After the Battle of Antietam in September 1862, Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia escaped to Virginia while President Abraham Lincoln repeatedly urged Union Gen. George B. McClellan to pursue and attack, and following a plan Lincoln devised to trap Lee's army in the Shenandoah Valley, McClellan finally moved the Army of the Potomac. On November 1, Union cavalry Gen. Alfred Pleasonton began leading the advance from Philomont toward Upperville, but Gen. J.E.B. Stuart's cavalry delayed him for three days. On Sunday morning, November 2, 1862, services at Unison United Methodist Church were interrupted as Pleasonton marched down Unison Road from Philomont with 2,500 cavalry and infantry and 12 cannons, while residents cowered as fighting swirled through the village. Stuart had posted most of his 900 cavalrymen near the crossroads, and his six cannons under Maj. John Pelham fired from a field across the road. Artillery from both sides bombarded the village, armed men clashed in the streets, and Col. Heros von Borke, Stuart's aide, recalled "furious flames... dense volumes of smoke ... terror and confusion .. truly frightful." After an hour, Stuart withdrew, reestablished his line, and delayed Pleasonton's advance for two more hours, repeating the tactic until dark. As the fight moved south, the church became a Union hospital, while Confederates were treated in the Keene house across the road. On November 5, after learning that Lee's army had evaded the trap and reached Culpeper County, Lincoln ordered McClellan relieved of command.