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Dare Mark Line Tours, Orange, VA (2026)

06/24/2026

Little Fork church today. There is a Civil War Trails wayside at the church. The church was the gathering place of the Little Fork Rangers, Company D, 4th Virginia Cavalry.
Little Fork Church stands on a low knoll to the east of State Route 229 nine miles north of Culpeper, Virginia, 16461 Oak Shade Rd, Rixeyville, VA, and will be celebrating it 250 anniversary next year.
If you take the time and search the bricks, you will find civil war era graffiti.
Image of church by author. Image of graffiti from https://www.littleforkchurch.org/a-sacred-place/history/

06/23/2026

Happy Birthday Louis R. G. Fortescue, born on this day in 1838 was born in the district Southwark Philadelphia and was educated in the public school.
In 1854 he entered the book bindery of Joseph A. Spear, with whom he remained until his 21st year, after which he engaged for a time with a theatrical company. Tiring of this business he accepted a position tendered him by Mr. Walter Thomas, President of the Race and Vine and Arch Streets Railways.
In 1861 he entered the army and was commissioned First Lieutenant Pennsylvania Volunteers. In the field, August 16, 1861, he was detailed as signal officer at the headquarters of Major General Banks. He was in the battles of Ball’s Bluff and Wi******er, and afterwards was transferred as signal officer, July 1862, to the headquarters of Major General Pope, and commissioned Captain. At the battle of Cedar Mountain he served as Aid-de-Camp to General Banks, and was commended for his gallantry, “Lieutenants Fortescue and Minor acted with great coolness upon the battlefield, carrying messages from the general commanding in the thickest of the fight.”[1]
At the battle of Gettysburg he was ordered to establish a Signal station on Jack’s Mountain, when he was surrounded by rebel cavalry, and Captain Fortescue with four flagmen were made prisoners, on July 4, 1863 near Emmetsburg, MD, and finally paroled March 1, 1865.
At the close of the war he was appointed to a position in the office of the Second and Third Streets R. R. Co., and as received remained in the company’s employ until October, 1872, when he accepted a clerkship with the Union Insurance Company, of this city, with whom he remained until 1889, Fortescue assumed duties of City Clerk, to which he was assigned after a very successful examination before the Civil Service Board.
He was commissioned on the Division Staff of General John F. Hartranft, N. G. Pa., Chief Signal Officer, with the rank of Major, during the Governorship of Henry M. Hoyt. He is a member of the G. A. R., the Loyal Legion, the Masonic Order, Gothic Lodge, No. 519, Kensington Chapter, No. 233, and Corinthian Chasseur Commandery, No. 53. [2]
He died on November 20, 1915 and is buried in West Laurel Hill Cemetery, Bala Cynwyd, Montgomery County, PA.

Photo of Fortescue from Find-a-Grave.

1. OR, Vol. 12, pt. 2, 145.
1. McMichael, Clayton, Col., ed., Philadelphia and Popular Philadelphians, The North American, Philadelphia, 1891, p17-18.

06/23/2026

On June 23, 1863, the Richmond Daily Dispatch teased a letter written by a member of Elijah White’s 35th Virginia Cavalry Battalion and particulars of the Brandy Station Fight.

Unfortunately for posterity, the newspaper chose not to publish with the admonishment to its potential military correspondents to be timely in their reporting.

“--A correspondent who participated in the late cavalry fight at Brandy Station, writes us an account of Col. White's 35th Va. battalion in that engagement. It captured a battery, 100 prisoners, and four stand of colors, in which it was aided by a company of the 6th Va. We should publish the letter, but it is written at so late a day that the particulars given have been pretty generally published. We should feel obliged to soldiers for letters descriptive of engagements, if they can be sent to us directly after the engagements occur.” [1]

