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Lee’s historical trail in Leesylavania Woods, Virginia

A Walk through History



imageThe Potomac River shines through the barren trees. The marina nearby is empty although the weather is balmy for late November. I can hear the laughter of children playing at the water’s edge. I feel lucky and privileged to walk on Lee’s historical trail in Leesylavania Woods, Virginia. A white marble obelisk in the middle of a roundabout draws my attention. It is dedicated to Henry Lee III, “Light Horse Harry,” 1756-1818, whose accomplishments are inscribed on the simple monument:
  • Cavalry Commander 1776-1781
  • Congressional Medal 1779
  • Member Continental Congress 1786-1788
  • Governor of Virginia 1791-1794
  • Member U.S. Congress 1799-1801
  • Father of General Robert E. Lee
image Henry Lee III is buried in Lexington, Virginia but Henry Lee II and his wife Lucy are resting in the Lee and Fairfax family cemetery – a long trek to the tombs on a small ridge of the peninsula overlooking the Occoquan Bay. The headstones had long disappeared, replaced by a bronze plaque.

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A solitary artillery piece “defends” a bluff - a 32 pounder similar to those used by the Confederate Army under the command of General Robert E. Lee who ordered the Blockade of the Potomac River from October 1861 to March 1862. Through small openings in the thick and dormant vegetation, the bay glitters in the afternoon sun. If I close my eyes, I can imagine Captain John Smith exploring and mapping the Potomac in the summer of 1608. I am standing on the village “Niobsco” (“at the point of the rock”) landmark where friendly Doeg tribes lived. The hostile Petomec Indians made their villages downriver. Algonquian Indians inhabited the Virginia Waterways. There must be ample archeological evidence of Indian habitation buried beneath my feet because metal detectors are forbidden. There are a few boats out on the water in the lazy afternoon sun. I can picture the barges in 1872 loading up schooners with firewood, lumber, livestock, fruit, hay, and slate on their way to Washington. There is a pier going out into the bay. Half way down, a red plaque indicates the Maryland line. I am no longer in Virginia’s maritime territory, I am in Maryland. imageAs I come up a gentle hill, a lone fireplace with a chimneystack marks the former home of John W. Fairfax, a colonel in the Confederate Army. His farm had a main barn built into the side of the hill. All that is left of the barn are some sandstone foundation blocks, cut from the cliff on Freestone Point, and covered now by green moss. The water well’s brick walls are still visible. It would be quite a hike to carry water up these hills. Who carried it before the well was dug up? How did they bring supplies up from the river’s edge? For many years, the Leesylvania Plantation produced tobacco but in the summer of 1859, food was more important: rich fields of corn, wheat, rye, and oats swayed in the wind. imageHenry Lee II had purchased the newly cleared fields of the peninsula in September 1754 to produce tobacco, a very sought after crop during those times in England. His new bride, Lucy, had named the area, “Leesylvania,” Lee’s Woods. Lucy Grimes Lee and Henry Lee II are buried in the cemetery on a grassy knoll, now covered with a carpet of dry leaves. The grave markers have been removed a long time ago. The state park encircled their remains with a black metal fence and a bronze plaque. imageI wonder what Henry Lee II and his famous son, “Light Horse Harry,” would say if they knew that a naturalized citizen like me, from a former communist country, appreciates the country they and their descendants have built through much sacrifice and bloodshed, much more than most natural-born Americans. Would they approve and would they be proud of the direction that our country is taking? Lucy, the daughter of a wealthy plantation owner, once rejected the attentions of a shy suitor, George Washington. His plantation, a state of the art farm for its time, is located not far away at Mount Vernon. Lucy and Henry Lee II had been married for 34 years and produced eight children. Their famous son is “Light Horse Harry.” Henry Lee II served in public office in Prince William County and in Virginia for many years. Captain Henry Fairfax purchased nearly two thousand acres of Leesylvania in 1825 from Alfred Lee, the grandson of Henry Lee II. The captain brought his wife to a home built in 