Confederate
Major General JEB Stuart’s cavalry was screening the march being made north by
General Robert E Lee’s troops advancing into Pennsylvania. On June 17th 1863 the Union
cavalry commander Brigadier General Alfred Pleasonton decided to cut through
this screen, by sending Brigadier General David Gregg’s division west out of
Manassas Junction on the Little River Turnpike toward the town of Aldie,
Virginia.
In the early
morning, Confederate Colonel Thomas Munford led the 2nd and 3rd
Virginia Cavalry from Upperville on towards the Bull Run Mountains looking for
forage and doing some reconnaissance.
When he reached Aldie he put out a line of pickets and then moved the
rest of his men northwest on the Snicker’s Gap Turnpike. Around 4 pm the Union’s 1st
Massachusetts Cavalry ran into Munford’s pickets and pushed them in. The 1st Massachusetts was then
confronted by the 5th Virginia Cavalry who pushed the Union back to
their main line. Then the 1st
joined by the 4th New York Cavalry charged, but the Confederates
with some help from some sharpshooters drove the Union Cavalry back and secured
their lines and hold of Ashby’s Gap Turnpike.
The 1st Massachusetts was trapped in a curve on the Snicker’s
Gap Turnpike and lost 198 of their 294 men, one detachment almost eliminated in
hand to hand fighting.
Somewhere
around 8 pm the fighting died off.
Munford took his men and moved west towards Middleburg. The Union lost about 305 men, dead and
wounded, the Confederate side had losses of about 110.
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