Winchester Tales

Winchester Tales Winchester Virginia History
(2)

The new limited one year emerging liberty dime has made an appearance in a couple local stores. Have you seen one in you...
06/11/2026

The new limited one year emerging liberty dime has made an appearance in a couple local stores. Have you seen one in your change yet?

The new Emerging Liberty Dime is a special one-year design released for America’s 250th birthday in 2026. For the first time since 1946, the dime does not feature President Franklin Roosevelt. Instead, the front shows a young Liberty in the wind, symbolizing the nation’s future and the spirit of the American Revolution. The reverse depicts an eagle in flight carrying arrows, representing the struggle for independence and the defense of liberty.

On July 1, 1863, Colonel Daniel Harvey Christie led the 23rd North Carolina into the opening day of the Battle of Gettys...
06/11/2026

On July 1, 1863, Colonel Daniel Harvey Christie led the 23rd North Carolina into the opening day of the Battle of Gettysburg. As his brigade advanced, hidden Union soldiers suddenly rose behind a stone wall and unleashed a devastating volley. The attack collapsed into chaos. In less than an hour, nearly 900 of Christie’s 1,400 men were killed, wounded, or captured in what would later become known as “Iverson’s Pits.” Amid the slaughter, a bullet tore through both of Christie’s lungs. Sixteen days later, after a painful journey south, he arrived in Wi******er and was taken into the Braddock Street home of German and Hannah Smith. As fever consumed him, he drifted in and out of consciousness, repeatedly asking a single question: “Is she here?” His wife, Lizzie, had been notified in North Carolina and was racing toward Wi******er, but the roads were long and slow.

On the afternoon of July 17, realizing the end was near, Christie looked up at Mrs. Smith and quietly whispered, “Kiss me for Lizzie.” Mrs. Smith gently kissed the dying soldier on the cheek, and moments later he was gone. A week later, Lizzie arrived in Wi******er and stepped from her coach to the solemn faces of her husband’s officers. Before a word was spoken, she knew. At the Smith home, Mrs. Smith embraced the grieving widow and kissed her softly on the cheek. “A kiss from Daniel,” she whispered. That evening, Colonel Christie was buried with military honors in Mount Hebron Cemetery, later reinterred in Stonewall Cemetery. Lizzie returned to North Carolina to live out her days without him.

Long before Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier, a young man from 530 Fremont Street in Wi******er was becomi...
06/11/2026

Long before Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier, a young man from 530 Fremont Street in Wi******er was becoming one of the greatest players the game had ever seen. Spottswood Poles learned baseball with a broomstick and a tennis ball before beginning his Negro League career in 1906. By 1909, he was starring for the Philadelphia Giants and proving he could compete with anyone, batting .405 against Major League pitching. From 1911 through 1914, Poles dominated the Negro Leagues, combining speed, power, and hitting ability in a way few players ever have. Years later, a baseball researcher remarked that if you combined Tony Gwynn, Kenny Lofton, and Kirby Puckett into one player, you would get Spottswood Poles.

But Poles was more than a ballplayer. During World War I, he served with the famed Harlem Hellfighters, earning the rank of sergeant, five battle stars, and a Purple Heart while fighting in France. After retiring from baseball with a .328 career average and 162 stolen bases, he returned to Wi******er and started a taxi company before later moving to Harlem. Even in his sixties, while managing a semipro team, he reportedly stepped into a tied game as a pinch hitter and drove in the winning run. When Spottswood Poles died in 1962, he was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Had he been born a century later, his name might be spoken alongside the greatest players in baseball history. Instead, one of Wi******er’s finest remains a legend known by far too few.

He swept his metal detector across the open field in Clearbrook when a limestone outcropping caught his attention. He pa...
06/11/2026

He swept his metal detector across the open field in Clearbrook when a limestone outcropping caught his attention. He passed the coil over the stony spine of gray dolomite and the detector suddenly screamed. Wedged between the stone and only covered with two inches of dirt, he spotted something emerald green. Carefully pulling it free, he brushed away the dirt and revealed a rare Confederate belt buckle marked, “6th Inf. NC State.” More than a century earlier, this very field had been occupied by the 6th North Carolina. One soldier later recalled that their commander, Colonel Charles Frederick Fisher, cared deeply for his men and could often be found cooking breakfast for them while they camped among the fields and hills of Frederick County.

