CENTRAL RAPPAHANNOCK
HERITAGE CENTER
BULLETIN
Volume X, No. 3
Erik F. Nelson, Editor
Fall 2009
Our Mission
To provide a repository
for historically valuable documents of the central Rappahannock
region and a center for scholarly research thereof. The
region consists of the Commonwealth
of Virginia Counties of Caroline,
King George, Spotsylvania and Stafford and the City of Fredericksburg.
A Notable Marriage License
While indexing Caroline County
records in the Heritage
Center collection, one
of our archivists encountered a marriage license for a William Henry Fitzhugh
Lee. There were many Lees, but which one was this? And why was it on a Caroline County
record? A quick glance at the form showed that the
space for Husband’s Parents had been filled in with the
name Colonel R.E. Lee. The marriage license was that
of “Rooney” Lee, son of Robert E. Lee who was then an officer in the United
States Army.
On March 17, 1859, a week
before his wedding, young Lee had traveled to Caroline County
to obtain this marriage license. He was from Arlington (then in the County
of Alexandria) and the wedding was
going to take place in Charles
City County. Until 1968, however, Virginia law required that licenses for
matrimony be obtained in the jurisdiction of the bride’s residence. Rooney’s wife to be was Georgiana Wickham, daughter of
George Wickham and Charlotte Carter, of Caroline County. He was 21 and she was not quite 19.
A quick note about Alexandria County is in order.
When Congress moved to the District of Columbia,
in 1801, the District included the port
of Alexandria and a very rural area
called Arlington. The entire portion of the District that was in Virginia was named Alexandria County. The Potomac River proved an unwieldy barrier to the two
components of the District, though, and in 1846, the federal government ceded
Alexandria
County back to the
Commonwealth. The town of Alexandria became an independent city in
1852, but years of name confusion followed. Finally,
in 1920, the County of Alexandria, tired of being mistaken for the City
of Alexandria, renamed itself Arlington County.
The original marriage
license, apparently in W. H. F. “Rooney” Lee’s own handwriting, is just one
of many treasures held by the Central Rappahannock
Heritage Center. Though
just a piece of paper, it speaks of love and the confidence of youth in the
future (two years before the Civil War).
A
place that loses its history loses its soul.
The Heritage Center is a key resource for a new
book
The Heritage
Center provided substantial
information and assistance to Thomas M. Settles, as he conducted research
for a new biography of Confederate General John B. Magruder. Magruder was a local boy, born in Port Royal in 1807. Students
of the Civil War know him for winning the Confederacy’s first victory, in
the Civil War’s first battle, at Big Bethel. He is
also known for having delayed a powerful Union army for a month, at Yorktown, with a painfully small force, but one which
he relentlessly used to give the impression of a much larger body of troops. This achievement bought valuable time for the Confederate
army to prepare to defend Richmond,
in the spring of 1862.
Magruder’s military proficiency had been gained honestly. He graduated from West Point in 1830, fought in the Seminole
Wars and distinguished himself in the War with Mexico. He quickly proved that he had the ability to handle an
independent command, but following what came to be called the Seven Days
Campaign, he was said to have been too aggressive at Savage Station and too
timid at Malvern Hill. To be fair, most of the commanders
in both armies made grave errors during that period, as they learned to handle
formations that were larger than any of them had commanded previously. Still, at Magruder’s own request, he was transferred to
Texas, where he skillfully captured Galveston, but generally faded into obscurity to those
who study the war in Virginia.
This new book, called John Bankhead Magruder:
A Military Reappraisal, has been published by the Louisiana State University
Press. The author is a professor of history at San Antonio College,
in Texas,
the state where Magruder eventually settled after the war and where he died
in 1871. Professor Settles generously notes the research
assistance of our own Kimberly Campbell and of the Central Rappahannock
Heritage Center in general.
Magruder kept no diary, wrote no memoirs, had no will,
and left behind very few personal papers. Through
concerted research and good writing, Professor Settles has given him his due.
The Heritage
Center welcomes the
following new volunteers:
Gene Cunningham
Joan Cunningham
Tom Mann
Suzanne Sawan
Collection News
We thank the following persons for these recent
contributions to the Center’s collection:
Anne L. Woodbridge, for
World War II Fredericksburg Selective Service Board papers.
Wayne Harman, for papers
of Anne Reamy Lowe; Rotary roster booklets, 1978-1984; Rappahannock Garden
Club booklets, and John M. Porter’s compilation of votes cast for Stafford County officials (1870-1985).
Shirley T. Yeratt, for
copies of family records (Thomas family of Caroline County)
and excerpts from the donor’s book The Thomas-Sale Connection.
Ruth Coder Fitzgerald,
for her late husband Barry Fitzgerald’s Free Lance-Star photo
clip files; his photo negatives, and his obituary.
Barbara P. Willis, for
a Stafford
County tax map (1998)
and Lillian Reed’s scrapbooks of newspaper articles about the Historic Fredericksburg
Foundation.
Sheila Baker, for a Fredericksburg
City Directory and Ladies Home Journal Pattern Book (possibly 1918).
Melissa Fitzgerald, for
Smith family photographs, including Horace, Sr., Miss Annie, Horace, Jr.
(c. 1912), Vivian Minor Fleming, and Horace H. Smith, Jr. (c. 1917).
M.R. “Chip” Reamy, for
a book called A History of the Reamy Family of Westmoreland and
Stafford Counties, in Virginia, by Morris Robert Reamy II.
William J. Shorter, for
the History of the Boundary of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception
Parish, Fredericksburg,
Virginia.
Michelle Schiesser, for
the following books: Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant;
Fredericksburg, Virginia: Eclectic Histories
for Curious Readers; and Lee and Grant: The Virginia Campaigns.
Barbara Muir, for information
on Prospect Hill and Battaile, and a book called The River Lines
of the Rappahannock and Rapidan Rivers in the Civil War, by Jeffrey D.
Wright.
Jane Laughman, for Baptist
Church booklets and newsletters;
Mary Washington College
reunion, class of 1990; Groupe & Co., 1969.
Anne Brooks Brauer, for
material related to the rededication of St. George’s Church.
William and Sharon Stone,
for a book called Chronicle of Thomas Stone of Hamilton Parish
in Colonial Virginia, by William M. Stone.
Raymond Gill, for an electronic
file (CD) containing Burial Records of 1812 Soldiers in Virginia, from the
Society of the War of 1812.
Anonymous donor, for a
book called Germanna – A Historical Novel by Jennie Thornley Grayson (1930).
Central Rappahannock Heritage
Center
900 Barton St. #111
Fredericksburg, VA 22401