June 17, 1863---The Battle of Aldie

JUNE 17, 1863:  

The Battle of Aldie, Virginia. In an attempt to divert Jeb Stuart’s cavalry and to gain control of the passes through the Blue Ridge Mountains into the Shenandoah Valley, Union troops clash with Confederates near the village of Aldie. A series of cavalry and infantry charges and countercharges along the Snicker’s Gap Turnpike and the Ashby’s Gap Turnpike, turned brutal; the First Massachusetts Cavalry lost 198 of 294 men, and the 5^th Virginia lost an entire company. Although the Confederates withdrew, they had succeeded strategically in stopping the Union from entering the Valley to find the Army of Northern Virginia.