Merrybrook

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Merrybrook
Merrybrook Exterior.jpg
Merrybrook in 2006
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USA Virginia location map.svg
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Nearest city Herndon, Virginia, U.S.
Coordinates 38°57′20″N77°24′31″W / 38.95556°N 77.40861°W / 38.95556; -77.40861
Arealess than one acre
Built1820
Architectural styleGreek Revival, Colonial Revival
NRHP reference No. 07000362 [1]
VLR No.029-0245
Significant dates
Added to NRHPApril 26, 2007
Designated VLRMarch 7, 2007 [2]

Merrybrook is the only known remaining home of American Civil War Confederate spy Laura Ratcliffe. The house is located south of Herndon, Virginia, in Fairfax County, Virginia. She lived here from the earliest days of the Civil War until her death in 1923. The interior, out-buildings and grounds still retain the atmosphere of earlier times.

Contents

In early March 2007, the Virginia Department of Historic Resources approved the current owner's application and placed Merrybrook on the Virginia Landmarks Register. The application to put Merrybrook on the National Historic Register is currently awaiting approval from the National Park Service. However, urban encroachment continues, the recent widening of Centreville Road was a near miss for Merrybrook which still survives behind the trees.

History

Laura Ratcliffe Laura Ratcliffe Portrait.jpg
Laura Ratcliffe

As the great granddaughter of Richard Ratcliffe, the founder of Providence, now called Fairfax, Laura was born there May 28, 1836. When war came she immediately sought to support her family and neighbors. While caring for the wounded she was noticed by Col J. E. B. Stuart for whom she became a valuable spy. There was a large rock near her home where she would conceal money and messages for Col. Mosby. Stuart wrote admiring poems dedicated to her and finally asked her to marry him. Laura, true to her own strong moral convictions, declined. This was near the location of present-day Frying Pan Farm Park. [3]

Laura was admired locally for her bravery and her beauty and was acknowledged by Col. Stuart in many ways. He presented her with a gold-embossed brown leather album with the following inscription on the front page: "Presented to Miss Laura Ratcliffe by her soldier-friend as a token of his high appreciation of her patriotism, admiration of her virtues, and pledge of his lasting esteem."

Colonel John S. Mosby John s mosby.jpg
Colonel John S. Mosby

The album was signed not only by Stuart but also by many other soldiers who fought with him including Mosby and Brigadier General Fitzhugh Lee. Many of her local friends had also signed the book. She quietly kept this memoir, as well as Stuart's gold watch chain, among her possessions at Merrybrook. These items were discovered in her effects after her death.

Col. John Mosby, the famous Confederate Ranger harassed Union Army positions throughout this area. Incredibly daring, he rode into Fairfax City one night and snatched Union Brigadier General Edwin Stoughton out of his bed behind Union lines and made off with him.

February 7, 1863 - Col. Mosby was planning to raid the Union picket lines in Fairfax when he had word of a band of robbers nearby. These men had been stripping citizen's homes of valuables, stealing horses and even taking the local doctor's medical saddlebags after encountering him on the road. Mosby captured them and sent them to Richmond and returned the stolen property. He proceeded on the next day toward Union picket-post near Frying Pan Church.

That night a Union officer, Lt. Palmer of the First Virginia came to Laura's house to ask for some milk. He bragged to Laura that an ambush had been set for Mosby saying, "I know you would give Mosby any information in your possession; but, as you have no horses and the mud is too deep for women folks to walk, you can't tell him; so the next you hear of your 'pet' he will be either dead or our prisoner." [4]

He underestimated her. Laura went out on foot across the fields to reach the home of George Coleman to ask him to watch Mosby. As luck would have it, her path crossed Mosby's and she was able to warn him herself, thus saving him from capture. He acknowledged his great debt to her in his memoirs.

Ratcliffe's assistance to Mosby, besides saving his life, included providing timely information on Union troop movements, hiding both men and money for him, and occasionally acting as "banker" for the Rangers. Till the end of the War, Laura worked in close cooperation with Mosby. He often used her home as his headquarters, and would meet his men at a large rock outcropping nearby, which was later known as "Mosby's Rock". This was also apparently where Laura successfully hid several thousand dollars entrusted to her after the Rangers had liberated it from a Union train.

