Freedom Hill
Fairfax County, Virginia
by Debbie Robison
November 16, 2012
INTRODUCTION
Freedom Hill, located in Fairfax County between Vienna and Tyson’s, is a prominence that rises to 500′ above sea level.[1] The land was likely first settled in the 1720s when area land grants were issued.[2] The first Fairfax County courthouse was established near the hill by 1742.[3]

 

Aerial Photo of Freedom Hill in 1949

 

USDA Aerial Photo of Freedom Hill, 1949. Red star indicates former location of Freedom Church. Red arrow points to Civil War redoubt.
RELIGIOUS REVIVAL
The Methodist Protestant revival movement spread to Fairfax County by 1844 when land near the old courthouse was used for a Methodist Protestant Camp Meeting.
CAMP MEETING — By Divine permission, a Camp Meeting will be held under the direction of the Methodist Protestant Church, on the land adjoining the farm of Mr. John Adams, near the Old Court House, Fairfax County, Va., to commence on the 25th of the present month (August.) The public are respectfully invited to attend and unite in the exercises. — A. Lemen, Sup., Potomac Circuit.[4]
The Methodist Protestant Church officially formed in 1828 after members seceded from the Methodist Episcopal Church as a result of rules established at the 1820 Methodist Episcopal Church General Conference that limited the rights and influence in the church of local preachers and the laity. Special rules were enacted for the governance of the local ministry without local representation. Many members felt that their ecclesiastical rights were withheld from them, including the right of suffrage (vote) and free speech. The local ministry compared the increase in power by the church as an invasion of their rights similar to the position their forefathers took on the tea tax and stamp act enacted by Britain’s parliament. Their objection was Legislation Without Representation. [5]
ESTABLISHMENT OF FREEDOM CHURCH
Evidently, the Methodist Protestants in the area desired to establish a church edifice on the hill. They named their church Freedom.[6]

 

In 1848 Samuel Follin conveyed a 3/4 acre lot of land located about 150 yds N.W. of the old Court House to Horatio Lanham, George W. Gunnell, and Joseph Follin, trustees for the Methodist Protestant Church.[7] The deed was witnessed by N. Lemen, who was ordained a deacon in the Methodist Protestant Church in 1844.[8] The church was situated on the Court House Road at an intersection with an old road.[9]

 

All three of the trustees were slave owners; therefore it is unlikely that they established Freedom church as a consequence of abolitionist beliefs.[10] As a side note, new rules established in the 1840s by Methodist Episcopal Church leaders who opposed slavery on religious grounds caused another split in the church. This time the Methodist Episcopal Church, South was formed whose members were generally in favor of slavery though they accepted ecclesiastical rule.[11]
CIVIL WAR
Near the close of the American Civil War, in January 1865, a redoubt was constructed on Freedom Hill for the protection of Washington, D. C. This earthen fortification housed a battery manned by a company of the 5th Pennsylvania Heavy Artillery under the command of Col. George S. Gallupe who was stationed at Vienna.[12]

 

Freedom Hill Redoubt

 

Freedom Hill Redoubt

 

The Freedom Hill redoubt supplemented an outer ring of defenses that extended from Springfield Station to Fairfax Station along the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, thence to Fairfax Court-House and Vienna, and onward to Prospect Hill and the Potomac River. This outer ring was established by the 22nd Army Corps in November 1864 when the Separate Brigade was formed under the command of Col. William Gamble of the 8th Illinois Cavalry.[13] Gamble, whose headquarters were at Fairfax Court-House, achieved fame as a hero of Gettysburg.[14]

 

The outer defensive ring was primarily composed of cavalry and artillery companies.[15] Thousands of cavalry troops took their turn patrolling the land to the west of the line in search of Confederate partisan rangers.[16] Their duty was monotonous and tiring, but their role in protecting the federal government in Washington, D.C. was strategically essential.

 

The men of the 5th Pennsylvania Heavy Artillery, who sacrificed much by being away from their homes and families while stationed at Freedom Hill, were ultimately successful in protecting the right to freedom for all people.

 

ENDNOTES

[1] United States Geological Survey Topographical Map, 1951, as viewed on http://www.historicaerials.com/

[2] Northern Neck Land Grant, Samuel Wilson, 360 acres, October 8, 1724, NN A:87; John Colvill, 1,429 acres, November 6, 1740, NN E:182; John Lewis, 365 acres, March 9, 1728/9, NN B:211.

[3] Northern Neck Land Grant, John Colvill, 1,429 acres, November 6, 1740 NN E:182.

[4] ˜Camp Meeting,˜ Alexandria Gazette, August 9, 1844, p. 3.

[5] Rev. John Parris, History of the Methodist Protestant Church: Giving a General View of the Causes and Events that led to the Organization of that Church…, Sherwood & Co., Baltimore, 1849. As viewed on Google Books.

[6] Fairfax County Deed Book M3(65)19, February 28, 1848.

[7] Fairfax County Deed Book M3(65)19, February 28, 1848.

[8] J. T. Murray and T. H. Lewis, Maryland Annual Conference of the Methodist Protestant Church, M. P. Bock Concern, W. J. C. Dulany, Agent, Baltimore, 1882, p. 104. As viewed on Google Books.

[9] Fairfax County Deed Book I4(87)500, October 1, 1868. Deed for an adjacent property provides the boundary of the church lot.

[10] 1860 U. S. Federal Census — Slave Schedules, as viewed on ancestry.com

[11] M. C. Shumate, “Methodist Episcopal Church,” Alexandria Gazette, February 10, 1846, p. 2. Article provides vote results on the issue of the Leesburg Methodist Episcopal Church aligning the church with the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

[12] Official Records, The war of the rebellion: a compilation of the official records of the Union and Confederate armies. ; Series 1 - Volume 46 (Part II), p. 92.

[13] Official Records, The war of the rebellion: a compilation of the official records of the Union and Confederate armies. ; Series 1 - Volume 43 (Part II), p. 92.

[14] Larry Tagg, The Generals of Gettysburg: The Leaders of America’s Greatest Battle, Da Capo Press, Cambridge, MA, 2003, p. 170. As viewed on Google Books.

[15] Official Records, The war of the rebellion: a compilation of the official records of the Union and Confederate armies. ; Series 1 - Volume 43 (Part II), p. 92.

[16] Official Records, The war of the rebellion: a compilation of the official records of the Union and Confederate armies. ; Series 1 - Volume 55 (Part II), p. 759.