Fairfax Court-House, VA (June 1863)

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The village of Fairfax Court-House, Virginia, eighteen miles from Washington, was, previous to the rebellion, one of the loveliest of the State. Numbering about three thousand inhabitants, with three large hotels, two fine churches, and a flourishing female institute, the place had become of considerable importance at the time of secession. During the war its best houses were burned, the churches were converted into hospitals, and then into stables, while the venerable Court-House was stripped of its woodwork, leaving only the naked walls and roof. Important historical records kept here, some dating from the early settlement of Virginia, and including many documents in the writing of General Washington, were carried off by curiosity hunters or destroyed by soldiers.

Negative: T.H. O’Sullivan

 

Gardner’s Photographic Sketchbook of the Civil War - Plate 3