Editing Leesburg, Virginia (section)

==History==
[[File:Historical Collections of Virginia - Central View of Leesburg.jpg|thumb|"Central View of Leesburg" {{circa|1845}}]]
[[File:Wheat Building-Leesburg VA.jpg|thumb|The Wheat Building]]
[[File:Carlheim in snow Dec2009J.jpg|thumb|[[Carlheim]], also known as the Paxton mansion]]
[[File:Loudoun County Courthouse in Leesburg,Virginia.jpg|thumb|The historic Leesburg courthouse serves as the seat of government for [[Loudoun County, Virginia]].]]
Prior to European settlement, the area around Leesburg was occupied by various [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native American]] tribes.

===17th century===
In 1670, [[John Lederer]] (1670) testified that the entire Piedmont region had once been occupied by the [[Doeg people|"Tacci, alias Dogi"]], but that the [[Siouan]] tribes, driven from the northwest, had occupied it for 400 years.{{citation needed|date=January 2017}}

In 1699, the [[Algonquian peoples|Algonquian]] [[Piscataway people|Piscataway]] (Conoy) moved to an island in the Potomac in the environs of Leesburg, and were there when the first known Europeans visited what is now Loudoun County.<ref name="Schneel">{{cite book |last=Scheel |first=Eugene |title=Loudoun Discovered: Communities and Crossroads, Volume Two, Leesburg and the Old Carolina Road |publisher=Friends of the Thomas Balch Library |location=Leesburg, VA |year=2002}}</ref>

===18th century===
What later became Old Carolina Road and is present day [[U.S. Route 15]] was a major route of travel between north and south for Native tribes. According to local historians, a pitched battle was fought near present Leesburg between the warring [[Catawba people|Catawba]] and [[Lenape]] tribes, neither of whom lived in the area.

A war party of Lenape had traveled from their home in [[New Jersey]] and neighboring regions, all the way to [[South Carolina]] to inflict a blow on their distant enemies, the Catawba. As they were returning northward, a party of Catawbas overtook them before they reached the [[Potomac River]], but were defeated in a pitched battle {{convert|2|mi|0}} south of Leesburg. The surviving Lenape buried their dead in a huge [[tumulus|burial mound]], and early settlers reported that they would return to this mound to honor their dead on the anniversary of this battle for many years thereafter. The date of this conflict is unknown, but it seems the Lenape and Catawba were at war in the 1720s and 1730s.<ref>{{cite book |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/38130/38130-h/38130-h.htm |title=Legends of Loudoun |first=Harrison |last=Williams |pages=63–64 |year=1938 |publisher=Garrett & Massie |location=Richmond, VA |access-date=August 10, 2013 |archive-date=October 13, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131013162251/http://www.gutenberg.org/files/38130/38130-h/38130-h.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

European settlement near Leesburg began in the late 1730s as [[Tidewater (region)|Tidewater]] planters moved into the area from the south and east, establishing large farms and plantations.{{citation needed|date=January 2017}} Many of the [[First Families of Virginia]] were among those to settle in the area, including the Carters, Lees and Masons.{{citation needed|date=January 2017}} The genesis of Leesburg occurred sometime before 1755, when Nicholas Minor acquired land around the intersection of the Old Carolina Road and the Potomac Ridge Road on present-day [[Virginia State Route 7|Route 7]] and established a tavern there.{{citation needed|date=January 2017}}

Despite lack of growth around the tavern, upon Loudoun County's formation in 1757, Minor dubbed the sparse collection of buildings about his tavern "George Town" in honor of the reigning monarch of [[Great Britain]].{{citation needed|date=January 2017}} The village's prosperity changed the following year when the British Colonial Council ordered the establishment of the county courthouse at the crossroads.{{citation needed|date=January 2017}}

Minor had a town laid out on the traditional Virginia plan of six criss-cross streets. On October 12 of that year (1758), the [[Virginia General Assembly]] founded the town of Leesburg upon the {{convert|60|acre|km2}} that Minor laid out.<ref name="Schneel"/> Leesburg was renamed to honor the influential [[Thomas Lee (Virginia colonist)|Thomas Lee]] and not, as is popular belief, his son [[Francis Lightfoot Lee]], who lived in Loudoun and brought up the bill to establish Leesburg.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.leesburgva.gov/visitors/history-of-leesburg |title=Town of Leesburg: A Brief History of Leesburg |work=Official website of the Town of Leesburg, Virginia |access-date=May 11, 2015 |archive-date=March 15, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150315000211/http://leesburgva.gov/visitors/history-of-leesburg |url-status=live }}</ref>{{Failed verification|date=February 2021}} When the post office was established in Leesburg in 1803, the branch was named "Leesburgh"; the "h" persisted until 1894.<ref name="Schneel"/><!-- p. 23 -->

