Oral History Transcription

Oral History Interview Interviewee: Steve Reynolds Interviewer: Mary Lipsey Wednesday, June 22, 2005

MARY LIPSEY (MARY): Good Morning. This is Wednesday, June 22nd and we're at Sharon Bulova's office and collecting oral history interviews for her Look Back at Braddock. My name is Mary Lipsey and this is Steve Reynolds who's an amateur historian and is going to lead us through history and discussion of legends or ghost stories or stories - human interest from our area. So could you first tell me how you got involved in this, and how you got interested in it?

STEVE REYNOLDS (STEVE): Well, I've always been interested in history and following my family was - my mother traced our family history all the way back to the Mayflower, and so that kind of sparked my interest as a kid - to find out about - not just the dry stuff you read in text books about dates and facts and figures, but the people, and what went on, and tried to make personal connections to all of this history that shaped our country and the world. It's kind of always been something I played around with, and I've been volunteering at Lake Accotink Park ever since I retired and Tawny asked me if I would do some research. She wanted to do a haunted history cruise last Halloween on the lake and tell stories - not just, you know, the scary stories like you tell around camp fires, but ones that are rooted in history. Now some of them have grown over time into inflated legends, but she wanted to really do research into what were the foundations, what was the real history behind some of the stories that we hear.

MARY: So you jumped in with two feet. Now how did you do this?

STEVE: Well, I went around and did a lot of research. Jack Hiller of the Fairfax County Historical Commission was a big help and he's done a lot of research on local history of Fairfax County and the areas around here, and he pointed me in the right direction for a lot of things and shared some of his stories. And at the Virginia Room, at the main library in Fairfax, Brian Conley, who's the historian archivist there, was a great help and helped me delve through all of their great resources there at the Virginia Room and came up with a lot of that. I also did the Internet web searches and things like that, but a lot of those were pretty flakey. Not many of those made it into the stories.

MARY: Not very good with historical facts maybe. Yeah.

STEVE: That's right, sounded like real fabrications.

MARY: Right. So, well, start us with the beginning. You had some stories from the colonial times.

STEVE: Yep. What I did for the cruise was kind of organize them chronologically through history, although I did a little bit of jumping around, you'll see, as we go through - with some that had interesting connections - that followed through in various periods. I started out with the legend - it's not actually a ghost story - but a story from right here in this area of our colonial past and I call it Braddock's Gold. I'm sure some of the folks have heard the legend of General Braddock, but many people don't know how Braddock Road got its name. Originally, back in the 1700's, the road was called Alexandria Road or Mountain Road because it headed out towards the Shenandoah Mountains. It received its present name during the French and Indian Wars, when the English general, Edward Braddock, led British colonial troops in an expedition against the French at Fort Duquesne, which is now Pittsburgh. This was in 1755, General Braddock led his unit out of Alexandria to Winchester, Virginia and then on to Fort Duquesne. Coincidentally, besides his British troops, young then, General Washington, or George Washington - he wasn't a general yet - and nearly 500 Virginians went with Braddock on this march. On July 9, 1755 General Braddock's army was met near Fort Duquesne by a party of French Canadians and their Indian allies. The Canadians and the Indians fought from behind trees, but Braddock, because he was a staunch British soldier, commanded his soldiers to stand in the middle of the road, with their bright red coats, making excellent targets, and General Braddock, himself, was wounded and died after the battle. The Virginians, on the other hand, fought from behind trees and logs and prevented a total massacre. George Washington assumed command after Braddock was wounded, but more about that later. First I want to tell you what happened as they traveled along Braddock Road on the way to Fort Duquesne. Supposedly, Braddock became frustrated because the muddy roads could not support the weight of the heavy artillery and all the supplies, including gold that he had brought along with him. He brought the gold from England to buy provisions as he went along the way. To lighten the load, he had two cannons filled with gold coins - plugged up the ends and buried them. He then hid it, intending to recover the cannons, on his return march. Unfortunately, because Braddock died after the battle and all the people who had helped him bury the cannons died during the battle as well, on the way back, no one knew where the cannons and gold had been buried. Years later an archivist in England said he had come upon some of Braddock's military papers and in researching the details discovered that he had indicated the burial site of the treasure, but those archived records that had been discovered in the British museum were later lost, so again, we still don't know where they are. However, the one scrap of clue that we do have that survived is what remains of the directions to the treasure. Fifty paces east of a spring where the road runs north and south, so anybody that wants to go out and hunt for two cannons full of gold - it's still out there.

MARY: Well now we know that Springfield is named for its springs, plural, so that would be a problem. And in the interviews that I've done, there's many people, including Sharon Bulova, who have said that their young children spent many hours digging in Fairfax County, looking for Braddock's gold, so. . .it would be nice if, maybe, metal detectors could go through the asphalt and everything else and find these. Well, thank you. That was very nice, and what's our next story?

