Mt. Zion Church and the adjacent rock walled cemetery lie south of the John S. Mosby Highway (Route 50) a mile or so east of Gilbert's Corner in Loudoun County, Virginia. I stopped there on May 10 to participate in a program sponsored by the Mosby Heritage Area Association which included visiting graves of Mosby's Rangers.

Mt. Zion Church

At the back of the cemetery, nestled in the corner, are 12 U. S. Government headstones inscribed with the names of cavalrymen from the 2nd Massachusetts and the 13th New York Cavalry Regiments. The Union soldiers were killed by Mosby's Rangers in a July 6, 1864 running skirmish near the church and on Samuel Skinners Farm east of the church. The cavalrymen were reportedly originally buried near the Little River Church adjacent to Old Braddock Road and later disinterred and moved to Arlington National Cemetery. In the 1990's citizens of Loudoun County obtained the headstones from the Veterans Administration and had them placed in the cemetery to honor the fallen Yankees.

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Charles Oeldraiher