Pike's Creek Skirmish (Site)

Here follows an excerpt from Donald Hakenson's "This Forgotten Land" tour guide:

A Company of Alabama troops assailed Federal pickets in front of Fort Ellsworth at Shuter's Hill on the morning of June 30, 1861. This incursion sometimes referred to as the skirmish at Pike's Creek developed on the southwest front of Fort Ellsworth, a Union fort, and penetrated to within one mile of Alexandria. Pike's Creek, a small stream which flows north into Cameron Run, is located just west of Telegraph Road off Burgundy Road. Historical records indicate that the engagement occurred between Burgundy and Franconia Roads (known at that time as the Old Fairfax Road) adjacent to Cameron Run.

On June 28, 1861, thirty-three volunteers from Comanies F, K, I, and L of the Sixth Alabama Regiment, stationed at Sangster's Crossroad in Fairfax County, embarked on a scouting expedition toward Federal positions at Alexandria. At 3:00 a.m. on the morning of June 30, 1861 field reports of Company F document that thirty-three Confederates attacked the Federal pickets "at Pike's Run within a mile of Alexandria and routed them, killing several... variously estimated at from eight to fifteen, and wounding several. We lost, on our side, Sergeant Haynes of the Governor's Guards from Richmond, Virginia."

Another account from Company K, Sixth Alabama Regiment, further documents Confederate activities in Fairfax County from June 28 through 30, 1861. It asserts that:

"Lieutenant Thomas H. Bell, with the following five privates, to wit, W.H. O'Dour, Jefferson S, John A. Lott, A.R. Belser, and R.D. Lasts, of this company, with about the same number from the other companies of the battalion, made a scouting party under the command of Captain W.H. Weems, of the Russell Volunteers. [These] thirty-three in number made an expedition in the vicinity of Alexandria and attacked the picket guards of the enemy within one mile of that city on June 30, 1861 at 3:10 a.m. and succeeded in dispersing them, after killing eleven of their number, Their forces was estimated at from thirty to fifty. ..."

The Union pickets that were on duty that morning belonged to Captain Amer's Company E, Fourth Pennsylvania Regiment. Upon hearing the sound of gunfire, detachments of Zouaves and the Forth Pennsylvania Regiment came to the aid of their comrades.

Anne Frobel, a resident of Wilton Hill on Franconia Road, wrote in her diary for June 1861 that her servant Charles came home with great news concerning a rebel raid which occurred at Cameron Run.

"A party of rebels came down last night and fired into the pickets at South Run. There was a good deal of noise making and yelling and bullets whistling through the woods in every direction, one Confederate was killed and two Yankees. The Federal troops appeared in great number during the next day and viciously abused the corpse of the dead rebel, throwing it on the ground and smashing their rifles into his lifeless body."

Since the poor young rebel was one of the first to die in defense of the South, Alexandria spared no expense in burying him properly.

The skirmish of Pike's Creek, just over eight miles from the U.S. Capital, was one of the closest penetrations made against the Federal city by any Confederate force during the entire war.