Geography
The lush and fertile valley lies between Catoctin Mountain and the Bull Run Mountains to the east and the Blue Ridge Mountains to the west. To the north it is bound by the Potomac River and to the south by the Broken Hills of Fauquier County. The small portion of the valley residing in Fauquier County is known as Upper Fauquier. The valley varies between 8 miles (13 km) and 12 miles (19 km) in width and is approximately 34 miles (55 km) long. The northern section of the valley is bisected by Short Hill Mountain. The area west of the Short Hill is known as Between the Hills and is distinct from the Loudoun Valley, while the area to the east, sometimes referred to as the Catoctin Valley, is associated with it.
Major watercourses include Goose Creek, Catoctin Creek, Panther Skin Run, and the Little River.
The three major highways across the valley are U.S. Route 50, which runs from Aldie on the east to Ashby Gap on the west; Route 7, which runs from Clarke's Gap west of Leesburg to Snickers Gap west of Bluemont; and Route 9, which diverges from Route 7 at Clarke's Gap and runs west to Keyes Gap on the West Virginia border.
The terrain is rolling, with numerous ridges and hills; the elevation here ranges between 350 and 730 feet (110 and 220 m) above sea level. The soil is formed from gneiss, clay / slate, hornblende, greenstone, and quartz particles, a fertile and durable soil, containing alumina, silex, potash, lime, and other natural fertilizing minerals.
History
Settlement
Following the 1722 Treaty of Albany, which expelled Indigenous nations west of the Blue Ridge Mountains, white settlers began to occupy the Loudoun Valley. Many of the early white residents were immigrants from southern Pennsylvania—Quakers, Scotch-Irish, and Germans interested in starting small farms. The Quakers had significant influence in the central Loudoun Valley, settling in and around such communities as Waterford, Hillsboro, Goose Creek (now Lincoln), and Union (now Unison). Their stone buildings are a major feature of the Loudoun landscape. Germans settled in the northern end of the Loudoun Valley, especially in the area around Lovettsville, leaving a number of log structures as their architectural legacy. Unlike the settlers to the east and south, neither of these groups practiced slavery. In the southern portion of the valley, centered on Middleburg, settlers of English descent moving west from the Tidewater region imported slave-based plantation-style agriculture. During the antebellum period, the area became a leading center of agriculture production, particularly of wheat, oats, rye, and corn.
Civil War
During the Civil War, the Loudoun Valley saw considerable fighting. Owing the Valley's divided loyalties, one-time neighbors took up arms against one another in bitter partisan fighting. Unionists from the northern portion of the Valley formed the partisan Loudoun Rangers, while southern sympathizers in the southern portion joined a number of partisan Confederate units including White's Rebels and Mosby's Rangers. These units frequently engaged one another in the Valley throughout the duration of the war, most noticeably at the Fight at Waterford in 1862 when White's Rebels engaged the Loudoun Rangers for the first time.
Major engagements between the regular armies also occurred in the Valley, particularly in 1862 and 1863. In November 1862, following the Battle of Antietam, Union Gen. George McClellan marched his army through the Valley in slow pursuit of the retreating Army of Northern Virginia. Confederate cavalry under Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart fought a delaying action against the vanguard of the Union columns during the often overlooked Battle of Unison. During the Gettysburg Campaign, a series of cavalry clashes between J.E.B. Stuart and Alfred Pleasonton occurred in the valley at Aldie, Middleburg, Goose Creek, and Upperville. Stuart successfully kept the Federal forces from entering the adjacent Shenandoah Valley and discovering Robert E. Lee's main army. In 1864, as General Jubal Early withdrew from Washington, Union forces attacked his supply wagons at Heaton's Crossroads at present-day Purcellville. In the early winter of 1864, General Phillip Sheridan had the Loudoun Valley put to the torch during The Burning Raid in response to actions of Confederate partisans John Mosby who used the Loudoun Valley as his base of operations.
Modern era
Following the war, the Loudoun Valley was slow to recover from the devastation of the Burning Raid, but soon the region became a major source of agricultural products again, particularly notable for its numerous dairy farms. Farming remained a main occupation for several generations until the early 1990s when urban growth began encroaching from the east. Though farming has lost its prominence in the valley, it maintains a strong presence. Loudoun County ranks twentieth in overall agriculture production in the state. Corn, wheat, and beans remain staple crops, while berry production has increased dramatically (ranked first in the state). Christmas tree farming (third in the state) and livestock (eleventh in state for sheep and lamb, fourteenth in state for cattle) are also major agricultural ventures. [2] In the last decade the emergence of vineyards and wineries in the valley has led to it being a top producer of wine in the state. [3]
The Battle of Aldie took place on June 17, 1863, in Loudoun County, Virginia, as part of the Gettysburg Campaign of the American Civil War.
The Battle of Middleburg took place from June 17 to June 19, 1863, in Loudoun County, Virginia, as part of the Gettysburg Campaign of the American Civil War.
The Battle of Upperville took place in Loudoun County, Virginia on June 21, 1863 during the Gettysburg Campaign of the American Civil War.
