The Battle of Mt. Zion Church began just east of here in the late afternoon of July 6, 1864, when Confederate Lieutenant Colonel John Singleton Mosby's artillery struck Union cavalry under Major William Hathaway Forbes. Amid a rousing rebel yell, Confederate Rangers swooped down on detachments of the 2nd Massachusetts and 13th New York Cavalries. Forbes tried to rally his confused men as he rushed at Mosby swinging his saber. In the heat of battle, Forbes' attack missed Mosby as Confederate Ranger Tom Richards intervened between the two commanders, misfiring his pistol directly in Forbes' face. Unharmed, Forbes turned on Richards with his saber, thrusting with such force that his sword was embedded in the Confederate's shoulder and wrenched from Forbes' hand. At the same moment, Mosby fired a pistol at Forbes, missed, and hit Forbes' horse, Beauregard, pinning Forbes beneath his dying mount. Coming to Forbes' defense, bugler A. P. Walker of the 2nd Massachusetts brushed aside another pistol leveled at Forbes, and he and his Fighting Major surrendered. Mosby reported one killed and six wounded. Major Forbes was paroled at the end of 1864 and returned home until exchanged in April 1865 in time to see action at Saylors Creek and Appomatox. After the war, the Forbes and Mosby families began a friendship that made them close business and political allies for more than 30 years.
