Middleburg
Screening Lee’s Army
During the Gettysburg Campaign in June 1863, Middleburg was the scene of major cavalry operations. On June 17, 1863, Gen. J.E.B. Stuart’s small force, charged with screening Gen. Robert E. Lee’s infantry moving north and west of the Blue Ridge Mountains, was surprised by Federal cavalry moving toward Middleburg from the south. Stuart’s troops barely escaped as Col. Alfred Duffie’s 1st Rhode Island Cavalry (275 men) poured into the town.
Under orders to hold Middleburg, Duffie barricaded the streets and sent to Aldie for reinforcements. Despite evidence that overwhelming Confederate forces were mustering for an attack, Duffie refused to abandon the town.
At dusk Gen. Beverly Robertson’s brigade of cavalry (900 men) struck, driving the outnumbered Federals from the town. The evening clash cost the 1st R.I. Cavalry six killed, nine wounded and 210 captured. Robertson’s brigade suffered 25 casualties.
On June 19, six regiments of Union cavalry under Gen. David M. Gregg drive Confederate pickets out of Middleburg, only to encounter five regiments of Confederate cavalry commanded by Robertson and Col. John Chambliss on the hill west of town. After bitter hand-to-hand fighting through the woods and behind stone walls (described by one solider as “more of an Indian warfare than anything seen of late”) Stuart ordered his men to fall back. During the withdrawal, his well-known Prussian aide, Maj. Heroes von Borck, was seriously wounded. Each side suffered about 120 casualties.
Sidebar Located in the region known as “Mosby’s Confederacy,” the constant activity and success of the partisan rangers led to federal raids in and around Middleburg throughout the war.
-The Middleburg Baptist Church on Federal Street and the Ashbury Methodist Church on Jay Street were used as Hospitals.
-Casualties from these battles lie in Sharon Cemetery next to the Middleburg Baptist Church, alongside the nation’s first monument to unknown soldiers.
-Middleburg’s Freedman’s Bureau, founded by the government to assist newly freed blacks, was located in the Danning House, on the corner of Jay and Marshall Streets, known today as the Hansborough House.
Marker is at the intersection of North Madison Street and West Marshall Street, on the right when traveling north on North Madison Street.
Courtesy hmdb.org
