Download The Battle of Brandy Station

The Battle of Brandy Station
In the early morning of June 9, 1863, a large Union cavalry column under US Brigadier General John
Buford positioned itself along the Rappahannock River for a peremptory rush across Beverly´s Ford.
Buford´s horsemen, as well as a wing of equal strength headed by US Brigadier General David McMurtrie
Gregg stationed six miles below at Kelly´s Ford, had arrived in Culpeper County, Virginia, looking for a
fight. US Colonel Benjamin F. "Grimes" Davis´s New York Cavalry led the Union column thundering
across the Ford, thus opening the battle of Brandy Station, the most hotly contested cavalry engagement
of the Civil War. It was the largest single mounted battle ever fought in North America.
Although at the end of the day Buford´s forces retreated back across Beverly´s Ford the Union Calvary
had begun its rapid rise to power over the proud but dwindling Confederate Calvary.
Cedar Mountain
On August 9, 1862, the fabled CS Major General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson came close to suffering
a thorough trouncing at the hands of a much smaller Union Force. He salvaged an important victory by
personally rallying his men under intense hostile fire. At the crisis of the fight at Cedar Mountain, Jackson
waded into the melee waving his sheathed sword in one hand and a battle flag in the other while Union
bullets flew past from three directions. His fleeing troops rallied at the sight of their fabled leader and won
the battle.
The famous painting by Don Troiani depicting this battle hangs in the library of the Main House.
Rappahannock Station - Remington
After the defeat at Bristoe Station, CS General Robert E. Lee retreated south of the Rappahannock River,
with US General Meade in pursuit. Lee established a fortified bridgehead on the north bank of the river at
Rappahannock Station. He planned to force the Federals to cross the river at Kelly´s Ford farther to the
southeast and then counterattack as the federal army crossed. He concentrated his army near Kelly´s
Ford, leaving Rappahannock Station protected only by the Louisiana Brigade under CS Brigadier General
Harry T. Hays. The Army of the Potomac approached on November 7, 1863. CS Major General Jubal A.
Early reinforced the bridgehead with CS Colonel Archibald C. Godwin´s Brigade.
US Major General John Sedgwick´s VI Corps surrounded the bridgehead, with the V Corps in support.
Sedgwick designated two VI corps brigades to lead the assault. After dark, the 2,100 Federals used a
railroad embankment to conceal their movement up to the earthworks. In their surprise attack they
overran the Confederates, taking 1,675 prisoners there and another 300 when US Major General William
H. French´s III Corps stormed across Kelly´s Ford. Because of the Union success at Rappahannock
Station and Kelly´s Ford, Lee abandoned his plan to winter in Culpeper County and retreated south of the
Rappahannock River.
Chancellorsville
During the first week of May 1863, General Robert E. Lee and C. S. Lieutenant General "Stonewall"
Jackson led a dramatically outnumbered Army of Northern Virginia to victory in the battle of
Chancellorsville. That battle has been aptly called Lee´s greatest victory and was one of the Confederacy
´s brightest moments. The Battle of Chancellorsville gave the Army of North Virginia momentum that Lee
turned into an aggressive campaign a few weeks later that led to Gettysburg. This 2,600-acre Battlefield
is a unit of Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park.
Wilderness
Though they made few efforts to memorialize it after the war, the soldiers who fought there never forget
the Wilderness.
The region which was known as the Wilderness long before the Civil War, lay ten miles west of
Fredericksburg, a patch of natural entanglement some twelve miles wide and six miles deep along the
south bank of the Rapidan River.
For Union planners the Wilderness was something to be crossed with the least possible delay. For CS
General Robert E. Lee, Wilderness was an ally that would negate the Union´s numerical advantage. The
Federal movement was one part of US Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant´s grand strategy to squeeze
the pressure points of the Confederacy. Simultaneously with this move, other Union forces were
advancing aggressively against Atlanta and Petersburg and into the Shenandoah Valley.
The Union Army entered the Wilderness in two columns totaling 115,000 men to meet Lee´s 60,000-man
army.
In the May 5-6 fighting in the Wilderness nearly the full force of both armies was engaged. Union
casualties tallied nearly 18,000 and the Confederate toll was estimated at 10,800. To the claustrophobic
nature of the combat was added the terror of numerous flash fires that raged through the dry underbrush,
incinerating soldiers too badly wounded to escape. A Northern private wrote that "it was a blind and
bloody hunt to the death, in bewildering thickets, rather than a battle." A Southern officer declared, "I do
not think I have ever seen a battlefield where there was more destruction and more horrors than that of
the Wilderness."
Despite his heavy losses, Grant ordered the Army of the Potomac to continue its campaign by sliding past
Lee´s flank and moving south. For the first time in his Civil War experience, Robert E. Lee faced an
adversary who had the determination to press on despite the cost. Grant´s overland campaign moved
along to other bloody battlefields, ending in the slow strangulation of Lee´s army at Petersburg. The
moment of truth came in the Wilderness. Once Grant decided to move forward and not retreat, it was just
a question of time. The battle of the Wilderness marked the beginning of the end for the Army of Northern
Virginia and for the Confederacy itself.
The Wilderness Battlefield, a unit of Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, is near Route
3, west of Fredericksburg. There are 3,305 acres of the historic battlefield in this unit.