STEVE: Well, now back to the battle of Fort Duquesne - when General Braddock was wounded, George Washington took charge, as I said before. He very boldly galloped to and fro, leading his soldiers in a fight. He should have been an easy mark for the Indians and the French Canadians, but he seemed impervious to danger. Washington wrote to his mother later - that he escaped without a wound even though four bullets went right through his coat, and two horses were shot from under him. Fifteen years later, in 1770, George Washington was on an expedition to the west to locate lands promised to the colonials by the king, because of their participation in the French and Indian War. He was encamped in the mountains of Virginia, and an old Indian chief asked to meet with him. They offered him food, but the old Indian declined. He'd just stand and stared in awe at Mr. Washington. Finally, he explained that he was the chief leading the Indians during that war at Fort Duquesne. He told his men to single out Washington for death, but in [from the Indian] "a power made it mightier than we had shielded him from harm." When their utmost efforts to kill him went for nothing, the chief said he told his warriors that day - listen, a great spirit protects that man and guides his destiny. He will become the chief of nations and a people, yet unborn, will hail him the founder of a mighty empire. When the Indian chief heard Mr. Washington was in the vicinity, he felt compelled to come and stand at the feet of greatness and marvel at the magic aura around this man. I hope that old Indian was still alive in 1789 to learn that his prophecy was fulfilled when George Washington became the first President of the United States of America.

MARY: Wow, and do you know what tribe that was?

STEVE: No, I don't know what tribes were alive with the French during that. . .

MARY: I know there were many.

STEVE: Yeah.

MARY: But I was curious. Well, that was fantastic - that quote by the Indian.

STEVE: Yeah, I was wowed when I saw that. I never heard that story before - with all the many stories about George Washington.

MARY: And the prophecy coming true. Okay, and what are we going to hear next?

STEVE: Well, following along with the George Washington theme, let me tell you a few ghost stories about Mount Vernon. The bold Indian chief may have been right about the great spirit protecting George Washington, back in the 1700's, but for nine noisy months, in 1978 and 79, a strange something was at large wailing and screaming nightly just a mile from Mount Vernon plantation. The mystery creature haunted a patch of woods surrounded by expensive homes near Mount Vernon, wrecking the peace, all the while, defying spotting and identification. Local teenagers caught its act on tape and the tape goes something like a EWWWHHHAA call - very strange sounds. Some called it the Mount Vernon monster, others Big Foot. More people guessed it might be hoot owls or loud frogs or a radio with a stuck button, or wild boars - even a peacock - or maybe just a prankster with a bull horn - or maybe it was the ghost of George Washington's pigs. Whatever it was, the creature was illusive as well as vocal. It foiled police watches, flyovers by the U.S. Park Police helicopter, volunteer youth patrols and a determined effort by game wardens. And a quote from one of the game wardens, he said The thing seems to know when you leave the woods, then it starts to holler. One resident said she spotted the monster. She described it as a creature about six feet tall, which lumbered into the woods after being sighted. At the time, a reporter speculated - maybe it could have been Big Foot trying to reach the headquarters of Fish and Wildlife Service to apply to protection as an endangered species.

MARY: And that was in '78/'79?

STEVE: 1978/1979, so if you were around here then, as I was, you probably remember the articles in the paper.

MARY: Right, but then it was just - that was it.

STEVE: And it disappeared.

MARY: No more heard or seen. My goodness, that is something else.

STEVE: Some more stories relating to George Washington - these from Woodlawn Plantation - a little bit of history about that plantation. Before George Washington died in 1799, he provided 2,000 acres of his Mount Vernon estate as a wedding present to his nephew, Lawrence Lewis, and his bride, Eleanor Custis, who was related to Martha Washington. Washington selected the site on which the house was eventually built, and a famed architect, Dr. William Thornton, designed the grand mansion that became Woodlawn Plantation. Over the years, there'd been many, many stories about Woodlawn being haunted. In fact, around 1978, two guests were staying in the mansion, both had rooms in the south wing, and long after midnight, the guest in the larger room was awaken by an eerie feeling that she was not alone. The room was very dark except for a dim light coming through a single small window. She looked at the foot of her bed and gasped. There, in front of her, was a smoky, glowing figure of what appeared to be a man. She broke out in a cold sweat, frozen with fear, and unable to say a word more. This veiled or masked, smoky looking figure was staring down at her, but said nothing that she can remember. After several agonizing minutes, it slowly and silently disappeared into a darkness. Shaking uncontrollably, she stayed awake for the rest of the night. The next morning, she was still visibly upset, as she related her story over breakfast. Everyone laughed, except for the other guest who had also spent the night in the south wing. She told them that she, too, had an experience during the night, although she did not see a smoky figure, she felt the strong presence of someone or something in her room, further commenting that she felt it to be friendly and benign.

MARY: And no identity of male or female or whatever?

STEVE: No, no, a very obscure, kind of cloudy. . .

MARY: Smoky vision.

STEVE: Smoky figure, but the same figure may have reappeared. Another more recent story at Woodlawn Plantation had some similar characteristics about it. It took place in the same bedroom, in a south wing. A young actress - in a Christmas play that was being held at Woodlawn, came early - went upstairs to the bedroom to prepare the week's schedule and to lay out the props for that evening's performance - she was sitting on the edge of the bed working, when she heard the museum door open and close, followed by the sound of footsteps and muffled, whispered voices. Thinking that some of her fellow actors had arrived, she looked out into the hall, but no one was there. She sat back inside the room, the door still opened. Once again, she heard the low whispering and the sound of footsteps coming closer. Then a voice whispered who is she? And another answered softly, I don't know. She must be a new servant. She felt her heart beat and her body shake. She sat at the edge of that bed unable to move a muscle. She kept telling herself to remain calm. Staring into the hall, she began to see two smoky forms take shape - two men, neatly dressed in suits of long ago. Her heart pounded wildly. She could not believe what she was seeing or hearing. She was totally mesmerized by the figures standing the doorway, staring intently at her. For how long, she could not tell. Suddenly, she heard the museum door slam again and the two men vanished before her eyes. This time it was, indeed a fellow actor. She hurriedly asked him if he had seen two men dressed in costume. He had not seen a soul. When she related her story, he quietly listened to her and then smugly reassured her that ghosts do not exist.

