The Battle of Brandy Station, June 9, 1863

James N.

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Part I - The Battle Opens
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The cavalry battle at Brandy Station on the Orange & Alexandria R.R. had its origins in the Union defeat at Chancellorsville the previous month. Following that reverse, Union General Joseph Hooker pulled his army back on the north side of the Rappahannock and Rapidan Rivers and awaited the move of his adversary, Confederate General Robert E. Lee. Lee decided on the bold move to the north which ultimately led to Gettysburg, and began shifting his forces in the direction of Culpeper, Virginia, enroute to the Shenandoah Valley invasion corridor. Hearing of some of these moves, Hooker ordered the commander of his Cavalry Corps, Brig. Gen. Alfred Pleasonton, to verify the truth of the rumors by locating the position and numbers of the opposing Confederate cavalry.

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Pleasonton had only recently taken charge of the three-division corps of horsemen and was aware of the concentration of the Confederate cavalry division of Maj. Gen. J. E. B. Stuart in the Culpeper area and the sounds of cannon fire and mock battle coming from that direction. For his part, Stuart had been reveling in the largest aggregation of Southern horsemen yet seen and had celebrated the event by staging two huge reviews, one featuring the sounds of battle heard by Federal scouts. The second and more sedate of these reviews was held for General Lee and other dignitaries on June 8, following which Stuart dispersed his command in brigade camps scattered over the countryside around the village of Brandy Station surrounding his headquarters on nearby Fleetwood Hill.

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Attribution: Map by Hal Jespersen, www.posix.com/CW (Note: the actual date of the battle was June 9, 1863.)

Pleasonton divided his corps by its divisions and largely due to geographic considerations: there were two useable fords on the Rappahannock, Beverly's and Kelly's, that provided access to the Culpeper area where he expected to find Stuart. Pleasonton accompanied the northernmost division of Brig. Gen. John Buford, reinforced by some infantry from the brigade of Adelbert Ames, to Beverly's Ford. Brig. Gen. David Gregg led his own division and that of Alfred Duffie, plus more of Ames' infantry, to Kelly's Ford. Duffie, whose division was supposed to lead the column, took the wrong road and thereby retarded half of what was supposed to have been a simultaneous early morning river crossing.

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Buford's column crossed at Beverly's Ford with little delay, brushing aside the few surprised Confederate pickets, but suffered a quick setback when the commander of his leading brigade, Col. Benjamin "Grimes" Davis, was shot through the head by a Rebel lieutenant as he escaped on his wounded horse. The brigade he belonged to, that of Brig. Gen. William "Grumble" Jones, was alerted and rushed to oppose Buford's men in the area above; the Federals approached from the background toward Jones' position in the foreground. Pressed by overwhelming numbers, Jones fell back to the area of his camps around St. James Church where most of Stuart's artillery had taken position.

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The view above is essentially the same as that in the woodcut below showing the charge of the 6th Pennsylvania Cavalry on the right and the 6th U. S. Regular Cavalry on the left against the position in the treeline of Jones' dismounted troopers and the horse artillery battalion of Maj. Robert F. Beckham. The Confederates here were also being reinforced by the brigade of Brig. Gen. Wade Hampton which extended Jones' line to the east of Beckham's guns. ( To the left in the pictures. ) Charging Union troopers were savaged by the fire concentrated against them and quickly recoiled, leading Buford to conclude on a different approach. Leaving some of Ames' infantry and a few mounted troops to face Jones, he led the bulk of his command to the west where he hoped he could bypass the Confederates to the north of St. James Church.

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By moving west, Buford soon encountered the brigade of Brig. Gen. W. H. F. "Rooney" Lee, son of the Confederate commander, whose men were rushing toward the scene of the action. Lee placed his men on the edges of a terrain feature called Yew's Ridge on the Cunningham and Greene farms, which were separated by a series of low stone fences and walls. The photo below looks from Buford's position and the hill topped by his artillery toward Lee's positions at the fences, the first of which was in the low ground marked by the first line of trees. Buford was able to push Lee's dismounted skirmishers from this position to the second treeline in the distance, but then no farther. For a time, a stalemate set in as the main action shifted to the south where Gregg's Division was finally making its belated appearance.

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Next time, the battle moves south.
 
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Outstanding, James!

I will be visiting this site next spring......

First time!
 
There were many more than two usable fords on the Rappahannock, including Freeman's Ford, which was just upriver. Beverly's and Kelly's were chosen because of the road networks, not the usability of the fords.

The Waud drawing is extremely accurate in some respects and not at all in others. Waud had traveled with the Cavalry Corps that day, and he had the chance to view the field himself. Consequently, the terrain features are exactly depicted. You can see the little Gee house on the other side of the Beverly's Ford Road. It no longer exists, as that parcel of property is now part of the Culpeper County Airport, meaning that Hampton's position at St. James Church has been obliterated by the airport. The depiction of the charge is almost entirely inaccurate even if the terrain features are correct.
 
