He served with the newly organized unit in the defenses of the nation’s Capital until late in January 1862. Then, tired of the dull routine of garrison life, he accepted the post of chief of artillery on militia Major General James H. Lane’s expedition into Texas. But he had barely started for Kansas, the rendezvous point for the march, when he learned that the expedition had been scrapped. More restless than ever for activity, Kilpatrick returned to his regiment at Arlington, Virginia.

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When Major General George B. McClellan’s Army of the Potomac sailed down the coast to the Virginia Peninsula, Kilpatrick remained behind with the 2d New York and conducted some minor raids through northern Virginia. During one of these, a night reconnaissance near Falmouth Heights, he demonstrated a talent for cunning and audacity. He had only one regiment in his command, but when he found himself confronting Confederate pickets he shouted orders to nonexistent reinforcements. Hearing him and believing that at least a brigade of cavalry was surrounding them, hundreds of Rebels scurried down the Heights, crossed the Rappahannock River, and burned the bridge so that Kilpatrick could not follow and capture them.

In July and August 1862, Kilpatrick went raiding. He struck at Stonewall Jackson’s communication lines in the Shenandoah Valley, burned railroad depots and destroyed tracks, ties, and telegraph lines. Late in August he participated in his first engagement at Brandy Station, Virginia, where he and the rest of Brigadier General George D. Bayard’s cavalry brigade were repulsed by J.E.B. Stuart’s legions.

On December 6, 1862 Kilpatrick became the colonel of the 2d New York. His fame continued to. grow, and in February 1863 he was given brigade command, at age 27.

He led his brigade on Stoneman’s Raid during the Chancellorsville Campaign. Although the operation, on the whole, was a failure, some of Stoneman’s officers, Kilpatrick among them, acquitted themselves well. With a detached force, “Kilcavalry” captured towns in enemy country, again destroyed railroad apparatus, and by marching sixty miles a day penetrated to within two miles of Richmond. His daring threw the Confederate Capital into a mild panic, but finally he had to retreat down the Peninsula to the Union lines outside Fort Monroe, to avoid being captured.

Following Stoneman’s Raid, Kilpatrick’s fame crested. He rode the crest when on June 9 he charged up Fleetwood Hill near Brandy Station during the greatest cavalry battle fought in North America. At the top of the hill his troopers engaged in saber-to-saber fighting against Stuart’s horsemen, trying to push the Rebels from the summit. Kilpatrick’s brigade charged in three waves, but the first two melted away under enemy artillery and flank fire. Elsewhere on the field other Federal brigades were faltering disastrously, and Kilpatrick realized the importance of holding the hill. With his third regiment he was able to smash into the Rebels and scatter them–and for a short time it appeared that his success would throw the battle in the Federals’ favor. But Stuart rallied his troopers and ultimately forced Kilpatrick and his comrades from Fleetwood. The battle went into the history books as another Rebel victory. But the Union horsemen had shown dash and determination–and none among them so much as the little gamecock from New Jersey. Four days later Kilpatrick was wearing the star of a brigadier general.

During the operations that preceded the battle of Gettysburg, he helped prevent Stuart from marching his cavalrymen through Maryland, by way of Edwards’ Ferry and Boonsborough, to join the major portion of General Robert E. Lee’s army. Although he was at first roughly handled by Brigadier General Fitzhugh Lee at Aldie, Viriginia, on June 17, a counterattack enabled him to chase the enemy from the field. Four days later he engaged in a fierce saber battle against Brigadier General Wade Hampton’s cavalry, which culminated in a charge that drove the Rebels out of Upperville, Virginia, “and finally through Ashby’s Gap upon their own infantry columns in the Shenandoah Valley.”

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