One of the most historic farms in Loudoun County, the Furr-Leith Farm on Snickersville Turnpike, sold last year after having been owned by the Furr-Leith family for seven generations. Chet and Laura Lea Moore of Aldie, Va., are the new owners, and they have involved a number of the community organizations in preparation for a major public event in 2013 that will highlight the grand old farm's history.

The Sesquicentennial Civil War Celebrations in Northern Virginia have brought the national news media and tourists in monumental numbers to the area recently, and most of the area's organizations and agencies focused on education, history and preservation are participating in and promoting those events.

The national tourism program for the National Heritage Area and National Scenic Byways, which stretches one hundred and eighty miles from Gettysburg to Charlottesville, has designated the countryside along the route as the "Journey through Hallowed Ground." There are more Civil War battle sites concentrated in this area than anywhere else in the nation. As the 150 year anniversaries occur from battle site to battle site along the route, history is being retold in nineteenth century terms to people of the twenty-first century, a tremendous and difficult undertaking.

The Moore family plans to have the Furr Farm become a location for part of that celebration.

The Furr Farm battle site, registered with the Department of Historic Resources, is the site of one of the major cavalry battles of the Civil War; the battle is known as having been the Prelude to Gettysburg.

During the June 17, 1863, Battle of Aldie, Confederate sharp-shooters from the Second and Third Virginia dismounted along the Snickersville Turnpike behind the stone wall on the Furr Farm and waited for the Union cavalry which came around the blind curve into a hail of fire. As a consequence, the First Massachusetts suffered great casualties, the severest experienced by any Union regiment on a single day. Years after the war, a monument was erected in 1891 on grounds donated by Dallas Furr, a veteran of Mosby's Rangers. Today, the battle site, the monument, the stonewall, and the old Furr house are still there in full view along Snickersville Turnpike.

On July 20, several community leaders met with the Moores at the Rector House in Atoka to form a committee, and the group has begun planning the event for June of 2013. The committee includes Henry Plaster and Tom Christ from Snickersville Turnpike Association; Childs Burden, Rich Gillespie and Judy Reynolds from Mosby Heritage Area Association; Lester Schumacher, consultant on cavalry reenactments; Steve Hines and Stephen Nichols from Aldie Heritage Association.

These organizations have been very successful managers of large events and educational programs. The plans for the Furr Farm event include a rededication of the roadside monument, a reenactment of the cavalry battle, and interpretive and interactive activities that will help the participants experience the 1863 history. The Moores are confident in the committee's leadership and look forward to helping present a very historical occasion to the community.

The Mosby Heritage Area Association, under the leadership of Childs Burden, who is well known as an outstanding historian, has ongoing programs that are unequaled in scholarship and educational resourcefulness.

Everyone involved in this project hopes the entire communities of Aldie, Middleburg and Upperville will help promote and support, not only the Furr Farm event in 2013, but all the other events and activities related to the Sesquicentennial Celebrations, MHAA's "Preservation through Education" programs, the Snickersville Turnpike Association and the Aldie Heritage Association.