Hittle's Mill

Hittle's Mill. Leading Lee's Second Northern Invasion. , After Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's stunning victory at Chancellorsville in May 1863, he led the Army at Northern Virginia west to the Shenandoah Valley, then north through central Maryland and across the Mason-Dixon Line into Pennsylvania. Union Gen. George G. Meade, who replaced Gen. Joseph Hooker on June 28, led the Army of the Potomac in pursuit. Confederate cavalry commander Gen. J.E.B. Stuart cut Federal communication and rail lines and captured supplies. The armies collided at Gettysburg on July 1, starting a battle that neither general planned to fight there. Three days later, the defeated Confederates retreated, crossing the Potomac River into Virginia on July 14. , On June 11, 1863, two days after the Battle of Brandy Station, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's second invasion of the North began as Gen. Richard S. Ewell's corps led the Army of Northern Virginia north from Culpeper. The corps marched well ahead of the reconnoitering Union cavalry, which did not detect the movement for several more days. That evening, Gen. Robert E. Rode's division, leading Ewell's corps, camped along Hittie's Mill stream in this lush valley. This was actually Rodes's second campsite of the day. He had stopped earlier just north of Flint Hill however, after some confusion as to the movements of Ewell and Gen. Jubal A. Early's division, Rodes moved his men north one and a half miles to this location., On the morning of June 12, Rodes continued his march toward Chester Gap. The ranks were broken by the passage of a carriage transporting Ewell, who had lost a leg at the Second Battle of Manassas. The carriage caught up to the division command near Sandy Hook (now Huntly) where Rodes joined Ewell in the carriage as it continues toward the Blue Ridge ahead of the marching troops., Ewell informed Rodes of plans to attack the unsuspecting Union garrisons at Winchester and Berryville simultaneously. Rodes's division would attack Berryville while Ewell and the rest of the corps moved on Winchester. On June 13, Ewell soundly defeated the Union force at Winchester. The garrison at Berryville had learned of Rodes's approach, however, and retreated before his arrival.,

"We reached [Flint Hill] early in the afternoon, and halted an hour or more to await the passage of Early's division. … Ascertaining that General Early had been compelled to abandon his prescribed line of march, … I resumed the march, and bivouacked about one mile and a half north of Flint Hill, having marched about 15 miles." , , Gen. Robert E. Rodes

, After the war, Gen. Robert E. Rodes's sister, Lucy Rodes, married John J. Reid of Woodville. He was a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute who participated in the famous charge of the VMI Cadets at the Battle of New Market. The Reids resided in Woodville and are buried there in St. Paul's Episcopal Cemetery.