Before the war, Fisher served as president of the North Carolina Railroad. When the regiment was organized in 1861, he commissioned a foundry at Company Shops, North Carolina, to cast just one hundred distinctive buckles with black backgrounds and raised brass lettering. Days after leaving Clearbrook for Manassas, Fisher was killed leading a charge at the First Battle of Bull Run, becoming the first North Carolina colonel to fall in combat. The 6th North Carolina would go on to fight from Seven Pines and Cold Harbor to the Shenandoah Valley and Appomattox. Yet whenever I see that buckle, I find myself wondering about the young soldier who left it behind on those rocks in Clearbrook and whether he survived the long road that followed.

On June 8, 2018, the world lost Anthony Bourdain. More than a chef, he was a storyteller who taught us that the best mea...
06/10/2026

On June 8, 2018, the world lost Anthony Bourdain. More than a chef, he was a storyteller who taught us that the best meals were often found in the most ordinary places and that every town had a story worth telling. He is still deeply missed by those who followed his journeys across the globe. Few people realize that one of those journeys brought him to Wi******er on a warm spring night in 2011. Around 10 p.m., Bourdain and a companion were strolling the brick sidewalks of downtown after returning from Europe when they stopped at the Cork Street Tavern. The tall, silver-haired host of No Reservations ducked through the doorway, looked around the cozy tavern, and settled in at a table. It was exactly the kind of authentic place he loved.

Server Jennifer Barr recognized him immediately. She and her mother watched No Reservations faithfully, but she kept her composure as she took his order—a Stella on tap, a Delmonico steak, french fries, and a salad. As word spread, employees from nearby restaurants quietly stopped by hoping to catch a glimpse of the culinary icon. What they found was a man who treated everyone with kindness. He signed autographs, posed for photographs, and happily agreed when Jennifer asked for a picture to show her mother. Then, just as quickly as he had arrived, Anthony Bourdain disappeared into the night. For a few hours, one of the world’s most famous travelers found comfort in a small Wi******er tavern, leaving behind a memory that those who met him will never forget...

During the Third Battle of Wi******er on September 19, 1864, artillery shells screamed over Market (Cameron) Street as t...
06/10/2026

During the Third Battle of Wi******er on September 19, 1864, artillery shells screamed over Market (Cameron) Street as the fighting raged east of town. Inside the Bell family home, the family huddled in the basement for safety while the battle thundered outside. Amid the chaos, a child was born—Stewart Bell Sr. As Confederate and Union artillery exchanged fire, one shell exploded close enough to shake the house with tremendous force.

The blast did more than rattle the windows. It stopped the tall grandfather clock standing in the hallway, freezing its hands at exactly 4:32 p.m. The clock survives to this day and remains one of Wi******er’s most remarkable timepieces. Though it still runs, it has a curious habit. Each time it reaches 4:32, it stops once again, as if remembering the violent moment when war interrupted the rhythm of a quiet Wi******er home. Only when gently moved beyond that minute will the old clock continue on its way, carrying with it the memory of a birth, a battle, and a single instant forever preserved in time.

I crossed the bridge in the Brookneil subdivision thousands of times growing up, never knowing what had happened in the ...
06/10/2026

I crossed the bridge in the Brookneil subdivision thousands of times growing up, never knowing what had happened in the woods. War the bridge. On the evening of March 23, 1862, those woods near Neil’s Dam were filled with exhausted Confederate soldiers retreating from the First Battle of Kernstown. The men of the 4th and 33rd Virginia had been driven from the stone wall at Rose Hill and forced back from one defensive position after another. As darkness approached, they streamed toward Neil’s Dam, hoping to escape the advancing Union forces. Behind them came Federal cavalry, capturing prisoners and battle flags as the Confederate line collapsed.

