Unison Heritage Day this year will be a commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War Battle of Unison and a celebration of the new Unison Battlefield Historic District, already being called one of the nation's best preserved places.

The 8,000-acre, eight-mile-long battlefield, stretching from Philomont through Unison to Upperville, was placed on the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic places last fall.

A reenactment of the Nov. 1-3, 1862 battle will fight through the village for over an hour, starting after 12:30 p.m., with Federal and Confederate cavalry, infantry, artillery and costumed civilians. The fighting, which left the village in flames in 1862, will take place largely on Unison Road going past the Unison Store, where the festival takes place.

Re-enactors from Valley Light Horse, Liberty Rifles, 1st Maine Cavalry, CVG, Kevin Yarzo Artillery and other living-history groups will camp in and around Unison Friday, Saturday and Sunday, staging mock battles on all three days, starting near Philomont and ending near Upperville.

The annual fall festival, sponsored by the nonprofit Unison Preservation Society, will also feature the Blue Grass Band Willow Branch, barbecue by Red, Hot and Blue, oysters and clams on the half shell, a live auction and art show/sale.

Hounds and riders from the Piedmont Hounds, America's oldest Fox Hunting organization, will arrive about noon as the festival opens, and mingle with the crowd.

The Battle of Unison reenactment will also include demonstrations of Civil War medical techniques, Civil War talks and tours of the 1832 Unison United Methodist Church, used as a hospital for wounded Union soldiers during and after the three-day battle. Graffiti left by those soldiers is still visible on upstairs walls of the church.

Admission, $30 for adults, $5 children ages 7-12 and free for children 6 and under, includes free parking, food, beverages, auctions, talks and entertainment.

Advance tickets may be purchased by sending checks to Unison Preservation Society, P.O. Box 606, Middleburg, VA, 20118. More information about the event, the battlefield and the Battle of Unison can be seen on the UPS website: www.unionva.org.

The annual village fall festival is sponsored by the nonprofit Unison Preservation Society, which created the Unison Village Historic District and the Unison Battlefield Historic District. The village, one of the first settlements in Loudoun in the 1730s, is at the crossroads of Foxcroft Road (Rte. 626) and Unison Road (Rte. 630) northwest of Middleburg.

The Battle of Unison, described in a 52-page illustrated history by National Park Service historian David Lowe, will be available for sale at the festival. The small, three-day Civil War battle after the Battle of Antietam, followed a plan by President Lincoln himself, which he hoped might capture the Confederate capital of Richmond and result in an early end to the war. When the plan and Gen. George B. McClellan failed, Lincoln immediately removed McClellan from command.

Historian Lowe says in his history "Thus, a small battle in Loudoun Valley had a disproportionate impact upon the course of the campaign and the war in Virginia."

The battlefield today, with most of its roads the original dirt roads of 1862, is so well preserved says Lowe that if Union and Confederate troops who fought here were to see it today they would recognize the entire battlefield.