During Confederate Brig. Gen. J. E. B. Stuart's intelligence gathering "Ride Around McClellan," a skirmish ensued atop this hill on 13 June 1862 when several companies of the 9th Virginia Cavalry collided with the 5th United States Cavalry. Stuart's men carried the position and continued south into the rear of the Union army, but Capt. William Latané was killed in the brief, close-quarters fight. Latané, the only Confederate killed during the raid, is interred north of here at Summer Hill. William D. Washington memorialized the burial ceremony in his 1864 painting The Burial of Latané, which became a southern icon.
