Although several engagements occurred nearby, Greenwich escaped unscathed, in part because of the creative actions of resident Charles Green, an Englishman. Green flew the British flag over his Carpenter's Gothic Home, The Lawn, built in 1855 (burned 1924). Three years later, he donated land for
Greenwich Presbyterian Church. During the war, when Union troops threatened to appropriate it for a hospital, Green claimed it was neutral British property for use only as a church. The Federals relented and left it untouched. Both Union and Confederate forces passed by here several times in 1862-63. On August 27, 1862, just before the
Second Battle of Manassas, Federal divisions under Gens. Jesse Reno and Isaac Stevens, as well as Col. Orlando Poe's brigade, bivouacked here. They marched to Manassas Junction the next day in pursuit of Confederate Gen. Thomas J.
Stonewall Jackson's force. Federal cavalry chased Maj.
John S. Mosby's rangers through Greenwich on May 30, 1863, after he raided Catlett Station. Mosby made a stand two miles west with a lightweight mountain howitzer but lost the cannon and several rangers including Bradford Smith Hoskins, a former British officer. Hoskins, carried to The Lawn, died of his wounds and was buried in the church cemetery. Confederate Gens. A.P. Hill and
Richard S. Ewell led their corps through Greenwich on October 14, 1863, pursuing the Union army as it withdrew toward the defenses of Washington. Because Hill occupied the direct road to Bristoe Station, Ewell diverted his column to a farm road he knew well, past his childhood home, Stony Lonesome. Hill's attack on the Union rear at the station resulted in a bloody Confederate defeat. ==Greenwich Church==