Post by Diane Merkel on May 7, 2016 9:48:30 GMT -6
If you have a few million to invest . . . .
Diane
He [Clark Hall] believes that, though gutted, the home retains its integrity and could serve as an interpretative tool for the history that occurred in and around it, perhaps most notably Custer’s honeymoon visit with wife, Libbie Bacon, the daughter of a Michigan judge. The two exchanged vows on Feb. 9, 1864, and traveled to West Point, New York City and Washington, where huge receptions awaited them, according to Hall. Libbie adored Custer, calling him “my dear life hero, my boy general.”
While in Washington, Custer received urgent telegrams from the Army of the Potomac winter headquarters at Brandy Station directing him to report immediately. His bride begged not to be left behind, and they soon arrived by coach in Stevensburg, where Libbie was made comfortable at Clover Hill, the home of Jack Barbour, president and founder of the Orange & Alexandria Railroad.
Barbour had the money to renovate the much older house in 1840, Hall surmised, and he was not in residence when Mr. and Mrs. Custer showed up. Custer quickly departed for a raid toward Charlottesville on Feb. 28, returning to Clover Hill on March 2.
In honor of his bride, Custer renamed the place Camp Libbie, Hall said. She was entertained with trips to the army’s main signal station at nearby Mount Pony, frequently hoisted into “a silver-harnessed coach.” From atop the summit, Libbie wrote her parents that she observed the “white tents of the Army … stretched far as eye could see.”
Diane
