Qualla: Battle of Aldie https://qualla.com/battle-of-aldie en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:08 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/b/v/battle-of-aldie-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Battle of Aldie https://qualla.com/battle-of-aldie Battle of Aldie: Introduction https://qualla.com/battle-of-aldie/ Photo credit Jerrye & Roy Klotz, MD, CC BY-SA 3.0. There is a blind curve on the old Snicker's Gap Turnpike just west of Aldie, Virginia, where a stone wall comes up sharply on the right. On the afternoon of June 17, 1863, eight companies of the 1st Massachusetts Cavalry rode into that curve at speed. Confederate sharpshooters from the 5th Virginia Cavalry were waiting along the wall. The Massachusetts men could not turn around, could not see ahead, and could not get out. In a matter of minutes the regiment lost 198 of the 294 men engaged - including the detachment under Henry Lee Higginson, almost wiped out in hand-to-hand fighting. A monument the survivors erected after the war still stands at the curve.

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Image: Jerrye & Roy Klotz, MD | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/b/v/battle-of-aldie-wp/dqbv-battle-of-aldie-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Battle of Aldie: Pleasonton's Push https://qualla.com/battle-of-aldie/ Photo credit Jerrye & Roy Klotz, MD, CC BY-SA 3.0. In June 1863 Robert E. Lee was moving the Army of Northern Virginia north up the Shenandoah Valley toward Pennsylvania. J.E.B. Stuart's cavalry screened the movement by holding the gaps in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Joseph Hooker, commanding the Union Army of the Potomac, had no i...

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Image: Jerrye & Roy Klotz, MD | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/b/v/battle-of-aldie-wp/dqbv-battle-of-aldie-pleasontons-push.mp3 0:06 2 full Battle of Aldie: The Encounter at 2 p.m. https://qualla.com/battle-of-aldie/ Photo credit Jerrye & Roy Klotz, MD, CC BY-SA 3.0. That same morning, Confederate Colonel Thomas T. Munford led the 2nd and 3rd Virginia Cavalry eastward across the Loudoun Valley toward Aldie on a reconnaissance and forage mission. He posted pickets in the village and pulled his main force back to camp on the Franklin Carter far...

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Image: Jerrye & Roy Klotz, MD | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/b/v/battle-of-aldie-wp/dqbv-battle-of-aldie-the-encounter-at-2-p-m.mp3 0:06 3 full Battle of Aldie: The Blind Curve https://qualla.com/battle-of-aldie/ Photo credit Jerrye & Roy Klotz, MD, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Massachusetts cavalry, supported by the 4th New York, charged what they assumed was a Confederate retreat. Rosser's line held; his sharpshooters poured volleys into the Union flank from prepared positions; a Confederate countercharge drove the Federals back. Kilpatrick then t...

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Image: Jerrye & Roy Klotz, MD | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/b/v/battle-of-aldie-wp/dqbv-battle-of-aldie-the-blind-curve.mp3 0:06 4 full Battle of Aldie: Reinforcements at Dusk https://qualla.com/battle-of-aldie/ Photo credit Jerrye & Roy Klotz, MD, CC BY-SA 3.0. Union reinforcements continued arriving through the late afternoon. The 6th Ohio Cavalry mounted a charge in the fading light that overran Boston's sharpshooter detachment on the Ashby's Gap Turnpike, capturing or killing most of his 50 men. By 8 p.m. the fighting was dying down....

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Image: Jerrye & Roy Klotz, MD | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/b/v/battle-of-aldie-wp/dqbv-battle-of-aldie-reinforcements-at-dusk.mp3 0:06 5 full Battle of Aldie: The Stone Wall Today https://qualla.com/battle-of-aldie/ Photo credit David W Lowe, Cultural Resources GIS, Public domain. Aldie was the first of three cavalry battles - Aldie on June 17, Middleburg on June 17-19, and Upperville on June 21 - that together failed to break Stuart's screen and allowed Lee's army to slip into Pennsylvania uncontested. Together the three engagements are sometimes called t...

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Image: David W Lowe, Cultural Resources GIS | Public domain

]]> Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/b/v/battle-of-aldie-wp/dqbv-battle-of-aldie-the-stone-wall-today.mp3 0:06 6 full