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Tacketts Mill is an unincorporated community in Stafford County, in the U.S. state of Virginia.
Tacketts Mill was originally settled as part of the Tackett (Tacquette) land grant in the late 1600s. Tackett's Mill was one of the earliest mills in Stafford County and was originally built to serve the Huguenot populace that began settling Stafford County in the late 1600s. The Tackett name was an Anglicized version of the French name Tacquette, according to John Tackett Goolrick's, The Story of Stafford. Goolrick places the building of Tacketts mill in the early 1700s. According to tax records in Stafford County's public records the original land grant was in excess of 350 acres of land. It may well have been much larger. The mill and its surrounding property included a grist mill, a saw mill and a textile manufacturing mill as well as a school for girls and a store which was the only store that served the area during the middle parts of 19th century. According to the Stafford County Historical and Archeological Committee's book, Foundation Stones of Stafford County, Virginia, Volume II, Tackett renewed an insurance policy for his mill in 1816 and by 1820 had insured two mills. To this day the road that crosses Aquia Creek in that vicinity is known as Tacketts Mill Road. The original mill had an overshot wheel and was powered by water. The crumbled stone foundation of the original mill still exists as do remnants of the mill race. This mill also went by the names of Skinner's Mill (willed to Lawrence Skinner after Tackett's death and then owned by Peter Goolrick of Goolricks in Fredericksburg). This mill was considered the "center of the universe" in far western Stafford during the 1800s.
Tacketts Mill, besides being a commercial enterprise, also describes the local, unincorporated area. On February 27, 1837, the Virginia General Assembly passed an act stating that a separate polling station will be opened "at a storehouse, near the mill called Tackett's." In 1855–56 the Virginia General Assembly recognized Tacketts Mill as a separate voting precinct within Stafford County. Also in 1856, Tacketts Mill is listed in the Post Office Directory. David W. Combs is listed as the postmaster with an annual salary of $10.57. It was listed again as a separate precinct in 1862 by the Commonwealth's General Assembly, when Virginia was a Confederate State. Even modern maps show the area as Tacketts Mill, in spite of the fact that there is no longer a mill or a separate voting precinct and the closest Post Office is in nearby Ruby.
Both Union and Confederate forces moved through this area and it can be assumed that the mill complex was alternately occupied by each. A mill producing food, clothing and ammunition would be a strategic target for both sides. John E. Tackett is listed in Virginia at War, 1862, by William C. Davis, James I. Robertson, as being one of 121 producers of woolen goods that could be used to clothe the Confederate Army. There is mention in Confederate Industry, by Harold S. Wilson, that Tackett may have been commissioned to supply wool blankets for the Confederate Army.
According to The Fire Within: A Civil War Narrative from Wisconsin, by Kerry Trask, Wisconsin elements of the "Iron Brigade" of the Army of the Potomac arrived at Tacketts Mill on November 18, 1862, expecting to go into winter quarters, but were soon ordered south in the attack on Fredericksburg the following month, December 1862. They may have encamped just south of the mill and the bridge spanning Aquia Creek,[ speculation? ] which would be the area around the still extant farm house and across the road from the farm house, now containing a widely spaced sub-division called Mill Brook.
Union dispatches from the civil war describe the area of Tacketts Mill as being on the outer edges of the Army of the Potomac's Area of Operations. At that time the area was a virtual "no-man's land". Union forces moved up and down the Potomac River to the east of Tacketts Mill and along the Warrenton Road to the south, during campaigns in the area. In April, 1864, a number of dispatches between Major General Philip Sheridan, Commander of the Cavalry Corps of the Army of the Potomac, and Brigadier General Gregg, Commander of the Second US Cavalry Division in Warrenton, VA, ordered that US Cavalry scouts be sent to "the vicinity of Grove Church, United States Ford, Stafford Courthouse and Tackett's Mill" to deal with "numerous rebel scouts," and that, "Major General Meade is exceedingly anxious to have them driven from the country, killed, or captured, and directs the officer in command to be very vigilant, and to collect as much information as possible of the enemy." Numerous other dispatches from April, 1864, direct Union Cavalry to send scouts "as far out as Tackett's Mills", seeming to confirm the belief that Tacketts Mill was the outer edge of the area under Union control.
A passage in volume 28 of Confederate Veteran Magazine, published in 1920, entitled "Scouting in Lee's Army", by William Johnson of Warrenton, VA, describes the author's activities as a Confederate scout in 1863. According to his story he crossed the Rappahannock River from Culpeper, VA, and met up with a number of other Confederate scouts at Tackett's Mill. From here he and another scout struck North with the intent to capture some Union troops, which they ultimately did.