Part II - The Struggle for Fleetwood Hill
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Jeb Stuart had joined the battle raging around St. James Church where a courier found him with a message from "Grumble" Jones who had heard of a Union force of undetermined size approaching Brandy Station from the south. Stuart and Jones were a study in contrasts and cordially despised each other and their respective command styles; the flamboyant Stuart told Jones' man, "Tell General Jones to attend to the Yankees in his front, and I'll watch the flanks." When the irascible and no-nonsense Jones received this reply, he exploded, "So he thinks they ain't coming, does he? Well, let him alone; he'll dam*ed soon see for himself!"

The Federals in question were the men of David Gregg's Third Division that was finally reaching the battlefield in late morning after their earlier delay at Kelly's Ford. Gregg left the infantry of D. A. Russell to guard his retreat route and sent Duffie's Second Division on toward Stevensburg and Culpeper. Gregg's leading brigade, commanded by Englishman Sir Percy Windham, was in column fast approaching Stuart's headquarters tents on the southern spur of Fleetwood Hill in the area of the monument above which soon became a scene of repeated horseback charges and counter-charges. Stuart's aide Maj. Henry McClellan directed there a single Confederate cannon which had been withdrawn from the battle at St. James' Church because it was almost out of ammunition, in a desperate bid for time. Windham led his own old 1st New Jersey Regiment in a charge to secure the heights, but was immediately smashed by Col. Elija "Lige" Whites' 35th Virginia Battalion which came up in the first of many such hairbreadth encounters as depicted below. Windham went down with a wound, likely inflicted by one of his old opponents from the Shenandoah Valley just a couple of days after the anniversary of his capture there at the hands of Turner Ashby's troopers, now a part of Jones' Laurel Brigade.

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Wyndham's brigade was followed by that of Brig. Gen. Hugh Judson Kilpatrick, who fanned his three regiments in echelon to Windham's right, approaching Fleetwood from the southeast. Once again Confederates arriving from St. James' Church, this time some of Hampton's regiments, met the charging Federals and deflected Kilpatrick's leading regiments of New Yorkers off the hill; afterward Kilpatrick was heard to call them cowards for their behavior. His third regiment, the 1st Maine "Puritans" fared better, charging right over the hill in the direction seen below, looking to the northeast toward the Barbour house "Beauregard" which is atop the ridge in the distance; sometime toward the end of the battle, Generals Lee and Ewell and members of their staffs arrived there.

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After about two hours of give-and-take, Gregg drew off his men to the east toward the Rapahannock where he was finally joined by Duffie and his division. Duffie had allowed himself to be stymied by a single regiment, the 2d South Carolina of Col. M. C. Butler; his abortive reconnaissance to Culpeper had degenerated into a long-range artillery duel which caused Butler to lose a foot and Stuart to lose his favorite scout, both from the same shell. When Duffie received an order from Gregg to join him at Flleetwood Hill, instead of going there by the most direct route, he backtracked in a way that kept his 1900 men entirely out of the battle. John Buford's First Division on the northern flank had done better, driving "Rooney" Lee's brigade back to the northern end of Fleetwood Hill and severely wounding Lee in the process. Despite this success, the belated arrival from a half-dozen miles north of Fleetwood by the brigade of Fitzhugh Lee, now led by Col. Thomas Munford, threatened Buford's right.

Alfred Pleasonton had remained in the vicinity of St. James' Church, even after most of the Confederates had left for the fight on Fleetwood, and it seems around 2 pm he decided to break off the battle and retire back across the Rapahannock. He had had little luck trying to coordinate the two halves of his corps; Buford was running out of ammunition; and Gregg's men and horses were winded after two hours of more-or-less constant mounted combat. Stuart fared slightly better, enjoying as he did interior lines and the ability to shift forces from one front to another, and inflicting somewhat heavier casualties, but it was impossible to disguise the fact he had been surprised in what became a very near-run battle.
 
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Part III - Visiting Brandy Station Today
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Brandy Station is a somewhat confusing battlefield to visit, as is to be expected considering it is still growing; such markers as I have pictured are wonderful and informative in themselves, but locating them can be something of a challenge! The biggest part of the problem is that it is so spread out, understandable for a mounted action involving more than twenty thousand men and as many horses. I was surprised to discover how little of the vaunted Fleetwood Hill was actually fought over: much of the action occurred in the area of Stuart's headquarters around the Miller house "Fleetwood" which can be seen in my photograph. The northern end of the hill where Lee stood off Buford remains inaccessible to the average visitor on private property. The opening phase along the Beverly's Ford Road is marred by the incongruity of the regional county airport which parallels the road on the east. If I hadn't brought along with me an outdated-but-still-useful 1990 issue of Blue & Gray Magazine featuring a lead article on the battle by Gary Gallagher, it's highly unlikely I would've gotten around as well as I did; and as it was, constraints of time prevented me from following the route of Duffie's wild goose chase from Kelly's Ford.

