Laura Ratcliffe

Laura Ratcliffe. Civil War Spy. , Laura Ratcliffe, a spy for noted Confederate officers J.E.B. Stuart and John S. Mosby, lived here at Merrybrook after the Civil War. It is the only known remaining house associated with her. During the war, she lived two-and-a-half miles south of here., Ratcliffe first met Stuart on December 21, 1861, while nursing wounded soldiers at his headquarters, "Camp Qui Vive," the day after the Battle of Dranesville. Her "beauty, pleasant nature, and helpfulness" captivated Stuart, who wrote her letters and poems to enlist her aid in providing information to help the Confederate cause. A year later, when Stuart was at her house and Ratcliffe complained of the difficulties of "living in conquered territory," he told her he was planning to leave Mosby with some men to "look after the loyal Confederate people here." Mosby with nine men, inaugurated the 43rd Battalion Virginia Cavalry, or Mosby's Rangers, the next day, December 30, 1862., In February 1863, a detachment of the 1st West Virginia Cavalry hid in a pine grove near Ratcliffe's house to kill or capture Mosby. When a Union soldier boasted of the plan to her, she walked through the mud to Herndon with her sister and warned Mosby. He changed his plans and noted that without her warning "my life as a partisan would have closed that day.", Laura Ratcliffe lived to the age of 87 and died here in 1923. At the time of her death, she was a local legend and still considered beautiful.