Hunters Hill

Hunter’s Hill was the home of Andrew Hunter, best known for his role as a prosecuting attorney in the trial of John Brown and his raiders. Hunter was born March 22, 1804, graduated from Hampden-Sydney College, and then studied law. He settled in Charles Town and originally had a home on E Washington Street before moving to Hunter’s Hill. Hunter was involved in Whig politics in the 1840s and was a member of the Virginia Constitutional Convention in 1850. Hunter maintained his law practice in Charles Town and after John Brown’s 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry Governor Henry A. Wise asked Hunter to assist the county attorney with the prosecution of Brown and the other raiders.

During the Civil War Andrew Hunter supported the Confederacy and his property at Hunter’s Hill was burned in July 1864 at the orders of his cousin, Union General David Hunter. The destruction of the house was part of a series of attacks against private property between David Hunter and Confederate General Jubal Early in the summer of 1864. First, Hunter led a raid into Virginia, burning the Virginia Military Institute and the home of Governor John Letcher at Lexington. In response, Early pressed north in a campaign to threaten Washington, D.C. during which his troops burned the house of U.S. Postmaster General Montgomery Blair. Then in July 1864 Hunter ordered the destruction of his cousin’s Hunter’s Hill as well as Fountain Rock and the home of Edmund and Henrietta Lee (a cousin to Robert E. Lee). On July 17, 1864 Captain William F. Martindale carried out Hunter’s orders to burn Hunter’s Hill and Andrew Hunter was held in custody for about a month before being released. Supposedly in retaliation for the destruction of these private homes, General Early sent two brigades of cavalry and an artillery battery to Chambersburg under Brigadier General John McClausland to demand a ransom or burn the town.

After the Civil War, around 1866, Andrew Hunter rebuilt his home on the original foundation and lived at Hunters Hill until his death in 1888.

The mansion fell into disrepair in recent years, but in 2016 a couple purchased and began to restore it. 

Bushong, Millard Kessler. A History of Jefferson County, West Virginia. Charles Town, WV: Jefferson Publishing Company, 1941.

Engle, Stephen Douglas. Thunder in the Hills: Military Operations in Jefferson County, West Virginia, During the American Civil War. Charleston, WV: Mountain State Press, 1989.

"West Virginia Historic Property Inventory Form: 'Hunters Hill'/Andrew Hunter Home." Accessed February 12, 2021.