On the afternoon of June 17, 1863, cavalry from the Army of the Potomac under General Alfred Pleasonton and the Army of Northern Virginia under General JEB Stuart fought for several hours in intense heat around Aldie as both sides tried to seize and hold the critical mountain pass and the key roads through the Bull Run Mountains and Blue Ridge. That morning Union Brigadier General Hugh Judson Kilpatrick and Confederate Colonel Thomas T. Munford had received similar orders to hold the town and the important road intersections east and west of it. Munford moved from Piedmont through Middleburg to Aldie with the 1st, 4th, and 5th Virginia Cavalry and Captain James Breathed’s battery of Horse Artillery, while most of the 2nd and 3rd Virginia had been sent north toward Mountville for food. Kilpatrick brought the 2nd and 4th New York, 6th Ohio, and 1st Massachusetts from camps near Manassas toward Aldie. The battle began along the Ashby Gap Turnpike in the town and then moved west into the surrounding fields near the farm known today as the Briar Patch, where men of the 5th Virginia Cavalry were overwhelmed by the 2nd New York and 6th Ohio. As fighting spread up the Snickersville Turnpike, the 2nd Virginia defeated the 4th New York in a series of charges and then drove Companies C and D of the 1st Massachusetts Cavalry from positions across the turnpike. Munford recalled the 2nd and 5th Virginia from Mountville, and dismounted sharpshooters from the 2nd and 3rd Virginia deployed behind a stone wall with support from Lt. Philip F. Johnson’s cannon. The deadliest fighting took place along the narrow road between the Furr house and the stone wall, where Companies H and F of the 1st Massachusetts under Captain Lucius Sargent were driven back, Companies E and G under Captain John Tewksbury were caught in the developing ambush, and Captain Charles F. Adams’s Companies C and D were routed in the fields across the turnpike. Lieutenant Charles Davis then led Companies A and B into the blocked road, where the men were trapped between walls and fences under heavy fire. When the fighting ended, two thirds of the 1st Massachusetts had been killed, wounded, or captured, and the Confederates were later driven from the stone wall position by the 1st Maine Cavalry, concluding the Battle of Aldie. The fight took place as General Robert E. Lee used the mountains to shield the Army of Northern Virginia as it moved toward Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
