This Week in Virginia History

“Crazy.” “I fall to pieces.” “Walking after midnight.” All classic Patsy Cline songs that may have been unknown today if not for a televised talent show competition.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Richmond native James Branch Cabell was a little known author, even though he had already published eleven books. So nobody really expected his twelfth book -- Jurgen – to cause much of a splash. At least until it caught the eye of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice.

Many Virginians know that the city of Richmond burned at the end of the Civil War. But that wasn’t its first time being destroyed by fire. That blaze happened during the Revolutionary War, and by an American traitor to boot.

Born in France and an engineer in Napoleon's army, Claudius Crozet eventually found his way to Virginia, where he became the chief engineer of the Blue Ridge Railroad Company. The company tasked Crozet with connecting Charlottesville to Staunton by railroad. But a rather large obstacle stood in his way – the Blue Ridge Mountains.

December 23, 1783 was an emotional day for George Washington. Crowds cheered for George Washington as he rode to Annapolis, Maryland. Despite their enthusiasm, Washington had one goal in mind – he was resigning as Commander in Chief of the Continental Army. Just three months earlier, the British had finally recognized American independence.

The second greatest leader since Booker T. Washington. The wealthiest African-American woman in the whole country. A supporter of educational and social work. Newspapers glowingly described all of Maggie Lena Walker’s many accomplishments after her death in December 1934. But the story of her rise to a position of public esteem reads like fiction.

Revolution was brewing in Virginia. Royal governor Lord Dunmore took a number of actions that sparked civil unrest, and local militias began to muster. It all led to a battle at a Norfolk bridge.

Guilty of conspiracy. Guilty of inciting an insurrection. And guilty of treason. So were the charges against John Brown after his failed raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry. The sentence – death by hanging.

Nat Turner’s 1831 rebellion horrified white Virginians and scared all of the slaveholding south. Anti-slavery debates erupted in the Virginia Legislature -- and afforded women their first chance to have their voices heard in state politics.

A century ago, the so-called City Beautiful movement was all the rage. The goal was to make cities nice-looking with parks and monuments to by-gone eras. Stockbroker and philanthropist Paul McIntire hired New York artist Henry Shrady to create a huge Robert E. Lee statue for a new whites-only park in downtown Charlottesville.