Joppa is situated along the Federal Road (U.S. Route 11W - Rutledge Pike), formerly known as the Old Lee Highway, which connected New Orleans and Washington, D.C.
Early during the Civil War, Confederate cannons were mounted at the Powder Spring Gap on Clinch Mountain facing the Clinch Valley in order to prevent Union forces crossing from the northwest side of the ridge to the Federal Road and the Richland Valley to the southeast.