Far downstream on Aquia Creek from Tacketts Mill is Aquia Landing, a port on the Potomac River used extensively by Union forces as a logistics base and a power projection platform for Union forces moving south. It was also a holding area for captured Confederate troops being sent north to more notable prison camps.
Tacketts Mill appears in several post-war records in the Stafford County Courthouse tax and property records through the late 1800s. Clearly, the mills continued to operate even in the deeply depressed reconstruction era. In the December, 1892, edition of the periodical, "Farm Journal", E. L. S. of Tacketts Mill wrote in to ask a question about raising chickens. According to the "Electrical Review", a national listing of telephone companies and telephone lines, Tacketts Mill received its first telephone line in 1905. In 1910 Tacketts Mill is listed in the Virginia Department of Agriculture's list of corn and wheat mills with a capacity of 100 bushels of corn meal per day. In the same year the publication, "The Operative Miller" lists L. A. Skinner and Son, operators of Tacketts Mill, as having purchased a steel, overshot water wheel, 14 feet in diameter by 3 foot face, from the Fitz Water Wheel Company. It is highly likely that this steel water wheel is the same one donated by the Emerts to the Tacketts Mill shopping center in Woodbridge, (which was subsequently never used) and is pictured on page 67 of "Stafford County, Then & Now", by Anita L. Dodd and M. Amanda Lee. In 1914, L. A. Skinner is listed by the Virginia Secretary of the Commonwealth as the Constable of Tacketts Mill in the Rock Hill Magistrate. In 1942 the property was purchased by the Gutches family and the place was known as Gracewood. The mill was still standing, but in disrepair. Mr. Gutches sold some lumber off of the land and as payment had the lumber cut to repair the mill, including the 12" x 12" support beams. As it turned out, however, no one was willing to do the repair work. He contacted all of the local historical societies and no one was interested in the mill. Over the years the mill continued to deteriorate and eventually collapsed. The lumber Mr. Gutches had prepared for the repair work stood outside and eventually rotted away. The portion of the property the mill stood on was sold and the subsequent owners, the Ermerts, donated the mill's remnants.
The Battle of Fredericksburg was fought December 11–15, 1862, in and around Fredericksburg, Virginia, in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War. The combat, between the Union Army of the Potomac commanded by Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia under Gen. Robert E. Lee, included futile frontal attacks by the Union army on December 13 against entrenched Confederate defenders along the Sunken Wall on the heights behind the city. It is remembered as one of the most one-sided battles of the war, with Union casualties more than twice as heavy as those suffered by the Confederates. A visitor to the battlefield described the battle as a "butchery" to U.S. President Abraham Lincoln.
Stafford County is located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is a suburb outside of Washington D.C. It is approximately 40 miles (64 km) south of D.C. It is part of the Northern Virginia region, and the D.C area. It is one of the fastest growing, and highest-income counties in America. As of the 2020 census, the population sits at 156,927. Its county seat is Stafford.
The Battle of Chantilly took place on September 1, 1862, in Fairfax County, Virginia, as the concluding battle of the Northern Virginia Campaign of the American Civil War. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's corps of the Army of Northern Virginia attempted to cut off the line of retreat of the Union Army of Virginia following the Second Battle of Bull Run but was attacked by two Union divisions. During the ensuing battle, Union division commanders Isaac Stevens and Philip Kearny were both killed, but the Union attack halted Jackson's advance.
The Battle of Aquia Creek was an exchange of cannon fire between Union Navy gunboats and Confederate shore batteries on the Potomac River at its confluence with Aquia Creek in Stafford County, Virginia. The battle took place from May 29, 1861 to June 1, 1861 during the early days of the American Civil War. The Confederates set up several shore batteries to block Union military and commercial vessels from moving in the Chesapeake Bay and along the lower Potomac River as well as for defensive purposes. The battery at Aquia also was intended to protect the railroad terminal at that location. The Union forces sought to destroy or remove these batteries as part of the effort to blockade Confederate States coastal and Chesapeake Bay ports. The battle was tactically inconclusive. Each side inflicted little damage and no serious casualties on the other. The Union vessels were unable to dislodge the Confederates from their positions or to inflict serious casualties on their garrisons or serious damage to their batteries. The Confederates manning the batteries were unable to inflict serious casualties on the Union sailors or cause serious damage to the Union vessels. Soon after the battle, on Sunday, July 7, 1861, the Confederates first used naval mines, unsuccessfully, off the Aquia Landing batteries. The Confederates ultimately abandoned the batteries on March 9, 1862 as they moved forces to meet the threat created by the Union Army's Peninsula Campaign. The U. S. National Park Service includes this engagement in its list of 384 principal battles of the American Civil War.
