The Battle of Fairfax Court House was the first land engagement of the American Civil War with fatal casualties. On June 1, 1861, a Union scouting party clashed with the local militia in Fairfax, Virginia, resulting in the war's first deaths in action, and the first wounding of a field-grade officer.
The Union had sent a regular cavalry patrol under Lieutenant Charles H. Tompkins to estimate enemy numbers in the area. At Fairfax Court House, they surprised a small Confederate rifle company under Captain John Q. Marr, and took some prisoners. Marr rallied his unit, but was killed, and command was taken over by a civilian ex-governor of Virginia, William Smith, who forced the Union to retreat.
The engagement is judged to have been inconclusive. The Union did not gain the intelligence it was seeking, and had to delay its drive on Richmond, thus enabling the Confederates to build up their strength at Manassas in advance of the much larger bigger battle there, the following month. Tompkins was criticized for exceeding his orders, although they had been somewhat imprecise.
Background On April 15, 1861, the day after the surrender of Fort Sumter in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina to Confederate forces, President Abraham Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to reclaim federal property and to suppress the rebellion begun by the seven Deep South states, which had formed the Confederate States of America (Confederacy).Long, E. B. The Civil War Day by Day: An Almanac, 1861–1865. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1971. . p. 59. Four Upper South States, including Virginia, refused to furnish troops for this purpose and began the process of secession from the Union with the intent of joining the Confederacy.Hansen, Harry. The Civil War: A History. New York: Bonanza Books, 1961. . p. 48
On April 17, the Virginia Secession Convention began in Richmond, Virginia for the purpose of considering the secession of Virginia. A majority of the delegates immediately passed an ordinance of secession and authorized the governor to call for volunteers to join the military forces of Virginia to defend the state against Federal military action. Virginia Governor John Letcher appointed Robert E. Lee as commander in chief of Virginia’s army and navy forces on April 22, at the grade of major general. On April 24, Virginia and the Confederate States agreed that the Virginia forces would be under the overall direction of the Confederate President pending completion of the process of Virginia joining the Confederate States. These actions effectively took Virginia out of the Union despite the scheduling of a popular vote on the question of secession for May 23.Long, 1971, p. 60.Detzer, David. Dissonance: The Turbulent Days Between Fort Sumter and Bull Run. New York: Harcourt, 2006. (pbk.) p. 49.
The popular vote of May 23, ratified the secession of Virginia. Virginia Governor Letcher issued a proclamation officially transferring Virginia forces to the Confederacy on June 6.United States War Dept., Robert Nicholson Scott, et al. The War of the Rebellion: a compilation of the official records of the Union and Confederate Armies Series I, Volume II. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1880. . Retrieved May 14, 2011. p. 911-912. Major General Lee, as commander of the state forces, issued an order in compliance with the proclamation on June 8.
On May 31, about 210 Virginia (soon to be Confederate) soldiers, occupied Fairfax Court House, about west of Washington, D.C.Modern highway driving distance between Fairfax and Washington, D.C. is about . These were 120 cavalrymen in two companies, the Prince William cavalry and the Rappahannock cavalry, which then had about 60 men each, and about 90 infantrymen in a company known as the Warrenton Rifles.Poland, Jr., Charles P. The Glories Of War: Small Battles And Early Heroes Of 1861 . Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse, 2006. . p. 249. Retrieved May 10, 2011. pp. 35–36 Fairfax Court House was a village with about 300 inhabitants and the county seat of Fairfax County, Virginia.Poland, Jr., 2006, p. 36 Confederate Lt. Col. Richard S. Ewell, who had recently resigned as a captain of cavalry in the United States Army was in command of this largely untrained and ill-equipped force. He had only just arrived in town and met a few officers but had not been introduced to the enlisted men. Captain John Q. Marr commanded the Warrenton Rifles. On the night of May 31, only two pickets were posted on the road east of town because little threat of attack from Federal forces who were no closer than away was expected. The small Virginia force had taken this advanced position to help protect against the discovery of the build up of Confederate forces at Manassas Junction, Virginia, a railroad junction about farther to the south.Longacre, Edward G. Lincoln's Cavalrymen: A History of the Mounted Forces of the Army of the Potomac. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2000. . p. 17Davis, William C. Battle at Bull Run: A History of the First Major Campaign of the Civil War. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1977. . p. 33
On the same day, Brigadier General David Hunter gave verbal orders to Lieutenant Charles Henry Tompkins of the 2nd U.S. Cavalry Regiment to gather information about the numbers and location of Confederate forces in the area. Hunter's instructions about entering Fairfax Court House were vague but he seemed to encourage a probe into town to discover more information. At about 10:30 p.m. on the night of May 31, Tompkins led a Union force of between 50 and 86 regular army cavalrymen, dragoons and a few volunteers from Camp Union in Falls Church, Virginia, on the ordered reconnaissance mission in the direction of Fairfax Court House.Walker, Charles D. Memorial, Virginia Military Institute: Biographical sketches of the Graduates and Eleves of the Virginia Military Institute Who Fell in the War Between the States . Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1875. . Retrieved May 11, 2011, p. 363 says Tompkins had 86 men. Poland, Jr., 2006, p. 37, says there were about 50 men in the patrol; he says that Tompkins reported he had 51 men, although he notes that General Irvin McDowell reported that Tompkins had 75, Poland, Jr., 2006, p. 82. Longacre, 2000. p. 18 uses the number of 75 men from McDowell's report for the size of Tompkins's force. Eicher, David J. The Longest Night: A Military History of the Civil War, p. 74. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001. . p. 74 says Tompkins had 50 cavalry troopers and 25 dragoons with him. Tompkins had reported he also had a few volunteers with his force.
