Reid-Ballard House
Once a Prominent Landmark
The historic Reid-Ballard House once stood 140 yards west-northwest of this marker. The original log structure was built by Joseph Reid before the Revolution on land inherited by his wife, Barbara Walker Reid. The house and land passed to succeeding generations of Reids and upon his death in 1860, Col. John Reid willed the house, 143 acres and two slaves, Daniel and Harriet, to his granddaughter, Mary Lillie Reid Thrift.
On September 1, 1862, during the Second Manassas Campaign, the Reid farmhouse was a prominent landmark in the Battle of Ox Hill or Chantilly. Union infantry led by Gens. Isaac Stevens and Philip Kearny advanced from the vicinity of this house to engage the Confederates of Gen. Stonewall Jackson. From positions near the Reid House, Federal artillery supported the attack, shelling Confederates in the woods at the north end of the Reid farm fields.
During the battle, the Reid House sheltered wounded Union soldiers who later were carried to the Millan place, known as Oakley, where a field hospital was established.
In 1874 Mary Thrift married former Confederate Lt. John N. Ballard, a veteran of Mosby’s 43rd Battalion Virginia Cavalry. At the Reid – now Ballard House, the Ballards raised seven children, worked the farm, known as Fruit Vale, and became prominent citizens of Fairfax County.
In 1915, the Ballards deeded a 50x100-foot lot for the erection of monuments to Generals Kearny and Stevens who were killed in the battle. The monuments can be found 435 yards northeast of this marker.
Marker can be reached from Cedar Lakes Drive.
Courtesy hmdb.org
