Culpeper, Virginia
Culpeper is an incorporated town in Culpeper County, Virginia, United States. It is the county seat and part of the Washington–Baltimore combined statistical area. At the 2020 United States Census, the population was 20,062, an increase from 16,379 in 2010. Culpeper is located along U.S. Route 15, U.S. Route 29, and U.S. Route 522, and is served by intercity passenger rail at Culpeper station and by local and regional bus services operated by Virginia Regional Transit and the Virginia Breeze network.
The town was laid out in 1749 by a young George Washington while working as a surveyor for Lord Fairfax, and formally established in 1759 by the Virginia House of Burgesses under the name Fairfax. During the American Revolutionary War, the Culpeper Minutemen militia organized here in 1775. In the American Civil War, Culpeper was occupied by both Union and Confederate forces due to its strategic position along the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, and the surrounding county saw engagements including the Battle of Brandy Station, the largest cavalry battle of the war and the largest that had ever occurred in North America, as well as the Battle of Cedar Mountain.
In the late 19th and 20th centuries, Culpeper grew as a regional rail and market center. A major cultural landmark is the Packard Campus for Audio-Visual Conservation, opened by the Library of Congress in 1997 on the site of a former Federal Reserve facility. Culpeper has also been affected by modern events such as the 2011 Virginia earthquake, which damaged downtown structures, and recent technology-related investment, including data centers within the Culpeper Technology Zone.
History
Presence of indigenous groups
Early European settlement
In 1649, the 629,000-acre Northern Neck Proprietary was established by King Charles II as a one-seventh partition of the Crown's holdings in North America. The original recipient of this territory was John Colepeper, 1st Baron Colepeper of Thoresway. Upon his passing, control of the territory was transferred to his son, Thomas Colepeper, the 2nd Baron; in 1688 he received a new patent from King James verifying his claim to the territory, but died the following year. 5/6th of his share of the colony was inherited by his daughter, Catherine Culpeper, and her husband Thomas Fairfax, 5th Lord Fairfax of Cameron. Upon his death in 1710, control of the territory passed on to his son Thomas, the 6th Lord. The death of his grandmother in May of that year left him the remaining sixth share. Given that he was only 16 at the time, administrative authority fell to his mother, who would maintain it until her death in 1719, when the whole of the proprietary was passed on to Thomas. Upon its founding by the Virginia General Assembly as a partition of Orange County in 1749, Culpeper County would be named for Catherine, as Fairfax County already existed.By the early 18th century, settlers from the Tidewater and Northern Neck regions began pushing westward into the Piedmont. German, English, and Scots-Irish colonists established farms along the Rapidan and Crooked Run valleys between 1714 and 1720 as part of the Germanna Colony settlement founded by Governor Alexander Spotswood. At the time of its founding, it was colonial Virginia's westernmost settlement. These settlers built homesteads, mills, and trading routes that later became part of Culpeper County. The region’s fertile soil supported wheat, corn, and tobacco cultivation, while trade developed along wagon roads connecting Fredericksburg to the Shenandoah Valley.
Founding and colonial period
In 1748, the Virginia House of Burgesses formally created Culpeper County from Orange County, effective May 17, 1749. It originally included what are now Madison and Rappahannock counties. After Culpeper County was established, the Virginia House of Burgesses voted on February 22, 1759, to create the Town of Fairfax. The name honored Thomas Fairfax, the 6th Lord.The original plan for the town included ten square blocks forming the present downtown grid. The layout was surveyed in 1749 by a young George Washington, who was then employed by Lord Fairfax to map the Northern Neck proprietary lands.
During the colonial period, Culpeper became a small market town centered around tobacco warehouses, taverns, and blacksmith shops. Roads linking Fredericksburg to the Shenandoah Valley increased its commercial importance. Slave patrols were active as early as 1763, "scouring" the county to scrutinize the freedman status or travelling rights of itinerant blacks.
In 1765, 16 of the 20 justices of Culpeper Courthouse resigned their commissions in protest of Britain's imposition of the Stamp Act. During the Revolutionary War, local residents organized the Culpeper Minutemen militia in 1775 at Clayton’s Old Field, now Yowell Meadow Park, under an oak tree. Their green hunting shirts, emblazoned with “Liberty or Death” and a coiled rattlesnake, was used as a symbol of Virginia’s independence movement. The unit fought at the Battle of Great Bridge and later joined the 3rd Virginia Regiment.
