A Detour to Delaplane, Virginia: The First Bull Run Campaign and the Manassas Gap Railroad

This past weekend I decided to take the family for an outing in the countryside.  On Saturday morning we put the boys in their car seats, jumped into the SUV, and headed to Sky Meadows State Park in Fauquier County.  My wife and I first visited the park back in 2010.  The historic home of Mt. Bleak, located on the grounds of Sky Meadows, has several connections to Mosby's Rangers and the Civil War.  (I wrote a post about my previous visit here.)  Of course, I couldn't resist taking a little detour to another Civil War site on the way to Sky Meadows. 

Near the confluence of Goose Creek and Crooked Run we pulled off Rt. 17 and stopped at Delaplane.  This tiny hamlet, known as Piedmont Station during the Civil War, appears much as it did in the mid-nineteenth century.  The Manassas Gap Railroad reached the area in 1852.  The company decided to place a new station near the point where the railroad crossed the vital transportation link of the Dumfries-Winchester Road (now Rt. 17).  The town grew up around the station, and by the start of the Civil War, had become an important rail center in Fauquier County.  Piedmont Station was renamed Delaplane in 1874 and today is designated as a Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places.

Civil War Trails marker on Delaplane Grade Rd., just to the south of the old Manassas Gap Railroad line.  Today the tracks are part of the Norfolk Southern system. 

Piedmont Station played a key role in the First Bull Run Campaign.  Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, commander of the Confederate Army of the Shenandoah, received an urgent order on July 18, 1861 to join forces with Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard at Manassas Junction.  The general, worried that his volunteer army would take too long to march to Beauregard's assistance, opted instead to send his army by rail.  Johnston proceeded to Piedmont Station and oversaw preparations for the transportation of his men to Manassas Junction.

Close-up of the Civil War Trails marker.  (More information can be found here on the Historical Marker Database.)  The marker makes the claim that "[h]ere. . . trains were used for the first time in history to move troops to impending battle." 

Meanwhile, Johnston's army was on the move out of the Shenandoah Valley.  Gen. Thomas J. Jackson's brigade left the Winchester area around noon on July 18.  After marching all day and night, they passed through Ashby's Gap and stopped in Paris at two in the morning of July 19.  (Incidentally, I wrote about Paris and Jackson-related sites a few years ago.)  Jackson allowed his men a few hours of rest before they set out to complete the remaining six miles to Piedmont Station. They arrived at six in the morning.  Patriotic civilians greeted Jackson's troops at the station and offered them food and drink.  Jackson's men, likely basking in the glow of admirers, ate their breakfast and then boarded the train of freight and cattle cars for Manassas.  Progress was slow.  The 34-mile trip took an incredible eight hours.  Jackson, of course, would go on to earn the nickname "Stonewall" on the battlefield of Manassas on July 21. 

Two original railroad buildings dating to 1852.  These structures have been used as depots, warehouses, and stores.  The National Register of Historic Places Registration Form for Delaplane notes that "[t]he survival of these two large antebellum brick structures associated with the railroad is a rare occurrence in Virginia since few antebellum brick buildings of this scale can be documented anywhere else in Virginia."  (p. 16.)

Despite logistical difficulties, regiments from the brigades of Col. Francis Bartow and Gen. Barnard Bee followed Jackson over the course of the next day or so.  The brigade of Col. Arnold Elzey, under the temporary command of Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith, did not leave Piedmont Station until the early morning hours of July 21.  The men arrived at Manassas mid-day and marched quickly to the sounds of battle.  Elzey's troops smashed into the Federal right on Chinn Ridge and helped to secure the Confederate victory.

Another view of the antebellum railroad buildings, taken from Rokeby Rd.  The railroad line runs in front of the buildings.



Looking west down the old Manassas Gap Railroad tracks from Rokeby Rd. in Delaplane.  A Virginia State Historical Marker on Piedmont Station and First Manassas sits to the right.  (See here for text.)  The white SUV is traveling south on Rt. 17, the old Dumfries-Winchester Rd. 

Today Delaplane sits almost untouched by time.  You'll find no Starbucks, McDonald's, or strip malls there.  It isn't hard to imagine Jackson's troops mounting the rail cars and starting their journey towards Manassas and fame.  Walking next to the tracks, I was reminded of the contribution that this village made to modern military history.  Railroads played an important part in the Civil War, and Johnston's operation at Piedmont Station stood near the very start of it all.  Although the means of transportation proved a little slower than Johnston may have liked, his actions at Piedmont Station demonstrated the value of harnessing railroad technology to military advantage.  That's big stuff for such a small place, and well worth a stop to look around and ponder.

