F 234 
 .F8 H8 
 Copy 1 
 
 Fredericksburg : 
 
 PAST 
 
 PRESENT AND 
 FUTURE 
 
 NEW EDITION 
 
 WITH SUPPLEMENT 
 
Class, 
 Book 
 
 Z3' 
 
FREDERICKSBURG : 
 
 PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 
 
 ^ 
 
 3^etD SHdttioit tuitft Supplcntcitt 
 
 ROBERT REID HOWISON, LL. D., 
 
 Author of a " History of Virginia,"' " Ri'port on Treatment of Prisoners 
 
 of War,'' adopted !){/ Confederate Congress, "Students' History 
 
 of the United States," and other works. 
 
 %^ 
 
 .1. WILLARD ADAMS, 
 publisher: fredekicksburg, va. 
 
 1898 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1897, 
 
 By J. WiLLARD Adams, 
 
 In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 
 Gift 
 
 Author 
 (Person) 
 
FREDERICKSBURG: 
 
 Past, Present and Future. 
 
 In seeking to comply with the invitation of the Lecture 
 Committee of our Library and Lyceum Association, and 
 to lecture on the theme thus presented, I feel bound, as is 
 tlie manner of all veracious historians, to begin at the be- 
 ginning. But where the beginning is or ought to be may 
 be a serious question. To quiet your alarm, however, 
 ladies and gentlemen, let me say at once that I do not pro- 
 pose to follow the example of the profound and erudite 
 Mr. Diederick Knickerbocker, wdio, when he undertook to 
 write the history of New York, under the Dutch rule, gave 
 to his readers three complete and rich preliraiuai-y chapters, 
 in which he discussed the all-important question, how this 
 world came to be created — discussed, in fact, every theory, 
 sage or wild, that has been announced concerning creation, 
 from the days of INIoses to the present time. In these high 
 questions I do not feel bound to involve either you or myself 
 in looking into the beginning of Fredericksburg. It will 
 suffice to say that, after the lapse of some four hundred and 
 fifty millions of years from the epoch when our Earth was 
 first gathered, by Creative Power, into a sphere (which 
 period the great Canadian geologist. Principal Dawson, of 
 Montreal, considers a very moderate allowance of time), 
 the crust of the earth became a genial soil, adorned with 
 grass, and flowers, and fruits, and trees, and fit for the 
 habitation of man; and that the surface of the earth con- 
 tained not only the continents of Asia, Africa and Europe, 
 and the great seas, but also the continent of North and 
 South America; and that North America contained what 
 was, in due time, the territory of the United States, and 
 the United States contained Virginia, and Virginia con- 
 tained the county of Spotsylvania, and Spotsylvania, the 
 town of Fredericksburg. Thus you perceive that w^e reach 
 
4 FREDERICKSBUR<;: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 
 
 the l)eginning of our beloved old city by a niiich shorter and 
 safer course than that run by Diederick Knickerbocker — 
 much shorter and safer than that of the man who, having 
 undertaken to leap over a chasm fifty feet dee}) and four- 
 teen feet wide, went back a mile and a-half that he might 
 gain a sufficient momentum, and who having run at full 
 speed one mile and 875 yards, fell down exhausted just five 
 yards from the chasm, over which he never got at all. 
 
 But when we reach the beginning of Fredericksburg we 
 cannot, with perfect accuracy, say that we have reached 
 the land. For, the very earliest accounts we have concern- 
 ing the site of the present town confirm the impression made 
 by the formation of the hills and flats on both sides of the 
 Rappahannock at this point, that at least a part of the land 
 now occupied by the town was once covered by the water 
 of the river. Captain John Smith, the hero of the settle- 
 ment of Virginia, and a man whose career was worthy of 
 the In-ightest days of knight-errantry, came up the Rappa- 
 hannock in 1608 (one year after the settlement of James- 
 town) in an open boat of three tons burden, with a picked 
 crew of twelve men, and acconi{)anied by an Indian named 
 Mosco from one of the tribes on the Potomac. They found 
 the Rappahannocs the most courageous and formidable sav- 
 ages they had yet encountered. As they sailed up, a shower 
 of arrows would pour on them from the bushes on the shore, 
 in which these Indians had ingeniously concealed them- 
 selves, and nothing but the willow targets obtained from 
 the Massawomacs saved them from destruction. 
 
 When thev reached the falls, which were higher up the 
 river than they now are, they landed and set up crosses and 
 carved their names on the bark of trees in token of posses- 
 sion and subjugation. As they were rambling carelessly 
 through the woods they were suddenly attacked by about 
 one hundred Indians, who shot their arrows with great pre- 
 cision, and ran rapidly from tree to tree to protect their 
 bodies from the fatal fire of musketry. A running fight of 
 half an hour was kept up, wdien the Indians jnysteriously 
 disappeared, leaving, however, one of their number so se- 
 verely wounded in the knee by a musket-ball that he could 
 not get off". Smith, with difficulty and not without threats, 
 
FREDERICKSBURG: PAST, PRESENT AND EUTURE. O 
 
 saved the life of this wounded savage from Mosco, who earn- 
 estly asked the privilege of dashing out his brains. 
 
 The expanse of water just below the falls was then so 
 wide that the boat of Captain Smith, when near the middle 
 of the river, was beyond effective range either of the Indian 
 arrows or of the English muskets. Something like a lake 
 must in fact then have covered the Stafford flats and a part 
 of those of the Spotsylvania side. Yet we need not be sur- 
 prised at the change which has occurred in the 272 years 
 that have passed. Even the grandparents of the present 
 generation lived in a time when large barques and schooners 
 heavily laden were able to ascend the river to Falmouth; 
 and there to discharge their cargoes and receive return car- 
 goes of wheat and tobacco. And some of us are able, by 
 our personal memories, to ascend to the times when the 
 river was much wider and deeper than now. Therefore 
 the feat attributed to George AVashington, Ijy a tradition 
 much more reliable than that of the cherry-tree and the 
 hatchet, that he threw a stone across the river at a point 
 on the bank which skirted the Washington farm, was a 
 greater triumj)h of muscular strength and dexterity than 
 such a performance would now be. 
 
 When Smith had his fight with the Rappahannocs, a few 
 Indian wigwams and lodges near the crest of the open hills, 
 or on the wooded ridges, M'ere the only evidences of a town 
 that the vicinity of Fredericksburg presented. But, as the 
 Anglo-Saxon race gradually advanced m their settlements, 
 and especially after the complete overthrow of the aged 
 chief Opecancanough and his savage foes, in 1644, by Sir 
 William Berkeley, the Indians began to retire from the 
 rivers, and civilized settlers began to take their phace. 
 From this time, we have only dim and unreliable traditions 
 concerning the rise of the town until the year 1727, one 
 hundred and fifty-three years ago. x\.t this point we gain 
 clear and definite light, proving that the town was not only 
 in existence, but had risen to a respectable point in popula- 
 tion and trade. In this year (1727) old George the First 
 died. He was, as you know, a native of Germany, and 
 was Elector of Hanover, when he was elevated to the Brit- 
 ish throne in right of his mother, the Princess Sophia, of 
 
(i FREDERICKSBURG: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 
 
 Mecklenburg Strelitz, who was then the only Protestant 
 lineal descendant of James the First. George the First 
 was not fond of England ; sjient as little time there as pos- 
 sible; spent most of his time near his native town of Osna- 
 burg, in Hanover, where he at last died. He never could, 
 to the day of his death, utter twelve consecutive, intelligible 
 English words. He hated his son George, Prince of Wales, 
 and hated the noble and charming woman, Wilhehnina 
 Dorathea Caroline, of Brandenl)urg, Princess of Wales, for 
 no better reason than that evei'ybody else loved her. He 
 even went so far as to try to separate Geoi'ge, Prince of 
 Wales, from his family, and especially from his oldest son, 
 Frederic, from whom our old city of Fredericksburg has 
 her name. This Frederic was born long before the death 
 of his grandfather, old George the First, and as he grew to 
 maturity, developed qualities wliich caused affection, if not 
 esteem. He never became King himself, having died in 
 tlie lifetime of his fatlier, but his son became George the 
 Third, to whose mingled obstinacy and insanity we are in- 
 debted for American independence. 
 
 In the same year in which George the First died and 
 George the Second became King — that is in 1727 — Fred- 
 ericksburg became a town by law and received its name by 
 a solenm act of christening, performed by the Lieutenant- 
 Governor, Council and Burgesses of the then existing Gen- 
 eral Assembly. It was not, however, then incorporated as 
 a town. It w'as not entitled to a corporate council or a 
 hustings court. Having been previously a village or col- 
 lection of dwelling houses, inhabited by a variety of people, 
 it was made a town, according to a policy of the government 
 of Virginia, which we now look backtow^ith some surprise. 
 You know well that the tendency of the social system in 
 Virginia, at least up to the time of the late war, was to 
 country life, and not to tlie growth of towns. On their 
 great landed estates, with their abundant means, their slaves 
 and dependents, the gentlemen of the Colony, and after- 
 wards of the Commonwealth, looked upcm town life with 
 something like aversion, and never sought the towns except 
 for temporary business or pleasure. The General Assem- 
 bly sought to antagonize this tendency. They sought to do 
 
feedericksburg: past, present and future. 7 
 
 a thing impossible — that is to make towns by statute-law. 
 Towns cannot be made by statute-law any more than money 
 can be made by statute-law. Towns and cities arise and 
 swell and grow to greatness under laws which are not made 
 by legislatures, but by the social and business wants of men. 
 Hence we now read with amazement the numerous acts of 
 assembly of the Colonial period by which nominal towns 
 were established in nearly every county, and on nearly every 
 river or considerable run. William Waller Hening, who 
 has collected those acts, ridicules their policy and calls the 
 designated spots by the appropriate name of ' ' paper towns. ' ^ 
 They existed on paper and generally had no other existence. 
 Thus one of them was declared in the statute to exist in the 
 county of Stafford, on what w^as called Potomac neck, a spot 
 where no town has ever existed in fact, and where the only 
 dwellings have been the holes of muskrats and the lurking 
 places ot catfish, and the only inhabitants fish-hawks, snakes 
 and mosquitoes. 
 
 But Fredericksburg was already a substantial town be- 
 fore the act of assembly gave it a name. It is interesting 
 to note, however, that at that time, and for many years 
 afterwards, rights of dedication of private property to pub- 
 lic purposes were claimed and exercised by the Colony gov- 
 ernment, which would not be now held to be legitimate. 
 The act in question vested in trustees for the town fifty acres 
 of land lying along the south side of the river (Rappahan- 
 nock), in the county of Spotsylvania, which land was part 
 of a tract belonging to John Royston and Robert Buckner, 
 of the county of Gloucester, and the act directs that these 
 fifty acres shall be surve}ed and laid out in lots and streets, 
 and shall be sold; and that out of the proceeds the trustees 
 shall pay John Royston and Robert Buckner for their land 
 at the rate of forty shillings per acre. It does not appear 
 that any process of valuation-, or of condemnation had taken 
 l^lace, or that the consent of the owners had been obtained. 
 And when we remember that the price to be paid was only 
 about eight dollars per acre, and that land outside of Fred- 
 ericksburg has been sold, since the war, at more than eight 
 times this rate per acre, this proceeding of the Gentlemen 
 Burgesses seems to be tolerably aibitrary, and to be a dim 
 
b ^FREDERICKSBURG: PAST, PRESENT AND FTTURE. 
 
 foreshadowing of what is now known as forcible readjust- 
 tnent. And it is worthy of remark that fifteen years after- 
 wards this arbitrary proceeding is repeated. It appears 
 that George Home, the surveyor of Spotsylvania county, 
 did, as required, survey the fifty acres and laid it out in 
 streets and lots, and returned a plan thereof to the trustees, 
 who made sales according to the previous act; but the 
 original bounds not being accurately observed and the pur- 
 chasers building very irregularly, the trustees found it 
 necessary to Iiave another survey and plat in Marcli, 1 739, 
 which was made by William AValler, surveyor of Spotsyl- 
 vania county; and by this new survey it ap})earod that the 
 lots and buildings of the town had not only occupied the 
 original fifty acres, but had also occupied two hundred 
 and forty-three square poles of land in the lower end of 
 the town belonging to Henry Willis, Gentleman, of the 
 county of Spotsylvania, and two hundred and twenty square 
 poles in the upper end of the town belonging to John 
 Lewis, Gentleman, and formerly l)eloiiging to JNIr. Francis 
 Thornton. And as law suits and many controversies Avere 
 threatened, the Lieutenant Governor, Council and Bur- 
 gesses of the General Assembly passed an act in May, 1742, 
 which was declared to be " for removing all doubts and 
 controversies" and which declared that these lands be- 
 longing to the estate of Henry Willis and to John Lewis, 
 should be held and taken to be part of Fredericksburg, 
 and vested in the trustees and purchasers, claiming under 
 them, provided that the trustees should pay to the execu- 
 tors of Henry Willis five pounds and to John Lewis fifteen 
 pounds before the 25th of December. This act of the 
 Colonial Government does not appear to have been made 
 with the consent of the Willis family or of John Lewis, 
 and it made a distinction between the supposed value of 
 land in the upper and the lower end of the town which is 
 to us, at this time, inexplicable. But its validity seems to 
 have been tacitly admitted, as we find no protests or com- 
 plaints, and it is to be presumed that these gentlemen, 
 Royston, Buckner, Willis and Lewis, whose lands were 
 thus unceremoniously dedicated to public uses, were willing 
 (being owners of large tracts) to help forward the town 
 
KREDKRrCKSBI'RG: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. !> 
 
 and to sell the lands on which it stood at a price which, al- 
 tliough apparently low, may have been a fair representative 
 of values at that time. Thus, the old town went forward in 
 her course. Ilcr area, as ascertained in IToO, was not 
 quite fifty-three acres; and when it is borne in mind that 
 her present area, within her legal bounds, is about eight 
 hundred acres, .*ome proximate idea of her expansion within 
 130 years maybe obtained. 
 
 In November, 1738, two fairs were provided for, to be 
 held annually in Fredericksburg, on the first Tuesdays in 
 June and October, which times were changed in May, 
 1740, to the Wednesdays next after the court days of the 
 county, in June and October. These fairs continued, by 
 law, two days each, and were for the sale of all manner 
 of cattle, victuals, provisions, goods, wares, and merchan- 
 dise; and on the fair days, and for two days before and 
 two days afterwards, all persons coming to, attending or 
 going from the fair with their cattle, goods, wares and 
 merchandise were exempted from all arrests or ex-ecutions, 
 except for capital offences, breaclies of the peace, or for 
 controversies, suits and quarrels arising during the progress 
 of the fairs. And so beneficial both to town and county 
 w'ere these fairs found to be that the term of two years 
 originally provided, was continued by successive laws for 
 a long period. 
 
 The style of building frequently adopted in the town 
 could not have been cither safe or elegant. For, we find 
 that in May, 1742, it was represented to the Assembly 
 that the peo[)le were often in great and imminent danger 
 of having their houses and effects burned by reason of 
 the many wooden chimneys in the town, and, therefore, 
 from that time it was made unlawful to build any w^ooden 
 chimneys thereafter, and unlawful, after the expiration of 
 three }ears, to use any wooden chimney already built; and 
 in case the owners did not, within the three years, i)ull 
 down and destroy these wooden chimneys, the sheriff was 
 autliorized to do so. And by w'ay of killing two hurtful 
 bii'ds with one stone, the same act made it unlawful for 
 owners of swine to permit them to run or go at large in 
 the town, and if any such animals were found running or 
 
10 FREDERICKSBURG: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 
 
 goiug at large, any person was authorized to kill them; 
 but the slayer was not to convert the body of the animal 
 to his own use, but to leave it where killed, and inform 
 the owner; and if no owner was known, then the nearest 
 justice of the peace was authorized to order the body to 
 the use of the poor, or persons he might select. Thus, 
 early in Fredericksburg began tlie war on roving creatures, 
 and I need not tell you through what "sad varieties of 
 woe " to hogs, dogs and geese it has at sundry times passed. 
 
 Under these fostering influences the town grew in popu- 
 lation, in prosperity and in the intelligence and public 
 spirit of its iidiabitants. Its leading peojile were among 
 the very hrst in Virginia to adopt the principle that the 
 American Colonies ought not only to be exempt from 
 taxation Iiy the mother country, but to be free and inde- 
 pendent States. At a time when many of the ablest 
 statesmen in Virginia, including such men as Richard 
 Bland, Robert Carter Nicholas, Edmoud Pendleton, 
 George IMason, Thomas Ludwell Lee, Carter Braxton, 
 and Benjamin Harrison were shrinking back from the 
 very thought of attempting to achieve our independence, 
 the people of Fredericksburg were far in advance of such 
 statesmen in forecasting the future. The evidence on this 
 subject is conclusive, and is such as may well inspire every 
 son and daughter of Fredericksburg with emotions of 
 honest pride. 
 
 On the 20th day of April, 1775, one day after the battle 
 of Lexington, in Massachusetts, Lord Dunmore removed 
 twenty barrels of gunpowder from the public magazine in 
 Williamsbui'g, and soon afterwards fled with his wife and 
 some of his domestics and took refuge in tlie Englisli 
 frigate "Fowey," then lying at Yorktown. When the 
 news of that battle and of the removal of the powder 
 reached Fredericksburg, great excitement ])revailed. 
 Measures were speedily devised for collecting and arming 
 the people. Six hundred men, well armed and in flue 
 discipline, assembled in Fredericksburg at the call of their 
 officers. Many of them were from the counties of Spotsyl- 
 vania and Caroline. After assembling, they dispatched 
 delesrates to ascertain the condition of things at Williams- 
 
FREDERICKSBURG: PAST, PHESENTAND FUTURE. 11 
 
 burg. Those remaining in Fredericksburg held a public 
 meeting, consisting of one hundred and two persons — 
 citizens, soldiers and delegates to the Assembly; and on 
 the 29th of April, 1775, that meeting adopted resolutions 
 which were in form and substance tantamount to a declar- 
 ation of American independence. Though they deprecate 
 civil war, yet, considering the liberties of America to be 
 in danger, they pledged themselves to reassemble at a 
 moment's warning, and, by force of arms, to defend the 
 rights of "this or any sister Colony; " and they concluded 
 with the sentence: "God save the liberties of America! "_ 
 These resolutions were passed twenty-one days before the 
 celebrated Mecklenburg declaration in North Carolina, 
 and one year and sixty-hve days before the declaration of 
 inde])endence of the American Congress. That they indi- 
 cated the presence of strange intellectual activity and 
 foresight in the people of this town, revealed at a com- 
 paratively early period, I think it unreasonable to deny. 
 And in the subsequent struggle of the revolution many 
 of her citizens bore a heroic part, and one of her physi- 
 cians, General Hugh Mercer, sealed with his blood, at 
 the battle of Princeton, his devotion to Amei-ican inde- 
 pendence. 
 
 In 1782, one year before the close of the revolutionary 
 war, Fredericksburg received a regular act of incorpor- 
 ation and was endowed with a common council and a 
 hustings court. The MS. record of the latter, of date 
 15th of April, 1782, gives the first action of the court, 
 which is not without interest. The justices who held the 
 first court were Charles JNIortimer, William JM. Williams, 
 James Somerville, Charles Dick, Samuel Roddy and John 
 Julian. They were all regularly qualified and sworn in. 
 John Legg was appointed sergeant of the corporation, 
 John Richards and James Jarvis, constables; John Hardy, 
 clerk of the market and inspector of flour. Five persons 
 were authorized to keep taverns in the town, and it is 
 worthy of note that these gentlemen were all men of re- 
 spectability and excellent standing, some of them bearing 
 names which are still known among us, and are representa- 
 tives of our most reputable families. The name " hotel " 
 
12 FREDERICKSBURG: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 
 
 was not known then in Fredericksburg. They were all 
 taverns. 
 
