Categories
Historic America

Unison Battlefield in Loudoun County, Virginia

Thanks to the effort of preservationists, you can visit key sites in this running cavalry fight from the Civil War.

The Battle of Unison was fought from October 31 to November 2, 1862 between elements of the Union Army of the Potomac commanded by Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan and Confederate cavalry commanded by Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart in Loudoun County, Virginia during the American Civil War. This inconclusive battle halted the Union pursuit of Robert E. Lee’s retreating army following the Battle of Antietam and resulted in several hundred casualties.

In late September 1862, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia limped back into Virginia from Maryland. From October 10-12, Lee’s trusted cavalry commander, Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart, rode around McClellan’s Army of the Potomac to distract him from his pursuit. McClellan settled onto the Loudoun Valley, where Stuart caught up with him and fell upon and scattered a small Union force at Mountville on Halloween.

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