Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum

Hear about the first combat many Civil War soldiers experienced at the little known Battle of Dranesville in Fairfax County, Virginia.

The Battle of Dranesville Courtesy of Wiki Commons

On Saturday December 14 at 4:00 PM at the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum learn about one of the first early forgotten battles of the Civil War fought  just a few miles from Clara Barton’s residence in Washington DC.

The Battle of Dranesville, fought on Dec. 20, 1861 does not have the name recognition of Gettysburg, or Antietam. It involved about 2,500 Confederate soldiers led by J.E.B. Stuart, fighting a numerically superior Federal force commanded by Brig. Gen. Edward Ord. The two-hour battle that occurred in northern Virginia was the end result of a hectic fall and winter of 1861. As both sides scrambled to recover from the battles of First Manassas (Bull Run) and Ball’s Bluff, they sought food in the No Man’s Land of Fairfax County, Virginia. The opposing forces routinely sent out foraging parties, and it was only a matter of time before they would run into each other. The Battle of Dranesville followed and proved to be many soldiers’ first experience of fighting. Historian Ryan Quint recounts the actions that led to this little-known battle.

The presentations begins at 4:00 PM on Saturday December 14 at the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office. It will be a pay-what-you-please presentation.

Ryan Quint graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in History from the University of Mary Washington in 2015. From 2015-2018 he was a Park Guide for the Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park. He writes for the Emerging Civil War, and his first book, Determined to Stand and Fight: The Battle of Monocacy, July 9, 1864 was published by Savas Beatie in 2017. He is now working on the first book-length treatment of the Battle of Dranesville and works for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.