1. Richmond Daily Dispatch, June 23, 1863

06/22/2026

Happy Birthday Thomas James Purdie! Purdie was born on this day in 1830 at Purdie Hall along the Cape Fear River, North Carolina.
Not much is known of Thomas prior to the civil war, he had built a home near his birth home which included a library. According to the 1860 census, he was among the wealthiest men in the county.
When North Carolina seceded, Purdie joined the Bladen Guards in May 1861 as a private and when the unit was mustered into service as Company K, 8th North Carolina infantry, he was elected Captain. The 8th was redesignated 18th North Carolina and he rose in the ranks. By the time of the battle of Cedar Mountain, he was commanding the regiment with the rank of Lt. Colonel, under BG Lawrence O’Bryan Branch.
During the battle, the 18th advanced on the right of the 7th North Carolina. That regiment broke when the 10th Virginia and 27th Virginia broke during Crawford’s charge. The 7th eventually reformed to the brigades right in the open fields south of the Orange Court House – Culpeper Court House road. Purdie’s 18th became the left of Branch’s advance and along with the rest of the brigade, cleared the woods and reestablished the Confederate line at The Point. The regiment suffered 14 casualties. There are no after-action reports known to exist for any of Branch’s regiments at Cedar Mountain.
The war progressed and Purdie was promoted Colonel on November 11, 1862. He was wounded at Fredericksburg.
On May 2, 1863, Purdie’s 18th North Carolina, part of James Lane’s brigade, advanced in the second rank behind MG Robert Rodes assault on the Federal right flank. As the assault ran out of steam near Bullock Road, Lane’s brigade passed through Rodes’ line to the front line.
It was shortly after the MG Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson made his fateful reconnaissance in front of Lane’s brigade on that confusing evening. Many Civil War scholars believe it was Thomas Purdie who gave the order for his men to fire at the unknown horsemen to his front.
What Purdie knew or thought of the incident is unknown. Early the next morning, while leading his regiment forward, Thomas Purdie was shot in the forehead and killed.
Thomas J. Purdie is buried in a family cemetery near his home in Bladen County, North Carolina.
Photo of Purdie from Find a Grave
Sources include:
https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/purdie-thomas-james
Allardice, Bruce S., Confederate Colonels: A Biographical Register, University of Missouri Press, Columbia, MO, 2008, 314.
Krick, Robert K., Lee’s Colonels, Broadfoot Publishing Company, Wilmington NC, 2009, 313.

06/22/2026

The Confederate Monument in Culpeper’s Fairview Cemetery. Dedicated in 1881, the Obelisk rests atop the remains of 413 men, most who had died in Culpeper area hospitals.

Image of the Confederate monument from the author's collection.

06/21/2026

Happy Father’s Day!

To celebrate Father’s today, I will tell a story of Patrick R. Guiney, Colonel of the 9th Massachusetts Infantry and his experience during the winter encampment. Like many officers, Guiney brought his wife to the winter camps of the Army of the Potomac. The 9th Massachusetts was camped near Bealeton. Joining his wife Jennie, was his very young daughter, Louise, born in January 7, 1861.

An excerpt from Commanding Boston’s Irish Ninth, edited by Christian G. Samito:
“On February 10 Jennie and some more officers wives came to visit the Ninth and stayed for some time. Little “Loolie” accompanied Guiney’s wife, much later [Louise] recalled spending time in his log cabin, where officers would plant her on the table and toast her. The little girl got into mischief, once cutting some tent strings, and would sometimes amuse herself by hanging around a sentry, or taking some drumsticks for her own use. Guiney would warn her not to disobey a colonel, lest he court martial her. Guiney’s daughter also remembered playing with Adjutant [Michael] Phalen’s two spaniels, and falling asleep on the knee of a captain who would tell her stories.”[1]

Louise Guiney grew up to become a renown poet of her age. “Louise Imogen Guiney is known for her lyrical, Old English-style poems that often recall the literary conventions of seventeenth-century English poetry. Informed by her religious faith, Guiney's works reflect her concern with the Catholic tradition in literature and often emphasize moral rectitude and heroic gallantry. Today Guiney is praised for her scholarship in both her poetry and in her numerous literary and historical studies.”[2]
Happy Father’s day to all those fathers, dads, pops, or whatever your children call you. Sometimes you want to court martial them, but you will always love them.
Photo of Louise Guiney from: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/louise-imogen-guiney

1. Samito, Christian G., Commanding Boston’s Irish Ninth: The Civil War Letters of Colonel Patrick R. Guiney, Ninth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, New York, Fordham University Press, 1998, 240.
2. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/louise-imogen-guiney

06/20/2026

General Sir Arthur James Lyon Fremantle (11 November 1835 – 25 September 1901) was a British Army officer and a notable British witness to the Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War. Whilst holding the rank of "Captain and Lieutenant Colonel" he spent three months (from 2 April until 16 July 1863) in North America, travelling through parts of the Confederate States of America and the Union. Contrary to popular belief, Colonel Fremantle was not an official representative of the United Kingdom; instead, he was something of a war tourist.[1]

Freemantle, on his journey to Gettysburg, passed through Culpeper on June 20, 1863.

