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Loudoun Rangers
Flag of the Commonwealth of Virginia (1861)
Active
1862–1865
Country
United States of America
Allegiance
United States Army (Union Army)
Branch
Independent
Type
Cavalry
Size
2 Companies
Nickname(s)
Mean's Rangers
Flag of the United States (1863-1865)
Engagements
American Civil War
Fight at Waterford
Battle of Mile Hill – Battle of Harpers Ferry
Second Battle of Winchester
Battle of Charlestown
Commanders
1st
Captain Samuel C. Means
2nd
Captain Daniel M. Keyes
Military unit
The Loudoun Rangers, also known as Mean's Rangers for their commander, Samuel C. Means, was a partisan cavalry unit raised in Loudoun County, Virginia, that fought for the Union during the American Civil War. The Rangers have the distinction of being the only unit raised in present-day Virginia to serve in the Union Army.
The Loudoun Rangers were formed in the spring of 1862, when the Union Army first occupied Loudoun County as part of its campaign in the Shenandoah Valley. Returning with the army was local unionist Samuel Means, who had been run out of the county the previous year by local Confederates. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton issued Means orders to raise a company of men to serve as an independent command, of which he would be captain, for special service in Loudoun and along the Virginia-Maryland border. Recruiting operations were established in the northern Loudoun Valley, an area of strong unionist sentiment, eventually leading to the formation of 2 companies. For the first two years of service the Loudoun Rangers served as partisans, often in conjunction with Cole's Maryland Cavalry (1st Potomac Home Brigade) fighting their confederate counterparts, such as White's Comanches, Mosby's Rangers and John Mobberly's renegade band in and around Loudoun. In 1864 the Rangers were absorbed into regular service, leading to Means' departure. Daniel Keyes subsequently took his place as leader of the outfit. During the final years of the war the Rangers were attached to the Union army in the Shenandoah Valley and took part in the Valley Campaigns of 1864 under General Phillip Sheridan. As the war in the valley came to an end, the Rangers returned to their partisan role and were eventually effectively broken up in April 1865 when a detachment of Mosby's Rangers raided their camp at Castleman's Ferry and captured the better part of the command. The Rangers were officially mustered out of service the following month.
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The Loudoun Valley is a small, but historically significant valley in the Blue Ridge Mountains located in Loudoun County in Northern Virginia in the United...
hanged) and ordered the cavalry, consisting of one company each of the LoudounRangers and 6th Michigan Cavalry, to "take care of themselves". Upon entering...
into town to find Samuel C. Means and his Unionist LoudounRangers guarding the courthouse. The Rangers, having been severely manhandled by E.V. White and...
The Battle of Loudoun Heights was a small cavalry skirmish during the American Civil War between John Mosby's Rangers and Major Henry A. Cole's 1st Potomac...
war. Groups such as Blazer's Scouts, White's Comanches, the LoudounRangers, McNeill's Rangers, and other similar forces at times served in the formal armies...
Mobberly, with Mosby's Rangers, fought a May 17, 1864, skirmish with the LoudounRangers at Waterford, Mobberly shot a wounded Ranger Charles Stewart several...
Benjamin Grierson William B. Cushing Samuel C. Means – captain of the LoudounRangers Henry Young Harriet Tubman – female African American who infiltrated...
within Loudoun, was tactically inconclusive. On the afternoon of March 20 Col. Reno, commanding a 1000-man expedition, consisting of the LoudounRangers, 12th...
Virginia Militia) Dameron's Independent Company, Virginia Volunteers LoudounRangers 1st West Virginia Volunteer Infantry Regiment (3 Month) 1st West Virginia...
Confederates, and the LoudounRangers fighting for the Union. The Rebels surprised and routed the newly formed LoudounRangers in their camp at Waterford...
proposed to Miles that his troopers of the 8th New York Cavalry, the LoudounRangers, the 12th Illinois Cavalry and some smaller units from Maryland and...
professional match with Loudoun United FC on September 25, 2019, subbing in the 68th minute of the team's 4–1 win over the Swope Park Rangers. On January 17,...
The 43rd Virginia Cavalry Battalion, also known as Mosby's Rangers, Mosby's Raiders, or Mosby's Men, was a battalion of partisan cavalry in the Confederate...
associated with the larger Loudoun Valley in Loudoun County, Virginia. The Catoctin Valley encompasses the northern part of the Loudoun Valley east of the Short...
Global Information
United States of America