MARY: Oh, now just out of curiosity, is that in the Woodlawn Plantation history?

STEVE: Yeah, they've got a book of Woodlawn legends and I got these stories from them.

MARY: Wow, that's fascinating.

STEVE: Yeah. One more Woodlawn story. This kind of relates to possible theory, or why it may haunt Woodlawn and some of these other venues. One theory that the Woodlawn folks have related is that for symbolic and mythical, metaphysical reasons, water has long been associated with spirit realm. According to legend, homes built atop wells are often haunted. This is because wells forge deep into the earth and connect with underground streams, and the assumption - the speculation is that wells allow the spirit the means of traveling up from the water into your home. This is one reason, among other more practical ones, that in most historic homes - you'll find the wells outside in a separate building. Some homes, however, prefer to have the convenience of easy access to the water, rather than the superstition of a remote well, so wells are constructed within the confines of the building itself. In Woodlawn, that's the case. The well was built in to the floor of the connecting passage between the main house and the south wing, where the kitchen was. The question is, whether having the modern convenience of in-house water supply is worth the fringe benefit of hot and cold running ghosts. It's important to realize that just because a house is constructed over a well does not mean the spirits will always reveal themselves - they told me. A well is only the invitation. It does not guarantee an R.S.V.P. and just because the spirits are present doesn't mean you can always see them or that they want to be seen. You may be seated right next to a ghost and not even realize it. When the well is open, spirits can freely pass between the water and the house. Difficulties seem to occur when the well is capped or covered. When the well is closed, spirits supposedly become confused, misoriented, or occasionally angry and violent. This frustration causes them to materialize and search through the building for an alternative means of returning to their world - sort of like E.T. with an attitude. An argument can be made that this is the case at Woodlawn. When Woodlawn's basement was dug out, the well was lowered to the ground floor. A removal lid was constructed over it to keep foreign objects and klutzy people from falling in. Normally, the lid is propped open, but occasionally a staff member has closed it for one reason or another. Most of the reported ghostly sightings have occurred when the well lid had been closed, and there's been several instances when the lid has been expressly shut at night, only to find it open the next day - usually, whatever had been placed on top of it knocked to the floor. Recently, a Plexiglas cover has been permanently installed over this well. It'll be interesting to see whether the ghosts regard this plastic as a barrier or merely an inconvenience and whether ghostly sightings increase or decrease. Regardless, perhaps you can use these stories in an argument for leaving the top of your toilet seat opened tonight.

MARY: Most people think that the ghosts could go through anything, wouldn't they?

STEVE: Yeah.

MARY: But that's interesting about it being capped and stuff. Well, okay.

STEVE: All speculation.

MARY: Oh definitely.

STEVE: The way it told me by the folks at Woodlawn.

MARY: Right.

STEVE: Now, the next story is about more close by, or Burke/Braddock District. And this one is about Oak Hill. What has become Lake Accotink Park was originally part of the 22,000 acres Ravensworth tract, which was purchased by William Fitzhugh in 1685. The Fitzhughs were related to the Lee family and the Lees often visited Ravensworth. In fact, in 1831 Robert E. Lee married Mary Randolph Custis and the couple honeymooned at Ravensworth. After Robert E. Lee's death, Mary moved back to Ravensworth. Old records show that there were building on the Oak Hill portion of the original Ravensworth estate as early as 1730, but these were probably tenant houses. It's likely that Oak Hill, itself, was built around 1758. It remained in the family until the Civil War, and at that time it was abandoned and the property was the scene of frequent skirmishes between the Confederates and the Federal forces - because they were fighting all up and down the Orange and Alexandria railroad line at the time. The railroad trestle, in fact - you know, the railroad trestle over Accotink Creek, which was built in 1851, was a prime target for Confederate raiders seeking to destruct the Union supply lines. During December 28, 1862, Jeb Stuart's raid at Burke Station, he dispatched twelve men and the commander of that raiding party was Robert E. Lee's nephew, Fitzhugh Lee, to burn down the bridge. After the Civil War, Oak Hill was occupied by a Mr. Watt, who had been tutor of the Lee and Fitzhugh children. When new owners began to restore the house in 1933, they found quantities of Confederate money stuffed in the floor boards and behind beams in the house. They also found letters and documents dating as far back as 1743, and the house has a ghost, which goes back to the time of the Revolutionary War. Pretty Miss Ann Fitzhugh fell in love with a British soldier, who she had met in London before the Revolutionary War. When the fighting broke out and the colonials here - this particular British officer was sent from England to the colonies to quell the rebellion, he landed at Dumfries and soon found his way to Oak Hill where he made frequent visits. He made many of these visits to Miss Ann, however, someone must have tipped off the American troops, because one night they arrived at Oak Hill unexpectedly and demanded to search the house. To save her sweetheart from capture, Ann hid him in a secret room, reached by a trap door, concealed behind a paneled closet. No one found him, but as the soldiers were leaving, one of them poked a bayonet through the trap door and missed the soldier, but it killed Miss Ann. It's said that she still roams the house seeking to be reunited with her red coat sweetheart.