“Armed with letters of introduction from the Secretary at War for Generals Lee and Longstreet, I left Richmond at 6 a.m. to join the Virginian army. I was accompanied by a sergeant of the Signal Corps, sent by my kind friend Major Norris, for the purpose of assisting me in getting on. We took the train as far as Culpeper, and arrived there at 5:30 p.m., after having changed cars in Gordonsville…The weather is quite cool after the rain of last night…Culpeper was, until five days ago, the headquarters of Generals Lee and Longstreet; but since Ewell’s recapture of Wi******er, the whole army had advanced with rapidity, and it was my object to catch up as quickly as possible. On arriving at Culpeper, my sergeant handed me over to another myrmidon of Major Norris, with orders from that officer to supply me with a horse, and take me himself to join Mr. Lawley, who had passed through for the same purpose as myself three days before. Sergeant Norris, my new chaperon, is cousin to Major Norris, and is a capital fellow. Before the war he was a gentleman of good means in Maryland and was accustomed to a life of luxury. Although he was unwell when we arrived, and it was pouring with rain, he proposed that we should start at once – 6p.m. I agreed, and we did so. Our horses both had sore backs, were both unfed, except on grass, and mine was deficient of a shoe. They nevertheless traveled well, and we reached a hamlet called Woodville, fifteen miles distant; at 9:30. We had great difficulty in procuring shelter; but at length we overcame the inhospitality of a native, who gave us corn for our horses, and a blanket on the floor for ourselves.” [2]

Drawing of Freemantle from Wikipedia.

1. Wikipedia, accessed June 11, 2021.
2. Lord, Walter, ed., The Freemantle Diary: A Journal of the Confederacy, Burford Books, Ithaca, NY, 2001., 176-177.

06/20/2026

Join us today at Payne's Farm. Looks like the weather is going to be fine for a short hike. Tour begins at 10 am.

06/19/2026

Happy Birthday, Henry Prince! Prince was born on this day in 1811 in Eastport, Maine. Prince graduated from West Point in 1835 and was posted in Florida to fight the Seminoles and Creeks. During the campaign he was wounded.
When the US went to war with Mexico, Prince served in the 4th U. S. Infantry. He was twice brevetted, to Captain and Major for gallantry and was seriously wounded which put him out of action for the next three years. [1]
The wound would cause him to miss a year duty while serving in the west due to this injury.[2] He was in Washington when the war broke out.
When the war came, he was made Brigadier General of Volunteers in April 1862. Prince served as a brigade commander under Nathanial Banks.
At the Battle of Cedar Mountain, while leading his brigade against the Confederate left, Prince was captured. What made this potentially sensational, was Prince would be on the receiving end of the Confederate government response to Pope’s infamous General Order No. 11.
General Order No. 11, dated July 23, directed officers in the Army of Virginia to “arrest all disloyal male citizens within their lines or within their reach.” To ensure loyalty, the Oath of Allegiance would be administered. Those taking the oath would be permitted to “remain at their homes and pursue in good faith their accustomed avocations.” If he violated the oath, “he shall be shot, and his property, including slaves, seized and applied to the public use.” Those unwilling to submit to the oath would be “conducted South beyond the extreme pickets of the army.” If found again within Union lines they would be considered spies and subject “to the extreme rigor of military law.” [3]
When captured Prince was sent to Richmond and “kept in prison over a dead house, and that all the other officers captured from Gen. Pope’s army are shamefully treated.”[4] Another soldier, Lieut. Widvey, of the 3d Wisconsin, was taken prisoner at Cedar Mountain. He had been without food for sixteen hours, and was in irons. He was assured that the treatment he received was only a foretaste of what he might he expect. He was told, too, that his treatment was only retaliatory upon Gen. Pope for his recent order concerning confiscation.[5] It wasn't until Pope was removed and negotiations between the warring governments resolved the crisis of officer prisoners from the Army of Virginia. Prince was released in December, 1862.
Prince continued to served and was part of the 3rd Corps as it advanced back into Virginia following Gettysburg. He took part in the Mine Run campaign where he was criticized for his slow movement. During the Army of the Potomac’s restructuring in March of 1863, Prince found himself without a command.
He spent the remainder of the war in garrison exam in Tennessee, Alabama and South Carolina. At the wars end he was brevetted brigadier General.
After the war, as a Lieutenant Colonel, Prince served in the pay department, rising to the position of deputy paymaster. He retired from this position in 1879.[6]
Ten years later, while in Germany, his Mexican War wound reopened and required surgery. He was later diagnosed with “Bright’s disease, and on being told it would go to his brain and make him an imbecile.”[7]
After ensuring his affairs were in order, to include setting money aside for his funeral, Prince committed su***de in London, England on August 19, 1892. His remains were returned home and Henry Prince is buried in his Eastport, Maine.
Photo of Prince from the Library of Congress.
1. Warner, Ezra J. Generals in Blue: Lives of the Union Commanders, Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge, LA, 1964, 386.
2. Welsh, Jack D., MD, Medical Histories of Union Generals, The Kent State University Press, Kent, OH, 1996, 268
3. OR, Part 3, ser. no. 16, 52.
4. Boston Evening Transcript, August 18, 1862.
5. Cleveland Morning Leader, August 29, 1862.
6. Warner, 387.
7. Welsh, 269.

