Born in Poolesville, Maryland, Elijah Viers "Lige" White (1832-1907) lived in Loudoun County, VA at the outbreak of the American Civil War. The owner of Ball farm, White served the Confederacy as a scout and aid at the Battle of Ball's Bluff, receiving a captain's commission soon afterward and raising a company in Loudoun that became the 35th Battalion of Virginia Cavalry. White's battalion became part of the regular service as part of the Laurel Brigade, engaging in battles and skirmishes across Virginia, including some in Loudoun County.

On 27 August 1862, White and his battalion (known as White's Commanches) entered Leesburg after defeating the Union-aligned Loudoun Rangers at Waterford's Baptist Church. This entrance into Leesburg was celebrated by Confederate sympathizers in Leesburg, and later commemorated when the "Ladies of Leesburg" presented White and his battalion with cake and wine on the one year anniversary of the event, 27 August 1863. The commemoration continued a second year as the "Ladies" presented White with an artificial laurel wreath on 24 August 1864.

The artificial wreath presented to Colonel Elijah V. White on 24 August 1864 reflects broader classical themes embraced by the Confederacy. While traditions of wreath laying and presentation are found across various cultures and periods in human history, the laurel wreath was a symbol of honor presented to the victorious. The artificial wreath presented by the "Ladies of Leesburg" in 1864 reflects the Confederate emulation of classical ideals and motifs. Before and during the Civil War, people in the American South looked to Platonic and Aristotelian notions of "ordered inequality" and "natural slavery" as justifications for the Southern way of life. Southerners believed that their agrarian democracy resembled those of Ancient Greece, which trickled down into Southern decorative arts from Grecian temple-inspired plantation architecture to laurel wreath motifs on Confederate sword belt plates and insignias.