Chester Gap: The Pass Armies Fought Over

The Blue Ridge is a wall between the Piedmont and the Shenandoah Valley, and Chester Gap is one of the few doors through it. That made it worth fighting over. During the Civil War, Union and Confederate forces skirmished repeatedly for control of this pass, which sits at the northern end of what is now Skyline Drive in Rappahannock County.

In the summer of eighteen sixty-two, General Nathaniel Banks marched Union forces through the gap to occupy the county. In the autumn following Antietam, Federal and Confederate troops sparred through October and into November over control of this and neighboring passes. And during the Gettysburg Campaign of eighteen sixty-three, Chester Gap was used by armies on the move during that campaign. Controlling the gap meant controlling movement between the valley and the Piedmont. Armies understood that. Whoever held the gap held the road.