Fairfax County Courthouse

Fairfax County Courthouse. War on the Courthouse Grounds. , If you had been here on a court day before 1861, you would have witnessed all levels of Virginia society. Crowds of men and women gathered at the courthouse as court justices negotiated county business and settled debts between all classes, wealthy and poor alike. Residents charged with crimes were brought before juries for hearings. Free African Americans registered with the court clerk to carry papers proving their freedom, while enslaved men, women, and children were bought and sold to satisfy debts, sometimes in front of the courthouse itself., It was in this climate that on May 23, 1861, Fairfax County men voted to ratify the Ordinance of Secession. One week later, on June 1, the first engagement on Virginia soil occurred here when Company B, 2nd U.S. Cavalry attacked Confederate units nearby. Early in July, the U.S. flag was raised over the courthouse, then replaced with the Confederate flag on July 22, as Southerners reoccupied the grounds., In March 1862, the Confederate army evacuated northern Virginia and Federal forces occupied Fairfax Court House. County court business moved to Bruin's Jail in Alexandria for the rest of the war. Lt. Col. Charles Cummings, 16th Vermont Infantry, who used the courthouse and clerk's office for storage, noted that "windows were broken out and boarded up and the inside ripped out and the walls defaced." On June 27, 1863, a skirmish here between parts of Confederate Gen. J.E.B. Stuart's command and the 11th New York Cavalry delayed Stuart on his ride north during the Gettysburg Campaign. The thousands of Union soldiers posted here through 1865 put food, firewood, and even water in short supply, and made life uncomfortable for both white and black residents., [Sidebar:] , The Fairfax County Court's most prized document, George Washington's will, was removed from the courthouse for safekeeping in June 1861, but Martha Washington's will was left behind. Taken by Lt. Col. David Thomson, 82nd Ohio Infantry, and later sold to financier J.P. Morgan, her will was not returned here until 1915. After the war, court officials quickly voted to put the courthouse "in suitable condition" for holding court. In the 1960s, the building's exterior was restored to the original 1800 architectural design. The courthouse, Fairfax County's oldest public building, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.