Mine Run Campaign

Union Maj. Gen. George G. Meade's Army of the Potomac crossed the Rapidan River on 26 Nov. 1863 in a last effort to strike Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Confederate Army of Northern Virginia before winter. The next day, fighting erupted near here at Robinson’s Tavern, 2.5 miles north at Payne’s Farm, and three miles south at New Hope Church. Lee withdrew his army to an entrenched position behind Mine Run, about two miles west of here. In frigid weather, Meade spent two days contemplating an attack, finally deciding to withdraw rather than risk disaster. The Union army returned to its camps in Culpeper County and the Confederates to theirs south of the Rapidan, where they passed the winter.