Battle of Middleburg B31A
Here, on 19 June 1863, Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart’s cavalry fought Brig. Gen. David M. Gregg’s Union cavalry division. Screening the march of Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia through the Shenandoah Valley to invade Pennsylvania. Stuart formed a line along this ridge facing Gregg, who charged down this road from Middleburg. Stuart counterattacked, then fell back to another defensive position a half-mile west. In this action, Maj. Heros von Borcke, a Prussian officer and aide to Stuart, fell wounded with a bullet in his neck; he recovered and was at Stuart’s deathbed on 12 May 1864.

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Fishburne Military School Q19
James Abbott Fishborne, an honor graduate of Washington College inspired by its president, Robert E. Lee, opened in 1879 with 24 students what eventually became Fishburne Military School. Staunton architectural firm T.J. Collins & Son designed the 1916-1922 barracks in the castellated Gothic style, the 1915 library (Virginia’s second-oldest Carnegi library), and the 1940 gymnasium-administrative building. In Feb. 1919, the school adopted one of the nation’s first Army Junion Reserve Officer Training Corps programs. Operated by the Fishburne-Hudgins Educational Foundation since 1951, the school is listed on the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places.

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Fredericksburg Campaign C55
Because he had moved too slowly to attack Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan was relieved of his command of the Army of the Potomac by President Abraham Lincoln. McClellan was replaced by Maj. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside. Determined to act boldly, Burnside reorganized his army and marched it to Fredericksburg, where he planned to strike south around Lee’s right flank toward Richmond. Delays in crossing the Rapphannock River enabled Lee to confront Burnside there, then defeat him in a bloody battle on 13 Dec. 1862 -- a battle neither general had intended to fight.

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Wunder's Crossroads ARL100
For more than half a century from the mid-1800’s the intersection of Lee Highway and Glebe Road was known as Wunder’s Crossroads, after the family whose farm lay just northeast. Dr. Henry S. Wunder and his son George Ott Wunder were leading citizens of the county. Glebe Road was then the road to the falls. It was later named for the Glebe of Fairfax Parish. Its northernmost portion was part of the Little Falls Road from Falls Church. Lee Highway, originally the Georgetown-Fairfax Road, was renamed to honor Robert E. Lee.

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Nottoway Court House K170
Near here on 23 June 1864, Confederate Maj. Gen. W. H. F. Rooney Lee positioned his cavalrymen between those of Union generals August V. Kautz and James H. Wilson, who were riding toward Burkeville. The resulting engagement, according to Wilson, was one of the hottest of the war. Gen. U. S. Grant passed by here on 5 April 1865 with part of his army, in pursuit of Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. Here Grant received word that Lt. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan was at Jetersville, blocking Lee’s line of retreat southward and forcing him west toward Farmville and then Appomattox Court House.

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Battle of Brandy Station F11
Here on 9 June 1863, the largest cavalry battle in North America occurred when 9,500 of Confederate Maj. Gen. J.E.B Stuart’s troopers fought 8,000 cavalrymen under Union Brig. Gen. Alfred Pleasonton. This daylong battle, the opening engagement of the Gettysburg campaign, erupted when the Federal attack surprised Stuart and his men. The Confederates prevented the Union cavalry from learning the intentions of Gen. Robert E. Lee, who had begun marching his infantry to the Shenandoah Valley to invade the North. For the first time in the Civil War, however, the Federal cavalry proved itself a match for its opponents.

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Historic Alexandria E86
Alexandria was named for the family of John Alexandria, a Virginia planter who in 1669 acquired the tract on which the town began. By 1732, the site was known as Hunting Creek Warehouse and in 1749 became Alexandria, thereafter a major 18th-century port. George Washington frequented the town; Robert E. Lee claimed it as his boyhood home. From 1801 to 1847 Alexandria was a part of the District of Columbia, and was later occupied by Federal troops during the Civil War. By the 20th century it had become a major railroad center. In 1946, Alexandria created the third historic district in the United States to protect its 18th- and 19th-century buildings.

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Lee's Boyhood Home E91
Robert E. Lee left this home that he loved so well to enter West Point. After Appomattox he returned and climbed the wall to see if the snowballs were in bloom. George Washington dined here when it was the home of William Fitzhugh, Lee’s kinsman and his wife’s grandfather. Lafayette visited here in 1824. Virginia Historic Landmarks Commission 1968

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Alexandria Academy E89
On 17 Dec. 1785, George Washington endowed a school here in the recently established Alexandria Academy for the purpose of educating orphan children. In 1812, an association of free African Americans founded its own school here in space vacated by white students. Young Robert E. Lee attended another school in the Academy for 1818 to 1823, when it closed and the building was sold. During the Civil War the Academy served as a freedman’s hospital. Returned to the Alexandria School Board in 1884, the Alexandria Academy was used as a school and administrative facility until 1982. The Historic Alexandria Foundation restored it in 1999.

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Appomatox County Z58
Appomattox County was named for the Appomattox River, which runs through the county. The river is named for the Appamattuck tribe, which lived near the mouth of the river. The county was formed from parts of Buckingham, Prince Edward, Charlotte, and Campbell Counties in 1845; an additional parcel of Campbell was added in 1848. The county seat is Appomattox. On Sunday, 9 April 1865, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee met with Union Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House and surrendered his army, ending the Civil War in Virginia.

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