Thoroughfare Gap Battlefield, considered an important strategic passage through the Bull Run Mountains, served as a corridor to Northern Virginia and the District of Columbia from the Shenandoah Valley throughout the Civil War. Both Federal and Confederate troops occupied the gap at different times between 1861-1863. The largest military engagement for possession of Thoroughfare Gap took place on August 28, 1862. Confederate forces under the command of Colonel G. T. Anderson and Brigadier General David R Jones drove Federal troops under the command of Brigadier General James Ricketts from the gap. The outcome of the Battle of Thoroughfare Gap allowed Confederate forces led by General Robert E. Lee and Major General James Longstreet to join Major General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson’s troops already positioned near Manassas. The next day, at the Second Battle of Manassas, the Confederate victory allowed Lee to continue his campaign north into Maryland.  The battlefield is included within the Broad Run/Little Georgetown Rural Historic District.