During the Civil War, this road led from Sperryville to Madison, Slate Mills, and James City, west of Culpeper, with F.T. Church and Fink's Store, now the Conyers House, serving as familiar landmarks. To the west, the Blue Ridge Mountains offered concealment for troops on the march, and both Union and Confederate forces used this route and the surrounding area, particularly in 1862 and 1863. When the Federal Army of Virginia occupied Rappahannock County in July-August 1862, Col. Gustave P. Cluseret's cavalry detachment patrolled here, confiscating secessionist property, administering loyalty oaths, and encouraging slaves to leave their owners. Cluseret, a Frenchman whose fractured English often confused American listeners, once lined up several civilians to take the loyalty oath and said, "All who vants to take ze oats go on zis side, and all who vants not to take ze oats go on ze ozer side," leading the farmers to think he meant wagonloads of oats seized for cavalry horses. Confederate forces found the road especially useful on two occasions: Gen. Richard S. Ewell's corps of the Army of Northern Virginia marched by here on July 28, 1863, during the retreat from Gettysburg, while Gen. Edward Johnson's division camped nearby on the Hughes River, and on October 11, 1863, part of Gen. A.P. Hill's corps passed here on the way to the Battle of Bristoe Station.