"Gens. Hunter, Crook, Averill and Sullivan put up with Major Hutter, about four miles from town, whose beautiful home was used as headquarters....Some of the Yankee soldiers repaid the hospitality of Maj. Hutter by plundering Miss H's chamber, searching trunks and drawers, and carrying away various ornaments and valuables."

Lynchburg Virginian, June 21, 1864

Sandusky, Major George Christian Hutter's "beautiful home," may well be Lynchburg's most historic house. One of the earliest and loveliest examples of formal Federal style architecture in the Piedmont, it is also the preeminent site associated with the Civil War Battle of Lynchburg. Having been a private home for most of its 200 years, it is now poised to become a museum–a fitting tribute to its place in history.

Charles Johnston (1769-1833) built Sandusky in 1808.

Charles Johnston, whose father arrived in Richmond from Scotland, built the fine brick house in the first decade of the nineteenth century, ca. 1808. He named it Sandusky to commemorate a narrow escape. In 1790, while navigating the Ohio River on his way to Kentucky, Johnston and his companions were captured by a party of Shawnees and taken to an encampment near lake Erie, near a frontier settlement called Sandusky. A French-Canadian fur trader ransomed Johnston, who eventually made his way back to Virginia, stopping in New York to give George Washington an account of his adventure. By strange irony, a later occupant of Sandusky, Virginia, would also come to be held captive near Sandusky, Ohio.

Johnston established Sandusky as the centerpiece of a 1,200 acre plantation, on property he had purchased from John Lynch, Thomas Burgess, and James Steptoe. Johnston's business enterprises were many and varied. In 1810, he purchased Thomas Jefferson's entire Poplar Forest tobacco crop. Jefferson duly recorded Johnston's payment of $2,003.11 in his Memorandum Book. Two years later, as work on the house at Poplar Forest was progressing, Jefferson wrote Johnston asking for five bushels of plaster of Paris. Johnson had intended using it as fertilizer; Jefferson needed it for plastering the walls of his house. Again, Jefferson's Memorandum Book records the transaction: on November 19, 1812, he paid Johnston $6.75 for five bushels. In 1815, when Lynchburg feted Andrew Jackson, then on his way from Tennessee to Washington, the two neighbors saluted each other once again. At the banquet, which Jefferson pronounced "the most extravagant dinner" he had ever seen, Charles Johnston offered a toast to his friend and some-time neighbor, whom he called "our illustrious guest." Interestingly, their two houses--Sandusky and Poplar Forest--would become even more closely associated later in the 19th century.

On two occasions, in 1813 and 1817, Johnston insured Sandusky with the Mutual Assurance Society of Virginia. The still-extant policies provide valuable information on the house, while the assessments the company placed on it ($6,000 in 1813, $7,000 in 1817) certify that it was among the most prominent in the area. As described in the 1813 policy, Sandusky was "48 x 20 feet two story built of brick and covered with wood." In addition to the main block, there was (and is) a rear "wing 19 x 18, two story, brick covered with wood." Although the present standing-seam metal roof is quite old, the house was originally covered with wooden shingles. The policies also prove that the L-shaped house has otherwise remained remarkably unchanged over the years. Still remaining are the handsome finishes that Johnston knew: reeded mantels, panelled wainscots, and--in the parlor--framed arches on either side of the chimney breast. Each insurance policy also lists a separate brick kitchen and smokehouse, while the latter one shows that a brick office and schoolroom had been added to the compound by 1817.

In 1818, only a year after renewing his insurance, Johnston sold Sandusky and moved across the Blue Ridge to settle in Botetourt County. The property then changed hands several times until George C. Hutter bought it, along with 700 surrounding acres. In 1838, George wrote his half-brother Edward Hutter, of Easton, Pennsylvania, informing him of an eligible young lady, Emma Cobbs, who then lived at nearby Poplar Forest. George professed that he "would not wish to influence you in any way," but Edward took his recommendation to heart. A year later the couple were married at Poplar Forest and once again relations between the two houses were close and frequent. In 1843, George sent Edward a note that his wife was "sending a cart to Poplar Forest for Raspberries" and added that he thought Edward's mother-in-law had "promised her some Box, which she should be now happy to get." During the Hutter occupancies, both houses had virtually identical groupings of boxwood in their front lawns. The boxwood at Sandusky remains, the raspberries do not.

General David Hunter, aka "Black Dave".

