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Confederate spies, such as Washington resident Rose Greenhow, populated key cells in Union cities and passed useful information to the Confederacy.  In Stafford there was a spy, Jane Gray, who lived by the Rappahannock River.  Her home, Traveller’s Rest,  had a bay window where she could easily notify the “rebels” on the other side of…

A defensive scheme was developed to protect the commonwealth along the Union’s two most likely avenues of advance and lines of communication: (1) Washington-Richmond via the Orange-Alexandria Railroad and Central Virginia Railroad; and (2) Washington-Richmond via the Potomac River and the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad. This scheme resulted in the “Potomac Line” between Mount…

Headquarters, Fredericksburg, Va., April 22, 1861 By the authority of the governor of the State of Virginia I assume command of the volunteers and militia along the line of the Potomac River, extending from Mount Vernon south to the mouth of the Rappahannock River. Headquarters are established at this place until further orders. Daniel Ruggles…

After the summer of 1862, Virginia’s troops, including those from Stafford, fought in General Robert E. Lee’s vaunted Army of Northern Virginia. That army left an indelible mark on American military history and our national fighting traditions. Zealously fighting for family, home, county, and state, as well as the fatally flawed Confederate nation, they defeated…

Union generals Hooker and Sickles were both in Maryland.  Hooker’s subordinate, Daniel E. Sickles, commanded New York’s “Excelsior” Brigade.  Balloon reconnaissance operations in December of 1861 monitored Confederates along the Potomac from Quantico Creek south to Chopawamsic Creek in Stafford. On April 2, 1862, General Dan Sickles and his Excelsior Brigade raided across the Potomac…

While the Confederates were in Stafford, General Joseph Hooker’s Federal Division spent the winter of 1861-1862 across from Stafford in Maryland.

Sergeant John William Watson, born in the Brooke area about 1831, was in Company “I”(3), (“Stafford Guards”), 47th Virginia Infantry. He had married a Falmouth girl, Margaret Garner, in 1854 and they had three children. Enlisting in 1861, he was a corporal by July or August. Present on all muster-rolls through December 1862, Watson was…

Toward the end of the winter of 1862, it had become increasingly clear that the Southern positions in northern Virginia would be at strategic risk and could not be defended. The 40th Virginia Infantry, commanded by Col. John Mercer Brockenbrough, fought at Mathias Point (June 27, 1861). In September-October 1861, the regiment was assigned to…

Good behavior by Confederate soldiers “in their own country” was by no means assured, as evidenced by this letter chiding “certain bad men” from Brig. Gen. Holmes’s headquarters in August 1861: Head Quarters Dept. of Fred’sburg, Brooks [sic – Brooke] Station, August 2nd, 1861. Special Order No. 85. The Commanding Officer is pained and mortified…

Companies “A” and “B” were from Stafford County. Company “I”(3) transferred to the 47th from the 30th Virginia Infantry in September 1861. The original regimental flag, captured in July 1863 at Falling Waters, MD, bore the battle honors: Seven Pines, Mechanicsville, Gaines’s Mill, and Frazier’s Farm in the Virginia Peninsula (summer 1862); Cedar Run, 2nd…

Known non-Virginia troop units which served in Stafford during the April 1861-April 1862 “Confederate Year” included: Texas Brigade 1st North Carolina Infantry Regiment 2nd North Carolina Infantry Regiment 3rd North Carolina Infantry Regiment 22nd North Carolina Infantry Regiment 1st Tennessee Infantry Regiment (1st Confederate Infantry) 2nd Tennessee Infantry Regiment (“Bate’s”) (attached Virginia Purcell Artillery Battery)…

Soldiers from other Confederate states also trained, camped and defended in the Quantico-Stafford sector. The Texans fought a skirmish on April 2, 1862, with General Sickles’s New York troops. Texans also faced illness and disease during the first months of their tour on the Potomac River. Texas Brigade, forces near Dumfries [Whiting’s Command], Second Corps,…