Sycamore Dale

About this property

Sycamore Dale (also known as the Gibson-Wirgman-Williams House) is a 19th-century Greek Revival plantation house overlooking the South Branch Potomac River southwest of Romney, West Virginia. Sycamore Dale is one of several historic estates along South Branch River Road (County Route 8). It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 2, 1980. Sycamore Dale was constructed for David Gibson between 1836 and 1839 with the use of slave labor. The slaves involved with Sycamore Dale's construction numbered over 100. Due to its location adjacent to the Romney Covered Bridge which carried the Northwestern Turnpike across the South Branch Potomac River, Sycamore Dale's vicinity was a strategic location for forces attempting to take Romney during the American Civil War. When Union Army forces first moved on Romney on June 11, 1861, there was resistance by Confederate States Army forces to their crossing of the covered bridge. The resistance consisted of Confederate sharpshooters who had commandeered Sycamore Dale and were using it as a "sharpshooter's nest." The Union forces, commanded by General Lew Wallace (later Governor of New Mexico Territory, United States Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, and author of best-seller historical fiction novels such as Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ), advanced across the bridge and succeeded in dislodging the Confederates. Following the skirmish, General Wallace gave orders for Sycamore Dale to be burnt before proceeding up Town Hill into Romney. Upon his return later in the day, General Wallace found the house unscathed and, after heated inquiry, found that his captain had been dissuaded from the act of arson by the owner, David Gibson. After listening to Gibson's plea himself, General Wallace relented and, it is said, briefly used the house as his headquarters. General Wallace wrote part of Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ during his stay at Sycamore Dale. Another significant event of the American Civil War to occur at Sycamore Dale was the surrender of the McNeill's Rangers. McNeill's Rangers was an independent irregular Confederate military company commissioned under the Partisan Ranger Act by the Congress of the Confederate States on April 12, 1862. After the Act's repeal on February 17, 1864, McNeill's Rangers was one of two partisan companies allowed to continue operation, the other being Mosby's Raiders. The Rangers numbered no more than 60 to 70. Captain McNeill and his Rangers surrendered to Union Army forces on April 12, 1865, on Sycamore Dale's front lawn. Other sources cite that while Romney was last held by Confederate Army forces on April 15, local tradition states that McNeill's Rangers surrendered at Sycamore Dale on May 8. Led by Jesse McNeill, the 36 Rangers threw their weapons into a pile on Sycamore Dale's lawn and then the Union officers reluctantly agreed to release the Rangers. This surrender was one of the final actions of the American Civil War in West Virginia.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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