Keyes' Switch Engagement

The fighting at Keyes' Switch was the last Civil War engagement in Jefferson County and one of the last involving Col. John S. Mosby’s Rangers, and it also ended the Independent Loudoun Rangers, a small cavalry unit recruited in 1862 from Unionist residents of Loudoun County to serve as border police and scouts for Federal forces. The two ranger forces had previously clashed at Point of Rocks during Gen. Jubal A. Early’s Washington Raid in July 1864. On April 5, 1865, four days before Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia surrendered at Appomattox Court House, Mosby mustered Co. H into his 43rd Battalion Virginia Cavalry in Loudoun County, chose Charles Town native George Baylor as captain, and ordered him to go out and see what he could do. Baylor, who had earlier served in the Stonewall Brigade and the 12th Virginia Cavalry, rode west with his company, learned that the Loudoun Rangers were camped here, and at 10 A.M. the next morning charged into their camp, catching them completely off guard. By Baylor’s account, the Loudoun Rangers lost 2 killed, 4 wounded, 65 prisoners, and 81 horses and equipments, while his company lost one wounded, Frank Helm of Warrenton. Three days later, on the morning of Lee’s surrender, Baylor’s company was routed in a Federal attack in Fairfax County, and on April 21, 1865, Mosby disbanded the Rangers rather than surrender.

West Virginia · United States