On St. Patrick's Day, March 17, 1863, Confederate Capt. John S. Mosby and 40 Partisan Rangers attacked the picket post of the 1st Vermont Cavalry guarding Herndon Station on the Alexandria, Loudoun and Hampshire Railroad. The detachment commander, Lt. Alexander G. Watson, had just been joined by Maj. William Wells and other officers to investigate charges that pickets were stealing from local citizens. Arriving ahead of a Union relief force, Mosby and his men took the pickets by surprise, with only one Vermonter wounded. The Union officers were having lunch at the home of Kitty Hanna, whose husband, Nat, ran the general store in the station. The officers were also captured after a brief struggle during which Wells fell through the attic ceiling but was not injured. Mosby reported to Gen. J.E.B. Stuart that he had completely routed the enemy cavalry at Herndon Station in Fairfax County and taken 25 prisoners, including Wells, 1 captain, 2 lieutenants, and 21 men, along with all their arms, 26 horses, and equipment, with no loss to his command. Because of Mosby's success in Herndon and northern Virginia, Union forces soon withdrew beyond Difficult Run closer to Washington, D.C. Wells later received the Medal of Honor for his bravery at the Battle of Gettysburg, kept in touch with Mosby after the war, and Wells's daughter later invited Mosby to her wedding.
