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Historical Highway MarkersLaura RatcliffeC-24
Confederate spy Laura Ratcliffe was born in Fairfax County in 1836. During the Civil War, she became an acquaintance of Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart who introduced her to then-Lt. John Mosby in 1862. Mosby credited her with preventing his capture early in 1863, noting, “My life as a partisan would have closed that day.” Ratcliffe and other informants provided Mosby and his Partisan Rangers (43d Battalion, Virginia Cavalry) important information that helped them raid Union outposts, communications, and supply lines. She married Milton Hanna in 1890. Ratcliffe died in 1923 and is buried here/nearby in a family cemetery.
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References/Bibliographic Citation: Mosby, John S. Mosby’s War Reminiscences and Stuarts Cavalry Campaigns. (Boston, Geo. A. Jones & Co. Publishers, 1887). Glazier, William. Three Years in the Federal Cavalry. (New York R.H. Ferguson & Co., Publishers, 1870). Bakeless, John. Spies of the Confederacy. (J.B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia & New York, 1970). Pp. 62-63. Linchen, Oscar A. Women Who Spied for the Blue and the Gray. (Philadelphia: Dorrance & Co., 1972: pp. 122-125. Vetter, Peggy D. “Laura Ratcliffe at Rest.” The Herndon Observer 1 Aug. 1997: p. 1, 7. “Mrs. Laura Hanna Drad.” Fairfax Herald 10 Aug. 1923: p. 3. |