On a recent trip to Virginia for a Shades of Gray book signing event, I passed the home called Eastview, which is located off Rt. 29 in Fauquier County. The house stands on a hillside and is easily seen from the road, but unfortunately, I didn’t have time to take a photo.
As with so many other Civil War-era houses, this one has a story. Union General Edwin Stoughton (yes, the general who was later captured by Mosby), made his headquarters here during the campaign of 1862.
But it was another story about the home that I thought worth sharing. As recorded in Thomas Evans and James Moyer in their book Mosby’s Confederacy, this house was owned by a widow, Mrs. Elizabeth Hunton, who did not take kindly to the Union soldiers pillaging her farm. When they tried to take her last remaining animal, an old gray mare, she approached General Stoughton in the parlor, requesting that the horse be left for her use. General Stoughton replied that if she would sign the Oath of Allegiance to the Union, he would honor her request.
The book states, “Drawing herself up, the widow said to Stoughton: ‘Sir-r-r, the horse is your-r-rs!‘ and withdrew from the room.”
Her action so impressed an aide who witnessed the scene, that he penned a drawing of the incident on the parlor wall. The current owners reportedly had it reproduced when it grew faint from age. A framed reproduction now hangs on a wall at the original location.