At Stumpy’s Hollow on the morning of July 2, 1861, Confederate Lieutenant Colonel J.E.B. Stuart captured most of a Union infantry company that was skirmishing in advance of General Robert Patterson’s army as it marched toward Martinsburg. Company I of the 15th Pennsylvania Volunteers had reached a fork in the road from the north, and while its captain went ahead to explore the road, he left a lieutenant in charge and ordered the men to rest. They stacked arms and waited by a split-rail fence until Stuart, still wearing his U.S. Army uniform, rode across a field to the fence and ordered the soldiers to take down part of it so he could pass. After reaching the road, he drew pistols and demanded their surrender, and as some men lunged for their weapons just as his regiment, the 1st Virginia Cavalry, arrived, three Federals were shot. The others, including the lieutenant, a doctor, and 43 privates, surrendered. Stuart’s cavalrymen were guarding Colonel Thomas J. Jackson’s flank during the Battle of Falling Waters and were riding to Martinsburg to rejoin Jackson’s army.