 The next action of the court is significant as bearing 
 testimony to the convival habits already in full life in the 
 town, and to which I shall have occasion farther to allude. 
 A regular tariff of prices was established for alcoholic, 
 fermented and vinous beverages. To save my hearers 
 trouble, and to make values more intelligible, I shall not 
 in this lecture, in general, use the original quotations in 
 pounds, shillings and pence, but shall at once translate 
 them into their equivalents in dollars and cents. The 
 tariff confined the tavern-keepers to certain prices, which 
 they were not to exceed, and it is noteworthy that the 
 limits are not given for a wine-glass full or even for a 
 tumbler full, but for a gallon! These prices are as fol- 
 lows: For good West India rum per gallon, $3.34; for 
 brandy, $1.67 (this, I think, could not have been Cognac 
 or even peach, and was probably apple brandy) ; for 
 whiskey, ll.OO; for strong beer, 67 cents; for rum toddy, 
 $1.67; for brandy toddy, $1.25; for rum punch, $2.50; 
 for brandy punch, $2.00; for rum grog, $1.00; for brandy 
 grog, 84 cents; for Madeira wine per bottle, $1.25; for 
 port wine per bottle, (J7 cents. This port could hardly have 
 been the genuine article of Oporto, which was probably 
 then becoming scarce, and which is now almost unknown, 
 although it has been happily substituted by the now far- 
 famed port wine of Califoruia. Having thus limited 
 the prices on drinking, the court next proceeds to limit the 
 price for eating, and they fix the price of a single diet, as 
 they call it, at 25 cents — certainly a very moderate price 
 according to our modern standards. This taritt' of bever- 
 ages was somewhat altered by a new order entered on the 
 27th of June, 1782, but it remained substantially the 
 same, and the law of the taverns for a number of years. 
 
 Nearly at the same time we find in the MS. records of 
 the will books in the Hustings Court distinct evidence that 
 the estates of men, whether living or dead, Avere held to a 
 subjection for their just debts, which, in these enlightened 
 days, would be considered out of the question. In the 
 record of the inventory and appraisement of the personalty 
 
FREDERICK8BURG: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 13 
 
 of Jonathan AVilson, deceased, I find that the oath of the 
 appraisers was taken August 31, and the appraisement was 
 returned to the court September 16, 1782. This was while 
 the war was not yet ended. In this appraisement I find 
 recorded one silver watch, -S26.67; one cow and yearling, 
 $16.67; one suit broadcloth clothes, $13.34; one other suit 
 broadcloth, $6.67; three blue coats, $10; seven pair of white 
 breeches, $11.67; five white vests, $11.67; one shirt, 67 
 cents; six pair of stockings, $1.67 ; two pair of shoes, $3.00; 
 three hats, $3.00; one stock buckle, 50 cents; three brushes, 
 50 cents. And what is more important, it appears by the 
 record that these articles were all sold and the net proceeds 
 applied to the payment of Jonathan Wilson's debts. So 
 that this gentlemen, who left behind him only one shirt, 
 but who left seven pairs of white breeches and five white 
 vests, for all of which he probably owed his dry goods mer- 
 chant and his tailor, had the satisfaction (in the invisible 
 world) of knowing that all he left was applied to the pay- 
 ment of his just debts. Those were the good old days — 
 days of high living and of hard drinking it may be — but 
 days of honesty, Avhen repudiation of just debts was a thing 
 unknown. 
 
 Thus Fredericksburg jogged on her way through many 
 years, always merrily and often prosperously, during the 
 period which intervened between the close of the revolu- 
 tionary war and the establishment of the early railroad lines 
 in Virginia. Although one of these roads made our town 
 its northern terminus for a series of years, and was never 
 intended to injure her, yet it is undoubtedly true that this 
 road, with the extension of the Louisa road and its union 
 with the Orange & Alexandria road, and the gradual ad- 
 vance of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad along the upper 
 lines of the Shenandoah Valley, did injure the trade of 
 Fredericksburg by diverting from her a large amount of 
 produce — wheat, flour, tobacco, corn, bacon, and butter — 
 which formerly found their way in wagons into the streets 
 of the town. 
 
 In accordance with the expressed wishes of a number of 
 gentlemen, it is deemed proper here to insert the historical 
 narrative of 
 
14 fredeiucksburg: past, present and future. 
 
 Fredericksburg in the War. 
 
 No one Avho knew anything of the habits and character 
 of the people of our town had any doubt as to the part they 
 would take in the late civil >var. They were, with few and 
 abnormal exceptions, thoroughly Avith the South. In the 
 early movements in 18(31, looking to a defence of the line 
 of approach by the Potomac and Aquia creek, volunteers 
 from the town were soon organized, and with other forces 
 under Brigadier-General Daniel Ruggles and Commanders 
 Lynch, Minor and Thorburn, prepared batteries and made 
 brave defence against the gunboats which occasionally as- 
 saulted them. All the young men of suitable age and 
 health soon left the town as volunteers in the Thirtieth Vir- 
 «;inia reu'iment, nnder Colonel Robert S. Chew, and the bat- 
 tery known through the war as the Fredericksburg Artil- 
 lery, long commanded by Colonel Carter Braxton. Only 
 the older men, the women and the colored people were left 
 in the town by the spring of 1862. 
 
 For many of the subsequent scenes of the war we have 
 the rare advantage of being able to refer, not merely to 
 casual hearsay accounts, or even official reports which rarely 
 give anything more than a cold skeleton, but, also, to the 
 narratives of eye-witnesses, endowed with intelligence and 
 feeling, who actually looked on and bore their part in these 
 scenes. To the MS. journal of a Fredericksburg lady I 
 am under special obligations, and shall use it freely in con- 
 tinuing this historical sketch. 
 
 On the 27th of April, 1862, the town first fell into the 
 hands of the Federal military forces. The MS. account 
 thus describes the event: 
 
 " Fredericksburg is a captured town ! The enemy took possession 
 of the Stafford hills, which command the town, on Friday, the 18th, 
 and their guns have frowned down upon us ever since. Fortunately 
 for us, our troops were enabled to burn the bridges connecting our 
 town with tlie StaHbrd shore, and thus saved us the presence of the 
 Northern soldiers in our midst ; but our relief from this annoyance 
 will not be long, as tliey have brought boats to the wharf, and will of 
 course be enabled to cross at their pleasure. It is painfully humiliat- 
 ing to feel oneself a captive, but all sorrow for self is now lost in the 
 deeper feeling of anxiety for oin- army, for our cause! We have lost 
 
FREDERICKSBURG: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 15 
 
 everything ; regained nothing ; our army lias fallen back before the 
 superior forces of the enemy, until but a small strip of our dear Old 
 Dominion is left to us. Our sons are all in the field, and we, who 
 are now in the hands of the enemy, cannot even hear from them. 
 Must their precious young lives be sacrificed, their homes made deso- 
 late, our cause be lost, and all our rigiits be trampled under the foot 
 of a vindictive foe? Gracious God, avert from us these terrible ca- 
 lamities I Rise in Thy Majesty and Strength and rebuke our ene- 
 mies. 
 
 "We heard this morning, from Rev. Mr. Tucker Lacy, a sermon 
 from the text, ' The Lord God omnipotent reigneth ; ' and right gladly 
 our hearts welcome the truth in its grandeur and strength, wlien we 
 are sinking into despondency, and feeling the weakness of all human 
 dependence." 
 
 It is due to the cause of truth to state that tlie United 
 States military rule in Fredericksburg during the war was, 
 with some noted exceptions, considerately and even kindly 
 exercised. The provost command soon fell into the hands 
 of General Patrick, who proved himself to be a man of 
 genial benevolence and discrimination, although he was 
 firm and decided in his policy. Under his government 
 the people of Fredericksburg Avere not oppressed, and 
 many of her citizens conceived sincere respect for his 
 character. Even the colored people were not encouraged 
 to acts of insolence or insubordination. It is true that 
 when they chose to use their newly acquired freedom and 
 leave their former service they could do so, but to their 
 honor be it said, that many of them endured, with families 
 they loved, all the subsequent trying hardships of the war. 
 
 But after McClellan's great disaster in the seven days 
 battles around Richmond, and after the Federal powers 
 had placed at the head of their armies the empty, boasting 
 and unscrupulous General Pope, who advanced through 
 Fauquier and Culpeper with his "headquarters in the 
 saddle," and his announced purpose to subsist his army 
 by enforced supplies from his enemies, a great change for 
 the worse took place, which was speedily felt in Freder- 
 icksburg and its neighborhood. The MS. journal notes 
 this change thus: 
 
 *' July 23. — The first news we heard this morning was that four 
 of our citizens, Mr. Thomas B. Barton, Mr. Thomas F. Knox, Mr. 
 Charles C. Wellford and Mr. Beverly T. Gill, had been arrested and 
 sent North. We have no information why. The recent orders of 
 
1() fkederickskurg: past, present and future. 
 
 Secretary Stanton and General Pope make it api)ear that we are not 
 to be treated with the least leniency hereafter. ( )nr provost marshal 
 has been changed becan<e he was ' loo kind to the rebels,' and they 
 are now doing everything they can to persecnte and annoy ns. All 
 the stores in town are closed to-day to prevent us from getting any 
 supplies, and tliey have been sending their wagons around to every- 
 bod^^'s farm in the neighborhood taking tiieir hay and other pro- 
 ducts. I am afraid my poor brother will have nothing left for his 
 winter supply." 
 
 But these annoyances did not long endure. Tlie de- 
 cisive overthrow given to the Federal army under General 
 Pope, by General Lee, in the second battle of ^lanassas, 
 was speedily followed by the advance of the Confederate 
 armies into Maryland, the capture of Harper's Ferry with 
 eleven thousand prisoners and immense military supplies 
 by General Stonewall Jackson, and the bloody but unde- 
 cided struggle between Lee and McClellan on the borders 
 of the Antietam. So far from l)eing able to hold the line 
 of the Rappahannock, the Federal authorities found that 
 they needed every available soldier to prevent the loss of 
 their own territory. Fredericksburg was evacuated by 
 them on the 31st of August, 1862. The scenes are thus 
 described by the MS. journal : 
 
 "September 1. — After writing the last entry in my journal yester- 
 day, several exciting events occurred. The rain poured down all the 
 morning, but ceased about noon, and after dinner we went to church 
 to iiear Mr. Lacy. We found crowds at the corners of the streets, 
 and some unusual excitement prevailing ; and we saw clouds of smoke 
 rising from tlie encampments on the opposite side of the river. We 
 went on to the Baptist church, where we found a small audience; we 
 had a short sermon, and when we came out we walked down several 
 squares towards the bridges. Everything indicated an immediate 
 departure ; the guards were drawn up in line ; the liorses and wagons 
 packed at headquarters; cavalry officers rode up and down giving 
 orders; company after company of pickets were led into town from 
 the different roads and joined the regiment at the City Hall ; am- 
 bulances with the sick moved slowly through the streets ; and, as we 
 stood watching, we saw the officer who acted as provost raai>hal of 
 the town ride by witli his adjutant, and, in a few moments, as we 
 stood watching, the command was given to march, and away went in- 
 fantry down one street and cavalry down another to the bridge. It 
 was very quietly done ; there was no music — no drum ; not a voice 
 broke upon the air except the officers' 'Forward march!' It was 
 certainly rather difficult to repress the exultation ofthe ladies as they 
 stood in groups along the streets ; but strong feeling was at work. 
 
FREDERICK!?BURG: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 17 
 
 and perhaps it was easier to repress any outward manifestations of it 
 than if it had been slighter. I felt glad to be relieved of the presence 
 of the enemy, and to be freed from the restraints of their power; 
 glad to be once more within Sonthern lines, and to lie broughi into 
 commiuiication witii onr own dear peojile. But the great gladness 
 was that the evacuation of Fredericksburg showed that they had been 
 defeated up the country and could no longer hold the line of the 
 Rappahannock. And this gave us strong hope that Virginia might 
 yet be free from the armies of the intruder. We had scarcely reached 
 home when a thundering sound shook the house, and we knew it was 
 the blowing up of the bridges. Several explosions followed, and soon 
 the bright iiames leaped along the sides and Hoorsof the bridges and 
 illuminated the whole scene within the bounds of the horizon; the 
 burning continued all night, and our sluml>ers were disturbed by fre- 
 quent explosions of gunpowder placed mider the two bridges. K 
 
 went out with his gun and joined the guard which it was deemed 
 proper to organize for the protection of the town against any strag- 
 glers or unruly persons who might chance to be prowling about. The 
 first thing I heard this morning was that my two servants, Martha 
 and Susan, had returned, and requested permission to engage in their 
 usual work." 
 
 "Sept. 2. — About two hundred people came into town to-day from 
 the surrounding country, and general cmigratalations ensued. Some 
 of our cavalry rode into town this evening and were received with 
 shouts of joy; the ladies lined the streets, waving their handkerchiefs 
 and loudly uttering their welcome." 
 
 "Sept.4. — Sent my poi'tion of the soldiers' breakfast to Hazel run 
 
 by J and S , who came back with a great ac<ount of the way 
 
 the soldiers were feasted on hot rolls, beefsteak and coflee, and their 
 enjoyment of the good things after so long an abstinence. 
 
 " We attended yesterday evening the funeral of our old and be- 
 loved citizen, Doctor John B. Hall. While standing around thegrave, 
 the sound of the bugle and the tramp of cavalry horses fell upon our 
 ears, and very soon a troop of seven hundred horsemen appeared; 
 they were our own 'greys.' We could have told it by their gallant 
 bearing if it had not been revealed by their dress. The air was rent 
 with shouts. As we came home the streetc were filled with excited 
 people, and everybody's face was lighted up with a glad smile." 
 
 From the presence and dominion of Feder.al troops, 
 Fredericksburg was thus for a time relieved. But the sea- 
 son of comparative quiet thus enjoyed did not long con- 
 tinue. Again the horrors of war closed over her in their 
 most appalling form. 
 
 In November, 18G2, the army under General Lee was 
 confronting the "Army of the Potomac" under General 
 Ambrose Burnside, who had taken command upon the 
 removal of McClellan. Knowing that a movement upon 
 
18 FREDERICKSBURG: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 
 
 Richmond was intended, the Confederate commander 
 keenly watched his adversary, to determine what line of 
 approach he would adopt. It was soon apparent. On the 
 10th of November a small body of Federal cavalry, under 
 Captain Ulrich Dahlgren (a son of the admiral command- 
 ing the fleet of South Carolina), dashed into the streets of 
 Fredericksburg. A few Southern horsemen were there, 
 V'ho, although at first dispersed, quickly rallied, and aided 
 by some adventurous citizens, attacked the raiders. Their 
 object being merely a reconnoissance, they soon withdrew, 
 with the loss of a few men and horses. Immediately after- 
 wards the Federal army began to move down from Fau- 
 quier and Prince Willian), through Stafford county, to 
 occupy Fredericksburg. r4eneral Lee gave prompt warn- 
 ing to Colonel Wm. A. Ball, who with a small cavalry 
 force held the town, directing him, if possible, to retard 
 the enemy, and informing him that he would soon be 
 reinfin'ced. The divisions of McLaws and Ransom, with 
 W. H. F. Lee's brigade of cavalry and Lane's battery, 
 were put in rapid motion for the threatened point, and the 
 whole Confederate army prepared to follow. 
 
 Colonel Ball had already proved his courage and skill 
 upon the field of Leesburg and in other encounters; he 
 now gave a signal exanijole of what may be done with a 
 small force by a resolute front. On Sunday, the 16th, his 
 scouts announced the approach of the enemy on three 
 roads — the Warrenton, Stafford Courthouse and Poplar. 
 He telegraphed to General Gustavus W. Smith in Rich- 
 mond, that if he would send him two companies of infantry 
 he would engage the enemy if they sought to cross the 
 fords of the Rappahannock near Fredericksburg. General 
 Smith promptly sent him a battalion of four companies, 
 under Major Finney, from the Forty-second Mississippi. 
 Colonel Ball placed these in the mill-race aud mill opposite 
 Falmouth, stationed his cavalry in the upper part of Fred- 
 ericksburg, and planted CVxptain Lewis' battery of four 
 guns and eighty men on the plateau around the residence 
 of Mrs. Fitzgerald, half a mile above the town. His 
 whole force did not exceed five hundred and twenty men. 
 
 At 10 o'clock on Monday, the 17th, the Southern scouts 
 
FREDERICKSBURG: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 19 
 
 were driven across the river by the enemy's cavalry, and 
 in four hours thereafter the whole Federal corps under 
 General Sumner, twelve thousand strong, appeared on the 
 Stafford Heights ojiposite Fredericksburg, and ])lanted 
 their field-batteries, consisting of more tlian twenty guns. 
 In the face of their rapid and accurate firing, Lewis' men 
 stoutly maintained their ground and replied. The distance 
 did not exceed eight hundred yards. Finding the exposure 
 too great. Colonel Ball withdrew the pieces and artillerists 
 under the shelter of Mrs. Fitzgerald's house, which was 
 pierced through and through by the enemy's shot; yet the 
 Southern fire w'as maintained, and the Federals, uncertain 
 as to the force before them, made no attempt to cross the 
 river. 
 
 It seemed rash to remain, and all of Colonel Ball's 
 oflRcers, except Adjutant Dickinson, earnestly advised him 
 to withdraw. But he refused, and telegraphed to General 
 Smith that he would hold his position while a man was 
 left to him. General Smith replied: " Give them the best 
 fight you have in you;" and General Lee telegraphed: 
 " Hold your position if you can ; reinforcements are hurry- 
 ing to you." Thus encouraged. Colonel Ball maintained 
 his front Avith five hundred men in the face of the twelve 
 thousand. 
 
 On Tuesday the enemy's force was largely increased; 
 Burnside's whole army was pouring down to the Stafford 
 hills. Colonel Ball received a reinforcement of the Nor- 
 folk Light Artillery and the Sixty-first Virginia regiment, 
 amounting together to about five hundred men. He re- 
 lieved the wearied infantry at the mill and the artillerists 
 at Mrs. Fitzgerald's, and still faced the enemy. They 
 were waiting for pontoon bridges and did not cross. 
 
 Meanwhile General Lee's army was rushing down the 
 roads from Culpeper and Orange to occupy the crest of 
 hills around Fredericksburg. Wednesday, at daybreak, 
 Fitzhugh Lee's cavalry arrived; the next morning General 
 McLaws, with his own division and that of General Ran- 
 som, were in position, and on the 20th the Commander-in- 
 Chief was at hand to direct the movements of the corps of 
 Longstreet and Jackson, which rapidly followed him. 
 
20 FREDERICKSBURa: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 
 
 On Thursday, the 20th of November, by request of 
 General Lee, Montgomery Shiughter, mayor of Fredericks- 
 burg, accompanied by the recorder, Wm. A. Little, and 
 by Douglas H. Gordon, a member of her council, held an 
 interview with the Confederate Commander-in-Chief. It 
 was held during a driving rain at Snowden, the residence 
 of John L. 8tansbury, about a mile from town. The 
 mayor and his companions asked the aid and advice of 
 General Lee in the terrible crisis now at hand. He was 
 grave and serious, but, as always, kind and considerate. 
 He did not conceal the dangers threatening the town from 
 the collision of two great armies. At the close of the 
 interview Mayor Slaughter said: "Then, General Lee, I 
 understand the people of the town must fear the worst." 
 He replied: "Yes, they must fear the worst." With 
 these final words, the town authorities were turning sadly 
 away, when General Longstreet, who had been sitting in 
 the conference wrapped in his military great coat streaming 
 with rain, rose from his seat and in a deep tone said, " But 
 let them hope for the best." A single gleam of sunshine 
 fell on the delegates, and they returned to the town. 
 
