Home of Senator James Mason destroyed by Union Troops

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Joined
Oct 14, 2014
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Virginia
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Mason was a pre-War Senator from Virginia best known for his work on the Fugitive Slave Act and his involvement in the Trent Affair. He served as the representative of the Confederacy to Great Britain. He was related by marriage to the Lee family. His sister married Sydney Smith Lee, brother of Robert E. and was the mother of Fitzhugh Lee. The man was pretty well connected.

However all these good connections did not save his home from occupying Union Forces. They may have in fact made him an absent target. While serving the Confederacy abroad his home Selma, located on the outskirts of Winchester was vacant. During the Milroy occupation of Winchester (Dec 1862-June 1863) his home was destroyed by Union troops who broke the house up for firewood. Stones from the home were used to build nearby Star Fort.

After the war Mason returned to Winchester for a visit where 'the havoc of war inflicted on his hometown grieved him greatly. Many of the homes he once visited and the friends he knew before the war were gone." According to his daughter he came back home 'an old man'.

Selma was rebuilt in the early 1870s by Judge Edmund Pendleton and he kept the name 'Selma'. It is now a private residence. I have not been able to find any pictures of the original house but there is a sketch of it floating around somewhere but I have not been able to find it so I don't know how closely this house resembles the original but it is a very pretty house in its own right. It is located on Amherst Street.
 
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