Original description left basically intact; post-adoption comments at bottom.
At this little crossroad of Thompson Road and West Ox resides a little bit of current and past history.
The Mosby Raid
The events took place on February 26th, 1863, very early in Mosby's career as a partisan ranger- still before he had made his national reputation. Local area maps from the Civil war show that on the far side of Thompson from the current Navy Elementary School sat the former Thompson School. That evening 44 Union cavalrymen from the 18th Pennsylvania had sought shelter for the evening inside and around the school.
The day prior, Mosby with 27 men had left Rector's Crossroads (Rt 50 just west of Middleburg). Upon reaching the area, he came upon these men in the middle of the night and devised his plan. As they approached slowly, a Union sentry yelled into the darkness to halt.
"Who goes there?" he said challenging the sounds in the darkness.
"Friends" replied Mosby.
The Union cavalryman wisely fired a shot as a warning and fled back to the schoolhouse. At that point Mosby yelled "Close on them men!" and with a Rebel yell charged the schoolhouse firing their pistols.
The timing of 4:30 a was not a mistake- in fact it was a signature of Mosby. Private William H. Martin, a Union cavalryman there that night said that at that hour "our men were sleepy headed". The 44 Union men scattered. Mosby's men killed 1, wounded 2 and captured 5 POWs.
The Thompson House
Thompson Road used to run from this point, crossed the Fairfax County Parkway north of Tuckaway and continues to Lees Corner near 2Wheel'ins Raising Cain cache. When the parkway was built, it bisected Thompson Road into two sections- still marked by the overhead electrical lines.
The white farm house NNW of these coordinates was built by Arthur Thompson in 1898 and used to reside right at the corner of West Ox- literally 3 feet from the southbound lanes. By the late 1980s, it had fallen into disrepair but due to its historical nature, it was not demolished and therefore held up the widening of West Ox road for years.
Neighborhood urban legend suggests it was listed in the back of This Old House magazine- you know- in the occasional feature that advertises old houses for $1? Someone bought it and part of the conditions of the sale were to relocate the house to its current spot. The owners really fixed up the place!
3/30/2019: happily adopted by frumiousb/Pickypicky to keep it from being archived :-)
Hubby and I both grew up around here. We each remember driving past the house before it got moved. Also remember it *being* moved.
Here's a 2003 article about the house being sold and moved: http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/news/2003/may/27/civil-war-house-saved/