BGuthrie Photos: VA -- Winchester

VA -- Winchester:

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Wikipedia Description: Winchester, Virginia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Winchester is an independent city located in the state of Virginia. The population was 23,585 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Frederick County and the principal city of the Winchester, Virginia-West Virginia Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is a part of the Washington-Baltimore-Northern Virginia, DC-MD-VA-WV Combined Statistical Area. The Bureau of Economic Analysis combines the city of Winchester with surrounding Frederick county for statistical purposes. Winchester is the home of Shenandoah University.

History:

Native American history:

Around 1000 A.D. early native population included Cacapon, Opequon, Shawnee and Tuscarora tribes. By the Middle Ages, the natural north-south conduit of the Great Appalachian Valley made Winchester a likely place for tribal warfare as bands of Catawba, Cherokee, Delaware, Iroquois, and Shawnee marauded the valley plains for hunting grounds. The first tribe with real control of the valley were the Susquehannocks, who were then raided and expelled by Iroquois around 1600. Supposedly the Iroquois allowed the Shawnee tribe to either village or establish transient campsites here at Shawnee Springs from about 1694 to the mid-1700s, overlapping with the arrival of early Quaker settlers and homesteaders. The father of the historical Shawnee chief Cornstalk had his court here.

European exploration:

French Jesuit expeditions first entered the valley as early as 1606 resulting in a crude map drawn in 1632 by Samuel Champlain, but the first confirmed exploration of the northern valley was by explorer John Lederer who viewed the valley from the current Fauquier and Warren County line on 26 August 1670. This was followed by more extensive exploration and mapping by Swiss explorer Louise Michel in 1705 and then Governor Alexander Spotswood in 1716.

In the late 1720s Governor William Gooch promoted settlement by issuing large land grants and, subsequently Robert Carter, manager of the Lord Fairfax proprietorship, acquired 200,000 acres (800 km²). This combination of events directly precipitated an inrush of settlers from Pennsylvania and New York, made up of a blend of Quakers and various German and Scots-Irish homesteaders.

European settlement:

The settlement of Winchester began as early as 1729, when Quakers like Abraham Hollingsworth migrated up the Great Valley along the Indian Path (later known as the Great Wagon Road) from Pennsylvania and began to homestead on old Shawnee campgrounds. The first German settler appears to be Jost Hite in 1732, who brought ten other families including some Scots-Irish. Though an Anglican colony, Governor William Gooch had a tolerant policy on religion, and throughout Virginia, the availability of land grants brought in many religious families, who were often given 50 acre plots through the sponsorship of fellow religious grant purchasers and speculators. As a result, the Winchester area became home to some of the oldest Presbyterian, Quaker, Lutheran and Anglican churches in the valley. The first Lutheran worship was established by Rev. John Casper Stoever Jr., and Alexander Ross established Hopewell Meeting for the Quakers. By 1736, the Opequon Presbyterian Church in Kernstown was built. A legal fight erupted in 1735 when Thomas Fairfax, Sixth Lord Fairfax, came to Virginia to claim his land grant, which included "all the land in Virginia between the Rappahannock and the Potomac rivers", an old grant from King Charles II, and which overlapped and included Frederick county.

Founding of Winchester:

By 1738 these settlements became known as Frederick Town making it the oldest town west of the Appalachian Mountains. The county of Frederick was then carved out of Orange County, and the first government was created comprised of a County Court, as well as the Anglican Frederick Parish (for purposes of tax collection). Colonel James Wood, an immigrant from Winchester, England, was the first court clerk, laid out 26 half-acre (2,000 m²) lots around 1741, and constructed his own residence, Glen Burnie. Finally, the County Court held its first session in 11 November 1743, where James Wood served until 1760. Lord Fairfax, understanding that possession is 9/10ths of the law, built a home here (in present-day Clarke County) in 1748. By 1750 the Virginia House of Burgesses granted the fourth city charter in Virginia to Winchester as Frederick Town was now re-named after Colonel Wood's birthplace of the old Norman capital of England, Winchester. In 1754, Abraham Hollingsworth built the local residence called Abram's Delight, which served as the first local Quaker Meeting house. George Washington spent a good portion of his young life in Winchester helping survey the Fairfax land grant for Thomas Fairfax, Sixth Lord Fairfax, as well as performing surveying work for Colonel Wood. In 1758 Colonel Wood added 158 lots to the west side of town, and then Thomas Fairfax contributed 173 more lots to the south and east.