 On Friday, the 21st, General Sumner of the Federal 
 army sent over a flag of truce with a written message to 
 the mayor and common council of Fredericksburg. Gen- 
 eral Patrick bore the missive, and landed near the rock 
 below the deep part of the river known as "French 
 John's." Here he was met by Colonel Ball, the Confed- 
 erate officer before mentioned, and they entei'ed a log 
 house which had been built on the spot, by order of Gen- 
 eral Patrick, when formerly in command of the town. 
 General Sumner's letter (the original of which I have 
 examined) was as follows: 
 
 "Headquarters Right Grand Division^ 
 Army of the Potomac, l 
 
 Camp near Falmouth, Va., Nov. 21, 1862. j 
 To llu: Matjor and Common Council of Fredericksburg, Va.: 
 
 Gentlemen — Under cover of the houses of yoiu- city, shots have 
 been fired npon the troops of my command. Your mills and manu- 
 factories are fnrnisiiinfi; provisions and the maierial for clothing for 
 armed bodies in rebellion against the (ioverinnent of tlie United 
 States. Your railroads and other means of transportation are re- 
 
FREDERICKSBURG: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 21 
 
 moving supplies to tlie depots of such troops. Tliis condition of 
 tilings must terminate; and by direction of Maj. -General Burnside, 
 commanding this army, I accordingly demand the surrender of the 
 city into my hands, as ihe representative of the Government of the 
 United States, at or before five o'clock this afternoon (") o'clock 
 P. M. to-day). Failing an affirmative reitly to this demand by the 
 time indicated, sixteen (16 hours) hours will be permitted to elapse 
 for the removal from the city of women and ciiildren, the sick, 
 wounded and aged; which period having elapsed, I shall proceed to 
 shell the town. 
 
 Upon obtaining possession of the town every necessary means will 
 be taken to preserve ortler, and secure the protective operation of 
 the laws and policy of the United States Government. 
 
 I am, very resp'y, your ob't servant, 
 
 E. V. Sumner, 
 
 Bvt. Major-General U. S. Army, Coram'g." 
 
 Colonel Ball simply stated that before delivering the 
 letter to the civil authorities it must be referred to his 
 commandiug military officer. But neither he nor the 
 mayor gave any intimation of the actual presence of Gen- 
 eral Lee, with a large part of his army, on the ridge in 
 rear of the town. The printed statements heretofore pub- 
 lished on that point are all erroneous. General Patrick 
 was obliged to remain in the log house from 10 A. M. to 
 7 P. M. on the 21st. Meanwhile Colonel Ball, through 
 the pro])er channels, forwarded the letter to General Lee. 
 At twenty minutes before 5 P. M. the letter was received 
 at his office by Mayor Slaughter, through General J. E. B. 
 Stuart, who communicated, in full, General Lee's decision. 
 With the aid of his iidvisers, the mayor prejiared a written 
 reply bearing date, "Mayor's office, Fredericksburg, Nov. 
 21, 1862." This reply was to the effect that the com- 
 munication of General Sumner had not reached the mayor 
 in time to furnish a reply by 5 o'clock P. M., as re(|uested; 
 that it had been sent to him after passing (by General 
 Patrick's consent) through the hands of the commanding 
 officer of the Confederate States forces near the town; that 
 as to the shots complained of in the northern suburbs, they 
 were the acts of the Confederate military force holding the 
 town; that the mayor was authorized to say that the several 
 subjects of complaint would not j-ecur; but that the Con- 
 federate troops would not occuj)y the town, neither would 
 they permit the Federal troops to do so. Mayor Slaughter, 
 
22 FREDERICKSBURG: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 
 
 attended by Doctor William S. Scott and Samuel S. Hovvi- 
 son, went to the log house and, at about 7 P. M. , delivered 
 this reply to General Patrick, who had been long expecting 
 it with some impatience, and who indulged in some good 
 humored remonstrances at the delay. His military attend- 
 ants under the flag of truce having all returned to the 
 Federal lines, he was rowed back in a canoe across the 
 river by Doctor Scott and Mr. Howison, under a pledge 
 for his safety by the mayor. 
 
 In view of the bombardment menaced, and of the cer- 
 tainty that their homes would soon be under the fire of 
 both armies, General Lee advised the inhabitants to remove 
 as rapidly as possible. 
 
 The threatened bombardment was not opened the next 
 morning, but it became apparent that the enemy would 
 cross, and the town would be exposed not only to their 
 fire, but to the most terrible desolations of war. The hu- 
 mane and considerate chief of the Confederate army urged 
 the women and children to remove, and furnished wagons, 
 ambulances, every facility in his power for their aid. Then 
 followed a scene illustrating both the horrors of war and 
 the virtues to which it sometimes gives birth. The people 
 of Fredericksburg almost en masse left their homes rather 
 than yield them to the enemy. Trains of cars departed 
 full of refugees. Ujjon the last train the enemy opened a 
 fire of shells; they afterwards explained that it was a mis- 
 take. Wagons and vehicles of every kind left the town 
 filled with women and little children, with the few articles 
 of apparel and necessity that could be removed. Many 
 were seen on foot along the roads leading into the country. 
 Winter had commenced; snow had fallen. Many were 
 compelled to take refuge in cabins, barns and tents scat- 
 tered through the woods and fields. They were dependent 
 for food on the exertions of their friends and the humane 
 efforts of the Southern army. 
 
 Fredericksburg was an old Virginia town, long distin- 
 guished for the refinement and intelligence of its people 
 and the beauty of its women. The sight of such a popula- 
 tion driven out from their homes in the winter excited the 
 sympathy, and admiration of the South. General Lee's 
 
FREDERICKSBURG : PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 23 
 
 testimony was: "History presents no instance of a people 
 exhibiting a purer or more unselfish patriotism, or a higher 
 spirit of fortitude and courage, than was evinced by the 
 people of Fredericksburg. They cheerfully incurred great 
 hardships and privations, and surrendered their homes and 
 property to destruction, rather than yield them into the 
 hands of the enemies of their country." A movement to 
 aid them was commenced in Richmond. A committee of 
 relief and treasurer were appointed. Funds were liberally 
 contributed throughout the whole South. The array vied 
 with the people in furnishing money for the distressed 
 refugees. From the Commander-in-Chief down to the 
 humblest private in the ranks, the brave men who had 
 fought the battles now devoted their hard-earned money to 
 the cause of humanity. The division of General Hood 
 gave more than .$9,000; the cavalry under General Stuart 
 gave nearly $8,000, of which $5,400 were contributed by 
 the brigade of Fitzhugh Lee; the Thirteenth Mississippi 
 regiment gave $1,600; the small naval force at Drury's 
 Blufl' gave nearly $800, and other bodies contributed in 
 like proportion. The contributions of the people and army 
 continued until more than ninety thousand dollars had 
 been received and disbursed by the committee in Richmond, 
 and nearly an equal sum by the mayor of Fredericksburg. 
 The relief given by the purchase and supply of food and 
 clothing was most seasonable. Yet it could not compensate 
 for broken hearts and desolated homes. 
 
 A few families remained in Fredericksburg, determined 
 to brave the terrors of war as long as possible. The hills 
 of Stafi^brd are higher than the corresponding crest on the 
 south side of the river. The enemy had planted six bat- 
 teries of heavy guns, consisting of 20-pound Parrots, and 
 siege pieces throwing 85-pound shells, on the hills from 
 Falmouth to Deep Run, in distance from Fredericksburg 
 varying from six hundred to two thousand yards, and 
 these, with their numerous field batteries, commanded not 
 only the town, but the river for four miles up and down 
 the line of hills. Perceiving that he could not prevent 
 them from crossing under the fire of their guns. General 
 Lee determined to meet them as they advanced over the 
 
24 FREDERICKSBURG: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 
 
 plateau between the river and the ridge of hills south and 
 west of Fredericksburg. For this purpose he occupied 
 the crest with his army, and erected heavy batteries at the 
 most eligible positions. His line ran from the river, a mile 
 and a half above the town, to the railroad crossing at 
 Hamilton's, four miles below. Longstreet's corps rested 
 its left wing on the river; next was A. P. Hill's division; 
 and Jackson's corps was at Hamilton's, with D. H. Hill, 
 observing the enemy at Port Royal. General Hampton's 
 cavalry guarding the upper Rappahannock, crossed, and 
 on the 28th of November made a sudden descent upon the 
 Federal horse at Dumfries, capturing two squadrons and a 
 number of wagons with stores. At the same time some of 
 Colonel's Beale's cavalry crossed in boats below Port 
 Royal and captured several prisoners. Excited by these 
 bold movements the enemy's gunboats moved up and threw 
 shells into Port Royal, but were driven oft with damage on 
 tlie 5th of December by the accurate tire of Major Pel- 
 ham's artillery. 
 
 These skirmishes were soon followed by the grand move- 
 ment of the enemy. Having at length received his pontoon 
 bridges, General Burnside prepared to throw his army 
 across the river. At two o'clock in the morning of Thurs- 
 day, the 11th of December, his troops were in motion, 
 and three signal guns in General Lee's works sounded a 
 note of warning to the people and the army. The enemy 
 commenced throwing thi-ce j)ontoon bridges across the 
 river, two at Fredericksburg and one at Deep Run, a mile 
 and a quaiter below. 
 
 The brigade of General l>arksdale held the town. The 
 Seventeenth Mississippi, aided by the Eighth Florida, 
 guarded the upper crossing; tiie Eighteenth was near Deep 
 Run. As the enemy appeared on their unfinished bridge 
 opposite the town, Genei-al Rarksdale's men opened a se- 
 vei'e nuisk(!try fire, picking them oft' with great rapidity. 
 Hardly had this tire commenced before the enemy's heavy 
 batteries opened the long threatened bombardment of 
 Fredericksburg. Their fteld batteries soon followed, and 
 for twelve hours a horrible deluge of shells and shot was 
 poured upon the streets and houses. The few i-emaining 
 
fredekicksburg: past, present and future. 25 
 
 inhabitants fled to their cellar.^, and sought to save their 
 lives from the storm which was beating their homes to 
 pieces. Many houses were burned; among them was the 
 residence of the postmaster, Reuben T. Thom. He was 
 old and enfeebled by illness, yet he retained his courage, 
 and when his house was burning he took his seat in a chair 
 in his yard, seeming to defy the torrents of deadly missiles. 
 His friends with difficulty removed him from his ruined 
 home. 
 
 The scenes of terror and danger passing in the town were 
 pictured in a letter from a lady to her son in the army. 
 She had remained until the bombardment. She wrote: 
 
 "Our lives are all spared, and you must help us to adore the 
 goodness which has intervened between us and the great perils to 
 which we have been exposed. We had no warning of the intention 
 of the enemy, and were awakened on the morning of the 11th, at 
 five o'clock, by the booming of the cannon, and lieard instantly that 
 the enemy were crossing the river. We hurried on our clothes and 
 rushed into the cellar as the second sliot struck the house. The 
 servants made up a tire, and we had just gatliered around it when 
 the crashing of ghiss and splintering of wood caused us to run 
 towards the door leading to the wood cellar. As we reached it, poor 
 
 little S exclaimed, '1 am struck, Ma!' and fell into my arms. 
 
 We bore him into a closet in the cellar and tore his clothes oH' and 
 found only a large black bruise on his right arm near the shoulder; 
 the ball which struck him was so nearly spent that it had only force 
 left to inllict this hurt. We afterwards found the ball near where 
 he stood — a twelve-pounder. After this we did not venture even 
 into that room again, but sat crouched together in the dark hole for 
 thirteen hours, while the cannonading was tearing everything to 
 pieces above our heads. There are holes In the up-talrs rooms large 
 
 enough to put a barrel through. About one o'clock Brother J 
 
 came in from his farm, at th risk of his life, to see if we could be 
 moved. A hasty council was held, but the tiring was so tremendous 
 and the destruction in the streets so great that it was thought best for 
 us to remain where we were. So there we sat upon the Hoor in the 
 closet, 'looking upward in the strife.' Susan and Mart iia got us a 
 furnace of live coals, and even cooked us a little food at the fireplace 
 in one of the rooms; they got us all the counterpanes and blankets 
 
 they could hastily snatch, and made poor J a bed, as he has 
 
 never recovered from his late attack. 
 
 "Just at dark we heard your uncle's voice again calling, 'Come 
 out. I have an ambulance at the back door, and you must not stay 
 to get a single thing. They are In town, only a scpiare off, and you 
 must be gone at once!' We needed no second call, but wra[)ping 
 the blankets around us, we rushed through the yard over the 
 
26 FREDERICKSBURG: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 
 
 brandies of trees. The pailings were all down and tiie yard was 
 ploughed up, and we step[)ed over many a ball and fragment of shell 
 
 in onr husty progress to the ambulance. Erotiier J i)ut us all 
 
 in and remained a few moments to lock up the house, when our 
 driver put the whip to his horses, and we tore tiirough the town at a 
 rate that at any other time would have frightened me for the safety 
 of our lives, but now seemed all too slow for our anxiety to be 
 beyond the reach of thoie fearful shot and shell which were still 
 crashing through the streets and tearing the houses to pieces. I 
 never ventured to look back until we readied the top of the high 
 hill beyond the mill, and then the scene was so awfully gi'and and 
 terrible that I cannot venture upon its description. The railroad 
 bridge across Hazel Run was burning, and large fires at several 
 points in the town. There were hundreds of camp-fires, around 
 which bands of men under arms were gathered, and the road was 
 lined with soldiers, wagons, and ambulances. Every object could be 
 distinguished, even the fierce swarthy, countenances of our soldiers, 
 every one of whom looked defiance towards the foe who had caused 
 the destruction of our homes. 
 
 "We came on at rather a lessened pace, and when Mrs. Temple 
 met us in the yard with lier warm, cordial welcome, and led us into 
 the bright, cheerful looking room, where a good lire was lilazing, and 
 kind, sympathizing friends were all around, my wrought-up agony 
 gave way in fioods of tears which could not be controlled. We 
 thanked God for our deliverance; and when we lay down in com- 
 fortable beds, far away from the sound, the sight and the smell of 
 battle (for the atmosphere which we had breathed all day was so 
 impregnated with gunpowder that it was oppressive), we felt indeed 
 that after all we were dealt with by a kind Father." 
 
 General Barksdale's troops resisted the passage of the 
 enemy with stubboi'n courage. Nine times they attempted 
 to complete their pontoons opposite to the town, and as 
 often were driven back by the fatal fire from the rifle pits 
 and houses on the bank. But at the bridge near Deep 
 Run th(> Confederates wen; exposed to a sweeping fire of 
 artillery, and at one o'clock they were compelled to with-, 
 draw. This enabled the enemy to cross below and advance 
 on the town. Under orders General Barksdale's men 
 slowly retired, figliting all the way through the streets and 
 inflicting loss on the foe. 
 
 On gaining possession of Fredericksburg, the P^'ederal 
 troops abandoned themselves to ])illage and destruction. 
 They entered the stores and dwellings, rifled them of all 
 that could be removed, and wantonly shattered to pieces 
 furniture, mirrors and glassware, lijiped open beds and 
 
FREDERICKSBURG: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 27 
 
 beat out their contents into the yards and streets. All the 
 liquor and wine found was speedily seized. Four hundred 
 bottles of old wine were taken from the store of William 
 Allen by Meagher's Irish brigade. Its effects were seen in 
 the battle now hastening on. 
 
 On Friday, the 12th, the Federal array was drawn up 
 in battle-line, preparing to advance. Not less than sixty 
 thousand men were on the south bank of the river, em- 
 bracing the four corps of Sumner, Crouch, Franklin and 
 Wilcox, with more than a hundred pieces of artillery. 
 The Confederate army sternly confronted them in a line 
 extending nearly six miles. Longstreet occupied the 
 wooded ridge running from the river above to a point a 
 mile below the town. A. P. Hill's troops were on his 
 right, and Jackson held the lower line from above Hamil- 
 ton's crossing to the Massaponax river. The Southern 
 batteries occupied fine positions to sweep the semi-circular 
 plateau across which the enemy must advance. Stuart's 
 horse artillery were in the plain on the extreme right, and 
 the Fredericksburg Battery under Braxton, and Letcher 
 Artillery under Greenlee Davidson, were in Bernard's 
 field, very near the centi-e of the Federal line. At one 
 o'clock the heavy batteries on each side opened, and for 
 an hour kept up a brilliant duel of shells and round shot. 
 Then all was silent again. 
 
 On the morning ot' Saturday, the 13th of December, a 
 dense fog hung over the river and the adjoining fields. 
 Under its cover the Federals advanced, their heaviest 
 attack was against the position held by A. P. Hill. 
 Through the thick vapor their dark masses were dimly 
 seen, and immediately the batteries of Braxton and David- 
 son opened on them with severe effect. At the same time 
 Major Pelham on the right began an enfilading fire, which 
 ploughed through their ranks, sweeping down numbers at 
 every discharge. His fire was so eftective that six of the 
 enemy's batteries concentrated on him; yet under this 
 sharp ordeal he maintained his position, and continued his 
 rounds witli such daring as to excite the admiration of the 
 Southern commander. 
 
 The divisions of the Federal Generals Meade, Gibbons 
 
28 FREDERICKSBURG: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 
 
 and Doubleda}' of Franklin's corps, made strenuous efforts 
 to penetrate General Hill's lines. As their left advanced 
 towards the ridge occupied by Colonel Lindsay Walker's 
 artillery, he waited until they were within eight hundred 
 yards. Then the guns under Pegram, EUett and Mcintosh 
 launched on them a storm of missiles, which first stopped 
 their advance and then drove them back in rout and con- 
 fusion. Meanwhile, farther up the line the attack was 
 more successful; the brigades of Generals Archer and Lane 
 became engaged with a heavy force of the enemy. A 
 bloody struggle ensued. Barber's Thirty-seventh and 
 Avery's Thirty-third North Carolina kept up a destructive 
 fire. The Confederates repulsed all in their front, but the 
 numbers of the enemy enabled them to press in upon their 
 flanks; and finding that they were in danger of being sur- 
 rounded, two regiments of Archer and Lane's men gave 
 way and fell back, leaving about two hundred and forty 
 prisoners in the hands of the enemy. 
 
 General Archer, with two regiments and two battalions 
 from Tennessee, Alabama and Virgijiia, held his ground 
 with tenacity, while reinforcements from right and left 
 were hurrying to him. Two of Hood's regiments, under 
 General Law, Godwin's Fifty-seventh and McDowell's 
 Fifty-fourth North Carolina, were detatched from the left, 
 and made a charge wiiich drove back the Federals in their 
 front beyond the Bowling Green road. But a massed 
 cohnnn of the enemy poured through the breach in the 
 Southern lines, and penetrated to A. P. Hill's second line, 
 where they encountered General Maxcy Gregg's brigade. 
 Orr's Rifles mistaking the advancing P^ederals for friends, 
 were thrown into momentary confusion. In his eflbrts to 
 rally them. General Gregg fell mortally wounded on the 
 field. A braver soldier and a truer heart was never lost 
 to the South. Cohmel Hamilton, who succeeded to the 
 command, I'allied his men, and with promptness re-formed 
 his lines and poured a killing volley into tlie enemy's flank. 
 At the same time General Thomas' brigade came up to 
 the assistance of Archer, and Lawton's and Hoke's bri- 
 gades from Early's division hastened into the melee, with 
 the veils which diflered so much from the huzzas of the 
 
FREDERICKSBURG : PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 29 
 
 Federals that the onset of a Southern regiment was always 
 known by the sound. After a short and sanguinary con- 
 test the Federals under Ferrero, Negley and Sturgis, gave 
 way, and were driven across the railroad with heavy loss. 
 Latimer's battery and the brigade under Colonel Brocken- 
 brough completed the rout. Doubleday's advance with 
 the extreme left of the Federals was successfully met by 
 Jackson's infantry under D. H. Hill, aided by the batteries 
 of Brockenbrough, Raine, Poage and Dance. The Penn- 
 sylvania Reserves under General Jackson weie received 
 with a fire so fotal that they broke in confusion and could 
 not be rallied. Jackson fell dead on the field, and his 
 body, with that of his adjutant, Sweringer, fell into the 
 hands of the Confederates. General Gibbons was wounded. 
 The attack on the Southern right had failed. After eight 
 hours of fierce contest they had driven back the enemy at 
 every point, leaving the intervening ground covered with 
 his slain. 
 