MARY: Wow, that house still exists today.

STEVE: It's still here.

MARY: It's off of Wakefield Chapel Drive.

STEVE: That's right.

MARY: It's very hard to see because of the beautiful trees all around it, but. . .

STEVE: Supervisor Bulova was instrumental in [INAUDIBLE]. . .

MARY: Right.

STEVE: . . .agreements so that that historical property. . .

MARY: To preserve it, right.

STEVE: . . . is preserved and, on occasions, be visited.

MARY: Right, so it's over 200 years old - over maybe 250 years old.

STEVE: That's right.

MARY: And I've heard someone say that there's possibly - her blood stains are still there. Have you heard that part of the story?

STEVE: No, I haven't heard that or haven't seen any evidence.

MARY: Well, maybe that's more legend than anything else, but that makes it a little bit gorier.

STEVE: Yeah.

MARY: What are we going to hear next?

STEVE: Next story is about Aspen Grove, which was also built by the Fitzhughs on Ravensworth property. It was also built around the 1750's, and it's part of the property that's now near the city of Fairfax. During Civil War, it seems to have left its ghostly presence in this house. In 1964, just 100 years after the Civil War, an owner reported that soon after they moved in to Aspen Grove, she heard footsteps on a staircase. Each time she checked the sound, it would disappear. The activity repeated itself night after night. And after a long period of research, a possible explanation was found. It seems that this could be the ghost of a Union soldier who had been killed while occupying Aspen Grove. The legend relates that one night this Union soldier, who was occupying the home, rushed outside in response to the sound of Confederate raiders in the yard. Well, he was in such a hurry that he didn't take time to put on his boots and unfortunately he was killed by a Confederate bullet out in the yard. Now his spirit seems to return to the house where it races noisily up and down the main stairs looking for his boots.

MARY: Where - you said at the Fairfax, can you find out. . .

STEVE: Near Fairfax City.

MARY: Can you try to locate a little bit more for us - anything that exists today that's nearby.

STEVE: Yeah, Aspen Grove is still there, the house.

MARY: But I mean, in terms of a commercial thing - if people wanted to go see where Aspen Grove is -

STEVE: No, I'm afraid I don't know its exact location.

MARY: Okay, I'm just curious, cause there's a lot of old homes in Fairfax.

STEVE: Right, right.

MARY: Okay.

STEVE: Next one is - it relates to the Battle of Ball's Bluff, another Civil War battle, and it occurred around October 21, 1861, when Union forces on Harrison Island, in the middle of the Potomac River, spied Confederate troops in the woods, surrounding a point called Ball's Bluff on the Virginia side. Colonel Edward Baker was told to cross the river the scale the bluff. The river was swollen and the current was rapid. The bank on the base of the bluff is mire clay and the heights are a steep seventy feet above the bank. So with fallen trees and rocks making it difficult, the men, let alone artillery that they tried to haul off, had a real hard time getting to the top. The [INAUDIBLE] at the top was open and vulnerable. Colonel Baker was warned by more seasoned officers that the surrounding woods offered protection for the southern infantry and he'd better get out of the clearing, but he ignored their advice. Colonel Baker decided, on his own, to press forward, and what followed was one of the tragic battles of the war. The Confederates in the woods began a furious onslaught. Union soldiers trapped in the open were backed to the edge of the bluff. Their artillery was useless because sharpshooters quickly picked off the cannoneers. Colonel Baker and more than 900 Union troops were killed and many others were wounded or taken prisoner. Many of those who fell at Ball's Bluff were buried in a national cemetery there. From this graveyard, stories of strange happenings have occurred over the years. Around 1950, a group of teenagers drove out to the bluff one evening and as they walked around the perimeter of the otherwise deserted cemetery, they began hearing terrible screams - no mortal source could be found for this noise. Frightened, they ran back to their car. The driver started it, but mysteriously it wouldn't move. The teens said it seemed as if some unseen hand were holding the car back. The force, or whatever it was, had them held for several minutes. Then suddenly, it released them, the car lurched forward, and they sped back to Leesburg. When they arrived home, they got out to inspect the car and found gloved handprints of dry clay on each side of the trunk. It appeared that someone using these hands had been holding the car back. One of the young men told his parents about the scary episode and showed them the handprints, so it's more than just the teenagers' gossip. The mother and father drove back out to Ball's Bluff to investigate. All was quiet and eerily still. They heard no screams, however, as they approached the wall enclosing the cemetery, suddenly a small tree beside a marker, outside of the cemetery wall, began to shake violently. Although there was no breeze at all and all the other trees in the area were dead calm, this particular tree swayed back and forth bending and dipping almost to the breaking point. No other trees in the area were affected, not even a leaf fluttered. The man and the woman were quite shaken and drove off without going near the cemetery site. Well, just by the way, the marker over this small tree was not a grave, rather it's a marker signifying where a Virginia solider had fallen. This unidentified man's family wanted him buried in the cemetery, but the burial there was denied to him because of his particular religious faith and he was laid to rest elsewhere, and only this marker outside the cemetery wall was left to denote his passing. So the theory persists that it's this spirit that screams and shakes the tree near the marker, letting it be known that he will not be happy until he's buried with his fellow soldiers who died during this battle at Ball's Bluff.

