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Mount Eagle (plantation)
Mount Eagle was a plantation home built by Bryan Fairfax, 8th Lord Fairfax of Cameron in 1789–90, south of Hunting Creek and Alexandria in Fairfax County, Virginia. It was demolished in 1968; the Huntington Metro Station and several condominium complexes were built on the property. History The first colonial landowner of the area that Mount Eagle would be built upon was a tavern owner, John Mathews, who received a land patent for southwest of Hunting Creek in 1669. He eventually sold part of it to the merchant and land speculator, John Colville, of Newcastle upon Tyne, who put together a parcel of over which he called Cleesh. When he died in 1755, he left 1000 acres of Cleesh to his brother, Thomas, for life and thereafter to his cousin's husband, Charles Bennet, 4th Earl of Tankerville. Thomas died in 1764 and named George Washington as one of his executors. Settlement of the estate took over 30 years and lasted through the American Revolution and both of Washington's terms as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bryan Fairfax, 8th Lord Fairfax Of Cameron
Rev. Bryan Fairfax, 8th Lord Fairfax of Cameron (17361802) was an Anglican clergyman and Scottish peer (the title was created in 1627 before the Union of 1707). He was a lifelong friend of George Washington and became the first American-born Lord Fairfax; his predecessors were born in the UK. The Rev. The Lord Fairfax was the first cousin once removed of the seventh Lord. He lived in Virginia. He was the grandson of Reverend the Hon. Henry Fairfax, second son of the fourth Lord. However, it wasn't until 1800 that he was confirmed in the title by the House of Lords. Early life and family Bryan Fairfax was the son of Col. William Fairfax (1691–1757) of Belvoir and Deborah Clarke (1708–1746). As a young man, Fairfax lived at Belvoir with his father who was the business agent for his cousin, Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron. His brother, George William (1729–1787) and his wife, Sally Cary Fairfax (1730–1811), also lived there and were close neighbors to Geor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexandria Gazette
The '' Alexandria Gazette'' was a succession of newspapers based in Alexandria, Virginia, United States. The newspaper offers an important source of information for events in Alexandria, particularly in the nineteenth century. The newspaper served as the dominant newspaper in Alexandria from 1834 to 1974. It served as a voice to the Whig Party and later the Democratic Party. The predecessor to the ''Gazette'' was established on February 5, 1784, by George Richards & Company as the ''Virginia Journal''. The Alexandria Gazette building on Prince Street was burned during the Civil War by rioting federal troops. It was rebuilt by the publisher and editor Edgar Snowden after the war. The newspaper was subsequently located at 317 King Street. A successor to the earlier iterations ran as a daily newspaper from 1834 to 1974. Its first publisher was Edgar Snowden (1810–1875), who represented Alexandria in the Virginia House of Delegates several times as well as unsuccessfully run for Gov ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brigadier General
Brigadier general or Brigade general is a military rank used in many countries. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries. The rank is usually above a colonel, and below a major general or divisional general. When appointed to a field command, a brigadier general is typically in command of a brigade consisting of around 4,000 troops (four battalions). Variants Brigadier general Brigadier general (Brig. Gen.) is a military rank used in many countries. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries, usually sitting between the ranks of colonel and major general. When appointed to a field command, a brigadier general is typically in command of a brigade consisting of around 4,000 troops (four battalions). In some countries, this rank is given the name of ''brigadier'', which is usually equivalent to ''brigadier general'' in the armies of nations that use the rank. The rank can be traced back to the militaries of Europe where a "brigadier general ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gunpowder
Gunpowder, also commonly known as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It consists of a mixture of sulfur, carbon (in the form of charcoal) and potassium nitrate (saltpeter). The sulfur and carbon act as fuels while the saltpeter is an oxidizer. Gunpowder has been widely used as a propellant in firearms, artillery, rocketry, and pyrotechnics, including use as a blasting agent for explosives in quarrying, mining, building pipelines and road building. Gunpowder is classified as a low explosive because of its relatively slow decomposition rate and consequently low brisance. Low explosives deflagrate (i.e., burn at subsonic speeds), whereas high explosives detonate, producing a supersonic shockwave. Ignition of gunpowder packed behind a projectile generates enough pressure to force the shot from the muzzle at high speed, but usually not enough force to rupture the gun barrel. It thus makes a good propellan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Magazine (artillery)
Magazine is the name for an item or place within which ammunition or other explosive material is stored. It is taken originally from the Arabic word "makhāzin" (مخازن), meaning 'storehouses', via Italian and Middle French. The term is also used for a place where large quantities of ammunition are stored for later distribution, or an ammunition dump. This usage is less common. Field magazines In the early history of tube artillery drawn by horses (and later by mechanized vehicles), ammunition was carried in separate unarmored wagons or vehicles. These soft-skinned vehicles were extremely vulnerable to enemy fire and to explosions caused by a weapons malfunction. Therefore, as part of setting up an artillery battery, a designated place would be used to shelter the ready ammunition. In the case of batteries of towed artillery the temporary magazine would be placed, if possible, in a pit, or natural declivity, or surrounded by sandbags or earthworks. Circumstances might ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fort Farnsworth
