Barnesville, now a peaceful village, lay in the path of war during the Civil War. In September 1862, during the Antietam Campaign, Union and Confederate cavalry skirmished there, and carbine fire and shellfire echoed off houses. After the troops moved on, residents contended with Union Army stragglers who stole food; on October 4, local resident James F. Beal wrote in his diary, "Stragglers are still about the meanest wretches under the sun." The dangerous refuse of war also remained, and on October 9 Beal found a shell that "the Rebles [sic] threw at the Yankees" buried 2½ feet in the ground. Less than a year later, Union troops again inundated Barnesville as the Army of the Potomac marched toward Gettysburg. From June 26 to June 28, 1863, the 1st, 5th, and 6th Corps, more than 37,000 men, marched past. On June 28, Maj. John Nevin of the 93rd Pennsylvania, 6th Corps, commented on the "zone of exhaustion ... that marks the broad path of a large army which sweeps over the country like a typical locust." Although no major battles occurred there, the village and its residents still felt war's hard hand. Like many Maryland towns near the Potomac River and Virginia, Barnesville included residents who sympathized with the Confederate cause, and at least five locals are known to have joined the Confederate Army. Prominent citizen Leonard Hayes, whose son served in the 35th Virginia Cavalry, hosted J.E.B. Stuart's brigade commanders, Col. Thomas Munford, Gen. Wade Hampton, and Gen. Fitzhugh Lee for dinner on September 5, 1862. In 1862 and 1863, Union Army wagons and ambulances clogged the roads around Barnesville for days, limiting residents' movement and heavily damaging the roadways.