The Ben Lomond Manor House

The Ben Lomond Manor House. Civil War Graffiti. , The Ben Lomond Manor House was built in 1837 by Benjamin Tasker Chinn and served as the principal structure on 1,739 acres of land. Prosperous farmers before the war, the Chinns watched their fortunes decrease due to the proximity of the estate to the site of the First and Second Battles of Manassas. As the Civil War battles drew nearer to the home, the Chinns fled and left it vacant for several years. Markings on the walls of the Manor House indicate that the vacated building was occupied by Union soldiers for a period of time in the spring of 1862. Some of the evidence suggests it was used as a hospital or at least served as an overnight refuge for soldiers traveling north to Washington, D.C., Many of the soldiers' names and other markings found on the interior walls at Ben Lomond are barely legible. Historians have attempted to match the scrawled names with soldiers known to be in the area in 1862. , The Chinns never recovered from the war. On April 21, 1870, they traded the estate to William H. Campbell for land of equal value ($20,000) in Washington, D.C. It is believed that Campbell, a Scotsman, named the estate Ben Lomond.