John Quincy Marr John Quincy Marr ( May 27 , 1825 – June 1 , 1861 ) was a Virginia militia company captain and the first Confederate soldier killed by a Union soldier in combat in the American Civil War . Marr was killed at the Battle of Fairfax Court House ( June 1861 ) , Virginia on June 1 , 1861 . He had been a delegate to the Virginia Secession Convention and ultimately supported secession of Virginia from the Union after initially opposing it . Early life . John Q . Marr was born on May 27 , 1825 in Warrenton , Fauquier County , Virginia . He was the son of Catherine Inman Horner Marr and John Marr , Esq . , who was the grandson of an immigrant from France who had the surname " La Mar . " The elder John Marr was a Commissioner in Chancery in the Supreme and County Courts , much like a court - appointed trustee in later times , and a justice of the peace . John Quincy Marr graduated second in the class of 1846 from the Virginia Military Institute ( VMI ) . After completing his studies , he became an assistant professor of mathematics and tactics until he returned home after the death of his father in 1848 out of a sense of duty to his mother and sisters . The courts gave him the same appointments held by his father . He also served a two - year term as sheriff of Fauquier County . After John Brown ' s raid on Harpers Ferry , Marr organized the " Warrenton Rifles " militia company . In early 1861 , he was elected a delegate to the Virginia Secession Convention . Although initially opposed to secession , and called home by a " family affliction " during the deliberations , he later signed the ordinance of secession . On May 5 , 1861 , Marr was commissioned as a lieutenant colonel in the Virginia forces , but he never received the commission because it was sent to Harpers Ferry by mistake . Death . On Saturday , June 1 , 1861 , a company of Union Army cavalry on a scout entered the streets of Fairfax Court House after driving back one Confederate picket and taking another prisoner . At that time , two companies of cavalry and Marr ' s Warrenton Rifles infantry company occupied the town . The Confederate cavalry began to retreat and cut off part of the Warrenton Rifles from those who faced the Union cavalry charge . Only about 40 men from the company were in a position to combat the Union cavalrymen . Lieutenant Charles Henry Tompkins of the 2d U . S . Cavalry Regiment led the Union force of between 50 and 86 men who separated into two groups as they rode through the village . Captain Marr challenged the riders , asking " What cavalry is that ? " These were his last words . Scattered shots were fired as the Union cavalry rode through and Captain Marr fell dead . Marr was not in the immediate presence of any of his men on a dark night so soon after he fell , no one knew where he was or what may have happened to him . His body was found later in the morning . After Marr fell , first appeared former and subsequent Virginia governor and later major general William " Extra Billy " Smith , who had just resigned his seat in the U . S . Congress . He was from Warrenton and had helped raised the company . He took command in the absence of the company ' s leaders . Soon thereafter Lieutenant Colonel ( later Lieutenant General ) Richard S . Ewell , who had just been placed in charge of Confederate forces at Fairfax Court House , came upon the company . Lt . Col . Ewell had received a shoulder wound as he emerged from the village ' s hotel as the Union force first rode through the streets so he was bleeding as he took charge of the infantry company in the field and redeployed 40 of them . Ewell soon went off to send for reinforcements and Smith redeployed the men again in the same general area but in a less exposed position about 100 yards forward . After the Union cavalry rode through the village , they regrouped and returned through the village streets . A volley from the redeployed men of the Warrenton Rifles turned them back . The Confederates fired additional volleys at the Federals as they tried to pass through town again on their way back to their base near Falls Church , Virginia . After a third failed attempt to ride past the Confederates , the Union men were forced to leave town toward Flint Hill in the Oakton area of Fairfax County to the north of the City of Fairfax with several wounded men . Confederate casualties in the affair were one dead , four wounded ( including Lt . Col . Ewell ) , one missing , according to their report . A later account states that only two were wounded , but five were captured . The Union force lost one killed , four wounded ( including Lt . Tompkins ) and three missing , who had been taken prisoner . The Union soldier killed was identified as Private Saintclair . Governor Smith later reported that Marr had apparently been hit by a spent round ball because he had a large bruise above his heart but his skin had not been penetrated . Aftermath . Captain Marr ' s body arrived in Warrenton that evening and he was buried the next afternoon in the Warrenton Cemetery after a ceremony in the clerk ' s office yard before a large crowd of mourners . Charles Henry Tompkins received the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions at the Battle of Fairfax Court House ( June 1861 ) . His was the first action of a Union Army officer in the American Civil War for which a Congressional Medal of Honor was awarded , although it was not awarded until 1893 . His citation reads : " Twice charged through the enemy ' s lines and , taking a carbine from an enlisted man , shot the enemy ' s captain . " No other account referenced on this page states that Tompkins himself shot Captain Marr . A monument to Captain Marr was erected on June 1 , 1904 near the front of the courthouse where it remains today . It reads : " This stone marks the scene of the opening conflict of the war of 1861 – 1865 , when John Q . Marr , captain of the Warrenton Rifles , who was the first soldier killed in action , fell 800 feet south , 46 degrees West of the spot . June 1 , 1861 . Erected by the Marr Camp , C . V . , June 1 , 1904 . " Later death of Private Henry L . Wyatt . Many authors have stated that Private Henry L . Wyatt of the 1st North Carolina Volunteers , later the 11th North Carolina Infantry Regiment , the only Confederate soldier killed at the Battle of Big Bethel , Virginia on June 10 , 1861 was the first Confederate soldier killed in combat in the Civil War . This is only correct to the extent a distinction is made between the first officer killed , Captain John Quincy Marr , and the first enlisted man killed , which Private Wyatt appears to have been .