Among the retreating soldiers was Lieutenant James H. Langhorne of the 4th Virginia. Surrounded by troopers of the 1st Ohio Cavalry, he refused to surrender. Langhorne fired his pistol at the lead horseman, but when it misfired he cast it aside, drew his sword, and fought on alone. Shot repeatedly and badly wounded, he continued resisting until he could no longer stand. One of the Union cavalrymen later wrote that he had never seen a man display such courage in so hopeless a situation, recalling, “I never saw a man so fearless, so defiant in the face of certain death.” As Langhorne lay wounded in the woods, he removed a gold ring from his finger and handed it to his captors. “Send this to my mother,” he said, “and tell her that I died rather than surrender.” Yet fate had other plans. Lieutenant James Langhorne survived his wounds and was taken prisoner, his story forever tied to those quiet woods beside the bridge in Brookneil.

This excavated 1840 artillery saber is most likely from the First Battle of Wi******er - May 25, 1862. It was found in A...
06/10/2026

This excavated 1840 artillery saber is most likely from the First Battle of Wi******er - May 25, 1862. It was found in Abram's Creek near where Raines’ Virginia Battery crossed that day (behind Malloy Ford).

This sword was bought by E.E. Bayliss in the 1960s and he had it on display in his collection at his real estate office on the triangle off Valley Avenue, (across from Handley High School) for many years.

The whereabouts of this excavated sword is unknown...

After the Confederate victory at First Manassas in July 1861, Wi******er celebrated the triumph, but the celebration was...
06/10/2026

After the Confederate victory at First Manassas in July 1861, Wi******er celebrated the triumph, but the celebration was tempered by grief. Trains arriving from the battlefield also carried home local boys who would never return to their families. The town mourned as black crepe hung from doorways and funeral processions wound through the streets. Even in victory, Wi******er was beginning to understand the terrible cost of the war. Few could imagine that the conflict would continue for another four years and claim thousands more lives.

In the weeks that followed, a call for volunteers appeared on broadsides posted throughout town. Hoping to build on the enthusiasm created by Manassas, Charles Harris, S. H. Brown, and J. L. Towner established recruiting tables at Harris’s warehouse across from the Taylor Hotel. Young men and boys lined up for the chance to join the Confederate cause, many believing the war would soon be won. Once enlisted, they were instructed to report to the old Market House on Market (Cameron) Street, where they were organized into companies and prepared for service. From that gathering place emerged many of the men who would fill the ranks of the famed Stonewall Brigade, marching off to war beneath cheering crowds, unaware of the sacrifices that lay ahead.

As Confederate troops under Stonewall Jackson advanced at the First Battle of Kernstown, Union General James Shields dir...
06/10/2026

As Confederate troops under Stonewall Jackson advanced at the First Battle of Kernstown, Union General James Shields directed his army from the Seever House on Boscawen Street with his arm in a sling. Though unable to take the field himself, Shields directed the battle using a revolutionary new tool—the recently formed U.S. Signal Corps. Created by Major Albert J. Myer, the Corps used a system of wigwag flags to relay messages across great distances. Six signal stations stretched from the hills around Kernstown to Shields’ headquarters in Wi******er, allowing orders and battlefield intelligence to move with a speed never before seen in American warfare.

From stations overlooking the battlefield, signalmen watched Union brigades maneuver and quickly relayed information to Shields and Colonel Nathan Kimball. Their messages helped Union commanders reposition troops and strengthen attacks against Jackson’s line at the stone wall. When the fighting grew fierce, signalmen David Taylor and Oliver Temple put down their flags, picked up muskets, and joined the battle. Taylor had a button shot from his coat while Temple suffered a minor wound. Both were later commended by Myer, and Taylor received one of the earliest honors awarded by the Signal Corps. The wigwag system had not yet been officially named when his award was issued, so the recognition flag bore a single word: “Wi******er.”

Address

Winchester, VA

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Winchester Tales posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to Winchester Tales:

Shortcuts

Share