On August 7, 1864, the Confederate cavalry brigade of Gen. Bradley T. Johnson bivouacked in the surrounding fields, with Willow Wall serving as Johnson's headquarters, while Gen. John McCausland's brigade camped closer to Moorefield. Both brigades had taken part in Gen. Jubal A. Early's raid on Washington, D.C., and had burned Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, in retaliation for Federal depredations in the Shenandoah Valley, themselves said to be retaliation for Confederate atrocities. Union Gen. William W. Averell, pursuing them, surprised Confederate pickets north of here by attacking with Jesse Scouts, Federal soldiers in Confederate uniforms, and drove Johnson's men through here toward Parson's Ford. Averell captured four cannons, more than 400 men with their weapons, and about as many horses, losses that Early said badly damaged his cavalry's morale and effectiveness for the rest of the campaign. That campaign ended with the loss of the Shenandoah Valley, the breadbasket of the Confederacy. The community, which was remarkably undamaged by the fight, was home to the Van Meter and McNeill families. Isaac "Big Ike" Van Meter lived at Fort Pleasant, constructed in 1833, enlisted in Co. F, 7th Virginia Cavalry, in the summer of 1862, fought in the Shenandoah Valley and other campaigns, and later said that his unit did not surrender at Appomattox but came home to save their horses and private effects before surrendering in squads at New Creek or elsewhere. Nearby buildings include Old Fields Church, built in 1812 and the second oldest church in West Virginia; the Garrett Van Meter House, built in 1835; Buena Vista, built in 1836 for William T. Van Meter, who was killed in Gen. Wade Hampton's Beefsteak Raid near Petersburg, Virginia, in 1864; and Traveler's Rest, built in 1856 for Garrett Van Meter's sisters Anne, Rebecca, and Susan Van Meter.
