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Ken Fleming and 5th Division Color Guard bow their heads as Rev. Elijah B. White prays at the commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the death of Cumberland George Orrison. |
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In Defense of his Country...and his County |
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Cumberland George Orrison - Loudoun's First Confederate Death |
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Gary Dickens September 2011 (an iPad2 friendly page) |
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Life around Leesburg during the summer of 1861 had to have been surreal. A year earlier you would had been minding the hogs, waiting for the corn to finish and dry...wondering what might happen to the country if this guy Lincoln was elected President. The summer of '61 you find yourself a calvaryman, at war, not just with thousands of Yankees encamped a few miles away on the other side of the Potomac but even with neighbors who live across the ridge in Waterford. Such was the case of Private Cumberland George Orrison, who joined the Loudoun Cavalry that year, ostensibly to protect his home near Lucketts, and his newly formed country against the northern invaders, McClellan's forces encamped in Maryland. Ironically, this young man, this first Confederate Loudouner to die, would fall not just from a northen musket ball, but from the vengeance of someone he may have known or at least knew of, the Waterford miller and Union sympathizer Samuel Means. Means guided the Federal troops from Lovettsville to the subsequent ambush at the Point of Rocks Bridge. Who reported this information? Samuel Means' brother, a member of the Loudoun Cavalry. In Loudoun, brothers truly fought brothers during the Civil War. On August 6th, 2011, members of several Civil War groups gathered to mark the death of Private Orrison. Organized by Ken Fleming, the commemoration met first at McKimmey's Landing (Virginia side of the Point of Rocks bridge) where the ambush occurred and very close to the spot where Orrison was killed. After laying a wreath where Orrison most likely died, the group traveled to the New Valley Church near Stumptown, where he was buried, for the second part of the ceremony. An article published by Leesburg's Democratic Mirror shortly after the ambush (reprinted below in its entirety), not only speaks to the events of that day, but in a clear tone of bitterness and anger: |
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From "The Democratic Mirror" Wednesday Morning, August, 8 1861 (author's note, that Wednesday was the 7th) Our northern foes have at length pressed with their unhallowed tread the soil of Loudoun and stained her earth with the blood of one of her sons, and worse than all, they have been aided and abetted in the hellish work by men who bear the sacred name of Virginians, aye, of Loudouners. For sometime past it has been known that Federal troops were prowling along the opposite banks of the Potomac River, menacing our people by their occasional nocturnal visits to this side; but within the last ten days, infuriated no doubt, by the humiliating recollection of their disgraceful rout at Bull Run, they have crossed over to take revenge, as it would seem, on our unprotected border, and are, we learn, now quartered in the vicinity of Lovettsville in numbers estimated at several hundred. |
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| Jim Morgan, Chair of Loudoun's Civil War Sesquicentennial Steering Committee, addresses the crowd assembled at McKimmey's Landing. Several other groups sponsored the day's commemorative events. Ken Fleming of Clinton Hatcher Camp 21 (seen in the opening photo) was the primary coordinator. The Sons of Confederate Veterans and the Mosby Heritage Area Association also sponsored. The cover of the program for the commemoration (opening photo) featured a recently found photo of Private Orrison. |
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The 5th Division Color Guard and Lee Stone, representing Sons of Union Veterans, lead the crowd up from McKimmey's Landing to Lovettsville Road and the point where Orrison fell, shot in the arm and head. |
On Friday morning last a party crossed at Edward’s Ferry, three miles below Leesburg, and burned the old warehouse and the Ferryman’s house at that point, both were entirely consumed. This was early in the morning. Later in the day, flushed with the success of their morning excursion, three of them again approached this side for the purpose , probably, of capturing some chickens that were feeding around the ruins. In the meantime, a party of our scouts, five in number, belonging to Capt. Thomas’ Madison Cavalry, had arrived and taken a concealed position near the landing; they were discovered by the enemy who fired upon them but without effect. Our men held their fire until the yankees were in the act of landing, when they discharged their pieces, killing the last one of the marauding trio. Immediately after their fall such an incessant fire of musketry was opened from the other side the river that our men were unable to secure their game, and before reinforcements came up it was spirited away. |
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It is believed that Private Orrison fell dead at the point were old Furnace Mountain Road met Lovettsville Road, a point marked now by the stone mailbox. On this day, Orrison descendants gathered for a wreath laying ceremony. The group then proceeded to New Valley Church where Orrison is buried. |
Descendants of Cumberland George Orrison |
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Thus matters remained, until Monday morning, when a party of Capt. Mead’s Loudoun Cavalry, twenty-one in number who had been on duty at Potomac Furnace, opposite the Point of Rocks, for some days, were surprised by a body of federal infantry and completely routed. It was very early in the morning and our men had just returned from a night scouring of the mountain-some had lain down and had fallen asleep, others were feeding their horses and others were arranging for breakfast. While thus employed the enemy presented himself on their right and left in numbers of about sixty with bayonets charged, not more than twenty yards from them. Finding that thus hemmed in their only safety was in instant flight, our boys took to the mountain, leaving behind their horses, arms, etc., which of course fell into the hands of the enemy. |
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The commemoration resumed in a hayfield next to the New Valley Church cemetery where Private Orrison is buried. Mrs. Anne Crocker, descendant of Private Orrison and owner of the tintype with his image, would talk of her research into his history. Becky Fleming would tell the history of the Confederate Cross of Honor and Ken Fleming would present a United States flag to Orrison's descendants. |
Fourteen of the party succeeded in making their escape and reaching Leesburg, though they report that the bullets of the two flanking columns whistled around them in a manner anything but agreeable. One of them, Mr. Boyd Barrett-had his pistol in his hand at the time of the surprise, which was struck by an enemy’s balls, breaking the ramrod and very slightly injuring his hand-perhaps it saved his life. Six of the party where captured and taken over the river as follows: Robert Drane, Geo. Davidson, Arthur Dawson, Jonah Orrison, Jas. W. Daniel, and Mahlon Myers. George Orrison, was killed-shot through the head and arm. His body was recovered a few hours after by his friends. Samuel Houser, Postmaster at Potomac Furnace, and his step son Wade-the ferryman at that point were likewise taken prisoners, and carried to Sandy Hook. Towards evening, Mr. Houser was released and sent home, with instructions, however to evacuate his house at once, as it was their purpose to destroy it yesterday, Tuesday. The gentleman from whom we get the above facts left the Furnace Monday night at which time Mr. Houser had executed his orders, and the house was then vacant. The prisoners were notified, so Mr. Houser told our informant, that they would be taken to Fort McHenry on Tuesday. We are told that the enemy crossed the river in the neighborhood of Berlin, and were piloted down the mountain to where the attack was made, by Samuel Means, one of those who fled from Loudoun upon the recent calling out of the militia. This we get from a brother of Means, who is a sterling member of Mead’s Cavalry; he received it from Houser, the returned prisoner alluded to above. |
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The commemoration would end with cannon, cavalry and infantry salutes, and the playing of taps. |
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