Catoctin Mountain, along with the geologically associated Bull Run Mountains, forms the easternmost mountain ridge of the Blue Ridge Mountains, which are in turn a part of the Appalachian Mountains range. The ridge runs northeast–southwest for about 50 miles (80 km) departing from South Mountain near Emmitsburg, Maryland, and running south past Leesburg, Virginia, where it disappears into the Piedmont in a series of low-lying hills near New Baltimore, Virginia. The ridge forms the eastern rampart of the Loudoun and Middletown valleys.
The Bull Run Mountains are a mountain range of the Blue Ridge Mountains in northern Virginia in the United States. Located approximately 20 miles (32 km) east of the main chain, across the Loudoun Valley. The Bull Run Mountains, together with Catoctin Mountain in Virginia and Maryland, make up the easternmost front of the Blue Ridge.
Aldie is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) located between Chantilly and Middleburg in Loudoun County, Virginia, United States. The historic village of Aldie is located on the John Mosby Highway in a gap between the Catoctin Mountains and Bull Run Mountains, through which the Little River flows. Aldie traditionally serves as the gateway to the Loudoun Valley and beyond.
Ashby Gap, more commonly known as Ashby's Gap is a wind gap in the Blue Ridge Mountains on the border of Clarke County, Loudoun County and Fauquier County in Virginia. The gap is traversed by U.S. Route 50. The Appalachian trail also passes across the gap.
Goose Creek is a 53.9-mile-long (86.7 km) tributary of the Potomac River in Fauquier and Loudoun counties in northern Virginia. It comprises the principal drainage system for the Loudoun Valley.
U.S. Route 50 is a transcontinental highway which stretches from Ocean City, Maryland to West Sacramento, California. In the U.S. state of Virginia, US 50 extends 86 miles (138 km) from the border with Washington, D.C. at a Potomac River crossing at Rosslyn in Arlington County to the West Virginia state line near Gore in Frederick County.
Between the Hills is a small valley in northwest Loudoun County, Virginia, distinct from, but associated with, the greater Loudoun Valley.
Loudoun County, Virginia, was destined to be an area of significant military activity during the American Civil War. Located on Virginia's northern frontier, the Potomac River, Loudoun County became a borderland after Virginia's secession from the Union in early 1861. Loudoun County's numerous Potomac bridges, ferries and fords made it an ideal location for the Union and Confederate armies to cross into and out of Virginia. Likewise, the county's several gaps in the Blue Ridge Mountains that connected the Piedmont to the Shenandoah Valley and Winchester were of considerable strategic importance. The opposing armies would traverse the county several times throughout the war leading to several small battles, most notably the Battle of Ball's Bluff.
Little River is a 23.4-mile-long (37.7 km) tributary stream of Goose Creek in Fauquier and Loudoun counties in Northern Virginia. Via Goose Creek, it is a tributary of the Potomac River.
Linden is a small unincorporated village in Fauquier and Warren Counties in the U.S. state of Virginia. It is located west of Washington, D.C. at exit 13 off of Interstate 66.
The Battle of Unison or Battle of Union refers to a series of American Civil War cavalry skirmishes in Loudoun County, Virginia, between October 31 – November 2, 1862, between the Confederate forces of J.E.B. Stuart and various units of the Union Army of the Potomac. Although driven from the field in individual engagements, Stuart accomplished his mission to delay the enemy and screen the movements of the retreating Army of Northern Virginia.
The action at Mount Zion Church was a cavalry skirmish during the American Civil War that took place on July 6, 1864. The skirmish was fought between Union forces under Major William H. Forbes and Confederate forces under Colonel John S. Mosby near Aldie in Loudoun County, Virginia as part of Mosby's Operations in Northern Virginia. After successfully raiding the Union garrison at Point of Rocks, Maryland, Mosby's Rangers routed Forbes's command, which had been sent into Loudoun County to engage and capture the Rangers. The fight resulted in a Confederate victory.
The Fight at Aldie was a small cavalry skirmish between Confederate forces under Major John S. Mosby and Union forces under Major Joseph Gilmore and Captain Franklin T. Huntoon in Aldie, Virginia, on March 2, 1863, as part of Mosby's Operations in Northern Virginia during the American Civil War. The fight which resulted in a Confederate victory was significant in that it was the first action of Mosby's Rangers within their operating territory in the central Loudoun Valley. In the fight Mosby and his men displayed many characteristics that would become their hallmark including the attack on numerically superior force while inflicting disproportionate casualties to those received.
The Burning Raid was a Union raid conducted in the Loudoun Valley of Loudoun and Fauquier counties in Virginia in 1864 during the American Civil War. It was aimed at destroying the forage on which Confederate partisans operating in the area, specifically Mosby's Rangers, subsisted as well as at breaking the will of the citizens of the area for supporting the partisans.
The Catoctin Valley is a small valley, geographically and culturally associated with the larger Loudoun Valley in Loudoun County, Virginia.
The Virginia Piedmont Heritage Area Association (VPHA) is a nonprofit preservation and historic organization in Middleburg, Virginia. Founded in 1995 as the Mosby Heritage Area Association (MHAA), its mission is to educate about, and advocate for, the preservation of the historic, cultural and scenic resources in the Northern Virginia Piedmont.
Timeline of Fauquier County, Virginia in the Civil War
