Sweet Springs History
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Built in the early 1800's and gutted by fire in 1933, Lynnside,
ancestral home of the Lewis family of Virginia still stands,
partially restored in the 1950's, an indication of a glorious
life in former times. During the Civil War, an encampment of
Union soldiers, led by General David Hunter ransacked the
mansion, destroying whatever they didn't use and ordered the
mansion to be burned. Col. Lewis' wife was the daughter of John
Floyd, a general in the Confederate army, whose disposition of
armaments and ammunition infuriated the North, hence the
reason given
for the extensive destruction.The lady of the house, being a
brave and resourceful woman, repeatedly put out the fires set by
the drunken soldiers until the troops left, leaving little for
the residents to use for food or fuel. The livestock,
having been either destroyed or driven off, Mrs. Lewis had
someone follow behind and retrieve a colt when he trailed behind
the other horses so they would have something to pull a plow and
raise a crop. I was told that one of the leaves of the dining room table had a cut on it, put there by one of the Union soldiers; It's nowhere to be found, so someone could have picked it up a number of years ago.
A fire of unknown origin gutted the mansion in 1933 and it stood there until the family partially restored it in the 1950s. They were forced to abandon the project when financing ran out, leaving it to the ravages of time.