Sources

William C. Davis, Battle at Bull Run (1985 ed.); Bradley M. Gottfried, The Maps of First Bull Run (2009); Joseph E. Johnston, Narrative of Military Operations (1874); National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, Delaplane Historic District (2003); Ethan Rafuse, A Single Grand Victory: The First Campaign and Battle of Manassas (2002).

150 Years Ago: The Voters of Fairfax Approve the Ordinance of Secession

As I wrote a few months ago, in February 1861 Virginians elected delegates to a state convention called to consider the issue of secession. They also approved a voter reference clause under which any decision in favor of secession would be submitted to a popular referendum. In Fairfax County, the reference clause passed by a margin of 62 percent to 38 percent.  Following two months of debate, the Convention finally adopted an Ordinance of Secession on April 17 and voted to send the Ordinance to a statewide referendum.   

Pending the Ordinance, David Hunter Strother (courtesy of Library of Virginia)

On May 23, 1861, Virginians across the state headed to the polls to vote on secession.  (Of course, it goes without saying that in 1860s America, blacks and women were disenfranchised, so the vote was really in the hands of white males.)  In many ways, the outcome was a foregone conclusion, or at least the state government treated it that way.  Virginia began to mobilize immediately after the Convention's decision.  Within a few days, state troops had seized key federal installations at Harpers Ferry and the Gosport Navy Yard. Virginia also offered to join the Confederate States of America, and invited the new government to move its capital to Richmond.  By the time of the May 23 referendum, Rebel forces were amassing in northeastern Virginia, not far from Washington. 

The Results of the Vote in Fairfax County
State-wide, the referendum passed by a vote of 125,950  to 20,373.  (Governor John Letcher estimated that an additional 2,934 voted for secession and 11,761 against.)  In Fairfax County, as in other counties across Northern Virginia,* the vote went overwhelmingly in favor of secession.  According to official returns, out of a total of 1,231 votes, 942, or 77 percent, voted to ratify the Ordinance, and 289, or 23 percent, voted against it.**  Four precincts (Bailiss', Centreville, Ross', and West End) voted unanimously for secession.  Only three of fourteen precincts -- Lewinsville, Lydecker's, and Accotink -- went against the tide and rejected the Ordinance.  All but 49 of the county's "no" votes came from these three precincts.  (The actual voting records can be found here.)

Wartime view of Vienna, Virginia, by A.R. Waud.  Lydecker's Store, where voting took place, is  to the right of the tree in the center of the sketch.  The vote at Lydecker's was 44 to 78 against secession  (courtesy of Library of Congress).

Lydecker's Store today.  This photo was taken on Saturday, May 21, 2011, almost 150 years to the day that the vote was held in Vienna.

On May 21, 2011, Historic Vienna, Inc. sponsored a 150th anniversary reenactment of the secession vote at the Freeman Store (Lydecker's) in Vienna.  Here, a tobacco farmer casts his vote for the Ordinance.  I will feature some thoughts about the reenactment in a future post.

Possible Explanations for the Outcome in Fairfax
The vote, both state-wide and in Fairfax, represented a significant change of heart.  After all, Virginia had elected a moderate Unionist majority to the Convention.  In Fairfax County, pro-Union candidate William Dulany defeated the secessionist Alfred Moss by a vote of 57 percent to 43 percent.  But April had been a turbulent month, and the political landscape looked considerably different than a few months before. 

Voters may have changed their views on secession for a number of reasons.  All hope for compromise disappeared after the attack on Ft. Sumter, and many saw President Lincoln's call for 75,000 volunteers as a coercive use of federal power against fellow slave states.  Pro-secession voters also sought to demonstrate loyalty by rallying behind their native state, which for all intents and purposes, had already left the Union.  Even Dulany, who voted against the Ordinance on April 17, decided that his allegiance to Virginia was paramount.   He became the first person to vote for secession in Sangster's precinct on May 23. 