French & Indian War:

General Edward Braddock's expeditionary march to Fort Duquesne crossed through this area in 1755 on the way to Fort Cumberland. George Washington, knowing the area well from his position as a surveyor for Lord Fairfax, accompanied General Braddock as his aide-de-camp. Resident Daniel Morgan also joined Braddock's Army on their march to Pennsylvania as a wagoner.

In 1756, on land granted by James Wood, Colonel George Washington designed and began constructing Fort Loudoun, which ultimately covered almost one acre (0.955-acre)in present-day downtown Winchester on North Loudoun Street. Fort Loudoun was occupied and manned with guns until the start of the Revolutionary War. During this era, a jail was built in Winchester, which occasionally held Quakers from many parts of Virginia who protested the French and Indian War and refused to pay taxes to the Anglican parish. While their cousins in Pennsylvania dominated political control, Virginia was an Anglican colony, and pacifism was not as well tolerated. Strong pacifism from Quakers combined with strong Virginia support during both this war and the next, led to long term stifling of Quaker population, causing Winchester to become more of a Quaker gateway to places further in the mid-west, until the Quaker population was a small minority by the mid 1800s.

During the war, in 1758, and at the age of 26, Colonel George Washington was elected as the representative of Frederick County to the House of Burgesses. Daniel Morgan later served as a ranger protecting the borderlands of Virginia against Indian raids, returning to Winchester in 1759. Following the war, from 1763 to 1774 Daniel Morgan served in Captain Ashby's company and defended Virginia against Pontiac's Conspiracy and Shawnee Indians in the Ohio valley.

Revolutionary War:

During the Revolutionary War, the Virginia House of Burgesses chose local resident and French and Indian War veteran Daniel Morgan to raise a company of militia to support General George Washington's efforts during the Siege of Boston. The 96 men of "Morgan's Sharpshooters", led by Morgan, assembled in Winchester on 14 July 1775 and marched to Boston in 21 days. Morgan, Wood, and others also performed various duties in holding captured prisoners of war, particularly Hessian soldiers.

Hessian soldiers were known for walking to the high ridge north and west of town and purchasing and eating apple pies from the Quakers. Thus, this ridge west of town became affectionately known as Apple Pie Ridge and the Ridge Road built before 1709 leading north from town was renamed Apple Pie Ridge Road. The local farmers found new business booming in feeding the Virginia Militia and fledgling volunteer American army, a task for which the town and valley would later be punished during the American Civil War. Following the war, the town's first newspapers, The Gazette and The Centinel, were established, and Daniel Morgan later served one term in the U.S. House of Representatives between 1797 and 1799.

Civil War history:

Main article: Winchester in the Civil War

Winchester and the surrounding area were the site of numerous fights during the American Civil War as both contending armies strove to control that portion of the Shenandoah Valley. Seven major battlefields are within the extent of the original Frederick County:

Within the City of Winchester:

* The First Battle of Kernstown, March 23, 1862
* The First Battle of Winchester, May 25, 1862
* The Second Battle of Winchester, June 13–15, 1863
* The Second Battle of Kernstown, July 24, 1864
* The Third Battle of Winchester, September 19, 1864

Nearby the City of Winchester:

* The Battle of Berryville, September 3–4, 1864
* The Battle of Belle Grove (or Cedar Creek), October 19, 1864

Winchester was a key strategic position for the Confederate States Army during the war. It was an important operational objective in Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's and Col. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's defense of the Shenandoah Valley in 1861, Jackson's Valley Campaign of 1862, the Gettysburg Campaign of 1863, and the Valley Campaigns of 1864. Including minor cavalry raids and patrols, and occasional reconnaissances by various forces, it is claimed that Winchester changed hands as many as 72 times, and 13 times in one day. Battles raged all along Main Street at different points in the war. Both Union General Sheridan and Stonewall Jackson located their headquarters just one block apart at various times.

Located at the north end of the upper Shenandoah Valley, Winchester was a base of operations for major Confederate invasions into the Northern United States, at times threatening the capital of Washington, D.C.. The town served as a central point for troops conducting major raids against the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, and turnpike and telegraph paths along those routes and the Potomac River Valley. For instance, in 1861, Stonewall Jackson removed 56 locomotives and over 300 railroad cars, along with miles of track, from the B&O Railroad and ultimately closed down the B&O's main line for ten months. Much of the effort to transport this equipment by horse and carriage centered in Winchester.