The Virginia Department of Historic Resources approved a historical highway marker for Mosby's Rock in 2000 denoting its significance. Former residents, economist David I. Meiselman and poet Winifred Meiselman, worked for decades to preserve the home for future generations.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John S. Mosby</span> Confederate Army officer (1833–1916)

John Singleton Mosby, also known by his nickname "Gray Ghost", was an American military officer who was a Confederate army cavalry battalion commander in the American Civil War. His command, the 43rd Battalion, Virginia Cavalry, known as Mosby's Rangers or Mosby's Raiders, was a partisan ranger unit noted for its lightning-quick raids and its ability to elude Union Army pursuers and disappear, blending in with local farmers and townsmen. The area of northern central Virginia in which Mosby operated with impunity became known as Mosby's Confederacy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Dranesville</span> Battle of the American Civil War

The Battle of Dranesville was a small battle during the American Civil War that took place between Confederate forces under Brigadier General J. E. B. Stuart and Union forces under Brigadier General Edward O. C. Ord on December 20, 1861, in Fairfax County, Virginia, as part of Major General George B. McClellan's operations in northern Virginia. The two forces on similar winter time patrols encountered and engaged one another in the crossroads village of Dranesville. The battle resulted in a Union victory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Middleburg</span> Battle of the American Civil War

The Battle of Middleburg took place from June 17 to June 19, 1863, in Loudoun County, Virginia, as part of the Gettysburg Campaign of the American Civil War.

Bloomfield is an unincorporated community in Loudoun County, Virginia. It is situated at the intersection of Airmont and Bloomfield Roads.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edwin H. Stoughton</span> Union Army general

Edwin Henry Stoughton was appointed a brigadier general in the Union Army during the American Civil War, but his appointment expired after it was not confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Four days later, on March 8, 1863, he was captured by Confederate partisan ranger John S. Mosby while asleep at his headquarters in the Virginia village of Fairfax Court House. The incident became well known, and Stoughton became an object of ridicule as a result. He was included in a prisoner exchange two months later but resigned his commission after he was not reappointed as a brigadier general.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">43rd Virginia Cavalry Battalion</span> Military unit in the Confederate army

The 43rd Virginia Cavalry Battalion, also known as 43rd Virginia Rangers, Mosby's Rangers, Mosby's Raiders, or Mosby's Men, was a battalion of partisan cavalry in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War. Noted for their lightning strike raids on Union targets and their ability to consistently elude pursuit, the Rangers disrupted Union communications and supply lines.

The Skirmish at Miskel Farm, also known as the Fight at Miskel Farm or Gunfight at Miskel Farm, was a skirmish during the American Civil War. It took place April 1, 1863, near Broad Run in Loudoun County, Virginia, between Mosby's Rangers and the 1st Vermont Cavalry as part of Mosby's operations in Northern Virginia. The 2nd Pennsylvania surprised and attacked the Rangers, who were bivouacked on the farm of Thomas Miskel. The Rangers successfully defended the attack and subsequently routed the 2nd Pennsylvania, inflicting heavy casualties and taking many prisoners.

The Battle of Loudoun Heights was a small cavalry skirmish during the American Civil War between John Mosby's Rangers and Major Henry A. Cole's 1st Potomac Home Brigade Maryland Cavalry on January 10, 1864, in Loudoun County, Virginia. Cole's Cavalry successfully defended a night raid against their camp on Loudoun Heights. The fight was one of the first engagements in which Union forces held their own against Mosby's vaunted partisans.