A few factors may explain the "no" votes in Fairfax. The county had seen an influx of Northern migrants prior to the war.  These transplants may have remained loyal to the Union and opposed the Ordinance. One notable migrant, Abram Lydecker from New Jersey, voted against secession at the polling place located in his Vienna store.  Some Fairfax residents, who depended on trade with nearby Washington, may have considered secession as against their economic interest.  Perhaps other voters feared that secession would bring war to their very doorstep.  Dulany himself had given this concern as a reason for his initial vote against secession.  Fairfax, particularly around Accotink, was also home to Quakers, whose pacifism may have led them to vote against secession out of a desire to avoid civil war.

Intimidation and Irregularities
Intimidation and voting irregularities also played an unfortunate role in the referendum's outcome.  Because voice voting was the practice in Virginia at the time, everyone in a precinct would know how their neighbors voted on the referendum.  Such an atmosphere at the polls was conducive to peer pressure and intimidation.  The Southern Claims Commission (SCC) files of approved claims for Fairfax County contain numerous references to threats and harassment used to intimidate voters.  John Lynch of Falls Church, for instance, headed to the polls on May 23, but he and several others left without voting when one of the election officials told Lynch that if he voted against the Ordinance he "would be regarded as a traitor."  John Hart of Centreville did not even go to the polls "because of threats."  Josiah Bowman of Vienna also recalled that he did not vote on the Ordinance "because we were threatened."

"How Virginia Was Voted Out of the Union," Harper's Weekly, June 15, 1861 (courtesy of sonofthesouth.net)

Others refused to be intimidated.  John W. Devers went to vote at Accotink, where "the Rebels had thrown old Mr. Plaskett out of the door."  A man by the name of Willis Henderson told Devers that "if I did not vote for secession I would be taken in the woods and hung."  Devers replied that "I would die in a good cause," and then voted against the Ordinance.  Of course, some voters may not have been as brave in the face of intimidation.  And in such small communities, news about threats must surely have traveled quickly and could have dampened pro-Union turnout.  We may never know how many voters stayed away that day due to intimidation.

There is also at least one episode of possible intimidation by pro-secession military units.  According to a contemporary account in the New York Semi-Weekly Tribune, the vote against secession in Accotink would have been even larger "'if there had not been a Company of Virginia Cavalry marched into the village the night preceding the election.'"  The cavalrymen "'hung out a secession flag on one side of the street, and the Union men immediately flung the Stars and Stripes to the breeze from a window immediately opposite.'"  The Tribune implies that at least 40 voters may have stayed away from the polls in Accotink on May 23 due to the presence of secessionist forces. William Smith, a witness in the SCC case of John Devers, also mentions the "rebel cavalry" at Accotink.  When he went to vote, Smith was told "by a rebel that if I voted against the Ordinance, I would lose my property and perhaps get greased before I got home."  The results for Accotink reveal that Smith never cast his vote.

Other records raise questions about possible voting irregularities. The results for Bailiss' precinct show four names crossed out (one of which is crossed out twice) in the "for rejection" column and moved to the "for ratification" column. The voting returns indicate that "[b]y desire of the voters. . . their votes have been changed." Nothing explains what motivated these men to switch their votes, but such a change after the fact calls into question the legitimacy of the four votes. Incidentally, Bailiss' precinct went unanimously for the Ordinance. A separate document among the Fairfax voting returns shows the Fairfax Cavalry as casting 27 votes for, and 1 against, the referendum. The election officials noted that they received these votes "under protest" given that the Fairfax Cavalryhad allegedly voted on the Ordinance in Alexandria on May 21.

We may never know the full impact of intimdation and voting irregularities. As the SCC files show us, at least some voters in Fairfax stayed away from the polls due to threats. However, without more evidence, we cannot conclude that ratification of the Ordinance was mostly attributable to improper means. In any event, intimidation and threats cast a pall on the voting that day. And the fact that Virginia was already in rebellion against the United States made the referendum seem like a rubber stamp exercise in popular sovereignty. Interesting to ponder what would have happened if the vote had gone the other way 150 years ago.

Footnotes
* Other counties in Northern Virginia voted as follows:
Alexandria 958 for, 106 against (some accounts say 48 against)
Fauquier 1809 for, 4 against
Loudoun 1621 for, 726 against
Prince William 841 for, 38 against

**The total number of "yes" votes listed on the official returns appears not to be accurate.  Each precinct numbered the votes for and against the referendum sequentially next to each voter's name, so that the total "yes" and "no" vote for each precinct was dervived by looking at the number written next to the individuals who cast the last "yes" and "no" vote.  When reviewing the original returns online, I noticed that due to numbering errors, 4 votes were not counted, and 1 vote was added accidentially, meaning that there were 945 in favor (gain of +3).  Regardless, such errors do not alter the overall ratio of "yes" to "no" votes in the county in any meaningful way.

