Preserving Salona

As I wrote several months ago, Fairfax County received a perpetual conservation easement on 41-acres of Salona in McLean.  The Fairfax County Park Authority has developed a draft of the Salona Park Master Plan and recently held a public hearing on the development of the property.  The Park Authority has also solicited written public comments.  This past weekend I finally got around to submitting my letter to the county and wanted to share it with readers:

I am writing in response to the Fairfax County Park Authority’s solicitation of public comments on the July 22, 2010 draft Salona Park Master Plan (“Master Plan”). As a McLean resident, Civil War enthusiast, and avid supporter of historic preservation, I am particularly interested in how Fairfax County intends to develop Salona. 

In a region where the developer’s bulldozer has often destroyed lands of historic significance, the Salona conservation easement provides the county with a major opportunity to protect one of Fairfax’s most treasured properties. However, with the easement comes the responsibility to ensure that Salona is developed in a manner that comports with its historic character.


Salona, which played a key role in the War of 1812 and the Civil War, should not become just another suburban residential park. Fortunately, many elements of the Master Plan appear appropriate for a site like Salona, and the county should be commended. For example, “interpretative features” would be installed across the park. These features would presumably educate the public on the history associated with Salona. There are also plans to preserve and restore the meadow fronting Rt. 123 and to offer an agriculture/education area.


For all of the upsides, however, a few key elements of the Master Plan have the potential to undermine the historic nature of Salona. The front of the park would consist of two large athletic fields, as well as a 100-space parking lot, a dog park, and a playground/picnic area. These types of installations, although consistent with the easement, would detract from the historic nature of the property and defeat the goal of preserving one of the last open, rural spaces in suburban McLean. The county should be able to find alternative sites for such activities. Possible uses of the core activity area at Salona could include a small museum, which would tell the history of Salona, as well as other events that occurred in the McLean area. The museum could even offer a reconstruction of part of a Union Army winter camp like that located at Salona in 1861-62. A parking lot could be placed next to the museum, far from the portion of the property fronting Rt. 123, and obscured by trees and other vegetation. The museum could also serve as a focal point for living history demonstrations related to Salona history. The agriculture/education area and the meadow preservation area could be expanded. These are only a few suggestions, but in any event, there are better ways to commemorate this historic property than through the installation of athletic fields, playgrounds, and dog parks.


Fairfax County has generally done an excellent job in preserving historic sites within the county’s borders. I hope that the Park Authority stays faithful to its record when developing the Salona property.

Salona property fronting Rt. 123, part of which would become athletic fields, picnic area, and dog park under the proposed plan.

According to an article in the November 24-30, 2010 edition of the McLean Connection, many other residents expressed similar sentiments about the plan at the November 17 public hearing. I hope that readers with an interest in historic preservation will write to the Fairfax County Park Authority to share their views.  Information on submitting comments can be found here.

Thanksgiving at Camp Griffin, November 1861

I would like to wish readers a Happy Thanksgiving!  As we celebrate this holiday, I thought you might enjoy the following excerpts from a letter written by Zebina Y. Bickford, a private with the 6th Vermont, Company D, who passed the winter at Camp Griffin in Lewinsville.  On November 28, 1861, he wrote to Ms. Emily Bickford:

It is Thanksgiving Day and I have not much to do but write and thinking perhaps you did not hear from Virginia any oftener than you wished to I thought perhaps a few lines from some of us cousins would be very acceptable. . . .  It is just about the time that Vermonters are taking their thanksgiving supper and I have no doubt you are enjoying it first rate. Well so are we soldier boys. You may think that we are home sick today but it is not so, not with me at any rate for we received a box of clothing and a few nicknacks consisting of eatables, from Glover last night and that makes a very good thanksgiving for us. The clothing is the best part of it however. It came just the right time we were all wishing it would come the night before thanksgiving. Our company are gone out on picket guard that is all the well ones and if I had been able I should have gone with them, but I have been sick with the measles and was not able to go. Supper is ready so I can't write any more now. . . .

