In June 1863, as Gen. Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia marched north, Gen. J. E. B. Stuart’s Confederate cavalry rode east of the main army while Federal cavalry pursued Stuart. Gen. David McM. Gregg’s division left Frederick about 4 p.m. on June 28 and bivouacked between New Market and Poplar Springs, then spent the next day around New Market, Ridgeville, Mt. Airy, and Lisbon. That night the exhausted men and horses passed through New Windsor, which a New York cavalryman called “a small but beautiful village,” arriving about 10 o’clock under bright moonlight before the division halted about four miles from Westminster. That same night, Gen. John Sedgwick’s Union VI Corps bivouacked near New Windsor after a grueling 26-mile march from New Market, and Lt. George W. Bicknell of the 5th Maine Volunteer Infantry praised the beauty of the surrounding country and the welcome sight of a modern schoolhouse. At dawn on June 30, Gregg’s cavalry charged into Westminster and captured Stuart’s stragglers from the previous day’s skirmish, and hours later VI Corps marched through on the way to Manchester.