The Rappahannock River is a river in eastern Virginia, in the United States, approximately in length. It traverses the entire northern part of the state, from the Blue Ridge Mountains in the west, across the Piedmont, to the Chesapeake Bay, south of the Potomac River.An important river in American history, the Rappahannock was the site of early settlements in the Virginia Colony, and, later, was at the center of a major theatre of battle in the American Civil War. Due to its significance as an obstacle to north-south movements, it in effect functioned as the war's eastern-theatre boundary, between the "North" (the Union) and the "South" (the Confederate States of America).The river drains an area of 2,848sqmi, approximately 6% of Virginia. Much of the watershed is rural and forested, but it has experienced increased development in recent decades because of the southward expansion of the Washington, D.C. suburbs.
