Hopewell Gap

During the Civil War, this narrow pass in the Bull Run Mountains was a strategic avenue for military movements. On August 28, 1862, during the Second Manassas Campaign, Confederate Gen. James Longstreet directed Gen. Cadmus Wilcox’s division through the gap to outflank Union Gen. James B. Ricketts’s division at Thoroughfare Gap. Wilcox’s troops bivouacked that night at Antioch Church after learning that Ricketts had already withdrawn. A few weeks later, Confederate Gen. Richard S. Ewell, recovering near Ewell’s Chapel from a leg amputation, was carried on a litter through Hopewell Gap to elude capture by Federal cavalry.<br><br>On June 18, 1863, Col. Alfred N.A. Duffié narrowly escaped through here with 31 of his original 280 Rhode Island cavalrymen after his embarrassing defeat at Middleburg. Shortly afterward, when Confederate cavalry commander J.E.B. Stuart learned of Federal pickets here, he began his controversial ride to Gettysburg through unoccupied Glasscock’s Gap farther south. He changed course again when he found a Union corps at Haymarket.<br><br>Late in July, 1863, Confederate Maj. John S. Mosby held 153 prisoners and 200 horses at Camp Spindle near here until they could be sent to Richmond. The steep terrain concealed the camp and its natural spring. Mosby released two <i>New York Herald</i> reporters to build good public relations and tell the world what a &#8220;gentleman&#8221; he was.<br><br>According to local tradition, two of Mosby’s men fooled 200 Federals into fleeing from the gap during the war. Echoing rebel yells and large stones being rolled off the steep slopes made it seem like a larger force was attacking.