Thanksgiving supper is over you cant imagine what a lot of fine things we had for supper, so I must tell you. In the first place we had a piece of sour bread and salt pork. This is what we usually have although the bread is not always sour. We generally have good bread and of late enough of it, but when we first came here we were kept pretty hungry we did not have half enough to eat and our meat a part of the time was not cooked at all. Well I almost forgot I was telling you what I had for supper. After the bread and meat I had some of mother's cookies and doughnuts that came in our box. They tasted a good deal like Vermont victuals. Well you must wait a few moments until I can read a couple letters that have just come in. . . .  One of my letters was from Sarah & Alice. They gave me a very cordial to come and spend Thanksgiving with them but the letter was one day to late for Thanksgiving day is passed and evening has come. Therefore I shall have to wait until next year before I accept their invitation. . . .  Charley Refford is passing around his cake that was sent him from home and I must stop once more and help them eat the cake. It was first rate cake I tell you a good deal better than we get here everyday. I suppose you have had a good sleigh ride before this time. I have not had one yet nor do I expect one while we stay in Va. We have not had any snow here yet that stayed on the ground all day. It snowed a little one night but it melted away before noon the next day. The days are very warm here but the nights are very cold. It has been the warmest thanksgiving day I ever saw it as warm as it is in Vermont in September. Last night when we were on dress parade the Colonel read the proclamation of the Governor of Vermont and requested us to keep the day as Vermonters should. After dress parade was over our first Lieutenant told us that those who did not go on picket might get up just as good a supper as the circumstances would permit of we might have baked turkey chicken pie or anything else we chose, but nothing of the kind could be purchased here with love or money. Three were of us went out this forenoon to try and get something for supper but we could not find anything that we wanted so we concluded to let it go till next year when we hope to be at home it does not seem as though this war could last more than a year longer but perhaps it will there is no one knows how long we shall have to stay here I suppose we have got good leaders and those who are capable of managing our army. I hope so at least. . . .

Remember friends that are far away. Write as soon as you get this and do not fail to write over half a dozen sheets for I have nothing to do now but read letters. My love to all. Write soon. Write soon. Write soon. Write soon. Write soon and often. This from Zebina (spelling and grammar as in original)

Thanksgiving Day, November 28, 1861, by A.R. Waud.  Sketch made in camp of Union General Louis Blenker, around Washington, D.C. (courtesy of Wikipedia)

The Vermonters celebrated the holiday with what little they had.  At least Zebina and his fellow soldiers were able to enjoy some sweets from home.  Zebina's meal stands in stark contrast to the feast at the camp of the 2nd Wisconsin Regiment in Arlington.  There, men dined on oysters, turkey with jelly, ducks, spring chickens, lamb with mint sauce, sirloin beef, pig, wild goose, baked beans, corn bread, cole slaw, pumpkin pie, and many other culinary delights.  The menu likely had something to do with the visit to camp of Wisconsin Governor Alexander Randall.

Zebina, like many others, celebrated his last Thanksgiving that year.  He died of disease on April 30, 1862 during the Peninsula Campaign.  Zebina is buried at the National Cemetery in Yorktown, Virginia.  The letter in its entirety can be found here, on the website of the Pilgrim Hall Museum in Plymouth, Massachusetts. 

Pennsylvania and the Civil War Website

As a native of the Pittsburgh area, I enjoy studying and writing about Pennsylvania's involvement in the Civil War.  In particular, I have started to focus on the Pennsylvania Reserve Volunteer Corps, which was camped around Langley in 1861-62.  (See here and here.)  I plan to do future posts which will go into more detail on the lives of the soliders from the Keystone State who stayed at Camp Pierpont.  This line of research will allow me to tie together my interests in local history and the history of my home state.

On a related note, I thought readers might be interested in the Pennsylvania state website for the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War, "Pennsylvania Civil War 150."  The website provides background on Pennsylvania's involvement in the Civil War and discusses the lives of those who contributed to the Northern war effort, from Governor Andrew Curtin to Martin Robison Delany, the highest ranking African-American solider.  The site also includes information on planning a trip to Civil War-related spots throughout the state.

