The Harmony Skirmish The Harmony Skirmish was a small engagement of the American Civil War between Confederate forces under Colonel John Mosby and Union forces under Colonel Marcus Reno on March 21 , 1865 near the village of Harmony ( present day Hamilton ) in Loudoun County , Virginia . A union raiding party , that was sent into Loudoun County to eliminate Confederate partisans , was ambushed by Mosby ' s Rangers near the village of Harmony . After inflicting light casualties on the Federals , the Rangers were unable to drive off the numerically superior and better equipped force and were compelled to withdrawal . The skirmish , which was the last major action of the war within Loudoun , was tactically inconclusive . Background . On the afternoon of March 20 Col . Reno , commanding a 1000 man expedition , consisting of the Loudoun Rangers , 12th Pennsylvania Cavalry , 1st United States Infantry and 2 pieces of light artillery , set out from Harpers Ferry into Loudoun County on a mission to obtain forage and clear the Loudoun Valley of partisans . The column entered Loudoun in the Between the Hills valley and marched through Hillsboro and Woodgrove , reaching Purcellville on the morning of the 21st . The column was under near continuous sniping fire from Confederate partisans during the march , 5 of which were captured at Hillsboro . The Federal incursion did not go unnoticed to John Mosby ' s scouts and accordingly he ordered a rendezvous of his Rangers the following morning . On the 21st Mosby , with 128 Rangers , set out north from upper Fauquier to confront the Federals . The Skirmish . Around midday , Mosby reached Harmony , whereupon he learned the Federals were located west in Purcellville . Unsure of the strength of the opposing force , Mosby lead his Rangers approximately southeast of the village . He deployed the main body of his force in a woods south of the road while leaving 24 Rangers under Jim Wiltshire on the road as bait for an ambush . The 12th Pennsylvania soon came upon the Wiltshires men , and taking them to be an isolated band of partisans of the nature that the Federals had been fighting with since entering Loudoun , immediately charged . Wiltshire ' s force broke into retreat until they reached the woods where the rest of the Rangers were concealed , at which point they suddenly turned around and counter - attacked the Federals . At the same time the rest of the Rangers came out of the woods and assailed the Federal flank . The 12th Pennsylvania briefly made a stand but was soon compelled to retreat . The Rangers broke after them , but as they reached Harmony they encountered the Federal infantry who were concealed behind a hedgerow . The infantry met the Rangers with a fierce volley that wounded and killed several and forced most of the rest to fall back . A few daring Rangers pursued the Federals further , including James Sinclair , who after killing one Federal , saw he wore a diamond ring . In the midst of the fight Sinclair jumped from his horse to pull the ring from the body , when it would not budge he cut the finger off . Mosby soon called of the Rangers and fell back towards Fauquier . He would continue to shadow the Federals as they ranged through Loudoun and Fauquier for the next 3 days , though no significant fighting between the two took place . Results . In the brief fight the Rangers killed 9 Federals , wounded 20 and took 5 prisoners while suffering 2 killed 5 wounded and 4 captured , including Ranger John Chew , who was paralyzed by gunfire in the fight and left behind when the Rangers fell back . The fight did little to deter the Federal incursion , nor did the Rangers inflict the severe casualties that was a characteristic of most of their raids , but the engagement is significant in that it represents the last fight of any size in the county .