During the winter of 1863-64, Federal officers quartered in many of Culpeper’s homes, and the surrounding landscape was dotted with tents and huts for ten square miles as nearly 100,000 soldiers encamped. Gen. U.S. Grant, commander of all Federal armies, is said to have taken a daily walk to purchase cigars at a pharmacy located in what had been the boyhood home of Confederate Gen. A.P. Hill. Before dawn on May 4, 1864, the Federal soldiers broke camp and marched for Germanna Ford, 10 miles ahead of you. This was the last time substantial military activity occurred in the Town of Culpeper. The troops had embarked upon the last grand campaign of the war, and the first campaign between the war’s premier generals began with the first confrontation at the Battle of the Wilderness on May 5-6.
