In March of 1863, after he had established a line of communication from Confederate sympathizers in the War Department in Washington to Richmond, Stringfellow undertook the audacious challenge of capturing a Union Picket Post in Lorton.

He learned that the picket command post was at the Widow Violett’s house, a former Lorton landmark located in the “Y” intersection of Lorton and Furnace roads. The intrepid scout concluded there couldn’t be more than fifty Yanks at the command post, so he and Captain Farrow’s thirty-six men should be able to take it in a surprise attack.

He located Farrow and his men south of the Occaquan river and convinced them to join him in a night assault on the Widow Violett’s house. However, Stringfellow felt concern that the company contained primarily new recruits with only a couple having ever fired a shot. Snow fell heavily as the column reached the river where the soldiers broke the inch of ice with their carbines. The noise of coaxing the horses down the steep bank caused the Union pickets to fire into the darkness. After the difficult crossing, Stringfellow had only eighteen men who were willing to proceed with the venture.

The attackers approached the post on foot, then sprawled in the snow while Farrow moved forward to listen against the kitchen wall. The enemy knew they were out there but felt secure inside their fortress. He determined that of the thirty men in the house, twenty were in the kitchen. Stringfellow and three men were to storm the kitchen, while Farrow took the rest through the front door to carry the house. To make their prey think they had departed, the Rebels waited hours in the frigid weather. Shortly before dawn, the house quieted and the numb Confederates knew they must strike or be overwhelmed by the larger force at sunrise.

Several gray soldiers crashed through the kitchen door and fired at everything moving. Bullets indiscriminately struck friend and foe in the darkness. A carbine fired so close to Stringfellow’s back that it jarred him. A blue-clad soldier pushed a gun into the scout’s side, but a friendly shot fired through a porthole from outside suddenly felled the Yank.

Next, one of Stringfellow’s new men mistook him for the commander of the post. In the scout’s own words, “He seemed convinced that it was his special task to kill me. I caught a glimpse of a pistol at my head, threw it aside just as he fired, cutting off a lock of hair under my ear. I explained to him who I was and thought the matter settled. But while I was fighting another man, he took a second shot at me, so close as to stick powder in my face. By now I was convinced I would have to take his pistol or he would kill me. We had a scuffle for life and I fell on top, but he even fired then, hitting the large brass buckle on my belt. For a moment it knocked the breath out me, and I had a strong notion to kill him anyway. I explained again who I was and told him if he shot at me again I would kill him.”

When the smoke cleared, dead and wounded covered the kitchen floor. Stringfellow received word of Farrow’s wounding and rushed outside to his old friend. Although mortally wounded, Farrow asked Stringfellow to cock his pistol for him and help him get back into the fight. Stringfellow supported Farrow, they entered the house and Farrow fired every shot in his pistol. Room after room surrendered. Upon departure, Stringfellow left Farrow at a nearby house where the dying soldier presented the scout his revolver.

The Confederates made off with twenty prisoners, but there is no doubt Frank Stringfellow had loomed larger than life to his enemies. The Union report of the March 22, 1863 raid claimed that up to a hundred Confederates had overpowered the picket post.