1803, 500 yards from the original Lee home. He and his wife raised seven children here from 1825 until their deaths in 1847. Both are buried in the same cemetery on the grassy knoll with Lucy Grimes Lee. imageCaptain Fairfax’s descendants rebuilt the original home and inhabited the place until 1908 when it burned to the ground. As I walk past his former homestead, a huge white oak (Quercus Alba), marked as Prince William County’s Bicentennial Tree, blocks the trail. A soft and very thick carpet of dead leaves is evidence that the oak is very much alive. If it could only talk, the stories would fill up volumes! A peaceful silence surrounds my crunching steps as I carefully watch the thick roots like veins pulsing with green blood, ready to trip me as the hills become steeper. A soft wind whispers through the barren branches. They arch upwards, reaching for the clear blue sky. imageLucy’s former garden left behind many species of plants and trees such as the Paw Paw, the American Beech (# Grandifolia), flowering dogwood (Cornus Florida), and the white oak (Quercus Alba). I was hoping to find traces of the tobacco plants. The small triangular nuts of the beech tree were eaten whole, ground into flour, pressed for oil, or roasted to make ersatz “coffee.” The wood of the white oak made good wine barrels. The dogwood was extremely shock resistant and thus used to make tool handles and mallet heads. imageAs I reach the top of a very steep hill, there seems to be the end of the road. A deep valley below bears witness to the former railroad tracks that were cut into the hill and used from 1872-1925. The valley was excavated shortly after the Civil War. The rail ran between Washington, D.C. and Richmond, Virginia, a symbol of a reunited nation. It was built by Alexandria and Fredericksburg Railroad. Landslides and train derailments plagued the area and often temporary and rigged repairs were made to accommodate passing trains. P.T. Barnum and his circus, on the way to Fredericksburg, Virginia, remarked, “he had been all over the United States, but this was the first railroad he had ever seen tied to a tree.” The plant and animal life seemed to have changed little since Captain John Smith said in his 1627 book, A General History of Virginia, “Virginia doth afford many excellent vegetable and living creatures, yet grass there is little or none, but what groweth in low marshes; for all the country is overgrown with trees… The wood that is most common is oak and walnut…There is also some elm, some black walnut trees and ash.” I ponder this quote as I marvel at the thickness of woods everywhere. I am not sure, I could walk this trail when everything is green and overgrown. I would definitely get lost and the terrain would be less accessible. It certainly is not true what environmentalists claim that European pilgrims deforested Virginia in their path and ruined the fishing stock by overfishing, that they committed “biological imperialism.” imageThe Potomac is still teeming with fish - waterfowl do not seem to starve. Beavers have built dams along the river. Deer, foxes, rabbits, birds of prey, egrets, Canadian geese, ducks, turtles and other species, too many to name, are abundant. Fishing is prohibited but it does not stop a few die-hard anglers. Nature has a way of coming back and renewing itself in the most unusual places. A long ago fallen and rotting trunk is sprouting green saplings all over. An uprooted tree is still alive, feeding itself in a horizontal position from the rich soil beneath. I was humbled today to walk in the footsteps of history of such a beautiful country. I am proud and lucky to be an American, to live so close to the beginnings of our exceptional nation. Jamestown, Mount Vernon, Fredericksburg, Williamsburg, and Monticello are only a short drive away. People from all over the world had worked extremely hard to overcome so many difficulties in America. In the end, despite the Civil War, we were united by one culture, one history, one language, love of God, and a fierce desire for freedom and independence from oppression.


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Dr. Ileana Johnson Paugh -- Bio and Archives

Dr. Ileana Johnson Paugh, Ileana Writes is a freelance writer, author, radio commentator, and speaker. Her books, “Echoes of Communism”, “Liberty on Life Support” and “U.N. Agenda 21: Environmental Piracy,” “Communism 2.0: 25 Years Later” are available at Amazon in paperback and Kindle.


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