Battle of Brandy Station

Battle of Brandy Station. The largest cavalry action of the war. Following his stunning victory at the Battle of Chancellorsville, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee formulated a plan to invade the North. In preparation for his army's secret withdrawal from Fredericksburg, Lee ordered his cavalry into Culpeper County to screen and protect the impending shift of his infantry and artillery toward the Shenandoah Valley. Federal cavalry, just across the Rappahannock River to the north, discovered the presence of Southern horsemen here., Union Gen. Joseph Hooker, commander of the Army of the Potomac, promptly ordered his Cavalry Corps under Gen. Alfred Pleasonton to "disperse and destroy" the enemy cavalry. At dawn June 9, 1863, Federal cavalry boldly attacked Gen. J.E.B. Stuart's cavalry division around Fleetwood Hill and came within a whisker of defeating the Confederate mounted forces. At the end of the day, Union cavalry withdrew across the Rappahannock River. With more than 20,000 soldiers fighting it was the largest cavalry action of the war - and one that also began the fateful Gettysburg Campaign. Roughly 1,500 men were killed, wounded, or captured in this momentous clash., "On June 9, 1863, there was fought a cavalry battle the influence of which was so great and far reaching that it must always hold a place in the annals of American cavalry." - Gen. David M. Gregg, Cavalry Corps, USA, "A great drama was about to begin, to end the conclusive struggle of the war, but at this moment came the sudden clash in Culpeper, precluding the thunder at Cemetery Hill." - Capt. John Esten Cooke, Cavalry Division, CSA