Catlett is a census-designated place (CDP) in Fauquier County, Virginia, United States. The population as of the 2010 census was 297. It is located west of the Prince William County line. Catlett was formerly a rail stop on the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, and the Place was the site of many raids upon the railroad during the American Civil War.

The Catlett Historic District was listed upon the National Register of Historic Places in 2008, and Auburn Battlefield in 2011.

Thanks to the establishment of a railroad system that was indispensable to travel and supply in Virginia, many little towns including Catlett sprung happening as stops. During its heyday, Catlett was a full of life telegraph outpost and mail stop along the Orange and Alexandria Railroad. The estate that the town was built on had originally been approved to John Catlett in 1715, but was not named for him at first. The name office and town were first known as Colvin’s Station after the Colvin family, but beyond the years this was untouched to Catlett Station and then to handily Catlett.

Catlett was the site of a pivotal proceedings in the Civil War in the middle of Major General J. E. B. Stuart of the Confederacy and the Union’s Major General John Pope. The Confederates raided the Union camp at Catlett on August 22, 1862, in an effort to disrupt the Union’s rail supply lines. Stuart and his men began their offensive during what Stuart referred to as the “darkest night I ever knew”. He and his men rode into town and using sabers and flame were practiced to destroy the Federal encampment, cut telegraph wires, obtain wagons-full of supplies and capture in the region of 300 Union troops, but were unable to ruin the railroad bridge on the outskirts of the town. A stuffy thunderstorm prevented them from blazing it, so they attempted to use axes, but were turned away by Union riflemen. The most important prize that the Confederates gained were General Pope’s orders, which contained valuable information more or less the Union campaign. These orders were taken by Stuart to General Robert E. Lee and played a pivotal role in securing the South’s victory in the Battle of Second Manassas.