The northern part of Loudoun County was a Unionist enclave in Confederate Virginia that remained a contested battleground for armies and factions of all stripes throughout the Civil War. Lying between the Blue Ridge Mountains, Harpers Ferry, and Washington, D.C., the Loudoun Valley provided a natural corridor for commanders on both sides, while its mountainous fringes were home to partisans, guerillas, deserters and smugglers. This detailed history examines the conflicting loyalties in the farming communities, the peaceful Quakers caught in the middle, and the political underpinnings of Unionist Virginia.

The Southern Claims Commission was the agency established to process more than 20,000 claims by pro-Union Southerners for reimbursement of their losses during the Civil War. The present work is a "master index" to the case files of the Commission. The index gives, in tabular form, the name of the claimant, his county and state, the Commission number, office number and report number, and the year and the status of the claim.

Some vols. include supplemental journals of "such proceedings of the sessions, as, during the time they were depending, were ordered to be kept secret, and respecting which the injunction of secrecy was afterwards taken off by the order of the House."