News & Press Releases

UNION TROOPS OFFER CIVIL WAR PROGRAM AT

The Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority continues its commemoration of the 150^thanniversary of the Civil War on Saturday and Sunday, June 23 & 24, when it hosts re-enactors portraying Union troops in the days following the cavalry engagements in Aldie, Middleburg and Upperville in June of 1863.  The sounds of gunfire were barely fading when wounded Union and Confederate soldiers were taken to Mt. Zion Church following the bloody fighting just west of the church site – fighting that turned out to be the prelude to the famous battle at Gettysburg just days later.  The church was used as a field hospital both for soldiers wounded in battle, and for those felled by heatstroke, typhoid fever, or other illnesses.  

Members of the 28^thVirginia Regiment, Company D, will don Union uniforms for the weekend and recreate life in camp as well as medical practices of the Civil War time period.  Musket firing is scheduled for 10:00, 12:00 and 2:00 on Saturday and Sunday, with an additional 4:00 firing on Saturday.  The public is invited to visit their camp, step inside the church-turned-hospital, and stroll through the adjacent cemetery where Civil War veterans are buried.

Hours for this special program are 9:00 – 5:00 on Saturday the 23^rd, and 9:00 – 3:00 on Sunday the 24^th.  For further information, contact Tracy J. Gillespie, Historic Site Supervisor, at tgillespie@NVRPA.orgor by calling 703-327-9777.