 Meanwhile on the left a bloody scene had been enacted. 
 The Washington Artillery were in position on Marye's 
 Hill. General Ransom's division was in support. Brig.- 
 General Thomas R. R. Cobb's brigade was posted on the 
 road below the hill, behind a stone-wall which attJjrded an 
 admirable breastwork. Brig. -General Cooke's men occu- 
 pied the crest of the hill. At half- past eleven o'clock the 
 serried ranks of the divisiQus of Generals Hancock, Couch 
 and Wilcox poured out from Fredericksburg, and advanced 
 over the narrow fields. When they came within eftective 
 range, Walton's guns opened on them, tearing their ranks 
 with spherical case and canister. Still they came steadily 
 on, while the heavy batteries from the opposite hills and a 
 cloud of sharpshooters on their flanks sought to create a 
 diversion in their favor. But when they reached a dis- 
 tance of a hundred yards from the road, the infantiy under 
 Cobb and Cooke opened their fire and sent a rain of bullets 
 upon their already bleeding ranks. Their dead fell like 
 withered leaves. Unable to bear the storm, they recoiled 
 and fled. Again they were rallied and came on, seeking 
 shelter of ravines and fences; again they met the hail of 
 lead and retreated in rout, leaving hundreds of dead and 
 
30 FREDERICKSBURG: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 
 
 wounded. Five times their (idvance was renewed, and as 
 often repelled with fearful loss. 
 
 As the evening approached the Federal officers organized 
 a column of assault heavier than any they had yet em- 
 ployed. The troops under Couch, Wilcox and Burnside 
 Avere massed for a final and desperate effort. Meagher's 
 Irish brigade led the van ; their native courage had been 
 stimulated to the highest degree by the liquor and wine 
 they had seized in Fredericksburg. Seeing the formidable 
 movement, General Ransom ordered Cooke's brigade to 
 support Cobb's on the road. Kershaw ordered up his 
 division, and Kemper hastened into line with his troops, 
 At four o'clock the enormous columns of the enemy were 
 hurled upon the position, firing such torrents of bullets 
 that a dark belt stained with lead ran along the whole 
 line of the stone-wall. The Confederates suffered severe 
 loss. General Cobb, a most gallant and accomplished 
 officer, was killed by a fragment of shell. General Cooke 
 was dangerously wounded. Yet the men stood firm, and 
 when the foe came within short musket-range, they met 
 them with a ceaseless fire of minie-balls, while the artillery 
 above under Colonel Alexander was shattering their ranks 
 with grape and canister. In the words of a Northern 
 winter, "human nature was unable to hold out against the 
 terrible fire." The Irish Brigade melted away; the ground 
 was so covered with the dead that the men behind were 
 compelled to pass over or push them aside. The Federals 
 broke and retreated in horror from the field of blood. 
 Their sharpshooters kept up a scattering fire, but as the 
 shades of evening gathered over the field, the remnants of 
 the immen.se host that had moved out in the morning re- 
 treated into town or behind the banks of the river. The 
 Southern victory was complete. 
 
 The loss of the Confederates in this battle was four 
 thousand two hundred men, of whom only four hundred 
 and fifty-eight were killed. A. P. Hill's division, which 
 sustained the heaviest pressure, lost two hundred and eleven 
 killed, and fourteen hundred and eighty wounded. Besides 
 Generals Gregg and Cobb, the Southern army lost other 
 valuable officers, anions whom were Captain H. D. King 
 and Lieutenant James Ellett. 
 
FREDERICKSBURG: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 31 
 
 The repulse of the enemy had been complete, and 
 accomplished with so little comparative loss, that the Con- 
 federate generals expected the battle to be renewed on 
 Monday. But the result proved that they did not know 
 the extent of the bloody chastisement they had inflicted. 
 The Federal loss in killed, wounded and prisoners was not 
 less than fifteen thousand men. They lost nine thousand 
 small arms. Their spirits were broken by the fearful 
 slaughter they had sustained. Their dead lay in ghastly 
 heaps on the field; nearly every house in the town was 
 filled with their wounded. 
 
 During the whole battle General Burnside never crossed 
 to the south side of the Rappahannock. He remained in 
 the house of A. K. Phillips, on a high hill north of the 
 river. A Northern observer said: "His position most of 
 the time was on the upper balcony, where ivith a powerful 
 glass he was watching the movements." After the san- 
 guinary defeat of his army he crossed and attempted to 
 organize another attack in columns of regiments; but his 
 troops demurred, his division generals advised against it. 
 In truth, the men could not have been brought to the 
 attempt, and he quickly abandoned it. 
 
 On the night of Monday, December 15th, in the midst 
 of a storm of wind and rain, he withdrew his beaten army 
 w'ith all possible silence and celerity across the river and 
 then removed the pontoons. The next morning, when the 
 Southern officers and their men looked through the haze 
 and storm to see what their enemy was doing, he was gone. 
 
 During the bloody battles fought in 1864 between the 
 immense Federal forces under General Ulysses Grant and 
 the comparatively small, but indomitable Confederate army 
 under General Robert E. Lee, and which have made the 
 names of Mine Run, the Wilderness and Spotsylvania 
 Courthouse forever memorable in history, the many thou- 
 sands of wounded of the Federal army were sent in ambu- 
 lances and w'agons to Fredericksburg, where a host of 
 United States surgeons and assistants attended them. The 
 native population then remaining was small, and consisted 
 entirely of women, children and elderly men; even the 
 colored population had become very much reduced. 
 
32 FREDERICKSBURC4: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 
 
 On Sunday, the 8tli of May, while a small congregation 
 was attendhig upon religious services in the basement of 
 the Southern Methodist church, a boy came hastily in and 
 whispered to Mr. -Joseph W. Sener, who announced that a 
 body of armed Federal troops were marching down the 
 Poplar Spring road. The people quickly dispersed to their 
 houses. These troops did not exceed sixty in number, and 
 were all slightly wounded; but as they were armed, the 
 men of the town deemed it safest to require their surrender 
 as prisoners of war, which was promptly made. Soon, 
 other wounded stragglers followed, until the number of 
 prisoners amounted to about two hundred. They were sent 
 to Richmond under a small escort 
 
 Within the next twenty-four hours, the fifteen thousand 
 of the wounded of General Grant's army were brought into 
 the town in ambulances, wagons and all available convey- 
 ances. They were attended by a large body of surgeons 
 and assistants of every kind. Private houses and yards 
 were occuiiied, and ghastly sights everywhere met the eye. 
 The sudden increase of the population from three or four 
 thousand to twenty thousand was enough in itself to cause 
 suffering and distress, and these were greatly aggravated 
 by the scanty supply of water. This was caused by the 
 fact that the Federal wounded in passing by the reservoir 
 on Poplar Spring Hill drank it almost dry, and threw into 
 it the dead body of a colored soldier. This so tainted the 
 water that the town authorities were compelled to shut off 
 the supply to the street pipes. Some arrests were made to 
 furnish hostages for the wounded prisoners previously 
 captured. 
 
 Many thousands of the wounded in Fredericksburg died, 
 and the National Cemetery on Willis' Hill, above the 
 town, now holds their remains, together witli those of the 
 great numbers gathered from previous battlefields. The 
 whole number of separate soldiers whose remains, in whole 
 or in part, are there buried is estimated to amount to not 
 not less than forty thousand. 
 
 Daring this occuf)ation for the wounded, the people of 
 Fredericksburg endured suffering, disease and sorrow 
 greater than any that had previously visited them. Yet it 
 
FREDERICKSBURG: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 33 
 
 is an admitted truth that no considerate aid or courtesy 
 was wanting on the part of the Federal officers which could 
 mitigate the horrors of these scenes. In fact a sentiment 
 of humanity was there developed on both sides which pro- 
 jected itself into the future. Had the so/diers and the 
 good people of both sections been left to themselves after 
 the war, without the stimulants furnished by the selfish 
 rancor of politicians and place-hunters, complete good 
 feeling would long ago have been re-established. 
 
 With the period that has elapsed since the war and 
 during the dismal stage of reconstiaiction, you are all 
 familiar, and to tell you of it would be only to repeat a 
 thrice told tale and unnecessarily "■ infandam renovare 
 dolorem,'' to open again old wounds, and perhaps to cause 
 hearts to bleed or eyes to weep that Time has been merci- 
 fully dealing with. 
 
 And, now, we have reviewed the history of Fredericks- 
 burg, as history is often written, but not as it ought to be 
 written. For we are now to turn to a more interesting 
 phase of the subject, and to speak and learn of the people 
 themselves, their ways and manners, their habits, and the 
 individualisms which stood out from among them like 
 bciKSO relievos from a plain surface. A town does not con- 
 sist in the buildings and houses that stand on its soil; and 
 the history of the town therefore is not the history of its 
 houses, however venerable some of them may be. This is 
 a truth which has been already settled by the highest 
 American authority, that is Yankee Doodle himself, for 
 do we not know that — 
 
 " Yankee Doridle came to town 
 Dressed in leather trou-ers; 
 He said he could not see the town, 
 There were so many houses!" 
 
 There is a profound truth involved in this old song, for 
 if a stranger had come to Fredericksburg in the olden 
 time, and had seen only the houses, and never met with, 
 and conversed with, and become acquainted with her peo- 
 ple, and then gone away, it might truly be said of him 
 that he had never seen the town. And this same truth is 
 
34 FREDERICKSBURG: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 
 
 expressed in yet more lofty and sublime thought by the 
 great Euglish lawyer, Hir William Jones, who with all his 
 mastery of twenty-eight languages, and his power as a 
 scholar, a jurist and a legislator, never uttered nobler 
 truth than in those immortal words: 
 
 " What constitutes a State? 
 
 Not liigh raised battlement or labored inound, 
 Thick wall or moated gate; 
 
 Not cities proud with spires and turrets crowned ; 
 Not bays and broad-armed ports 
 
 Where, laughing at the storm, i-ich navies ride; 
 Not starred and spangled courts. 
 
 Where low browed baseness wafts perfume to pride. 
 No! Men, high-minded men, 
 
 With powers as far above dumb brutes endued 
 In forest brake or den. 
 
 As beasts excel cold rocks and brambles rude ; 
 Men who their duties know, 
 
 And know their rights, and, knowing, dare maintain, 
 Prevent the long aimed blow, 
 
 And crush the tyrant wiiile they rend the chain : 
 These constitute a State." 
 
 And so we say that the men and the women of the past 
 of Fredericksburg are her true history, wdiether for glory 
 or for shame. 
 
 This town was once nominally called by a witty states- 
 man a "finished town," and her people have often been 
 accused of being so entirely self-satisfied that they will not 
 believe that any merit elsewhere can exceed her merit. 
 But, irony aside, it is a fact generally admitted — and 
 admitted by none more readily than by people at a dis- 
 tance — that the men and women whom Fredericksburg 
 has, from time to time, sent out from her bosom into all 
 parts of our country and of the world, and the men and . 
 women whom she has retained or adopted, have contributed 
 to establish for her a marked and consistent reputation for 
 intellectual activity and genial qualities. It is not impos- 
 sible that a philosophical reason or series of reasons for 
 this fact maybe found, in the conditions that have sur- 
 rounded Fredericksburg; her moderate and pleasant cli- 
 mate, her excellent water, her environment of picturesque 
 hills and flowing river; the beauty and fascinating qualties 
 
FREDERICKSBURG: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 85 
 
 of her women; her cheapness in the necessaries of life; 
 and, above all, in that happy medium between the size of 
 a small and stagnant village, and a large and bustling 
 city, which she has for nearly a century maintained, and 
 which is eminently adapted to develop active individualism 
 of character, alike removed from the sluggish life of a 
 village, and the forced dead-level of a huge city. 
 
 But whatever may have been the causes, the fact is 
 certain. Fredericksburg has, from revolutionary times 
 downward, always had within her, or about her, mental 
 activity. She has never been blessed or cursed with Rip 
 Van Winkleism. It is true that her people, in order to 
 develop pabulum for thought, have been occasionally 
 obliged, for want of more profitable occupation, to resort to 
 seats on dry goods boxes on the business avenues, or to 
 convenient corners for the debates of social juntos; or, on 
 graver occasions, to the town hall or courthouse for public 
 discussion; but they have always kept their minds alert 
 and polished by friction, and ready for business when busi- 
 ness should call; and if they have sometimes expended 
 their immense reserve and superfluity of thought in con- 
 triving practical jokes and questionable am<isements, yet 
 very seldom have these excesses ever assumed forms of 
 deliberate and malignant mischief. 
 
 Individualisms. 
 
 With this brief introduction, I propose to speak of some of 
 the marked characters that have appeared either in Fred- 
 ericksburg or in the country in contact with her, and con- 
 nected with her destinies. One of the earliest of those of 
 Avhom we have any authentic account was Francis Thorn- 
 ton, the great-great-grandfather of our beloved female 
 citizens, Mrs. Fitzgerald and Mrs. Forbes. And when I 
 state that Mrs. Fitzgerald, having nearly attained her 
 eighty-eighth year, is probably now our oldest inhabitant, 
 I carry you back to a very respectable antiquity in bring- 
 ing to your notice her great-great-grandfather. 
 
 He was from Yorkshire, in England; came to Virginia 
 after he attained to manhood, and acquired title to a very 
 
36 FREDERICKSBURG: TAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 
 
 large tract of land in tliis region. He was a tall and 
 powerfully built man, active and athletic. His residence 
 was long in the neighborhood of the Falls Plantation; bi;t 
 I suppose his actual dwelling house is not now in existence. 
 He was fond of out-door occuj^atioiis and sports — hunting, 
 fishing and swimming. There is a tradition that he had 
 occasional encountei's with the Rnppahannock Indians, and 
 that in one of them, in which he had the aid of a few 
 hardy spirits like himself, nothing but his great courage 
 and strength saved the white party from destruction. But 
 these incidents are not sutHciently authenticated to justify 
 me in giving them as history. It is certain, however, that 
 he sought adventure amon<r the lower animals — fish, flesh 
 and fowl — with which this region then abounded; and 
 within the memory of the living, an old citizen of Fal- 
 mouth has seriously declared that he had found in or 
 around the falls terrapins and fresh water turtles, which 
 had on their shells the initials " F. T." distinctly cut with 
 the ])oint of a knife. And on one occasion he had an 
 encounter Avith a sturgeon which is worthy of note because 
 it was characteristic of the man: The sturgeon had made 
 his way up the river during a light freshet, above ordinary 
 deep water. Francis Thoi-nton, Hnding this large fisii in 
 some of the shallow waters of the falls, undertook to secure 
 him, and for this purpo.se })lunged into the water and seized 
 his head; but his hands becoming entangled in the gills 
 the fish struggled so violently that he made his way with 
 his captor into the dee[)er water. Any ordinary man 
 would have gladly released him, but this Yorkshire gen- 
 tleman resolved otherwise, and by a rcmaikable exertion 
 of his great strength and skill in wading and swimming, 
 actually succeeded in Ibrcing the sturgeon back to the 
 shallow water and secured him. It was by such men that 
 the wilderness was subdued, and Virginia secured for the 
 Anglo-Saxon race. 
 
 The great-grandson of this gentleman was Francis 
 Thornton, whom many now living remember as the owner 
 and occupier of the Fall Hill estate above Fredericksburg. 
 And though the Indian fights, just mentioned, may be 
 apocryphal, yet it is certain that the life of an Indian was 
 
FREDERICKSBURG: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 37 
 
 closely connected with his life. During the administration 
 of Alexander Spotswood as Governor of Virginia, a young 
 Indian girl became domesticated in his family. Whether 
 she was actually a captive in some of the irregular wars 
 with the savages, or whether she was one of the numerous 
 hostages whom Governor Spotswood required the Indian 
 sachems to deliver up as security for their peaceable de- 
 meanor is not certainly known. Her name was Katina, 
 and after some time spent in the Spotswood family she was, 
 with her own consent, transferred to the Thorntons, and 
 became the nurse of Francis Thornton, the younger. She 
 formed for her young charge the strongest attachment. 
 She carried him with her into the woods and fields and 
 taugiit him many of the Indians' devices which she had 
 not forgotten. On one occasion when they had been missed 
 for some time, the father of the child sought them in the 
 thick undergrowth on a part of the farm now known as 
 Snowden, above Fredericksburg, the present residence of 
 John L. Stansbury. Here Katina was found seated on 
 the ground with the little boy near her, in a state of high 
 delight at her success in trapping a number of live part- 
 ridges which she had enticed into a wicker basket or cage, 
 and was now exhibiting to her happy young charge. Wlien 
 Francis Thornton was about seventeen years old, this In- 
 dian woman died, and her death caused him so much of 
 grief and depression that he could never hear it mentioned 
 or speak of it in subsequent life without the most unatiected 
 distress. 
 
 The art of practical pleasantry is one in which a very 
 great number of proficients have appeared in this town 
 whose deeds have been confined to no special epoch of her 
 career. They have often exhibited strange mental ti-aits, 
 and the point of the joke has often been attained by elabo- 
 rate thought and preparation which, applied to any other 
 subject, would have gone far towards useful and beneficial 
 success. 
 
 Early in this century there lived in Fredericksburg an 
 old Frenchman named Campion. He lived in the upper 
 part of the town. He was very poor, and such work as 
 he could find was precarious and often unremunerative. 
 
38 fkedericksburg: past, present and future. 
 
 He was often in want, and thongh not a recognized pauper, 
 was assisted, with much good humor and kind-heartedness, 
 by the ])eople in his neighborhood. And in return for 
 their benefactions many of them felt at liberty to amuse 
 themselves by innumerable pleasantries in word and deed 
 at his expense. On one dark night, at precisely nine 
 o'clock, when the old Frenchman was getting somewhat 
 sleepy, a knock was heard at his door. He oj)ened it; a 
 man stood there who asked in an earnest voice: " Is Mons. 
 Tonson here?" He politely re})lied: " Non ; Mons. Ton- 
 son does not live here. Mons. Campion lives here. " Then 
 the enquirer withdrew. Half an hour afterwards, as the 
 old man was preparing to go to bed, another loud knock 
 was heard at the door. Half asleep he opened it, and 
 again a stranger presented himself with the question: "Is 
 Mons. Tonson here ? ' ' The Frenchman began to wax 
 angry, and answering loudly, " No! " he shut the door in 
 the face of his visitor, and went to bed. But hardly had 
 he fallen into the fii-st sweet sleep, before another half-hour 
 had passed, and again a tremendous knocking aroused him, 
 to which, in his confused state, he answered by again pre- 
 senting himself at the door. The same question drew forth 
 an exi:>losion of wrath, and again he went to bed. But the 
 inveterate jokers were not to be foiled. At the end of 
 every half-hour from nine to four in the morning, a fresh 
 man, detailed for the purpose, knocked at the door, and 
 when Campion refused to rise from his bed, but howled 
 therefrom like a goaded tiger, still the same question was 
 shouted out: " Is Mons. Tonson here?" and still the an- 
 swer came, mingled with .sacre.s threats and objurgations 
 which roused the whole neighborhood. The next day 
 Campion went to the mayor's ofhce to get out a warrant, 
 but on giving his account of the matter, the mayor was 
 almost convulsed by his efforts to restrain his laughter and 
 to look officially grave; and, moreover, it was found that 
 Mons. Campion, though he had his suspicions, could not 
 identify one single offender, and could not swear to any 
 state of facts which involved an actual violation of law. 
 Therefore the matter was dropped, and he was quickly 
 paciffed by the practical kindness of the very men who had 
 perpetrated this jDractical joke. 
 