MARY: What year again was that when the kids went out there?

STEVE: 1850. It was documented in the papers at the time.

MARY: I950.

STEVE: 1950, I'm sorry.

MARY: 1950, wow, what a - I mean, that was before our big thriller movies and stuff.

STEVE: Yeah.

MARY: So their imaginations were - what a scary thing. Wow. That's fantastic. And what do we have next?

STEVE: The next one's from another historical park property out here in Fairfax County and it's at Walney - called the Blood Stained Wall at Walney. Fairfax County Park Authority has owned the land that comprises Eleanor C. Lawrence Park since 1971. Development of the facility began in 1980 and most of the land, which is now the park, was once part of a farm called Walney. For 230 years, from the time that the farm began until the Park Authority took over the land, it remained in the ownership of only three consecutive families. The Walney House is now the Visitor's Center for the Park where exhibits and programs of education take place, both involving natural history of the park and historical families and historical events around that area. The park - they tell the story - those families and the past residents alike - and they have reported, as well as the previous families - the sound of mysterious footsteps that pace about in the upstairs of the house. Unexplained sounds attributed to the ghost of a young woman who lost her baby during childbirth in the house. There's an even more spectacular phenomena, however, that appears on, what has been described as, the bleeding wall next to the house. This legend traces back to the belief that a Civil War soldier was killed beside the wall during the Battle of Chantilly and his blood stained the wall. A man who spent his boyhood at Walney in the 1920's reports that the wall would turn red in damp weather. He said, we'd clean it, but the red would come back. This manifestation is confirmed by people who lived in Walney all the way up to 1970's when it was turned over to the park. They said the wall would become wet with a red substance - it seemed to ooze from within the rocks during rainy weather. Although it's been examined, no physical or scientific cause has ever been found to explain this periodic oozing or what it is.

MARY: Now this is an outside wall?

STEVE: Outside wall.

MARY: So the man was standing, probably next to the house, and was shot and killed. Wow, that sounds like CSI needs to get involved there and look at that.

STEVE: Right.

MARY: What a neat story.

STEVE: Maybe they can do a DNA test.

MARY: Right.

STEVE: Next story is Gunnell House, which is over in the City of Fairfax as well. A Gunnell House is located on Main Street in Fairfax and this story goes back to March 9, 1863 when Union General Edward H. Staunton was staying there. This general is reputed to be a very handsome young man known for his wild drinking parties. On the day in question, after just such a party, he retired to his quarters to sleep, but that night Confederate Captain John S. Mosby managed to evade Union guards, enter the house, reach the General's bedroom undetected. He pulled back the bed covers and lifted the General's nightshirt. Unable to resist the urge, Mosby slapped Staunton on his bottom. When the General awoke with a start, Mosby asked him if he had ever heard of Mosby? When Staunton replied yes, have you caught him? Mosby said no but he has caught you. That Gunnel House is a federal style home which now serves as office for the Truro Episcopal Church. It was initially used as a rectory for the church and ministers who served there reported instances of creaking stairs and flashing lights. Some think that this is Mosby's coming back for Staunton. Others think maybe it's Staunton trying to avoid another sneaky capture.

MARY: That's amazing that ministers - you wouldn't think would have ghost stories, would they? That's a fascinating story because we know that Mosby was around here in many places, you know - as you said, the Confederates and the Union were all over Fairfax County.

STEVE: And a capture of Staunton plus a number of Union soldiers and supplies is well documented.

MARY: Right.

STEVE: In fact, there's a story that - when Lincoln was told of the capture of Staunton and the troops and supplies and mules that Lincoln said he regretted the capture of the mules more than the General. He could replace a general in five minutes, but the mules would take time.

MARY: Whoa, that's another slap, isn't it? (laughter) Well, do we have another Civil War story?

STEVE: Yes, this ones from the second battle of Manassas, further west. During the second battle of Manassas, Stonewall Jackson held his position on August 29 and 30, 1862, repulsing all the Union assaults. Late in the afternoon of August 30, when the Confederates counterattacked, Jackson swept southward completing the victory, only a rear guard action by the Henry House Hill prevented the Union withdrawal of becoming a total route. Still the field was surrendered in such disorder that more than 4,000 Yankee prisoners and dozens of artillery pieces and thousands of small arms were captured. One Yankee unit suffered the most tremendous loss and that was the 5th New York Regiment who dressed as Zouaves that's bright red baggy pants with white canvas leggings, broad red slashes at the waist, and short blue jackets and tasseled red caps. These Zouaves took their name and their uniform from the Zouaves that fought with the French legions in Algiers, who were noted for their veracity and bravery, so during the Civil War, this particular Union regiment adopted their dress, and hopefully, their spirit.

MARY: Not a very practical uniform though.

