The Battle of Dranesville was a small battle during the American Civil War that took place between Confederate forces under Brigadier General J. E. B. Stuart and Union forces under Brigadier General Edward O. C. Ord on December 20, 1861, in Fairfax County, Virginia, as part of Major General George B. McClellan's operations in northern Virginia. The two forces on similar winter time patrols encountered and engaged one another in the crossroads village of Dranesville. The battle resulted in a Union victory.
Following the Battle of Ball's Bluff on October 21, major offensive action was halted in the eastern theater, as both armies went into winter quarters. Small detachments were still occasionally sent out to probe the enemy's position and to obtain forage. Such was the case early on the morning of December 20 when Stuart, with a mixed brigade of infantry comprising the regiments of the 6th South Carolina, 1st Kentucky, 10th Alabama, and 11th Virginia, 150 of his cavalry troopers and Allen S. Cutts's four-gun Georgia battery, set out north from their position near Centreville to escort the army's wagons trains on a foraging expedition into Loudoun County. Meanwhile, Ord, leading the 10,000 strong 3rd Brigade of Pennsylvania Reserves, set out west from Langley to clear the south bank of the Potomac River of Confederate pickets and partisans in Fairfax and Loudoun. At Colvin Run Mill, Ord left half his force to protect his rear and prevent his force from being cut off from their base at Langley.
6th Infantry, Pennsylvania Reserves (a.k.a. 35th Pennsylvania Volunteers): Lt. Col. William M. Penrose
9th Infantry, Pennsylvania Reserves (a.k.a. 38th Pennsylvania Volunteers): Col. Conrad Feger Jackson
10th Infantry, Pennsylvania Reserves (a.k.a. 39th Pennsylvania Volunteers): Col. John S. McCalmont
12th Infantry, Pennsylvania Reserves (a.k.a. 41st Pennsylvania Volunteers): Col. John H. Taggart
Kane's 1st Pennsylvania Rifle Regiment (a.k.a. 42nd Pennsylvania Volunteers): Lt. Col.l Thomas L. Kane
1st Pennsylvania Reserve Cavalry (a.k.a. 44th Pennsylvania Volunteers): Lt. Col. Jacob C. Higgins
1st Pennsylvania Reserve Artillery (a.k.a. 43rd Pennsylvania Volunteers): Lt. Col. Charles T. Campbell
11th Virginia Volunteers: Col. Samuel Garland, Jr.
6th South Carolina Volunteers: Lt. Col. Andrew J. Secrest
1st North Carolina Cavalry (100 man detachment): Maj. James B. Gordon
2nd Virginia Cavalry, Company C: Cpt. Andrew L. Pitzer
Sumter Flying Artillery (Georgia): Capt. Allen S. Cutts
At about noon, Ord arrived at the intersection of the Georgetown Pike and Leesburg Pike in the village of Dranesville, where he encountered Stuart's advance cavalry pickets, which were quickly driven off by the Union force. Ord then began to lead his command west, down the Leesburg Pike. At around 1 p.m. Stuart, with the main body of his force approached Dranesville from the south, whereupon he encountered the rear of the Union detachment.
The American Civil War (1861–1865) was the deadliest conflict in American history, killing an estimated 620,000 to 750,000 soldiers and an unknown number of civilians. The Confederate States of America, formed by eleven seceding Southern states, faced the Union in four years of warfare across 23 states and territories. Major engagements included First and Second Bull Run, Antietam (the bloodiest single day in American history, September 17, 1862), Chancellorsville, Gettysburg (July 1–3, 1863), Vicksburg (surrendered July 4, 1863), and Sherman's March through Georgia and the Carolinas (1864–1865). President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, transforming the war's stated purpose to include the abolition of slavery and enabling the enlistment of approximately 180,000 Black men in the United States Colored Troops. Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. The war resolved the question of secession and ended American slavery, though Reconstruction would face sustained resistance in its attempt to secure civil rights for formerly enslaved people.
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