A London Paper Features Some Local Sites

Last year I began to collect Civil War-era newspapers.  Not surprisingly, I have focused on papers that cover events in and around Northern Virginia and Washington.  I am particularly interested in newspapers that feature lesser-known aspects of the conflict in my neck of the woods.  These editions also tend to be cheaper than the papers that discuss the larger battles, like Second Manassas or Gettysburg.  Given the presence of on-line sellers such as eBay and Timothy Hughes, collecting old newspapers has never been easier.

I had my eye for quite some time on an October 12, 1861 edition of The Illustrated London News that contains one of the few, if only, contemporary engravings related to the September 11, 1861 Battle of Lewinsville.  Imagine my delight when I finally located an original copy on the eBay store, librariavitae.   The price also suited my fancy, and I quickly placed my order.

An entire page is dedicated to the engraving, which is entitled, The War in America: Bringing in the Federal Wounded After the Skirmish at Lewinsville, Virginia.  Based on commentary from the paper's special artist dated September 23, 1861, I've confirmed that the Lewinsville engraving depicts a scene following the September 11 engagement, and not the September 25 skirmish at the same location.

The text accompanying the illustration states:

Just as the wounded were being brought in General [George B.] M'Clellan reached the ground with an Aide-de-Camp and an escort of dragoons. He raised his hat as each poor fellow was borne from the ambulance to the hospital; and many whose eyes were fast glazing in death raised themselves in the arms of those who bore them and smiled a last smile at their young and beloved General.

As I've learned during the course of my research on Lewinsville, McClellan indeed greeted the Federal column returning from the skirmish.  (See, e.g., Hazard Stevens, The Life of Isaac Ingalls Stevens, Vol. II, p. 332 (1900)). However, The Illustrated London News added a touch of melodrama.  Only three Union soldiers died in the engagement, and they appear to have been killed on the spot.  (OR, 1:5, 173, 177, 180.)  The wounded were brought back to camp, but they were not on the verge of death as the paper wanted readers to believe. 

Presumably the scene was sketched close to Camp Advance, where the Union force returned from Lewinsville following the engagement.  Tents are clearly visible to center of the engraving, above Little Mac's head.  A defensive work appears to crown the hilltop to the upper left.  Ft. Marcy dominated the area around Camp Advance, but would have sat to the south of the road from Lewinsville, or to the right of the engraving.  The picture may depict Ft. Ethan Allen, which sat to the left of a road leading away from Ft. Marcy and Lewinsville.  (See map here.)  A few of the regiments involved at Lewinsville, including the 2nd Vermont, 19th Indiana, and 79th New York, helped to build Ft. Ethan Allen and were stationed nearby.  (See Benjamin Franklin Cooling III & Walton H. Owen II, Mr. Lincoln's Forts: A Guide to the Civil War Defenses of Washington (2010 ed.)).

The newspaper also contains an engraving entitled, The War in America: The Chain-Bridge Across the Potomac Above Georgetown, Looking Towards the Virginian Shore. 

The accompanying commentary notes:

The two great armies still stand at bay on the lines of the Potomac, and the chain-bridge across that river, above Georgetown, of which an Illustration by our Special Artist is given below, is a position of great interest just now, as the Confederates are continually making threatening movements in the neighbourhood, either with the intention of destroying the bridge or of crossing by it into Maryland. On the heights on the Virginian shore are seen the tents of the Federal advance, which throws out pickets to a distance of two miles beyond. The Maryland end of the bridge is commanded by an upper and a lower battery, both of them very strong positions.

I really like this engraving, which offers a spectacular view of Chain Bridge and the Virginia side of the river. The tents apparently mark the location of Camp Advance, which was established at the start of September 1861 by men under Union Gen. William F. "Baldy" Smith.  I am continually looking for information on the exact location of Camp Advance, and this engraving sheds further light on where Smith's men gained a toehold in the Old Dominion.  The accompanying text also references Confederate actions around Chain Bridge.  I've read about encounters between Confederate and Union pickets in the vicinity of the bridge during the fall of 1861, but am not familiar with Confederate plans to destroy the bridge or attempt a crossing in front of two batteries and countless Federal infantrymen.  I'll need to dig a little deeper on these early picket wars.

I really treasure owning this newspaper given its connections to local Civil War history.  I am reminded that what was happening in the present-day suburbs of DC once captured the world's attention.  Even a small engagement like Lewinsville made the London papers in the days before bigger battles like Antietam and Shiloh.  And a simple wooden bridge to Virginia held strategic significance that foreign editors could not deny.  

