October 1864 was not the easiest of times to

October 1864 was not the easiest of times to reflect upon either religion or beauty in this area of Virginia. Civil War bitterness was reaching its climax, nowhere more so than Rappahannock County and vicinity. Part of the county and nearly all of the Shenandoah Valley would soon be consumed by the scorched earth policy known ever after simply as “The Burning”. Meshy's Confederate Rangers had so successfully harassed Union troops, supplies, and railroads in the area that Union authorities had issued orders to treat the rebels as common criminals, dispensing with any niceties; basically just kill ‘em where ya find ‘em. The orders had come from none other than U.S. Grant on August 16: “Where any of Mosbys men are caught, hang them without a trial!” (No, Habeas Corpus or other formalities? No problem, just ahead of the times; the quaint 1,000 year old ‘custom’ would disappear from view, almost to the day, some 142 years later.) Gen. George Custer had already started to carry out these orders in notorious fashion, summarily executing six Rangers on September 23, dragging one, Lafayette Rhodes, through the streets of Front Royal as his mother begged for his life.

Like any lawless behavior, the situation quickly spun out of the control of all involved. Facts in individual incidents became irrelevant. Vengeance and counter-retribution were the watchwords. About October 12, Rangers on the Chancellor farm in Rappahannock captured a Union soldier seeking horses and cattle, who was posing as a Confederate.