In late June 1863, Gen. J.E.B. Stuart's Confederate cavalry raided through this area as Gen. Robert E. Lee and the main body of the Army of Northern Virginia marched northward to the west. Before dawn on June 29, several former area residents guided Stuart's column north from Cooksville. At Old Frederick Road, present-day State Route 99, the force divided, and elements ranged east to Sykesville and Marriottsville. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee's brigade continued north on Washington Road to Hood's Mill, where it occupied the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and cut telegraph lines to disrupt communications between Frederick and Washington. Stuart then learned that Gen. Joseph Hooker had been relieved of command of the Army of the Potomac the day before at Frederick and might return to Washington on a special train about 10:30 A.M. The Confederates burned a small wooden bridge over Piney Branch about half a mile east of Hood's Mill and tore up several sections of track in an effort to stop the train and capture Hooker, but an alert engineer on an earlier train spotted them and backed up to Frederick to warn him, thwarting the plan.