Note on Sources

The following sources were useful in compiling this post:

Thomas P. Chapman, Jr., "The Secession Election in Fairfax County--May 23, 1861," Yearbook of the Historical Society of Fairfax County, Vol. 5 (1955); Brian A. Conley, Fractured Land: Fairfax County's Role in the Vote for Secession, May 23, 1861 (2001) (contains many primary source documents on the vote); Library of Virginia, Virginia Memory, Union or Secession: Virginians Decide (2011) (online resource); Charles V. Mauro, The Civil War in Fairfax County: Civilians and Soldiers (2006); Southern Claims Commission, Approved Claims for Fairfax County, Virginia, available on footnote.com;  James Neale Stirewalt, "Secessionist Sentiment in Northern Virginia: December 1860 to May, 1861," Yearbook of the Historical Society of Fairfax County. Vol. 10 (1969); "The Vote for Secession in Virginia," New York Semi-Weekly Tribune, May 31, 1861.

Northern Virginia Delegates Divided on Secession

Today marks the 150th anniversary of the Virginia Convention's adoption of the Ordinance of Secession.  As recently as the start of April, the Convention had rejected a similar motion.  Now, after the opening of hostilities and Lincoln's call for 75,000 volunteers, Unionists delegates began to defect to the secessionist camp.  On April 16, Robert Scott of Fauquier County offered a resolution in a last ditch effort to prevent immediate secession.  He proposed to put the question of secession directly to the voters, before the Convention voted on the issue.  The resolution asked voters to choose between secession or holding consultations with the slave states that still remained in the Union.  The Convention, largely whipped into a frenzy over recent events, rejected this resolution by a vote of 77 to 64.

The question of secession was finally put to the delegates on April 17, and the Ordinance of Secession passed by a vote of 88 to 55.  The Northern Virginia camp was markedly divided, compared to the vote just a couple weeks before.  The breakdown was as follows:

Yeas
Robert Scott, Fauquier
Eppa Hunton, Prince William
*John Quincy Marr, Fauquier--Marr was absent for the vote, but announced to the Convention on April 30 that he was in favor of the Ordinance.  The Convention granted him the privilege of recording his vote.

Nays
George Brent, Alexandria
William Dulany of Fairfax
John Carter, Loudoun
John Janney, Loudoun

First signed version of the Ordinance of Secession, April-May 1861 (courtesy of the Library of Virginia)

The Convention prepared a parchment copy of the Ordinance for signature.  All Northern Virginia delegates, with the exception of John Carter, signed the document.  In all, 92 delegates put their signatures on the Ordinance between April 24 and May 1.  The Ordinance was next referred to the voters for ratification on May 23.  However, even before the final verdict was in, Virginia began to mobilize its resources for war. And among those delegates who joined the ranks of Virginia forces were Brent and Dulany, two who had voted against the ordinance on April 17, but whose loyalty to Virginia remained paramount.

The April 4, 1861 Vote on Secession: Prince William County Stands Alone

Today marks the 150th anniversary of the Virginia Convention's first vote on secession.  During the proceedings on April 4, 1861, Lewis Harvie, the delegate from Amelia County, proposed the adoption of an ordinance of secession.  The Convention was not yet ready to pull the trigger on leaving the Union and defeated the motion by a vote of 90 to 45.  The Northern Virginia delegates voted as follows:

Yeas
Eppa Hunton, Prince William

Nays
George Brent, Alexandria
John Quincy Marr, Fauquier
Robert Scott, Fauquier
John Carter, Loudoun
John Janney, Loudoun
*William Dulany of Fairfax was absent, but Brent indicated that Dulany would have noted "no."

The Virginia State Capitol (courtesy of Civil War Daily Gazette).  The Virginia Convention reconvened here on April 8, 1861 once the legislative session concluded.

Prince William County's delegate was alone among delegates from Northern Virginia in supporting secession.  This result should not be entirely surprising, since Eppa Hunton favored secession from the outset.  The moderate Unionists from other counties were still not convinced that preserving Virginia's honor demanded secession. 

