Stump the German

[Eva Elisabeth]

Sorry for delay - had no WiFi. Gene and Roger, you both win for guessing Mosby and the walnut tree. Actually it was Hathaway House, but this was probably the most trivia question ever. The story goes as follows:
Mosby and his rangers lived in "safe houses" throughout the region. Many had hiding places--trapdoors and secret wall panels that enabled them to go undetected when houses were searched by Union soldiers.
Hathaway House was one of these places.One night in 1863, the 1st New York Cavalry surrounded and searched the house to find him, but Mosby climbed from the bedroom window onto the walnut tree and hid there till the soldiers left.