FREDERICKSBURG: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 39 
 
 In the interval between the years 1830 and 1845, this 
 spirit was all alive in Fredericksburg. There existed then 
 a secret club or association known among themselves as 
 "The Jaw Bone Club." They had no declared objects; 
 no constitution; no by-laws; no rules or regulations of any 
 kind — at least none that were ever revealed. I am not 
 able to say who were members of this club, or who were 
 its officers. I only know that John Terry, Charles A. 
 Pearson, Wm. H. Murphy, James Cunningham, James 
 Harrison and Turner Ramsay were leading spirits in its 
 operations. How many others were united with them, and 
 who they were, has not been disclosed. Their object 
 seemed to be, by union of effort, under certain impulses of 
 fun, which were under thorough discipline, to extract as 
 much enjoyment as possible from any suitable subjects for 
 practical jokes. On one occasion a Stafford man came 
 into Fredericksburg, and meeting casually with James 
 Cunningham, entered into conversation. Being asked 
 what was new in Stafford, he answered that in his neigh- 
 borhood the people were very much troubled about mad 
 dogs. "Mad dogs?" said Cunningham; "why don't you 
 get the corporation gun ? " " What is that ? " asked the 
 Staftbrd man. "Why," said Mr. Cunningham, " it is a 
 gun which is infsillible death to eveiy mad dog it conies 
 near." The Staftbrd man was greatly excited and asked 
 eagerly how it could be obtained. "Nothing easier," said 
 Cunningham. "1 had it not hmg ago to kill a mad dog, 
 but I have passed it to another gentleman. It is going 
 the rounds all the time. I will give you an order for it 
 by which you can get it." He accordingly wrote an order, 
 directing it to Charles A. Pearson, and requesting him to 
 deliver to bearer the corporation gun. On presentation to 
 Mr. Pearson he remarked gravely that he had parted with 
 it only the day before; but he would endorse on the back 
 of the order a written request to the party who had it, 
 which would answer every purpose. This new order was 
 directed to Mr. John Terry. By this time night had 
 arrived. The Stafford citizen could not find Mr. Terry 
 until the next morning after breakfast. On reading the 
 paper he expressed regret that he had not the gun, but 
 
40 FREDERICKSBURG: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 
 
 comforted the gentleman by telling him he knew where it 
 was and could put him in the way to obtain it. He said 
 to him: " The gun is now hanging up in the front part of 
 the store of Mr. AVilliam Redd, on Commerce street. It 
 is public property, and is intended for the use of all who 
 wish to kill mad dogs. Mr. Redd is somewhat strange in 
 his ways and may not be disposed to deliver it to you. 
 You need not ask him for it. You have seen all the 
 necessary parties, and I will write on this paper a full 
 authority, under which you can go and take down the gun 
 and carry it home with you." And so the writing was 
 given; the gentleman proceeded to the store, and seeing a 
 gun hanging up near the front door, forthwith mounted on 
 a keg of nails and had actually cut one of the suspenduig 
 cords, when William Redd catching sight of the proceed- 
 ing through the glass sash of his counting-room rushed out 
 upon him. His hostile look so alarmed the man that he 
 left the gun hanging by one cord, and took to his heels, 
 pursued by Mr. Redd, who raised hue and cry upon him 
 as a thief; but the man was fleet of foot and succeeded in 
 crossing Chatham bridge and escaping into Stafford. 
 Justice requires me to add that when William Redd, who 
 relished a joke, learned about the order he laughed as 
 heartily as other people, and sent the Stafford gentleman a 
 message that he might come safely to Fredericksburg when 
 he chose. 
 
 These details as to the "Jaw Bone Club" and its pro- 
 ceedings have been given to me by my friend and former 
 schoolmate, Charles A. Shepherd, who has also furnished 
 many authentic particulars as to Wm. H. Murphy (com- 
 monly called Billy Murphy), who kept a store, and Isaac 
 Jones (commonly known as Jew Jones), who was then the 
 only citizen of Hebrew descent in Fredericksburg, though 
 since the war some of her most enterprising residents have 
 been of that ancient and interesting race. 
 
 I can only speak, in passing on, of the peculiar relations 
 between Billy Murphy and Jew Jones, and tell how Mur- 
 2>hy, by most adroit and elaborate maneuvres, continued 
 through five years, succeeded, on two several occasions, in 
 inducing Jew Jones to receive from him cigars, in each 
 
FREDERICKSBURG: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 41 
 
 case loaded in their folds with gunpowder, and which, 
 when the Jew lighted them while applied to his mouth, 
 instantly exploded, marking his face, in one instance, with 
 black spots which he long bore; and how in another case, 
 in a dark night Murphy crouched down in a deep gutter 
 which was then alongside of the curb-stone, near the 
 present postoffice, by which route he knew that Jew Jones 
 was about to pass; and when the Jew stepped on him he 
 rose up, whereby the Jew was overthrown and covered with 
 mud, and how Murphy succeeded in moving back into the 
 sitting-room of the Farmers Hotel (which was then the 
 great place of rendezvous for jokers) in time to take his 
 seat, with a grave lace, before the Jew arrived; and how 
 Mr. Jones came in and declared that he had stepped on a 
 big black hog, applying, also, to the supposed hog an 
 epithet which reverence forbids me to repeat, and how he 
 had fallen and beniired himself, and how outrageous it 
 was in the common council to permit hogs to run in the 
 streets, and Murphy sympathized with him, and proposed 
 to get up a petition on the subject to the council. But 
 with all his repeated and sometimes severe pleasantries at 
 his expense. Murphy was always a true friend to the Jew, 
 and often helped him when he was in want or in trouble. 
 This good-humored habit of exercising the mind in 
 ingenious contrivances for merriment and fun had its effect 
 even on the colored people of Fredericksburg, many of 
 Avhom emerged from the common level and became char- 
 acters almost as well known as some of the white humorists. 
 I can only mention three by name, all of whom may per- 
 haps be remembered by some present. One was John 
 Campbell, commonly called "Old John Campbell." His 
 specialty was attending funerals. He was never known to 
 be absent from the funeral of a colored person; and at- 
 tended all the funerals of the white people that he could 
 possibly reach. On these occasions, he always wore the 
 same hat, adorned with a black band and crape weepers 
 behind ; so that whenever he was seen wearing this hat and 
 wending his way in any direction, it was equivalent to a 
 notice that a funeral procession would come from that 
 point. The next colored character to be noted was Jenny 
 
42 FREDERICKSBURG: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 
 
 Ham. She was so eccentric that she was sometimes 
 thought to be insane; but there Avas so much of shrewdness 
 and method in her madness that the better medical opinion 
 was against this theory. She would never permit any 
 person to cross her track without taking instant measures 
 to resent it or to avert the evil omen; and many a tub or 
 bucket of water has descended on the head of the unlucky 
 urchin who attempted this perilous feat. She had a 
 daughter, who bore a name of her own dictation, and 
 which she would repeat to any serious questioner with 
 intense volubility. It was a fair rival to some of the 
 nanies of German |)rincesses. It was as follows: Mary, 
 Margaret, Molly, Folly, Todd, Yankee Doodle, Yahoo, 
 Rooliper, Trooliper, Woolfolk Ham. 
 
 But, beyond doubt, the most eminent colored character 
 was Buddy Taylor, who died only a few years ago. He 
 was a man of large size and stature, and, in his prime, of 
 gigantic strength. His complexion was black, but having 
 an acjuiline nose, he always denied that he was an Ethiopian, 
 and insisted that he Avas a Carthagenian, and thus claimed 
 connection with the blood of Hannibal and Hanno. His 
 peculiarities were many; but that which most distinguished 
 him was the ability to coin and use words of sesquipedalian 
 length and thundering soud, of which the word " mahani- 
 ostanating " must serve as a single specimen. His language 
 was marvelous in this, that though every sentence con- 
 tained a large proportion of words which iDelonged neither 
 to the English language nor to any other known language, 
 ancient or modern, yet, when the sentence was finished, it 
 seldom failed to impress on the hearer's mind a distinct, 
 incisive stanqi of the idea which Buddy Taylor wished to 
 express. Therefore he was seldom misunderstood; and I 
 have always thought that the phenomena exhibited by his 
 mind and language Avere worthy of the deepest study of 
 the professed psychologist. On one occasion, about the 
 year 1832, there was an exhibition in the town hall of 
 Fredericksburg of the nitrous-oxyd or exhilarating gas, 
 the properties of which were first discovered by Sir Hum- 
 phrey Davy. The effect of this gas is known to be to 
 develop into high activity the prevalent and prominent 
 
FREDERICKSBURG: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 43 
 
 traits of real character in the person who breathes it. 
 And the fact that by far the larger number fight furiously 
 with fists, feet and teeth, is considered a sad proof that 
 since the fall, man has been born a fighting animal. 
 When Buddy Taylor was brought in for the purpose and 
 breathed this gas, much interest was felt, and the crowd 
 gathered in a silent circle around him. And, true to his 
 pi-evalent habit, the moment the tube was removed from 
 his lips, he stepped forth into the circle and delivered a 
 speech which, I can truly say, was unparalleled and inimit- 
 able, for nothing bearing the slightest resemblance to it is 
 found in all the literature of the world. 
 
 I am not willing to leave this subject of individual 
 character without at least a ])assing notice of certain choice 
 spirits, who were accustomed to resort to Fredericksburg 
 from the county of King George; and as I have already 
 mentioned the Farniers Hotel, it is jjroper now to speak of 
 the old Indian Queen Tavern, or hotel, which stood on 
 Main street, nearly on the spot where Mr. Stonebraker has 
 a wareroom for agricultural machinery. This Indian 
 Queen Hotel was burned to the ground at mid-day, about 
 the year 1831. It had been tlie place where the choice 
 spirits aforesaid mostly did congregate. In King George 
 there is a region, formerly, and perhaps now, known as 
 Chotank, which has been mentioned in connection with its 
 favorite beverage by St. Leger Lundon Carter in his genial 
 essay, "The Mechanician and Uncle Simon." From this 
 region chiefly came the spirits of whom I am to speak. 
 Mr. Carter was, beyond question, a poet. His longest 
 poem, "The Land of Powhatan," though it has some 
 beauties, was as a whole, a failure, and is not now in print. 
 But had he never written anything save the two short 
 poems, "The Sleet" and "The Mocking Bird," his pos- 
 session of the divine afflatus would be beyond serious 
 doubt. The first of these poems has lately been republished 
 by the good taste of our lady editor of the Fredericksburg 
 News; but as the latter is not generally accessible, and is 
 connected with my present theme, and as it is not only 
 true to the poetic soul, but true to the observed habits of the 
 bird, I am sure you will forgive me for quoting a part of it: 
 
44 FREDERICKSBURG: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 
 
 " I saw him to-day, on his favorite tree 
 AVhere lie constantly comes in his glory and glee, 
 Perclied iiigh on a litnb, which whs standing out far 
 Abiive all the rest, like a tall taper spar: 
 Tiie wind was then wafting tiint limb to and fro, 
 And he rode np and down, like a ekitf in a blow. 
 When it sinks witii the billow, and moinits with its swell; 
 He knew I was watching — he knew it fnll well. 
 
 "He folded his pinions, and swelled out his throat, 
 And mimicked each bird in his own native note — 
 Tiie thrush and the robin, the red bird and all — 
 And the partridge would whittle and answer his call; 
 Then slopjnng his carol, he seemed to prepare. 
 By the Hirt of his wings, for a Hight in the air, 
 Wlien rising sheer upward, he wheeled down again 
 And took up his song where he left oft' the strain. 
 
 " What a gift he possesses of throat and of lungs. 
 The gift apostolic — the gift <>f all tongues! 
 Ah! could he but utter the lessons of love 
 To wean us from earth and to waft ns above, 
 What siren could tempt us to wander again? 
 We'd seek but the siren outpouring that strain — 
 Would listen to nought but his soft dying fall. 
 As he sat all alone on some old ruined wall." 
 
 Such was the mocking bird of King George, which in- 
 spired the poet's heart. But we have some accounts which 
 attribute to this delightful bird sounds of another kind. 
 For the facts now to be mentioned I am indebted to my 
 good friend, Mr. John Randolph Bryan, who has recently 
 become resident with us, and is a member of our library 
 committee. He obtained his narrative from the hate 
 Doctor David Tucker, who made his ob.servations on the 
 spot in Chotank, in King George. On rising in the morn- 
 ing he was greeted by the joyous voices of the mocking 
 birds. To his astonishment he discovered that they uttered 
 articulate sounds almost perfect imitations of the sounds 
 from human organs. On listening more attentively he 
 heard the words, " Get up, get up," repeated with anima- 
 tion. But soon other words from these bird-throats came 
 with even more distinctness and life. They were, "Julep, 
 julep, julep." And then came many voices uniting in a 
 mezzo-soj)rano, "Taste it, taste it, taste it," and finally 
 came a deep-toned contralto chorus, " So good, so good. 
 
FREDERICKSBURG: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 45 
 
 80 good," and thus was ushered in with music, after the 
 manner of the ancient Greeks, the morning libation in 
 Chotank. 
 
 But whatever sceptical doubts may arise as to this mock- 
 ing bird chorus, the facts now to be mentioned are well 
 authenticated. I had them first from my faithful friend, 
 the late Howson H. Wallace, who was often in King 
 George and had many relations there. On one occasion a 
 special carouse was proposed to be observed at the Indian 
 Queen, and a select baud, embracing the names of Talia- 
 ferro, and Lewis, and Turner, and Hooe, and many others, 
 assembled. To do full honor to this august occasion, a 
 wash-tub of considerable dimensions was obtained from the 
 laundry of the hotel. This was filled nearly to the brim 
 with the choicest liquors and materials, compounded with 
 an artistic skill that had no rival elsewhere, even in Vir- 
 ginia. Loud was the tumultous joy — long and deep were 
 the potations. As they went on, some of the stronger 
 heads thought they perceived, from time to time, a distinct 
 savor of leather in the liquid; but they learnedly accounted 
 for it by reminding each other that several bottles of sherry 
 had gone into the tub. You know that this favorite wine, 
 when genuine, is from Xeres, in the province of Andalusia 
 in Spain, and that being brought down from the sunny 
 vintage in bags made from the skins of animals it acquires 
 a j)eculiar flavor, which the initiated claim to be a special 
 virtue. But when they reached nearly to the bottom of 
 the tub, some ingredients were found which had not been 
 put in by the artistic compounders. Being pulled out they 
 were found to be a pair of leather boots — old, well worn, 
 with originally high heels, thick soles and double tops. 
 Afterwards one of the youngest of the party confessed that 
 he had slyly thrown them in before the carouse opened. 
 But as he" had taken his full share of the beverage i'rom 
 the beginning, and had got very drunk and fallen under 
 the table, for these good deeds he was forgiven, and his 
 name has not transpired. 
 
 And now it is time that we turn from these delineations 
 of character and manners in our town to graver themes. 
 
4(j FREDERICKSBURG: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 
 
 Among the many influences Avliich have continued to 
 dev^elop the individualisms of the people of Fredericksburg, 
 three seem to demand special notice. These are: First, 
 the schools; second, the ne\vspa])ers; third, the churches. 
 Each of these sources of influence would require a separate 
 lecture for its exposition. We can therefore only glance at 
 them, but we may glance intelligently. 
 
 Schools. 
 
 The material that has reached me would enable me to 
 treat quite fully of the schools iu and about Fredericksl)urg 
 from the year 1800 to the present time. But I propose 
 only to speak specially of three. One of these was that which 
 succeeded the female school taught by the late Rev. Samuel 
 B. AVilson, in which many of the most agreeable women in 
 Fredericksburg received their early education. One of his 
 pupils, and afterwards his assistant, was Miss Mary Ralls. 
 She was the nearest approach to one who exercised disin- 
 terested benevolence that has appeared iu our midst. She 
 continued the female school, and after awhile took in 
 charge boys also. She called to her assistance a number 
 of teachers iu succession, and, at last, called to her assist- 
 ance a husband — an act constituting probably her most 
 signal display of unselfish benevolence. He was Mons. 
 Jean Baptiste Herard, a French gentleman, whose revo- 
 lutionary principles and service with Napoleon the First 
 made it necessary for him to leave France wdien the Bour- 
 bons were restored to the throne. He was never able to 
 speak English. He was poor and friendless. Miss Mary 
 Ralls had compassion on him and married him. They 
 were united in marriage in the old Presbyterian church, 
 which then stood on the lot now known as the Fredericks- 
 burg Female Orphan Asylum. Rev. Mr. Wilson performed 
 the marriage ceremony, and a young lawyer, skilled in the 
 French language, translated its parts to Mons. Herard and 
 received his assent. It was then the usage of Doctor Wil- 
 son to close the ceremony with the words, "Salute your 
 bride," addressed to the groom, who was expected to obey 
 by decorously raising the veil of the bride and kissing her 
 
FREDERICKSBURG: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 47 
 
 lips. It seems probable that this part of the ceremony had 
 not been sufficiently explained to Mons. Herard, and that 
 his ideas on the subject had become confused by some 
 usages in the provinces of France with which he was 
 familiar. Be this as it may, it is certain that as soon as 
 the words had been uttered in English by the clergyman, 
 and rendered into French by the interpreter, Mons. Herard 
 seized the bride under her arms, and, to the unspeakable 
 consternation of herself and her female friends, danced her 
 tunniltuously up and down the whole length of the front 
 aisle of the church — her little feet twinkling and flashing 
 with the rapidity of the movement, and her face presenting 
 a lively image of mingled womanly triumph and despair. 
 Reverence for the sacred building forbade merriment in- 
 side; but some persons casually passing by were amazed to 
 see the doors thrown open and a number of gentlemen rush 
 out and roll themselves over and over on the grass of the 
 churchyard in convulsions of laughter. Among them was 
 the late Dr. Beverly R. Wellford, who afterwards often 
 narrated the scene. 
 
 This marriage union, thus cheerfully inaugurated, was 
 on the whole a happy one. Mons. Herard, though he 
 could not speak English, taught writing and French in the 
 school. Here commenced the education of a large num- 
 ber of girls and boys, who were afterwards well known in 
 the social circles and business pursuits of Fredericksburg, 
 and of many other parts of the United States. Among 
 the boys I may be permitted to mention as my schoolfellows, 
 George Scott, William Barton, now your circuit judge, his 
 brother Howard, now a physician, and who attended Gen- 
 eral Robert E. Lee in his last illness, John Beverly Stan- 
 ard, Robert Wellford, who married Fannie Littlepage 
 Stevenson, became a physician and died comparatively 
 young; another Robert Wellford, from Tallahasse, Florida; 
 Peter Gray, a son of William F. (jray, and brother of 
 Mrs. Doswell, of Fredericksburg, and who became a cir- 
 cuit judge in Texas, and was a member of the Confederate 
 House of Representatives during the war; Robert and 
 John L. Marye, who need no introduction to you; Edward 
 Carter, a relative of the Wellford family, a boy of great 
 
48 FREDERICKSBURG: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 
 
 courage and promise, but who perished in his early youth, 
 by shipwreck, in going round by sea from Norfolk to New 
 York; and Byrd Stevenson, the youngest son of Carter L. 
 Stevenson, who was long Commonwealth's attorney in our 
 town. 
 
 In the school of Madame Herard, the studies of history, 
 geography, grammar, rhetoric and the French language 
 were, I think, carefully and successfully taught. But 
 arithmetic was not well taught until her brother, Mr. 
 Nathaniel Ralls, became an assistant in the school. He 
 was a fine arithmetician, and a vast improvement immedi- 
 ately took place. Prior to his coming, it is my impression 
 that arithmetic could not have been recognized, in this 
 school, as a branch of the exact sciences. This impression 
 is founded not only on general recollections, but one special 
 incident, which must be related as a sign of those times. 
 The most advanced class in arithmetic was at work one 
 whole morning on a sum in what was then called "The 
 Single Rule of Three," the answer to which was in land 
 measure. After many vain efforts the boys gloomily as- 
 sured the assistant teacher that they could not get the 
 answer. This teacher's efforts were then applied, but were 
 equally in vain. Finally a question came to the class from 
 the teacher's lips in these exact words: " How much do it 
 lack of the answer?" Immediately a voice replied, "It 
 wants one acre, two rods and twenty-seven perches of the 
 answer." " That's near enough," said the teacher; and, 
 the knot being thus happily cut, the boys went on their 
 way rejoicing. 
 