General "Baldy" Smith's Soldiers Enter the Old Dominion State

Long-time readers of this blog may recall that I have devoted considerable attention to the Civil War history of present-day McLean, Virginia.  During the first winter of the war, two Union divisions encamped on the farmlands around Langley and Lewinsville.  As we near the 150th anniversary of various happenings in and around my adopted hometown, I thought readers might be interested in the origins of the Union Army's presence around here.

In some recent posts, I've discussed how the Confederates moved ever closer to the nation's capital during August 1861.  By the end of the month, Confederates were entrenched on the hills near Falls Church, where they could look across the river to Washington and the unfinished Capitol dome.  The Union commander of the Army of the Potomac, Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, was well aware of the Confederates in his midst.  He had already started strengthening the initial defenses of Washington not long after taking charge of the army, but the Virginia side of the Chain Bridge -- around 10 miles from Falls Church and the Confederate line -- was not yet heavily fortified as September got underway.

The strategic situation would soon change.  As McClellan wrote in his memoirs:

On the 3d of Sept., while reviewing troops east of the Capitol, I received dispatches to the effect that the enemy had appeared in force opposite the Chain Bridge and towards Great Falls; also that they were probably on the point of advancing along their whole line. After giving the necessary orders at other points I rode to Gen. [William F. "Baldy"] Smith's headquarters at the Chain Bridge, and determined to move his brigade across the river during the night and to entrench a position on the Virginia side as the surest method of saving the bridge. (McClellan, 95.)

Smith prepared his men for the march to the Old Dominion State.  Starting late at night on September 3, and continuing into September 4, the Union soldiers slipped across the Chain Bridge and climbed the steep incline of the Leesburg & Georgetown Turnpike.  The regiments included the 2nd and 3rd Vermont, 19th Indiana, 33rd and 79th New York, and the 2nd and 5th Wisconsin.  Smith's men stopped a mile or so past Chain Bridge and encamped on high ground not far from Langley, Virginia.

Brig. Gen. William F. "Baldy" Smith (courtesy of Wikipedia).  Smith was born in St. Albans, Vermont in 1824 and graduated from West Point in 1845.  He was instrumental in organizing the famed Vermont Brigade of the Army of the Potomac in 1861.  Smith rose to become a division and corps commander. 

Some of the soldiers thought that McClellan was moving to pounce on the Confederates at Falls Church, but they soon learned that they would be clearing the land and building earthworks and forts.  The men immediately got to work constructing what were to become known as Ft. Marcy, northwest of Chain Bridge, and Ft. Ethan Allen, to the south.*  Both of these strongholds were built on the property of Gilbert Vanderwerken, who owned an omnibus line in Washington and had purchased over 1,300 acres of pastureland in Virginia for his horses.

The men called their new home, "Camp Advance." The name likely originated from the fact that the brigade had moved so far forward into Virginia. (Zeller, 43.)  However, according to another account, "the somewhat formidable title of 'Camp Advance' was given, under the impression that the movement meant a speedy advance upon Richmond." (Benedict, 91-92.)

Smith's men suffered from the endless rain at the start of September. As Alexander Campbell of the 79th New York wrote to his wife on September 6, "[i]t has been damp and dissegreable [sic] weather." (Johnston, 39.) The misery for some soldiers was compounded by the lack of adequate shelter. Both the 2nd Vermont and 5th Wisconsin, and perhaps other regiments, waited about two weeks until they received tents.   

"Gen. Smith's Brigade--from Fort Marcy. Chain Bridge, Va.," by Arthur Lumley, Sept. 1861, sketch for Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper (courtesy of New York Public Library Digital Gallery).  Based on the caption and date, this sketch appears to depict Camp Advance, or a portion of it.  Smith was a brigade commander in September and was still encamped close to Ft. Marcy.  In October 1861, as a division commander, Smith pushed his soldiers to a position that would likely have been farther west than is seen in this sketch.  This view from Ft. Marcy to the encampments beyond is from the western side of the fort.  The Potomac River and Leesburg & Georgetown Turnpike are visible to the right of the sketch.

Close up of above sketch, showing wagons moving down the turnpike with the Potomac River beyond the tents to the right.  This part of the pike is today's VA-123.

