The Battle of Buckland Mills, also known as the Buckland Races, was fought on October 19, 1863, between Union and Confederate forces in the American Civil War. Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart, supported by Maj. Gen. Wade Hampton's cavalry division, was shielding Gen. Robert E. Lee's retirement from his defeat at Bristoe to the Rappahannock River. Union cavalry under Brig. Gen. Judson Kilpatrick pursued Stuart, who lured them through Buckland and into Warrenton, where Lee's troops were waiting in ambush. More than 10,000 troops fought along Route 29 between New Baltimore and the Cerro Gordo plantation overlooking Buckland from the bluffs of Broad Run. The Confederates defeated the Union cavalry and routed the entire federal force across a wide swath of territory, leading them to call the affair the Buckland Races. The Union cavalry was split in two, with Custer pursued back to Gainesville and Davies routed and pursued across the county to Haymarket and Gainesville, following the current Route 15 alignment through the eastern portion of this property. Accounts from both sides indicate that the Confederate victory depended on possession of the Buckland bridge and the Warrenton turnpike, access to unpicketed avenues of approach such as the Greenwich Road from Auburn and the Thoroughfare Gap Road where it met the turnpike just east of New Baltimore, and the unintentional but complete separation of Davies' and Custer's brigades on the battlefield. An estimated 230 casualties were recorded.
