Loudoun County, Virginia, was destined to be an area of significant military activity during the American Civil War. Located on Virginia's northern frontier, the Potomac River, Loudoun County became a borderland after Virginia's secession from the Union in early 1861. Loudoun County's numerous Potomac bridges, ferries and fords made it an ideal location for the Union and Confederate armies to cross into and out of Virginia. Likewise, the county's several gaps in the Blue Ridge Mountains that connected the Piedmont to the Shenandoah Valley and Winchester were of considerable strategic importance. The opposing armies would traverse the county several times throughout the war leading to several small battles, most notably the Battle of Ball's Bluff.
The fertile Loudoun Valley, with its wealth of produce and livestock, was of vital importance to the Confederacy and ideal to provide forage for the Union army. Furthermore, Loudoun County's population was deeply divided over secession, and tensions and hostilities against one-time neighbors added to the death and destruction wrought during the war. Bitter partisan warfare kept hostilities active even when the armies were far from Loudoun County. Because of its importance to the Confederacy and the partisans who inhabited it, the Loudoun Valley was put to the torch in The Burning Raid in 1864. It has been said that no county in Virginia that did not witness a decisive battle suffered more than Loudoun.Turner, Fitzhugh, p. 11.
Background
Strategic location Located just west-northwest of Washington, D.C., on the south bank of the Potomac River and at the foot of the Blue Ridge, Loudoun served as a connection between northeastern Virginia and the lower Shenandoah Valley as well as between northern Virginia and central Maryland.Turner Fitzhugh, p.18. It was also seen by the Union as a potential staging point for an attack on Washington by way of the Rockville Pike (present-day Maryland Route 355).Official Records
Transportation Four principal road systems, passing through three gaps in the Blue Ridge, traversed Loudoun from east to west, connecting the county and its neighbor to the east, Fairfax, with those of Clarke and Frederick counties, as well as with Jefferson County, which became part of West Virginia during the war. Fighting occurred along all of these routes as both armies tried to defend or contest the use of the strategic gaps.
Little River Turnpike/Ashby's Gap Turnpike – Ashby's Gap Little River Turnpike/Snickersville Turnpike – Snickers Gap Alexandria Pike/ Leesburg and Snickers Gap Turnpike – Snickers Gap Alexandria Pike/Charlestown Pike – Keyes Gap
During the war, the county had three bridges, three ferries, and at least three fords across the Potomac into Maryland connecting the county with Frederick and Montgomery counties. These crossings represented the only points of travel across the river above Great Falls and east of the Blue Ridge.
Listed from east to west, they were: Rosner's Ford - Used by J.E.B. Stuart as he left belatedly for Gettysburg Edwards Ferry - Used by the Union army to cross into Maryland during the Gettysburg campaign Conrad's (White's) Ferry - Used by J.E.B. Stuart on his return from the Maryland Campaign White's Ford - Used by the Army of Northern Virginia at the beginning of the Maryland Campaign Cheek's Ford - Used by the Army of Northern Virginia at the beginning of the Maryland Campaign Noland's Ferry - Used by John G. Walker's artillery prior to the Battle of Harpers Ferry Point of Rocks Bridge - Burned by General Thomas Jackson June 9, 1861 Berlin Bridge (at present day Brunswick) - Burned by General Thomas Jackson June 9, 1861 Harpers Ferry Bridge - Burned by General Thomas Jackson June 9, 1861
The Carolina Road (present-day U.S. Route 15) was the principle north-south thoroughfare, crossing the river at Point of Rocks near Noland's Ferry. It intersected the Alexandria Pike (present-day Route 7) at Leesburg and the Little River Turnpike (present-day U.S. Route 50) near Aldie.
In addition to road transportation, Loudoun was the terminus of the Alexandria, Loudoun and Hampshire Railroad, which ran between Leesburg and Alexandria. The unfinished Loudoun Branch of the Manassas Gap Railroad was also graded as far west as the Carolina Road in Loudoun, with tracks laid to Gum Springs. Furthermore, the C&O Canal and B&O Railroad, both vital links between Washington and the west, ran past Loudoun on the Maryland shore of the Potomac.
Geography Beside the main ridge making up the county's western border, two ridges of the Blue Ridge Mountains run through the county. These mountains played a significant role in the settlement of the county and thus the division of its loyalties during the war. Several of the mountains and tall hills in the county were used as signal and spy stations by both sides during the conflict. In addition the ridges helped create an ideal environment for partisan warfare. The easternmost ridge is the south end of Catoctin Mountain, which comes down out of Maryland at Point of Rocks. The low-lying ridge extends through the county just west of Leesburg to Aldie, where it meets with Bull Run Mountain at the Loudoun-Prince William County border. To the west of the ridge lies the fertile Loudoun Valley.
The northern portion of the Loudoun Valley is bisected by Short Hill Mountain, which extends from the Potomac to just south of Hillsboro. The Charlestown Pike (present-day Route 9) ran through the Hillsboro Gap in Short Hill at Hillsboro into Jefferson County, while the Winchester Turnpike ran to the south of the mountain. Despite its name, Short Hill Mountain is an imposing feature, even today, and kept the area to its west, known as Between the Hills, isolated from the rest of the county.Head, James, pp. 24-27.