During the war, Winchester suffered greatly under five major periods of Union occupation:

* The Occupation of Major General Nathaniel Banks - (March 12 to 25 May 1862, and 4 June to 2 September 1862)
* The Occupation of Major General Robert Milroy - (24 December 1862, to 15 June 1863)
* The Burning and Occupation of Major General Philip Sheridan - (19 September 1864, to 27 February 1865)
* The Occupation of Major General Winfield Scott Hancock - 27 February 1865, to 27 June 1865
* The Occupation of the First Military District of Major General John Schofield - (End of War to 26 January 1870)

During the Federal occupation of Winchester, many residents were exiled from town, personal property was stolen, citizens rendering medical assistance to wounded soldiers were shot and murdered, homes were illegally stolen, occupied and destroyed, a medical school was burned down, and the citizens of the Commonwealth were not allowed to vote on re-admittance to the Union under the reign of Major General Schofield. Major General Milroy was noted for his claim that "my will is absolute law" as he plundered Winchester, exiling women and imprisoning old men and boys. Major General Sheridan rampaged up the Valley from Winchester and destroyed "2,000 barns filled with grain and implements, not to mention other outbuildings, 70 mills filled with wheat and flour" and "numerous head of livestock," according to the Official Records. Not mentioned in the official records are the many private homes that were destroyed, and innocent women and children injured and killed. Unsurprisingly, several Winchester Unionists were noted for changing their sympathies after these occupations.

In spite of Winchester's wartime hardships, a few residents made great contributions to the Confederate cause, such as Dr. Hunter McGuire, Chief Surgeon of the Second "Jackson's" Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia, who laid foundations for the future Geneva conventions regarding the treatment of medical doctors during warfare. Winchester served as a major center for Confederate medical operations, particularly after the Battle of Sharpsburg in 1862 and the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863, and set the stage for advancements in the practice of medicine, internationally and during combat operations.

Among those who took part in battles at Winchester were future U.S. presidents McKinley and Hayes, who both were officers in the Union IX Corps.

Today, Winchester provides a wealth of exploration and tourism for Civil War enthusiasts. Many remains of Civil War era forts are scattered around town, such as the remains of:

* Fort Jackson - (aka Fort Garibaldi, Main Fort, Fort Milroy, Battery No.2)
* Fort Alabama - (aka Star Fort, Battery No.3)
* Fort Collier - (aka Battery No.10)
* Louisiana Heights - (aka the combination of West Fort or Battery No.5 and Battery No. 6)
* Bower's Hill - (aka Battery No.1)

Jubal Early Drive snakes around south of downtown Winchester, along the central location for many of the battles.

20th century history:

Winchester was the first city south of the Potomac River to install electric light.

Winchester is the location of the bi-annual N-SSA national competition keeping the tradition of Civil War era firearms alive.
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1997 photos: Since 1984, I've lived in Silver Spring, Maryland. From 1981 to 2002, photos were taken using a Pentax ME Super camera. From 1989 to 2002, I was doing all pictures as prints (instead of slides which I had grown up on). In 1997, at the age of 40, my photo obsession began and I started taking thousands of photos per year. In September, 2002, I switched to digital cameras and the number of photos exploded. Trips this year: North Carolina (Dad), Florida (Mom), using a time share in Arkansas to visit Civil War sites in Missouri, Georgia, Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee. The Civil War became my excuse to see places I'd never been to in my life and it was a great motivator for 20 years or so. Image quality for my pictures is variable because these are scans of slides and/or prints at varying quality/resolutions. The Great Pandemic Digitizing Project: When I was first setting up my website in August, 2000, I had decided to digitize some of my favorite pre-digital slides and prints. The scans were fairly low resolution but they were good enough. With COVID forcing me to stay indoors, I decided to rescan ALL of my pre-digital images from multiple sources (slides, prints, and negatives) at a much higher resolution and quality setting. (I digitized Dad's slides at the same time). Instead of replacing my original scans, I added the new scans to existing pages, figuring I'd select the best ones later. As a result, multiple versions of images appear on most of these early pages. At some point, I'll take the time to do a final review and get rid of the duplicates.
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