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Forward to a Friend Become a Member Learn more about Upcoming Events: Saturday Morning Special Field Trips Mosby Ranger Decendant Reunion Conference on the Art of Command in the Civil War "The 1862 Valley Campaign" BROWN! Newsletter Archive: January 2008
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The Mosby Heritage Area Association Newsletter From The President We’re also looking this month at upcoming MHAA events, including our next “Cavaliers, Courage and Coffee” lantern light presentation at Rector House on Saturday evening, May 9, and the 2nd Annual Mosby’s Rangers Descendant Reunion, to be held on Saturday, June 13 at the Inn at Kelly’s Ford in Southern Fauquier County. You’re all invited! And you’re also invited to join the Mosby Heritage Area Association as members. We greatly appreciate the support we have received from preservation-minded people from all across the nation. Please j oin us in our effort to preserve ou r section of this great country: the historic, scenic Northern Virginia Piedmont. If you’d like to learn more about joining us, please go to our website, www.mosbyheritagearea.org. Marc Leepson
Middleburg, Virginia, Sculptor Supports MHAA “I realize that our current economic situation poses an additional hardship on nonprofit organizations, which do so much to promote our way of life and help protect our open space and I wanted to do something to show my support,” Mrs. Reuter-Twining said.
“MHAA works hard to educate children and adults alike about getting involved in community affairs, the environment, and preservation, all of which is vital to affecting a positive outcome in the preservation of what is dear to us all--for those who live here and those who visit.” “Upon request, a portion of the sale of a sculpture will be set aside for MHAA when it is purchased from me directly or from the exhibit because I want to create a partnership between my business and MHAA. For that partnership to work for both of us, MHAA will share in promoting the availability of my donation,” she said. Click on the link to download a printable reminder Donation Coupon. Marc Leepson, MHAA’s President, said he was very encouraged by the commitment from Mrs. Reuter-Twining. “This is a tough financial environment for nonprofit organizations such as Mosby Heritage Area Association that rely on individual donors for primary support,” he said. “Having a businesswoman of Diana’s reputation offer an innovative means of support means a great deal to us. We fully expect it will provide a funding stream that hasn’t been available in the past.” Mrs. Reuter-Twining is a member of the MHAA Advisory Board. More of her work may be viewed on her web site: www.bronzed.net.
From MHAA Education Committee The first forays have been very successful. One teacher wrote to say her students were so energized by the program that they independently completed the MHAA Loudoun Slavery tour and several students from the same group went on to complete the Walking Tour of Leesburg, part of MHAA’s Loudoun County Scavenger Hunt.
The 12th Annual Conference on the Art of Command in the Civil War Through the spring and early summer of 1862, McClellan successfully pushed the Confederate army under General Joseph E. Johnston back from Yorktown all the way to the outskirts of Richmond. McClellan’s men, in fact, could hear church bells ringing in the city of Richmond. His plan was slowly working and now he expected to hook up with additional federal forces coming down from the Shenandoah Valley and the Fredericksburg area to make the final push that would crush the rebellion. What General McClellan did not plan for was a small Confederate force that would show up in the Valley and successfully attack and maneuver around three separate union forces that were preparing to come down to aid him in front of Richmond. President Lincoln took note of this enemy force so close to Washington and held back the union forces for the protection of the nation’s capital. McClellan was defeated before Richmond and he blamed President Lincoln for not sending him the troops he felt he needed to be successful. We will study what General Jackson and his small force did that so totally disrupted General McClellan’s plan. We will have eight historians talk with us Friday afternoon and Saturday – October 2nd and 3rd. October 4th will be spent on the Shenandoah battlefields where General Jackson so befuddled his enemy.
Mosby Ranger Descendant Reunion - June 13 Beginning at 10 a.m. descendants will gather for coffee and conversation. A program of talks, interpretive story telling, and descendant recognition will begin at 10:45 a.m. followed by lunch and a band concert. The Tuscarora Brass Band will play Civil War period music on instruments of the period. At 7:30 p.m. MHAA’s Grey Ghost Interpretive Group will present its Cavaliers, Courage and Coffee program at Atoka. The program will feature some classic Mosby stories. Although this event is for Mosby’s Rangers descendants, the public is invited to attend. The cost is $30 per person for the day events at the Inn (including lunch) at Kelly’s Ford and $5 for the evening presentation at Atoka. The brochure with registration form can be downloaded from the Events Page of our website, www.mosbyheritagearea.org, or can be mailed if requested. (phone 540-678-6681 or email info@mosbyheritagearea.org) Click here to download Reunion brochure
The program explores the area around Aldie, Virginia, a triangle formed by ANOTHER CHURCH?, Aldie Mill, and Oak Hill, during the Civil War. Students visit all three sites during the course of the day. At Oak Hill, the students me t Major Fairfax and his sister Martha Robinson, who were residents during the Civil War. Here they learned about domestic life of the period through first- person interpretations and an array of artifacts and reproduction items of the 1860s. Civil War medicine was examined at THE OTHER? Church. Students learned the church’s history and got a tour of its cemetery. A cavalry officer, complete with horse and tack, greeted students at Aldie Mill. The workings of the mill and its industrial significance are told on a tour of the mill. This program is offered free to Loudoun County students through the generous contributions of the members of the Mosby Heritage Area Association. It is a part of the organization’s ongoing efforts to educate students about their local history and put local history into area school curriculum.
