BRISTOE STATION VA. JUN 25 boldly struck CDS on neat cover with ms. ‘Paid 5’ to Miss Mumford Care Col. G.W. Mumford Richmond Va.; slightly reduced at right. $170.

Bristoe Station was on the Orange and Alexandria Railroad. A battle was fought there October 14, 1863, when Lt. Gen. A.P. Hill’s corps stumbled upon two corps of the retreating Union army and attacked without proper reconnaissance.  Union soldiers of Maj. Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren's Second Corps, posted behind an embankment of the Orange & Alexandria Railroad four miles west of Manassas, ambushed two brigades of Brig. Gen. Henry Heth’s division and captured a battery of artillery. Confederate Brig. Gen. Carnot Posey was mortally wounded in a counterattack. Hill reinforced his line but could make little headway against the determined Yankee defenders. Hill lost standing in the eyes of Gen. R.E. Lee, who angrily ordered him to bury his dead and "say no more about it."