March 9, 1863: The Fairfax Courthouse Raid
Fairfax Courthouse
during the War
with Union Cavalry
troopers in front.The March 9 raid on Fairfax Courthouse made Mosby's reputation, both among his colleagues in the Confederate army and among the enemy.
The original target of the raid had been Col. Sir Percy Wyndham, the British adventurer in command of Federal cavalry in the area. However, Wyndham had eluded Mosby's grasp, having gone into Washington DC to attend a social function.
Wyndham had been openly critical of Mosby, calling him a horse thief, making him a prime target for receiving his comeuppance.Wyndham's commanding officer, Brigadier Gen. Edwin Stoughton was not so lucky. He had held a party that night and his mother and sister, whom had come down from Vermont to visit him and had been staying in Georgetown came into Fairfax, boarding at the Ford's house on Chain Bridge Road. Despite the fact that it was a rainy, windy, Sunday night, Stoughton's soiree was a great success and the champagne flowed. By about 1 am, the last carriage of guests departed and all went to bed.
A little after 2 am, Mosby and his men, with the invaluable services of former 5th NY Cav. Sgt. James "Big Yankee" Ames as their guide, slipped into Fairfax City. As they were coming from the direction of the Union Cavalry camp, and as they were wearing Federal issue gum ponchos to protect them from the rain, they managed to pass through the drowsy pickets unchallenged.
The Gunnell House,
Fairfax City, headquarters
of Gen. Stoughton
and site of his kidnapping.
His bedroom was at the
upper right window.An advance guard, consisting of Ames, Walter Frankland and Joe Nelson, had managed to capture the only sentry on duty and the telegrapher.
When they arrived at Courthouse Square, Mosby broke the command into teams and gave them assignments. One group under Ames was assigned to capture Wyndham.
A detachment of five men under Mosby -- Welt Hatcher, William Hunter, Joe Nelson, George Whitescarver and Frank Williams. went to the residence of Dr. William Gunnell, a few hundred yards north of the courthouse, where Gen. Stoughton was staying.
They banged on the front door, announcing that they had an important dispatch for the General. Lt. Samuel Prentiss of the 13th Vermont infantry answered the door,greeted by a Colt revolver. Under gunpoint, he directed the rebels to Stoughton's bedroom.Stoughton was fast asleep and somewhat the worse for wear from the evening's festivities. He was snoring, and there were champagne bottles on the bedside table.
(Some accounts also suggest that he had a young woman camp follower with him, but as that has not been substantiated, let's not defame the dead....)
Mosby pulled the covers off the sleeping Stoughton, but he did not awaken. He then spanked Stoughton's read end. The groggy general demanded to know what was going on.
Brigadier General
Edwin Stoughton
(read biography)Mosby said, "General, did you ever hear of Mosby?"
At this, Stoughton perked up, "Yes! Have you caught him?"
Mosby replied, "No. I am Mosby and I have caught you!"
In an audacious bluff of the type that he would soon become known for, Mosby told Stoughton that the Confederate cavalry under Stuart had surrounded the courthouse and that Stonewall's men were at Centreville. Stoughton, who had been a West Point classmate of Fitzhugh Lee's, asked to be brought to his old friend, and Mosby agreed.
However, Lee, with Stuart's cavalry, was many miles away in Culpeper. Mosby's men set out at 3:30 am, the time of departure that Mosby had planned to ensure they could get through the federal lines before daybreak.Despite a few of the prisoners, including Lt. Prentiss managing to escape, Mosby had pulled off a spectacular coup de grace, capturing a brigadier general, two captains, 30 prisoners and 58 horses without the loss of a single man or one shot being fired! Ames also managed to make off with Col. Wyndham's uniforms, a consolation prize intended to tweak Mosby's arch enemy Wyndham a bit.