Fitzhugh Lee was a Confederate cavalry general in the American Civil War, the 40th Governor of Virginia, diplomat, and United States Army general in the Spanish–American War. He was the son of Sydney Smith Lee, a captain in the Confederate States Navy, and the nephew of General Robert E. Lee.
The Bristoe campaign was a series of minor battles fought in Virginia during October and November 1863, in the American Civil War. Maj. Gen. George G. Meade, commanding the Union Army of the Potomac, began to maneuver in an unsuccessful attempt to defeat Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. Lee countered with a turning movement, which caused Meade to withdraw his army back toward Centreville. Lee struck at Bristoe Station on October 14, but suffered losses in two brigades and withdrew. As Meade followed south once again, the Union army smashed a Confederate defensive bridgehead at Rappahannock Station on November 7 and drove Lee back across the Rapidan River. Along with the infantry battles, the cavalry forces of the armies fought at Auburn on October 13, again at Auburn on October 14, and at Buckland Mills on October 19.
The town of Romney, Virginia, traded hands between the Union Army and Confederate States Army no fewer than 10 times during the American Civil War, assuming the occupying force spent at least one night in the town. The story of the small town is emblematic of the many military campaigns that swept through western Virginia and, later, the new state of West Virginia.
The First Battle of Auburn was fought on October 13, 1863, between Union infantry and Confederate cavalry forces at the start of the Bristoe Campaign during the American Civil War. A Union infantry column stumbled upon a Confederate cavalry reconnaissance party and a short, inconclusive fight ensued. The Confederate cavalry withdrew in the face of the superior Union force, but a much larger body of Confederate cavalry under Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart, attempting to raid a Union wagon train became entrapped by the column, forcing them to abandon the raid and hide in a ravine overnight awaiting Confederate infantry to come to their aid.
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 Balls Bluff.
The Loudoun Rangers, also known as Mean's Rangers for their commander, Samuel C. Means, was a partisan cavalry unit raised in Loudoun County, Virginia, that fought for the Union during the American Civil War. The Rangers have the distinction of being the only unit raised in present-day Virginia to serve in the Union Army.
The Battle of Unison or Battle of Union refers to a series of American Civil War cavalry skirmishes in Loudoun County, Virginia, between October 31 – November 2, 1862, between the Confederate forces of J.E.B. Stuart and various units of the Union Army of the Potomac. Although driven from the field in individual engagements, Stuart accomplished his mission to delay the enemy and screen the movements of the retreating Army of Northern Virginia.
The 1st Maine Cavalry Regiment was a volunteer United States cavalry unit from Maine used during the American Civil War.
Crow's Nest Natural Area Preserve is a large wilderness area located on the southern border of Stafford County, Virginia, United States, between Potomac Creek and Accokeek Creek. The greater portion of the Crow's Nest Peninsula is approximately 3,800 acres (15 km2) and lies within the coastal plain of Virginia. About 2,872 acres (11.62 km2) of the peninsula is protected as part of the Virginia Natural Area Preserve System.
The Potomac Creek Bridge was first built in 1842 by the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad across the Potomac Creek in Stafford County, Virginia, United States.
John Quincy Marr was a Virginia militia company captain and the first Confederate soldier killed by a Union soldier in combat during the American Civil War. Marr was killed at the Battle of Fairfax Court House, Virginia on June 1, 1861. Previously one of Fauquier County's two delegates to the Virginia Secession Convention of 1861, Marr initially opposed his state's secession from the Union but ultimately supported secession, as did voters shortly before his fatal skirmish.
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 the village of Fairfax, Virginia, resulting in the first deaths in action, and the first wounding of a field-grade officer.
Timeline of Fauquier County, Virginia in the Civil War
The 1st Pennsylvania Cavalry was a cavalry regiment that served in the Union Army as part of the Pennsylvania Reserves infantry division during the American Civil War.
The 13th Pennsylvania Cavalry Regiment was a cavalry regiment that served in the Union Army 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.
Municipalities and communities of Stafford County, Virginia, United States | ||
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| Footnotes | ‡This populated place also has portions in an adjacent county or counties | |