Posts Tagged ‘civil war’

Many visitors and GWW readers do not know that Mount Vernon is owned by the Mount Vernon Ladies Association. Fifty years after Washington’s death, a group of women banded together to raise money and purchase Mount Vernon in order to preserve it for future generations (as you can see from the picture on the left, it was in pretty sorry shape- there was even an old ship mast holding up one end of the piazza). One of these brave women was Sarah Cornelia Tracy, a secretary to the regent, Ann Pamela Cunningham of South Carolina.

As the Civil War was descending on the nation, Sarah Tracy (and her sister as chaperone) moved into Mount Vernon to protect the estate and ensure absolute neutrality. She was left with little money, a crumbling house, and rumors swirling that Washington’s body had been removed from the tomb to the mountains of Virginia. At one point, she braved barricades, destroyed roads, and a night in a commandeered house, for promises of neutrality and supplies from General McClellan. For eight years, she served as doctor and manager at Mount Vernon while selling flowers, produce, and jewelry she made out of coffee beans in order to raise money. The Ladies Association also appointed a Superintendent to care for the estate, Upton Herbert, who was trapped at Mount Vernon through the war- as a Southerner he could not go to Alexandria, which was being held by Federal forces, and he could not go into Virginia without being conscripted into the Confederate forces. After Miss Tracy finally resigned in 1868, she married Mr. Herbert and they finally passed on the care of George Washington’s home to make their own home together in Burke, Va. More information about the preservation and archaeology of Mount Vernon can be found on our website.