Haymarket During the War
Civilian Hardships
Throughout the Civil War, Haymarket and its residents endured the consequences of occupying an important geographical location. Marching armies
passed through the town during the First and Second Battles of Manassas,
the engagement at Thoroughfare Gap, the “Buckland Races,” and numerous
other cavalry engagements. Confederate Gens. Robert E. Lee, Thomas J.
"Stonewall" Jackson, James Longstreet, J.E.B. Stuart, Joseph E. Johnston, and P.G.T. Beauregard, as well as U.S. Gens. George D. Bayard, James B.
Ricketts, Henry E. Davies, and George A. Custer, all passed through here.
Many young local men joined the Confederate cause, serving in the 8th and
17th Virginia Infantry Regiments. St. Paul’s Episcopal Church (built in
1802) was used as a hospital after the First and Second Battles of Manassas, as well as during the measles epidemic that swept through the Confederate
camps, west of the Mantissas Battlefield, in the Autumn of 1861.
At midnight on November 5, 1862, a few days after Confederate
bushwhackers fired on U.S. troops nearby, Federals under Gen. Adolph von Steinwehr burned the entire village.
Only the McCormick house remained
intact, and St. Paul’s Church was a
mere shell. More than 120 homeless
townspeople took refuge at the church
and nearby farms. Many residents
left Haymarket for good. Of those
who remained, one later wrote, “We endured cold and hardships but man aged to live through it and each year continued to improve our homes.” By the late 1860s, many new houses had been built. St. Paul’s Church had been reconstructed within the original walls, and the town was reborn.
Marker is on Washington Street (John Marshall Highway) (Virginia Route 55) west of Jefferson Street (Old Carolina Road), on the left when traveling west.
Courtesy hmdb.org
