My research is centered on northern Virginia, specifically the county of Fauquier. The county was unique for several reasons, among them its great antebellum wealth, and because it was home to the partisan fighter John Mosby and his Rangers, one of the only meaningfully effective and successful Confederate guerrilla units of the war. I am interested in the world in which these guerrillas operated, specifically in the effects of near-constant occupation at the grassroots level. Its proximity to both capitals meant that Union and Confederate armiesoccupied Fauquier throughout the war and the county seat alone changed hands 67 times. 

The county’s residents, black and white and free and enslaved, found themselves in a no man’s land where traditional demarcations between home front and battlefield did not exist—war on the border was not that distinct, and was as much social as it was political and martial. There were no passive civilians. The harrowing experience of guerrilla war shifted gender roles, as white women were thrust into the public sphere and became actively engaged in acts of warfare while white men were miles away or hiding out at home to evade detection—and either way unable to protect their families. It altered race relations as the enslaved residents of the county learned new ways to operate in a world where they had moreoptions and agency to achieve freedom.