Pass Run and Thornton Gap

Pass Run and Thornton Gap. Between Campaigns. Nearly three weeks after the Battle of Gettysburg, and in the wake of a sharp fight near Front Royal at Wapping Heights (Manassas Gap) on July 23, 1863, Confederate troops from Gen. Richard S. Ewell’s corps withdrew to the Page Valley. On July 25, Gen. Robert E. Rodes’ division camped near Bethlehem Lutheran Church (otherwise known as Brick Church) and along Pass Run. Gen. Edward “Allegheny” Johnson’s division camped near Rodes, while Gen. Jubal A. Early’s division spent the night at Mt. Jackson., The soldiers rested the following day, a Sunday, and many attended the Rev. Beverly Tucker Lacy’s sermon at headquarters that morning. Before Stonewall Jackson’s death near Chancellorsville that spring, Lacy had been his “field” minister. Later that evening, the army began to move, and Early’s division marched through the Luray/New Market Gap into the Page Valley to join the balance of Ewell’s corps., On the morning of July 27, leaving several of the wounded from Gettysburg and Wapping Heights in Luray in the care of private citizens, Rodes’ and Johnson’s division crossed Thornton Gap into Rappahannock County; Early soon joined them. In the weeks that followed, during what became known as the Bristoe Campaign, both armies fought a series of engagements well into October., (sidebar) Bethlehem Lutheran Church. Closely affiliated with Hebron Church in Madison County, the congregation built the brick structure in 1851. During the Civil War, local residents called it Pass Run Church.