Crossroads to War

During the Civil War, this junction of Hunter Mill Road and the Alexandria, Loudoun & Hampshire Railroad was a vital crossroads as Union and Confederate troops moved along the tracks between Vienna and Leesburg. In Sept. 1862, the Confederate Brig. Gen. Wade Hampton's cavalry brigade passed here on route to Maryland during the Antietam campaign. Traveling on the way to Pennsylvania on 17 June 1863, part of the Union’s Army of the Potomac bivouacked just north of here, followed by the army’s commander, Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker, on 26 June. The next day, Confederate Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart also passed here en route to Gettysburg.