Aside from digging entrenchments and felling trees, the men at Camp Advance spent their days on picket duty or on scouting missions in the surrounding countryside.  Occasionally, the soldiers on reconnaissance brought back Confederate prisoners, horses, and contraband.  The men assigned to picket duty also confronted possible dangers, as the Confederates were equally as curious about the Union men who had encamped just over the Chain Bridge and also sent scouting parties to the area.

Detail from an 1862 Union Army map showing the area around Chain Bridge, Ft. Marcy, Ft. Ethan Allen, and Langley (courtesy of Library of Congress).  The encircled portion of the map represents the approximate position of Camp Advance based on the sketch above and first-hand accounts of soldiers from the regiments encamped there.  Today, the area around the camp and Ft. Marcy is bisected by the GW Parkway.

On September 10, President Lincoln, General McClellan, Secretary of War Simon Cameron, and Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtin rode out from Washington to pay a visit to the soldiers at Camp Advance.  The men were thrilled to see Old Abe and McClellan, and many soldiers rushed to shake hands with the dignitaries in their presence.  The very next day, some of the men would be tested in battle for the first time.  But for now, they were just happy to have the monotony of camp life broken by a visit from such esteemed guests.

Note

*In his A Report on the Defenses of Washington to the Chief of Engineers, U.S. Army, Brevet Major General John Gross Barnard notes that Smith crossed Chain Bridge on September 24, 1861 and began building the two forts.  (p. 14.) The reference to the 24th shows up in several sources, including the well-known work on the defenses of Washington, Mr. Lincoln's Forts.  However, this date is contradicted by numerous primary and secondary sources, which indicate that Smith entered Virginia on September 3-4 and set to work on the forts shortly thereafter.  Perhaps Barnard slipped a "2" before the "4," accidentally, and the mistake stuck!

Sources

Annual Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Wisconsin for the Year Ending September 30th, 1863 (1863); John G. Barnard, A Report on the Defenses of Washington to the Chief of Engineers, U.S. Army (1871); George Grenville Benedict, Vermont in the Civil War, Vol. 1 (1886); Civil War in the East (website with army and unit information); The Civil War Letters of Forrest Little (website); Benjamin Franklin Cooling III & Walton H. Owen II, Mr. Lincoln's Forts: A Guide to the Civil War Defenses of Washington (2010 ed.); Terry A. Johnston, Jr., "Him on the One Side and Me on the Other" (1999) (collection of soldiers' letters);George B. McClellan, McClellan's Own Story (1887); NRHP Nomination Form for Ft. Ethan Allen;  Second Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry (website with soldiers' letters); Kerry A. Trask, Fire Within: A Civil War Narrative from Wisconsin (1995); Vermont in the Civil War (website with unit information); Paul G. Zeller, The Second Vermont Volunteer Infantry Regiment, 1861-1865 (2002).

Civil War Forts of Arlington Tour, Part I: Fort Ethan Allen

This past Saturday my friend and I joined a small group led by David Farner, Park Manager of Fort C.F. Smith Park, for an excellent tour of some of the Civil War forts of Arlington.  (We also visited Ft. Marcy, which is technically in Fairfax County, right across the county line from Arlington.)  Readers may remember that I have blogged a few times now about the Civil War defenses of Washington, so I won't go over all of the background.  By the end of the Civil War, around 68 forts, 90 batteries, and 20 miles of rifle trenches had been constructed to defend the nation's capital. The line came under a major Confederate attack just once, during the Battle of Ft. Stevens in July 1864.  Following the war, many of the forts, in Arlington and elsewhere, were dismantled and eventually swallowed up by development.  Arlington County has made an effort to preserve at least a few of these forts.

Ft. Ethan Allen

Our first stop was Ft. Ethan Allen Park (3829 N. Stafford St., Arlington, VA 22207).  In September 1861, Federal troops under Brigadier General William "Baldy" Smith began construction of Ft. Ethan Allen on land belonging to Gilbert Vanderwerken, a New York transplant who owned and operated Washington's omnibus line.  This fort, along with Ft. Marcy, protected the approaches to Washington across Chain Bridge.  The fort's perimeter was 736 yards, with 36 gun emplacements.  Many famous units were involved with the construction of Ft. Ethan Allen, including the 19th Indiana that was eventually assigned to what became known as the "Iron Brigade"; the "Cameron Highlanders" of the 79th New York, which had seen action at Bull Run and Lewinsville; and the 2nd and 3rd Vermont that wintered at Camp Griffin as part of the Vermont Brigade.  Throughout the remainder of the war, heavy artillery units from Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, and other northeastern states garrisoned the fort.