 It has been supposed by some that Mons. Herard was 
 actually one of the regicide deputies who voted for the 
 execution of Louis Sixeeenth; but the careful volumes of 
 Thiers furnish no evidence that his name was in that list — 
 that fearful list — to some execrable — to others immortal — 
 to all profoundly impressive. But, that his whole heart 
 and soul were fired with the revolutionary spirit was clear 
 to all who knew him. On one occasion two accomplished 
 ladies, who had visited France and spoke the language, 
 spent an evening at his residence, which was then the small 
 wooden building opposite to the house of Mr. Edgar 
 
FREDERICKSBURG : PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 49 
 
 Crutchfield, our superintendent of schools. As the even- 
 ing passed on, one of these ladies, who was a fine vocalist, 
 by request, commenced singing the grand hymn of the 
 ' ' Marseillaise. ' ' Hardly had she commenced before Mons. 
 Herard sprang from his seat in uncontrollable emotion, and 
 when she reached the line, ' 'Marchons, Marclwns, et Serrez 
 ■vos battaillons / " he leaped into the air, waved his hand 
 around his head and, taking up the strain, sang verse after 
 verse with gesticulations almost frantic in their energy. 
 And even in his retired life, he proved that he had not 
 forgotten some of the sharpest remedies of his country's 
 revolutionary times. He was fond of gardening, and of 
 raising pigeons. A cat in the neighborhood had made 
 some bloody incursions upon his squabs. He watched his 
 movements, saw that' he came in through a hole in the 
 close fence round his garden, set a bag arouud the hole, 
 caught the cat, and conducted him in triumph to a scaffold 
 erected for tlie purpose. Here the glittering axe descended, 
 and the cat's head rolled in the dust, followed by a torrent 
 of blood. Of these tragic events we were apprised in the 
 school by a shriek from one of the female teachers. Miss 
 Antonia Brent, who was looking out of the window and 
 saw the act of decapitation. But though the female teachers 
 and some of the female scholars were shocked, the boys 
 were delighted with the whole proceeding. And they were 
 probably right; for this cat was a malignant and confirmed 
 avicide and deserved liis fate. 
 
 When the revolution of 1830 took place, which drove 
 Charles the Tenth from the throne of France, the people 
 of Fredericksburg fired one hundred guns. Mons. Herard 
 walked up and down Main street from breakfast time until 
 nearly sunset, with a tri-colored ribbon on his coatbreast, 
 and a look of rapt revolutionary fervor on his countenance. 
 He was deeply disappointed at the continuation of the 
 monarchy under Louis Phillipe of Orleans. He died a 
 few years afterwards. How would that old heart, now cold 
 in death, have bounded with joy could he have lived to 
 see the present republican government of that great and 
 chivalrous people! 
 
 The next school to be noted was that of Mr. John Gool- 
 
50 FREDERICKSBURG: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 
 
 rick, iu the building now occupied l)y the Misses Vass. 
 His residence was the wooden building next above. He 
 was an Irishman by birth, and was related to the family of 
 which Judge John T. Goolrick, present judge of the cor- 
 poration court of Fredericksburg, is a descendant. He 
 was assisted in his school by his son George, who was de- 
 crepit in body, but highly cultured in mind. Mr. John 
 Goolrick was long the surveyor of Fredericksburg, and was 
 assuredly one of its eminent characters. He was deeply 
 skilled in mathematics, and was always pleased when his 
 scholars made such previous progress as would justify their 
 transfer to the classes in geometry. He believed in Euclid, 
 and did not believe in the modern follies which attempt to 
 teach that an angle may be formed by one straight line, 
 and that possibly somewhere in thfe universe of thought, 
 two added to two may make five. This last heresy is the 
 idea of John Stuart Mill, and is akin to the ideas of the 
 skeptical and materialistic school of the present day, who 
 call their system agriodicmii. This system teaches that 
 man in his present state knows nothing and cannot possibly 
 know anything of God or of ultimate Truth; and hence it 
 follows that for aught we know or can know in this world, 
 good may be evil, (iod may be Hatan, and heaven may be 
 hell. Mr. Goolrick, being a devout and catholic Christian, 
 utterly repudiated any such philosophy. He believed in 
 geometry, and such was the thoroughness of his methods, 
 that several pupils in his school were able to stand up 
 before him, and upon his calling by book and number for 
 any proposition in Euclid, to repeat the theme and instantly 
 give the demonstration. Jt is at least doubtful whether 
 this could now l)e done in any college in our land. The 
 blackboard in his day was unknown, Init the geometrical 
 figures wei-e projected by rule, scale and compasses, and 
 were therefore far more symmetrical than any that now 
 appear on the blackboard. He not only delighted to teach 
 geometry, but trigonometry, both plane and spherical — 
 surveying and navigation — algebra even to the diftereutial 
 calculus, and conic sections to the hyperbola and the 
 asymptotes. His modes of discipline were only two — 
 keeping in after school hours, and the rod. He believed 
 
FREDERICKSBURG: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 51 
 
 in the rod, and had two forms thereof; one, the common 
 form, consisting of tolerably stout and long twigs cut from 
 the althea bushes in his garden; the other a more solemn 
 form, kept for high occasions, being a seasoned cane of 
 bamboo, with an ivory head, and which by frequent use, 
 had become split into two parts, though united at the 
 handle and ferule. In this school I first met my friend 
 Charles A. Shepherd, and his brother Bandy Shepherd, who 
 was the hero of a most ludicrous scene, which want of time 
 forbids me to narrate. 
 
 The last school we can note is that of Thomas H. 
 Ha,nson. He was originally from Georgetown, and was 
 educated for the bar; but his modesty was so great that he 
 found it seriously to interfere with his success in the prac- 
 tice of law. He was a fine classical scholar, and his school 
 always deserved ' ' par excellence ' ' the name of a classical 
 school. The Greek and Latin languages, and history, and 
 antiquities of Greece and Rome were sedulously taught in 
 it, and few who have ever passed studiously through this 
 school have failed, in some form, to make their mark upon 
 their day and generation. In this school I first met my 
 friend, Mr. A. P. Rowe, our delegate in the General 
 Assembly. 
 
 Mr. Hanson, though modest and unassuming, was per- 
 fectly firm in temper, and, when roused, was formidable. 
 He was a man of true piety — read prayers in his school, 
 and sometimes read or delivered a short moral or religious 
 lecture. Some of the boys under his care long remembered 
 the impression left by his reading the pathetic narrative of 
 the death of young Altamount, by Doctor Edward Young, 
 the author of the "Night Thoughts." Mr. Hanson was 
 a member of the Episcopal church; but though he loved 
 his own church, and was what is sometimes called a good 
 churchman, he was never illiberal or exclussve in creed or 
 practice; and was ever ready to recognize and Avork with 
 his brethren of other communions. 
 
 These schools are but specimen presentations of the 
 schools of Fredericksburg, which have always been good. 
 I must now leave them to say a few words on the news- 
 papers of the town. 
 
52 FREI>ERICKKBURG : PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 
 
 Ne-wspapers. 
 
 The first paper established was the Virginia Herald and 
 Falmouth Advertiser, by Timothy Green, in 1786. It was, 
 after some years, conducted by Green, Lacy & Harrow, 
 and for a year or two by Wm. F. Gray. Finally all other 
 interests were bought out by James I). Harrow, who was 
 a practical printer, and who conducted it for a number oi 
 years under the style of the Virginia Herald. In 1851, 
 after Mr. Harrow's death, it was purchased by Major 
 Kelly, who conducted it successfully until a few years ago, 
 when, finding his t}'pe much worn, his subscriptions much 
 in arrear and hard to collect, and probably his own health, 
 circumstances and suiTouudings inclining him to an easier 
 life than that of a political editor, he wound up and dis- 
 continued this venerable semi-weekly. In 1800 another 
 semi-weekly was started under the name of The Courier, 
 by James Walker as editor and proprietor. It was issued 
 Tuesdays and Fridays, at 20 shillings (^3.34) per annum. 
 A file of this paper running from ^November, 1800, to 
 November, 1801, in bound form, has survived the lapse of 
 time and the desolations of the war, and has been kindly 
 submitted to my examination by the owner, Mr. James L. 
 Green, of Fredericksburg. It was started to promote tlie 
 interests of the Jefferson party, then called the Republican 
 party, and its first number states that it is the successor 
 and continuation of the paper entitled The Genius of 
 Liberty, which had been conducted in Fredericksburg by 
 Mr. Robert Mercer. This file of The Courier is interesting 
 because of its age and associations; but it is strangely 
 deficient in all local information, and but for the adver- 
 tisements and an occasional notice of a horse race, a public 
 dinner, a ball or a theatrical performance, it might as well 
 have been published in Boston as in Fredericksburg. It 
 does not even give quotations of the Fredericksburg market 
 until near its close. The first quotation is October 27, 
 1801, when a brief list is given, quoting tobacco at $4.00; 
 flour, superfine, at $7.75 per barrel; fine, $7.25 per barrel; 
 wheat, $1.25 per bushel; Indian corn, $4.00 per barrel; 
 and meal, $3.34 per barrel. Even the poetry is generally 
 
FREBERIGKSBURG : PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. SS 
 
 second-hand, being for the most part selected from the 
 English humorist who wrote under the name of Peter 
 Pindar. But, one brief poem, undoubtedly of home manu- 
 facture, appears in the number for February 13, 1801, 
 and this I shall quote for the benefit of my brethren of the 
 bar, that they may comfort their hearts by the reflection 
 that these present times are not the only times in which 
 they have been heartily abused. It is headed "Epitaph 
 on a Lawyer," and runs thus: 
 
 "Here lies the vile dust of the sinfullest wretch 
 That ever tlie Devil delayed to fetch ; 
 And the reader will grant it was needless he should, 
 When he saw he was coming as fast as he could." 
 
 The Fredericksburg News was established by Robert 
 Baylor Semple and, after his death, was purchased by 
 Archibald Alexander Little, who conducted it to the time 
 of his death. It is still in successful progress. The Politi- 
 cal Arena was edited from about the year 1830 to 1845 by 
 Wm. M. Blackford, who afterwards removed to Lynch- 
 burg. The Democratic Recorder was conducted at first by 
 Robert Alexander and James B. Sener, and afterwards by 
 S. Greenhow Daniel. The names of The Virginia Star, 
 Fredericksburg Ledger, the TVew Era, The Independent, 
 and the Recorder are too familiar to those now living to 
 need detailed narrative. 
 
 Churches. 
 
 Leaving the newspapers, we must now briefly notice the 
 churches of Fredericksburg. . The Baptist first comes into 
 view in June, 17H8, and in a manner strongly forecasting 
 the struggle which religious freedom was about to inaugu- 
 rate with the vicious but venerable principle of church 
 establishment. At that time, three zealous Baptists, John 
 Waller, Lewis Craig and James Childs, were seized by the 
 sheriff of Spotsylvania and carried before three magistrates 
 in the yard of the church building. The nominal charge 
 against them was for ' ' preaching the Gospel contrary to 
 law," but their real offence has been disclosed to us by old 
 Doctor Semple, who says that a certain lawyer vehemently 
 
54 FREDERICKSBURG: PABT, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 
 
 accused tliem, and said, "May it please your Worships, 
 these men are great disturbers of the peace; they cannot 
 meet a man upon the road but they must ram a text of 
 /Scripture doivn his throat." They were ordered to jail in 
 Fredericksburg, and as they passed through the streets they 
 sang in solemn concert the hymn beginning, " Broad is the 
 road that leads to death." While in jail, they preached 
 through the iron gratings of the windows and door. The 
 people listened in awe, and already a spirit was awakened 
 which grew in might until it grappled with and overthrew 
 not only the Established C'liurch, but the principles on 
 which it was founded. 
 
 It is not iny purpose to trace minutely the history of each 
 church in Fredericksbui'g, and therefore it will suffice here 
 to say of the Baptist church that she has accomplished a 
 good work, and that few of her deeds have been better or 
 wiser than that which placed over her most important 
 church here as its spiritual guide, its present pastor; and 
 which has enabled our Library Association to gain as her 
 second })resident the Kev. Dr. Thomas S. Dunaway. Two 
 colored Baptist churches are also hei'e, and well organized. 
 
 Previous to the revolution, the Methodist church had no 
 distinct existence in Fredericksburg, and, indeed, none in 
 America. But, after the ordination of Dr. Coke and his 
 assistants, the Church planted itself here, and, with its 
 accustomed zeal and fervor, grew rapidly in numbers. It& 
 oldest church building stood on the lot near Liberty town, 
 back of the lot now known as the town park. It has 
 entirely disappeared. But two compai'atively modern 
 buildings succeeded it, the last of which was erected in 
 consequence of the division in sentiment between the 
 Northern and Southern Methodists. Among the numerous 
 able Methodist divines who have been in Fredericksburg, 
 I will only mention the venerable father in God, Mr. 
 Kobler, who was long a resident among us. His holy life 
 gave him much influence. His quaint and uncompromising 
 honesty was exhibited in a prayer offered by him soon after 
 the first election of General Andrew Jackson as President. 
 After praying for his health and happiness and success in 
 his administration as President, he added solemnly the 
 
FREDERICKSBURG : PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 55 
 
 words, "Though Thou, O Lord, knowest well that we did 
 not want him. ' ' 
 
 The history of the Episcopal church in Fredericksburg 
 furnishes ample food for philosophic and profitable thought. 
 It was at first, of course, a part of the church system 
 established by law. In 1732 Colonel William Byrd visited 
 the town and thus, in brief terms, describes it: "Besides 
 Colonel Willis, who is the top-man of the place, thei'e are 
 only one merchant, a tailor, a smith, an ordinary keeper, 
 and a lady who acts both as a doctress and coffee- woman." 
 In that year, 1732, the first church was erected in Fred- 
 ericksburg. It was in the parish of St. George, which 
 then embraced the whole county of Spotsylvania; and this 
 county, as established in 1720, extended westward " to the 
 river beyond the high mountains " — i.e. the Shenandoah — 
 and included not only its present territory, but all of the 
 present territories of Orange, Culpeper, Madison, Greene 
 and Rappahannock. During the period from the building 
 of the first church in Fredericksburg, until 1734, Rev. 
 Patrick Henry was the minister. He was uncle of the 
 great orator. From that time to the end of the revolu- 
 tionary war, only two clergymen need special notice. They 
 were father and son, and both bore the name of James 
 Marye. The father was a native of France and belonged 
 to that oppressed but noble people known as the Huguenots, 
 They were uncompromising protestants, and Calviuists in 
 faith and church forms. The edict of Nantz, by which 
 they were secured religious freedom and protected from 
 persecution in France, was granted by the chivalrous 
 Henry of Navarre — Henri Quatre — and was revoked in 
 1685 by that concentrated essence of all the worst vices of 
 the Bourbons — Louis Fourteenth. In the persecutions 
 preceding and attending this revocation, it is estimated 
 that two hundred thousand Huguenots suffered martyrdom, 
 and seven hundred thousand, embracing the most industri- 
 ous and God-fearing people of France, were driven from 
 the kingdom. A considerable number of them came to 
 Virginia and settled at Manakintown on the James river, 
 about twenty miles above Richmond. Rev. James Marye 
 became their minister, and so excellent was his reputation 
 
56 FREDERrCKSBURG: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 
 
 that the good people of Fredericksburg petitioned Governor 
 Gooch to let them have him. He found nothing in the 
 Articles or Service of the Episcopal church which violated 
 his conscience, therefore he was willing to come. He was 
 inducted in October, 1735, and ministered here for thirty- 
 two years. He was succeeded by his son bearing the same 
 name, who ministered to the church until 1780. The 
 widow of the Rev. James Marye, Jr., long survived him, 
 and was well known to many now living, as were his 
 daughters, Mrs. Dunn, Mrs. Smith, of Snowden, above 
 Fredericksburg, to which allusion has been made, and 
 Mrs. Adams, who long lived in the house now occupied by 
 Mr. Robert T. Knox. 
 
 It can give us no pleasure to dwell on that dismal period 
 between the revolutionary measures which overturned the 
 Established Church and the renaissance of this century, a 
 period especially dismal to the true friends of Episcopacy 
 in this region, l)ecause neither in the character of the 
 ministers nor in the continuous decline of piety, could they 
 find any elements of hope. That some of the rectors in 
 Fredericksburg, even during that period, were good men, 
 cannot be doubted. But they were not of high-toned 
 Christianity, and they labored under disadvantages not to 
 be surmounted. And, by far, the greatest number were 
 men of the world, who indulged themselves in drinking, 
 horse-racing and gaming. Rev. Mr. Slaughter does not, 
 I believe, in his history of St. George's parish, give the 
 name of old Parson Mackouochie, who was so renowned 
 for his convivial and card-playing habits that a naval officer 
 born in our town, u])on whom, in infancy, this old clergy- 
 man had sprinkled the water of baptism, was accustomed, 
 in after life, to account for his own occasional aberrations 
 by the fact that he had been christened by old Parson 
 Mackonochie. And an incident, narrated by the pious and 
 authentic Bishop Meade, undoubtedly l^elongs to this period. 
 I would not venture to relate it but for his high authority, 
 and but for the fact that lie states he obtained it from two 
 old meu of unimpeached veracity, one or ])oth of whom 
 were present at the closing scene of the drama. And 
 though he does not state either the name of the clergyman 
 
FREDERICKSBURG: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 57 
 
 or the place of the event, yet as he was often here at the 
 close of this sad period, as the incident corresponds with 
 habits then known to have prevailed here, and is in accord 
 with other similar incidents known to have existed here, I 
 think it no rash presumption to attribute it to Fredericks- 
 burg. 
 
 He relates that a clergyman, who was of great stature 
 and strength and of highly strung passions, was accustomed 
 to rule his vestry with a rod of iron. Wishing to have 
 something done which only the vestry could do, he con- 
 vened them. But a majority of them were unwilling to 
 vote as he wished. A quarrel ensued; high words were 
 speedily followed by blows, and in this pugilistic encounter, 
 the clergyjnau, by his gigantic strength and skill as a 
 bruiser, got the better of the recusant vestrymen, mauled 
 them unmercifully, and drove them from his presence. 
 The affair naturally created great excitement, and in order 
 to explain it and to justify himself, the clergyman on the 
 succeeding Sabbath day preached a sermon on a text from 
 the book of Nehemiah, which read thus: "And I con- 
 tended with them, and cursed them, and smote certain of 
 them, and plucked off their hair." These were sad times 
 for the cause of religion. 
 
 But in the year 1818 a great change commenced. Rev. 
 Edward Charles McGuire in that year came to the church 
 first as a lay reader, and after his ordination, as rector. 
 His own diary has given an account of his reception, 
 which must be here repeated. He says: 
 
 " I was received by the people witli very little cordiality, in con- 
 sequence, I suppose, of the shameful conduct of several ministers 
 who had preceded me in this place. The church was in a state of 
 complete prostration. Many persons had been driven away, and 
 those who remained were much discouraged. Under these disastrous 
 circumstances I commenced a career most unpromising in the esti- 
 mation of men." 
 
 The result was a signal proof of the blessing always 
 attending true piety and Christian zeal. He continued 
 with the church to the time of his death in 1858, a period 
 of forty-five years from the beginning of his ministry. 
 During this time, a series of sound religious revivals, 
 
58 FREDERICKSBURG: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 
 
 amounting almost to a continuous revival, visited his 
 church, greatly adding to her numbers, and culminating 
 in the year 1858, just six months before his death, in the 
 coming forward of eighty-eight persons at once to receive 
 the rite of confirmation. The eflTect of this scene was 
 almost overpowering to Doctor McGuire, and was a fitting 
 preparation for the enjoyment of the upper Sanctuary to 
 which he was so soon called. 
 
 Since his death changes have occurred, under the influ- 
 ence of which the Episcopalians of Fredericksburg worship 
 in two churches, St. George's, under the Rev. Mr. McBryde, 
 and Trinity church, under Rev. Dr. Murdaugh, to both of 
 which gentlemen I am indebted for valuable material for 
 this lecture. 
 
