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BY JAMES P. GANNON
Rappahannock News Contributing Writer
Imagine that today is July 6, 1862, and you are standing at the top of Chester Gap. Looking toward Front Royal, you see a long column of soldiers, horses, wagons and cannon winding slowly up the mountain road. You hear the creaking of wagon wheels, the clank of metal, the whinnying of horses, the tramping of thousands of feet in the dust. At the head of the column, the stars and stripes wave in the breeze. The soldiers all wear blue.
It is the dreaded Yankee army, and this is the beginning of the invasion of Rappahannock County. The troops crossing Chester Gap are General Nathaniel P. Banks’ Second Corps of the Union Army of Virginia—two divisions of more than 10.000 men.
Another Union troop column is approaching the county from the west, crossing the Blue Ridge at Thornton’s Gap, on the road to Sperryville. This is the First Corps of the Army of Virginia, under command of General Franz Sigel. Sigel’s column was even longer than that of Banks—250 wagons, 57 cannons, three infantry divisions totaling over 14.000 men. By July 11, all would be encamped in and around Sperryville and Woodville.
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