Settlement, slavery and sentiments The settlement of Loudoun County occurred through two distinct patterns. First, between 1725 and 1730, English settlers from the Tidewater region moved into the areas east of Catoctin Mountain and in the southern Loudoun Valley. They brought with them many of the Cavalier attitudes associated with Virginians, as well as plantation-style agriculture and its use of slaves. Among these settlers were many of Virginia's aristocratic families including the Masons, Lees and Carters, the latter of whom established Oatlands Plantation, the largest in the county. Citizens living in this part of the county generally supported the Confederacy once war erupted, regardless of slave ownership.
Then, between 1730 and 1735, Quaker and German settlers moved south from Pennsylvania into the northern Loudoun Valley, establishing small farming operations in the Catoctin Valley around the areas of Lovettsville, Waterford, and as far south as Lincoln. The small, self-sufficient nature of the farms they established, as well as their religious convictions, precluded the use of slaves in these areas. During the Civil War, this region stayed loyal to the Union cause.
In addition, throughout the 18th century, Scotch-Irish settlers trickled into the county settling the more mountainous regions along the Catoctin and Blue Ridge Mountain and the Between the Hills valley. These settlers were generally poor and had small land holdings with few if any slaves; still, they tended to support the Confederate cause.Head, James W. pp. 104-106
The 1860 census showed 670 slave owners holding 5,501 slaves in the county of 21,774 inhabitants (there were also 1,252 free blacks). Only 50% of slaveholders in the county owned more than five slaves, and only 2% had more than 20. 71% of farmers in the county owned no slaves.Meserve, Stevan, p.13.
John Brown's Raid Ties between Loudoun and the American Civil War began with the involvement of the county in the suppression of John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry, just from its border, in 1859. The county militia was called into service, and two companies were sent to Harpers Ferry and later Charles Town to assist with the capture, trial and execution of Brown. The crisis brought to light the inadequacy and ill preparedness of the county militia. Subsequently, the county increased drilling, appropriated new arms and uniforms and raised new units.Poland, Charles, pp, 171-172 As early as November 4 the first new unit, the Volunteer Corps (from Hillsboro, the closest town to Harpers Ferry), was formed, and by early December two additional units, the Loudoun Guard and Leesburg Civic Guard, had been raised. These units, in addition the militia units called up by Governor Henry Wise, remained active patrolling the county's northern borders, especially the mountains and river crossings, until they were absorbed into state service in 1861.Meserve, Stevan, p. 16
The sectional crisis
The election of 1860 Prior to the growing division between North and South leading up to the Civil War, Loudoun County politics was firmly Whig in nature. Despite that party's collapse in the 1850s, Loudoun remained true to its principles and was strongly for the preservation of the Union.Poland, Charles p. 174. When the presidential election of 1860 came, Loudoun overwhelmingly supported John Bell and the Constitutional Union Party, who received 2,033 of the 2,942 votes cast in the county. Coming in a distant second was the Southern Democratic nominee John C. Breckinridge with 778 votes. Stephen Douglas, the Northern Democrat, received a scant 120 votes, and Abraham Lincoln received 11 votes despite not even being on the ticket. The 11 votes came from the precincts of Lovettsville, Waterford and Purcellville.Poland, Charles, p. 176. Since the ballot was not then secret, those voting for Lincoln supposedly came to the polls armed.
Even after Lincoln's election, Loudoun was still committed to the Union. On December 10, days before South Carolina's secession, a public meeting was held at the court house in Leesburg about the increasing sectional tensions. Attendees of the meeting elected a council of nine of Loudoun's most prominent citizens to draft a preamble and set of resolutions about the county's position in the crisis. After deliberation the council submitted the preamble, which strongly supported Virginia remaining in the Union, and 12 resolutions, which dealt mostly with ways the grievances between north and south might be remedied. The gathering adopted the preamble and every resolution but one. By a vote of 92 to 65, the group rejected the resolution denouncing Federal coercion to prevent secession.Poland, Charles, p. 177
The secession convention On February 13, 1861, the Commonwealth of Virginia convened a special convention in Richmond to decide Virginia's course in the rapidly developing conflict. Special elections were held in the county to decide who would represent the county to this convention. Seven candidates ran (most were Unionists or moderates) and, despite the Leesburg platform, all denounced Federal coercion. Loudoun's two most prominent politicians and avowed Unionists, John Janney and John A. Carter (county representatives to the constitutional convention of 1850), won with 1,945 and 1,411 votes respectively. In comparison, John Carter, the only outright secessionist candidate, received just 293 votes. Loudoun also overwhelmingly supported the ballot initiative that provided that an ordinance of secession must be ratified by the people by referendum.Poland, Charles, pp. 177-178. Janney, a former Whig, one-time potential vice-presidential candidate and well-respected lawyer among the Virginia Bar, was named president of the convention. The sagacious Janney opened the convention saying,
It is our duty on an occasion like this to elevate ourselves into an atmosphere, in which party passion and prejudice cannot exist - to conduct all our deliberations with calmness and wisdom, and to maintain, with inflexible firmness, whatever position we may find it necessary to assume.Meserve, Stevan, p.18.