The hamlet of Mill View, present-day Remington, became known to Civil War armies campaigning in the area as Rappahannock Station, where the vital Orange & Alexandria Railroad crossed the Rappahannock River near a grist mill behind the low hills. This stretch of the river was frequently used as a strategic line of defense by opposing armies. The most significant action came on Nov. 7, 1863, when Gen. George Meade’s Union Army of the Potomac launched a rare night attack that produced a stunning tactical victory and captured more than 1,600 troops from Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. Only 400 Confederates escaped, many by swimming the frigid Rappahannock, and Lee’s staff officer Walter H. Taylor called the affair “the saddest chapter in the history of this army.” It proved to be the Army of Northern Virginia’s last defense of the upper Rappahannock River for the rest of the war. Federal forces then established major camps near the river and railroad, and on Nov. 23, 1863, repairs to the 572-foot-long bridge were completed, restoring the O&A Railroad to service. Two days later, Col. John S. Mosby told Gen. J.E.B. Stuart that railway guards now stood within sight of one another and attacks on the line were not advisable; in the same memo, Mosby reported that since Nov. 5 his men had stolen more than 100 horses and mules, six wagons, and captured 75 Yanks without losing a man.
