Curt Viebranz

It's hard to believe, but only 50 years after his death, in the early 1850s, the home was in complete disrepair, a woman was taking a steamer (on the Potomac). It was the custom of the captain to ring the bell when he got in front of Mount Vernon. She looked up. She saw the shape of the house.

There was some nervousness about what might happen to the house, but through an order of Gen. Winfield Scott, who was a Union general, it was really set up as neutral ground. So, effectively, any soldiers that visited Mount Vernon, Confederate or Union soldiers, came out of uniform, with absolutely no flags or anything like that, because it was thought to be totally nonpartisan.

While they may not have removed the uniform, the theory was to make sure that nobody was openly showing any of their uniform, so they may have come, changed, or they may have put on a cloak that covered all of their insignias and their battle uniform.