Alexandria in 1775 was already one of the most commercially active ports in Virginia, and its proximity to both Washington's Mount Vernon estate and the political machinery of the Potomac region made it a natural hub for Patriot organizing. The town's Market Square had hosted public musters and militia drills for years before the war began; by the spring of 1775, those musters carried a new urgency. The Fairfax Independent Company, which Washington had helped organize and equip in the years before Lexington, assembled here. So did the first Virginia regiments that marched north to join the Continental Army.
PEOPLE
George Mason
Virginia Patriot Statesman, Gunston Hall Planter, Author of the Virginia Declaration of Rights
George Washington
Commander-in-Chief, Mount Vernon Planter, Enslaver
Dennis Ramsay
Alexandria Mayor, Merchant, Patriot Official
William Ramsay
Alexandria Merchant, Town Trustee, Patriot Committeeman
KEY EVENTS
Fairfax Resolves Adopted
Jul 1774
Washington Departs for Continental Congress
May 1775
Carlyle House Serves as Braddock's War Council Headquarters
Apr 1755
Alexandria Bids Washington Farewell Before Inaugural Journey
Apr 1789
Fairfax Independent Company Mustered
Apr 1775
Fairfax County Committee of Safety Established
Sep 1774
STORIES
HISTORICAL VOICE
The House Where Two Wars Were Planned
John Carlyle built his stone house on the Alexandria waterfront in 1753 with the understanding that a fine house in a growing port town was both a home and a business asset. The house's main room, its...
HISTORICAL VOICE
The Town That Was Built by Hands That Owned Nothing
Alexandria's wharves were built and worked largely by enslaved labor. The hogsheads of tobacco that made the town's fortunes were rolled to ships by men and women who received nothing from the trade t...