The Vermont soldiers who helped to build the fort named it after Ethan Allen (1738-89), Revolutionary War hero from that state. Here, Allen is seen demanding the surrender of Ft. Ticonderoga in 1775 (courtesy of Wikipedia).




Historical marker at the entrance to the park.  The southern exterior wall of the fort is visible in the background, behind the treeline.



View along the southern wall of the fort (right), with the ditch clearly visible in the middle of the photograph.  The ditch helped to impede access to the fort's walls.



Looking towards the remnant of a gun platform along the southern wall of the fort.  The faint outline of the embrasure, through which the gun was fired, is visible in the center of the photograph. An engineering drawing indicates that a 20-pounder Parrott was placed at this spot.

   

The mound of earth around tree #9 is the remains of a magazine, where ammunition and powder were stored.  This magazine was located just behind the fort's southern wall.



Remains of another magazine, close to the eastern side of the fort.

Remains of the guardhouse, close to the entrance at the northern end of the fort, are indicated by a mound of dirt in the center of the photograph.

The mound of dirt hidden among the trees is part of the magazine at northern end of the fort, to the left of the guardhouse.



A bombproof in the interior of the fort.  Only one of two bombproofs remains.  A bombproof was a structure where soldiers at the fort could take shelter during an attack.



As seen from the photographs, we had a relatively good view of the historic features because the county had recently cleared debris and overgrowth from around the remains of the fort.  David, equipped with engineering drawings and a vast knowledge of the site, was indispensable to understanding the terrain.  I also learned that Arlington plans to undertake additional work on Fort Ethan Allen; this is welcome news, as the property would benefit from greater interpretive resources and further restoration. After walking the grounds and exploring the remains of the fort, we headed next in a county van to Fort C.F. Smith Park.



149 Years Ago Today in Lewinsville

Today marks the 149th anniversary of a skirmish in Lewinsville, Virginia.  Although not written about nearly as much as the September 11, 1861 skirmish, this encounter actually involved larger numbers than the earlier one.  (See here.)  Around 9 a.m. on Wednesday, September 25, Union General William "Baldy" Smith deployed about 5,100 infantry, 16 pieces of artillery, and 150 cavalry in positions running from Langley, down Chain Bridge Road towards Lewinsville.  Many of the soldiers doing duty that day were involved in the fight on the 11th, including Captain Charles Griffin's battery, the 19th Indiana, and the 79th New York Highlanders.

General "Baldy" Smith (courtesy of Wikipedia Commons)



Wagon train and Union Army camp (Corbis)



On the morning of the twenty-fifth, Smith surveyed the countryside for Confederates, and seeing no enemy activity, ordered the quartermaster troops to begin foraging.  As the New York Times reported, the wagons were "load[ed] with hay belonging to farmers known to be Secessionists."  According to Smith, the soldiers filled 90 wagons to the brim by three in the afternoon.  Smith then sent the wagons back toward the Union lines and recalled the skirmishers.  As the Union soldiers were being pulled in, the 79th New York captured an Irishman named Burke.  The prisoner claimed to be an aide to Colonel J.E.B. Stuart and warned that the enemy was on the way to Lewinsville.  Before long, the Northern soldiers "could see advancing over the hills from the Falls Church road what seemed to be a large regiment, marching rapidly in close column and others deployed as skirmishers with the apparent intention of turning our flank." (OR, I.V.5, p. 216.)  A Southern gun opened fire, but was too far away to do any damage.  Confederate cavalry soon moved through the corn fields and woods to the Union left, and the Confederates brought up two cannon to fire on the right of the Union line.  An artillery duel ensued between Union and Confederate batteries.  Smith reports that the Northern cannoneers got off thirty rounds before the Confederates retreated to Falls Church.

Captain Charles Griffin, here in a later photo as a general (courtesy of Wikipedia Commons)

At 5:30, Smith ordered the section of a Union battery to fall back slowly to Langley, and then withdrew the Union forces, which arrived at camp near Chain Bridge by 7 o'clock.  Around dusk, Smith was informed that the Confederates had fired four or five shots into Langley, but by the time a Northern scout arrived, the Southern troops had already left the area.

