The Church and Cemetery

Union troops camped in the fields south of here between April 17, 1862, and the Battle of McDowell on May 8, 1862, and deployed artillery, including two twelve-pounders on the plateau behind the church to cover the bridge over the Bullpasture River. The church saw action throughout the Civil War: its pews provided warmth for passing armies, soldiers etched their names and the date into its exterior bricks, and its south-side entrance was likely used by free and enslaved African Americans, who worshiped from the balcony. During the Battle of McDowell, the church served as a hospital and was struck by a cannon ball while Union surgeons worked on the wounded inside. After the battle, more than 700 casualties lay on the field or in makeshift hospitals, and the VMI Cadets and the Stonewall Brigade, rear elements of Confederate Gen. "Stonewall" Jackson's army, helped bury the dead and collect the wounded with aid from McDowell's citizens. Dead Union and Confederate soldiers, including some from inside the church, were buried in a mass grave in the cemetery across present-day Route 250.

McDowell, Virginia · United States