Battle
At about 3:00 a.m. on the especially dark early morning of June 1, one of the Confederate pickets, Private A. B. Francis, ran into the town of Fairfax Court House shouting that the enemy was upon them.Poland, 2006, p. 37 The other picket, B. F. Florence, had been captured.Poland, 2006, p. 82 A few of the Prince William cavalry tried to form a battle line in the street while others ran for their horses.Poland, 2006, p. 38 As the Union force arrived on the Falls Church Road, most of the Confederate cavalrymen fled, leaving four of the Prince William cavalrymen in the street to be taken prisoner. Captain Marr moved his men into a clover field west of the Methodist church where they had been camped, just off Little River Turnpike, and formed them into two battle lines. Fleeing Confederate cavalrymen from Prince William came upon them and in the dark, some of Marr's men fired at them, wounding one of their own cavalrymen in the process. The Rappahannock cavalrymen had few weapons and no ammunition so they also fled forthwith when the Union soldiers arrived.
According to several accounts, Captain Marr challenged the riders, asking something like "What cavalry is that?" These would have been his last words. Scattered shots were fired as the Union cavalry rode through and Captain Marr fell dead.Walker, 1875, p. 363Poland, 2006, p. 38 does not mention such a challenge by Marr. Some other accounts say he was killed while scouting out a better position for his men a little distance away from their line and do not mention a challenge to the Union horsemen. Whether he had moved up to challenge the Union riders or to scout out a better position for his company as some accounts suggest, Marr was not in the immediate presence or line of sight of any of his men on the very dark night when he fell in the dense field.Wise, George. History of the Seventeenth Virginia Infantry, C. S. A.. Baltimore: Kelly, Piet and Company, 1870. . Retrieved May 13, 2011. p. 18 Soon, no one knew where he was or what may have happened to him. His body was found in the clover field later in the morning.Walker, 1875, p. 364
The Union force rode west through town firing some shots at random. According to many of the accounts of the battle, the Union troopers fired at a man emerging from the hotel in town, who happened to be Lt. Col. Ewell, and wounded him in the shoulder.Donald Pfanz in Richard S. Ewell: a Soldier's Life, states that Ewell challenged the riders with similar words to those attributed to Captain Marr in other accounts, out of concern that they might be the Confederate horsemen, and was answered with a pistol shot which inflicted a shoulder wound. Pfanz, Donald C. Richard S. Ewell: A Soldier's Life. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998. . p. 127. As noted in the text, many other accounts of his wounding state that Ewell was wounded as he emerged from the hotel to find the Warrenton Rifles. Regardless of the exact location where Ewell was wounded, he was the first Confederate field grade officer wounded in the war.Pfanz, 1998, p. 128. In fact, Ewell was the first field grade officer on either side to be wounded in the war since the only earlier recorded casualty of a field grade officer was Union Colonel Elmer E. Ellsworth, who was killed (not wounded) on May 24, 1861 in a non-combat situation by civilian James W. Jackson, owner of a hotel at Alexandria, Virginia where Ellsworth had just taken down a Confederate flag.
After the initial flurry of activity, the flight of the Prince William cavalrymen and the ride on through town by the Union force, the men of the Warrenton Rifles infantry company realized that Captain Marr was no longer present. As noted, Marr in fact was already lying dead in the clover field nearby, the first Confederate combat casualty of the war. Most historians have concluded that he was struck by one of the random shots fired by the Union horsemen on their first ride through town.See additional references in footnote concerning Tompkins's Medal of Honor award below.William "Extra Billy" Smith later reported that Captain Marr had a large bruise over his heart but his skin had not been penetrated, leading to the conclusion that he had been killed from the impact or shock of a spent ball. This seems to support the accounts that Marr was killed while looking for a better position not after a direct challenge to the Union cavalry. The company was temporarily leaderless after Marr fell because the two lieutenants were on leave and Ewell had not yet arrived on the scene.