June 20, 1862 - Loudoun Rangers (Union) Muster into Service in VA

June 20, 1862

Loudoun Rangers (Union) Muster into Service in VA (sometimes called the Independent Loudon Rangers)

Lovettsville, VA in Loudoun County 



Union Loyalists on the Border
"It cost something to be a Union man in rebeldom."

You're standing in no-man's-land during the Civil War. Lovettsville was a tense pro-Union bastion in a Confederate state, located just two miles south of the Potomac River, the border between North and South.

 Lovettsville was settled by German immigrants who worked small farms, had little use for enslaved labor, and were reluctant to leave the Union. When the Lovettsville precinct voted on secession in May 1861, the vote was 325-46 against. As the Confederate government asserted control, many local Union loyalists fled to Maryland, including Samuel Means, a miller from nearby Waterford. Means was commissioned to form a Union cavalry company, the Loudon Rangers, which went into service on June 20, 1862. Half of the men in the company mustered here in Lovettsville. The Rangers scouted and patrolled along the Potomac, gathering intelligence, policing the border, and protecting pro-Union residents who lived in constant danger. The Rangers clashed with their Confederate counterparts in White's "Comanches," Mosby's Rangers, and John Mobberly's "gang." If the Loudon Rangers were not their equals in numbers, tactics, or combat, their loyalty to the Union was clear. They paid a heavy price. Some forty Rangers died in the service of the Union, half in Confederate prison camps. 

On Christmas Eve, 1864, Loudon Ranger Fleman B. Anderson and two friends were attending a gathering at the house of Flemon's mother when members of Mosby's Rangers and White's Battalion burst inside. Flemon was gunned down as he scrambled to escape. He died in his mother's arms, his new fiancee at his side.

Merry Christmas, 1864, from the "heroes" of the Confederacy!


Just passing through on my third visit to second Winchester. Or was it my second visit to third Winchester?  

IDK, maybe next time 

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