STEVE: No, pretty outstanding, but they lived up to their name during this battle at second Manassas. They hung on long enough to let the regulars get most of the artillery pieces away, and then retreated, or at least what was left of them. In their brief life, they lost 117 men killed and 170 wounded, and this was the highest percentage of losses suffered by any Union regiment in one battle during the entire war. According to some visitors at Manassas, one or more of these Zouaves still wander the battlefield. At dusk, images of New York Zouaves have been seen beckoning at the woods at the western end of the park, clad in their traditional uniforms - red pantaloons, white [INAUDIBLE] and night cap hats with tassels. One of the most recent sightings occurred on a Halloween, back in 1985. It involved a park ranger who was giving a guided tour of the battlefield to a college group. They had stopped near the unfinished railroad site and as the ranger was describing the action that had taken place there, he noticed, out of the corner of his eye, that the professor who was escorting with this college group, seemed to be distracted and was staring off into the distance, over by the tree line. The group then moved on to the next stop near the monument marking the place where the Zouaves were struck down. Before concluding his lecture, the ranger mentioned, but probably because it was Halloween, the legend of the Zouave ghost. At this, the professor turned white as a sheet and appeared visibly shaken. When asked if anything was wrong, the professor said at the previous stop he had seen a figure dressed in that particular Zouave uniform across the field. He said that a soldier disappeared behind a tree and this professor from then on, truly believed he had seen one of the Zouave ghosts.

MARY: Oh, fascinating. And what are we going to hear about next?

STEVE: The next one if an omen, an ominous omen, again, from the Civil War. Apparently, as the war clouds gathered, a brilliant fiery comet could be seen in the skies over Virginia and Washington, back about April, 1861. Since the dawn of time people viewed such spectacular phenomena as ill omens which signal impending disaster. One family in this area of Northern Virginia had an old slave named Oulott. It was said her eyes were so piercing that they sent shivers through anyone who stared into them. Other servants, who were afraid of her evil eye, claimed that she had the ability to conjure spells. Well, on seeing this blazing comet, Oulott had a dire prediction. She viewed it as a great "fire sword" and said it warned of a great war coming with the handle toward the north and the point toward the south. The north would take up the sword and cut the south's heart out. Then she added that if Lincoln took up the sword, he would perish by it. Word of her foreboding prophecy spread and it's reported that Abraham Lincoln's son told him about it. He seemed strangely interested and it's noted that the following night, he stared intently out of the window at the White House, looking at the comet deep in thought.

MARY: And this was in April of 1861.

STEVE: 1861.

MARY: So the very beginning of the Civil War. Wow. Do you know if they ever have looked into meteorology and seen that there actually was a comet in the skies?

STEVE: Yep, the comet's documented.

MARY: The comet is documented. Wow, that's fantastic, and to see the image of the sword makes it even more believable.

STEVE: Yeah.

MARY: And we know that Abraham Lincoln was a great - I don't know how to say it - but he did believe in things outside of the body, I guess you might say - dreams is what I'm trying to say.

STEVE: And he - it's noted that he would go over to the Naval Observatory, which is now where the vice presidents live - but they had the Observatory and telescopes there back then in that era, and he would go and look through those telescopes.

MARY: Look at the sky.

STEVE: And look at the sky, and he looked at this comet over there.

MARY: Wow, wow, I wonder what he was thinking. Wouldn't that be nice to know? (laughter) Oh, what's our next story.

STEVE: The next one goes back to - again, jumping around - Colonial era, and this one's the ghost of Red Hill. Red Hill runs along Russell Road in the northwest part of Alexandria, where it bisects Braddock Road. It runs up the hill, to the west, from there and there's stories of a beautiful ghost of Hanson Lane, that had been chronicled in this area for many, many years. During the mid 1700's, Alexandria was an important seaport. In fact, Alexandria, the port of Alexandria had more shipping than the port of New York during that era. After the Revolutionary War, Alexandria became one of the new nation's primary ports, and time was, when the Potomac from its mouth all the way up to the port of Alexandria, was so crowded with vessels that navigation became difficult. Alexandria waterfront was seething with activity, private as well as public, and wharves were built. Large and rich shipping firms were numerous. Great warehouses lined the river, and it was during the height of Alexandria's prominence as a seaport, that a certain sea captain built his bride a little cottage on Hanson's Lane and named it the Anchorage. The young wife used to watch from the top of Red Hill to see the mast of his ship as he left for foreign ports. Although, about the time that she expected him back, she would resume her watch, waiting patiently until she could detect the ship's mast in the [INAUDIBLE: #198] that she could recognize were his, reappearing, coming up the distant Potomac River. From one such voyage, however, this ship and his captain did not return. Brokenhearted, unable to endure life without her husband, the young wife went out into the garden and shot herself. For many years, the residents of this neighborhood have seen her - a tall, young woman, quite slender, with large lustrous eyes and a quantity of dark, long hair. She always wears a cloak thrown over one shoulder and appears on the crest of the hill at the site where her cottage one stood. She seems about to speak to people when they see her and she seems so real that they think she's a living person. The cottage no longer stands there - swallowed up amid the new houses built during the 1950's, but traces remain of the once handsome garden and the steep bank where she watched in vain for her loved one to return.

MARY: And what year, again, was her husband a ship captain?

STEVE: It was during. . .

MARY: 1800's.

STEVE: Early 1800's.

MARY: Early 1800's, wow. So for almost two hundred years now, she'd been appearing. Wow, that's fantastic.

