The Affair at Glenmore Farm The Affair at Glenmore Farm was a small cavalry skirmish that took place October 16 , 1862 in Loudoun County , Virginia between Confederate forces under First Lieutenant Frank Myers and Union forces under General John Geary during the American Civil War . The skirmish resulted in a Union victory . Background . On September 9 , part of the Army of Northern Virginia ' s artillery under Colonel R . L . Walker escorted by Col . Elijah V . White ' s Battalion entered Loudoun county at Point of Rocks after unsuccessfully trying to destroy the C & O Canal aqueduct over the Monocacy River . White led Walker to Loudoun Heights by way of Lovettsville and Hillsboro , as part of Robert E . Lee ' s plan to take Harpers Ferry to protect his flank during his Maryland Campaign . White , who was not happy to be sent back in Virginia as he preferred to be with the rest of the army in Maryland , where he could recruit from his native state ( Unfortunately , in Frederick he got in an altercation with Gen . Stuart who subsequently ordered back to Virginia . Gen . Lee , hoping to smooth things over , but who nevertheless had to support the senior Stuart , assigned White to this vital mission in the battalion ' s home county ) , resumed his partisan activities in the county after escorting Walker to Loudoun Heights . The bombardment of Leesburg . At about the time the Battle of Antietam was occurring , Lt . Col . Hugh Judson Kilpatrick , commanding ten companies of cavalry , left Washington to reoccupy Leesburg and clear the area of any remaining Confederates . Upon arriving in Leesburg , Kilpatrick found the town held by Company A of the 6th Virginia Cavalry , forty or so infantrymen under the command Captain Gibson , and Colonel White and thirty of his troopers . As the infantrymen were largely convalescences and stragglers not fit to make the trek into Maryland and their force being greatly outnumbered , Gibson began to retreat from town . White , however , not wanting to give up his hometown without a fight , persuaded Gibson to resist the Federals as long as possible . A skirmish broke out between the Federal advance guard and the ragtag Confederate force near the courthouse square . In retribution for the Confederates ' stubborn resistance , Kilpatrick ordered his artillery brought up and commenced firing on the town , forcing the Confederates to retreat west up the Winchester Pike . The degree of damage to the town is a matter of some dispute , with Confederates describing significant damage to buildings , while Kilpatrick reported only that he fired a few shots over the town . Once the artillery barrage ceased , Kilpatrick sent in the 10th New York Cavalry , which encountered the Confederates on the western edge of town . White attempted to lead his men in a charge , but he was severely wounded in the process , whereupon the force retreated to Harmony ( present day Hamilton ) and Kilpatrick took control of Leesburg . The Skirmish . On October 16 , First Lieutenant Frank Myers , in nominal command of White ' s Battalion , while White recovered from his wounds inflicted at Leesburg , was ordered by Stonewall Jackson ' s quartermaster to secure cattle from the Lovettsville area . Myers made an attempt but was thwarted by the presence of General J . R . Kenly ' s Maryland infantry and cavalry . In retribution , a scouting party under John DeButts , later a member of Mosby ' s Rangers , was dispatched to harass Kenly , which they successfully did , driving his force back to Harpers Ferry . Thinking the area was clear of Federals and safe to raid , Captain Treyhorn , a new addition to the company , led a scouting party towards Berlin , Maryland ( present day Brunswick ) , stopping in Lovettesville for the night on the 19th . The Federals , however , took notice of the Confederates , and General John Geary was dispatched from Harpers Ferry with two infantry brigades and 300 men from the Col Thomas Devin ' s 6th New York Cavalry to engage the scouting party . On the morning of the 20th Treyhorn ' s pickets were captured by Geary ' s advance guard , prompting the Confederates to fall back towards Wheatland . As the Confederates began to fall back , Geary ' s main force reached Hillsborough , where he divided his force , sending Devin and the 6th New York east down the Charles Town Pike to Wheatland , where they then turned north up the Berlin Turnpike . Geary lead his force north up the Mountain Road , which ran parallel to the Berlin Pike , before turning east on the road to Morrisonville . At that village , on the Glenmore Farm , the two forks of the Union advance pinned the retreating Confederates . As Devin mounted a charge and Geary hit the flank of the 35th , Treyhorn deployed sharpshooters on top of nearby haystacks , who momentarily kept the infantry at bay , but before long the 35th was forced into a full retreat that quickly devolved into a rout that was only ended when the horsed of the 6th New York became too fatigued to continue the chase . Results . When the skirmish was over , the 35th had lost 1 dead , 2 wounded and 21 captured . Treyhorn was forced to resign and leave the company . The action represented the first major loss for the White ' s Battalion . Nevertheless the company , which had become significantly large to become a battalion , was formally organized on the 28th by Col . Bradly T . Johnson of Gen . Stuart ' s command and given the official designation - the 35th Battalion of Virginia Cavalry .