This is the story of one of those wood paths in the far eastern corner of Orange County, Virginia, an area known as ”The Wilderness.” It is the same path “that carried thousands of men and horses, many of them toward death or wounding.” Parts of this path were made by colonial gentlemen to provide access from their residences to the major road of commerce, the Germanna Road. A part was made decades later to link with the Orange Courthouse to Fredericksburg Turnpike, a road created circa 1812. Additions were later constructed during the antebellum period to provide access to the many gold mines and the three churches in the area. During the first week of May 1864, one third of both the Army of the Potomac and the Army of Northern Virginia met along this wood path known as the Culpeper Mine Road and changed the future of America.
