Uploads from American Heritage 2012, with geodata

St Mary's Church 1-1

nobody@flickr.com (American Heritage 2012) — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 13:10:47 -0700

American Heritage 2012 posted a photo:

St. Mary of Sorrows, the first Catholic Church built in Fairfax,Virginia.

Land for this church was donated by two prosperous immigrant Irish farming families. In 1838, two Irish Catholic families living in Fairfax, the Hamills and the Cunninghams, donated a tract of land to the Diocese of Richmond in hope of having a church built and a Catholic cemetery consecrated. A cemetery was created immediately.

In the late 1850s, the Orange and Alexandria Railroad began to lay track westward from Alexandria and advertised for working men. Irish immigrants responded and ultimately settled at Fairfax Station. These Irish immigrants had built the church and became the nucleus of the new parish. Their names can still be read on the tombstones standing in St. Mary's cemetery

Less than a year after its completion in 1860, the Civil War came to the church. The battles of Manassas, Bull Run Creek, and Chantilly (Ox Hill) were fought in the area and St. Mary of Sorrows soon became a field hospital. During the course of one battle, an estimated 8,000 wounded were treated on the church grounds. Because it was adjacent to the Fairfax Station depot, wounded soldiers were laid out on the slope between the church and the train station.

Among the sightseers one day was Clara Barton, then a clerk at the United States Patent Office, who soon gathered a group of volunteers to tend to the wounded and dying. Although 20,000 confederate troops were nearing Fairfax Station during the battle of Cedar Mountain, Barton, the doctors, and volunteers, remained until the last wounded were evacuated from the church. Barton watched from the window of the last train to pull out as Confederate soldiers set fire to the depot. (Four more depots would be built and destroyed before the war was over.) Barton’s experiences at Fairfax Station prompted her to establish a civilian society, which became the American Red Cross. There is a plaque on the church grounds honoring her heroism.

St Mary's Church 2-1

nobody@flickr.com (American Heritage 2012) — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 13:10:55 -0700

American Heritage 2012 posted a photo:

Belle Grove 1 - LR1-1

nobody@flickr.com (American Heritage 2012) — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 07:17:00 -0700

American Heritage 2012 posted a photo:

Belle Grove at Cedar Creek Battlefield just north of Strasburg, Virginia.

This photo was touched up slightly with Light Room 1.

Henry House_2 LR1-1

nobody@flickr.com (American Heritage 2012) — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 07:17:56 -0700

American Heritage 2012 posted a photo:

Mrs. Judith Henry had the misfortune of living in the house that became the center of battle at the 1st Bull Run.

A contemporary account describes the dramatic events of July 21, 1861:
Utterly unconscious that their home was to be the Theater of Battle, the Henry Family made no effort to escape until it was too late to do so. Among them was an aged mother, whom the son and daughter carried to a gully, and for the first charge, kept her out of the way of bullets.

But when the fight pressed on, they brought her in again; and when it returned, they could not move her again. The house was literally riddled with bullets, and when the old lady was looked for, she had been sent to her long reward. Many bullets passed through her, and she was perfectly at rest. (David B. Woodbury (U.S., d. 1866 ): "Mrs. Henry's House at Bull Run")

This photo was touched up with Light Room 1.

Heater House LR1-1

nobody@flickr.com (American Heritage 2012) — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 07:17:29 -0700

American Heritage 2012 posted a photo:

Heater House at Cedar Creek Battlefield just north of Strasburg, Virginia.

This photo was touched up with Light Room 1.

Canon Bull Run 1 LR1-1

nobody@flickr.com (American Heritage 2012) — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 07:17:08 -0700

American Heritage 2012 posted a photo:

Union Battery facing Conferate Battery across the meadow at Manassas 1.

Photo touched up with Light Room 1.

Brawner Farm-1

nobody@flickr.com (American Heritage 2012) — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 18:45:57 -0800

American Heritage 2012 posted a photo:

Brawner Farm at the initial battle site at Manassas 2. It is on this farm where Jackson's Confederate forces spotted the Union Brig. Gen. John Gibbon's Black Hat Brigade—known thereafter as the Iron Brigade - walking eastward up Warrenton Turnpike and fired upon them on August 28th, 1862.

Brawner Farm - Confederate Canon-1

nobody@flickr.com (American Heritage 2012) — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 18:43:30 -0800

American Heritage 2012 posted a photo:

Confederate canon near Brawner's Farm facing Eastward towards Warrenton Turnpike and Union position.

Spirit of Judith Henry

nobody@flickr.com (American Heritage 2012) — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 17:24:03 -0800

American Heritage 2012 posted a photo:

John Brown Fort-2

nobody@flickr.com (American Heritage 2012) — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 16:22:41 -0700

American Heritage 2012 posted a photo:

John Brown's Fort was the building built in 1848 that was originally constructed for use as a guard and fire engine house for the federal Harpers Ferry Armory in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, then a part of Virginia.

Beginning their raid the night of October 16, Brown and his small army of 21 men (16 white and 5 black) did initially manage to capture the armory and arsenal and succeeded in taking 60 citizens of Harper's Ferry hostage. However, Brown's plan relied on local slaves joining the insurrection, and none did. The local militia and armed townspeople killed several members of the insurrection and forced Brown to take up position in the fire engine house where Brown's men had placed several of the hostages and prepared a defensive fortification. On the night of October 17, U.S. marines and then Brevet Colonel Robert E. Lee and his aide J.E.B. Stuart arrived in Harper's Ferry to put down Brown's insurrection. After Brown's raid, the fire engine house became known as "John Brown's Fort"