sting book called _Memories of
Long Ago_ tells this story:

One day in the spring of 1861, as I was passing the residence of the
pastor of St. John's Church, The Rev. Mr. Tillinghast, quite near
our house, I was attracted by the sight of a dashing young Cavalry
officer, who was showing off the paces of his handsome black charger
to the Minister. I lingered nearby, greatly enjoying the equestrian
performance, and upon its conclusion I was informed by the
clergyman, that the name of the young officer was William Orton
Williams, and that he was the military secretary of Lt. General
Winfield Scott.

In the following year I was shocked to read in a local newspaper the
account of the trial and conviction of Williams and his cousin, Lt.
W. G. Peter (resident of Georgetown) as spies under the assumed
names of General W. C. Auton and Major Dunlop, of the Union Army, by
a drumhead Court Martial, and their conviction and execution by
hanging. In recent years I was informed by my wife's mother, Mrs.
Ross, that she remembered Williams quite well, and that he was
engaged to Miss Anne Lee, the daughter of General R. E. Lee; but
that she died, on the outbreak of the Civil War. Mrs. Ross was a
cousin of General Lee, and a freqeunt visitor at Arlington before
the secession of Virginia.

Williams was of distinguished ancestry, the son of Capt. William G.
Williams, a graduate of West Point of the class of 1822, who was
mortally wounded at the Battle of Monterey, Mexico, while serving on
the staff of General Zachary Taylor, and his mother, America Peter
was the daughter of Thomas Peter, a prominent citizen of
Georgetown, whose wife Martha Parke Custis was the granddaughter of
Mrs. George Washington and an aunt of Mary Custis the wife of
General R. E. Lee.

Just next door to this house is the site where, even before 1780, stood
the Columbian Academy of which Mr. Rogers was the principal and of which
Dr. Balch became the head in 1781. It was a large, two-story frame
building, having a high entrance porch, where hung the bell. It stood on
a hill which commanded a fine view of the river from the study rooms
upstairs. Adjacent to the schoolroom was a large garden in the middle
of which was a jessamine arbor. Two of General Washington's nephews were
students of the school and lived with the principal.

Here was housed the Columbia