Berryville Wagon Train Raid

Just after dawn on 13 Aug. 1864, Col. John Singleton Mosby and 300 of his 43rd Battalion Partisan Rangers attacked the rear section of Maj. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan’s 600-vehicle wagon train here. The train, headed for Winchester, carried supplies for Sheridan’s cavalry. Mosby surprised and routed the Federals as they rested, cooked breakfast, and hitched their horses. Mosby’s men, losing only one killed and one mortally wounded, captured 200 beef cattle, 500–600 horses, 100 wagons, and 200 soldiers. The raid ended by 6:30 a.m. Berryville’s citizens including many small boys, helped burn the wagons after liberating their contents.