Leesburg - Loudoun County

History is around every corner in Loudoun County, Virginia. Here,  just 25 miles from Washington, D.C., visitors discover a charming destination of rolling hillsides, vineyards, stacked-stone fences, horse farms and quaint small towns. And Loudoun’s story is America’s story. Visit World War II notable George C. Marshall’s only home. Take a jaunt to Jackie Kennedy’s favorite town. Hike through Civil War battlefields. Experience all of this amidst the backdrop of scenic horse and wine country. This is Loudoun County, Virginia.

Loudoun County constitutes a part of the five million-acre Northern Neck of Virginia Proprietary granted by King Charles II of England in 1649. This grant, later known as the Fairfax Proprietary, lay between the Potomac and Rappahannock rivers. Westmoreland, Stafford, Prince William and Fairfax Counties were formed from the proprietary. In 1757, by act of the Virginia House of Burgesses, Fairfax County was divided with the western portion named Loudoun for John Campbell, 4th Earl of Loudoun. Campbell was a Scottish nobleman who served as commander-in-chief for all British armed forces in North America and titular governor of Virginia from 1756 to 1759. Leesburg has served continuously as the county seat since 1757.

During the 1720s, a number of Quakers, Germans, Irish and Scots-Irish settled west of the Catoctin Mountains. Quakers formed the settlements of Waterford, Goose Creek (now Lincoln), Harmony (now Hamilton) and Union (now Unison). From 1745 to 1760, Germans from Pennsylvania and Maryland formed the settlement at Lovettsville. After Gen. Braddock's defeat by the French at Fort Duquesne in 1755, refugees from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia settled in the western part of Loudoun County, south of Short Hill. Catoctin Church became the center of that settlement. In 1774, a meeting of freeholders and other residents was held in the county courthouse to discuss the protection of rights and liberties in North America. The group adopted the Loudoun Resolves, as well as a formal protest of the Stamp Act. Later, a number of Loudoun County men fought in the Revolutionary War.

During the War of 1812, Loudoun County served briefly as a temporary refuge for the president and for important state papers. The constitution and other state papers were brought to Rokeby, near Leesburg, for safekeeping when the British burned Washington. President Madison established a headquarters at Belmont. In 1861, residents of Loudoun County were split over the issue of secession. The Quakers and most of the Germans in northern and central Loudoun opposed slavery and secession, while the landed gentry in the southern part of the county favored secession.

During the Civil War, Colonel John Mosby and his Rangers were active in Loudoun County. It was also the home of the Laurel Brigade, a famous Confederate cavalry unit commanded by Elijah V. White of Leesburg. A national cemetery near Leesburg marks the site of the Battle of Ball’s Bluff, where Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., then a young Union soldier, fought in 1861. In 1863, Loudoun saw action during the march to Gettysburg with a series of hard-fought cavalry battles around and through the small villages of Upperville, Middleburg and Aldie. Later, in 1864, U.S. forces launched a burning raid into Loudoun that destroyed many Loudoun barns and mills in retaliation against Mosby.

For more than two centuries, agriculture was the dominant way of life in Loudoun County, which had a relatively constant population of about 20,000. That began to change in the early 1960s, when Dulles International Airport was built in the southeastern part of the county. The airport attracted new businesses, workers and their families to the area. At the same time, the metropolitan Washington, D.C., area began a period of rapid growth. Major road improvements made commuting from Loudoun County much easier, attracting more and more people to the eastern part of the county.

Today, Loudoun offers visitors rich heritage experiences and lies at the center of one of the newest National Heritage Areas, called the Journey Through Hallowed Ground. This heritage area follows the 180-mile historic Route 15 corridor from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, to Thomas Jefferson’s home, Monticello, in Charlottesville, Virginia. Loudoun, at the center of this area, is a great place to base your visits up and down the journey corridor. We invite you to come to Loudoun County, Virginia, and discover that history is indeed around every corner here.