page_title: Pohick Church
section_title: American Civil War
hierarchical_section_title: Pohick Church / History / American Civil War
caption_attribution_description: From a visit to Pohick Church in February 2016
context_page_description: Pohick Church, previously known as Pohick Episcopal Church, is an Episcopal church in the community of Lorton in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. Often called the "Mother Church of Northern Virginia," the church is notable for its association with important figures in early Virginian history such as George Washington and George Mason, both of whom served on its vestry. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1969.
context_section_description: By 1860, conditions at Pohick Church had deteriorated to such a state that it is unclear whether or not the building remained a consecrated house of worship at the dawn of the American Civil War. With its proximity to Washington, D.C., the building was quickly embroiled in the fighting that rocked Northern Virginia. although in that year a plan was formed by a clergyman from Fairfax, Reverend R. T. Brown, to return the building to active service, a plan which was quashed by the beginning of the conflict. The 2nd Michigan Volunteers, under the command of General Samuel P. Heintzelman, raided the church on November 12, 1861. Lieutenant Charles B. Haydon was outraged at the men's behavior, describing it thus: 
  At 8½ A.M. we reached the church 12 miles out. Pohick Church is a brick building built in 1773. Gen. Washington contributed to building it & was a frequent attendant. It has a very ancient look & one would suppose that it might be sacred enough to be secure. I have long known that the Mich 2nd had no fear or reverence as a general thing for God or the places where he is worshiped but I had hoped that the memory of Gen. Washington might protect almost anything with which it was associated. I believe our soldiers would have torn the church down in 2 days. They were all over it in less than 10 minutes tearing off the ornaments, splitting the woodwork and pews, knocking the brick to pieces & everything else they could get at. They wanted pieces to carry away ... A more absolute set of vandals than our men can not be found on the face of the earth. As true as I am living I believe they would steal Washington's coffin if they could get to it.
   Private Robert Sneden visited the church in January 1862. He painted a watercolor of the encampments around the building and described its condition in his journal:
  We reached Pohick Church about 4 pm in a snow storm ... It was a substantial two story brick structure with white marble, quoins and trimmings and old colonial gambrel roof ... Here Washington attended service, with all the old first families of the time ... He drove from Mount Vernon to church in his coach with four horses, tandem fashion as did the others. Now the church was in ruinous condition. Windows were all broken out, doors gone, pews nearly gone, being used for firewood by our pickets. The ceilings broken by the rain coming through the roof, walls discolored black by smoke, etc. The mahogany pulpit was half cut away and carried off for relics, while the cornerstones had been unearthed and the contents carried off. Washington had lain this stone in 1765 [sic] and the soldiers who got it out must have found valuable relics. There was not much left for the relic hunters now even the sconces and door knobs and hinges were gone.
  Confederate General J. Johnston Pettigrew also recorded visiting Pohick Church in his wartime journal.
  Thaddeus S. C. Lowe soon took over the church as a base of operations, and a garrison stationed at the site began to use the building as quarters. The men left graffiti behind on the church doorposts, quoins, and walls; much of it is still visible today, as are bullet holes in the exterior walls. From this location Lowe repeatedly launched his balloon, Intrepid, to track Confederate troop movements along the Occoquan River, and here he saw the earliest successes of his short-lived Federal Balloon Corps. The church was used as a stable by Union forces during the winter of 1862–63, during which time the interior was stripped of everything save the upper cornice. Some of this damage was documented by Mathew Brady in a photograph taken in 1862.
  Skirmishes are known to have taken place in the vicinity of the church throughout the war; the area was officially neutral ground, but was populated by guerrillas attempting to disrupt local military operations. Jacob Erwin of Company C of the 1st New York Cavalry, killed in one such action, is believed to have been the first volunteer cavalryman of the Army of the Potomac to have been killed during the conflict.
  Robert E. Lee is recorded as having been a 
caption: Civil War graffiti, still visible on the exterior walls of the church
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