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TO SET THE RECORD straight: George Washington and the Marquis de Lafayette never attended a ball together in Fredericksburg to celebrate the end of the American Revolution.
The myth is one that's been repeated so many times and in such detail for nearly 150 years that it has even found its way into history books and Washington biographies.
So the organizers of the Washington-Lafayette Commemorative Ball on Nov. 15 wish to make clear that the event celebrates the spirit of the affectionate relationship between the two men and the city of Fredericksburg, not a legendary November ball that never took place.
"Absolutely it's a symbolic occasion, not a re-creation," said Edwin Watson, executive director of the Fredericksburg Area Museum and Cultural Center.
"We're commemorating the enormous regard that the people of Fredericksburg felt for Lafayette, and the friendship and respect between Washington and Lafayette."
The ball also is one of the culminating events in the city's 275th anniversary observance.
Indeed, Washington and the young Lafayette enjoyed a genuine friendship, not just a military relationship.
The wealthy Frenchman was only 20 when he came to America to join the war effort. He was commissioned a major general in the Continental Army and assigned to the staff of Gen. Washington, a man 25 years his elder.
The relationship that developed during the war has been characterized as that of father and son.
To Americans, Lafayette was truly a hero. Not only did he prove to be a brilliant military leader, but he was also a diplomat, persuading France to join the Americans in their fight against Britain, and pressing for a signed peace treaty.
In Fredericksburg he was especially revered because of his ties to Washington, and that affinity enhanced the town's pro-French feelings for many years to come.
So the idea of a ball to honor Washington and Lafayette and celebrate independence was not far-fetched.
The fictitious legend of the "Fredericksburg Peace Ball" supposedly attended by both famous generals has been perpetuated not just in history books, but in memoirs, newspaper articles, family traditions, and even art.
As the story goes, Gen. Washington was on his way home to Mount Vernon on or about Nov. 12, 1781, after the Yorktown campaign that resulted in the defeat of British Gen. Cornwallis on Oct. 19.
Accompanied by an illustrious group of both French and American military officers, he stopped in Fredericksburg to visit his mother, intending to continue on to Mount Vernon.
But the excellent people of Fredericksburg were in a mood to celebrate, and they prevailed upon the august assembly of officers to stay for an impromptu ball.
Somehow, city officials hastily arranged a grand and glorious affair replete with toasts and food and music and dancing.
Among the notables said to have attended the ball at the Rising Sun Tavern were some of the most famous Frenchmen involved in the American fight for liberty: Lafayette, le Comte de Grasse and Rochambeau.
The foreign officers were said to have been impressed by the character of Washington's mother, and astounded at her modest appearance and reserved and dignified manner.
Mary, according to legend, happily received the complimentary attentions before retiring early, saying that it was high time for old folks to be in bed.
The rest of the folks partied on, enjoying the festive occasion and the opportunity to mingle with celebrities of the victorious French and American military.
Trouble is, there was no such ball.
"Isn't it a charming story?" said Paula Felder, a Fredericksburg historian. "What a shame it never happened."
In fact, said Felder, most of the people said to have been there were not even anywhere near Fredericksburg when the Peace Ball is supposed to have taken place.
"Some have been firmly documented as being elsewhere," she said, "and there is good evidence that others could not possibly have been in Fredericksburg at the time."
No contemporary newspapers contain any mention of such a ball, either, according to David M. Matteson, author of an article about the Peace Ball published in The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography.
Nor is there any mention of such a Peace Ball in letters of the period, he said.
Historians believe such a momentous occasion would have merited an account in personal correspondence or at least a Fredericksburg paper of the period.
In his article, Matteson says the myth of the ball can be traced back to 1856 and an account written by George Washington Parke Custis.
Though he was only 6 months old when the ball was said to have taken place, Custis described convincing details of the event, marking it as a historic affair.
Custis wrote the account more than 75 years after the date of the supposed event, and more than 50 years after Washington's death in 1799.
His "recollections" were secondhand, decades-old and without documentation.
Matteson said Gen. Washington himself had been preoccupied with a close family death on the date ascribed to the ball. He was present at Eltham when his stepson had died only a week earlier, a situation Washington detailed in a letter to his military secretary, Lt. Col. Jonathan Trumbull Jr.
Matteson said even if Washington had not been involved in burial arrangements and seeing to transportation back to Mount Vernon, it is unlikely he would have approved of such a social occasion during his family's bereavement.
In addition, Matteson said Lafayette "had left Yorktown before Washington and was then at Philadelphia, Rochambeau was with his army at Yorktown preparing for winter quarters, and Grasse had left with his fleet for the West Indies."
