Skirmish, Fairfax Court House

Fairfax Court House holds the distinction of being the Civil War's earliest land clash to produce deaths in combat. Fighting broke out on June 1, 1861, when a scouting detachment from the Union army ran into militia forces near Fairfax, Virginia. That skirmish produced the conflict's initial combat fatalities and left a field-grade officer wounded for the first time in the war.

Lieutenant Charles H. Tompkins led a regular cavalry patrol that the Union had dispatched to gauge how many enemy troops occupied the region. Arriving at Fairfax Court House, his men caught a small company of Confederate riflemen off guard, a unit commanded by Captain John Q. Marr, and managed to seize several prisoners. Although Marr attempted to reorganize his men, he lost his life in the effort. William Smith, a former Virginia governor serving without formal military rank, then assumed leadership and succeeded in pushing the Union troops back.

Historians generally regard the outcome as indecisive. Union forces failed to obtain the reconnaissance information they had sought, and the setback forced a postponement of their advance toward Richmond. This delay gave Confederate forces valuable time to reinforce their position at Manassas ahead of the far larger confrontation that would unfold there the next month. As for Tompkins, he faced criticism afterward for going beyond the scope of his instructions, even though those orders had lacked clarity to begin with.

Battle

In the pitch blackness before dawn on June 1, at roughly three o'clock, Confederate picket Private A. B. Francis dashed into Fairfax Court House hollering that the enemy had arrived. His fellow picket, B. F. Florence, had already fallen into enemy hands. In the street, a handful of Prince William cavalrymen attempted to organize themselves for combat while others scrambled toward their mounts. When the Union column appeared on the Falls Church Road, most of these horsemen bolted, and four of their number were left behind to be captured. Meanwhile Captain Marr had already led his own men into a clover field to the west, near the Methodist church where they had been quartered just off Little River Turnpike, arranging them into two lines. In the confusion and darkness, retreating cavalrymen from Prince William stumbled upon this formation, and some of Marr's soldiers opened fire on them by mistake, wounding one of their own. The Rappahannock troopers, poorly armed and lacking ammunition entirely, also scattered once the Union riders drew near.

Several versions of events hold that Marr called out to the approaching horsemen, asking what unit they belonged to, words that would prove to be his final ones. Amid scattered gunfire as the Union cavalry passed through, he dropped dead. Other tellings claim instead that he was scouting for better ground somewhat apart from his men when he was struck, making no mention of any challenge shouted at the riders. Whichever account is accurate, Marr was not within sight of his troops in the thick darkness of that field when he went down, and for a time nobody realized what had become of him. Only later that morning would his body turn up in the clover field.

The Union troopers continued westward through the town, discharging shots without particular aim. Numerous accounts hold that they fired upon a figure stepping out of the local hotel, striking Lieutenant Colonel Ewell in the shoulder. That man happened to be Ewell himself. No matter precisely where this wounding occurred, it marked Ewell as the first Confederate officer of field grade rank injured in the conflict.

Once the initial commotion subsided, with the Prince William horsemen scattered and the Union force having ridden clear through town, the Warrenton Rifles infantry realized their captain was missing. In truth, Marr already lay dead in the nearby field, the war's first Confederate soldier lost in combat. Most historians believe a stray shot from the passing Union cavalry had killed him. With both lieutenants away on leave and Ewell not yet on the scene, the company found itself briefly without any commander.

At this point William "Extra Billy" Smith, a former and future Virginia governor who would later become a major general, stepped out of the house where he was lodging. Then sixty-four and a civilian, he had just resigned from his seat in Congress and was journeying home to Warrenton from Washington. Smith, hailing from Warrenton himself, had assisted in recruiting the company and was acquainted with many of its members, so despite having no military background whatsoever, he assumed command. When Ewell eventually appeared, the men would not follow him until Governor Smith vouched for his identity as the Confederate officer in charge. Ewell then positioned roughly forty Warrenton Rifles at the border of the clover field, situated between the hotel and either the courthouse or the Episcopal Church, and from there they managed to repel the returning Union cavalry with a single volley as it approached. Recognizing their position was poorly suited for defense, Smith relocated the men behind rail fences about a hundred yards nearer the turnpike once Ewell departed to locate a courier for reinforcements. Local civilians, largely firing from cover inside buildings, joined the shooting at the horsemen, a factor that likely inflated Tompkins's estimate of the opposing force's size.

Repelled once by the combined volley of the Rifles and armed townspeople, the Union troopers attempted a second pass through the town. Three further volleys from the Warrenton men drove them back again. During this exchange, Lieutenant Tompkins lost two horses shot from beneath him, one of which fell on him and injured his foot. Additional Confederate volleys met the Federals as they made a third attempt to pass through on their way to Camp Union near Falls Church, Virginia. Failing this final push, the wounded Union horsemen were comp