Virginia Village 1815 - 1861 / Civil War 1861 - 1865

Virginia Village 1815 - 1861, also, Civil War 1861 - 1865. . , Virginia Village , 1815 - 1861 , Turnpikes and Tolls , Falls Church's location was close to the nation's capital and an essential stop along the route from Alexandria's port on the Potomac River to Leesburg and the western mountains. The Virginia General Assembly established the Leesburg Turnpike Company in 1809 to construct a road from Leesburg to a "point on the Little River Turnpike" to improve travel and commerce. The Leesburg Turnpike , also known as State Route 7 and Broad Street , was later paved through Falls Church and finally opened in 1838. The company built one of its six tollgates in Falls Church near Wren's Tavern. In 1818, merchants in Washington won the right to connect a second toll road to Georgetown via the present-day Chain Bridge., The Village Grows , By the 1830s, Falls Church was growing, prosperous village, marketplace, and a service shop for travelers. Blacksmiths and wheelwrights were numerous. By 1828, Falls Church was home to five inns and ordinaries, including Wren's Tavern, dating to circa 1785. Inns and taverns were centers of political discussions and social gatherings, providing food, drink, and lodging. The village became a hub for commerce, with farms and orchards providing produce for the local market, Alexandria, and Washington. Northerners attracted by the cheap farmland and warmer climate moved to the area. Cherry Hill Farmhouse (1845), the Lawton House (1854), the Birch House (1840s), and several other homes built along the Leesburg turnpike still standing today. Better roads also improved regional communication, which earned Falls Church a post office in the Star Tavern, once located at the corner of West Broad Street and Washington Street., Church and Community , From its earliest days, Falls Church has been a welcoming place for people of many religious beliefs. In the 1770s, Methodist church members established the Fairfax Chapel (site is in Oakwood Cemetery). Bishop Francis Asbury, founding father of the American Methodist Church, and Harry Hoosier, the first African American Methodist minister, often visited Falls Church. by the 1800s, Methodists replaced the Anglicans as the area's largest congregation. During these years, Presbyterians met in private homes. The Civil War brought many changes to the village, including damages to the Falls Church and the destruction of Fairfax Chapel Columbia Baptist Church, established in 1856, allowed people of color to worship in the balcony. Abolitionist leaders encouraged the establishment of the African American Galloway Methodist Church (1867) and the Second Baptist Church (1871). The war split the Methodist into separate Southern and Northern congregations. The Catholic community built a parish church on West Street in 1874, later building St. James Catholic Church in 1902. The Congregational Church followed in 1885., Civil War 1861 - 1865 , A Village Divided , National politics influenced Falls Church. In 1858, Harriet Foote Turner, a local free woman of color, led 12 enslaved people to freedom in Canada by posing as their owner. In the 1860 Presidential election, some residents voted for Abraham Lincoln, rare in Virginia. During the 1861 referendum to leave the Union, more than a third of the local citizens voted for secession despite intimidation. After Virginia joined the Confederacy and Union troops "invaded" the commonwealth, friends and neighbors were forced to choose sides. Black and white Union supporters formed a local Home Guard. Some African Americans joined the U.S. Colored Troops. In June 1861, Thaddeus Lowe used a hot air balloon to report Confederate troops in Falls Church, the first U.S. military use of aerial surveillance. In November 1861, Julia Ward Howe, inspired by a visit to Union Army camps near Falls Church, wrote the words to the "Battle Hymn of the Republic.", Between Two Armies , Falls Church lay just outside a line of forts protecting the Union capital. In July 1861, thousands of Union soldiers marched through the village to engage Confederates forces, who won the first battles at Manassas along Bull Run. Seeing so many Union soldiers retreating in disarray through the village unnerved some residents, who quickly fled their homes. Roughly 20,000 Confederate troops occupied Falls Church for the rest of the summer. In late September 1861, the Confederates pulled out, and Union troops regained control of the area. After a second battle at Manassas in August 1862 and the September battle at Antietam, hundreds of wounded and sick soldiers arrived at makeshift in churches and barns. Tent camps sprouted up, and fences became fuel for campfires. The graveyard at The Falls Church became the final resting place of soldiers from both sides., Fear and Resistance , The Union Army stayed in Falls Church from fall 1861 to the end of the war, yet residents feared Confederate partisans. By 1864, Confederate Col. John Singleton Mosby's Raiders were actively staging night raids while an interracial Home Guard of Civilians kept watch over the village. On October 2, 1864, 75 Raiders rode down the turnpike after dark, killing two Home Guard members, including freedman Frank Brooks. They took two captives, freedman Jacob Jackson and John Read, an abolitionist Home Guard member who, with his daughter Betsy, ran an informal school for African Americans. Both were tried for spying and insurrection that night and shot. Jackson survived and walked 10 miles back to report the incident. Falls Church residents suffered losses of buildings, fences, livestock, crops, and other property during the war. After the war, the Southern Claims Commission processed requests for payment of damages to Union loyalists, including several free African american families.