Upton's Hill

[5] By the time the Civil War opened in 1861, Upton had built a fine home atop the hill, on the northeast corner of today's Wilson Boulevard and McKinley Street.

Four Mile Run was an important water source, and soapstone quarries upstream from the hill in Falls Church—also home to an Indian camp—testify to the stream's popularity.

English colonists established Falls Church as a regional center of government and worship in 1733, choosing as its location a place that was approximately one day's horseback ride from the Potomac River.

Virginia's interior and mountain areas were settled, and the promise of increasing commerce drove the founding of the Alexandria, Loudoun & Hampshire Railroad.

Although the American Civil War is often thought to have a distinct beginning, on Upton's Hill the disquiet began in 1859, with the unsuccessful raid by abolitionist John Brown on the U.S. armory at Harper's Ferry.

The nature of each citizen's vote was verbally announced by the clerk of the polling station, and Northerners were physically intimidated by armed Southerners—-some of them officers in the new Confederate army—-who had gathered.

Hugh accused his brother, John A. Throckmorton, of leading a band of 15-20 Southerners who intimidated Northern voters at Ball's Crossroads in present-day Ballston and later in Falls Church.

One of his men came to Upton's home that night looking for Hugh, who hid in a cornfield and fled at dawn's first light, not stopping until he crossed the safety of the Potomac River into Washington.

Confederate Army troops—led by his estranged son-in-law, John Throckmorton—occupied his fine home, seizing the furniture and also three slaves belonging to Hugh Throckmorton.

[10] Events quickly shifted in the Union's favor as Confederate troops withdraw from the hill in late September 1861 and regrouped at Manassas.

The fruit trees were cut and a large masonry fort was constructed opposite the road (now Wilson Boulevard), at the hill's topmost point.

National history was made when one of the most famous songs of all time, Battle Hymn of the Republic, was composed as a result of events on Upton's Hill.

In November 1861, Julia Ward Howe rode from Washington in a carriage with the governor of Massachusetts and other family friends to Upton's Hill for a review of troops.

The review was interrupted by reports of a firefight west of Falls Church between a possibly outgunned Union army cavalry and a larger Confederate force.

Atlantic Monthly published Mrs. Howe's composition as a poem, set to the tune "John Brown's Body", in February 1862, calling it "Battle Hymn of the Republic".

During later years confusion set in, as local historians mistakenly attributed the song's birth to a much larger and better known review held by President Abraham Lincoln at Bailey's Crossroads.

A replica of a "Quaker gun"—a log painted black used to fool the enemy into believing the fort was defended with more guns—is also located in the park.

Seven Corners, a locally prominent shopping district, occupies neighboring Perkins Hill to the south and the shallow valley which separates the two.