Rich Gillespie, director of education for the Mosby Heritage Area Association, will speak on “The Potomac Frontier: Loudoun County in 1862” at 2 p.m. Feb. 12, at St. James United Church of Christ in Lovettsville.

Gillespie will tell the stories of citizens and soldier experiences during the second year of the Civil War.

Gillespie is a 30-year veteran history teacher at Loudoun Valley High School, from which he retired in 2004 to pursue a second career in museum education.
The presentation is the latest in the Lovettsville Historical Society’s popular lecture series.

Gillespie will offer an illustrated portrait of 1862 through stories of Loudoun County and surrounding areas, examining the variety of experiences that people in Loudoun had as the Civil War progressed through its second year.

The year began with the defense of the Potomac frontier in the snowy winter of 1862 by Confederate forces. Loudoun County then saw occupation by Union forces in March; the raising of a local Union troop (the Loudoun Rangers) in June, and brother fighting brother at Waterford Baptist Church in August.

Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Confederate Army of Northern Virginia returned to Loudoun in September 1862 on its way into Maryland. Both the Confederate and Union armies recrossed the Potomac River in October following the bloody Battle of Antietam in Sharpsburg.

November 1862 saw the armies engaged in the Loudoun Valley Campaign.

John Singleton Mosby arrived in the area on Dec. 29,1862, a portent of things to come.