On November 5, 1862, several weeks after a tainted victory at Antietam, Army of the Potomac commander-in-chief Gen. George Brinton McClellan established his headquarters at Rectortown. That same day President Abraham Lincoln wrote the orders relieving McClellan of command. On the snowy evening of November 7, Gen. C.P. Buckingham arrived at McClellan’s tent with Gen. Ambrose Burnside and handed McClellan the dispatch. After reading it, McClellan declared, “General Burnside, you are now in command of the Army.” After bidding farewell to his troops in nearby Warrenton on Nov. 10, McClellan returned to civilian life, and in 1864 he ran against Lincoln as the Democratic Party candidate for president. Rectortown was also the site of a deadly raffle on November 6, 1864. Because Col. John S. Mosby’s men attributed the execution of seven Confederate rangers to Union Gen. George Custer, Mosby ordered the execution of an equal number of Federals, to be selected by lot from among 27 prisoners. Two drummer boys were among the prisoners, and one of them drew a fatal slip. When Mosby was informed, he heeded the plea of a young artillery officer to allow a second drawing for a substitute. Ironically, the death lot was drawn by the officer who made the request. Ultimately, that officer and three others survived, and three were hanged. The depot there was in use during the war, the building which houses farm equipment was one of Mosby’s headquarters, and the stone building was used as a Federal prison and still has traces of graffiti drawn by prisoners.