Jack of Harts

There were many side effects to the Federal and Commonwealth of Virginia law enforcement’s actions in Lexington. The burning of downtown. The arrest, transport, and eventual rescue of Lexington’s mayor. The negotiated withdrawal of Commonwealth officers after the Feds fled the field of battle with their mayor and his family. The officers felt like they had been left high and dry to fight their fellow officers from Lexington while the Feds ran for safety. That caused many of them to question certain talking points from Richmond and Washington. They did not voice their questions though. Questions were dangerous in those times. But they made preparations. They called in favors. They may have even swapped duty assignments. It was a sad day when former Vice President Freemon and his children disappeared from Federal custody. A sad day they had nothing at all to do with, of course.

The majority of the Commonwealth of Virginia’s military self-destructed and left its ruins all over eastern Virginia in a few days. A mix of Commonwealth troops loyal to Richmond and Federal special forces attacked troops that showed signs of declaring their support for Lexington, and the casualties in both men and material proved devastating to all sides. The National Guard forces were particularly savaged, and perhaps a quarter of those stationed in the Commonwealth of Virginia’s eastern counties survived the fratricidal conflict. Many of them streamed into the western counties without weapons or vehicles to their name. The Richmond loyalists suffered similar casualty rates, and there were fewer of them to begin with. The Virginia Defense Force represented Virginia’s primary surviving fighting force in the end, and nearly all of them had declared for Lexington.

The mayor of Lexington, Virginia’s call to stand against government abuses earned him permanent bans on many networks throughout America and beyond. But the Virginia Defense Force escorted him back to the ruins of downtown Lexington and secured the town from further attacks. Most of the other towns and counties in the Shenandoah Valley declared their allegiance with Lexington by the end of the day. By the next day, most of western Virginia had rallied to the mayor’s call. By the end of the week, so had most of central Virginia. The majority of the Virginia Defense Force and Virginia National Guard also answered the call, leaving eastern Virginia behind to take up station in the western and central regions of Virginia that no longer followed the rule of Richmond. The message was clear. Over half of Virginia now stood against Richmond, and only force would bring them to heel.