A Family of Virginians leaving their Home and going South on the advance of Genl. Patterson's army from Martinsburg

A man in top hat and tailcoat leads his family south, away from their Virginia home, in advance of the expected arrival of Union army troops under General Robert Patterson. Family members ride in a carriage, while African Americans—presumably slaves—walk next to the vehicle or ride on top of it. Alfred Wordsworth Thompson, an artist for Harpers Weekly, made this drawing of the refugee family. This was one of nineteeen drawings made in Virginia by the artist in 1861, during the opening months of the war.