Freight train on Orange and Alexandria
Railroad, in Culpeper, Virginia, August 1862
Photograph courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs
Division, [cwp 4a39520], taken during the main eastern theater of
the war, Bull Run, 2nd Battle of Manassas, Virginia, July-August
1862.
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Virginia's northern Piedmont is a rolling, open, well-watered region of
farms and scattered villages and towns. It occupies the land between two
principal Civil War battlegrounds: the Shenandoah Valley and the Washington-Fredericksburg-Richmond
axis. During the war, the Manassas Gap and the Orange and Alexandria Railroads
traversed the area, augmenting the long-established road network and furnishing
the opposing armies with strategically vital transportation and supply
routes.
Waves of military activity, large and small, swept through the region
periodically. In 1861, the First Battle of Manassas
(Bull Run) took place near the Manassas Junction of the two railroads
in Prince William County, with troops being rushed into battle by railroad
for the first time in American history. The next year, Gen. Robert E.
Lee launched his attack into Maryland that culminated at Antietam Creek
(Sharpsburg), after first winning
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Gen. Edwin V. Sumner and staff in
Warrenton, Virginia, main eastern theater of the Civil War, Nov.
13, 1862
Photograph courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs
Division, [cwp 4a40037]
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important victories at Cedar Mountain in Culpeper County and at the Second
Battle of Manassas. In 1863, following his brilliant success at Chancellorsville,
just west of Fredericksburg, Lee began his invasion of Pennsylvania after
a massive cavalry battle at Brandy Station in Culpeper County. Maj. Gen.
J.E.B. Stuart, screening the Confederate infantry's march west to the
Shenandoah Valley, fought engagements at Aldie,
Middleburg, and Upperville in Loudoun and Fauquier
Counties. In the fall, after the defeat at Gettysburg, Lee turned on his
pursuers and launched an ill-executed attack on the Union army at Bristoe
Station in Prince William County. The following spring, Lt. Gen. Ulysses
S. Grant began his drive south toward Richmond and Petersburg from the
Federal winter encampments in Culpeper County.
Warrenton street scene in front of
the Fauquier County Courthouse, August 1862, at the time of the
2nd Battle of Bull Run
Photograph courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs
Division, [cwp 4a39523] |
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For most civilians in the Piedmont, their daily lives were interrupted
only briefly by the intermittent storms of war. There were two lengthy
exceptions: the 1863–1864 winter encampment of the Union and Confederate
armies in Culpeper and Orange Counties respectively, and the exploits
of Col. John S. Mosby in Fairfax, Fauquier, and Loudoun Counties--an area
known as "Mosby's Confederacy."
After the Confederate defeat at Bristoe Station in October 1863, Maj.
Gen. George G. Meade pressed Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia south
across the Rapidan River into Orange County. The Union army then settled
in for the winter around Culpeper Courthouse in
Culpeper County, while the Confederates encamped along the south bank
of the Rapidan.
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Street scene in front of Culpeper
County Courthouse, 1862
Photograph courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints &
Photographs Division, [cwp 4a39518]
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For some five months, the two combatants studied each other, resupplied
and reinforced their armies, and tested each other's lines with occasional
thrusts. In March 1864, Grant arrived in Culpeper County, having been
appointed commander of all Union armies by President Abraham Lincoln
and having decided to accompany Meade rather than remain in Washington.
With his presence, the war in Virginia would enter a new and even bloodier
phase when the Federals crossed the Rapidan on May 4th to begin a campaign
that would inflict some 45 percent casualties on each army within two-and-a-half
months.
Col. John S. Mosby
Photograph courtesy of Still Pictures Branch (NWDNS), National
Archives at College Park, NWDNS-111-BA-1709
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In the northernmost part of the Piedmont, meanwhile, Mosby's
Rangers (43d Battalion, Partisan Rangers) harried the Union army's
supply lines. Organized by Mosby late in 1862, the Rangers operated
successfully until the end of the war and Mosby was mentioned more often
by name in Lee's reports than any other Confederate officer. Although
they never numbered more than 800, the Rangers were effective against
their vastly more numerous foes because Mosby maintained tight discipline
and struck quickly when the odds favored him. Grant became so annoyed
by their tactics that he ordered captured Rangers hanged without trial.
When Mosby immediately retaliated in kind with captured Federals, Grant
rescinded the order. Rather than surrender his men, Mosby disbanded
the Rangers at Salem, in the heart of his Confederacy, on April 21,
1865.
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Officers and men of Co. K, 1st U.S. Cavalry, at Brandy Station
winter quarters, February 1864
Photograph courtesy of Library
of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, [cwp 4a40057]
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After the war, the northern Piedmont soon reverted to its peaceful
ways. In the second half of the 20th century, however, the growth of
the Washington metropolitan area in Northern Virginia placed increasing
development pressure on this rural region. The battlefields of Manassas,
Brandy Station, and Bristoe Station became the scenes of fierce engagements
between developers and preservationists. Although the economic recession
of the late 1980s slowed growth in the region, it may have delayed rather
than prevented the steady destruction of this national treasure. The
last battle for this hallowed ground has yet to be fought.
John S. Salmon, Staff Historian
Virginia Department of Historic Resources
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