 The Presbyterian church in Fredericksburg commenced 
 its life under the labors of Rev. Samuel B. Wilson, who 
 came to the town as a domestic missionary, in 1805. At 
 that time only two Presbyterians existed in the town. One 
 was a merchant from the province of Ulster, in Ireland, 
 Mr. John ]\Iark, Avho was one of the first ruling elders; 
 the other was Mrs. Caldwell (nee Kirkpatrick), grand- 
 mother of the late John S. Caldwell. The real and life- 
 giving themes of the (jrospel were then a novelty in Fred- 
 ericksburg, and under their presentation, attended by 
 divine efficacy, the numbers gathered constantly increased 
 until they were strong enough to build their first house of 
 worship on the lot now occupied by the Asylum building. 
 We have, of this period in the church's history, a very 
 vivid and interesting account presenting the male wor- 
 shipers, Mark, Grinnan, Mundle, Seddou, Vass, Morson, 
 Patton, Henderson, Wellford, Brook, Fitzgerald, and the 
 even more devout female worshipers, Mrs. Mary Alex- 
 ander, Mrs. Morson, of Hollywood, and her daughters 
 Marion and Eliza; Mrs. Patton, the donor of the ground, 
 the daughter of General Mercer; Miss Stevenson, Mrs. 
 French, the Misses Lomax, Mrs. Allison and Miss Marion 
 Briggs from Harwood, given by a writer in Dr. Foote's 
 "Sketches of Virginia," which I have felt strongly inclined 
 to insert in this lecture; but as it is in print and in form 
 accessible to those whom it would most interest, I forbear. 
 
FREDERICKSBURG : PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 59 
 
 Dr. Wilson coutinued to be the pastor until 1840, and has 
 been followed in succession by Messrs. McPhail, Hodge, 
 Lacy, Gilmer and Smith — to the last of whom we are in 
 large measure indebted for the success of the Fredericks- 
 burg library. 
 
 Under the impulse given by a sermon from Bishop 
 McGill in 1856, a Roman Catholic church was established 
 in Fredericksburg in 1859. And under occasional visits 
 from Bishops Gibbons and Keane, and the continued 
 ministrations of the Rev. Fathers Hagan, Donnelan, 
 O'Farrell, Sears, Brady, Becker and Tiernan, this church 
 has not been permitted to languish. Although its congre- 
 gation is not large, it embraces some of our successful 
 citizens, and some who have proved themselves to be sin- 
 cere and active friends of our library enterprise. 
 
 Passing now from the spiritual and mental influences 
 coming from schools, newspapers and chui'ches, I propose 
 to say a few words about the more material elements, viz. : 
 the old buildings in and around Fredericksburg. 
 
 Old Houses. 
 
 As accurately as I have been able to ascertain, the oldest 
 house now in the city is the residence owned and occupied 
 by our townsman, Wm. A. Little, although some others 
 press it hard in the race of anti(piity, and especially the 
 old wooden building formerly the residence of Mary, the 
 mother of Washington. It is somewhat remarkable that 
 Mr. Little is also the owner of the oldest house in Stafford 
 county, viz. : the dwelling at Boscobel, which has a chim- 
 ney slab bearing the date, 1752, and is, with good reason, 
 supposed to have been built about half a century prior to 
 that date, viz. : about 1702 — the very year that Queen 
 Anne conmienced her reign, and when Joseph Addison was 
 yet a young man, and Alexander Pope was a small lad. 
 But Mr. Little has so renewed, extended and adorned both 
 his old mansions that it would be hard to And the pure 
 originals. That fine old building, Chatham, opposite Fred- 
 ericksburg, was built by William Fitzhugh, a son of the 
 original William Fitz Hugh, who is the progenitor of the 
 
60 FREDERICKSBURG: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 
 
 Fitzhughs of Virginia, and who was of Norman extract, and 
 came to Virginia as a lawyer to attend to some important 
 interests of the King. Wm. Fitzhugh, of Chatham, did 
 not continue there to reside, because he found that the 
 abounding hospitality expected of him would bring him to 
 poverty. His words were: "lean stand the expenses of 
 my table but not the expenses of ray stable,'" and when 
 we bear in mind that often during the Mulberry races it 
 was common for six carriages, each drawn by four horses 
 and each filled with male and female guests, and each 
 attended by a black driver and footman, to drive up to his 
 door before breakfast, we may feel the force of his words. 
 The handsome building below Fredericksburg, known aa 
 Mansfield, long occupied by the Bernard family, and which 
 was burned during the war, was erected by Mann Page, 
 of the family of John Page, Governor of Virginia, in 
 1802, whose lineal ancestor, Mann Page, the first, began 
 to build Rosewell, a magnificent and costly mansion near 
 Williamsburg, which he did not live to complete, but 
 which his widow and oldest son completed after his death. 
 The total cost was so enormous as to embarrass the whole 
 family and cause the sale of nearly all their lands,, and to 
 call forth from the pious and prudent Bishop Meade some 
 well-timed refiections in his "Old Churches and Families 
 of Virginia. ' ' The venerable old mansion near the western 
 line of our town, known as Kenmore, was built by Mr. 
 Fielding Lewis, who married Betty, the sister of General 
 George Washington, and who was the grandfather of Mrs. 
 McGuire, wife of Rev. Edward C. McGuire. The fine 
 stuccoing of this house could not have been executed by 
 any native workman, and is believed to have been the 
 work of an English soldier captured during the revolution 
 and sent for safe-keeping to Fredericksburg. The tra- 
 dition in the Lewis family was that immediately after 
 finishing his work lie accidentally fell from the scattbld and 
 was killed. Mr. Fielding Lewis had first selected as his 
 place of residence the lot now occupied by Mr. George 
 Shepherd, and had there erected a handsome residence, 
 which, before it was ever occupied, was destroyed by fire. 
 He then built the Kenmore house. The dwelling now 
 
FREDERICKSBURG : PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE, 61 
 
 occupied by Mr, George Shepherd was erected by Robert 
 Mackay, a merchant of Fredericksburg. 
 
 Mary, the mother of Washington, selected for the place 
 of her burial a spot on the Kenmore land, close by a rocky 
 crag, which she preferred because, as she declared, it could 
 never be cultivated. Here her remains rest, and here the 
 exact spot was pointed out by Mr. Bazil Gordon, the 
 wealthy merchant of Falmouth, when preparations were 
 being made about the year 1832 to lay the corner-stone of 
 the present unfinished monument, under the eye of Presi- 
 dent Andrew Jackson, with an imposing military and civic 
 display. 
 
 The lawyers of the past days of Fredericksburg are 
 represented by the well-known names of Rootes, Minor, 
 Williams, Green, Stanard, Patton, Stevenson, Barton, 
 Botts, Moncure, Herndon, Conway, Daniel, Marye and 
 Bernard; the physicians by the names of Mercer, French, 
 Carter, Wellford, Wallace, Hall, Herndon, Carmichael, 
 father, son and grandson; the merchants by the names of 
 Grinnan, Muudle, Ross, Scott, Henderson, Patton, MofFett, 
 Spence, Dunbar, Johnston, the Knoxes, Phillips, Mackay 
 and the Gordons — Samuel and Bazil. These last named 
 were born in Scotland — the sous of a well-to-do landed 
 proprietor near Kirkaldbright, a little village which has 
 sent forth many successful merchants to America, among 
 whom were Lenox, Maitlaud and Johnston, of New York. 
 Bazil Gordon was the younger brother, and was at school 
 with a son of the celebrated Paul Jones, of naval memory, 
 who was himself a neighbor of the Gordon family, and 
 whose exploits have been immortalized in history and in 
 Cooper's fine sea novel, "The Pilot." Samuel and Bazil 
 Gordon, after some hesitation between Falmouth and 
 Dumfries, settled at Falmouth, about the year 1786, and 
 became eminently successful merchants. After accumu- 
 lating a fine fortune, Samuel bought the Kenmore estate 
 and abandoned merchandise; but Bazil continued in busi- 
 ness, accumulating wealth, which at his death was measured 
 by millions. His adventures were nearly always successful ; 
 
62 FREDERICKSBURG: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 
 
 but he owed much of his success to his native Scotch good' 
 sense, his perfectly temperate and reguLar habits, his self- 
 reliance, which enabled him patiently to wait for results 
 when he had formed his plans, and his serene temper, 
 which secured for him friends in nearly all with whom he 
 came in contact. He died in 1847. 
 
 Secret Societies. 
 
 I would be giving an incomplete view of Fredericksburg 
 without some notice of the Masonic organizations and other 
 analogous fraternities that have existed within her bounds. 
 But this notice must necessarily be brief and imperfect, as 
 it is such only as one of the humble uninitiated may obtain. 
 Free Masonry was introduced into Virginia certainly as 
 early as the year 1725. The first lodge organized was in 
 Norfolk; the second in Port Royal; the third in Petersburg; 
 the fourth in Fredericksburg. This last has the designation 
 No. 4, and is supposed to have been organized as early as 
 17-35, though its records of that date have perished. It 
 Avas at first independent in its organization. But in 1758 
 its Master, Daniel Campbell, according to a vote of the 
 lodge, while he was visiting Scotland, procured from the 
 Grand Lodge of that country a charter for No. 4, which 
 bore date 21st July, 1758. In 1787 a charter from the 
 Grand Lodge of Virginia was also accepted for No. 4, but 
 with the express reservation of all her rights under her 
 Scottish charter. About 1800, for some reasons political 
 or social, or both, a number of members withdrew from 
 No. 4 and formed American Lodge, No. 63, which at one 
 time was very flourishing, and embraced in its membership 
 many of our best citizens. But, during the Avar, it became 
 extinct and has never been revived. In the bombardment 
 and subsequent sack of Fredericksburg, all of the records 
 of No. 4 were destroyed or lost except a few imperfect 
 fragments from 1752 to 1771. The lodge meetings seem 
 at first to have been held in the private houses of promi- 
 nent members, and I have from an intelligent Mason a 
 note to the effect that "the house of Brother George 
 Weedon Avas a favorite place, no doubt partly from the 
 
FREDERICKSBURG: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 03 
 
 fact of his beiug liberal iu providing refreshments, which 
 was a great consideration with Masons of ye olden time. ' ' 
 The house of General Weedon here spoken of was the 
 w-ell-known ' ' Sentry Box ' ' in the lower end of Fredericks- 
 burg, afterwards occupied by Colonel Hugh Mercer, and 
 now occupied by W. Roy Mason. Afterwards a room for 
 No. 4 was fitted up over the market-house (then standing 
 on Main street), and the meetings were held there from 
 June, 1762 till 1813, when the building was torn down 
 preparatory to the erection of the present town hall and 
 market-house. Then No. 4 held its meetings at the Rising 
 Sun Hotel, the old wooden building still standing on Main 
 street, between Fauquier and Hawk streets. Finally, in 
 1815, the present lodge building was completed, which 
 stands on the corner of Princess Anne and Hanover streets. 
 This venerable lodge, No. 4, has at various times embraced 
 in its membership eminent men — soldiers, statesmen and 
 private citizens. Among the first was the Father of his 
 Country, George Washington, who, in this lodge, received 
 the first degree November 4, 1752, the second degree 
 March 3, 1753, and the third degree August 4, 1753. 
 The Bible used in these ceremonies is still held by the 
 lodge in good preservation. It was printed at Cambridge, 
 by John Field, in 1668. Generals Hugh Mercer and 
 George Weedon were also members. By order of No. 4, 
 and by moneys to the amount of $5,000, raised by its 
 exertions, a very beautiful and faithful statue of Wash- 
 ington, in Avhite marble, was wrought by the great artist, 
 Hiram Power. It was safely transported to Fredericks- 
 burg, but ere it could be erected the war came on. For 
 safe-keeping it was sent to Richmond, and there perished 
 in the terrible conflagration of April 3, 1865. Lodge No. 4 
 furnished five Grand Masters to the Grand Lodge of 
 Virginia, viz.: James Mercer, in 1784; General Robert 
 Brooke, in 1795; Major Benjamin Day, from 1797 to 
 1800; Oscar M. Crutchfield, in 1841; and Beverly R. 
 Wellford, Jr. (now circuit judge of Richmond), in 1877; 
 and No. 63 furnished one, viz. : John S. Caldwell, in 1856. 
 In 1873 Fredericksburg Royal Arch Chapter was or- 
 ganized, and in 1875 Fredericksburg Commandry No. 1, 
 
64 FREDERICKSBURG: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 
 
 of the order of Knights Templar was instituted, of which 
 Colonel Robert S. Chew is Worthy Commander. Thus 
 three Masonic bodies exist in Fredericksburg, each in 
 flourishing condition, and the three are able to confer all 
 the degrees in ancient York Masonry. 
 
 There are also in Fredericksburg a number of secret 
 fraternities under the various names of Odd Fellows, 
 Knights of Honor, Knights of Pythias, Royal Arcanum, 
 Good Templars, Sous of Sobriety and Good Samaritans, to 
 all of which, so far as their objects are Christian, chari- 
 table and moral, we Avish God-speed. 
 
 Present of Fredericksburg. 
 
 Thus I have sought to present to you the past of Fred- 
 ericksburg. Her present you know as much of as I do. 
 She has still her moderate and pleasant climate, her de- 
 lightful water, her charming society, her female beauty, 
 which, I think, no one who has had the opportunity of 
 looking over this audience would consider to have deterio- 
 rated since the olden time; her picturesque surroundings, 
 her cheapness in all the necessaries of life. In all these, 
 she is not changed; and in addition to all these, she now 
 has her great water power, secured by a dam erected by 
 very skillful engineers. This water power is already in 
 extensive use; but is capable of farther utilization to an 
 indefinite extent. It presents the vast advantage of being 
 offered to manufacturers on cheap and easy terms. 
 
 Her Future. 
 
 And as to the future of Fredericksburg in a business 
 point of view, I can only express the humble opinion that 
 her best hope— perhaps I may say her only hope— is in 
 manufactures. She has long ago reached and passed the 
 point wherein merchandising proper — that is the mere 
 exchange of goods and Avares for money or in barter, can 
 support more people within her bounds than are now sup- 
 ported thereby. But in manufacturing — that is the appli- 
 cation of skilled labor to raw material— there is indefinite 
 
FREDERICKSBURG: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE, H5 
 
 and wide room for expansion. Her water power is all suf- 
 ficient. And when we recall the names, of the past and 
 present times, who have engaged in this brave struggle, 
 Joseph Burwell Ficklen and his sons, one of whom bearing 
 his name exceeds his father in far-seeing energy; William 
 C Beale, Myer & Brulle, Pettit and his partners; John G. 
 Hurkamp, Charles E. Hunter, and others whom I might 
 name, and see what they have already accomplished, I see 
 no reason why the future of manufactures in Fredericks- 
 burg should not be brighter than the past. 
 
 But let us not deceive ourselves with the hope that any 
 success in this life will make this life a perfect satisfaction 
 to the soul. If perfect material success should come, it 
 will he attended with drawbacks and losses of which we 
 have heretofore known nothing. If Fredericksburg should 
 ever become a great manufacturing district like Manchester 
 or Birmingham, in England, or like Providence, in Rhode 
 Island, or Lowell, in Massachusetts, then the Fredericks- 
 burg of our fathers will be gone. The spiritual and intel- 
 lectual stimulus will have been diverted into the material 
 and the earthly. The individualism once so self-assertive 
 and so attractive here will be forced down by the dead 
 level of a rushing current of wordly success and worldly 
 cares. 
 
 Whether this change be in all respects desirable even in 
 Fredericksburg, I will not undertake to decide. But this 
 I will say, that it is not impossible, by the exercise of virtue 
 and industi'v, to make in our much loved old town the 
 happiest medium of mental activity, emotional enjoyment 
 and material progress that this world can furnish. 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 The substance of this historical pamphlet, entitled 
 
 FREDERICKSRURCi : PaST, PrESENT AND FuTURE, WaS 
 
 delivered by the author as a lecture requested by and for 
 the benefit of the Fredericksburg Library and Lyceum 
 Association. It Avas so favorably received that measures 
 were immediately taken for its publication, and the first 
 edition appeared in 1880. 
 
 This issue has been entirely exhausted by sales, so that 
 the frequent demand for copies cannot be met. The pres- 
 ent publishers have made preparations for a new edition, 
 with a supplemental narrative and statement as to Fred- 
 ericksburg to the present time. 
 
 The accuracy, general and special, of the original work 
 has received encouraging confirmation from official sources. 
 In 1881 the connnon council of Fredericksburg provided 
 for a new publication of her laws and ordinances, and 
 directed that the code should "contain an introductory 
 i:)reface of the histor}' and progress of the city from its 
 foundation to the present, to be collected from the best and 
 most reliable historical sources. ' ' 
 
 This historical preface was prepared accordingly, and 
 after approval and adoption by the mayor and council, 
 appears in the "General Ordinances of the Corporation of 
 Fredericksburg," ])ublishecl in 1883. This small volume 
 has become rare. Except the copies held by officials, few 
 can be found. I had not seen a copy, until, within a few 
 days just past, one was put into my hands through the 
 kindly offices of the late venerable mayor, Hon. A. P. Rowe. 
 
 A careful examination of the historical preface discloses 
 the fact that a very large part of it is taken, in substance, 
 from the pamphlet of 1880, entitled "Fredericksburg: 
 Past, Present and Future." 
 
 Acknowledgments to that effect are very frankly made 
 in this preface. The writer thereof does not, of course, 
 attempt to enter the field of individual characters and 
 events, but contents himself with a clear and well written 
 
70 FREDERICKSBURG: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 
 
 statement of facts suited to the purposes contemplated by 
 the action of the council. 
 
 A few errors in history appear in this preface, for which 
 the pamphlet is not responsible. But as these errors are 
 generally immaterial in reference to the object sought by 
 the council, no special statement of them is needed herein, 
 A single example will suffice. 
 
 On the opening page of this preface, it is stated that 
 " Fredericksburg was founded by law in 1727, and named 
 for Frederick, Prince of Wales, father of George Second." 
 This is a mistake. (Toorge Second was Prince of Wales, 
 being the oldest son of George First, that rough and 
 immoral old German elector of Hanover who became 
 King of England in right of his mother, the Princess 
 Sophia of Mecklenburg Strelitz. 
 
 Frederick, from whom Fredericksburg takes her name, 
 was son of George Second and was Prince of Wales after 
 his father became King in 1727. He never became King 
 himself, having died in the lifetime of his father. But 
 Frederick's son became King, and was that same George 
 Third ' ' to whose mingled obstinacy and insanity Ave are 
 indebted for American independence." 
 
 To this " historical preface" we are indebted for some 
 facts in the life of our old town which do not fully appear 
 in the pamphlet. Two conflagrations — one in 1807, and 
 the other in 1822, for a time, desolated the town. The 
 first commenced in a house on the lot and premises formerly 
 occupied by ^Ir. dreorge W. Shepherd. It was then occu- 
 pied by the family of Wm. Stanard, who had just died, 
 and whose body, prepared for the grave, was lying in the 
 house when the fire broke out. It swept down Main street, 
 destroying houses on both sides, but leaving the house on 
 " Henderson's corner" undestroyed. It burned the Bank 
 of Virginia, which then stood on the present site of Shiloh 
 Baptist church, on Water street. 
 
 The fire of 1822 originated in a building at the corner 
 of Main and George streets, now known as " Wellford's 
 corner," and destroyed the entire commercial block in 
 that region. But by enterprise and exertion, a complete 
 restoration in better style has taken place. It is remark- 
 
FREDERICKSBURC4 : PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 71 
 
 able, however, that one square of the houses destroyed in 
 1807 has not been rebuilded. 
 
 The conditions of lively trade in the town, prior to the 
 advent of the railroad era, are indicated by the fact stated 
 in this preface, that sometimes on Commerce street and in 
 the western parts adjacent, as many as fifty wagons could 
 be counted in the morning. They were from Orange, 
 Culpeper, Rappahannock and the Shenandoah regions 
 beyond the Blue Ridge. They were drawn by four horses 
 generally, but sometimes by six splendid Conestogas, with 
 new harness and tinkling bells on crimson arches over the 
 shoulders of the horses. They brought down wheat, flour, 
 butter, bacon, pork, venison, every article good for human 
 food. Some worthy people think, even now, that those 
 were the "halcyon days" of Fredericksburg. But the 
 better days were to come. 
 
