After 1st Manassas, the Union retreated closer to the defenses of Washington and the Confederates followed them east- fortifying a line that approximated Rt 123. Advance scouts for the Confederates pushed the Southern perimeter as far as Falls Church, Masons Hill and Padgett’s Tavern (one mile east of this cache on the Little River Turnpike) . But in the fall of 1861, the Union pushed back out from DC and re-took these higher hills in Annandale/Alexandria and western Arlington - soon to create the ring of forts that eventually rendered a direct assault on DC by Southern forces too costly. Many of these forts are marked by caches today!
On Dec 2, 1861, a Confederate cavalry raid in force of about 200 riders swept into Annandale from Fairfax. The 45th New York regiment, a German unit formed only 90 days earlier from urban New York City was encamped nearby. They were protecting the approaches to Turkeycock Run further east on Little River Turnpike while providing picket duty for Phil Kearney’s 1st New Jersey brigade beyond the creek crossing.
According to later sources, "a very free use of liquor" was responsible for a lack of the New Yorker’s alertness.
When they heard hoofbeats approaching, the men assumed that their own cavalry was making their rounds early. Instead, they were driven in by rebel horsemen who swept in from the west and through a field that is now this parking lot. A general skirmish ensued. The New Yorkers killed three of the enemy and took two prisoners. Fourteen Union men were captured by the Confederate troopers and one man from the 45th New York (5th German Rifles) was killed. The withdrawal of troops was an embarrassment to General Blenker and the Union at a time when the Union was not seeing too many successes.
This picture that appeared in Northern publications afterwards shows the Confederates within pistol range (negating the range of the Union rifles) and sending the green soldiers running.
They did not stay green for long. The 45th later served our country well at Fredericksburg, Gettysburg and Missionary Ridge at Chattanooga.
On a side note: I once attended a reenactment of a cavalry charge utilizing about 30 horses. As they charged each other, my feet felt the charge through the ground while I was standing 150 yards away. Think what 200 horses would feel like bearing down on you!! Or 10,000 horses a year and a half later at Brandy Station!!!!