Fairfax Saving Civil War-Era Graffiti

WASHINGTON - They are voices from the past, scrawled on walls by Civil War soldiers long gone. Now they are being preserved.

The targets of the $1.5 million project, which breaks ground Saturday, are the walls on both floors and the attic of the old Blenheim House, still standing on Lee Highway in Fairfax.

Union troops on their way to Gettysburg or Second Manassas scrawled about 100 messages there as they passed through Fairfax over the course of the war.

"They were mainly from the states of New York and Pennsylvania," says Chris Martin, the city's historic resources director. "The fragile plaster that they wrote on will be restored and preserved."

Some of the messages were about misery, and some were even funny, Martin says.

One message serves as almost a political cartoon. One soldier "has no rations … no pants, no patriotism, and that's how that one ends," Martin says.

Another, scrawled in German, "says essentially, ‘Shame on you for writing on these walls,' " he says, noting that several German regiments passed through Fairfax.

In addition to restoring the house, the City of Fairfax is building a visitor's center that will eventually be open for tours.

The project is scheduled for completion in the middle of 2008.

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