Gettysburg Campaign

Rappahannock County, VA
Marker No. J-25

Marker Text:  Ewell's Corps of Lee's army passed here going north, June 11-12, 1863; Hill's Corps, June 19.

Location: On Route 522 (Remount Road), at the county line with Rappahannock and Warren Counties on Rappahannock side between Chester Gap and Huntly. Grouped with the marker Z-173 (Warren/Rappahannock County). Erected by the Commission on Conservation and Development in 1934.

  Hello folks, it has been about six months since I last posted. I have wanted to make posts about the wide range of markers I have related to the 150^th Anniversary of the American Civil War. During the months of May, June and July there are a multitude of markers which could be posted. The reason for my absence has been due to personal changes in my life. At the beginning of the year, I accepted a call to become the pastor of two congregations in Pennsylvania. My wife and I have been busy with all the tasks related to moving, setting up a new home and beginning in a new church, which has left little time to post on my blog. I have so many markers related to the events leading up to the Battle of Gettysburg that I felt a needed to attempt to post some of these markers.

Photo taken looking north on Route 522 toward Front Royal. Click any photo to enlarge.

  During the past two months, there was the Battle of Chancellorsville where Stonewall Jackson was wounded and later died from this wounds, the official organization of John Mosby's Rangers, the Second Battle of Winchester, just started today, 150 years ago, and northern Virginia and Pennsylvania has many markers related to military movements as Confederate General Lee moves his army into Pennsylvania. If time permits, since I have so many markers related to the events listed above, I will attempt to post as many as I can even if they are not recent anniversary events.

  To get started this marker is related to the movement of Confederate General Ewell's Army over the mountain at Chester Gap going from Rappahannock County into Warren County, Virginia leading into the Shenandoah Valley at Front Royal. After the Battle of Brandy Station, June 9, 1863, Lee ordered the Second Corps, Army of Northern Virginia, under Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell, to clear the lower Shenandoah Valley (lower valley is actually the northern part of the valley) of Union opposition. Ewell's Second Corps needed to cross over Chester Gap in order to reach the Shenandoah Valley. Ewell's Second Corp was attempting to protect General Lee's movements north toward Pennsylvania and to move the Union Army out of the Shenandoah Valley which resulted in the Second Battle of Winchester on June 13-14, 1863.

  A week later Confederate General A.P. Hill Corp passed through this gap on their way to Gettysburg. Though a modern two lane highway (U.S. Route 522) now goes through this gap today, it is still a steep drive for a car coming up both side of the mountain. I have always found it fascinating that an army of 10,000 to 15,000 men mainly on foot with all their equipment crossing these mountains on roads no better than the worse dirt roads of today.

  Now, I need to get busy and prepare some other markers.

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