Norman's Mills Ford served from colonial days until 1900 as a public crossing of Mountain Run on the Carolina Road from Raleigh to Philadelphia, when a single-lane, three-span steel truss bridge was built just west of the dam and later replaced in the mid-1950s by the present bridge. In 1863, during the Battle of Brandy Station, Col. Duffie and his Union cavalry force of 3000, after being driven from Hansboro Ridge, made a dash for the ford but were denied passage by a small group of Confederate soldiers. Men of the 4th VA had a lone 12-pounder Napoleon cannon positioned to block the ford, and Confederate riflemen occupied the canal along the north edge of Mt. Run Bottom as a trench for its entire length. Because horses could not cross Mountain Run except at a ford, the stream formed a natural barrier as effective as the Rappahannock River. Turned back here, Duffie followed Gen. Gregg's route and reached Brandy Station only after the fighting had ended, and his men never fired a shot there. The ford was also used by a Stevensburg church for baptisms until the mid-1950s.
