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The desire of both sides to control southern land near DC meant Fairfax County found itself riddled with war early on. From the first skirmish on courthouse grounds to the first full-scale battle in Manassas, the Fairfax courthouse remained a vital position to whomever controlled it since it stood near the border dividing north and south.
By 1862, the Confederate Army and Robert E. Lee had evacuated the entirety of Northern Virginia, and the Union army had gained complete and total control of the Fairfax Courthouse and the surrounding area. While under Union Control, the Courthouse had suffered tremendous damage from soldiers making it their home, to say the least. Lt. Col. Charles Cummings, 16th Vermont Infantry, who used the courthouse and clerk's office for storage, noted that "windows were broken out and boarded up and the inside ripped out and the walls defaced." Unfortunately, we have no record of what the graffiti on the walls could have possibly looked like; however, in June of 1863, just before the Battle of Gettysburg, Union troops in the building found time to vandalize a court book.
This graffiti is all contained in the 1857 Court Rule Book in the Historic Record Center’s collection today. While it is unlikely that the graffiti occurred on the same day, the first date is marked June 22nd 1863. Soldiers of various companies found time to write in this book during the Civil War.
It provides insight into what the average soldier was thinking during the Civil War. The one thing that appears most often in the book is that signatures were written, with Thomas Jackson's and Walter Hoag's appearing the most. Most of the writing in this book is the practice of signatures, alphabets, and presumably a common phrase of the day, such as "Command you may your mind from play at every hour in the day," which appears multiple times throughout the book.
 Figure 1 Page 7
The squares below contain the names of soldiers who were in the courthouse in 1863, signing their names for posterity.
 Figure 2 - Page 7
Separate from the penmanship practice, the book also features various drawings of animals and quilt patterns.
Most of the animal drawings are horses; however, on page 31, we see pictures of a pig (hog), donkey, dog, seal, Kangaroo (Kangroo), and rabbit. The artwork has no name attached; however, it is on the same page as "Quaker Street, Schenectady County, New York." It is accompanied by intricate, geometric quilt patterns, with the graph as their outline.
 Figure 3 - Page 31, Animals
 Figure 4 - Page 29
 Figure 5 - Page 5
These are just a few examples of the graffiti in the rule book. HRC staff regularly includes the Civil War Rule Book in our Friday tours. Come see it in person!
Learn more about documents in HRC’s collection that relate to the Civil War by reading previous Found in the Archives below and visiting us in person or online at: Military | Circuit Court
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