06/19/2026

On this day in 1862, the Department of the Rappahannock, in an effort to help its soldiers understand the system of flags used by each command element, published today a circular explaining the “system of flags in use in this department.”

“CIRCULAR.] HDQRS. DEPT. OF THE RAPPAHANNOCK,
Manassas, Va., June 19, 1862.
The following explanation of a system of flags now in use in this department is published for the information of all concerned: General headquarters, national flag; First Division, red flag, six feet long and five feet wide; Second Division, blue flag, six feet long and five feet wide; Third Division, vertical red and blue flag, six feet long and five feet wide; Fourth Division, horizontal red and blue flag, six feet long and five feet wide; First Brigade of First Division, red and white flag, six feet long and five wide, vertical; Second Brigade of First Division, white, red, and white flag, six feet long and five wide, vertical; Third Brigade of First Division, red, white and red flag, six feet long and five wide, vertical; First Brigade of Second Division, blue and white flag, six feet long and five wide, vertical; Second Brigade of Second Division, white, blue, and white flag, six feet long and five wide, vertical; Third Brigade of Second Division, blue, white, and blue flag, six feet long and five wide, vertical; First Brigade of Third Division, red, white, and blue flag, six feet long and five wide, vertical; Second Brigade of Third Division, red, blue, and white flag, six feet long and five wide, vertical; Third Brigade of Third Division, white, red, and blue flag, six feet long and five wide, vertical; First Brigade of Fourth Division, red white, and blue flag, six feet long and five wide, horizontal; Second Brigade of Fourth Division, red, blue, and white flag, six feet long and five wide, horizontal; Third Brigade of Fourth Division white, red, and blue flag, six feet long and five wide, horizontal. The different regiments of the brigades will be designated by Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, on the flag of the brigade to which they belong, white numbers on colored bars and colored numbers on white bars. The artillery will have the colors of the division to which it belongs, and be distinguished by a right-angled triangular, flag, six feet long and three feet wide at the staff. The cavalry have the same as above, except that the shape will be swallow-tailed. The engineers will have a white disk of diameter equal to one-third of its width on the flag of the division to which it belongs. The hospitals will be distinguished by a yellow flag. The subsistence depots will be designated by a green flag. These flags will be attached to a portable staff fourteen feet long, in two joints, and will be habitually displayed in front of the tent or from some prominent part of the house or vessel occupied as the headquarters which they designate, and on the march shall be carried near the person of the officer commanding the corps, division, brigade, or regiment it is immediate measures to supply the flag upon requisition approved by division commanders.
By command of Major-General McDowell:
SAML. BRECK,
Assistant Adjutant-General.”[1]

A clear and definitive statement!?! Everyone knows what flag belongs to whom. While this appears overwhelming, it is critical on the battlefield to find the officer you support or your superior, so you can convey intelligence or requests for aid.

1. OR, Vol. 51, pt. 1, 683-684.

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