The Library of Virginia has posted this great map superimposing the April 4 vote on top of an 1860 census map of Virginia indicating the state's slave population by county.  The Library points out that in general, delegates in favor of secession lived in those areas where slaves comprised a larger proportion of the general population.  Of course, as I indicated in a previous post on Brent, defending slavery did not necessarily equate with supporting secession.

February 4, 1861: Northern Virginians Head to the Polls

As South Carolina and states of the Deep South left the Union in the winter of 1860-61, the Virginia General Assembly called a Convention to consider the question of secession.  This Friday marks the 150th anniversary of Virginia's state-wide election of delegates to the Convention.  (I blogged briefly about the election in Fairfax a few months ago.)  Voters were also asked to decide whether the Convention's ultimate decision on secession should be submitted to them for ratification. 

Map of Virginia Showing the Distribution of its Slave Population from the Census of 1860 (courtesy of Richmond Times-Dispatch).  Despite the prevalence of slaveholding in Virginia, the majority of delegates elected to the state Convention were initially opposed to joining the slave states of the Deep South in leaving the Union.

On February 4, 1861, Virginians (or at least, white male Virginians) headed to the polls and elected all 152 delegates to the Convention.  Unionists candidates dominated by a margin of around two-to-one. Virginians also approved the ratification measure.  Results in Northern Virginia reflected the state-wide outcome.  Alexandria, Fairfax, Fauquier, and Loudoun Counties all elected delegates who were generally opposed to secession.*  Prince William County was alone in choosing a secessionist candidate.  Northern Virginians also voted two-to-one in favor of the voter reference clause.  Prince William County again stood alone.

A closer examination of the candidates' positions in the run-up to the election indicates that some pro-Union winners hedged their bets, like all good politicians.  Loudoun candidate John Janney, a Leesburg lawyer, was opposed to secession, but did not rule it out in the event that all other options were exhausted.  Robert Scott, a Fauquier planter and lawyer who was elected delegate, wrote to a friend that:

I am strongly attached to the Union. . . . But I think the slaveholding states ought not, cannot, and will not submit to any party, policy or power that denies to the interests that spring from slave labor the same consideration and respect that is extended by the government to the interests that spring from free labor.  In this there must be strict equity.

John Quincy Marr, a militia officer elected from Fauquier, favored the Union, but informed voters in a letter published January 26, 1861 that he would vote for secession if Virginia's honor and safety demanded as much.  (Marr later became the first Confederate officer killed in battle.)  The Fairfax News even considered that William Dulany, the pro-Union Commonwealth's Attorney elected from Fairfax, would not purchase peace and unity "at the price of the honor and interests of Virginia."  The paper concluded, "hence we infer that Mr. D. is not opposed to secession as a dernier resort."

John Quincy Marr, delegate from Fauquier County and later captain of the Warrenton Rifles, which officially became Co. K, 17th Virginia after Marr's death (courtesy of the Fairfax Rifles)

Some winning candidates were unquestionable in their stance for or against secession.  John A. Carter of Loudoun and George William Brent of Alexandria were strong Unionists who viewed secession as an abomination.  Carter considered the act to be unconstitutional.  Brent, at a public meeting on February 2, 1861, exclaimed that "while he was a submissionist to the constitution of his country, he was no submissionist to the precipitators of revolution" (as quoted in Feb. 4, 1861 edition of the Alexandria Gazette).  Delegate Eppa Hunton, a Commonwealth's Attorney from Prince William, was an unabashed secessionist who thought that the United States should allow the Southern states to leave the Union in peace.

The Convention convened in Richmond on February 13.  A vote on secession was still a few months away, and the delegates would have plenty of time to refine their positions further as events unfolded.

Footnote

*In 1861, the City of Alexandria was part of Alexandria County.  In 1870, the city became independent of the county, and it was not until 1920 that Alexandria County became Arlington County.

Note on sources:
"Secessionist Sentiment in Northern Virginia: December 1860 to May, 1861" by James Neale Stirewalt, published in Vol. 10 (1969) of the Yearbook of the Historical Society of Fairfax County, contains a thorough account on the February 1861 elections and includes quotations from many primary sources.  For a more recent overall account, see Brent Tarter, "Virginians Initially Opposed Secession from Union," Richmond Times-Dispatch, Nov. 28, 2010.