===19th century===
During the [[War of 1812]], Leesburg served as a temporary haven for the United States government and its archives, including the [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]] and the [[Constitution of the United States|U.S. Constitution]] and portraits of early American leaders, including [[Benjamin Franklin]], when it was forced to flee [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]] in the face of the [[British Army]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/news/2008/jul/22/rokeby-house-becomes-nations-capital/ |title=Rokeby House Becomes Nation's Capital: Was Leesburg really the U.S. capital in 1814? |access-date=July 22, 2008 |archive-date=January 11, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150111105315/http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/news/2008/jul/22/rokeby-house-becomes-nations-capital/ |url-status=live }}</ref> When reconstruction began on the [[United States Capitol]], [[Marble|Potomac marble]] from quarries just south of Leesburg was used.<ref name="Schneel"/><!-- p.26 -->

Early in the [[American Civil War]], Leesburg was the site of the [[Battle of Ball's Bluff]], a small but significant [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] victory. The battlefield, along the Potomac River {{convert|2|mi|0}} northeast of the town center, is marked by one of America's smallest national cemeteries. The town frequently changed hands over the course of the war as both armies traversed the area during the [[Maryland campaign|Maryland]] and [[Gettysburg campaign|Gettysburg]] campaigns.

The [[Battle of Mile Hill]] was fought just north of the town prior to its occupation by [[Robert E. Lee]] in September 1862.<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Turner |editor1-first=Fitzhugh |title=Loudoun County and the Civil War |publisher=Willow Bend Books |location=Leesburg VA |year=1998}}</ref> Leesburg also served as a base of operations for Col. [[John S. Mosby]] and his partisan [[43rd Virginia Cavalry Battalion|Raiders]]. The local courthouse is among the few courthouses in Virginia that was not burned during the Civil War; the present one was built in 1894.

In 1889, a 14-year-old black American [[Lynching of Orion Anderson|Orion Anderson]] was killed by a white mob at the town's freight depot; his murder would be the second of three recorded lynchings in [[Loudoun County, Virginia]], between 1880 and 1902.<ref name="wamu">{{cite news |url=https://wamu.org/story/19/06/18/first-of-three-young-black-lynching-victims-in-loudoun-county-to-be-memorialized/ |access-date=November 9, 2022 |title=First Of Three Young, Black Lynching Victims In Loudoun County To Be Memorialized |date=June 18, 2019 |publisher=[[WAMU]] |archive-date=November 20, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201120205300/https://wamu.org/story/19/06/18/first-of-three-young-black-lynching-victims-in-loudoun-county-to-be-memorialized/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

===20th century===
In the 20th century, Leesburg was the home of [[World War II]] General [[George C. Marshall]], architect of the famous [[Marshall Plan]] that helped re-build [[Europe]] after the war, and radio personality [[Arthur Godfrey]], who donated land for the town's first airport.

Leesburg continued to serve as the center of government and commerce for Loudoun County. The town's [[Leesburg Historic District (Leesburg, Virginia)|historic district]] was placed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]] in 1970 and cited as one of the best preserved and most picturesque downtowns in Virginia.<ref>{{cite web |title=Leesburg, Virginia |url=https://www.achp.gov/preserve-america/community/leesburg-virginia |publisher=Advisory Council on Historic Preservation |access-date=November 4, 2019 |archive-date=November 4, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191104222134/https://www.achp.gov/preserve-america/community/leesburg-virginia |url-status=live }}</ref>

===21st century===
In the 21st century, Downtown merchants have recently labeled themselves "Loudoun's Original Town Center," largely in response to the growing number of mixed-use shopping areas in proximity.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.downtownleesburgva.com/ |title=Official website for the Leesburg Downtown Business Association |access-date=May 11, 2015 |archive-date=May 22, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150522095239/http://www.downtownleesburgva.com/ |url-status=usurped }}</ref> Leesburg has served Loudoun's [[county seat]] continuously since the county's formation in 1757.<ref>{{cite news |newspaper=[[Loudoun Times-Mirror]] |title=Leesburg says county should stay |date=September 12, 2007 |page=A1}}</ref>