They did NOT succeed in capturing Lt. Col. Robert Johnstone of the 5th New York Cavalry, but they did embarrass him to the extent that it followed him for the rest of his career. Awakened by the sounds of cavalry passing his window, Johnstone challenged them. Realizing they were the enemy, Johnstone made his escape through the back door, while his wife held the rebels at bay at the front door. (some witnesses would later jest that Mrs. Johnstone gave them the only opposition they would encounter on the whole raid!) Johnston eluded the rebels by hiding under an outhouse in his undershirt. When that story got around camp, it was enough to make him wish he'd been captured instead, having acquired the nickname of "Outhouse Johnstone".
By the time the rebels and their prisoners arrived in Warrenton, news of the escapade had preceded them and according to Col. Mosby (Memoirs) "the whole population had turned out and were giving my men an ovation."
At Culpeper, they handed Stoughton over to his classmate, Brigadier General Fitz Lee. Lee, who had never liked nor approved to Mosby, was markedly rude to him and apologized profusely to Stoughton. It was a cold and rainy day, and Mosby recounted (Memoirs) that "He was very polite to his old classmate and to the officers when I introduced them, but he treated me with indifference, did not ask me to take a seat by the fire, nor seem to be impressed by what I had done."
JEB Stuart, on the other hand, was ecstatic, and published a general order on March 12 congratulating Mosby and General Robert E. Lee praised Mosby the same day.
When President Lincoln was informed of the kidnapping, he joked that he was most concerned about losing the horses, "I can make another general in five minutes, but horses are $150 each!" adding further to Stoughton's embarrassment.
After the raid, the Federals assumed that it was in some way an "inside job". Not realizing that Mosby had a deserter from the 5th NY cavalry in his command, attention was then focused on prominent secessionists in the town, especially the Ford family.
Edward Ford was arrested March 9 with several other citizens, he was later released but suspicion then fell on his 24 year old daughter, Antonia.
She was arrested on March 13 and sent to the Old Capitol Prison.
Antonia Ford
(read biography)
The pretext for her arrest was that she had been guiled into showing a female US Secret Service agent an honorary commission she had received from JEB Stuart, mostly as a half-joking gesture of affection for her loyalty, On March 25, Stuart wrote to Mosby asking for evidence of her innocence. She was eventually released, in the custody of Union Major Joseph Willard, whom she later married, but the toll on her delicate health from the poor prison diet and damp conditions, led to her dying quite young.The Fairfax raid inspired many more men to join Mosby's command, and at their next rendezvous on March 16, 40 showed up. (29 had participated in the Fairfax raid)
Despite the many subsequent accomplishments of Col. Mosby and his command, it is the Fairfax raid which continues to capture the public imagination. Prior to the raid, he had confided to his friend Lorman Chancellor that after his next exploit he would either "rise higher than the stars or fall further than plummet has ever sounded." As it turned out, he would do neither, but instead establish a solid position in the pantheon of Confederate heroes during wartime.
Links to Other sites About the Fairfax Raid:
Main Street, Fairfax City, during
the Civil War eraArticle by Sheryl Wright Stinchcum on the Living History Online site.
Article on the civilwar.bluegrass.net site
Walking Tour of Old Town Fairfax (official city website)
The Mosby Museum's page on the Fairfax RaidExtract from the Richmond Examiner of 4/4/1863 regarding Baron Wardener's (Vardner / Wardena) critique of conditions in the Libby Prison. (Vardner was captured by "Big Yankee Ames" at Col. Wyndham's house) (also, report of 3/14 on the raid itself, under the tongue in cheek heading, "distinguished hotel arrivals")
Biography of Antonia Ford on Kathie Fraser's Civil War Site
Biography of Edwin Stoughton on Vermont Civil War site
CivilWarWeb.com biography of Sir Percy Wyndham, by Altehea Sayers
Mention of the Stoughton kidnapping in the diary of William Barney Griffin, a member of the 14th Vermont Infantry at VermontCivilWar.org
Virginia artist Bill Harrah - sells online prints and notecards featuring drawings of the Dr. William Gunnell house, the Joshua Gunnell House (where Lt. Col. Johnstone hid in his nightshirt under the privy) and Fairfax Courthouse
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