Chapman's Mill

Meat Curing Warehouse

After a devastating fire in 1858, Chapman's Mill was rebuilt to a seven story height on the Fauquier side and six stories on the Prince William side. When the Civil War began, the Confederate Subsistence Department established a meat-curing facility at the mill to supply the army with meat. By late 1861, the plant was operating at full capacity, with huge pens holding cattle and pigs, ready for slaughter. Two million pounds of meat were in the curing process.

On March 9th, 1862 when the Confederates withdrew from Centreville, General Joseph E. Johnston ordered that all the meat supplies at Chapman's Mill be destroyed. About one million pounds of meat were burned in one huge "barbeque." The smell of burning meat carried for twenty miles from the mill! The fire also destroyed the newly rebuilt interior of the mill.

Johnston and President Davis became estranged over how Chapman's Mill and the meat were burned, and the animals killed. President Davis felt they should have been moved south by railroad.

Kelly Rodiman researched and wrote this "history bite"