Hinson's Ford

Hinson's Ford. Important River Crossing on a Historic March. In mid-August 1862, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee concentrated the Army of Northern Virginia on the western bank of the Rappahannock River near Jeffersonton, about 10 miles east of here. Union Gen. John Pope’s Army of Virginia was located on the eastern side of the river., Lee decided to attack Pope before Union Gen. George B. McClellan could send reinforcements from the Army of the Potomac, which was returning to northern Virginia after the Peninsula campaign. To achieve surprise and force Pope back toward Washington, Lee sent Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson’s corps on a 5-mile circuitous march west and north around Pope’s right flank. Jackson left Jeffersonton early in the morning of August 25 and passed through Amissville on the Rappahannock Turnpike. Lee and Gen. James Longstreet’s corps followed the same route one day later. A total of approximately 70,000 men marched west to Hinson’s Ford Road where they turned north and passed by Oak Shade, the Amiss house. Hinson’s Ford, the first large Rappahannock River ford above Waterloo Bridge, was across the highway at the end of Route 643., Jackson’s march placed him in Pope’s rear at Bristoe Station on August 26. He destroyed Union supply trains both there and at Manassas Junction on the 27th and then marched to just west of Groveton. One day later this attack on a Union column marching north from Warrenton initiated the Second Battle of Manassas., Confederate Gen. J.E.B. Stuart also led his cavalry across Hinson’s Ford as he road north during the Gettysburg Campaign in June 1863., (Sidebar): John Amiss Walter and his fiancée Effie Parr, who died of typhoid fever before their wedding; Walter married her sister, Sally Parr. As a boy, Walter, who was sitting on a fence at Oak Shade, directed Jackson to drinking water near Hinson’s Ford Road.