Winter Quarters

In the winter of 1864, two brigades of the Federal VI Corps, 2nd Division, occupied the hillcrest at Hupp's Hill and began building a fairly typical camp with small log huts, stables, quartermaster stores, divisional headquarters, and a signal station on 20 October 1864. Work on this fortified position ended abruptly in early November when Confederate forces no longer seemed to threaten Union control of the Valley. After a dress review, the VI Corps marched north to Stephenson's Depot, boarded trains, and joined Grant's Army of the Potomac at Petersburg for the final push against Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, which surrendered the following spring. Water entering the ground at the crest of Hupp's Hill seeps through the rock layers of the aquifer and emerges at the bottom of the hill through Hupp Spring, then flows through Strasburg as the Town Run. Because sinkholes are sometimes used as trash pits, household waste, appliances, and car parts can leach contaminants such as rust, oil, and Freon into the aquifer, and this polluted water may later be drawn into wells. From the lunette at CWK 4, the trench line gradually fades away to the right, and the stretch from here to U.S. 11 preserves the only surviving remnants of what was once a much more extensive trench line.

Strasburg, Virginia · United States