Cavaliers, Courage and Coffee Programs for 2009 Cavaliers, Courage and Coffee is a family-oriented program which is presented in small vignettes by Grey Ghost Interpretive Group members as the audience moves around the village of Atoka by lantern light. Each program has its own theme. During the summer months the program moves to other locations in the Mosby Heritage Area. Mosby's Rangers will again occupy Welbourne Manor on the evening of Saturday May 9 . Members of the Mosby Heritage Area Association’s Gray Ghost Interpretive Group will conduct tours by torchlight through a series of vignettes performed by the regional re-enactment unit, the Valley Light Horse, in and around Welbourne Manor. The program begins at 8 p.m. Various historical scenes presented by authentically costumed interpreters will be viewed during the tour, along with authentic gear—and, of course, cavalry horses. These scenes will depict life in the area during the years 1863-65 when southwestern Loudoun and Upper Fauquier counties had become “Mosby’s Confederacy” during the latter part of the Civil War. Groups will be guided back through time to view scenes as they would have appeared some 150 years ago. Visitors will walk through a picket post and Federal cavalry camp, watch mounted Rangers preparing for a raid and being entertained by the family, among others scenes. This will be a great educational opportunity for young people, a chance to see history brought to life in a vivid way. Visitors will get a chance to see and touch the equipment – from saddles to coats – used during the mid 19th century and ask questions. Additional information will be available at the end of the tour. Welbourne Manor, at 22314 Welbourne Farm Lane in Middleburg, Virginia , is just two miles from Atoka, the site of the Mosby Heritage Area Association’s monthly Cavaliers, Courage, and Coffee program. Volunteers from the Gray Ghost Interpretive Group will meet those coming directly to Atoka with maps to the Welbourne location of the May Gray Ghost Interpretive Group program. Welbourne, a handsome plantation house and Mosby “safe house,” was built around an earlier structure and expanded in the 1830s. At the time of the Civil War, it was home to Richard Dulany and his family. Dulany, a lieutenant colonel in the 7th Virginia Cavalry, was the founder of the Piedmont Foxhounds and the Upperville Horse and Colt Show in 1853, the first of its kind in the United States. Today, Welbourne Manor is run as a bed & breakfast by descendants of the Dulany family. Funds raised will benefit non-profit preservation and preservation education in the area through the Welbourne Restoration Fund and the Mosby Heritage Area Association. This month’s program begins at 8:00 p.m., one-half hour later than the usual Cavaliers, Courage, and Coffee program, to facilitate the torchlight tour. Upon arrival at Welbourne, visitors will be directed to the parking area where tours begin. Admission is $10.00 for adults and $4.00 for kids. For more information on this program, contact the Mosby Heritage Area Association offices at (540) 687-6681 or Todd Kern of the Valley Light Horse at (540) 722-7219.
The History of Warren County In 1729, a group of German immigrants led by Joist Hite purchased several thousand acres of land in the northern Shenandoah Valley. A community of Quaker families from Maryland led by Robert McKay came at the same time as Hite’s Germans. In 1734, Thomas Chester established a ferry service known as Chester’s Ferry at the juncture of the forks of the Shenandoah River, and in the 1740s an English Lord – Thomas, Lord Fairfax, the 6th Baron of Cameron – came to the area that is today Warren County to lay claim to his inheritance. In 1754, a large extended family under the leadership of the son of a French Huguenot, Peter LeHew, settled at the foot of the Blue Ridge along the road leading from Chester’s Gap to Chester’s Ferry, and LeHewtown was established. During the French & Indian War LeHewtown was the Royal Frontier of the British Empire, hence the town’s name at the time of its charter in 1788: Front Royal. By the coming of railroads and canals in the 1830s the overland migration routes changed, and when Warren County was incorporated in March of 1836 the community had settled into an agricultural existence, with small farming villages surrounding Front Royal and Riverton. Wheat was by now a popular export in the form of milled flour, and a river culture emerged that persisted until the Civil War. Warren County’s population by 1860 was only 6,000 souls, one fourth of whom were slaves. Most slaves lived on farms operated in the county’s north and east. The town of Front Royal had one of the state’s largest free black populations. On May 23 1862, the Battle of Front Royal took place in the streets and buildings of the county seat, and Warren County lost use of the bridges spanning the forks of the Shenandoah. In 1864, the Union Army burned many mills in the Valley, Warren County included. The war’s end saw Warren in ruins, its economy shattered, and population drained. New bridges would not connect Front Royal to the rest of the county for three decades.
