The Fairfax Independent Company: Washington’s Alexandria Volunteers, 1774–1775

The Fairfax Independent Company was organized in Fairfax County in September 1774, seven months before the fighting at Lexington and Concord. Its members, men of Alexandria and the surrounding county, called themselves the Fairfax Independent Company of Volunteers, and they trained in blue coats faced with buff. George Washington was their patron. He reviewed them … Read more

The Sad Fate of The New York Volunteers!

“I have seen Him in the Watch-fires of a Hundred Circling Camps!” Following the Union’s defeat at the First Bull Run (or Manassas) on July 21, 1861, they embarked on an ambitious project to safeguard their capital city in the event of a Confederate attack. They initiated the construction of a formidable defensive line comprising … Read more