STEVE: And what's striking about this one is the number of people that have mentioned it, and that she doesn't appear ghostly.

MARY: As a real person.

STEVE: She seems real - that they try to speak to her. And it's only when they speak that she disappears.

MARY: Yeah. Wow, that would be something else. (laughter)

STEVE: This one is a more contemporary ghost story, and it goes back to June 1982 -- speculation of a ghost who learned of a fiery death. This involves a Springfield couple. According to this particular couple and other witnesses, a supernatural entity made its presence known several times over a period of months in a vain effort to alert Gary and Eppy Beliskofski (?) of impending doom. In retrospect, it was as if the specter was trying to scare them out of the house that they had moved into in March 1981. Almost from the beginning, a series of frightening manifestations took place. Eppy first told neighbors, and later newspaper reporters, that a number of objects, including antiques, glass figurines, all broke mysteriously, and that the house gutters sometimes rattled furiously. Eppy was terribly shaken one day when she described it. Someone, unseen, pulled the rug out from under her feet on the upper landing of the stairs, sending her falling down the stairs. It certainly did appear as if some evil force were trying to get rid of the house's occupants. One night Eppy dreamed of a slender woman with reddish-brown hair. She wondered if that was a woman connected with the haunting activity in any way, so she began checking around, asking neighbors, consulting with para-psychologists, and researching local documents. She eventually learned that a woman, named Mary Conlin, had committed suicide in the house nine years earlier. She had hanged herself in the basement beneath the kitchen and a county fireman who got the call after Mary's body had been found still remembers getting "quite an eerie feeling when he saw her hanging from the rafters." Therefore, Gary and Eppy came to believe that it was Mary who was making all the fuss in their house. But they didn't know why. Meanwhile, the occurrences continued. Eppy told one of her neighbors about another fearful experience she had while she was taking a shower one day. In the bathroom, the door inexplicably opened not once, but three times, and each time she got out of the shower to close the door, no one else was in the house, but the real ominous omen of coming tragedy centered around the kitchen sink. On at least three occasions they saw smoke rising from the sink, with no explanation whatsoever. Then, finally one day, in the early hours of a Sunday morning, fire broke out and raged through the house. Gary was burned to death downstairs and Eppy died upstairs from smoke inhalation. The question is, was the spirit of Mary Conlin desperately trying to warn them that danger lurked in the house and was trying to get them to flee for the lives, or was she the cause of the fire?

MARY: Wow. Now thinking back to your story of Woodlawn with the water - and the kitchen sink - the smoke coming up from the kitchen sink. That was really strange. Now this, again, is - where was this house located - someplace in Springfield?

STEVE: Yep, in Springfield.

MARY: That's all right.

STEVE: I didn't divulge the address for. . .

MARY: That's all right. STEVE: But it was in the newspapers at the time.

MARY: Right. Wow. Okay. What are we going to hear next?

STEVE: Well, my last story is about the Clifton Bunny Man.

MARY: Oh, I've heard of him

STEVE: Many teenagers have told the legend of the Bunny Man for a long, long time, but Brian Conley, thanks to him and his research over at the Virginia Room, delved into the real history and the origins of the Bunny Man legend.

MARY: So you're going to give us the facts.

STEVE: So I'm going to give you - yeah, the real story. First there's a story that a man dressed as a bunny haunts the neighborhoods of Northern Virginia. The Bunny Man has been a fixture of local legend for at least thirty years. His appearances tend to occur in secluded locations and usually tell the figure clad in a bunny suit, armed with an axe, threatening children and vandalizing property. In the 1980's, the Bunny Man had become an even more sinister figure, with several gruesome murders to his credit. His main haunt seems to have been the area surrounding the railroad overpass, near Fairfax Station - it has earned the infamous title Bunny Man Bridge. But the origins of this legend trace back to an actual incident that occurred in 1970. A Washington Post article, dated October 19, 1970, reported "Man in Bunny Suit Sought in Fairfax. Fairfax County Police are looking for a man who likes to wear a white bunny rabbit costume and throw hatchets through car windows. Honest. On Saturday night, an Air Force Academy cadet and his fiancée were sitting in a car on Guinea Road when a man dressed in a white suit wearing long bunny ears reared from nearby bushes shouting you're on private property and I have your tag number. The rabbit threw a wooded handled hatchet through the right front car window. As soon as he threw the hatchet, he skipped off into the night. Police recovered the hatchet, but there was no other clue at the site. The cadet was visiting an uncle who lives across the street there on Guinea Road." A second appearance occurred two weeks later. "Rabbit Reappeared. A man wearing a rabbit suit with long ears appeared, again, on Guinea Road in Fairfax County wheeling an axe and chopping away at the roof support of a new house. This time the rabbit was wearing a suit described as grey, black and white. A private security guard for the construction company saw the rabbit standing on the front porch of one of the new, but unoccupied, houses. As he whacked and gashed on the roof support, the rabbit said, All you people trespass around here. If you don't get out of here, I'm going to bust you on the head. The security guard went back to his car to get his gun, but the rabbit ran off into the woods, carrying his axe. The security guard said the rabbit was about five feet eight tall, weighed 160 pounds and appeared to be in his early 20's." I don't know how you estimate the age of a rabbit costume, but this was a good guard who had some good observational skills, I guess. Now who was the Bunny Man and what was he trying to accomplish? We will likely never know his identity or his motives, but there are a few clues. On October 18, the Bunny Man accused the young couple of trespassing. On October 29, he told the guard You all trespass around here, and there was another incident on November, where he accused representatives of the Kings Park West subdivision of dumping debris. Now many people living in Fairfax County in the 1960's and 70's were disturbed to see the pastures and woods of their childhood give way to roads, subdivisions and shopping centers. It appears that, perhaps, the Bunny Man was disturbed by all the development going on in his area and, having watched the face of this community change so drastically, perhaps he snapped and elicited this very strange behavior.

