Following its defeat at the Battle of Fredericksburg in December 1862, the Union Army of the Potomac went into winter quarters in Stafford County. At Bell-Air, the nearly 400-acre estate of Abraham Primmer that the Leeland Station community now encompasses, elements of Brigadier General David B. Birney’s division laid out camps, and Birney established his headquarters at the house. The encampment was named Camp Pitcher in honor of Major William L. Pitcher of the 4th Maine Infantry, who was killed at Fredericksburg. Soldiers scavenged livestock, fence rails, crops, and lumber from local inhabitants, and after four months the area was stripped clean. In March 1863, Union troops left Bell-Air and moved to new camps near Belle Plain along Potomac Creek. After the war, Primmer received $2,752.50 from the federal government as compensation for damage to his property, including four miles of fence and 160 acres of timber consumed as fuel, 20 cords of fruit trees destroyed, hogs, hay, and fodder taken, and boards confiscated for use in the construction of coffins.