In his official report of the skirmish, Smith singled out Griffin's battery, noting that "the firing [from his guns] was most excellent."  (OR, I.V.5, p. 216.)  He also praised "[t]he conduct of the troops," which "was all that I could desire, standing with perfect coolness when [the Confederate] shot was falling...." (OR, I.V.5, p. 217.)  In all, it appears that only one Union solider was wounded in this engagement.  The Official Records contain no report from the Confederate side, so Southern casualties are uncertain.  In about two weeks time, the Union would finally occupy Lewinsville and establish winter camp in the vicinity.  (See here and here.)

The 79th New York & Lewinsville: Fight for the Colors, Part II

As we saw in my last post, the war had not gone well for the 79th New York.  The regiment, known as the "Cameron Highlanders," had experienced high losses at Bull Run and mutinied when faced with the prospect of many more years of fighting.  The soldiers had witnessed the ultimate humiliation of their colors being taken away on orders from General McClellan.  As the 79th set out with the reconnaissance force to Lewinsville on September 11, 1861, the soldiers must surely have realized that they had already lost a lot, and could lose even more.

Col. Isaac Stevens, here a Brigadier General in Beaufort, S.C. (Library of Congress)

The leader of the Union expedition that day was the 79th New York's own commander, Colonel Isaac Stevens, who would be killed at the Battle of Chantilly almost a year later.  The force consisted of the 79th, as well as four companies of the First Regiment U.S. Chasseurs, two companies of the 2nd Vermont, two companies of the 3rd Vermont, five companies of the 19th Indiana, four guns of Captain Charles Griffin's battery, and a detachment of 50 regular cavalry and 40 volunteer cavalry.

The Village of Lewinsville during the war, Harper's Weekly, December 14, 1861

Stevens set out from Camp Advance around 7:30 in the morning and arrived at Lewinsville around 10 am.  He immediately placed the troops in a defensive perimeter around the village.  The 79th New York was stopped about one-third a mile from Lewinsville, and according to Stevens, "a heavy body [of the Highlanders] were thrown out as skirmishers to cover the country towards Falls Church." 

The reconnaissance was successful and recall was sounded around 2 pm.  Southern pickets, however, had been eyeing the Union presence and sent word to the Confederate lines. Colonel J.E.B. Stuart rode to Lewinsville with a small force and unleashed an attack just as the Union soldiers were assembling and preparing to return to Camp Advance. The 79th, caught near the Gilbert family house, faced fire from both musket and cannon.  Stevens decided to continue the march back to camp, rather than engage his whole force, and ordered Griffin's battery to cover the withdrawal from Lewinsville.  The 79th New York helped to protect the retiring Union soldiers and provided support to a battery which had arrived on the field.   The entire force reached Camp Advance in relatively good order.  Overall, casualties were light, with about two Union soldiers killed, 13 wounded, and three captured.

In reports filed after the battle, commanders sung the praises of the 79th New York.  According to Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Shaler of the 65th New York, who had immediate command of the 79th during the battle:

The conduct of the officers and men of the Seventy-ninth while under my command was in the highest degree praiseworthy. They gave undoubted evidence of their bravery and resoluteness.

Captain David Ireland of the 79th explained that:

The conduct of the officers and men on this occasion was all that could be desired. They were cool and collected, behaving as well as if on parade, and more like veteran troops than volunteers. Where all did so well it would be wrong to individualize.

 To Lieutenant Samuel R. Elliott of the 79th, who was engaged around the Gilbert house:

The men throughout behaved admirably; even after it became certain that those crouching forms were the enemy's advance they showed less trepidation than perhaps I might have wished for the sake of celerity.

We may not know whether these officers were motivated by some self-interested or altruistic desire to see the 79th's reputation rehabilitated.  Or perhaps the Federal officers were so relieved that the ranks did not panic and run like at Bull Run that they were overly effusive in their praise.  Regardless, the 79th New York had performed up to par, and was congratulated after the battle by General McClellan himself.  (From various secondary accounts, it is unclear whether the commander of the Army of the Potomac met the troops in camp, or on the road around present-day McLean.)

A few days later, on September 14, no less an officer than "Little Mac" wrote to General Smith:

The colors of the New York Seventy-ninth will be sent to you to- morrow. Please return them to the regiment, with the remark that they have shown by their conduct in the reconnaissance of the 11th instant that they are worthy to carry the banner into action, and the commanding general is confident they will always in future sustain and confirm him in the favorable opinion he has formed of them.

The Battle of Lewinsville may be little remembered, but to the men of the 79th, it was a fight to re-take the colors, from the Union Army itself.