Politics & Government

History Commission to Host Historical Marker Ceremony Sunday in Burke

The dedication ceremony will commemorate the Bog Wall Ambush during the Civil War.

The Fairfax County History Commission will host a dedication ceremony Sunday for a new historical marker near the site of a Civil War ambush in Burke.

The new marker will commemorate the Bog Wall Ambush, which occurred on Dec. 4, 1861. The ceremony will start at 2 p.m. Sunday at the intersection of Dunleigh Drive and Braddock Road in Burke.

Descendants of the Union scout who planned the ambush and was severely wounded during the encounter while attempting to ambush Confederate cavalry are scheduled to attend the ceremony, according to an invitation from the History Commission.

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Refreshments will be served on the porch of the historic Oak Hill residence, which was the home of David Fitzhugh at the time of the skirmish, after the ceremony. Michael Mitchell, who conducted a significant amount of research on the ambush, will explain the significance of Oak Hill to the Bog Wallow ambush.

The text on the new sign reads as follows: 

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On 4 December 1861, fifty-five men of the 3rd New Jersey Infantry, Col. George W. Taylor commanding, set an ambush nearby in retaliation for attacks on Union pickets. They stretched two telegraph wires across Braddock Road at the eastern end of a “perfect bog hole” to dismount riders. Near midnight, twenty-four Georgia Hussars cavalrymen, led by Capt. J. Fred. Waring, entered the trap from the west. A “sheet of fire” erupted from the tree line along the swamp's edge. The Confederates returned fire and escaped with four men wounded and one captured. Union losses were one killed, two wounded and one captured.

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