The Falls Church

The graffiti Union soldiers left in Falls Church is no longer visible, but was photographed at the time by Matthew Brady.

There is also a surviving letter by a soldier, David Brett of the 9th Massachusets Battery, that mentions the graffiti and that he added his name:

"I have just been to a village about one and half mile west called Falls Church. It is a small place. There are three churches in the neighborhood but they are all in ruins. One of them is the oldest church in Virginia. It is built of brick, and is the same that Washington was married so the folks say in the village.

The insides are all torn out with nothing left but the pulpit. I went into it just for fun. People carry away pieces of boards and write their names on the walls. Mine is there"

(David Brett to his wife, November 30, 1862)

In 1862, a letter to the Burlington, Vt., Free Press explained how Confederates had written graffiti in the historic Falls Church in Virginia, which had ties to the storied Fairfax and Washington families. “The walls are covered with the scrawled names of rebel soldiers, written in charcoal on the plaster,” the correspondent lamented. “We silently left the sacred, but desecrated, place.

Kim O'Connell, "Graffiti and the Civil War," New York Times (July 25, 2014)

The group of names highest on the wall, up at the level of the second-story window are all from the same regiment, the 141st New York Volunteers.

• "Segt C. W. Breese, 141st N.Y.V"
• "Luther Wright, 141st N.Y.V"
• "J S Bovier"
  
• "John Jacobs"

The one other signature large enough to be visible in the photograph is also by a member of the 14st New York Volunteers, written vertically up the left hand side of the window on the bottom left:

• "Capt J E Culver, Co A 141st Regt, N.Y.V"