There also is evidence that Mary Washington was away from Fredericksburg visiting relatives across the Blue Ridge on the date of the legendary ball.
But the myth apparently given life by Custis' account took hold and continued to thrive throughout the 19th century, and not just in Virginia.
A painting done in New York in 1897 gave color and credence to the legend.
"Peace Ball in Fredericksburg" was painted by Jennie Brownscombe, a genre painter from Pennsylvania. The piece was the first of 15 history paintings she did based on scenes of Washington's life.
In 1925, the city of Fredericksburg was presented a hand-colored copy of the painting by Dr. Ackerman Coles of Scotch Plains, N.J., who once owned the original.
The day the copy arrived at the office of Mayor J. Garnett King in 1925, The Daily Star published a front-page story.
Although an edge of the microfilmed copy of the page is blurred, enough of the story is legible to see that the article perpetuated the myth.
"The 'Peace Ball' at this city was not merely a celebration of the victory of the Continental forces, it was 'the' most famous celebration of the event and took place in the old Union House which stood on the corner of the lot now occupied by the elementary school, directly after the surrender of Cornwallis while Washington was en route to Mount Vernon. It was the last occasion on which Mrs. Washington appeared in public with her illustrious son."
The newspaper story gave an account of the ball and recounted the glittering array of French and American officers in attendance, crediting George Washington Parke Custis as the source of information.
One discrepant note in the 1925 article concerned the site of the ball, said to have taken place at the Union House, not at Rising Sun Tavern as claimed in earlier accounts.
The newspaper reported that Jennie Brownscombe worked on the painting for six months, and that she consulted authentic portraits or reproductions in executing the many characters in the painting.
"When no portrait existed, she carefully followed descriptions, studying the character, age, and other information relative to the subject."
At some point, Cole's gift to the city reverted into private ownership, and the copy now hangs in the living room at Snowden, headquarters of the Mary Washington Hospital Foundation.
Foundation spokesman Patricia Wolfrey said a plaque on the back of the copy identifies it as a gift to the foundation from Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Worrell.
Even though the painting details an event that didn't occur, it accurately portrayed the high spirits in Fredericksburg after the war. Townspeople had been through so much that news of the victory at Yorktown brought joy and relief.
The town had suffered greatly during the war. Public buildings and wharves were damaged, storehouses emptied of provisions, barns emptied of fodder, fields stripped of hay. Few horses and cattle were left in the town.
"Between November 1781 and July 1782 alone, 6,000 British prisoners and 5,000 French troops passed through Fredericksburg," said Felder. "These were momentous times."
And balls were a frequent means of entertainment during the period, in both public and private settings.
After the Revolutionary War, the city of Fredericksburg celebrated Washington's birthday every year with a ball.
And years later, when the 67-year-old Lafayette made a long tour of the United States, he spent three days in Fredericksburg, where townspeople welcomed him as a hero and honored him in every way imaginable.
And there was definitely a ball at the Farmer's Hotel.
The Virginia Herald published an extensive account of Lafayette's entire stay, beginning on Nov. 27, 1824, with a military escort and the entourage of local dignitaries who met him 15 miles from Fredericksburg at the Wilderness, late in the afternoon.
With Gen. Lafayette in a carriage drawn by four white horses, the elaborate procession reached the outskirts of Fredericksburg in about 90 minutes, just at sunset.
"Col. Stanard fired a Federal salute from the artillery stationed in the suburbs, and thus announced to the eager and anxious citizens the approach of their father, the friend and benefactor of mankind."
Between 200 and 300 "respectable citizens" joined the procession, other citizens fell in behind on horseback. Darkness closed in on the spectacle as the throng proceeded down Hanover Street.
"Without any previous notice or concert (for the arrival had been expected some hours sooner) the light beamed from window to window, as if by magic, until, almost general illumination lighted its march. suddenly the adjacent houses on both sides of the street were beautifully and tastefully illuminated, and the effect was as gratifying as unexpected."
The procession advanced to the Town Hall for formal greetings and official introductions, followed by a dinner at the home of James Ross, located on the site of the present Central Rappahannock Regional Library.
Later that night, Lafayette attended the ball at Farmer's Hotel, before returning to the Ross home where he was staying.
The occasion was a glorious affair, according to the newspaper, and one reflective of the city's great respect for the elderly general.
Historians say details from this ball may have found their way into the legend of the Peace Ball and come to be accepted as truth, despite the fact that it was held a quarter of a century after Washington's death.
"Along the way embellishments are added and before long you have a story that needs to be taken with a grain of salt," said Felder.
To reach SUSAN SCOTT NEAL: 374-5000, ext. 5701 sneal@freelancestar.com