Brentmoor
An historic home owned by John Mosby

A classic Italian Villa-style dwelling, Brentmoor was built in 1859-61 for Judge Edward M. Spilman.  The Spilman family sold the property in the 1870s to James Keith, president of the Virginia Court of Appeals. In 1875, John Singleton Mosby, famous leader of a brigade of Confederate partisan rangers, purchased the house.

Partisan rangers were, essentially, Confederate government-sanctioned bands of independent cavalries whose primary mission was to harass the Union army on Confederate soil through raids, supply disruptions and ambush attacks. Often, they succeeded in re-appropriating food and supplies that had been taken by Union soldiers, then returning it to hungry Confederate camps. Mosby’s Rangers so outwitted the Union army during the Civil War that much of Northern Virginia was known as “Mosby's Confederacy.” Known as the Gray Ghost for his elusive nighttime maneuvers, Mosby was a hero throughout Virginia.

After the Civil War, Mosby settled into a law practice in Warrenton, Virginia. He became active in the Republican Party, believing that working with the party in power was the best way to heal the South. Many of his fellow Virginians were outraged when he supported U.S. Grant and Rutherford B. Hayes for President. His boyhood home was burned to the ground.

Mosby had had enough by 1877, and sold the house to former Confederate general Eppa Hunton, who was then serving in Congress. He accepted a diplomatic appointment in Hong Kong, then returned to work for the U.S. Department of Interior.

Brentmoor was also the childhood home of Eppa Hunton III, a founder of the prominent Richmond law firm Hunton and Williams.