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 soldierst 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 somone 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 1950's. They were forced to abandon the project when financing ran out, leaving it to the ravages of time.