Where, you may be wondering, was McClellan before and after the marriage of A. P. Hill and his beloved Dolly? McClellan had left the army to take a job as chief engineers of the Illinois Central Railroad. But in March 1858 he was still pining away over Ellen Marcy. Along with the rest of the nation he read in the papers of the courageous winter rescue relief operation from Wyoming to New Mexico led by Capt. Marcy. 
He saw this as an opportunity and he penned a letter on impressively embossed …

As she stood between her brother and husband who would both gain fame as Confederate warriors, little could the new bride imagine that both would give their last full measure of devotion to the Confederacy.

Mrs. Marcy had mixed emotions about her daughter’s broken engagement to A. P. Hill. She too had won—and lost. Her hope was for Ellen to marry McClellan but that hope seemed blasted by the Hill affair.

Unsuspecting George McClellan returned to Washington and stepped into a swirling caldron….not only was Ellen engaged, but to his best friend, A. P. Hill.

Suitors were swarming around Ellen Marcy like moths to a flame. Ellen and her mother spent the winter of 1855-56 at the Willard Hotel in Washington. Who should be assigned to duty in Washington but McClellan’s close friend, the charming and dashing A. P. Hill.

When George McClellan met Ellen Marcy he fell head over heels in love. Her parents loved McClellan dearly, but unfortunately their daughter didn’t.

A triangle: George McClellan, Ellen Marcy, and A. P. Hill. What happens when two close West Point friends fall in love with the same young lady?

According to Virginia Morton, author of “Marching Through Culpeper,” former Confederate scout Frank Stringfellow died of a heart attack at age 73. See photos of grave…

Rev. Frank Stringfellow had led a life full of love and service to God. He could ask for no more, yet there was a dream hidden in his heart for one more blessing. His life had been spiritually rich, but the salary of a minister does provide material wealth. Wealth itself was not his goal, but the opportunity to visit the Holy Land was his most cherished dream. He wanted to walk where his Lord and Savior had walked, to see the sites where Christ had preached, and to absorb the power of those Holy shrines.

His lovely daughters had married well. Two of his daughters and their husbands gave Frank and Emma their dream cruise. In 1907, they joined a tour of ministers to Europe and the Holy Land. This life-changing journey in his sixty-seventh year rejuvenated Rev. Stringfellow’s energy to preach and be a faithful servant of the Lord. He wrote to one of his daughters, “How much of the good done to me can I transmit to others? I have had a great spiritual uplift, with it comes increased responsibility. I hope the light within me may never be put under a bushel, but be put upon the candle stand.”

And for the next six years he let his light shine brightly. Rev. Stringfellow’s philosophy of life can best be summarized in a letter he wrote his grown daughter encouraging her never to complain, “Serve God and your generation with an unselfish spirit, and the same sun which rose often on you in splendor may follow you in life, and come down in a blaze of glory. We can only do our part faithfully, and the thing which befalls us will be the best thing for us in the two lives which we must all live, the here and the hereafter.”*
Rev. Frank Stringfellow had led a life full of love and service to God. He could ask for no more, yet there was a dream hidden in his heart for one more blessing. His life had been spiritually rich, but the salary of a minister does provide material wealth. Wealth itself was not his goal, but the opportunity to visit the Holy Land was his most cherished dream. He wanted to walk where his Lord and Savior had walked, to see the sites where Christ had preached, and to absorb the power of those Holy shrines.

His lovely daughters had married well. Two of his daughters and their husbands gave Frank and Emma their dream cruise. In 1907, they joined a tour of ministers to Europe and the Holy Land. This life-changing journey in his sixty-seventh year rejuvenated Rev. Stringfellow’s energy to preach and be a faithful servant of the Lord. He wrote to one of his daughters, “How much of the good done to me can I transmit to others? I have had a great spiritual uplift, with it comes increased responsibility. I hope the light within me may never be put under a bushel, but be put upon the candle stand.”

And for the next six years he let his light shine brightly. Rev. Stringfellow’s philosophy of life can best be summarized in a letter he wrote his grown daughter encouraging her never to complain, “Serve God and your generation with an unselfish spirit, and the same sun which rose often on you in splendor may follow you in life, and come down in a blaze of glory. We can only do our part faithfully, and the thing which befalls us will be the best thing for us in the two lives which we must all live, the here and the hereafter.”*
According to Virginia Morton, author of “Marching Through Culpeper,” visiting the Holy Land was Rev. Frank Stringfellow’s cherished dream. His grown daughters and their spouses made that dream a reality in 1907.

Former Confederate spy Rev. Frank Stringfellow continued to employ his legendary ingenuity and sense of humor to the challenges he faced as a minister. But there is no better example than his achievements as a rainmaker in Boydton, Va.