Looking for NC's Civil War - Slash Church

Hanover County, Virginia, is packed with history: from Native Americans and European explorers, to Revolutionary War history. Much concerning the Civil War also took place in the area. On May 26, 1862, Brigadier General Lawrence O'Bryan Branch made his headquarters here, at Slash Church. His staff officers slept in the pews that night, as the men who formed his North Carolina brigade slept in the rain outside the building. The next day, portions of Branch's forces pitched into the Federals of Fitz John Porter's Fifth Corps to the east. The day would result in a Confederate loss.

Branch did not survive the war; he was killed at the battle of Sharpsburg in September of that year. Slash Church did survive the War, and a later fire. The building, or most of it, was constructed in 1729, and it is the oldest such structure in Virginia.

I have been to Slash Church on several occasions, even attending worship there when I was working on my book on the battle of Hanover Court House. This photograph dates from May 2010.