American independence and the Antebellum Period
The first postmaster in Culpeper was installed in 1795. Mail was regularly erroneously sent to Fairfax County on account of their shared name. The first state-chartered educational institution was established in the county in 1802, its first newspaper, The Culpeper Gazette, was founded in 1827. Culpeper’s central location in the Piedmont made it a crossroad for commerce and transportation in the early 1800s. Taverns, blacksmith shops, and wagon yards surrounded the courthouse square, and by the 1850s the arrival of the Orange and Alexandria Railroad connected the town with Alexandria and Gordonsville.In the leadup to the secession of the Confederacy, Culpeper County would endorse John Bell of the Constitutional Union Party over John C. Breckinridge of the Southern Democrats by a single vote, but would ultimately endorse secession at the Virginia Convention in 1861. Culpeper residents would organize in 1860 under the same flag and banner and at the same location that they had at the outset of the Revolutionary War. More than half the county's population was African-American at that time.
During the American Civil War, Culpeper and the surrounding county became strategically important for both Union and Confederate forces. The narrowing of the Rappahannock River along Culpeper County's northern border made the county one of the most ideal locations for an invasion of Virginia by Union forces. During the initial period of Confederate control, Culpeper Courthouse was host to an army hospital, training camp, and supply base. The town changed hands more than sixty times between 1861 and 1865, serving alternately as headquarters for Confederate General Robert E. Lee and Union General George G. Meade.
The nearby Battle of Brandy Station on June 9, 1863, remains the largest cavalry engagement of the war, while the Battle of Cedar Mountain and the Battle of Kelly's Ford further established Culpeper’s wartime importance. After Brandy Station, Culpeper served as the launching point for Lee's forces into the Gettysburg Campaign. Later that year, the Confederates were pushed out of the county by the Army of the Potomac in two successive stages. The first occurred in September, when Union forces under Brig. Generals Kilpatrick and Custer captured Culpeper's train depot and pushed the forces of Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart south of the Rapidan River in the Battle of Culpeper Courthouse. Thereafter, Lee's forces engaged in a flanking maneuver against Gen. Meade along the mountainous western edge of the county, leading to a Union retreat towards Centreville; Union forces would rout the offensive, leading Lee to slowly withdraw south towards the Rappahannock. On the night of November 7, Union forces carried out a shock offensive against Lee's fortified positions on the north bank of the river, overwhelming Confederate forces, forcing them to once again retreat south of the Rapidan, and leading to the recapture of Culpeper Count by the Union. Their winter occupation of Culpeper, immediately followed by the Overland Campaign, is considered to have been the largest occupation by either side over the course of the entire war.
President Abraham Lincoln visited Culpeper twice during the war, inspecting Union camps in 1862 and again in 1864. Confederate scout networks operated in the area, including the Brandy Station Signal Corps, which gathered intelligence for Lee’s army.
The courthouse and much of the town suffered extensive damage during repeated occupations. Following the Confederate surrender, Culpeper was rechartered in 1869. The Reconstruction era saw the rise of new civic and religious institutions established by formerly enslaved residents, including churches, the Culpeper Colored School, and St. Stephen’s Industrial School for vocational training.
Post-Civil War and twentieth century modernization
In 1870, a fire destroyed the courthouse and several surrounding structures, prompting a wave of rebuilding that shaped the modern downtown’s brick architecture. By the early 1900s, Culpeper featured hotels, banks, a trolley line, and telegraph offices. The agricultural economy remained dominant through the Great Depression, but the town also supported canneries, lumber operations, and small textile mills.During the 1930s, New Deal programs such as the WPA constructed sidewalks, bridges, and schools still in use today. World War II brought further change, with the nearby Culpeper National Cemetery expanded and military training grounds created in surrounding counties. After the war, population growth and automobile travel shifted commerce toward the U.S. Route 29 and U.S. Route 15 corridors.
During the mid-20th century, Culpeper modernized municipal services, built new schools, and participated in regional planning initiatives. In the 1950s, local residents took part in early desegregation efforts at Culpeper High School, covered by the *Charlottesville-Albemarle Tribune* and *Free Lance Star* newspapers. The 1970s saw downtown revitalization and historic preservation programs led by the Choral Society and American Legion, preserving many 19th-century structures.