The Fairfax County Courthouse

t the State's convention on secession in May 1861, the Fairfax County delegation voted to ratify the secession ordinance.[83] The consequences of this action were prompt in coming

t arc from Alexandria, through the vicinity of The Falls Church, to Chain Bridge, Union Army commanders exercised military authority and administered justice through provost courts.[84] Outside this area the

recognized in an ordinance adopted by the Secession Convention providing that when the court of any county failed to meet for the transaction of business or the public was prevented from attending the court "by rea

n Rifles established a camp at Fairfax Court House. On the morning of June 1, 1861, a body of Union cavalry rode through the town, and in

afety of the fortified positions along the Potomac. In the wake of their victory at Bull Run, troops of the Confederacy established an outpost at

orcements with which to sweep into Pennsylvania and Maryland and, hopefully, to carry the Federal capital itself. A meeting was arranged at Beauregard's headquarters in which Davis, Generals Beauregard and J. J. Johnston, and certain of their trusted staff officers considered this plan. Their decision was to adopt a defensive posture and protect

st extensive system of field fortifications in military history up to that time-was abandoned. As the Union armies took the initiative in their re

e walls and roof remained.[89] For all practical purposes, the courthouse and its related buildings were, in the years 1863 and 1864, a military outpost and minor headquarters in the Union army's system to protect its supply and communications lines from the irregular troops who kept hostilities constantly smoldering in Northern Virginia. Throughout the we

March 8, 1863, the Confederate commander with about 30 men captured and carried off 33 prisoners, including Union Brigadier General Edwin H. Stoughton, and a large number of horses and quantity of supplies. Throughout 1863, 1864 and the spring of 1865 hardly a night went by without some cries of alarm and shots being fired because of the activities of the Confederate irregulars. Yet they took a sub

wever, were about one degree better than plain outlaws, living for loot and excitement, doing no actual fighting if they could help it, and offering a secure refuge to any numbe

unty's records were removed from the courthouse for safekeeping, and some were not.[91] In either case they were subject to the risks of loss and damage. Some were carrie

uring the latter months of the war, the jail of Alexandria County (n

West Virginia to the Union in December 1862[94] left Governor Pierpont in control of only those parts of Northern Virginia, the Shenandoah Valley, and Chesapeake Bay that were occupied by Federal troops. Within this area, the Pi

e of West End[95] near Alexandria. Here, in January 1863, the Court met in a structure known as Bruin's Building. The minutes of this and other sessions which followed recite many of the same problems and disputes that always had o

of West End be placed at the court's disposal; the Deputy Commissioner of Revenue was directed to discharge the duties of the Commissioner until the latter, currently a prisoner in Richmond, could return

Estate, the Court, under the Chancery powers vested therein, appointed Jonathan Roberts, the present Sheriff, Cur

vernment as the years immediately after the war saw numerous plans for reconstruction competing for favor. The situation was further complicated by the fact that in February 1864 the Pierpont administration had sponsored a constitutional convention which had adopted a new constitution for

d retrieved whenever their places of safekeeping were known, a process requiring years of effort. Some record books were never found. The accounts of ho

etly removed from the courthouse by the court clerk, Alfred Moss, and taken to Richmond. Here it was placed for safekeeping wit

lieutenant named Thompson grew curious about these papers and interrupted the work long enough to examine some of them. He picked up the will of Martha Washington and, recognizing it, took it with him. Following the war, the will next was heard of in 1903 in England where a descendant of Lt. Thompson sold it to J. P. Morgan. The sale was reported to the Commonwealth Attorn

FOR CH

in Fairfax County, May 23, 1861", Yearbook of the

s of Fairfax, Alexandria (Arlington) and the City of Alexandria (Pa

Convention, 26 June, 1861, cited by Ande

sion, (Vienna, Virginia: 1961) p. 4. Because of the confusion in the Confederate ranks, no officer took

troversy in the memoirs of those involved. See, for example, Jefferson Davis, The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, (New York:

ton Post, Ap

ette and Fairfax Ne

atox, (New York: Cardinal Giant Edition

been found in Warrenton, having been removed there, it was supposed, by lawyers. The new sheriff of the County took possession of these records. The edition of July 23, 1862 reported that the new County Court of Fairfa

er was entered November 25, 1864, and was rescinded by a subsequen

State's constitutional crisis, but took no action since Virginia had not yet ratified the secession ordinance. A second convention at Wheeling was held in June 1861, and organized a Unionist government for the State which

December 1862, but it was not until June 1863 that President Lincoln pr

y Court Minute Boo

a meeting of the cou

ington family in 1859 to the Mt. Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union, and the Washingtons had, by 1863, moved to

vernment of Virginia, (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1957), 339–340, this constitution contained various new provisions,

Co., 1927) pp. 39–40. "Martha Washington's Will and the Story of its Loss and Recovery by Fair

Washington's