Trail to Freestone Point
Photo: Ileana Johnson, May 2019
|
Leesylvania’s woods and hills met me with a lush green embrace of
solitude and peace and the drifting fragrant smoke of the waterfront barbecue
grills. The thick forest lies on a small peninsula overlooking the Potomac and
Occoquan Rivers, rich with American history, fauna and flora.
Leesylvania is now a state park with a fishing pier and a picnic
area much beloved by Central American residents and their families. The
laughter of children bathing in the Potomac River echoes through the thick
forest. Some of the mature trees giving us a welcoming cool shade grew
first as tiny saplings in the Lee family garden.
The bumpy hill leads up to the Confederate gun battery, the gravesite
where Henry Lee II and his wife Lucy Grymes were buried. Closer to the bottom
of the hill are the chimney remains of the former home of the Fairfax family. Henry Fairfax
purchased the property from the Lee family in 1825 and lived there until 1910.
Fairfax home chimney
The Freestone Point, named after the
porous quarried rock, juts out over the Potomac River, overlooking the current park’s
fishing pier. On rainy days, tree roots ooze out mud below, washed out by a
sudden deluge.
Confederate guns were
placed here during the Civil War. In the early years of the war, General Robert
E. Lee ordered a blockade of the Potomac River in order to cut off the
Union’s access to Washington DC. The 32-pound cannons positioned here were
part of the blockade that lasted almost six months.
Freestone Point drawing (Park archives)
The well-preserved northernmost
battery at Freestone Point was used as a decoy while more effective batteries
were placed down river at Possum Point, Cockpit Point and Evansport.
When in September 1861 Freestone
Point was fired upon, Sgt. Walter Curry of the Washington Mounted Artillery of
Hampton’s Legion wrote in his diary, “… as soon as the eleventh shot was fired,
our Guns opened on the Lincolnite men of war which were floating majestically
on the Broad Potomac.” The Confederates closed the commercial traffic on the Potomac
by December. The blockade did not end until March 9, 1862. (Leesylvania State Park Archives)
Close to the cemetery there are traces of the Alexandria and
Fredericksburg Railroad tracks that used to carry necessary supplies to run a
large estate growing corn and tobacco. No trace remains today of the Lee’s ancestral home. Henry Lee II raised eight children here with his wife Lucy Grymes, including Light-Horse Harry Lee—Revolutionary War colonel, Virginia Governor, and father of Robert E. Lee. The Lees have left their imprint in the history of these lands and in the names of our modern landmarks.
In his old age, the “original
Immigrant” returned to England, but his heirs were to come back to northern
Virginia upon his death. Subsequently, generations of Lees made their homes and
fortunes in Virginia after 1664.
Henry Lee II received from Henry Lee’s
will in 1746 all his plantations and land in Prince William County at Freestone
Point and at Neapsco (now called Neabsco, Doeg Indian for Point of Rocks) and Powell’s Creek.
The tobacco growing on the plantation
was so lucrative that it was shipped to London from the wharf in Dumfries,
three miles down from Freestone Point. Dumfries was the commercial hub in
Prince William County. Today it remains the oldest incorporated small town in
Virginia.
Henry II married in 1753 a “lowland
beauty” named Lucy Grymes who is said to have been so popular with men of
marrying age, she even became the object of marital aspirations of a young boy
named George Washington.
Henry II cleared the land in Prince
William County and built a new estate, Leesylvania (Lee’s Woods) the same year
he married Lucy. Modest by standards set
by other plantations in the colony of Virginia, Leesylvania was built of brick
on a stone foundation, with “double-tiered porticos wrapped around the front
and rear of the building,” with twin chimneys, “two and half stories tall.” The
home burned in 1797 and there is no image left of it.
Henry Lee was “the first citizen of
Prince William County” in his capacity as its attorney general and militia
commander. Washington asked him in 1755 to provide 100 men on horseback from Prince
William County and bread provisions to “assist in the protection of our Frontiers.”
Henry Lee III monument
Lucy and Henry Lee lost their first
child, a daughter. A year later, in 1756, another child was born of their
union, Henry Lee III, a son who eventually became the famous Light Horse Harry
(1756-1818). A statue at the foot of the rocky hill commemorates the revolutionary
war hero and father of General Robert E. Lee.
View of the Occoquan River from the forested bluff
Photo: Ileana Johnson
Henry Lee III grew up riding horses,
raising ponies, fencing, and practicing his marksmanship. Influential
Virginians were frequent visitors at Lee’s Woods, dining and lodging there,
including George Washington on his frequent trips from Mount Vernon estate to
Fredericksburg and Williamsburg. (Ryan Cole, Light-Horse Harry Lee, The Rise and Fall of a Revolutionary Hero,
2019)
Henry Lee III was a cavalry commander
(1776-1781), was awarded Congressional Medal in 1779, member of the Continental
Congress (1786-1788), governor of Virginia (1791-1794), and member of the U.S.
Congress (1799-1801).
Walking through the dense forest
trails, I am in awe as my steps retrace the long-gone steps of so many famous American
men and women who blazed this path through history, instrumental in the shaping
of our country today.
Field of Dreams in Leesylvania State Park
Photo: Ileana Johnson
Thank you for bringing us along with you, in a way, on this trip.
ReplyDeleteYou are welcome, Paul. It was good to see you last week at the dinner.
Delete