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Consult repository for information
Robert Wiley Collection, MSS 06-21, Virginia Room, Fairfax County Public Library
Gift of Robert Wiley’s granddaughter Mary Lee Bryant, October 1994
Chris Barbuschak, December 2017
EAD generated by Ross Landis, 2024
Robert Wiley was born on August 16, 1840, to Joseph and Catherine Wiley in the Mount Vernon District of Fairfax County. He began service with the Confederate army in September 1861 serving as a scout. On March 8, 1862, Wiley enlisted in Company K of the Nineteenth Georgia Infantry at Occoquan in Prince William County. He took part in the battles of Williamsburg, West Point, Seven Pines, Cedar Mountain, Second Manassas, Ox Hill, Harper's Ferry, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Olustee, Drewry's Bluff, and the Seven Days' battles. He was severely wounded multiple times and was briefly captured as a prisoner of war following the Battle of Fredericksburg. He surrendered in Raleigh, North Carolina on April 30, 1865, and returned home on May 20, 1865.
After the war, he served as Justice of the Peace for the Mount Vernon District. He was elected Commissioner of the Revenue for Fairfax County from 1871-1891 and then served as County Treasurer for 24 years. He was the Commander of the John Q. Marr Camp, United Confederate Veterans at Fairfax; vice president of the Lorton Valley Democratic Club; and a trustee of the Fairfax Cemetery Association.
Wiley married Mary Elizabeth Lee, of Fairfax, on June 26, 1867. The couple had seven children. The Wiley family lived in Lorton, Virginia where the present day Wiley Drive is located. He and his family later moved to the Town of Fairfax and lived in the Roberts/Chichester House at 3701 Chain Bridge Road from 1902 until his wife’s death in 1923. Wiley died at his daughter’s house in Fairfax following a long illness on February 13, 1932. He is buried in the Confederate section of the Fairfax Cemetery.
The Robert Wiley Collection consists of correspondence, ephemera, newspaper clippings, a book and book fragments, and a photocopy of the roll and minutes of the Marr Camp United Confederate Veterans of Fairfax. Correspondence to fellow Confederate veterans include James Madison Arnold of Barstow County, GA.; J. Ryland Epps of Richmond, VA.; William Selwyn Ball of McLean, VA.; Abraham V. Sager of Vienna, VA.; James M. Love of Fairfax, VA.; Leonidas Rosser Houchens of Fairfax, VA.; Isaac A. Roe of Calhoun, GA.; and John Coxe of Groveland, CA. Also included are correspondence with John B. Webster of Lorton, VA (postmaster of Springman, VA. and later Lorton, VA.); Maude A. Harnsberger, wife of Rev. Alfred L. Harnsberger; and state senator R. Walton Moore. Of particular note is an original postcard of the Willcoxon Hotel in Fairfax, VA.; a page from a family Bible that notes the marriage date of Daniel McCarty Fitzhugh and Sinah Ellen Chichester Lee; and an 1843 letter from John Cadle of Marion County, MO to his brother-in-law Edward L. Bates of Lorton, VA.
Original Marr Camp U.C.V. record book and other collectibles owned by Robert Wiley donated to the Fairfax City Museum