 The names of the "mayors of Fredericksburg" from 
 1782, given in the ordinance on pages 40 and 41, suggest 
 some memories with which we would not part. James 
 Somerville appears among them three times, viz. : in 1784, 
 1787 and 1792. Pie was that social Scottish gentleman 
 who inherited a large estate from an uncle, and resided in 
 Fredericksburg long enough to marry Mary Atwell, and 
 become attached to a wide circle of connections and friends. 
 He then purchased a beautiful estate, known as Somervilla, 
 on the Rapidan river, and resided there during the rest of 
 his life, leaving sons and daughters from whom many 
 descendants are in parts of our Southland. 
 
 One of his grandsons, Prof Samuel W. Somerville, is iu 
 the faculty of the College of Fredericksburg, and has 
 builded for himself and his household a very handsome 
 residence near to the Mary Washington monujneut. 
 
 Others of those mayors bear the well known names of 
 Charles Mortimer, George Weedon, George French, Benja- 
 min Day, Fontaine Maury, Garret Minor, Robert Mackay, 
 David Briggs, Robert Lewis, a descendant from Fielding 
 Lewis, who married Betty, the sister of George Washing- 
 ton, and who died in office February 10, 1829; Thomas 
 Goodwin, John H. Wallace, Benjamin Clarke, Robert 
 Baylor Semple, John L. Marye, Jr., Peter Goolrick, 
 
72 FREDERICKSBURG: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 
 
 William S. Scott, Montgomery Slaughter, Joseph W. 
 Sener, and others wliose names and memories are among us. 
 
 The last name entitled to a place in this worthy line is 
 that of Wm. Seymour White, who died at his home in 
 Fredericksburg, November 26, 1897, after having held 
 the office and successfully discharged the duties of mayor 
 for more than a year. He was in his forty-fourth year in 
 age. He had surmounted many obstacles arising from 
 feeble constitution and health, and had gained a name of 
 distinction as citizen, editor, lawyer and public officer. 
 
 Thus we are led to review some of the yet extant monu- 
 ments and buildings of the past of Fredericksburg. The 
 house owned by Mary, the mother of Washington, and in 
 which La Fayette visited her in 1784, and in which the 
 Father of his Country paid, to his then feel)le and dying 
 mother, his last visit in March, 1789, is still standing in 
 primitive simplicity and dignity at the corner of Charles 
 and Lewis streets. It is now owned by the "Society for 
 the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities," which has, 
 since its organization, so highly honored its own members 
 and honored our State-mother by caring for the homes and 
 memories dear to her. Robert C. Beale, of a family well- 
 known in Fredericksburg, and his wife, who was a daughter 
 of Commodore Thomas A. Dornin, of the United States 
 Navy, and their children have occupied this Washington 
 house for years, and seek to carry out the plans and pur- 
 poses of the society wlio own it. 
 
 The tomb of Mary Washington near the rocky crag and 
 chasm formerly a part of the Ken more estate is now marked 
 by a monument worthy, by its massive foundation of gran- 
 ite, and its simjilicity, stateliness and beauty, to preserve 
 the memory of her who gave birth to the man of all ages 
 the greatest and most symmetrically developed in soul and 
 body, and who by her own virtues and discipline con- 
 tributed so powerfully to make him what he was. 
 
 The changes which culminated in the erection, comple- 
 tion and unveiling of this monument are worthy of notice. 
 They are not without their lessons. 
 
 Prior to the year 1833, one single person, Silas E. 
 Burroughs, a wealthy merchant of New York, was the 
 
only person who came forward for a work which ought to 
 have enlisted, from the beginning, the hearts and substance 
 of the women and men of the United States of America. 
 He volunteered to furnish all the needed money and means 
 for erecting a suitable monument over the grave of Mary 
 Washington. A plan and drawing of a very ornate and 
 beautiful monument were selected, a competent architect 
 was engaged, and the foundation was laid. 
 
 In 1833, Andrew Jackson, President of the United 
 States, attended by members of his cabinet and by a large 
 number of citizens, volunteer soldiers, and military and 
 civic bands of music, came on from Washington and the 
 District of Columbia to Fredericksburg. Here he was 
 met and welcomed by enthusiastic people, officers, soldiers, 
 citizens and societies, and the corner-stone of the monument 
 was laid with imposing solemnities. 
 
 The work went on until the square body of the monument 
 was completed with its polished marble pillars, and its 
 carved flutings and traceries. Then came the mutterings 
 of the financial storm which innnediately followed the 
 second term of President Jackson. Silas E. Burroughs 
 sank under the very earliest billows of that storm. He 
 failed disastrously. The work on the monument stopped. 
 Burroughs went to South America and to other parts of 
 the world. He kept up his spirits, and wrote that he was 
 on the road to such a fortune as would enable him to com- 
 plete the work. But money did not come. 
 
 The enormous rough marble plinth for the- spire did 
 come to the wharf in Fredericksburg. By contract it was 
 moved from the wharf to the site of the monument, with 
 oxen, mules, wagon frames, wheels, chains, shoutings of 
 boys, and pulling of ropes altogether indescribable. It 
 was deposited amid the weeds, shrubs and rubbish near the 
 unfinished structure. And there it remained for more than 
 a half-century. No stroke of sculptor's mallet or chisel 
 ever fell on it. 
 
 The unfinished monument was often visited, but seldom 
 with pleasure — seldom without a sense of something like 
 humiliation. After the " war between the States," appeals 
 were made to Congress to appropriate money to complete it 
 or build another in its place, but Congress would not move. 
 
/4 FRKDERICKSBURG: PAKf, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 
 
 Then tlie souls of the women of the country began to 
 stir within tliem ou this pathetic subject. An association 
 was formed in October, 1889, by the women of Freder- 
 icksburg, under Mrs. James P. Smith, and some months 
 afterwards, as an outcome of this movement, a national 
 association was formed, headed by the widow of Chief 
 Justice Waite. Appeals went out. All the women in the 
 country bearing the name of "Mary" and all the men 
 interested in these women were urged to give. Money 
 poured into their treasury. A plan for a monument, 
 solid, stately, yet graceful and beautiful, was selected. 
 Artists worked on it. The monument was approved and 
 erected on the site of the unfinished monument, which was 
 removed, although its most graceful parts have been pre- 
 served. 
 
 On Thursday, the 10th day of May, 1894, the ceremony 
 of unveiling took place. The day was serene and cheering 
 to soul and body. The President of the United States, 
 Grover Cleveland, and nearly all of his cabinet, with a 
 very large number of citizens, male and female, from the 
 District of Columbia and other parts of the country at- 
 tended. Charles O'Ferrall, Governor of Virginia, on 
 horseback, attracted favorable notice by his knightly ap- 
 pearance and bearing. Military regiments and companies 
 from Washington, Alexandria, Richmond, Fredericksburg; 
 bands of music. Masons, Knights Templar, fire companies, 
 large companies of ladies in gay attire and mounted on 
 horses splendidly caparisoned, and immense outpourings of 
 citizens, male and female, made the occasion one never to 
 be forgotten. Mrs. Waite and her co-laborers and officers 
 were in attendance full of the sweet joy of success. John 
 W. Daniel, Senator, and probably first in reputation as an 
 orator, delivered the address. A ban(juet at night closed 
 the ceremonies. Xever before had the people of the town 
 had their souls so full of the joy of processions. 
 
 The old framed building on the south side of Main street, 
 between Fauquier and Hawk streets, formerly known as 
 the Rising Sun Tavern, is attracting attention now because 
 its owners are so repairing it that it may lose something of 
 its antique appearance and interest. It is certainly true 
 
FREDERICKSBURG: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 75 
 
 that in the olden time in colonial days, revolutionary days 
 and afterwards, it was frequented by many eminent men. 
 Old Lord Thomas P\iirfax was there with George Wash- 
 ington just before he engaged the young Virginian as the 
 surveyor of his vast landed possessions between the head 
 streams of the Potomac and Rappahannock. John Mar- 
 shall and James Monroe were frequently there. A great 
 ball was given in the largest rooms of the house not many 
 years after the fall of Yorktown. 
 
 It was once the property of Colonel Gustavus B. Wal- 
 lace, a revolutionary officer of excellent reputation. It 
 passed to members of his family, and was the life property 
 of Mrs. Elizabeth Wallace of Stafford, and was for years 
 tenanted by her son, H. H. Wallace, a merchant of Fred- 
 ericksburg loved and trusted by all who knew him. After 
 her death, her son, Dr. J. H. Wallace, bought out the 
 shares of the other owners, and the property is now owned 
 by his children and descendants, who are repairing it for 
 preservation. 
 
 The seats known as Chatham, Snowden and Fall Hill 
 near Fredericksburg have changed owners frequently since 
 ISBo. They have been kept up and improved by the 
 abundant money resources of their owners, who have been, 
 generally, from States other than Virginia. Fall Hill, 
 with part of the original tract of land, is the residence of 
 Colonel Frank W. Smith, a civil engineer of reputation, 
 who has lately written and published an article under the 
 head of " Is it another Klondyke ? ' ' that has filled the 
 souls of many people in Stafford and Spotsylvania counties 
 with hopes of veins of gold in the multitudinous rocks on 
 their lands. 
 
 Brompton, on Marye's Heights, has passed into the 
 ownership of Morris B. Rowe, Esq. , who has proved him- 
 self to be a man of strong business intelligence and enter- 
 prise. On the same range of hills is the graceful residence 
 of brick erected and occupied by Colonel Charles Richard- 
 son. The National Cemetery, with its superintendent's 
 residence, its terraces, green grass, trees and monuments, 
 will always draw visitors and tourists. 
 
 The United States have very properly caused to be 
 
76 FREDERICKSBURG: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 
 
 engineered, graded and macadamized, a broad road from 
 tlie centre of Fredericksburg to this cemetery. Parts of 
 this road were formerly a " slough of despond " to all who 
 were compelled to pass through it. Now it is a private 
 drive, ride and walk. 
 
 The fearful "stonewall" which was the scene of the 
 most sanguinary defeat of the Federal troops under Gen- 
 eral Burnside on the evening of December 13, 1862, was 
 nsed, as far as suitable, in building the cemetery residence. 
 The remnant was sold, at auction or by private bid, some 
 twelve years after that battle. It was purchased by the 
 late Doctor Wm. 8. Scott, and made the buttress of his 
 fertile grass lot on the slope just below Federal Hill in 
 Fredericksburg. There it may be viewed by all who desire 
 the sight, and the accompanying memories. 
 
 The Confederate Cemetery, adjoining that of the city, 
 and in which lie the remains of many brave men of the 
 Southern armies, has continued to receive all the attentions 
 that patriotism, love and gratitude could prompt. The 
 former wooden headboards having decayed, their places 
 have been taken by small granite monuments, each bearing 
 the name or initials of the soldier lying beneath, in all 
 cases where the name could be ascertained. The funds 
 for this purpose were contributed all through our land, 
 under the enthusiastic ajipeals and exertions chiefly led 
 by Mrs. Captain J. Nicholson Barney of Fredericksburg. 
 In every month of May decoration services are observed. 
 
 The spot where the resolute and high-minded Confederate 
 General Cobl) fell, on the road below Marye's Heights, is 
 marked by a solid slab of polished granite bearing a brief 
 inscription. In the Wilderness region the spot where 
 General Stonewall Jackson was shot from his horse, by the 
 dismal mistake of his own men, is marked by a permanent 
 and appropriate monument. A similar monument, in 
 permanence and purpose, marks the spot where the Federal 
 General Sedgwick fell mortally wounded. The exasperat- 
 ing memories of the war are indeed passing away. The 
 monuments of honor to the worthy martyrs, on both sides 
 of the lines, serve now rather to bind the people of South 
 and North togrether than to alienate them. 
 
FREDERICKSBURG: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 77 
 
 The " 8eutry Box " in the lower end of Fredericksburg, 
 once occupied by Generals Weedon and Mercer and after- 
 wards by the Mercer family, is still there and is kept in 
 perfect order by the owner, Mr. O. I). Foster, once post- 
 master of Fredericksburg. Hazel Hill is owned and 
 occupied by Mr. J. S. Potter and his family. Mr. Potter 
 has had rare opportunities, by travel and observation, to 
 collect literary and artistic information and articles of 
 curious value, and is earnest in his labors for the prosperity 
 of Fredericksburg. 
 
 No observer at all familiar with the town for a half- 
 century past, can doubt that improvement of the most 
 decided and encouraging character is in progress. More 
 manufactories, business houses, educational buildings and 
 private residences have been erected in Fredericksburg 
 within the twenty years just passed than within any other 
 similar period of her life. In the upper part of the city, 
 in the neighborhood of the Mary Washington monument, 
 around the square adjoining to Kenmore, on the streets 
 running through the lots of the Development, and on the 
 wide boulevard leading to the National Cemetery, these 
 new residences have risen up. kSouic of the houses are 
 large and convenient, builded for the families who were to 
 occupy them. Others are smaller, being intended for 
 investment and for occupation by tenants. But all have 
 been fresh, modern and reasonably comfortable. 
 
 AVith the advance of business and population, a desire 
 for beauty and the indulgence of the aesthetic tastes has 
 increased. Paint has been freely used on the houses of 
 business and the dwellings, and the town has lost all dingi- 
 ness and has broken out into smiles everywhere. Gas 
 lights and electric Imrners and search lights have chased 
 away that darkness which is inseparable from hopelessness 
 and gloom. 
 
 In the close of the original pamphlet the opinion Avas 
 ventured that the best hope, perhaps the only hope of 
 Fredericksburg, was in manufactures. Every stage of her 
 subsequent progress tends to prove that this opinion was 
 sound. Her manufactures have l)een increasing all the 
 time. New forms of manufacture are springing up. 
 
78 FREDERICKSBURG: PAST, PRESENT AND PT^TURE. 
 
 The niaiiufacturiiig estal)lishiiients now operating in and 
 near Fredericksburg are: 
 
 The Bridgewater Flour and Corn Meal Mills, operated 
 under the superintendence of Joseph Burwell Ficklen and 
 William F. Ficklen, his brother. Business depressions, 
 caused by uncontrollable irregularities of the relations of 
 the market price of wheat and corn to manufactured flour 
 and meal, have borne sorely on them, Init they have perse- 
 vered, and the flour of their mills has taken medals in expo- 
 sitions in nearlv all the civilized countries of the world. 
 
 The Excelsior Flour and Corn Meal Mills of C. H. Pettit. 
 
 The Germania Flour and Corn Mills of Myer & Brulle. 
 
 The Farmers Friend Plow Works of Charles E. Hunter. 
 
 The Eagle Shoe Factory. 
 
 The Ken mo re Shoe Factory. 
 
 The Washington Woolen Mills. 
 
 The Silk Factory. 
 
 The Southern Foundry and Machine Works, Chas. Tyler. 
 
 The Southern Plow Mill W.orks, Charles Tyler. 
 
 The Steam Ice Factory (limited). 
 
 The Sunuxc INIill Company, John G. Hurkamp & Co. 
 
 The Bark Mill Company," Hurkamp & Co. 
 
 The Extract Works, John G. Hurkamp. 
 
 Hurkamp Foundry Company. 
 
 R. T. Knox & Brother's Sumac Mill. 
 
 R. T. Knox & Brother's Bone Mill. 
 
 R. T. Knox & Brother's Extract Works. 
 
 John T. Knight's Brick Yard and Kilns. 
 
 Brick Yard and Factory, 'M. B. Rowe. 
 
 Cigar Factor}'. 
 
 Pickle Factory by Colonel Charles Richardson. 
 
 Alert tt McGuire's Pickle Factory. 
 
 Mr. Wm. Peden's Pickle Factory. 
 
 Fredericksburg Wagon Works, S. W. Landram. 
 
 Spoke Factory, George Morrison. 
 
 Fredericksburg Rim and Felloe Works. 
 
 Buggy and Wagon Manufactory, Geo. Gravatt. 
 
 Fredericksburg Wood Working Plant. 
 
 Flancock & Stearns' Wood Working Plant. 
 
 Battlefield Granite Company, Yorcke & Swift. 
 
FREDERICKSBURG: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. ~9 
 
 Stafford Granite Works, W. F. Ficklen. 
 
 Falls Plantation Granite Woi-ks, Innis Taylor. 
 
 Free Lance Publishing and Job Printing Works. 
 
 P'rederickshnrg Star Publishing and Job Printing Works. 
 
 AVlien })o\ver, stronger than manual, is used, most of 
 these factories use steam power. But the larger mills and 
 manufactories are run by water power, and most of them 
 by the Water Power Company of Fredericksburg. 
 
 I feel at liberty to make a cautious statement that 
 negotiations concerning this great water pow'er have been 
 in progress whicli, in the opinio)i of competent and pru- 
 dent men, will probably result in its transfer to an associ- 
 ation or company having abundant money resources, and 
 who will establish, in connection with the water power, one 
 or more i)lants for industrial operations on a large scale in 
 or near I-'redericksburg. 
 
 In the close of the pamphlet, apprehensions were sug- 
 gested that if our town grew rich and prosperous, she 
 would grow dull and uninteresting. But this fear may now 
 be banished. She retains her excellent water, her abundant 
 and cheaj) means of living, her beautiful and fascinating 
 women, and her men of wit and culture. And she has now 
 even a higher power to preserve her from sluggishness. 
 
 Her |)ublic schools, established since 18(58, have always 
 been of high grade and have done much to elevate the 
 young people. But the want of means for thorough col- 
 lege education in the town was felt. 
 
 This want has been efficiently supplied. Chiefly by the 
 exertions of Rev. Dr. A. P. Saunders and of many in our 
 midst anfl at a distance, who had the good sense to sympa- 
 thize with him in his purposes and plans, a College of 
 Fredericksburg has been established, and has been in suc- 
 cessful operation since 1898. Under the charter granted 
 by the General Assembly of Virginia in December, 1893 
 (in attaining which Senator Wm. A. Little, Jr., was 
 specially active and successful), the corporation has all the 
 powers essential to a college. 
 
 One of its most attractive features was its provision for 
 home and education for the young and dependent children 
 of missionaries, and the orphan children of ministers of 
 
80 FREDERICKSBURG: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. 
 
 Christ, and tlie foundation for a training school for mis- 
 sionaries, generally ladies, who needed special education 
 for their foreign fields. 
 
 Questions have arisen by reason of the fixed principles 
 of our constitutional law, separating State and Church, 
 which have operated to draw a distinct line between the 
 college proper and the religious elements involved in the 
 home and training school. 
 
 But as high education is needed by all the beneficiaries, 
 it is happily supplied by the dual elements at work. In 
 the college, history, ancient and modern, scriptural and 
 secular, Oriental and Western, European and American; 
 the ancient and modern languages, the exact sciences, 
 grammar and geography in their highest sphere, political 
 science and economy, physical science, embracing natural 
 history, chemistry and biology; music, vocal and instru- 
 mental; art in drawing and painting, and })hysical culture, 
 all these are taught with a thoroughness tliat has yielded 
 happy results. The co-educational principle is used and 
 has been found to furnish a safe and healthful stimulus to 
 successful exertion, by both male and female students. 
 
 The number of students has sometimes exceeded two 
 hundred. It has, in each session, reached an average of 
 a hundred and fifty. 
 
 The planting and growth of this college in Fredericks- 
 burg have marked an era in her history most important 
 and encouraging. The grounds, buildings, dwelling houses 
 and elements of society coming as its outgrowth have aided 
 in imparting life and courage to all of her best hopes. 
 
 A National Battle Park is now contemplated, and many 
 reasons exist why it should be in the region of which this 
 noted Virginia to\vn is the basis. Within a hemisphere 
 bordering on the south side of the Rappahannock river, 
 centering on Fredericksburg, and thence running east, 
 west and south for a distance of twenty-five miles, more 
 men have fallen on fields of battle, dead, dying, bleeding, 
 wounded mortally, or seriously, or slightly, than in any 
 similar i..ea in all the world, AVaterloo and her adjoining 
 fields sink into paleness and dimness when compared with 
 Fredericksburg and her ensanguined battle-fields. 
 

 •#^ 
 
 
 T" v..