Meade Reacts to the Grand Review

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the famous Grand Review at Bailey's Crossroads on November 20, 1861.  Not everyone in the Union Army appeared as impressed with the day's event as was General McClellan.  General George G. Meade, commander of a brigade of Pennsylvania Reserves and future leader of the Army of the Potomac, was less than satisfied.  I recently came across the following letter written by General Meade at Camp Pierpont to his wife, dated November 21, 1861: 

I intended to have written to you last evening, but came back so tired from the grand review that I went right to bed. I have no doubt the papers will give you a glowing description of this event, so long talked about. For my part, all I can say is that I got up at half-past 3 A. M., the morning very cold, with a heavy frost lying on the ground. At 6 o'clock we moved and marched nine miles to the ground, at Bailey's Cross-Roads, where we arrived about 10 o'clock, and were posted in a field where the mud was six inches deep, and where we stood for four hours, after which we marched past General McClellan, and then home, where we arrived, tired, hungry and disgusted, at about 7 P. M. The day was cloudy, cold and raw, and altogether the affair as a "spectacle" was a failure. I understand the object of the movement was to show the soldiers what a large and well disciplined army had been collected together, and thus give them confidence in themselves. I fear standing in the mud for four hours and marching nine miles there and back took away greatly from the intended effect. My own brigade did very well going to the review and on the ground, but returning I found it utterly impossible to keep the men in the ranks. I used all my influence with the officers first, and afterwards with the men, but ineffectually, and at last abandoned it in disgust, one regiment being by the time it reached camp pretty much all broken up and scattered. I felt annoyed when I got back, and wearied at the fruitless efforts I had made. There was a notion that the Grand Review was to be converted into a fight by making a dash at Centreville, ten miles distant from the ground, but, instead of this, the enemy made a dash at us, driving in our pickets on several parts of the line and killing several of them. They also kept up a practicing with their heavy guns all the afternoon, as if in defiance of our parade. General Smith required his division to cheer McClellan. He passed our division front, but, not being posted in the programme, we were silent.

From The Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade, Volume I, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1913 (available on Google Books).

General George G. Meade (courtesy of Wikipedia/Library of Congress)

What a way to rain on Little Mac's parade! Meade's foul reaction to the review stands in contrast to the attitude of some soldiers in his own division  of Pennsylvanians, who were moved by the display of military might and proud to participate in such an event.  (See previous post.)  Meade would one day have a chance to lead his own parade when he marched at the head of the Army of the Potomac, 80,000-strong, in the Grand Review of May 1865.

Recent Purchase: New York State Militia Regulations

On Sunday I attended the thirty-fourth annual McLean Antiques Show and Sale at the local community center.  After walking past several decorative arts booths, I finally located the stand of a dealer from New Orleans, The Sword and Pen/Le Petit Soldier Shop.  The seller had a multitude of Civil War books and artifacts for sale, many of which were unfortunately out of my price range!  However, I stumbled across the General Regulations for the Military Forces of the State of New York and could not resist.  This manual covers all aspects of military life, such as organization, drill, weapons, and discipline.  The book's elaborately illustrated title page indicates a date of 1863, but prior to the start of the main text, the book contains a reprint of a general order from the commander-in-chief of the militia dated May 21, 1864, meaning that the book was published at the earliest at the end of May 1864.  The volume, which is in relatively good condition for its age, has a leather spine with gold stamping, attached to marbled front and back boards.  The hinges are starting to crack, but the interior is still tightly bound and shows only light foxing.  The book includes several black-and-white plates, including diagrams of regulation caps, buttons, and swords.

The 22nd New York State Militia, Harper's Ferry, (West) Virginia, 1861 (courtesy of Corbis Images)

Incidentally, the New York State Militia provided units to the U.S. Government throughout the Civil War.  (The New York Legislature changed the name to the New York "National Guard" in April 1862.)  At the outbreak of hostilities, some entire regiments of militia were mustered into federal service for three-month, and even three-year terms. The U.S. Government also called on the New York State Militia for short periods during times of crisis.  Several regiments were sent to Maryland and Pennsylvania in June and July 1863 when General Robert E. Lee invaded the Keystone state.  The General Regulations fittingly contain an appendix of U.S. regulations with regard to militia in the service of the United States. 

I always enjoy owning such a connection to the past and look forward to displaying this book along with my other antique Civil War finds.