The action at Mount Zion Church was a cavalry skirmish during the American Civil War that took place on July 6, 1864. The skirmish was fought between Union forces under Major William H. Forbes and Confederate forces under Colonel John S. Mosby near Aldie in Loudoun County, Virginia as part of Mosby's Operations in Northern Virginia. After successfully raiding the Union garrison at Point of Rocks, Maryland, Mosby's Rangers routed Forbes's command, which had been sent into Loudoun County to engage and capture the Rangers. The fight resulted in a Confederate victory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antonia Ford</span> Confederate spy (1838–1871)

Antonia Ford Willard was a volunteer civilian spy for the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laura Ratcliffe</span>

Laura Ratcliffe was a Confederate States of America spy. Laura's home in Herndon was sometimes used as a headquarters by the Confederate raider John Mosby. Mosby gave Laura thousands of Federal Greenbacks to hide in her home. She warned him when Union troops came looking for him, saving his life. Laura Ratcliffe was also a friend of Major General J. E. B. Stuart, who gave her several gifts in "appreciation of her patriotism, admiration of her virtues, and pledge of his lasting esteem.". They had met after Ratcliffe had served as a nurse in Jeb Stuart's Camp Quivive in Fairfax in the winter of 1861.

The Fight at Aldie was a small cavalry skirmish between Confederate forces under Major John S. Mosby and Union forces under Major Joseph Gilmore and Captain Franklin T. Huntoon in Aldie, Virginia, on March 2, 1863, as part of Mosby's Operations in Northern Virginia during the American Civil War. The fight which resulted in a Confederate victory was significant in that it was the first action of Mosby's Rangers within their operating territory in the central Loudoun Valley. In the fight Mosby and his men displayed many characteristics that would become their hallmark including the attack on numerically superior force while inflicting disproportionate casualties to those received.

Hope Park was an 18th and 19th-century plantation in Fairfax County, Virginia, where Dr. David Stuart (1753–1814), an old friend of and correspondent with George Washington lived with his wife, Eleanor Calvert Custis (1758–1811), and family. It was approximately 5 miles (8.0 km) southwest of Fairfax Court House.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Herndon Depot Museum</span> United States historic place

The Herndon Depot Museum, also known as the Herndon Historical Society Museum, is located in the town of Herndon in Fairfax County, Virginia. Built in 1857 for the Alexandria, Loudoun & Hampshire Railroad, the depot later served the Richmond and Danville Railroad, the Southern Railway and the Washington and Old Dominion Railroad. In 1875, the original shed was replaced with the current depot.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timeline of Fauquier County, Virginia in the Civil War</span>

Timeline of Fauquier County, Virginia in the Civil War

The Bog Wallow Ambush was a small unit action during the American Civil War that took place between Confederate forces under Captain J. Fred. Waring and Union forces under Colonel George W. Taylor on December 4, 1861, in Fairfax County, Virginia, as part of Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan's operations in northern Virginia. The Union force set up an ambush for the Confederate force on the Braddock Road. The action resulted in a Union victory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mosby's Raid on Herndon Station</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">John D. Read</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Warrenton Junction Raid</span> Cavalry skirmish in Virginia during the American Civil War

The Warrenton Junction Raid was a surprise attack by Confederate guerrilla warriors on a Union cavalry detachment during the American Civil War. The raid took place near a railroad junction in Virginia's Fauquier County, less than 10 miles (16 km) from the town of Warrenton. Confederate Major John S. Mosby led the attack against about 100 men from the Union's 1st (West) Virginia Cavalry. At first, the raid was very successful, as many of the Union soldiers surrendered to the rebels. The remaining portion of the surprised force was surrounded in a house, and two of their leaders were wounded. The house was set on fire, and the Union soldiers surrendered. As Mosby's men rounded up prisoners and horses, a detachment of the 5th New York Cavalry surprised the rebels and rescued most of the captured Union soldiers. After a short fight, more men from the 5th New York, and the 1st Vermont Cavalry, joined in the pursuit of Mosby's fleeing rebels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Winifred Meiselman</span> American media analyst and poet (1934–2021)

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References

  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. "Virginia Landmarks Register". Virginia Department of Historic Resources. Retrieved 5 June 2013.
  3. John Bakeless (1997). Spies of the Confederacy. Courier Dover Publications. pp. 62–63. ISBN   0-486-29865-5.
  4. Scott, John (1867). Partisan Life with Col. John S. Mosby. S. Low and Marston. ISBN   9780722209325 . Retrieved 19 September 2016.
Sources