Slate Mills

Slate Mills. Reconnaissance, Advance, Retreat. During the Civil War, this road led from Sperryville to Madison, Slate Mills, and James City, west of Culpeper. The F.T. Church and Fink's Store (now the Conyers House) were familiar landmarks. To the west, the Blue Ridge Mountains offered concealment for troops on the march. Both Union and Confederate forces utilized this route and the surrounding area, particularly in 1862 and 1863., When the Federal Army of Virginia occupied Rappahannock County in July-August 1862, Col. Gustave P. Cluseret's cavalry detachment patrolled here, confiscating secessionist property, administering loyalty oaths, and encouraging slaves to leave their owners. The fractured English of the Frenchman Cluseret, like that of many foreign-born officers who served in Gen. Franz Sigel's corps, often confused American listeners. When Cluseret lined up several civilians to take the loyalty oath, he said, "All who vants to take ze oats go on zis side, and all who vants not to take ze oats go on ze ozer side." The befuddled farmers though that he wanted them to take back some wagonloads of oats that he had seized for the cavalry horses., The Confederate army found the road especially useful on two occasions. Gen. Richard S. Ewell's corps, Army of Northern Virginia, marched by here on July 28, 1863, during the Confederate retreat from Gettysburg, and Gen. Edward Johnson's division camped nearby on the Hughes River. On October 11, 1863, part of Confederate Gen. A.P. Hill's corps passed here en route to the Battle of Bristoe Station., "We started quite early and marched 10 miles past Voss's Shop, F.T. [Church], Peola Mills and two miles beyond Hughes River. Rodes encamped near us; Johnson on Hughes River." , Jedediah Hotchkiss, diary, July 28, 1863