Another Image of Camp Griffin

While researching the winter camps of the Army of the Potomac around Langley and Lewinsville, I located another period image (click on photo for higher resolution):

Courtesy of Wikipedia Commons, from New York Public Library, Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, Photography Collection, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs

This photograph of the 43rd New York Volunteer Infantry at Camp Griffin was made for a stereoscope, a nineteenth century version of a View Master that transformed a pair of two-dimensional images into a three-dimensional one.  At least one company of men appears to be drilling on an open field next to an encampment of tents.  The surrounding countryside is barren, with the exception of a small copse of trees of a rise of land.  Much of the ground was likely flattened by the constant movement of men across the field.  The landscape appears harsh, with little protection from wind.  One can only imagine how muddy the soil became with rain or snow.

The 43rd New York was composed of volunteers from Albany and New York City and was mustered into service in September 1861.  The regiment was known as the "Albany Rifles" or "Yates' Rifles."  In the fall of 1861, the 43rd was attached to General Winfield Scott Hancock's brigade of General "Baldy" Smith's division.  The regiment spent the winter at Camp Griffin before being sent to the Peninsula in March 1862 as part of the Fourth Army Corps of the Army of the Potomac.  The regiment was attached to the newly-formed Sixth Corps during the Peninsula Campaign, and served the rest of the war in many of the most important battles of the Eastern Theater, including Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and the Wilderness.

Washington, D.C. 1892: Parade of Union Veterans

As we remember the nation's veterans, I thought readers might be interested in an event that happened in Washington several years before the establishment of Armistice Day in 1919.  Armistice Day was originally intended to honor the veterans of the First World War.  It was not until 1954 that Armistice Day became Veterans Day to commemorate the sacrifices of those who had served in all of the nation's wars.  By then, nearly all veterans of the Civil War were long gone. 

The veterans of the Union and Confederate Armies had formed their own fraternal organizations after the Civil War.  These groups promoted events to remember those who had fought and died during the conflict.  The Grand Army of the Republic ("GAR"), established in 1866, was the primary group of Union veterans.  One of the GAR's commanders, former Major General John Logan, established the first Memorial Day in 1868 (then known as "Decoration Day"). 

The GAR held an official encampment, or national convention, each year in a different city.  In 1892, the organization chose Washington, D.C. as the site of its twenty-sixth encampment.  Nearly 350,000 descended on the nation's capital that September to participate in the gathering.  The New York Times described public and private buildings as decorated to welcome the veterans. The State, War, and Navy Department Building was "almost completely covered with flags and streamers," while the Post Office Department Building was decked out with "portraits, in heroic size" of President Lincoln and Generals Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, and other Union military leaders.  The patriotic decorations on the White House and Treasury were "conspicuously elaborate and beautiful."  Red, white, and blue were everywhere in the streets and avenues around Washington.  The Ellipse south of the White House, known then as the "White Lot," was transformed into an encampment, with tents and stands representing the various Union Armies at the time of the Civil War.  Unfortunately, President Benjamin Harrison was tending to his sick wife, who was dying from tuberculosis, and was away from Washington in Loon Lake, New York, until after the opening of ceremonies.

On September 20, 1892, around 80,000 veterans marched down Pennsylvania Avenue along the same route that the victorious Union Armies had taken in the Grand Review of May 23-24, 1865.  African-American soldiers, who were excluded from the 1865 review, marched alongside their white comrades.   The event was a fitting tribute to the aging Union veterans of the war, held long before the establishment of Veterans Day in this country.

Sedgwick Post of the GAR in the GAR Parade of September 1892.  Photo taken at the corner of 11th Street, N.W. and Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.  (Library of Congress)

Print of the September 1892 GAR Parade down Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. (courtesy of From Soliders' Home to Medical Center)

Grand Review of the Armies down Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. May 1865 (courtesy of Wikipedia)

The Grand Review at Bailey's Crossroads

Looking today at the commercial sprawl of Bailey's Crossroads in Northern Virginia, it is difficult to imagine the rural character of the landscape during the nineteenth century.  In November1861, Bailey's Crossroads was the site of the largest military review ever seen on North American soil up to that time.  Throughout the previous months, the area around Bailey's Crossroads lay in a virtual "no-man's land" between Confederate forces at Munson's Hill to the northwest and Union lines outside of Alexandria.  The area fell into Northern hands when the Confederates withdrew in late September 1861.