MARY: Wow, that is fantastic. So we have no more recent sightings of the Bunny Man?

STEVE: No.

MARY: But that's. . .

STEVE: Except on Halloween at Lake Accotink Park on our haunted history cruise.

MARY: Oh, okay. That's where we can hear lots about all of these stories.

STEVE: Right.

MARY: This was wonderful. Do you have anything else for us?

STEVE: Well, if we've got time. I've got one last story. This one I got from Jack Hiller, Fairfax County Historical Commission, and he did research on the mill at Keene Mill Road, and when that - we all know the Keene Mill Road but we don't know about where the mill may have been or what happened there. He came up with this very interesting story. Of course, the road gets its name from Keene Mill and apparently the mill was built between about 1760 and the 1800's, early 1800's. Evidence still exists of the site on the north side of Old Keene Mill Road, just after it crosses Pohick Creek. This story concerns a murder that occurred on October 27, 1855 at the old house by the mill. Louis Hall was the victim and John Barker was the only eyewitness. William Keene was the accused murderer. He lived long enough to dictate a statement to the sheriff so court records contain three different versions of the killing. Hall said he went to Keene's house with Barker to look for Maria Hall, one of his relatives. When Keene said she was not there, that she had just left, they departed. But Keene came from behind, threw his arms around me - and this is the victim quoting - and inflicted a wound and the instrument with which he had done it I did not see, but I told Barker I was cut. He had cut me as well as I can recall. Barker's report related the incident this way: after we came out, Keene followed us. He passed me and I saw him take out a knife. He went up to Hall, reached around and stabbed him. Hall said to me that Keene had cut him. Keene then returned to his house and as he passed me, he asked me if I could come in and take some drink with him. While I was talking with Keene, Hall came on towards the house. I followed him and overtook him and saw that his bowels had come out through the cut. Keene's version is quite different. He said: I had several hands building my mill, including Wesley Hall. All got on a spree and I discharged them until they got sober. I had drunk a large quantity myself and was crazy in my bed and all alone. Hall and Barker came to my house and bitterly approached me -I had done wrong driving Wesley Hall away. I begged them to let me alone. I was sick and did not want any fuss. They both got up and went out, but then they come back and said - let's go in and take him. We have got him now. I jumped up and a scuffle ensued. I found myself out in the yard. At last I got loose. Hall went off the Baker stayed some half hour afterwards. When I had come to myself, I found I was dreadful beat and bruised up. If I cut Hall I didn't know it or it weren't my intention, nor my desire to kill him nor no one else. Well, during the trial, Keene was found guilty of first degree murder and sentenced to hang. However, after receiving petitions from Keene, the governor commuted his sentence to ten years imprisonment at the penitentiary in Richmond. For reasons that the homicide was committed under circumstances which repelled the idea of willful determination and premeditation, and that the blow which caused the death was inflicted in a sudden scuffle without intent to kill. Well, Keene was 47 when he entered prison in Richmond. All the records were lost during the Civil War so we don't know what happened to him. He could have died in prison. The death rate was high in the prisons at those times. He could have been pardoned and served in the Confederate military during the Civil War, however, Confederate records show no William Keene. He could have escaped on April 3, 1865, the day after the fall of Petersburg. Richmond was under siege and afire and abandoned, and before the Union forces entered the city, 287 prisoners escaped the prison walls. So he could have made it out at that time and disappeared. Finally, Keene could have served his term and been released in 1867, then stayed around Fairfax County, but we don't know. His name cannot be located in 1870 census.

MARY: Or he might have changed his name to protect himself, right?

STEVE: Right.

MARY: From the reputation. Wow, that's fascinating and it's interesting to hear the three different stories. Though they all were there at the same time, I guess that's what the police and all have to deal with all the time when it comes to investigating murders, but. . .

STEVE: Right.

MARY: Well, this is wonderful. I appreciate the research you've done and shared with us and people can come in October and take the tour on the boat in Accotink and hear the - that's wonderful.

STEVE: Oh, it's my pleasure coming. Thanks a lot.

MARY: Thank you. Now are you finished researching or are you delving more into.. .

STEVE: No, still looking for more new stories, so. . .

MARY: Still looking, yeah.

STEVE: As a matter of fact, if anyone who follows this Braddock history project and has their own stories, I'd love to hear about them.

MARY: Okay, so contact Steve Reynolds.

STEVE: Yep.

MARY: Okay.

STEVE: You can research me through the folks at. . .

MARY: Lake Accotink, right. Okay, well, thank you very much.

STEVE: Thank you.

MARY: It's been wonderful.

(END OF INTERVIEW)