Book excerpt: Had General George Washington lived anywhere other than Mount Vernon, Virginia, Washington, D.C., might not exist. In this exciting collection of hidden tales from Northern Virginia, author Charles Mills highlights the important role that this region played in our nation's history from colonial to modern times. Read about the Rebel blockade of the Potomac River, the imprisonment of German POWs at super-secret Fort Hunt during World War II and the building of the Pentagon on the same site and in the same configuration as Civil War, era Fort Runyon. Meet Annandale's "bunny man, "? who inspired one of the country's wildest and scariest urban legends; learn about the slaves in Alexandria's notorious slave pens; and witness suffragists being dragged from the White House lawn and imprisoned in the Occoquan workhouse. Mills masterfully relates these and other colorful tales of the people and events that left their imprints on Northern Virginia and the nation.