After the Battle of Antietam in September 1862, Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia escaped to Virginia, and President Abraham Lincoln repeatedly urged Union Gen. George B. McClellan to pursue and attack. Following a plan Lincoln devised to trap Lee's army in the Shenandoah Valley, McClellan finally set the Army of the Potomac in motion. On November 1, Union cavalry Gen. Alfred Pleasonton began leading the advance from Philomont toward Upperville while Gen. J.E.B. Stuart's cavalry delayed him for three days. That Saturday morning, Pleasonton paused in Philomont with 1,200 cavalrymen and an artillery battery, intending to push south and reach Upperville by evening. He ordered 22 male residents into nearby Roszell Chapel Methodist Church to take the oath of loyalty to the United States, but the sound of cannons suddenly interrupted the scene. Federal forces rushed toward the North Fork ford, half a mile ahead, to engage Confederates who had come up from Unison, also called Union. From ridges on either side of the stream, the two sides exchanged cannon and rifle fire for the rest of the day. Facing stronger resistance than expected, Pleasonton received reinforcements that night of 1,200 infantrymen and another artillery battery. On Sunday morning, November 2, his column marched down present-day J.E.B. Stuart Road toward Unison and Upperville to the strains of a brass band. On November 5, after learning that Lee's army had evaded the trap and reached Culpeper County, Lincoln ordered McClellan relieved of command.