, and that they were accompanied by the deserter, Binns. Mosby made up his mind to ambush the Californians on their way back to their camp at Vienna. He had plans, involving a length of rope, for his former trooper, Binns.
Upon appealing to their masters for terms the owners, somewhat moved by compassion, sold them for one half of their value. White then went West and left four in Chillicothe, twenty-three in Leesburg and twenty-six in Wayne County, Indiana, without encountering any material difficulty. Others had thought of this plan but the Quakers actually carried it out on a small scale.
The next morning Wright crossed the Shenandoah, meaning to move toward Winchester, but when he learned where Early had gone he recrossed the river in the evening, marched by night to Leesburg, and encamped on Goose Creek, presently crossing to the south bank. On the morning of the 22d Wright marched on Washington, the Sixth Corps leading, followed by the Nineteenth.
"Then I am not upon the Alexandria turnpike?" "No. You're sot for Leesburg. This is the Georgetown and Chain Bridge road." With a heavy heart, I retraced my steps, crossed Chain Bridge at five o'clock, and halted at Kirkwood's at seven.
As for myself, I was busy with my work, for now my superiors were good enough to advance me for what they called valor on the field. Before autumn ended I was one of the youngest colonels of volunteers in the Federal Army. Thus it was easy for me to find a brief furlough when we passed near Leesburg on our way to the Blue Ridge Gap, and I then ran down for a look at our little valley.
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