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Apathy is attitude of thousands of local residents with Civil War-era ties. Date published: 11/6/2002 By LARRY EVANS W HEN developer Ray Smith Jr. telephoned sev- eral months ago, he wasn't prepared for the conversation that ensued. Here's the gist of it: Smith: "Hello, I'm Ray Smith. I've got a couple of development projects I'd like to talk about with you. I've read your columns, and I think you might like some of my 'smart growth' ideas." Me: "Which projects?" His name wasn't familiar to me. Smith: "The Village of Idlewild in the city and the Town of Chancellorsville in Spotsylvania County." Me: "Oh, you are developing my ancestral farm, the one I never got to own." Smith: Long pause. Me: Silence. Smith: "Your ancestral farm?" Me: "Yes. In the 1860s, my great-great-grandfather owned part of that land in Spotsylvania. He and his family were farming it when the battle broke out on their place." Smith: "Who was your great-great grandfather?" Me: "Reuben McGee." Smith: "You are right. I am." Divided allegiancesReuben and Margaret McGee had five sons. One of them, also named Reuben, was my maternal great-grandfather. He was a private in one of the 10 companies that comprised the Confederacy's 30th Virginia Infantry. He was elsewhere on May 1, 1863, the day the three-day Battle of Chancellorsville erupted on the family's farm. Hundreds of soldiers were killed that morning before the fighting ceased. Other members of the McGee family were not away at war; the war had come to them. Among those McGees was one of my great- grandfather's brothers, Ebenezer, who was a spy for the Union. Among others still on the farm were his parents and the oldest of the five brothers, Absalom, who refused to fight for either side. My great-grandfather moved to Fredericksburg when the war ended. The farm remained in the McGee family for a few more decades. It later became known as the Ashley Farm and is now part of what is called the Mullins Farm.
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