Fort Farnsworth is a former Union Army installation now located in the Huntington area of Fairfax County, Virginia. It was a timber and earthwork fortification constructed south of Alexandria, Virginia as part of the defenses of Washington, D.C. during the American Civil War. Nothing survives of the fort's structure as the Huntington Station of the Washington Metro occupies Fort Farnsworth's former hilltop site. Occupation of Arlington Before the outbreak of the Civil War, Alexandria County (renamed Arlington County in 1920), the Virginia county closest to Washington, D.C., was a predominantly rural area. Originally part of the District of Columbia, the land now comprising the county was retroceded to Virginia in a July 9, 1846 act of Congress that took effect in 1847. Most of the county is hilly, and at the time, most of the county's population was concentrated in the city of Alexandria, at the far southeastern corner of the county. In 1861, the rest of the county largely consis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fort Lyon (Virginia)
Fort Lyon (usually Camp Lyon in Northern records) was a timber and earthwork fortification constructed south of Alexandria, Virginia as part of the defenses of Washington, D.C. during the American Civil War. Built in the weeks following the Union defeat at Bull Run, Fort Lyon was situated on Ballenger's Hill south of Hunting Creek, and Cameron Run (which feeds into it), near Mount Eagle. From its position on one of the highest points south of Alexandria, the fort overlooked Telegraph Road, the Columbia Turnpike, the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, the Little River Turnpike, and the southern approaches to the city of Alexandria, the largest settlement in Union-occupied Northern Virginia. The Huntington Station of the Washington Metro is located next to Fort Lyon's former hilltop site, which is commemorated by a historical marker at the north end of the station lot off King's Highway. Occupation of Arlington Before the outbreak of the Civil War, Alexandria County (renamed Arling ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
First Battle Of Bull Run
The First Battle of Bull Run (the name used by Union forces), also known as the Battle of First Manassas (the name used by Confederate forces), was the first major battle of the . The battle was fought on July 21, 1861, in , just north of the city of Manassas and about thirty miles west-southwest of Washi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Earthwork (military)
A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ("to make"). From very early history to modern times, defensive walls have often been necessary for cities to survive in an ever-changing world of invasion and conquest. Some settlements in the Indus Valley civilization were the first small cities to be fortified. In ancient Greece, large stone walls had been built in Mycenaean Greece, such as the ancient site of Mycenae (famous for the huge stone blocks of its 'cyclopean' walls). A Greek ''Towns of ancient Greece#Military settlements, phrourion'' was a fortified collection of buildings used as a military garrison, and is the equivalent of the ancient Roman, Roman castellum or English language, English fortress. These constructions mainly served the purpose of a watch tower, to guard certa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Union Army
During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union (American Civil War), Union of the collective U.S. state, states. It proved essential to the preservation of the United States as a working, viable republic. The Union Army was made up of the permanent Regular Army (United States), regular army of the United States, but further fortified, augmented, and strengthened by the many temporary units of dedicated United States Volunteers, volunteers, as well as including those who were drafted in to service as Conscription in the United States, conscripts. To this end, the Union Army fought and ultimately triumphed over the efforts of the Confederate States Army in the American Civil War. Over the course of the war, 2,128,948 men enlisted in the Union Army, including 178,895 United States Colored Troops, colored troops; 25% of the white men who s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states that had seceded. The central cause of the war was the dispute over whether slavery would be permitted to expand into the western territories, leading to more slave states, or be prevented from doing so, which was widely believed would place slavery on a course of ultimate extinction. Decades of political controversy over slavery were brought to a head by the victory in the 1860 U.S. presidential election of Abraham Lincoln, who opposed slavery's expansion into the west. An initial seven southern slave states responded to Lincoln's victory by seceding from the United States and, in 1861, forming the Confederacy. The Confederacy seized U.S. forts and other federal assets within their borders. Led by Confederate President Jefferson Davis, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gunston Hall
Gunston Hall is an 18th-century Georgian architecture, Georgian Plantation house in the Southern United States, mansion near the Potomac River in Mason Neck, Virginia, Mason Neck, Virginia, United States. Built between 1755 and 1759 as the main residence and headquarters of a Plantation complexes in the Southern United States, plantation, the house was the home of the Founding Fathers of the United States, United States Founding Father George Mason. The home is located not far from Mount Vernon, George Washington's home. The interior of the house and its design was mostly the work of William Buckland (architect), William Buckland, a carpenter/joiner and indentured servant from England. Buckland later went on to design several notable buildings in Virginia and Maryland. Both he and William Bernard Sears, another indentured servant, are believed to have created the ornate woodwork and interior carving. Gunston's interior design combines elements of rococo, chinoiserie, and Go ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
