Confederate Major General James Ewell Brown Stuart told his brother in 1863 “I would give anything to make a pilgrimage to the old place, and when the war is over quietly spend the rest of my days there.” J.E.B Stuart never returned to his birthplace and boyhood home, but thanks to a group of local citizens you today can visit the site where one of the greatest soldiers to sit upon a horse learned to ride. Laurel Hill is located in the southwestern part of Patrick County within sight of the boundary line of North Carolina and Virginia. The seventy-five acre site, owned by the J.E.B. Stuart Birthplace Preservation Trust, is open to the public dawn to dusk for self-guided walking tours.  Annually a Civil War Encampment and Living History event is held the first weekend in October, that includes battle scenes, period fashion show, Civil War sutlers, period music entertainment, food vendors, blacksmithing, local crafters, historical society information, authentic Civil War church services on Sunday and much more.