For nearly a month in the summer of 1862, the 2nd Corps of the newly created Union Army of Virginia camped on this ground, with outposts extending several miles east, south, and west. Organization and leadership were in constant flux as many officers sought other assignments and others resigned or deserted. Daily life included drills, picket duty, scouting missions into the Blue Ridge and to Madison and Culpeper, and mail from home that helped break the monotony, while disease caused numerous deaths. Two days after leaving on August 7, the corps bore the brunt of the fighting and suffered heavy casualties at the Battle of Cedar Mountain. Among officers connected with the encampment and the corps were Nathaniel Banks, Christopher Columbus Augur, John Geary, George "Pap" Greene, George W. Corliss, Robert Gould Shaw, Alpheus S. Williams, and George H. Gordon, as well as men of the 2nd Massachusetts Infantry from prominent Boston families, including Richard Chapman Goodwin, Stephen Perkins, Richard Cary, Edward G. Abbott, and William Blackstone Williams, many of whom were killed, wounded, or later gained distinction in the war and public life.
