The Skirmish at Miskel Farm, also known as the Fight at Miskel Farm or Gunfight at Miskel Farm, was a skirmish during the American Civil War. It took place April 1, 1863, near Broad Run in Loudoun County, Virginia, between Mosby's Rangers and the 1st Vermont Cavalry as part of Mosby's operations in Northern Virginia. The 2nd Pennsylvania surprised and attacked the Rangers, who were bivouacked on the farm of Thomas Miskel. The Rangers successfully defended the attack and subsequently routed the 2nd Pennsylvania, inflicting heavy casualties and taking many prisoners.
On the afternoon of March 31, Mosby and about 70 of his Rangers set out from Rectortown in Fauquier County towards Fairfax County through snow and rain. Their destination was Dranesville near the Loudoun–Fairfax border. They planned on attacking the Union garrison stationed there, which was often sent into Loudoun and Fauquier to raid Mosby's Confederacy. Unfortunately for the Rangers, they were foiled by their own success.
Upon arriving in Dranesville, they found the garrison abandoned, having been pulled back east of Difficult Run in the face of mounting pressure from the partisan warfare being waged by Mosby. With night fast approaching, the Rangers set out back west into Loudoun, eventually stopping at the farm of Thomas and Lydia Miskel at about 10:00 p.m. to get forage for their mounts and to rest for the night. At the farm, located on the eastern bank of the Broad Run near its confluence with the Potomac River, a few miles north of the Leesburg Pike (present day Route 7), the Rangers felt safe from Federal patrols. Most of the Rangers tied their mounts in the barnyard and made their beds in the barn, which was surrounded by a high fence with only a single gate opening out to the lane running to the road to Leesburg pike. The lane, in turn, was bounded on both sides by two fences. Mosby and his officers took refuge in the main house.
The presence of Mosby and his Rangers was a conspicuous sight to the locals, who knew all too well what the Federals might do to them if they were found aiding and abetting the Rangers. Thus, a local woman, hoping, perhaps to spare herself such a calamity or maybe just an outright Union sympathizer, made her way to the Federal lines at Union Church, arriving around midnight. She reported Mosby's presence to Major Charles F. Taggart of the 2nd Pennsylvania Cavalry. Upon learning the news, Taggart immediately dispatched Captain Henry C. Flint and five companies of the 1st Vermont Cavalry to kill or capture the Rangers.
By early dawn, the Federals had reached Broad Run on the Leesburg Pike, and stopped briefly at a house off the Road to inquire as to the whereabouts of the Miskel Farm. After receiving the information, they set out towards Miskel Farm and Mosby's unsuspecting men. As fate would have it, Ranger Dick Moran had been in the house the Federals stopped at visiting friends. As soon as the Federals left, he mounted his horse and took off across the fields to warn Mosby and his fellow Rangers.
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.
This page covers Mosby's Raid: The Miskel Farm Fight (Loudoun County, 1863). A full Aubrey report for the area pulls together this battle alongside historic sites, land records, and everything else the record holds within a few miles:
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