In 1864, during the Hutter family occupancy, Sandusky had its fifteen minutes of fame. Actually, it was longer than that: at least a weekend, though the Hutters must have thought it an eternity. From June 17-18, Sandusky served as headquarters for Union General David Hunter and his entourage, who were determined to capture Lynchburg and render its excellent transportation facilities useless to the Confederate cause. Hunter was following orders that General U. S. Grant had issued earlier that month: "the complete destruction [of the railroad] and of the canal on the James River is of great importance to us...You are to proceed to Lynchburg and commence there. It would be of great value to us to get possession of Lynchburg for a single day." Fortunately for Lynchburg, Hunter tarried on his way, taking time to burn the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington before crossing the Blue Ridge to attack the city. Hunter and his troops stopped long enough to plunder Poplar Forest early on the 17th, then reached Sandusky, which they commandeered for their use. Hunter's delay allowed time for Confederate General Jubal Early to arrive from Charlottesville to defend Lynchburg. Fighting commenced that afternoon, but even during the fray, Early's men were hastily preparing the city's outer defenses. Their major effort was a breastwork fort, named for General Early, alongside the Salem Turnpike (today's Fort Avenue). Fighting temporarily ceased at nightfall, and Hunter and his men had dinner at Sandusky that evening. According to an account the Lynchburg Virginian published a week later, "the general offices were in very high spirits at the supper table on Friday night, and boasted that they would be in Lynchburg the next day." Hunter bragged to Hutter that "he had fifty thousand men and could take Lynchburg easily." Hutter replied that it might not be an easy task.

Hole cut in the roof at Sandusky (shown covered by a raised section of roofing above) served as a "lookout" where Federal signal officers could observe the progress of the Battle of Lynchburg.   Below, the trap door leading to the "lookout" was reached by a ladder.

The battle commenced in earnest early Saturday morning, with skirmishes raging along Lynchburg's southwestern outskirts. Union signal officers cut a hole, or scuttle, in Sandusky's roof, reached from the attic by a ladder. They then positioned themselves "on the top of Major Hutter's house" to report the battle's progress. What they saw was not what they expected. Although a lookout first reported that the Union cavalry "were charging splendidly," he later saw them giving way, "and finally left his eyry in disgust." That evening, a somber mood prevailed at Sandusky's dinner table. As the Virginian reported, the officers "took their meal at the same board in perfect silence." After dinner, Hunter told Major Hutter that he wanted to hold a council of war in the house. He appropriated two rooms, carefully locking the doors so he and his men could decide their next course of action in private. Hunter, thinking that additional enemy troops were arriving and would overwhelm his men, and knowing that he was running low on ammunition, decided to retreat.

Later, in his official report, General Hunter recorded that during the night of the 18th, "trains on the different railroads were heard running without intermission, while repeated cheers, and the beating of drums indicated the arrival of large bodies of troops in the town." It was an extremely clever ruse, and it worked. Lynchburgers gathered at the station throughout the night to cheer the repeated "arrival" of a single engine and empty boxcars that continuously ran out of town, then reversed to return to the depot. There had been no reinforcements, only a little engine that could!

The next day, Sunday, June 19th, the Union forces retreated, retracing the path they had used before, via the Peaks of Otter, then across the Valley of Virginia and the Alleghenies into West Virginia. Before they left Sandusky, they took time to plunder Miss Hutter's chamber, "carrying away various ornaments and valuables." They also left "some 90 odd wounded Yankees...in Major Hutter's barn," four or five of whom died on Sunday. The battle was won, but the war, of course, would soon be lost.

Although Major George C. Hutter had retired from active military duty at the commencement of the Civil War, his three sons all served in the Confederate forces. The youngest, Colonel J. Risque Hutter, was wounded and captured during Pickett's ill-fated charge at Gettysburg. He was taken to the Union prison at Johnson's Island, just outside Sandusky, Ohio. In later years, he came to own Sandusky, and, after his tenure, his son inherited the property. Sandusky remained a Hutter family home for over a hundred years, serving five generations.

In 1952, Mr. and Mrs. Neville Adkinson purchased Sandusky, by then the centerpiece of a four-acre curtilage. The Adkinsons began a gradual restoration of the house, while modernizing service areas and installing heating, air-conditioning and new bathrooms. During their tenure, they were always mindful of the architectural and historical importance of the house, and took care to insure that modern conveniences would not intrude on the historic fabric. In 2000, Mrs. Adkinson, a widow, decided the time had come to sell Sandusky, noting that "when it is next sold it will be the second transfer in 158 years." Mrs. Adkinson let it be known that she would prefer selling it to a group who could purchase it and open it to the public.

Sandusky is a registered Virginia Historic Landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Sandusky Foundation, Inc. has submitted an application to the Internal Revenue Service for recognition as a 501 C 3 non-profit entity. We invite you to join with us in preserving, restoring, and interpreting this wonderful historical treasure.

This plaque designating Sandusky a Virginia Historic Landmark notes that three U.S. Presidents have visited here. (Jefferson was no doubt enroute to or from nearby Poplar Forest.)

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