Mason's Hill

T-50

During the Civil War, Confederate Col. J. E. B. Stuart used Mason's Hill and nearby Munson's Hill as outposts for the First Virginia Cavalry from late July to the end of Sept. 1861. Capt. Edward Porter Alexander of the Signal Corps established a signal station on Mason's Hill. On the Mason residence's observation tower, he installed a six-foot "astronomical glass" to observe Washington, D.C. The telescope could "count the panes of glass in the windows in Washington." Confederate spy E. Pliny Bryan, of Maryland, was to signal messages from his District rooming-house window to the station. Before this scheme could be implemented, however, the Confederates abandoned Mason's Hill.

Department of Historic Resources, 2000

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References/Bibliographic Citation:

W. W. Blackford, War Years With J. E. B. Stuart (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1945), 46-57; “Affair At Munsons Hill,” Washington Star, 30 September 1861; Gary W. Gallagher (ed.), Fighting for the Confederacy: The Personal Recollections of General Edward Porter Alexander (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1989), 64-73; The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Prepared Under the Direction of the Secretary of War by Robert N. Scott, 129 vols. (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1880–1901); Bradley T. Johnson, A Memoir of the Life and Public Service of Joseph E. Johnston, . . . (Baltimore: R. H. Woodward & Company, 1891), 62-69; Emory M. Thomas, Bold Dragoon: The Life of J. E. B. Stuart (New York: Harpers & Row, 1986), 83-92; Jane Chapman Whitt, Elephants and Quaker Guns: A History of Civil War and Circus Days (New York and Washington: Vantage Press, 1966), 39-52; Nan Netherton, Donald Sweig, Janice Artemel, Patricia Hickin and Patricia Reed, Fairfax County, Virginia: A History (Fairfax, County, Va.: Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, 1978), 327-334; Ross and Nan Netherton, Fairfax County in Virginia: A Pictorial History (Norfolk and Virginia Beach, Va.: Donning Company, 1986), 64-69.