Battle of Brandy Station in the American Civil War
Explore the battlefield of the 1863 Battle of Brandy Station, Virginia, the largest cavalry battle of the American Civil War.
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Not too long after Chancellorsville note that Hooker is quite alive and well here at Brandy Station. It is HIS cavalry. Remember when we get to Gettysburg that it is not Meade's ARMY, it is one he borrows from Joe Hooker. Joseph Hooker's Cavalry gives a surprise attack on JEB Stuart at Brandy, also called the Battle of Fleetwood Hill. It was kind of a reversal of the roles at Chancellorsville. Confederate newspapers were highly critical of the Stuart's Confederate Cavalry at Brandy Station. Lee should have listened to his own press in their criticism of Stuart for his own good coming in to Gettysburg.
The Battle of Brandy Station was fought on June 9, 1863. It was was the largest cavalry battle of the Civil War and the first fight of the Gettysburg Campaign. The battle spread over a wide area north and east of Brandy Station, Virginia, a stop on the Orange & Alexandria Railroad just west of the Rappahannock River.
On this website:
Tour the Brandy Station Battlefield
View wayside markers and historical markers in the Brandy Station area
The Armies at Brandy Station shows the organization and commanders of the two armies—
Tour the Brandy Station Battlefield
View wayside markers and historical markers in the Brandy Station area
The Armies at Brandy Station shows the organization and commanders of the two armies—
The Battle of Brandy Station
During the month of stalemate after the Battle of Chancellorsville Robert E. Lee conceived what was to become the Gettysburg Campaign. First he reorganized his Army of Northern Virginia from two to three Army Corps due to the loss of "Stonewall" Jackson at Chancellorsville. Then he concentrated his First and Second Corps at Culpeper while leaving his Third Corps holding the defenses along the south bank of the Rappahannock around Fredericksburg. From their position on the left of Lee's line the First and Second Corps could move around the flank of Hooker's army and into the Shenandoah Valley. This would provide a route deep into Pennsylvania shielded by the mountains of the Blue Ridge.For this plan to work Lee had to keep his intentions from Hooker as long as possible. If Hooker knew that Lee had pulled most of his men from the Rappahannock defenses he could potentially overwhelm Lee's Third Corps in its thinly-held lines. Hooker could also throw his army onto Lee's flank as it was stretched out and vulnerable on the march into the Shenandoah. It was critical for Lee to shield the concentration of his infantry at Culpeper.
The cavalry take position
Lee concentrated his cavalry division under J.E.B. Stuart at Brandy Station. It was a small whistle stop on the Orange and Alexandria Railroad in between Culpeper and the Union position north of the Rappahannock River. From there Stuart would be in the perfect position to keep his cavalry in between the infantry and any snooping Federal forces after the Confederates began their march north.But Hooker knew something was developing. His intelligence operation under Colonel George H. Sharpe had picked up on Lee's movements and provided strong hints of a strong cavalry raid or even a flanking movement. But Hooker needed hard evidence. He ordered his cavalry commander, Brigadier General Alfred Pleasanton, to cross the Rappahannock and "disperse and destroy" Stuart's cavalry.
Pleasanton's surprise
At dawn on June 9 Pleasanton's troopers crossed the Rappahannock at Beverly Ford and six miles downriver at Kelly's Ford. He hoped it would be a crushing double envelopment. There was confusion and delay in the Kelly's Ford column while the other column was hampered by the death of a brigade commander. Pleasanton did not have nearly the superiority in numbers that he thought he had. But the Confederates had spent the last two days in exhausting reviews for Stuart and Lee. They were surprised, and a number of Confederate cavalrymen rode into battle without saddles or boots in their haste of mounting up.The fighting lasted all day, with the central terrain feature of Fleetwood Hill changing hands several times. In the end the Federals withdrew. They suffered higher casualties and had not broken through Stuart's screen to confirm the location of Lee's infantry. But the fact that the Union cavalry had stood a 14 hour knockdown fight with Stuart's finest was a tremendous morale boost. From this point on Union cavalry would become bolder and deadlier. By the 1864 Shenandoah Valley Campaign and the 1865 Appomattox Campaign they had become an elite, decisive arm.
Stuart, in turn, felt the heat for being surprised in his camps after two days of showy reviews. The Richmond papers used terms such as "puffed up cavalry," and "negligence and bad management." Did this criticism push Stuart into his disastrous ride around the Union army that left Lee blind at the critical point of the Gettysburg campaign? Whatever the answer, the effects of the Battle of Brandy Station were felt far beyond the banks of the Rappahannock.
Keeper of the Scales
Bringing the