The only thing like a visitor center at this time is the fascinating Graffiti House, a nondescript but period structure within the village of Brandy Station, several of whose rooms still bear inscriptions left by soldiers both North and South. The little building was likely built in the 1850's as a warehouse or business connected with the railroad whose tracks were once adjacent to the rear and was possibly used as a field hospital following the battle. In addition to rooms like the one below, there are also exhibits on the battle and the area which served as the site for the sprawling camps of Meade's Army of the Potomac in the winter of 1863 - 64. The only monument here at Brandy Station, other than the 1920's marker on Fleetwood Hill placed by the Virginia Historical Society, is the one above to the memory of Maj. John Pelham, commander of Stuart's Horse Artillery. (Note the flag of the State of Alabama, Pelham's home.) It originally stood on the spot near Kelly's Ford where he was killed in the battle there, fought in March, 1863, but has been recently moved here where it is more accessible to visitors to the area.

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There were many more than two usable fords on the Rappahannock, including Freeman's Ford, which was just upriver. Beverly's and Kelly's were chosen because of the road networks, not the usability of the fords.

The Waud drawing is extremely accurate in some respects and not at all in others. Waud had traveled with the Cavalry Corps that day, and he had the chance to view the field himself. Consequently, the terrain features are exactly depicted. You can see the little Gee house on the other side of the Beverly's Ford Road. It no longer exists, as that parcel of property is now part of the Culpeper County Airport, meaning that Hampton's position at St. James Church has been obliterated by the airport. The depiction of the charge is almost entirely inaccurate even if the terrain features are correct.

I wondered as I wrote this about the reasoning behind Pleasonton's choice of these two particular fords, which previous experience should have taught him would be well-guarded, though that certainly didn't turn out to be the case! And of course, when Gregg retired, he and Duffie crossed at Rappahannock Station by both the R.R. bridge and a ford there, if I remember right.

As for the illustration by Waud, I was somewhat confused by it's use in the Time Life Civil War volume Gettysburg where it's identified as Buford's attack on Lee's line on the northern end of Fleetwood. But you can plainly see its use on the marker at St. James Church, and as you say the terrain is a match, even if the action is misrepresented. I knew while I was composing this, if I made any mistakes in interpretation or facts I could count on you or others here to correct me!
 
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If you have a look at the "Fleetwood Hill as it appears today" thread that I started the other day, you will find a photo of Fleetwood Hill taken in the fall of 1863, where the Miller house, its barn, and at least one of the slave dependencies that were next to the house are all visible. Those slave dependencies were there until the owner of the McMansion tore them down about 8 years ago to build his giant POS on the hill. It's a remarkable image.

You also were unable to see any portion of the field where Buford's afternoon fight with Rooney Lee occurred. That's all private property, and you would be trespassing if you went up there without permission. It's a beautiful area though.

My book on the battle has a driving tour complete with GPS coordinates in it. It's far more modern--I put it together in 2010--and it makes touring the area much easier and more accessible. The tour in the book does include the action at Stevensburg.

I will reserve comment on the organization that runs the Graffiti House. My thoughts on it are well documented on my blog, and I won't bore everyone with repeating them here.
 
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With respect to the battlefield itself, there are five significant parcels of core battlefield land that are in play. One of them is the 500 acres that connects St. James Church and Fleetwood Hill, and it's my most sincere hope that it will soon be secured, as that parcel also includes the site of George Meade's headquarters during the winter encampment of 1863-1864.

If those parcels are all added, they will add another 800 or so acres to the holdings there. We have hope that within the next two years, a Culpeper County State Civil War Battlefield Park will be announced by the Commonwealth of Virginia, to include part of the Kelly's Ford battlefield, the holdings at Brandy Station, and the holdings at Cedar Mountain, which also continue to expand.

I am very pleased to hear that you enjoyed your visit to this treasure of a battlefield.
 
With respect to the battlefield itself, there are five significant parcels of core battlefield land that are in play. One of them is the 500 acres that connects St. James Church and Fleetwood Hill, and it's my most sincere hope that it will soon be secured, as that parcel also includes the site of George Meade's headquarters during the winter encampment of 1863-1864.

If those parcels are all added, they will add another 800 or so acres to the holdings there. We have hope that within the next two years, a Culpeper County State Civil War Battlefield Park will be announced by the Commonwealth of Virginia, to include part of the Kelly's Ford battlefield, the holdings at Brandy Station, and the holdings at Cedar Mountain, which also continue to expand.

I am very pleased to hear that you enjoyed your visit to this treasure of a battlefield.


Are there discussions taking place for this park? I would like to contact my reps in the GA next winter if so.

Thanks
 
Jamie,

That would be lovely, but it will do no good--it's to be a state park, not a national park. But I very much appreciate your willingness to help.

Eric

Oh, it may do all kinds of good, depending on who delivers it, how and when. Please send up a flair to the Forum when the time it right. We may need a massive PM on this. Cheers.
 
Jamie,

That would be lovely, but it will do no good--it's to be a state park, not a national park. But I very much appreciate your willingness to help.

Eric


Right. GA = General Assembly in VA. Sorry if I wasn't clear ion that. They are back in session in January. I was just down there last winter lobbying for Autism causes. I wouldn't mind letting my state rep and state senator know of this project too.
 
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