The Great Depression saw many public works projects in the county develop, the largest of which was Shenandoah National Park and its Skyline Drive. Tourism was now added to agriculture and industry as Warren County’s livelihood. The US Army’s remount facility in Chester Gap worked hard during both world wars to supply trained animals to the armed forces, and its sprawling site is today a research zoo owned by the Smithsonian Institution. Today Warren County still stands at the nexus of several transportation routes, and has become part of the greater Washington, D.C., community and economy, receiving both visitors and new residents from Northern Virginia, as well as sending many residents in the opposite direction for work and school. Patrick Farris
The Society collected and displayed artifacts of local history in the Courthouse Square Law Offices from the late 1960s-1980, at which point the c. 1819 Ivy Lodge – formerly the town library – became home for the museum’s exhibits. The Ivy Lodge Museum exhibits county history, which include both permanent and annually rotating exhibits. Ivy Lodge today also offers visitors a Gift Shop and Book Store specializing in local history, traditions, and crafts. In 1981, the Society purchased the c. 1840 Belle Boyd Cottage, a site of significance from the Civil War in Warren County, and relocated it to the grounds of the Ivy Lodge Museum. Today, the Belle Boyd Cottage is decorated to the period of the War Between the States, and the life of Belle Boyd, Confederate spy, is retold by costumed interpreters. In front of the Cottage are award-winning gardens maintained by the Master Gardeners, and behind the cottage are the Laura Virginia Hale Archives of local history, an excellent collection maintained for the public by a professional archival staff. In 2000, the Warren Heritage Society purchased the oldest house still standing on the oldest street in town, Chester Street’s Balthis House. Built in 1788 – the year the town of Front Royal was chartered – the Balthis House is decorated with pieces from the eighteenth century, and a costumed interpreter leads visitors through the house, which tells the story of the formation of the county of Warren and town of Front Royal. Programming at the Warren Heritage Society includes monthly lectures on topics related to museum exhibits, history camps for students of all ages during the summer and educational programs throughout the regular school year, exhibit openings, Belle Boyd Christmas Cottage (1st Saturday in December), Warren County anniversary celebrations in March, an Independence Day Commemoration, the Festival of Leaves (2nd Saturday in October), living history demonstrations, Civil War and Colonial era re-enactor camps, and much, much more. Warren Heritage Society Belle Boyd Cottage,1860s living history museum, guided tours 10-4 Mon-Fri
Did You Know? The curious inevitably find themselves asking, then, from whence this symbol has come, as there do not seem to be a preponderance of oak trees in our nook of Virginia in comparison to neighboring communities. The oak tree as Front Royal’s symbol has several reputed roots, none of which can be substantiated as the sole reason, but all of which together make for an important part of Front Royal’s lore and identity. The result was that the officer barked the command “Front the Royal Oak!” whenever he wanted his men to face in the same direction – presumably toward a large oak tree. Hence, not only did the oak tree become a symbol of the town, but a legend was born concerning the town’s name. The second piece of local lore concerning an oak tree and Front Royal stems from the purported presence of an extremely large oak tree in town, which lent the place an easily recognizable landmark. This particular story has led over the years to the identifying of multiple old oak trees that were said to have been “the” oak tree in question. Oaks can grow to immense sizes and have been seen as sources for shelter. Oak as a wood has always been highly valued for its quality. As a result, the oak tree as a symbol of the town likely made sense to those who began the town’s positive association with this particular tree. In addition, the oak tree is a symbol of royalty, and has often been used as a symbol of British nobility. Front Royal, so named because of its location on the royal frontier of the British Empire in the 1700s, would naturally acquire other symbols associating it with British rule. Where can one see symbolic oak trees in Front Royal today? Three exist in town, and they are worth visiting to regain a sense of the pride once taken in this moving symbol by the early inhabitants . The Constitution Oak, planted in commemoration of our nation’s independence and drafting of a Constitution, can be seen behind the Warren County Government Center on the east side of Warren Avenue near the Post Office. The second symbolic oak is planted on the southeast corner of the intersection of Peyton and Crescent Streets. The third oak planted in celebration of the tree’s symbolic significance is the “Millennium Oak,” located near the intersection of Commerce Avenue and Prospect Street. Planted in 2000 by the Front Royal/Warren County Tree Stewards, the "Millennium Oak" commemorates the Town of Front Royal's designation as part of the Tree City USA program, and a marker is placed at the site. An oak was chosen because of the tradition of oaks in Front Royal's history. All three trees many years from now will help continue to remind our descendants of an important identifier of our community. Patrick Farris
Store:
Winter Shirt Sale For the months of April and May, we will offer them at $15 each, a $5 discount, with the usual $5 shipping and handling fee. We have shirts in small, medium, large, X large, and XX large in adult sizes and medium and large in youth sizes. This offer is available only through our e-newsletter. To take advantage of this offer, go on the Store Page of the website (LINK HERE) and click on order form. Fill out the form noting that your order is for the special e-newsletter offer. Send a check or credit card information to Mosby Heritage Area Association, PO Box 1497, Middleburg, VA 20118. This is a limited offer, so don’t wait, order today!
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