Daniel Bowman Mill at Silver Lake

During the Civil War, the Daniel Bowman Mill occupied this site, grinding wheat brought here by Rockingham County farmers. The county was part of the prosperous agricultural region known as the “breadbasket of the Confederacy.” It was no accident that the reaper was perfected in the Shenandoah Valley or that the largest flourmills in the world were constructed in Richmond to process Valley wheat harvests. The Shenandoah Valley’s agricultural success brought devastation to the region, however, in the fall of 1864. Union Gen. Philip H. Sheridan understood that the bounty of the Shenandoah Valley was a major source of life for the Confederacy. He convinced Gen. Ulysses S. Grant that neutralizing the Valley was an important military expedient.