tem did to
the Confederacy, however, was that it put Yankee soldiers in a
mood to be vengeful.[90]

During the years when normal business at the courthouse was suspended
and the county officials who held authority from the General Assembly
were dispersed, some of the county's records were removed from the
courthouse for safekeeping, and some were not.[91] In either case they
were subject to the risks of loss and damage. Some were carried off
and in later years have been brought to light as the descendents of
Union and Confederate soldiers have found them in places where they
had been put for safekeeping.

The jail building ceased to be used for its original purpose, and,
during the latter months of the war, the jail of Alexandria County
(now Arlington County) was utilized for Fairfax County's
prisoners.[92]

The effort to provide a legitimate successor to the secession
government in Richmond started in the Wheeling Conventions of May and
June 1861, from which came the Unionist government of Francis H.
Pierpont.[93] The admission of West Virginia to the Union in December
1862[94] left Governor Pierpont in control of only those parts of
Northern Virginia, the Shenandoah Valley, and Chesapeake Bay that were
occupied by Federal troops. Within this area, the Pierpont
administration collected taxes and attempted to supply the essential
services of civilian government. Closer touch with these problems was
possible after June 1863, when Governor Pierpont moved his government
to Alexandria.

On January 19, 1863, a new County Court for Fairfax County was
convened pursuant to a proclamation by Governor Pierpont which
directed that the place for the court's sessions should be changed
from Fairfax Court House to the Village of West End[95] near
Alexandria. Here, in January 1863, the Court met in a structure known
as Bruin's Building. The minutes of this and other sessions which
followed recite many of the same problems and disputes that always had
occupied the time of county courts--dockets of minor criminal and
civil cases, petitions to higher levels of government, determination
of minor civil disputes, issuances of permits and licenses, and
appointment of public officials.[96]

Certain items in the minutes of this January 19, 1863 meeting
documented the strains created by the wartime conditions: a petition
to the Secretary of War prayed that the "Bruin Building" in the
Village of West End be placed at the court's d