Sperryville, a quiet crossroads village and long an overnight stopping point on important north-south and east-west roads to the Shenandoah Valley, was the scene of many events during the Civil War. Union Gen. Franz Sigel's Corps of the Army of Virginia camped here for a month in July-August 1862, when all of the buildings in the town and the surrounding countryside became officer's headquarters. In November 1862, Confederate Gen. James Longstreet's Corps paused here during the retreat from Maryland following the Antietam Campaign. Jedediah Hotchkiss, Confederate Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's cartographer, observed that Longstreet's men had "stripped the town of provisions." Multiple southern troop movements passed through Sperryville during the Gettysburg Campaign in June-July 1863. On the retreat south, Confederate Gen. Richard S. Ewell's corps camped for several days at the foot of Thornton Gap on the western side of the Blue Ridge and then marched through the gap, through Sperryville, and on to Culpeper. Confederate Gen. A.P. Hill's men arched through Sperryville en route to Gettysburg and once again during the Bristoe Station Campaign in October 1863.