General George B. McClellan, commander of the Army of the Potomac, had expended much effort after the defeat at Bull Run whipping his raw recruits into a fighting force.  A Grand Review would provide McClellan with an opportunity to showcase the results of his organizational prowess.  Early on the cold morning of November 20, 1861, troops from seven divisions of the Army around Washington began marching towards Bailey's Crossroads.  McClellan wanted a great display of force, but as the New York Times reported, he ensured that the "pickets on the outposts [were] considerably strengthened" while the divisions were away.

Around 20,000 to 30,000 spectators gathered to watch the review.   According to the Times:

As no passes were required it was free to everyone who could procure a conveyance, or who chose to walk, the distance being about eight miles by the route which they were obliged to take. The roads were guarded the entire distance, so that civilians without written permission could not diverge from the prescribed limits of travel. 

The scene made an impression on Sergeant Oren M. Stebbins of the famed 1st Pennsylvania Rifles, also known as the "Bucktails." In a November 24, 1861 letter to his local newspaper, he noted that spectators were "filling the trees, covering the house tops and barns, and swarming on every vacant spot, all anxious to behold the grandest military display, that ever was witnessed in America."

As the troops arrived in Bailey's Crossroads, they were organized into a semi-circle of four miles.  At the start of the ceremony, fifteen batteries fired a salute and then McClellan, along with President Lincoln, Secretary of War Simon Cameron, and Secretary of State William H. Seward, "all on horseback, rode rapidly along the line, meeting with continuous and enthusiastic cheers from the soldiers."  (New York Times, Nov. 21, 1861.)  As J.P. Sheibley of the 7th Pennsylvania Reserves described the scene to his brother, McClellan, Lincoln, and the Cabinet, "were welcomed with loud huzza's from the soldiers, and bands playing 'Hail to the Chief'.  It was a sight that made the pulse beat quick."



"The Great Review at Bailey's Cross Roads, Virginia, on November 20, 1861 -- Sketched by Our Special Artist From the Top of a Barn," Harper's Weekly, December 7, 1861 (courtesy of sonofthesouth.net)

The dignitaries returned to the review stand, and at one-thirty in the afternoon, the seven divisions began to file past in a procession that lasted three hours.  General George A. McCall's Pennsylvania Reserves, led by the  "Bucktails," went first, followed by the divisions of Generals Samuel P. Heintzelman, William "Baldy" Smith, William B. Franklin, Louis Blenker, Fitz John Porter, and Irvin McDowell.  According to the Times, the force consisted of "a total of 76 regiments of infantry, 17 batteries and seven regiments of cavalry, perhaps in all about 70,000 men."  (Most accounts, including Harper's Weekly, reported 70,000; McClellan claimed 65,000 in a letter written that day, while the historical marker in Bailey's Crossroads notes 50,000.) After passing the review stand, the soldiers headed back to their camps around Washington.

Bailey's Crossroads, at the corner of Leesburg Pike and Columbia Pike (in 1861, the Leesburg & Alexandria Turnpike and the Columbia Turnpike).  In 1837, Hachaliah Bailey from Westchester County, New York purchased land at this intersection and built his home "Moray" here.  Union officers and their families boarded at Moray during the Civil War.  Today, only Moray Lane remains.  The windmill to the left of the highway marker is all that is left of the rural landscape. (Thanks to my wife for snapping the picture.)

The reaction of officers present in the stands was described by Harper's Weekly in the December 7, 1861 edition:

The passage of this large army of volunteers elicited the strongest praise from the very formidable body of old army officers who sat in review. General Stunner, who now for the first time since his return from the Pacific witnessed an exhibition of the progress in drill of the volunteers, expressed much surprise that men coming from civil life should, in so short a period, have been able to compete in soldierly appearance with the veterans of the regular army.

