Fairfax
Spies, Mosby and Marr
On June 1. 1861, the first major skirmish of the Civil War occurred on the main street of Fairfax Court House. In the pre-dawn hours 50 men of Co. B, Second U.S. Cavalry, led by Lt. Charles H. Tomkins, rode into town firing their weapons. As Capt. John Quincy Marr, commander of the Warrenton Rifles, rallied his men against the Union attack, he was killed by a stray bullet—becoming the first Confederate officer to die in the war.
On March 9, 1863, Confederate Col. John
S. Mosby and 29 of his rangers entered Fairfax
and captured Union Gen. Edwin Stoughton while
he slept at the Gunnell house. In this daring
raid, Mosby also captured two captains, 30 privates and 58 horses. Learning of Stoughton's
capture, President Abraham Lincoln remarked,
“I don't care so much about the loss of the general, as I can make another with the stroke of a
pen . . . but I sure hate to lose those horses.”
During the early years of the war, Fairfax
resident Antonia Ford charmed soldiers from
North and South with her beauty and conversation. Impressed with her ability to recall details
from those conversations, Confederate Gen. J.E.B. Stuart presented her with a written commission “as my honorary aide-de-camp.” During a search of the Ford home, following Mosby's 1863 raid, Union officials discovered the commission and she was incarcerated as a Confederate spy in Old Capital Prison in Washington, D.C. While in prison Antonia stole the heart of Union Maj. Joseph C. Willard, who arranged her release from prison. They were later wed.
Marker is on Main Street (Virginia Route 236) west of Locust Street, on the right when traveling east.
Courtesy hmdb.org
