Laura Ratcliffe

Confederate spy Laura Ratcliffe was born in Fairfax County in 1836. During the Civil War, she became an acquaintance of Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart who introduced her to then-Lt. John Mosby in 1862. Mosby credited her with preventing his capture early in 1863, noting, “My life as a partisan would have closed that day.” Ratcliffe and other informants provided Mosby and his Partisan Rangers (43d Battalion, Virginia Cavalry) important information that helped them raid Union outposts, communications, and supply lines. She married Milton Hanna in 1890. Ratcliffe died in 1923 and is buried here/nearby in a family cemetery.