McClellan also was very content with his Army's performance.  He wrote to his wife that night at half past eight:

The Grand Review went off splendidly. . . not a mistake was made, not a hitch.  I never saw so large a Review in Europe so well done -- I was completely satisfied & delighted beyond expression.

Unfortunately for McClellan, his skills on the battlefield did not match his skills as an organizer of military reviews. 

Today's Washington Post: Possible Clara Barton Museum Downtown

I wanted to make readers aware of this interesting story in today's Washington Post.  Clara Barton's former office and home, now owned by the U.S. Government, may be converted into a museum dedicated to Barton and her work.  The old building served as the headquarters for her Missing Soldiers Office after the war.  The National Museum of Civil War Medicine will host an open house at the site today. (I didn't see details of the open house, but the Museum's phone number is 301-695-1864.)

Clara Barton (courtesy of National Park Service)

McClellan Spends the Night in Lewinsville

The other day I wrote that Salona had a connection to General George McClellan, commander of the Union Army of the Potomac. Several of McClellan's letters from the fall of 1861 reference the tiny hamlet of Lewinsville, Virginia in the vicinity of Salona, which at the time was owned by the Smoot family.  On the night of October 12, 1861, he appears to have been a guest at the house, which was then serving as the headquarters of General "Baldy" Smith.  McClellan had learned earlier in the day that a Confederate force was approaching the Union lines in Northern Virginia.  He decided to remain in the field to direct operations rather than go back to Washington.  As McClellan told his wife, Mary Ellen, in a letter in following day:

On the 12th while at [General Fitz John] Porter's camp I heard that the enemy was advancing in force.  Spent last night in WF Smith's camp expecting an attack at daylight. 

George B. McClellan, Harper's Weekly, January 25, 1862 (courtesy of Mr. Lincoln's White House)

According to an account in Army of the Potomac: McClellan Takes Command, September 1861-February 1862 by Russel Beatie, McClellan and his staff enjoyed an evening at the house hosted by General Smith's wife.  (The Smoot family had already fled their place by this time.)  As he fell asleep that night in his room at Salona, McClellan surely had a lot on his mind apart from military affairs --  Mary Ellen had given birth to their daughter, Mary, on the morning of October 12.  Upon waking, McClellan soon discovered that his intelligence was faulty.  There was no attack on Union forces at Lewinsville, and McClellan returned to D.C.

Salona Marker Dedication and Visit

This past Sunday my friend Ken and I attended Fairfax County's dedication of the Salona marker. The DuVal family graciously agreed to open their well-preserved home and property to attendees of the event.  Readers will recall that I have blogged frequently about Salona, the site of General "Baldy" Smith's headquarters during the winter of 1861-62. (See, for example, here, here, and here.)  Little Mac himself paid a visit when touring the lines.  (And Salona was also the site where President Madison stayed when fleeing the British in 1814.) At the time of the Civil War, the estate was owned by the Smoot family, whose descendants I had a chance to meet at the reception.  Visiting the home and grounds on a crisp autumn day was like a trip back to the 19th century -- Old Virginia certainly lives on in this corner of McLean.   Enjoy the photos!



The Salona marker is "unveiled," Sunday, October 31, 2010.  The uncovered marker was installed back in the summer. For the ceremony, it was draped with a cloth bearing the seal of Fairfax County.



Front of the Salona house.  I was very excited to be able to visit the house, which is on private property and largely obscured by trees.




National Register of Historic Places and Virginia Historic Landmark markers on the front of the Salona home.




A marker on the origins of the house, affixed to the front wall.

 

A marker on the front of the house commemorating President Madison's stay, installed by the Daughters of the American Revolution.

 

Back side of the Salona house.

 

Property behind the Salona home.  Troops from the Vermont Brigade were camped around this area.



Close-up view of back entrance to the house.

Mr. DuVal had on display a binder of several wartime photos of Salona, including scenes of Camp Griffin.  He informed me that he had acquired these copies from the Vermont Historical Society.  On a side note, I learned from Carole Herrick, the Fairfax County History Commissioner who led today's ceremony, that a Civil War Trails sign on the Battle of Lewinsville is in the planning stages. I look forward to the installation of yet another marker commemorating the Civil War history around McLean, just in time for the Sesquicentennial.