Colonel Best and the 23rd Georgia Regiment was covering the rear of the flanking march. Gen. Dan Sickles sent Gen. David Birney and the Berdan Sharpshooters to seize the road the Confederates were on.

At Catharine's Furnace they clashed !

This firefight brought in more Confederates and Union soldiers to the point of almost a major engagement.

What it really did was to take more men off the line where Jackson was about to strike.

Catharine's Furnace has two other historical footnotes.

1. It was a iron works owned by Mr. Wellford. His son guided Stonewall Jackson through the narrow paths in his flanking move.

2. The Furnace was burnt to the ground by Gen. George A. Custer during the Battle of the Wilderness about one year later.