In June 1863, Confederate Gen. J.E.B. Stuart's cavalry screened Gen. Robert E. Lee's infantry from Federal observation as the Army of Northern Virginia marched into the Shenandoah Valley. On the afternoon of June 17, opposing cavalry fought here for control of a crossroads from which the Snickersville Turnpike led to Snickers' Gap and the Ashby's Gap Turnpike led to Ashby's Gap. Confederate Col. Thomas T. Munford's brigade deployed to block a Union advance along either turnpike. Capt. Reuben Boston of Company I, 5th Virginia Cavalry, dismounted 50 sharpshooters on the ridge, where they took cover behind haystacks while their horses were sheltered in low ground behind them; the 1st Virginia Cavalry and three guns of Breathed's horse artillery battery supported them. Union Gen. H. Judson Kilpatrick formed his cavalry regiments in a north-south line to attack Munford's positions astride both turnpikes and ordered the 2nd New York and 6th Ohio to drive Boston's men from the knoll and secure the Ashby's Gap Turnpike. Repeated attacks forced the Virginians to retreat on foot toward the farmhouse and take cover behind a low wooden fence, but outnumbered and endangered by defective rounds from their own artillery, they surrendered. Even so, Munford held the Ashby's Gap Turnpike while bloody fighting broke out in fields to the north and along the Snickersville Gap Turnpike, and the Confederates continued to block the routes to the Blue Ridge gaps.