Pointless Prize: Civil War History

[bikesnick]

Daniel Hughes was a conductor, agent and station master in the Underground Railroad in Pennsylvania. He was of mixed race (African and Native American) and over six and half feet tall. He transported escaped people on his barge while shipping lumber on the Susquehanna River, hid them in the woods and caves near his home, and led them to the next station on moonless nights. Even though slavery was long banned in Pennsylvania, bounty hunters pursued runaways into northern states making the job of conductors difficult and dangerous.

Hughes Ct (Falls Church, VA)
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[BicycleBeth]

@AlanA 208569 wrote:

Stay tuned for nicer weather. I didn’t quite make it to any of these three markers today!

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Wow! That’s a lot of snow, Alan!

[consularrider]

I’m sure a lot of us have ridden by this marker at the W&OD and Hunter Mill Rd. Today was the first time I stopped to really read it.

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[matteblack]

@consularrider 208668 wrote:

I’m sure a lot of us have ridden by this marker at the W&OD and Hunter Mill Rd. Today was the first time I stopped to really read it.

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I’m pretty sure a few of us have not only stopped over the past couple months, but also snapped a picture as well! 😎

[bikesnick]

Civil War Star Fort (Vienna, VA)
“This six-point, star-shaped earthen fort with a 130-yard perimeter was constructed on the highest point of land in the area. It provided a commanding view of the western and northwestern approaches to Vienna. … This work, with outlying rifle trenches, is thought to have been built between 1863 and 1865 to protect the Loudoun and Hampshire Railroad that ran 100 yards to the northeast. This site is also within 200 yards of Lawyers Road, then a prominent route to the northwest as well as to the City of Fairfax.”

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[bikesnick]

Cathay Williams, enslaved at birth, became the first woman to enlist in the US Army. She enlisted in the 38th US Infantry under the name “William Cathay”, passing herself off as a man. Even though US Army regulations did not allow women to enlist, she managed to pass a cursory medical exam. (Her cousin and friend, both in the same regiment, knew of her deception.) She served for three years during the Reconstruction Era, traveling throughout the West, was hospitalized frequently, and was discharged after a surgeon discovered she was a woman. Ill and disabled later in life, she applied for a pension, which had been granted to some women for service in the Revolutionary War, but was denied. She is the only documented African American woman to serve in the US Army prior to 1948 law when women were allowed to join.

Williams Avenue (Vienna, VA)
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[bikesnick]

Falls Church Home Front (Falls Church, VA)

“Although soldiers repeatedly overran and raided Cherry Hill Farm during the Civil War, this ca. 1845 farmhouse and the ca. 1856 barn behind it survived almost intact. William Blaisdell … and twenty-five others in the Falls Church District voted against secession in the statewide referendum held on May 23, 1861, while forty-four voted in favor. The Blaisdells, like most families in town, felt the effects of both Confederate and Union occupation. …”

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[bikesnick]

Henry McNeal Turner, a minister, church planter and Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, helped organize one of the first regiments of Black troops during the Civil War, and was appointed by President Lincoln as the first African American chaplain in the US Army. After the war he became active in politics and was one of 27 African Americans elected to the Georgia State Legislature, although White members refused to seat them until the US Congress protested. He supported Black nationalism and emigration.

Turner Avenue (Falls Church, VA)
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[bikedavid]

Do national park signs or traffic circles count? Here is the impressive statue of John Logan in Logan Circle who was a Union General and later served in the senate. Much of the sign was obscured today but I think I caught that he was an advocate for veterans and instrumental in creating Memorial Day.

[bikesnick]

Jerry Lisle, born enslaved in Kentucky escaped with his mother. At the beginning of the Civil War, he enlisted as a private with the 29th US Colored Troops, was wounded at the Battle of the Crater and treated at L’Overture Hospital* in Alexandria. Early in his training, he broke his rifle over a comrade’s head during a drill and was charged with court-martial. It is unclear if he was convicted, but he was charged $20 for the broken rifle.

*L’Overture Hospital served US Color Troops during the Civil War from 1863-1865.

Lisle Avenue (Falls Church, VA)
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[Boomer Cycles]

#civilwarsteet – Coffee Pot Hill Road

As simply as I can summarize, Federal troops led by Brig. Gen. Caldwell thought that they had high ground on Confederate Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart, but got artillery fire from their rear (from Conf. Maj. Beckham) along with their morning breakfast and coffee ☕️, and hence, the name stuck!

And I wonder if this is where the phrase “lead in my coffee” was born [emoji1744]?

Sent from Boomer_Cycles via my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Boomer Cycles]

#civilwarmarker – Battle of Coffee Hill (second battle of Auburn)

The more definitive explanation of the history behind the name “coffee hill” … oh, and BTW, Conf. Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart escaped from this skirmish after having been cut off and pinned down by the Federals!

Sent from Boomer_Cycles via my iPhone using Tapatalk

[bikesnick]

Living in Fear – Mosby’s Falls Church Raid
“Confederate Col. John Singleton Mosby’s Partisan Rangers (43rd Battalion Virginia Cavalry) conducted raids on Falls Church through the summer and fall of 1864. On the night of October 17, a detachment of Mosby’s command rode through the village down the Middle Turnpike (Broad Street) near where you are standing.
Mosby’s men killed Frank Brooks, an African American member of the highly unusual interracial Falls Church Home Guard, after he sounded the alarm. …”

Falls Chruch, VA
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[bikesnick]

Virginia Bethel Moon was a Confederate spy, with her sister Charlotte, during the Civil War.
She was expelled from school in Ohio for shooting the stars out of the US flag and scratching a sympathetic Confederate message on a store window. Sent to Memphis to live with her sister, she began helping as a nurse and working with Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest. The sisters made trips between the North and South, couriering information and medicine, sometimes in their skirts, and often using disguises. Reportedly when detained one time, she swallowed the message to prevent it falling into the wrong hands and another time, while disguised as an affluent English woman, she shared a carriage with Abraham Lincoln. When Union forces occupied Memphis, she was arrested, but managed to escape. After the war she became a philanthropist, raised orphans, supported women’s rights, helped during the yellow fever pandemic and, at age 75, appeared in several silent movies.

Moon Drive (Falls Church, VA)
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[AlanA]

@bikesnick 208916 wrote:

Living in Fear – Mosby’s Falls Church Raid
“Confederate Col. John Singleton Mosby’s Partisan Rangers (43rd Battalion Virginia Cavalry) conducted raids on Falls Church through the summer and fall of 1864. On the night of October 17, a detachment of Mosby’s command rode through the village down the Middle Turnpike (Broad Street) near where you are standing.
Mosby’s men killed Frank Brooks, an African American member of the highly unusual interracial Falls Church Home Guard, after he sounded the alarm. …”

Falls Chruch, VA
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Mosby’s Raiders were a pesky bunch!

[Author]

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