Engagement at Falls Mills

Here at dawn on 20 July 1863 the Confederate cavalry of Maj. Andrew J. May surprised a Union raiding party led by Lt. Col. Freeman E. Franklin. Aroused from its bivouac in Brown's Meadow, where it was preparing to burn the Falls Mill, the Union cavalry fled north toward Abb's Valley. Brig. Gen. John S. Williams's Confederate cavalry struck the raiders as they withdrew up the valley, compelling them to abandon captured livestock and contraband slaves.