| Brandy
Station, Virginia
The largest cavalry battle of the Civil War, the
Battle of Brandy Station, occurred on June 9, 1863
and involved nearly 17,000 horsemen under Confederate
Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart and Union Maj. Gen. Alfred
Pleasonton. Amid rumors of a possible major Confederate
offensive, Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker, commander of the
Union Army of the Potomac, assigned a reconnaissance-in-force
to Pleasonton's 11,000 man cavalry.
The Federal cavalry moved toward Culpeper, Virginia,
not knowing that this was where most of Gen. Robert
E. Lee's Confederate army was located. Pleasonton
planned to strike the enemy across the Rappahannock
River on the morning of June 9. On the opposite bank,
Stuart's Confederate horsemen patrolled the fords.
With the early morning mist as a screen, Brig. Gen.
John Buford's division splashed across the river about
4 a.m., crossing Beverly Ford and surprising a Confederate
brigade. The startled Confederates quickly regrouped
and fiercely contested the ground as they withdrew
towards Fleetwood Hill. Stuart, learning of the Union
attacks, ordered a concentration of his scattered
brigades, but Buford's troops turned the Confederate
right and thundered up Fleetwood Hill, where Stuart's
headquarters were located.
The oncoming 12th Virginia cavalry crashed into
the Federal horsemen in a classic cavalry fight --
saber-wielding horseman galloping into pistol-firing
horsemen. The Confederates finally shoved Buford's
troops back, but reinforcements renewed the battle
and secured Fleetwood Hill for the Federals.
A second Federal column of 2,400 cavalry under Brig.
Gen. David M. Gregg reached Brandy Station and battled
Confederate horsemen in a "long and spirited...contest
for the hill." Eventually, the Confederates won Fleetwood
Hill, pushing back both Buford and Gregg.
Pleasonton, seeing the dust clouds of a new group
of approaching Confederate infantry, ordered his forces
to withdraw. His losses totaled 868, while Stuart
lost 515. Though the Confederates could claim the
victory, the Battle of Brandy Station, remarked one
Confederate, "made the Federal cavalry."
Along with this new-found confidence, Union horsemen
discovered the position of the Army of Northern Virginia.
The Confederates were slipping west, to the Shenandoah
Valley on Lee's last great offensive, which would
end a month later at .
The Civil War Preservation Trust
has given $4,418,614 towards the preservation of 686
acres at Brandy Station.
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