===Historic sites===
The Leesburg area contains twenty-one entries on the [[National Register of Historic Places]], including:
* [[File:Dodona Manor.JPG|thumb|266x266px|George C. Marshall's Dodona Manor is open to the public as a museum.]] [[George C. Marshall's Dodona Manor|Dodona Manor]], the restored, early 19th century home of [[George C. Marshall]], a [[general officer|general]] and [[diplomacy|diplomat]] who received the [[Nobel Peace Prize]] and owned the home from 1941 until his death in 1959.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.georgecmarshall.org/ |title=Dodona Manor: official website of the George C. Marshall International Center |access-date=September 30, 2008 |archive-date=July 16, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160716082349/http://www.georgecmarshall.org/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
* [[Exeter (Leesburg, Virginia)|Exeter Plantation]], delisted after it burned down.<ref>{{cite web |title=Exeter History |url=http://www.exeterhoa.com/about.php |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080509123724/http://www.exeterhoa.com/about.php |archive-date=May 9, 2008 |access-date=September 30, 2008 |work=Exeter Homeowners Association}}</ref>
* [[Glenfiddich House]], a former Civil War era hospital where Robert E. Lee planned the invasion of [[Maryland]].<ref>{{Cite web |author=Miles LeHane Companies |title=Tour the Historic Glenfiddich House! |url=https://www.mileslehane.com/tour-the-historic-glenfiddich-house |access-date=August 2, 2022 |website=www.mileslehane.com |language=en |archive-date=August 15, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220815121357/https://www.mileslehane.com/tour-the-historic-glenfiddich-house |url-status=live }}</ref>
* [[Morven Park]], the estate of Virginia Governor [[Westmoreland Davis]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.morvenpark.org/ |title=Morven Park - Historic Site Equestrian Center and Event Venue in Leesburg, VA |access-date=May 11, 2015 |archive-date=May 16, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150516165327/http://www.morvenpark.org/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
* [[Oatlands Historic House & Gardens]], a [[National Historic Landmark]] and former home of [[George Carter I|George Carter]] and [[William Corcoran Eustis]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.oatlands.org/ |title=Oatlands Historic House and Gardens |access-date=May 11, 2015 |archive-date=May 16, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150516154635/http://www.oatlands.org/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
* [[White's Ferry]], before closing in December 2020<ref>{{cite web |url=https://wtop.com/montgomery-county/2020/12/whites-ferry-river-crossing-in-montgomery-co-ceases-operations-after-court-decision/ |title=WTOP: White's Ferry River Crossing in Montgomery County Ceases Operations After Court Decision |date=December 29, 2020 |access-date=February 21, 2021 |archive-date=January 30, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210130090347/https://wtop.com/montgomery-county/2020/12/whites-ferry-river-crossing-in-montgomery-co-ceases-operations-after-court-decision/ |url-status=live }}</ref> was the only remaining [[ferry]] across the [[Potomac River]], with its Virginia terminus {{convert|4|mi|0}} northeast of town. It was a cable-guided car and passenger ferry. A ferry had plied the river from this site since 1828. According to [[WTOP-FM|WTOP]], a Loudoun County businessman purchased White's Ferry in February 2021 with the express purpose of reviving the historic Potomac River crossing.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://wtop.com/business-finance/2021/02/whites-ferry-purchased-by-loudoun-county-businessman-and-landowner/ |title=White's Ferry Purchased by Loudoun County Businessman and Landowne |date=February 12, 2021 |access-date=February 21, 2021 |archive-date=February 14, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210214111726/https://wtop.com/business-finance/2021/02/whites-ferry-purchased-by-loudoun-county-businessman-and-landowner/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

At least sixty-three historic markers are located in and near Leesburg.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.hmdb.org/results.asp?Town=Leesburg&State=Virginia |title=Leesburg Markers |work=The Historical Marker Database |access-date=October 1, 2008 |archive-date=March 12, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120312095223/http://www.hmdb.org/results.asp?Town=Leesburg&State=Virginia |url-status=live }}</ref>